The Deep 3 Podcast - We Reacted To The Thunder's First NBA Championship

Episode Date: June 23, 2025

The Oklahoma City Thunder have won the NBA Finals! #nba Check out the TD3 merch: https://the-deep-3-shop.fourthwall.com/ Listen on Spotify!: https://open.spotify.com/show/3elbbqVumwqz8wlIdknsLW Listen on Apple Podcasts!: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-deep-3-podcast/id1657940794 Follow us on TikTok!: https://www.tiktok.com/@thedeepthree Follow us on Instagram!: https://www.instagram.com/thedeep3podcast/ Isaac's twitter: https://twitter.com/byisaacg Mo's twitter: https://twitter.com/Mojo99_ Donnavan's twitter: https://twitter.com/Dsmoot3D 0:00- Intro 2:28- NBA Finals Reaction 50:30- Kevin Durant trade Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Donovan, how are you feeling? Vindicated? Vindicated. Vindicated on your behalf, too. Because people, you were the face of like OKC fandom for the year. I was also right there. Like a year ago, I was like, yo, they're winning the title. It is what it is.

I've been a Shay fan. And now we're here. Champions ring them. I catch the glaze hate for you. I'm on behalf of all of us. We all agree. Okay, she's going to win, but I'm the only one that gets the glaze hate. How are you feeling?

Me personally? I feel almost like a pioneer, almost like a trailblazer. A lot of y'all don't remember this, but way back in like the year 2023, I got gifted a pair of underwear. You did? Not any kind of underwear, though. Specifically, they were called Shundies, handmade, homemade inside of the Isaac factory. Super embarrassing. Luckily, I burned them because I'm like, hey, man, this is hell of embarrassing.

have but I got gifted those because of I was a Shea Glazer for whatever reason. And now I feel vindicated. Why? Just like you, O'Casey is finally won the championship. But before we get into our big hurrah, after sentences for some people

to certain things. Okay. Lashes. Lashes for all of you. First up, lashes to the Shea haters. Second, lashes to the J-dub doubters. Third, lashes. Josh Giddy fans. Fourth lashes for you, go KC haters overall for this historic moment that we just witnessed.

Well, I can't sense anybody's lashes. He got that. But like you guys see, we're here to talk about the NBA finals. We're recording this 10.43 p.m. Central Time. We just finished watching the ceremony. We saw the whole hurrah. Shakes of the trophies. Dedicated to J-dub, dedicated to the rest of his homies on the team.

Yeah, here to react to that. Talk about all things NBA finals. Say goodbye to the 2024, 2025. NBA season. It's officially wraps. After that, by the end of this episode, we're also going to talk about the Kevin Durant Trey, because that happened to happen on the same day of the game set on the finals. Ridiculous timing. Lots to talk about in this emergency full episode of the show.

Cue the intro music. The cranium is crazy. Oh, my God. I mean, I don't know what to say. Prayon eaters rejoice. So yeah, like we said up top, OKC is obviously the defending champions now. Like we said up top, OKC is obviously our newest champion.

I guess first and foremost, we've got to talk about the downside of tonight, the horrible downside actually. Another tornikiles tendon for a bright young star in the NBA. Tyre's Helleber went out in the first quarter with the tornikilles. I'm assuming, right? I don't know if it's confirmed yet. But yeah, no, it was confirmed.

Oh, okay, yeah. Even if it wasn't, it was textbook, right? You saw that. We were watching and we were like, oh, shit, he's crying. was going down. They show the replay once you see the pop. It's my first. How could this happen three times to three superstars one playoff run?

That is the most just in terms of the landscape of the NBA, what it means for these guys' careers, where they're at. The most unfortunate playoff run of injuries I could remember. Yeah. And listen, ESPN made sure that you thought. I mean, they were playing the replay up until the third quarter. And it's like obviously, especially now, like, I feel like if this was in like 1990 where you don't have Twitter. on your phone yeah like maybe it would be acceptable to do that because like all right people are trickling in if i have twitter up on my phone and i'm watching this game i know what the injury

looked like and you don't have to keep showing it over and over and over again and then i bet you they're showing it right now is he speaking commercial that's what i'm saying and then keep zooming in on tyrese crying on the floor banging the floor doing all that like i understand yes you do have to do your job and like show what's going on in this event but after a certain point like bro relax yeah we understand relax and it sucks because like obviously we open the show by talking about how we all believe in okay c from the jump we were all since at least for us too you i think picked them at one point but you pretty quickly turned to realize okay c was going to win we've been on this train for the whole time so we had faith in them we all believed they were going to win this game

seven win this series confidence ever wavered but on the entertainment side of it for sure this was going to be one the most exciting game seven you could imagine even though we believed okayc was going to win it's a game seven anything can happen this patient's team had proven that they were more than good enough to win. It was not a guarantee at all, even if someone like me were made confidence, it wasn't 100% or anything. You can't guarantee anything in this type of game. So it just sucks that the chance for an all-time classic series game ending, like the

finding part of history was kind of snatch from us at the last second. Yeah. I mean, you're absolutely right about that. During the first seven minutes of the game, Tyrese Hallburn came out gun slinging and seven minutes he had like nine points, smacked three ridiculous threes. And he was just heated. He was on one talking crazy, absolutely. And all of his other teammates were just, like,

drowning themselves in the, like, dark energy that everyone's been talking about throughout the entire postseason. And then, like, once this happened, it felt, obviously the patients kept themselves in the game. Yeah, he was talking crazy, man. But obviously, the patients kept themselves in the game, but we all knew, like, they would never be able to succumb to, like, the mammoth level defense

that okayc has and like whether or not they would have wanted the way i don't care for the conversation obviously if you are somebody rooting against okay c you're gonna get your slander off your jokes off i understand so is what it is comes to the territory unfortunate that we didn't get to see the bolt he seems at full strength but you know shout out the pacers man every just before we move on to talk about the thunder for a fucking hour or whatever it's going to be shout out the pacer before this playoff started they were seen i'll speak just for us up here the rest of the NBA community probably felt the same well not probably did feel the same way but at least for us they were a cute team that nice strong end of the season post january first we're real good

yawn show me in the playoffs you don't have the superstar you don't have the high end defensive talent we're not going to pick you to beat the calves we're not going to pick you to beat the celtics and so on there was no elements no no no space in our mind to consider a pacer's deep playoff run let alone a finals run let alone a game seven against a 68 win team that'd go on to win at all there wasn't a single bit of us that considered that a possibility. And obviously, we've talked at length over these four playoff rounds about how they proved us all wrong, how they elevated, how they showed us in the regular season, and we should have believed them. We've given their candles, I mean, their flowers. But you just can't say enough about how legendary ever run this is, even though they didn't

win. Yeah. And obviously, like, the Tyrese, it's crazy because everything about this team has been like the, the paces with they play with the chaos in which their offense operates in. And then it sucks because it's, it's bookended with Tyrese Halliborne. Like on one end, you have the four Tyrese game winning shots. And then on the other end, the closing shot for this Pace of Series is going to be Tyrese Halliburton getting hurt in game seven. And so that's kind of, you know, in a package is like, yeah, Tyrese was going crazy and then they weren't able to finish it out. There was a moment in this game at half time where you're like, maybe they can do it because they go in a half up. one yeah they they're going to half up one you get to the third to the third quarter they're not

getting a lot of offense t j mcconnell's like i'm here i'm going to save the day and he did everything in his power giving me straight points 10 straight he got five it was ridiculous the offense like it was at the point where i think they were up by like 10 or so the okay c was and then they came back and took the one point that you said purely off of t j mconnell buckets and they weren't just like it wasn't okay c even bad defense he was hitting crazy tough difficult shots we talked in last episode about that and how he was cooking them and i said like he's cooking them because they're allowing him to attack one-on-one and they're saying we're going to make it so you're not a passer you're going to get to beat us one-on-one as a score tj and we'll live

with that and that's like not a bad idea that's like a totally respectable defensive game plan and he just said it doesn't matter respect this bitch he hit five straight buckets on you on your best defenders it didn't matter yeah and that's why i was like because i had asked you guys i was like okay what like what are we going to do and again over the aggregate you're like cool if tj's going to beat us it's fine we're in game seven so if he's if he's going off and he's getting 10 straight 12 straight points whatever it is that's something where obviously if tyrese was there might have looked different he might not have even had the opportunity to do that but those are the things

where in game sevens we're going to go back and be like yo tjc bocano was he was cooking like yeah low state and it's so crazy to sit down and think about okay c as like this all-time generational defensive team that had to throw double teams at a five 11 white man who looks like he works at your average accounting firm. You know, it's just so crazy to see the things that not only Cheezs McConnell, but overall expanding towards this, the Indiana of Paceas and how they were able to ship-shape and morph as a team, identity-wise, on the defense event, too. That's so rare to see a team take this level of leap during a postseason run through

just simple adjustments. And like Rick, bro, Rick Carl, he's, regardless of how the series panned out, he's in history, he is in history through the levels of adjustments and how much of a buy-in he got all these players to go ahead and do 100%. And a lot was talked about over the last couple weeks since the finals began that if the Pacers win, this will be a new blueprint. Everyone's in a follow. This will show how you don't have to tank. You can do so and so and so and so. A lot was made of like what the implications would be if they put together the last bit of this run and actually want it all beating this juggernaut that no one's expecting them to win against. Obviously, that didn't happen.

I still feel that way. I still feel like there is many takeaways you can do, many ways that this team will kind of like impact the meta of the NBA, impact the way certain market teams see team building. Like much can be learned from the way they built this team over the years with a lot of smart swings around the margins, making the star trade when the right star was available like Seacom, getting Tyree's Halliburton via trade,

just continuously being really smart, wasting zero assets, not doing anything without thinking it through. All of that is still applies to all the teams that could emulate it. it. And like you said, Rick Carlisle so much can be learned from the way he maximizes his talent defensively. And so you have the paces on one hand. And then either way, you were going to get kind of a newish structure for like how to build a team. And honestly, I say that, OKC is low key because of how young everybody is. They kind of are on like the old timeline. We can have

a big three and we can have three guys and then a bunch of role players because nobody's making money like that for like you haven't had to pay chat in in jdub and and and chay and all that so that's the well say yeah yeah i know what you mean but um but yeah so that's like the the interesting part on on their own and now you have the youngest champion that we've seen in a long long time ever is it ever they were the youngest ever they said they said in like 48 years oh okay well it's the youngest of the modern NBA in fact checked it their average age is 24.7 years old they were the youngest team in the league. I looked it up what the Warriors 2015 team was because obviously there's a lot of parallels

there. That was like 26 and a half. So this is substantially younger than the 2015 Warriors who won it all. But yeah, I guess, you know, shout out the Pacers, lots of talk about. We'll talk about the impact of Tyre's Halliburton going out for probably the whole next year and everything in the future as you keep going. But salute to them, amazing run. Man, the thunder.

Like you said, the implications this team, man. The fact that obviously, well, let's go through all the things we've said about them over the year and kind of like check the boxes. Greatest rebuild of all time, right? Easily. Exactly. This Sam Presti, he's been, he's been GM for OKC, I believe, since like 2007. Yeah. Brother, it's been like 17, damn near 18 years.

He's been given, he's made so many mistakes, but through those mistakes as well, he's made the greatest, singhanging some of the greatest moves that any GM could do, which is a sniffing out top tier elite, top tier talent that the NBA has to offer when it's the superstars. And yes, he's had a minor slip-ups, whether it would be, like, how we handle the James Harden thing, and all that's probably, like, easily one of the ten biggest mistakes anyone could make an NBA history. But with how he recouped all the assets and sold off on Paul George at the perfect time, same thing at Russell Westbrook, snatched away Shagos Alexander from that PG-13 trade, and didn't necessarily want to full-on bottom-out and was kind of like half. He created some half-ass e-team with CP3, Dono Gallin Nari, Dennis Schroeder was there, got all types of random guards in the room

alongside your young, your potential young star and Shay at the time. And now to see everything working in unison, in unison. And they're at this point in time, super greedy. They got like 11 first-round picks over the next, I don't know,

three years is easy, by far. Like, I don't know what number two the second best rebuild is, but this is by far the best. There's other rebuilds that are like, qual in terms of outcome. as good or better, you know, the Warriors around Curry, they rebuilt that, made that crazy team.

Obviously, Jerry West had some legendary rebuilds in his time for other organizations, named the Lakers. There's other ones out there, but a lot of those involve getting one of the best players of all time, maybe having a number one pick and getting a Magic Johnson, whatever may be. This one was done in such a short period of time. It was a two-year tank job after a couple big trades,

like you mentioned, to turn it all around. It was drafting J-Dub at pick, what was he, 12? 11-12, so might have. 12, getting an all-star there. the only real lottery luck they had was getting the number two pick for Chet. Outside of that, it was strictly incredible moves

that were just finding the right value and sometimes doing things that were like audacious that nobody expected them to do. It wasn't just a given like you got the number one pick you happen to get Victor Womenyama. You know,

it wasn't like that type of like obvious thing. Even the Shea thing, like a lot of people thought he was going to be really good. Nobody thought he'd be an MVP. Yeah. They probably didn't even think it was in the MVP when that happened.

So part of it is luck, I guess, in that regard. But overall, it's just, you know, it's so impressive that you know, you mentioned the James Hardin trade as like a big blight, that shit will be a footnote in the story of Sam Presti because of this. You know how good you have to be to make us forget about you giving up on James Hardin?

The MVP? A scoring leader? A dude who average like 34, 36 a game for a single season? You have to be in your bag for that not to matter, for that not to be a blight that anybody cares about. And for OKC fans to go through the heartbreak, my bad, of just a couple years ago in 2016, this is the most heartbreaking thing to ever be witnessed. in modern NBA history.

Having your superstar guy and KD leave your organization for the team that you just blew a 3-1 lead to. Tough shot to the chest. Crazy. Madness. They went through so much. They went through so much.

Just three years ago. Lou Dort was over here averaging 17 points for game for these guys. I did not forget those days. I did not forget those days. And people make fun of them because it was only a couple years of tanking. So they're like, oh, boo-hoo,

you only have the deal with so much. You guys weren't actually that bad. I have the, you know, the benefit, the memory of being around for those years. People were on TV talking about OKC, like they were a blight on the universe. Like they were disrespecting the game of basketball because of how bad they were. Because people saw Poku out there. Who was that guard that hit the floaters? Oh, what was his name?

He was tough. He was that G League guard who came to get minutes. Oh, I know that he was running hook shots. It was the hooks. Oh, what was his name? I forgot. They have a whole lot of cast of characters that are going to be forgotten about in NBA history. And they were trod them out there losing games.

People talk about them like they were abysmal, like it wasn't going to amount to shit. And it worked. And now you got guys like Derris Bailey, Darrys Bayley, right? He's tweeting the team. He's a part of it. And when you win the title now, it's like, ah, you remember those days? We were 22 and 60. Crazy time.

They're all part of the journey. But this specific team, like you said, greatest rebuild of all time. Xavier Simpson. Xavier Simpson. They are on, they're on the short list for one of the greatest. single seasons of all time, right? Obviously, what, 72 and 10 has, has it, wherever you want to parse 73 and 9

because you don't have the ring, whatever. But in terms of most wins in the regular season, getting over 80 wins in a overall season, you have that. You have the MVP, scoring leader, finals MVP, crazy. And a single, all in the same year, all in the same year. Which doesn't, it doesn't happen. They change every box.

Yeah, and specifically just MVP and finals MVP, for guards, that does not happen. The only two people to do that is Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson to win MVP the title and finals MVP, obviously, in the same season. It's just them. Like, Magic did it once, Jordan did it twice. Yeah. So obviously, organizationally, beautiful turnaround, the players on this team,

the players that make this up, right? Obviously, shout out Sam Presti for putting the right, doing his job to get them there. These guys, man. And this is the part that, like, especially me has been a glazer for these guys over the last couple of year, apparently. Last year, we see J-dub have a incredible start of the season, clearly a star in the making. Didn't make an all for anything last year, but it was obviously there.

The only thing I always went back to early last year when I got the glazer title is because I said, he's going to be as good or better than Jalen Brown. That's the type of second option I thought we're working with, that type of two-way wing. I have no problem saying that came to be true. Ched Holmgren, we've long said that he's going to be one of the best defenders in the NBA that even though he won't be the star first option score that people love to glamorize love to pick above him in player comps he will always be a strong contributor to winning basketball simply by the nature of his skills and how he compounds with other stars makes everybody better on the defensive end oh offensively he was fucking horrendous in the series but when his hip isn't

he's not recovering from that injury you know you see the eventual way for him to be a good role man be a guy spaces the floor do all the small stuff there that hopefully we see better next year albeit he was bad this year like I said but he lived up to that he will be a at the very worst glue guy star type of player like a Dremont that will be an elevator everybody around him forever and then Shay

just we talk about how unforeseen this level of rebuild is the main part why that rebuild is so unforeseen is because of how unforeseen his development is you rarely see a guy get this good in this type of path to go from having signs being an intriguing

young player that you know works his way up, but isn't, for at least the first four, three years of his career, isn't a premier talent. Nobody's talking about him the way Palo Bencaro's talked about this age, the way even Kay Cunningham's talked about this age. He wasn't in these convos when he was 22 years old. Then to immediately go three straight years, first team, all pro, continue to check that box, then check second MVP, then MVP, and now we're looking at one of the best scoring seasons of all time by a guard, and you're a great two-way player and your finals

MVP. Like, he's truly worked himself up to being an NBA legend, and it's in a way that we don't off and see. Yeah. Yeah. You're absolutely right about that. And what's been the most irritating part about all this is seeing how hated he is and how hated this OKC team is for whatever reason. Earlier today, I tweeted something about like, man, this is like such history that we're witnessing after someone tweeted a song, so, well, could you guys watch the disgrace the basketball? But we've gone to this time and time again. You want to look through my mentions. It'll be funny. Okay, go ahead. Let's let's look at it live.

It's live react to your mentions right now. Okay, let me pull him up. I know people got the bats and the hammers ready for you regardless. Yeah. Well, keep going. Yeah. So, again, seeing how hated he is throughout this entire time span and how people just constantly ignore the tough mid-range to the fadeaways, how he's cutting and dicing into the room, how each and every single game, he's making massive improvements, whether it be his playmaking, his vision, getting to his spots and knowing that there's always like backline defenders coming. for his neck is ridiculous and the first thing that people, the only thing people

acknowledge, uh, free throws. Oh, he's flopping. There's so many layers to his game. Damn, man. The person who somebody tweeted us, he just mentioned, they added all three of us and they said, like, how can you support this flopping bitch? How can you enjoy this basketball? And I quoted it as said, the banner has the same material either way with this picture

of the future. They got to put his account on private because I guess we made everything out of them. That's so embarrassing. Yeah, people were really mad at me at this. I'll just grill, dude. I don't got to mention anybody. But they were pissed because, listen, like you said, this. is a very hated team and obviously we've been very supportive of them all year and I think

especially with me people are like why do you like this team so much I am not a fan of the okay c thunder I don't give a fuck about Oklahoma don't get a fuck about this organization for the reasons you said the hatred around them has just like galvanized us to support them because from the jump started this year we said they will win the championship yeah as soon as we saw them at Isaiah Hardinstein as soon as we saw them at Alex Caruso after already being the one seed already having a second place MVP finisher and two guys who we think will be future all stars and a slew of other good young players and a slew of picks to match that and get better over the years. They add to elite veteran role players answer the experience questions that

plagued them last year. You know, you could say that's why they lost against the Mavericks if you want to relitigate that. That was always a narrative, right? It was that they weren't ready for it. They didn't have the veteran presence. They didn't have X, Y, Z. They add two players who check every box we think that answers those questions immediately. We say, oh, okay, then that means they're probably going to be the favorites out west immediately it's you're glazing get it out of your mouth what are you talking about why do you love them so much at a certain point if we keep saying things and we keep having belief in a team and they all keep coming true at what does glazing just mean you are looking at what's in front of you and noticing the obvious

yeah also if you are an okayc hater tonight does have to suck because obviously they they won the championship nobody played well offensively so you could point to this game be like oh my guys like how are they winning how is this going down jayling would James, J-dub, seven for 20 from the field, two for seven from three. Shea, eight for 27, two for 12 from three. They're there, 30 shots, holy shit. Lou Dorr, three for 10 from the field, two for nine from three. You have this trio of guys who didn't, who didn't play well offensively, right?

Everything was very, very sloppy. and J-Dub, after having that 40-point masterpiece, had two straight games of like, yo, this is rough, right? Like, it's not going well. And then obviously, like, game sevens have a certain tempo to them where a lot of times they're rock fights and they are ugly. And you've seen stars before, most notably Kobe in 2010 where he goes six to 24, but he has 12 rebounds.

Same thing here. Shea shoots terribly. He has 12 assists and one turnover. Like that, like being able to figure. out how to still be effective even when your shot is not falling like those are the things where at the end of the day and especially in the game seven you really really like rely on yeah and obviously like you said this is a funny funny night to be a hater because you were given so much fuel yeah there was a few bad calls that of course everybody clips out against when the thunder

get a call going to go in the way the one everyone's going to clip out it was at the one where he grabs his hand it was actually egregious yeah it was it was for sure miss calls right I, ref couldn't be... Who was it, Kaysen Wallace? Yeah. Reff couldn't be further than where I am from Isaac. And Kaysen Wallace holds McConnell's wrist like this, and they don't call the fact. And again, it was a miscall for sure.

But of course, you know, that's the main thing people think about because I got to grasp for it because they want to say, this is the only reason they're winning, not the legendary defense, not the MVP score, not so and so and so and so. And I get it, you know, it comes to territory. What makes fandom go is hating on the team you don't want to win. And, you know, if people will decide this. to the team they don't like. But I feel like hating has gotten worse over the years. Oh, for sure. That when we were all younger, like 18, 20 years old or whatever, we hate it

at a much more effective level. We hate it with logic, you know? This is just nonsense that's going on now. Yeah, again, yeah, we've talked about it all year. The reasons people have decided they hate Shea specifically. If you want to hate the Thunder because they're a physical defense and whatever, go for it. By all means, the hate around Shea has been so nonsensical. But again, I'm like over. It comes to the territory, like, to argue with people and why they shouldn't hate him as such a waste of time like that that's what happens you're on top of the mountain you get people who don't want to pray on your downfall and this is an age of the internet where hatred slander trolling is the new mode of communication so be it the banner's hanging

nevertheless yeah people have turned hating into their their personality yeah it's kind of whack but i do no no no no no no no no no not all the time not not all the time specifically now and i will kettle and i will talk I need that clip. And as that. What are the pot called the kettle? And as that. No,

you're definitely like a fission out of hating. You understand the layers of hating and like the, the wage. There's a science. Your bag is deep enough that you can see these people are one dimensional and their hearts aren't really in it. They don't really have like the real love of the game. Exactly. You're right.

No, I get it. I get it. You're not the same. If you hate somebody, you're going to have a little more personal reason. Not like, oh, Valmerchin. I don't like it. They don't make them like you anymore. We got to get them back in the lab, man.

They got to take some fucking notes. Exactly. Because, man, I've never seen so many unsuccessful. I hate watching my mentions. This guy. The last, it's so funny because, like I said, I don't care about this team, but I was so galvanized for them. The last, like, three episodes of our show, if you go look at the full episode, look in

the comments, it's always people, as soon as OKC is down the game, as soon as they lose a game, I can't wait to laugh at Isaac all summer. I can't wait to dunk on him. Ooh, he's too confident. I hate it. They were just, like, dying to know what would happen if they got to laugh at me. I love it. I love it.

It's not going to happen. I guess we'll never know. We're never going to fucking know. I feel kind of bad for Tatum because everybody uses that line and like everyone like recraced the Kanye moment. Tatum did it and was like, look at this guy. He's corny as hell. Well, we're talking about unnecessary.

Tatum's a whole, a whole new bag of worms to talk about. But yeah, man, like just shut out. OKC. I think over the years, they'll be coming more appreciated or but also. No, they're not. Also, though, always be hated. Again, comes to the territory. Especially, I mean, you're talking about it over the years, bro.

Like we all know, I think over the last seven years or so, we haven't had a back-to-back NBA champion. And us as NBA fans have been starved of, like, knowing, oh, my God, who's going to be the next dynasty? Is it going to be the 2023 Nuggets? Is it going to be the 2024 Boston Celtics? Because, you know, their star wing duo is 27, 26 years old. This OKC team legitimately has the best chance out of every single one because they're not. string holded by

contracts like the 2023 Denver Nuggets were and all these role players that they have are dumb young and they're going to be around for a while and they don't have to pay anybody and like the 2024 Boston Celtics again contract reasons everyone's dumb young and no one's

going to be be paid disgusting bags so they have the young nucleus to thrive for the next few years on top of that too of course the main talking point is the countless picks the endless picks that they have. Yeah, there's no Drew Holiday falloff coming because he's getting old. There's no Chris Hosper's

injury concerns. Knock on wood as of yet. So far, everyone's everybody in the court is healthy and reliable. Dicey would chat a little bit at times. Yeah, we'll see. We'll see. If you breaks his fucking hip again, that don't be a problem. But for now, there's nothing that like every year we're like, oh, can we get him healthy for a run? So far, but that obviously can change in any moment. So that that would be, if they don't make a deep run for coming years,

that would be why because injury sneak up on you. Tyreys Halliburton a day ago was primed to have a good run next year. And now we're like, fuck, this is horrible. So it can happen any moments. The looming question will be the new, the new NBA landscape with the second apron is explicitly set up to prevent teams like this from having elongated periods of success. It's like the whole goal of the new NBA as the league and NBA PA have bargained it is to create parity and prevent teams from having long windows where they can keep great teams and get really expensive. So this will be the ultimate test of that, right? They're going to have to pay these stars eventually.

Chet and J-Dub will get paid very soon. they're going to have to use those picks they're going to have to continue to replenish the roster around the edges because they're going to lose guys they might lose the case in Wallace one day they'll damn sure lose an Alex Caruso Hartnstein one day and you know if we're giving

San Presby all this praise he will be the deciding factor of how long this run can go yeah the I mean it's fine they have they have Topich coming in next year yeah shout out Topich he has a ring yeah and it's it's really interesting

because even though that they they they won the the title and they did it in very dominant fashion, especially with the run that they had in the third quarter, a lot of the cracks that you saw from OKC were still there tonight in terms of having like just three point volume and having guys who can consistently knock down shots. Like last year, the thunder were amazing from the three point line. And this year, they weren't able to replicate that. If they shot as well from the three this year as they did last year, they would have

They would have swept every single series. Like it would have never been a question. But you have three-point shooting that you have to address. You have some dribble stuff and offensive creation that you have to handle. You still have some bench things that, you know, need to be tightened up. And so there's still room around the margins for them to improve. But that's a good point. This is one of the most flawed all-time teams ever.

It's weird. Like this is, like you said, 68 wins. Oh, you said 80 total wins, counting the playoffs, whatever the number was, I forgot. 84. There's a lot of ways this team measures all-time great, whether it be the total wins, the 80 before 20, net rating, net rating top five all time. This is one of the most successful seasons, teams of all time, deeply flawed. Not a single high-volume shooter on the roster, not a single backup point guard, like you said,

that hopefully Topic steps into, two players that can dribble, Shays are only above average passer, and even he has a lot of downsides as a playmaker. A big reason why Chet can't get his offense going that well is because Chet refuses to throw a lob. He can't feed a big man to save his life. Like, deeply flawed roster at the pinnacle, at the mountain top. Yeah. So, like, you can say they're overrated, they're flawed.

They would lose to so-and-so. Maybe you're right. They'll probably fix those issues in the coming years. And that's what's scary for teams that want to root against them. And awesome for us that just like like good teams and, like, want to see good basketball product. That's so exciting to what this team can be. Yeah, I have the utmost trust in faith in someone like Sam Presti, who's

been proven that he's one of the smartest GMs that the league has to offer. The work is not done. Obviously, there's, like, internal growth that you have to somewhat rely on between Chet, Jadov, and I guess, Shay, I don't know how much he can get better compared to this. But Kason Wallace is going to get better. Who knows you're going to get out of Aaron Wiggins? There's upcoming picks like Topich and all that, and then all the undiscoverable draft pitch that they have currently.

And you have to imagine, too, like, they're going to find ways to get better because in the future, next year's NBA, so many teams have changed. to get better every single every single year teams are getting better teams are seeing what okay sees doing what the indiana pace is doing and they just can't sit on their hands if they were to run back this team next year i don't know how good how far if they could replicate this run it's it'll be damn near impossible in my mind yeah they're pretty healthy so you can't can't bet on that every year so yeah i think in the age of the second apron in the way that you like we said it's going to be increased parity forever i think we'll see we'll see a dynamic

more similar to the nfl i think where every year if you don't get better you got worse because of the natural parity and because the way you can't stay at the top and maintain your team together, you're going to see a lot of teams propel themselves from like fine or good to great every year. And it might be short runs, a lot of turnaround, but that'll happen a lot. The magic are probably going to be great next year. They were down in the dumps this year for health reasons, you know? That'll happen a lot. And yet to your point, they need to contain, pedal to the middle, find ways from fruit the roster around the margins because people are coming.

Wemby's coming. Yeah. Kevin Durant and the rockets are fucking coming. Yeah. If Luca ever gets help, he'll be coming three years from now, whenever that may be. People will be coming. Yeah, exactly. I saw your eyes.

I had to. I had to. Pause, pause, pause. My bad. Thank you. God. Thank you. Can't be mature for two seconds.

Thank you. No, but this, this OKC team, man. It's, this, this is weird. And they are, they are 100% going to be hated. Like, they're already, they're going to go into next season as the favorites. Shea, you know, commercial had, the commercial was lined up, ready to go. Yeah. It's like, I'm so, yeah, I'm just, I'm very curious to see where they go.

Because even while we were watching the game, you were talking about like, oh, they had an opportunity to go get like a Cam Johnson. If they were to lost this game, I was so ready to come up here and just be the complete opposite about Sam Presti. Of course, I still think he's a great gym regards to the fact. But they had countless opportunities. to make certain swing trades, whether it be for last year for someone like Macau Bridges,

because they were very much in those sweepstakes. Yeah. Or was it two years? No, it was last year. Last summer, exactly. They're in those sweepstakes for sure. This year, it ended up being Cam Johnson. They have so many opportunities to just get more juice,

whether it be playmaking with a random guard or the three-point shooting and just offensive punch that someone like Cam Johnson could offer. And Sanper's was like, nah, we got it. You can they do it the summer? I think they should. It'll be smartly good. They probably would. Cam Johnson's still there.

Tray Murphy's there. for the taking and he's not that expensive. Well, in terms of salary yet, but they have the picks to get him if they want another wing. I don't know if they have. Obviously, they don't fucking have to. They want a championship. And I think we can assume when Chet gets his conditioning back under him

after not having a hip injury, he'll take a step. So, like, you could even just say that's going to wait. We get better next year. But they could very easily make a jump, like you said, and get a Cam Johnson or get whatever and be even better next year. That's not out of the, off the table. Yeah, I don't think so. And even if they stand pat,

the biggest the biggest thing that people had to say about the team was like oh they're too young well guess what they're getting older they're growing up and all of that experience and all of that experience and the stuff that you see from like a game to game perspective all of that comes with you into next year speaking of that mark dagnold is getting older he had his learning curve learning what's the word growing pains in this playoff run he right now gets schooled a lot like it's Rick Carlisle he was asked what it's been like to coach against him for a whole series he said humbling and that's goddamn right he got humbled a couple times Rick Carlisle made amazing adjustments to defend Shea and I noticed both Mark Dagnall

and Shea had the same pattern that's probably because they worked together they both if they take a punch in these big adjustments like when Pacers in game 3 decided to start defending Shea 48 feet and really pressure him in them hard folded under pressure couldn't couldn't figure it out on the fly midgame and then it happened again in game six when they did the opposite when they stopped doing the pressure and they played more lax did late nail help they didn't do any

you know initial pressure folded on the pressure couldn't figure it out lost the game both those times I mean those big adjustments they got punched in the mouth both those times

they went home watched film figured it out came with a plan and dice that shit the fuck up the next game they're both fantastic counterpunchers

as soon as Mark Dagnal gets better at the initial punch and doesn't get knocking us butt first and he still has this amazing counter punch ability to figure it out overnight when he gets to watch film

one day hopefully we're going to see one of the best coaches in the league. This, the West is going to be a bloodbath. The East. Kiddy Pool. But it's...

Atlanta Ox 3C.E. Come in. Are the Knicks making the finals next year? Are the Knicks making the finals next year? Yeah. Not on I watch the fuck. Yeah. We can start putting... I'll stand it right now.

New York Knicks, 2026 NBA champions. Champions or in the finals? Yeah. Finals minimum. Yeah. There you go. Final minimum. I'm saying champions.

So you're not going to be on the Thunder back to back to back. team you're going to be on the Knicks team well there's two sides to them no Nick State Nick State yeah I do not have any I saw some people some people of my mentions were like I thought you were a Lakers fan how dare you bandwagon and like this team

I'm like bro if you think I'm going to just lie to myself and say the Lakers are going to win the championship just because I'm a Lakers fan you're out of your fucking mind this team has some work to go so I say it to say I can't even be as optimistic as you can about the Knicks because you guys are in the kitty pool conference like you said it's so you have

reason to tell yourself you can be optimistic it's so bad and the obviously like with tyrese's injury tonight to not have the celtics to not have the the pacers to once again and i'm a i'm put in pen right now yeah to not have joel and bade in in the 60s i thought you're going to say the bucks damn he just had to get off the show not have them also fucking beat by the way yeah god damn to not have any of those four. Automatically, we're going to be a top four. It's like home court advantage is locked. Yeah, probably.

It's great. And yeah, we'll talk about that in the coming weeks for sure that a lot of, a lot of big moves will happen in the summer because of the nature of both conferences right now. Like the East, I don't even, I would say we don't know what to make for it right now, but there's no reason to even think about it because it's going to look vastly different a month from now. I feel like we can guarantee that that the power dynamic we see right now will not be the same as by the end of free agency.

It better not be good. If you're in the east right now, you have to be looking at your staff and saying, what can we do to make a move? Like, we just, we have to take advantage of this opportunity. And if you're not, you are, you're moving very scary. Yeah. Yeah. Literally, it's like, I don't want to say it's now or never, but the opportunity is. It's for sure now.

It's pretty much now or never. Yeah, exactly. It very much feels like that. Just a couple of days ago, I was like, damn, I remember we just made this KD trade video, just posted that clip. It's doing well. Fuck, bro. I just woke up from a nap I should have said

And I just somehow envisioned The Atlanta Hawks trading for KD Damn I should have said this on the goddamn podcast Obviously that didn't happen We're going to talk about that later But again I just I don't want to say anything to embarrass myself

About my team because it would embarrass myself Time and time again I got to ask the question that we've been bearing the lead The thing that ESPN talks about obviously But we haven't necessarily touched on What does this OKC Championship do for Dak Prescott's legacy. What?

The people want to know. I mean, listen, if you're in a small market and you're able to win the title and you are the quarterback, the face of the Dallas Cowboys, with all the resources at your disposal and you still can't win a title, failure, bust.

And what does Shane success say about that? How does that exasperate the legend? I don't know. Well, I'll answer your question with another question. How does this OKC championship and Shea winning a title affect LeBron's legacy. Oh, we don't want to go there. It's getting scary for the king.

Paramount. No, but like, man, what trajectory is Shay on right now? Like, we mentioned earlier that, like, you don't really see this like MVP, finals, MVP championship combo with guards ever. Like, and I mentioned that it's one of the most unique rises of a young star, but, like, people were saying, I think I saw it with Brian Woodhorse was talking about, I'm ready to put Shane in the Hall of Fame regardless of what happens. And people were obviously like, what are you talking about?

Stop glazing? This man's clearly a Hall of Fame already now. I mean, even if they didn't win the title who was going to be in the Hall of Fame. MVP. Yeah, exactly. That should be the territory bare middle in my mind. I guess what I'm asking is, does this feel the same way to you guys that it felt like when Yokic and Yanis secured their legacy and won the championships?

You know, I think we think about them is at their peak a little bit better of a player. I think we all think those are both like top 20 players of all time. I don't think she is quite as good as that at his peak. Not far off. Also an MVP. Also led his team to a championship final as MVP. like do you feel like we're watching like the third coronation of this generation of star yes yes and no yeah um it feels it feels it feels different than yonis and yokech because they had won multiple

mvps prior we had seen them make runs like yokch had been in a conference finals yonis had been to the conference finals before and so there was a little bit of a buildup and it took a little bit of time everything that happened in okayc happened so fast yeah this is also the first one where It's like, it's, they go 40 and 42, number one seed, second round, and then title. Exactly. So this is like their first at bat in the championship window. Yeah. And so I don't.

And so it doesn't feel as momentous. It doesn't feel as like, oh, wow, you finally got this off of your back. It's like completely. Because you didn't have the failure first. Like 2020 Janus was like, dude, he's never going to win. The wall kicks his ass. Last year was like fake hate. Like it was a second round exit.

But it was like, you know, a young team first time being there. If they lost this year, then you would have got that real criticism. But this is really the first step back at the championship window and they did it. Yeah, I feel like a lot of people still don't really understand how insane this is. And to what you said when it comes to computing how Shea compares to Janus and Yokic's, the biggest moments of their careers. She didn't have as many failures. And it's so hard to see how great that is.

It's almost like, I feel like right now I ate my food too fast. Like, damn, that shit was good. but I didn't really digest it fully and really witness and go through how insane this is compared to other legendary performances. So when it comes to going back to like talking about and thinking about like the all time run that Shea is in, I'm not going to like sit here and be like, oh, he's better than like De Wade and like hardened stuff like that. But I will say he is creeping up. He is in those conversations. He belongs in those conversations in my mind.

I remember a couple weeks ago, we made some segment talking about. who is this fan's most beloved player and for okay c it's a famous argument that we usually have i'm always like yeah it's russ for now yeah it's rush for now yeah it's rush for now but as soon as i said as soon as they held they hold that banner and those rings are on their fingers and they hold up that championship and the MVP and all that conversations will change and seeing him hold that up i think that's when i think that's when it started with them started calling me a glazer for shea because i said that if they win the championship he's going to be their greatest thunder player of all time and they're like yo quit glazing it's

Russ, it will always be Russ. And like you said, like, this is the start of this window. The resume is going to be it's not going to be a conversation. I think by the end of this run of who accomplished the most in a Thunder jersey. Yeah. And which is no disrespect to Kevin Durant or Russ. They're fucking amazing careers. But

you got a chip. Yeah. You got it. You got a chip. And then also for that era, you got to the finals in 2012 and didn't get back to the finals. This is not even like you had another opportunity. You lost in conference finals. You had injuries to KD.

and injuries to Russ and all that. The Shea thing, also where I think it's different from Janus and Yokic is that right now, I don't think Shea has a peer. Like Janus and Yokic were kind of going back and forth. And Bede was also in that class. And so. Yeah, I think Lucas stays peer. But right now, Lucas is kind of.

Bad time to say that. Yeah. You know, it's weird. Currently you're right, but I think he will have a peer. I think Lucas, I don't. That's fair. Obviously, I'm over the opinion. He's not bounced back.

I have expressed interest in believing that to be true, but I'm not writing him off. So I think over time that will happen. But right now you're right. There's no guard that looks him in the eyes. The only of the guard that everyone wants to, wants to look him in the eyes is his aunt. Oh, he'll get there too. Yeah, yeah. He, but this also, Luca got, Luca got to the finals last year.

And I think overall, like, if we're going peak for peak, we'll probably take Luca over Shay. It's close. If they're both like at their best, though, like maybe Luca more often than not. It's up for debate. Yeah. It's up for debate. That's like, there's so even to me when the defense is brought into account.

Exactly. That's close. Whatever. So those two are right here. Yeah. I think if anything, this title puts more pressure on it because because. Why? Nice spin.

Because that's the, that's the guy that everyone wants to be on Shays level. And it's, I just, I just dominated you and your team in the conference finals. I have a ring. Lucas has been to the finals. We love Ant. And we, and obviously. Three years younger. Yeah, he's, I think, I think he's going to improve and I'm not going to, like, hold

anything and, like, call him a fraud, but, like, there are obviously levels. And so it's like for you to now be at, be at this level, the expectation has been set for this next, like, generation. I hope we see Shay, Luca, Ant, be this next version of Yokic, Yonis, and Bid. It's like the three peers of each other switching MVPs. No, I think Wembe might throw up wrenching that and have something to say, but I really hope these three guards is like I hope so but he also like hasn't you know been hurt hasn't had well here too you're too yeah yeah I like I like what you're talking about when he comes

to aunt I but I would rather Devert the attention to someone like Luca because he's someone who we thought would be at where she's at right now in terms of he's going to have the finals MVP he already had a scoring leader of course Nico Harrison and he's going to go ahead and raise up the Larry O'Brien trophy at the end of the year we had all these expectations there's been several times where all of us eventually like said no this is lucca's year to win MVP never fucking happened just yet for a slew reasons of course but nonetheless you're right right now like she doesn't have any peers because of circumstantial things anson is he just got drafted like 20 20 whatever and he's three years younger look he went through injuries but

i mean yeah you're right it's really just like him stand alone in this conference and that's what like makes his accomplishment feel something even more grand you know what's crazy If Nico Harrison didn't trade Luca I think they would have had by far The best chance to upset the Thunder Aside from the Pacers who pushed him to seven So they had the best chance by the fault

But in the West Do that Mavs team If they would have kept Luca this year Could it give them problems A hundred percent What a dumb fuck A hundred percent And even when Luca hasn't been at his best in L.A.

When he plays the Thunder He's like oh this is food Yeah It's not even regular food It's Michelin Star He gets so excited to play okayc and all of the bully ball that caruso and lou dort that they do on everybody else that it just doesn't affect lucca in the same way so i guess we're talking about other

teams at arms of thunder in a thunder celebration episode we say to say these are the players that are like coming for their title you know these are the guys they're going to have to go through in this title defense presumably at some point with we didn't even talk about the leggers have a new ownership we'll talk about that in the future i guess luka will get the necessary arms to be in the race against o kc at some point wendy and the slew of players he's in to have now with Fox and Dylan Harper presumably will be there at some point and it has already been there multiple points to continue to elevate they have a lot of competition out there in that conference to maintain where they are the second C that's also young got Kevin Durant now they're

going to be a crazy threat going to be a fun fun time in the Western conference the next four years of what we think will be the OKC era bro if they you know stay there j dub got hit a ring in his third season that's madness chet got a ring in a second season while being raw he didn't play for the first year in the second year he had good second year whatever third year when I had broke his fucking hip which is insane how often do you hear about people NBA players breaking their hip never

barely broke and I'm glad he mentioned it in the celebration talk because obviously the talk is he's been bad in the finals and god damn he has he has been atrocious part of it is physical part of it is mental not here to cut him any any bail or anything he played like shit offensively defensively great series he is so bad offensively

right now yeah in large part because of the hip injury and like he mentioned it The mental wherewithal to deal with that and miss 50 games, your hip is cracked. It's broken. This is not a normal hamstring pool. It's not an ACL where it's like, okay, I got to, you know, come back a long period from now. I'm kind of having to mentally accept that my season is over. His hip is broken, but he's still trying to come back in the season.

You never see that. It's not a surprise that he looks worse. He looks physically not the same as he did. Go watch highlights from last year as a rookie. He moves entirely different, completely different. his lower body is so weak right now he's not nearly as athletic can't jump nearly as high

isn't nearly as quick because of that and they still won I have so I have when we do our rankings in the summer I am still going to rank Chet just as highly as if he'd ever got hurt because I have all the faith in the world that next year we're going to see

the same version of Chet that we thought we'd see that this is like a blip I don't think yeah it's a it's a bad series but the the reasons why I love Chet so much he still showed and all of it is is like on the defensive side of the ball.

And again, he was ass. Don't think we're not saying he was an ass. We can be glazes, but he was asked. We get it. Yeah. Like through the amount of ass that he was on the offensive end, whether it be the missed dunks, whether he was missing just point blank layups.

Missing lobs. Missing lobs. And it was embarrassing. And his ability to not shoot a three point well, astounding. It's like crazy, bro. The defense is insane. It's a defensive player of the year.

Five blocks tonight. Yeah, just a couple of episodes ago, I think we did, like, our playoff awards, and I named him the defensive player of the year. I am continuous. I'm always going to remind you about how ass he played offensively throughout the entirety of the series. But the defense stand still, and with that aspect, trait alone immediately makes them positionally, like, so fucking valuable and just having at least a slight threat to shoot the three ball. It's insane value. So I get it. again just to start

shout out I still can't do it shout out of thunder shout out thunder 52 minutes of glazing we're here man a year of glaze paid off

I was a trailblazer I died for the glaze and I slowly weathered away I did have shay underwear sorry that you weren't there to witness it too late too bad so sad yep shout out then man

so that's the finals let's talk about the second part so the second thing we got to talk about we got to talk about somehow the first this happened on the same day as game seven of the finals dude this happened while katie was on stage during a fanatics event getting interviewed by joy taylor

we gotta talk about Taylor rooks taylor rucks yeah wrong one we gotta talk about get that right we gotta talk about kevin durant's next chapter Kevin durant is now a member of the Houston Rockets a long drawn out trade saga has finally come to an end with a result

that is not a surprise to anybody but, you know, the package, the final outcome of how we got here is interesting to talk about. The Phoenix Suns are trading two-time NBA finals, MVP Kevin Durant to the Houston Rockets for Jalen Green, Dylan Brooks, the number 10 pick in 2025 NBA draft and five second round picks. Not a great return.

We're grading this rate. We're grading for both sides. Okay. My first thought. Actually, tell me your first thought. I think, okay, it has been reported that in a couple days Adam Silver is going to announce expansion.

I think that with that, he should also remove Matt Ishbia from the first. I think this is one of the worst trade packages that I understand Kevin Durant is 37 years old and he's old and you were never going to get the original package that you gave out. But to send all of that out to get Kevin Durant and to get to not get Jabar,

Jabari Smith, one of Jabari Smith, Cam Whitmore, Tari Isan. Any one of those. Reed Shepard, someone. Players who don't play for the Rockets, by the way. Camry Moore does not touch a rotation. That might not change next year. Exactly. But to not get any one of them in this deal.

And now, if you are not rerouting Jalen Green, to then in the fall say, we are going to start Jalen Green, Bradley Beale and Devin Booker, you, sir, are a criminal. You're awful Investigate that man You're awful So this trade obviously You know Lots of teams

Relink to Kevin Durant Okay so yes F I'm grading this an F For the Phoenix Sons Yes But I'm understanding of how we got here To some extent You get an F

Because this is an outright Horrible package For Kevin Durant Even at his advanced age To put it lightly This is a bad trade package Jalen green to me Is a negative asset

If you still want to sell yourself On the Star upside Neutral asset He gets paid like a star So that's fine right Sure you can tell yourself that number 10 pick is a good pick not an amazing pick it's not a top five pick in a top heavy draft glass Dylan Brooks is a good role player to have maybe they get another first time pick for him

cool it's Kevin fucking Durant yeah dude a couple years ago they gave up three times as much of this and this was like a bidding war between the rockets the timber wolves the heat and the spurs at some point and reported other mystery teams the raptors threw their hat in there the nuggets reached out lots of teams trying to get an offer in all of them lowballing the suns All of them saying, here's some pennies, will you take it? Because the sons had zero, zero negotiation leverage because they're dumb as fuck. And they announced weeks ago that they're going to have to trade them. So they just basically put themselves in the position.

They looked five guys in the face, gave them all guns, made them pointed at them, and let themselves get robbed. That's exactly what happens. It's their fault. Yeah. Although it's their fault still, you're right. Like, it just will never sit right to just look someone like Jaling Green in the eyes, Dylan Brooks. the number 10 overall pick, whoever it may be. Good pick, bad pick.

We don't know what it is. Shout out Carter, Brian, whoever they're going to take with that. Shout out. Yeah, Carter, Brian. Shout out Derek Queen, whatever it might be, who knows? But that alongside five second round picks, who cares?

If I am Devin Booker, you do not understand how irate and also depressed I would be. You were just two games away from winning the NBA finals at this point four years ago now. And you're left with the roster of Bradley Bill, Grayson Allen, Jalen, Jalen Green, Dylan Brooks, bro, that's four other guards, three other guards other than you, four, three other guards than you. We're also what happens to Jalen Green. This is a terrible position to be at when you're someone like Devin Booker who had the potential to be, I don't know, this is the debate. I'm not having this debate with you guys at all, but some who could very well have been a Hall of Fame level player, one of the greatest Phoenix sons of all time. He still is that regardless. But to be left with this at the dead ass prime of your career is a. embarrassing and at this point in time it's like what are we yeah what's how bad you're playing this is probably the best they could do they probably took the best offer for now in the future or whatever they gauge is what's important with the assets on the table this is probably the best offer they got

because like i said everybody was lowballing them because of lack of leverage they had and kevin durant is old as hell he hasn't slowed down to the point where he's not a star yet but you know when you're turning 37 this next season any year can be the year where you fall off right like that's on the table for sure that weighs into the equation. Nevertheless, I'm sure if you're a Sons fan, you can see that, you can acknowledge that. You can tell yourself that they did the best they could, not a big deal, right? A win overall, but it still has to feel terrible when you know you were in the finals, like you said, you had this young core, everything was great, you added Kevin Durant, you thought you're going to be at the top of the mountain because you added a top five player in the world

at that time to an already existing core of stars, and you watched it wither away, move by move, Bradley Bill by Bradley Bill Tumani Kumar out the door by Tumani Kamar out the door Yusuf Nurkich in the door all these little moves around the edges that slowly got worse and now you're at the point

where it feels like Kevin Durant pillaged your team and left you with just rubble It's not his fault It's not it's not It's not it's not It's not a complete failure It's mad he should be his fault

Over anybody James Jones fault over anybody The way that they were protesting outside of Dallas After Luca got traded I do the same thing in Phoenix where I'm bringing coffins to the stadium I'm doing I'm I'm bringing pitchforks

maybe no fire but I just don't understand what the what the conversations are like for all those reasons that you said what are they talking to Devin Booker about what are they telling him are they just looking him in the face and be like Kevin Durrana is 37 and Bradley Beale has a no trade clause I can't really do anything that's true to right like

they they are in a mess by the consequences of their own actions. So, like, there's not a way out. They also have no picks. You know, outside of, they got 10, obviously. But, like, for the rest of the decade, like, their picks aren't there. They didn't, that's also another thing.

They didn't even get any one of their picks back. Honestly, I am, Dan, I'm so close to calling the guy, calling these guys, the dummies of the decade. If Nico Harrison didn't exist, well, honestly, he may get a pass because of just luck. It just happens to be that. way in the NBA sometimes dummies of the decade because genuinely since the year 2021 they haven't made a single good transaction i guess if you don't look back and call that katy trade whatever it needs to say looking back at it now obviously like you kind of wish you didn't make

that trade and keep and you would have kept all those assets that you had way back then every single trade transaction that they made a fucking loss whether it be a young player that they drafted of course the guy that they selected last year i forget his name now the wing that they drafted. Brian Dunn seems like a very promising player. But outside of that, they have not made a single good transaction, whether it be trade, a signing, whether it be front office moves. I think I've recently seen something happen to their GM to the bro. It's so bad all around.

What's on my screen right now, Isaac? James Jones. Dudes be like, Subway sucks. My brother in Christ, you made the sandwich. That's bad issue. He's like, how did we get here? My hot dogs are so cheap. I'm doing all the right things as an owner.

I wonder how we got here, Matt. I wonder how this happened. I wonder who could have foreseen this. I wonder who could have been responsible for this. Yeah. So like the sun's awful. Now for the Rockets, hey, shout out to y'all. That's funny.

And shout out to Raphael Stone because you messed up, right? You took Jalen Green with that pick. Does not matter. Nope. You made up for it right now. And aside, even like, out of the, of the minutia of what pick went here and how many how many uh you know second round picks go vocab you went and you said i'm going to trade my two most frustrating players

for one for the best player in the deal on that in itself you won the trade yeah to me a plus for okay c for me for rc for houston and i you know there's a lot there was a lot of debate on whether or not a team this young should be in the market at all for a 37-year-old star, right? You're accelerating your timeline. You could potentially be accelerating it too fast when the rest of your young core isn't ready and now you have to win

because KD is obviously in Winnow mode because you only have so many years left that it's a real debate on how much you want to give up for a player that is so out of tune with the rest of your perceived timeline. If it's this cheap, who gives a fuck? You are so much better now.

He checks exactly what you need it offensibly from a shot creator. Defensively, I'm licking my chops to see Kevin Durant with so little defensive pressure on him. to be like your fifth best defender in your lineup, fourth best defender in your lineup, he's going to be fantastic on that end.

With the IQ defense with these days, obviously gives him better shot making. They're going to be huge. And like to me, getting off the Jalen Green contract is like, I get under-talked about W. Like, that is fantastic. Get the best player.

Don't got to have him on your books long term. So even if Katie leaves in a couple years because he retires, like who knows, now your books are cleaner because you don't have Jalen Green. All it took was a 10th pick in the draft when you don't need to add a young player at this point.

And you still keep, your future Phoenix Sun's picks for when they're a nightmare in 2027 and so on I cannot I can't explain how big of a W this is A plus doesn't do justice for how good I feel about it I agree A plus plus there you go that may be enough justice for you talk about timeline

issues of how potential fans may perceive this bro they just like escaped a timeline of torment and hell and disappointment with Jailman Green and the type of player that he's shown us to be and might project to be throughout the entirety of his NBA career which is just full of

inconsistencies when it comes to someone like kevin iran you're right like he's he has he has been and probably will forever be in terms of like talking about longevity the most underappreciated superstar that the NBA has to offer because lebron's clouted that and he's fucking lebron for god's sake but seeing how katies over the year has just been more yes he when he doesn't get to the rim as much yes like when it comes to being able to make his be forceful in his way and just have a certain level of expulsiveness, that's fucking gone. Yeah. But regardless of the fact, like, he's still one of the best shooters in the league.

I think he shot, like, 42% from the three-point line this past year on, like, six attempts. He is the perfect fit on this roster across all the boards. And what is our future starting line I'm going to be? It's Fredman of Leet. Amen. A man. I assume. A man.

Kevin Durant, Jabari, Sangun. And that fits like a glove. It makes a men's life easier because obviously he can continue to develop at his own pace. And be a demon. No pressure to be a go-to shot creator next year. If that happens, it happens. But all the time in the world, wait,

has helped Sengun so much because he finally has a real starter in a two-man game with a real, consistent, reliable shot maker that can make it so Sengun doesn't have to be your primary scoring option. He can be the good supporting All-Star he's meant to be.

I think, I don't think it's a slight to him to say that he shouldn't be the best player on a championship team, at least as of now at this age. I'm sure if you're a Rockins fan, you have faith that he gets there. I'm not here to shoot that down. But, you know, it helps him a lot to be able to slot into a much less pressurized role playing off of somebody like Kevin Durant on the offensive end and makes Jabari Smith's life easier because he can continue to just do his thing and be the defensive army knife that makes him good, even less pressure on him to make an offensive leave as time goes on.

It's overall, like there's really no downside to me. I want to go back to the timeline thing because one, I don't give a damn about timeline. Yeah. Okay. And even if even if you'll fuck time. Yeah, do you know who just won the NBA champion? You said, fuck a timeline. Even if I, even if I did, saying like, oh, we can't go after KD because it's going to mess up the timeline, it actually perfects the timeline.

Okay. Because for what you said, if they go and they give KD like a two-year extension, right? And you have like three, three, you have three more years of KD. Yeah. Whenever he's done, a men's going to be like 25, like all of the, all of the guys that you are counting on right now to develop in terms of, a man, Sangu and Jabari, they are now going to be in those ages where you look at in the NBA and say, oh, you're in your prime. Oh, you are going to be like who you are and these fully fledged stuff.

So for these next three years, you get to develop with Kevin Durant on your team. And then whenever that's, whenever he's done and he's 40 years old, now you have a team full of fully developed players that have been in-house the entire time. Like, your timeline from here to the rest of the decade, it's set in stone. It's locked. And it makes sense. I can't wait to see how it looks offensively. Like, I'm Adoka's a fantastic defensive coach.

Not like the worst offensive coach in the league, but not amazing. Kevin Durant is like, he's like used to playing in garbage situations now. And he gets his own, obviously, famously will like be the most resilient superstar. So obviously he helps her spacing first and foremost. They're going to be better shooting. You know, you imagine these double big lineups that. then works so well last year with Stephen Adams and Sengoon, Kevin Durant can get his game off,

even with that weird wonky spacing. He can get to his mid-range jumpers. He'll make the spacing better. You have him in the opposite corner. That helps a lot, spacing-wise. And then playing through him, I think him and Sengun can work in a two-man game. You know, Kevin Durant isn't quite the cutter he once was,

but he's still really good running off of screens, can still do dribble handoff stuff, can still run off of pin downs that plays into Sengun's playmaking. I'm interested to see what a men Thompson looks like because I think this kind of, of actually no I don't know what I think here do you think this incentivizes him to be more of an all ball playmaker next year or can incentivizes him to continue to be like the swiss army knife wing i think both things are true for me personally like obviously katie like release a lot of

pressure from someone like i mean he will not be asked to look for certain things whether it be the on ball playmaking at times because for example he's going to be there and katie's going to be in saying who's going to demand a certain level of attention to attention to but i think they can definitely do so much experimentation with this because again katie's 37 308 going to be 37 38 years old you don't want to have him do a lot of the things and mask as a point guard or two guard at times i think you very much want a man to do a lot of the same things that he did last year and 10 full and you still kept fred van vleet to keep everything together running smooth yeah that's that's where we kind of have to have the the conversations

because, I mean, Fred is just, he's just not efficient enough as a score. And so, like, I think when, when you ask about a men, yes, like, regardless of having KD there or not, I need you to do more because we've seen Fred, especially here in Houston, not be, you know, super efficient and just in chugging shots. So I would like to have a little bit of a different look at home. Because he has to. Yeah, that's friends. I think, I think Fred Emily is a little bit of an unsung hero to, like, what he does for that offense.

As a playmaker, he's going to be 31. He's a smaller guard. Like the days where he would be, where he like could be in the system and it would have been better because he was, because he was younger and a little bit more athletic for whatever, you know, size he is. Like those days are gone now. And so I do think that at this point in time. Fredman Lee was athletic?

The hell? What did that happen? I'm just saying like you lose athleticism overtime, whatever. I think for someone like Fred Van Fleet specifically, he's in a specific crop of guards to where it's like your efficiency doesn't matter because I know the type of shots you take you take bombs or you take like 35 foot is 30 furters all the time so that really doesn't move me more because you have I think when it comes to consistency of scoring that responsibility belongs to someone like alfred Sungoon and katie of course and then you can whatever from a week can give you 10 to 12 15

points whatever you will take it he's going to be just at the point guard he's an issue a lot less which is good for what you're saying so that makes me like him it's good for him too. I mentioned everybody's good for. It's damn sure good for Fred Van Vleet. He can be the vocal leader because Kevin Rant's not going to do that. He'll make him more efficient. It doesn't be relied upon quite as much. He'll be the vocal leader.

Kevin Durant will be the vocal buckets. And also too, like Reed Shepard are still there. He probably might crack the rotation next year. I don't know if that's for sure. I don't know if it doesn't happen. I hope so. Who knows? But, I mean, that's someone who could be there for you as well, Don.

We can release some pressure off of someone like for everyone. Are the Rock is making the conference finals next year? It's there in the conversation. We're ducking in all this stuff. Is this the mood? Are they over the hump? Do you see them as the biggest threat to OKC in the West? That's what this is all for?

Yes. You had a top 10 player on your team immediately. Yes, you are like very much in the mess. What about the Mabbs when they get Kyrie back the second half of the year? No. Cooper Flagg? They're too far off, I think. Are they that far?

I mean, it depends what Kyrie looks like. Yeah, we don't know. Yeah, we don't know what Kyrie looks like. And then this is Cooper Flagg's like first year. If he looks solid. Anthony Davis has to be like healthy throughout the year. If Cooper flag can just be juiced up PJ Washington and you got too of them.

You got Andy Davis and if Perry comes back looking good like they might be a threat year one. That's that's fine. It's, Carrie's not going to do it. Well, he could.

You've seen Naseo coveries. I believe someone. But first year in season is tough to, you know, that's a lot of pressure I'll put on him. So outside of them. Yeah. So the Mavs I'm going to count out

right now, obviously. I have all offseason to change it and I probably will. The Mavs, I'm going to count out. Spurs. I don't think that their depth is, is good enough to take them to the conference finals. No, But they can be frisky.

Denver. Who knows? You want to, like you want to give Yoki some type of credit, but like it's tough. So I'm going to say, I'm going to say no for Denver. I have to pull up the standards right now.

Timber wolves with, you know, another year of this core. They're probably going to lose. No, no, no, no. I'll take Houston over Minnesota right now.

Yeah, I got Houston firmly number two right now. Like they're, they had one of the most hellacious defenses and the only thing that was stopping him was their offense. And I think their offensive rating wasn't even like God awful. that somehow made it work. They had a halacious defense.

They just traded the worst defender in the rotation. They had an inconsistent offense. They just traded their most inconsistent offensive player. Yeah. They're going to be better. Yeah. They're going to be a lot better. The Lakers?

Who knows? TBD. They have stuff. There's so many. Clippers. I think they're going to be better than the clippers. On paper, the Rockets are the biggest threat right now. A lot is going to change.

A lot is going to change the summer. We're going to see more moves. The landscape of the NBA will be different two months from now. We can guarantee that. Memphis. go to hell you're joking but they have a lot

of when I say the land team will be different it's because teams like that are like loaded up a picks and can make some shit happen

so like you say as a joke we might look up a month from now and they have fucking yonson yeah I know we have no clue

what's going to happen but as of today I think the rockets have really positioned themselves as well like I I buy them now like we were obviously

we became we appreciated them this past year I think by the end the season but it's no secret that we've doubted them

and some of their best players in their teams And why? Why did, why did it? Because it's not like we were just out here like, oh, you got, you guys are fake for no reason. No, we were wrong. We were wrong.

Their offense was not good enough at the end of the day. And like we, we didn't believe in them. I believe in them. Kevin Durant moves me along with, you know, progression from their other players. Like another leap from a man Thompson. Hopefully, Reed Shepard becomes the player that we hoped he could be, you know, more players that can make sizable leaves of Cam Whitmore can channel his scoring, acumen to be a efficient player and play winning basketball, whatever that means.

there's reasons to believe in them on the margins and the giant Kevin Durant added to the equation, I think they're going to be a legit conference finals threat. I absolutely agree. If they simply just like exit out, someone like Jay and Green included KD and that Warrior series that they played, did it go five or six games? Seven.

Wait, you what, seven games? Yeah, it was a war. Wow. Rockets Wars this year? Yeah, so it went seven games. Wow, man. That's crazy. I don't remember seven games at all.

Yeah, it's a long play. It's been a long playoffs, man. It's the late night. But yeah. That was a war. They almost beat them. And to be fair, the Warriors aren't like the like, yeah, measuring stick for winning.

It wasn't like the thunder. But, you know, Warriors were a very good team before Steph Curry got hurt. So that was a very respectable loss to your point. Building on top of that, I would feel very good if I was a, okay, see, a Rockets fan. And I know half, the, the Rockets fans of like a civil war on Twitter over the past year were Turkish Sangoon fans and Jalen Green, AAU fans like hate each other and swear their guy is like the future of the team and the other one's holding them back. I got bad news for both

of you. Got bad news for half of you. You didn't win the war. You lost it for more in dramatic fashion. Don't know where Jaylon Green's been playing saying Goon fan, the Turkish National as you guys win. Wow, bro. I do have a question for you guys. Yeah. Now that he has been traded in Jalen Green, do

we expect more Wingstop commercials next season in Phoenix? I don't think it really makes the difference between Houston and Phoenix. now you're kind of you've moved off from the secondary team you're no longer the young star you you're now just the guy who got moved are we seeing more commercial i think he has a lot of bills to pay over the next 18 years and he's a good agent so yes i'm gonna go ahead and say yes i'm

gonna go ahead and say yes okay the most an underlying talking point to this too that you mentioned briefly um was that the feet the phoenix sons weren't able to go ahead and get their own pick back Well, yes, technically it did with the 10th overall pick, but that's like, Dan, not irrelevant, but it's just like whatever piece. That 2027 pick that's unprotected moves so fucking much because who knows what that roster is going to look like at that point in time. I think Bradley Biel's contracts may be explaining who knows at that point in time. But just to find out like, yo, they still have another move up their sleeve along with,

again, like their own first round picks too. It's ridiculous. This is a S-tier run that this front office, this new. John, this new, this new era is in. Shout out the Minnesota Timberwolves for dodging a bullet. You guys tried to trade Rudy Gobert for Kevin Durant. I'm glad you got saved from yourself because that defense would have been set up to massively disappoint next year, I think, that trade it went through.

A plus. I'm glad they got saved for themselves. A plus for the Minnesota Timberwolves, bro. They didn't even do shit. A plus for them. They should make moves. I do not think this is the one for them. It is the one for the Rockets.

It is the one for the Spurs. It's probably the one for the heat. It was not the one for the Timberwolves. The Miami Heat. I know. Yeah, he's rosters. Sucks. Who?

Phoenix. Hey, we buried them enough. This is crazy. If people are still here, what should they comment? Comment more wing stop commercials. More wing stop commercials, man. Who? Arrest Matt Ishbia.

Matt Isbia. You are sentenced to a thousand lashes. My neighbors are going to call the cops. A thousand lashes. What's going on, man? These guys in the basement just last each other. I just hear belts and screaming. That being said, shout out.

The Houston Rockets to trade for Kevin Durant. Shout out to OKC Thunder for completing the trilogy, completing the prophecy, completing what we all expected up here on this couch in these chairs. Hey, man. Shout out to 2024, 22, and 5 season. Off season's here. Off season is here. This is like damn near my favorite season of the year.

What's next? It's crayon eater season. It's trade season. It's free agency. It's ranking season. Storylines. This is the real season for NBA fans. NBA fans are chronically online.

They're addicted to transactions. Now is your time. It's going to be a good summer. Should be lots of motion. Ooh, this is going to be fun. Here we go. We're jumping straight into draft. Like two days later.

It's crazy. That's insane. Insane. We got to change that also. No, I like it. Two days later, it's too fast. Yeah, I like it. It's chaos.

All right, man. We'll see y'all in a few days.