The Ringer NBA Show - Ten Pressing NBA Finals Questions (Ep. 120)

Episode Date: June 1, 2017

The Ringer's Chris Vernon is joined by Washington Post national NBA writer Tim Bontemps to answer the 10 most important questions entering the 2017 NBA Finals. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today's show is brought to you by the NBA Awards on TNT, live from New York on Monday night. June 26, the NBA Awards show begins at 9 p.m. Eastern and will be hosted by Drake. The awards are officially changing this year. In the past, NBA awards were announced sporadically once the season ended, but for the first time this year, the awards will be presented in person to players and recipients in a brand new NBA awards show live on TNT. The NBA on TNT studio crew of E.J., Kenny, Chuck, and Shaq will have a large presence on the show as well. Awards presented include the Kia NBA MVP,

coach of the year, rookie of the year, most improved player, defensive player of the year, and much more. There's also going to be new awards that the fans will have a chance to vote on, like Best Style, Game Winner of the Year, Dunk of the Year, and Assist of the Year. Remember, don't miss out on the NBA Awards on TNT, live from New York, June 26, at 9 p.m. Eastern. Welcome to the Ringer NBA show. I'm Chris Vernon. And joining me today is Tim Bontem. He's a national columnist for the Washington Post.

He's been covering the Golden State Warriors all year. And we finally have an NBA finals game tonight, Timmy. Yes, for now. Finally. I never wanted to cover the NFL because I like covering games, but lead up the games and that we got a game tonight. And especially because yesterday was Media Day, and it turned into a situation where it was not about basketball.

Yesterday, the biggest thing to come out of Media Day was LeBron James and his opportunity to sit at the podium and talk about the vandalism that it was done to his house in Los Angeles. I was super impressed with LeBron. I'm always impressed. He's very good at expressing himself in moments like that and unafraid, right? He doesn't stagger or stumble over his words. I always feel like he gets his point across, and he's certainly unafraid to deal with issues bigger than basketball. But it was kind of a shame that we've got this amazing.

amazing series about to start, and there's the best player in the world having to talk about his house being vandalized in a racist act? Yeah, I mean, it's obviously a terrible... All right. Let's go through 10 questions regarding this NBA finals with Tim Bontaps. All right, Bontaps. Let's run through these one by one. Number one, would winning this series be LeBron's greatest accomplishment in your mind? It would.

I think it would be to win to beat this Warriors team with Kevin Durant with the other pieces they had. You know what's funny? I saw your list, by the way, and I'm not even going to get involved with that. I want everybody to go check out. By the way, the illustrations are amazing on your top 40 list. That's the first thing that stood out. The same ones that we did with the top 100, too, are the other thing that stood. And Dwight Howard over John Stockton, come on, Bonton. I don't want, we're not going to argue about your top 40 list. We're not going to do that. But I was super intrigued by the entire thing. The other thing is... Fun list. My son, which I'm extremely proud of, loves everything NBA. He loves watching the games with me. He loves 2K, whatever. So we go and we go to Barnes & Noble last week,

and he wants to get a basketball book. And so there's this like sports illustrated for kids came out with this huge book of list, right? So it's just top 10 of everything. The top 10 greatest teams of all time, and the top 10 haircuts and the top 10 whatever. And I swear to you, I was so proud. He's sitting there at Bargenau.

Well, he's flipping open the book. And he says, Dad, this book is wrong. And I said, what? And he said, they have LeBron James as the greatest player of all time over Michael Jordan. And I was like, what? I went and looked at the book. I swear. They have the number one greatest player of all time is LeBron James in the Sports Illustrated

for kids. I was like, even he's getting, like, I'm like, this is really getting a big deal. if he's getting in the debate and he's like, this book is wrong. That is awesome. That is such a funny story. But I do think that if there's going to be a very serious conversation, if there's already a serious conversation, but if LeBron pulls this one off, holy mackerel. All right.

Number two, can Durant stay out of his own head? Now, I rip this off from you in your finals preview in the Washington Post because I was so fascinated that this is one of the questions that you posed that you thought there was a level of importance to, and I get the sense that Durant has acknowledged this, this whole idea of he's got some pressure in this series? Yeah, he's talked about that before, and I don't see, you know, kind of, you know, what he gets into his own head, you know, what he just doesn't think. And, you know, he's a lot like LeBron and kind of how they comport themselves and how they

ask and how they think. You know, this is, this is, you know, they go into the series. against the Mavericks, and he kind of, you know, he kind of collapsed within himself as that series went along and that he lost. And, you know, I don't expect that to happen, and the Warriors have way more talent than even that he team did. So, you know, he's got people around him to help about it if he does struggle. But, you know, if they do lose a game and you'll start to get down in the series, it will

be fascinating to see how Duran a particular response to that. And this would be a, and he, it's almost like this acknowledgment. this would be a massive stain on him. Like if you go, if your team blows a 3-1 lead, and then you go and sign up with the team that just won 73 games, you have to win. You have to. Yep.

I mean, they are prohibited favorites in the series. They added Kevin Durant, and if they don't win, it's a colossal failure for both him in. He came to goal, this isn't going to be a, if this is seven-game series, they lose, it doesn't matter to me. I mean, they are much better than Cleveland. And they should win this series. It's going to be really bad for them.

Number three, what has been up with Clay Thompson? I mean, you look at the numbers, and it's 38% from the field for the entirety of the playoffs so far. 14 points per game, obviously, the scoring average is down, the percentages are down. What's been going on with Clay in your mind? Well, his defense has been really good, and his defense is going to have to be really good in the NBA finals. It's going to be gone to Kyrie Irving a lot. He might have gone to LeBron's a small sample. size. They played 12 games with 48 days.

My guess is that he's going to start hitting some shots in the finals because the law of averages says that if there's somebody that's not going to be affected by a slump, it's play Thompson who basically acts like a robot most of the time. I think you're going to hit some shots, and I think that that's going to flip around real quick. I actually wouldn't be surprised at all

if he has a big game tonight in game one, in part because it wouldn't shot me at all if he gets Kyrie Irving on him for a decent amount of the game. And I could see play getting old for some shots and getting the stuff going. So if they put Kyrie on Clay, if they put

Kyrie on Clay, who's Steph in your mind? I would say, I could see them starting with everything they could. Number four, how much will the Warriors miss Steve Kerr? And if we're doing the whole advantages thing for the final, who gets the coaching checkmark? Is it Mike

Brown or is it Tyron Lou? We think that we miss Steve at all. And that's not to say that Steve isn't a He's in the He's in practice He's in meetings Doing or stuff they've talked about I mean he can't miss them that much

And he's probably pretty even I mean He's got a bunch of teams to the play out You know he's more of a defensive coach But he still He's still a pleasure to get them You have a lean one way or the other In the coach you're getting a huge setback

By not having Steve I must be honest I find Mike Brown to be an intensely likable guy And I get that now All right he's on the sideline for the Warriors I thought previously I thought he was terrible in the previous stops. When he was when he was coaching other teams,

I was never a huge fan of Mike Brown. But again, you could probably throw me on the warrior sidelines. And that's not to malign him. That is just the truth of the situation. Anybody could win in that situation, right? Right. They have a ton of talent. They have a great staff.

They have guys that have been there a long time. that any guy who's been in this spot before, go back and look at the team that LeBron won six to six games with in 2009. I know that LeBron is incredible, but I think Mike Brown also deserves the credit for that team getting the Eastern Conference finals of being really good when it was just a pile of garbage.

No, and I might be, listen, I might be, like you said, he's been unfairly maligned. I mean, maybe I'm misremembering in the words of, you know, Roger Clemens or whoever. Well, no. A lot of people, if you like me. I just think you know.

I never, when he got fired, I never thought, what the hell? Like, I mean, I thought, right?

Like, there's some of these guys when they get fired. You're like, what in the world? What are you doing? That never happened with Brown to me. Right.

No, it's the larger point that's accurate is that, who'd been in the playoffs before to be able to step in for them if they needed somebody to mind the shop in exactly this scenario. And so in this situation, Mike Brown is about the perfect fit for them. And the fact that Steve could still be around and be involved is kind of the best of both worlds for them. And the other bar I would use is if he were to parlay this, somebody needs a head coach in the offseason and a franchise hires Mike Brown. No fan base would be excited about that.

I promise you. Right. No, which is also true. Which I would, I'd be the first to agree with that, too. I understand that nobody would be excited. I also don't think that if the Warriors win the NBA finals ago, you know, what, 14 and 0 or 14 to 1 or 14 to 2 with Mike Brown as a coach. I also don't think that Mike Brown is because... Number five, who sees a reduction in playing time?

Is there an obvious one to you? Because we have seen in these playoffs where there are some players that just become unplayable or coaches just decide they're not going to play them, right? The Spurs, we didn't even see Dwayne Deadman, almost at all, right? By the time it got to the Warriors series, there's that famous moment in the Oklahoma City Houston series where Billy Donovan's turning to Mo Cheeks and he's talking about Canthor and he's like, I can't play him. Is there somebody that is going to be obviously rendered unplayable in this series?

I wouldn't say unplayable, but I think that Kevin Love's not a knock. it's not a knock on love it's the dumps at both center it's going to be hard for them I think to play those two guys together Tristan over love I don't think that's why I said I wouldn't go as far as stay as unplayable

because love's obviously going to play but you know to me I think that at some point Cleveland's best option is going to be going small around Tristan and love and alternate them at center because they're going to have to be able to guard

and switch on the Warriors switch against the Warriors switch against the words defensively and you can start getting love and Kyrie Irving in the switches you're going to be in trouble so that's my that's my prediction for if this this series gets interesting it's in part because the the Kaz are able to have some success playing smaller with with love shift in the how about the Warriors Biggs I mean the Warriors Bigs are all I mean they're all kind of interchangeable anyway I mean I think you could see you know guys like you know Javale

McGee and I'm not playing at all to their bits drop I mean you know if they're they're great glass case of emergency move is to go to the death lineup with Draymond, et cetera. And if they're struggling, they'll just go to that and all those big guys will stop playing. They haven't done that a lot. No, they haven't. I don't think they like to wear on Draymond. I think they're cognizant of the fact that it's hard for him to play those minutes while he's able to do it. I think they're trying to take the long view and have him not get worn down.

you know, playing like that unless they have to, which is why, you know, now they haven't really used it at all. Now if you get to the finals, you want to, you really need to roll it out there, you've got a fresh and rested Dremon, ready to go, ready to do it. Number six, speaking up, who is Draymond Green going to get into it with? Who's going to get into it with? I would say probably Tristan Thompson, probably Tristan and LeBron at different points, but I would say Tristan Thompson. Tristan's pretty fiery guy as is Draymond and I wouldn't be surprised they did it at some point

and I'm sure at some point LeBron and and Draymond will jaw at each other You know we'll see if Draymond tries to take a swipe at him like you did last year in game four Which kind of was at the beginning of the chain reaction led to Gold State losing But you know I I would say those are probably the two leading candidates You notice I didn't ask if Draymond was going to get it in get into it with somebody. Like, it's inevitable.

Yeah, it is inevitable. It is inevitable. Unless Golden State is stopping them, and then it might just be celebrating. But yeah, no, it's always inevitable with him that in a moment like this, he's going to get into it with somebody. We'll get right back to it. A quick word from our sponsors.

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This seems like the major mystery that nobody really knows. And so what do you think in terms of his level of health and how important is said level of health? Do they have to have Iguidala at, you know, 90, 100 percent? and how what do we make of it? Because this has been kind of under wraps. Nobody really knows what to expect

with what they're going to get out of Igadala, who of course was a finals MVP just two years ago and is the guy that you would like to spend a majority amount of time on LeBron James. Yeah, I mean, do they need him to win the series? No. But will it make their, does it make their advantage substantially wider if he's healthy and ready to go?

which is why, you know, it is something to your point that's really interesting to look at. You know, it is hard to say, you know, he's kind of said that he's all right. And, you know, he came back and played at the end of the Spurs series and had it some moments, but didn't look great. You know, I'm fascinated to see how he looks because, you know, if he is off and they do need to use other guys on LeBron, well, all of a sudden things get a little worse. So, you know, I guess to answer your question, how hard is he? I think he's banged up.

It's kind of unclear if it's going to be bad enough to really limit him. But he certainly had a lot of time off. And if he comes back to start this series after all the time off they've had and he still doesn't look great, that's not a great sign for his chances of improving as a series is what should be a really taxing physical series continues. Who do you think they put on LeBron? You said you think LeBron's going to match up with Doreen? Do you think that's going to happen on the other side, or do you think they're going to put Draymond on him?

Obviously, when the bench guys come in, you've got either Iguodala or a Livingston, and they'll probably, and of course, they try to get in picking rolls all the time with him. So you've got to be kind of interchangeable. But who do you think spends the majority of the time on LeBron? I mean, if I go to South, he'll get a ton of time on him. Durant will guard him a lot. Draymond will guard him a lot. And I think by Thompson and Charlottes to both get smaller. or the best of them, but I think the other three guys,

you know, Draymond, Katie, and Iguodala, assuming they're healthy, we'll get the lion's share of the bench on them for sure. You think when they come out tonight in that first possession, do you think Durant's the one guarding LeBron? No, because that's not really how Golden State plays, so I don't think they'll do that. And I think that, you know, But if Duran comes out trying to go model a model with LeBron,

that goes back to what we were talking about, Duran getting into his own head, right? Like, they need to come out and play the way they play. And if they come out and play the way they play and are focused, they'll be fine. So if Duran tries to turn this to a one-on-one show, I think that's a matcherplea that will happily think. Number eight, which of the bench players on either team or on both teams do you think is the most important?

And let's throw out Iguodala because he's quasi-starred, right? Sure. It's not one player, but it's can Cleveland's bench players play in the series. Can Kyle Corver stay on the court? Or is he such a defensive liability that he can't play? My opinion is he probably won't be able to play. Can Channie Frye play? I don't think he'll be able to play.

I don't think he'll be able to play. Can Darren Williams play? He might be able to play, but again, all those guys are at this point, their career's offense-first guys, and against this Golden State team, if you have offense-first guys out there against, you know, a group with both of their core players out there, they just are assassins in attacking those guys. If you go back and look at the Martin Luther King Day game

and the two teams last played here, whenever Kyle Korver got in the court, he got viciously attacked by the Warriors every time. Whoever he was guarding was just going at him. That gives the Cavs a ton of firepower and the ability to have LeBron run those, you know, basically all-spread units where he's out there running the point, playing like Magic Johnson hit three-point shooters everywhere. That's when he's at his best, and that's when they're at their most deadly.

So whether those guys can play or not to me is one of the, the real key, real key things to watch for in this series as we get going. How about on the Warrior side? I don't know if they really have an important bench guy. I like me. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I guess what I would say is that, you know, Ian Clark is kind of an unheralded guy,

but, you know, Golden State, you already know it's going to get a bunch of production from their stars. And if Ian could come in off the bench and hit a few threes and give them some scoring, it's going to make Cleveland's job that much tougher. Am I wrong in this? It felt like last year, you know, like with this incarnation of the Warriors for the last three years, that they would, used to be Livingston and Barbosa and whoever, they could come off the bench and they could just, even if the lead was 12, you know, it was likely

that like when they came out of the game, that lead might be 20 or 22. And it doesn't feel like that now. It feels like you're kind of waiting for the starters to come back. scan and you're just asking for the bench guys to hold down the ford or not blow the lead. Yeah, I mean, they have an interesting. You know, everybody freaked out when they got to rant. Oh, how are they going to play? How are they going to get clay and stuff off the shots?

They need to put clay on the bench, all this crazy stuff, right? Well, the truth is they built the team basically where those three guys take all the shots, and then everybody else takes a few shots. And, you know, Ian is the one guy on the bench who's that microwave guy, right? Like last year they had Barbosa and most baits. And like those guys come in and jack up a bunch of shots and make things interesting. And, you know, we could kind of go on individual hot streaks on their own. And, you know, Ian Clark is that guy for the Warriors this year.

He's at a good year. He's going to be a resticking for age. I think he's going to get pretty good contract this summer and end up playing somewhere else. And, you know, this is a big opportunity for him to come out in the finals and make some shots. and put himself on display for teams. So, you know, if I had to pick a bench guy for them, I was outside of Adela.

I would say Ian has a chance to really make a big impact being that. How about that? Ian Clark, by the way, I cannot let it pass. That is Memphis's own Ian Clark, by the way. I mean, you know who could use Ian Park? The Memphis Grizzlies. How dare you? I know, I'm serious.

I mean, look. For a team that always needs shooting, I mean, you know, if you get him with the mid-level to be in your guard rotation and, you know, play off the ball and shoot some threes for, I think he actually makes sense for them. Number nine, is it good or bad if the Warriors win for the league? Good or which is it? Yeah, is it good or bad? If the Warriors win this, it feels like there is going to be a massive amount of the country that are going to be rooting for them to lose. right people don't want to see they stack the deck they have

made this unfair and so now you know Cleveland is the underdog LeBron is like the underdog for the first time and forever and so it is this opportunity to you know people want the Shaden Fruit as they say right oh you had 72 wins

and you added one of the top five players in the world people are going to want them to fall on their face but let's say they do and let's say they go out and they just beat the shit out of the Cavs. Is that bad? Or is it, you know what I mean? Is that bad for the league? Yeah. Because we look at it, we go, all right, we knew this was, this is exactly what we thought last summer and this sucks. I think if the NBA, what the NBA would like is for this series to be,

I don't think they really care who wins. If the Warriors win, if this is like the Heat Thunder series, where it's five games, and it's, uh, if they're all nip and tuck and games and it's really competitive, then I think the league will be perfectly happy with the outcome regardless of who wins. I think if it's like the Spurs Heat Series, the second time, which is kind of what I think this was going to be like, where the Spurs came in and blew the doors off Miami, I think the league will be crushed. They need a great series to make up for what has been an abysmal playoffs. And if this is a bore, and either team, wins in a romp, and it's not interesting, that's going to be kind of the, you know, the exclamation

point on what's been a really boring couple of months in the NBA. So, you know, I think rather that if it's good or bad if the Warriors win, while all your points about them are well-founded, and I think that, you know, there are tons of tons of people who would like to see them lose, I think that, you know, from the NBA's standpoint, they're just rooting for this to be long and competitive. Just have the fourth quarters be relevant. I mean, I swear, it feels like 75% of the games in these playoffs, the fourth quarter was irrelevant.

And that is, that's bad. That's bad. Yeah, I mean, go back and like, and the other problem, too, is that last year's playoffs were so great. Yep. You know, you had the Spurs Thunder Series. you had the Thunder Warrior series, and he had Warriors' cast.

It was just incredible series, back to back to back, in huge moments, at Duncan's last game, and the 3-1 comeback for the Warriors in the conference finals, and blowing the three-in-lead to the Cavs, the Cavs winning,

all this stuff, and this year none of that's really there, right? Like, everybody, like, the drama hasn't really been there in the playoffs. Nobody's, like, you know, nobody on the Warriors got hurt, like, last year. The Cavs have been fine, like, they've seen-world everybody.

So, yeah, they just really, need and want this series to be entertaining and interesting and whatever else happens if that happens, they'll take it. And number 10, the Warriors are a seven point favorite tonight, Bontems. Yes, they are. Who you got? Do you think it's... I got the Warriors tonight.

I got the Warriors tonight, and I got the Warriors in the series. You think it's a blowout tonight? My infudation is to say yes. The one thing I wonder about is they did not, right? Remember, they had had all that time off, and then they came out, and they looked weird at game one of that Spurs series, and we were all like, what in the hell is going on here? They didn't look great game of the Utah series either.

I mean, it wasn't nearly as pronounced, but they didn't look great to this season, and they still won 67 games, essentially biding their time for the last eight months to get to this game, and get to this series. They wanted to play Cleveland again, and they wanted to destroy them. Hold on. Let me just take a quick time out, okay?

It's not like, it's not like Cleveland gave a crap either. They were like 23. No, no, no, no. I agree. No, I agree. I agree. I'm just saying they clearly, Cleveland and clearly didn't give a crap at all.

I mean, they were asleep for a half the season. I'm just saying, from the warrior's standpoint, they've been waiting for this moment from the moment the cab won the, finals last year. Here in game seven, or blowing the three, you know, coming back from that three one deficit to win the finals,

no, LeBron poised in the trophy on the Warriors' court. They've been waiting for this opportunity ever since. I just think that after kind of being in cruise control all season and still winning 67 games and still having the best offense in the league and still having, you know, by a tenth of a point out of being the best defensive complete while being in cruise control most of the time. To me, I just feel like in this series, they're just going to put on the jet.

And I just don't think there's any team maybe that's ever existed that can compete with this team when they're fully locked in and engaged. And look, if anybody can prove me wrong with that, it's LeBron James. And as a basketball fan, I hope that I'm wrong in the series is competitive because I would love nothing more than for it to be the same kind of, you know, back and forth affair that last year was. It would be a lot of fun and like what we just talked about, the playoffs is tough, right?

Like, we love nothing more to spend the next two and a half weeks talking about how great the NBA finals are and how amazing all these players are playing against each other and all the different things that happen. But I just think that Golden State has too much for Cleveland. And as long as they stay healthy and, like I said before, as long as they don't start deviating from what they've, what they do if they do kind of they stick to their game plan to play the way they're supposed to

to. To me, I just don't really see how Cleveland can contain them. And I think the Warriors do win tonight. I take the point. So I would take them to win the series of five games. He is Tim Bontem's National NBA writer for The Washington Post. You can follow him on Twitter at Tim Bontems. Enjoy it. I can't wait. I'm so glad that there's finally another basketball game. And here's hoping that it is at least competitive by the time we get to the fourth quarter. because we have had a dearth of those type of games over the course of the last couple of months. Enjoy it, man. I'll be reading you.

Thanks, Tim. Anytime, Verno, man. Happy to do it. Thanks for listening to another Ringer NBA show. That's going to do it for us today. We will talk to you next Tuesday. If you dig what you're hearing, go give us a rating and review on iTunes, and we'll talk to you next week. Today's NBA show brought to you by the new Spotify original podcast, Mogul, the life and death of Chris Lighty.

Produced by Gimlet Media and Loudspeakers Network, Mogul details the illustriest hip-hop career of Chris Lighty and the rise to success before an unfortunate and untimely end. This story is broader than just music. It's a story of the American dream. Follow and listen to Mogul, the life and death of Chris Lighty, every week on Spotify.