Transcription
Are y'all ready for potentially the best NBA Finals matchup of the last 10 years?
I'm ready.
Are y'all ready for potentially the next NBA legend to be crowned champion, best in the world at age 22?
Hell yeah. Hell yeah. I'm not ready for that. Not ready for that. Not ready for that.
Are you ready for Becky Hammond to be proven wrong once and for all and a 5 foot 10 really 5 foot8 point guard to lead his team to the NBA championship?
I'm ready for that. I'm ready for that. It's so crazy how everyone's just holding on to that.
I know. She'll never live it down.
Makes sense. Mad fair criticism.
That's all everyone's going to remember her for, bro. Not her coaching. Car coaching.
I don't know about that. I don't know about that part.
No, she got like full rings. Never done anything for Mark Boy in her life.
Like whenever you see her name pop up, it's old Brunson. It's never about her coaching for NBA fans.
Yeah. Yeah.
As you guys see by the title, we're here today to talk about all that, including the validity of Becky Ham's resume. We're going to talk about the NBA Finals preview, predict, everything that needs to be talked about about the New York Knicks for San Antonio Spurs facing off in the 2026 NBA Finals.
Had to say it that way. Had to say the teams out loud. Say the year cuz it's crazy the fact that we're here. Imagine if I told you this in August that you'd get a Spurs Wimby in year three versus the Knicks. Everything we thought about Carne Towns, everything we thought about Jaylen Brunson, the coaching staff, the question marks around that. Imagine I told you both those teams would be here in the finals. What an amazing story basketball and I'd be like, you're a damn lie cuz you had the Spurs as like a ninth seed and not even making the playoffs and I had them as as eighth seed, too.
Yeah. Yeah.
I'm sorry. This is the this is the best outcome, too. Like we talked about it going into the conference finals. Spurs Knicks is is the one where it has the most the the most legacies on on the line. Even more even more so than than OKC because like cuz Shay already got it done and so you don't have like that that question lumen. But if this on the Spurs side if it is the the coordination to WB amazing for everybody. If the Knicks get this championship amazing for for Knicks fans like this is this is peak basketball.
Yeah.
The storylines are perfect. The stars are perfect. The entertainment factors and how the teams match up is perfect. We really have not had a matchup like this since probably LeBron versus the Warriors, which checks all those boxes. Most of the past few years, it's either been a lopsided outcome that we knew was going to happen or an uninteresting team that got there and it's respectable, but it's not like heavy weights of the league. Maybe the teams aren't very fun. Both of these teams are fun. Both these teams are playing at the highest level basketball we could possibly imagine right now, clicking at the right time. And both have extremely likable superstars with narratives that will shape history.
I can't wait. Here we are. This is great basketball.
Also, the the uniform matchups came out.
They're good. They're good.
Is it color on color?
Uh, yes. Actually, no. No. Somebody's wearing white every single game.
We're so The two The two games in New York are traditional. The Knicks are going to be in white. The Spurs are going to be in black.
Okay. We won. Is back. We're back.
With that being said, let's cue the intro music. Let's talk about that. We'll talk about game seven of the Western Conference Finals that happened obviously over the weekend. Much to get into there. Let's talk about all that. Cue that intro music.
We're throwing it back. That's crazy. He was bragging. I The cranium is crazy. Oh my god. Crown eaters rejoice.
So before we get into everything NBA Finals related, let's talk about game seven of the Western Conference Finals. A series that we've been talking about for months would go to seven games would be war. Who knows who's going to win it, but we know we'll get a great series of two clear-cut championship level teams in the Spurs and Thunder going band for band. Best two teams in the league. We said all year, one of these two teams will probably win the finals.
It was everything we hoped it could be. Seven games. San Antonio Spurs win two straight elimination games. Bludgeoning the OKC Thunder at home. Lot to talk about. Where should we begin?
OKC. I mean, I think it only feels right.
True. Let's have the the goodbye to the OKC season. Goodbye to the title defense.
So much to unpack here about why they lost. Don, where you want to start?
Um, let's start with Shay real quick.
Um, cuz Shay for the entire series, right? Obviously getting called a flopper all the time. Had a a subpar series by his standards. Shay showed up. Shay Shay did did his thing and I think like he finally felt it it finally felt like he had figured out and his figuring out really was just I'm just going to make shots because there were a bunch of times where the Spurs defenders were all in his space. They were playing very very good defense. And Shay was on an absolute heater. And once he saw two two go through, he's taking step backs, he's taking threes, he's taking fadeaways, and all of these shots are going in. And he was very much keeping OKC in that game. And so for a game, seven loss, he played as well as as you can ask for somebody to play. And it would have been disgusting had we gotten another six for 18 game and they go out in game seven. And that would have been the entire conversation throughout the offseason, which is even though that like Shay has has a ring already, got a finals MVP, the finals the the playoff dropper narrative that that's going the foul. Yeah, the foul baiting narrative that's going. I think he stayed he pushed that to the side in game seven. And so for him at at least, a lot of stuff is still intact.
100%. And what's unfortunate is when he was having those stinker games, they won a couple of them. You know, they'd won three games in the series. They're going to win when he was playing poorly because the role players were playing so goddamn exceptional because Alex Caruso was playing so goddamn close to prime Steph Curry as a shooter because all these guys around Shay Gildas Alexander were able to succeed and carry him in his poor shooting nights throughout the course of the series. Everything I just said completely flipped in game seven. He did good. Every single other member of this team seemingly completely fell apart and played their worst game. Hardenstein had a backbreaking sequence in the fourth quarter where he got chased on block by Cornette and came back gave up two free throws in the turnover. That killed the momentum of the game. Pretty much ended their ability to come back. Alex Caruso shot them out of the game completely for four quarters. Played the worst game I've ever seen when we're talking about him being so good. He felt the moment, felt the need for him to be the best version Caruso like he was early in the series. Pressing, taking bad layups, missing threes, horrible game up and down, up and down the roster. Terrible performances headlined by one Chad.
Homegrren. We talked about him being turned into a mouse by Wimi last week when we talked about it. We spent about 20 minutes talking about the fact that Wimi turned into a different player who was incapable of everything. We talked about it and we were arguing about it because you were saying that you think it's something that he needs to play well if they have a chance to win in seven games like we hope they could, right? That to you that was the X factor.
I said I don't even want to talk about that cuz he will not play well. I think it is a foregone conclusion that Wimby will turn him into a mouse because Chad has zero physical advantages against WBY, zero skill advantages against Wimby. Zero. I had zero hope that Chad would have a good scoring series and it is what it is. Never did I think that he would transcend mouse hood and be turned into a germ like he did in game seven. Never did I think that he could go so low where he looks this mentally defeated, takes two field goals. We can understand the fact that he gets shut down by Wimi. We can understand the fact that we probably shouldn't do the overreaction. He must be traded all this stuff. Well, we can still say this was an absolutely hilariously embarrassing performance for an AllNBA player.
Yeah, all NBA player made his first All-Star this year. He is seen as like the second best defender in the entire NBA. And defenses defense will always play well on the end. But what makes him special and what makes him so unique is seeing how he's able to for the regular season and even for the first and second round get to his spots use his jumper really take take a lot of take a lot of opportunity from him being open from shenan doubles and of course all the other advantage creators who were missing were gone and that's why that's part of the reason why he played so that's a part of the reason why he played so bad the opportunities were just there as well but nonetheless putting up four points and four rebounds hitting a collective like zero threes in the last like three, four games is disgusting work. He said he went from a mouse to a germ. That's harsh. I would say he went from a mouse to a goddamn roach. You know, he did absolutely nothing. He did absolutely nothing in this series.
Someone on Twitter told me he's on a timing. He turned into a DNA strand.
And uh no, we could have a combo if y'all want about the chat problem and like that's that everyone's running away with. Should they trade him for Giannis? Is he he can never play good against Webby? Is it time to trade him? You know, naturally when you're a team like that, you lose. That's going to be the takeaway. My main takeaway is we just have never seen somebody of this stature be shut down so unbelievably well and turn into a completely different player by one person as we have Wimby. And obviously, you would think over the coming years they have to go through Wimby. So, he has some [ __ ] to figure out, some mirrors to look into and find his soul wherever it may be lying right now in the depths of the ocean. He's got to figure some stuff out. I think in terms of actual on the court adjustments, he needs to be able to get his threes off faster. He needs to be able to provide offball value and be a real stretch big. Right now, his three-point shot is so slow that he's a fake stretch big right now. He does not provide any tangible spacing because he can't get him off in any tight pressure. That's what he needs to do because he'll never be able to drive against WBY and stuff, right? So, there's real things he needs to do there to like get better at his game and refine things. But, I just think we're we're looking at a guy who is forever going to be the little brother Victor Womenyama. And that's going to be the impact of Wimby when we look at his legacy and we see his run as the best player in the world. He go he goes big to big to big to big all the bigs that he plays in the playoffs and turns them into lesser versions of themselves.
Yeah. If I was chat um I don't I do the same thing that that Wimby did. Now I wouldn't bring cameras just because like if I see pictures you're on meat but like you have to go you have to go with the monks as well. You know you
No, I can't pick the monks. He's you got a different faction.
No, but that's that's what I'm saying. I can't. We should not like if he goes and trains with the monks, we can't know that because then then like if we see pictures of you training with the monks and you don't come back as like a different version of yourself, then we are looking at you and like oh yeah, like you're on meat right now. It can't that that can't happen. It has to it. You truly do have to grind it in silence. And like I don't agree with the with the we should trade Cadet for Giannis for multiple reasons.
But like one the first thing is
Chad is super young. Giannis is is over 30, has m multiple injuries. The moment that Giannis misses the first round of the playoffs because he has a left calf strain, you're going to be looking around like, dang, I really wish we had Chad. I think that I think that is completely reactionary over overreactionary. They should not they should not do that. But I like it really is I think for Cadet like you said the three-point shot and you have to read all that self-help books that that you have to because I think those two things
the the WBY conversation yes is obviously there
he's passing up shots when WMBB is not even 5t away from him right you're you're passing up shots when Deon Vel is the closest defender to you and Deon Vel's six feet away from you right you have w you have wide open threes that was that was completely bad and in in the moment We were watching the game and every time Cruso put up a shot, it was a break and you're like, "Oh my god, Cruso is playing the worst game." Cruso probably feels like he has to take 14 shots because he's looking over and Chad's just shaking and he's not doing anything.
It's confidence, right? Like I think some people that that's one of the things we talked about last week when we had the big C convo when you were saying that
I was saying that like he's going to get shut down by Wimpy. That is what it is. I'm not expecting him to average his normal 17 points a game, whatever. It will not happen with Wimpy on the court. And you were saying that there's plenty of opportunities to get shots over Champagne or whatever. Webby's not defending everything. But I think that's sports for some of these people is that confidence waivers when you know a guy is there and you get dunked on like you did in the first quarter. You get blocked made to turn the ball over falling down cuz WBY is just in your face. You can't make anything happen. The cycle starts and all of a sudden you're questioning everything. You have no rhythm, no flow. Your confidence has disappeared. That that's pure domination mentally and physically.
And if you're OKC, what do you do about that? You have to see Wemby who's just gonna get better and all these guys are going to get better. Difference is gonna be gonna get better. Mitch Johnson's gonna get better. Web is going to be here for like 15 to 17 years, bro. And
17
something like that. Not here.
A lot of years.
Yeah.
He's going to be here a long time.
You know, fine. Yeah, he's doing he's doing a lot of crazy stuff. Fine. You got it.
But for the next 5 years, when you're both in your championship window, you will presumably have to face him. You're right. And with Chad here and knowing that he is forever going to be a mouse, what do you do?
Yeah, I think well, one, Chad has to get better, right? And has to figure out ways to improve, like we said, the three-point shot. And the question you pose is why people are saying maybe you got to trade him, do other stuff because if he's never going to be good against him, you got to beat him, right? I think on one hand, you can't really plan around just one team because as we see in the NBA every year, not everything goes on paper. So you can't only build your team and make such a drastic decision on such a valuable player based on one matchup because you know maybe next year it's Darren Fox who misses a series and not JDub and the Spurs lose in the second round and don't see them. Like you really never know. So I wouldn't go so reactionary for that reason.
Mhm.
My real answer is how do you make it so Czech can be on your team and you still beat the the Spurs? You just cross your [ __ ] fingers and hope JDub is there because clearly they're good enough if they have their full team
or even or even just AJ Mitchell.
Yeah. Or both. Whatever it is, right? you just cross your [ __ ] fingers and hope that you have your full assortment of stars and your allNBA wings there to make up for the value of knowing that Chad is a scorer will never be good against 1B.
Yeah. And I think um and so like obviously after that game and in the days after it and you know for the next couple days as we go into into the finals, everybody is very much like hey the Spurs are the heavy favorite which they they should be they should be favorites over the Knicks. Like I do I do understand that. Um, but at the same time, a team without JDub, without a guy who made AllNBA last year and a and a team without AJ AJ Mitchell, that team pushed the Spurs two seven games and it was a two- possession game with five minutes to go.
Yeah.
Like the the Spurs are not I understand like they got it done and mad respect to them. They are they are getable and then for the OKC side, they are not as far away as this seven game series or as this loss may feel. So, I do think for them the smart thing is to is to run it back. And I'm very curious for them because
the the pipeline or like the reason why all of us are like, "Yo, OKC can be this next dynasty. They have all of these picks." The last two years, we haven't been able to see at all the rookies that they've drafted actually be inserted, right? We have not seen uh Topic like that. We have not seen uh Thomas Sorber like that. So, you haven't even gotten this influx of of young talent to really keep this um this this roster moving in and like in new. So, I I think for them they can't stand pat and they will be okay.
Yeah. And the natural reaction will always be with any team that loses especially when you're a contender and you should have you should have won the finals like you were the best team wire to wire in the regular season reaction will be how do you fix it? They failed. I agree. And the other reaction you see online is
every year y'all are telling us these future dynasties are here. They keep losing. No one goes back to back. Told you they were up next. I wouldn't go that far. I agree. I would just continue the course they were going to do, which doesn't mean do nothing cuz no one should do nothing. They're probably going to let Ludor go. Figure out ways to replenish that. Empower Sorbbert in this coming year. See if he's the next guy to Hardenstein. Figure out how to continue the roster in the same way they would if they were to win the finals. Stay on that route. If they're going to be a dynasty, it's going to be a Spurs type dynasty in the modern NBA. We're probably not going to see a lot of teams like actually repeat. But the idea of the Thunder winning multiple rings over a five to seven year stretch isn't gone by any means because Jada was hurt. Like I don't need to panic because one of the best players in the world wasn't there.
Yeah, you're right. And I do like the tension that you spoke about when it comes to them and the NBA draft and how to Topic hasn't done much. Sorber obviously he's hurt and he's a big ass question mark, but coming out of college, Georgetown, he's known to be a good shot blocker could do some passing stuff and all that. And I heart like in a few ways
Yeah, he's smaller. is like 6'8, maybe 69 on a good day, but someone like that needs to hit. And if worst come to not worse come to worse, but really like in this month in the NBA draft, they have like two picks or whatever, two first round picks, they need to trade, they need to trade those up and get a real deal day one impact eye because the last impact eye that they had is again it's C and JDub. It's been a minute now.
AJ Mitchell too though.
Uh true.
Yeah, I just whether it be Yakel or whoever else people want to mock to them. I do. They They don't need three rookies, so they should definitely package 12 and 17. And I think they have a second round pick, too. Sell it. Whatever.
They need a wing. That That's That's a wing.
Yeah, that's that's what they That's what they need because their their wing depth, especially if you're talking about letting Dort go. And we talked about it earlier in the series.
Like I don't want to see Dort handling the ball like that, right? And I would like I would like for that position to have a little bit more creation for them. and Jub hopefully this year is just like a one-time thing where all the injuries just got piled into this one year and he had the wrist and the hamstring that was lingering and we go into next year everything's fine. But if Dort if Dort isn't there sometimes uh obviously like Jeremy Kane he he was good in spots but he's also just a smaller guard. He's not a wing like that. Isaiah Joe and Aaron Wiggins guys who were big contributors last year were not here in this gone too. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. So the entire wing wing room should be completely different next year and they should look for they should look for somebody on on like a three or four somebody who can handle the ball who can take even more pressure off of those two guys and really make sure like if we think right obviously all season long I'm like check can we get 20 can we do this if if they legitimately think hey Chad's never going to do that you have to invest in a in a wing and you have to get somebody who can actually create them. Yes.
I'm gonna be honest. Uh, without JDub, they look like the Pistons out there.
Oh, 100%. Yeah. Without AJ,
they're literally just the West Pistons.
100%. Yeah. That's literally what they are. Like that's the one creator with a bunch of defenders around him that give them a floor, but a lot has that creator. That's a million% what they are. So again, the the the short unexciting answer is if before the series started, if I told you Jada would play one game, Agent Mitchell will play what was it a game and a half,
we all would have picked this person to win the series. So the actual outcome isn't surprising given the context, but you know, injuries happen every year. You're never going to get 100% health. Just like Mark Dagnold said in the press conference after, we've never been excuses type team. We're not going to start now. Every single year, if you wanted multiple championships, you're going to have to deal with some sort of injury. So it is what it is. You're right. They need to replenish their depth. I think one thing that I've been saying in small spurts over the past couple years is their depth can't be so defensive slanted. right now in their rotation. Jeremy Kane came in and changed that a little bit. But I go even a little bit further on the offensive side, make it so your bench players aren't six defenders and one good offensive player. Yeah. Just because if you're going to have your offensive players be injuryprone, you need more answers. So it's not completely a lost cause when Shay gets hurt. Now, I say that
if any team loses their second, third best ball handler, they're probably [ __ ] So yeah,
part of it just it is what it is. But the sky isn't falling. They just need to run it back and hope that they can continue this era. Like morally for this team to push uh the Spurs to seven games without Jel for the most part and AJ Mitchell who's their third best creator, it's wildly impressive and to go out and win again like you said just down by what two pos two two possessions within the within five minutes that's wildly impressive and that's like a way to go out. Also considering what you said earlier with Shay just doing not even normal Shay stuff. He had a great superstar level game that I'll remember for a long ass time. Didn't go out on a whim at all. Yeah, like I agree. This is a great great way to go out, but also there's very real changes that need to be made.
Yeah. And also, there's no great way to go out, though. Like, I know what you're saying. You're right. It is not the biggest deal in the world to lose in this fashion.
Losing a year of a championship window stings and no one's fault. Injuries happen. It is what it is.
And even with injuries, I want that makes it sound like I'm saying it's just injuries. It's not. They were in a game seven. They could have won. The road players put like [ __ ] Is what it is. Chad disappeared. They could have still They could still be in the finals and win a championship without JDub and AJ Mitchell.
Mhm. They had to deal with that ad adversity.
Yeah.
It's going to sting for OKC fans to know that you were the best team. You probably should have went back to back, but here you are a year lost.
And that's sports. That's what we watch. Nothing ever goes as paper is what it is. The window's still open.
But that's going to sting to know you had the opportunity to be the first back-to-back team and here we are.
Yeah, man.
Get boxed. Get boxed when get boxed. And to this first point, they [ __ ] boxed him. I'm glad you said that. That's how it felt from the second the game started. They were so unbelievably locked in. They look like the most well coached, well put together mentally young team I've ever seen in my life. Way more well put together mentally than the Thunder were at the stage when two years ago they were losing to the Mavs cuz JW got turned to Pumpkins. They weren't mentally well put together. Last year they got pushed to seven a couple times because they had these bad offensive stretches. Some would say weren't mentally well put together. Mark Dagel had some moments last year. Some would say it wasn't mentally well put together. this team, whether it be because of the veteran presence of Fox, the tone that WBY sets, the mental makeup of the role players like Vel, Castle, and Champagne specifically, they were all playing at their best immediately. No shaky legs, no quivering lips, no nervousness of any sort, just pure lock in.
And we we keep saying like that they're the the better team. Even if they were healthy, I don't know.
I don't I don't know if if OKC is the is the better team.
Sure. Sure. Yeah. Not a given at all.
Yeah. And like in the in the macro like against the other against the other teams in the in the league. Yeah, they they probably they probably are better.
Are you better than that specific team? I don't I don't know. And all the all the games that they had in the in the regular season and the cup, those games mattered. And the things that we saw in those games were were real. Like there is a legitimate advantage that San Antonio has over over OKC. So even if Jada was there, even if AJ Mitchell was there, there still is a world where San Antonio wins this series. There's many worlds. Yeah, it's it's still incredibly close to 50/50. Yeah. I don't don't don't want to make it seem like if JDub's there, they clearly win. It's an easy thing to say because it's a game seven and having an all-star makes a big difference, but you're right. There's still plenty of simulations where fully healthy the Spurs win. They've proven that
and they have like
they they were I think the the impressive thing about them is like you've seen them shorten their their rotation, right? You've seen Carter Bryant be basically taken out. Even in in game seven, Vel didn't shoot very very well. Stefan Castle did Funkcastle was 0 for three from from three and those those two guys weren't great. You got six of 10 from from Champagany. You got big time shots from from Dylan Harper. They they have so many pieces like their depth right now feels very very good.
That step back three that Harper hit over Shay in the fourth quarter.
Tough.
There was there was like three points where I was like game's over, game's over. It was the IHart run I mentioned earlier where he had a like 10-point swing on his own in three possessions and Dylan Harper stepping back and hitting that three with peak confidence. They're just different. This is a championship level team that no young player caveats, no injury caveats, no nothing. They have an all-time great playing all-time great levels and an incredible supporting cast in so many ways both mentally and X's and O's.
Yeah, man. This is second year straight where we're watching again like one of the youngest teams in the NBA like actually do things that aren't that they expect to do at all at this stage in their development. Yeah.
It's crazy. And people obviously, like I mentioned earlier, drawn the comparison to the Nuggets when they won their championship.
We looked at them and we said
they're going to have a five-year run. This this [ __ ] fiveman unit is so amazingly put together. How did they not win multiple championships? All fell apart quickly, right? Sometimes because the owner's cheap, sometimes because of injury, sometimes because the Timberw number, different reasons over the past three years. Didn't make that run happen. Now everyone wants to say OKC is just like them. Dynasty that didn't happen. You guys spoke too soon. I think the real answer might be we might have two dynasty level teams here now and Webby might be the dynasty killer and maybe the OKC thing never takes off like we hope it could because Weby's here and for everything you said he is a hard counter for everything they do. You have one of the three to four best rim scoring point guards, driving point guards of all time and Shay here's the best rim defender you've ever seen. Hard counter. So maybe we just have two of these all-time great teams and now they're both here and maybe one will snuff out the other one. So we don't actually see that and we see one team be the team of the era and that's the Spurs. We'll see. I imagine though we just see for the next 5 to 10 years back and forth and we had these two dynastic teams just here for a long time.
Yeah. Two things for them. Also shout out uh Kell Johnson just came out of nowhere and was just
Yeah. two back toback days.
I was hooping was hooping. That's one. Two
talking about the Spurs like they already won the chip. There's another series. There's another series to be played. And especially coming off of of last year,
don't forget about me.
Do not do not do not forget about about the Knicks. And especially coming off of of last year where like the the Pacers, like I was very very confident in OKC and their their defense and their ability to siphle everything that that the Pacers were doing. And next thing you know, the Pacers are up in in a game seven and Tyrese Halleurn is coming out and has 13 points in the first three minutes. And it looks like, you know, he's going to have uh massive control and sway o over that game. And any anything can happen. And I think that the Knicks have a lot of especially the way that that their guys are are shooting right now.
They have so much to offer against the Spurs. And so it's not it's not a given that San Antonio is just going to come in here and sweep and sweep the Knicks and all of a sudden they they're going to be a dynasty. Like they still have another another step. Now I think that they've proven
that they're ready. I all the all the conversation, you know, throughout the year of this team is is super young and young teams don't don't win. They've proven that they're different because the guy at the top of the team is different. Yeah. Remy's different than anybody that we've ever seen in in league history. So, this is obviously a unique situation, but there is there there's more basketball to be played.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I definitely don't want to make it seem like it's a foregone conclusion because I don't think it is at all when we get to our preview. But, yeah, to your point, he's they're proven they're on this level now, which is what matters that both these teams are championship caliber and will be for a long time.
Yeah. And something else that's so impressive for the Spurs, too, is seeing how usually when you when you have championship level teams, there's a lot of young players on this team who's been drafted on championship level teams who just like aren't a part of the actual the actual thing, you know, outside of like OKC, of course, they did their thing and the the Nuggets did their thing and the Celtics did, but seeing how there's like Kell Johnson was able to find his way and stick around and be viable. Deon Vel, he got paid that at that time massive contract. I think it was like worth 129 over four or five years or something like that. And everyone was like yelling to the top of their lungs, overpay, overpay, overpay and all that. There's that. And then and then there's some other guy too slipping in my mind as well. But seeing those two guys specifically like find their way, stick around and be valuable no matter what genre of that the Spurs are are currently in through their pathway to being successful again is wildly impressive. And we don't see that too often.
Yep. So much impressive. Let's get into the finals preview. Donovan, you mentioned it. It is not a foregone conclusion that the Spurs run over the Knicks at all. And I'm going to pick the Spurs. All year we've said there's two teams at the top that we think are the best teams and probably one of them will win the championship. One of them is there. The team they're facing isn't one of the teams I had in that tier. So, I'll stick to that and not, you know, I'll not waver from the stance we've had all year. I think the Spurs will win,
but it's not a confident pick of mine. It's not anything closer for conclusion. It's not anything easy.
How many games you got?
I don't know. You know, every time I ask this, I don't really know.
Lowkey like seven. I think it's like a tossup. I think everything we saw the Spurs do to defend the hell out of SGA in the series leads people to say he's going to lock up Brunson. Easy. Cal's going to put him in hell. They look at this defense now. Cat drop. Easy. The logic is there that you get through the championship team. Now you see just the Knicks should be easy, right?
They are not the Thunder. Brunson is not SGA. And that's not to say he's better, he's different. And I think what works well against SGA is not automatically what works well against Brunson. He's quicker. He has a more of a three-point volume. He's just a different player to game plan for. And while Castle is the ideal SGA defender, I don't know that he's for sure the ideal Brunson defender. You know, if you tell me the quickness is a little bit different of matchup and he gets his game off a little bit more, I believe you. They can't double team Brunson the same way they did Shay. There's actual creators, actual shooting. We know five out spacing with Cat. Wimby can't just sit next to Hartinstein and Cadet and make them shoot. Cat will shoot and he will beat you. So, they're gonna get creative there.
It's a completely different series that while I'm going to go towards a better team, it's way closer to 50/50 than I think I would have thought two months ago.
And that's why obviously I didn't come this far just to come this far. I'm going Nixon six. Six.
Yeah.
Wow.
I I go Nixon six.
Is that cuz you just want to see him close out at home? speaking into existence. I really don't care how many games it takes to just win. But it would it would be fun.
Me too. I I wish you stopped asking me that. I don't know. I never care about the amount of games.
Some sometimes I a lot of times I I do care in this specific situation. Just get it done. But it would be it would be fun if they close it out in six. So I'm just going to I'm going to speak into existence.
Okay. So I I mentioned the I mentioned the vague outlines of why the Knicks have a chance. What part of that do you feel the most confident in? Cuz obviously you know the wings are bigger than Thunder's wings. That's a size advantage against a Spurs team who really plays four guards in Wimby. Four guys 6'5 and below. That's a thing. The five spacing is a thing. Brunson has a score. Being so reliable is a thing. What part of that do you look at and say that's going to win us a championship?
It's Cat.
Wow, man.
It's Cat Daddy.
If I would have told him two, three years ago cat's going to be a pivotal part in you guys winning the championship, you would have slapped me, man.
It's It's crazy. We spent like
We can let him get Cat Daddy offer.
Yeah. Yeah, that's very good because of luck. Okay, you got it.
I want to dance off right now.
Yeah.
Hit it.
Hey, I've never done the cat daddy. I'm not
in my bag. That's out of my bag.
I think you should work on that for the next three days. When we come back and if the Spurs win game one, you should hit your hardest cat daddy with three days of prep.
For sure. And I'm going to go to this angle right here. I'mma dance right there in the middle.
Move the table.
Yeah. Okay. Move out the way, man. Um, yeah, I think I think Cat um we talked so so much about Ch, you know, turning into a mouse and the fact that he wouldn't even try it. There were other bigs on that team like Jaylen, big Jaylen Williams, he took some threes, right? Like you can have you you have opportunities where the bigs can can take threes and I think they're going to do a good job of of making sure that like WBY is WBY's is is going to work. And there were times in in the Spurs uh in the Thunder series where obviously like they're bringing WBY into into the action and they're they're they're making him be like on ball. But even if the Spurs start out and they do they do the thing where you put Wimby on Josh Hart and you say Josh Hart beat us like you're going to have to hit threes and we're going to let Wimby Wimby roam. There's things that the Knicks can do to to really attack Wimby as a ROR on that side of the ball. And if they just like if Wimpy is staying home, Cat Cat spacing the floor and Cat getting his his game off is going to be very very critical in terms of because him as a as a pass it's going to be super hard for for Cat to do the the passing, you know, hub stuff. And I mean, even even last series wasn't necessarily like the the same as as the as the Sixers series or as the as the Hawk series in terms of Cat being like, you know, passing passing like that. Um, but I think him being able to drive on those on those four wings, him being able to really space the floor, give give Male some some uh some room to work, give OG some some room to work, that I think will give the give the Knicks a baseline floor for their offense.
Yeah, I agree. I agree. I think Cat is easily like one of the bigger difference makers. Jaylen Brunson's just a different guy to guard and I think he should he should have an easier time getting off his buckets in theory considering how small how much smaller he is and how he can use that to his advantage and weasel around guys like he normally does throughout any defender that you put him in put him against. That's just who he is, you know? I think he's he's one of those unstoppable guys. But like zooming out and outside of like those two, I really do I love the fact that you guys do have Mitch and he's someone who can play against any series. you can especially play against Ombi. He's another big body you can play put against him. It's interesting.
But I I really do think this is going to be a super pivotal series for someone like OG and Macau Bridges Bridges specifically Macau cuz I I trust in OG a lot more.
He needs to have an outstanding series. I think they played against the Spurs twice this year of course and that season series is split. One of them the Knicks gave belt and I think that was like a March game and another one the Spurs won by two points. And in those two games, we saw two consistent patterns. Knicks, surprise, surprise, they outshot the living [ __ ] out of them from the three-point line and just in general. And that's how they maintain the Florida game with their offense. And Muel Bridges specifically had good game, shot well from three, hit tough twos repetitively. And that's exactly what he did for the last two rounds that he played in the Eastern Conference in the Eastern Conference. If he can do that continuously, then I can see the series going seven and favoring the Knicks in general. I don't think it's going to be like a disgusting I don't think the Spurs are going to wash at all. I do favor the Spurs and I'm probably going to lean towards Spurs and maybe maybe six, but it hinges it's all contingent on what Macau is going to do for me personally. That's it.
Yeah, the wings is a big thing. Like
OG has been stretches to start the playoffs, especially early on. so powerful with a driver. Did I don't know if you saw that quite as much last series after the injury. You know, maybe they didn't need him to. The game didn't go that way. Not to say he's incapable post hamstring. You got to overpower the [ __ ] out of Vel. You got to overpower the [ __ ] out of Champagne. They're going to be rotating off of Brunson. They're going to defend him aggressively. They're going to still help with Webyama at the rim, off of Cat, which requires a lot of, like I said, quick rotation, scrambling around. That's a lot of opportunities to attack creases for those wings. Do I feel great about that being like the difference against the Spurs defense? I don't know. But it's a start obviously because you start that make that work really well. Then you can't rotate off of Cat as much. Then Webby's defending more like the rotation of defensive adjustment starts with that with that being able to take advantage of
That first look. Yeah, the the Spurs defense and like how they're like I think Cat is going to be a difference-maker, but also just the way that San Antonio is going to play defense, especially from game one, is going to be super interesting because are you going to try and get the ball out of Brenton's hands? Are you going to send a lot of help once he starts getting into his mid-range area? Because if you do that, like Landry Sham hasn't missed a shot in two weeks, right? Deuce McBride is shooting very well. Mikal Bridges, obviously, he's shooting 68%. Like, the shooters are shooting right now. So I think there's that aspect of it.
The craftiness, the craftiness and some of the foul baiting stuff that Brunson does is going to frustrate Stefon Castle as well. Oh, he's going to be in foul trouble all the time because of that. And I think early on, you're going to see them at least try to switch that and try to switch Castle onto Cat and Wemby onto Brunson and say, "Okay, Brunson, go tire yourself out." I'm assuming Victor Wembyama's space over and over again, and I think would do okayish there with his length over Brunson. Cat attacking Stefon Castle as a driver with his size. Whether or not it goes incredibly well is to be seen. I promise you'll get a quick couple fouls on Castle every now and then. He's going to be in constant foul trouble.
I think on the Spurs side, like, I want to see, or I guess on the Knicks side, Jose Alvarado, you have one job. You get under Stefon Castle. That is his only job. Stefon Castle has proven he is baitable. He might be the most baitable player in the NBA. Can rage bait that guy to hell? In the NBA. And there is, I can get a technical on Stefon Castle every single game. And it can happen. I think going up the way that Cat drives, where he's just bowling ball his way into everybody, he's going to be frustrated. I want to see that. I think it will happen game one.
Um, the Spurs play, they played a lot of drop on, um, against the Knicks throughout the year. If you do that, I mean, Brunson is eating. Yeah. And so he can, like, that's why I think this series is going to be a Brunson series where he can get his game off. He can have alleys to get to the basket, get people on his hip, right? Get to the free-throw line. They have ways. And that's why I think, like, the Knicks ultimately, and especially if everybody continues to shoot the way that they are, that's why I do think Knicks in six.
That's the thing though, if everybody continues to shoot the way that they are. Well, they won't. Even if Sham shoots half as good as he is right now, we're dropping to 45%. 100%. So that's where it's like, if they shoot the way that they are right now, listen, Knicks in five. But because the way that they've been shooting is other-worldly. That's the part I'm struggling with. Is I want to, it's impossible not to respect what the Knicks have been doing. They've been bugging teams because their shooting's been so crazy amongst other things. Defense has been good, too, etc.
This will be the first time they face an elite defense with a lot of speed on the perimeter specifically. Those three-point shots aren't going to be quite as wide open. You have a guy like Castle at the point of attack and a guy like Wemby, there's not going to be the need to rotate quite as much as these teams that have nowhere close to Castle. You had Strus, Harden, D.J. at the point of attack defense. The bigs behind him, which were good defensive bigs in the Cavs instance, they're not Wemby, so they're not going to be in constant rotation like these past teams have, you know, giving you the best shot quality in the world. So, I do expect you'll see like normal shooting, which is good and is enough to stress out and make it a good series and whatnot. But I struggle between respecting the crazy shooting versus knowing it probably won't be quite as crazy.
What do you do with it when things look normal? I can't really perceive this Knicks team as normal now because all we've seen is insane offense. Yeah, they're not going to beat the Spurs by 35 every single game. That's not going to happen. But I also think like they can also get open threes in transition. And if, like, the Spurs in the conference finals were very up and down with their turnovers, and if those turnovers are live ball turnovers and the Knicks can get out and run, that's that. They're up and down when Casey Wallace and Alex Caruso and those guys are there. So that'll be a factor.
Yeah, OG and Mikal played them very well in the regular season, and they were able to force a lot of turnovers and get a lot of transition points. Josh Hart at times, like if Josh Hart, and we talked about if he's not playing the number one guy and he's not playing a D-Mitch, Josh Hart is a very good defender. And so he can also impact. So I think that trio of Hart, OG, and Mikal. And then depending on what Mitch Robinson gives you, because I can't believe, I can't believe what did he do? It happened in a non-basketball activity. Punching walls. Yeah. Don't text, don't call, lose my number. Blacked out IG story. We get to the finals for the first time in 27 years. And I was so happy. And the very next day, we get the news drop, or two days later, we get the news that you broke your finger. What are you actually doing? What is the actual problem? He celebrated too hard, man.
If those four are there, and if you know they put that splint on his pinky and they give Mitchell Robinson all the pills in the world and he's fine and he could play, that's a good defensive lineup. See, the issue for me, I agree, it's a good defensive lineup, but I think for what the Spurs love to do, and how these guards specifically are probably the most athletic and biggest and strongest set of guards in the entire league, I think it's straight blow-bys a lot of the time because, you know, Mikal Bridges can't guard everyone. And I think he's the quickest on the perimeter to do that. He can't do that at all. And I think, yeah, I don't know is the word, but constant penetration. I think Cat had a very good defensive year. I don't think it's because he's been some great defender at the rim. They've done a really good job using him aggressively in pick-and-roll coverages, making it so the defense is rotating around him and the wings make up for it. So you don't feel the effects of Cat's bad defense. That doesn't mean he fixed everything. So I do think a team that has those guards, like you said, and Wemby is going to stress Cat out a little bit, and there will be some opportunities to get buckets to the rim because he's not the sharpest rotator there. And I think Josh Hart, like I said, good team defender, very good in rotation, smart IQ, making plays to the nail. Is not a good on-ball defender. You said not against number one option, against any on-ball guy with some ball handling. Josh Hart's not that good at that.
Josh Hart's not good at defending drives. We know Brunson is not going to defend De'Aaron Fox drives in this amazing way with the Wemby screen. Alvarado isn't the biggest guy against a Castle. McBride isn't the biggest guy. That's a lot of points to poke at. And without an incredible rim defender behind him. If Mitchell Robinson is in the game, then we know the whole thing of what that's going to be. Hard to do because Wemby is going to be able to play off of him and to shut down the rim. So I don't think Robinson's going to play huge minutes. And if Cat's in the game and small defenders, I just don't love the idea of them being able to shut down the rim enough against the Spurs guards.
I think Brunson's defense is going to be super backbreaking. And of course, like no other team outside, I guess you can say the Hawks, and C.J. McCollum specifically, is the only one who really tested him and had him out on islands, per se. And you know what to pair with that? There's going to be no more exhausting defensive assignment for Brunson. Castle on Wemby. He's going to be tired as hell late games. Going to have to play big minutes. Obviously, they don't have the deepest guard room. Already a bad defender, going to be asked to shoulder Superman. I mean, he's not guarding, he's going to be on Champagnie. Like, they're, he's not going to be his main assignment. Fox is not going to be his main assignment. Castle is probably not going to be his main assignment. Come on. We know that though. But they're going to screen him, give him switches, and everything. There will be plenty of times where they're going to make him defend.
Yeah. And out of all those guys too, the only guy who's probably going to, like, going again, like he's going to take a couple breaks here and there with Champagnie, but even then, like, yo, De'Aaron Fox, he's going to get to his mid-range game. I mean, he's going to do what he does best, you know, and whether it be attack the rim. Sure. I guess so. We can. Okay, listen, listen, listen. Fox has played very, very well. Let's not act like Fox is just gonna completely fry Mikal Bridges. No, it's not Mikal Bridges. I'm talking about him. I'm talking about him on Brunson. Mikal Bridges is not bad. And it's not about frying 101. We saw in the series, Fox and Champagnie hitting these big, back-breaking threes. Champagnie being kind of a force down low on these boards against Chet, which no, OG, no, he's not Chet. He's not. But nevertheless, Champagnie is not Strus either. So, like, they have force there. They have these guys that are high effort. You said transition. Brunson's going to have to defend somebody. It's not only defending drives. He's going to move around off-ball, chase around Fox and Champagnie who move in transition. It's just a lot of just taxing effort on the body, which isn't even about him getting Wemby every time, but on both ends, maybe they'll impact the offense too. This is the most exhausting test of endurance you can imagine. Yeah, and I do think the Knicks, compared to, or the Spurs, compared to last series, again, should have their impact on the board, specifically these wings and being able to create havoc and just tap the ball out for a quick easy offensive transition bucket. Those opportunities should be a little bit more limited because, again, your wings are bigger than what OKC has to offer, and Josh Harden, his size, and OG, and of course, Mikal Bridges, and all that. So, I think those are other ways and opportunities to fully maximize on getting more buckets, but it's going to be tougher, a little bit tougher to come by.
Yeah, I, what I am worried about, which is unstoppable when you're throwing lobs to Wemby, but we've seen in the past, especially as a vertical defender, Cat is not that. Yeah. Right. And so if you do have that matchup and Cat isn't in the pick-and-roll, they are throwing lobs over his head. It's going to be interesting because, like, you're going to see Cat on him. OG's going to guard, you know, Wemby. And that's going to be something where I really do want to see, like, OG's had success in the regular season playing against Wemby. He is a very unique combination of being strong and quick enough to guard him from different positions. So maybe that unlocks something defensively for the Knicks. Um, but that would be one of those things where I can see Wemby having, you know, three, four lobs every single half, just because we're just throwing it up. And that would be something that I'm worried about because then you really do need Mitch to be out there to deter that away. If Mitch is out there, when he's helping off of him, like he's doing all the rim stuff, every single second Mitch is out there.
Yeah, I will say, I think one thing I'm keeping an eye out for the series is the fatigue stuff. I know Isaac kind of touched on it, but this is now the third straight series in a row where the Knicks are going up against a team that went the distance the series before. Very true. So that's one thing I'm keeping an eye out on. And also the Spurs are just a little bit more banged up than the Knicks. The Knicks are insanely fresh right now. So I don't know. I think that's a very underrated. Are they too fresh though? Nine days off. Yeah, that's a conversation. It's a lot of days off. It was, and you saw it in game one of the Cavs series where they were incredibly rusty. And then, you know, the Cavs did what the Cavs did, and you know, they came to do it again. Yeah, we can do it again, but they have to be ready, obviously, from the get-go. The Spurs are not blowing a 20-point lead with eight minutes to go in the fourth quarter. That's not going to happen. No wonder how nine days off being rusty, plus this is going to be a massive intensity adjustment. Like, shout out to them. They beat the hell out of these teams. They haven't faced any serious defense with these type of on-ball energy defenders, plus obviously Wemby being the biggest X-factor in the NBA. Not only do you adjust to the rust not playing, you're playing a new game now.
Well, they've been at that level. These other teams have obviously haven't been up for the fight. The Knicks have been as locked in as you can be. Not as locked in, just like there's more resistance now, and that's going to be a huge adjustment. Sure. They, I think even if Mitch is out there, though, and I just want to go back to that. The offensive rebound, like the times this year where they have been very dominant is even with Mitch on the floor. Obviously, you don't have that spacing. Guess what? We're getting these boards. And if you can get the offensive rebounds, that's key. And so we saw plenty of times in the Spurs and the Thunder series, the turnovers and the offensive rebounds. And those two areas of the game, can you create second-chance points? Can you create points off of turnovers and get all these extra possessions? Those are two things that the Knicks have been very good at. And when I hit you with Luke Kornet minutes where Luke Kornet's out there for five minutes. Yeah. Let's say I hit you with Luke Kornet minutes to help on the boards and Wemby defends Mitch and we help off of him. They're getting bodied too. But also again, like Kornet's going to play five minutes. Like they've clearly ramped up Wemby enough to where he's playing 38 to 42 minutes a night. Kornet is coming in. Shout out to him, though. We really can't overstate how big that block was and how crazy it is that he was able to make that play. When I hit you with Kornet plus Bismack minutes. All right, bro. Bismack over. Yeah. If Bismack is in the game, everybody be careful. Yeah. Those are the bounty minutes. Exactly. Bounty minutes.
I like the R. We haven't touched enough on like how are they going to defend Wemby. I know the OG thing is a common thing that people talk about, and you could see that going well. You know, we've seen in the past. All these, it's not going to be the first thing that they do. Like, it's not going to be the main thing that they do. I think they're going to do, like, Wemby in these past couple of games, OKC did an amazing job of shutting down the rim. He wasn't getting those rolls. He didn't do anything at the rim the past couple games outside of a couple rolls where he dunked on Chet and was able to get going. His main mode of attack was not feasting in the interior like it was the first couple games. Yeah. He was killing him with jumpers. Pretty much the whole last two games. Jumper after jumper. They were going in. Clutch threes. Mid-range buckets facing up.
Is can the Knicks do that? Make him do that? Can they shut down the rim the same way that Thunder did? I think they have the personnel too, considering how strong OG is, similar to Caruso and all that. But again, like, I don't know because Brunson's there and Cat's there, and those are two guys who are very gettable on that end. And I die hard and Chet, we're talking about OG. I die hard and Chet. Like, those are Chet, every again, Chet, mouse on offense. He didn't defend Wemby poorly. He wasn't like that weak on the interior as a power forward, especially next to another big. Like, that's not a huge adjustment in strength. Like, obviously Cat and OG are like probably pound-for-pound stronger and like thicker, and like, it's a little bit more. It's not massive to the point where they're not used to it.
What if, what if we talk about the Wemby? Just he's not, he's not getting his version of like the, of his takeover badge because he's not looking across the court and seeing Chet, right? So instead of being at 110%, he's just regular, which is obviously amazing. But that power-up is there. I think finals power-up for Wemby, though. The moment Wemby loves the moments. He's going to see that big trophy in the middle of the court. Exactly. And then on top of that, I don't know, man. Sometimes hate wins. Like, sometimes hate is stronger than. I think he hates everybody. Bro, he, most out of every single team he's faced in the league, he's averaged 30 against you guys throughout nine games so far in his career. You know, it's just good old. He do love the stage. Exactly. And that hate right there is on the sidelines in the arena. That Christmas game last year where he came in 40 and 20. Yeah. That was crazy. Yeah.
I'm just, I see the avenue towards the Knicks winning. And what it comes down to is their offense is so sharp that if they just play their game and hit enough jump shots, which they've shown they're more than capable of, that's enough that they could make this a very close series. And if they're doing that enough and it's a close series, you get to a late game, you have the experience and whatever on your side, the better late-game decision-maker in Brunson. They could win the series. They could make it super close off of just performing, right? Yeah. And especially because their ability in performing isn't something that you can just counter. But there's way more holes to poke at on their side than there is the Spurs, I think. So, I just, I respect the Knicks and I think they can win for sure. If I'm putting percentages on it, I'm thinking like 68% Knicks, Spurs. Mhm. I go 60-40. I go 60-40. Yeah. Or 65-35, I'll say. Yeah. I'll go 85-15 Knicks. That's nasty. I just don't think you guys have the ability to be on a string defensively, and that's what's going to happen. Disagree. They have been on defense. Yeah. Nice. You can easily be on a string defensively when Jaylen Johnson's there and stuff like that. Guys like Daniel's there, Evan Mobley, you know, guys who are clearly not built for the moment versus guys who are like, no, I am the moment, you know, like Stefon Castle. You are the table. All right, man. Relax. Don't call me the cake or the ass that [ __ ] right now, man. Please. Please. But yeah, and I think also too, specifically, I think my favorite matchup to watch, not even matchup, my, I think Dylan Harper is going to average like 16, 17 points in this series and he's going to brutalize you guys in the paint. Yeah. Straight blow-bys. Josh Hart. He's going to fry him, put him in a blunder, hit him with all types of moves he never seen before in his life. Yeah, that's fair. De'Aaron Fox and maybe maybe Fox's value through this entire playoff run is just don't let Stefon Castle be the primary ball handler. Yeah. And if that's it, and you are going from 10 turnovers from Castle to three, cool. Like, you're doing your job. And next season, we will re-evaluate. But if that, I think his shooting, he's just been fine. Like, his bad games have been very, very bad. I don't think that we've gotten an amazing De'Aaron Fox game. Game seven was pretty good. Yeah. Yeah, it was fine. I don't know what amazing means in this role for him, but it was what you want to see. Yeah, it was cool. He didn't line it up, but it was good. Six for 12, three of seven from three, 15 points, right? 15 and five. Very, very solid. Very, very good. Had two turnovers. That is what you want to see. And even in that game, Stefon Castle, six turnovers. So, that's if that's his only job, that's cool. But I do think that if he is, if we do get a version of De'Aaron Fox where the jumper is not falling and he is having a little bit more of like the four of 11s as opposed to the six of twelves, that's also another area where this offense for San Antonio isn't going to be as high-powered as you think.
But again, I think we also cannot forget what the OKC Thunder does to teams and just how different it is facing Casey Wallace alone, how good he is at snatching the ball. There was times yesterday we were watching, we Castle had the ball and we were like, "Hey Chet, steal that." Stole it. Yeah. Immediately. That's just what he does. That's the best hands in the league. That's not getting into the rest of the crazy defenders they have, the rotating rim defenders they have. That's a different monster of forcing turnovers. I don't know that Castle's addicted to turnovers against every team. I know he's addicted to turnovers against the Thunder. I don't know that that automatically translates or obviously we don't know that. He's not addicted versus every other team, but he still dabbles. Like he's still there. He takes a couple sniffs. Yeah. I obviously we don't know. I shouldn't frame it that way. I'm not worried about it per se against the Knicks just because the Knicks are obviously defending extremely well. They don't have the ball handlers where I'm like, "Oh yeah, they're snatching everything from these young ball handlers in quite the same way." Mhm. It doesn't have, yeah. It's not the same one-on-one, but they can, having Mikal and Mikal having, you know, 10 feet long arms as well. Like Mikal can play passing lanes. Josh Hart can be in passing lanes. OG can, OG at the rim creating, OG defending the rim are areas where even if it's not like a steal, he can still do those things and create the turnover. So, yeah, I don't know how valid this is, if this is just emotion or like real, but like everything you just said understandably can go that way. You just don't think it. But I know, but I just hear Josh Hart causing turnovers and I'm like, man, we just dealt with Casey Wallace. That puts no fear in my heart. I'm forced through fire. I don't give a [ __ ] about Josh Hart's passing lanes. That's a sentence you just said. I don't give a [ __ ] about Josh Hart's passing lanes. Now, I don't know if it's fair or not, if that actually works that way where you come off of a crazy matchup and like you just have those reps and you're just used to it now and you're better for it. I don't know if basketball players actually feel that series to series. Kind of stands to reason though that when you just dealt with all that, that maybe you're just like, for the past two weeks you've been trained to really care about ball security and now it's easy. The weighted ankle braces come off and all of a sudden you're not really having an issue. 100%. Yes. I think that's what it's going to feel like, and that's why I feel like these guards are going to have an outstanding series, and Dylan Harper specifically, and also Stefon Castle should as well. Like, it's so the amount of space and breathing room they're going to have is going to make a day difference, right?
But you don't think that, like, again, I know it was tough, but you don't think after game one they were like, "Yo, Stefon, chill out. Like, calm down on the turnovers." And he said, "You know what? I got 10 more." Right? Like, I'm sure every game, every game they're looking at Stefon Castle where he's handling the ball a lot and they're like, "Yo, if you can cut down on these turnovers, that would be kind of helpful." And they probably told him that every step of the way. I think Stefon Castle is just a player who is prone to more turnovers. And if you look at every single series, he's averaging like minimum three turnovers a game. But again, keep in mind, like you said in the beginning, that was when there was no Fox and there is Fox now. So for now, I don't think we have to worry about the lows being quite as low. He averaged four turnovers against Portland. Four and 10's a big difference, is all I'm saying. Four is a big difference. Four still alive. No, it is. It is. Again, I'm not saying he's not going to turn the ball over, but the depths of hell you're in when he turns the ball over 10 times is a different level. And I'm just not worried about it being that bad. He'll start turning the ball over. He, I'm not saying he's some amazing protector of the ball, but I think it's a problem when you get to triple-doubles with turnovers. And as long as Fox is there, I don't see that level of major concern. It's an element, of course, but it being like a huge swing factor.
That's not the part I'm worried about. And especially because I think the Knicks could slow down the Spurs guards. I think the Knicks can slow down Wemby. I don't know if they can slow down both with the amount of holes they have on defense. They can't. They can't. They got to pick one. Yeah. Like the second you put these guys in rotation, you see Brunson going side to side, like he's going to be literally out of lung capacity, bro. There's only so much he can do. Who's going to guard? Is he going to post up on Wemby and defend him one-on-one, or is he going to rotate and deal with these guards? Like, you only have one elite defender. Let's count. Mikal has been defending good. You got two guys. There's five on the court. You're putting two of them towards Wemby, or there's three skilled guards here. Like, they just can't shut down all these teams at once. Barring a Spurs collapse. Spurs collapse is crazy. Um, I don't care what the team said. OG, that's first team, that's first team on all defense. So regardless of who he's guarding there, that will be an avenue that is shut off. And to go back to what I said at the beginning when we were talking about, okay, see, this is a Spurs. Like, we're talking about the Spurs like, "Oh, I just don't know how they're going to do." They were pushed to seven, and this other team didn't have two ball handlers, right? Like, this is going to be an offense that they haven't seen the last two series that they've really, this entire playoff run.
If we're just talking about the past that people have played to get here, you play Portland, cool. First round, you played a Minnesota team that had dubious handling and Anthony Edwards, who had one knee. Half a knee, honestly. And then, and then you play this OKC team that is down its top two ball handlers. They haven't faced an offense that is clicking the same way that the Knicks are, definitely. So they also have to, so this other side of it, I want to see if they're going to be ready to face an offense that has that amount of firepower because they haven't faced this in this entire run. For sure. And it works inversely. They haven't faced a defense as good on the Knicks part. Spurs haven't faced an offense as good.
Which immovable object or unstoppable force will win? Yeah. We'll see. Knicks in six. So that's the thing. If that's the case, and let's say they both have to adjust on that end, and then there will probably be give and take on both sides, right? Both will get their game off. That means I look to the other side, like the defense, defense of the Knicks offense of the Spurs, and that's where you lose me. Yeah. Yeah. But also, like, the Knicks offense, I'm saying that. I mean, the Spurs offense isn't above shooting poorly and things falling apart a little bit too. Like, if they do a good job on Wemby and shut off the avenues of him getting to the rim, and the role players just don't shoot quite as consistently as they did against the Thunder. Yeah. They can also get got. So, like I said in the beginning, I think it's still six or seven. You're right. Like Julian Champagnie is prone. He, like, for the first, I think four or five games this series against OKC, he was actively not good on offense nor producing. Kell Johnson again did not produce offensively as well, and he was a big part of their bench problems too. And then on top of that, too, like someone like De'Aaron Fox is prone to shoot like two for seven, two for nine from three as well. That's why these series over the last few years against the Knicks have been very damn near neck and neck in the regular season, you know. But playoffs is different. Finals is different. And I think that defense, I'm always going to lean towards the defense slightly because I think no matter how badly they're shooting, at the end of the day, you have Wemby, and that's the difference maker. That's the biggest difference maker.
Speaking of just having Wemby, man, let's talk narratives. Who do we want to win? What's at stake? What's going to happen for both these teams if they win? Let's talk big picture because at the end of the day, we're talking about all these adjustments. Both teams have the avenues. Put the laptop down. One team has the all-time great in his age 22 season who just took the title. I think damn near unanimous best player in the world. Shout out to Jokic. Shout out to Shai. Maybe maybe I shouldn't say unanimous. They're starting to be made to me, clear best player in the world, even if it's by a small margin. He's in the finals. He's gotten this far. I'm going to bet on that, and I want that to happen. That's a good story. Mhm. I need the Knicks to win this. That's a good story. I know. Be fun as hell. It's a good story. But also, that would send New York and the state of New York into, like, they would be spiraling, bro. It would be a state of emergency. Absolutely. Win or lose, either way, probably, right? Like, either way. It might be more dangerous if they win. Yes, absolutely. Did they win? Absolutely. If they win, like, if they do win in six, from a chaos standpoint, I do think that is the most chaotic outcome that can happen. If everybody is outside the Garden and the entire city, and it's just like, "Oh my god, the Knicks just won the championship." Like, that's going to be the craziest scene possible. Yeah. I need that. It would be fun. Yeah. You trying to go to New York? You trying to be part of the flash mob? Low key. I'm not going to lie. I was, I'm genuinely thinking about it. I'm the orange. If they're up, if they're up 3-2, we got to go to game six. Yeah. Okay. Those tickets are wild. We're not going to be at Bill Gates. We outside. We can, if it's, if they're up 3-2, we can definitely go. If they're in the building to close out the game at home in New York, I promise you we'll be there. We have to go. We will go for sure. And we'll go to a sports bar. We'll record you, get it all documented, all the stuff people want to see online. Dude, it was so funny being at the sports bar just two days ago and seeing how every single Knicks fan was rooting for Wemby, rooting for the Spurs, rooting every single time Stefon Castle or Harper did something to put these guys in the dirt because they did not want to see OKC at all. They looked at their head-to-head against OKC versus the Knicks, straight belt for the last like two and a half, three years or so. Hilarious to see. But overall, I think one of my favorite things that I'm going to see is seeing how New York is going to finally move on to the next star that they're going to hate for the next decade probably in Wemby. And I can't wait to hear whatever creative change. It might be Stefon Castle. It might be Castle because I think Wemby, if the Spurs win, the Wemby narrative is much more league-wide where you have the beginning of this legacy where, like, even though it is New York, if the Knicks win, Jaylen Brunson's legacy is very much singular to the Knicks and to Knicks culture and that fandom right there. Like, I don't obviously we would have a lot of conversations of like, yo, Brunson just carried, not carried, but obviously he's the main guy on this list and then he joins the list of Isiah Thomas and Steph Curry as small guards to lead a team to a chip. But I don't think it's changing all-time ranking standings the same way that a Wemby ring in year three would.
Yeah, we can't exaggerate just how crazy the Wemby conversation is if he wins right now. Like LeBron at 22 was second MVP, you know, in 2007 he got to the finals. Wemby's on that track. He's matching all that. If he wins it immediately, that's like a LeBron-level talent with the early Tim Duncan type of resume. Like all the talks we've had for years of like, oh, future GOAT, it's kind of tongue-in-cheek. Like, we know he is a potential because he's a seven-foot-five monster, but like, I don't know if we'd really, if we actually had to put our backs on the line and bet money on it, say we actually think Wemby's going to be the GOAT. You know, it's just something we say and it's possible, but we're not actually predicting it. You could kind of start saying that in all sincerity if this happens now. The trajectory will be there. The unprecedented nature of the impact we're seeing now of him still being inconsistent at best offensively, but has this crazy floor of impact. It'll be real easy to argue that no player, even if they've been this good at this age, has the floor of him and the unique impact he has defensively. The combos and like just historic nature of the combos around him, you can say whatever you want if he wins this. Yeah. Like literally, you can say any type of claim you want. GOAT defender, GOAT trajectory, GOAT 22-year-old. Anything you want, you can say about him if he wins. Say he's going tea time with Wemby's jersey all summer. That's what he's saying. Basically, no one can stop you. You're right. Cops can't stop you. FBI can't stop you. [ __ ] it, man. You can say anything. You're right. What are you going to say? No. All right, well, rings on his finger. Anyways, the type of [ __ ] that he might do if he wins this championship, wins this series. I think we've seen Magic Johnson step in and do that day one, but he's had Hall of Famers around him. He had an MVP next to him. It's nowhere close to the same. Yeah, exactly. We've seen Shaq do that to some degree, but also too is different. Dwyane Wade got the ring in year three, which if Wemby wins in year three, it's a slight boost to Dwyane Wade because then we're going to start talking about people to win it in year three, and then, you know, Wade gets his credit there. But it is the combination of Wade gets that accomplishment early on, and then LeBron being that high in the league standing-wise, and it is a perfect storm. So, I do think it would be crazy because it bucks all of the historical trends and everything that everybody says in terms of young teams don't win, and teams this young to have never gone through the playoffs before and just say, "We missed the playoffs last year, and I missed the second half of the year because I have blood clots, and this year I was healthy and we won the championship." That's ridiculous. You're shooting 100% on championship swings. Like the first time you have an opportunity to win, you win. Yeah. I just didn't think it was going to be this quick though. Nobody did. Nobody did. How could you predict they draft Dylan Harper and Stefon Castle right after Wemby? Like that doesn't happen. And the fact that they're like so ready out the gate. Dude, I had my stomach in my ass when we were doing our preseason rankings when I said like, "Yeah, I think the Spurs are going to be the eighth seed, bro." And I feel like if Wemby is a true generational talent like we think he should be, like he should be good enough to help the Spurs when it comes to their kind of weakest bench and their spacing not being the absolute perfect storm. Their bigs behind him looking kind of skittish and all that. But no, these rookies, all these wings behind them are absolutely ready, and that's like a rare, again, perfect storm. Good point. We all have to be a playing team. Yeah. And that wasn't, it's crazy. We, I don't think we were like looking back, that's not like a stupid take. Obviously, things change real fast, but like, it was understandable because like you said, the bigs are mediocre. They have no power forwards on this team. No big wings. They play Julian Champagnie at power forward, and they're in the finals. If I told you that a year ago, you'd say, "What the [ __ ]? He's 6'5." Yeah. That's why I need them to lose. I ain't going to lie. You got to go through the growing pains everyone went through, man. Let's, like, they should have growing pains. They have no big wings on their team. Played multiple point guards that had shooting concerns before the year hasn't materialized. They're all shooting just fine. The defense is just fine without the big wings, and they also have guys in the wing ready to come and fix that next year, and Carter Bryant, and whoever they draft this year, like they're going to be probably pretty substantially better next year. Yeah, you're right. Like coming into this year, not everyone was necessarily so high on Stefon Castle. Like, yeah, everyone knew how strong of a defender he was, but last year especially when Wemby went out, like, again, when Wemby went out, he was the number one producer for Dylan Harper being the number two overall pick. Stuff happens for a reason. But people were skittish on him and his ball handling, what he looked like as the main guy, specifically when Fox went out, and then Dylan Harper too. Like, the whole year everyone wanted to temper, the whole summer people were tempering their expectations because when he was over there in college, he didn't necessarily have like the best. His shot was not what it is today, and even today it's not better, but it's way better than what it was before, and he wasn't the perfect guy out there. No one saw him as like an outlier arc scorer at all. Like he, like what he is right now. This wasn't a perfect storm.
If we're just talking narratives, and we're going to get super, super far ahead of ourselves. I mean, we talk about peaks and runs and all this stuff. If they do win this, and you have the championship at 22, the potential three-year run that he could have where you're winning DPOYs basically every year that you play 65 games, you're going to be the DPOY, you are probably going to get an MVP in the next three years. 100%. Next year, he's the favorite. Yeah. When we do our preview episode next year, I'm going to pick him for MVP, no matter what. Yeah. And so you'll have a couple MVPs. You have a chip. Let's say even if they don't win the championship the next two years, 2028, you have a chance to single-handedly take down Team USA in the Olympics. Oh my gosh. And so there's only a couple people like that that doesn't happen. And so you can have, you can have rings, you can have DPOY, you can have a gold medal on the backs of beating Team USA. It's an insane runway ahead of him for the next three years that that.
He can accomplish. And so, and if at that same time you are going back and forth with the Thunder and we've recognized that there are two all-time teams and you're battling out and in the next two years you've beaten them two out of three times and let's say you get you get two rings out of it. Like that's an insane.
If Thunder never win again. Yeah. If you make. If you stop. Yeah. If you stop the Dynasty, you're the Dynasty killer. It won't be because the Thunder weren't good enough. They're good enough this year. If you weren't existing in this NBA landscape right now, I promise you Thunder back-to-back champs.
Bro. Imagine Cad. Chad gonna have to see him in the summer, too. That's going to be hilarious. Oh, just just if Chad is on if Chad is on team USA, I might have to bet on France. Yeah, cuz he's he's going to he's going to be turned up to an insane. I am not going to lie. He's going to have to catch a DMP that game. I can let him I might not even let him in the building. And like it's over, bro. Who wants to defend him? Jaylen Dur. Someone, bro. Someone else. Anybody but that, bro. Please.
Especially in in Olympic basketball where you can go end and as soon as the ball go hits the rim, you can you can tap it off. He's he's un he's unstoppable. And so like you have you have that aspect. I think for the Knicks side, if they win, I do think it's a it's a u especially with the new lottery rules, it's going to be interesting to see how many people follow the Knicks path because I think with between the Pacers last year and the Knicks this year, you have two teams that have that have gotten to to the finals, that have gotten to the top of the of the conference. Completely different than conventional wisdom of we're going to be bad for two years, then we're going to get our top pick, build up, and then do all that. Like the Pacers have built from the middle basically the entire existence of the franchise and then the Knicks don't have anybody in the starting five that they've that they've drafted and so as these lottery picks you you're like just because you're the worst team right you're going to get into that that relegation zone how many more teams are going to look at them and say okay that like you're you're AJ you're AJ Mitchell where you've been super high on him somebody's going to look at AJ Mitchell and say okay we're going to take AJ Mitchell we're going to pay him a bag and he's going to be our guy now and they'll probably be more willing to take that risk. Like I think the idea of team building and how you build a contender is like that new that newer wave or the newer conventional wisdom is on the table for the league if the Knicks win.
Sure. I also think like the idea of just training for good players has always been a thing and I wonder if like if there was Brunson's around there to be found, people would find them. So I don't know if you can replicate what they do. I think above all else, the thing is this is just like tier one cultural moment for NBA history. If they win. Like this is going to be like one of the most loved, adored, memorable teams like ever. Like 2011 Mavs. Who else is in that conversation for like defining teams that aren't necessarily like a Jordan team, a LeBron team, but they're just like that loved of a team.
19 Raptors. No, they're Canada. Maybe if they that was the United States. Canada loves that team. It's a whole ass country. America doesn't love the Raptors cuz they're Canadian. But like 04 Pistons we talk about is like a team that like did it with no superstars. Took down Shaq and Kobe and they're like one of the teams you reference from across NBA history because it doesn't happen a whole lot and most of the time it's one of the greatest players of all time leading his team to a championship.
Yeah. This is immediately one of the most loved teams ever. Especially considering you're like yo it's the Knicks they're a joke they've been a joke for like the last 15 17 years or whatever you know like shout out to Kamar Anthony and know those years where they made him like relevant and watchable and gave them something to like look forward to every night. But outside of that bro they were very disgusting Ron Baker years. They were disgusting. Cleanth in your early years like that. Tim Hardaway junior years, bro. There was a moment. And even the Melo years we picked that was my guy. Lacy Galloway was my guy. L Galloway. We pinpoint those Melo years. It's like those were the good years.
Exactly. Relative to team they were. Yeah. And for any other like major market team or most competitive teams in general, those years would stink. Like they weren't that like nothing came of it. So the fact that like that's the level of incompetence we're talking about for the last 30 years, this would be so [ __ ] sweet. Yeah, especially considering like yo, they had before this era where it's been steer spearheaded by Jaylen Brunson right before that they had they had pushed in all their bets for the moment on Julius Randall and he was leading guys like Nuros Noel and Reggie Bulock and all that and they for the first time were like competent and were actually watchable and were doing good things led by Tibs to see them and Leon Rose like consistently move all these puzzle pieces around and really like take genuine risk while also like taking risk at the right perfect time immortalizes in my mind as like for this for this moment over the last few years one of the best GMs when it comes when it comes to like put cashing in moves they're risky a lot we see a lot of trades make sense in practice like a couple years ago we saw Sam Prey trade for Gordon Hayward one of the worst trades that I can remember of my life not because it was a dumb idea but Gordon hair was just that bad bro seeing him do that day in and day in and day out on random moments put cashing in for OG cat and all that wildly impressive. He hit on every single one of them.
Yeah. And for Cat, what a career changing moment. Already kind of is making the finals, but if they win, the most criticized player of his generation outside of the superstars who get, you know, like the insane eyes on them like a Shay, LeBron, whatever, both fairly and unfairly. Cat has been the most hated on player of the last like six or seven years. Unfairly for a lot of the personality stuff and just [ __ ] you see online. That's always been [ __ ] but also very fairly panned and criticized for being a player that did not play winning basketball in a lot of important ways for many years. To have a year where you not only fix those weaknesses, defend well enough so you can get to the finals, play offense well enough so you can compliment your stars around you, get the best version of you, and like play the most impactful basketball of your entire life and to shut it down with a ring.
Yeah. History will completely forget. And you know what that means? That means another Minnesota number one pick leaving the Timberwolves and getting a ring. It's crazy. And it's gonna stick because like I was about to say, history's going to forget the years where he was controversial and like a bad defender and Nicks fans said, "Oh my god, he's on my team." History won't remember that. He's a Hall of Famer. He's a Hall of Famer. He's the best stretch big of all time. He's a guy who helped the Knicks win a championship.
Yeah, he can stamp that now. You can stamp that. We don't remember that before 2011 Durk was a playoff dropper. That everybody gave up on the fact that he'd ever be a guy good enough to win a championship. That he was the European fraud that's too soft. People don't know that. They know that he had the most difficult championship run of all time in 2011 and he's the most skilled big man of all time and all this stuff. I promise you history will forget every ounce of criticism Cat ever got.
Bro, if out of the Minnesota trio of Jimmy Butler, Andrew Wiggins, and Cat, Wiggins, and Cat got a ring and Jimmy. What does that mean? What does that mean? You're loving that, don't you? Alex, read through the lines, though. Read through the lines. I answer if no reason. Every sentence has a little bit of bias. Yeah, man. There's truth in every joke. Yeah. Yeah, it is. Yeah, it's it's going to be it's going to be crazy though if if the Knicks do win. Also, Adam Silver might listen. Putting that boss call. Put putting that boss call. We're getting we're getting Lakers Knicks next year. That would be crazy. What bl Robert Pelinka to make his team good enough to I I don't know. But it it is interesting. And this is kind of like my my point when I whenever I I've made it.
Jonas, that's a boss call. Maybe. But like it's fun having obviously the small market teams. It like if you're rooting for Milwaukee or Charlotte, you're like what am I supposed to do? But like it is fun when you have the Knicks here, when you have the the Lakers here, when you even even for San Antonio and OKC for small market teams, teams that we feel are playing for not only this season, but legacy defining series and legacy defining moments and having having these types of teams in the league is very very helpful. And so even though that we are in this era where you're not getting back-to-back championships and we're not we're not seeing that having people strive for that and try to and be in position to achieve that that is that is fun right and and it it is um it is refreshing to have a team like OKC that can be a villain that allows the stage for WY to come in and be the superhero to save the league and do all these things like that that is that is nice. Speaking of these fan bases that are like good fun fan bases to see succeed, I mentioned in the beginning of this episode, this should be assuming the basketball goes as we think and that on the court it lives up to the expectations of the matchup. Should be the most aura we've seen in NBA finals in years. Two amazing home crowds. San Antonio and New York, both fantastic fan bases for different reasons that are like [ __ ] rabid. The home court advantage of the Spurs is serious. They all wear their t-shirts. They all scream. It's incredible. We know what the Knicks are.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. They go outside, they honk after wins that San Antonio gets turned upside down. We know what comes with the Knicks and having Madison Square Garden, all the celebrities there, the the energy when they win these games, what happens outside the arena. Social media will be cinema either way every night of the series. The logos back on the court, there's an all-time great on one side in the beginning of his run who's going to scream and cry and do everything you want from a superstar. Mhm. This should be like check every box of being like top tier sports championship.
This is an economy booster, man. You're right. For the NB and they need it. The NBA needs it so bad. We all need it. Come on, man. Yo, come back after game six. AP. Come on. Hell yeah. In New York from New York. Come on, man. Blue, blue, and orange. 80s. I'm glad you mentioned that like the NBA does need that kind of like fan economy boost. Right now, all we talk about NBA fans is this horrible online discourse about everything wrong with the league. It's all the sky is falling. And I think a big part of that is because we've been between eras. The LeBron and Steph Curry era had just fizzled out. Those guys haven't been on [ __ ] in like five years. It's just been a lot of nothing from the biggest names. Small market teams making it. Teams make it to the finals at the Heat that no one cares about. Even the Nuggets win a championship, no one really cares. Lakers win. It's a bubble. Like there's been an absent of all-time moments and now we have these two things we're seeing converging the WBY era potentially. Uh we have better we have NBC and Prime more TV reach. So the numbers are going to be good for them. Like it really should be a like pushing the league in the right direction type of moment.
Yeah. And what makes it feel so like story book too is that it's in familiar ways that we've seen before in the past. Obviously they this these two teams matched it before in the finals but like seeing Wy take the throne and do similar things not even similar things better things that Tims Duncan done Tims Duncan ah let me not do too much let me not disrespect Tim let me not disrespect Tim but be very much online with that level of production and impact on the court while also see having young young guards in um Castle and Dylan Harour who can you who you could say have not similarities to Tony Parker or Manu in terms of level importance, they are those guys and that they represent similar things versus the Knicks who just have like who are just young, spunky, fun to watch. Jaylen Brunson who can submit his legacy. This whole team saw a tweet the other day talk about how this team really like represents New York because you got you got your Dominican, you got your Puerto Rican and you got your random West African there and then and then you got your Jamaican as well and Jenna Brunson too. And I feel like when it comes to like the whole story of this, there's no better outcome that could have possibly happened for this NBA season at all.
Yeah. This is this for for everybody. Last last year's finals was like And mind you, last year's final it was a good finals, but it but it's it was. Yeah. And like like even even on the floor, like I feel like that was some of the best finals games that we had gotten in a while. But that was like the like Indiana OKC that's like the the 10 song jazz album from from the from the rapper like late late in his career. This Spurs Nicks in this moment this is the double album that's like. So last year was Untitled Unmastered. Yeah. Yeah. This this is is the double album that has five singles that that are going number one. Like this is for for the people. So it it's going to it's going to be super fun.
I do want to ask y'all speaking of roster construction. Do y'all see more stars taking the Jaylen Brunson pay cut or not to that degree? No, no, there's no bearing on that. Yeah, no. I think a majority of people if they have their money in front of them, they're they're going to take it. And I think uh and people have have joked about it also. Keep Pablotori away from the Knicks because because for for the way like the connections that the Knicks had to Jaylen Brunson to get him there in the first place and their relationship, that's very different than what a lot of other stars have with the teams that they're on. So we don't let's not talk about that question again please.
Oh, that's kind of a wash though to me because I'm like but of course he's going to have he's [ __ ] from there. He's from New Jersey but still same thing you know. His dad works for the team though. It's pretty explicit. I get it but bro like he grew up there so it's like. Yeah. But that's that's a big difference though. Your dad works for the team. Yeah. We're we're going to see the the books for the next is like Rick Brun is making a hundred million dollars. This is the highest paid assistant coach of all time. That's funny. Listen, keep up with. Oh, yeah. Keep him away from the Knicks, man. JB LLC all of a sudden. Yeah. JB11 LLC. Should be hopefully should be an alltime great finals air defining. Let's talk about a little bit of news before we get out of here. Only one real big news story to talk about. It happened actually the day we recorded and uploaded yesterday, last week. It came out like an hour after the episode went live. The NBA has officially confirmed the new draft lottery rules. We talked about it a few weeks ago. We have a video up on the T3 clips channel where we went pretty in-depth about how the new draft lottery odds kind of completely change the fabric of the league and just make it a build from the middle type of league, a win and hope for randomness type of league that it just changes the sport entirely. But now it's official. They're doing it. They're doing what they call the 321 system. The bottom four teams have two lottery balls. Same as the teams in the what is it? Where's the other two lottery balls in the plan and then the teams in four through 10 have three lottery balls. So, it's all about not being the worst, not being the best, being respectable, winning games, and being rewarded for it.
Yep. And apparently when it comes to the system, all 29 teams except for the Memphis Grizzlies voted against this. So, me personally, for this? Yeah, for this. Sorry. Um, me personally, I only like it because it's interesting and it's like change. Is it good change? I don't I don't know. I don't I don't I don't know yet. But in terms of like when it comes to teams who are bottom bottom feeders like the Sacramento Kings and the Brooklyn Nets who just time and time again, NBA history says that they make bad decisions and there are forever going to be bad teams in the league. No one can forever no one is ever going to be like good. That's just they're just impossible to do. But I think it's bad that a lot of these teams will have worse a worse chance of having lightning strike years, you know, like we've seen in the past.
Yeah. I think like one the the interesting part is that after three years like this the next three years are basically a trial for for this. So if it's if it's not working, they have the ability to to change things up or to go back to the the old way. So I I'm I'm with you right now. Like I I don't really know how this is going to go. I just want to see how teams operate over the next couple years. I do think it is messed up that they that they backdated all the all the picks and that the Grizzlies get get messed up because of it that like if if team A and team B and and all the all the pick, you know, even if you're if you're trading picks and those picks end up being top five, then now the team that traded for the picks, like those those picks get get messed up. I do think that that's messed up. As for the the bottom teams, it's it's funny because you keep we keep or we keep Well, yeah, we've done it a couple times now, but like the league has changed the the lottery so that you flatten the odds and make it a little bit more random and make it less so that the bottom bottom teams automatically get the top pick because people are shameless in in their tanking and their, you know, their tactics to get the the top pick. So I from that standpoint I don't I don't really care just because like I don't care for the for the bad teams because even when you were having these opportunities you still you know weren't doing anything from it. So I think divorcing yourself away from like if if your if your main if your main goal is to is to address um night toight com uh competition then I think this is okay.
Yeah I think that you said two things there. The first one I think a lot of people say where they say the bad teams were picking bad players anyways. I don't care about them. Sure. Unless you're just if you ignore the Spurs, the Pistons, the Thunder, all the teams that picked top players and became championships with it like you should do with any healthy league, then yeah, and I guess if you look at the other ones who aren't the good ones, then yeah, you're going to see a lot of bad ones. Forget about the good examples, right? But I do think the second thing you said is the right takeaway that they clearly are not addressing this for fairness. This is not a move to try to be fair and make a fair balanced league. It's a move to be a good TV product and to be a good healthy league with games that people want to watch. And they feel the impending disaster coming of people feeling like the regular season doesn't matter at all. They cannot allow tanking being this pervasive narrative that crushes fan interest in the league. And this is what their response is. They think above all else they need to make it so fans think the games matter. And this will do that. I think the general idea of the NBA being so [ __ ] reactionary in every way and just like being completely crushed to the whims of Twitter is a terrible way to run a league. They run this league like I would run a dynasty fantasy football league. The masses complain about something and um guess I got to make some huge overarching change because the masses are mad. They should just ignore fans way more than they do. The way they they crumble to backlash is ridiculous. And this is an example of that. And I think it's the worst thing about about Adam Silver's NBA is the incessant need to listen to the Twitter masses. He's even said, "I go on there and I look." Yeah. Stop doing that. It's ridiculous. You should be a man of principle of what makes a good league, not a man of principle of what happens when fans have these mass droves of narratives, which that's a whole another conversation of droves of narratives are completely driven by terrible psychological elements that lead to group think. you do not need to be looking at that as making being the main impetus for decision-m as a commissioner.
Yeah, I yeah, I agree. And there's a So, one, when I say the bad teams specifically, I'm talking about the Kings because I because I because I do because I do think that a lot of times in this in this conversation, the one team that people keep keep talking about is like the bottom feeder like the Kings. The Kings operate in a way that is so different from everybody else. They they divorce themselves from logic so much more than everybody else. So like using them as the placeholder, I'm mainly saying I do not care about the the kings to hold me back from from making any change in the in the system. I'm that that's one. Two, from big things like like the lottery and that's a big reason why we are very critical about Adam Silver's like we've seen these changes even small things. We've bullied the league for everyone's like we need the the logo back on on the court and we got it and and and we got it. And so it's like it's crazy to see from small things like that to hey, we have to change the way that teams build and construct teams like I wouldn't be shocked if by the next CBA everybody's complaining about the second apron. You can get rid of the of the second apron. Your voice can be heard. And I think that like like you said it is kind of wild that with enough ground swell and boots on the ground action the NBA can be shaped by you.
You keep running this like Love Island. Literally. Yes. Literally. And like the NFL does a lot of [ __ ] wrong. Roger Goodell, we got to find some videos. Roger Goodell has Get Adam Liver kicked out the. Oh my god. NBA tonight. Which team will get relegated? I'm sorry. I just really like Dreams of Nightmares. I didn't know when to stop talking. I'm going to wake Adam Silver up in his sleep like, "Hey buddy, you got to go." We got some tweets. Yep. Yep. So, Adam Silver has his strengths, has his weaknesses. other sports like the NFL, Roger Goodell has much to criticize. There's one thing he does. It's stand tento toes on his decisions and not let fan backlash affect him. And you can take issue with the things he stand toes on for sure. But the idea of being a league with a backbone that decides fate and doesn't let [ __ ] essentially a mass voting pool decide the the force of the league, the NBA is ridiculous in that regard. Especially the voting pool being Twitter, the worst platform in the world. The stupidest psychological psychosis you see. Like. Yeah. Half half the people on there aren't even real. Like. It's so stupid. It's it's wild. And also compared to the other social platforms, it's actually like smaller in in scale to. It's the craziest vocal minority in the world. It does not matter at all. Twitter is so irrelevant in every way. It's crazy. Yeah. And I say all that. So my general point is the the process is ridiculous and the making these changes is ridiculous that we're here.
I at least understand the desire to focus on the product and to say that I mentioned earlier this is not a move for fairness. This is not a rule change that is to dictate health of the sport in terms of the draft being a way that makes teams balance. It's not that at all. He's focusing on the product. It's an 82 game season. You need people to want to watch the games otherwise your league won't be healthy 20 years from now. I at least understand that. So, while I think the way we got here is stupid, I'll at least give them the benefit of understanding that they're focusing on the health of the league and the next generation of fans and making sure they care about the sport.
Yeah, I agree. I think it's going to be entertaining as hell. At the end of day, this is just an entertainment product. And when it comes to just simply being being entertaining, this hits all the marks. It's going to be so [ __ ] fun come next year, May or whatever it is, and we get to see, I don't know, the most random team, like most random middle of the pack team, like the Portland Trailblazers or maybe the Golden State Warriors, cuz they're always going to be there, too. Seeing them end up with the number one overall pick, that will change so much [ __ ]
That's definitely entertaining, but I also think the main purpose isn't necessarily just the chaos of the draft, how entertaining that is. It's to deal with tanking, right? Exactly. That's the main. And people will say they're still going to find a way to tank. If I'm the 8C, why don't I tank to the 9C or whatever? Sure, there will always be lines to push and maximize value. But with this, if you can't tank to the bottom now, you got to try to win some games in March to be four or five. So, that's a little bit less tanking there. If you're in a playin scenario, I guess you can tank out of the playin out of the seven seed. Most times you're going to be a playoff caliber team. It's way harder to look your fans in the eye and say, "I tanked out of the playoffs than it is to be the eight seed and say I tanked to the bottom." I mean, to be the eighth best odds and tank to the bottom. There's a lot of marginal ways that it's harder to tank and that adds up opposed to a system where full steam ahead tanked at the bottom half the league has to accept their team is doing this. There will still be some scenarios but there'll be so much less and that probably will make a big difference in fan perception of tanking. If there's just like half as much that makes a difference. It's never going to be zero but a half as much tanking is going to help the health of the way people talk about the sport. It is. It's also interesting because when the like after the jazz uh did whatever they whatever you know they did and this whole conversation really really started to started to get even bigger than it than it ever was.
Mhm. We were up here saying like yo Adam I don't you just have to be a commissioner and just like lay lay the law down and and like you have you have to do that. And this plan gives him the the option to do that. like he has he has immense power now to find teams, take away draft picks, do things that are subjective based on bad behavior.
Yeah. And so it's it's interesting that that those um that those powers come alongside the change where I feel like had had you just gone to a system where you were subjective and and it was Adam Silver single-handedly is taking away draft picks here, finding teams here, doing stuff like that. I feel like that also could have been a very good sign to to the league as opposed to now we're going to have this very, you know, convoluted system and and now you have to you have to think about where you are in the standings at every single moment. Like I I feel like there were other ways to do it and the fact that that provision was put in there, I'm thinking why couldn't you have just done that initially instead of changing everything else if you also still wanted to have the idea that you needed to have some some redistribution of talent. Yeah. And so that's that's one one of the things where over the next couple years I do want to see how often he uses those powers.
The answer to that probably is they also probably just like the idea of this being a league that isn't about the worst teams getting the best players, which I disagree with firmly because I think that's just there's a reason every sport [ __ ] does it. It's a healthy sport, a healthy logic that makes sense that if you are the Cleveland Browns and you win no games, you should get the best players to try to make it so you're no longer the Cleveland Browns next year, right? that that should be the natural push and pull. I'm guessing they just don't think they should operate that way. That they think that that's not inherently how sports need to work. And you know, Adam Silver loves European soccer. He talks about every [ __ ] 5 seconds that he thinks we don't inherently have to be a draft-based sport because we're from North America and that's what North American teams do.
I think it was up to him. They'd probably say no draft and we do things completely different, right? So, this is a way of still having a draft and not disrupting history and whatnot, but being a league now that isn't built around the worst teams getting the best picks. It's more random, more win games and that's how you get just as good of odds, right? They want to have 32 Chicago Bulls. They want every single team to try to aim for the middle and be blessed with Kate Cunningham. They want it to be be good and good will come by you. That's just like the league they would like in an ideal world.
Yeah. And when it comes to the outcome of that, of course, like we're all we can all be mad at Adam Silver, but the real blood should be on the Utah Jazz. Real blood should be on the Washington Wizards. Real blood Sacramento Kings are the Kings. You're right. They just doing things or they just being there, you know? Go ahead, rock out, bro. I don't even think blood's on their hands. The Kings. I know I for the Utah Jazz. Okay, I get it. That they they should be fine for that. Whatever. That's just sports. Teams are just going to tank. I think the blood should be on the league office for not controlling the narrative and caving to the pressure and making it seem like it's a problem that some teams are shameless. That is sports in a draft league. You just got to deal with it and not like I said with the NFL thing. Don't pay the crying any mind. If you ignore them, they'll cry about something else eventually and we don't have to give oxygen to this complaint that people people don't really care about it. The playoffs come after March. People care you know why people care about it? Because the NBA is the second league and the NFL fans stop watching in February, come watch in March and teams are tanking. They weren't watching in October. So they come on Twitter and they [ __ ] cry cuz this is their first idea of the NBA for the year. Playoffs come around, I promise you they don't care anymore. It's a month and a half where non-NBA fans cry about this thing. Before that, basketball's great in the fall, it's great in the spring. If you just ignore the crying for a month and a half, this is not a real issue that needs to be addressed, even if some teams are shameless. Uh, but I do I do kind of kind of agree where it's like why why do we have to accept that that tanking is is going to be a thing? You know,
it's not even like crying for me. More so, it's like a stinky big ass loaded diaper that's that's like that's full of [ __ ] and you're trying to ignore it. You know, the the it's like the levels of which the teams like the Utah Jazz took took this pathway of tanking shamelessly. It's never been done before that we've seen over the last few years at all. And that's why I'm like, okay, I think they should address it. I don't I agree with you. It shouldn't have been this way. You should have done the normal thing. Find them 500k like you did or hell go even further with it and be like, yeah, you don't have your draft pick this year, buddy. We're going to have 29 first round picks instead of 30 because of you. That's fair.
It's it s like I don't I don't like what the Jazz did, right? And I agree with you in principle, but I think the idea is to take that thought and think this is wrong and what do you do with it? And it doesn't need to be, like you said, it doesn't need to be this grand thing. It doesn't need to be a thing we make mass change around. We say we don't like it. This is four Utah Jazz games in March that matter, that don't matter, that we talk about on Twitter cuz it's annoying, then we don't care at all ever again and it doesn't need to be some big story. But it's kind of a it is a slippery slope because if you are like if we already are saying that the season is is too long and that there's too many games. And so if you if you are going to stick to the 82 game rule, which that's a that's a separate conversation about about changing games and stuff like that, but you're talking about the the principle of the thing and Adam Silver trying to trying to have principles. If one of those principles is everybody should be trying to win every single game at at every point and I don't and even like the people who don't like tanking, they still understand that it is beneficial. And so like nobody's saying that it's that it's dumb, but it is like it does it does suck that it is beneficial to lose and then you have fans saying like, "Oh, I I wish my team lost today." And that that is kind of that is kind of the opposite of everything that you know, competitive sports is kind of built around. So So I So I do think I do think like this idea that you have to have the redistribution of talent come from come in that in that way. I think it's okay to to ask, do we actually have to have it? The big the my biggest thing right now is I just don't trust Adam Silver to have that conversation. And I feel like he the same way that we were making fun of of JJ Reic like when he's like, "Yeah, you know, I sit up all all night and I I talked to chat GPT for about two three hours." That's how I feel about Adam Silver right now where it's like he's going back and forth on on NBA Twitter having conversations there and just scroll.
He has his burners. Yeah, Adam Adam Silver has has. Got a group chat. He has his burners as well and that's where the change is coming from. And so if if I felt like the the thought or the principles or the things that you are promoting you to stand on, you actually thought about it for real. If I felt more confidence in that, then I would probably feel better about it. But I don't hate the idea of why actually do we have to have this? Like can we get to a world where this isn't a thing?
And I I agree too. That's why I'm like partially defending it and like giving the logic there that yeah, I I suppose there is a world where the NBA doesn't need to be this type of league. Right. Right now we're doing a half measure. I don't know if there is a if there's any real world, you know, you know the full measure. Take away the draft. Yeah. That's what he wants. And like I don't know if we're going to get to a point where it's healthy trying to do this weird in between. And I think if you're going to be a team with the you know know what I'm saying. I'm saying that if you're going to have a draft you're going to have some downsides and to try to find some perfect euphoric scenario where everybody wants to win and nobody cares. Like it's just naive. And I and I know above all else too. I think to take issue with the realistic downside of a system that the there's value to losing to take issue with it is just to take issue with reality and that's just the draft and that's like you mentioned 82 game season is long that's why you feel the effects of tanking more that's the other answer is there's too many [ __ ] games if there was 15 less games that's 15 less games for Jiren Jackson to sit his ass on the sideline so there's just other factors at play that to focus on this one is just like conveniently pointing to a human emotion of annoyance about one thing and really blowing it up to be this outsiz issue when really not every feeling and emotion in a system needs to be treated like it's the end all be all.
Yeah. Yeah. I agree. I agree. I think teams that are going to feel this. We'll see how this goes though. Feel this the most are, ironically enough, the Milwaukee Bucks are going to be like inherently bad next year. Assuming that Giannis is going to be gone, I don't think there's going to be a chance where they crack like 25 wins at all. It's going to suck kind of for I'm putting a ceiling on them, but they could be good next year and some would have like a breakout year or whatever. But the Orlando Magic getting rid of unloading all their picks and having control for the next few years kind of sucks because they could very well be a team in the middle like they've known been known to be. And then of course it's always going to suck to be a Kings fan and a Brooklyn fan. You guys are just forever and know.
Well, we keep we keep saying about the Kings. They're not always a bottom three team though. They occupy that four to eight range quite a bit. So, you know, they're still going to be in that mix. Yeah. Yeah. Cuz because they don't they don't always get get the get the number one pick there. They're always at like the five pick, seven pick. Even this year they I mean they drop because of the lottery, but like you know they're there.
Yeah. And I I suppose it'll be an interesting dynamic come March and April when these teams are third right now have to try to win a lot of games at the end of the season to get to fourth. Like there'll be some intrigue there. Does this mean they like they officially like the NBA officially eliminated March basketball and what it represents and stands for? We'll see. Probably. That's the goal. Yeah, that's the goal. And you know, and that's the thing. If we want shorter games because we think there's too many bad games, this is how you make more good games. So there there's some benefits here. Even if I feel like the downside in the process is bad, there's certainly some ways this improves the league.
Yeah, I agree. Adam's legacy is on the line. Big time. We'll see though. Is there a world where this saves the NBA? Maybe. Maybe. You know what? I think it's going to be exactly what we think it's going to be. I don't know why we're acting like it's like it's unknown. These are very measurable things. There will be less tanking. There will be better march. There will be some unfortunate teams that stay in the mud for a while. Some teams that get blessed and create super teams. Like it kind of just is what it is. It's do you like that or not is really the answer.
Yeah. Yeah. And for right now, I'm just optimistic. I'm always moving optimism. So, I'm open to see whatever happens and I'm open to like see new teams get blessed with the number one overall pick that probably shouldn't and really see like new contenders burst out of nowhere because that's going to that's what's going to need to happen over the next few years with these two monsters that we have in the West.
Yep. It'll just we'll probably just mentally adjust to it. We'll look up and if it was this year the Hornets get AJ Debonsa and we're like oh fun and then we're just that's a new norm. Yeah. Yeah. That'd be crazy. I just feel bad for the Hawks cuz y'all aren't like mid anymore. It's like the worst time to. I mean we're not necessarily free from that. Yeah, they can. You want to go back? They can they can e very easily be the eight seed. They can relapse for sure. Yeah, very easily. Jaylen Johnson hurts a shoulder again or something like that. We're back in territory. Jayen Johnson can stay there. Jaylen Johnson's not above them being the nine seed. He's Jaylen Johnson. I like Jaylen Johnson. Better players have been in the playin. Six seed. Six seed this year. Let's say let's say Orlando stays healthy next year. Charlotte takes a leap forward. You're That's You're right there. You're right there back at eight with just two leaps. Yeah. Jaylen Johnson is not a. But also, I don't think we have our pick this in 2027, which [ __ ] sucks. I think that matter. Yeah, they could still be the nine seed. No, I mean like go to the Spurs. Yeah. Yeah. [ __ ] The Spurs are blessed. Yeah. I know. I know who else to. Philly. Yeah, Philly. Uh, so the Hawks have 46 wins this year. Philly had 45, Orlando had 45. Charlotte have 44. Miami have 43. They can get to 11 very quickly. So, they're not they're not out the out the way. Okay, maybe it is. The Hawks are still. We'll see. Y'all back. It's about to be the Bulls, man. The Bulls are going to get Caleb Wilson. Probably be in the middle of the game. Get one more year. They jump up. They're up. It's a good time to be in Chicago.
Hell yeah. You're you're going to feel real real good when you guys get the number one pick and then Aunt comes over to Atlanta. Yeah, man. Please don't sell me a dream. Don't do that. I'm actually teasing right now. Just one more year. I'm blushing right now, man. Don't do that. One more year of mediocrity. Got a lifetime of greatness. Come on, man. It's on the way. With that being said, that is the end of this episode. Hey, man. Good finals ahead of us. Knicks in six. Decent draft changes ahead of us. When's game one? Wednesday. Wednesday. What's your prediction? Uh, Nicks by Knicks by seven. Knicks by seven. Okay. Okay. Okay. I think I got Spurs by 12. Damn. Spurs by 42. Play the game the right way, man. Uh, decent Spurs victory. They had 10 points, something like that. I think they. Say a little bit. I think the rust is going to be an element in game one in the adjustment. He wants you to have numbers so specific. He loves numbers. He lists for structure. He's a number. He can't comprehend. Cuz he said 10 or something. Just stand on it. It literally it literally does not cost you anything just to say submerged by 11. Sure. Like. And we'll see y'all on Thursday for our game one reactions. We'll see if Donovan is happy or quite sad.