Latest / The Right Time with Bomani Jones / Tom Haberstroh on Giannis-Bucks Drama continues, Spurs Push for NBA title, UNC hires Mike Malone | 04.08

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Tom Haberstroh on Giannis-Bucks Drama continues, Spurs Push for NBA title, UNC hires Mike Malone | 04.08 · The Right Time with Bomani Jones

0:09
Speaker 1: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the right time.
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Speaker 1: It is that time of week where we have a
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Speaker 2: Check him out on Yahoo Sports and many other places,
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0:34
Speaker 1: Tom Haberstroh, what's going on, man?
0:36
Speaker 3: Not a whole lot, Beaumont. Glad to be here.
0:39
Speaker 1: Hey, man.
0:39
Speaker 2: Hey, man. I'll get to the Mike Maloney things perhaps
0:43
Speaker 2: a little bit later as I realize you as a
0:46
Speaker 2: Wake Forest guy may have some interest in that. But
0:48
Speaker 2: we got to start with what is going on in
0:51
Speaker 2: Milwaukee where Shams Sharania, and it should be noted, Shams
0:55
Speaker 2: is the guy to get you information. Shams is not
0:58
Speaker 2: the guy to write a 4,000-word rundown of what's been
1:02
Speaker 2: going on with the team. I don't say that as
1:04
Speaker 2: a judgment. That's just not really typically like what he does.
1:09
Speaker 2: Maybe it's because people acted like he was lying when
1:11
Speaker 2: he said that Giannis had said that he wanted to
1:13
Speaker 2: go to the Knicks, but he sure was like, I
1:15
Speaker 2: told y'all he wanted to go to the Knicks. But
1:17
Speaker 2: it was a long rundown of a chaotic situation with
1:21
Speaker 2: the Bucs that added a All right, so it's Giannis
1:25
Speaker 2: who keeps telling us in public he doesn't want to
1:27
Speaker 2: be traded, but we all know he wants to be traded.
1:30
Speaker 2: And then you add that with a dollop of the
1:33
Speaker 2: most passive-aggressive man in basketball, passive-aggressive Hall of Famer, Doc Rivers.
1:38
Speaker 2: You put all that together, that sounds like a terrible
1:41
Speaker 2: situation that is now boiling over in part because the
1:45
Speaker 2: Bucs just.
1:46
Speaker 1: Want to tank and Giannis just wants to play. But
1:49
Speaker 1: he doesn't want to play for them, but they can't
1:52
Speaker 1: find a trade. What you got? What you got?
1:55
Speaker 3: Man, there's so many ways we can tackle this story,
1:58
Speaker 3: but I want to start with Doc Rivers saying, Google
2:00
Speaker 3: me in a meeting, in a team meeting. And Shams
2:04
Speaker 3: Tarani in the story, and I'm glad you picked up
2:05
Speaker 3: the fact that he wrote like a 4,000 word missive
2:08
Speaker 3: about this because that's not typically what the newsbreakers do
2:12
Speaker 3: in this day and age. So Shams essentially was like,
2:15
Speaker 3: I got the CVS receipt right here. And all of
2:18
Speaker 3: the stories, anecdotes that support the notion is, That Giannis
2:22
Speaker 3: Antetokounmpo wants out of there, but won't be willing to
2:25
Speaker 3: say it. He doesn't want to be the guy to say,
2:28
Speaker 3: I want to trade them in. I want to trade requests.
2:31
Speaker 3: And remember when Woj, Adrian Wojnarowski on draft night, he
2:34
Speaker 3: would come up with like 18 different synonyms for they're
2:37
Speaker 3: going to select this player. Remember that? Shams Charani, if
2:41
Speaker 3: you read his story, it's similar, except there's no mention
2:45
Speaker 3: of a trade, quote unquote, demand or trade request. And
2:49
Speaker 3: it's very interesting how everybody in the room knows what's
2:53
Speaker 3: going on, but they're not willing to say that word, demand, request.
2:58
Speaker 3: And it's just, they're all dancing around this thing that
3:01
Speaker 3: Giannis doesn't want to be the bad guy and Doc
3:03
Speaker 3: Rivers doesn't want to be there. Day one, Doc Rivers said,
3:08
Speaker 3: I don't know why they hired me. I told them
3:10
Speaker 3: not to hire me. This makes no sense. But man,
3:13
Speaker 3: $ 40 million is $ 40 million. And when that contract happened,
3:18
Speaker 3: is on the table. I understand why Doc Rivers left
3:21
Speaker 3: ESPN to go take that job. But when he says
3:24
Speaker 3: Google me and Shams Tarania in the story isn't just
3:27
Speaker 3: saying multiple sources told me. He said six sources told me.
3:34
Speaker 3: I was like, I got six people in that room
3:37
Speaker 3: telling me that this went down. So if you don't
3:39
Speaker 3: believe that I have receipts on this story, check that.
3:41
Speaker 2: I want to know exactly what the six people said, right?
3:45
Speaker 2: Because the first person was probably like, hey, check this out.
3:51
Speaker 1: You're never going to believe this, right?
3:52
Speaker 2: And then he starts calling other people for confirmation.
3:55
Speaker 1: There's at least one, yeah, he said that shit. Another, oh,
3:59
Speaker 1: you know about bro or bro. That's how they say
4:03
Speaker 1: it now.
4:03
Speaker 3: Bro.
4:04
Speaker 1: And the Google me was, what was it that he
4:06
Speaker 1: was saying? He's like, you guys can look me up.
4:09
Speaker 2: I've taken teams to the playoffs that weren't supposed to
4:11
Speaker 2: go to the playoffs because he was trying to rally
4:12
Speaker 2: them into the play-in game.
4:14
Speaker 1: And the long and the short was, I do this,
4:16
Speaker 1: but what about y'all?
4:19
Speaker 3: Yeah and Doc Rivers man we could do a whole
4:21
Speaker 3: 90 minutes about the Doc Rivers story but that Boston
4:26
Speaker 3: team it wasn't like they came out of nowhere to
4:28
Speaker 3: win the NBA title in 2008 I think they started
4:31
Speaker 3: out like 24 and three seasons. So it wasn't like
4:35
Speaker 3: nobody believed us. You can't play that card with the
4:39
Speaker 3: championship year. And after that, it's a, it's a mixed bag.
4:43
Speaker 3: You know, he's like exactly 500 in the post season
4:47
Speaker 3: as a NBA head coach. And when you look at
4:50
Speaker 3: all the 3-1 leads, which I have a contrarian take
4:53
Speaker 3: on that, but Doc Rivers, if you go to Google me,
4:56
Speaker 3: he has been such a punchline in the NBA that
5:00
Speaker 3: Gemini or ChatGPT or any of these AI apps are
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Speaker 3: probably going to put stuff at the very top of
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Speaker 3: Doc Rivers' Google search that he doesn't want to be
5:10
Speaker 3: in there.
5:11
Speaker 1: Okay.
5:12
Speaker 2: Doc's first year in Orlando, I recall as being a
5:15
Speaker 2: magic trick.
5:16
Speaker 1: Like he, ah, magic.
5:18
Speaker 2: But he took a team to the playoffs that people
5:22
Speaker 2: did not think was going to go to the playoffs.
5:23
Speaker 2: You have to remember that that was the period of
5:25
Speaker 2: time where they kept thinking Grant Hill might play this year,
5:28
Speaker 2: and then Grant Hill would be hurt again, right? He
5:31
Speaker 2: also had that year after the Clippers traded Chris Paul,
5:35
Speaker 2: where they absolutely exceeded expectations.
5:39
Speaker 1: I am also with you. I think the 3-1 thing
5:43
Speaker 1: is a bit overstated.
5:44
Speaker 3: Well, one of those is like the Orlando went up,
5:48
Speaker 3: three one against, I think it was Detroit Detroit as
5:51
Speaker 3: an eight seed against the number one seed. I'm sorry.
5:55
Speaker 3: I don't count that as a blown lead when you're
5:57
Speaker 3: the eight seat about to upset a number one seat.
5:59
Speaker 3: I just say, man, that's crazy that he got to
6:01
Speaker 3: a three one lead in that series. Yes, they lost it,
6:04
Speaker 3: but it was a one eight. There's a couple of
6:06
Speaker 3: those where you're just like, all right, I get it,
6:08
Speaker 3: but go on. Yeah.
6:09
Speaker 2: The there's also in that three, one, the weird one
6:13
Speaker 2: against the rockets where they had the lead in game six.
6:17
Speaker 1: And then we, I think it was.
6:18
Speaker 2: Kevin McHale was coaching the team at the time and
6:20
Speaker 2: somehow he's got the bright idea. Maybe we should take
6:22
Speaker 2: James Harden out of the game and just see what happens.
6:24
Speaker 2: And next thing you know, they didn't do it, but
6:26
Speaker 2: those things were deep enough. Like the Clippers would wind
6:28
Speaker 2: up just simply not having enough gas. Like I think
6:32
Speaker 2: Doc Rivers is a good coach. I think Doc Rivers
6:35
Speaker 2: in the hall of fame, which just happened is preposterous
6:39
Speaker 2: because they don't really put coaches in the hall of fame.
6:42
Speaker 2: Like that is a, Eric Spolstra, you're in now. Like,
6:46
Speaker 2: I had been prepared to make a, like, there's a
6:48
Speaker 2: could go either way.
6:49
Speaker 1: Nope, nope, nope. You're going in.
6:51
Speaker 2: And Doc Rivers has gotten in. But where Doc Rivers
6:53
Speaker 2: is really in the Hall of Fame is making your
6:56
Speaker 2: players not like you. Like your team not liking you
7:00
Speaker 2: in part because nothing is ever your fault. And so
7:05
Speaker 2: now you've got Giannis who doesn't want to be the
7:08
Speaker 2: bad guy with Doc Rivers who never wants to be
7:11
Speaker 2: the responsible guy. It sounds like it's no fun to
7:14
Speaker 2: be anybody on that team through the course of this year.
7:18
Speaker 1: Like none. And as I recall, do they not have
7:20
Speaker 1: control of their pick this year?
7:22
Speaker 3: So this is how it works. They have the lesser
7:26
Speaker 3: of the New Orleans pick.
7:28
Speaker 1: That's right, because one of them goes to Atlanta. Exactly.
7:30
Speaker 3: So the number one, if it goes number one, they
7:33
Speaker 3: don't get it. But if, let's say, New Orleans lands
7:35
Speaker 3: the number one overall pick, they send it to Atlanta.
7:38
Speaker 3: And then Milwaukee will basically get whatever they end up with,
7:41
Speaker 3: like the Milwaukee team. So they have incentive to tank.
7:43
Speaker 3: This is one of the biggest misnomers in the NBA
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Speaker 3: season that I've just, it's been a pet peeve of
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Speaker 3: mine where they're like, they don't even own their own pick.
7:50
Speaker 3: They have no incentive to tank. And I'm like, yes,
7:53
Speaker 3: they do. Because New Orleans is terrible. If New Orleans
7:56
Speaker 3: is terrible, that means Milwaukee should also be terrible because
8:00
Speaker 3: that pick is going to go to Atlanta and then
8:02
Speaker 3: they're going to get whatever they are at. And so
8:04
Speaker 3: this is the math. for the Milwaukee Bucks is as
8:07
Speaker 3: long as New Orleans is terrible, they have every reason
8:11
Speaker 3: to be as bad as possible. So New Orleans is
8:14
Speaker 3: 26 and 54 right now, and Milwaukee's 31 and 48.
8:18
Speaker 3: They should be way lower than that because as long
8:22
Speaker 3: as that Pelicans team is in the basement, they have
8:26
Speaker 3: all the tanking potential. And so Giannis, this whole thing,
8:29
Speaker 3: I said from the beginning, this is the worst supporting
8:33
Speaker 3: cast for an MVP candidate we have ever seen. You
8:37
Speaker 3: can say all you want about Miles Turner, but that
8:40
Speaker 3: roster with Kyle Kuzma being your third best player is awful.
8:45
Speaker 3: And so for those people who are like, man, this
8:47
Speaker 3: is a tough situation for Giannis. I'm like, he should
8:50
Speaker 3: have been asking out immediately once Damian Lillard had his
8:54
Speaker 3: torn Achilles and just said, look, the writing is on
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Speaker 3: the wall. We had a good run. We won a championship.
9:00
Speaker 1: I'm out.
9:01
Speaker 3: But instead, like you point out, he wanted to be
9:03
Speaker 3: the whole Dwight Howard in this situation and not really
9:07
Speaker 3: be transparent. And so it just seems like everyone in
9:11
Speaker 3: this situation is not being honest about what's really happening here.
9:15
Speaker 3: The front office is tanking, wants to tank. The Doc
9:19
Speaker 3: Rivers wants his paycheck and Giannis Antetokounmpo wants out of there.
9:23
Speaker 3: And I just wish everyone would stop this just two-faced
9:28
Speaker 3: dealings with each other because it's just, it's nauseating. This
9:31
Speaker 3: has been 10 months of this. And I'm so tired
9:35
Speaker 3: of Giannis just trying to be the good guy. His
9:38
Speaker 3: players are, his, his, his brothers are on the roster.
9:40
Speaker 3: He wants to play with them. And so he doesn't
9:43
Speaker 3: really have the leverage that he thinks he does because he,
9:48
Speaker 3: the Bucks know Bomani, the Bucks know he doesn't want
9:50
Speaker 3: to say it. And so they're calling his bluff and
9:53
Speaker 3: they're saying Bomani we got 275 million dollars coming at
9:57
Speaker 3: you this summer are you really going to walk away
9:59
Speaker 3: with from that because this is the weird thing if
10:02
Speaker 3: Giannis walks away and makes a trade demand he will
10:05
Speaker 3: not get the maximum bag because it has to be
10:08
Speaker 3: with a team that he's been with for over six
10:11
Speaker 3: months And so when you're asking for a trade, you
10:14
Speaker 3: cannot sign that super max extension with your new team,
10:18
Speaker 3: if it's the Knicks or if it's the Miami Heat.
10:20
Speaker 3: And so the Milwaukee Bucks are like, you don't want
10:22
Speaker 3: to say that word trade demand or that phrase. And
10:25
Speaker 3: you also got a big bag here that if you
10:28
Speaker 3: re-sign here, that's the only place you can get it.
10:30
Speaker 3: And we'll see how much that money and that trade
10:33
Speaker 3: demand loyalty really matters to you.
10:35
Speaker 2: What he needed to learn from Dwight, and I've been
10:38
Speaker 2: making the Dwight comparison through all of this and You
10:41
Speaker 2: never want to go the full Dwight, right? Like, like,
10:44
Speaker 2: unless you're trying to block a shot, you.
10:47
Speaker 1: Never want to go the full Dwight.
10:49
Speaker 2: And people like good guys that try to be a
10:54
Speaker 2: good guy. Nobody likes that guy or they like it
10:58
Speaker 2: at first.
10:59
Speaker 1: And then they realize, ugh, I'm not sure about this. Like,
11:02
Speaker 1: this is not a guy beloved by his peers.
11:04
Speaker 2: I don't know so much how his teammates feel about him,
11:07
Speaker 2: but they, I am certain that Bobby Portis has not
11:10
Speaker 2: enjoyed this shit at all. In fact, that story has
11:12
Speaker 2: something in there about Bobby Portis getting sick of it.
11:14
Speaker 2: And the person I don't want mad at me is
11:17
Speaker 2: the guy that broke Mero Titch's face that one time
11:21
Speaker 2: and witnesses said it didn't even look like he hit
11:23
Speaker 2: him that hard. That is not, that's not the guy
11:25
Speaker 2: I want to be in this situation with. My question
11:27
Speaker 2: for you though is, If you do make a trade
11:30
Speaker 2: and you get Giannis at this point, what exactly are you.
11:33
Speaker 1: Getting, right?
11:34
Speaker 2: Because this is Giannis after 13 years in the NBA.
11:39
Speaker 2: He has still put up excellent numbers, but I'm not
11:42
Speaker 2: sure any player has been more heliocentric offensively than he
11:46
Speaker 2: has been. A guy that's putting up 35, 36, 37,
11:47
Speaker 2: 38 usage year after year after year. You start building
11:53
Speaker 2: around that. I don't know how exactly you drop that
11:56
Speaker 2: off onto something else. Like if you drop him off
11:58
Speaker 2: onto the Knicks, you think that squad is all of
11:59
Speaker 2: a sudden going to give him 40%.
12:00
Speaker 1: Of the shots?
12:02
Speaker 3: Not with Jalen Brunson around. I don't think so. You
12:05
Speaker 3: saw what happened to Carl Anthony Towns this year. And
12:08
Speaker 3: when Mike Brown took over, he was saying, hey, I
12:10
Speaker 3: don't know about this offense. Like right out the gate,
12:13
Speaker 3: Carl Anthony Towns was saying, I don't know about this offense.
12:16
Speaker 3: And the reason is because Mike Brown was like, we're
12:18
Speaker 3: giving Jalen Brunson the ball. And we're going to make
12:20
Speaker 3: sure that we're going to not have all of Carl
12:23
Speaker 3: Anthony Towns histrionics and weird stuff on offensively. And they're
12:27
Speaker 3: going to run through him and Mikkel Bridges, OGN and
12:30
Speaker 3: OB and try to get the offense a little bit
12:32
Speaker 3: more reoriented away from Carl Anthony Towns. So for Giannis, look,
12:37
Speaker 3: Giannis entering the season had been top four in MVP
12:41
Speaker 3: in each of the last seven seasons. Seven years in
12:45
Speaker 3: a row he has been that durable, and I know
12:47
Speaker 3: he's had his injuries. This year it's gotten way worse,
12:50
Speaker 3: but seven years in a row he's been top four
12:52
Speaker 3: in MVP. He's won MVP. He's also Defensive Player of
12:57
Speaker 3: the Year, Finals MVP, and you're going to have a
13:00
Speaker 3: guy who's turning 32 in December. What do you do
13:02
Speaker 3: with that? What do you do with that? With the
13:04
Speaker 3: calf injuries, the hyperextended knee, and also in the finals
13:08
Speaker 3: when he hyperextended his knee and then magically it didn't
13:11
Speaker 3: seem to matter. There's a lot of history here that
13:13
Speaker 3: if you're at the acquiring team, I think you're going
13:17
Speaker 3: to have to have a Jalen Brunson or someone else
13:20
Speaker 3: to essentially tell Giannis, hey, it's okay. You don't have
13:25
Speaker 3: to go out and get 30 for us tonight. Maybe
13:27
Speaker 3: 25 is fine. But if we're going to win in
13:31
Speaker 3: the postseason, We need Giannis to focus on the defense
13:34
Speaker 3: and we need him to just be a fast break
13:36
Speaker 3: phenom like he normally is where he can just create
13:40
Speaker 3: dunks out of fast breaks like no one we've ever
13:42
Speaker 3: seen in NBA history. So for Giannis, it's a guy
13:46
Speaker 3: that If you're looking at this at the back nine
13:50
Speaker 3: of his career with his athleticism, he hasn't had that
13:54
Speaker 3: major injury yet. But with the way that the NBA
13:58
Speaker 3: is trending, with the high-speed tempo, if you're going to
14:02
Speaker 3: win an NBA title, you've got to be guaranteed that
14:04
Speaker 3: you're going to be ready for 100 games. And he
14:07
Speaker 3: simply hasn't done that. A deep playoff run. Giannis has
14:10
Speaker 3: been a first-round out or not doing anything in the
14:12
Speaker 3: postseason for four years now. So we haven't seen whether Giannis'
14:16
Speaker 3: body is equipped at this age to make a deep
14:20
Speaker 3: playoff run. You know the Miami Heat are going to
14:21
Speaker 3: take a chance. You know the New York Knicks are
14:23
Speaker 3: going to take a chance. But I can understand why
14:26
Speaker 3: other teams might be a little nervous about acquiring Giannis
14:29
Speaker 3: at this stage of his career.
14:31
Speaker 2: He has one of the great postseason performances of all time.
14:35
Speaker 1: Game 6, 2021, to bring it home.
14:38
Speaker 2: He also has been one of the great postseason underperformers.
14:44
Speaker 2: Of his time and in a way that is interesting.
14:46
Speaker 2: So I think that we could say at various points.
14:49
Speaker 2: So Kevin Garnett is an interesting guy for his career
14:52
Speaker 2: because Kevin Garnett needed to get to a place where
14:54
Speaker 2: he could be the leader, but not the guy that
14:55
Speaker 2: had to take the last shot.
14:57
Speaker 1: Right.
14:57
Speaker 2: And yes, he's got game seven against Sacramento in 04
15:00
Speaker 2: where he carried them on his back. But that's not
15:02
Speaker 2: a guy who wanted that shot. We've seen it. You
15:04
Speaker 2: could pull up clips of it. That wasn't him.
15:07
Speaker 1: Right.
15:07
Speaker 2: But the difference is. Kevin Garnett was not a 38
15:11
Speaker 2: usage guy, right? Giannis had the free throw issue, though
15:14
Speaker 2: I always gave him credit.
15:15
Speaker 1: He'd go to the line and take them, right?
15:17
Speaker 2: He was not afraid of being embarrassed and taking those shots,
15:19
Speaker 2: but he'd go and he'd take them. However, I can't
15:22
Speaker 2: think of a player that was ever as good as him.
15:24
Speaker 2: that we just saw those teams come up short like
15:26
Speaker 2: they did. He's been on the wrong side of an
15:28
Speaker 2: 8-1 loss, right? When they took that loss in the
15:31
Speaker 2: bubble that year, that was another one. The 2-0 lead
15:33
Speaker 2: that they blew to Toronto in 2019, where most of
15:36
Speaker 2: us thought that that was going to be a series
15:38
Speaker 2: that they were going to walk to because that was
15:40
Speaker 2: before we told ourselves Nick Nurse was a good coach
15:42
Speaker 2: because it looked like him and Bootenholzer We're just trying
15:44
Speaker 2: to try to lose to each other in the course
15:47
Speaker 2: of that. But we've had all these years where he
15:49
Speaker 2: hasn't been the guy to get this done. He's not
15:51
Speaker 2: a take us to a championship guy at this point.
15:54
Speaker 2: I don't think I think he can be a very
15:56
Speaker 2: significant part of you going to a championship. But I
15:59
Speaker 2: don't know what he thinks of himself in all of this.
16:01
Speaker 2: I don't know what happens when you drop him off
16:03
Speaker 2: after being on a franchise that is catered to him,
16:05
Speaker 2: as you should cater to a guy that's made first
16:07
Speaker 2: team all NBA seven times in a row.
16:10
Speaker 1: What happens when he goes to this next place?
16:12
Speaker 2: Miami, to me, seems like the obvious place for him
16:15
Speaker 2: to go because he is a Pat Riley, Eric Spolstra
16:18
Speaker 2: sort of dude. Because if nothing else, he is going
16:20
Speaker 2: to go hard. He is going to be in shape.
16:23
Speaker 2: If you put him out there with Bam, I don't
16:25
Speaker 2: know how other teams are supposed to score any points. Like,
16:29
Speaker 2: I think they still need to get a guy to
16:30
Speaker 2: get the shot. But that, that to me has got
16:33
Speaker 2: to be the place that I would want to wind
16:35
Speaker 2: up if I were him.
16:36
Speaker 1: Not anymore.
16:38
Speaker 3: I feel the same way with the Miami Heat, with Giannis.
16:41
Speaker 3: You know that the coach is ready. The organization is
16:45
Speaker 3: ready for that guy. Look, they took Jimmy Butler to
16:48
Speaker 3: the NBA Finals twice. They won the number one overall
16:51
Speaker 3: seed with Jimmy.
16:52
Speaker 1: Or Jimmy Butler took them to the NBA Finals twice.
16:55
Speaker 1: It all depends on your perspective.
16:56
Speaker 3: That's right. You know my point is that they can
16:59
Speaker 3: take this older guy and morph him into a championship
17:03
Speaker 3: contender like that. And so what we saw with Jimmy Butler,
17:07
Speaker 3: where I was in this camp where he's too old
17:10
Speaker 3: and way too many miles on those tires, those Tom
17:12
Speaker 3: Thibodeau tires, for me to believe that they're going to
17:14
Speaker 3: actually get to a finals with Jimmy Butler. And they
17:17
Speaker 3: proved me wrong multiple times. And so I look, I
17:22
Speaker 3: got my career started in Miami. I know that organization
17:26
Speaker 3: very well. And that is exactly the type of dude
17:29
Speaker 3: that they want in that organization. The guy was defensive minded.
17:32
Speaker 3: who is a hooper, a grinder, a guy who lives
17:34
Speaker 3: in the gym, will play for the Greek national team,
17:37
Speaker 3: even though it's probably not the best idea for him
17:40
Speaker 3: physically to have to endure another year of international play
17:45
Speaker 3: on a team that, look, let's be honest, they're not
17:49
Speaker 3: vying for a gold medal.
17:51
Speaker 1: They're the Milwaukee Bucks of Europe.
17:55
Speaker 3: And I'm Greek, so I feel a lot of national
17:58
Speaker 3: pride when I watch him playing for the Greek team,
18:01
Speaker 3: but I also know, hey, if Giannis Antetokounmpo wants to
18:04
Speaker 3: win another title or maximize his career, I kind of
18:07
Speaker 3: feel like he should probably take the summer off. Now,
18:09
Speaker 3: the other thing is Miami Heat is one team. The
18:12
Speaker 3: other team that I'm wondering about, San Antonio. San Antonio
18:19
Speaker 3: with Victor Weminyaba.
18:21
Speaker 1: Cancel Christmas.
18:23
Speaker 3: And Stephon Castle and Aaron Fox. You can get Giannis,
18:29
Speaker 3: I'm sure, for Dylan Harper. Dylan Harper is one of
18:31
Speaker 3: the best young players in the league, and he's still, what,
18:33
Speaker 3: 20 years old. So if you're looking for young superstar potential,
18:40
Speaker 3: James Harden 2.0, Milwaukee Bucks can do a lot worse
18:44
Speaker 3: than Dylan Harper as the centerpiece of a Giannis trade.
18:46
Speaker 3: And if the Spurs get Giannis, and they got Wemby,
18:50
Speaker 3: and Fox, and Stephon Castle, that's why the glut of
18:54
Speaker 3: amazing young guards there in San Antonio is so terrifying.
18:57
Speaker 3: It's not because, hey, they can have James Harden 2.0
19:01
Speaker 3: and Shea Gildress Alexander and basically all in the same team.
19:06
Speaker 3: It's that they can parlay one of those players into
19:09
Speaker 3: a win now guy like Giannis. And imagine if they
19:11
Speaker 3: do the San Antonio Twin Towers. You got David Robinson,
19:16
Speaker 3: Tim Duncan 2.0 with Giannis and Wemby. That's why I'm like, hey,
19:21
Speaker 3: if San Antonio wins this whole thing, I think maybe
19:23
Speaker 3: the rest of the league is going to have a
19:25
Speaker 3: breath of fresh air because they're not going to go
19:26
Speaker 3: out and try to upgrade. But if they lose early
19:30
Speaker 3: in this postseason and Wemby's like, yo, get me a guy,
19:33
Speaker 3: the Giannis trade is fascinating.
19:37
Speaker 1: Okay.
19:37
Speaker 2: I had never considered this as a possibility. Throw something
19:41
Speaker 2: out here at you. I had a buddy, he's from LA, right?
19:46
Speaker 2: Kind of like LA private school world. And he always
19:49
Speaker 2: talked about how he was friends with somebody who was
19:53
Speaker 2: cool with the Collins twins, Jason and Jaron Collins. And
19:58
Speaker 2: he said that they was so long that they slept
20:03
Speaker 2: in a room. Each of them slept on two beds
20:06
Speaker 2: that went the long way.
20:08
Speaker 1: Right.
20:09
Speaker 2: That's how that's how tall they were that you had
20:11
Speaker 2: to put another bed at the foot of the bed.
20:14
Speaker 2: for them dudes to be able to lay into bed.
20:17
Speaker 2: And I thought about that. These two guys were on
20:19
Speaker 2: the same high school team, right? Like this is like
20:22
Speaker 2: Brooke and Robin Lopez. It's one thing to have like
20:25
Speaker 2: supersized twins, but supersized twins who are like five-star recruits
20:30
Speaker 2: and you have to play against them in high school.
20:33
Speaker 2: And what you're telling me is that the Spurs could
20:36
Speaker 2: potentially recreate this because my brother's 13 years older than me.
20:42
Speaker 2: I know what it's like to never feel like you're old.
20:45
Speaker 2: At every turn, you just feel like somebody might pitch
20:49
Speaker 2: your shit into the stands.
20:51
Speaker 1: They got two of those.
20:52
Speaker 2: Giannis has an argument for being the best defensive player
20:56
Speaker 2: of his generation.
20:57
Speaker 1: He's up there with Kawhi Leonard. It's a different thing
20:59
Speaker 1: because he's so much taller.
21:00
Speaker 2: But absolutely, as an interior defender who could also step
21:04
Speaker 2: out in all of those things. And then you're going
21:06
Speaker 2: to put him with the best defensive player I've ever seen.
21:10
Speaker 1: Yeah. Ouch.
21:12
Speaker 3: It's possible, man. It's, it's possible that it's possible. We will,
21:16
Speaker 3: we will see the first zero points in the paint
21:19
Speaker 3: game in NBA history. If that happens, you know, like, like,
21:23
Speaker 3: like no one's going in. There's no one going into
21:25
Speaker 3: that house. There's no one going inside of the arc.
21:28
Speaker 3: If you got Wemby and Giannis on the floor, cause Giannis,
21:31
Speaker 3: he's not the greatest shot blocker, but he's also the
21:33
Speaker 3: greatest threat. Like he's just him lurking. There is going
21:38
Speaker 3: to terrify people from going into the paint. And you got,
21:42
Speaker 3: you got Wemby too. So, They have picks. They got
21:45
Speaker 3: Dylan Harper. They got Steph Castle. They've got De'Aaron Fox.
21:49
Speaker 3: They've got a lot of interesting pieces here that Milwaukee
21:52
Speaker 3: or any other team, Houston could have done this when
21:56
Speaker 3: they had Fred Van Vliet and Steven Adams healthy that
21:59
Speaker 3: they have some young players that they could put into
22:01
Speaker 3: a trade. Now I'm not so sure they can do that.
22:04
Speaker 3: But San Antonio, I think that's what the most interesting
22:07
Speaker 3: dynamic is because Wemby wants it, right? Wemby wants it
22:11
Speaker 3: and he wants it now. If there's one thing we
22:13
Speaker 3: know about Wemby, it's he's all about this life. He
22:16
Speaker 3: wants the All-Star Game MVP. He wants to win All-Star.
22:21
Speaker 3: He wants the MVP. He wants to be the GOAT.
22:24
Speaker 3: And he's willing to say it. So if he's willing
22:26
Speaker 3: to say he's the MVP out to the public, to
22:28
Speaker 3: the media, at the press conference, and if they lose
22:31
Speaker 3: in the second round because De'Aaron Fox has a bad
22:33
Speaker 3: series or Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper aren't ready yet,
22:37
Speaker 3: You know he's going to make his voice heard. And
22:40
Speaker 3: the San Antonio Spurs, with Victor Weminyama that good right now,
22:43
Speaker 3: I can understand where they're like, you know what? Let's
22:46
Speaker 3: end the NBA right now. Oklahoma City, your time is up.
22:49
Speaker 3: We're going to go get Giannis, and we're going to
22:51
Speaker 3: end this right now.
22:52
Speaker 2: But you know Sam got everything he needed to make
22:54
Speaker 2: a move, too, though. The arms race with two of
23:02
Speaker 2: the four smallest markets in America, baby.
23:05
Speaker 1: It's on. Well, not America, but you know.
23:07
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah. This is, Bomani, what the NBA needs because
23:11
Speaker 3: as much as Adam Silver wants to say he loves
23:13
Speaker 3: parody and he wants parody, I don't truly believe that.
23:18
Speaker 3: I think he is in the David Stern school of
23:20
Speaker 3: thought of what's better than Lakers-Knicks? Give me Lakers-Lakers.
23:25
Speaker 4: Yes. Right?
23:26
Speaker 3: We had J.A. Donde on the pod yesterday, Basketball Illuminati.
23:30
Speaker 3: You should check it out. Every Wednesday, we drop that
23:33
Speaker 3: podcast with Amino Haas and Anthony Mays and I. We
23:35
Speaker 3: had J.A.
23:35
Speaker 4: Donde.
23:36
Speaker 3: We were talking about how different David Stern and Adam
23:38
Speaker 3: Silverware and this League of Parody where seven different titles,
23:43
Speaker 3: seven different teams have won titles over the last seven years.
23:46
Speaker 3: And I'm sitting here like, Bomani, I kind of want
23:50
Speaker 3: the rivalries back. I want teams going at it every
23:53
Speaker 3: season and having that story build because as much as
23:56
Speaker 3: we say we want parody, I think we want story.
24:00
Speaker 3: I think we want David versus Goliath. I think we
24:03
Speaker 3: want Godzilla versus King Kong where it's like, I want
24:07
Speaker 3: these two juggernauts, OKC and San Antonio, to meet up
24:10
Speaker 3: in the playoffs. And I want them to hate each other.
24:13
Speaker 3: And we're already there except for the playoff thing. And
24:16
Speaker 3: I want that to happen. I want this rivalry. I
24:19
Speaker 3: want a Sam Presti and R.C. Buford, Giannis Antetokounmpo bidding
24:24
Speaker 3: war because I feel like the NBA needs this. They
24:28
Speaker 3: need these rivalries because as much as we want to
24:30
Speaker 3: say parity is the North Star of the NBA. I
24:33
Speaker 3: think that's a euphemism for another economic goal for the
24:37
Speaker 3: NBA owners rather than true parity. I think the NBA
24:41
Speaker 3: needs this in a way that I don't think people
24:43
Speaker 3: appreciate is San Antonio and OKC. We need that rivalry
24:47
Speaker 3: in the Western Conference.
24:49
Speaker 2: All right, so coming up next, I want to talk
24:50
Speaker 2: about this exact thing because I have long felt that way,
24:54
Speaker 2: but I've wavered a little bit.
24:55
Speaker 1: I'm explaining why coming up next.
24:58
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26:18
Speaker 2: All right, we are back with Tom Haberstroh, and I
26:21
Speaker 2: am just like you. I have felt that Dynasty Saga
26:25
Speaker 2: is the best narrative form for the NBA, right? Like
26:29
Speaker 2: with San Antonio, I think people have missed a point
26:31
Speaker 2: where there's like, oh.
26:32
Speaker 1: You're just saying they can't win because they just don't
26:34
Speaker 1: have experience.
26:35
Speaker 2: It's like, no, it's that playoff basketball is not the
26:38
Speaker 2: same kind of basketball as the regular season. And we
26:41
Speaker 2: have not seen what they will do in playoff basketball.
26:43
Speaker 2: And literally every other team we've seen pretty much has
26:48
Speaker 2: needed to figure out playoff basketball, including the Oklahoma City
26:51
Speaker 2: juggernaut that exists now went in and lost in the
26:54
Speaker 2: second round. that first year that they got there is
26:57
Speaker 2: the number one seed because it's a matter of learning
27:00
Speaker 2: what it is, right? And so there's something to that
27:02
Speaker 2: where a team gets a little farther, gets a little farther,
27:05
Speaker 2: typically having somebody that they have to run up against
27:07
Speaker 2: a couple of times before they manage to get by.
27:10
Speaker 1: That is how I prefer it.
27:12
Speaker 2: However, I have to say, I am totally fascinated by
27:15
Speaker 2: what the West is, right? Like, I love the idea
27:17
Speaker 2: that this year, these games are going to matter all
27:20
Speaker 2: the way until the end.
27:22
Speaker 1: How those matchups go matter.
27:24
Speaker 2: And it's sizing up such that I think Denver would
27:27
Speaker 2: rather be in the four than be in the three.
27:30
Speaker 2: But the Lakers having their injury situation basically locks Denver
27:33
Speaker 2: into the three. But what that means is we're going
27:35
Speaker 2: to get Jokic, and the Spurs in the second round.
27:39
Speaker 2: And as we just saw on Saturday, that'll be a
27:42
Speaker 2: slobber knocker, right? And as good as Victor is, the
27:45
Speaker 2: best player in the NBA is still number 15. We're
27:47
Speaker 2: going to have to see that. Oklahoma City getting matched
27:51
Speaker 2: up with Houston. That one stinks because Oklahoma City is
27:52
Speaker 2: going to walk over whoever they get in the second
27:54
Speaker 2: round if it stays. lakers rockets um in that round
27:58
Speaker 2: but i liked the idea that i didn't really have
28:01
Speaker 2: a great handle on who was going to win the
28:03
Speaker 2: west right like i look at the east that i
28:05
Speaker 2: feel very similarly where there's no team that i think
28:07
Speaker 2: you could look at just because we don't know what
28:09
Speaker 2: jason tam is going to look.
28:10
Speaker 1: Like with the pounding of playing in the postseason.
28:14
Speaker 2: Right I think they've gotten more out of the parody
28:18
Speaker 2: than I expected for them to get. Like, I think
28:20
Speaker 2: this is going to be pretty broadly an interesting post season,
28:24
Speaker 2: but you're right. It might be the last one because
28:26
Speaker 2: those teams at the top are going to have to
28:27
Speaker 2: ramp up. Yeah.
28:29
Speaker 3: I think, I think, I think the Spurs can win
28:31
Speaker 3: it this year. I think the Spurs can win it
28:34
Speaker 3: this year and overcome that playoff inexperience. Because if there's
28:38
Speaker 3: one thing we've seen over the last few years in
28:40
Speaker 3: the league is that injuries are creating more parody injuries.
28:45
Speaker 3: The Indiana Pacers getting all the way to the conference
28:48
Speaker 3: finals two years ago and the NBA finals last year
28:51
Speaker 3: is much of a story as it is of Tyrese
28:53
Speaker 3: Halliburton and his amazing clutch play and Siakam and just
28:58
Speaker 3: the balling out that Andrew Nembhard and Aaron Neesmith do.
29:01
Speaker 3: It's certainly a story. But it's also that these injuries
29:05
Speaker 3: in the Eastern Conference have paved way for the New
29:07
Speaker 3: York Knicks and the Indiana Pacers to go deeper into
29:10
Speaker 3: the postseason than we ever imagined. And I think... I
29:14
Speaker 3: think that if there was going to be a year
29:17
Speaker 3: in which the San Antonio Spurs or an era where
29:20
Speaker 3: a team with no playoff experience, I'm not counting Harrison
29:23
Speaker 3: Bards in this equation, right? The playoff inexperience, that variable,
29:28
Speaker 3: I think in the 90s and early 2000s, it would
29:32
Speaker 3: matter a whole great deal. But because the game is
29:35
Speaker 3: so violent right now on the joints and because the
29:39
Speaker 3: pace is so high, I'm wondering if we're not taking
29:43
Speaker 3: that into account enough that there is just so much
29:47
Speaker 3: variance in the post season now, because the game is
29:52
Speaker 3: taking out so many star players that we, I mean, okay. See,
29:56
Speaker 3: went to two game sevens last year, but money.
29:58
Speaker 2: Yeah.
29:59
Speaker 1: You know?
29:59
Speaker 3: And so it's, if Aaron Gordon is healthy in that series,
30:03
Speaker 3: you could say that Denver wins that series against OKC.
30:08
Speaker 3: So part of me says, yeah, the Spurs have to
30:11
Speaker 3: go by the tradition, the ritual of it is in
30:14
Speaker 3: the NBA that you cannot just come out of the
30:16
Speaker 3: gate without any post-season runs and win the whole damn thing.
30:20
Speaker 3: We've never seen that happen. But I kind of feel
30:23
Speaker 3: like We need to rewrite the history books with these
30:25
Speaker 3: injuries that we're seeing among star players in the NBA,
30:29
Speaker 3: where star players this year are playing only 60% of
30:31
Speaker 3: their games. SGA, Chad Holmgren, Jalen Williams, J-Dub, they've only
30:37
Speaker 3: played 26 games together this season. And so if they're
30:41
Speaker 3: not healthy, yeah, I can see the San Antonio Spurs
30:45
Speaker 3: upsetting them in the postseason. And after that, all bets
30:48
Speaker 3: are off. I kind of feel like the San Antonio
30:50
Speaker 3: Spurs can win a title this year and not and
30:53
Speaker 3: not lay down to the history of all of those
30:57
Speaker 3: teams that needed a playoff run before they won it all?
31:01
Speaker 2: Well, the series that I think would be interesting for
31:03
Speaker 2: the Spurs to kind of chart the course of what
31:05
Speaker 2: happens is if the Clippers beat the Suns in that
31:07
Speaker 2: 7-8 play-in game, assuming that's going to be the game.
31:12
Speaker 2: I think the Clippers will win two of those because
31:15
Speaker 2: the version of Kawhi Leonard that currently exists and has
31:18
Speaker 2: been playing this year he'll get you one at least, right? Like,
31:24
Speaker 2: that is an all-time great postseason performer, right? Like, he's
31:28
Speaker 2: not young anymore. I want to say this is his
31:30
Speaker 2: 15th year in the NBA. But I think they'll knock
31:33
Speaker 2: the Spurs around a little bit. right they'll they'll they'll
31:37
Speaker 2: give them because look we just saw uh victor catch
31:39
Speaker 2: a rib contusion that felt like a very skinny man
31:41
Speaker 2: injury right like we just we we just saw that
31:44
Speaker 2: thing go down the attrition for the spurs like that
31:47
Speaker 2: one will that will be entering interesting for us to
31:49
Speaker 2: see how this ends up going but also let us
31:52
Speaker 2: not forget it's entirely possible that uh the legend killer
31:55
Speaker 2: anthony edwards could come out here and take denver out
31:57
Speaker 2: in the first round himself.
31:59
Speaker 3: Yeah, the West is going to be a bloodbath. And
32:03
Speaker 3: Kawhi Leonard, by the way, he's number five on my
32:05
Speaker 3: MVP ballot. Let's just count Luka in there for now.
32:10
Speaker 3: But he's going to get first-team All-NBA. He deserves to
32:13
Speaker 3: get first-team All-NBA. Aspiration scandal aside, imagine the other owners,
32:19
Speaker 3: if Kawhi is winning a playoff series, a 1-8 series,
32:23
Speaker 3: if the Clippers somehow pull that off in one of
32:24
Speaker 3: the most all-time biggest upsets... Steve Ballmer is just going
32:29
Speaker 3: to be laughing his way to that next round if
32:31
Speaker 3: that happens.
32:32
Speaker 1: But the GMs might care. The owners do not care
32:38
Speaker 1: at all.
32:39
Speaker 3: What, that Steve Ballmer is getting away with this?
32:45
Speaker 2: I firmly believe that once this investigation is done and
32:49
Speaker 2: whatever they come back with, because I'm not sure. I'm
32:53
Speaker 2: not sold that he's getting away with anything. I have
32:55
Speaker 2: not been convinced of that yet.
32:57
Speaker 1: Okay.
32:57
Speaker 2: I'm just telling you, don't nobody really care. A colleague
33:03
Speaker 2: of mine made a very good point about this aspiration situation,
33:07
Speaker 2: and this is the truth. The NBA's problem right now
33:10
Speaker 2: is teams trying to lose. It is not teams trying
33:12
Speaker 2: to win. Nobody really cares.
33:16
Speaker 3: I can get on with the teams trying to lose thing.
33:17
Speaker 3: Did you see the piece that I did last week
33:19
Speaker 3: about the A League and the B League?
33:22
Speaker 1: I did. It is.
33:24
Speaker 3: It is unbelievable, Bomani, how this league just morphed into
33:30
Speaker 3: two separate leagues. And I absolutely agree with you that
33:34
Speaker 3: Adam Silver, on the list of things that he has
33:36
Speaker 3: to care about, is the integrity of the game. And
33:39
Speaker 3: that teams are throwing games strategically with coaching decisions where
33:45
Speaker 3: I saw the coach of the Washington Wizards argue that
33:49
Speaker 3: Alex Saar and Bilal Koulibaly and... Keyshawn George, I think
33:54
Speaker 3: Trey Johnson, that they were on minutes restrictions due to
33:58
Speaker 3: their medical situations. And that's why they had to sit
34:02
Speaker 3: in the fourth quarter in these close games. Bub Carrington
34:06
Speaker 3: had to sit in the fourth quarter of these games,
34:09
Speaker 3: even though he played the first 12 minutes of the game, Bomani.
34:13
Speaker 3: And he said, yeah, we got minutes restrictions on these guys.
34:16
Speaker 1: It's a Tom Tuesday night.
34:19
Speaker 2: The Golden State Warriors are trailing the Sacramento Kings by
34:22
Speaker 2: a point. And the Kings intentionally filed to put the
34:27
Speaker 2: Warriors on the line. They intentionally filed Steph Curry.
34:32
Speaker 3: Come on.
34:35
Speaker 1: What are we doing, right?
34:37
Speaker 2: Like, I feel like the one maybe benefit of it.
34:41
Speaker 2: it makes it feel like every team into the playoffs
34:44
Speaker 2: is coming in on a run, right? Because they get
34:46
Speaker 2: to play enough games against these bums. Like I'm looking
34:48
Speaker 2: at the top half of the top six teams in
34:51
Speaker 2: the East right now. The Pistons have won seven out
34:53
Speaker 2: of 10. The Celtics have won eight out of 10.
34:54
Speaker 2: The Knicks have won seven out of 10. The Cavs
34:56
Speaker 2: have won eight out of 10. The Hawks have won
34:57
Speaker 2: seven out of 10. Everybody feeling good. Go down to
35:00
Speaker 2: the West. Thunder, nine out of 10. Spurs, nine out
35:03
Speaker 2: of 10. Nuggets, nine out of 10. Keeping in mind
35:05
Speaker 2: the one loss for the Spurs was to the Nuggets. Rockets,
35:09
Speaker 2: eight out of 10.
35:10
Speaker 1: Hey, man, all these bubs got everybody else feeling good.
35:14
Speaker 3: Well, I wonder, Bomati, do you think Adam Silver cares
35:18
Speaker 3: about this or does he care about the gambling aspect
35:21
Speaker 3: of it of, A lot of people who are setting
35:24
Speaker 3: the lines on this game don't know who's playing or
35:26
Speaker 3: how much they're going to be playing and where to
35:28
Speaker 3: set these lines at. Because we just saw the Oklahoma
35:31
Speaker 3: City Thunder, I think they were favored by a record
35:34
Speaker 3: 24 points in a game, and they won by 35.
35:39
Speaker 3: And so these lines makers, they're not really sure where
35:42
Speaker 3: to put them because they don't know how much these
35:46
Speaker 3: teams are actually trying to win and play their best players.
35:49
Speaker 3: And so I'm wondering if Adam Silver, the reason why
35:52
Speaker 3: he's so publicly strident and saying we are going to
35:57
Speaker 3: end this now, full stop, you're going to see the
36:00
Speaker 3: end of tanking. Is that because the owners want this?
36:04
Speaker 3: Or is that because his business partners want this at
36:07
Speaker 3: the other gambling companies? Because it does seem like to
36:10
Speaker 3: me he is out here saying a lot. about how
36:14
Speaker 3: he is going to end tanking. And the proposals that
36:16
Speaker 3: I'm seeing, Bomani, these seem like half measures. We talked
36:22
Speaker 3: about it last time I was on the show. I
36:24
Speaker 3: don't know how you quote-unquote solve tanking by maintaining the
36:28
Speaker 3: draft lottery. I just don't see how that's possible. Because
36:31
Speaker 3: he's saying one thing, and then what he's coming at
36:34
Speaker 3: with us is a totally different thing, a much more
36:36
Speaker 3: water-diluted version of we're going to abolish tanking. We're going
36:40
Speaker 3: to get rid of it. And so I'm wondering.
36:44
Speaker 1: If.
36:44
Speaker 3: Adam Silver's just not up for this task of trying
36:47
Speaker 3: to get rid of tanking, because I think we all
36:48
Speaker 3: know what that would take, and it doesn't seem like
36:52
Speaker 3: he's willing to get rid of the draft lottery, which
36:54
Speaker 3: is incentivizing teams to be as bad as possible to
36:57
Speaker 3: get the players that are as good as possible on
36:59
Speaker 3: the best financial construct in the rookie scale contract.
37:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, or, you know, and you and I have talked
37:05
Speaker 2: about this, because by flattening the lottery odds, it's now
37:09
Speaker 2: made it more advantageous for teams that don't have to
37:12
Speaker 2: be terrible to lose more games, right? Because they then
37:15
Speaker 2: have a greater chance in order to win. But I
37:19
Speaker 2: think for silver, part of it is definitely what's going
37:22
Speaker 2: on with the gambling companies, right? But I also think
37:26
Speaker 2: the other part of it is, and probably the biggest
37:28
Speaker 2: part is, it's become shameful to a point of disrespect, right?
37:32
Speaker 2: they're playing so obviously in our faces as a collective
37:36
Speaker 2: and directly in his face as a commissioner in a
37:39
Speaker 2: way that they never would have done to David Stern, right?
37:42
Speaker 2: Like it's just the measures that teams are taking and
37:45
Speaker 2: the ways that they're going about it. You can't flatly
37:48
Speaker 2: tell the paying customers we're trying to lose here. What
37:52
Speaker 2: has made it terrible for him though is that the
37:54
Speaker 2: paying customers have been so conditioned to think this shit
37:57
Speaker 2: is cool that they're in many cases begging for losses, right? Like,
38:03
Speaker 2: I don't know how exactly he fixes it, but you're right.
38:06
Speaker 2: The presence of a lottery throws all this off. The
38:09
Speaker 2: presence of a draft, honestly, you know, you and I
38:11
Speaker 2: have talked about this. The presence of a draft throws
38:13
Speaker 2: this thing off, but he does have to do something
38:17
Speaker 2: about this. But at the same time, it has been
38:20
Speaker 2: a very interesting close to the season, right? Which is
38:23
Speaker 2: something that we haven't always been able to say. You
38:26
Speaker 2: just can't have people play it in your face like that.
38:28
Speaker 1: Yeah.
38:29
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's something that I think has happened increasingly is
38:32
Speaker 3: the separation with the play-in tournament, like that you have
38:35
Speaker 3: 10 teams that are post-season eligible now, but it's created
38:40
Speaker 3: this split in ways we have never seen that there's
38:45
Speaker 3: 20 teams that are trying to win, 21 if you
38:48
Speaker 3: count the Pelicans because they don't have the rights to
38:50
Speaker 3: their first-round pick, and then everybody else is like, All right, well,
38:53
Speaker 3: if we're not going to go for the play-in, and
38:55
Speaker 3: by the way, the 10th seed in the play-in ain't
38:58
Speaker 3: all it's cracked up to be. One team has made
39:00
Speaker 3: it out of the play-in in 10 times that they've
39:03
Speaker 3: had this. One team has made it out of the
39:05
Speaker 3: play-in as the number 10 seed, and it was the
39:08
Speaker 3: Miami Heat last year, and they got embarrassed. BTA in
39:13
Speaker 3: that series against the Cleveland Cavaliers. And so if you're
39:16
Speaker 3: a number 10 seed or a team that's on the
39:17
Speaker 3: fringe of competing, I can understand why Chicago was like,
39:21
Speaker 3: all right, finally, we're going to pull, the court, right?
39:24
Speaker 3: I can understand why Memphis, Dallas, Milwaukee is like, as
39:31
Speaker 3: long as we're just kind of like in that nine, 10,
39:34
Speaker 3: 11 range, we just saw the Atlanta Hawks jump to
39:37
Speaker 3: number one. We just saw the Dallas Mavericks get Cooper
39:39
Speaker 3: flag at number 11. So it's created this separation between
39:43
Speaker 3: the two leagues and the teams are being as brave
39:49
Speaker 3: about this. and as bold and emboldened about this as
39:53
Speaker 3: they've ever had, like tanking outright from the start of
39:55
Speaker 3: the season. And you're right. It's, it's not really worth
40:00
Speaker 3: it for those teams in that 11 range, like in
40:03
Speaker 3: the 11th of the, of the, uh, playoff standings to
40:06
Speaker 3: try to go for it and get that number 10 seed.
40:09
Speaker 3: So I just think that the NBA has to figure
40:11
Speaker 3: this out. Um, but ultimately, yeah, I'm excited for the
40:15
Speaker 3: post season to get here so we can get rid
40:16
Speaker 3: of that talk. We just can talk about how good
40:18
Speaker 3: OKC and San Antonio and Denver are. It is going
40:20
Speaker 3: to be an absolute bloodbath. And I wonder, Bomani, I
40:24
Speaker 3: think the best story for the NBA would be San
40:26
Speaker 3: Antonio winning it all. Victor Wembenyama as fully empowered and
40:31
Speaker 3: winning a championship. But I also can't discount the idea
40:36
Speaker 3: of Victor Wembenyama pissed as all hell and getting out
40:40
Speaker 3: in like the second round and being like, we got
40:42
Speaker 3: to ramp up.
40:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, no, no.
40:45
Speaker 2: A game seven loss, whether it be to Oklahoma City
40:48
Speaker 2: or to Denver. I think is the best long run
40:51
Speaker 2: NBA situation. Cause look, he took a leap this year.
40:54
Speaker 2: The first two years were the potential years for him.
40:57
Speaker 2: Now where he's taking guys to the elbow and in
41:00
Speaker 2: operating in space and they are terrified of what might
41:03
Speaker 2: happen next on top of everything that happens with defense.
41:05
Speaker 2: Like now he's out here flexing in people's faces and
41:08
Speaker 2: everything else like, Oh no, no, no, no, no, no. This,
41:11
Speaker 2: but if it goes, look, I was talking to somebody
41:13
Speaker 2: about this the other day and they were asking me,
41:16
Speaker 2: are the French the favorites to win the gold medal
41:18
Speaker 2: in 2028?
41:19
Speaker 1: And I think the answer is unequivocally, yes.
41:22
Speaker 2: He tasted his own blood at the crib in 2024.
41:25
Speaker 2: Now he gets the chance to return the favor in
41:27
Speaker 2: Los Angeles.
41:28
Speaker 1: It's going to be terrifying.
41:30
Speaker 2: Now, if you give yourself somehow an NBA analog to
41:33
Speaker 2: that situation.
41:37
Speaker 3: I can't wait. I can't wait. It's the guy. The
41:41
Speaker 3: guy is. Offensively. he's developed in a way that was
41:48
Speaker 3: way faster than many imagined, but he's 22 Bomani. Like
41:53
Speaker 3: this is, this is the worst he's ever going to be.
41:56
Speaker 4: Yeah.
41:56
Speaker 3: The worst he's ever going to be. So if you
41:59
Speaker 3: have a guy who's figured out, Oh wait, no one
42:02
Speaker 3: can stop me. Once I, once I get downhill or
42:04
Speaker 3: once I get the ball in the post and I'm
42:06
Speaker 3: going to be watching your kitchen, how he's been able
42:08
Speaker 3: to master that, that block and figure out how to
42:12
Speaker 3: play chess, you know, and literally play, the guy's a
42:15
Speaker 3: chess master or want an aspiring chess master, Victor Wemenyama.
42:19
Speaker 3: There's just going to be a time in the not
42:22
Speaker 3: so distant future where he's as good offensively as he
42:24
Speaker 3: is defensively. And that's a scary thought.
42:28
Speaker 2: I do want to ask you before we get out
42:30
Speaker 2: of here, but if you had thoughts on this Mike
42:33
Speaker 2: Malone hire, because I think NBA coaches going to college
42:36
Speaker 2: may become more of a thing. Now that college is
42:38
Speaker 2: becoming a bit more like the pros, like now that
42:40
Speaker 2: you don't really have to go on the road and
42:42
Speaker 2: go get these guys.
42:45
Speaker 1: I think this will be interesting.
42:46
Speaker 2: But I think the Malone thing, it sounds like they're
42:49
Speaker 2: going to get him a legitimate staff and go get
42:51
Speaker 2: some players. He seems to, and this I did not
42:54
Speaker 2: give him enough credit for, he understands the assignment when
42:57
Speaker 2: it comes to the soft stuff of being a college
42:59
Speaker 2: basketball coach, right? Like he knows how to talk that
43:02
Speaker 2: shit about how much he loves Carolina and all of
43:05
Speaker 2: those things.
43:07
Speaker 1: This could work.
43:09
Speaker 3: I'm for it, man. I'm for it. Like when they
43:12
Speaker 3: announced that Michael Malone got that job, I've always felt
43:15
Speaker 3: Michael Malone is more of a college coach, his disposition,
43:17
Speaker 3: his personality. He has gotten, he's been ejected from games
43:22
Speaker 3: where he gets his Dan Hurley on and he gets
43:24
Speaker 3: in front of an official, an NBA official, makes contact
43:28
Speaker 3: and is so irate that he has to get ejected.
43:31
Speaker 3: Like Jokic has multiple times had to step in front
43:33
Speaker 3: of Michael Malone because he just, he loses his temper,
43:38
Speaker 3: just absolutely loses it on guys. And you saw Nikola Jokic.
43:43
Speaker 3: In the press conference the other day, when asked about this,
43:46
Speaker 3: he's like, I think he's going to have a really
43:50
Speaker 3: good opportunity here. I'm happy for him because he can
43:52
Speaker 3: actually teach and get players to play the right way. AKA,
43:57
Speaker 3: he's more of a college coach than he is an
43:59
Speaker 3: NBA coach. And I do feel like Michael Malone... Just
44:03
Speaker 3: the vibe I get from him is way more college
44:07
Speaker 3: oriented than it is. And he's won an NBA championship,
44:09
Speaker 3: which is crazy to say that I feel like Michael Malone,
44:12
Speaker 3: the way he talks about the game, he's more old school.
44:15
Speaker 3: I feel like he's better suited for the college ranks
44:18
Speaker 3: than the NBA ranks. And look, man, I think it
44:21
Speaker 3: was the AD. Someone at Chapel Hill said we wanted
44:25
Speaker 3: to go out and get the best available coach, professional
44:28
Speaker 3: or otherwise. And I said, wait, college sports is professional. Like,
44:32
Speaker 3: let's not. Let's not mix it up, but this is
44:36
Speaker 3: an era where you have to think that college sports
44:39
Speaker 3: is professional. Getting Michael Malone, I think you're right. There's
44:43
Speaker 3: going to be a lot of guys in the NBA
44:46
Speaker 3: that feel like, oh, I can get just as much
44:48
Speaker 3: money by doing the college game, and I don't have
44:51
Speaker 3: to go out on the road and recruit. Didn't Dusty
44:53
Speaker 3: May talk about this? He's like, I haven't stepped foot
44:56
Speaker 3: in any of these houses. This is great. I love
44:59
Speaker 3: this era.
45:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, but there's also.
45:04
Speaker 2: You're going to see, I was talking to an agent
45:08
Speaker 2: who works with college players about this a couple weeks ago,
45:10
Speaker 2: and I asked him, I was like, so how is
45:14
Speaker 2: dealing with, I guess what we'll now call a front
45:16
Speaker 2: office in college, different than dealing with the front office
45:19
Speaker 2: in the pros? He's like, it's not going to be
45:20
Speaker 2: that much different because it's going to be a bunch
45:22
Speaker 2: of guys from the pros. Like, if you were somehow
45:25
Speaker 2: a washout for whatever reason in the front office in
45:29
Speaker 2: the NBA, you There's a world for you now down here.
45:32
Speaker 1: Like, I think you're going to start seeing that in football.
45:34
Speaker 2: But there's just another there's a class of guys who
45:37
Speaker 2: maybe could not move themselves up to be in a
45:39
Speaker 2: VP of player personnel or GM or anything like that. Well,
45:43
Speaker 2: maybe you just go down like all those stories we
45:45
Speaker 2: got of like, for example, Adrian Wojnarowski is the GM
45:49
Speaker 2: at St. Bonaventure, for example. Master P was the GM
45:52
Speaker 2: at the University of New Orleans, Shaq's the GM there.
45:54
Speaker 2: somewhere that's about to be out the window like not
45:57
Speaker 2: even so much talking about adrian because i think that
45:59
Speaker 2: he's probably up to that task but the idea of
46:02
Speaker 2: a ceremonial general manager No, no, no. I think that's
46:06
Speaker 2: about to be gone. And you're about to see a
46:07
Speaker 2: lot of guys who used to work in the pros,
46:09
Speaker 2: just like you're going to see a lot of agents
46:11
Speaker 2: who maybe weren't that great at it in the pro ranks.
46:14
Speaker 2: They're going to start moving down into college. And those
46:17
Speaker 2: are going to be the guys that then traffic in
46:18
Speaker 2: that space, which I then think is going to mean
46:21
Speaker 2: you're going to see a lot more NBA type coaches
46:23
Speaker 2: come down there because what I think is about to
46:25
Speaker 2: go extinct.
46:26
Speaker 1: Here's what you think about this.
46:28
Speaker 2: We all know college basketball, and it's a lot of
46:31
Speaker 2: guys with a lot of success. And what they did
46:34
Speaker 2: was they went and got really good players, and then
46:36
Speaker 2: they rolled the ball out there, and that's all it
46:38
Speaker 2: had to be. All of us have in our mind
46:40
Speaker 2: that guy that's got all the wins, and all they
46:42
Speaker 2: did was roll the ball out there.
46:44
Speaker 1: Those guys are about to be.
46:46
Speaker 2: because your ability to get players is not going to
46:49
Speaker 2: be enough to sustain your job anymore because the ability
46:51
Speaker 2: to get players is going to be about money and
46:54
Speaker 2: the front office, which means I think the strategic element
46:57
Speaker 2: of college basketball is then going to go up, which
47:01
Speaker 2: is then going to increase demand for a guy like
47:03
Speaker 2: Malone because when Carolina fans were like, I don't know
47:05
Speaker 2: about this, let me tell you what you weren't going
47:08
Speaker 2: to find, a better basketball coach. Now, it's possible you
47:12
Speaker 2: might have found a better steward for your program And
47:14
Speaker 2: maybe you thought that Tommy Lloyd, because of his time
47:17
Speaker 2: at Gonzaga and with his success at Arizona, would have
47:19
Speaker 2: been the guy for you. Tommy Lloyd is not a
47:22
Speaker 2: better basketball coach than Mike Malone is. Mike Malone, I
47:27
Speaker 2: don't think, I think we've actually undersold how good a
47:30
Speaker 2: job he did while he was in Denver.
47:33
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, and that wasn't his first stop, right? So
47:36
Speaker 3: he has the respect, like LeBron loves Mike Malone.
47:39
Speaker 1: Buggy!
47:40
Speaker 2: Yeah.
47:41
Speaker 3: Like this, this dude, um, I think he's, I think
47:44
Speaker 3: it was a great hire. Uh, I thought Billy Donovan,
47:47
Speaker 3: the interesting part about the Billy Donovan story is that, uh,
47:52
Speaker 3: in a weird way, Chicago cleaning house with the front office,
47:56
Speaker 3: the bulls and deciding to get rid of corner corner
47:59
Speaker 3: show of us in Eversley. Um, in empowered Billy Donovan
48:03
Speaker 3: in a weird way that they're now saying the GM,
48:06
Speaker 3: the incoming front office exec has to essentially be okay
48:10
Speaker 3: with Billy Donovan as the head coach and Billy Donovan.
48:13
Speaker 3: I don't know if he's, if he played his cards
48:16
Speaker 3: right here because he could have been the head coach
48:18
Speaker 3: of the, of the university of North Carolina Tar Heels.
48:22
Speaker 3: And now he's got the Chicago bulls with the same ownership.
48:25
Speaker 3: You'll get paid nicely, but, But I feel like Billy
48:28
Speaker 3: Donovan would have been a lot happier if he was
48:30
Speaker 3: at Carolina than if he was at the Chicago Bulls
48:32
Speaker 3: because I just have no faith in that ownership with Chicago.
48:36
Speaker 3: Has any professional franchise fumbled the bag more than the
48:41
Speaker 3: Chicago Bulls after the 90s Bulls?
48:44
Speaker 2: Well, that's why I would love if somebody could really
48:46
Speaker 2: get to the bottom of it with Billy and getting
48:49
Speaker 2: an understanding of why he did this.
48:51
Speaker 1: And I say that because.
48:53
Speaker 2: My understanding is that he never talked to anybody beyond
48:56
Speaker 2: the search.
48:57
Speaker 1: Firm with Carolina.
48:58
Speaker 2: Like he was never really in it. He never really
49:02
Speaker 2: got to a point of truly pursuing this. And I
49:06
Speaker 2: would imagine that he would be trying to get the
49:07
Speaker 2: hell out of Dodge for what the Bulls have been. Like,
49:10
Speaker 2: why would you want to continue doing this? He must
49:13
Speaker 2: really just be like, I'm done with this college thing,
49:16
Speaker 2: even though I would feel like at this point, all
49:19
Speaker 2: the things he probably didn't like about coaching college basketball,
49:22
Speaker 2: he doesn't have.
49:23
Speaker 1: To deal with anymore.
49:24
Speaker 2: That being said, after working with actual factual NBA players,
49:31
Speaker 2: can't really imagine what it's like working with college basketball players.
49:35
Speaker 2: Like this is like, you go, you've taken a lot of,
49:38
Speaker 2: you've taken a pretty decent level of high level math.
49:41
Speaker 1: You know how them cats don't remember how to add.
49:43
Speaker 3: Yeah.
49:43
Speaker 1: Like, are they getting there?
49:44
Speaker 2: Like two plus three. But if you ask them to
49:47
Speaker 2: take a fourth order derivative of something, they might be
49:49
Speaker 2: able to do it off the top of their heads.
49:51
Speaker 1: Maybe that's it.
49:52
Speaker 2: Like Billy Donovan is not trying to show you motherfuckers
49:54
Speaker 2: how to add. He's just not trying.
49:55
Speaker 3: To do it. Well, I think, I think the analogy
49:59
Speaker 3: of this is Bill Belichick 2.0 is way off. I
50:02
Speaker 3: think Mike Malone is way more in tune with what
50:05
Speaker 3: works in 2026 on the basketball floor and the economics
50:09
Speaker 3: and just the basketball talent and all the pipelines and everything.
50:14
Speaker 3: I feel like he's more in tune with this, and
50:15
Speaker 3: I think it's lazy to say this is Belichick all
50:19
Speaker 3: over again. Way different situation with Michael Malone, who's in
50:22
Speaker 3: his prime as a coach, who just won a couple
50:25
Speaker 3: years ago, who still everyone really, really likes. And that
50:29
Speaker 3: Denver Nuggets organization has been in flux. And so I
50:32
Speaker 3: wouldn't hold it against Michael Malone that he was run
50:35
Speaker 3: out right before the playoffs last year. But this is...
50:39
Speaker 3: I'm bummed because... Duke Harris, I feel like Wake's best
50:45
Speaker 3: player last year is probably going to be in Chapel
50:47
Speaker 3: Hill because Michael Malone is there now. And it feels
50:49
Speaker 3: like this is not a great situation for me at
50:52
Speaker 3: Wake Forest because I think Mike's going to do a
50:54
Speaker 3: great job. I think he's got the right tools. It's
50:59
Speaker 3: just very odd to me. We've talked about this before, Bomani,
51:02
Speaker 3: how the NBA products, like the– UNC has not produced
51:11
Speaker 3: an all-star since I think it's Jameson, I want to say.
51:15
Speaker 1: Well, Jameson I think is the last all-star, yes.
51:18
Speaker 3: Yes, yes.
51:20
Speaker 1: What do you mean? He and Vince, that's the same class,
51:23
Speaker 1: my bad.
51:23
Speaker 3: It's been a long time. But the coaching tree too,
51:27
Speaker 3: you would imagine that they'd have more people who would
51:29
Speaker 3: be in the Chapel Hill fraternity, so to speak, and
51:36
Speaker 3: Duke calls it a brotherhood. I'm surprised there aren't more
51:39
Speaker 3: candidates here. So that's another reason why Michael Malone got hired,
51:42
Speaker 3: because if you're out here looking at other candidates and
51:44
Speaker 3: they weren't enthused with Sean May or anybody internally, I
51:48
Speaker 3: can understand why Mike Malone got that job.
51:50
Speaker 2: I mean, to be fair, Krzyzewski didn't really have a
51:52
Speaker 2: lot of candidates to take over for him. Carolina, there
51:55
Speaker 2: were some guys that got sent away from home to
51:56
Speaker 2: see if it would work out, and it didn't. Wes
51:58
Speaker 2: Miller was a guy that I think they thought may
52:01
Speaker 2: turn out to be that guy, and then he went
52:03
Speaker 2: to Cincinnati, and you saw that that did not work out,
52:06
Speaker 2: for example. Like, Bottom line is, finding the guy to
52:11
Speaker 2: be coach is real. really really hard and every now
52:14
Speaker 2: and then you wind up with an example of there's
52:16
Speaker 2: the guy that's out there in the market and then
52:19
Speaker 2: you need to coach the exact same year and you
52:21
Speaker 2: go get that guy right ohio state cutting bait on
52:24
Speaker 2: jim trestle because they knew urban meyer was going to
52:26
Speaker 2: be there in a year florida cutting bait on their
52:28
Speaker 2: guy and urban meyer was out there that year you
52:30
Speaker 2: know what i mean like if there's a guy and
52:32
Speaker 2: you're the program that you could go jump in and
52:34
Speaker 2: you can go get that guy and this was not
52:37
Speaker 2: a year if it's two years ago you go get
52:38
Speaker 2: dusty may right? Dusty May takes Florida Atlantic to the
52:41
Speaker 2: final four, and then you go get him like Michigan
52:44
Speaker 2: just did, and then now you're.
52:45
Speaker 1: The one that's out here making this happen. But, whoo!
52:49
Speaker 1: This is, it's going to be an interesting season.
52:51
Speaker 3: What about Stack? What about Stack? Do you have thoughts
52:56
Speaker 3: on him as a head coach? Because it didn't work
52:58
Speaker 3: out at the college level, but now he's with the
53:00
Speaker 3: Golden State Warriors, and I kind of hope that Stack
53:02
Speaker 3: would have gotten that job.
53:03
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know exactly why it did not work
53:06
Speaker 2: at Vanderbilt, right? Because Vanderbilt's not a place that everybody's
53:08
Speaker 2: going to win. It's before they got the huge influx
53:10
Speaker 2: of money. Because let me tell you, one way to
53:11
Speaker 2: get money for your college basketball program or college football, whatever,
53:14
Speaker 2: get that black dude in there, fire his black ass,
53:17
Speaker 2: and watch the money pile up. That happens just about
53:21
Speaker 2: every single time And that at Vanderbilt, I guarantee you
53:24
Speaker 2: stack is out there like, well, what do you think
53:26
Speaker 2: would have happened if you gave me that money? What
53:28
Speaker 2: would concern me about stack at Carolina is everybody wants
53:31
Speaker 2: to play a certain type of basketball and win a
53:33
Speaker 2: certain type of way. And Jerry Stackhouse was a scorer,
53:36
Speaker 2: but he wants to coach intense defensive basketball.
53:40
Speaker 4: And.
53:41
Speaker 2: I don't know if that way is the way that
53:42
Speaker 2: Carolina wants to play. But I think this, if he
53:46
Speaker 2: had not gotten that Vanderbilt job, I think he might've
53:49
Speaker 2: had a better chance of getting this job. I think
53:52
Speaker 2: it would have been on the board, but I also
53:53
Speaker 2: don't think the people that were hiring cared about that.
53:55
Speaker 2: And I think Roy got to make the Hubert hire
53:57
Speaker 2: and Roy was not going to get to make another hire. That's,
54:01
Speaker 2: that's what I think from here, but they got, they
54:04
Speaker 2: got a really, really, really good coach, right?
54:07
Speaker 1: Like, State's mad because they lost Will Wade.
54:10
Speaker 2: And I feel very confident that Mike Malone is a
54:12
Speaker 2: better basketball coach than Will.
54:14
Speaker 1: Wade is, you know?
54:15
Speaker 2: With that, Tom Haberstroh. Check out Tom the Finder. Great
54:19
Speaker 2: newsletter for you to check out. Also check him out
54:21
Speaker 2: at Yahoo Sports. Shout out to the folks in Portland.
54:23
Speaker 2: Check him out talking about basketball there too. My brother,
54:25
Speaker 2: I appreciate you.
54:26
Speaker 3: Hey, anytime, Imani. Appreciate it.
54:28
Speaker 1: All right, man.
54:29
Speaker 2: And ladies and gentlemen, thanks so much for joining us
54:30
Speaker 2: here on The Right Time. We do this four times
54:32
Speaker 2: a week. Ryan Brumley handling everything behind the scenes.
54:35
Speaker 1: Thank you, sir.
54:36
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Speaker 2: give us four stars. I'm inclined to believe you are
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Speaker 2: a hater. We'll talk to you guys in a couple
54:48
Speaker 2: of days.
54:49
Speaker 1: Take it easy.