Bucks & Thunder advance in NBA Cup | The Athletic’s Front Office Rankings
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What happened in the NBA Cup quarterfinals?
Good morning and welcome to the NBA Daily for December 11th, 2024. Coming up, it's the NBA Cup. We've got the quarterfinals. So we got Eric Name and Andrew Schlecht on to talk about the winners from last night's game. And then at the end of the show, Zena and I are going to take a look at the new front office rankings over at The Athletic. We're going to talk about some of the teams that were left off. Good morning, everybody. Good morning, Zena. Good morning, Eric Name. How are you, buddy?
I'm great. How are you?
Hey, I'm doing all right. Are you excited to go to Vegas? The Bucs get the big win over the Magic, although it was a little bit scary there for a little bit, but they got the win heading to Vegas looking for redemption.
What did Giannis Antetokounmpo's performance mean for the Bucks?
Yeah, no, I actually am. It's funny. During his postgame interview, Giannis had mentioned the fact that last year was a little crazy. And essentially what he meant was they won on a Wednesday. They showed up on a Thursday for practice. They played on a Friday afternoon and then they lost. And in the locker room, they were yelling at the coach and that got out. And yeah, it's probably an episode that all of the Bucs would like to forget and hopefully have a better trip to Vegas this year.
They do feel like they're a little bit more together, especially when you consider where they started at the beginning of this season and now where they're at today. But Eric, this game was supposed to be the sleepwalker. This is supposed to be right. Go right to Vegas. Go ahead and book your ticket. You know, when you think about what Orlando was able to do against the Bucs, what concerns you most about the Bucs going into their next competition in the cup?
Yeah, I mean, I think any team that can be really physical with them defensively is going to be a team that they're going to not necessarily struggle against, but it's going to be difficult for them to do so. You know, they're built on two guys, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damon Nillard. And Giannis, when he's at his best, is overpowering smaller players. When the Orlando Magic have... five six ten dudes that they throw out on the floor well there's not guys out there that you know it's just gonna overpower and then conversely when those six ten and six five and six four guys can all move really well well then damien willard's ark mainly uses quickness in the same ways that he normally can uh and you just that this magic team i think first of all deserves all of the credit in the world like
Jamal Mosley, I named him as my coach of the year when we did the roundtable at the Athletic earlier this week. He's got them all the way bought into that culture that it does not matter who the 10 guys are that are playing tonight. You're going to go out there. You're going to work hard on defense. Yeah. you're going to just do everything you can to make it hell on the other team. And that's what they did to the Bucs tonight. So I would say, I think if, you know, the Bucs play another top three defensive team, it could be a struggle. So that would mean what? The Thunder get to the finals? That would be a tough one. The Thunder are very physical. They're a great defensive team. That would be another team that the Bucs could struggle against.
I think on a normal night against normal defense... The Rockets?
The Warriors? Like...
yeah literally on the perimeter it's just like all the worst people to match up against just over and over again um so so you're gonna see some of that i mean i think both the teams that they've played in the east uh are both teams that they could play in the east they played already they have double digit losses to those teams uh so this is going to be like a really tough test for They obviously have the name power behind those two superstars and, you know, the recognition and they've been among the best teams in the league for the last six seasons. But at the same time, there are some potential landmines they could find in Las Vegas, which is not what you want to do.
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