Howard Beck
Appearances
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
I shot a lot of threes over the summer with Team USA. I'm going to just go chuck up threes because, you know, Steph's right there. That's the influence. But I think what he failed to realize, and I'm not mad at it because at this stage of your career of superstardom, you're just trying to test the limits of what your game is right now. You're trying to see what you can do at every level.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
He's not as refined, so I'm not mad at it. But I think that he got a warped sense of, how to get your threes. I think he was forcing a lot of threes this season. They were going in because he's a great shooter, but I don't think there was a lot of times where you're like, you're not doing this within the flow of the game. You're forcing a lot of stuff.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
Me and Cliff were talking about this over the weekend. Bro, just get to your mid-range. It doesn't have to be you go to the cup or you hit threes like Like you said this a couple of pods ago, you make it easier when there's two levels. Like if I know that's your only anecdote to a three point attempt is you're going to go to the cup.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
My ass is either at the painted area or it's above the three point line or something in those a paraphrasing. Right. But I think that he needs to, like you said, needs to just figure that out and just figure out – he could shoot the three just when the timing of it is there. And I think that that's going to be fine. I think he's going to figure that out.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
But I think he's seeing why, like, it was the way he shot threes early in the season throughout that kind of annoyed the modern observer.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
The TGI Fridays on City Ave in Philadelphia is still open, ladies and gentlemen. The famous TGI Fridays. Let me just quarterback this thing real quickly. Before the pod, about maybe 30 minutes before the pod,
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
There was one where he could have dunked. It was actually a brilliant play. He could have dunked that shit and just like whooshed.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
Yeah.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
Absolutely. That was the point I was trying to make, right? Where the three is the threat. Steph Curry's three is the threat. It helps him do a lot of different things. Like he's always faking the three or trying to use a three to keep you on edge. But like he's also got a mid-range game that they don't –
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
that doesn't get publicized right he also can get to the cup he also can do a little do some in the paint do a little fade away it's not the up and under moves that you're saying right it's the total bag and has the total bag it that's why i say like he's settling because he's not using the three-pointer as a threat he's forcing the three-pointer instead
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
um cliff sends me and victoria also shout out to victoria on the boards cliff or victoria on the video uh cliff on the board so cliff sends us a um on instagram this like philly like legends instagram and it's valent iverson and it's talking about like how i used to be shooting dice on the on the um On the corner, used to be at the TGI Fridays.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
Staying on that really quickly, but I want to talk about the defenses. You said something earlier about the differences in how each defense is between the Timberwolves and the Thunder are attacking each of the stars, right? And you talked about how the Thunder are blitzing the Timberwolves, but the Timberwolves aren't necessarily blitzing Shea, right?
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
And how much of that is a personnel issue, right? Because... Maybe they're also scared of J-Dub. Because there was a play... Me and Cliff fucking saw this. It was also just a bad defensive rotation. But it was towards the end when... I think it was McDaniel about to... Shea had the ball at the center of the key and they were playing man-to-man. And J-Dub was on the left wing, I believe.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
And McDaniel just runs towards Shea to double him. And it fucking gives a wide-open three-point shot to McDaniels. And it was just... It was a defensive lapse, but what I'm saying is how much do you think that the Timberwolves are scared to blitz Shea because he has a better supporting cast, right? Love to Dante DiVincenzo. Love to Alexander Walker. Jada McDaniels.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
Jada McDaniels, but they're still not J-Dub and Chet Holmgren. You know what I mean? So how much do you think that plays a part? into the differences in defensive approaches in this series?
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
We have big, better decisions when you have more time.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
And among other things, the thing that I gravitated towards was the CGI Fridays on City Line. I don't know what City Line is, so I had to Google that. And turns out this TGI Fridays is still in business. And I was really, really happy about this. What is your favorite TGI Friday moment that you can share? Roger.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
That's a zone with Jokic though, by the way.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
Roger, don't ever apologize for geeking out like that. That was phenomenal, buddy.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
Don't be all right. Okay, so at 6.21 p.m. as we're watching the game on the Real Windsor Group Chat, I get a notification from Raja Bell. Mind you, Raja doesn't participate in the group chat unless it's something pertinent. And so at 6.21 p.m. in the group chat, we get a Roger Bell text. They're letting these mofos kill each other. Crying emoji. What do you think of the physicality of this series?
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
No.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
It was like the league had a memo just like, oh, y'all was talking shit all these years about the lack of physicality. Don't trip. Bet. It's all good. It's fine.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
Roger, speaking of physicality and foul calls, I'm still getting the foul merchant allegations from SGA on the timeline. I'm still... The best one was from Miles Brown. He called him Essence Harden. You wouldn't get this because you're not in these Hypebeast streets, but that was a phenomenal pull for him. Anyways, it was all of these arguments...
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
are talking about, are kind of like trying to nullify, I feel like, Che's impact because they feel like he's baiting calls and all these things. This is a discussion that we have had for most of the season. I don't think we've had it much on this program. Who's Miles Brown? He's on a... He's a writer. He's a Twitter personality. All right.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
Go ahead. My bad.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
Anyways, I've, I've been seeing it and then I've been watching like Shay's game, bro. And I just want to say, man, I really get really tired about these, these foul birds and allegations because they're annoying. Because you just got to fucking stop him. Figure out a way to stop him, man. The calls are the calls, bro. You know, it is what it is. Go figure it out.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
You said it was across the street from the practice. You didn't go after practice.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
It's a buyer, a seller of commodities for profit. So I guess he just sells calls. You're selling it.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
Here's another thing. When, when Harden played in the playoffs, right? And this is also Cliff chiming in on the group chat. And he does make a great point. And I still want to make my heart in point. But he says, people are complaining about the type of whistle he gets compared to others. Not necessarily how many he's getting. And... Also, here's the thing, bro.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
Okay. Cliff put his own camera on. He put his own bubble on. He didn't even get some. He has some of the shit to say to you. Apparently.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
This isn't a fucking meritocracy, bro. People get different calls, dude. It's not all fair. It's not that way. They don't get the ball the same amount of time. Okay, go ahead, Roger, because I want to make my Harden point. Go ahead. Make the point. I'll stay right here. Okay.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
The thing with Harden is when you saw him in the playoffs, one of the things that fucked him up was he was going for those same calls, and it didn't work. He was actually fishing for those calls, and it did not work. as opposed to, I feel like what you're saying with Shea, he's going, he's exemplifying the contact that is already there.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
But the thing is, he's still making those shots where Harden would not be making those shots.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
That was gangster.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
Do you remember the game specifically?
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
So before we go to break, I just want to put a stat out that I just, it was a simple Google search. In his NBA playoff career, say Gilgus Alexander averaged 6.8 free throw attempts per game. Throughout his NBA career, Michael Jordan averaged 9.9 free throw attempts per game in the postseason.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
Well, I mean, Dwayne Wade fucking – he had 97 free throws in the six-game series in the 06 finals. So, I mean, we saw that. I got to go to break, brother. We got to talk about the Knicks, brother. And I got to look up your stats. So let's take a quick break and be right back.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
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The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
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The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
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The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
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The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
We did some investigative reporting on basketballreference.com. We have found the game, ladies and gentlemen, where Raja has been just referencing for years. Since we started this podcast, he's literally told this story millions of times. And we have found the game, finally.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
So this is February 15, 2005. This is a 102-95 victory for the Los Angeles Lakers. So Roger Bell finished with 16 points. He was 5-12 from the field. He was 6-7 from the free throw line. This dude averaged 1.6 free throws per game in his career. Do you want to know how many Kobe would call in it even? How many Kobe got that night? Probably 14. Over or under 14?
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
I go on YouTube all the time. I hope this becomes a reel where they do the thing where they put us talking in the background. I don't do that, man.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
You do it. I've been aggregated by billions of motherfucking fans. You just ain't been outside. It's tough. Kobe fans. Kobe fans, I said. Well, I was the one shitting on you. When you talk about Kobe fans, yeah, I was one of the aggregators. Yeah, that's what I said.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
You go ahead. I've been aggregating. I mean... Getting aggregated by a million fucking any fandom of stans is not great. It sucks. Look at this shit, Roger. I'm sending this to you right now. This is when we got aggregated by Clutch Points, and it was amazing. You see that? That's how I felt to get aggregated. You were breaking up the Jordan pool with Drake.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
I don't see it. Okay. No, it was awesome. This was awesome. Anyway, speaking of awesome, let's talk about the performance of Carl Towns. Let's do that. Let's do that. In game three of the Knicks Pacers series. Carl Towns was just brilliant, bro. He was the OG at Dykeman. He was the big dog at West Forth. He was just at rucker. He had the knee pads on, bro. He's running like this and shit.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
He's a Dominican OG. He was holding it down. 20 points in the fourth quarter. It felt like... I don't know if it was the C-chains or some fluke shit, but it was beautiful to watch. Roger, what did you thought of the performance and how does he continue this on from now? Because I feel like... The Knicks have a chance in this series still.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
After all the things that happened at Madison Square Garden, after everything that popped off, this team has heart. And I believe that they could still win this in seven. It's just going to be one of those wonky series. And this is going to come out at like four, like an hour before the game. So this might be null and void when this podcast comes out. But I feel something.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
I maybe feel some type of way.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
Yeah. What did you think of the decision to bench Brunson for much of the second half by tips?
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
When did he come into, like, the one-minute mark? Or, like, with two minutes left in the game?
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
This seemed like a Roger Bell type game. The role players were fucking insane in this game for the Knicks. What was your favorite performance? And I'm going to give you three names. Yeah. I'm going to give you two and a half. OG, Josh Hart, or McBride in the first half?
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
Okay. All right. Let's, let's, let's, let's, let's gather ourselves.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
The rebounding down the stretch was incredible. That last rebound where he just fell on his knee, but you knew he was okay. Fucking, that was like superhero shit, bro. It was a marvel to watch him down the stretch. It was a marvel to watch OG down the stretch. He had that one block at the end. I think that was on, was it on Neesmith? It was on Neesmith.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
Neesmith tried to back him down and hit a fadeaway, and OG was like, nah, fuck that. Fuck that.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
But it was almost like OG was offended that he would even go into that bag knowing that that's not even his bag, bro. He was like, what are you doing?
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
Yeah, man, I didn't say enough about Chet and we're going back to the Knicks series, but like, Very impressed by how Chet has responded from those missed free throws against Denver. He's just been balling, bro. Like, he is a legitimate piece going forward for them. And just the dunks, the toughness, right? He's probably 87 pounds, but he's using it. So I can get people out of the way. Yeah.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
But where do the Knicks go from here? Because, like, the Knicks are down 2-1 in the series. But I feel they're a bit different than Minnesota because this has been very – even through three games and the wins that Indiana got, like, I still feel like these two teams are still way evenly matched, right? Like, the Knicks can make a great argument they should be up 2-1 in the series, right?
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
And they played really well in Indiana. Yeah. I'm basically saying all these things to say, I don't have a feel for this series and I don't know what the hell is going to go on. Do you have a feel for this series, Roger? Do you, do you know what's going on or is it just going to be like whoever just is still on the court of game seven is going to win or is it, I don't know.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
I just, I really don't, I'm speaking this out cause I don't have a fucking clue what's going to happen in the series. I don't know what's going to happen tonight. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know either.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
That's just what this series has been, bro. Like, I have no clue. Because, like, as the series wears on, I do feel like it – I feel like it pushes towards the Knicks way because the game slows down as the series goes further and further, right? Like, you're not going to be having all them runouts after getting your ass kicked for four games, right? Like, this is not going to happen.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
But then again, like, Pacers could very well run them out of the building. So... We'll see. Yeah.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
We'll see, man. I don't know. Thoughts on Halliburton's dad getting allowed back into the building? You're a resident dad reporter here.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
When you go to TGI Fridays, you're like smoking from Friday.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
You see him at the bar out here doing a choke sign out here in these streets?
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
You know who's not proud of their team? Who you got, bud? Mr. Cliff Augustine. I wanted to give him the floor right now. We've been on the Paul George beat. For the last few weeks.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
Oh, man. There's no transition for this, so we're just going to go right into it. Let's go to Minnesota. Minnesota, Oklahoma City Thunder. OKC takes a commanding series lead. I thought the biggest takeaway that I got from this game, Raja, was just how much control OKC had on this game.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
Can you just hear? What's your deal with Podcast Pete right now? What's going on? Give us the Philly temp check on his last podcast appearance on the 7 p.m. in BK podcast.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
Shout out to all the homies at wave, man. Shout out to all the homies. Shout out Pierce.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
That's not why we're here.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
Just buy you out as a collective ourselves, bro. Get the fuck out of here. I think that's where we're at right now.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
They had Locke, Cardi, or Cliff. Like...
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
And it's really hard in postseason settings to have control of the game and control the pace of the game, but also have Control of the game in the sense that whenever Minnesota made a run, OKC had an answer. Whether it was Shet Holmgren put back dunks, whether it was J-Dub, who was my favorite player in the league, I think that I have made that clear.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
You want that apology tour to be on the court.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
If I haven't made it clear on the pod, I've made it clear to everyone that I see in an arena that J-Dub is my favorite player in the league. And he was hitting big shots. Shea was great. And people will see a stat line, 13 of 30 from the field. Jeez, he wasn't having a good game. No. He took control of the game.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
He's not on an apology tour. I'll be real. I watched the Gilly the Kid joint. It was definitely trying to get into some, maybe it wasn't an apology, but it was trying to get into some good graces, back into some good graces.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
That's why he went to the mall. I sucked. And shut the shit down.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
And I juxtaposed that, Raj, and we talked about this in, I believe it was last episode, about Ant's ability to control a game and how that could help or hurt the Minnesota Timberwolves.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
You don't do that in the first episode back if you're not trying to gain some good favor. I'm just saying. Here's the thing, though. Paul George ain't getting his jersey retired at the TGI Fridays on fucking City View, though. He ain't doing that, though. He ain't getting shit put up in the rafters at TGI Fridays on City Line. That ain't happening. City lines.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
He's definitely making that left back to St.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
In late May. You got to do it in late May. You can't do it.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
That's all I'm saying. Go ahead, Ron. Pop your shit, Roger. Pop it.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
When did he do that? When did he do that?
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
You know what he did though? You know what he did though? He didn't do it. He had Gilly do it on his podcast first podcast. That's what he did.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
Look, Gilly and Wallow are two of my favorite personalities. You know what he said? That was amazing on the podcast. And I'm going to send you a clip even after I said this. He said, you know what Philly fans don't give a fuck about? The Olympics.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
And I felt like even though I think in his postgame he said that he made all the right plays, I just didn't see the aggressiveness that I would like to see and also the calmness that I would like to see from a big-time player and also Julius Randle. My goodness. My goodness. Yeah. Yeah. It's a tough series for him.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
When Raja – You're not wrong.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
When Raja gets put on retainer by the Sixers to sit next to MB's locker – not MB's locker, to Paul George's locker after games, all he's going to do is he's going to be like,
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
Victoria, take his bubble off. Pop Cliff's bubble. This has been another edition of Real Ones. God, that got off the rails really fast. Talking about Philly. Real ones mailbag at gmail.com. Real ones mailbag at gmail.com. Real ones mailbag at gmail.com. We will talk to you on Friday with Howard motherfucking Beck. Talk to you soon. All this shit. Bye.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
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The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
He's both beaten the allegations in the postseason and also succumbed to the allegations in the postseason. I don't know what it is with Julius Randle, but the series is 3-1, and it very much seems like OKC has really hit its stride in this postseason right now.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
Or call 1-877-8HOPE-NY. or text HopeNY in New York.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
It was a pretty good game. Pretty, pretty. No, but my thing is this, though. I'm saying it's a great game, but just suppose that what Ant did in terms of aggressiveness, I was really disappointed in Ant with that. With the season on the line, what you want to see is you want to go down shooting. I feel like Shea understood the assignment. He was going to get up 30 shots no matter what.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
What's poppin'? Real ones. Logan Burdock here. Roger Bell there. Howard Beck later this week. I asked Roger if he was ready to pod. And he gave me a look like, motherfucker, I'm recording.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
That's why there's a 13 of 30, not a 13 of 23 or something like that.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
He kind of gave up that, you know, that that's what that's what I'm mad at. He kind of gave up that part of his offensive repertoire. Right. He was just like, OK, they're doubling me. I'm going to just kick it and make the right basketball play.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
On the wings, on the wing side. Top of the key. Oh, I thought that was, I thought, I thought that was, I thought, oh, that's man to man, huh? You don't, man to man, if you're trying to double, the worst part to be is in the middle of the correct, right?
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
And that goes back to the control thing of OKC. But there was never a moment in a game where I was like, Minnesota is taking this, right? Because OKC had an answer for every single thing that they did. What do you think that – Say you're Ant's trainer. What are you focusing on this offseason? What do you want him to look through?
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
Because, I mean, he's a brilliant, brilliant player, but I think these are the learning lessons that you get throughout the postseason, right? When great elite defenses are keying on you, what do you want to see him maturing offensively this summer?
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
Yo, we're recording this at 9-11 Pacific time in the morning. And the reason why we're doing this is because for five minutes, we just had Philly talk. I promised we're going to talk about OKC, Shea versus Ant, Knicks, Cat, all these things. But first off, we made a revelation. We found out some good news on the real ones, pre-pod meetings.
The Ringer NBA Show
Thunder Just One Win Away From an NBA Finals Appearance. Plus, Can the Knicks Reclaim Home Court? | Real Ones
It's funny you said that. You brought up Steph Curry's name because I think Steph is one of the singular reasons why he shoots so many threes and, like, his game has switched up as much as it has because I think there was a warped sense of, like, we talked about this at the beginning of the season. I think there was a warped sense of, for Ant, oh, I'm around these guys.
The Ringer NBA Show
NBA Cup Thunder Takeaways and New All-Star Format With Tyler Parker. Plus, Mac McClung on the G-League, ‘The Break,’ and His Dunk Contest Future. | Real Ones
What's up, everybody? Chris Vernon here, and welcome to a new season of the NBA and the mismatch. And huge welcome as well to my new co-host, Dave Jacoby.
The Ringer NBA Show
NBA Cup Thunder Takeaways and New All-Star Format With Tyler Parker. Plus, Mac McClung on the G-League, ‘The Break,’ and His Dunk Contest Future. | Real Ones
Right.
The Ringer NBA Show
NBA Cup Thunder Takeaways and New All-Star Format With Tyler Parker. Plus, Mac McClung on the G-League, ‘The Break,’ and His Dunk Contest Future. | Real Ones
Who's playing well, who we loved, who we loathed, trade rumors, team dysfunction. We've got you covered right here. So follow us, subscribe, and hit us with those five-star ratings on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
The Ringer NBA Show
NBA Cup Thunder Takeaways and New All-Star Format With Tyler Parker. Plus, Mac McClung on the G-League, ‘The Break,’ and His Dunk Contest Future. | Real Ones
Right.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
And I don't know whether this is one of those situations, too, where, okay, we make a big deal out of youth versus experience, and then they play their first game, and a guy like Jalen Green craps the bed, and you say, is this just, okay, it's his playoff debut, it's his first time out there, is it the moment, is it something else?
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Is it the Warriors just being that good defensively against him, not letting him get where he wants to go? I don't know. But for one game at least, for one weekend, he is the MDP.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
It must have been crazy. It was it was wild. I mean, the garden is just incredible in the play.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
like the last couple of years of going to nick's home playoff games um the place is just so intense uh i recommend highly recommend people if you ever get a chance to although i will say so i was up on the chase bridge that's the uh that's like the overflow press area for the garden yeah so you can bungee jump down to the court from there uh if if one wanted to and was brave enough um
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
It's an interesting vantage point, actually, but that is mostly fans up there. And I ended up having a conversation with a couple of fans who said they were visiting from, I think it was Mexico City, tourists. They were really excited to be there. They're like, we paid $400 a seat for these. on the bridge, like the chain, like this is, this is about as high up as you can get, um, $400 a seat.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Anyway, I was chatting with a couple of, um, actually before I mentioned the Pistons people, I should just say, I ran into a Doris Burke pregame DB said to say hello. Um, while I was milling about on the court pregame, doing our usual pregame schmooze fest.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
And I was chatting with a couple of Pistons people and we were just talking about this whole thing and like, okay, yeah, like this is a very exciting moment for them. Their first playoff game, what a great breakthrough season and all this. And I just stream of consciousness and sticking my foot in my mouth, like not really thinking about this. I talked about, yeah, you know, it's interesting.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
And I remember, you know, Cavaliers Knicks a couple of years ago and, you know, Darius Garland and Evan Mobley, you know, their first time just looked like deer in headlights or whatever. Like the Pistons person who I was talking to me, I was cringing like I was possibly throwing out a bad omen here. I said, no, it's not what I mean.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
I mean, I just mean that, you know, sometimes it's interesting to see how young players react and whatever. And I had to kind of backtrack. But and then through three quarters, the Pistons looked good. Like they were absolutely ready for the moment. They were fine until suddenly they weren't. That got out of hand very quickly. And but it was it was a wild finish.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Jalen Brunson, like just a typical Jalen Brunson. Right. Like I'm going to fall down three times. Each time is going to look a little bit more scary than the last. Or he's going to take a little slow to get up, waving off his teammates. Don't pick me up yet. I need to catch my breath. And then he just goes and, you know, destroys you.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Yes. Although I got to say before I lose this train of thought, I thought for sure your most disappointing candidate was going to be Kyle Kuzma with the trillion line.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
What's happening, Zach? Three most anticipated words separated by one anticipated comma. That was a great intro. Did you notice Bob Myers at one point on the call? I didn't watch most of that game, Clippers Nuggets, because I was, as you know, at the Garden. Big mistake. Big mistake, by the way. Huge, huge tactical error by me on the first day of way too many games.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
That was the only stretch of the game I got to see because as we previously established, I'm a doofus and went to the garden. So I was either on the subway or running around the garden pregame and missed most of that. So I got back to the press room, got to catch the end there, saw that play. I think I laughed.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
The only times I audibly laughed during basketball over the weekend, I think, was that rush play and Steph's ridiculous three last night where I just sat on the couch and just like... It was just because it was so preposterous. I had a question for you, though, because I didn't see most of this game. And it's one of those things you glance at the box score and the first thing that leaps out to me.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Bob Myers at one point said something to the effect of, well, you know, that's Russell Westbrook. You know, he's going to do some great things for you. And then... And then, you know, that's his... And then he just, like, trailed off into something else or kind of repeated it. Like, he wanted to say, like, best of Russ, worst of Russ, best of times, worst of something.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
And James Harden has had a phenomenal year. He did make my all NBA ballot at the end of the day. I had agonized over that one quite a bit. But Harden taking 22 shots to Kawhi's 15 did something. What was going on in the course of that game where...
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
james harden is your is a a bigger option than was it just all the pick and rolls with zubach like don't i i would guess or i would have um thought ahead of time like you're like you know kawaii is a little bit more of the of the thrust here but um maybe not what anything some of it is the pick and roll some of it is that um the nuggets are switching a lot as are the clippers and so harden has his pick of the litter like he can isolate against jamal murray and he likes that matchup yeah
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
And he couldn't bring himself to say that he's going to giveth and taketh away. He dropped the taketh away thing because I think he felt like he was going to be, I don't know, mean-spirited or get aggregated or something.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
I had the same thought just watching yesterday as it went from 20 to 30 to 40 to 50 to 55, whatever that margin ended up being at its peak. And a couple of quick things just to back up. And they put themselves in this position by being a play-in team, but going from the Friday night game just to qualify to get in to a noon local start on Sunday.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Yeah. So there's that. By the way, also, though, because when you had when you had texted me my homework and you were talking about the three drawing dead series and all I could think was back to my proposal once upon a time when we used to do our drunk with power podcast, as you know, I love the best of five first round.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
And in cases like this, I just think, my God, the sooner this series and the Miami series in the Orlando like the sooner these teams go away with all due apologies and respect to those teams, the better. These are not interesting series. They're not going to be. This one is interesting because of the question that you raised, right? Like Miami's in transition.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
They had to trade Jimmy Butler, you know, at the, you know, under duress. They're in transition. Orlando is not healthy. They still need a point guard, blah, blah, blah.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Yeah, their team on the rise. And I don't I don't care if they get smoked in the first round. They're young and they're still kind of forming themselves. But Memphis is already formed. These are their three guys. The curse of the term big three is that everybody then sits there and preens when they get they find three really good players out.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
We got our big three and we're gonna have to max them all out now, by the way, and then deal with second apron issues potentially. Their big three are not big three enough. They're not big enough. I don't mean size wise. I mean, you know, although in John Moran's case, maybe size as well. And I was looking at it and it's not to get too reductive. But the fact is, and you alluded to this.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
In this league, you're a contender if you've got certainly a top five guy, hopefully maybe a top 10 guy. And if you have one of those, a top five or a top 10, and then hopefully your second best player is top 15 or top 20. And these three guys in our own ringer top 100, which neither you or I participate in.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
All right. I love not being part of it because one, I'm terrible at ranking. And two, I have the ultimate alibi. Now you're going to be a part of it. You just asked for it. People complain about it, and then I can say, you know, it wasn't me. I send them all to Michael Pena. In the ringers' top 100, the highest-ranked Grizzly, Jaron Jackson Jr. at 22nd, Jaws at 29th currently, and Baines at 46th.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
People can quibble over it, and maybe somebody should be a little bit higher or whatever, but that's the basic reality. They do not have a top 10 or a top 15 player at present.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
I was defensive of Jha a couple years ago when it was like, look how great their record is when it's just Tyus Jones and Jha's out. And I said, Lynn, don't get too caught up in that. I know there's like a 25, 30 game sample the one season. I said, but don't get too caught up in that. Like, you know, teams can do this in stretches and you can like you cannot replace or you can long term.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
You will feel the loss of a truly elite talent as Ja is. That said, as you just noted, like there are times when you watched and I think part of this was look and I got in trouble for this. I didn't get in trouble for it. I got aggregated in the aggregation, got me in trouble.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
In February, Real Ones podcast, we did a live show at All-Star Weekend, and I mentioned in the course of conversation that- A couple drinks in, maybe? A couple drinks in at All-Star? We may or may not have been doing shots before the podcast.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
May or may not have.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
You were drinking beer. I think I was actually doing like the fancy, ridiculous cocktails or whatever that had God knows what in them. That was a fun day.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
I mentioned at All-Star Weekend on the podcast, on a live show, which then got aggregated, that a rival executive, when I was just making the rounds after the Luka trade about what else was coming and what else to look for down the line and what does it say about stars being traded, blah, blah, blah, whatever. And someone said, just keep an eye on Jaa. And that was all they said.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
And then it got aggregated and it blew up and it was really annoying because aggregators are annoying and it was out of context. But the reason that the person that said it to me at the time was, as we know, as we've seen a lot of hand-wringing over because Taylor Jenkins then got fired, the offense this season had kind of de-emphasized Ja.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Ja also de-emphasized Ja by not being available for a good chunk of the season. But the offense was less pick-and-roll heavy, less Ja-centric. And to your point about Scottie Pippen Jr.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
and non-jaw lineups, they had an offense that could do other things that wasn't just so static or pick and roll dependent or jaw dependent, which is overall good for them for the non-jaw minutes or the non-jaw stretches when he's out injured. But it raised the question of how does this sit with jaw?
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
And I think we have learned since that maybe the person who I talked to was right to raise this as a concern. And they've now fired Taylor Jenkins and they've fired the assistant coach who devised this offense. No, LaRoche. LaRoche, thank you. And so there are concerns. There are some things to keep an eye on, as the rival exec said to me. It wasn't – he's definitely getting traded.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
It was just keep an eye on. I think more than ever, I'm keeping an eye on it, to be honest, because of the way the season has gone, because of the firing, because of where they are now and getting smoked yesterday. And they're certainly going to get thumped in this series. And they do have to reevaluate. And it's a smart front office led by Zach Kleiman. And I think.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Like, they're not going to be... We saw this. There was no sentimentality when it came to Dylan Brooks. John Morant's not Dylan Brooks, but this is a franchise that I think is very pragmatic in the way it thinks about its team. And John may be beloved locally, and he is, but there are no sacred cows in this league. That was kind of the point of the Luka exercise, right?
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Huge mistake, but there are sentimentality and whatever fans love and everything. I can't... There are times when nothing means anything. My last quick jaw thought. Jaw does not seem to be evolving as an individual or as a player. As an individual, because we've seen all the stuff with the finger guns and then his defiance of the league and grenade logs and all this stuff.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
But it's... The thing is, it gets... I laugh, but it's also like, it's so immature. The point of all of this that you've gone through is to show that you have thought about this and why it was a problem and you evolve and you stop doing these things.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
I said this on the pod a week or two ago. He's just going to drive a tank on the court.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
But he's a slightly built, incredibly athletic, smaller guard and still not a shooter.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
and he gets the shit kicked out of him, just gets beat up because he's constantly... These incredible drives that are why we watch, because he's so much fun to watch, but he takes a beating a little like Iverson back in the day, and that can shorten your career, and it certainly can shorten your seasons, as it has. He gets hurt a lot.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
So, no, I'm not confident in this team's future as currently constructed, and I do think that at some point, maybe sooner than later, at least one of those three probably has to be swapped out for different pieces, because this is not a big three that's going to make you a contender. All right.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
A lot of ways to go, but I went with Jimmy Butler. Playoff Jimmy, who last week we saw play in Jimmy. I don't know if we've ever had... I mean, there's been play in Jimmy before, but playoff Jimmy last night, the 25.7 rebounds, six assists, five steals. Not only all that, and got to the line six times, made four.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
I mean, once you take into account availability and everything else, yeah. And Darius Garland is also just really good.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
He was a plus 14, second only to Pajemski among the Warriors, who was a plus 17 for the game. But... There was that moment in the first quarter, they're just getting battered on the boards. It looks like the size of the Rockets is going to bother them. And, you know, they're just looking a little bit on their heels. Steph's missed his first couple of threes at that point, I think.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
I mean, haven't we had some version of this conversation for the last couple of years? I mean, I think that we've we come back to this periodically. I'm trying to remember, like every so often there's been somebody. I don't know. Maybe it was like the Fred Van Vliet summer or something when he went to Houston. Like there've been a couple moments.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
over the last three to five years where it was like, when are they going to go get a point guard? And the more prominent they've become or the more Wagner and Bancaro have evolved as this one-two punch, it's become, I feel like, more and more pressing.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
The Magic are interesting because they spent a lot of years, Zach, where it looked like they absolutely needed the teardown and they waited forever to finally blow it up and send out all these guys from the Vooch era, including Vooch himself. they've been really, methodical would be the kind way of putting it. in the, in the rebuild.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Yeah. But is Jalen Suggs a point guard? I mean, that's, you know, we've had a lot of Cole Anthony and he's had some nice moments and, and Corey Joseph and like how many other different point guards who are all like Markel, the Markel Fultz era. It just feels like they're content to just keep dabbling. And not make the big swing. Pop quiz.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
So they open the second with Steph on the bench and Jimmy leads them on a 14 to 5 run. Steph comes back and they're up 32-26. And it's like, okay, they can hang. And they can hang without Steph, which is kind of the important part of having Jimmy in the first place is not just when they're both out there together, but having somebody who can run that second unit competently.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Oh, my God.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
I mean, that was... almost gratuitous the other night. But I think we all kind of perversely enjoyed it. Social media very much enjoyed it. There were super cuts of every Nico Harrison reaction. There were split screens. There were, you know, there were, you know, Curb Your Enthusiasm overlays. People were having a blast with it. Thank you, NBA. Thank you, network.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
I can't remember if it was ESPN or Turner. Thank you, whoever, for all the Nico Harrison close-ups during various moments. His expression, to Nico's credit, really never changed. It was just some form of, like, hmm.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
pensive consternation yeah little maybe little little growly little kind of i i might be aware that this camera keeps focusing on me get it the hell out of my face i realize the whole world uh thinks i'm uh i'm an idiot for trading luca uh please leave me alone expression i make when my daughter or one of her friends farts in my face because they think it's it's funny
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
uh nico harrison by the way somebody just uh tweeted out a little bit ago nico harrison's uh got his end of season presser in a couple honestly i can't wait can i get on a plane to dallas now and make it in time that's how bad these media available are cameras allowed this time i guess i was gonna say yeah just just pens leave all your leave all of your instruments at home no no recorders no tv cameras no pens papers chisels locked
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
So I thought Jimmy really set the tone for the Warriors and for that ugly but somehow entertaining win.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
OK. And Scott Scott's working for Dirk specifically. He left the Mavs to work for Dirk. That was, I think, two seasons ago. And at the time, this is, I think, before Cuban had sold everything else. But like, man, Scott pulled the ripcord at exactly.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Let me just say this real quick, Zach. You and I, we are not PR people. Thankfully, we are not PR people for the Mavericks specifically, and we have not worked in crisis management.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
There's just so many unforced errors here. The trade itself is bad enough. You've made it, and you have to live with it. But there are better and worse ways to deal with this. Being defensive and pricklish. Pricklish? I think I just made up a new word. Prickly. It's early for me, Zach. It's only 1030 Eastern, and I'm still waking up. You can handle this a lot better.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Be at least a little bit more empathetic toward the fans who are hurting here. And when the media are sitting there in the room, and I know you're tense with them because of the way they're asking questions and they're asking pointed questions, and Tim McMahon has done a phenomenal job of putting them on the spot and so have the rest of the Dallas media, but...
The Zach Lowe Show
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The last thing you should do in a moment like this, when the whole world, 99.9999% believes you made a catastrophic error, is to sit there, double down, triple down, and on top of it, be snarly about it. So hire a better crisis management person. If you don't have one, go get one. Find somebody who can at least tell Nico Harrison if he's still doing this for the foreseeable future and Dumont.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
You need to lead with some sense of acknowledgement of just how bad this looks. You have to be confident in what you did. You have to project confidence in the plan. I get that. But you can do it in a way that's a lot less dismissive and prickly or pricklish or some other term of the word that I now won't say because now I'll sound like an ass.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Do you know how many people have like hit me, Zach, with various versions of like, why didn't they do low this, low that? Everybody wanted to make a pun with your name and they're puzzled. I think they're a little disappointed. Not that they don't like your name. But I think they love the puns.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
You're going to hate me for this, especially since we've now moved past when I thought we were going to do this. I went with Jeff Van Gundy for wrestling, Jokic for the ball.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Jeff was dead fucking serious in that moment. He wasn't messing around. He wasn't being cutesy, smiling. This wasn't being mischievous. He was not letting go. His face was stern.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
just to get Steve up to date here. I was at the Garden Saturday night.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
So I missed most of it. I did want to pipe in on Randall for a minute, though, because there was just an observation here that I'm curious what both of you think of this, because it felt like Randall was an awkward fit early in the season, and it was because of usual Julius Randall things, which was being a ball stopper, being a little slow to make decisions, and a little bit of tunnel vision.
The Zach Lowe Show
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And I feel like This last part of the season, I'm not sure how far back to go, and I haven't looked this up quantitatively, but it does seem to me like Julius Randle has been a smarter, more judicious player for them down the stretch here. And when they first got him, all I could think was, this is temporary. He's got a contract coming up. They're just going to plug in Nas Reed and move on.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
They'll flip him for something else. And I am wondering if this version of him actually makes more sense for them. But is this a reliable version of Julius Randle? Take it, Steve.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
I don't know where else they go with that, but I do. I mean, you and I touched on this earlier in the pod and Steve just touched on it, too. But like, yeah, why aren't you leveraging your size and athleticism on the wings against this team? Why aren't you, you know, whether it's Jalen Green driving, a man Thompson driving.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
It does feel like there are advantages there that they didn't really fully exploit. I am curious, Steve, where are you on Jalen Green at this stage of his career? or lack thereof. Because it feels like he should be the answer to this question, no?
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
I saw pieces of it before I ran out the door.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
I would love some Curry stats.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Kevin Porter Jr. is not fixing this? Is that what you're saying? The week before Middleton was moved, I was talking to a GM and we were, again, going through the list. So who's actually getting moved out of all the guys we're rumor mongering about? And he mentioned Middleton and I was asking just why he was so certain. He says...
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Middleton's cooked and they know it like that, that, that the medical concerns at that point, the health concerns were just so glaring that moving him just to get anything, anybody of use who they could rely on. And it's just, this was not, I want to make this very clear. This was not a value judgment on Chris Middleton as a player, his talent, his, his determination.
The Zach Lowe Show
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Yeah. He's, he was fantastic for them. He's, they don't want a championship without him, but yeah, this has been a gradual erosion going on on years now. And it was, they'd reached the point where they knew they just weren't going to be able to rely on him and they just needed to get something. It ended up being Kuzma. So I wasn't surprised that they moved off him.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
And I don't think it had anything to do with, you know, it wasn't so much about getting Kuzma. It wasn't so much about whether or not they like Chris Middleton. It was just like, there's just a reality setting in here, but that reality has been coming into focus or has been kind of
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
visible on the horizon for a few years now like this that's the whole thing like i know yannis has been hurt in the playoffs and that's a lot of why they've been out early but it's also been this slow erosion of you know you traded drew holiday but drew was was you know getting older brooke was getting older um middleton was getting older and always hurt and it's this is not even a criticism of the way the front office has handled all this it's really hard to adjust on the fly you've got the core of a team around yannis that helped him win a championship
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
figuring out when to start spinning off the older pieces and whether or not you can actually even get the right value for them and the right fit is really hard. And it's gotten harder in the second apron era. So I sympathize, but the reality is what it is. And I get it, Milwaukee fans are already... fatigued of the national media speculating on Giannis' future discussion.
The Zach Lowe Show
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But there's a reason it keeps coming around. And it keeps coming around because there are these inflection points where it looks like they've stalled out and it's going to be really hard to keep building a decent team around him. And we've hit another one.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
And yeah, there was a New York Post story a month ago about the Nets are lying in wait with all their draft picks and other stuff to try to get Giannis if he becomes available. And there's undoubtedly other teams doing the same. That's the way this league works. Every front office is just staffed with vultures.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
And if you don't have a superstar, you are waiting for one to ask out, to be discontented, to hit a fork in the road or to hit a brick wall or whichever metaphor you want to choose. And it's kind of looking like another one coming up potentially. Yes, we're ahead of ourselves.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Thank you, Zach. I appreciate the sympathy. I think I went Clippers in... I must have gone Clippers in six, but I might have said Clippers in seven. It was probably Clippers in six. I said Knicks in seven. I expected the Pistons to be feisty. I think we'll see a little bit better version of the Pistons tonight. And maybe that, you know, look, it is a young team, all cliches applying.
The Zach Lowe Show
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But yeah, you know, they got that one out of the way. They had their moment and maybe they're a little bit more poised under the searing garden spotlight tonight. What was your Clippers-Nuggets pick, Steve?
The Zach Lowe Show
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loses the challenge and then doesn't have it so i think they could use even more steph pick and rolls he was sensational and you know what held his own on defense too he had to make some really tough so his first couple threes i mentioned i think he missed his first two in the first quarter and then he started uh getting to the rim or not i'll say getting the rim he got in the paint and he had to convert some incredibly tough acrobatic shots high off the glass like it just it
The Zach Lowe Show
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Every time he goes in there, it just looks like he might just get clobbered and like there's no prayer. But but Steph can do like his his finishing ability and his manipulation of the ball and those kind of drives, I think, has always been underrated. I mean, no one's Kyrie Irving, but Steph made some really, really tough shots getting into the teeth of the defense.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
And I thought that was really important for them early on when they were having trouble scoring and his threes weren't going right off.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Yeah. And the Rockets don't want to be slow. And the Warriors seem quite pleased with themselves for playing a plotting game because they feel like they can take advantage of the fact that the Rockets don't have much of a half-court offense. And... It's interesting because the Warriors, throughout this entire era, have been such a high turnover team.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
It causes Steve Kerr a lot of agita, their turnovers, and they've been better with Jimmy.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
Yeah. But if they can keep their turnovers down... then they're keeping the Rockets from getting out and running easy baskets from Thompson and Brooks and Green and the rest of these guys. It's funny to say for a team that we've always thought of as such a high-powered offense, the Warriors, but grinding the game down to a halt is to their advantage for sure in this series.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
And Jalen Green, yeah, was my MDP of the weekend as well. I just thought, and look, everything you said... I agree with here, but I do think Jalen Green, you're bigger than Steph Curry. You're younger. You're matched up with him quite a bit. He should be able to attack that. It seemed to me like he was settling for some mid-range stuff, 18-footers.
The Zach Lowe Show
The Playoffs Are Here! Game 1 Takeaways With Howard Beck and Series Breakdowns With Steve Jones Jr.
I just thought Jalen Green, you're this young spry gazelle. why aren't you getting to the rack more here? And I didn't drill too far down replay anything, but it just seemed to me like he was settling.
The Zach Lowe Show
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The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
Oh my God, there's a dunk the other direction. It was a masterful performance by the best defense in the NBA. And the bottom line is going forward, No one has found a way to score on them consistently enough to beat them four and seven. And I don't know that any team left in the playoffs can do that. I'm going to pick them over Minnesota in the next round.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
I would pick them over New York and Indiana. I think Minnesota has a chance to beat them. Minnesota is a legit, really good team with a lot of sides and a lot of answers. I think this is going to be a super competitive series. I just got to see a team score on them consistently enough to win four and seven. And I'm not sure anybody can do it.
The Zach Lowe Show
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OK, so let's just do this now, because apparently after the game, there was this entire I guess we're still doing this in 2025, like 20 years, 15 years after zone defense was essentially allowed in the NBA and the illegal defense rules went away. I guess there was this whole like, well, they couldn't have done that against Shaq or Hakeem. And Shaq's going to put little Alex Caruso in the basket.
The Zach Lowe Show
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No, it's the Caruso game because one of the great things about that series was... a little tactical shift in every game. New things tried, old things scrapped, this worked, this didn't. And you had seen glimpses of Caruso guarding Jokic in the previous six games, just glimpses. And that was the card that Mark Dagnall had saved for this game and this moment.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
And yeah, Shaq would put some people in the freaking basket. I am a Shaq is underrated guy. Shaq is historically underrated. Shaq was an all time like there was nothing you could do against that guy except foul him. But any Hakeem, Ewing, whatever, any discussion like this has to start with the rules are completely different.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
than they were when the Rockets could just be like, hey, Hakeem, go post up. It's either going to be a double team from all the way across the court or single coverage, and that's it. Now Caruso can front Jokic. There can be dudes forming a triangle all around Jokic, blocking every passing angle possible, and they can't get him the ball.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
Jokic for the series, 28 points, 14 rebounds, 6 assists, 48% shooting, which is low for him, 54% on twos, 32% on threes. That's mortal. That's mortal great. Mortal great was not going to get it done for a Nuggets team that is paying Dario Saric a lot of money to do nothing. That is paying Zeke Nagy a lot of money to do nothing.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
That is paying Russ, the veteran's minimum, to just go completely haywire. And this is the Russ experience. Like, it's good till it's not. And it was not in the first round last year. And it was good in the first round this year. And the Clippers have to be like, I can't even believe that happened. And it was not again in the second round this year.
The Zach Lowe Show
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And it's just not getting anything from the young guys, except for Christian Brown. It feels like Christian Brown has graduated out of that conversation. He's not included with the young guys that Calvin Booth took a shot on. he is one of the young guys that Calvin booth took a shot on.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
And that shot has hit so dramatically that we don't lump him in with picket and Tyson and Najee and Strother who had one game Strother, the Strother straights were hopping a grand opening, grand closing in record time for every bar on Strother straights and all those guys. But yeah, It's a good series, but I'm just so tired of this. Like big man X from 1992 would have put this guy in the basket.
The Zach Lowe Show
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Like we're really going to go at Jokic like this. Who's already a three-time MVP already established themselves. One of the greatest players of all time without even having a discussion about like how the rules are different, how little guys, and this is across every team.
The Zach Lowe Show
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If you're an undersized guy and you have the guts to guard a center like that, the refs are going to let you get away with stuff that they don't let big guys get away with. And that's just normal. And this debate is so dumb. And Jokic is so far above that and had a good series. Not a great one, but a good series.
The Zach Lowe Show
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And it's amazing that he's so good that 28-14-6 is just like, whoa, what else could he have done? The story of the series for Denver is that the rest of the team wasn't good enough and wasn't healthy enough. Not Jokic failing to put Alex Caruso in the basket. If Jokic could have put Alex Caruso in the basket without running into 17 arms and risking offensive fouls and all that, he would have.
The Zach Lowe Show
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It's like he can put Chet Holmgren in the basket. He puts all these dudes in the basket.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
And it was a card that allowed him to play more lineups with Chet Holmgren as the only big man on the floor, which they had feared because Jokic can just beat the hell out of him And Jokic can't beat Dehaan of them if Alex freaking Caruso is guarding Nikola Jokic instead of Chad Holmgren. And it was such an interesting game because OKC gets off to a very skittish start. Everyone's missing threes.
The Zach Lowe Show
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This is a huge offseason for them. And I don't think they did. Bruce Brown, there was no answer for the Indiana offer. There was nothing he could do. Jeff Green is kind of like an assistant coach now. It's not like Jeff Green is going to come in and even give this depleted Denver Nuggets team 18 minutes of good play.
The Zach Lowe Show
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yeah kcp had a bad year in orlando you could argue that he would have had a better year surrounded by the greatest passing big man and one of the greatest passers of all time in denver and that even bad kcp is better than everything else the nuggets were throwing at the wall in this series but um look to me it boils down to three problems problem number one is calvin booth
The Zach Lowe Show
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made two separate trades where he traded away future picks. The Thunder benefited from both of them. Future picks for immediate picks. The bet being we just need to give in what became the apron era. And I think a big difference between the Denver Nuggets and the Oklahoma City Thunder is
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
is that the Nuggets were built and their contracts were signed, their big ones, before it was clear what the apron was going to be. The Thunder, because of their youth and their foresight, a little bit of both, are really well-positioned, as well-positioned as any team could possibly be, to navigate the the apron era, but Calvin booth traded like 27 first round or 29 first round early. Yeah.
The Zach Lowe Show
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We'll kick those. We don't, we don't care about those. You can bet against us. Thunder. Those bets are looking a little better today than they were. Then we need bites at the Apple. Now give us first round picks now. And those picks netted, you know, Watson, Watson was one of them. I can't remember. Tyson was another picket straw there. Dayron Holmes, I don't think was one of them.
The Zach Lowe Show
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I think that was their own pick. Those guys. And I think the Nuggets, some of those guys were like veteran college players. And the idea was they're going to be more ready to win today than the typical young player, typical first round draft pick. I think the Nuggets probably overestimated how quickly those young guys could be ready for moments like a game seven in Oklahoma City.
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And that overestimation was very predictable. That's probably number one. And some of those guys will get better. And maybe some of those guys will be part of the next core down the line. Who knows? Problem number two, and linked to that is, while you're taking shots at the draft, you have these cap-ups exceptions and other little cap tools that give you shots at mid-tier salary guys.
The Zach Lowe Show
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And the Nuggets used two of those bullets on Sarich, and Najee and got zero from any of it. And you just, now you can go and look at playoff rosters and say how many guys are getting anything out of a mid-level exception level player.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
And it's going to be hard to find, but they could have, I mean, obviously they could have gotten, you can't whiff on those while you are simultaneously taking a lot of shots in the draft. They're unlikely to pay off in time for Jokic's peak, peak, peak. And then number three, And I think this probably even trumps all of the roster building stuff that we're talking about.
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And it goes back to my point about the apron and how they built the team before the apron. They have two guys making max or near max money who are not producing at max or near max levels. Jamal Murray in this series, 20 points a game on 40% shooting, 30% from three, largely did not have a good enough season except for a couple of months in the middle where he got hot. And Michael Porter Jr.
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was not healthy, made a game attempt to play with one arm, averaged seven points a game, was kind of a non-entity. But even like healthy Michael Porter Jr., needs to play better, more consistently to live up to his monster contract. And by the way, these guys are under contract. Jabal Murray's extension starts next season and runs through 2029. Michael Porter Jr.
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Jalen Williams has a bad turnover, dribbling under the basket, getting caught with nowhere to go, kicks it out to nobody. Kaysen Wallace, short arms, a floater, wide open floater, short arms at almost an air ball. And you're like, oh boy. The moments here and the experienced, tested veteran team looks ready.
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's contract runs through only two more seasons, 2027. Zeke Nagy's contract runs through 2028. If those, if the max guys produce at max levels, I think that papers over a lot of the other problems and give those problems time to solve themselves. And they didn't. And the question for Denver is like, I don't even know what they're supposed to do.
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You think like, like people are like, well, they should trade for Durant trade for trade. What everyone just watched Michael Porter jr. They know what his contract status is. Jamal Murray is a good player. He's also attached at the hip to Jokic. He's also making $57.5 million in four years, in 2029. I don't know what trade value he has, and I don't know how you trade him.
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You have to bring back another elite ball handler because you're trying to win the championship immediately. Where is that deal? And they have... They could, in theory, trade one first round pick if they like unprotect all the other picks that they owe. Right now, they really can't do that. And it's like, I don't know what ammo they have.
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I don't know what options they have other than bring the whole thing back. Hope the young guys are more ready. Hope the Max guys play more like Max guys. And I do think that team has a chance to win the title again next year, make a deep run. But I just I'm out of ideas. I got no ideas for them.
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And Aaron Gordon, I mean, just, I guess all, not, I guess all the props in the world to Aaron Gordon. I was legitimately worried about his health and the consequences of playing a game like that with a grade two hamstring. You would have guessed that he was limited, but you would not have guessed that he was playing with an injury like that. He was moving pretty well. He hit the boards.
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What you have to step one is whatever cap exception you have, you need to nail it this time. And you're not going to get a star at whether it's whatever their aprons there. They may not even have any, but whatever. They've got to get a ring chaser in there who can actually play minutes for them and not be a total zero like some of the other guys they have on the team.
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Look, Porter is not everyone's cup of tea. And I get that. He is a minus on defense, can be a little spacey, can have games where you're like, hey, can you just play a little harder? It's the playoffs. And then the next game, he'll get 13 rebounds. And you're like, okay, you realize it's the playoffs, right? That should be every game. Yeah. His ball handling has developed a little bit.
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I thought he was much better this year attacking closeouts and stuff like that. But it's we're long past the like this guy can run pick and rolls and post up and be that kind of offensive player. But I will say that people can the critics and the critics have a lot of meat to pick at with Michael Porter Jr. I think they underestimate 6'10", A++ shooter on the move against contests.
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That is a very rare thing. It fits very well with Jokic. And you have almost no three-point shooting on the entire team other than him and your two best players who are running pick and roll together a lot. Like, if you move that dude, you better get a guy who can freaking shoot. Because I wrote about it at the beginning of the season.
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Their three-point shooting was already at DEFCON 1 critical levels when they let KCP walk and essentially replaced him with Russell Westbrook. And they were already at a threshold where it was like, I'm not, I just am not sure even with the best guy in the league, even with the best floater team in the league.
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Even with all that, that you can beat four different playoff opponents four times in seven games with such a math problem on your hands. And whatever they do, the math problem cannot get more severe. And the ask of Jokic to make up for the math problem with his all-around brilliance cannot get any bigger.
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Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
And if you don't already have it, download the Fandle app today to make every moment more. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available and listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Must be 21 and over in present and select states. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit rg-help.com.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
He also went 13 of 46 from three in this series. But...
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
He made threes, just an, just an all time gutsy performance by a guy who has emerged in as one of the feel-good stories in the NBA and the clutch player of these playoffs. And no one should forget, despite the margin, what he went through to play in that game. And then OKC comes back, gets a win in five at the end of the first.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
You needed one more guy.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
SGA for the series, plus 69, Thunder without SGA, minus 5. It was almost a relief how little the series became a public referendum on the MVP. I think everyone kind of agrees both guys were very deserving. And although both had uneven moments in this series, I feel no different about either of them than I did coming into the playoffs, coming into this heavyweight clash. And...
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
I leaned at the very end toward SGA. And I said, because I just think 68 wins has to be respected. And there was no real evidence that the Thunder had a sustainable offense to win anywhere near 68 games with like... a replacement B-plus level point guard in Shea Gildress Alexander's place. And I think that's still the case now.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
Their best offense in this series, other than Shea, was their defense. And the second and third guys were rickety at times for most of the series, frankly. I have no further MVP thoughts. I don't care who wins. Jokic is the best player in the world. SGA would be a deserving MVP. End of story.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
Remember the NBA awards show?
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I do like how... You mentioned... Anyway, never mind. This episode is brought to you by HubSpot. Growing a business can feel impossible, but HubSpot's customer platform can help. It's powered by a suite of AI tools called Breeze, so you can generate more leads, close more deals, and scale your service fast. With Breeze, agents handling the busy work, customers are cutting sales cycles in half.
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That's a lot, and saving hours on work each week. Best of all, you can see the results in days, not months. Visit HubSpot.com slash AI to learn more. Pick a conference finals. Which one do you want to preview?
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
Minnesota, Oklahoma City. Awesome matchup. Lots to talk about. Very little useful regular season tape on these teams. They played four times. Three of them were in like an eight-day span in which tons of guys missed games. Lots of interesting matchups, lots of interesting statistical oddities to this series. It begins, what, Tuesday? Wednesday? Tuesday. Tuesday in Oklahoma City.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
They will obviously have home court advantage. Where would you like to start with this series?
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
Second quarter starts, David Adelman with, I think, the first real blunder of his brief and mostly very good head coaching stint with the Nuggets. And I think he will and should get this job on a non-interim basis after this playoff run. Sits Murray and Jokic at the same time. To start the second quarter. I couldn't believe it.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
Rub it in that I'm a suburban loser dad now. I took the garbage out last night. I got to march it back in later this morning.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
Okay, let's make a couple things clear. I lived in New York for 18 years, okay? I didn't put in some token stint in New York City. I know the subway by heart. I'm always a New Yorker. Number two, I took a walk around the neighborhood yesterday to get my steps in because I'm an old suburban loser now. And I saw one friend, a woman gardening in her yard.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
And across the street was her other friend and my other friend gardening in her yard. And they were like talking to each other across the street in their yards with their gardening gloves and their spades, digging things up and weeding. And I was like, this is... Too much. This is too suburban.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
I have to turn around and get away from you all immediately because I can't stomach that this is now my life. So but to your point, I am a lapsed New Yorker.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
I understand trying to maximize their minutes together and steal some rest when you can. I thought it was a bad decision. I put it in my notes right away. Like, oh my God, wheels fall off. Oklahoma City takes the lead. And there's a moment there with like seven, eight minutes left where... It felt like the game was there to grab for Oklahoma City, and they didn't.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
Let's talk about Minnesota's offense and vis-a-vis Randall, because obviously question number one for the series is can Minnesota score enough points on the Thunder? And one way they, what's non-negotiable for Minnesota are two things. Number one, they have to win the free throw battle by a lot. We mentioned earlier that Oklahoma City fouls a lot.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
Minnesota's decent at getting to the line and decent at avoiding fouls. They need to be like a pretty, like plus eight attempts per game kind of margin to win four games. Number two, And what really worries me for Minnesota is they have to take care of the ball better than they have for years now and so far in the playoffs. If this is a high turnover series, they are dead on arrival.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
If this is an average turnover series, they have some minority chance to pull an upset. If this is a low turnover series for them, which is extremely difficult against the handsiest team in the league, they have a chance to win the series. But if it's a high turnover series, they're dead.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
They were 19th in turnover rate in the regular season, and their turnover rate has been higher in the playoffs than it was in the regular season. That is death. If that sustains, they're not going to win. Okay, Randall. There are two ways the Thunder can match up, and I think both are interesting, and I think we'll see both of them. And I'm talking starters versus starters now.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
Okay, we can get into the other lineups later, the Nas-Reed lineups and all that. The safest version, version number one, is Hartenstein starts on Randall, Chet Holmgren starts on Gobert so he can man the back line and be the rim protector. And J-Dub guards Jada McDaniels and sort of he can help and he can rove and all that. I think that may be how they start. We'll see some of that.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
Dort is going to guard Ant, by the way, which is just like... I don't even know what that's like. It's like Mike Singletary trying to tackle John Riggins or something. I don't even know what is going to happen. We're going to hear that through the television screens. There's going to be holes in the floor. Wood is going to get warped. I don't know how that's going to go.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
Denver sort of steeled themselves, got back in the game. I think it was 41-40. And then the Thunder grabbed the game, and they grabbed the ball over and over and over again. Caruso grabbed every inch of Jokic's body now and then. And, hey, look... Physicality is here. Refs all season, all decade have let little guys get away with murder against big guys in the post.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
I'm sure there's a more modern...
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
Who's the Ravens running back? Derrick Henry? Is that his name? He's a big giant guy. Him running into somebody like Mike Singletary. Version number two is you shift Hartenstein to Gobert. You put J Dub on Randall and J Dub has guarded Randall a fair bit. He's given up some size, but he's very tough and very physical and very pokey, pokey, pokey against the guy who can get loose with the ball.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
And Chet Holmgren gets the Rover role on Jada McDaniels instead. I think we'll see a little bit of both of those things. I will say. Jada McDaniels has been playing so well as to render that kind of strategy that we're just going to hide a big man on you strategy much more dangerous than it was two months ago, six months ago, a year ago. And if the Thunder dare that.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
Jada McDaniels has to make a lot of threes and Jada McDaniels has to attack closeouts and do something with them. And he has done both of those things so far in the playoffs. And if he plays like that, Minnesota has a chance, uh, putting J Dub on Randall also allows them to switch any ant Randall pick and rolls between J Dub and Dort. That's an interesting wrinkle.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
Um, and then you have, you know, when it's Nas Reed and one of Randall or go bear, obviously they're going to put a wing on Nas Reed and put whatever big man is on the floor on Randall. Um, And I do think we will see some Caruso on Randall as evidenced by what we just saw. And more broadly, I think with Jokic in the rearview mirror and Julius Randall is a good post player. He's not Jokic.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
I think this is a safer series for the Thunder to play Holmgren as the only big man on the floor than it was against Denver. When they did that only because they had put Caruso on the floor late in the series and they didn't do it for a lot of series, I think that's... And we'll see how effective that is. I mean, that's supposedly...
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
their best offensive lineup, their offensive kill shot, like five out spacing, Holmgren pick and pop threes, Holmgren pump and go drives. He hasn't played well enough offensively in that role. And I think it's also safe for them to maybe dabble a little bit more than they did in playing five guards and wings together in their super small ball lineup.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
So I think the matchups when Minnesota has the ball are going to be really interesting. I think... The variety of defenses they throw at ant on the pick and roll is going to be really interesting. They're going to blitz them every now and then just to test this playmaking. And boy, as he passed that test so far in the playoffs, just make the calm, simple play. You don't need to hit the home run.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
You don't need to dribble it to the sideline and string it out every time. If someone's open, give them the ball, trust the machine, trust the process. The ball will find the right player. It might even find you all the way around the horn. He's been up to that so far. Yeah. There's also just kind of like, unless Isaiah Joe's on the floor, it's the obvious thing about the Thunder.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
There's no easy place for Ant to hunt. He's liked to go after Holmgren a little bit, and the Thunder will sometimes late switch Hartenstein and Holmgren on him, and he's done well in those, but they're going to try to avoid those switches, I think. like case and Wallace is fine. Gardner Shay has switched onto him and Shay is a good defender and has done fine guarding him.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
I'm just interested to see how the wolves try to solve the puzzle of the thunder defense. And I think you were smart to pinpoint Randall, because I think a lot of how the thunder navigate this series and how the wolves navigate the thunder is going to start with who is on Julius Randall and how do they scheme for that?
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
It's a very smart strategy by the Thunder, who, by the way, they lose the free throw battle all the time. And so you had this sort of Twitter referendum yesterday. Well, how can Denver be complaining about the officiating when they take way more free throws in this game and in this series in Oklahoma City? That's all baked into how to Thunder play.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
If you are playing the Thunders defense in 2025, it's a very good chance this is going to be your biggest test as an offensive player. And I do think the key for Ant is... make the simple play. When you attack the Thunder bigs, and I think that's like the only place you can consistently go to get easy traction. And they're going to mix up coverages.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
Sometimes they'll do the thing where he'll call up Hardenstein's guy or Holmgren's guy to set a screen and they'll yank, the Thunder will yank the big guy out of the screening action, replace him with a guard and send the big guy somewhere else and say, Hey, can you, can you make a play in that window where we're kind of in rotation in this triangular rotation?
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
We don't think you're, we don't think you are as good a passer as that to like, you're not Tyrese Halliburton who can see that coming before it happens memo to the Knicks and make the right pass. Um, It's just it's it's an enormous test. And when he attacks those big guys, sometimes they're going to blitz them. Sometimes they're going to drop back. Sometimes they're going to switch.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
They're never going to let him get comfortable with one defense for more than two or three possessions. And it's just going to be tough sledding. It's a superstar. And the Wolves, as you said, have a lot of shooting to wit. Mr. Beck, they only five teams took more threes in the Wolves this year as a portion of their shot attempts. So they were six and three point rate.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
more succinct way of saying that the thunder, uh, we're 28th in three point rate against only two teams allowed more threes in the thunder. They will let you let, they will try to clog the paint and try to fly out to you and bet that a, we're going to make the right guy shoot more than not. And B, if you think that's a myth and maybe it is, um,
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
They know they're going to lose the free throw battle. Their whole construction is we're going to lose the free throw battle because we're going to try to steal the ball every single time. And we're going to get a lot of steals.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
we are going to be flying at you with such a velocity that we're, our contests are going to be better than your average contests on like semi open semi contested threes. I think it's a fascinating series. Um, thunder offense versus wolves defense is going to be really fun too. Um, I don't know where you want to start there. Anything strike you?
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
Could Shea... We're going to see Jada McDaniels on Shea a lot, maybe full-time. We'll see some Ant on Shea and some McDaniels on J-Dub. And I think... I mentioned this last week. Minnesota barely played zone in the regular season. I think they had 141 possessions of zone in the regular season. 52 of them came against the Thunder. Now, the matchups were all funky.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
There was like a lot of Jalen Clark in these matchups for the Wolves to point out how funky they were. I don't think that's an accident. It takes Shea's pick and roll rhythm and throws it out of whack a little bit. Takes J-Dub's pick and roll rhythm and throws it out of whack a little bit.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
And I'm sure they watched Denver, who is not a good defensive team, kind of get under the Thunder skin a little bit with the zone. And I'm going to be shocked if we don't see the Wolves throw a lot of zone at the Thunder early in the series and see, can you beat this consistently or not? And if not, you know, we have a team with Gobert should not have to resort to his own.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
And I don't think Minnesota would ever go full time. But I think that's a card they're going to play in the series.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
And those steals and the value of those live ball turnovers are going to outweigh the free throw differential, which by the way, will never be as big as it maybe should be because the refs can't call everything. And we know that. And then the game just spiraled out of control. And that was it. And now we are left to contemplate Lots of different things. The MVP still not announced.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
Shea, here's how I suspect Minnesota will match up to start the series. I could be wrong. Gobert on Hartenstein, if they play man, when they play man. Gobert on Hartenstein, Randall on Holmgren, McDaniels on Shea, Ant on J-Dub, which is a whole, that's a blast, and Conley hides on Dort. Now, I think we'll see, as I mentioned, some Ant on Shea a little bit and McDaniels move around more.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
Shea has some places again in man to man that he can poke at in this series. They're going to hunt Conley relentlessly as everybody does. And one of my favorite things about Chris Finch's performance so far in the playoffs is it feels like he's gotten exactly the right dose of Mike Conley and Rudy Gobert in every single game.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
when they're rolling or it feels like Conley's sort of calm and pick and roll orchestrator. This is essential to like keeping their team away from haywire gear. Cause Minnesota is a haywire team. Um, He plays a little bit more, and when he's getting picked at on defense or looks old or whatever, we see a lot more DiVincenzo, more Alexander Walker, and similarly with Gobert.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
Gobert is going to drop back on the pick and roll. If Shea starts getting easy mid-rangers, shift to man or shift to zone, maybe a little less Gobert, a little more Randall Reed, maybe even a little more Jada McDaniels at the four and only one big man on the floor. He's pressed all the right buttons so far in the playoffs, but that's going to be a pain point. Conley, Shea hunting down Conley.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
I think Shea can... Hunt is a strong word. I think he can get Randall on switches and do damage. I think he can definitely get Nas Reid on switches and do damage. I think Shea's got places to go in man-to-man defense in this series, and I think that's interesting. And, yeah, I mean, I think this is a fascinating series. Minnesota's a great defensive team. They have a lot of answers, too.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
They have a lot of good wing defenders. This is a monster defensive series for Ant. I think there's going to be a fun chess match in this series. Any other thoughts before we make a pick and move on to 90s throwback East Finals?
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
I'm going to pick. You don't have to pick. You can do whatever you want. I'll pick. It's fine. I'm all right. All right. I'll pick first. Thunder and Six. Thunder make the Finals.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
I hope the league didn't forget that they have to award the MVP at some point. The future of the Denver Nuggets, who are out first round picks this year, 2027, 2029, and have not a lot of tradable pieces that could easily reorient their team around the best player in the world. And a conference finals between the Thunder and the Wolves. Anthony Edwards against Shea.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
That's a lot of respect.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
Jokic is Jokic.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
And also what made that a big, big test, even bigger than an experienced champion Nuggets core and the best player in the world, is what happened in Game 1. The Thunder should have won Game 1. They should have been up 1-0, and they weren't. And they blew the game. They overthought the game. And then from that moment on, it was gut check time. And they rose to the occasion.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
To your point, on paper, you know, their season-long numbers, the Thunder's net rating, Thunder were third in offense, first in defense, plus 12.7, first in the league. Minnesota, eighth in offense, sixth in defense. Plus 5.04. Big difference in net rating. Since Randall came back and they've been just on fire, they are plus 11 net rating in that span since Randall came back from injury.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
So this is a legit, very good team. They have a lot of answers. They have a lot of size. They have a lot of physicality and toughness. They have a chance to really hurt the Thunder on the offensive glass, another area I think they have to win. They have Randall playing the best ball of his life, and they have an ascendant superstar who can get buckets against anybody, anytime.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
I think they have a chance to win the series. I just think the Thunder are... The thing that I trust most in the NBA playoffs is Oklahoma City's defense. It's just this baseline thing I trusted completely in every game. I just think the defense is so good. They've been the better team all year.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
And I just worry that Minnesota is going to have like two games where they have 20 turnovers like the Nuggets did yesterday. And those games are just automatic wins for the Thunder. And so I'm going Thunder in six. I'll go six. I don't care about home road, Howard. The home court advantage is overrated in the NBA now. For sure.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
Every runner knows this moment when it just clicks. When your legs just go with it, the pain leaves, the doubts are gone and you only feel the runner's high. That's the reason why you get up so early. Why you don't notice a little rain. Why running becomes a ritual. So run and feel the runner's high. Go wild and learn more about running at puma.de.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
Gildress Alexander, two of the best young guards. Two of the best guards, period, in the league. USA versus Canada. How do you like that? Neighbors to the north. Love Canada. Sorry, Maple Leafs. Just a downer for them. Where do you want to start with this game? I mean, it was a blowout and it was garbage time and all that. But it's the Caruso game for me. It's the Caruso game.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
Teenage me hated the Knicks. I grew up in Knicks country and teenage me is I'm born in 1977. So mid-90s Knicks is my coming of age as a sports fan. Basketball is my favorite sport. And boy, did I hate those teams. And part of it was, I liked being a contrarian. I think all my friends were Knicks fans. I live in Knicks country. This is like Knicks Rangers, 1994.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
Like I can, I can still hear let's go Knicks. Let's go Rangers being chanted in the hallways during passing time in June, 1994, when both teams are in the finals. Um, And I was just stupid, like a stupid teenager I brought into every stupid narrative. Oh, the Knicks are bullies. They're violating the rules. They're playing football. This is what is this stuff. And I remember...
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
When Ewing missed the finger roll in game seven of the second round in 1995, down one, game-winning finger, the seas parted, game-winning finger roll, bounce, bounce, clank, Knicks lose, Pacers move on to the conference finals where they lose to Orlando. I remember coming in and like a little asshole, little just snot asshole, miming the Ewing finger roll to all my Knicks fans.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
Oh, here comes Ewing for the win. Oh, Oh, here comes you. Oh, that's also. Did you get the shit kicked out of you that year? No, because all my friends were nerds like me. No one knows how to fight. You think any of my friends who had a fight.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
No, I knew who. And look, it was all in good fun. And they had, I mean, just the Mets, Yankees shit talk that was flying back and forth all the time. It was just part of our DNA as nerd sports fans. That was also the 8.9 second series. One of the greatest moments in the history of NBA basketball. That's 1995. Yeah. 1994, Knicks won in the conference finals.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
1995, Pacers win in the conference semifinals. 1999 is LJ, four-point play. Knicks without Ewing, eighth seed, win the Eastern Conference Finals, four games to two, break the Pacers' hearts, make the finals loose to the Spurs. And in 2000, the Pacers win the Eastern Conference Finals. Obviously, they played last year. This is an awesome rivalry and an awesome story. Super interesting matchup.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
And I'm going to say right now, Howard Beck, it's 1031 a.m. I still haven't made my pick yet. I'm just going to make it spur of the moment when we get to the end of this segment. I cannot wait for this series. It's also. They were identical. Indiana and New York finished with identical ratings in defensive efficiency tied for 13th in the NBA. Their defensive shot profile is like identical.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
Both teams allow very few threes and allow a decent to an alarming number of shots at the basket. Their effective field goal percentage, both expected and actually allowed, is like identical. Their paths to the playoffs are interesting. Indiana gets the Bucs essentially without Damian Lillard. I mean, he comes back and he plays three games. I think he was six for 27 in the whole series.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
And then they get Cleveland, which, by the way, we haven't talked a lot about Cleveland. And they win 4-1 against Cleveland. And the game two is the one that swings it. It's the game that Mobley, Hunter, and Garland all sit. And the Cavs should have won.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
And it's an incredible miracle comeback by the Pacers, culminating in Halliburton, missing a free throw, getting a rebound on a lane violation, and then hitting a three. You know... Garland clearly was limited, could barely dribble without falling over, or couldn't change directions as easily. Sometimes looked okay, sometimes not so much. Other than that one game, everybody played for the Cavs.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
They were banged up, but everybody... It's not... I think there was like this... And I was guilty of it, too. People digested that series as like, well, you know, you just got to move on to next year, like... blah, blah, blah. Everybody was injured. It's like everybody played. That was a shit series by the Cavs. It was another soft exit by the Cavs and the Pacers roll along.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
The Knicks get a healthy and tough Pistons team and then a Celtics team that was healthy right until they weren't, but that was going to be 3-1 Boston or 3-1 New York rather. So it's sort of eye of the beholder how you look at which team has had the tougher path here or how to evaluate Indiana's path. I think this is a really fascinating series and I cannot decide who to pick.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
I think it's going to be a super even series.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
They did. He did. Tyrese did the Cassell dance.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
And my favorite thing about that was the NBA just quietly deciding, uh, Okay, we're just going to warn you on this one. Didn't they find him?
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
I think they find him. No fines for that dance. I'm looking it up now.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
Tyrese Halliburton did the dance. He will not pay a fine. Damn right he won't pay a fine. Do it again and you might pay a fine, young man. Dare to do it again. Do it again if you have a moment. Do it again.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
Sorry.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
East Coast versus no coast. Big City versus Midwest.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
Okay, coming up for those of you who did not catch the YouTube live, shame on you. Just kidding. We got Howard Beck. As always, every other Monday, Howard Beck talking conference finals, fallout in Denver, fallout in Boston, much more. Can't wait for these conference finals. We got some new blood in the NBA. Final four coming up on the Zach Lowe Show. Welcome to the Zach Lowe Show, a podcast.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
For the non-YouTube people, it's me doing Reggie doing the choke sign at Spike Lee.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
You've got to give it to Tyrese Halliburton. He's a big pro wrestling fan, and he brings that to the NBA, and he does not care. Like, he wears that shirt, and now he's going to see this again. There was the whole, was it Zerbiak? Who went at him and called him a fake all-star on MSG Media?
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
Own it, Wally Zerbiak.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
You said what you said.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
He did the Dame time in Damian Lillard's face.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
If there's a player that I'm not super pumped to antagonize in big moments, it's Damian Lillard, the guy who's made two walk-off series-winning shots. But the cool thing about it is he does it, and if it gets blown back in his face, he's completely fine with that.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
He knows the risks, he knows the embarrassment factor, and he does it anyway because it lights a fire under him, under his teammates, and it's awesome theater.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
I hope he taunts freaking Chalamet. I hope he goes after the whole... I hope he taunts all of them. Tracy Morgan? Is there a good Tracy Morgan taunt? I mean, I don't want to taunt Tracy Morgan. He's a beloved NYC institution. But, you know, Stiller? Get Stiller.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
This is New York. Fat Joe is fair game. Like, go at him. Jerry Ferrara? Turtle?
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
I love everything about this series. I love that we saw it last year. And one of the things I think we learned from last year is, and now again, you can spin this any way you want. Jalen Brunson did not seem bothered by Andrew Nebhard's defense. And Andrew Nebhard is an elite defensive player, but he's kind of profiled the guy that Brunson is not bothered by.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
Brunson's stronger than he is and can move him around. And mid-series, they shifted Aaron Neesmith onto Jalen Brunson and put Nebhard somewhere else. I expect that to be the de facto matchup, Neesmith on Brunson. To me, what's really interesting about this series is we have two very good, one the best in the whole league, pick-and-pop centers, Towns and Miles Turner.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
And neither of these teams has of yet really... in any sustained way, experimented with the kind of inverting of the matchups that the Celtics just did to Carl Anthony Towns, where you put your big center on, if you're the Pacers, you put Miles Turner on Josh Hart, and you put someone else on Towns.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
Now, if that's Neesmith, that means someone else has to guard Brunson, and that someone else is going to be Nembhard, and we've seen how that's gone. If it's Siakam, that means someone else has to guard OGN and OB, which you're probably okay with putting a smaller guy on OGN and OB. We have not seen the Pacers do that almost hardly at all.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
And on the flip side, we have not seen the Knicks do that with Towns at all. They have guarded Miles Turner with Towns, and they have done so semi-traditional pick-and-roll coverage. Sometimes drop and risk a Miles Turner open three. Sometimes come up to touch and like...
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
up to the level of the screen and pray that Carl Anthony Townsend has a trip over his own feet and can help and recover without a crisis. And while you do that, if Miles Turner is open, well, someone's got to fly off of Josh Hart. Carl Townsend's open, rather. Someone has to fly. No, if Miles Turner's open, someone has to fly off
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
Josh Hart and Cloud Miles Turner's line of vision, and then Tyrese Halliburton can pick that apart. We've seen all kinds of defenses. I suspect in this series, that is going to change. That one of these teams, if not both of them, are going to sell out to stop Towns shooting threes and Turner shooting threes.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
That the Pacers will, at times, much more than they have, mimic what the Celtics and many other teams have done and put Miles Turner on Josh Hart and put someone else on Carl Anthony Towns. And I suspect that even the Knicks...
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
The stodgy, stubborn, fibsy Knicks, who adapted last round by switching a ton, more than ever, more than anyone could have expected against Boston, are going to do either that, their version of that, and I don't know what their version of that is because one edge the Pacers have in this series is I think it's easier for them to move Turner around
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
onto Hart than it is for the Knicks to move Towns around. Like, who's Towns guarding? Aaron Neesmith? You want to risk Aaron Neesmith picking pop threes? Maybe. Siakam? That might be the easy answer, but then I'm going right to the Halliburton-Siakam two-man game, which might be just as dangerous as the Halliburton-Turner two-man game and seeing how you do that.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
Or they will actually try to switch towns a little bit more than you would expect onto Halliburton and see if Halliburton, if and when Halliburton can punish him with step back threes, try to make Halliburton a driver. The Knicks have really kind of wanted to make him drive, prod into the lane, make him take floaters, make him go all the way to the rim. He wants to pass. He wants to shoot threes.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
Something is going to give on both sides of the ball where I think Both teams are going to be dragged out of their defensive comfort zones, if not very quickly than at some point in the middle of the series. And that's pivot point number one. And everything else kind of flows from there.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
What's happened with the Pacers is this kind of basketball magic where, and I don't want to give all the credit to Halliburton because this is a team full of selfless, smart, just kinetic players, guys who'd like to pass and move and cut. But it all starts with Halliburton. It doesn't matter if you like to pass and move and cut if your alpha dog does not play a style that meshes with that.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
If you switch on the Pacers, Halliburton is not just going to sit there and dilly-dally with the ball. Sometimes he will because he wants to get Cat off balance and Jack a step back three. And he did that to Jared Allen a few times when Cleveland switched. But he's just as liable to give it up immediately and cut somewhere else. Give and go. force cat to move around.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
And then everyone else, that style has sort of been imbued throughout the roster. And there's just an unpredictability to them that, that is the antithesis of how the Celtics played against New York switching defense. And it's really hard to guard.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
I mentioned before that if they have cat on miles Turner and they run that Halliburton Turner pick and pop, which is just lethal and Turner's open on the pop and they send a third guy, a third rotator over to sort of contest miles Turner on the catch Tyrese Halliburton, I think is the best guy in the league, the best period.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
at seeing that rotation, baiting it, anticipating it before it even happens and skipping the ball to the guy who becomes open. When you make that rotation of miles Turner, he's just so smart and so selfless that the simple stuff he will pick apart. And I think that's an edge for the Pacers. And they're also very deep and very healthy. The Knicks are not, the Knicks are healthy and,
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
not as deep, and you wonder at some point, does the bill come due for all the minutes that these guys have played? Brunson's had a couple of ankle things flare up in the playoffs. I think that chess match offensively with the pick-and-pop centers is... is super interesting.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
And also just like on a fundamental level, a lot of the, a lot of this will be the Pacers are going to hunt Brunson when they have the ball and the Knicks are going to hunt Halliburton when they have the ball. And there are all sorts of creative ways where they can do that.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
And, you know, Halliburton has made some big defensive plays in the playoffs in both series and kind of stood up a little better than he typically has when teams have gone at him that way. And Brunson stood up to the Celtics for the most part when the Knicks finally were like, hey, you know what? We're just going to switch you on to Tatum and Brown and see what happens.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
And nothing much bad really happened. And so I think that... is an interesting little chess match. And just there's the Mitchell Robinson factor. Mitchell Robinson has completely changed the playoffs for the Knicks. And if there is a, weakness is too strong of a word, the Pacers are not a good rebounding team. Some of that is by choice. They don't get offensive rebounds.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
They want to get back on defense at all costs. But they can be out-physicaled by a mean, nasty team. And Mitchell Robinson is mean and nasty. And Carl Towns, I think he can get some post-up momentum against Turner. And I think if you put a smaller guy on him, he's proven that he can get a little traction there too. I think the physicality element with Mitchell Robinson is a big, big one.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
And I guess we got to watch for a hack of Mitch. The paces are deep enough where they can do that. Do you risk getting in the bonus? We saw this, but like if he continues to not make free throws, we're going to see this, I think.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
There was the possession where as the game was spinning out of control a little bit, he's bringing the ball up, which I it's it's like I can't believe he was bringing the ball and don't put pressure on him. And there was a little contact, but I didn't see any egregious foul or anything. And he just kind of fell over on the sideline.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
And to your point, he lit the Pacers up in the regular season precisely because the Pacers played traditional defense against him. And I don't know. We'll see some of that, but I think we'll see less of it in this series.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
Dude, he's a man about town now. He's a freaking legend. The Knicks are in the conference finals for the first time in 25 years. Tibbs is a legend now. He's a made man.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
You're like, is he just doesn't I mean, predictably, there's certain things you can't really do.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
I want to talk about Siakam real fast because I feel like he gets glossed over a lot in talking about the Pacers. In part because there are games where he really feels like... a fill in the blanks guy where he just kind of finds offense. He finds spots to seal smaller guys under the basket randomly in transition. He fills every gap on defense, all that.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
I think he's got to be a major player and intentionality has to be put into making him a massive part of their offense for the Pacers to win this series. I suspect Ananobi will be guarding him a lot. And that's a good matchup for the Knicks. He's not going to be able to hurt Ananobi much in the post, even as crafty as he is.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
But if Towns is on him, that unlocks a lot of stuff for their pick and roll attack. Even when Ananobi's on him, Mikhail Bridges is going to guard Halliburton. He'll get the primary assignment on Halliburton. Can you dabble in a little bit of, still, inverted pick and rolls? Halliburton, Siakam, Siakam, Halliburton. And see, can Pascal hurt Bridges on switches a little bit?
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
If Brunson is stuck on Halliburton, if there's some random cross match where that happens... Halliburton can ISO Brunson or you can bring Siakam into the play and have him sort of be a switch guy and attack Brunson on switches. I just think he's got to be a major intentional part of their offense.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
And part of that is like the more confusing you can make the pick and roll for Towns, the better chance you have of nudging him into a mistake. um, screen, the screener staggered screens. And Tyrese is a master at like faking toward a pick and rejecting it and going the other way. And like cat takes the bait on a lot of that stuff and lurches like totally off kilter way out of the play.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
Um, I think this is an awesome, awesome series. Um, it's time for me to make a pick. Well, do you want to make a pick first or no?
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
Knicks in seven.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
I don't live glory days like Bruce Springsteen and his friends. I've moved on in my life, okay? I don't know what any of those people are up to.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
Okay. I made the case for the Pacers. It's easy to make the case for the Pacers. They're awesome. They've been better than the Knicks in the playoffs. Period. Maybe against not quite as good competition, but even that is arguable given, again, that Cleveland had all their guys available for all but one game. 64-win team? Um... They got a lot of answers.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
Miles Turner has become just such a splendid all around player that he's been able to hurt every kind of defense. They throw it and put small guys on him. He posts up and he's efficient there. They're just really hard to play against and they're really hard to guard. They've been better than the Knicks in the playoffs. They're deeper than the Knicks. They're healthier than the Knicks.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
They're faster than the Knicks. There's just something about the physicality and toughness of New York, with Robinson back in particular, that I just, in my gut, keep coming back to. I could see them sneaking this series out in seven on pure physicality, toughness, relentlessness. they're just a bigger, stronger team than the Pacers.
The Zach Lowe Show
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And I don't necessarily think that's going to win out, but that plus home court, plus I think a friendlier environment for towns in this series. Obviously we talked about all the schematic adjustments that can be made and all that. I think like New York's offense has not been very good in the playoffs and that's worrisome to me. And that's a reason to pick Indiana. Um,
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
I think that's a lot about the opposition that they faced. And I think they will be able to score more efficiently against the Pacers than they have against the Celtics or the Pistons. I'm going Nixon seven. Something about their physicality and ability to just sort of wear you down at every position appeals to me in this series. And the glass is a factor there, too. I have no clue.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
I told you I was going to make a pick on the spot. My gut keeps saying Nixon seven, Nixon seven, Nixon seven. And so I'm going to say Nixon seven. Okay. Boston, we've had now a week to digest the Jason Tatum injury and the Celtics subsequent elimination at the hands of the Knicks and just the total boat race in game six in MSG. You wanted to talk about this topic. So I'll just see the floor to you.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
What's it, what's interesting to you?
The Zach Lowe Show
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Is there a name for that? That play yet? Like value got coined instantaneously. That play needs a name because it is unlike, literally unlike any play in the history of the NBA. And as I said before, I still don't really understand what happened and, and the degree of like millisecond breaking down, we had to go through to make sure that the basket was good. And like,
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
People will comp it to... the Spurs in the Duncan year, and the Warriors in the Wiseman year. And those are interesting comps, but the Celtics have knowledge going in that next year is going to be, in terms of championship contention, a totally lost season. Knowledge that those teams did not have at this time in the calendar. The question is, and to your point, Tatum, knowing that now,
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
gives them, in a bizarre sense, a certain freedom that they would not have had had they made the finals or won the championship. And the question they just have to ask themselves is very simple. Like, in 2026, 2027, and 2027, 2028, is Jason Tatum coming off an Achilles injury? And I have no reason not to be optimistic that he's going to be Jason Tatum again. Is Jason Tatum at 28, whatever,
The Zach Lowe Show
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Jalen Brown at 30, Derek White at 32, Peyton Pritchard, and whatever else is here, is that nucleus two years from now, with good management around it, good enough to win an NBA championship? If you think it is, your path is very, very simple. It's keep all those guys, see what you can get for due holiday, who has 32, 35, and $37 million left on his deal and is 34 years old.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
And Chris stops Porzingis on an expiring contract. Maybe you get something, maybe you don't get much. Like Porzingis, I don't even know. Do I have to attach something to get off Porzingis even on an expiring? Do I have to take back long-term salary? And if so, it better damn well be linked to someone or someones that I think are good.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
And at least one of the someones, if it's two or three players, can help my team in 2027, 2028. If you don't think the answer to that question is yes... I think it opens a lot of doors. And door number one is you trade those guys and you get what you can get. I don't think you're going to get much. I certainly don't think you're going to get much that changes your long-term outlook.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
His hands are in the... Like, I just don't really understand what happened. It needs a name. Whatever... I don't have a suggestion. I'm too dumb for that, but it needs a name.
The Zach Lowe Show
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Maybe Drew has more trade value than I think. He's still a winning player, but the aging curve has hit hard now. The question then becomes, if you trade one of Derek White and Jalen Brown, Does that get you enough stuff? Okay, let me go back. If the answer is no, you don't think that's a championship-level nucleus in two years, or you're dubious that it is, how do you get one?
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
And one way to get one is trade one or both of Derek White and Jalen Brown for a bonanza. All the picks you can get. And salary relief that sort of resets your repeater tax clock, resets your cap sheet, resets everything. And I'm talking like if I can get four firsts, I think Jalen Brown would have a market maybe a little more limited than Derek White's because of his contract.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
And Derek White is just usable on every team. But he would have a there would be strong offers for Jalen Brown. From a few places. Derek White, there'd be strong offers from like all over the league. Yes. You combine those two, you get... seven first round picks, four swaps, one or two good young players. And you go to Tatum and you say, Hey, look, we can pull up a Ray Allen KG 2.0.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
We'll be the, we'll have the most cap flexibility in the league. We'll have a ton of assets. By that point, Houston will have maybe cashed in on some of its assets. Maybe Brooklyn has to maybe those cash in deals. Other players shake loose from that. And we sit in the catbird seat for, Maybe Jason Tatum says, I don't want to do that. I love these guys. Don't trade them. Maybe he understands.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
Maybe his opinion isn't material to you. That scenario is there. It's sitting there. And it's a scenario where people say gap year and they think tank, right? And tanking would be a part of that. But the key point to get in this scenario is that you are not doing any of this with an eye on the number one pick in the 2026 draft.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
Like we have just seen that you cannot plan your franchise's future on getting the number one or number two pick in any draft. You're doing it to accumulate the assets and reset your cap sheet. And if you get a great pick in doing so, that's a nice happy bonus. Then you have to hit on the other end of that and you have to hit immediately the way the Celtics hit with Allen and KG.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
And that's very hard to do, but, you know, doable. and maybe worth the risk if you think the answer to my overarching question is no, that's not going to be a championship nucleus anymore in two or three years without major luck and improvement.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
Then the question becomes, can you trade one and keep one and try to thread the needle of getting a lot of assets for one and still having either white or brown, let's posit, I don't even want to posit which one, on board for when Tatum comes back? Or does that scenario just leave you short on both ends of the path? Is it straddling two paths and really being on neither?
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
Does it leave you, yeah, we got a few more assets, but not enough for a game-changing move. And yeah, we got a lot of talent still on the roster, but not enough proven talent still on the roster. I don't know the answer to those questions, but if I'm the Celtics, All of those things have to be discussed. All of them. I can't be precious about Jalen Brown. I can't be precious about Derek White.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
I can't be precious about any of it because, as you said, this is a borderline unprecedented scenario that I'm not suggesting either path. I actually think the status quo is the most likely path, given Brad Stevens' general mindset, given that a new owner I don't think wants to walk in there and be like, hey. Your beloved players are going out the door. Sorry, Jason Tatum. Sorry, fans.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
But I think you have to have all of these discussions, including like Jalen Brown. What's the market? Where do we go? Is there a path? I think nothing should be off limits. Nothing.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
People say that. People say that. And I'm like, are you sure that they're a playoff team? Yeah, they looked great in winning a game. Yeah, they were plus 8.7 with Tatum off the floor.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
That's your number with your full roster. Not having them... But I'm just saying, like, so by playoff team, okay, Cleveland's still here. Nick's still here. Pacer's still here. Pistons rising. Magic rising. Hawks and Bulls are throwing a freaking party that the East has gotten even worse around their mediocre asses. Philly, who the hell knows? Milwaukee, who the hell knows?
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
I'm just saying, it's like... They could be a play in team for sure. And once you're a play in team, I don't know that you just pencil in like, well, they're tough. They're veterans, you know, blah, blah, blah.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
It also depends what your goals are, right? If you think that the most likely outcome of the status quo is you have a very good team, but maybe not a championship upside, and you're okay with that, that's fine.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
No, it just sucks because Tatum is just an awesome player who plays all the time and is a beloved teammate. He works his ass off. He's an awesome all-around player. And you don't want to be having this conversation and you don't want to be in this position. But it is like a thought exercise come to life now in Boston. I have no parting thoughts on this. I'm stoked for... the conference finals.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
I'm stoked that we get some old school 90s rivalry and some new school, whatever, 2020s rivalry. Any concluding thoughts, Mr. Howard Beck?
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
Speaking of things I still can't believe happened, I still can't believe that happened. The Mavs trade to Luka Doncic and have the number one pick in the draft. It's like unbelievable. You can't make any of this up. What a stupid, stupid league. And I mean that in a borderline affectionate sense.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
I hope they do, too. And if they do, whoever wants to come over from the Spotify ringer family, the low houses is open. We got a swing set. We got a grill. We got alcohol in the fridge. Like a lot of off nights in the finals come out to the burbs. You can walk around and talk to the gardening ladies and help me take the garbage out. Spot some deer. All of it. Teach me about the suburbs, Zach.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
I'll be there. Howard Beck, thank you, sir. Thanks to Jesse, Jonathan, and Mike producing the show today. Thanks to everyone who tuned in on YouTube Live. And we will see you on Thursday for our usual Thursday morning show talking about conference finals. And God only knows what the hell will happen in the NBA between now and then. So thank you, Howard. See everybody Thursday.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
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The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
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The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
It's live on YouTube. It's time to say for the millions and millions of people watching on YouTube, the three most anticipated words in niche basketball podcasting on the morning.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
I don't I don't think that's a crazy take. They got to game seven against a team that is now, I think, the clear favorite to win the NBA championship. they earned that way to game seven. I think the Thunder should have won in six. Game one was a game they let get away. Game three was a game that they had control of late.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
I'm not going to say they let it get away because Denver made some great plays to take it to overtime and then destroyed them in overtime. But this is the second straight year the Nuggets lost in game seven in this same round. One at home, one on the road now.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
But I mean, when you consider Aaron Gordon limited at the end, Michael Porter Jr., a total non-factor for six of the seven games of the series, basically playing with one arm. You know, we're going to talk about the future of the Nuggets. The roster has issues, but I don't think it's unreasonable for them to say that the core three to four guys are so good together that we are this close.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
But we're going to talk about that. Thunder, just you mentioned J-Dub. Great bounce. What a bounce back game. I mean, you want to have the cliche of the young team growing up in the hothouse of the playoffs, responding to the stress that hits them in the face first and getting back off the mat and all that. This was it. This Jalen Williams game was it.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
Chet had a decent finish to the series after some shaky games too. And Caruso, I mean, Caruso and Hartenstein, it's going to go down as an all-time offseason for Sam Presti. Those guys, and we've all been saying it since the moment it happened, they were totally additive to this team. Hartenstein especially filled voids that were preexisting.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
After a bummer of a game seven, the Alex Caruso game, the Aaron Gordon gutting it out game, and the morning where we get to think about two delicious conference finals matchup, a seventh NBA champion will be crowned a seven different champion in the last seven years. What up, Beck?
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
He took nothing away and rounded out the team and filled holes in their sort of schematic and strategic resume. And Caruso just, I mean, I'm watching this game, looking to the next round and being like, Caruso on Randall is going to be a thing.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
And I don't know that they're ever going to be a point where they start Caruso over Hartenstein as they did in the second half of this game for this particular reason. But I don't know how often Alex Caruso can just play a game like that where he's going toe to toe against a giant person and a very physical person. But we're going to see that in the next round.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
And Julius Randall better get ready because Alex Caruso is going to try to knock away the ball on every dribble. on every catch. He's got all the tricks of the trade. Like, there was one turnover late in the second quarter where the Nuggets wanted a foul. And it's just really subtle. Like, the ball comes in.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
Caruso has his hand on Jokic's hip and just kind of just pulls him back a little bit enough. Very hard to see. Knocks him off balance. Steals the ball. They're off to the races. It was an awesome performance by the Thunder. And their offense has been just okay. Was just okay in this series. I just love that they have leaned all the way into our offense can be just okay.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
And we can still win even against elite competition because our defense is that good. We are banking on our defense every single night. This is one of the greatest defensive teams in the entire history of the NBA. They've been on another planet from everyone in the regular season. They have moved into their own universe in the playoffs. You look like you look at their numbers in the playoffs.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
Obviously the Grizzlies series was a walkover, whatever. They're just outrageous. And again, I said before the series, this was the biggest challenge that Nikola Jokic had ever faced. A team with so many swiping arms and schematic options and guys in passing lanes and just different things they could do to him and cloud his post-ups. And... The Thunder kind of won that battle.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
Like, Jokic had a good series, but not a great one. And that's the margin for Denver. They can't win when Jokic is good by his standards and not great by his standards. And this defense is like, no one's really had an answer yet. Denver had some answers in the regular season. They didn't carry over into the playoffs.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
What they did to Jokic and the Nuggets for the bulk of this... I mean, like, he couldn't get the ball yesterday. They literally could not get him the ball. And for the series... He posted up 12 post touches per 100 possessions, which was below his average against the Thunder in the regular season. He was at like 0.9 points per possession. on those post-ups.
The Zach Lowe Show
Thunder Dominate Game 7, and the Conference Finals Are Set. Full Previews, Plus a Look at Uncertain Offseasons With Howard Beck.
That should be impossible to hold Jokic to fewer post-ups and knock his efficiency to that level. And you saw how they did it. They're going to have swarming guys from every direction to help Caruso. They're going to give up threes to basically everybody. And they're going to confuse him and not be in a passing lane. And then suddenly they are in a passing lane.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
About a month ago, when the Lakers had first gotten off to this hot start and we're still trying to process why, well, you know, they don't have much size and maybe, you know, What is this team now? And there was a coach I was talking to at the time, and I'm like, what is the magic of this going right right now? And he says, don't overthink it.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
The Lakers have two of the top five players in the NBA. It's as simple as that. And I said, wait, wait, wait, hold on. Did you say two of the top five? LeBron's top five? Coach said, yeah. Reeves?
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
He is. I mean, and let's be clear, like he's obviously benefiting quite a bit, too, from the amount of attention that's paid to the two superstars he's playing alongside. Like if you put, you know, Austin Reeves on a team with, you know, zero stars, is he carrying them to 45 wins tomorrow? I don't know if we can go that far yet, but he's been phenomenal. Rui's been fantastic. Gabe Vincent.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Gabe Vincent shooting lights out a lot of nights, busting his ass defensively, and giving them, like, one of the concerns I think we all had about them after the trade was, all right, well, Anthony Davis was your defensive anchor. You don't have a lot of size. They're playing small ball a lot.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Do they have enough defense on the perimeter to make up for the fact that they don't have a classic rim protector back there? And yet, for the most part, there's been some dips. But for the most part, the defense has been there. And, you know, there's a temptation, I think, with yesterday's game to look at this and say, Lakers go 22 of 40 from three, right? Season high, 22 three-pointers.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
You love attention so much that you actually warned me before we started recording not to say the thing that I'm about to say, which is welcome the fuck back. My God, it has been way too long. The people missed you. It's my responsibility and honored to be the first guest.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
They hit 20, I think, on two other occasions. So this is an outlier game for them. Their average per game, I think they've been hitting like, I don't know, 13 threes or something a game, and they hit 22. That's that's probably an outlier game, not just, you know, literally, but like you're not you're not reproducing that every night.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
And if you were going in a best of seven series against the Thunder, I don't think you're counting on that. But it is one of those modern day games where we have to sit there and say, well, sometimes the team that just shoots the three better wins it. This is one of those classic cases. The Thunder went 12 of 37 from from three. And then keeping holding shade is zero free throw attempts.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
For the first time since December of 2021 was the last time he played a game without a single free throw attempt. Notably, though, a couple nights earlier against the Rockets, he was held to two free throws. Is Shea downshifting a little bit because they've got such a massive lead? Is he a little tired? Is he saving it for the playoffs?
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
How much do we attribute like obviously, you know, against the Rockets, they've got phenomenal defenses. We were just discussing with them against the Warriors, but I don't know. I'm not sure how much I want to take away from it other than Luca cooked the shit out of them. And he is still just absolutely devastating when he's going to get a big on an island and he can just do whatever he wants.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
My responsibility, Zach, as your friend, as a man of the people, as someone who spends way too much time on social media more than you do, The people missed you. The people are very happy you're back. You didn't want me to say it. I'm saying it anyway. I'm thrilled you're back. We're all thrilled you're back. This is awesome. By the way, I've already cursed at least three times.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
We can do that here. There are no Disney censors killing our F-bombs. So I can now set a new record. I once had the record. I believe I had the F-bomb record. On the low post, which I believe Gino Auriemma or somebody obliterated at some point.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Yeah. And that's why I'm – I think there's plenty to take out of it, especially if you're the Lakers, maybe less if you're the Thunder. And I think, you know, it's weird to say of a team that has LeBron and Luke on it, but like the Lakers kind of needed this more right now, like literally in the standings, they needed it more. And I think just to kind of, You know, Luka has nothing to prove.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
LeBron has nothing to prove. But together, they have something to prove as the core of this completely reconfigured team.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
And guys like Vanderbilt and Gabe Vincent, who at times have looked like really important pickups for the Lakers over the last couple seasons, but have both been banged up, that they're healthy and thriving and giving them a different defensive dimension and tone is really important. And I think just everything that allows the Lakers to see the full picture of who they can be in the postseason,
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Um, I think all of that's really significant for them and, you know, and, and I'll, I'll be honest, I have from the moment the trade happened, which we still can't quite put our heads around. Um, and maybe we never will. Uh, I have been skeptical. It looked like a win-now move for the Mavericks by their own definition, which made no sense, of course.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
But it was a for-the-next-10-years move for the Lakers. And I thought there would be some short-term... perhaps. It was short-term take a step back. Our defensive anchor is gone. We've got to incorporate Luka. He's not healthy when he arrives. We've got a supporting cast that's still kind of in flux. We don't have size. We don't have a center. We traded for Mark Williams.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
We rescinded the trade for Mark Williams. And I thought... it doesn't matter. None of this matters. This is about the next 10 years. And lo and behold, here they are, you know, sitting in third in the Western conference and looking very, very potent and very, very ready to make a deep playoff run that I'll be honest.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
I, I was not sure was on the table and they have made, they've made a lot of progress in a lot of places in a very short time.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Yeah. Yeah. No, that that's frigging huge. Our buddy Mark Stein is like in the midst of like a 17 part series or something. Reviewing how we got here. It's phenomenal.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
I can't even imagine. That's going to be a weird one, right? Just because, like, I was there for LeBron back to Cleveland the first time after he left for Miami, but that was LeBron left. He abandoned you, and so it was like the nastiest, just most intense... atmosphere I've ever been in, in terms of just everybody in the whole building, having it out for one guy.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
And it got really, really ugly at times, but this won't be that because Luca didn't leave them. He didn't abandon them. Like, like the Mavs fans are still just pissed off at, at Nico Harrison and Patrick Dumont. So I assume it's going to be mostly a love fest, but a really awkward kind of like crazy,
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
crappy feeling one right like there i don't i don't know what to expect from that game um i will never say that anybody should shut it down uh on on the on the uh the interviews part of it because as a member of the media by all means keep saying stuff well it's it's it's uh great for us and uh i appreciate the candor even if it makes you look like a complete buffoon it hasn't been great the messaging has has not been great it's not been great um
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
I had a lot of fun. You had a lot of catching up on Bill's pod last week. That was awesome. Two hours of Zach just unloading after six months of pent-up takes. Tremendous.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
It's unbelievable. We will be talking about this for years. The rest of our careers, the rest of our lives, we will still be trying to unpack this puzzle. It'll never make sense.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Some of the Thunder players said it outright after the game yesterday. I saw some quotes in the Oklahoman to my buddy Joel Lorenzi where they were saying – like, Shea said it, and I think maybe Jalen Williams said it too. Like, you know, yeah, I hate to say it, but – we've got everything locked up. They're playing out the string. So who knows?
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
The rematch tomorrow night may not even... Will everybody play? And how much are these teams showing each other with days to go? So I don't want to put too much on it.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
We did. Yeah, no, we did. We did the whole staff picks thing back in October, and I went Thunder over Celtics on the premise that Like, you know, the obvious for why the two teams would be there, but why Thunder winning? I looked at it in the preseason and said the Celtics are going to have a much tougher road this time. There's the championship hangover possibility.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Just it's hard to go back to back seasons. It's a ton of games. It's a lot of stress on the body. But on top of that, the East was going to be better this season. Right. I didn't see this coming from the Cavaliers.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
I mean, yes. I mean, my my my rationale was the Celtics are going to have to go through some combination of like Knicks, Philly, Milwaukee, Cleveland, whatever. I probably didn't even put Cleveland that conversation. Apologies, Cleveland. None of us saw this coming. And I don't think I mean, I didn't see this coming, but I was I was telling people Cleveland's could be really good.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Yeah, but at this level, and I don't think we saw even the most skeptical or the most, you know, PTSD, you know, stricken Sixer fans would not have predicted this is how the Sixer season was going to go. So I thought the Celtics might be more beat up. And I so I went, oh, all right, really deep team, younger legs, you know, spry athletic Thunder team over Celtics.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
So that was that was my prediction back in October. But predictions are stupid. So.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Thank you. Thank you.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Thank you. Thank you. We'll see. Yeah. I mean, you know, it's I mean, Steph is the most efficient of the high scoring guards by far still at age 37. And I'm not saying wait it for the age. I'm just saying he's still absolutely incredible. Just just to be clear.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Yeah. Um, so with Mitchell pencil and on, on the first team, and I, by the way, I still, I'm a creature of habit in part, just because it was easier to organize my thoughts. Zach, I still went two guards and I went, I didn't go two forwards and a center. I went two guards, three front court for each of these.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
And then I gave myself room and I'm giving myself room for the next week as I keep playing with this to then scrap that. If I feel like somebody is just clearly better than somebody at another position, but so that's the first team, second team. Curry, Ant Edwards, Mobley. So we overlap on those three. At the moment, I've got Jaron Jackson Jr. and Carl Anthony Towns. Fair, fair.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
I mean, Jaron Jackson, you just had an outstanding season and in a year where jaw has played what, like half the games less. And they don't really have a lot of places to go for consistent offense, especially in the half court, his defensive presence, all of it combined.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
And then Carl Anthony towns, you know, like there's, there've been times this season where it's been hard to kind of like parse who's been the more important Nick. And that's no disrespect to Brunson, but especially with Brunson having missed a month, You know, and Towns just, you know, kind of was their stabilizing force. So that's where I am right now.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
But the other guys you mentioned are on my third team.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
I have questions. We could get back to the details of Draymond's game. But let me just say, I fucking love that Emi Udoka talks trash like that. We were so far removed from the era of coaches who trash talk and trash talk each other. We're so far removed from Phil Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy calling each other stupid names and stuff. I love it. I want the coaches involved.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
LeBron and Halliburton, right? That's two. LeBron and Halliburton are two. Same as you, I put Brunson if he qualifies. And if he doesn't... I'm assuming his comeback is being timed to qualify.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
It seems so. Right. But who knows? I mean, you know, things happen. You know, he may, you know, bang knees with somebody and like, you know, miss one one of the one last critical game down the stretch. Who knows? Or maybe they decide to rest him because they think it's more important. I don't know. Actually, you've got the whole the whole week off with the plane. Now you guys have time to rest up.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Cade Cade has been awesome. And I've seriously considered him. But I also I've been weighing whether or not Darius Garland is getting overlooked in all this. He's been outstanding. And obviously, this is Donovan Mitchell's team. And we've already got Mobley on there as well. Or the Cavs good enough for three all NBA players. That feels maybe excessive. But I think Garland's been really good.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
And, and just like with Donovan Mitchell, like Garland's numbers would be higher if not for the fact that both of them have done a phenomenal job of just meshing their games and neither of them needing to dominate. Um, but it does suppress his, his, his raw stats a little bit, I guess. Um, I've kicked around Siakam. I'm not sure. I'm glad you mentioned him. He deserves mention.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
I think he's had a really strong season. And for a team that's like, like the paces are really good, but this is not like some offensive juggernaut in terms of individual talent. You don't look across the board and go like, Ooh, look at all these guys who could just kill you or put up 25, 30 night.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Yeah, and because of that, because he's more just kind of malleable or just, you know, filling whatever you need in a given moment, it doesn't feel like the prototypical all-NBA case because he's not a go-to player, right? And he's not some superstar dropping 30 on you every night. But he does a lot at both ends. Jalen Williams is in this mishmash of names I've got in front of me.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
I also had Kevin Durant kind of like just with an asterisk there. Yeah. We set out at the beginning and said that it's not about team success for all NBA as much as it is for MVP. But it does affect when you're trying to make a case for a guy like, as you mentioned, Sabonis or Trey Young.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
It's easier to dismiss them because their teams are irrelevant and the Suns have just completely... I'm not going to let you say that about my Atlanta Hawks.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
I want Emi Udoka saying this stuff. I want... Like, we don't have rivalries anymore. We don't have enough tension anymore. Like, amp it up. Fine. Give me all of it. I love it.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Are we not allowed to mock the Sally Jesse Raphael glasses anymore?
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
I've had glasses most of my adult life in phases. And I always have to go with the darker. I've never even considered, like, the Sally Jesse Raphael red or purple or something. Anyway, you were making an all-NBA argument. Maybe I was. Durant was your... Yeah, no, like, at a certain point...
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
When you have a lot of really good candidates, as we do, we just named a bunch of them, you've got to draw a line somewhere. And sometimes the line is, you had an incredible season, Kevin Durant, but you just barely got to 65 games and your team isn't even making the play-in. And you're part of that. And this is where I think it's okay to kind of bring in intangibles, too.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
And by the way, I think it's okay to bring in intangibles for the MVP discussion, too. There was a great piece in The Athletic last week, I think by Sam Amick, about... you know, Shea Gilders, Alexander's, you know, just his, his general leadership, the way he affects his teammates. Like we can bring in that stuff too. Like there, there are other aspects of this.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
And I think in the case of a, you know, son's team that has absolutely just completely disintegrated. And when you look at the talent, you go, well, that talent's good enough to at least be a playing team. They should at least be better than the Mavericks or the Kings. And they're not, it's because at some point chemistry just went to shit.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
And I think it's okay then to look at it and say, well, you all bear responsibility. Kevin Durant, you're the best player on this team. You're the most decorated player on this team. Like you bear some responsibility.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
I jotted down Zubats. I had Harden on my initial list, crossed him out. The efficiency, I think – When you're comparing everybody, you're right. The case for Harden is he's been as steady as can be.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
He has kept them afloat all season, especially while they were waiting for Kawhi to get back, that they're in this position at all, that we're talking about them as a team that could make the conference finals or who knows beyond, is a huge credit to James Harden. The guy's taken a lot of shit over the years. Some deserved, maybe some exaggerated.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
He's been fantastic for them, and he's been everything they've needed. But we're having to split hairs when you're squeezing guys into the fourth and fifth spots on the third team. And I think the fact that his efficiency numbers are down so far is fair as an eliminating condition.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Can you indulge me for a minute? Here's the ineligible list based on injuries and 65 game rule. Victor Wembanyama, Luka Doncic, Jimmy Butler, Anthony Davis, Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, Paul George. I know he's having a shitty season anyway.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Let's move that one to the side. I'm just saying, if a full season of Joel Embiid, last year he was running for MVP until he went down. I'm just saying, these are all guys who in recent years have been- Ramping up, baby. Still ramping up. A lot of ramping. Nobody makes ramps like the NBA. I'm ramping down.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Rest of the list of guys who normally we would be discussing if not for injuries in 65 game rules. Kyrie Irving, Franz Wagner, Paolo Bancaro, Kawhi Leonard, Zion Williamson.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
uh, Zion, Brandon Ingram, John Morant, Isaiah Hartenstein. Stop. Stop. I'm just saying Chet Holmgren, Damian Lillard, Norm Powell, drew holiday. These are like all guys who have had either had really great seasons or in the past were in these conversations. And so when I'm, when I'm looking at all NBA or, you know, other awards, uh,
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
I'm also looking at the list of like, all right, who have we had recently? Okay. No, no, that guy's out. Put a line through them. Like that is a big block of guys who either are stars or, or were recent stars or had really good seasons, but just didn't play enough games. And it's just an interesting and very kind of sobering list.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Like there's a, like think about in a normal year where Luca had played enough games, we'd be saying, Oh, wow, what a weird year. He's going to be an MVP, the MVP conversation in all NBA, probably first team, but split among two teams. When has that ever happened? But he didn't play enough games.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Jimmy Butler, his case would have been on all NBA would have possibly been tanked just by the fact that he tanked his way out of Miami. And there's a price to pay for that. But look at what he's done for the Warriors. Like there's a case for like Jimmy Butler getting honors based on how he is
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Or Big Face Coffee. Isn't that the name of his coffee company? Yeah. Big Face Coffee. I'll buy stock in Big Face Coffee. I like coffee.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Probably just to mock one of the many names that's out there.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Anybody, anybody could play a fourth quarter for the Raptors. We've seen this. It doesn't matter.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
candidacy but i'm open but that's just where i am i have no idea who i'd vote for there's there's been in i feel like in the last decade or so i think there's most there's been kind of this general framework of defensive player of the year where it's kind of been like a big who's an anchor on a top five top 10 defense right that's the rudy gobert model and the dream on green model in the past and on that basis like evan mobley the calves are ninth in defensive rating
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
So not dominant, but very, very good. They've been 15th since the All-Star break. And we talked about this earlier. The Cavs have kind of... But again, it's sometimes hard to put too much weight on the last month of a season or last few weeks of a season where you've got everything locked up and there's not as much to play for. You don't have to come out with the same intensity.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
But Draymond Green fits those parameters, too, for Defensive Player of the Year. The Warriors are 7th in defensive rating, 3rd since the All-Star break. Unejectable, Draymond Green. And by the way...
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Okay. The flip side of that is, I don't know how people are going to react to this one. I have not heard any discussion of this. I think he's probably one of the only guys who gets called for the flagrant for that elbow. Like that, that, that was a normal, like driving, shooting layup motion. Like what? Let's, let's, let's be honest.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Cause I agree with you. The crap out of Shingun every other way, the whole game. And so at that point you've lost the benefit of the doubt, but like, I don't know how many other players are getting called for a flagrant for driving to the hoop against a defender who has jumped into you as well. So I don't know. That one was weird. I don't want to be the Draymond Green apologist.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
All right, so the all-defensive team. Draymond, Mobley, Dort are all first team for sure. I think Amin Thompson is first team for sure. I had penciled in Ibika Zubac. Um, the Clippers are number two in defensive rating.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
And again, going back to the defensive player of the year framework where it's, it's, you know, if you are the, the primary reason, overwhelming reason for your team being a dominant defensive team, um, I'm going to give that a lot of weight. So at the moment, Zubach fifth. But that bumps guys who, you know, you discussed.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Dyson Daniels gets bumped to second team there. And Dyson Daniels has been just freaking awesome. And Jaron Jackson, did he get bumped to second team? Jaron Jackson Jr. also on the second team. So that's the seven that I was sure of. Everything after that, I'm still kind of noodling around. Gobert and Ananobi are guys who I have kind of rotated in and out of those spots.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Somebody was mentioning me the other day because I'd forgotten about him. Back to the Clippers. Chris Dunn? I don't think he qualifies because of the 20-minute-a-game rule. I think he's ineligible. Again, this 65-game thing with all these freaking sub clauses just drives me absolutely batshit.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Yeah. Kicked around Derek White. Kicked around Nikhil Alexander-Walker. Bam, obviously, you have to consider every time.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Yeah. Heat 10th as of this morning in defensive rating. So, yeah, the Heat have fallen apart, although, you know, a little late-season resurgence. But, yeah, they're not great. But defensively, they're still as stout as ever. And Bam – I don't think Bam has lost anything. Do you? I mean, it's been a rough season.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
And the other one that I'm struggling with a little bit here is, like, Rudy Gobert's raw numbers are down, right? The block shots and the rebounds are just down. But the Timberwolves are still, they're sixth as of this morning in defensive rating. And they've got some great wing defenders, you know, Jada McDaniels and the aforementioned Nikhil Alexander-Walker.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Like, they've got, you know, Anthony Edwards himself. Like, they've got good defenders, but like, The Timberwolves are top six defense because of Gobert and still everything that he deters, dissuades Mr. X. And so the raw numbers don't look as dominant as they did in his defensive player of the year seasons. He's surging, too, toward the end of the season. Yeah, as are the Wolves.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
So I feel like I'm probably going to get him back on there.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
No, no other party thoughts. Just this has been an honor. And again, you don't want to hear it.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
For the longest time, my top three life moments were, yes, marriage, birth of my daughter, and the moment that I got the job at the New York Times was just like this career-altering, life-changing, just this thrill. I can still remember walking across Times Square, where the TKTS booth is and the little police booth, whatever, calling my wife, New York, back to LA, saying... I got it.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
We're moving to New York, and here we are 21 years later still here. In terms of other goofy career honors, though, you and I being animated in Game of Zones, still an all-timer. I even got to do my own line in one of those episodes. So I might have to revive that screenshot for Blue Sky today.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
My Real Ones turn has shifted because I'll be popping on with you now and then. So Friday's now on The Real Ones instead of Tuesday's on The Real Ones. Two pieces I'm cranking on for TheRinger.com that I don't want to –
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
spoiled just yet but a couple things coming at least one of them before the playoffs one of them probably around time of the play-in but yeah dude again just I'm so excited to have you here and and working with you we've never been teammates all this time we have done a thousand podcasts your podcast my podcast drunk with power podcasts all kinds of stuff we're actually teammates this is awesome I love it thank you for being here fun times Howard Beck everybody thank you sir thank you
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Top of my head, I'm going to guess the Clippers.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
There were two things there, actually, that I thought made it clear why Jaws being singled out. Yeah, of course he's being singled out. One is, yeah, his history and the fact that he was suspended twice for two instances of flashing what appeared to be actual guns on Instagram Live.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
So, yes, the league is, of course, going to be more sensitive to you, just like there are certain guys in the league who are more likely to get rung up for flagrance and text based on their behavior. Like, you have a track record. So that's one. The second is...
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
It seemed to me, Zach, that when Ja did the two finger point gun thingies, it was directly at the Warriors bench, at Buddy Heald, at whoever. So instead of like the McHale Bridges or other guys who are shooting things in the air and they're like skeet shooting and they're shooting flaming arrows and things, this wasn't like a celebration. This looked more threatening.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
And I think the fact that it... And I haven't asked the league on this, but the fact that it was actually aimed at someone... As a threat, plus his history, to me, is probably why, yes, you get the fine. Also, you got the warning first. Then you got the fine because you defied it and did it again. Like, at that point, you're asking for it. You're defying the league.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
You're flipping off the commissioner's office. Like, that's just not smart. And so I have, you know, it's hard for me to hear anybody trying to defend it or making him out to be some sort of victim at this point.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Easy enough. Yeah. No guns, no fake guns, no real guns, no finger guns, just no guns. How about that?
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Before I forget, just one quick observation. I can't remember, Zach, and I don't know if you have a thought here. I don't think I can remember any year where in either conference you looked with a week to go and said, there are seven teams that could make the conference finals.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Like, I don't think I'd rule out anybody except for maybe, like, I'll downgrade Memphis a little bit, just some volatility there. But the top seven in the standings right now, any two of them are in the conference finals. And, of course, we expect the Thunder will be there. But Thunder and whoever, it could be anybody. And given, you know...
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
just given the Thunder's lack of playoff experience, I think people are still kind of waiting to see, like, okay, well, you're 1,000 games ahead of us, but let's see you prove it now in the postseason. But I don't recall... Like, this is the extreme parity that the league absolutely loves.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
Except... No. But the parity is 2 through 7, or 2 through 8, however you want to slice it. Every single one of those teams, I feel like... Look, and it seems...
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
What? The Zach Lowe Show? What's happening? There's a sign? You have a sign. They were quick at Spotify. I don't have any signs. You've got a sign. That's awesome. I love the sign. Um... I think we all love the old name. The new name is fine. It forces you to say your own name every time you open a show, which I know you love that. You love attention.
The Zach Lowe Show
Lakers' Statement Win Over OKC? Plus, Awards Talk With Howard Beck and a Warriors Check-In With Anthony Slater.
What struck me is that Luka still owns the Thunder, number one. This has to be the only bigger nightmare for the Thunder than Luka being on the Mavericks with a full compliment around him is now Luka's on the Lakers and standing there next to LeBron James.
The Zach Lowe Show
Round 2 Begins! Plus, Reactions to a Pair of Game 7s With Howard Beck and an NBA-‘Severance’ Crossover With Zach Cherry.
Yeah, all of that being true, I think the one thing I keep thinking about the last couple of years with Steph, with LeBron, those two in particular, when dynasties crash or when superstars, all-timers, top 10 all-timer types, eventually fade into... I don't want to say irrelevance, but are no longer a postseason threat, right? It's usually because they themselves have eroded, right?
The Zach Lowe Show
Round 2 Begins! Plus, Reactions to a Pair of Game 7s With Howard Beck and an NBA-‘Severance’ Crossover With Zach Cherry.
Like, Kobe wasn't nearly the same his last couple years in the league. Bird, Magic, Kareem, anybody you can think of, aside from Michael and Scottie. You know, Michael and Scottie go out, Michael's still looking sort of like peak of his powers, and Scottie still had good seasons left with Portland and Houston after that. But...
The Zach Lowe Show
Round 2 Begins! Plus, Reactions to a Pair of Game 7s With Howard Beck and an NBA-‘Severance’ Crossover With Zach Cherry.
Steph is still awesome at 37, and LeBron is still awesome at 40, and they're both still... I put Steph on my first team All-NBA in a fake ballot. I think I had him on my real ballot All-NBA first team, and LeBron, I think, made second team. I can't remember off the top of my head, but they both were on my ballot.
The Zach Lowe Show
Round 2 Begins! Plus, Reactions to a Pair of Game 7s With Howard Beck and an NBA-‘Severance’ Crossover With Zach Cherry.
So in past decades of the NBA, literally the entirety of the NBA up until now, this is not possible. And so the difference... in this construction of, well, hey, this is just what happens with great teams. You get to the end and yeah, it's nice if you could just make the second round.
The Zach Lowe Show
Round 2 Begins! Plus, Reactions to a Pair of Game 7s With Howard Beck and an NBA-‘Severance’ Crossover With Zach Cherry.
The difference is that Steph and LeBron are both still playing at a level where if you can get the right guys around them, and yes, all the other stuff is true, especially in today's salary cap environment. It's hard to keep a team together. It's hard to keep building. It's hard to find young talent when you're always drafting lower. You've traded all your picks for help in the immediate term.
The Zach Lowe Show
Round 2 Begins! Plus, Reactions to a Pair of Game 7s With Howard Beck and an NBA-‘Severance’ Crossover With Zach Cherry.
All of that's true, except that in the case of LeBron and Steph, And possibly the first time in NBA history, you've got guys in their late 30s and LeBron's case 40 who are still viable as as key members of a potential contender. And that that part's different. And that part puts a different kind of urgency on their front offices, which which we've seen. That's why you go get Jimmy Butler.
The Zach Lowe Show
Round 2 Begins! Plus, Reactions to a Pair of Game 7s With Howard Beck and an NBA-‘Severance’ Crossover With Zach Cherry.
Luca kind of, you know. I don't want to say fell on their lap, but he fell on their lap for the Lakers. But it definitely changes the way you calibrate. It's not just, oh, it'd be nice to just be competitive for his last couple of years. It's no, you've got an imperative to still try to make deep runs and then be a contender.
The Zach Lowe Show
Round 2 Begins! Plus, Reactions to a Pair of Game 7s With Howard Beck and an NBA-‘Severance’ Crossover With Zach Cherry.
So some of this is going to depend on, one, does Giannis ask out? Because you're not going to proactively just trade him probably, right? It's the Damian Lillard conundrum where it's like, maybe we should have moved off of him sooner, but you can't trade Damian Lillard unless he has to be traded. Oh, he has to be traded. Cool. All right. Well, now let's move.
The Zach Lowe Show
Round 2 Begins! Plus, Reactions to a Pair of Game 7s With Howard Beck and an NBA-‘Severance’ Crossover With Zach Cherry.
I think it's the same thing with Milwaukee. Does Giannis ask out? If he does, does he have a list? I poked around a little bit a few days ago and the initial thing I got from one person was just like, you know, some rumblings that it's already just the big cities. It's it's, you know, one of the L.A.
The Zach Lowe Show
Round 2 Begins! Plus, Reactions to a Pair of Game 7s With Howard Beck and an NBA-‘Severance’ Crossover With Zach Cherry.
teams or one of the New York teams or maybe Miami, not big market, but glamour market, midsize market. I think I think that's through Chicago in there. I can't remember if Houston came up. It should. So first is like, where does Giannis want to go and do they honor that? Because again, back to Dame, you are not obligated to honor it.
The Zach Lowe Show
Round 2 Begins! Plus, Reactions to a Pair of Game 7s With Howard Beck and an NBA-‘Severance’ Crossover With Zach Cherry.
The second piece then is, yeah, so what does the bidding war look like? You can say, well, Amin Thompson's untouchable, Shangoon's untouchable. Well, it depends on what other teams are offering that you might have to be bidding against, right? But you're right. I agree with you.
The Zach Lowe Show
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The picks alone, the Suns' picks alone should put Houston in the lead because you can do those picks plus some very good, promising young players, even if it's not the two untouchables you listed. I will just say, though, I agree. Amin Thompson, absolutely positively untouchable. I don't think Shingun's untouchable.
The Zach Lowe Show
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Yeah, if you're the Rockets, if you're any team trading for Giannis, to your point, you can't trade away so much that you're now scrambling to try to backfill around him, both for your own sake and the window that you have with him, but also for Giannis' sake.
The Zach Lowe Show
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Giannis is not going to want to go somewhere where they just gave up all of their best rotation players or half their starting, you know, three-fourths of their starting lineup, which is why, like, the Nets, I'm still not sure I'm sold on the Nets as a destination for Giannis here in my backyard because...
The Zach Lowe Show
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What do you have to trade for him other than they do have a boatload of picks, including their own, and I think they still have at least a couple of those Phoenix picks and some other stuff. I think there's a Philly pick in there somewhere. The Nets have a lot of draft capital, but if you gave up Claxton and Cam Johnson, well, then who is Giannis playing with and why does he want to be there?
The Zach Lowe Show
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So there is that issue. The other thing that's interesting just to consider here is how do the Bucs value some of what in Houston's case, they have to offer. Like, how are teams viewing Jalen Green right now? Because, you know, what, a number two overall pick a couple years ago? I was listening to Bill and Ryan last night.
The Zach Lowe Show
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I didn't, I haven't heard them yet, but, like, his, like, this was disastrous.
The Zach Lowe Show
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Was that, by the way, was that Jalen green with, with the towel on his head, you know, toward the end, Jabari, Jabari Smith was, was patting somebody on the head with a towel on his head on the bench toward like the last few minutes, like just kind of disconsolate. I think that was Jalen green. I didn't see it. I didn't see it, but yeah. Yeah. No, I like that he cares.
The Zach Lowe Show
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The kid's got a lot of personality and a lot of passion. I don't know about his basketball judgment and his learning curve so far. And, you know, there's results vary depending on who you talk to in the league on things like this. But once you've been in the league for a couple of years, if you haven't quite popped, if it hasn't quite come together... It doesn't mean that it won't later.
The Zach Lowe Show
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Guys bloom at various times, but especially when you're a really high lottery pick and you're expected to have the huge leap. If it hasn't happened, doubts start to creep in among analytics guys, among scouts about, well, for this guy, it's probably just not going to happen. And so do the Bucs look at him as still a blue chip type prospect who may blossom here?
The Zach Lowe Show
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Or do they look at him as like, hmm, great athlete, not a great player?
The Zach Lowe Show
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It's an interesting debate right now for the Rockets. There's already been talk about what the Pistons going to make of it all in move. Like I think for Detroit, like they're even earlier. I know they just both of them just made their playoff debuts with their respective Thompson twins. But like with the Pistons, it's you already have your guy. Kate is the guy.
The Zach Lowe Show
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And the Pistons have all these really interesting young players who have a lot of upside still. They just broke through. In the Pistons case, and I wrote about this on TheRinger.com last week, that Detroit should just chill. Like, you don't need to make any all-in moves right now. The Rockets, it's a little bit different.
The Zach Lowe Show
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You mentioned there's the coming cap issues and a bunch of young guys who all need extensions. But there's also just the fact that they have these pieces to work with, right? A plethora of interesting young rotation guys. All those picks, the Suns picks.
The Zach Lowe Show
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Oh, my God. That's one of those movies I saw like exactly once, whenever the hell that was.
The Zach Lowe Show
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It might have been problematic in real time.
The Zach Lowe Show
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I don't know. Do you think that, let me put it to you. I do think that the Rockets, yes, there's a path there where they could just play it cool and be methodical about this and just see where this goes and let guys keep ascending. I think there's a case for, you know, pedal to the metal. I think there's a case for if you're the team that Giannis, if you're on his list.
The Zach Lowe Show
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There's an opportunity here. For sure.
The Zach Lowe Show
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And she worried about James Harden's postseason.
The Zach Lowe Show
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You wrote about it very well a couple of years back, and I've cited it many times in the last couple of days. In fact, I had to text it to somebody to note that the large overview of playoff Harden to regular season Harden does not do justice to just how bad he's been at critical times in the postseason, which you documented well.
The Zach Lowe Show
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I will go back to October when I said on the Real Ones podcast when we were doing some... Raja and I were doing some predictions for the season. And I declared... I don't remember exactly what I said, but I basically had written off the Clippers entirely. I wasn't sure they were even making the play-in tournament. Or maybe they were a play-in team.
The Zach Lowe Show
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I had written them off pretty definitively just because... letting Paul George walk proves to be the right smart thing for cap reasons, for competitive reasons, for all kinds of reasons. But having been completely invested in Kawhi and an aging James Harden, and then, oh, I like the offseason, but Derek Jones Jr., nice. Batum's coming back, great.
The Zach Lowe Show
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All that's fine, but I didn't see enough upside there, especially given that we never know how many games Kawhi's going to play. So, confession, I wrote them off way too soon. I was incredibly wrong about the Clippers. They were fantastic this season, but Harden did an incredible job. Like you, I had him as an All-NBA player.
The Zach Lowe Show
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Deserved it. It came down to the wire, but I ended up putting him on. So, look, October view, I thought they're an afterthought. April view, I think a lot of us thought they might be the biggest threat to the Thunder in the Western Conference. And now not.
The Zach Lowe Show
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Yeah, but there was a lot of Clipper excitement over the last couple of months. The way they played down the stretch of the season, the last six to eight weeks of the season, their defense was incredible. And Kawhi looked like 2019 Kawhi again, all of that. I'm not going to allow Game 7 to taint what happened this season because I think this was, again, by my expectations... I will.
The Zach Lowe Show
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I think if it affects anything, it's how I look at them for the future, but I already had a kind of bleak look of their future, which is that... Kawhi's under contract for two more years, but Kawhi is about to turn 34 next month. Harden is turning 36 in August. I don't know what he's going to be asking for. Probably a lot. He always asks for a lot. How long are you signing him for?
The Zach Lowe Show
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Do you just match him up with Kawhi and then just say, this is it and just hope that each of them can play 70% of the games for the next few years? Yeah. I don't know, but there's nothing really... Zubac had a nice season. Norm Powell and these guys had breakthrough seasons, but there's no other upside on this team. There's nobody else you're looking to.
The Zach Lowe Show
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Norm Powell. It feels like the placeholder is still just a placeholder. You could just run it back. Be really competitive for as long as these guys stay healthy and on the court. And you'll be a fine, good, respectable team. But you're not a threat to anybody. You're not a contender. And I don't think you can count on 75 game seasons from Kawhi.
The Zach Lowe Show
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Before we move off the Clips. Oh, sorry. Okay, go ahead. Just a thought exercise. We don't have to get into it now, but just something to think about. Is there a pivot here now? Like, would you just, like, is there a market for Kawhi? I've just been contemplating this the last couple of days. Is there a market for Kawhi? Could you offload him? Not re-sign James Harden.
The Zach Lowe Show
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You know, just bring down the payroll, figure out what to do with, you know, Zubach, Norpal. I know you don't have picks. I'm not saying this is a tank scenario. I just wonder if there's a pivot coming here where you recognize everything that you and I just discussed. You've already gone as far as you're going to go with this team.
The Zach Lowe Show
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It's funny. I think I had Warriors in seven as well. Like, much, much respect to the Rockets, who are physical and athletic and feisty and obviously a lot younger than the Warriors and gave them everything they had. And, like, listen, when was the last time you and I saw Steph even just have to work this hard throughout the course of a series just to score?
The Zach Lowe Show
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I actually missed that one. Oh, you missed that one. Okay.
The Zach Lowe Show
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Yeah. I missed that pop interaction during the lockout. There was a lockout pop walking down the street while the media was all doing the stakeout. I missed it because I was working for the New York Times at the time and they had sent me to go cover a couple of Red Sox games. out of the blue because the Red Sox were in some like awful death spiral that September. And so, uh, I was away that day.
The Zach Lowe Show
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Um, my, my most memorable pop interaction personally was they had hired Becky Hammond. Um, I got the opportunity to go out, sit down with Becky to do a big feature for bleach report at the time.
The Zach Lowe Show
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And I walk into the Spurs gym that day at practice and preseason and pop had just grown out the beard and it may have been, he may have done the beard before, but this, I remember this was like a big thing that, that, that, He's like, oh, Pop's back with this beard.
The Zach Lowe Show
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And there were times where, like, game six... After game six, we always overreact. Game six, it was like, all right, there's no way. The Warriors are just done. They're cooked.
The Zach Lowe Show
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So I was going to get Pop for 15 minutes or so to talk about hiring Becky Hammond, what she's about, what really stood out about her and his interactions in the hiring process or when he first met her on that plane ride back from the Olympics or whatever. And so practice breaks or pop, maybe finish a scrum. So I'm walking up to him to go talk to him.
The Zach Lowe Show
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And as I said, hello, and I noted the beard and I said, you know, with that beard, you look even more intimidating than usual or something. And he just waves his hand. He goes, ah, it's all just stick. I loved that because so much of how people view pop is through the prism of those sometimes tense and testy in-game interviews, which, listen, are really tough on everybody, right?
The Zach Lowe Show
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Like, no coach ever... Very, very rarely does any coach ever say anything interesting anyway. I don't blame the sideline reporters, many of whom are my friends, but, like... There's just not a lot to get out of that, and I don't blame coaches who don't want to do it. Could Pop have been a little more graceful at times? Yes.
The Zach Lowe Show
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On that note, though, as much as he would bust Craig Sager's balls all the time, he also, when Sager came back from his own health issues that one year, and as soon as Pop saw him put his arm around him, man, it's just so great to see you back, and was like... That was that was the essence of pop. Right. He could be acerbic. He could be crusty. He could be dismissive. He could be condescending.
The Zach Lowe Show
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But there was a genuine warmth to the man, too. And that duality goes for the way he handled us at times in the media. It is the way he handled players. He's the guy who could bark at you and like, you know, get all over Tony Parker, like nearly break Tony Parker and then put his arm around him and say, like, no, now go out there and kick some ass. And I love that about him.
The Zach Lowe Show
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There was a lot of depth to the man. And I am wearing my Popovich Kerr 2020 t-shirt today in honor of Pop. And, you know, listen, nobody has been more, has been bolder And I think at times braver than Pop in speaking his mind about the issues facing our society, our country. I admire all that. It's among the things that I now miss with him being off the sidelines.
The Zach Lowe Show
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He doesn't have the podium that he had before and the stage that he had before to sometimes just say, you know what, guys, today I'm not talking about basketball. Today we need to talk about fill in the blank. There was a moment a couple of years back where he was at the Garden pregame for Spurs-Knicks. Something big had happened that day, and I can't remember what.
The Zach Lowe Show
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It might have been one of the many Tommy Tuberville things. He loved to rip Tommy Tuberville. And pregame access scrum was winding down with pop, and that awkward silence is sometimes happening. He looked around, he goes, what? No one's going to ask me about, and whatever it was. No one's going to ask me about? Man, you guys. He was expecting and hoping...
The Zach Lowe Show
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New York media was going to do the New York media thing and ask him about other stuff floating around, the things that he would normally gravitate to. And that's the thing. When Pop is dismissive of or shuts down a question, it's usually about mundane, perfunctory basketball stuff that either it's too general of a question, Which, by the way, quick aside to my aside, I appreciate this about him.
The Zach Lowe Show
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I don't always appreciate when coaches put us in a difficult spot where it feels awkward, but it keeps us on our toes. We're supposed to ask precise questions. We should ask more informed, intelligent, precise questions. And I've had other people in the years I've been a reporter who have done this, and it's like... In the moment, it sucks, but it makes you sharper.
The Zach Lowe Show
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And that day, he really wanted us to ask about whatever the political thing was. And he was disappointed. And like a year or two later, I saw him and I made a crack about it. And I said, what was it about? And I couldn't remember. Anyway, the totality of pop is awesome. The last thought, and I said this on the Real Ones pod last week, he's...
The Zach Lowe Show
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as close as we're going to get to a red hourback type figure who not only encompasses all that the Spurs were about. We were talking about Spurs culture long before heat culture. In fact, in my memory, the Spurs are the first team in the NBA we ever started using the word culture about on a consistent, like they made it a cliche before the heat took it to all new cliche heights.
The Zach Lowe Show
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And the Spurs would tell you, Pop and RC would tell you, well, that's about Tim Duncan. None of us do anything. None of us, none of this means anything. None of us, we're not winning. We're not considered great or anything. No one's praising us if not for Duncan. All true. And Duncan encompassed a lot of what was Spurs culture, but so did Pop.
The Zach Lowe Show
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There were a bunch of shots that Steph took in game six where it was like, these are absolute desperation shots that if anybody else were taking them, you would think this team is screwed and that guy shouldn't even be taking those shots. But because they were Steph, it was like, these are all shots he could make.
The Zach Lowe Show
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And that Pop can connect all the way from the mid 90s to now the mid 2020s Our back to the Celtics, especially with Grosbeck and Steve Pagliuca brought him back, Jerry West with the Lakers for so many decades, that's pretty much end of list, isn't it? And there aren't that many teams where it would matter either, right? You have to have multiple eras when you were great.
The Zach Lowe Show
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But to have somebody who embodies all that your franchise is about, all the great things about it, and can instill those values over and over again through multiple generations of players, that's pop. So there's... All of it. All of it should be praised. All of it should be recognized.
The Zach Lowe Show
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I don't know how ceremonial or detailed this job as president of basketball ops, which the title he's held for a long time anyway. I hope he's still around the game. I hope he's still around the Spurs. I hope we get to still bump into him and have a snap at us for stupid questions and talk politics.
The Zach Lowe Show
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Yes!
The Zach Lowe Show
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By the way, only the third time in NBA history that there's been a 6-7 matchup. Not upsets, by the way. You touched on it earlier. Not really upsets. It is on paper, but it kind of isn't. Wolves' defense, not quite the same as the Rockets, but just as good as the Rockets. So I don't know the Warriors are going to have any easier time scoring now than they did in the first round.
The Zach Lowe Show
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And these are all shots that when he's on one of his Steph heaters, he just does make. And like, oh, hey, maybe they close it out in six if Steph just makes really tough Steph shots that only Steph can make. But still, it was the desperation that it felt like hung over every single one of those.
The Zach Lowe Show
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And the Wolves' offense is way better, especially in the half quarter, just in general. They've got a lot more pop. I mean, Anthony Edwards is better than Jalen Green, and Julius Randle at this point is better than Alperen Shengun. Tia's. I mean, as I start to think about who they have to reckon with, who you have to account for on the Warriors defensive side of the court,
The Zach Lowe Show
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Is that Kavon Looney starting on Randall so that Draymond messes with Gobert? Is it Draymond on Randall? Randall can score inside and out. He's a much more, I think, confident and physical scorer than Shingun. He's a better passer, I think, at this stage, too. Maybe that's close.
The Zach Lowe Show
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No, Shingun's a very good passer. Let me take that back. Shingun's a very good passer. Randall has had teams play through him where he was effective in being that inflection point where it's coming through me and I'm deciding whether to pass or score, sometimes deciding to shoot too often. But he has played that role at a more confident level than Shingu.
The Zach Lowe Show
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Not a better passer, but has used it to better effect in the past. But he had playoff experience. Draymond versus Gobert. Draymond already had a really weird first round. Not weird, but like one of those series where, you know, at least two, three times in the series, it was like, is he going to get kicked out?
The Zach Lowe Show
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There was a point where, several times in this series, but especially in Game 6, Zach, I kept having flashes of, you're obviously a Top Gun fan. We're all Top Gun fans. It's our generation. I still haven't seen Maverick, the quote-unquote new one I haven't seen. Very good. I disagree with people who think it's better than the original, but whatever. I'm trapped in the 80s.
The Zach Lowe Show
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There's the moment in the original where Goose is back there going, do some of that pilot shit, Mav. I felt like that was the Warriors the whole time in this series. Like, do some of that pilot shit, Steph. Like, just get us out of this. Because he was the only thing that they could rely on until... Game seven, Buddy healed. Game seven, Buddy healed. Holy shit.
The Zach Lowe Show
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and to just pull back for a second, that game one that we are so eager to see is tomorrow night. It's like, you know, 30 something hours from now as you and I record this and the Warriors, I imagine either spent the night in Houston, we'll have a brief team meeting and then hop the plane to Minneapolis or might've, maybe they went straight there. I don't know, but yeah,
The Zach Lowe Show
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They just had to play a grueling, physical, emotionally, physically, spiritually taxing seven-game series, and they're an older team. This is the worst-case scenario for the Warriors as a team advancing.
The Zach Lowe Show
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Obviously, worst-case scenario is losing, but if you're going to advance, the last thing you needed, especially when you were up 3-1 and could have closed out and gotten some rest, you're an older team. There's, I'm sure, plenty of data out there about this, but like... The Timberwolves are young and spry and just sitting in wait and have had more time to to rest since the first round.
The Zach Lowe Show
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It's going to be a factor. And these are every other game, every other day schedules. Now, games one through four are all every other day through five. And then if they if they're still going, there's a like three, four day gap between five and six. So there's not a lot of time to recover. Jimmy Butler had that bad hip back, whatever it was, from the hard landing in the Rocket Series.
The Zach Lowe Show
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Steph's still dealing with the hand, the finger, whatever. I just, I do wonder how they will hold up overall, whether this series, all of the other matchups and strategy and everything else aside, how much this just comes down to whether the Warriors, the older core, have enough left against the Young Wolves team.
The Zach Lowe Show
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Against all logic, I'm going to say Wolves in seven. Not all logic. I think it's just out of an abundance of respect for the Warriors and who they are and what we just saw again. And that if they're not completely fatigued and just flat out exhausted by that series, I think they're going to give the Wolves everything they can handle. So I'll say Wolves in seven.
The Zach Lowe Show
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I think there's a slight chance the Warriors pull this out. Oh, no, there is.
The Zach Lowe Show
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Nine threes, record, all-time record for a game seven. He also had, where's my Justin Kubatko stat here? Justin Kubatko says he's the second player to score 30 or more points on 80% field goal shooting in a game seven. That's good.
The Zach Lowe Show
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Yeah, the other one, of course, is Will Chamberlain back in 1965.
The Zach Lowe Show
Round 2 Begins! Plus, Reactions to a Pair of Game 7s With Howard Beck and an NBA-‘Severance’ Crossover With Zach Cherry.
You said the exact thing that I had in my notes here right under my capitalized thunder hyphen nuggets. First bullet point. This is why you go get Isaiah Hartenstein. And it's interesting, too, right, that the Celtics are the defending champs. But the last Western Conference team to win the championship, of course, was the year before was was Denver.
The Zach Lowe Show
Round 2 Begins! Plus, Reactions to a Pair of Game 7s With Howard Beck and an NBA-‘Severance’ Crossover With Zach Cherry.
And so in a lot of ways, like I just love this, you know, thematically, this is the way the NBA is supposed to go. Right. You're the scrappy young Thunder team that. busts through 68-win season. Everybody's talking about you as a Finals favorite. Shea's the MVP favorite, or Shea versus Jokic for MVP. All the other wonderful things being said and then lobbed your way.
The Zach Lowe Show
Round 2 Begins! Plus, Reactions to a Pair of Game 7s With Howard Beck and an NBA-‘Severance’ Crossover With Zach Cherry.
But you've got to go through...
The Zach Lowe Show
Round 2 Begins! Plus, Reactions to a Pair of Game 7s With Howard Beck and an NBA-‘Severance’ Crossover With Zach Cherry.
the the reigning power and in the west that is that is denver um as far as i'm concerned wait isn't it dallas still is that dallas still the reigning power is defending western conference champions how are they doing who are they playing in the next round uh i don't remember a dallas team doing anything recently um it's this is why you go get hartenstein and this is and this is i love the fact that this is who you have to go through like this is the way it needed to be um
The Zach Lowe Show
Round 2 Begins! Plus, Reactions to a Pair of Game 7s With Howard Beck and an NBA-‘Severance’ Crossover With Zach Cherry.
I was also just checking this because the Nuggets, you know, to your point, Russ was great and I too have been, you know, critical of him for much of his career for various things. I loved that moment. I loved the hanging on the rim. It was the most intentional, obvious, just F you to everybody, including the Clippers who, you know, traded him away. Benched him, traded him away.
The Zach Lowe Show
Round 2 Begins! Plus, Reactions to a Pair of Game 7s With Howard Beck and an NBA-‘Severance’ Crossover With Zach Cherry.
Benched him, traded him away. And I love anybody, and I'll say the same for Harden, somebody else who I've sometimes been critical of, we both have. I love when a guy gets to that backstretch of their career and can kind of—you can't rewrite your history, but you can tack on a new chapter that puts you in a different light. You contribute in a different way.
The Zach Lowe Show
Round 2 Begins! Plus, Reactions to a Pair of Game 7s With Howard Beck and an NBA-‘Severance’ Crossover With Zach Cherry.
You settle into some—whether it's a mentor role or whether it's the six-man role, whatever— And it's what you do with it. That's our last memory of you, right? It's the opposite of Dwight Howard, who like blew us all away the first half of his career. And the second half of his career just made us all wonder why we ever, you know, praised him in the first place.
The Zach Lowe Show
Round 2 Begins! Plus, Reactions to a Pair of Game 7s With Howard Beck and an NBA-‘Severance’ Crossover With Zach Cherry.
I love what Russ has done for Denver. We'll see what more he has. um, in the next round, but the nuggets, that rotation first round, they played six players, 25 plus minutes. And some of them very, very far beyond 25. Um, plus Peyton Watson at 13 minutes a game. That's it. That was the nuggets rotation. The thunder had seven guys playing 20 or more minutes in the first round on average.
The Zach Lowe Show
Round 2 Begins! Plus, Reactions to a Pair of Game 7s With Howard Beck and an NBA-‘Severance’ Crossover With Zach Cherry.
And two others in double digits, Isaiah, Joe and Andrew, uh, Aaron, Aaron Wiggins, the other Wiggins, um, The Thunder, their depth, you know, depth does not necessarily matter as much in the playoffs, we know, but they can throw waves of very functional, very good players at you.
The Zach Lowe Show
Round 2 Begins! Plus, Reactions to a Pair of Game 7s With Howard Beck and an NBA-‘Severance’ Crossover With Zach Cherry.
Or in his uniform.
The Zach Lowe Show
Round 2 Begins! Plus, Reactions to a Pair of Game 7s With Howard Beck and an NBA-‘Severance’ Crossover With Zach Cherry.
And if Shea or J-Dub or anybody else needs a breather, they've got guys they can go to and not worry about falling off a cliff, and the Nuggets do not. And I know we talk about shortening rotations in the playoffs, and you really only need seven or eight guys. The Nuggets barely have the seven or eight guys, and the Thunder have 12.
The Zach Lowe Show
Round 2 Begins! Plus, Reactions to a Pair of Game 7s With Howard Beck and an NBA-‘Severance’ Crossover With Zach Cherry.
Nothing else major. Just, you know, there's a lot of a, I don't know what the Nuggets get from game to game from. You know, are we going to see, you know, Jamal? We've started to see playoff Jamal Murray again. Is he is he back to stay? How much are they getting from him? Because without that, I just don't think they have a shot. And then, you know, Russ, Russ, give us and Russ take it away.
The Zach Lowe Show
Round 2 Begins! Plus, Reactions to a Pair of Game 7s With Howard Beck and an NBA-‘Severance’ Crossover With Zach Cherry.
And you just never know, especially when they're, you know, they're obviously going to be playing off of him because everybody does. He's going to make those shots or not. What do the Nuggets get from Watson, Pickett, Strother, who are just, you know, random dudes off the bench?
The Zach Lowe Show
Round 2 Begins! Plus, Reactions to a Pair of Game 7s With Howard Beck and an NBA-‘Severance’ Crossover With Zach Cherry.
I'm just, I'm curious about all of, I'm curious about everything that is not Nikola Jokic, essentially, on the Nuggets side of this.
The Zach Lowe Show
Round 2 Begins! Plus, Reactions to a Pair of Game 7s With Howard Beck and an NBA-‘Severance’ Crossover With Zach Cherry.
I'm going seven. Thunder and seven. It is maybe too much. And maybe I'm being prisoner of the moment with the way the Nuggets closed out the clips. It's an abundance of respect for Jokic and for the Nuggets and who they are, what they've done. And maybe I have just like a little bit. I don't want to say I have doubts about the Thunder. I picked them to make the finals.
The Zach Lowe Show
Round 2 Begins! Plus, Reactions to a Pair of Game 7s With Howard Beck and an NBA-‘Severance’ Crossover With Zach Cherry.
I picked them to win the championship, in fact, all the way back in October. But they still are a team that's had like a couple of playoff series under their belt. And none of them against this team and this superstar. I get it. This all-timer. So Thunder should win the series, yes. I'm saying seven out of respect for Denver and Jokic.
The Zach Lowe Show
Round 2 Begins! Plus, Reactions to a Pair of Game 7s With Howard Beck and an NBA-‘Severance’ Crossover With Zach Cherry.
I was trying to look up as we were talking, because I forgot to look it up yesterday. When's the last time Draymond Green took 15 shots in a game at all? He had 20 in a game recently.
The Zach Lowe Show
Round 2 Begins! Plus, Reactions to a Pair of Game 7s With Howard Beck and an NBA-‘Severance’ Crossover With Zach Cherry.
Yeah, it's a lot. And every time he shot, I just kept thinking how, why, what. There's got to be a better alternative than this. But they got away with it, and he made enough of them. But it just... It's a it's a statement about where the Warriors are right now, Zach, that so many times in this series and granted, a lot of this has to do with the Rockets.
The Zach Lowe Show
Round 2 Begins! Plus, Reactions to a Pair of Game 7s With Howard Beck and an NBA-‘Severance’ Crossover With Zach Cherry.
No, I went to all the home games that the Knicks played against the Pistons in the first round. And, you know, look, some of this is just, you know, credit to Detroit. But some of this is, I think, just some concerns about the Knicks, too. Like the Pistons could have absolutely won that series and with a little more polish might have. And aside from game one.
The Zach Lowe Show
Round 2 Begins! Plus, Reactions to a Pair of Game 7s With Howard Beck and an NBA-‘Severance’ Crossover With Zach Cherry.
Yeah. Yeah. They get blown off the court in the fourth quarter of game one with that 21-0 run. Like, OK, that was legit. And that was just you getting your butts handed to you. But every other game was either a Pistons win or a very close loss. And I think the losses, the other three losses were decided by a total of six points. Yeah.
The Zach Lowe Show
Round 2 Begins! Plus, Reactions to a Pair of Game 7s With Howard Beck and an NBA-‘Severance’ Crossover With Zach Cherry.
the Pistons gave them everything they could handle and the Pistons are not the Celtics. I think the Knicks, there are times they feel very over-dependent on Jalen Brunson.
The Zach Lowe Show
Round 2 Begins! Plus, Reactions to a Pair of Game 7s With Howard Beck and an NBA-‘Severance’ Crossover With Zach Cherry.
And there's a lot of ISO and a lot of, um, our buddy Dan Devine had a, had a great breakdown last week, um, prior to game six about how often, how, how slow their paces and how often they're getting down to like the last ticks of the shot clock. Um, Seth part now weighed in on that too, on, on blue sky. They were discussing this, that it's, it, you know, I don't know, is that a Tibbs thing?
The Zach Lowe Show
Round 2 Begins! Plus, Reactions to a Pair of Game 7s With Howard Beck and an NBA-‘Severance’ Crossover With Zach Cherry.
Is that a Brunson thing? Is that a Tibbs and Brunson thing together? I don't know who to pin that on exactly, but the Knicks end up with, I think a lot of harder shots and a lot of Brunson late shot clock attempts. And there's not a lot of dynamism that offense when they got Mikael bridges last summer and they gave up a shit ton to get them.
The Zach Lowe Show
Round 2 Begins! Plus, Reactions to a Pair of Game 7s With Howard Beck and an NBA-‘Severance’ Crossover With Zach Cherry.
I thought, you know, the bridges that we saw in Phoenix could, you know, you'll run the offense at times was, you know, he's sure he was the the third wheel, but he was a very effective third wheel and with the ball in his hands and the game came to Brooklyn.
The Zach Lowe Show
Round 2 Begins! Plus, Reactions to a Pair of Game 7s With Howard Beck and an NBA-‘Severance’ Crossover With Zach Cherry.
And, you know, I never thought he was a true number one, but that's what they had to use him as for that first couple of months when they got him. And he did so very respectably, not so much the second season with him.
The Zach Lowe Show
Round 2 Begins! Plus, Reactions to a Pair of Game 7s With Howard Beck and an NBA-‘Severance’ Crossover With Zach Cherry.
I just think that Bridges as another conduit for the offense, as somebody who could run the second unit perhaps, and also just take some of the pressure off Jalen Brunson when they're out there together, I thought would have been the best use of him. And they don't play through him as much as I thought they would.
The Zach Lowe Show
Round 2 Begins! Plus, Reactions to a Pair of Game 7s With Howard Beck and an NBA-‘Severance’ Crossover With Zach Cherry.
And they don't, you know, and Cat disappears at times, partially because the offense goes away from him, partially because Cat is Cat and he's a very frustrating postseason player throughout his career. And then there's this.
The Zach Lowe Show
Round 2 Begins! Plus, Reactions to a Pair of Game 7s With Howard Beck and an NBA-‘Severance’ Crossover With Zach Cherry.
I just think that given all... As reliant as they are on Jalen Brunson, going up against a team that can throw Drew Holiday, Derek White, Jalen Brown, Jason Tatum, Al Horford on switches, whatever. The Celtics are always going to have a body or bodies in front of Jalen Brunson. This is as difficult a task as he's going to have to navigate. And they're all bigger than him.
The Zach Lowe Show
Round 2 Begins! Plus, Reactions to a Pair of Game 7s With Howard Beck and an NBA-‘Severance’ Crossover With Zach Cherry.
Almost all of them are bigger than him as well. I just... This is a very, very bad matchup for the Knicks, as seen in the regular season when, as you note, they got swept.
The Zach Lowe Show
Round 2 Begins! Plus, Reactions to a Pair of Game 7s With Howard Beck and an NBA-‘Severance’ Crossover With Zach Cherry.
But the Wolves have a great defense, too, and we'll get to them. But the fact that the Warriors, even with Jimmy Butler, seems so Steph dependent. And again, I know Buddy Heald went nuclear. I don't know how many of those you can expect in the course of a postseason. Draymond Green made a bunch of shots that we wouldn't normally expect him to even be taking.
The Zach Lowe Show
Round 2 Begins! Plus, Reactions to a Pair of Game 7s With Howard Beck and an NBA-‘Severance’ Crossover With Zach Cherry.
I have the same. I have the same. The Knicks will get a game there at some point. I think their best hope is that Brown is still dinged up or Holiday is still dinged up or both of them or whatever. I don't think there's a world where both teams at full strength, the Knicks, have a chance to really extend this thing. I mean, this has been... We're both in your...
The Zach Lowe Show
Round 2 Begins! Plus, Reactions to a Pair of Game 7s With Howard Beck and an NBA-‘Severance’ Crossover With Zach Cherry.
But the Pajemski, Moody, Kaminga, Post, whatever, like that whole young crew that has been grafted on that you're hoping for something, somebody to pop. It doesn't have to be the same guy every night. We know how the playoffs goes. Like, you know, sometimes it's just a guy's night. Okay, it was Buddy Hield's night.
The Zach Lowe Show
Round 2 Begins! Plus, Reactions to a Pair of Game 7s With Howard Beck and an NBA-‘Severance’ Crossover With Zach Cherry.
You're in the New York area, I'm in New York itself, and I have a lot of friends who are Knicks fans, and I do my pulse check with them occasionally. It's been a very angsty season for Knicks fans in general. Like, seeing Hartenstein thrive elsewhere, and DiVincenzo for that matter, you know... Ideally, I think they would have never let those two guys go.
The Zach Lowe Show
Round 2 Begins! Plus, Reactions to a Pair of Game 7s With Howard Beck and an NBA-‘Severance’ Crossover With Zach Cherry.
They couldn't do anything about it with Hartenstein. And then they needed DiVincenzo with Randall to get Cat. And, you know, they got better offensively, slipped a little defensively. They don't quite have the same spirit or the same grit that was so much fun about last year's Knicks team in the playoffs. And Knicks fans have felt very indelible. When they ran out of players.
The Zach Lowe Show
Round 2 Begins! Plus, Reactions to a Pair of Game 7s With Howard Beck and an NBA-‘Severance’ Crossover With Zach Cherry.
When they ran out of players. But that was part of the charm of that team. It was like guys kept going down and they just kept, like, you know, fighting their asses off.
The Zach Lowe Show
Round 2 Begins! Plus, Reactions to a Pair of Game 7s With Howard Beck and an NBA-‘Severance’ Crossover With Zach Cherry.
The theme of the Cavs season has been largely, I mean, one of the themes, a prominent one, was, hey, look at how great it's been to see Donovan Mitchell giving up more control of the offense and empowering Darius Garland. And Kenny Atkinson's got this team moving in a different way. The offense was just much more dynamic.
The Zach Lowe Show
Round 2 Begins! Plus, Reactions to a Pair of Game 7s With Howard Beck and an NBA-‘Severance’ Crossover With Zach Cherry.
And this is how they have this massive breakthrough and big leap in the win total, have the number one seed. All about, so much of it about Donovan Mitchell being able to kind of recalibrate. And... in this really important game without Darius Garland, Donovan Mitchell takes 30 shots and makes 13.
The Zach Lowe Show
Round 2 Begins! Plus, Reactions to a Pair of Game 7s With Howard Beck and an NBA-‘Severance’ Crossover With Zach Cherry.
Barkley made the point on the broadcast right after, which I didn't, the numbers hadn't hit me until he said it, that Mitchell and Ty Jerome combined for 50. 50 shots.
The Zach Lowe Show
Round 2 Begins! Plus, Reactions to a Pair of Game 7s With Howard Beck and an NBA-‘Severance’ Crossover With Zach Cherry.
But in the next series, I'm very curious to see where this goes because it's getting late for Steph to just be the do that pilot ship Mav Steph.
The Zach Lowe Show
Round 2 Begins! Plus, Reactions to a Pair of Game 7s With Howard Beck and an NBA-‘Severance’ Crossover With Zach Cherry.
Ty Jerome, baby. I support Ty Jerome being Ty Jerome. Let Ty be Ty. That's fine. Maybe not to the tune of 20 attempts.
The Zach Lowe Show
Round 2 Begins! Plus, Reactions to a Pair of Game 7s With Howard Beck and an NBA-‘Severance’ Crossover With Zach Cherry.
I looked this up. So as a Cavalier, Donovan Mitchell has nine games, counting yesterday's, where he took 30 or more field goal attempts. Nine games. You care to guess the count?
The Zach Lowe Show
Round 2 Begins! Plus, Reactions to a Pair of Game 7s With Howard Beck and an NBA-‘Severance’ Crossover With Zach Cherry.
Four and five. Three and six. Okay, I was close. And the two of those wins were in overtime. One of those was Donovan Mitchell's 71-point game in January of 23 against Chicago.
The Zach Lowe Show
Round 2 Begins! Plus, Reactions to a Pair of Game 7s With Howard Beck and an NBA-‘Severance’ Crossover With Zach Cherry.
You've got to believe that if Darius Garland is healthy-ish and functioning and playing it on the court, that the offense balances out a little bit and we don't get this Donovan Mitchell overload, which, you know, can sink the Cavs just as it sometimes sank the Jazz. And I don't want to boil this down to simply like, well, you know, With Garland, they're great. Without Garland, they're toast.
The Zach Lowe Show
Round 2 Begins! Plus, Reactions to a Pair of Game 7s With Howard Beck and an NBA-‘Severance’ Crossover With Zach Cherry.
But like, you know, this was an ensemble built around four stars or potential stars. And a really, really important one is missing right now. I don't know if you may have more intel than I do. I don't know what the odds of seeing him back for game two and then what the rest of the series looks like. But it seems like a lot hinges on that now.
The Zach Lowe Show
Round 2 Begins! Plus, Reactions to a Pair of Game 7s With Howard Beck and an NBA-‘Severance’ Crossover With Zach Cherry.
The diff is on their broadcasts too, by the way.
The Zach Lowe Show
Round 2 Begins! Plus, Reactions to a Pair of Game 7s With Howard Beck and an NBA-‘Severance’ Crossover With Zach Cherry.
It's on TV.
The Zach Lowe Show
Round 2 Begins! Plus, Reactions to a Pair of Game 7s With Howard Beck and an NBA-‘Severance’ Crossover With Zach Cherry.
It used to be just on their scoreboard, I believe. Like you were in the arena.
The Zach Lowe Show
Round 2 Begins! Plus, Reactions to a Pair of Game 7s With Howard Beck and an NBA-‘Severance’ Crossover With Zach Cherry.
The yes sirs is killing me a little bit, though, Zach. Just like the soft C has to take on the S sound in this sirs with pace. I guess it's pace sirs, but yes, sir. You're taking it a little too far. It doesn't look good on a shirt to have the C there where the first thing you think is like.
The Zach Lowe Show
Round 2 Begins! Plus, Reactions to a Pair of Game 7s With Howard Beck and an NBA-‘Severance’ Crossover With Zach Cherry.
By the way, I looked it up while we were doing this on StatHead. Draymond Green, the last time in a playoff game, he had more than 15 field goal attempts, Zach. Care to guess? Game 7, 2016. It was 2018 against the Pelicans, but there's only been 10. He's played in a lot of playoff games. He's only had 10 games, counting yesterday's, where he had 15 or more field goal attempts.
The Zach Lowe Show
Round 2 Begins! Plus, Reactions to a Pair of Game 7s With Howard Beck and an NBA-‘Severance’ Crossover With Zach Cherry.
Normally, I would have considered that to be very alarming, and it was in real time for the Warriors on some level because it was sometimes the only shot they could get, and sometimes it was just... They got really weirdly indecisive at times, and so I think you noted this earlier, just like a lot of times it was Draymond taking those shots very late in the shot clock.
The Zach Lowe Show
Round 2 Begins! Plus, Reactions to a Pair of Game 7s With Howard Beck and an NBA-‘Severance’ Crossover With Zach Cherry.
But I thought that when they were at their best yesterday, some of it was just the fact that with two guys always on Steph, with or without the ball, it seemed like he was making faster decisions with that. They were taking advantage of Draymond then cutting into the lane. So it...
The Zach Lowe Show
Round 2 Begins! Plus, Reactions to a Pair of Game 7s With Howard Beck and an NBA-‘Severance’ Crossover With Zach Cherry.
It felt like the Warriors adjusted in real time in this in this series and found a way to actually beat this just absolutely suffocating big physical athletic defense. Not for nothing. You know, we should should mention, of course, a man Thompson hurting his hurting his was his quad hamstring. What do they end up calling it? I don't know.
The Zach Lowe Show
Round 2 Begins! Plus, Reactions to a Pair of Game 7s With Howard Beck and an NBA-‘Severance’ Crossover With Zach Cherry.
What up, Zach? We've never done this live before. It's, I don't know. I'm a little nervous. There are people watching. We can't edit. We can't just stop and say, no, get rid of that. I sounded like a moron. If I sound like a moron in real time, I'm just going to sound like a moron for all time, apparently.