Latest / The Favorites Sports Betting Podcast / NBA Finals Game Six
Transcript
- 0:08Speaker 1: Welcome to the favorites of the podcast. We are part
- 0:12Speaker 1: of the Volume podcast Network. I am Chad Millman of
- 0:14Speaker 1: the Action Network. Today I am joined as always by
- 0:18Speaker 1: my co host, my companion, my padre, my BFF professional
- 0:23Speaker 1: better Simon Hunter.
- 0:24Speaker 2: I'm giving you a.
- 0:25Speaker 1: Very special, very exaggerated, very English hello.
- 0:32Speaker 3: Soymon, Hello Chad. Perfect day here in Burnley, lovely, lovely
- 0:37Speaker 3: sunny day here in the United Kingdom. It's beautiful.
- 0:39Speaker 1: Well listen, I know you've been in training trying to
- 0:43Speaker 1: throw down as many pints as you can getting ready.
- 0:48Speaker 1: You've been in England for less than twelve hours.
- 0:52Speaker 2: Are you drunk? Have you entered into any coal mines?
- 0:59Speaker 2: Have you joined?
- 1:00Speaker 1: And peaky blinders? Are you carrying razor blades in your cap?
- 1:06Speaker 1: What's happening in Burnley right now?
- 1:09Speaker 3: God bless my cousins. They bought me cors Light because
- 1:11Speaker 3: they said that they think I only could drink light beer.
- 1:14Speaker 3: So I had a cors Light and I've said a
- 1:16Speaker 3: couple in it. So other than that, that's as British
- 1:20Speaker 3: as I've gone so far. So early days, Chad News.
- 1:23Speaker 3: I landed this morning. I'm on two hours of sleep
- 1:26Speaker 3: and yeah, tonight I'm sure it's like six thirty here,
- 1:30Speaker 3: so I'm sure after this call I'm gonna have a
- 1:32Speaker 3: couple drinks and my cousins. I'm looking forward to it.
- 1:34Speaker 1: Yeah, what's gonna happen? Are you gonna go to a
- 1:36Speaker 1: public What happens in England?
- 1:38Speaker 3: Yeah? Like literally, I mean that's why I love England.
- 1:41Speaker 3: I'm a block away, so walk down to the local pub,
- 1:44Speaker 3: have some fish and chips, have a couple of drinks
- 1:46Speaker 3: and watch some football matches. Will be a good night.
- 1:49Speaker 1: I feel like you on two hours of sleep, flying
- 1:55Speaker 1: overnight is no different than me staying up to watch
- 2:00Speaker 1: the end of the NBA Finals, which is about two
- 2:03Speaker 1: and a half hours past my bedtime. Uh. We're going
- 2:08Speaker 1: to talk a little bit about that today with our
- 2:11Speaker 1: brilliant analyst host of the Buckets podcast, the man who
- 2:17Speaker 1: made us last week bet the Okac thunder in six
- 2:22Speaker 1: as well as the Pacers in seven. You know him
- 2:27Speaker 1: as the man who says the word subsequently subsequent.
- 2:33Speaker 4: Mister Matt Moore, I did it again this week. I
- 2:37Speaker 4: did really again on a show and was just killing
- 2:40Speaker 4: myself for it. I'm like, what is wrong with me?
- 2:43Speaker 4: I'm gonna go to like a hypnotist therapist to get
- 2:46Speaker 4: me to say subsequent correctly.
- 2:48Speaker 1: I don't even think they say it like that in England,
- 2:50Speaker 1: like it's not even a word.
- 2:51Speaker 5: Nope, it's just me. It's just me. I'm the problem.
- 2:56Speaker 5: It's me.
- 3:00Speaker 1: That's the problem for us. Matt Moore because after our
- 3:02Speaker 1: conversation last week, me and Simon both bet on the
- 3:05Speaker 1: Thunder to win in six and it's looking decent. I mean,
- 3:12Speaker 1: Tyrese Halliburton, we can talk a little bit about the game.
- 3:15Speaker 1: There's a lot to say, not just about the game,
- 3:18Speaker 1: but since the last time we spoke, there's a lot
- 3:21Speaker 1: of activity in a variety of markets for the NBA.
- 3:25Speaker 1: Whether it's what's going to happen with Kevin Durant, and
- 3:27Speaker 1: I think that has subsequent value in the betting markets
- 3:32Speaker 1: for where we think he might land. There are conversations
- 3:35Speaker 1: for top five markets for the NBA draft. Desmond Bane
- 3:40Speaker 1: was traded from Memphis to Orlando. That got it to
- 3:44Speaker 1: me kind of an outsized reaction from people, but also
- 3:49Speaker 1: having an impact on what people think now of the
- 3:52Speaker 1: Eastern Conference in the NBA. So there's a lot to
- 3:55Speaker 1: break down when it comes to NBA right now, We're
- 3:57Speaker 1: entering into that super dramatic high school drama off season
- 4:00Speaker 1: of the NBA, which I love. But right now, as
- 4:04Speaker 1: we talk about it, the Thunder of a three to
- 4:07Speaker 1: two lead shake Gilgess. Alexander is averaging about thirty three
- 4:10Speaker 1: a game. Jalen Williams had forty last night for the Thunder.
- 4:14Speaker 2: They're up three to two.
- 4:15Speaker 1: Tyrese Halliburton has injured his calf. He played with a
- 4:18Speaker 1: tight calf. Here's what's interesting to me. I don't know
- 4:24Speaker 1: what's going to happen in the next two games, but
- 4:27Speaker 1: I do know that it seems very strange to me
- 4:30Speaker 1: how frequently frequently it takes Tyre's Halliburton to get into
- 4:36Speaker 1: the offensive flow in these big games. When he's great,
- 4:39Speaker 1: he's great, But why is it so hard for him
- 4:43Speaker 1: to find buckets in these big games? Too often it's
- 4:46Speaker 1: like the second quarter and you're seeing Tyres Haliburton hasn't
- 4:49Speaker 1: scored yet.
- 4:51Speaker 4: Yeah, So I think there's a couple of things that happened,
- 4:53Speaker 4: depending on what the matchup is. You know, last night,
- 4:55Speaker 4: I think the injury really was pretty severe and it
- 4:58Speaker 4: was enough to really hamper him. Now he's going to
- 4:59Speaker 4: get so much treatment, Like the amount of treatment you
- 5:03Speaker 4: would not believe.
- 5:04Speaker 5: I don't think people really understand.
- 5:05Speaker 4: It's like, oh, he'll receive treatment, and they think it's like, oh,
- 5:07Speaker 4: he'll go in and they'll.
- 5:09Speaker 5: Work on him.
- 5:09Speaker 4: No, it's like they go to his house, they work
- 5:11Speaker 4: on him, he goes to sleep, they wake up, they
- 5:13Speaker 4: come to his house, they work on him.
- 5:14Speaker 5: He goes to the arena, they work.
- 5:16Speaker 4: It's constant over the next you know, seventy two hours
- 5:19Speaker 4: before they get to game six.
- 5:23Speaker 5: So that was part of it.
- 5:24Speaker 4: The other thing is that the Thunder have high pickup points,
- 5:26Speaker 4: so they're pressuring him up the court consistently, and they've
- 5:30Speaker 4: gotten to where there it's like, all right, we have
- 5:31Speaker 4: to pressure him all the way up the court. Then
- 5:33Speaker 4: there's the matter of the pick and roll coverage. Like, okay,
- 5:37Speaker 4: what's the easiest way to get Tyree's loose. Let's say
- 5:39Speaker 4: a screen for him and separate. Starting in game four,
- 5:42Speaker 4: the Thunder, we're like, fine, fine, we'll switch. They never
- 5:46Speaker 4: want to do that. They want to play drop because
- 5:48Speaker 4: it helps them protect the paint. They started switching and
- 5:50Speaker 4: like we called it on buckets pregame, which you can
- 5:52Speaker 4: catch every every pregame before the finals and have remaining
- 5:56Speaker 4: We have left at six point thirty eastern. We talked
- 5:58Speaker 4: about how, look, Tyree's unders are a great spot here
- 6:01Speaker 4: because they're gonna switch everything and Tyrese is not good
- 6:03Speaker 4: at challenging that, and that means the other thunder guys
- 6:06Speaker 4: don't have to help off, so his assist lanes are
- 6:08Speaker 4: not there. It's just one on one, go get a bucket,
- 6:11Speaker 4: and that's not Tyrese's game.
- 6:13Speaker 5: He wants to shape it.
- 6:13Speaker 4: He wants to force gravity and then separate things and
- 6:17Speaker 4: create open lanes for guys or work off ball, and
- 6:19Speaker 4: he's willing to defer if he feels like that's the
- 6:21Speaker 4: right play. Jokic had the same problem a couple of
- 6:25Speaker 4: years ago, and not a couple of years ago, like five,
- 6:27Speaker 4: six years ago, where I would actually like Joker and
- 6:30Speaker 4: I have like this ongoing tension because I'm always i
- 6:32Speaker 4: would ask him, I'm like, as the like, do you
- 6:34Speaker 4: feel like you're the best player on this team?
- 6:36Speaker 5: And he'd always be like, no, not at all, and
- 6:38Speaker 5: I'm like, Choker, like come on.
- 6:41Speaker 4: And Tyrese has the same thing where he just wants
- 6:43Speaker 4: to kind of be part of a team that makes
- 6:45Speaker 4: everybody better. He doesn't want to be the guy that
- 6:47Speaker 4: scores thirty five. He wants to win the game by
- 6:50Speaker 4: shaping it. But the thunder are saying, no, you're gonna
- 6:53Speaker 4: have to beat Chet Hunger in one on one and
- 6:55Speaker 4: get a bucket, and you're gonna have to do it
- 6:57Speaker 4: enough that we help off. And that lenge is what
- 7:00Speaker 4: really works against Tyrese, is what makes him disengage. And
- 7:04Speaker 4: they've beaten the Knicks, and they've beaten the Calves because Nemhard,
- 7:08Speaker 4: Nie Smith, Miles, Turner, Pascal have been able to attack
- 7:12Speaker 4: those matchups off ball with the space that's provided. Okay,
- 7:16Speaker 4: so he's a different beast and that's why I think
- 7:18Speaker 4: you're seeing some of this with Tyreee on top.
- 7:20Speaker 5: Of the injury.
- 7:22Speaker 1: Simon, did you want to jump in because I have
- 7:23Speaker 1: another question.
- 7:24Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I'm just like you know, I'm I've
- 7:26Speaker 3: loved this series. There's just so much that's going on
- 7:29Speaker 3: that's I mean, anyone that's just been knocking this series
- 7:32Speaker 3: just really has missed out on what is why we
- 7:34Speaker 3: love basketball. And to me, that Game four, that pivotal
- 7:37Speaker 3: moment of SGA and just okay, See's stepping up right
- 7:41Speaker 3: They're down ten points set into that fourth quarter, and
- 7:44Speaker 3: I don't know about you, but I thought this is
- 7:46Speaker 3: over right, Like this is they're down to a team
- 7:49Speaker 3: and you know the Pacers that can close these games out,
- 7:52Speaker 3: can they can they live up to the moment to
- 7:54Speaker 3: come back. And the fact that you know we've all
- 7:56Speaker 3: seen it. Sga at the end of that game, stepped up,
- 7:59Speaker 3: hits some shots, had his moment and now here we
- 8:02Speaker 3: are in the next game, right and you know Halliburton
- 8:05Speaker 3: goes down. He does not look like the same player.
- 8:08Speaker 3: We're all sitting here right that it's it's over for OKC.
- 8:12Speaker 3: I would love to know your view, Matt on this
- 8:13Speaker 3: opening number, because it opened six. Professionals came in obviously
- 8:18Speaker 3: quickly took that number. They've taken the five and a half.
- 8:21Speaker 3: I know some pros have taken the five, and now
- 8:23Speaker 3: you're seeing some four and a halfs. Is this because
- 8:25Speaker 3: of what you just talked about. Is Halliburton gonna be
- 8:28Speaker 3: game ready? Is that why this numbers moving or is
- 8:30Speaker 3: this just professionals taking a stand on a number where
- 8:33Speaker 3: you know this is a thunder team that struggles on
- 8:36Speaker 3: their road. Is that simply as simple as that so
- 8:39Speaker 3: this is.
- 8:39Speaker 4: One of those, and we don't see this as often
- 8:41Speaker 4: in the NBA. Really takes until I think the finals
- 8:43Speaker 4: until we see this. From what I'm seeing, it very
- 8:46Speaker 4: much looks like groups are fighting over the number, and
- 8:48Speaker 4: we don't see that very often in NBA because there's
- 8:50Speaker 4: not enough interest or money on it, and then the
- 8:53Speaker 4: limits are lower. So this open, like you mentioned this
- 8:56Speaker 4: open six, it immediately pops down to five. There's some
- 8:58Speaker 4: four and a half showing, but now we're going back
- 8:59Speaker 4: up to five five and a half in the market
- 9:01Speaker 4: because now today we're seeing sharp action coming back in
- 9:05Speaker 4: on OKC. And whether that's Intel saying hey, Haliburton's probably
- 9:09Speaker 4: not gonna be ready, or the immediate move was just
- 9:11Speaker 4: based off of all right, look you pop this at six.
- 9:14Speaker 4: Indy's been competitive. OKC is oh and eight a t
- 9:18Speaker 4: or I'm sorry, now eight and one or one in
- 9:20Speaker 4: eight on the road ats in the playoffs. This is
- 9:24Speaker 4: enough to get me to go ahead and take Indy
- 9:25Speaker 4: as a reaction here with this price point. Now we're
- 9:29Speaker 4: seeing some of this coming back on OKA. See all
- 9:31Speaker 4: the trends are going to suggest, okay, see is the
- 9:33Speaker 4: spot here? It does look like Okac's gotten to be themselves.
- 9:37Speaker 5: They look.
- 9:37Speaker 4: Game five was the first game in this series where
- 9:40Speaker 4: I was like, oh, there's the thunder, Like I haven't
- 9:42Speaker 4: seen them since the Wolve series. And if that, I'm
- 9:46Speaker 4: resistant to these momentum shifts because if you'd ask me,
- 9:49Speaker 4: and if you told me, like, hey, they're gonna they're
- 9:51Speaker 4: gonna split in in OKAC one and two, I've been like, oh,
- 9:54Speaker 4: Indie wins three, OKAC wins four, OKAC wins five, Indie
- 9:58Speaker 4: wins six, Like that's a game script. The trends on
- 10:02Speaker 4: the spot with Tyre's Haliburton and probably suggests that OKAC
- 10:05Speaker 4: is better than what that that suggestion would lead you towards.
- 10:09Speaker 4: The number has been really interesting though, where this is
- 10:11Speaker 4: I mean this is also fighting over literally two possessions
- 10:13Speaker 4: here right Like this is right on the verge. If
- 10:15Speaker 4: it gets to four, that's like where the margin inside
- 10:18Speaker 4: of like five seconds, the team will let it go
- 10:21Speaker 4: like all right, we can't get this, we can't. We're
- 10:23Speaker 4: not gonna be able to close this gap. But at six,
- 10:26Speaker 4: now that's a different kind of margin here. So you're
- 10:28Speaker 4: fighting over these very very careful price points I think here,
- 10:32Speaker 4: and you're seeing a little bit more sharp action fighting
- 10:35Speaker 4: over this number than we've seen in most of the
- 10:37Speaker 4: other finals.
- 10:37Speaker 1: I think, are we getting a clue from this number
- 10:40Speaker 1: in the movement how much Tyrese Haliburton is worth to
- 10:44Speaker 1: the point spread?
- 10:46Speaker 4: Probably not, because it's like he's gonna play, like Rick
- 10:48Speaker 4: Carlisle said, He's going to play. And the question is,
- 10:51Speaker 4: now we're in this spot of trying to put a
- 10:54Speaker 4: number on an ephemeral thing because we always talk about
- 10:57Speaker 4: like he's ninety percent eight, like there's no way to
- 11:00Speaker 4: quantify that. You can't quantify the human body. So it's is,
- 11:03Speaker 4: if Tyrese is fifty or forty percent, this number has
- 11:07Speaker 4: to move two and a half three. If this is
- 11:10Speaker 4: Tyrese is seventy eighty percent, you're talking about a half point,
- 11:13Speaker 4: maybe a point.
- 11:14Speaker 5: And I think that there's.
- 11:15Speaker 4: Probably some of the buyback today based off of Look,
- 11:17Speaker 4: if Tyrese isn't one hundred percent, how are they going
- 11:19Speaker 4: to win this game? Like that's got to be some
- 11:21Speaker 4: of this conversation is just how are they going to
- 11:23Speaker 4: win this game if Tyrese is literally a decoy in
- 11:25Speaker 4: the corner. Now, the funny part is a really good
- 11:29Speaker 4: reaction would be it's Indiana, do not bring your logic
- 11:32Speaker 4: in here, because they have defied that consistently all playoffs.
- 11:36Speaker 4: But that's more of a gut feeling than a quantitative
- 11:39Speaker 4: edge perspective. So I think some of this is probably
- 11:41Speaker 4: reflective of the idea of Okase he's got momentum, the
- 11:45Speaker 4: trend support Game six road Favorites trying to close out
- 11:48Speaker 4: the series. Oka see is better based off of the
- 11:51Speaker 4: power rating. Still, they've re established control of the series,
- 11:54Speaker 4: and Tyrese Haliburton is not going to be one hundred
- 11:56Speaker 4: percent no matter what whatever he was before, because nobody's
- 11:58Speaker 4: one hundred percent right now. He was not now he's
- 12:00Speaker 4: seventy whatever. Wherever you land on, that has to I
- 12:04Speaker 4: think impact your cap on this. That's why it's gonna
- 12:06Speaker 4: be tough for pacers backers.
- 12:07Speaker 5: I think in the spot.
- 12:09Speaker 1: What's what's a little bit deceiving is Matt Maybe while
- 12:13Speaker 1: I'm asking this question, you can look up what was
- 12:15Speaker 1: the number in Game four in Indy Thunder were down
- 12:23Speaker 1: ten Shae hits, then they're down I think five, or
- 12:29Speaker 1: they're down four Shaye hits the three pointer, they're down
- 12:34Speaker 1: one oh three, one oh two. I think then he
- 12:37Speaker 1: hits that two pointer in the corner when he bumps
- 12:41Speaker 1: Nie Smith off. Now they're up one. From that point on,
- 12:47Speaker 1: the Pacers only score one more point. I think the
- 12:50Speaker 1: game closes seven. What was the spread in that game?
- 12:55Speaker 1: Game game four closed minus six ended at seven, And
- 13:00Speaker 1: thank you Matt Mitchell for throwing that in there. So
- 13:03Speaker 1: the Thunder ended up covering that game. What a deceptive
- 13:07Speaker 1: cover and what a bad be it. I think that's
- 13:10Speaker 1: what you're talking about when you're saying, look at this
- 13:12Speaker 1: number at the end, the number might be bigger than
- 13:16Speaker 1: the game appears.
- 13:17Speaker 5: The fears and it took. It took off ball fouls too.
- 13:21Speaker 5: That was the killer, right.
- 13:22Speaker 4: It was like they kept picking up off ball fouls
- 13:25Speaker 4: to get one and the ball, and that to me
- 13:28Speaker 4: is like absolutely crazy. Like Mitchell has commented here that
- 13:31Speaker 4: they covered for a total of six point seven seconds. Now,
- 13:34Speaker 4: I was on Thunder to cover in that game and
- 13:37Speaker 4: that was one of the all time like thank you
- 13:38Speaker 4: Jesus moments in that game. But yeah, like, Okaysee's ability
- 13:42Speaker 4: to win by their what is their overall margin on
- 13:47Speaker 4: the road has been extremely difficult throughout the playoffs. We
- 13:49Speaker 4: saw this not just the nugget series. We saw this
- 13:53Speaker 4: in Memphis, they go down thirty, they have to storm back,
- 13:55Speaker 4: but they don't cover. We see this in Minnesota, they
- 13:57Speaker 4: don't cover. They've consistently struggled to cover on the road.
- 14:01Speaker 5: Here.
- 14:02Speaker 4: The problem, I think is also a series flow, though.
- 14:04Speaker 4: If the Thunder are up in that fourth quarter and
- 14:07Speaker 4: Indy gets that sense of we can't do it, like
- 14:10Speaker 4: we're out, we've run out of gas and we're done.
- 14:12Speaker 4: There's a lot of spots where I've seen teams in
- 14:15Speaker 4: that kind of situation facing elimination down in the fourth
- 14:18Speaker 4: quarter and like you just don't and the other team, meanwhile,
- 14:21Speaker 4: is like, just keep punching, just keep punching them.
- 14:25Speaker 5: We can finish this, we can win the title.
- 14:27Speaker 4: That momentum shift, Like that's the highest point of adversity,
- 14:30Speaker 4: is you are down in the fourth quarter facing elimination
- 14:34Speaker 4: after playing for six months of basketball, you've gotten all
- 14:38Speaker 4: the way here. That's a really tough spot. And so
- 14:41Speaker 4: I think that both those things are true. Like it
- 14:44Speaker 4: doesn't feel like to me this is a I thought.
- 14:46Speaker 4: I thought Game five was a good Pacers cover Thunder
- 14:50Speaker 4: win spot, and the Thunder got over the line because
- 14:52Speaker 4: they were all the forced turnovers for the first time,
- 14:54Speaker 4: which is out of context for the series.
- 14:56Speaker 5: This one does not feel like that. This one does not.
- 14:58Speaker 4: I feel like, if you're look, if you like, you
- 15:00Speaker 4: need to be on money line. If they're going to
- 15:02Speaker 4: be within range of this game, they're going to have
- 15:04Speaker 4: the extra edge.
- 15:05Speaker 5: We can do this. We're right there. We can win
- 15:07Speaker 5: this game.
- 15:08Speaker 4: Thunder winning close to me, is the least likely of
- 15:10Speaker 4: the outcomes.
- 15:11Speaker 3: I was in the sportsbook for that game, that game four,
- 15:15Speaker 3: just being on the professionals we bet on the NBA.
- 15:17Speaker 3: I love talking about it because the NBA Finals, the
- 15:20Speaker 3: books get so sharp. I remember at some point they
- 15:23Speaker 3: were down, like you said, they were down one or
- 15:25Speaker 3: two points, and SGA gets them back into the game
- 15:28Speaker 3: that he basically gets them up by one, and my
- 15:30Speaker 3: buddy turning to me, he said, they're going to somehow
- 15:32Speaker 3: cover this game. And while only hitting or two May
- 15:34Speaker 3: threes at the time, and then afink he hit one more,
- 15:37Speaker 3: so they're up to three mad threes. He's like, this
- 15:39Speaker 3: is why I love betting, though, because every sucker in
- 15:41Speaker 3: this room is on the Pacers because everyone knows that
- 15:44Speaker 3: stat that OKAC has not covered on the road and
- 15:47Speaker 3: he's like, I know this is going to land on
- 15:48Speaker 3: seven and sure enough, you know the exact what was
- 15:50Speaker 3: it at one eleven and one oh four? Yeah? I
- 15:52Speaker 3: turned to him, I was like, I love this is
- 15:54Speaker 3: why I love betting so much, because it's like you
- 15:57Speaker 3: knew any better knew that was coming, right though. Stupid
- 15:59Speaker 3: free throws, the Pacers missing free throws. So my view
- 16:03Speaker 3: of this, Matt is like you're saying that back and
- 16:05Speaker 3: forth on this number right now is the professionals are
- 16:07Speaker 3: fighting because the books are getting so sharp, right, I
- 16:10Speaker 3: mean last game, what did they what was the cover
- 16:13Speaker 3: that was nine and a half? I think the final
- 16:14Speaker 3: point was eleven? Right, was a one oh nine? Right?
- 16:17Speaker 3: So like the books, even with you know, Halliburna being injured,
- 16:22Speaker 3: it's still right there. Like the books are so sharp
- 16:25Speaker 3: right now. So anyone listening to this just be careful,
- 16:28Speaker 3: like you're betting into a right now, a market that
- 16:30Speaker 3: is at the highest level. Like the books just seem
- 16:34Speaker 3: like they're captinets so well. So I like what I'm
- 16:36Speaker 3: viewing here with Matt Moore talking about I like the
- 16:38Speaker 3: adjusted line, right, is this not a nice spot to take?
- 16:41Speaker 3: OKAC minus twelve and a half, a little Brandon Anderson
- 16:44Speaker 3: or take the Pacers money line, right. I love that
- 16:46Speaker 3: type of scenario here. Or do you think this is
- 16:48Speaker 3: gonna be a closer game and I'm giving a credit format.
- 16:50Speaker 5: I don't mind this as an alt spot.
- 16:52Speaker 4: The trick is though, one of the things that because
- 16:54Speaker 4: like I started Live Bett and thunder Alts last night
- 16:56Speaker 4: first quarter because I was like, man, pacers are dead here,
- 17:00Speaker 4: They're just looking like they're out of it.
- 17:02Speaker 5: Okaysey's got this. If okase wins.
- 17:04Speaker 4: At home, their average margin and victory in the playoffs
- 17:06Speaker 4: is twenty six points. This is good value here with
- 17:09Speaker 4: this kind of number. Indiana's got a rare ability to
- 17:14Speaker 4: just never get kicked off the ladder, like Okay Tyre's
- 17:20Speaker 4: Halliburton's hurt, Pascal si Okam seeing three defenders, Miles Turner
- 17:24Speaker 4: can't do anything.
- 17:25Speaker 5: Here comes TJ.
- 17:26Speaker 4: McConnell, gonna make things happen. Here's Ben dig Mathern hitting
- 17:31Speaker 4: big shots to keep them within range. And Okasey's half
- 17:35Speaker 4: court This is the big thing. If you really want
- 17:37Speaker 4: to know the reason, it's that Okasey's half court offense
- 17:40Speaker 4: never gears up, their defense gears up their half court
- 17:44Speaker 4: offense stays at the same.
- 17:46Speaker 5: Level or lower. That's all they really do.
- 17:49Speaker 4: They never hit this this gear where you're like, man,
- 17:52Speaker 4: what an incredible offensive performance. They got an amazing game
- 17:55Speaker 4: from Jadub, they got a good game from Shay. They
- 17:57Speaker 4: generate a lot of free throws for Shay, But like,
- 18:00Speaker 4: this wasn't a they're absolutely killing them because they don't
- 18:03Speaker 4: really have that gear offensively.
- 18:05Speaker 5: It's all in the defensive end.
- 18:06Speaker 4: It's why I like thunder Team total over and didn't
- 18:09Speaker 4: want Pacers anything.
- 18:11Speaker 5: On their team total or the combined over.
- 18:13Speaker 4: I only wanted Thunder Team total because I was like,
- 18:16Speaker 4: they're gonna go over this number because of the speed
- 18:18Speaker 4: of the game. But their offense never really gears up.
- 18:22Speaker 4: It just you hit a couple of more threes or not.
- 18:24Speaker 4: They're not gonna have this dominant performance where they blow
- 18:26Speaker 4: you out because they shot forty eight percent from three.
- 18:29Speaker 5: That's not gonna happen.
- 18:30Speaker 4: If they're gonna blow you out, it's because you score
- 18:32Speaker 4: eighty and that's hard to do against an Indiana team
- 18:34Speaker 4: that's whose offensive floor is so high.
- 18:37Speaker 1: When you look at this thunder team, I was watching
- 18:39Speaker 1: this game last night and everyone talks about dynasty. They
- 18:43Speaker 1: threw up that graphic about the Blazers and this is
- 18:46Speaker 1: the second youngest team since the Blazers.
- 18:48Speaker 2: That has a chance to win a title.
- 18:50Speaker 1: And Shay is twenty six and Jalen Williams is twenty three.
- 18:53Speaker 1: And obviously Shay's going to get a bag. He's going
- 18:56Speaker 1: to get seventy million a year, and Jalen Williams when
- 18:58Speaker 1: he's eligible, is going to get at whatever max deal
- 19:02Speaker 1: he's eligible for. You're gonna have a construct similar to
- 19:05Speaker 1: what the Celtics have right where you're paying north of
- 19:09Speaker 1: probably could be by then four hundred million dollars to
- 19:13Speaker 1: Shay Gilgis Alexander and to Jalen Williams. It's hard to
- 19:19Speaker 1: maintain a dynasty when you're spending that much money on
- 19:23Speaker 1: two players handicapped. For me, what this team looks like
- 19:27Speaker 1: over the next two to three years, who are the
- 19:30Speaker 1: pieces they can keep, Who are the players that are
- 19:32Speaker 1: gonna have to go somewhere else to get a bag
- 19:34Speaker 1: of cash?
- 19:35Speaker 4: Yeah, it's a great question. So I think there's a
- 19:38Speaker 4: lot of interesting elements in this. One of the things
- 19:40Speaker 4: that we're seeing. Zachloe was talking about this morning on
- 19:42Speaker 4: his show, and this thing I've been talking about for
- 19:43Speaker 4: a while. One of the reasons that Memphis made the
- 19:46Speaker 4: Desmond Baine trade. It is very difficult right now to
- 19:50Speaker 4: build with three players making max money and the numbers
- 19:53Speaker 4: I've kind of put on it relative to where the
- 19:55Speaker 4: cap is now. It's going to go up with a
- 19:56Speaker 4: new media deal. But you can't have three guys make
- 19:59Speaker 4: it fifty million. You can have two, never three. You
- 20:03Speaker 4: need two guys making fifty million, one guy making above
- 20:05Speaker 4: thirty million, and then a bunch of guys making between
- 20:08Speaker 4: twenty and five. And that's how you fill in that roster.
- 20:12Speaker 4: That's the new model the owners built into the CBA. Well,
- 20:15Speaker 4: guess what, Chet Holmer and Jadab are both extension eligible
- 20:18Speaker 4: this summer, and they're gonna get the bag because you
- 20:21Speaker 4: can see how valuable they are. If Victor wemen Yama
- 20:25Speaker 4: had not gotten hurt and Chet Holmgren had not gotten hurt,
- 20:31Speaker 4: I still think Chet might have won Defensive Player of
- 20:33Speaker 4: the Year, that's how good he is defensively.
- 20:36Speaker 5: He's insane.
- 20:37Speaker 4: Jadob I mean, last night was for all of us
- 20:39Speaker 4: on jadub Island was like, take a look at this.
- 20:42Speaker 5: So they're gonna extenend those guys. They got one more
- 20:45Speaker 5: year because those extensions.
- 20:46Speaker 4: Don't kick in til twenty six, twenty seven, the year
- 20:48Speaker 4: after next year, they got one more year. And guess
- 20:50Speaker 4: who comes off the books then Isaiah Hartenstein. So you
- 20:53Speaker 4: clear off the money. Then Chet moves into the center role.
- 20:57Speaker 4: Hopefully he eats some spaghetti and gets a little bit thicker,
- 21:00Speaker 4: he can handle getting bumped on the interior and play
- 21:02Speaker 4: small ball five. You're gonna have guys. They'll fill in
- 21:06Speaker 4: the rest of that roster. But here's the big question
- 21:09Speaker 4: I have, Chad. I look at the Jadab situation and
- 21:12Speaker 4: I think a lot of James Harden twenty twelve. And
- 21:16Speaker 4: the misconception has always been that that move was made
- 21:19Speaker 4: because ownership was cheap, And that move was made because
- 21:21Speaker 4: James Harden knew that he could be an MVP candidate
- 21:25Speaker 4: with a exclusive deal with Adidas, being the front of
- 21:28Speaker 4: their entire shoe line and be that kind of a
- 21:31Speaker 4: star in that kind of a market in Houston. He
- 21:34Speaker 4: knew that kind of earning potential. Jade dubb is gonna
- 21:37Speaker 4: have be faced with that same decision, and Jadab may
- 21:40Speaker 4: have a different set of priorities and maybe like, nope,
- 21:42Speaker 4: I want to be here. This is what I want.
- 21:44Speaker 4: But even then, I'm of the belief you're gonna have
- 21:47Speaker 4: to choose between Chet and Jadub. Eventually you can do
- 21:49Speaker 4: it for maybe a couple of years if Bennet's like, yes,
- 21:51Speaker 4: we've won two championships, I will pay for the the
- 21:55Speaker 4: second Apron tax for a year or two. But eventually
- 21:58Speaker 4: you're gonna hit that snag. It's like things didn't go right,
- 22:01Speaker 4: the chemistry wasn't right, the fit wasn't right. Guys misshot,
- 22:04Speaker 4: someone got injured, and now it's the second round, and
- 22:06Speaker 4: now the pressure is how do you get back to
- 22:08Speaker 4: that top level? And the only way to do that
- 22:10Speaker 4: is to trade one of those Big three because the
- 22:12Speaker 4: second Apron rules in the NBACBA do not allow it.
- 22:17Speaker 4: The other big one, Cason Wallace, is extension eligible at
- 22:21Speaker 4: next summer, and to me, Cason Wallace is a guy
- 22:23Speaker 4: that I would absolutely want to be investing in, Like
- 22:25Speaker 4: he's a sneaky guy that can wind up being an
- 22:28Speaker 4: elite level defender. He's got more bounce off creation, he's
- 22:31Speaker 4: a good shooter. Like Caseon Wallace. Next year maybe one
- 22:34Speaker 4: of the biggest names that we're talking about on the
- 22:35Speaker 4: free agency market and talking about possible sign and trade
- 22:38Speaker 4: situations for OKC Kenrick Williams next summer.
- 22:41Speaker 5: I think is gonna be a big choice.
- 22:43Speaker 4: Okac's got next year to contend. They might be the
- 22:45Speaker 4: first team to go back to back since twenty eighteen.
- 22:48Speaker 4: But the talk around the league and all these shows
- 22:51Speaker 4: of like how many titles is OKC gonna win? I'm
- 22:53Speaker 4: setting the over at two and a half. I'm like,
- 22:56Speaker 4: let's settle down because this era is absolutely designed to
- 23:01Speaker 4: prevent that, and it's even harder in markets like Okay.
- 23:05Speaker 1: See all right, So that's exactly what I wanted to hear.
- 23:10Speaker 1: And how what will be the salary Jalen Williams can get?
- 23:15Speaker 1: What is the salary check Holmegrin can get? What does
- 23:17Speaker 1: the salary Shay can get? He can get like four
- 23:21Speaker 1: for two eighty?
- 23:22Speaker 2: Right? So is that what it is?
- 23:23Speaker 3: Yeah?
- 23:24Speaker 4: I think it's four for two eighty, depending on whether
- 23:26Speaker 4: or not he qualifies. I think he's going to qualify
- 23:28Speaker 4: on your first team All NBA for the Supermax.
- 23:32Speaker 5: I'll check on that. So that one's a tough one.
- 23:34Speaker 4: The reality the better way to think about it instead
- 23:36Speaker 4: of getting caught into the specific numbers. Is just to
- 23:39Speaker 4: think about if you're making this money, you're making over fifty,
- 23:42Speaker 4: you're making over fifty mil. And if you're making over
- 23:44Speaker 4: fifty mil, if you're north of those numbers, even at forty,
- 23:47Speaker 4: it gets really tough to keep those course together. And
- 23:49Speaker 4: then you're going to think about the next time their
- 23:51Speaker 4: extension eligible down the line and what that's going to
- 23:53Speaker 4: look like as well.
- 23:55Speaker 1: All right, So Simon, before we came on, we were
- 24:00Speaker 1: talking about Kevin Durant, how do we play this market, Matt,
- 24:05Speaker 1: how do we think about where Durant is going to go?
- 24:07Speaker 1: And how can we preemptively get into the Kevin Durant
- 24:11Speaker 1: sweepstakes by predicting the best landing spot with the best value.
- 24:17Speaker 4: So there's a couple of these that I think are
- 24:19Speaker 4: interesting as ways to kind of look at it. I
- 24:21Speaker 4: think the best way to do it is to think
- 24:23Speaker 4: about what you're going to do immediately in the aftermath
- 24:28Speaker 4: an ideal situation.
- 24:30Speaker 5: I understand because tav we were talking before our show.
- 24:33Speaker 4: About like the outsized reaction to Desmond Dane right Arthury
- 24:37Speaker 4: Mitchell on the show, like the outside reaction that trade,
- 24:39Speaker 4: but like the dream scenario for a lot of us
- 24:41Speaker 4: is that Durant gets traded to Miami and Miami immediately
- 24:45Speaker 4: gets steamed, and then Orlando will fall into vision odds,
- 24:50Speaker 4: and that's going to be I think, a great opportunity
- 24:52Speaker 4: to get in or in Orlando. The biggest thing I
- 24:55Speaker 4: do want to tell listeners, don't get into the market
- 24:58Speaker 4: in the first twenty four hours after a trade. Do
- 25:00Speaker 4: not do it, like unless you are ahead of the move,
- 25:02Speaker 4: like if you were in the thirteen seconds that you've
- 25:04Speaker 4: got before news breaks and that market moves. Unless you're there,
- 25:08Speaker 4: do not buy into it.
- 25:09Speaker 5: It's never worth it.
- 25:10Speaker 4: These moves are always these trades are always exaggerated in
- 25:13Speaker 4: the market, and you're always gonna be able to get
- 25:14Speaker 4: a better price no matter what it is, Like it's
- 25:17Speaker 4: very rare that you don't get a better price.
- 25:19Speaker 3: And also you're saying, Matt Metell, I mean more, it's
- 25:22Speaker 3: be careful people when you're betting in those markets. That's
- 25:25Speaker 3: how you get banned. Like people don't realize it. Like books,
- 25:28Speaker 3: they're looking for people like you that are ahead of
- 25:30Speaker 3: the marketer or you're getting intel quicker than them. So
- 25:33Speaker 3: I feel like he's giving you good advice here of
- 25:35Speaker 3: just being careful of betting these type of numbers because
- 25:37Speaker 3: either you're gonna get got because you're getting bad information,
- 25:40Speaker 3: or you're making a bad decision trying to buy in
- 25:43Speaker 3: early and try to get a good number.
- 25:45Speaker 4: So as far as Katie's landing spot right now, the
- 25:48Speaker 4: favorites in the market are tied between Miami and Houston.
- 25:52Speaker 4: I would say Houston is more likely because that's a
- 25:54Speaker 4: solution where everyone wins. Katie wants to go to Houston,
- 25:58Speaker 4: Houston gets an offensive upgrade, and Houston can afford to
- 26:01Speaker 4: send stuff back to Phoenix that Phoenix isn't gonna be
- 26:04Speaker 4: thrilled with. It's not the hall they want. But if
- 26:07Speaker 4: the options are Andrew Wiggins and a bad first or
- 26:13Speaker 4: Jalen Green potentially Jabari Smith and a pretty good first,
- 26:18Speaker 4: especially if it's one of your own that they own
- 26:21Speaker 4: all of, that's a pretty good situation. Phoenix will Houston
- 26:25Speaker 4: will try and squeeze him for it. The best way
- 26:28Speaker 4: to kind of think of it. For Houston, there is
- 26:29Speaker 4: a disagreement there. I think Imadoka wants Kevin Durant. He
- 26:33Speaker 4: wants to win now because coaches want to win now,
- 26:35Speaker 4: and he knows like, give me Kevin Durant and my
- 26:37Speaker 4: defense and we'll go win games. Raphael Stone GM I
- 26:42Speaker 4: think is like we got to be we can.
- 26:43Speaker 5: Get a top.
- 26:44Speaker 4: Like if we keep squeezing them, we can get Devin Booker,
- 26:48Speaker 4: who's younger, a lot more upside. We can have him forever,
- 26:53Speaker 4: or we can go get another guy. With all these assets,
- 26:55Speaker 4: our investment in Phoenix's draft picks are only going to improve.
- 26:58Speaker 4: Look how desperate they are and that battle I think
- 27:01Speaker 4: is really interesting, Like does Phoenix wanted does Houston want
- 27:04Speaker 4: to help out Phoenix in this deal? But they are
- 27:07Speaker 4: a team that can help them out without saving them,
- 27:09Speaker 4: And then so to me, between those two is valuable.
- 27:11Speaker 4: The long shot for me is the Clippers at fifty
- 27:14Speaker 4: to one. They have consistently been They got popped up
- 27:17Speaker 4: over the weekend.
- 27:18Speaker 5: First it was like, oh, yeah.
- 27:19Speaker 4: It's Houston, It's Houston, San Antonio, Miami, New York, Minnesota,
- 27:24Speaker 4: and then all of a sudden, the Clippers started popping
- 27:26Speaker 4: up over the weekend. They've had a lot of talks,
- 27:27Speaker 4: Like I've heard about Clippers talks four weeks now. I
- 27:31Speaker 4: don't think there is substantive as talks between Minnesota, Houston,
- 27:34Speaker 4: San Antonio, even Miami. I don't think there is substantive,
- 27:38Speaker 4: but I do think that those conversations have been held,
- 27:40Speaker 4: and I think that the Clippers, especially if you're matt
- 27:42Speaker 4: Ishbia and you're like, I don't want to be bad,
- 27:46Speaker 4: I don't care about draft picks. I want to win games.
- 27:48Speaker 4: I told them that we would win.
- 27:49Speaker 5: Let's win. We got Devin Booker, let's win.
- 27:51Speaker 4: The Clippers can at least give you, like Norman Powell,
- 27:54Speaker 4: guys that will help you win. Now they're gonna want
- 27:56Speaker 4: Zoobach and I don't think the Clippers are gonna give
- 27:58Speaker 4: them up.
- 27:58Speaker 5: But if they were to ever.
- 27:59Speaker 4: Change on that, then boy, would that be a really
- 28:02Speaker 4: great situation to be a terrible trade for the Clippers.
- 28:05Speaker 4: But I also think Balmer, you know, coming off of
- 28:07Speaker 4: that playoff loss, wants to get more people into that
- 28:11Speaker 4: great new arena. I think that Katie makes a lot
- 28:14Speaker 4: of sense for them putting them back with Harden. So
- 28:16Speaker 4: Clippers fifty to one to me is the best long
- 28:18Speaker 4: shot in the market.
- 28:20Speaker 3: Yeah, I feel like what you touched on that we
- 28:21Speaker 3: all know the East is wide open, you know, the professionals,
- 28:24Speaker 3: and it feels like the public are final. It's Orlando, right,
- 28:27Speaker 3: Is that the team that everyone's just piling in on
- 28:29Speaker 3: now to win the East because they're just a team
- 28:31Speaker 3: that people think they can make up Pacers run he
- 28:33Speaker 3: or Is that kind of fool's gold here that we're buying.
- 28:36Speaker 5: I think.
- 28:39Speaker 4: I think that nobody really knows yet. Like I wouldn't
- 28:42Speaker 4: buy into the East market at all right now because
- 28:44Speaker 4: you don't know if the Knicks are going to move
- 28:46Speaker 4: somebody to make another thing, because they got a lot
- 28:48Speaker 4: of chemistry questions, like, they got things they got to
- 28:51Speaker 4: figure out. I think Indiana you got to wait to
- 28:54Speaker 4: see what Miles Turner does. Like Miles Turner is up there.
- 28:57Speaker 4: If some team just comes in and is like, yeah,
- 28:59Speaker 4: we don't care, we'll pay forty Monell that's a huge
- 29:01Speaker 4: price for Miles Turner. It's also ten more than what
- 29:04Speaker 4: Indiana wants to pay him. I think they settle at
- 29:06Speaker 4: thirty five. But if somebody offers him forty, then you
- 29:10Speaker 4: could probably get Miles Turner in free agency. The Calves
- 29:13Speaker 4: are probably good value just because they're going to return
- 29:14Speaker 4: the same kind of guys, but they might make a move.
- 29:16Speaker 4: I think Jared Allen might be gone and you don't
- 29:18Speaker 4: know what they're going to get back for him. Orlando's
- 29:21Speaker 4: maybe good value at plus eight hundred, but I'm still
- 29:24Speaker 4: kind of like, are you really going to want a
- 29:27Speaker 4: big position on Orlando if they're in the conference finals
- 29:30Speaker 4: versus a veteran team that's been there and knows what
- 29:32Speaker 4: they're doing. Like, I like Orlando a lot, but I'm
- 29:34Speaker 4: not sure that I feel like they're going to be
- 29:36Speaker 4: the thunder. I don't think they're going to be that
- 29:38Speaker 4: kind of a team. Pistons actually, to me, is probably
- 29:41Speaker 4: the best value at twenty to one because they're only
- 29:43Speaker 4: going to get better and they got some They are
- 29:46Speaker 4: shopping in free agency like they are going for it.
- 29:48Speaker 4: So I think Detroit's really interesting at twenty to one.
- 29:51Speaker 3: It's going to be interesting, though, chat to see what
- 29:53Speaker 3: free agent wants to go to Detroit though, right like
- 29:55Speaker 3: in the NBA, like we're talking about Miami San Antonio,
- 29:59Speaker 3: like it's it's gonna be funny with Kevin Durant to
- 30:01Speaker 3: somehow ended up in Detroit.
- 30:04Speaker 1: Well, look, he doesn't want to go to Minnesota. We know,
- 30:06Speaker 1: and a lot of guys, but it becomes like one
- 30:10Speaker 1: of those things, how much do you want to ring?
- 30:13Speaker 1: How much do you want to play with Kaid Cunningham?
- 30:15Speaker 1: How much do you like JB. Bickerstaff? That roster showed
- 30:18Speaker 1: so well against the Knicks. That was a much closer
- 30:21Speaker 1: series than I think anyone anticipated.
- 30:24Speaker 2: And so if I want.
- 30:26Speaker 1: To win, I'm a mid I'm sort of a mid
- 30:29Speaker 1: career free agent. You get a really young team that's
- 30:32Speaker 1: got a great culture. Why wouldn't you go take a
- 30:34Speaker 1: shot four years try.
- 30:35Speaker 2: To win your title? Matt Moore, I like it.
- 30:40Speaker 1: Tasty, tasty stuff. Thank you for giving us the thunder
- 30:44Speaker 1: and six. I hope you continue to give us more
- 30:49Speaker 1: and more prescientt nuggets in subsequent episode of The Favorites
- 30:55Speaker 1: as well as buckets, don't forget Pacers, Thunder Game six
- 31:01Speaker 1: from Indie number open six now down to five, moving
- 31:04Speaker 1: back to five and a half. Simon and I will
- 31:07Speaker 1: return with our next episode of The Favorites Thursday on
- 31:09Speaker 1: the Action Network YouTube page. Download us from Spotify, Apple Pods,
- 31:12Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts, Rate review, subscribe, leave us
- 31:15Speaker 1: five stars, say whatever you want.
- 31:17Speaker 2: Feedback is a gift until next time. Love you.
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