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Transcript

The Shot That Shook the Finals: Halliburton’s Cold-Blooded Game-Winner · Front Runner Podcast Collective

• 0:14
  Speaker 1: it is friday, you know what time it is.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Front runner podcast collective is back on the air.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: I am your humble host, vince, and on today's podcast we have so much to get into.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: We have to go over the game that happened last night.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: It was fantastic in every way.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: We got Indiana, we got OKC, we got the fallout of game one.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: What does it all mean?
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: Okc looks human, which is crazy because they have not looked human all year.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: Also, we have some, you know, but not behind the scenes, but some in-depth situations on some of the goings on in this particular nba finals and what to look for when we talk about game two.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: But we also are going to talk about the new head coach in phoenix.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: We have that information as well.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: So stick around.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: We have a awesome podcast for you today.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: Serea is on the ones and twos.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: The silent assassin.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: She will be kicking in with some notes timely, probably scud missiles coming off the dong piece.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: You know I just get talented people.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: You know I'm saying I just get talented people to work for me and I'm just blessed in that fashion.
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: So, with that being said, let's get into the pod, shall we?
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: Um, first and foremost, let's.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: Let's set the table.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: Honestly.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: You're listening to this because you heard what we said last episode Thunder in five, maybe six, but we said five.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: Our model said six and it was because of the fact that we weren't trolling at that time and we weren't lazy.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: These are what the numbers were telling us.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: We're looking at an 80 win team at the, with the best net rating in the nba, and at the time they have shredded the west and was poised and had precision in the game plans.
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: Nothing looked too tough for them.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: And then game one happened and I've been replaying the last possession all night halloward and floats left wallace hesitates, shots clean 0.3 left bucket and suddenly the most dominant team in the in the nba all year is down.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: One is down, one zero at home.
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: So let's have the conversation we avoided.
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: What if game one wasn't just a great finish but a reveal, a honest reveal that indiana isn't just a feel-good story anymore.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: They're just good.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: They were built in this.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: They were built by walking teams down and we'll get more and more into it as we go along.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: Let me take you behind the scenes a little bit.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: We watched game one in real time as a team.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: We were on Zooms and what have you.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: And we were just kind of taking notes but also going back and forth, soraya and a couple other of our support staff.
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: We were all taking notes and thinking about what we were going to notes and thinking about what we were gonna say on this pod today.
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: And somewhere in the fourth quarter, when the Pacers were down nine and still turning the ball over at a historic clip, you could feel the shift.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: They were panicking.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: They weren't panicking at all.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: Even we'll talk about that a little bit later, because Tyrese Halliburton said something very important when he was on the Scott Van Pelt Sports Center.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: They weren't, they were just probing.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: They weren't panicking, they were just probing.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: And it looks like Carlisle was playing through the chaos and not trying to avoid it.
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: And that's the difference and that's what we might have missed.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: I will say this, actually, before I say this, soraya has a note for us.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: Indiana had 19 turnovers In the first half, the most in finals since 1990, and they still cut a 15 point four quarter lead.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: That's not resilience, that's belief and that's what we're about to get to.
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: We talked about indiana in this way.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: In the regards of in the second half of the year, they have one of the better records in the league if you take the last 50 game as a clip, right.
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: So we disregard the first 32.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: We look at the last 50 and when you look at those you know they were 34 and 16.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: Then they come into the playoffs and they were maligned about who they were playing, how it was gonna go.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: They sat there and beat milwaukee, they beat cleveland and then they turned to the Knicks and we still we still doubted them.
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: We still did it to the point with our prediction that we probably didn't really give them a shot at winning at all.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: We gave some suggestions on well, if they were to win.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: This is what we're looking for and we'll get to that as well.
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: So if you're here for hot takes, I'll spare you, but if you're here for the honest takes and the thoughts that we have, let's start with this.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: Indiana has been here before Emotionally and OKC has not, and they show that in late game execution, in the timeout usage, also in who touched the ball and who disappeared.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: Halliburton wasn't dominant, but he damn sure was deliberate and it mattered most when he hit the biggest shot of his life.
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: Here's a note from Soraya he hit the biggest shot of his life.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: Here's a note from serea three game winners in the postseason milwaukee game five, everybody remember that.
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: One cleveland.
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: Game two yes, sir.
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: And now game one in the finals against okc.
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: This postseason resume Is not a TikTok moment.
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: We're not here to burn the Thunder Ceiling, we're not here to adjust their floor, but because we watched game one, I wasn't just Indiana Out playing OKC, it was Indiana out thinking them as well.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: This episode episode is not a funeral for the thunder at all, it's a reckoning.
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: It might be a recalibration and we we've got to have some integrity and we need to call it as it is.
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: We were wrong.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: Front runner.
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: Podcast collective was wrong, or at least very early, because the finals just got real and they just got super complicated.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: So do you guys remember, like facebook back in the day, when they would talk about your uh relationship status and say it's complicated?
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: Well, you can put that on the damn finals right now, because it just got so complicated.
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: So now let's break it all down.
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: We did the mea culpa.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: We were wrong, but why were we wrong?
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: That's where we need to get into.
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: So I'm gonna harken you back six years ago, dame, wave, dame, dame.
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: I am going to harken you back to six years ago, where damian lillard waved goodbye and we thought we were.
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: He is waving off the thunder soul.
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: That game winner was a punctuation mark on an era that felt like a collapse.
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: Pg was gone, russ was next, the luxury tax was sky high and OKC was buried in an aging, oddly built roster that look allergic to spacing.
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: But what if we got that wave wrong?
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: What if dame wasn't saying goodbye to okc but setting up the stage for for sam presti to do the one thing that makes him dangerous start from scratch.
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: Leave it to sam presti to do this.
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: Here's a note from serea since 2019, exit the thunder flip, three all-stars and 61 million dollars in tax bills into sga jalen williams, chet hongren and oh, our guyich, who hasn't even played yet, plus 15 plus picks.
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: This is not a rebuild.
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: That's an artist picking up better paint.
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: Presti didn't run it back, he ran it forward.
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: He's built the scariest kind of team Young, connected and already ahead of schedule.
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: And the weird part is that he already did this once before, which brings us to a line that echoes in my head when I watch this team and it comes from jay-z.
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: And it comes from jay-z, you may hold.
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: Well, I'll make another hole.
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: You know, I'm saying like presti did not look at kevin durant and russell westbrook and james hart and go well, I guess we can't win here in okc.
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: He found another way.
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: He kept probing, kept looking, trying to perfect the blueprint.
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: That is what you see now.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: So Presti basically put this blueprint together and remember, this was KD, russ and Harden.
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: And now it's completely different.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: Right, we see it and it's awesome.
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: The first version was raw power.
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: It was raw like star power, it was just box office.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: Look at the names that we're talking about.
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: We're talking about kevin durant.
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: We're talking about russell westbrook.
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: We're talking about james harden.
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: All of these guys.
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: All of these guys have been in all nba teams multiple times.
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: They've all either been a MVP or they've been in the top three of MVP voting.
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: These are real dudes in the league that this team just stripped away.
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: Stripped away from their team to create a new team.
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: But it was stitched together and you knew at some point the salaries would just be too hard for them to keep all together.
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: So, harden, who was sixth manning, ibaka, stretching the floor sometimes.
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: The 2.0 version, the one that we're looking at right now the 2.0 version, the one that we're looking at right now.
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: This ain't vibes, this is a vision and versatility.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: Presti's learned the Thunder Now value function over flair.
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: They hit on Wiggins With the 54th overall pick.
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: Joe was a Isaiah, joe was a waiver claim and they doubled down on guards who defend.
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: That's an organizational Memory in action.
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: We're going to take a little look at this roster From like a 30,000 foot view For a second.
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: So you got SGA, who is a zero maintenance star A la Tim Duncan Esk level level of calm when you look at him.
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: Even in defeat last night, sga did not look impressed by what he was seeing.
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: Okay, he did not look like a guy who was like, hey, I don't know, we might be, we might be up against it.
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: No, he's still there.
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: Jalen Williams is a Swiss Army United mismatch.
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: Chet Holmgren, who did not show himself in a very positive light last night he's still a defensive alien with a floor game.
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: Caruso, doerr and wallace these are the guys I want to keep pounding the table for.
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: These are the grinders.
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: These are the guys who would steal your lunch and then write you a thank you note.
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: This isn't a big three, it's a team, it's deep 12.
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: You know, I'm saying they got a lot of pieces and they got a lot of pieces and they can break glass in case of emergency on any one of these pieces at any point in time, because mark dagnall is not afraid to use them.
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: And you're going like, well, vince, you're not getting to the game yet.
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: Trust me, we will get there.
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: We will get to the game.
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: But I want to talk about Presti and team building right now, and the reason why I want to bring this up is because we talk about on this podcast all the time about what is the front office doing.
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: Why is the front office successful?
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: What's making this team good for three, four years at a time?
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: Is there anything that we can learn or glean from this information?
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: I'll tell you right now.
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: This note will tell you all of what you need to know.
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: They have 10 first round picks over the next five years.
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: Even if they miss, like Poku, they've hit on Jalen Williams.
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: So you see what is going on with this team.
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: You see what's going on.
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: It's like when you have multiple picks, okay, we can miss on this guy, but we can hit on this guy.
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: They seem to have really found a way and not be very scared about what they're doing in their draft process.
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: They have a type and they go out and get that type.
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: Now if for some reason it does not work out, they're not afraid to move on.
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: That has been the presti way.
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: This rebuild wasn't just about picks, it was about a belief system.
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: Presti didn't crave instagram dunks, he craved guys who would win in a 6 am film session.
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: People forget he came up in a spurs ecosystem.
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: He's a pop disciple, the beautiful game.
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: He cares about defense.
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: He cares about preservation over over the basketball and making sure that we don't have a bunch of turnovers and what have you?
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: What he's doing in okc now is more than 2014 spurs, than also 2012.
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: Thunder.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: Sga is dunking, uh, dunking like cool with genovi's pace and dagnall as a coach.
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: You know this dude coached the g league for five years before this.
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: They groomed him.
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: That's also another like spurs, like university level internship.
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: You know I'm saying they groomed the coach who now looks like eric spolstra on crack, and what I mean by that is that he, he looks.
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: I don't mean that he looks terrible, he looks awesome.
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: It's no accident that they hired Mark Dagnall.
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: He didn't parachute in, he grew inside the incubation tank of OKC Framework.
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: This team, with this coach, is like a basketball lab with a shared mission.
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: They trust long-term strategy over short-term flash.
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: They turn Gideon to Caruso without losing a pick.
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: I still, to this day, don't understand that one.
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: They landed Hardenstein and extended Joe and Wiggins using cap clearing from Hayward's deal.
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: That failed on the court, but it won in the books.
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: Here's the thing that I want to say about this.
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: I remember last year not this 24-25 season, it was really the 23-24 season and what was really interesting is that as we got closer and closer to the trade deadline that year, a lot of people were speculating would the okc thunder make a move?
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: And they did.
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: It was like you know, okay, here's.
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: But everybody was like go get a big, go get a big, go get somebody who can help you, whatever.
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: And sam prestey said that we're gonna use this season to see what we really need and we're gonna use this season to see which players have made you know, incremental growth leaps and we're gonna see where we stand at that point and then we will make our moves during the offseason, which they did.
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: He was very transparent with what he was trying to do, but the one thing in that he told us is this is the long game.
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: We need to get these guys some playoff scars.
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: We need to see what they've learned from these situations.
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: Put them in the crucible of the playoffs and then just try to see where, legitimately, our shortcomings are.
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: He did that and then he went out and said, hey, we're going to get Alex Caruso because we need one more really, really just great point of attack defender, and then we need a big that's going to help check Somebody with a little more girth, a little more strength to him.
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: And they landed Isaiah Hardenstein because of the fact that the new york knicks could not hold on to him because of the contractual situations and implications with them.
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: So here is the history play presti is the only general manager of this generation to build two teams that are like sniffing around the playoffs from scratch.
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: You want comps?
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: I got a couple comps for you.
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: We're going to go outside of basketball for a second.
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: We're going to go to Bill Walsh of the 49ers.
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: He built the 2.0 after Montana and Rice.
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: He brought Steve Young in.
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: Now George Seifert benefited from the steve young thing, but remember, steve young was behind joe montana for a couple years under our guy bill walsh.
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: Okay, now another type of team builder that we need to bring up is theo epstein, who did it with the red sox, who had that long drought of not winning the world series and then went and did it with the chicago cubs.
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: So obviously a guy not scared of curses, obviously a guy who understands we gotta build it from this.
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: We need to tear down to the studs and then build it up.
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: The thing about Theo Epstein, the thing about Bill Walsh, is that not only did they were confident in what they were doing, they had real intentionality.
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: They let you know exactly why they were doing what they were doing and what would be ultimately the benefits of doing this.
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: And it all worked.
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: And sam pressy has basically been the same exact thing.
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: So we also can bring it to hoops right.
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: So rc buford and pop.
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: You know I'm saying we got sean elliott, we got david robinson and then all of a sudden tim duncan comes in.
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: We start moving some pieces out because people start getting old.
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: Whatever the case may be, pops up.
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: They pop in tony parker, who nobody ever heard of until the draft night.
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: Manu ginogli pops in.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: You know I'm saying, like this team San Antonio back in the late aughts and then into the 2010s, made all these changes.
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: You know, if you go back to the early aughts, when the Lakers were dominating and then Detroit started dominating, slowly but surely, you started to see the overturn on what was Like the Lakers were dominating and then Detroit started dominating, slowly but surely, you started to see the overturn on what was going on and the churn that was going on in San Antonio.
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: And now you see it with the OKC Thunder as well.
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: Note from Soraya, note from serea presti traded, sg traded for sga and a pick that becomes jalen williams for just pg13.
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: Now, by the way, that is also a trade that continues to give, because, uh, remember top, which was also part of that as well, and I believe there's still picks this year that are part of that.
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: So it's a gift that continues to give.
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: Sorry, clipper fans, I know it's a tough deal for you.
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: I'll say it again.
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: You may hold, I'll make another hole and guess what?
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: Ho 2.0 plays defense, rotates like a demon and doesn't check his cell phone during film sessions.
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: Say what you want, you know I'm saying say what you want, but he got, he got dudes, and here's the best part.
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: Here's the best part nicola topich or topich, I don't want to say his name right, nicola topich is redshirting this year.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: Here's a guy who is a actual lottery pick six foot six, absolute demon with the basketball in his hands.
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: Uh, you can probably compare him to like a little more talented.
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: Uh, what's our guy's name?
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: Casper is yaka trunas.
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: This guy right here is basically the same dude.
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: If you like, combine casper, yaka trunas and edgar damon, you would end up with nicola topich.
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: And he's just been chilling on the bench because he had a knee injury.
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: What have you?
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: He sits out, it's a red shirt year and guess what?
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: In 2026 he'll debut.
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: They have two first round picks this year and three more in 2026, and they have 14 second round picks after that.
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: They can miss, they can experiment or they can package and they can pounce on whatever it is that they need.
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: I love this line from serea.
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: Thank you, serea.
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: Presti system is built like a hedge fund diversified, stacked upside, tolerates losses.
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: It's about, uh, survivability and repeatability, not just one run great, great line.
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: Thank you, saraya.
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: If you look up and realize, the okc thunder might have built, been built on patience and not panic, on values and not vibes, and now they might be the most dangerous thing in the league, except for what happened last night.
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: We'll get to that in one second.
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: Um, whether or not they win the finals, the thunder are built to stay.
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: They're built to haunt you because, by the way, chet is still developing, jw is still developing case and wallace who we'll get to later is still developing.
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: It's it's an embarrassment of riches that we have not seen in in some time.
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: But because this time prestig painted his masterpiece with his own brushes frpc.
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: We see the system beneath the score.
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: Let's keep watching architect build his system.
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: There are moments that break the volume of the game.
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: We are about to get into what happened last night.
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: So for my okc thunder fans out there, this is gonna be a tough one.
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: Okay, for my indiana pacers fans out there, you guys are gonna rejoice in this situation because this game was absolutely crazy.
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: So let's get into it.
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: There are.
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: There are some moments that break the volume of the game, not because the noise, but because of the silence.
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: Okc had this lead for 47 minutes 59 seconds, and what 59.7 seconds.
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: Okay, keep that in mind.
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: 47 minutes, 59 seconds 0.7 as well.
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: The fans were standing pretty much the whole time.
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: They were loud as hell up in there.
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: Confetti was in reach, balloons were definitely about to come down and I also want to bring this up because he said it on his uh show last night.
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: Scott van pelt said when tyrese halliburton was on the desk with him, he said I want you to know Because I was.
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: You know, you call me a real one For full transparency.
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: I had 12 note cards up here and they were all OKC.
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: I only have one for you guys Because we thought you were not going to win this game.
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: We're not gonna win this game.
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: And then Tyrese Halliburton paused, floated left and dropped a jumper so cold it didn't even move the net.
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: With 0.3 on the clock, okc calls a timeout.
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: They tried to.
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: They advanced the ball to half court.
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: They try to throw a lob, which was broken up by Miles Turner, and that was game.
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: And the Pacers shocked the world again.
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: I bet you our boy, pat McAfee, had himself a day and a half today.
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: Shouts out to Pat McAfee.
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: For context, and we've said this over and over again Oklahoma City's positive 12.8 net rating was the best in the league, but they played in 22 clutch games, the fifth fewest in the NBA.
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: They rarely had to survive, they rarely had to scratch and claw to win games, and I wonder if they didn't build up enough calluses to kind of be able to replicate it in real time when it was happening to them, because it was happening to them and they didn't even realize it.
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: They didn't even realize it was happening to them.
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: And that's the story Underneath the story.
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: The Thunder are built to control, not chase.
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: They destroy teams early.
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: They don't negotiate With terrorists Basketball terrorists.
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: That is but game one.
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: That was the negotiation, that was the calculation.
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: It was grit over glamour.
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: Indiana weathered Shea's 38 points.
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: They gave up a 15 point lead and even though the Pacers turned the ball over 25 times, they still stayed within striking distance.
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: That is not flash.
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: That is clarity and belief in what you're doing.
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: Every cut, every rotation, every help stunt had intention.
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: Indiana this is a note from Saray.
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: I love this one too.
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: Indiana closed the fourth quarter on a 35-25 run.
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: They shot 60% from three In the final eight minutes Turned, turned a jovial time at the Paycom Center Into an absolute execution, lethal injection style, no ego whatsoever, shut the lights out and we gotta go.
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: Let's zero in on our guy, tyrese Halliburton, who we love.
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: Shout out to Tyrese.
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: Shout out to Iowa State Cyclone alum.
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: He wasn't dominant in this game.
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: He was timely, he was deliberate, he had 14 points and 6 assists, no turnovers and not a single free throw.
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: He didn't force the game, he shaped it.
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: He stretched space, used ghost screens like a probe and invaded mismatches without pounding the rock.
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: Then the moment came.
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: He didn't need to take over, he needed to orchestrate his team.
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: He needed to put his team in a good position.
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: He needed to make sure that everybody was touching the ball and feeling like they were a part of and accounted for and acknowledged.
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: He just took the one that gave him the win.
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: Now, the final play of the game was also a miscredit by our guy, uh, scott van pelt.
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: Uh, espn said that lou dort was the defender.
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: It was actually case and wallace that was caught on that ghost screen and it was a half a step too late.
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: The mistake not surprising, especially when the National Lens has underseen Indiana and OKC all year.
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying.
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: Here's a team that ESPN bet had their win total, I think, at 58.5 or something like that at the start of the season.
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: This is for OKC.
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: And then, how many tv, national televised games did they get this year?
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: I want to say it was under 10 and my, I might be right, might be wrong, but I think it was, either it was close to 10.
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: I mean it's crazy how underrated and how not exposed to the national public these two teams were.
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: This isn't just another finals, it was an instant classic.
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: This was this, this game where shea drops 838 points and still got locked up when it counted the play.
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: It's not just on a highlight reel.
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: Andrew nimhardt got him and meant it.
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: His defense is against these super overcharged uh guards and wings and whatever.
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: His defense has been one of the unsung heroes of this whole playoff run for the indiana pacers.
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: Andrew neilhart has been a absolute stud and a certified g.
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: Now here's some.
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: Here's some uh context for what we saw as we went into this series.
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: Obviously, the thunder roared early, but the pacers never blinked.
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: You know we talked about okay, 68 and 14 dominance.
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: The crowd was absolutely amazing 24, 25 turnovers for indy, a 15 point lead in the fourth quarter.
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: What is not to like about your situation at that point?
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: This is where we now talk about how young they are, indiana's mental toughness plus their no flinch in the playoff identity, because this is something they've done the entire playoffs, the entire postseason, is walk teams down halliburton having four game winners with less, with uh, less than two seconds in the postseason, even though sg had the efficiency or had no efficiency, 38 points on 30 shots very volume for our guy.
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: That has to do with the defense that was set up to stop him.
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: That one possession flipped the finals as far as what we were thinking about.
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: It sja hit that spin fade, drew, absorbed it.
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: No help, no switch, just a man to man.
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: And he locked in.
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: No help, no switch, just a man to man.
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: And he locked in.
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: And he locked up a shot that sga normally hits.
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: I want to say like damn near 60 percent of the time.
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: He just he didn't have enough lift.
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: There was too much physicality from nimhardt and it wasn't even foul.
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: He just basically stood him up, wasn't gonna let him get, wasn't gonna let SGA get past him.
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: Sga rose up after the bump and he just didn't have enough.
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: On the shot, neymar takes contract, reads spin forces, the miss Neves Smith nails the rotation, boards up Dort, halliburton hits, game hits, game winner.
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: 10 seconds later.
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: If there's a guy we want guarding the last possession.
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: It is drew, and this is by tj mcconnell, who is their spark plug off the bench.
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: We talk a lot on this podcast about okc's like um, almost aau, college-like mentality.
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: Another team that basically plays for one another and seems to believe in one another is the indiana pacers, and I don't think I think they get shortanged when we are talking about these two teams and talk about their um, their fight, their grit, their way to continue to overcome the odds that have been absolutely stocked against them.
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: Nimhar had eight of his 14 points in the fourth quarter when we absolutely needed it because he took over that game, because Halliburton was not getting that ball.
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: In the fourth quarter, they were like somebody else is going to beat us.
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: It will not be you, sir, it will not be you.
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: And Tyrese said okay, I trust my guys.
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: Do you trust yours?
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: I've been playing like this all season long, trusting my guys, getting them in positions, you know, giving them the freedom to shoot their shots.
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: Step back three on shea with a minute 59 left.
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: Hit that boom.
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: This is andrew nimhart assisted turner on a crucial late three.
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: Boom.
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: There you go.
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: Carlisle trusts him solo since Christmas of 2023 when he put him in the lineup remember this was supposed to be Ben Matherin's deal.
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: When Ben Matherin got hurt last year, my thought was like, okay, well, what does this mean?
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: And how does this mean moving forward?
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: The pacers obviously had a good idea how it was going to move forward because andrew nimhard was like I got this g, I played at gonzaga.
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: Okay, I play for Mark Few now we don't win championships there, but we get to the damn dance and we play incredible, uh, precise basketball and you're gonna get that from me and we're gonna play defense and we're gonna line it up and see what happens.
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: Trust and time.
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: How Carlisle bet on Andrew Nembhard before the world saw it.
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: He's not a role player, andrew Nimhard.
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: He is not what he is.
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: He's a rhythm breaker.
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: Now Halliburton's clip will live on the timelines, but Drew Andrew Nimhard is the reason why it even exists.
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: So when we are going through our twitter timelines and seeing our guy hit the dagger to end the game, basically just know that he was not able to get off, get off any real shots up until that point.
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: When it was, they got the wall with 10 seconds to go after the rebound and everybody would scramble and nobody just locked in on Halliburton.
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: He got the wall and got to bring it up, basically free until he got to half court and he wasn't going to give up the ball.
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: Then he was like no, no, no, I let everybody do their thing, but on this one, on this one.
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: When it comes to the last one, there can only be one.
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: My wife loves highlander and she loves that phrase, so we like to use it.
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: That mislabeled by the broadcast was more like a blown ID.
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: It was symbolic Because Indiana has been misidentified all year.
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: They're not a cute team, they're not a fluke, they're not your cousin's favorite league pass squad.
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: They are flatly the most adaptable team in the league.
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: And this game won, was their thesis statement.
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: Carlisle didn't just rotate bodies, he calibrated roles like a field general.
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: Ogie Thompson feels empowered in his offense.
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: Aaron Neesmith hits big shots, big time shots in big time games all the time.
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: And miles turner, miles turner is that guy who was on the trade block pretty much for a decade and has become just an essential part of what this team does.
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: He's a big chess piece on the board when they need to use it.
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: Board when they need to use it.
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: Here's a note from Soraya Bench unit impact Obi Toppin had 17 points.
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: He had five threes Way to space the floor.
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: Aaron Neesmith was a plus 10 in his box plus or minus, and Miles Turner 16 points, 8 boards Excuse me 3 stocks, so 2 blocks and a steal.
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: None of them forced offense.
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: All 3 shaped their matchups and when they hit timely shots when they were called upon, tyrese Halliburton them in the right position and they knocked down shots.
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: And that's how it went the whole game, even through the turnovers.
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: Now let's talk about Pascal Siakam.
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: Box score says 19 points and 10, but his value was he absorbed the pressure by jalen williams in late switches.
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: He played high help without fouling and, most importantly, he never sped up.
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: He was a stabilizing force for the pacers.
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: Every final team needs one of these dudes, keep in mind.
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: Pascal Siakam was part of that 2019 Toronto Raptors NBA Finals Championship run, so he's seen it up close.
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: He's seen Kawhi do it, he's been a cog in the machine before, so he seen it all and he is bringing that expert leadership that Indiana absolutely needs At this present time.
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: Siakam contested more four quarter shots Than any pacer and committed zero personal fouls while doing it.
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: That is called veteran poise, ladies and gentlemen.
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: And veteran poise was shown and was on display throughout game one.
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: Pascal Siakam was that guy for the Indiana Pacers.
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: Meanwhile, through the rubble of this game, ok OKC looked right early and then they got tight.
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: Their rhythm was flattened.
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: No more second side movement, no backdoor flashes, just straight line isos and delayed passes.
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: Jalen Williams finished 6th of 19.
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: What is going on with that?
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: We just gave this dude a bunch of flowers as he helped close that series in the western conference finals and now we got a 6 of 19 outing in game one.
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: Now we can say two or three things.
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: With this one.
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: We're not going to overreact.
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: We think that Jalen Williams is still that number two dude.
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: We still love Jalen Williams and we don't think this is indicative of who he is.
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: Number two, keep in mind.
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: Jalen Williams is how old?
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: 23, 24 maybe now okay.
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: So how much playoff time, how many playoff games has he been in?
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: Oh, last year and this year.
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: All right, there might still be some more growth, some more, some more plateaus to reach with this guy, obviously.
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: And now the other guy who kind of didn't show up in this game is chet hunger.
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: Six points, no rim pressure, the offense narrowed to a sliver and indiana closed in.
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: Now, was he hindered by the physicality of pascal siakam and miles turner?
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: It's a call that we're going to have to keep on monitoring as we go along in these NBA Finals.
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: But here is a note that I love OKC's final five possessions by Sorrell, iso, iso, foul, miss contested pull-up up dagger make by indiana.
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: That's not flow, that's a free fall, because when it starts to deteriorate you start to see okay, we got to get.
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: Whatever the best shot is, we're gonna get the ball in the, in the person we trust.
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: Da, da, da.
• 45:00
  Speaker 1: Now this is where we zoom out on okc.
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: They had the better season.
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: They had the cleaner metrics, the shinier stars, but indiana had one skill that outlives all of that in-game flexibility.
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: They didn't just play well, they adapted better, faster, cleaner.
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: It was why they could survive all the turnovers.
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: This is why they didn't panic after Shea shot barrage, which again, he scored 38 points in the finals game, and why they look loose in the most pressurized moments of the year of their season.
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: They were just like and this is just what this is, another day that ends in y for us.
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: We do this, dog, this is what we do.
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: We get behind and we stay close enough to walk your ass down, and that's what we're going to do tonight.
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: And just because you're the OKC Thunder does not mean that we are sweating you one bit Because we don't Now.
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: Indiana led the NBA in assists to turnover ratio.
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: After timeouts this postseason, that translates into just the focus we're going to execute on just the highest level.
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: So game one gave us more than just daggers.
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: It gave us clarity.
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: We were all on the OKC hype train and maybe still this is the team, maybe this is the team that goes out and wins four in a row and none of this is ever spoken again.
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: But indiana is the team of the moment and they did what they have been doing all season.
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: They didn't just steal this game Again.
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: If you look at the last eight minutes of that game, they walked them down like good teams do all the time.
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: They took control of this series by asking better questions.
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: The Thunder got out executed, they got out adapted and maybe they also got out coached In the final possession.
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: They also got out identified.
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: I will say this right now OKC is an incredible team.
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: I do expect them to bounce back.
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: But we aren't here to surface feed, we're here for the system underneath it, and now that system wears golden navy.
• 47:56
  Speaker 1: So I ask you this who are your finals X-Factor?
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: Who do you think is going to change the ebbs and flows of this series going forward?
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: Are we going to have more Andrew Nembhardt performances?
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: Are we going to have Aaron Neesmith breakout performances, or will it be somebody from the Thunder?
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: Will it be Kacen Wallace?
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: Will it be Chet Holmgren stepping up?
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: Who knows?
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: But I think we have an entertaining series to go off of, which is great.
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: Let's get to what the game had Now.
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: Let's get to some of the stats that we kind of need to get to, and some of the things break down, some of the crux of this game.
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: Let's just call it what it was.
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: Game 1 was supposed to be the Thunder's pace, their game, their script, but in the 4th quarter it turned into something else.
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: It turned into a horror movie.
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: They scored 25 points in the final frame and none of it looked familiar.
• 49:15
  Speaker 1: No flow at all.
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: Their rhythm seemed to be absolutely destroyed and the things that they were doing earlier in the playoffs, it seemed like they just lost their complete identity.
• 49:31
  Speaker 1: You know what stood out the most.
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: Chet hungren, a seven foot unicorn who's supposed to be unlocked their half course ceiling, didn't touch the ball in the final 4 or 5 minutes.
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: Not to shoot, not to scream, he just didn't touch it, not even as a spacer who matters.
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: He was standing in the corner just chilling.
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: In the final six minutes for hungren, he had zero shots, zero rebounds and zero screen assists, used like a floor tile instead of a weapon.
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: This is where we talk about people getting out coach.
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: And mark dagnall was stepping up to a veteran coach in rick carlisle, who has might be stoic you might sit here and people were pissed off at him when he left dallas and they didn't understand, like, what he was trying to do.
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: But I tell you what the team that he has around him right now seems to dig him and all of the brilliance that we had seen out of rick carlisle over the last decade or so seemed to come to fruition all in one night.
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: So the zero shots of, zero rebounds, zero screen assists, that's not on check, that's a coaching freeze.
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: Dagnall blinked and Carlisle did not.
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: Let's talk about Jalen Williams.
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: I love for his game, but 19 shots and only 4 at the rim, that wasn't aggressive enough for me.
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: Don't be floating out there, j-dub me don't be floating out there.
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: J-dub, don't be floating out there at all.
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: We need you to attack the rim like it owes you cash.
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: You know I'm saying we need you to attack the rim like your mama's best pie that you love.
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: We need you to attack the rim like five-year-olds attack the christmas presents on christmas day.
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: I think that's enough analogies, right, all right, cool.
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: J-dub was two of nine on jumpers outside of 10 feet, all contested, all forced.
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: Meanwhile, sga was magnificent 38 points.
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: And you'll sit here and say, well, was he?
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: Was he magnificent?
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, because he scored when his team needed him, even though it wasn't efficient.
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: He got to a spot, but at some point you need a second plan.
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: You need a second star.
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: You need a second plan.
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: You need a second star.
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: You need a second decision maker out there.
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: And where was J-Dub when we needed him?
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 52:27
  Speaker 1: I don't know, and this is a question that OKC has to answer.
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: By game two, sga was 14 of 30.
• 52:36
  Speaker 1: He was 0-5 from three in the fourth quarter.
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: That looked like fatigue, not failure.
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: The Pacers wore him down.
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: They didn't let him rest on defense and they damn sure also pestered him on offense.
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: So let me flip this because Indiana deserves the floor.
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: What they did wasn't in the script.
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: This was not supposed to happen.
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: This was supposed to be a coronation of sorts.
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: This wasn't built to go viral.
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: This was built to win a finals game.
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: They were executing their offense even through the turnovers, and a lot of the turnovers were just bad passes and just people just getting ahead of themselves.
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: Indiana run this is a good note.
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: Thank you, soraya.
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: Indiana ran 16 goal screen actions.
• 53:43
  Speaker 1: They scored on 11 of them.
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: Wallace ended up on Halliburton more than Lou Dort did in crunch time.
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: You heard that right.
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: They got Wallace on Halliburton on the final possession because the misdirection that started the two passes earlier.
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: That's not luck, that's prep.
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: Shots out to rick carlisle because he does big things.
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: Our guy pascal siakam.
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: He didn't dominate the box score, but he dominated in the space between the plays.
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: He was everywhere in rotation, late stunts, help on the tag.
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: He closed out with precision.
• 54:27
  Speaker 1: He covered two short shooters and the paint cutter without leaving his feet.
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: Siakam contested six shots in the fourth quarter without fouling one single time.
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: That is playoff iq, that is playoff discipline, that is maturation of the moment.
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: Here's a sneaky mvp of the game, ogie topping.
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: He was a complete x factor.
• 54:58
  Speaker 1: He had five, threes, five of them.
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: Hold on, there is five, oh five, five got five on it.
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah for sure so, but more than that, he pulled chet out, and this is where we lost some of chet's brilliance.
• 55:14
  Speaker 1: He pulled him out of the paint and forced OKC to defend his base, not bodies.
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: Another stat from Soraya Six flare screens initiated off Ogie's side.
• 55:26
  Speaker 1: Indiana scored on five of those.
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: He bent the geometry of the defense.
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: And don't overlook the back half of Indiana's playmaking Andrew Nembhardt, andrew Nembhardt, andrew Nembhard, as we would say.
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: Um, he might have Made the biggest defensive play Of the night when he pressured SGA into a late miss Before Halliburton staggered.
• 55:55
  Speaker 1: Now also, there was a time where who was it?
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: It was Nembhard hart.
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: He went straight up.
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: I think it was on lou dort, if I'm not mistaken.
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: So lou dort goes up for a shot and he vertical.
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: He vertical goes up straight and as he is as the ball, or or as the as Lou Dort is about to shoot the ball, he's coming down from his Jump position.
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: As he comes down, he's starting to shoot the ball and Nembhard blocks the shot On the way down.
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: Just incredible stuff, incredible stuff by Andrew Nembhard.
• 56:37
  Speaker 1: Nembhard Is three with 159.
• 56:41
  Speaker 1: Left, left made it a one possession game.
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: Then he locked sg up for two plays, two ends, one tone.
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: Center carlisle didn't make adjustments, he owned the tempo.
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: The thunder didn't just miss shots, they confused and they looked like a young team.
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: And they looked like a young team that went Okay, this team is not blown out, they're still here.
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: What do we do now?
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: And they were looking for answers and they could not find them.
• 57:13
  Speaker 1: Not at all.
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: They could not find these answers at all.
• 57:17
  Speaker 1: I was, I was shocked by what I I saw.
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: I was really shocked by what I what I saw with this team.
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: Because if you would have told me that a team that committed 25 turnovers most in the finals since 1999 and still won I mean that's the whole okc game how many points did they get off those turnovers?
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: You know saying obviously not many, because they were scoring bucket loads of points off turnovers in the western conference finals and also in the previous series.
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: They did not do that last night.
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: So where does this leave us?
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: What changes do we make for game two?
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: Let's start with okc and let's be real, they don't need to have any kind of reinvention.
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: They just need to recalibrate and really just redo the last eight minutes of the fourth quarter because everything else went right.
• 58:21
  Speaker 1: One use chet as a playmaker, not a prop.
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: Drag him into dho actions, make turner defend him like 25 feet away from the rim and see what happens.
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: You want the defense to be rotating, not watching.
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: You don't want them to be able to load up on sga the whole time.
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: You do not want that.
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: Try to avoid that as much as possible.
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: Chet has just has to screen assist.
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: Hey, oh, I'm sorry, this is no from saraya.
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: He only had one.
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: Chet home green only had one screen assist in game one.
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: That number needs to be closer to seven.
• 59:01
  Speaker 1: Seven to eight.
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: A game that means he's active and participating.
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: And what's it?
• 59:08
  Speaker 1: What the hell is going on?
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: Two let's shade play off the ball for stretches.
• 59:13
  Speaker 1: Okay, you got case and wallace, you have j dub.
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: You got others who can bring the ball up.
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: We do not need Shea on the ball the whole entire time.
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: Run Shea off double screens and let him attack into an already moving defense.
• 59:31
  Speaker 1: That sounds like cash money right there.
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: That's better look than the late looks he was getting in isos last night.
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: Number three matchups.
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: Lou dort needs to be on hallowburton more, like our guy kobe said in his commercial, when he's talking about his haters he goes more, more, more hate.
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: More dort on hallowburton, more dort on hallow burton, please.
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: Now case and wallace is a good defender.
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: He's also very, very young, so we don't need to be seeing hallow burton giving this dude the blues in late game situations.
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 1: Try to have have Dort Go over the screen, get through the screen what he can do, because he needs to be specifically on Halliburton.
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: I don't think you can put Kaysen Wallace back on our guy.
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: I'm not saying that Down the road he wouldn't be able to guard Halliburton.
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: I just think For what he is right now, maybe we stay away from that.
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: Sga held Halliburton to .81 point per possessions.
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: That's defensive win.
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: Let's start there
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: Now.
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: Indiana what does Indiana need to do to continue to build on this momentum?
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: I'll tell you what they need to do.
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: Don't be greedy.
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: Get cleaner.
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 1: Early sets for Halliburton would be great.
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: Get him movement looks in the first five minutes.
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: Don't wait until the fourth quarter to let him cook.
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: Matherin, too, also needs to be in motion.
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: He needs to cut slip fake pin downs.
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: Don't ask him to iso, not against this team.
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: Ask him to move the help three dho coverage.
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: If okay, she okay.
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: C shifts their shifts to chet jalen.
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: Dho sets show and recover.
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 1: Disrupt their timing.
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: Do not over commit.
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 1: A note from our producer, our interpret producer indiana allowed 0.84 points per possession on dho since the all-star
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: break.
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 1: They've got a formula.
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 1: Here's what game two becomes.
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 1: It's not who's better this game, it's who adjusts faster.
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: It's not who scores more of the game, it's who thinks the game deeper.
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 1: Okc still is that team, but indiana.
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: They got a bunch of moxie and they got a pocket full of I don't give a damn.
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: And guess what that might be?
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 1: The most dangerous combination going into this game too, is that we already got game one in our back pocket.
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: Can we be greedy and go for more because they got answers and let's see who has the better next move?
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: By the way, indiana needs to cut down on turnovers.
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: If indiana cuts down on turnovers, this is going to be really scary times for
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 1: OKC.
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: Now again, we talked about this earlier, but time for a little humility.
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: We said the Thunder Would win this series in five, maybe six, because that's what our model said.
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: But if Halliburton has caught a heater and I stand by that version of the Thunder, the one that breaks off the west all season.
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 1: But game one made it very, very clear we didn't give indiana enough credit, damn it.
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: We were the ones watching for the thunder to show us how good they really are.
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 1: And what did we miss?
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: I asked this question to serea last night as the game ended.
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 1: I said what did we miss?
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: I asked this question to serea last night as the game ended.
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 1: I said what did we miss?
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: Is this one game?
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: Or because the way it felt to me and I think actually serea agreed with me on this I wish, I wish she wasn't so timid to get on mic, but um, the way it felt to me is that we were seeing something completely different than what we thought we were going to see.
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: I thought I did my homework.
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 1: We were watching.
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: We were watching for the thunder to do their thing and indiana already had figured out who they
• 1:04:17
  Speaker 1: were.
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: It wasn't a puncher's chance, it was poise, it was their process.
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: It was the team that didn't panic, went down.
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: 18 in third quarter, thunder's best net rating all year.
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: Worst final six minutes in two months.
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 1: Pace was plus 14 in the last five minutes.
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 1: That's not luck, that's legs and that is being comfortable in the chaos.
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: Pacers now have three game winning shots this postseason again bucks game five, cavaliers game two and then this game game one in the finals again.
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 1: They live in this mode, they know how to play in this mode, they're familiar and comfortable.
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 1: And that's scary because again, oklahoma City, we can call them the team of destiny, we can call them just hey.
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 1: They just kicked the west butt the whole year but they didn't have a ton of these games.
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 1: And not having a ton of these games might be the difference between a five game series and a seven game war that we might be headed
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: for.
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: Let's talk about the guy who ended the debate, tyrese Halliburton.
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 1: He hit the shot with .3 seconds left and just like that he leveled up.
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: This wasn't just a fun upstart moment, this was a definitive lead actor moment.
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: This isn't just the lead pass, darling Halliburton anymore.
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 1: This is him headlining and being the heel that he so richly, richly, uh, devours.
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 1: He loves this.
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 1: He loves shutting up the paycom center and the
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 1: nba's finals.
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 1: Coverage at the end deservedly so was all about halliburton.
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: Highlight packages in 24 hours.
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 1: Spv quote, quote elite in problem solving.
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: You know, elite in problem solving.
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 1: That used to be OKC's headline.
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: Your feed, your uncle's group chat they're all in.
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: On Indiana now I bet you, pat McAfee is getting a bunch of eye sorries.
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry, dog, we didn't.
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: We were unfamiliar with your game.
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: This is how the narrative power flips in the finals one shot, one screen assist, one free frame of wallace on the wrong man, and suddenly carlyle is a chess master and suddenly haliburton is the coolest guy on
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: the hardwood.
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 1: And okc, they're back into proven mode fast.
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: Because here's the thing I wondered out loud Towards the end of the season Were they still too young?
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 1: Did they have enough Playoff warts or scars that would Galvanize them in times like this?
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 1: And I'm still not saying that the jury is definitely out and we know the answer to this, because we don't.
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 1: We got six more games to play if we need them, but at this point in time, okc is going to have to do something different.
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: They're going to have to do something different to keep that 15 to 18 point lead.
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 1: So maybe they're not in these tough situations because maybe they're just not built for it right now and you just need to blow people out?
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 1: Did we overlook the youth factor?
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 1: So here's the question that we dug in our last pot was the youth of the thunder team going to show up and cost them a playoff moment?
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 1: And the answer to that is well, in game one it did, but because they played the way they played and because indiana looked more experienced in the tightest spaces, they played
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: smarter basketball.
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 1: When the floor shrunk, case and wallace wasn't supported to be guarding halliburton.
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: Halliburton on that final play and chet was an absolute no-show.
• 1:09:01
  Speaker 1: Like, if you're gonna get this type of chat and this type of jay jaylen, uh, williams from okc, from OKC, the Thunder have no shot.
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 1: We need to get real Chet and real J-Dub back in the fold and people will say, oh, this guy has to step it up.
• 1:09:24
  Speaker 1: I'm not saying all that.
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 1: All I'm saying is this every time that Jalen Williams has a bad game, he has always come back with a really, really, really good game.
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: And yes, chet is in his second playoffs as well and yes, there's still learning curves that he is going through, but I'm hoping that he looks at the film and goes, hey, okay, I'm going to have to be a little more aggressive, I'm gonna have to be in the mix more, because my team
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 1: needs me.
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 1: Here's a note from serea okay, see, three games decided by five points or fewer this postseason, zero wins for.
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 1: Okay, see, say it it again Three games decided by five points or fewer in this postseason, zero wins.
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 1: Indiana, on the other hand, four wins in those exact same scenarios.
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: Who's more comfortable when everything is on the god dog line?
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 1: Food for thought, food
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 1: for thought.
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 1: Let's not forget the fans.
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 1: They were absolutely out of their minds last night.
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 1: Out of their minds.
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 1: Loud city was loud as hell.
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 1: They were everything they needed to be up until that last second.
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 1: Up until that last second.
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 1: Loud city, 92 mm-hmm.
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 1: But their playoff scoring home margin is plus 1.6.
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 1: So with all that loud, they ain't blowing teams out.
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 1: So OKC N5
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 1: isn't dead.
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 1: We said that, but it's not our thought process anymore.
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 1: We need new math, new respect, new framing.
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 1: Indiana might not be better, but they're ready and they might be enough.
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 1: The thunder can still take control of this series.
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 1: We believe that 100.
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 1: But they can't drift into it.
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 1: They have to go out and grab game two by the neck and take what
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 1: they want.
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 1: Ask yourself this Is Game 2 going to look like the thunder we saw for six months?
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 1: Or are we watching a finals run that belongs to Indiana now?
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 1: These are all questions that we got to have answered.
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 1: I still believe in OKC.
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 1: I still believe in all of the talent they have.
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 1: I just want to see what jalen williams and also chet hungren do after their performances that they showed on game one.
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 1: Do they have bounce back ability to show us their moxie, their grit?
• 1:12:31
  Speaker 1: To show us their moxie, their grit, so we can go ahead and say, okay, game one, alright, we kind of slept, walk through.
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 1: Maybe we need to Keep the intensity level a little bit higher so then we can go ahead and put this team out of this misery.
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 1: I don't know, but this series Is so entertaining and I am glad that we got
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 1: this finals.
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 1: So on this feel good friday, we are not done.
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 1: We got so much more to do.
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 1: Why?
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 1: Because we need to talk about adam silver.
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 1: Real quick, got a couple things before we bounce up out of here.
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 1: But here's the deal.
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 1: It's the nba, it's the NBA Finals, the Thunder and Pacers.
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 1: Are there Two franchises that didn't exist when Jordan Hit the shot.
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 1: That's so.
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 1: That's so disrespectful.
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 1: They
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 1: 100% existed.
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 1: Now Adam Silver walks in and he talks about what's going on with um expansion.
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 1: Well, how you?
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 1: Let's get to that real quick, because we want to make sure that you are up to date on all the good information.
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 1: All right, first let's talk about expansion or anti-expansion.
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 1: Expansion update.
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 1: Silver said, I quote I don't think it's automatic.
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 1: Which is, commissioner, speak, for we'll keep seattle and vegas emotionally hostage for another three fiscal quarters.
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 1: We're doing that weird dance again, like when someone says I'm thinking about maybe Proposing someday, like you know.
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 1: You know what they, what happened was, and all this other nonsense.
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 1: But here's the kicker.
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 1: He compared expansion To selling equity into the league.
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 1: This is peak NBA Energy.
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 1: You know who also sells equity instead of solving problems startups that haven't turned a profit in six years.
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 1: This is a deliberate stall tactic by the league that doesn't want to split the 76 billion dollar pie for their new tv deal just yet.
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 1: Expansion is leverage, not priority, and those are the kind of the statements that adam silver gave, and now we're just saying expanding into europe is a better idea.
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 1: No, no, that is not going
• 1:15:12
  Speaker 1: to happen.
• 1:15:12
  Speaker 1: He did talk about Changes that are forthcoming, though, and I think everybody in the world Wanted these changes.
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 1: Everybody in the world Wanted more all star game changes.
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 1: That's what we came for.
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 1: We didn't come To Adam Silver and go.
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 1: Can you give us a real, legitimate update on actual expansion?
• 1:15:37
  Speaker 1: We came here for the all-star game.
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 1: Uh, smosh fest, the little tweaks that we're going to do.
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 1: So the
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 1: all-star game.
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 1: Silver says it's going to be full international mystery, um format.
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 1: It could be usa versus the world, it could be mars versus jupiter.
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 1: Nobody knows at this point in time.
• 1:16:04
  Speaker 1: But he did say one thing that's certain it's going to be on nbc.
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 1: That's kind of crazy.
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 1: Also, silver says that it won't be just USA versus the world.
• 1:16:16
  Speaker 1: So I'm guessing we're getting some sort
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 1: of like.
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 1: I don't know what we're doing.
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 1: Do we have enough?
• 1:16:25
  Speaker 1: Do we have enough international players To make this work?
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 1: Might be the question.
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 1: You know, the dudes Could just play harder, could do that or not.
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 1: Have them do like 36 parties in like three nights, so then they're dog tired for sunday could do that as well.
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 1: I
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 1: don't know.
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 1: Now let's talk about the thunders and pacers and let's talk about the small market theories and pacers.
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 1: And let's talk about the small market theories and what have you?
• 1:16:56
  Speaker 1: And all this other stuff, the hoop twitter dream.
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 1: But abc's advertising nightmare finals, and I love it.
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 1: Silver was like market size is irrelevant, which is exactly what someone would say when they are trying to sell indiana and okc
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 1: in china.
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 1: But here's the thing seven championships in seven years is great parity for the league but terrible for the casual fandom.
• 1:17:27
  Speaker 1: The league will spin this system working, but the stars still drive the revenue.
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 1: Here's the point.
• 1:17:35
  Speaker 1: If you would have put shea gilgis alexander on tv and you would have put tyrese halliburton on tv more, nobody would have these type of thought processes, because we would have saw the electrifying ways that the thunder beat the hell out of people all year.
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 1: We would have saw Tyrese Halliburton doing magical things in the second half of the season and just the historic run that the Pacers went on going into the playoffs.
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 1: But we didn't get that.
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 1: You know why?
• 1:18:09
  Speaker 1: Because we needed to see as much Lakers as much Golden State Warriors that.
• 1:18:19
  Speaker 1: You know why?
• 1:18:19
  Speaker 1: Because we needed to see as much lakers as much uh, golden state warriors, as much milwaukee bucks as we can
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 1: possibly get.
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 1: And don't forget injury gate silver says injuries are actually down.
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 1: That's a freaking stat doing impressor.
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 1: Meanwhile, steph tatum and half the nuggets were hobbling like they were shot on the oregon trail.
• 1:18:41
  Speaker 1: Silver's downplaying low management concerns ahead of tv deal that's going to roll out framing.
• 1:18:48
  Speaker 1: The problem is perception rather than a structural issue.
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 1: Watch for new injury data packaging.
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 1: It's forthcoming,
• 1:18:58
  Speaker 1: trust me.
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 1: Then he goes into full petty king on ratings, like fans ask him in the streets how are the ratings?
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 1: He's mad about it.
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 1: Welcome to sports.
• 1:19:12
  Speaker 1: Sicko nation commission.
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 1: We track nielsen numbers like they track game seven box scores.
• 1:19:19
  Speaker 1: That's who we are.
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 1: To sum it up, I guess we are still in
• 1:19:26
  Speaker 1: a pause.
• 1:19:26
  Speaker 1: On expansion, the all-star game is tbd and whatever awkward format they want to put together and ratings are fine, unless you ask adam silver about him, and then he's going to be a curmudgeon.
• 1:19:41
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 1:19:42
  Speaker 1: This is the nba we live in folks where games are incredible but the messaging is cooked in a lab run by SEO consultants.
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 1: This is where you guys get involved.
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 1: What's your expansion NBA dream team?
• 1:20:03
  Speaker 1: Is it the Seattle Supersonics getting their squad back?
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 1: Is it the Las Vegas dealers or poker chips or whatever we're going to call them?
• 1:20:13
  Speaker 1: Is it the Mexico City Aztecas or is it the St Louis Spirit?
• 1:20:21
  Speaker 1: Who gets a team?
• 1:20:22
  Speaker 1: When will it happen?
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 1: Is it something that's going to be announced at Summer League Like he just throws us off the trail and at Summer League he's going to announce it.
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 1: I don't know, but I will say this that game one was everything that it needed to be, and I understand that it might not be the new york knicks versus the golden state warriors or the los angeles lakers versus the philadelphia 76ers of the boston celtics, but that game was super entertaining and it was had a bunch of drama in it.
• 1:21:00
  Speaker 1: It had everything you needed.
• 1:21:02
  Speaker 1: So there
• 1:21:04
  Speaker 1: you go.
• 1:21:05
  Speaker 1: Now, before we get out of here, we got one more thing to get to, and guess what?
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 1: The Phoenix Suns have a new coach.
• 1:21:13
  Speaker 1: Jordan Ott Just got the head job In Phoenix.
• 1:21:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, jordan Ott, do you know that name?
• 1:21:23
  Speaker 1: Okay, don't worry, we're going to help you out.
• 1:21:26
  Speaker 1: We're going to help you out, don't worry.
• 1:21:27
  Speaker 1: He was the Cavs assistant Fresh off riding shotgun on a team that got punked in the second round.
• 1:21:37
  Speaker 1: Now he's coaching Right now, currently, until traded, kevin Durant, devin Booker and whatever's left of media.
• 1:21:46
  Speaker 1: Day rolls around and the Suns front office they're telling us Dead, serious, dead, serious.
• 1:21:54
  Speaker 1: They're competing next year.
• 1:21:56
  Speaker 1: Somebody get me the gi joe files, because we're clearly executing a cobra level plan here.
• 1:22:06
  Speaker 1: That's definitely not going
• 1:22:08
  Speaker 1: to work.
• 1:22:08
  Speaker 1: And oh, matt ischia.
• 1:22:12
  Speaker 1: He got the Michigan State ties, which I guess makes him royalty in the Ishkia kingdom, but you couldn't get Izzo himself to come to the NBA, so you grab the next best thing, his film guy.
• 1:22:28
  Speaker 1: So let's talk about it.
• 1:22:30
  Speaker 1: Who is Jordan Knott?
• 1:22:32
  Speaker 1: Well, here's the thing.
• 1:22:34
  Speaker 1: Phoenix just hired him.
• 1:22:36
  Speaker 1: He's their new coach.
• 1:22:38
  Speaker 1: That makes four coaches in
• 1:22:40
  Speaker 1: four years.
• 1:22:41
  Speaker 1: This isn't a coaching search, this is speed dating and it's like bad.
• 1:22:47
  Speaker 1: It's like did you guys watch that movie hitch where they had the speed dating um scene in there?
• 1:22:54
  Speaker 1: This is matt ishbia on coaches, straight up and look, otts got receipts.
• 1:23:00
  Speaker 1: He's done this, this time assistant stints with the nets lakers and this past season with the cavaliers.
• 1:23:08
  Speaker 1: But what really got him this job is his michigan state lineage.
• 1:23:16
  Speaker 1: Matt ishbia is a michigan state alum, brian gregory, also michigan state guy, former ga under iso.
• 1:23:28
  Speaker 1: It's not coincidence.
• 1:23:30
  Speaker 1: This is a cultural trust more than x
• 1:23:34
  Speaker 1: and o's.
• 1:23:34
  Speaker 1: This is the spartan triangle offense.
• 1:23:39
  Speaker 1: This ain't basketball, it's branding.
• 1:23:41
  Speaker 1: We try.
• 1:23:42
  Speaker 1: The phoenix suns might be wearing, uh, hunter green and white next year.
• 1:23:47
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 1:23:48
  Speaker 1: Maybe that might be like the alt colors identity.
• 1:23:53
  Speaker 1: This is an identity uh, identity factory using loyalty points from east lansing and look, I'm not mad about the hustle, but let's look, let's not sit here and act like this was some, this wasn't some.
• 1:24:11
  Speaker 1: Um, hire, that was like got all the buzz.
• 1:24:14
  Speaker 1: No, this dude said okay, you're a michigan state guy, I'm a michigan state guy, I love michigan state, you love michigan state, but we need you to love the phoenix suns too.
• 1:24:25
  Speaker 1: It is what it is.
• 1:24:27
  Speaker 1: It's like giving your cousin the ox cord to the wedding because he used to be a dj.
• 1:24:33
  Speaker 1: You hope it works, but it's all vibes until someone drops a classic odds
• 1:24:40
  Speaker 1: calling card.
• 1:24:41
  Speaker 1: Is his communication in defense.
• 1:24:43
  Speaker 1: That's great, because the defense doesn't fix a roster.
• 1:24:48
  Speaker 1: That's this messy.
• 1:24:49
  Speaker 1: Remember we still got bradley bill on a no trade clause?
• 1:24:55
  Speaker 1: He's still with the team, still making a bunch of money.
• 1:24:58
  Speaker 1: Love it.
• 1:24:59
  Speaker 1: But the defense will need to be
• 1:25:02
  Speaker 1: fixed now.
• 1:25:05
  Speaker 1: He's a grinder.
• 1:25:05
  Speaker 1: He's gonna love tape, he's gonna eat tape, he's gonna have analytics, he's gonna have synergy thoughts, he's gonna have a lot of stuff going on.
• 1:25:14
  Speaker 1: But what's his roster going to look like?
• 1:25:17
  Speaker 1: He's respected around the league.
• 1:25:20
  Speaker 1: Like we just said, he's a grinder.
• 1:25:24
  Speaker 1: What have you?
• 1:25:24
  Speaker 1: Supposedly has a ton of people skills, but he doesn't have any head coaching experience.
• 1:25:30
  Speaker 1: So this is a super gamble.
• 1:25:32
  Speaker 1: And again I asked the question what is this team going to look like?
• 1:25:37
  Speaker 1: Unless in dress the real heat?
• 1:25:40
  Speaker 1: The suns are saying they want to try to compete in a stack western conference right, with what roster?
• 1:25:47
  Speaker 1: Booker is still there.
• 1:25:50
  Speaker 1: Kd, we think, is getting traded.
• 1:25:53
  Speaker 1: Bill has a no trade clause and he might be out for 40 games this year.
• 1:26:02
  Speaker 1: Who knows?
• 1:26:02
  Speaker 1: This isn't exactly a knockoff Avengers lineup of all big names and no synergy.
• 1:26:11
  Speaker 1: They finished 11th last season.
• 1:26:13
  Speaker 1: They missed a plan.
• 1:26:16
  Speaker 1: They fired mike bootenhoser before he could hold exit interviews.
• 1:26:19
  Speaker 1: They're not rebuilding publicly, but they're not competing either.
• 1:26:25
  Speaker 1: This is a soft reset.
• 1:26:27
  Speaker 1: Energy we're retooling.
• 1:26:30
  Speaker 1: That live buys you about 18 months of rope if that, unless people see through your sheer veil of
• 1:26:39
  Speaker 1: just uncertainty.
• 1:26:40
  Speaker 1: You don't hire ott to win a chip in 2025.
• 1:26:45
  Speaker 1: You hire him to change the tenor of the room, to reboot the efforts tough In a team that looked allergic To ball movement last year.
• 1:26:56
  Speaker 1: So Ott's coaching equivalent Of unplugging the router yes, unplug it, count to 10.
• 1:27:05
  Speaker 1: Reinstall for the culture.
• 1:27:08
  Speaker 1: And let's not ignore the math.
• 1:27:11
  Speaker 1: The roster ain't cheap.
• 1:27:12
  Speaker 1: Bill's making a ton of money.
• 1:27:12
  Speaker 1: Kd.
• 1:27:13
  Speaker 1: Who is still the math.
• 1:27:13
  Speaker 1: The roster ain't cheap bills making a ton of money.
• 1:27:15
  Speaker 1: Kd, who is still currently on the roster, is making a ton of money.
• 1:27:19
  Speaker 1: Devin booker is making a ton of money.
• 1:27:22
  Speaker 1: They have no cap flexibility whatsoever.
• 1:27:27
  Speaker 1: Very, very, very slim
• 1:27:32
  Speaker 1: tradable assets.
• 1:27:33
  Speaker 1: So I still try to figure out how do you reboot and how do you try to win when you have to get rid of players or you have to pawn players off.
• 1:27:47
  Speaker 1: Get players back in.
• 1:27:48
  Speaker 1: That either somebody wants or somebody doesn't want.
• 1:27:51
  Speaker 1: I just don't understand what the vision is in phoenix.
• 1:27:56
  Speaker 1: So if you're a phoenix suns fan, hit me up on twitter, okay.
• 1:28:00
  Speaker 1: At frontrunnerpc, if you don't want to hit me up, you want to hit the producer up, that's
• 1:28:06
  Speaker 1: fine too.
• 1:28:06
  Speaker 1: At rea, underscore fudge frpc.
• 1:28:10
  Speaker 1: We are also on blue sky.
• 1:28:12
  Speaker 1: I keep.
• 1:28:13
  Speaker 1: I keep my whole situation the same.
• 1:28:15
  Speaker 1: At frontrunnerpcbskysocial, my producer is different and fancy, so it's frpc hyphen raya dot b sky dot social, die social, okay, oh, this is a note
• 1:28:38
  Speaker 1: from soria.
• 1:28:38
  Speaker 1: Ishpia has one card left.
• 1:28:39
  Speaker 1: Hope the culture changes.
• 1:28:39
  Speaker 1: Then pivot a round book.
• 1:28:40
  Speaker 1: If he demands a new path, I is there to calm the waters.
• 1:28:44
  Speaker 1: What do you think phoenix is really doing?
• 1:28:47
  Speaker 1: Phoenix fans?
• 1:28:49
  Speaker 1: Do you think they competing?
• 1:28:50
  Speaker 1: You think this is some form of stalling Until books flip the table?
• 1:28:56
  Speaker 1: Or are we just hiring Michigan State Spartans for vibes?
• 1:29:00
  Speaker 1: Let us know, hit
• 1:29:03
  Speaker 1: us up.
• 1:29:04
  Speaker 1: Tap in with us.
• 1:29:05
  Speaker 1: Hit us on X, twitter, blue Sky YouTube community.
• 1:29:10
  Speaker 1: Hit us up, let us know.
• 1:29:12
  Speaker 1: Now, that will do it for today's podcast.
• 1:29:17
  Speaker 1: If this is your first time checking in with us, rocking with us, welcome, welcome in.
• 1:29:23
  Speaker 1: You.
• 1:29:24
  Speaker 1: Just tapped in to a space that is built for you and with you and with you, built for you and with you.
• 1:29:34
  Speaker 1: I'm and with you, I'm so sorry we're going.
• 1:29:35
  Speaker 1: So that does it for the podcast today.
• 1:29:38
  Speaker 1: I want to thank saraya and her job, but if this is first time you're walking with us, welcome in you.
• 1:29:45
  Speaker 1: Just tapped into a space that's built for you and built with you.
• 1:29:50
  Speaker 1: Stick around, because we were, we're growing, we're about growing here and about being real here.
• 1:29:58
  Speaker 1: Be a friend and tell a friend about
• 1:30:01
  Speaker 1: the podcast.
• 1:30:02
  Speaker 1: The best part of this community is you, your energy, your story, your presence.
• 1:30:10
  Speaker 1: Be part of, not against, and now surround yourself with people who see you, support you and genuinely care about your growth.
• 1:30:22
  Speaker 1: And if you got folks like that in your circle, let them know.
• 1:30:29
  Speaker 1: Send them a quick text, a FaceTime, a voice memo, just a little affirmation goes a long, long way.
• 1:30:35
  Speaker 1: And if this episode hits home for you, pass it along to someone who loves the nba like you do or just loves hoops.
• 1:30:46
  Speaker 1: That's how we grow one share, one affirmation at a time, and know that everything you hear here Is made with Intention and love, with a team that cares deeply about this work that we do.
• 1:31:05
  Speaker 1: We care a lot about what
• 1:31:07
  Speaker 1: we do.
• 1:31:07
  Speaker 1: Shouts out to the whole FRPC squad Behind the scenes.
• 1:31:11
  Speaker 1: Shouts out to my producer Soraya squad behind the scenes, you know I'm saying shots out to my producer, saraya, holding it down on the ones and twos hitting us with the great notes.
• 1:31:18
  Speaker 1: Love that thanks to vance, who helps us understand the data and understand synergy better.
• 1:31:25
  Speaker 1: Thank you.
• 1:31:26
  Speaker 1: Thank you to my guy, vance, and keep everything moving.
• 1:31:31
  Speaker 1: We'll be introducing more and more crew soon, but because this collective really is a collective, so stay tapped in with front runner podcast collective.
• 1:31:42
  Speaker 1: We're big on community and we're big on building this one right alongside of you, so we will see you on tuesday.
• 1:31:51
  Speaker 1: Be a friend, tell a friend about the podcast we're out of here, deuce.