The Ringer NBA Show - KD Crushes the Cavs in Game 3. Plus: Will Deandre Ayton Go No. 1? | Group Chat (Ep. 284)

Episode Date: June 7, 2018

The Ringer’s Chris Ryan is joined by Paolo Uggetti, Kevin O’Connor, and Justin Verrier to discuss Kevin Durant’s great Game 3 and the Cleveland Cavaliers' chances at keeping LeBron James this offseason before being joined by Shea Serrano for a quick breakdown of LeBron’s monster dunk in the first quarter. Then, they discuss the likeliness of Deandre Ayton as the no. 1 pick. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Phil Jackson actually saved the Knicks. Mark L. Fultz will be an all-star next year. Basketball is very good. Hello, and welcome to the Ringer NBA show. It's group chat. Paulo Gettie, Kevin O'Connor, and the new host of the Watch, Justin Verrier. You got the sweater for it, brother. A elite corner of the game.

That's the end of game three. The Golden State Warriors put that one away and possibly, probably likely the NBA. finals, 110, 102, on maybe the greatest offensive performance I've ever seen by someone who's appeared on multiple Bill Simmons podcasts. Kevin O'Connor, can you say anything to sum up the 43-point night that Kevin Durant had? Best scorer on the planet tonight, that's for damn sure. That was unbelievably scored in isolations, made unbelievable passes, played remarkable defense. It was probably the best all-around Kevin Durant performance that I can remember. Hashtag rigor NBA, if you agree with

Kevin that that was one of the best offensive performances we've seen in the finals before. Justin, I think that I can't tell if we were like generating this content ourselves, like where we were talking ourselves into some sort of KD, does he totally fit with what the warrior system asks and all this stuff? And then you see tonight and Curry goes three for 16 with two of those baskets coming ostensibly almost a garbage time, one dagger, one garbage. And then Durant goes out and basically wins them the games. This is why you get him? Oh, 100%. I mean, it's something Kevin was saying just a little bit ago. This is what you need Kevin Durant for. When everything kind of shuts down when Steph Curry can't hit from three, you

can just turn to the best player in the game. I think it's a really bad sign for the Cavs when, yes, they played better than we thought they would. The games have been closer than they thought they've been. But if you can't win a game like this where Steph ostensibly the finals MVP going into this game can't hit a shot, then maybe you weren't in it at all. I think we shouldn't, though I agree that Steph had a bad game, and this is exactly why Kevin Duran is there to step up and hit those shots. I think those two threes or two shots by step essentially set up the eventual KD dagger. So I think it's all about the timeliness to with the Warriors. It's like your knockout punch has to be so big.

I guess that he can afford to be fashionably late. Exactly. Exactly. And then it's like, what are we doing here? What are we doing here? What are we doing here? Is this over? It's been over.

It's been over. Was it over before we tipped off game? Yeah, it was over. I mean, the Cavs were in this one. I believe in LeBron James. I believe in Rodney Hood, baby. With the comeback game. Rodney Hood.

So we essentially think that this series is over. I want to eventually talk about whether or not winning one finals game in two seasons is enough of an enticement for LeBron to stay in Cleveland. But before we get there, let's do a little pluses and minuses, basically our winners and losers for tonight. We talked about Kevin Durant. That's a huge plus.

I do want to ask one thing in regards to Steph Curry, though. Can Steph Curry and Kevin Durant have a good game at the same time? Yeah, I think they can. It's just the way this one played out. I mean, last game, Kevin Durant had a pretty efficient night. 10 of 14, right? Right, yeah, underneath Steph's incredible game. And it seemed like Steph wasn't shooting well to start with,

but then turned it on, hit those record threes. And when he puts up those numbers, I think everything else becomes obscured. But Kevin Durant has been low-key pretty consistent throughout this entire finals. I think Cleveland's defense deserves a little bit of credit, which is hard to give, but they at least took the ball out of Steph's hands, made it tough on them. Granted that led to easy at-rim opportunities for Jail McGee. It led to everything else, some Jemond layups, Jem-on kickouts. They took the ball to Steph's hands, at least.

I mean, I think it's interesting that, like you said, Javille had good games, but, I mean, like, overall, I think, like, does it really matter if they can have, if they both can have a good game at the same time? You know, like, I think stylistically, it's more fun to watch Steph go off. for 30. It's an aesthetic question. Exactly. Yeah.

So, yeah. I actually, I don't care. Like, the first quarter, the Cavs got up to that nicely. The Warriors got tined, evened up with them when it was Durant and the flotsam on the bench that they play. You know, it was Durant, Livingston. I think Bell got in there. Whoever they were had, it was surrounding Durant basically with a bunch of guys who were there to play defense and rebound.

And that's an interesting switch from the pure system. of ball movement and offball cuts and backdoor cuts and three off ball screens to get an open three-pointer that we're used to seeing from them. It's almost like two different teams within one, right? Like where they can turn on that ISO mode if they need to around KD or they can go into that hyperactive ball movement, you know, with off ball screens and cuts and everything when they have certain lineups on the floor. But that's obviously the nice thing about having Kevin Durant, the best score around the plan on your team. Because when everything else isn't working, when Steph isn't hot, Clay even tonight, only four for 11 for only 10 points.

When those guys aren't hot, you have Kevin Durant where he can just iso at the top and pull up and hit threes with a hand right in his face. It did seem like Cleveland had made an effort to make Steph the focal point on both sides of the ball. Target him on defense, yeah. Yeah, and definitely trying to trap him on offense to throw him off his game.

And pretty much every time LeBron got the ball, he was calling for the switches, going through two or three screens in order to get Steph. So he was really guarding LeBron more than he probably had in the first two games. Yeah, and it seemed like Steve Kerr and the Warriors players just made the adjustments that were necessary, both in terms of understanding some of the trapping that Cleveland is doing on one side of the floor, and actually boxing out Tristan Thompson. And it felt like Kevin Love started drifting towards the corner on offense.

He had a really good game, but I felt like he was way more involved on the boards in the first half and then started to float out to this corner three shooter. Love played like the second best. player on this team with all I do respect to Rodney Hood, and it just wasn't enough tonight. Yeah, I mean, I think it's, the interesting thing is the rebound thing, because in the first half it seemed that they had a pretty good strategy of just getting into many rebounds as possible, and that was working out because they were getting second chances and they were making shots. But then when the other role players, maybe aside from LeBron and Kevin, started, you know,

coming back down to Earths, aside from, like you said, Rodney Hood, then it was okay, what are we doing here? Kevin Love was more on the wing, then down on the pan. It was just, they were more confused than anything, and I think that led to bad defense more so than it's necessarily bad offense, and that's where they got them. Because, I mean, you can't defend the war is. It's really weird how it seems like in all three games, they've just started out with Kevin Love, they called some corner actions for him in games one and two, and then this game, he's really feeding the ball through him a little bit, and then it just fades away. Yeah. It's really odd how that's happened. Three shots in the second half, to your point. That's not acceptable. You know what

you mean? Like that's, and that you can see Cleveland as the game wore on just the deterioration of any kind of plan. The plan was, I'm going to pass it back to LeBron. And that's understandable. I mean, he is a force of gravity, but it's really strange that they don't have anything to actually run towards the end of those games, especially when the Warriors are really getting back in it.

Yeah, I thought it was going to work out so that LeBron was more arrested in that second half. He was going to take more of the offensive load, but didn't really give way to that. If anything, it allowed hood more opportunities. Maybe that was just because they were willing to give him any shot possible. and you just hit a few and they kind of snowballed from there. But maybe that threw them off what they were doing.

They just went with the hot hand, got away from love. And then from there, the Warriors just started hitting shots. It's unorganized, right? It's the opposite of the Warriors where they're so methodical, but also can adapt to different situations. Whereas with the Cavs, it seems like when they need to adapt, they just kind of like don't know what to do. Yeah.

So I don't even know whether you call Kevin Love a plus or minus. He had 20 points and 13 board. Zach, are you seeing anything out there on social? Yeah, one of the questions that keeps popping up is, Did Kevin Durant close the argument on the MVP race? For the finals? Yeah. Well, we had anointed Steph Curry that. You go into Cleveland and you have a game like this

when Steph Curry has a 3-for-16 shooting night. It's hard not to give Kevin Durant the finals MVP for the second year in a row. No, his game one wasn't spectacular. I believe he was 8 for 22. I think now we need to have the conversation whether or not LeBron is the frontrunner. Tonight 33 point triple double

And he's really been the best player on the floor You can't give him to a guy who gets swept though I don't know I can't do that Hashton everybody Do you think you can give the NBA MVP to a guy who's on a team that got swept To a loser

No I'm just saying like if you don't win a game If literally if he wins one game And that's like a really good case If you like the concept of a player Carrying his team in a game or in a series That's what Durant did tonight Like he essentially had his LeBron game But he won

That's what I'm saying So then I think the MVP goes to him. We gave it to Westbrook last regular season. We did. We have one game to go. If we have one game to go. If KD. goes off again in game four, then perhaps he has an argument over Steph. It's the only interesting storyline left. It's true.

Do you guys think that there's anything that the Cavs can do in the fourth game here to put up more of a fight than we saw tonight to get to steal one game in Cleveland to extend this series to five games? Do you think they're going to have the willpower? I mean, they did last year when they were down 3-0. They won game 4. Look, it's a couple of things. A, they need to start hitting their threes. When they get their open shots, I need to actually hit those. J.R. Smith is just ice-cold right now.

They need to continue to keep feeding Kevin Love over the course of the game. Their defense needs to not be Swiss cheese as it has been. Can I get some more Larry Nance? Yeah, I mean, you need Rodney Hood to go off again. I don't know if you're going to get that. there's so many ifs with this team which is why I thought it was going to be a sweep in the first place. Let's give Rodney Hood is due as a plus or minus.

He was an obvious plus. One of the most besmirched players of this NBA postseason and Rodney Hood ends up this game with 15 points, six boards, two blocks, minus 12. Advanced analytics. Were you to say that?

I trust the math. Here's my thing about Rodney Hood. I feel like, and I said this to you guys, like he was decent enough to where you wonder, what if those Jordan Clarkson minutes from game one would have been Rodney Hoods? When things had gone differently, maybe they wouldn't have. He was playing as if being in Oakland

was like playing on Mars. That's why. That's what I'm saying, I just, I don't know. I wish there was an alternate reality where we could have seen if what Rodney Hood would have been like in that game one. I know that he didn't want to go in in the Toronto series and all that

and like you have to bench him, whatever. But at least there was something there. At the same time, though, I think if you're relying on Rodney Hood, men-range jumpers. Like, that's probably not a good place to be. Well, Kev brought up a really good point. The Cavs were a three-point shooting team during the regular season. It shot the fifth most in the entire NBA. They've kind of still shot about the same amount, but they haven't been as successful. So I'm wondering if you go even smaller. If you're at the kitchen sink sort of

spot in the game plan. So drop Tristan out of the starting lineup? What do you think? Like, yeah, it's been moderately successful, and it might actually open you up to even more, just like bigger loss than even before, but I wonder if you're at the point where maybe you go all wings next to LeBron and just try to outscore them. I don't think it would work, but who knows? You got James Posey assistant coach of the bench. Throw him out there

with all wings around LeBron. You might as well do something because the series is over, baby. I think we're at the point where we just start talking about where LeBron is going. Like, I mean... We can talk about that. We're talking about LeBron anyway with pluses and minuses. Did you guys have any more pluses or minuses you want to throw out there before? Javel McGee!

Yeah, 10 points. Javele McGee. He often will have a moment where he'll make a move or he'll show a display of athleticism that gets him seven and a half feet of open space and it's just him in the rim and there's a 50-50 chance that he might not make the shot. It's an experience every time. It's the Javille experience. So it's a plus minus but it's really psychedelic in the middle.

He did his job tonight though on the defensive end of the floor through over 14 minutes, not a lot, but did his job out there when called upon. And then he scored 10 points over those 14 minutes. because Cleveland's horrific defense allowed so many easy at-room opportunities. Even Jordan Bell gave him some good minutes. I think he had 10 points tonight. And he wasn't a...

Sometimes he's so erratic out there that you're like, okay, they need to survive these minutes. He was actually useful, which is probably part of the reason they were able to stand it besides KD going Supernova. Yeah, I think the only person I would bring up is Andre Guadala. If we're looking at plus minus, plus 14. And he looked really shook on the offensive end early in the game, but you could definitely see later on him kind of like get accelerated,

start making an impact on the defensive side. And he had that one big dunk that I don't know how much it mattered in the long run, but it did seem to be like a momentum, yeah, changer within the game. All right. Well, we got a special guest calling into the show tonight to help us make sense of the game, but mostly to talk about a very specific LeBron James play. And that's the homie Shea Serrano. Shea, can you hear me?

Sounds like we're having maybe some technical difficulties with Shea a little bit. So we'll come back to him as soon as we can. I guess with the LeBron thing and the thing I wanted to talk to Shea about is that dunk, which even if I forget the Kevin Durant 40-some points, if I forget Rodney Hood's comeback game, I'm never going to forget

LeBron James' pretty much full speed off the backboard pass to himself for an alley-oop, which was absolutely mind-blowing. Do you think he meant... When do you think he decided to do the actual al-A-oop in that situation? When he saw that Kevin Durant was underneath the basket and knew he would get out of the way immediately as he went for that.

Because LeBron just tossed it up and you could see Kevin just look up at him and then just completely just dashed out of the way. I think it was especially impressive that he was doing it while falling all the way down on the suit or jump shot. Because he went up and then he's falling down and he had to throw it up and then still get enough jump to dunk it, which is, I mean, I don't know. That's just ridiculous. I'll never forget the roar in this room. Yes. All in unison's happening at the same time. We've seen a lot of dunks in our life, too.

I mean, we went running all over the studio. That's cool. I thought that it was just an amazing moment that was really telling about, like, where LeBron is in his career. He's still obviously physically capable of doing this amazing stuff on the floor, but there is something almost like melancholy about the fact that that's what he needs to do. In a way, it's the series of forgotten, well, maybe not forgotten because we're going to remember them, but of, like, wasted LeBron moments.

I mean, he had the 50-point game. Yeah, exactly. He had now the dunk, and both of them in losses, and it's like, okay, what are we going to remember the series by the J.R. Blunder? The Warriors are going to end up with the title. And then LeBron did literally everything and more than he could have. And it's just like... He'll have to have a final's MVP.

Because Justin likes giving the guys who lose games. Legongam games. I like numbers. I think we're going to be joined now by Shea Serrano on the line. I think Shay heard all of our commentary on LeBron, and he was like, I really have nothing else to add. You know, it's like, I think he's pulling. all his book of basketball and other things off of shelves because he's just like they're

really made null. I wanted to talk a little bit about future LeBron because we were just talking about this idea that he, you know, this dunk is at once amazing but is also kind of sad that he's not in an environment where that needs to happen. You get swept in the finals, which probably will happen. You've got to pray for a Rodney Hood game like that. You're screaming at J.R. Smith. Kevin Love is giving you 20 and 10, but it's like kind of whatever. Are you staying or you're going? I'm going, but I'm going to make the case for staying.

If you look at this game, you see elements of what they can be maybe going forward. Obviously the biggest issue earlier in the season where a lot of older guys, a lot of guys who kind of screwed up the locker room chemistry, but you are seeing hints that there are signs of things going forward. You have

Larry Nance showing signs down low. I thought he would be a really impact five that I would be able to run with LeBron and maybe get out on the open floor with some of those other guys when LeBron is off the court. Rodney Hood, if there's anything left in Rodney Hood, I think he makes a lot of sense next to LeBron. And like some of these other guys, I think if another season or two, maybe their options aren't all that great this off season, I don't know. Maybe LeBron decides that plus the draft pick they're going to get is enough.

I don't know. We're going to hold for one. Oh, this is amazing because we've got, it's like literally like watching a telethon in the back of these guys trying to call Shay. I hope Shea has like the most amazing kernel of wisdom. I just also want to say that you're essentially trying to sell me a car that takes leaded gasoline and you have to kick the door to open it. But I appreciate your sell job. You're like he's gone. Okay. Shea. Prayers up. Yeah. Shee. Oh my gosh. This is like what happened when ET phoned home. I'm so excited to talk to you. Let's talk about that dunk in the first quarter because otherwise

there's nothing good to talk about for Cleveland. Um, do you think, When do you think in that play, LeBron, knew I'm going to throw full-speed Alleyoop to myself? He knew that as soon as Kyrie Irving got traded in the off-season. He knew as soon as Kyrie Irving got traded. When you watch a game like this from LeBron where he puts up 33 and 10 and 11, are you sad for him that he doesn't have like more going on in the teammate department to make these performances worthwhile? Yeah, absolutely.

I don't know how you can feel anything other than that. that you're watching a guy doing things that we've never seen before in the NBA finals and he can't have like one other person do two good things in the last minute of a game. Like it's unreal to watch.

It happened to him over and over and over again. Do you think that as like an experiment he should try like one of those like Kobe games where he wouldn't shoot in the game in game four and just see see what happens if he's just like Rodney Hood, Kevin Love, and J.R. Smith need to score 100 points tonight. I'm just passing.

Yeah. He should do that in this next game when they get swept on the way out. So you think that they're definitely getting swept? 100%, yeah. And do you think that this will be like LeBron James' last game as a cab in Cleveland? 100% yes. Do you think that he's going to the San Antonio Spurs

to join Kauai Leonard and fortify the Alamo? Also 100%. Yes. Well, have you relied on those sources. one of those three things is probably not going to happen, but two of them definitely are. Is this a fun finals for you? Because we're trying to, I think we're all trying to make sense of it. I think there is something sad about watching LeBron be this good and watch this finals be so one-sided. What do you think? There is something sad about the finals, but I think it's setting up what's going to be a very, very great moment when the Warriors eventually do lose. This is a part

of the movie where the bad guy has to just like run wild and kill a whole bunch of people and be unstoppable to set up that he's this unstoppable bad guy. Do you think LeBron is on the team that finally beats them, though? I don't think so, no. Okay. I don't think so. You know what? I was thinking about that.

I don't know where he can go that. It would make it feel great. I think he needs to die by their hand, and then somebody needs to come behind him and, you know, sort of avenge his honor. That's a good. Maybe it'll be Kyrie. All right. Shea Serrano, thank you so much for bearing with us with us with technical difficulties

and calling in. We'll talk to you soon, man. All right. Take care. Today's episode of the Ringer NBA show Group Chat is brought to you by Michelin. Whether your tires are new or worn, you should have the confidence to get where you need to be. That's why Michelin Designed the Michelin Premier tires with worn performance in mind. Michelin Premier tires are built to maintain wet braking performance throughout the life of the tire. Get there no matter the weather, thanks to the Michelin Premier Tires' Evergrip Technology, which helps maintain wet braking performance, even as your tires wear.

And now you can compare the Michelin Premier All-Season Tires, worn tire braking versus the leading competitors at Michelin Man.com slash long-lasting performance. She had the interesting point that what we're watching here is what we have to go through to get to the end of the Warriors Dynasty. You have to see them in this death star moment of dominance before a Luke Skywalker can rise and do it. And he was saying he doesn't think LeBron's going to be that person.

Yeah. Really? Yeah. I think LeBron certainly could be. I wrote recently on The Ringer about that, where this is LeBron's opportunity this summer to build his new super team to eventually take down Golden State.

I think he certainly could be the guy. Maybe not. I mean, I think Boston or Philadelphia could be if it's the Eastern Conference. Sorry, what was that second team? Philadelphia, yes. I think one of those two teams in the east, but out west, if he builds a super team

with the Lakers or joins the Rockets, certainly could be a LeBron-led team. Zach, do you have a social thing for us? Yeah, one of my favorite questions of the night so far was where will LeBron take off his Cavs jersey after game for mid-court of the tunnel or his agency? That's a great question. Fantastic.

I wonder if he pulls, even though he's getting swept, he pulls the dirk and just like walks straight off. Untucks. Yeah, Untucks just walks off to the locker room never comes back. I think he wears it until he goes home. To Brightwood? Yeah. Hanks it off.

He gets off the plane and LACs, takes off his cabs jersey. He gives it to Bronny so he could wear it when he joins the league. Sure. Wow. So let's do some believe it or not. This was a lot more vibrant when we had like a Cavs win and we could talk about believe it or not Rodney Hood could lead the Cavs to a comeback here. Believe it or not, let's do Rodney Hood.

So like do you believe it or not, is this the real Rodney Hood we saw tonight or is this only home court with nothing to lose Rodney Hood? That is the on-paper Rodney Hood we should get, but I think the home court point is really good because it does seem like a confidence thing with him in terms of very high-energy situations, and it seems like tonight he was a little more comfortable. So if they play in Cleveland, I believe it. If they don't, then not so sure.

This is all the real Rodney Hood. Unreliable, injury-prone, but also pretty good sometimes. That kind of sounds like something Dennis Hopper would say. It's all Rodney's his brother. What about LeBron's late game three point deficit being related to his very, very dramatic ankle injury in which

he untied and tied his shoes again? What do you think? That has something to do with his late? I mean, I know that you're not a doctor and... Well, you don't know that. I don't know that. It's such a dog's alpha right here. That's why I dressed like this. No, it's hard to say with LeBron. He's just never hurt. And I don't know how that is ever possible.

Well, he definitely seemed slowed for a little bit. But he seemed to get it back later. I mean, he shot one for six from three, so maybe he didn't have enough lift, but then again, LeBron never shoots that. It definitely seemed like after he had that ankle tweak, he was trying to take more shots closer to the basket, as opposed to, like, pulling up,

because he didn't seem like he had as much lift, maybe. And he didn't want to land, I think, awkwardly, on the ankle. So that's not a good sign. All right, believe it or not, C.J. McCollum is coming for Kevin O'Codder's job with the takes. Wow. Here's what he tweeted tonight at one point.

These are facts. Warriors don't cheer for KD the same way they cheer for the others, L.O.L. I'm just calling it like it is. Warriors are a great team, though. KD. shouldn't have gone there, L.O.L. Now, when he says the don't cheer thing, it's important to note that

he was talking to about the fans, not the Warriors players. But this could be some Western Conference trolling on CJ's part. He's really good at content, though. Yeah, I mean, he has his own podcast. I believe. So I'm surprised he didn't just hashtag whatever his podcast name is for it. Well, you know, as a podcaster, you have to spread the stuff around multiple platforms.

You would know. CJ could provide some content this summer when he's involved in trade rumors. Oh. Ooh. Do you think he's going to be a name that's thrown out there a lot? I think him or deem? Why not? If you're Portland, why not trade one of them? Split that up, get another piece and a draft pick. I love that approach to trades. Just why not?

I mean, you gotta break it out of your Portland, take advantage of this era, I think. No, I think that's fair. I mean, I do enjoy his tweets, though. Like, he's essentially, like, the fan, because, like, every fan is saying, oh, the Warriors, like, Katie go in their room basketball. So, I mean, if fans are into that,

they'll probably, like, like, and retweet, I'm sure. For what it's worth, I would love to see CJ without deem to see what he can do, just as a quick aside. I'll just say, as a journalist, I'm a little disappointed in CJ. Oh. I don't think the APSE would really applaud him breaking from the event.

objective journalism that he's usually known for? Maybe it's a tribute to Tom Wolfe. It's a first person. It's new journalism, right? He's just shook right now. What do you guys think in terms of this? Believe it or not, the best way to beat the Warriors is still through the Eastern Conference. Because you've got basically these, you know, you've got a path to getting to this

slaughterhouse that is the finals. But we've talked a lot about like teams basically bodying up, whether it would be like a Paul George, LeBron James team up for the Lakers. whether it be LeBron joining Chris Paul and James Harden in Houston, do you think to get at the Warriors, you need to join that huge talent disparity in the West, or should somebody see the light

and say Cleveland should not be the team that's going every year? Is that, you know, because there was this ridiculous Stephen A. Smith rumor today about LeBron going to Boston, which I do not think is in Kyrie Irving's Cheesecake Factory menu of dreams there. But I think it's worth talking about a little bit. Does that the Cheesecake Factory?

Right next to the chicken Chipotle. It's right there. No, I mean, we've talked about this a lot, whether the path going forward is in the east or in the west. I think it's definitely interesting if he goes west because then the Warriors have to go through one more layer of a super team in order to get to those Eastern Conference teams. I still think the East, at least for next year, is going to be softer.

Yes, you have the Celtics who will be at full strength. Maybe the Sixers go out and get a Paul George, someone like that to fortify that super team. but at the same time, it's maybe one team you have to be as opposed to two or three. You have to imagine the Spurs, let's just say the Spurs are better, and they were almost a 50-win team without Kauai this year, right? You have to imagine that one full season of Andre Robertson

means the Thunder are definitely finals contenders. Forcing out. Plus, Andre minus Carmelo puts them in the finals contention. Houston, again, Pelicans could be good with Boogie on a mid-level exception. When Pelicans can be good again, you've got a Blazers team that was especially hot during the second half of the season. Four or five, six good teams in the West versus one or two or three in the East, right? Sure. I think, you know, if you're LeBron, maybe there's greater appeal in the West because if you don't even let gold sake get to the finals, that's pretty special in my eyes.

But in terms of the easier path, of course, it's still the East. Granted Boston and Philly should both be better next season. Yeah, I've come around this because at first I was very much like LeBron should stay in the East because that's just, gives him an automatic pass to the finals. But I think it depends on the perspective that he has. Because if he wants to, if he can build another super team on a West team, then I think that's what he's going to do, as opposed to like with the East,

it seems like he can still get to the finals with a decent to good team. This is the most fascinating thing about LeBron Summer. It's different than the way it was when he went to Miami, and it's even different than when he went back to Cleveland. It's not that we don't know his destination, we don't know his intentions. Exactly. Is he interested in sort of twiliting a little bit and becoming more of like a mover and a shaker

and maybe playing like 30 minutes a game, 28 minutes a game like the Chris Paul season this year and kind of setting up a team to be great with either a combination of young guys and maybe one other star? Or does he still see himself as this kind of maximum effort, maximum cost LeBron, who is going to be the centerpiece

not only of the team like emotionally but also in terms of ball dot, You know what he mean? Yeah, I mean, if he goes to Houston, if he goes to Philly, two of the teams that are most rumored for him to go to, he would definitely be fitting in to something that they already have that is successful. I think not fitting out. Right. But I do think the Lakers, maybe that provides him the similar enough opportunity to go there. And you look at his previous stops, we've talked about this in the past.

He just needs the raw assets and maybe the cap space in order to build the type of team he needs around him to really provide him the opportunity to. be good. And you look at what the Lakers have. They have a lot of young guys and they have the calf space to sign of Paul George. He could essentially do what he did four years ago with the calves. I think no matter where LeBron goes, it's everybody talks about how the East is an easier path to the finals. It's not about making the finals. It's about winning the finals. So it's about creating a team that actually has a chance to win the whole damn thing. And whether that's in the East or the West, it doesn't matter. It's about what it provides the best opportunity towards that.

And I think the Lakers, as they have been in the whole way, in my opinion, are the most appealing in terms of short-term and long-term if you're looking for all of it. If you want to go the mercenary route, it's Houston, of course. I think what was interesting is one of the other teams, as Stephen A. mentioned, Golden State Warriors. That's ridiculous. There's no point in having an NBA if that happens. Well, maybe we can start watching H.L. H.L. H. H.L. H. H. H.

So what about this? Speaking of NBA player tweets, Jared Dudley. tweeted out after this ring, I hope KD goes somewhere else and tries to win one with his own team. He got his validation. He's one of the best in the West. It's time. Just my opinion. When did we all become Kevin Durant's therapist? This is a real, like, it's like a brilliant in industry. What else we all right? Well, he put that quote in the athletic about how, you know, he's looking for, you know, approval from his, from his peers, right? So he didn't want to be Charles Barkley. And now he's got it. Now everybody's on Twitter, like, Katie, you should leave.

All these players are out there saying, Zach, if we had any Durant tweets tonight that are interesting at all? No, not a ton. More circling around the MVP. Let's hear it. Well, it did hurry throw his away. Right. Did Durant lock it up tonight? We did have one kind of about the three-game performances.

Sure. If you had to go back and re-watch any one performance, do you watch Peak LeBron in game one, peak Steph in game two, or do you re-watch Pete... LeBron number one, like, every day and twice on Sunday, just because it also felt like it was the most alive this final. has felt. It feels like Herculean, too.

But it's also the moment where anything was possible in this finals, and ever since that J.R. Smith blunder, it feels like any kind of like tension of this finals has slipped away farther and farther. Yeah, I mean, they've been in these past few games, which seems unlikely, but the way we're going to paint this is

as soon as they lost in regulation and J.R. Smith didn't make the correct play, it was all over. Which isn't necessarily true, but it doesn't really feels like that was inevitable based on that. It was a great rebound by J.R. Smith. He had a shot in the game tonight that wasn't exactly the same shot, but he was like near the rim, and he just laid it up and made it,

and it looked like what it could have been the shot he could have taken after he got the rebound. He could have passed it to LeBron. I still can't believe it. He had perfect angle to make the play. He just can't read the play quickly enough. We'll relive that fine. That's like one of the, it's really like one of the great blunders I've seen

it a really long time in the pro sports. All right, before we go, I just wanted to talk about one piece of news that came across today. And Kevin, you've been working a lot on NBA draft stuff the last couple of weeks. We had DeAndre Aiden. This felt a little bit like context would have been helpful. A lot of guys say, I should be the number one pick. I think I'm the best player in the draft. DeAndre Aiden worked out for the Phoenix Suns today and came out and said, I will be going number one. Phoenix Suns have the number one pick. Was this an out of context quote where DeAndre Aten is just saying, I believe in myself, or did he walk out of that room of the promise?

Well, I hope it goes better for Phoenix than it did last year, and Ben Simmons and Robert Carverickett all showed up for the first workout. But I think it's an indication when you have all those players show up that you might want guys to meet the likely selection, right? I do think that's certainly an indicator. And all indications were prior to this workout today, that Robert Sarver, Phoenix Sun's owner, has strong connections with Arizona University of Arizona. So I think that's another strong indicator.

Not to mention, he's a pretty amazing prospect. Two, both ends of the floor, potentially down the line. Potentially, both ends of the floor. Defense is a question. That's not what I want from my center is defense as a question. Is that a huge mistake? Is this going to go down as the, I can't believe you passed on Luca thing? It could.

I think Luke is obvious, we have him number one. Me, Danny Chowey, and Jonathan Charks all have them number one. Just like Fultz last year, so that worked out well. Exactly. Does it work a well for us? And that's the thing. Just because Luca is consensus one across a lot of websites, including the ringer, it doesn't mean D'Andre's not the right pick.

I think fit-wise, he fates better with Devin Booker and Josh Jackson based on the team need. You're not going to draft for need. I think D'Andrean's a perfectly fine number one pick because you're going to need big men in the 2020s in the NBA. I haven't watched these guys closely, but my only thing is, like, how many centers have been playing in these last couple rounds? look at the Western Conference finals where PJ Tucker is effectively your center. I just think if you have a guy like Luca and he seems like he is worthy of the number one pick,

why not go there and just develop that backcourt? This is something me and Danny talked about recently and Danny actually wrote about it on the ringer where I think we can't get locked into what it looks like with Houston versus Golden State because every other series still had big men like Stephen Adams, Rudy Gobert, Joel Embed.

I'll offer Joel Embed, Clint Capella. Even right now in the finals, Tristan Thompson against Jabel McGee. I mean, those aren't started. Those guys are playing. Those are, but none of those guys were number one picks. It's not like the big men has been eliminated completely.

It's not all small ball with Draymond at the five or KD at the five. The big men still has a role. And then in the eight, this year's draft and the 2020 draft, there's going to be a lot of big men. In addition to the development of Chris Stavis, Joe L. Embed, Carl Anthony Towns, when those guys are playing on contending teams,

so you're saying the sheer amount of big man talent in the league will necessitate teams. for other big man to counter that. It's a great point because I don't know if a lot of these unicorns, they're going to step up and we're seeing them play the smaller guys off the court, especially if they're able to shoot a little bit more. Well, no, especially if not if Yannis just discovered Kool-Aid tonight, so he probably won't get.

I knew that. Come on. But at the same time, I mean, Clint Capella had to cede the floor for PJ Tucker at times. So I don't know. Maybe you're getting to the situation where we haven't reached that point yet. It just feels like right now, and I thought Danny's article about this. This was great and I keep me really think about it.

But it just feels like right now and for the, at least in your foreseeable feature, Bigmans can only be great building blocks and like, it can be amazing players to certain situations. But when you need a big game and you need somebody to go out there and win the game for you, I just have a hard time seeing how somebody does that. And Beat is the first guy who I thought about me like, okay, maybe he is that guy. Yeah, sure. But that's where I've like I said before on the pod, like, I'm just like, right now I'm just

a little out on Biggs and why I would draft Luke up first. Well, it would be a fascinating debate for the rest of the next couple of weeks. Before we get out of here, I mean, I'm going to ask just to cross my T's and dot my eyes. Sweep? Yeah. No, five.

Let's go five. Okay. Sweep. We were almost Legion of Broom. I think this is over on Friday, sadly. It would be surprising to see the Warriors. I think that actually sweeping would be a really good statement for them. Especially after they let one up last year.

Yeah. All right. So for Justin, Kevin. and Paolo, all the guys in the back, the squad and the control room. Thank you for joining group chat. We hope to bring you another show next week. If not, you'll probably see a bunch of us for draft stuff. Take care until then.

Basketball is very good. Basketball is very good.