The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - Ranking the TOP 10 NBA Finals Contenders

Episode Date: April 18, 2025

Jason breaks down his top 10 NBA Finals contenders heading into the playoffs. This is NOT a ranking of the BEST teams, it's a ranking of the teams with the best chance to win the title this season. He goes through how he ranked the Boston Celtics vs. the Oklahoma City Thunder, why he has the Los Angeles Lakers high up, how the Los Angeles Clippers compare to the Golden State Warriors, and more   #Volume #HerdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hey guys, it's us. The Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast called, Hey Jonas.

We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it. But, you know, tired and sick. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you.

you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the ice. Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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The NBA 82 game grind is done. Now the real fun begins. The NBA playoffs are here and it's time for all the high stakes drama, clutch moments and jaw-dropping plays. I can't wait. If you're looking to make the playoffs even more exciting, Draft King's Sportsbook has you covered as an official sports betting partner of the NBA. From the playing games all the way through to the finals, now is the time to back your favorite players and teams as the they chase glory. All season long, Draft Kings has been the go-to spot for NBA player props. And that does not stop now. Want to make your playoff experience even more intense? Try placing a bet on your favorite player's performance. Will they drop 30 points? 40 or more.

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For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see dkng.c.c.o slash audio. Here at the volume. Hope all of you guys are having a great week. Today we are going through our contender rankings like we do every single year. Usually we have San Vassini on, but we had a scheduling conflict. week and we couldn't make it work, but I still wanted to give you guys my contender rankings before the playoffs start. So today, we're going to be listing the top 10 contenders in the NBA,

and then I have about five or six little kind of like follow-up points to make about why I have teams ranked in specific spots so you guys can understand my reasoning. You guys are the drill before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason LT so you guys don't miss show announcements. Don't forget about our podcast feed wherever you get your podcast under Hoops Tonight. It's also super helpful if you leave a rating in a review on that front. We also have social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook where Jackson is doing incredible work this year. Make sure you guys follow us there. And last minute at least, keep dropping mailback questions and YouTube

comments so we can keep getting to them throughout the remainder of the season. So up front, important context, this is not just a ranking of the best teams in the NBA. There are teams that I have on this list that are lower than teams that I don't think are as good at basketball as them. However, the sole purpose of this list is to is to rank the team. teams based on what I think is their chance to win the title. So matchups can play a role, which conference you're in, health can play a role. So many different things can go into, it can be factored in when we're talking about strictly hoisting the trophy. Now, about a week ago, I did a list for the nerdsesh guys. This is what it looked like at that point in time.

Celtics at one, Thunder at two, Lakers at three, Cavs at four, Warriors at five, Timberwolves at six, Pacers at seven, Nuggets at eight, close. Clippers at 9, Knicks at 10. Now, after having another week's worth of high leverage games, I would make two tweaks. I would move the clippers up to five, meaning everyone else is going to slide down from there. I just thought they were really impressive in their win in Golden State, and Kauai just looks so fantastic that I think they're a little bit more dangerous as a four-round winning type of team. But I'm keeping everyone else in order from there. And then the other kind of change that I'm making, I had the Knicks at 10.

I'm dropping the Knicks off the list and I'm moving the Bucks up. I actually had 12 teams with the Bucks and the Rockets being the two off the list, but I'm moving the Bucks up and I'm moving the Knicks down. I will explain my reasoning there for a minute. So the final list that I'm going with into the playoffs this year

is Celtics at 1, Thunder at 2, Lakers at 3, Caves at 4, Clippers at 5, Warriors at 6, Timberwolves at 7, pacer's at 8, Nuggets at 9, Bucks at 10. one other detail before we get into some of the specifics, I think there's a drop off after six.

That one through six I view as, you know, that's how I would rank those teams. And I think those are the six teams that have the best chance to get this done. I think there's a pretty considerable drop off down from there. I think all those teams have big strengths, but their weaknesses are very big. And it just seems inevitable that to me that other six teams will eventually run into a team that can exploit that weakness.

and eliminate them. That's 7 through 12, so the Timberwolves, Pacer's, Nuggets, bucks, and then the Knicks and the Nix and the Rockets. I view all those teams as more or less on the same level, like that I'm less concerned about where they're specifically ranked. I feel pretty strongly about those top six teams, though. Hey, it's us, the Jonas brothers.

And guess what? We have some big news. What's the news, huge news? We created our own podcast called, Hey, Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it.

We just contributed. First people to do podcasts. Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts throughout there. But this one's extra special. So how do we actually come up with a name, Hey Jonas, guys? I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what we should call it. Well, we were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band.

Before Jonas Brothers was... This is how you guys remember it going down? Yes. I have a very different memory of this. We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast. people could call in and say, hey Jonas, and then I wrote down on my little notepad, Hey Jonas, and offered it up as a potential title for the podcast. But thanks for remembering that, guys.

Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smigel and Friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest. SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter.

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Consider this your court side seat to the French Open. Listen to the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. So let's get into some specifics. Why is Boston over OKC? Oklahoma City, last I checked, was still the favorite to win the title. Why do I have Boston over OKC? Well, to put it simply, I think that their age has caused them relative to OKC

to have a somewhat less successful statistical performance in the regular season. And I think that that's not necessarily an accurate representation of those two teams in their ceilings. I've said this a bunch of times on the show. Alex Crusoe is the only guy in the core playoff rotation for the Thunder that's over the age of 26. Jason Tatum is the only guy in the Celtics actual playoff rotation that's 26 or younger. That whole team is older, considerably older than OKC. They're not going to bring the night-to-night effort that OKC did. And yet they were still a dominant regular season team that still looked excellent on most nights.

So I don't think the regular season data is as revealing of a gap between OKC and Boston. as everyone else thinks. From there, I just think they're more experienced, and I think they're more versatile. I think that makes them more reliable to be at their ceiling as they get into higher leverage games. I can count on Drew Holiday, Derek White, Al Horford, in a different way that I feel like I can count on Chet Holmgren, Lou Dort, and Jalen Williams to play consistently well when the stakes go up to their highest. Do I think OKC can win? Of course, and I have them at number two, but I think the Celtics for me deserve the nod as the most likely team to win the championship this year. Why are the Lakers over the Cavaliers?

This is the first example of what I talked about earlier in terms of a team potentially being better than the team that's above them, but me dropping them because I don't think they're as likely to hoist the trophy. The Cavs are a better basketball team than the Lakers. They've demonstrated that pretty much from start to finish this season. However, I think the Lakers are more equipped to upset the Oklahoma's City Thunder than the calves are to upset the Boston Celtics. I think the calves have a real chance to beat Boston. I think their wins, though, showed that things worked for them best in crunch time when

guys were out of the lineup. A lot of attacking Sam Houser, a lot of matchups in crunch time that Donovan Mitchell was able to go at that just won't be there when they end up in a postseason series with Boston. When they end up in a postseason series with Boston, I know Tatum can score on Evan Mowgli. I've seen him do it. I know Tatum can score on Jared Allen. I've seen him do it. I know Tatum can consistently generate good shots against Darius Garland.

I've seen him do it. I think the Celtics just have more advantages that they can exploit over the course of a real-life playoff series and not these regular season meetings that they have. I think Boston is just a much, much better team than the Cleveland Cavaliers, and I think they'll show it when they get into the postseason. The Lakers specifically present a matchup problem for OKC. they are too big on the perimeter for OKC's smaller perimeter players. LeBron and Luca are too comfortable. They have the ability to on defense, load up on Shea and on offense, spread them out and pick them apart. I thought they demonstrated that pretty clearly in their two-game set that they played earlier the season.

I think the Lakers are more likely to upset OKC and get into the finals than the Cavs are to upset Boston and get into the finals. Therefore, the Lakers are more likely to win the championship this year than the Lakers. the calves, even though the calves are a better team. And so that's why I put the Lakers at three on the championship contender list. Why did you drop the Warriors? The Warriors have been a really hard team for me to get a read on over the course of the last couple of weeks because they looked unbelievable there for a long time after the deadline. But then they just in several high leverage games in a row, the Houston game on Sunday, the Spurs game, the Blazers game, the Blazers game, the Clippers game, the Grizzlies game, they just didn't look like the same type of, you know,

world beating championship contending type of team that they looked before. They lost that game to Houston. They lost that game to San Antonio. They beat Portland, but then they lost that game to the Clippers. And they were in danger of losing that game to the Grizzlies. And like, those teams are all good, but none of them are among the teams that we have in the top tier of this list, except for the Clippers and they lost that game. And so I'm a little bit lower on Golden State than I was before because they look a little worn down. Their role players look a little less confident. They've got what appears to be a shooting problem that has risen to the surface.

I'm a little concerned about Golden State. That's why I ended up dropping them. But I do still have them on that tier. Big believer in their defense. I think Jimmy has looked fantastic in these last two super high leverage games. Still a believer in the Warriors, but to me the Clippers did more at the tail end of the season to demonstrate to me that they had a championship ceiling than the Warriors. That's why I moved them.

Why are the Nuggets so low? I'm a huge believer in Nicola Yokic. I think he's the best player in the world. I think he's the best offensive player I've ever seen. But I don't think their defense is anywhere near good enough to win four playoff rounds. I think it's a death sentence. I think they're high risk to lose in round one. I think they're high risk to lose in every single round because of their defense.

And so I just would be stunned if Denver ended up winning the title this year. For me, I dropped them way down because I just think there's a lot of teams playing much better basketball than them right now. And then lastly, why did I drop the Knicks for the Milwaukee Bucks? Really just comes down to Janus. Over the course of the tail end of the season, I was just so blown away by this work that Janus has been doing as an on ball shot creator without Dame. I said this on my show the other day, but over his last six games of the season where he went six and O, the team actually went eight and no at their last eight, but Janus sat out two of those games. in those six wins,

Janice averaged 32, 12 and 12 on over 60% from the field, over 40% from three on over two attempts per game, and over 70% from the line. He legitimately has been like two-way Luca Donchich over the course of the last month or so of the season.

I think that is a huge wild card going into a postseason run that makes the Bucks a substantially more dangerous team than they looked earlier in the season than when they were playing so much more through Dane. Also, there's a version of this where Dame doesn't play and they lean more into their defensive personnel. I think that the Bucks have just a little bit more of a puncher's chance to make some noise

than the Knicks do on the strength of Janus Antenacumpo. And so that's why I moved them up to 10. But to put it, frankly, I don't think the Knicks or the Bucks really have that much of a chance this year. All right, that's all I have for my top 10 contender rankings. Again, as always, I appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show. Super excited for this playoff run. Super excited to get into the chess match in every series. I will see you guys on Saturday.

What's up, guys? As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting hoops tonight. It would actually be really helpful for us if you guys would take a second and leave a rating and a review. As always, I appreciate you guys. I appreciate you. If you could take a minute to do that, I'd really appreciate it. The volume. Hey, guys, it's us. The Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast called Hey, Jonas.

We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it, but, you know, tired and sick. Tired and sick. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman helped make. you funnier. This week, my guest, S&L's Mikey Day and headwriter, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter.

Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Turn someday into right now with Buddy by Jake Radio. Non-stop workout music and expert tips 24-7. Hey, head over to IHeart.com. Search Body by Jake Radio. and stream it for free right now. Awesome health and wellness tips. 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Remember, stick to the fight. When your hardest hit, it's what things seem worse that you must not quit. Don't quit. Body by Jake Radio, where hope meets momentum. Search Body by Jake Radio and stream it for free. Have a great day. I heart radio.

Every family has its secrets. But what happens when you discover that your dad has been living a double life? That is not the look of an... innocent man. Is everyone lying to me about who they are? I felt such desperation. I felt it was what I had to do. Listen to Deep Cover the Family Man on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.