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Chapter 1: Why should the Thunder be taken seriously in the NBA playoffs?
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Chapter 2: What are the standout performances leading to the MVP race?
Well, the MVP, aforementioned at the season. The team, though... Once again, best record in the NBA in the toughest conference, fourth youngest team, but they've been injured all year. Now Jalen Williams is back. Chet has making the leap. Mitchell's been amazing. McCain's been amazing. They still have Dort. They still have Wallace. They still have Caruso. They still have Hartenstein.
Everyone they put on the court is a plus defensive player. Shea, one of the great scorers in the NBA.
I think they are and obviously now they know what it takes to be a champion having won it last year here's SGA talking about the chance at a repeat and what's in front of the Thunder I think just going through last year and realizing like that's so far down the line like so many things are going to happen before we get to the finals clinching game um So, like, yeah, it's cool.
It's an opportunity. To have the opportunity to repeat an easy one before, so it's cool. Yeah, I'll keep it there. Like, it's so far. So many things have to go our way that aren't under control, and so many things we have to control that are hard to control at this level. Well, I expect them to get to that finals clinching game and cap off one of the great two-year runs in NBA history.
Only the two seasons around the 73-win Warriors season and then the year before the 70-win Bulls season did a team have more than the two-year total of wins that the Thunder had this year. 132 wins for the Thunder over the last two seasons, and I'm expecting back-to-back championships and back-to-back MVPs for SGA.
But if this is a coronation for the Thunder and for Shea, I'm expecting it to be a last act for the New York Knicks. Because, listen, I'm here in New York. It's a basketball town. And the Knicks are good. They're just not good enough.
They have done a very impressive job of building a likable team, led by Jalen Brunson, that plays hard, that brings the celebrities out to Madison Square Garden, makes the playoffs, and wins a lot of playoff games. But if you go over the last three years and you look at who has the most playoff wins, the Knicks are squarely with the third most playoff wins. But you will notice a glaring omission.
You have the Celtics with the most playoff wins in the last three years. They've got a championship banner. You've got the Nuggets with 31 playoff wins over the last three years, a championship banner. You got the Pacers at 23 wins. They won the East. And you've got the Thunder, who, of course, have a championship banner.
And there sit the New York Knicks with the third most wins, 23 over the last three years, and they got nothing. Side note, Madison Square Garden, world's most famous arena. Love going to events there. You got division titles from the Knicks in the 90s that are still hanging there. You got consecutive sold-out shows for Harry Styles and Fish and Billy Joel.
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Chapter 3: How does Shea Gilders-Alexander compare to historical MVPs?
I still pick them to win, but I think it could be a bit more difficult than people think. But the guy who's going to come out looking great is Karl-Anthony Towns, because Atlanta really doesn't have anyone to defend him. So I wonder if that whole New York Knicks crowd turning on people or not. I expect there to be a lot of love for Karl-Anthony Towns coming out of the first round.
And we'll see how that affects his confidence, too, because he's definitely a guy who feeds off that stuff.
Yeah, and he's been really good. I think it's been the best version of Carl Anthony Towns for the last couple of months. He's been doing this thing. It was a crazy idea, but he's been trying on the defensive end. It's been wild. It's been wild. It's like you're seven feet tall. If you just give a little bit of effort on the defensive end, you're so talented.
It's amazing the kind of impact you can make.
Eventually, you got to try everything, Danny. OK, so, you know, you got to you got to give it a try. But I do think the fact that just the matchup favors him so much compared to the wings, I think it was really going to affect his confidence going forward, the Knicks fans confidence in him. And that could really have a carryover effect.
I agree with you. I think you should have a good series against the Hawks, and I also think that series is going seven, so we'll get plenty of extra basketball coming up at Madison Square Garden.
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Chapter 4: What challenges do the Knicks face in the playoffs?
So I'm just around like actually credible people. And then it's me. But here we go. Before KOC joins us, want to take a stab at the ones. Some of them are easy and some of them are a little bit more complicated. I would give SGA the back to back MVP. It is one of the greatest guard seasons in the history of the sport, a sport that historically led more by big wings like LeBron or centers.
For the best team in the league to have the best player on that team be a point guard, shooting guard hybrid,
and just turn in his fourth straight 30-plus point per game season, this year the second leading scorer in the NBA, do it on 55% shooting, increasing basically every player efficiency rating, true shooting percentage, all of the advanced metrics say he's actually a little better this year than last year.
When last year Chet was hurt, this year Jalen Williams has been hurt, and that's not the only one. They've been one of the most injured teams in the league while being one of the youngest teams in the league, and even with Denver, even with... LeBron and Luka, even with Wemby, they got the best record yet again. And it's been because of Shea. So SGA would get my first place MVP vote.
Defensive player of the year. If this isn't unanimous, it becomes the biggest story. He honestly, Wemby's probably going to win, assuming health, and we'll see what happens with the 65 game rule. He's probably going to win 10 Defensive Player of the Year awards. The gap between him and, say, Chet Holmgren is just, it's so massive. I call them retreats.
Players who dribble towards the lane and then just like, eh, I'm going to retreat. I'm going to throw it in reverse. I've changed my mind. Victor Weminyama, Defensive Player of the Year. Cooper Flagg, I'm surprised at how much this one is being debated. Edgecombe, maybe in a different year, could get a rookie of the year vote. Conn Knipple, in most years, could get a rookie of the year vote.
But Cooper Flagg, in basically every year, should get your first place rookie of the year vote. First rookie to lead his team in points, rebounds, assists, and steals since Michael Jordan and he's 19 years old. Entered the league nine days older than LeBron James. It's one of the great rookie seasons of my entire lifetime, which brings me to First Team All-NBA.
I would imagine four of these names will be unanimous unless someone made a mistake and submitted their ballot before Luka's exemption came in, which is always possible. SGA, Jokic, Wemby, and Luka, I think, are all fairly obvious and fairly self-explanatory for first-team All-NBA.
I loved Rachel's explanation earlier of doing value for the MVP ballot, but the best player for first-team All-NBA, and splitting that with Cade and Jalen Brown. I thought that's totally reasonable. The reason I would give the slight edge to Cade over Jalen Brown... I do think when you talk about MVP in all NBA, the winning matters.
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Chapter 5: What impact does Kevin O'Connor have on NBA award discussions?
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One which will have our next guest, Kevin O'Connor, as he joins us now on The Herd. We'll have him weigh in on it. NBA writer at Yahoo Sports. He's been voting in these things for the last decade or so since 2016. KOC, thank you so much for joining me on The Herd. We can pick it up there.
How did you decide to parse Cade Cunningham and Jalen Brown now that Cade and Luka Doncic got the exemption and are eligible for the awards?
Good to talk, Danny. I mean, look, I leaned Cade Cunningham over that fifth spot for All-NBA. He was the engine of the team. And I know Jalen Brown had a tremendous year with the Boston Celtics, rightfully on my second team. And if Luka weren't eligible, he would have been on first team. He would have been top five MVP.
But Cade was the engine of that team on top of being an elite defensive player as well as part of a great Pistons two-way team. So I lean Cade over Jalen Brown, but ultimately either of those guys are both deserving.
Yeah, it's good that they'll both get the recognition on all NBA teams. So my guess is Shea is going to win this and you will be in a minority. We'll see how big of a minority. As someone who voted for Victor Wembanyama, he got a first place MVP vote from you. What was your rationale?
Victor Wemenyama is the best defender since Bill Russell. I mean, you said it earlier, the difference between him and the second best defender in the league is massive. And so I think defense matters in this conversation as well. Jokic didn't win his first MVP until he became a good defensive player. Tim Duncan won MVP over Shaq in the early 2000s because of the defensive edge.
Michael Jordan won MVP in 1988 over Magic Johnson and Larry Bird because he was also the defensive player of the year that year. So this has been a thing for decades. And then offensively, that's where people understandably argue SGA over Wemby.
sga it is very tangible what he does he is the thunder offense with what he does with the ball on his hands web and yama it's things that go beyond the box score a lot of the times he does average 25 points per game he is a dominant score when he scores off of screens and finishes at the rim and all the stuff that you see in the highlights but it's the rim runs it's drawing two defenders into the paint it's
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Chapter 6: How does the Thunder's roster contribute to their success?
So this is the opportunity for Harden to change that conversation about him.
So I think the Thunder are going to win, which would make SGA a back-to-back champion, presumed back-to-back MVP, presumed back-to-back finals MVP. The six guys with multiple regular season MVPs and finals MVPs, it's Kareem, it's Mike, it's Magic, it's Bird, it's Duncan, it's LeBron. It's the six greatest players of the last 50 years, basically, and soon to be SGA, if I'm right.
Would you take the Thunder or the field ahead of these playoffs?
I'll take the field. I mean, I just think there's so many great teams in the league right now between the Spurs and the Nuggets in the West and then the Celtics and the Pistons in the East, and we'll see who else can get there. It's so hard to go back to back. I mean, there's a reason why it hasn't happened for seven years. They're set up to do it, though.
they are and as we talked about on my pod a few weeks back we can look back seven years but can you look back multiple decades and there's plenty of teams who have repeated and this team is set up to do it so I think the field is just the safer bet than trusting OKC to go all the way but I also am picking the Thunder to win the NBA finals over the Celtics in seven in June but I think the field is still strong if you had to ask me that question
All right. So you got which would be great for the NBA and great for the sport if we got Thunder Celtics seven game series. I don't think anyone's turning off their TV, although maybe Knicks fans would. I don't think you can fire Mike Brown if you don't make it to the finals. But I'm curious what you see. You obviously don't have them making the finals.
What do you think the ramifications would be for the Knicks if they fall short of where they got last year?
I mean, look, if they lose by the end of this month to the Atlanta Hawks in the first round, they have to look at everything possible to shake this roster up. Trading Carl Anthony Towns, using whatever picks you can find between the couch seats. You've got to find ways to make this work. I don't think the Knicks are in a position where you say, well, windows closed, let's blow it up.
This is a team where you are on this path and you have no other choice. And if that includes changing the coach again after one year... Do you have to look at that? I don't think that should be the solution. I think it should start with Carl Anthony Towns.
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