The Athletic NBA Daily
Bucks & Thunder advance in NBA Cup | The Athletic’s Front Office Rankings
11 Dec 2024
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 39 points as the Oklahoma City Thunder eliminated the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA Cup quarterfinals. The Milwaukee Bucks knock out the Orlando Magic thanks to 37 points from Giannis Antetokounmpo. Dave DuFour and Zena Keita are joined by the Athletic’s Eric Nehm and Andrew Schlecht to breakdown the Bucks and Thunder victories and their paths to success in Las Vegas. Then, Zena and Dave take a look at some of the teams that were not included in the Athletic’s front office rankings and discuss the Jimmy Butler trade situation.Host: Dave DuFourWith: Zena Keita, Andrew Schlecht, Eric NehmExecutive Producer: Andrew SchlechtAudio Producer: Grayson MoodySubmit your questions to The Athletic NBA Daily mailbag: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5939460/2024/11/25/nba-podcast-mailbag-athletic-daily/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Full Episode
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.
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...
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