The Ringer NBA Show - Seven Questions That Will Decide Game 7 of the Finals. Plus, the Lakers Sale. | Group Chat

Episode Date: June 21, 2025

Justin, Rob, and Wos are here to preview Game 7 by answering seven questions as we head into Sunday’s game. They talk about what they learned from Game 6 (15:35), who the finals MVP will be (48:50), some predictions (52:10), and much more. They wrap up by giving their thoughts on the sale of the Los Angeles Lakers (55:45). Hosts: Justin Verrier, Rob Mahoney, and Wosny LambreProducer: Isaiah Blakely Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello and welcome group chat. I am Justin Verrier and joining me with their jerseys tucked into their pants, not only their pants, their jeans, but just also the front. We've got Rob Mahoney. We've got Big Waze and we've got Game 7. Game 7! Do you want to be the full Zaza here? It's really hard to imitate his tone, but it's like a Game 7, baby!

No, what was it? Do it the hard way. Nothing's easy. You got to get the nothing easy. Very important part of the process. But you raised the jersey tuck, Justin. I'm curious for you, when was the last time you wore as an adult man,

a basketball jersey? That was not like a rec league jersey of a player, of a thing, of a place. I think it was the same time that you guys probably wore the last one, which was in front of the Indiana faithful. Yeah. With our jerseys, yeah. I haven't worn one beyond that since,

I don't know, early college. a Stefan Marbury jersey that I thought that I was like really cool wearing but then wore like twice. Was you wearing jerseys regularly? No, I have one soccer jersey. I have a Kevin DeBrona jersey that I wore to the U.S. women's national team friendly that I went to like two months ago.

So yeah, that's about it though. Yeah. Soccer kid's a different beast though. Again, the tank top. It's just a shirt. Yeah. I don't have that counts. make a difference.

Yeah, they do. You can see what Adidas was up to. You know, you can understand the vision. Yeah. It's funny, because as we kind of go toward this game seven, we're getting a lot of clips of LeBron in the game seven against Golden State. And you're reminded of how for a while there was we wore t-shirts as jerseys and thought it was cool.

The sleeved NBA jersey era, not our best moment that ever existed. But yeah, I think with jerseys, keep it simple. and the people will enjoy it. The fact that that one, though, is burned into Game 7 history in particular. It's incomprehensible in a lot of ways. Is it the bottom sleeves, like, ripped during the Egudala block? It's a little ripped up.

Because those sleeves were so constricting it. I think a lot of players complained that it was actually affecting their motion. Compression sleeves. The bottom of them, yeah. It's wild. We did this for a time. We did this for a time, no longer.

But the Game 7s will continue. a pace. We get another NBA finals game seven, the fifth during my lifetime. And so, or sorry, the sixth during my lifetime. We've had five on record. I am overjoyed that we are here. We all talked about this coming in as a potentially maybe short series that we weren't sure if the pacer's were going to be up to the competitive standard of specifically the OKC defense. That has not been the case at all. This has been everything I could have wanted from a series like this, down to the fact that we now get a winner take all game seven, just. just the best possible outcome in professional sports.

Like NBA Game 7 in the finals, I don't know what's better than that. Yeah, let's take this big picture first because I have down here seven, count them seven questions to decide game seven of the NBA finals on Sunday. We have to start first and foremost with how good this NBA finals has been, as Rob is kind of alluding to. My question was for you is where does this finals rank

among the best you've seen? Is it already like in the upper echelon? Are you waiting to see seven to get there? Like, where are you? I can't put it above 16, of course, because in my mind, that's peak NBA non-Jordan edition that I've experienced in terms of stakes,

in terms of interests, in terms of like, I remember exactly where I was, what I was doing, who I was doing it with watching that game seven, I remember the last, like, Steph shot and, like, Kev loved catching a rebound. And I was like, the Cavs really just won the championship. Like, that, I think, is just in a class by itself.

But outside of that, it's 2013, which LeBron is involved into with the Spurs, Ray Allen shot. Game 7 was pretty freaking phenomenal. Game 7 was incredible, by the way, back and four. No big leads for real in that game. Big LeBron shots down the stretch. Duncan, Bricking the layup. Like, I remember that like it was yesterday, too.

And then I would say, man, the Kobe Celtics one that went to seven games. Our guy Ron Artec. Pacers legend Ron Artex. Making that big three to kind of ice the game. Just, yeah, those three finals stick out to me. in that order, by the way. I have to admit both the Celtics and the Lakers wins of recent vintage, relatively recent vintage,

I just did not move me at all. I don't know why. Like long competitive series, hard fought. It's just like I never quite felt the charge of those series in a way that I certainly felt. You mean Ubuntu and the Powell and Kobe? Yes. And honestly, if we want to go back,

even the Lakers three, Pete, which was, Some of those were not the most competitive series. Some of it was awesome basketball to watch or to behold or to rewatch. But compared to things like the LeBron exercises you mentioned, like whether it's the Cavs Warriors, whether it's the Spurs Heat, whether it's Mavs Heat in 2011. I would put those a cut above.

And I would say even, you know, we talk about 2013 heat spurs a lot, 2014 Spurs Heat in which, again, not a seven-game exercise or demonstration by any stretch. But like, the way they dismantled the heat had it like, I cannot believe my eyes sort of quality that I think set even that series apart and made it something pretty special. But beyond those that we mentioned, I would say this Thunder Pacer series is right there. I would say this is, you know, depending on how you want to suss all that out, maybe on the cusp of your top five or so of the last 25 years of NBA finals, which is a crazy thing to be living and experiencing firsthand, especially when the ground just keeps moving under our feet as to what this. series even is. Yeah, so there have been now 10 game sevens. This will be the 10th one over the course of NBA history. And I think at that point, once you've reached that threshold, you're already in an upper tier. You're already in the upper crust of the games that we're going to remember. And so

for that reason alone, I think, like, we have gotten to a point where we've crossed into elite classic territory. Like, this is a hardwood classic that if that still existed, I don't know if NBA TV still exists, they would be playing this 20 years down the road. Well, Maybe when they're streaming it on Twitch in the metaverse, you will see this series. And the games have been very good. If anything, this is the type of series wise. I think that will appreciate over time, almost like a fine wine where it's like, oh, maybe we got two mixed up in the small markets and not having the celebrity players.

But these guys will probably have bigger legacies as we go along, the Thunder in particular. So I almost wonder if this is going to be looked back at as more of a thing that it is even now. Yeah, I think if I look back at the games, like last night was a blowout. There's probably been like two blowouts or whatever. But the rest of the games, you know, especially when you think about game one, which is just an all-time classic and the way it culminates, like the comeback culminates in a freaking buzzer-beater, which we got to watch together in person and then react in real time. Like, I'll remember that feeling for a very long time.

And I think more importantly, man, these two teams, like, I think there was this idea that Indy was not a worthy opponent. Like, they're the freaking thunder's equal. It sounds insane to say that. The fact that those words just came out of my mouth, I almost want to jump out of my body. But the Indiana Pacers are, if not the best, they're the second best team in the NBA this season. I don't think there's an argument to be made otherwise. like credibly. You cannot make the argument.

And so two evenly matched teams, like obviously different in terms of their construction and the way they go about their business. Like, you know, Indiana, they have two all-stars, but nobody's even close to an MVP level, like even sniffing it where you could say, well, no, no, you would never make that case.

And OKC has the MVP on their team. It's just, you know, I just think it's a super. super compelling matchup. There are things that are left to be desired. I'm not going to lie. The whole OKC Stoicism,

we're even killed. I'm a freaking metronome. I'm Mark Dagnol. I'm not a human being. Blah, like, that shit kind of gets corny to me. I'm not going to lie. I think feelings and emotion are cool parts of sports.

That I could use a little bit more of from the OKC side. But in terms of the pure basketball, I have zero complaints. I think you might be doing Mark Dagnalls a little dirt He's not an automaton Like the man has thoughts and feelings He's he's white

Fucking um What's his name in Boston Why am I blanket? Yeah he's white Joe Madge Same thing is Jitsu No it's just the post game with the yeah We do what we do

And blah blah blah blah Sure He's very process oriented Yeah I'll miss me Emotions Say some irrational of the logistics. Yeah, I mean, I think what the Paces have shown is that they are clearly, if not the best and clearly the 1B playoff team here. Like we've talked in the past about the heat, like going to another level in the playoffs and almost being a different team once they've gotten there.

It feels like the Pacer's overall are just built for these sorts of environments. At the point where like everyone was counting them out yet again going into the last night's game. I mean, there was actually more of a reason to seem like J. Dub came about, but also Hallib being injured. That clearly, like, handicapped them in a way that we thought would ultimately just lead them to tilt over. But to do that yet again, to subvert the expectations again. When we thought we were done doing that, I think speaks to just like how they're able to

become something different in the postseason that people aren't expected. I think both of these teams have proven to be just, like, really evasive, tactically. and certainly like narrative proof in terms of our understanding and analysis of this series like we've constantly felt like okay there is that breakthrough you're alluding to Justin

whether it's Jdub whether it's O KC like finally kind of breaking through oh wait here come the Pacers in game six and you can trace it back all the way through the series where every time one of these teams gets a leg up

the other one pulls the rug the other one makes some crucial adjustment the other one kind of shifts its tactics around just a little bit or its effort or it's three point shooting or whatever the variable is on that night and it makes these games really hard to get your arms around in a really exciting way,

in a way that feels like captivating and makes you want to keep watching to know, like, I just have no idea what the Pacers are capable of in Game 7 on the road in OKC. I would not be shocked if they win it. How could you be at this point, given everything that they've accomplished?

And the fact that this team just like cannot be rattled and cannot be shaken from the way that they play. And at the same time, you can't talk yourself out of the idea that the Thunder would come in with a command performance because they've responded to some of their biggest losses with exactly those kinds of showings. And so to be in this place of complete uncertainty

with all of that, of being mystified by what the Pacers are capable of and impressed, but also like a little concerned for the Thunder coming out of Game 6. I am flummoxed by this series. I am flummoxed by these teams. I am enjoying the hell out of the right of it.

Yeah. Well, was look at the shape of Game 6 that we just saw where it's like, Thunder came out strong. We're like, oh, this is it. This is where we get the fire. final game and then the Pacers storm back ever like the thunder got close in that second quarter and then the Pacers fucking hit the gas to the point where the thunder couldn't even score to start the third quarter neither team could score to start the third quarter but the

one team was up 22 yeah that helps too it's just like even the the rhythms of that game are unpredictable even when we're inside of it yeah it's the Pacer's ability to just inspire all like I'm out of superlatives. They're tougher than everybody. They are. They're freaking endless reserve of mental toughness. They just out-tuffed, out-like efforted this OKC team who we, like, in game one, they turned these dudes over 30 times.

They just out-efforded that team in game six where they're, I think at one, in the third quarter, they had 20 more possessions than the Thunder did. Yeah. Ended up about that way too. That's insane. That's insane. Like, they were just playing harder than everybody else. It just felt that way.

And okay, see, again, like, they're not the ones in a do-or-die situation, right? Like, it stands to reason. But to be honest, even when they went down early, and I said this after we covered game five, I was like, yo, the Pacers came out like a team that didn't need to play stellar defense to win. Game 6, that was not the case. Like, even when they were down, they were limiting OKC to be like,

all right, you're a normal offense. You're not just, you know, blowing us out the box with, like, transition and just great three-point looks and all of this stuff. And, yeah, just seeing the team that's just tough, man, just down the line, right down to Tony, just freaking forearm shivered. to Hartstein like bro, get out of here.

Like the jolly green giant, yeah. That was like, this is a team that will not die. James Johnson finally gets in the game and it's like, certainly does. All right, let's fight immediately. I'm like, bro, like, I love the attitude and the sort of, you know, intestinal makeup of this team, man. I think what I'm going to remember from game six is that defense.

Is this Pacers team coming in? just being a wrecking ball on that side of the floor. And to your point was about the effort and about the commitment to all that stuff, Tyreys Halliburton participating in that on one leg, flying around, getting steals. Like the Tyreys Halliburton steal into the no look,

into the Pascal Seaccom hammer on J-Dub, just one of the plays of the season and certainly of the finals and certainly of the playoffs. Like, what a fucking sequence. What a showman. Yeah, did he have to do the no look? Was my question. Does anyone ever?

even on his one leg had to add a little pizzazz. It almost felt like he was saying as he did that, he's like, frazzle dazzle, you know? Well, we're kind of talking about Halliburne. I had this down at number three, but let's just go there right now. It's, is he hurt? On the one hand, he is hobbled,

and you could see it as he's moving around there. But, I almost feel like the Pacer did such a good job, not only of playing to that strength, because Halliburne at the top of the arc, being able to see the full core, playing the orchestra is so dangerous, even on one leg. But also Rick Carlisle working into different lineups,

adding him with T.J, kind of swapping them in him out more aggressively. It almost felt like he might still be hurt, but they could still find ways to make him effective. Yeah, to me, that's what makes you one of the best players in the world. Just because you're limited doesn't mean you can't make an impact. And to me, Halliburton, all he had to do was be a threat to shoot. You have to be able to get the defense to honor what you're doing out there

to get them out of their shell and get your other guys going. The fact that he was aggressive, he missed a bunch early, but, like, OKCs, they have to respect him. When this guy takes a jump shot, you can't just be like, oh, I'm not going to contest. Oh, I'm not going to react to a head fake on that. Like, you have to react to a guy who's looking for a shot, and I thought he did a great job of that.

And I think that's the difference between a great player and just a pretty decently good guy. Like, you know, Porter Jr. in the second round, he has one shoulder. He can't do anything. Like, it is what it is. Even the little contributions as he's making, it's like, bro, like, it's Porter Jr.

One arm, it is what it is. Halliburton on one leg, because he is one of the best players in our league, a star player, he could find a way to still be impactful. And I thought he just showed himself to be, like, of that caliber of player last night by doing it in a limited capacity.

Yeah, I think guys like MPJ giving it, they're all in those circumstances, is admirable. It's just not all. always effective. It's just too easy to cheat away from a guy like that. It's too easy to close the gap knowing that they're not going to drive or put the ball on the floor. Haliburton did just enough of that stuff. And Justin, you isolated it too. Like, playing every one of his minutes with either McConnell or Nemhardt on the floor with him alleviated so much of the ball handling pressure

to the point where they don't have to go to him to force anything, right? He can just be a conductor. He can just be a conduit. He can just be someone who's helping the offense to flow. And at the same time, you can see that he's not Tyrese Halliburton. You can see that he's having to pick his spots even within all of those protections and all those accommodations. I mean, they were just pounding the ball through T.J. and M. Hard time and time again

for exactly that reason, to the point that their usage basically flipped from what it usually is in the playoffs. You can get away with that because he's that kind of shooter like you talked about, was. You can get away with that because he's the kind of guard who can play with other guards. And it's so funny to end up in that place

after starting his career with Deere and Fox and that was the question of like, can these guys coexist as stars together on a high level team? And here's Tyree Saliburton coexisting with T.J. McConnell on a team this one win away from the championship. Yeah, it almost feels like he leaned on some of his physical advantages there

where he was stabbing away at the ball because he is so long. And he did for what it's worth, despite the fact that he couldn't move as fluidly as he could in the past, like he was busting his ass defensively. And then on the flip side, you see what he can do with his vision,

not only being so tall, but also just having that preternatural feel for the court. Like that one early in the first quarter, like swing pass across the court to Nemhart for the corner of three. I was like, God damn. Like how many people are making that pass, let alone seeing that and let alone being able to execute?

He was plus 25 in that first half alone on the hobble leg. And then that's probably a good segue to go to question number two, because I have, do you, did you learn anything new from game six? And for me, I thought T.J. and O.B. Toppin have now solidified themselves as the not fucking around crew. Where, yes, TJ is his own thing. Clearly, he has just been on another level the past, what, three games at this point. Almost like Steve Nash dribbling in between defenders, like snaring rebounds, almost like Nash used to, which is obviously ironic because Halliburton and the Pacers overall have been getting

in the Nash comparisons, but him plus Toppin gives them something that just almost like galvanizes their advantages where it's like off of the misses and the Thunder had a ton of them, those guys are fucking moving. And so it's like, at a certain point wise, it almost feels like that second wave

has become just as much as an advantage as their first unit, which has obviously impressed us his entire playoffs. All I know is that Nicola Yokic, Jamal Murray, Anthony Edwards,

fucking Julius Randall, all of these dudes had trouble getting to the pain dribbling against this defense. Like, just a hard time finding their sort of airspace. T.J. McConnell is just like, watch me work.

Like, he does the National thing, the probe thing, but he's doing it for his own shot. Yeah. He's literally doing it to just get eight feet away to take a, get the smallest amount of space, take a fade away, eight footer, and he's just cashing it, you know. And then sometimes when the ball gets swung to him on a rotation and he's at the three point line, like, oh, God, it's a record scratch. And it's like, oh, they let the defense set up again.

And it's like, oh, it doesn't matter. I record scratched this freaking possession by not letting the three fly. Doesn't matter. Still going to get to the rack. Still going to get to my shot. Still going to get to my spot. This shit defies logic that I've ever known about the NBA.

It's broken the series. They've tried everybody on him. He's cooking every one-on-one match. He's T.J. McConnell. You can't swipe away the ball when it's like a couple inches from the ground because he has such a low center of gravity. He's like weaving around these things like a freaking speed bike.

Do Wiggins, Wallace, Wallace, they're like, yo, no, Wallace, you're supposed to be our stopper? In theory. No. McConnell stopped Wiggins on one player. He swiped it away. Completely stripped him. It's, I don't understand it. Like, we've been talking about T.J. McConnell for so long is, again, a hardworking player, a good backup, but there comes a point in every playoffs where it just doesn't work anymore.

we just have not clearly reached that point in this run. And at this point in his career, that just might be who he is. He's a little harder to tamp down. And it's a combination of, yeah, all of that effort, all of those circle throes that we're talking about, but also just like straight up,

knocking down essential nails, mid-range jumpers at a rate that every finals team in history has a guy who's doing that. Like there's behind every champion, there is a Tristan Thompson push shot. Completely. You see JJ Berea flashback right now? straight up.

But look, the ultimately the McConnell stuff has been discussed a lot. The Obie Topin stuff, I don't think has been discussed enough. And as a long time Obi-Topping guy myself, we're living,

we're eating, we're pointing the finger at Tom Thibodeo saying why weren't you playing this guy before you let him go? But here's the thing, though, Rob. I always liked Obie because he played hard

and super athletic guy and the skills seem to be coming along. He did not play defense like this in New York. York. He did not. He was a, like, he sucked. He was terrible at defense.

And I'm like, yo, I like Obie, but I understand why Tim's like, bro, if you're just going to be a freaking turnstile, or he never give a decent contest at the cup, piss poor rebound. Like, I'm sorry. Like, he was bad. See, all of that is real. But this is the reason why Tom Thibito teams historically don't have the preseason to postseason development story.

Like, there's no guy that's like, oh, this guy popped in a way. we didn't really expect. There's no one that he, and a lot of coaches are this way. Michael Malone was like this. When you don't invest in those guys and give them the opportunity to earn minutes, to play through some of those mistakes, to earn your trust, then this is, that's what you end up with, is an incredible athlete and really capable players sitting at the end of your bench.

If you're the Indiana Pacers, you end up with the guy who is second on your team in this series in made threes. Like, bombing away. It's him and Aaron Neesmith at the top of that list. he's tied with Tyris Halliburn for made threes in the NBA finals. Obie Toppin. I think the leading score on the team in the third quarter was like 10. Like, bro.

Yeah. It's a joke. The level of collective greatness that is happening right now. It's almost like a cliche, but this is just a sum is greater than the whole. Or is it the whole is greater than the sum. I never know what that. one. But like, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Okay, cool. There you go.

This is the most cliche that I've ever seen of that, like ever seen of that term. Yeah. I think it was six players with eight points or more at half time alone. And obviously, Obie ended up, I think the leading score in that game. The two big threes, the three point makes were from Obie and Nemhard. Again, these guys did not come into this league with three point reputations. when they let one fly now, you expect it to go in. We talked a lot about the offense too, but obviously defensively. The defense was amazing.

It just been on another level. And it did seem like Rob that the Pacers were being a little bit more concerned about picking SGA up and like switching lower on the court. And obviously that feeds into the thunder's biggest problem is when the shots aren't falling, like trying to get into the pain has just been come a mosh pit that SGA or anybody is struggling to navigate it. Yeah. This is what I felt like. like I learned in game six, was not just that the Pacers are a good defensive team. Like, they can be a dominant defensive team. They can upend a game with their defense, which is not something you would necessarily

guess based on their personnel, but it is that collectivism. It is having enough guys who are good at enough different things to make all that stuff work. You know, as you mentioned, all the teams and players who have struggled to score anything against that OKC defense over the course of these playoffs to get any kind of consistent rhythm. How many teams and defenders have we seen struggle to get anything going slow? blowing SGA down. And this is one of the first teams and first players in Andrew Nemhard to actively do it. And I would say in this game in particular, completely threw Shea off balance.

And I thought the doubles that they were throwing at Shea were really effective, specifically like the blindside stuff when he would turn his back and you saw Hallibur and you saw McConnell going for those steals, really mucked things up. Shea had eight turnovers, not just in this game, but in the first three quarters, eight turnovers for Shea in the first three quarters. The Pacers had seven. Like that to me is a lot of the game is he did not have control

of the thing that he had to have control over And that is true because the Pacers made it true I think what you saw in game six against Shea is they're figuring out his timing which just seemed like the most impossible thing to do in the league because it's so herky jerky, so offbeat so just not similar to anybody else's

where I feel like Nemhart is even he's timing the Shea forearm shiver thing perfectly now, where he knows where that bump is coming to create the space, and he's still able to take it and close off the air in the distance that Shea usually is able to create with that move. It's kind of, I think that's what it is. Like when McConnell is coming over, timing the double perfectly, they're just better

at timing Shea because it's been six freaking games now, you know? And these guys are all world elite defenders. Like, Nemhart is an old world defender, dude. He's one of the best in the league. He's shown it throughout this whole playoff run. Neesmith, same thing. He didn't get, he's filed out of damn near, like, every single game except for Game Six.

Game Six is the first time he didn't have a crazy high foul game, too. So, yeah, man. OKC playing with fire, boy. Yeah. It's just easier for Nemhard, to time things, to face scar, to be a little bit more narrow-minded about guarding Shay when obviously you have other guys to come in and dig down and help out. And that's where the lack of three-point shooting and like dropping back into the coverage and having more guys around you in the paint has just like help to no end. It's like I look around. There just seems like always a guy helping like within a foot, within a second distance.

And like it seems like it's compounding too because you also look at the struggles that they've had just finishing chat in particular. It just seemed like he was in a different headspace overall. but like there are two guys at the rim most of the time to the point where even when J-Dub was scoring in game six, a lot of those were leaning away high bankers off the class. It just seems like the Pacers, unless the Thunder forced them to prove it with their shooting. Like they're not going to give them that space and not going to give them that respect.

In the off-season, guys, Chet needs to put Miles Turner on his bullseye, on his dartboard or whatever. He has to put his face, not Yolkitch, not Carl, towns, not Julius Randall, not none of the other elite bigs, not Anthony Davis.

He needs to put Miles Turner on the dartboard because this guy is demolishing him. He cannot do anything offensively, guys. If it's not a spot up or it's not an alley-you, it's done.

The problem is he also can't do anything against like Aaron Neesmith. He also can't do anything against some of the the guards who get switched on. I mean, at least this was the case in game six. He's had an up and down series offensively. Some games much more effective than others.

But in game six, he looked lost. Like, he just looked lost offensively. And I think that's a tribute to what you're talking about, Justin, in terms of cutting off that flow, right? When you cut off all the access to those shooters, when you have the Pacer's defense playing the sort of shell that it is and rotating and flying around in the way that they are, now all of a sudden, Chad doesn't get anything easy or anything he does get his

rushed. Anything he does get is like, again, there's one more guy in his path than he might want or he had to take that first move so quickly or pick up his dribble so quickly he's a little too far from the basket to finish on one of those kind of extending layups like we've seen him finishing these playoffs i just think top to bottom this is such a hardworking defense and such a defense that's like locked in and on a string and all the things you want to see out of high level playoff defenses but i i just don't think we can say enough things about andrew neymard and his specifically i think he's phenomenal he might just be the best like third fourth fifth

effort defender out there. Like the number of things he will do on a given possession to stay attached to SGA and then to continue to participate and continue to influence the play is really, really rare stuff. And something that honestly you don't even get from someone

like Lou Dort sometimes or these other defenders who fly around who try to sell calls on the screen, who you'll see them hit the ground and in doing so, take themselves out of a possession whether they get the call or not. Nemhart just navigates everything. He stays connected to you all the time and he doesn't let you get any airspace no matter what you try to do.

If you have one of those guys on your team, I think you're always pretty well positioned to at least kind of like stay intact in what you're doing defensively. So last year, I think it was last year after Indy got eliminated. I remember Justin being like, well, Nemar just had a fantastic postseason. I guess Mathrin has like become superfluous. And I was like, you're insane. Are you crazy? Matherin is still the future.

Have you seen this guy's potential and upside and blah, blah, blah. blah, blah, blah. Clearly, I didn't know what the hell I was talking about. He had one game. This guy, I mean, it's not a Mathron dig. It's just, Nemhart is just amazing. Yeah. He's amazing, dude.

Yeah. Ben Mathurin is like in the Ben Shepard category. It's like on some nights you need this kind of guy, on other nights you need that kind of guy, but like Andrew Nemhard is an every night guy. Yes. But you're right, though. It is a lot of him waging psychological warfare with SGA

because he doesn't have the prototypical length, which is why coming into the series are like, maybe Nemhart, the track record suggests he hadn't done well against Shea, but a lot of it is knowing his moves, knowing when to be forceful, knowing when to back away and put his hands behind his back because he knows Shea's going to draw a foul. And maybe that's another like subtle little thing that the Pacers are gaining an edge

over time because as they're having time to learn tendencies and play styles, like Carlyle and those guys are almost like flipping things that typically would be strengths into weaknesses. But you were talking about Chet there. So I do want to get to the next question, which is what's the biggest tactical or strategic wrinkle you're watching for? And for me, I think the big one is just how much you go too big versus one big. It's kind of a big question that we've been cycling through this entire series. Double big started well.

And overall, in this finals, they're plus five in 19 minutes. 19 minutes, obviously a pretty small sample size. The Caruso lineup, so just swapping Caruso in for Hartinstein, not as well, minus 13, 50 minutes. The offensive rating is just putrid. it's 92.9. Some of that's just like funny money with minutes. You just go with the lineups that work. Obviously, they think the Caruso lineup will work better with the matchup.

But I don't know what you do here, Rob. Like, do you have an inkling? Do you think they'll go back to starting single big and let Chet just roam? Or do you think they're going to start too big just because it started so well in this game? I feel like when push comes to shove, Mark Dagnon goes to Caruso. And he takes Hart &stein out of there. And you saw it in the second half. they were trying to close the gap.

That's how they started the second half. It did not really work, as you alluded to. That lineup has not really worked on balance in the series. Like, again, with some of that fluky data accounted for, it just like has not sung in the way that you would expect it to sing. At the same time, all, like, all that is true. That's kind of their natural inclination for the thunder. I feel like that's the way they lean.

But if you're going to play Chet and Hartenstein together, and I think there should be room in game seven for some of that. How much you want to do it kind of depends on your taste. I think they should play together some. Playing together with the other starters is the best version of that and in a way that almost makes me a little nervous moving it around. So like I personally, I think I would start Caruso, but I would feel a little nervous about it.

I kind of think the thunder will start Caruso. I think this might be the time where they tip that balance, even though on paper the success has not been there in this series. But theoretically, that is the lineup that they seem to trust the most. Yeah, I'm not convinced of the smallness. of the lineups being the key here. I don't think they should go super small with J-dub. I think that is a bad idea.

To me, I guess that's like a thing they haven't tried. It's like, all right, let's go super small, super five-out, super athletic and rangy and see what we could do with that. I just think Indies big guys are physical. I just don't think you should do that. To me, the strategy is like just go old school, Bill Parcells, football, Bob Knight, take care of the ball,

clean your glass, get back on defense. That's it. And then shit, man, I got the MVP, got another great creator in J-dub. I'll win this thing in the mud. I'll find a way offensively

to win this in the mud. But in terms of, like, the rest of it, bro, you have to rebound, you have to get back, you have to take care of the rock. Like, that's, to me, is the whole.

ultimate to this game seven. If you are just throwing the ball everywhere, if you're getting bludgeon on the boards because you want to get cute with the sizes of your lineup, you're not getting back with the paces and the insane pace and running up and down the court. You're done. You're not winning game seven. So to me, those are the things they need to be concentrated on.

Like, get dirty. Yeah, I think whatever decisions they make tactically, strategically, they are toward that end. It's like, how do you maximize all-out effort for the entirety of game seven. Whatever you have to do to make that possible. And granted, the finish line is right there. You got to get through one game.

And so my question is always like, how are these teams able to best empty the clip? Like, how do you want to distribute all that? How do you want to stretch? Both these teams are still playing like nine and ten deep. Do we see any of those role players excised out for the sake of maxing out other stars? Does someone like Pascal Seacom,

who has barely guarded J-dub in this series until the beginning of game six, in which I thought he had like a really good statement opening in terms of his defense on J-dub. Is that something we could see for the entire second half of game seven? Or at least like a crucial fourth quarter of game seven. Like that's a lot to put on Pascal for a whole series. But this is it.

Like you just got to get through this last stretch. Maybe he has that in him. I think the thunder starting question factors into this as well. I also think it's just the function of like how does OKC get back to ratcheting up the defensive pressure that they need to survive? they had four steals in game six, the Thunder did. That's not a winning recipe.

It's their lowest in any playoff game. It's one of their lowest of the entire season. Basically any game in which they have around that many steals, even a couple more, they lose. It's just not something that they are fundamentally able to compensate for. And so how do you ratchet up the pressure? How do you amplify that? How do you avoid some of the early fouls?

I also think T.J. McConnell was a huge part of that because he had these guys on their heels. And it's so hard to play good, uptight pressure defense when you're, backpedaling because TJ's coming down at you full court every single time. Like they have to find ways to slow them at the early stages of transition in order to not just be behind the eight ball

throughout the entire thing. And so there's a lot of ways in which I think both these teams are going to be trying to compensate for all of that effort, all of that marginal stuff, all that chaos that's going to decide a game seven. And a lot of it's like, how do you make sure that your guys in minute 47 are as fresh or as capable as they can possibly be?

I think game six is the blueprint for that reason. Like you want to get the turnovers in order to spark their offense and everything kind of flows from there. And for that reason, Rob, I agree with you. I think Caruso is the move, if only to get that flowing because you need that sort of spark defensively to spark your offense because I think a lot of the time I'm wondering where the threes are coming from. And for that reason, we would be like, oh, go smaller, get more shooters on the court.

But as we've seen, that's not necessarily the recipe there. And so for a lot of like the, oh, make this tweak, put this guy in over that guy in, I'm kind of left being like, well, the Thunder shoot better at home than they do on the road. And maybe at a certain point, you just trust that home court advantage was as an actual advantage to that point. Like, it's 40% for the Thunder at home. It's like 30. It's clearly something going on. The Caruso and Dort, you just got to trust that they're going to make.

To me, you got to roll with those guys more so than the Wallace's and Isaiah Joe. I mean, he's still picking splinters out his ass right now. Like, that dude cannot get off the bench. I think you've got to lean towards those guys and just bet that they're going to make big shots and big moments in the biggest game of their lives, right? Because to me, the second they start going with offensive-focused groups, they start getting beat up.

The defense immediately starts to suffer. And so I don't think you can even play around with that shit. Like, we're going to guard. Our responsibility is to keep the Pacers in the half court, make them be individually great in the half court, and live with our consequences after that, especially on the offensive end. Go ahead.

Can I throw out a bold idea here? We're in the coaching meeting right now. We're just throwing things against the wall. Would you consider starting TJ next to Halliburton, considering how well it worked? Or is it like something's going so well so far why I'm not taking Nemhardt out of mine that's the thing if nemhart had been bad I would say maybe the defense that he's playing alone I can't take him out of

my game I can't yeah like Nemhard shooting has come and gone and he hasn't always had a huge offensive impact in this series in part because go ahead can I give you a number for that because please do talking about home road splits is clearly something I had in the back pocket here umhm heart he's hit three threes on I think 11 shots no excuse me 12 shots on the road six for 11 at home amazing shooter I completely believe I believe it of a lot of the pacer's guys right and a lot of the thunder roll players as was alluded to like there's guys who are hitting good percentages on balance in this series in part because they're hitting all their shots at home like they're just making up for it in one spot versus the other but nemhart's defense I don't

think you can replicate with tj and so you could talk about starting all three of those guys together that might leave you a little small ultimately I think the balance of having two of those three on the floor at basically all times, gives you the ball handling you need, gives you the energy you need, helps keep the turnovers down. I really think that was such an important part of that formula is like having the extra ball handler on the floor at all times really works out to say nothing of Pascal Seaccom and how he's basically another point guard out there in his own right. I would keep TJ on the bench, let him just absolutely cook whenever he comes in second units. And he's been coming in a little bit earlier as the series has

kind of worn on and they're trying to stretch out his minutes. But it says a lot that TJ's played well enough. You have to think about it. You do have to throw it out in the coach's meeting just to say, like, should we at least talk about this? All right. So number five I have on the board here. Which guy is the guy?

Who's going to be the guy that we're talking about after this game? It could be an X-Factor guy. It could be the guy. But which guy is the guy-wise? When we're breaking this down on my mind. I keep saying his name is Nemhard. and particularly on offense. It's not just that he's scoring,

but if he's getting downhill, because he's the guy outside of Siakum that gets downhill. Obviously, T.C.E. does, too, with that group. But amongst the starters, like, he's going to be playing with Halliburton a lot. If he's getting downhill, another thing that he did, he's drawing files,

which, in turn, does what? It just softens the defense of. It opens it up, gives you more oxygen to deal with. And I think it's got to be his, on the dribble, get to the rack, get fouls on loot door, so you got to calm down with all the fouling that he's already doing.

And same with Caruso. To me, that's what's going to, like, open it up and make it feel like, all right, now we aren't even footing with these guys because they have to honor our drive game. And at a certain point, even Miles Turner who can't hit the broad side of a barn, you can't just leave him wide open,

above the break or not. Like, you got to honor this dude's jump shot. And so I think he's got to be the pressure release valve for the offense, man. He's got to be the one getting to the cup with the starters. I have a pick on the thunderside. And it's in part because I have no idea how this is going to go. Lood Dort. Okay.

I just have burned in my memory. Game 7 Lood Dort against the Rockets in 2020, bombs away for 30 points hitting every three. And it's like, he has that in him. him in games like this. He also has in him, I would say in game six, like a quick trigger mentality with his three that can be actively disruptive. And

again, this is a guy who's made his threes on balance in the series but can be disruptive to the offense because he is that confident. We absolutely do. The game seven, you got Shay Gilges and J. Dub on your team and you're taking

Blue Dorts taking threes with 18 seconds to go on the clock? See, you say that but then he's going to go for 26 in game 7 and win. Like this is the give and take. And here's what I come back to with Lute Dord is like the more limited that Tyrese Halliburton is in this series, the less useful that Lute Dord is. Like his primary value is slowing down someone like Tirees Halliburton from being Tirees Halliburton. And if Tyrese is a decoy, if he's running interference, if he's more of a spot-up shooter than he's a driver of the offense,

then what do you do with Lute Dord? Do you start moving him around and having him guard other people? that's what I was wondering in the game as Halliburton was clearly hobbled I was like they're going to just stick to their primary coverage and even J-dub mentioned it in the Lisa Salter's interview I think going into the second quarter it's like

you know we're going to just treat him as if he isn't hurt we don't know what's going on we just have to approach it like that and so there is a certain like fog of war happening here though but like now we have two games of data and we'll see now because game seven is what like 95 games or 95 days away and so he'll have

time to like go into the hospital and just going have all the IVs and whatnot. They're going to shoot them up with all kinds of ibuprofen, boy. That's right. I agree with Rob. Like, do we have to start thinking about utilizing and leveraging

Dorts' effectiveness in different ways? You definitely could. Did y'all see the Halliburton walkoff interview where he's talking about how his girlfriend was hounding him that before they put on the next episode of Love Island,

he has to do treatment on his calf? You watch Love Island? I do not personally. Are you locked in? No, I'm not. I was actually going to do a watch-along series. So stay tuned. Watch for the space.

I also saw that Halliburton's dad was wearing the jeans with all the NBA patches on there. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Was, did you ever have those? No, I did not. But they were all over my freaking neighborhood. I tell you that much. God damn, right.

So I went a little bit bigger with the guy here. I went with Pascal Seacom just because I think there's no possible way he won't have at the very Lisa Seacum type of impact. I think there is a good chance as he did. As we've seen throughout the playoffs, like he might be the guy in this. He might be the swing guy. But the steadiness of this dude, like as Halliburn has fluctuated.

And like there's actually been some good data floating around about how Halbern, yes, injury notwithstanding is prone to fluctuate more than other stars. There is a whole Derek Thompson put out the call and then Owen Phillips, the stats guy showed like the, oh, based on standard deviation, he can go. based on P.E.R. will fluctuate a little more than your average superstar, which fits what we know about him. Totally. Watched him this entire year. But Seacum just like out there keeping the backbeat like he's Ringo, you know, 1915, 21, 20, 28, and 16 last game just because he played so a few minutes. But like, this guy's just going to give you a baseline of like 15, 8, and 6 and you're just

going to kind of go along with it. So he's Ringo. Tyrese is definitely Paul. I don't think there's any question about it. But the thing about the Pacers is they don't have a John, I don't think. No, he's definitely John. He's not cantankerous enough is the problem. Maybe Rick Carlisle is there, John. Yeah, definitely there, John. And I'm going to say, Tankerries, boy. I'm going to say Nemhard is the George. I feel like he might be establishing himself as the George. George was my guy. I was a George guy. I'm a rising George. I was a childhood Paul, but I find myself cresting into George as I, get older.

And the thing about Seacom too, in my mind's eye, it's like pretty much 80% of the thunder guys they end up putting on him. When he catches the ball at like 14 feet, it feels like the thunder end up panicking. You know what I mean? Like that and that, again, similar to what Nemhart has to do. Like that's how their offense engine gets to going. Because instead of staying in their base defense and be like, no, we're going to cheat a little bit, but always get back on our shoot.

He was like, no, we got to over-commit to this guy because Lou Dork cannot guard him for real. You know, Caruso can't really guard this guy. And so, yeah, I think Siakam is, you know, he's as great a pick as anybody to have an explosive game. Pascal is amazing. Just has turned into an amazing all-around player. He is metronomic in that way that he will be a stabilizing force,

whether the Pacers win or lose. I also think if the Thunder do win, we're going to be talking a lot about Chet. I think they kind of need him to have a Chet-sized impact on game seven if they're going to have it in hand. If they're going to take control of that game. Like they might be, they might still be able to like eke one out that's really close just with Shea and J-dub and the defense and shooters all clicking. But if they're going to be in control of game seven, I think Chet is a big part of it.

Speaking of off the court clips, did you guys see the one of Seacum tapping into some spiritual underworld? Yeah. Or The Undertaker. It was a seant. Yeah. I do that before every pod. Do you guys not do that? No wonder you've been so steady for us throughout this season.

Thank you. Well, this kind of goes hand in hand with the finals MVP conversation, which we should do a little, well, tracking of, just before we go into the big game. This next game probably decides it. Let's just be honest. Whoever has the biggest game will most likely get the votes. But if we were to give odds based off of what might happen

or just where we are right now, let's take the Pacers first and foremost. Is Yakum like odds on, like, does he have the higher odds just because because he's been so consistent and productive or do the high highs of Halliburn maybe like cancel that out? I think it's got to be Seaccom. I honestly. Like for the same logic that he won the Eastern Conference MVP,

he's just been the most consistently excellent pacer. He hasn't had an 0 for 8 game or whatever. Like he's just straight up been consistently great. And there's just no way this guy goes out and goes two for 13 on Sunday. It's not going to happen. Like, he's going to have a good-ass game, and that will be seven games in a row

where this guy was steady and contributing in a major way. So to me, like, Shay is number one with a bullet because I don't think he has any peers on his team for the MVP, to be honest with you. But, yeah, Seacom, to me, got to be the second most likely. I think especially when you factor in what it would take for the Pacers to win game seven,

it's probably going to take a big Seacom game, just because Halliburton is in the state that we've already described, where he's, I'm sure going to contribute. I would expect him to still have a nice game, but maybe not a dominant star level game because his CAF won't allow him to have that. And so if we want to take games one through six, I agree with you,

wise that Siakins are really steady. I also think, like, Halliburton was better in games one and two. I think Siakam has been better in games five and six. And I think three and four were kind of a wash in terms of like they were both some up, some downs. So to this point, it's probably closer to 50-50, but realistically projecting Game 7, I think it's probably something closer to 60, 40,

see Aukum. That makes sense. And on the thunderside, Rob, do you agree that it's SGA and everybody else? I think it's like 90% SGA. Not because Jada wouldn't deserve it or there's not an argument to be made. I just think the idea that a guy averaging 30 in the finals for a team that wins would not get finals. He would be incomprehensible. It's just not going to happen.

The Pippin buzz isn't convincing you guys? direct Pimp in comparisons pretty much across the board They've been out there J-DF's been really, really good and for what it's worth I think better at his job

in game six than Shea was at his job in game six and it's certainly not outside the realm of possibility that J-Dub could have another monster closing effort in game seven I just think like overall the body of work in terms of the raw

stats will be overpowering in terms of like a whatever it is a seven or a nine-person panel on Media Row What about the guy with a luchador mask with like the hammer? I didn't see that guy. He's got no shirt on. He's a six man. He's big as hell.

He's got a gut and a half boy. What's the deal with the hammer? Oh, man. This is thunder. Like, we're Thorne. Oh, okay.

That's a mule near vibes. I have no idea what you're talking about. All right. I don't even think I saw any of those. Apparently you're deep in the weeds. You're deep in the game tape. It's true. All right.

Number seven, predictions. What do you got? I got to say, just, it just feels like there's some magic alchemy happening with the spaces team. I like it. Like, every time we think this team is going to go down,

they just straight up don't. And there's just something, there's just something in the air with this team, man. Like, there's just something historic that's happening. it feels like is happening where again i'm talking about it 20 years we're going to be trying to explain this shit to people and we're not going to have adequate answers like there's just something happening with them man this is almost like uh you know when the when the when the freaking hockey team beat the soviets you know it's it's so this is what it feels like with the pacers

man so to me i'm i'm picking the pacers in game seven the you know they're Yes, sirs. Do you believe in miracles, Rob? Here's the thing. I am Fox Mulder. I want to believe in miracles. I really would love exactly that outcome. And if the Pacers do win,

I think it would just be just a phenomenal sports story. And literally a one-of-one moment watching basketball in my lifetime. I just can't quite get there. I think I have too much respect for the Thunder. I have too much respect for who they are at home. I think it's going to be hard fought. It's going to be close.

as game sevens often are like we talked about. But I think the Thunder will have a slight, slight, slight edge. You know, I'm thinking like a five-point game. I really don't see it stretching out much more than that because I think the Pacers will be there at every turn. They are unkillable. They are the best comeback team in playoff history. They literally cannot be written out.

And as low as I am to do it, I got to pick somebody. And I see the 68 win team with the great defense that has performed well at home all throughout these playoffs and the reigning MVP sitting right there. And I don't want to write them off either. So what is a guy to do? but to pick the thunder by a slight margin. That's what I have as well. If only because it has borne out that home court advantage actually matters in this series to a

fucking lot. Both of the crowds have been electric. Like I feel like a certain way watching those crowds from afar, which is a real credit to the fans and the local fans like just showing up there. The team just play a little bit different. They shoot a little bit better when they're at home. Role players play a little bit better at home. All of those truisms, all those.

cliches are like coming to bear. And so for that reason, I have to imagine that the Thunder, who have only lost those two games, once again, by just last second buckets are not going to lose another one. So I would pick the Thunder as well. But I think we're in for a good one. Because as I mentioned, nine

game sevens in NBA finals history, the average margin of victory, 6.7 repeating, baby. So when you cut off the 15 point margin from 1974, it's actually much closer than that. Last one was four, than seven. 7, 4, 7, 6, 3, 9, 6.

Like, these games are good games. So we are in for something. Also historically, ugly as shit. I look forward to seeing if that trend continues, because the Pacers have a way of making ugly games. Yes. Nasty. And, you know, Lou Dort's first three is definitely going to careen

over the backboard for sure. Six, I should mention, of the nine teams that played in those games, the home team won. Those games. So, favors the home team, as you might expect. All right. Before we get out of here, do you guys want to talk a little Lakers? Yeah. Was, so they ended up winning the bid Mark Walter did with a $10 billion evaluation.

What was your bid that you were going to put in had you had the opportunity? I wish I could get involved in that kind of bidding. I wish I had the connects at the United Arab Emirates to do something like that. Well, no, I say that. because Walters, his hedge fund, his private equity group, whatever we're calling the money that formed to buy this team got a sizable investment from the Emirates. Right. They're not allowed to own teams, but a minor investment in another group, Shell Corporation into owning. Yeah.

Whatever. It comes session very quickly. Whatever. Whatever. $10 billion. That's big. I just, you know, didn't know the Lakers were for sale, but at the same time,

there's been these whispers that they're going to eventually sell for a while because not to get all up in their business, but Dr. Bus had six kids. They're all equal partners in ownership of the Lakers, and none of them, you know, have ever started their own successful business outside of that. Their income is the loss. the Los Angeles Lakers.

And guess what? I did the quick napkin math in order to turn the Walters group from 25 to 85% owners, that's 60% at a valuation of 10 billion, six kids each get a billion dollars.

Not bad. Good work if you can get it, owning the Lakers. If you can get it. And so, yeah, it's not surprising when you think about the circumstances of the ownership. One of the last family-run businesses that's out there. Minnesota just sold. I guess the Pacers are still a family-run operation.

But, again, it's not a lot of them out there. Dolan, I mean, he got it from his dad. But, like, that's not really a mom-and-pop anymore. But the Lakers, yeah, they're one of the last of the Mohicans, man, the classic wacky MBA ownership groups. And it's definitely an end of an era. Can we talk about that? Because I have found myself a little wistful for errors of bygone.

Yeah. In our profession, we should be. It almost feels like, you could probably speak to this better than we can. Like soccer underwin a pretty revolution, underwin a revolution recently where it's a bunch of like outside money and it's now. Sovereign wealth funds, yep. Yeah. It won't get to that point.

And the CBA has moved to a point where they're trying to. suppress a team coming in and spending in the way that the Dodgers have in order to create advantage with pure cash. On the other hand, like it does feel like everything's getting a little bit more efficient and all of the character in the league has been kind of leveled out. And I always say, like, I'd rather bad character than no character. And it almost feels like that's kind of what we're moving to it.

You're saying more Sterlings. Sure. I mean, maybe not of that hue. But a little, like, freakiness, you know, a little bit like, This child made some weird decision because their dad just happened to have money and all of a sudden they're running this team. I'm a fan of the New York Jets. Woody Johnson's son. He was down on a trade that the Jets were looking at making because the player that the Jets were receiving didn't have a cool enough Madden rating.

He told his father not to trade for a guy based on the guy's rating in a video. That's a thing that freaking happened. No, it didn't work. It's the freaking Jets. Nothing works. But look, and look, we don't need to get too tawdry here, but like, Jeannie Buss, the owner of the team was dating the head coach. True.

I don't think that's going to happen with the Walters group. Different times. Different times. They're just not going to happen. Like, that kind of thing. Linda Rambis, y'all. Every time some important decision had to happen for the Lakers, we had to do reporting and digging about.

where Linda Rambe's head was. Yeah. And all it is. And Kurt Rambe is one of the worst coaches in NBA history. Okay? Like this is what the Lakers provided for us. The Magic and Rob Polinka so proper. Like we're talking about like generational news NBA fodder for so long.

It's just not going to be the case with these freaking private equity dudes. It's going to be hyper-competent. which I think Laker fans should be happy about people in our profession ain't nothing interesting coming out of Lakers ever again. I think the best thing a team owner can be is mostly invisible and pays a lot of money and facilitates a well-run organization. I think the second best thing a team owner can be is entertaining in the way you're describing because unfortunately most owners don't want to be in the first category.

They want to be very visible. They want to understandably flaunt their power and influence. They want to run the damn thing that they paid for, which I get. But if you're going to run the damn thing and then not be entertaining while you're doing it, Matt Ishby is pretty entertaining.

He certainly is. He said every team in the league would trade places with the Phoenix Suns. I think he said all but two, you know, so the jury is out. The flip side of this is Balmer, who just keeps funneling money into the project and, like, building out the staff

so that they're so comprehensive that they could only be so bad. We expected the clippers to basically fall flat out of their face this year. It's amazing. work the margins in ways that a team of that caliber that is getting the caliber of stars in the building shouldn't be able to do typically. I think he is as much in like the first category.

Just like, again, pumps all that money in, has clearly lifted the bottom on who the clippers are. We'll see with the Lakers. I suspect they're going to fall into that category. I did think it was fascinating that Ramona Shelburne reported that this is not explicitly not a Mark Cuban-style situation in which Jeannie Bus supposedly will have some kind like actual written control. At least that's kind of the implication of that team.

We'll see how that works over time. We've seen a lot of written arrangements go sideways. Why do we do this with these owners and their fucking egos? You don't get to take $6 billion and run the team. Like, it doesn't work like that. You don't get to run the team after the man handed you a $6 billion check. So the question is, is that true today? Or is that true over a transition period of a couple years?

It probably means Rob Polinka has. has a job for at least a year. He traded for Luca Donchard. She should be the executive of the year. Nico Harrison traded for Luca Donchish. They should be co-executives of the year. But let's, let's, you know, whatever. I think, yeah.

These are the ways that it's going to matter in the sense that the Lakers have a skeleton, scouting department, and the scouts that they do have amongst the lowest paid in the league. Same with front office. same with head coach although JJ I think did get a decent amount of check but you know Darvinham and all these other guys came in because they didn't want to pay

Thai freaking Lou a champion so bare bones departments in front office scouting player development you name it what we call the infrastructure of NBA teams that's done

they're going to blow that out and they're going to pay to get the best people in town because guess what not only get I do I pay you? You get to live in Los Angeles. You know, like if there's a guy in Milwaukee or freaking Memphis or wherever,

Cleveland, that I want to get like, that I want to jail break out of there. It's like, yeah, no, no, no. We're not only, are we bringing you to the Lakers, glamour franchise, glamour city, we're going to pay your ass too. Like, that is a huge advantage and is not subject to the draconian, you know, cap rules that govern roster management. And so I think that stuff is where you're going to see the biggest difference made. But, you know, the CBA has made it such that they can't come in and just completely just start spending like pirates.

Sure. And get it. But like you said, Justin, I think the clippers are a beautiful sort of benchmark where it's like they can only be so trash. They're going to be in it no matter what. Well, Justin, with the blank check, like how much to bring you back? How much to make you the new gym bus? not as much as you think let's put that out there to the Lakers

it's within your power to do bring Justin Barry your back I have heard I was just reading an LA time story about how the community gardens are like the prices has skyrocketed there wow community gardens it's a garden everyone can use so it's just a plot of land and like I could

live here and like down the road there's okay got you and I could rent basically apparently just like skyrocketed just taking them the hands out of just the normal folk and give them to the rich As long as I have the bank to do that, as long as I have my contract as a bonus, I think the Lakers can do that.

Also, one thing needs to be said, Jeannie Buss and her brother's, coaky-ass owners, there's just no two ways about it. But under Dr. Buss and his family stewardship, five magic rings, three Kobe and Shaq, two Kobe and pal and Lamar,

LeBron and them, that's 11 rings. since 1980, that's fucking amazing. Like, what these guys have done for Lakers fans in the city of Los Angeles, that family, since their stewardship of the team, is unrivaled, man. Like, they deserve love credit for making this Laker brand into what it is,

which is just one of the biggest best, most iconic sports brands in the world. We're talking about the Yankees, Real Madrid, the Dallas Cowboys, the fucking Lakers. Like, that's what it is. It's crazy. And they deserve a lot of love for that. Built it up to be 10 billion smackaroos, boy.

If you want to learn all about it. That's a lot of machetees out here, y'all. Tell me y'all, man. If you want to learn about it, there are 90 documentaries that have been published within like the last four years, all of which include Jeannie Bus on camera or as an executive producer behind the scene. So, yeah, there's ways to make money off the Lakers when you're not making money up the basketballs.

Just iconic. Just iconicness coming out of this franchise. What about that Kate Hudson showed? Do anybody check that out? I still haven't watched it. I didn't. Maybe that'll be an offseason project for us. Now that we're sunseting the Genie Bus era.

We got to get into the Ephemer. That wasn't explicitly Lakers, though, right? It was like dolphins or something. It doesn't have the official branding, but it's, it is, it's not not the Lakers. What's hosted the freaking premiere party? She executive produced the show. Yeah. This is a Lakers thing.

I just want the level of wealth and fame and power in which I can executive produce a series about my life and cast the equivalent of Kate Hudson to play me. You know, I think we're all aspiring to that level. Dance and Edris, come on down. You're inviting the question, though. Like, who plays you? I don't know.

This is not for me to answer. We got to do a wide casticle. Oh, you know who plays Rob? Who's that? The blonde dude that did the rom-com with Sidney Sweeney. Glenn Powell. Glenn Powell. I'll fucking take that.

Let's go. Glenn Powell playing you, bro. Come on. And the Shalame is going to play Justin. You know what? I'll take Paul Dano too. I'll take all of that. Maybe it's a, maybe it's a, what's the Bob Dylan movie?

I'm not there. I'm not here. Shire LeBuff is going to play Justin. That's who's going to play Justin, bro. Just aggro. Just angry. Just flying off the handle at all point. But for good reasons, though, right?

Of course. Fully justified. I have to say, since we're an hour into this podcast, Max Trues, I saw him, like, they got served to his, like, Instagram in my algorithm because clearly I've been looking up enough stuff or we've been talking about him enough that, the robots think I'm interested.

I think part of the headband might be because that line is drifting back. Tough. He's got to get the turkey ASAP. Yeah. I got to say, like there's a lot going on with me as I age, but that line is Chris. It's rock solid.

Put it that way. Tell the Bachelorette. This is Chris. All right. Why don't we wrap it there? Thank you to Isaiah Blakely. We'll be back on Monday in order to recap this exciting, thrilling game seven, we hope.

So we'll talk to you then on Monday. See you soon.