Latest / Small Ball with Kenny Beecham / What's Next for the Thunder? + FINALS Preview

Transcript

What's Next for the Thunder? + FINALS Preview · Small Ball with Kenny Beecham

0:04
SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to Smallball with Kenny Beachum.
0:07
SPEAKER_00: We are finally down to two teams.
0:11
SPEAKER_00: Who knew?
0:12
SPEAKER_00: Other than the Charles Bassey Twitter account.
0:14
SPEAKER_00: Who knew exactly what was going to happen in the playoffs?
0:17
SPEAKER_00: Not many people before the playoffs started.
0:20
SPEAKER_00: My pick for the finals was OKC versus Boston.
0:23
SPEAKER_00: As you know, Boston got eliminated in the first round after an embarrassing 3-1 series comeback from Philly.
0:29
SPEAKER_00: And then the Thunder just lost in game seven.
0:31
SPEAKER_00: So I shot over two.
0:32
SPEAKER_00: It is what it is.
0:33
SPEAKER_00: You know, this is why we love the sport.
0:35
SPEAKER_00: I feel like every single year it's becoming even more unpredictable than the last.
0:38
SPEAKER_00: I feel like a lot of the times growing up, and part of this credited to the Warriors and the Cavs, you just knew what the outcome was going to be.
0:45
SPEAKER_00: And now who would have predicted the pacers?
0:47
SPEAKER_00: Who would have predicted, you know what I'm saying?
0:49
SPEAKER_00: So it's always a bit unpredictable.
0:52
SPEAKER_00: We had a really solid game seven.
0:54
SPEAKER_00: And I'm telling y'all this because I'm very excited about it.
0:57
SPEAKER_00: I have um an appearance at the NBA Finals coming up.
1:00
SPEAKER_00: Can you believe that?
1:01
SPEAKER_00: Little Kitty Kitty Beachum gonna be at the finals and hopefully talking to players.
1:05
SPEAKER_00: And uh I did we did a little bit on numbers on the board of kind of talking through how many players that were participating in the finals have we had connections with or talked to or interviewed quite a good amount of people.
1:17
SPEAKER_00: So one thing I'm anxious about, not like debilitating anxiety or anything, but like one of my biggest things is trying to get people experience with me, being on my show or doing interviews with me, for them to remember me the second time around.
1:32
SPEAKER_00: I've had interviews, right, where I interviewed a player, I thought I did such a great damn job, and then I see that same player a year later and they have no recollection.
1:40
SPEAKER_00: Part of that is maybe the interview wasn't very good for them, part of that is because I'm assuming they're meeting a thousand people every day.
1:45
SPEAKER_00: They're an NBA player.
1:47
SPEAKER_00: But my favorite thing is for when you cross past with that person a second time and like, hey yo, Kenny, I'm like, I did it.
1:52
SPEAKER_00: I did it.
1:53
SPEAKER_00: So like here's the list of guys in this NBA Finals Mikhail Bridges, Jalen Brunson.
1:59
SPEAKER_00: I feel like there's another, I feel like there's another player.
2:01
SPEAKER_00: I feel like there's another player for the Knicks.
2:02
SPEAKER_00: Umbriot.
2:04
SPEAKER_00: And then on the Spurs side, Carter Bryant, Stefan Castle, Dylan Harper.
2:10
SPEAKER_00: So we got yeah, we got like six players.
2:12
SPEAKER_00: We got like six players.
2:13
SPEAKER_00: That's like that's pretty good.
2:15
SPEAKER_00: So we'll see of those six when I'm in the media scrum, barely tall enough to for them to see me.
2:20
SPEAKER_00: Um, will they be like, oh, what up, Kenny?
2:22
SPEAKER_00: We'll see.
2:22
SPEAKER_00: We'll see.
2:23
SPEAKER_00: We'll see.
2:23
SPEAKER_00: Um, but yeah, NBA Finals underway.
2:26
SPEAKER_00: And now I'm thinking about it.
2:28
SPEAKER_00: Y'all should tune in to enjoy the NBA trivia show, NBA Finals Edition.
2:33
SPEAKER_00: That's that's airing tonight at 7 p.m.
2:37
SPEAKER_00: Eastern time on NBA TV and the NBA app.
2:40
SPEAKER_00: It's a show that we put together with the NBA where I'm doing trivia with the guys um versus the guys.
2:45
SPEAKER_00: And this episode is special.
2:46
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna give you a little under-the-hood thing because this ain't been released just yet.
2:50
SPEAKER_00: It's me and NBA Finals Trivia versus Mike and Derek.
2:53
SPEAKER_00: They're a two-man team versus me.
2:55
SPEAKER_00: Who do y'all think won?
2:56
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, tune in.
2:57
SPEAKER_00: Is two mines really greater than one?
2:59
SPEAKER_00: If one of the mines is Kenny Beachum?
3:01
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I'm setting myself up.
3:02
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I just set myself up.
3:04
SPEAKER_00: Go watch the episode.
3:05
SPEAKER_00: Uh, it will eventually be on YouTube if you're a YouTube watcher, but it would mean a lot if you tuned in live or saw it on the replay or went to the NBA app.
3:12
SPEAKER_00: All right, let's get into the playoffs.
3:14
SPEAKER_00: Um, I feel like I'm a bit delirious, a little bit loopy right now after doing all the shoots I've done today.
3:18
SPEAKER_00: So let's let's have some fun with it.
3:20
SPEAKER_00: Game seven was a banger.
3:22
SPEAKER_00: Game one was the greatest game ever, it felt like.
3:25
SPEAKER_00: Game two through six, hits and misses.
3:27
SPEAKER_00: But game seven was a banger.
3:30
SPEAKER_00: We saw a lot of things we wanted to see.
3:31
SPEAKER_00: We wanted to see a Shea Gary's Alexander Masterclass.
3:34
SPEAKER_00: His best game of the entire series happen in game seven.
3:36
SPEAKER_00: We wanted to see Victor Wimbayama assert his dominance, and even though we all agree that he is here, but in a game seven to go to the finals, that is a moment where you can say, I'm here.
3:44
SPEAKER_00: I think he did that.
3:46
SPEAKER_00: We saw good game plans from one coach more than the other.
3:50
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna get into that.
3:50
SPEAKER_00: But we we had a lot of different things.
3:52
SPEAKER_00: The crowd was electric, it ended up being close at the end of it all or towards the end of it all.
3:56
SPEAKER_00: And now we got the Spurs going to the NBA Finals.
3:58
SPEAKER_00: Immediately when the game loaded up and I saw the star liner for the Oklahoma City Thunder, I thought to myself, what is Mark Dayton doing?
4:06
SPEAKER_00: I think there's value in sticking to your principles and sticking with guys, even when they're playing and they're struggling.
4:11
SPEAKER_00: But at some point, you got to pull the plug on something.
4:13
SPEAKER_00: And I think that everybody expected him to pull a plug on Lou Dort going into game seven.
4:17
SPEAKER_00: Lou Dort didn't hit a shot.
4:19
SPEAKER_00: He hit a game the other day, he was one of 11 from the field, one of nine from three.
4:22
SPEAKER_00: And you say, Kenny, the defense, the defense is good.
4:26
SPEAKER_00: But it's the Spurs don't have the type of lineup, don't have the type of wings and guard play that Lou Dort excels at.
4:32
SPEAKER_00: So though, yeah, the defense is good.
4:33
SPEAKER_00: He's not jumping off the page defensively because there is no matchup for him to do so.
4:37
SPEAKER_00: So if the defense is just good and not specialized, and the shooting is the shooting, and it it changes the geometry of the court for the Spurs defensively, then I'm just not playing Lou Dort to start a game.
4:50
SPEAKER_00: So many games throughout this series, you see it that OKC's down eight, OKC's down 10, OKC's down 15-0 to start game three.
4:59
SPEAKER_00: And a lot of that is because the starting unit that they'd elected to go to, even though they did make some tweaks, the starting unit just wasn't good enough.
5:08
SPEAKER_00: A lot of that's because, you know, Dub's not in that lineup and so on and so forth.
5:12
SPEAKER_00: We'll talk about that.
5:12
SPEAKER_00: But I was just really expecting it that he was gonna say, we're gonna play our best five-man unit to start this game, and we're gonna run this team, and hopefully the crowd being behind us, we can start off this game with the run, and the opposite happened.
5:24
SPEAKER_00: So Lou Dorn, he did hit a big shot in the second quarter.
5:27
SPEAKER_00: Ooh.
5:27
SPEAKER_00: But a lot of the other things end up being really, really tragic.
5:30
SPEAKER_00: Playing catch-up the entire game is very rarely a recipe for success.
5:35
SPEAKER_00: Eventually, they did take a lead and it was electric in the arena, but again, playing catch up for a lot of it.
5:41
SPEAKER_00: The one superpower that OKC has had for the last two years is the way they create turnovers and turn those turnovers into easy possessions for them offensively.
5:52
SPEAKER_00: And the worst that you can do against this team is, of course, you know, turn the ball over.
5:56
SPEAKER_00: And I thought the Spurs were in the driver's seat, and especially early in that first quarter, where they turned the Thunder over quite a few, uh quite a bit into this one.
6:05
SPEAKER_00: I thought they did a good job of allowing Shay to get whatever switch he wanted, but also showing help at the elbows and at the net at the nail, depending on where Shea was operating from.
6:14
SPEAKER_00: He went after De'Aaron Fox a good amount of time in that first quarter.
6:17
SPEAKER_00: And though, again, Shea had a great game, I think De'Aaron did a really solid job, all things considered.
6:21
SPEAKER_00: It's gotta be tough to be the guy that's getting picked on, but it also has to be easier when you're getting picked on and you know there's a seven foot 13 guy behind you that's there to deter every shot.
6:32
SPEAKER_00: So even if you did get beat single man right now, uh, we got Wimby.
6:37
SPEAKER_00: Everything is gonna be all right.
6:39
SPEAKER_00: I think Wimby started off this game looking pretty indecisive at times, and that has happened a few times throughout the series.
6:43
SPEAKER_00: But the best thing about it for him is that it's a 48-minute game and not a 12-minute game.
6:47
SPEAKER_00: And then eventually start to pick it up.
6:49
SPEAKER_00: Eventually hit some shots where he he yelled to the crowd and yelled to the bench and so on.
6:54
SPEAKER_00: Julian Champigny, his shot making in the third quarter.
6:57
SPEAKER_00: The third quarter had been the quarter this entire series.
6:59
SPEAKER_00: The team that won the third, more times than not, was a team that won the game.
7:03
SPEAKER_00: And to start off the third quarter with another big run, an 8-0 run personally for Julian Champigne.
7:08
SPEAKER_00: Um, did I just do that?
7:11
SPEAKER_00: Did I just did I just Champigne the wrong guy?
7:14
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, to have a Champagne, did I call him Justin here?
7:18
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
7:19
SPEAKER_00: To have a Julian Champagne uh run like that is huge.
7:22
SPEAKER_00: You know, reminder that Champney was waived by the 76ers a few years ago.
7:26
SPEAKER_00: So to have a game seven to go to the finals, we can drop what 20 points in it is pretty special stuff.
7:31
SPEAKER_00: And they needed his jump shooting throughout the course of the series, and he was there to provide when the lights were the brightest.
7:36
SPEAKER_00: Kelden Johnson had many times throughout the series where you look and say, that guy was our sixth man of the year this year.
7:42
SPEAKER_00: He can barely play.
7:43
SPEAKER_00: But in this game, crashing the offensive glass, which is one of the biggest points we'll get to in a second here, crashing the offensive glass from Kelden, creating extra opportunities.
7:50
SPEAKER_00: He had two back-to-back big threes.
7:52
SPEAKER_00: Big threes, one of them in the corner with Chet Homegrin closing out.
7:55
SPEAKER_00: My goodness, we're gonna talk about uh get at Chet Homer in a second.
7:58
SPEAKER_00: Some closeouts from Chet Holmgren wasn't enough to deter him.
8:01
SPEAKER_00: And I don't remember if I said it here.
8:03
SPEAKER_00: Again, I do a thousand shows a week, so damn it, I'd be forgetting why I be talking about things.
8:07
SPEAKER_00: I love watching Kelden Johnson shoot a basketball.
8:09
SPEAKER_00: It ain't a it ain't a pretty because it's not pretty.
8:11
SPEAKER_00: I think you know, you could also watch Clay Thompson a thousand times and you never get bored with with the robotic nature and the fluidity of his jump shot.
8:20
SPEAKER_00: But it's something about the opposite side for Kelden Johnson that's very intriguing to me.
8:23
SPEAKER_00: I think it has to be his guide hand.
8:25
SPEAKER_00: He, you know, sometimes people are thumb flickers when they shoot on the guy hand.
8:28
SPEAKER_00: I think Curry actually is a thumb flicker, if I'm not mistaken, you know, and some people don't.
8:32
SPEAKER_00: But I think Keldon is the exact opposite, where like his guide hand is straight up and down every single time.
8:38
SPEAKER_00: He it doesn't influence the ball at all.
8:40
SPEAKER_00: So, really, it truly is, in definition, a guide hand.
8:43
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't so I'm just always fascinated when I see him shoot.
8:46
SPEAKER_00: A lot of times them things be bricks, but when they go in, it's like, oh snap.
8:49
SPEAKER_00: His load up takes forever.
8:51
SPEAKER_00: And it's been a big conversation about load up times and speed of jump shot.
8:57
SPEAKER_00: And when I see a guy like him or I see a guy like Jay Will, who has a load up time that's pretty long as well, when I see them able to get off shots uh without a true contest, it makes me look at Chet Holmgren and get pissed off.
9:15
SPEAKER_00: I made the tweet um that this is about to be the longest summer of Chet Holmgren's life, and I do believe that is the case.
9:26
SPEAKER_00: Because he just had a poor, poor series, but maybe the worst game seven you can have from a guy that made all NBA.
9:36
SPEAKER_00: So it is going to be a long time before he gets an opportunity to really redeem himself.
9:43
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna talk about what that redemption could potentially look like and so much more dealing with game seven of the Western Conference Finals and the preview to the NBA Finals game one.
9:53
SPEAKER_00: I need you to stay tuned because I'll be right back.
10:01
SPEAKER_00: The longest summer of Chet Holmgren's life.
10:05
SPEAKER_00: And it might actually be longer than a summer.
10:09
SPEAKER_00: Because let's be real.
10:11
SPEAKER_00: Even if next season Chet comes out and it looks like he improved his offensive game to a whole nother degree, where he is next season averaging 23, 24 points per game, it'll always be in the back of his mind.
10:23
SPEAKER_00: It'll always be in the back of the mind of the consumer, the watcher, that this don't really matter until he can do that against the Spurs.
10:31
SPEAKER_00: Because whatever that dynamic is between him and Wimbanyam or Wimbenyam and him got him fearing to play basketball offensively.
10:41
SPEAKER_00: I'm not a Chet Homer guy.
10:43
SPEAKER_00: He's not, I don't hate him, obviously, but he's not one of, you know, I got my guys.
10:46
SPEAKER_00: I got the Chris Paul's, I got the, you know, the list goes on of my favorite guys.
10:49
SPEAKER_00: I respect Chuck Homerin's game.
10:51
SPEAKER_00: Like he truly is one of the best defensive players in the world.
10:53
SPEAKER_00: No ifs, ands, or buts about it.
10:54
SPEAKER_00: And I respected his offensive game too, because he was averaging 17, 18 points, you know, and doing it in three different levels in a lot of cases.
11:03
SPEAKER_00: But I was so disappointed in him, so disappointed that I knew that the again, the conversation around him was going to be so crazy and warranted.
11:10
SPEAKER_00: But at the same time, I kind of felt bad.
11:14
SPEAKER_00: Um, Andrew Schleck put together or posted a video of the post-game locker room interview with Chet Holmgren.
11:20
SPEAKER_00: And obviously, they did just lose in game seven, so the emotions are high, but he looked so defeated.
11:29
SPEAKER_00: The octave levels in his voice was at the lowest I've ever heard of before.
11:33
SPEAKER_00: So I kind of I kind of felt bad, y'all, because he recognizes how bad it was for him.
11:41
SPEAKER_00: He has to feel like he let the team down to be this close and to lose, and for him to take less shots than Kenrich Williams when Kenrich Williams played one-tenth of the amount of minutes.
11:52
SPEAKER_00: So I know he feels bad.
11:53
SPEAKER_00: So I feel for him, dog.
11:55
SPEAKER_00: But I he he also gotta accept what just happened.
11:57
SPEAKER_00: And it is my job as a piece of the media to talk about that.
12:01
SPEAKER_00: So, Chad, I'm wishing you the best, big fella.
12:03
SPEAKER_00: Go to a deserted island, which I know you could just buy with a$200 million contract.
12:07
SPEAKER_00: Go to a deserted island, just chill for him.
12:09
SPEAKER_00: Don't even look at social media.
12:10
SPEAKER_00: Don't go on Instagram, don't go on Twitter, don't do nothing.
12:12
SPEAKER_00: Take your time for yourself, be with your family and everything.
12:16
SPEAKER_00: There was times where he straight up on purpose, and I'm I'm not even exaggerating when I say this.
12:22
SPEAKER_00: On purpose, decided not to be a part of the play.
12:27
SPEAKER_00: There was possession now, I'm I may not forget for a very long time.
12:31
SPEAKER_00: Whereas the fourth quarter, the Thunder are making a little comeback to try to make it interesting to win this game.
12:37
SPEAKER_00: And the Spurs do an amazing job defensively.
12:39
SPEAKER_00: We get down to, I don't know, five seconds on the shot clock.
12:42
SPEAKER_00: The ball is swinging.
12:43
SPEAKER_00: It eventually hits Jay Will on the left wing.
12:46
SPEAKER_00: And Jay Will pumps fake, pump fakes.
12:49
SPEAKER_00: And as the Spurs are in rotation, he's expecting to one more to the corner.
12:53
SPEAKER_00: But instead of Chet being in the corner, he was under the basket, waiting for someone else to shoot to try to get an offensive rebound.
13:01
SPEAKER_00: What did Jay Will have to do?
13:03
SPEAKER_00: He had to take a step up and take a mid-range jump shot that missed everything.
13:06
SPEAKER_00: That's the type of things that happen.
13:09
SPEAKER_00: There are many times when the ball touched Chet Holman's hands and he did not look like a basketball player.
13:15
SPEAKER_00: He looked like somebody from the crowd that just had to play because the other team didn't have enough players.
13:21
SPEAKER_00: You've been at the Y, you've been at the gym where you got nine, and the dude on the other end that's missing layups by himself, you asked him if you want to hoop, even though you know he can't hoop because you just needed to run fives.
13:31
SPEAKER_00: Chet looked like that guy.
13:32
SPEAKER_00: The ball hit his hands, and instead of jab stepping or looking for an opportunity to create for himself or looking for an opportunity to create for others, he gave it back to the person that gave it to him and stood around.
13:46
SPEAKER_00: I know that Chet Homer's game is not one of the ones that you gave him the ball in the post because he's being guarded by Devin Vassale.
13:51
SPEAKER_00: I recognize that.
13:52
SPEAKER_00: Hell, Devin Vassel ate his lunch multiple times in this series by weak side blocks and when Chad got offensive rebounds.
13:59
SPEAKER_00: But Chad had always been a plus three-point shooter.
14:02
SPEAKER_00: That was one of the most interesting things about him.
14:05
SPEAKER_00: Great defensive player, and he's seven foot one and can shoot it.
14:08
SPEAKER_00: My goodness.
14:10
SPEAKER_00: He was so indecisive that he had three-point shots blocked in this series.
14:16
SPEAKER_00: And I think eventually that got into his brain.
14:18
SPEAKER_00: And that's why I mentioned earlier about the long load up times from Kelden Johnson and Jay Wheel because they take forever and they still are able to get the shot off.
14:27
SPEAKER_00: Chet Holmgren.
14:29
SPEAKER_00: Again, let me, matter of fact, let me let me pull this up real quick because I don't want to speak out of turn about your chat, man.
14:33
SPEAKER_00: Because again, I honestly, you might turn into one of my guys because I don't like when people get beat up this bad.
14:39
SPEAKER_00: You might turn into one of my guys.
14:40
SPEAKER_00: Um in the regular season, Chet Holmgren attempted four or three and a half threes per game.
14:45
SPEAKER_00: Three and a half threes per game.
14:47
SPEAKER_00: So again, postseason is a lot different, but if he were to stay to his, you know, his normal shot attempts in the postseason.
14:54
SPEAKER_00: Three and a half, seven, ten and a half, fourteen.
14:59
SPEAKER_00: Uh you keep doing the math.
15:01
SPEAKER_00: How many three-point attempts do they have made in a seven-game series?
15:04
SPEAKER_00: Whatever that number is, he ain't even close to it.
15:07
SPEAKER_00: Matter of fact, you're like, Kenny, bro, you're almost 30.
15:10
SPEAKER_00: You can't get you can't do three and a half times seven.
15:12
SPEAKER_00: Nope.
15:12
SPEAKER_00: So I'm bringing out the calculator.
15:14
SPEAKER_00: 24 and a half three-pointers if he just stuck to his regular volume in the regular season.
15:20
SPEAKER_00: From the regular season to the postseason.
15:22
SPEAKER_00: Seven game series.
15:24
SPEAKER_00: 36%, 37% three-point shooter.
15:28
SPEAKER_00: Chad Holmgren attempted 11 three-pointers in seven games.
15:32
SPEAKER_00: 11.
15:33
SPEAKER_00: And in the close-off game, literally zero.
15:37
SPEAKER_00: Zero.
15:38
SPEAKER_00: That's not us or nobody else.
15:41
SPEAKER_00: The defense is the defense.
15:43
SPEAKER_00: He still, even yesterday, even when his offense was going, he still looked like one of the best defense players in the world.
15:47
SPEAKER_00: I can't take that away from him because you can't.
15:48
SPEAKER_00: He literally is that guy.
15:50
SPEAKER_00: But for him to not be able to get any shots up on the rim, and some of the times he is straight up open and he didn't look.
15:58
SPEAKER_00: And I gotta give credit to the broadcast because there are times where um uh Jamal Crawford says, like, that's your shot.
16:10
SPEAKER_00: And he didn't take it.
16:11
SPEAKER_00: The one time he decided to dribble, he tripped over his own feet and turned the ball over.
16:17
SPEAKER_00: That ain't gonna be good for the mental state.
16:21
SPEAKER_00: So they're really disappointed in Chet Homer.
16:24
SPEAKER_00: Everybody's disappointed in Chet Homer.
16:26
SPEAKER_00: If there's anything, I like the leadership from Shea Gilge's Alexander where this morning, as I record this episode, they did their end-of-season press conferences and he was asked about Chet and he talked about how motivated him and Chet have always been to take the wins and the losses and use it as fuel for the next games and so on, and that he believes that Chet will come back better than never.
16:47
SPEAKER_00: So I that's that's very good leadership from Shea Gilles Alexander.
16:51
SPEAKER_00: But I've never been in a high stake game like this in my life, right?
16:54
SPEAKER_00: You know, the the sophomore B team, which really didn't shouldn't exist, has never played in the winner-go-home game.
17:02
SPEAKER_00: When I was a starter on freshman B, we never had a game like that.
17:05
SPEAKER_00: Well, we had the Christmas tournament, I guess, which is one game elimination.
17:09
SPEAKER_00: So I don't I don't know what it's like to be in a locker room like that where a guy you're relying on was unreliable.
17:17
SPEAKER_00: And I wonder if I was Shay or even if I was um Brooks Barnhouser, the guy that don't play.
17:24
SPEAKER_00: How would I felt about what Chet just did?
17:27
SPEAKER_00: Because you obviously have the personal connection.
17:28
SPEAKER_00: He's you y'all been teammates forever.
17:31
SPEAKER_00: Y'all gone on a thousand flights together, a thousand different cities, gone shopping, you know.
17:36
SPEAKER_00: How do you how do you deal with that?
17:37
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe you don't.
17:39
SPEAKER_00: One of the questions that that Shay got asked again, talking to Shay's leadership, and Shay had a really good game seven, even the first, even if the first six games he weren't wasn't the normal version of himself.
17:49
SPEAKER_00: He was asked, What type of off-season game plan can you give to Chet Holmgren so he cannot let this happen again?
17:59
SPEAKER_00: And his response was, well, I didn't have a good series either.
18:03
SPEAKER_00: And I don't think that Chet is gonna give me no off-season game plan, right?
18:07
SPEAKER_00: Putting them all on the same playing field because Chet is as important to this team as me.
18:11
SPEAKER_00: So again, I think that his all of his answers were the right answers.
18:14
SPEAKER_00: He also was doing the Wimbenyama, let me hear the question and think about it for 30 seconds before I respond, which I think is always interesting because they want to give the best answer possible, I guess.
18:24
SPEAKER_00: So um, Shay just needed somebody else to come along for the ride.
18:27
SPEAKER_00: And before this game seven, I said that, you know, Shay again was not having a good series by his own standard, but none of that will matter if they go into game seven and they win and he has a normal performance.
18:38
SPEAKER_00: And half of that happened.
18:39
SPEAKER_00: He had a normal performance, right?
18:40
SPEAKER_00: He was he was really good, he was electric.
18:42
SPEAKER_00: The shots that he took were really, really difficult, but they were falling.
18:45
SPEAKER_00: But he just needed one more person.
18:47
SPEAKER_00: And that one more person, person in a lot of people's case, would be the guy that's making a max contract if this made all NBA, but it wasn't.
18:53
SPEAKER_00: I saw a tweet this morning.
18:55
SPEAKER_00: Oh man, I should have screenshotted it.
18:57
SPEAKER_00: Um talking about the All NBA teams.
19:01
SPEAKER_00: All NBA third team this season.
19:03
SPEAKER_00: Let me let me let me let me pull this up real, real quick.
19:06
SPEAKER_00: Hopefully, I can do this really fast.
19:08
SPEAKER_00: All NBA third team this season was Tyrese Maxie, Jamal Murray, Jalen Johnson, Jalen Duran, and Chathomer.
19:17
SPEAKER_00: Somebody said I want them to give all the award back right now.
19:23
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna give Maxie a small pass.
19:25
SPEAKER_00: He did get swept, by the way.
19:26
SPEAKER_00: He did get swept, but I more times than not, Maxie was fine.
19:30
SPEAKER_00: Jamal Murray wasn't great in the postseason.
19:33
SPEAKER_00: Jalen Johnson wasn't great in the postseason.
19:35
SPEAKER_00: Jalen Duran was the opposite of great.
19:38
SPEAKER_00: He was that.
19:38
SPEAKER_00: And then again, Chet Holmgrid specifically in this series.
19:41
SPEAKER_00: So the whole third maybe the whole third team struggled in the postseason.
19:45
SPEAKER_00: I think that's pretty interesting.
19:46
SPEAKER_00: But also, some people are above them in the second, second team also struggled too.
19:50
SPEAKER_00: But it is funny to see that list and be like, damn, these are our our uh 11th through 15th best players this season, and all of them was bad in the postseason.
19:59
SPEAKER_00: All right, when we come back, we'll get into more of small ball with Kenny Beatsum.
20:03
SPEAKER_00: Stay tuned.
20:10
SPEAKER_00: Last thing on OKC, because this is not their moment.
20:13
SPEAKER_00: This is not their moment.
20:13
SPEAKER_00: This is the Spurs moment.
20:14
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna get it get to the Spurs and the success that they've seen this season.
20:18
SPEAKER_00: I've seen so many people drawing up trades.
20:21
SPEAKER_00: If I were to go to Fanspo right now, Fanspo is just one of them websites for the people at home that has a trade machine and people draw trades there all the time.
20:30
SPEAKER_00: The five most trending names right now on Fans Spo are Giannis.
20:34
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna be there as long as he's in Milwaukee.
20:36
SPEAKER_00: Lou Dore, Aaron Wiggins, Jalen Brown, and Chet Homer.
20:39
SPEAKER_00: Everybody's drawing up trades for Chet Homeger.
20:41
SPEAKER_00: If I go to Spo track, which is another trade machine, if I went to their guys in the most recent trades, there he is again.
20:49
SPEAKER_00: It is Chet Homer.
20:51
SPEAKER_00: He is number three on this site right now.
20:53
SPEAKER_00: Everybody's drawing up these trades to get Giannis to OKC for Chad and so on and so forth.
21:00
SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna say, I don't understand it.
21:04
SPEAKER_00: I don't understand it.
21:06
SPEAKER_00: Chad was awful offensively.
21:08
SPEAKER_00: Awful.
21:08
SPEAKER_00: I just gave him 10 minutes of talking about how awful he was.
21:13
SPEAKER_00: Reminder, this team was three minutes away from being in the finals without J Dub on the court and AJ Mitchell being on the court.
21:22
SPEAKER_00: AJ Mitchell's like the fourth best player on the team, y'all.
21:25
SPEAKER_00: J Dub is the second best player on the team.
21:27
SPEAKER_00: They were three minutes away from being in the finals again without those guys.
21:33
SPEAKER_00: So I just I I understand the idea of like, ooh, doom and gloom, you just lost.
21:39
SPEAKER_00: And Giannis is available, and even though there's there's no real truth to this or record of this, he could be the guy that's to stop Victor Wimba.
21:46
SPEAKER_00: Yama, so let's go get him.
21:48
SPEAKER_00: Bro, this the outcome of this game could have easily been okay.
21:53
SPEAKER_00: C win.
21:54
SPEAKER_00: I just don't think they're in the need to do something that dramatic.
21:59
SPEAKER_00: Chet again.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: Chets sucked.
22:02
SPEAKER_00: But do you think that OKC was one Giannis away from winning this series?
22:09
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna say no.
22:11
SPEAKER_00: I don't think they were one Giannis away.
22:13
SPEAKER_00: I think they were one J Dub away.
22:15
SPEAKER_00: I think they were one AJ Mitchell away.
22:18
SPEAKER_00: I mean, Giannis for sure.
22:20
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we ain't gonna question the talent.
22:21
SPEAKER_00: Giannis, Giannis one of the best players in the world, one of the best players ever.
22:25
SPEAKER_00: But it would feel very, very reactionary to a team that genuinely was not healthy.
22:33
SPEAKER_00: I think it's cool and fun to draw up OKC trades because OKC got all these picks and they got all these contracts.
22:40
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, let's try to make something happen.
22:42
SPEAKER_00: If they if in my opinion, if they were gonna make a trade, it wouldn't be that dramatic of a trade.
22:45
SPEAKER_00: I think it would be a trade to increase some other places more than it is to go get Giannis.
22:51
SPEAKER_00: And again, not denying the difference in talent level between Giannis and Chad Homer because the talent level difference is dramatic.
23:00
SPEAKER_00: But I do believe that Shea Chat and Dub as a three-man core is still good enough to win a championship.
23:08
SPEAKER_00: They were three minutes away from doing it.
23:11
SPEAKER_00: I mean, at least getting there.
23:12
SPEAKER_00: Not closing to the Knicks.
23:13
SPEAKER_00: The Knicks are a very great team and they could definitely win this championship.
23:17
SPEAKER_00: So I just don't know.
23:18
SPEAKER_00: And when you add on the fact that Giannis are gonna be making some big old money soon.
23:24
SPEAKER_00: And they also have other decisions to make.
23:26
SPEAKER_00: I just feel like trading for a super duper star feels low on the priority list.
23:30
SPEAKER_00: How about we start off on this?
23:33
SPEAKER_00: What are we doing with Lou Dort?
23:34
SPEAKER_00: Are we taking that team option?
23:36
SPEAKER_00: What are we doing with Isaiah Hardenstein?
23:37
SPEAKER_00: Are we taking that team option?
23:38
SPEAKER_00: What are we doing with Isaiah Joe, who's making$11 million but couldn't really play in this series?
23:42
SPEAKER_00: Are we trading him away to another team to get below the second?
23:44
SPEAKER_00: Like there are there are way more there are way other different different ways that they can go to improve the team without saying, hey, here go everything for Big Yan right now.
23:55
SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
23:57
SPEAKER_00: So it's fun.
23:58
SPEAKER_00: Hey, I might throw it in 2K tomorrow.
24:00
SPEAKER_00: Who knows?
24:01
SPEAKER_00: But as far as doing it in real life, does that feel like also putting yourself in Sam Presti's shoes?
24:06
SPEAKER_00: Does that feel like a Sam Presti move?
24:09
SPEAKER_00: No, not to me.
24:11
SPEAKER_00: Now maybe he proves me wrong because they do got a thousand first-round picks to throw to a team, but it just feels like he would be the type to sit back and say, hey, with good health, we compete with the Spurs.
24:23
SPEAKER_00: And I I kind of like the idea of the young core of OKC having a tip on his shoulder next season and saying that, hell, that team beat us, we won't, we want our get back.
24:33
SPEAKER_00: Not here come reinforcements.
24:36
SPEAKER_00: Every time we lose, we can't be trying to go get the next best player, we can't go get the best player in the world.
24:41
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
24:42
SPEAKER_00: Every time a team loses, we automatically say, oh, they must go trade for this guy.
24:48
SPEAKER_00: That core just did it last season.
24:50
SPEAKER_00: And though the Spurs should be better next season, so should so should OKC.
24:56
SPEAKER_00: I want to see though, I want to see Shay, Shaq, and Dub go against Wemby, Castle, and Harper for 10 years straight.
25:04
SPEAKER_00: Give me all of that.
25:05
SPEAKER_00: Because we were we were kind of, it didn't happen this season.
25:08
SPEAKER_00: We got one game of Dub, really, and then 10 minutes when he tried to come back.
25:11
SPEAKER_00: But that's it.
25:12
SPEAKER_00: I want those cores to clash.
25:14
SPEAKER_00: I'm not trying to see one break up this fast.
25:18
SPEAKER_00: You get if it happens next season, then maybe let's go make a big trade.
25:23
SPEAKER_00: But you can't just make the assumption off of one game or one series.
25:26
SPEAKER_00: Come on, y'all.
25:29
SPEAKER_00: Shea also said, man, we won two and a half games without J Dub this series.
25:32
SPEAKER_00: Two and a half games.
25:33
SPEAKER_00: I'm not without J Dub and AJ Mitchell.
25:35
SPEAKER_00: We had enough to do it.
25:37
SPEAKER_00: That's just him giving credit to his guys.
25:38
SPEAKER_00: But like, you know what I'm saying?
25:40
SPEAKER_00: All right, enough OKC.
25:42
SPEAKER_00: We'll see what they end up doing.
25:43
SPEAKER_00: I would tell them right now, Sam Pressey call, call up Bryson Graham.
25:46
SPEAKER_00: We'll take on Isaiah Joe.
25:47
SPEAKER_00: Just give us some.
25:47
SPEAKER_00: That's$11 million.
25:48
SPEAKER_00: We got$60 million in cap space.
25:50
SPEAKER_00: We'll, we'll, you know what I'm saying?
25:51
SPEAKER_00: Let's let's let's make some deal happen.
25:53
SPEAKER_00: So the Spurs are in the finals, though.
25:56
SPEAKER_00: I have historically been a guy that looks at history.
25:59
SPEAKER_00: You know, historically looked at history when it comes to trying to figure out ceilings and floors of different teams.
26:05
SPEAKER_00: And you know, young teams don't win.
26:07
SPEAKER_00: Last year, a young team did win in OKC.
26:09
SPEAKER_00: But OKC at least had a scar.
26:12
SPEAKER_00: They went up against Luca in the Dallas Mavericks, and the Dallas Mavericks won.
26:16
SPEAKER_00: I was like, uh-oh.
26:17
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
26:17
SPEAKER_00: Now let's go trade Josh Giddy.
26:18
SPEAKER_00: Let's go get Caruso.
26:19
SPEAKER_00: Let's go get Isaiah Hartstein.
26:20
SPEAKER_00: Now we got our reinforcements that way, and we're gonna go out and win.
26:23
SPEAKER_00: And they did.
26:25
SPEAKER_00: Before December, even though the Spurs were good, I thought they were gonna be a team that needed their, needed their scars.
26:32
SPEAKER_00: And here they are, four wins away from being NBA champions, and they ain't had a scar just yet.
26:37
SPEAKER_00: Actually, I'll take that back.
26:38
SPEAKER_00: I listened to all of the post-game interviews because again, it's a game seven to go to the finals.
26:43
SPEAKER_00: And Mitch Johnson said something that was pretty interesting to me when he was asked about experience.
26:47
SPEAKER_00: He said that experience can come in a couple different ways.
26:50
SPEAKER_00: And I think that our team has had in-season experience between having all the injuries and women Yama going down and then him having to come off the bench and then going against the defendant champion.
26:59
SPEAKER_00: Like, like it was a lot of different things that say, like, hey, we may not have total series played yet, but we have experience in other different ways, which I think is an interesting take on the whole idea.
27:08
SPEAKER_00: So I thought they like, you know, before December, I thought that, you know, they needed that experience.
27:13
SPEAKER_00: And the answer ended up being no.
27:15
SPEAKER_00: They just took out the defendant champions to get to the NBA finals and very close to maybe being champion.
27:20
SPEAKER_00: So I'm at the point now, as an analyst, if that's the title you want to give me, where the historical data means less and less to me every single season.
27:29
SPEAKER_00: I just feel like every year we're seeing new things.
27:31
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know if that's a wimby thing or what, but we're seeing things that we've never seen before.
27:35
SPEAKER_00: Things that just never have happened in the NBA are just happening very casually.
27:40
SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about the journey for the Spurs in order to get here real quick.
27:44
SPEAKER_00: I think I mentioned earlier um Julian Champagne was waived by the 76ers.
27:51
SPEAKER_00: Which I feel like the 76ers fans are having a rough time right now.
27:53
SPEAKER_00: I ain't gonna lie to you.
27:54
SPEAKER_00: You know, they uh traded Jeremy Cain, who was basically the second best offensive player last night for the for the OKC Thunder.
28:02
SPEAKER_00: They waved Isaiah Joe, who didn't play in this series, but Isaiah Joe had become a really plus piece for OKC over the last couple seasons.
28:07
SPEAKER_00: And they waived Champagne, who just had 20 points in a closeout game seven.
28:10
SPEAKER_00: So, like, tough time.
28:12
SPEAKER_00: Uh, it's probably one of the reasons why unfortunately Darren Morey has been relieved of his position over there.
28:18
SPEAKER_00: So Champney, castaway in a way.
28:22
SPEAKER_00: De'Aaron Fox requested a trade from Sacramento.
28:25
SPEAKER_00: And De'Aaron Fox is a really good ball player.
28:27
SPEAKER_00: He's closer to an all-star player than the All-NBA player.
28:29
SPEAKER_00: I think he may have made all NBA once in his like the beam season, but for the most part, he's been closer to an all-star player than the all-NBA guy.
28:35
SPEAKER_00: And usually when the all-star guy requests a trade, they don't get a one-team semi-here or else.
28:41
SPEAKER_00: But that's what De'Aaron Fox got a one-team list and they sent them to that team.
28:46
SPEAKER_00: And the Kings got Zach Levine, a guy who they, boy, it's so it's weird over there.
28:50
SPEAKER_00: Because remember, before uh Perry hit the job, he was saying that he wasn't a fan of Zach Levine.
28:55
SPEAKER_00: And then he inherited the team that had Zach Levine.
28:58
SPEAKER_00: CD Sudoko is part of that trade.
29:00
SPEAKER_00: He got moved again.
29:01
SPEAKER_00: They got three feature first.
29:02
SPEAKER_00: One of them is a 2025 pick from Charlotte.
29:05
SPEAKER_00: I think that might have ended up being Nee Clifford, a San Antonio pick for 2027.
29:08
SPEAKER_00: Spoiler alert, that 2027 pick is probably 30th because that Spurs team is going to be good next season.
29:13
SPEAKER_00: And then a 2031 first-round pick for Minnesota, which is up in the air because you don't know what the hell is going to happen with Minnesota over the next couple seasons and three seconds.
29:20
SPEAKER_00: So not the greatest of hauls for De'Aaron Fox, but he had a one-place team and they sent them there, and it's been working out.
29:27
SPEAKER_00: I don't think he was phenomenal in the series, but I think he was steady.
29:30
SPEAKER_00: And I think they needed that steadiness because Stefan Castle had struggled to take care of the ball when he was a lead ball handler, and De'Aaron Fox came back.
29:37
SPEAKER_00: And though Castle did have six turnovers in game seven, before that, he had one turnover, one turnover, and one turnover in the previous three games.
29:43
SPEAKER_00: I think, you know, Castle obviously gets credit for not making those decisions, but Fox taking the ball out of his hand a little bit more, gets credit there.
29:50
SPEAKER_00: So they acquired De'Aaron Fox and they did more things.
29:55
SPEAKER_00: Like drafting a guy and Stefan Castle at four.
29:59
SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, they don't get credit for getting lucky to have Wimbenyama and Harper and Castle like those picks, but they get they get credit for drafting Castle, right?
30:08
SPEAKER_00: You don't get credit for Wimby.
30:09
SPEAKER_00: That was a one-of-one type of player.
30:10
SPEAKER_00: You don't get credit for for Harper because all 30 teams in that spot are picking Harper.
30:14
SPEAKER_00: But I think Castle is the one that's more interesting.
30:16
SPEAKER_00: I think revisionist history would be like, of course.
30:18
SPEAKER_00: But remember those mocks around that time?
30:20
SPEAKER_00: That was so in flux.
30:21
SPEAKER_00: Nobody knew who number one was.
30:22
SPEAKER_00: There was mocks back then that had Don McClingen at number one.
30:25
SPEAKER_00: There was mocks that had um Alex Saar number one, even though he didn't want to go to Atlanta.
30:29
SPEAKER_00: So everything was up in flux, and it was just eye of the beholder, and they happened to take Stefan Castle, and probably are really lucky that the three teams in front of them took Rishay, Saar, and and Ree Shepherd or whatever.
30:42
SPEAKER_00: If y'all remember Stefan Castle had told the league when he was doing his interviews, hey man, I'm a point guard.
30:47
SPEAKER_00: And if you ain't gonna put me in a position to be a point guard, don't draft me.
30:50
SPEAKER_00: And the Spurs said, ah, you're not a point guard.
30:52
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna draft you and we're gonna put you next to, I don't know, Chris Paul.
30:55
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna put you next to uh Dear Fox.
30:57
SPEAKER_00: And then we're also gonna draft Ellen Harper, who's a true point guard, and put him there too.
31:01
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
31:02
SPEAKER_00: This team's journey is fascinating.
31:04
SPEAKER_00: The Spurs have always found a way, even in their down years.
31:07
SPEAKER_00: They've always found a way to get back to the spot.
31:09
SPEAKER_00: Part of it is luck to get that first pick in the Tim Duncan draft and in the Wimby draft, but you got to do the things around them too.
31:15
SPEAKER_00: There have been a lot of generational type of guys that got drafted to a team, and that team struggled to put the pieces around him.
31:22
SPEAKER_00: Spurs are not one of those teams.
31:23
SPEAKER_00: When we come back, we got more.
31:25
SPEAKER_00: I almost said numbers on the board.
31:26
SPEAKER_00: Small ball with Kenny Beachum.
31:35
SPEAKER_00: So now they're here.
31:36
SPEAKER_00: Spurs are in the finals.
31:38
SPEAKER_00: And they're going against a team that has been sitting around waiting to see what team they're gonna get.
31:44
SPEAKER_00: And that team is the New York Knicks.
31:48
SPEAKER_00: One of the questions I got asked quite a bit over the last week or two was if you had 100%, what percent of the Knicks doing what they're doing is based on them being phenomenal versus what percentage is this the Eastern Conference being bad?
32:00
SPEAKER_00: And I went 80% Knicks, 20% conference being bad.
32:06
SPEAKER_00: Because I think that we all looked and said that the it's worse than the Western Conference from start to finish.
32:13
SPEAKER_00: But there are some teams out here that are really interesting.
32:15
SPEAKER_00: And then the Knicks saw those teams and they bust their ass.
32:18
SPEAKER_00: It's not the Knicks aren't just in the finals.
32:21
SPEAKER_00: They dominated their way to the finals.
32:22
SPEAKER_00: I think that is the differentiating factor between the conference being bad versus the Knicks being good.
32:28
SPEAKER_00: If they just happen to get here off the six-game series, seven-game series, seven-game series, then yeah, they squeaked their way through.
32:34
SPEAKER_00: But no, they looked at those teams and they just the two losses that they have are CJ McCollum game winners, y'all.
32:40
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
32:41
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
32:42
SPEAKER_00: Come back down 22 with seven minutes and 52 seconds left.
32:45
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
32:46
SPEAKER_00: They did that.
32:46
SPEAKER_00: Close out a game, win it by 48.
32:48
SPEAKER_00: They did, they do that.
32:49
SPEAKER_00: So I think this Knicks team is very, very good.
32:51
SPEAKER_00: And the Spurs are a very, very good team too.
32:54
SPEAKER_00: Genuinely the perfect finals for Adam Silver specifically to have the biggest market in the league finally, finally get back to this place in the New York Knicks and to have them go against the face of the league and future face of the league and Victor Wimbayama is exactly what Adam Silver could have asked for.
33:10
SPEAKER_00: I I sit with him and everybody else when I say I want this to be a long series.
33:15
SPEAKER_00: I'm not prepared for the season to end, if that makes sense.
33:19
SPEAKER_00: This is all I've known for a lot of time this season.
33:24
SPEAKER_00: So one one in these seeds is gonna raise Hilario B, and we're gonna celebrate in honor of them and for them, but then it's gonna be over and I'm gonna be very sad.
33:33
SPEAKER_00: I told my wife yesterday, at the very most, I got seven basketball, NBA basketball games to watch left.
33:39
SPEAKER_00: Seven.
33:40
SPEAKER_00: And that's crazy to think about.
33:42
SPEAKER_00: She was she said yay, you know.
33:45
SPEAKER_00: I think she kind of won her husband back.
33:47
SPEAKER_00: Um I think she over for four.
33:51
SPEAKER_00: I think she wants to see the Knicks sweep for her.
33:54
SPEAKER_00: Um, but yeah, it's uh it's it is interesting there.
33:56
SPEAKER_00: But thinking about it the matchup wise, the times they played against each other in the regular season, the one big X factor that was in the Knicks' favor was Mitchell Robinson.
34:04
SPEAKER_00: So when Mitchell Robinson was was it was reported that he broke his pinky and that he needed surgery.
34:08
SPEAKER_00: I was so disappointed and so sad.
34:10
SPEAKER_00: They say he's gonna play through it, he's gonna be ready for game one.
34:12
SPEAKER_00: I guess he's gonna wear cast.
34:13
SPEAKER_00: But if you remember those games, Mitchell Robinson added a level of electricity into that cup game with his offensive rebounder.
34:21
SPEAKER_00: And I think that is a place where the Knicks can try to be better than the Spurs and I don't know, defense of the Spurs.
34:30
SPEAKER_00: Game seven, they were the best offensive rebounding team between them and OKC, Keldon, uh Wimby himself, you know, all these guys really crashed the glass and got extra opportunities.
34:40
SPEAKER_00: And the Spurs are not the same team that they were all about all the way back then.
34:43
SPEAKER_00: But, you know, you have to look at that and say, hey, how can the Knicks add these extra possessions?
34:48
SPEAKER_00: Hey, will Mitch Johnson try to do a hack of Mitch to get him off the court because he is so much of a, I don't know, a guy that can swing a game and swing a series with his extra possessions?
34:58
SPEAKER_00: Car Anthony Towns, are we getting Carr Anthony Jokic or are we getting Carl Anthony Towns as far as like his role within this series?
35:03
SPEAKER_00: Because one thing we know that the Spurs are gonna do, they're gonna park with Victor Wimanyama on Josh Hart and let him roam.
35:10
SPEAKER_00: That's what he's done all series long.
35:11
SPEAKER_00: He finds a nunshooter and they're gonna run uh a one-man zone where Wimedyama can just roll, roll, roam, and and if Josh Hart hit his threes, like Caruso hit his threes in game one, we'll we'll try to win that game through that.
35:24
SPEAKER_00: I think that, especially considering Dub and Mitchell's injuries, the Knicks are a more well-rounded offensive team than the Thunder just were.
35:35
SPEAKER_00: They got better shooters.
35:38
SPEAKER_00: I mean, Mikhail Bridges at one point before his his closeout game versus the Cavs, was shooting like 70% on his last 100 attempts.
35:46
SPEAKER_00: They went to the free throw line and OJ Nobi took free throws, and it said he was shooting 54% from the field, 49% from three in the not in the series, in the entire postseason.
35:56
SPEAKER_00: Carton Towns, it's the self-proclaimed best three-point shooting big in the history of the sport.
36:02
SPEAKER_00: So, yes, them guys, they, and then not to mention Jalen Brunson and the solo actor, so they have more offensive talent than what OKC was able to put together in that last series.
36:13
SPEAKER_00: I wonder how many times Jalen Brunson does see two, right?
36:17
SPEAKER_00: Because of the extra jump shooting that you get from New York Knicks.
36:20
SPEAKER_00: I didn't even mention like Miles McBride off the bench or Landry Shaman, who missed one total three of the entirety of the conference finals versus the Cavs.
36:27
SPEAKER_00: So they just have extra shooting in the way that OKC doesn't.
36:31
SPEAKER_00: But also, I've seen the Spurs team very be very versatile.
36:35
SPEAKER_00: I don't think that they look at what they did against the Thunder and say that's the exact same scheme or running against Jalen Brunson.
36:40
SPEAKER_00: We saw Shake.
36:41
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no, no, no, no, because those two types of guys are completely different, right?
36:44
SPEAKER_00: So I can't wait to see exactly what game one looks like.
36:46
SPEAKER_00: And also what we saw in that series is both of these teams are willing to adjust.
36:50
SPEAKER_00: Shea saw doubles for the first two games of the series.
36:52
SPEAKER_00: They said, ah, he's doing too good passing.
36:54
SPEAKER_00: Let's play him straight up and let's show help on all these different places.
36:57
SPEAKER_00: And that made him be more decisive in his decision making and made it more difficult for him to be a super plus passer or a super plus creator.
37:06
SPEAKER_00: OG Ananobi is going to be guarding Victor Wimanyama.
37:09
SPEAKER_00: And I do think that OG has the opportunity to be not the Wimby stopper, but like he's kind of the perfect type of defender that I would want if I'm guarding Victor Wimanyama for a seven-game series.
37:22
SPEAKER_00: He's kind of the perfect blend between the two things that teams have been trying against Wimby for the entire career.
37:28
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you can make him a little bit more uncomfortable by playing physical.
37:31
SPEAKER_00: OJ Ananobi can play physical, damn it.
37:32
SPEAKER_00: Maybe get a little bit uncomfortable about putting guys that are smaller than him that can get under.
37:36
SPEAKER_00: Ojan Anobi's smaller than him, so he can get under.
37:38
SPEAKER_00: So he is like perfect for that.
37:41
SPEAKER_00: So I can't wait to see what type of performances we get from Victor Womenyama.
37:45
SPEAKER_00: Um, I can't wait to see what Jalen Brunson is able to do.
37:48
SPEAKER_00: There's been a lot of conversations since Jalen Brunson has turned into a superstar about could a guy of his size be good enough to lead a team to a championship?
37:55
SPEAKER_00: And they're potentially four wins away from saying, like, yeah, that that can happen.
37:59
SPEAKER_00: But it's another one of them history things that I was mentioning earlier where history tells you that you really only have Allen Iverson in his finals appearance in 2001.
38:08
SPEAKER_00: You had like Steph Curry, I don't count as a small guard compared to these guys.
38:11
SPEAKER_00: I think Steph Curry's like 6'3, while Brunson is like a generous 6'1.
38:16
SPEAKER_00: AI was six foot even, you know, even like Chris Paul, man.
38:19
SPEAKER_00: Chris Paul's only made it once.
38:20
SPEAKER_00: And the one time he made it, he was a secondary guy instead of the lead guy.
38:24
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, he could potentially put to bear.
38:26
SPEAKER_00: And Zeke, don't forget Isaiah Thomas is the prototypical small guard to be the best player on the championship team.
38:32
SPEAKER_00: But since then, it hasn't been anybody.
38:34
SPEAKER_00: So excited to see how he shows up potentially in this series.
38:38
SPEAKER_00: And ultimately, I think it's gonna boil down to seeing what's in front of you and adjusting.
38:42
SPEAKER_00: Mitch Johnson did an amazing job adjusting throughout the course of the playoffs.
38:46
SPEAKER_00: I think Mike Brown on the offensive side has done an amazing job of adjusting.
38:51
SPEAKER_00: And I've seen people like underrate the Knicks in this one in their defense and again, level of competition, whatever you want to do, they've been the best version of themselves defensively, like right now.
39:02
SPEAKER_00: So they have been the best defensive team in the entire playoffs, which is crazy to say allow.
39:05
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if they're that good that the numbers say, but they're definitely better than what you think they are.
39:09
SPEAKER_00: You you look at Jalen Bronson, you look at Carlton Towns, you say, that probably ain't good enough defensively.
39:14
SPEAKER_00: I think it is good enough defensively.
39:16
SPEAKER_00: If one of these teams win in five or four, I'm gonna be pissed.
39:19
SPEAKER_00: I just want more basketball.
39:20
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
39:21
SPEAKER_00: Then people are gonna ask me for my official finance prediction.
39:24
SPEAKER_00: So here it is.
39:25
SPEAKER_00: I've thought about it for about, I don't know, 15 hours.
39:29
SPEAKER_00: I mean, game seven just happened.
39:32
SPEAKER_00: Um I'm gonna go Spurs six.
39:38
SPEAKER_00: Spurs six.
39:40
SPEAKER_00: It hurts me to say that in New York.
39:42
SPEAKER_00: It hurts me to say that.
39:43
SPEAKER_00: But I I got no, I got no dog in this fight, but it hurts me to say that.
39:47
SPEAKER_00: I think the city, I just I don't again, I don't care who wins.
39:51
SPEAKER_00: Actually, I just want good basketball and I want as many games as possible.
39:55
SPEAKER_00: But if the the Knicks were to win, I cannot wait to watch the celebration.
40:01
SPEAKER_00: I don't know who I gotta follow on Instagram that's gonna be like on Instagram live during the after they close out a series, but I need to find that person.
40:09
SPEAKER_00: If you know somebody that will go live in the streets of New York if they win the finals, please let me know.
40:13
SPEAKER_00: Because I'm I'm following that person, ASAP.
40:16
SPEAKER_00: ASAP.
40:17
SPEAKER_00: Because I need to see people on the street polls and the and and and on the street signs and flipping over cars because it's gonna happen.
40:24
SPEAKER_00: It's New York, baby.
40:26
SPEAKER_00: And it's been 50 years since they got one of them.
40:29
SPEAKER_00: I need y'all to stay tuned because we do have more.
40:31
SPEAKER_00: Small ball with Kenny Beecham.
40:39
SPEAKER_00: Before we go any further, we want to say thank you to our partners over at DraftKings.
40:43
SPEAKER_00: You may know all about DraftKings pick six by now, where you can pick more or less for different players' stats for the upcoming games.
40:48
SPEAKER_00: It is the NBA finals.
40:50
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna say it again.
40:51
SPEAKER_00: It is the NBA finals, y'all.
40:53
SPEAKER_00: And for the finals, what I'm gonna be doing is looking for some of my favorite players in this series, looking at their stats that are on the board, like points, rebounds, assists.
41:01
SPEAKER_00: I see points at first quarter, three minutes.
41:03
SPEAKER_00: Like I it's a lot of different options over here on the app.
41:06
SPEAKER_00: Picking one of those players, putting them to my pick side, then deciding more or less.
41:10
SPEAKER_00: Pretty, pretty simple game.
41:12
SPEAKER_00: I'm looking at the lines, right?
41:14
SPEAKER_00: We got a couple games, but a couple days before the game starts.
41:16
SPEAKER_00: So some of these lines may shift before Wednesday's tip.
41:19
SPEAKER_00: Right now, they do have a uh Jalen Bronson at 0.5 points, which is pretty fun.
41:24
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you all but a guarantee he's gonna, you know what I'm saying?
41:28
SPEAKER_00: Looking at it, Wimba Yamas at 27 and a half points.
41:31
SPEAKER_00: I ain't mad at that.
41:32
SPEAKER_00: Car Anthony Towns at 17 and a half points, pretty interesting.
41:35
SPEAKER_00: But the one that jumps off the page for me is a guy that has been very consistent now for about two and a half series.
41:42
SPEAKER_00: Mikhail Bridges' line right now is 13 and a half.
41:45
SPEAKER_00: Now, the defensive matchup for him against the Spurs is going to be a lot more difficult than any series he's seen so far.
41:52
SPEAKER_00: But he is playing with such a level of confidence and swagger that I think I have to look at that 13 and a half and put it into my pick set and go more.
42:00
SPEAKER_00: Now, if that shifts a little bit, then come back and ask me.
42:02
SPEAKER_00: But right now, if it's 13 and a half, I love that.
42:05
SPEAKER_00: Champ Henny just had a 20-point closeout game, and right now his line is at nine and a half.
42:11
SPEAKER_00: It feels kind of rich now that I think about it.
42:14
SPEAKER_00: So I'm I'm getting away from that.
42:15
SPEAKER_00: The next guy I do see is Dylan Harper.
42:17
SPEAKER_00: Now, Dylan Harper had a couple down games, and I think that had a lot to do with the injury that he was playing through.
42:22
SPEAKER_00: But the last two, he looked like the version of him we saw him be in the previous series.
42:26
SPEAKER_00: Right now, his line is 10 and a half.
42:28
SPEAKER_00: I can't be mad at that.
42:30
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna look at that and I'm gonna say, yeah, I'm putting that into my pick set.
42:33
SPEAKER_00: I'm going more on points for Dylan Harper at 10 and a half.
42:36
SPEAKER_00: And because we're so far away, oh no, that's not true.
42:39
SPEAKER_00: I thought because we were so far away from the actual game that they didn't have rebounds and assists up.
42:44
SPEAKER_00: Guess what they do?
42:44
SPEAKER_00: Rebounds and assists.
42:45
SPEAKER_00: Wemby's at 12 and a half.
42:47
SPEAKER_00: Kat is at 12 and a half.
42:49
SPEAKER_00: Hey, I might I might put both of those into the pick set.
42:51
SPEAKER_00: Mitchell Robinson is at four and a half.
42:54
SPEAKER_00: Now again, he's playing with the he's playing with the brace.
42:58
SPEAKER_00: I guess, I guess they got him listed as questionable.
43:01
SPEAKER_00: So you know what?
43:02
SPEAKER_00: I'm taking both of the bigs.
43:04
SPEAKER_00: Car Anthony Towns and Victor Wimbiama Moore on rebounds at 12 and a half.
43:07
SPEAKER_00: Them boys are gonna be down low, going after them offensively, defensively.
43:12
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be a battle of two of our best rebounders because remind you, Carl Anthony Towns really is that good on that glass, man.
43:17
SPEAKER_00: That guy, let me look at these numbers from the previous games, which is something you can do in the pick six app.
43:22
SPEAKER_00: Um, 14 rebounds in the last closeout game, eight in the previous one, 13-13.
43:27
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
43:27
SPEAKER_00: I like that number.
43:28
SPEAKER_00: I like that number.
43:29
SPEAKER_00: And you know what Wimmy can do.
43:31
SPEAKER_00: He had a 40-20 game.
43:32
SPEAKER_00: Now, the last couple games, not so much, but this is a new matchup at home in the NBA Finals.
43:37
SPEAKER_00: I'm expecting Wimmy to be, I almost called him a unicorn.
43:40
SPEAKER_00: I expect him to be the alien.
43:42
SPEAKER_00: Um I'm expecting to get multiple games, like many, many games in the series.
43:46
SPEAKER_00: I want seven of them.
43:47
SPEAKER_00: I want seven of them.
43:48
SPEAKER_00: All right, when we come back, we got more small ball with Kenny Beachum.
43:51
SPEAKER_00: Stay tuned.
43:52
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43:56
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44:01
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44:05
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44:09
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44:10
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44:18
SPEAKER_00: I think I mentioned this earlier in the show, but I am lucky enough to get an opportunity to attend game one of the NBA Finals, which is something that I feel like I've dreamt about for the entirety of my life.
44:28
SPEAKER_00: I will say part of my dream was to be playing in it when I was a kid, but whatever.
44:32
SPEAKER_00: You know, move the goalpost a little bit, do it a little bit differently because times have changed.
44:37
SPEAKER_00: Um but I'm going to the finals, man, and I can't believe that.
44:40
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know, not to get all sentimental in a way, none of that is even possible without like you guys watching and enjoying the videos, the content, the podcast episodes.
44:50
SPEAKER_00: So like I am 100% appreciative to everybody that shows support.
44:54
SPEAKER_00: Um I mentioned many times I'm a I'm a neutral in here.
44:57
SPEAKER_00: I just want good basketball.
44:58
SPEAKER_00: But I'm going with the rest of my numbers on the board, guys.
45:00
SPEAKER_00: And if you don't know, Pierre, my cousin, is a diehard Knicks fan.
45:04
SPEAKER_00: So I'm going to have to watch this game through his lands in a way, because it's going to be a very long time since my team is going to be in the finals.
45:12
SPEAKER_00: And by the time they make it to the finals, who knows if I'm going to be lucky enough to attend the game?
45:16
SPEAKER_00: So he's in the perfect spot where his favorite team is in the NBA finals.
45:21
SPEAKER_00: And the first time he's ever had credentials to the finals, he's there for his favorite team.
45:27
SPEAKER_00: It's super cool stuff.
45:29
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, if if Brombron goes out there and have a 70-point game, I'm just talking.
45:33
SPEAKER_00: Um, I think his career high is against the Spurs.
45:35
SPEAKER_00: Now I think about it.
45:36
SPEAKER_00: If he does go out there and have an amazing game and Pierre sit next to me, I'm gonna make sure I look at Pierre a couple different times to see if that singular tear fall down his face to be here for this type of moment.
45:45
SPEAKER_00: It's the finals, man.
45:46
SPEAKER_00: It's in San Antonio, a city I've never been to before.
45:49
SPEAKER_00: It was weird watching game seven without knowing because we had two fights booked, one to San Antonio, one uh booked to OKC, and we were just gonna, we just canceled the OKC one.
45:58
SPEAKER_00: But we're watching this game, not knowing where in 48 hours we're gonna get up to hop on a flight to.
46:02
SPEAKER_00: And it's just different for us.
46:03
SPEAKER_00: I know some people, that's their whole life, right?
46:05
SPEAKER_00: I mean, the Knicks, that's their life.
46:06
SPEAKER_00: They're probably on the flight right now to San Antonio, do their media stuff, but they didn't know where they was gonna be.
46:11
SPEAKER_00: Or I guess anybody that was working the broadcast, they don't know where they're gonna be until that final buzzer.
46:17
SPEAKER_00: It was just different for us.
46:18
SPEAKER_00: And my wife asked me many times, like, do you have a preference?
46:21
SPEAKER_00: What do you have a preference?
46:22
SPEAKER_00: And the answer is just no.
46:22
SPEAKER_00: I've never been to either of those two cities.
46:25
SPEAKER_00: Um, so I was gonna be excited either way because I I do want to knock off the list of like been to every NBA arena.
46:30
SPEAKER_00: So regardless, I was gonna have a new team on that arena or a new team on that list.
46:35
SPEAKER_00: And I was just cooling, man.
46:37
SPEAKER_00: It ain't it ain't much different as far as like the weather goes.
46:40
SPEAKER_00: That was a big thing.
46:42
SPEAKER_00: Man, I looked at that weather, that must have said 95 and sunny.
46:45
SPEAKER_00: I said, whoa.
46:46
SPEAKER_00: And yeah, we get 95 days here in in Illinois.
46:50
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if it's gonna be the same as getting it four days in a row game.
46:54
SPEAKER_00: That's one thing I'm not looking for is that the Texas heat.
46:56
SPEAKER_00: I've been to Texas now maybe four times, Houston a few different times, Dallas a few different times.
47:02
SPEAKER_00: Um, and that heat is something I still ain't been able to get used to.
47:05
SPEAKER_00: I was even asking people on Twitter, like, bro, how do I how do I even dress for this?
47:08
SPEAKER_00: Well, you you want to be fly because you work in the NBA Finals, but you also don't want to be drenched in sweat from from walking from the Uber to the arena.
47:15
SPEAKER_00: So how do I dress?
47:17
SPEAKER_00: And people gave suggestions, and I'm trying my very best to look fly and to be be comfy and not sweating like crazy, but you gotta do what you gotta do, man.
47:25
SPEAKER_00: Game with the NBA Finals, I'll be there.
47:27
SPEAKER_00: Um truly, truly is a blessing.
47:30
SPEAKER_00: And a few things I'm really looking forward to is traveling with the guys.
47:34
SPEAKER_00: It's almost always my favorite thing about going anywhere is doing it with my guys because you know, most of the time we're on the same flight, most of the time we're taking the same Ubers, most of the time we just hanging out, right?
47:43
SPEAKER_00: So even though it's a new city and we're gonna be working, I know for sure somebody's gonna get the group chat like, hey, I found this restaurant that's a four-minute walk away.
47:51
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna tell them no about the walk part.
47:52
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna catch an Uber the four minutes because damn it, it's 95 degrees.
47:56
SPEAKER_00: But we just get to hang, and that's the most fun part about my job is great, but that's the most fun part.
48:01
SPEAKER_00: These are my my literally my first cousin, and then my other two guys I've been friends with since I was 14.
48:05
SPEAKER_00: I'll turn 30 this season.
48:06
SPEAKER_00: Oh, this season.
48:07
SPEAKER_00: Look at me, basketball brand.
48:09
SPEAKER_00: This year I'll turn 30.
48:10
SPEAKER_00: So these are my best friends forever, right?
48:12
SPEAKER_00: So we get to travel the world together.
48:13
SPEAKER_00: Um, and it and it truly, truly, truly is is a blessing.
48:18
SPEAKER_00: The thing I'm looking forward to most, let's say after, after all of this is wrapped up and the finals is over.
48:24
SPEAKER_00: It's a seven-game series that ends on the buzzer beat.
48:26
SPEAKER_00: Or what team wins, I don't know.
48:28
SPEAKER_00: Um the offseason is gonna be interesting because we have teams with cap space, we have the NBA draft, and my team is I don't use the word the center of it, because I think the center of the offseason might end up being in Milwaukee, considering Giannis's free or not free ACS trade scenario where people are speculating there's a 0% chance he comes back.
48:47
SPEAKER_00: So there they might be the center of everything, but I do think the Bulls are gonna be pretty involved.
48:53
SPEAKER_00: And it you know we gotta get to the Bulls every episode, and it scares me quite a bit.
48:57
SPEAKER_00: Um but I'm I'm excited for.
49:00
SPEAKER_00: I'm excited for this is the most interesting off-season for the Bulls in a very long time.
49:05
SPEAKER_00: You know,$60 million a cap, fourth overall pick, 16th overall pick, 36th overall pick.
49:10
SPEAKER_00: Like, we got a lot going on this offseason.
49:12
SPEAKER_00: And this could be the jumping point for the future of our team.
49:18
SPEAKER_00: So I need it, y'all.
49:19
SPEAKER_00: I need it to be great, I need it to be good.
49:22
SPEAKER_00: So the way I'm going into this offseason is I'm trusting Bryson Graham and I'm not gonna be too reactionary to whatever decisions are made.
49:30
SPEAKER_00: Unless it's crazy, crazy.
49:32
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
49:33
SPEAKER_00: But like if we were to take on bad money for this player, I'm not gonna overreact.
49:36
SPEAKER_00: If we were to draft a guy at 16 that I'm not extremely familiar with, I'm not gonna overreact.
49:42
SPEAKER_00: As long as we take one of those four guys F4, I'm good.
49:46
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
49:47
SPEAKER_00: As long as it's C dub or it's Cam or it's AJ or it's Darren.
49:51
SPEAKER_00: I know some of them guys got a 0% chance of being F4, but if it's one of those guys, I'm happy.
49:55
SPEAKER_00: And then the rest is the rest.
49:57
SPEAKER_00: I fell into the trap before of trusting an offseason or a front office so much that everything they did, I said the best thing in the world.
50:07
SPEAKER_00: Voots wasn't the best trade in the world.
50:08
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
50:10
SPEAKER_00: So Bryson got the city in his hands.
50:12
SPEAKER_00: Hopefully, it's been another great episode of Small Ball with Kenny Beecher for you.
50:16
SPEAKER_00: Cannot wait to get to San Antonio, watch game one of the finals.
50:19
SPEAKER_00: I will be back again next week.
50:21
SPEAKER_00: So you better tune back in.
50:23
SPEAKER_00: Peace.