The Ringer NBA Show - The Suns Take a 2-0 Lead. Can the Bucks Come Back? | The Answer

Episode Date: July 9, 2021

Immediately following Game 2, Chris and Seerat discuss the Suns taking care of business in a clinical manner (2:30) and if the Bucks can still make it a series (16:52). Plus, was Chris Paul just a perfect fit for Phoenix (32:22)? Hosts: Chris Ryan and Seerat Sohi Producer: Carlos Chiriboga Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On R2C2, C-2, C-Sabathia and Ryan Rucco guide listeners through everything going on in the MLB, NBA, and NFL. They also talk to friends, athletes, and celebrities about the world of sports, and much more. Check out R2C2 with C-C-2 with C-C-Sabathia and Ryan Ruko on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to The Ringer NBA show. This is The Answer. I'm Chris Ryan. I'm joined by Cyrits-O-Hu. We're talking about game two.

We're talking about the passion of Janus. Like, honestly, like, one of the... I don't, I don't, it is impressive even the right word even more for Janice. I know we're going to get to the suns and the fact that the sons might walk this. But watching Janice in that third quarter hit the deck, grab the knee, and just get up every time off the mat was kind of like, was awe inspiring. It was. These moments are actually very difficult to describe, I think. I saw somebody post after Kevin Durant's game seven, which has a comparable sort of feel to it in terms of just somebody giving everything.

have right in front of you and you're just like, dude, how do you keep on doing this? Like this, how do you have this endless well? It's inspiring. It really is. Like watching somebody do that. Might I say it makes us feel like we could possibly do a same, you know, a similar thing if we were put in that scenario. If we somehow hyper-extended a podcasting muscle and then we're forced to just keep podcasting. I have, I kind of have a hyper-extended podcasting muscle. My friend got married this weekend and I had my first rec league game back and it was just a lot of pent up energy out at once. I've been drinking a lot of tea and just been getting like rehab nonstop to to get ready for this. So I kind of understand how he feels right now. You're a gamer. That's the thing.

Well, look, look, it's a playoffs. It's the finals. If you can if you can go, you got to go. But when KD had that game seven, I saw somebody on Twitter post the Jimmy Butler meme from last year where he was hanging over the stanchion and just dripping with sweat. And I think you have to use other moments as an example because there is actually no human way to describe what happened with Janice. It's just something that you feel and you can compare it to other feelings. But I just don't know that you can actually describe what it was. That's what's so inspiring about the finals.

It was like, so Janus ends with 42. I think 20 of them came in the third quarter, 15 for 22 from the field, one for five from three. 11 from 18, a very respectable 11 from 18 from the free throw line. He grabs 12 boards. You know,

this was a real like, nobody else came to show, nobody else showed up to play with him tonight. Let's give the sons there to do though. Because, like, that was a clinical home team taking care of business. And you and I were texting a little bit

during the game. I wonder if our listeners in Green Room got a chance to like notice this one play. But there was, there was one sequence sort of in the second quarter where the sons, basically had like a Barcelona

football club possession where they just whipped it around the floor I think everyone touched it twice and then it ended up underneath the hoop for Aiton and it was like they will show that that will be the first play I think of when I think of this Sun's team this season.

Unless they top it, unless they topic. Phoenix Rosa says this Phoenix Sun's team looked beautiful game-esque. Yes. Feels predestined. they win. They do have a team of destiny vibe. That second quarter possession, I typed it out, and that's why I was watching from behind. It was 305 words. And look, I write pretty tight.

305 words. Sorry, Justin, later. But so many things happened on just one possession, and it was really like a testament to how good both teams are. Like, there were times in that possession where things almost went wrong for the suns. Like the biggest one just being Middleton almost stealing that Crowder pass that turned into the McHale pass, which turned into the Aten Pass, which almost didn't go in. Because PJ Tucker was almost there. That was like kind of the buck story today. They were almost there.

Like they had a lot of really, really impressive defensive possessions that they just couldn't convert. I thought Drew Holliday showed up. And I don't want to talk, you know, we can continue on the suns, but it was really one of those games where... the sons were just winning the loose balls, even though, I mean, their effort, they deserved it. But there was like that Drew Holiday block that turned into an eight and dunk

because nobody was there. That's obviously just, you know, you have a couple guys really there and you have a couple guys that aren't. And for the sons, like everybody was there. And you got possessions like that. That was, I think, the starters on the floor too. And I think that we should just talk about the starters in general. this is one of the best starting lineups I've seen in a really long time.

This is one thing where I haven't gotten to argue with Bill about this quite yet, but I didn't, I disagree with his characterization of like you need to know who the best five guys are in your team, especially now because you kind of need to know your best six or seven. There's so much variation, but this sun's team is actually an inversion of that. They're five guys. You just,

there aren't a lot of adjustments that can make, oh, I drink. We agreed before the game as an homage to to Mark Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy that we would drink every time we said adjustments because, man, we were talking about that word a lot. But where was that? Well, when you say adjustments drink, the thing is, is that this is what Bud's been getting killed for the entire playoffs is like his lack of adjustments or maybe the wrong adjustments or whatever. And why is Lopez still out there and they should do this and they should do that? I wouldn't go as far to say the Sons are adjustment proof.

I mean, I think the Sons can be susceptible to like, interior scoring, I guess. Like, we would have seen what the Lakers would have done, had Anthony Davis been healthy. And you saw Yannis feast on them a little bit tonight. But every time the Bucks really started to get back into this, the Sons had the tourniquet.

And the tourniquet was either Booker or Paul, usually with a jumper, that just kind of iced that run that Bucks were trying to make. make. And the bucks were like, it felt like the bucks were really grinding for their baskets. And the sun's, like, it was just a product of their, their systematic play. Well, they were hitting every three, too. Yeah. The first quarter was really interesting, where it looked like the bucks, it's not necessarily a formula, but it looked like, okay, the bucks are

just going to make these guys shoot threes. And the bucks are just going to get a ton of, a ton of two-pointers. 20, famously now, they had 24 points in the in the first quarter and the suns had zero. And I was kind of wondering as that quarter started to dwindle down, like, okay, like, is this a formula that either coach is going to be okay with living with? And the answer, evidently, for Monty Williams was no, they went to that zone, flipped the game.

And then from that point on, that's when it just became really hard for Milwaukee, I thought. I thought like they wanted to play a particular game and then they got taken out of it. And honestly, like, Janus came back in and that third and that's when he started to be the guy going to the paint. I just don't think, I don't think that there's a lot that you can, like, I'm kind of with you. Like, there's not a lot that you can say about, you know, bud level adjustments. Like the fella said, you know, adjustments are players playing better. And I thought that you just didn't really get a lot of that, really.

like that's ultimately just what they what they didn't get yeah i mean such an incredibly balanced performance where you get 31 from booker who looked incredible tonight yeah 23 from paul 27 from bridges and then aiden and crowder doing a lot of dirty work and and like just getting enough from the bench players that they needed but most of their starters played 40 plus minutes and then you add on top of that Monty Williams we get the one for the first time in like maybe my adult life

there is a cutaway to a coaching moment and a bunch of people have mentioned this in the green room chat a cutaway to a coaching moment where I was like I'm about to start crying slash I think I might do some push-ups

where DeAndre Aden's got his head hanging low a little bit he's obviously not feeling himself tonight he's not feeling the game tonight and Monty Williams just like every time we ever get a cut cutaway it's you guys just outwork your other guy make sure you're there for your teammates. Good job.

And tonight, Monty Williams was like, the reason why you are down is because you are so good right now. You have raised your level and you're mad that you're not playing to that level. So now go out there and play at that level, but don't be tactful. Use force. And I was like, this is coaching. This is amazing. This is like,

we talk so much trash about coaching all playoffs and we never get to really feel what it's like to get these guys and their analysis and the way. they motivate different people. And I thought it was fantastic. And you know what was amazing was that I was kind of hoping that they would start going to Ait and more. And they didn't. He had to like basically lunch bail it the entire rest of the game.

But it was just an example of like, I feel like this was a little bit of a coronation game for them. And it was a coronation game for Monty. Yeah. I think, you know, he said at the end like something along the lines of like, you can dominate with force. Like you don't have to dominate with stats.

Like your stats aren't. necessarily going to be what shows it. It doesn't have to be rebounds. And he comes out of that timeout and he sets two hard screens in a row. Both of them need to a shot. Really hard. Yeah. Yeah. Honestly, like really hard. And he pulls down, I think three rebounds in a row after that while stopping shots in the pain. I think one of them was a Drew Holiday Miss. And he just becomes exactly, it was like a movie script, honestly. It was like, I felt, I felt genuinely incredibly inspired. And then he has a drive and then a save. And all the while that's happening,

like one thing that could be really discouraging for a player like Aiton, especially at a moment where he's thinking like, okay, time to step up, was that Janice was killing him in the post through that entire stretch. But it didn't impact anything else that Aiton did. And that's just really impressive. And I think that for a guy like Aiton, it's just honestly like a really inspiring story.

like he was not a very serious basketball player in his rookie year like he would come in to into into the training facility uh which at the time was actually just you know the son's gym and you know he would be like damn like people really take basketball seriously in the end of it like oh this is different okay okay yeah and like you know there's times where you know he's watching booker and it's like their dedication level is very different and like obviously we have heard ad nauseum about how much they've picked up his game. But it really is impressive to see somebody do that this young, this quickly after really, like, if you look at him, number one pick, you know, went to college the same place that he,

that he plays now. Didn't really, like, have a lot of incentive to have to become this guy, but did it. And is, like, really sacrificing his own offense while doing it. It's just super impressive for somebody to, like, make that big of a psychological shift and be exactly what is needed right now. Like I actually remember, you know, going behind, like, the scenes a little bit. Me and, me and Justin were talking about, like, oh, should we do an Aiton feature? And the thinking was really like, you know, it might be better to approach that this summer

because, you know, he'll face Anthony Davis or Yokic or somebody and, like, that'll be, like, that'll be the great lesson. Like, that'll be the great lesson. And he'll go into the summer. But he skipped that step. And, like, that's kind of what you see with his Phoenix team. Like, there's steps that they seemingly. are able to switch, but they also have, like, taken everything in this season and even the

season before that as a lesson. And it kind of just shows you, like, this is a team that, like, has found a lot of lessons and in places where, like, you wouldn't necessarily look for them. Like, they kind of, they kind of redefine experience in a way. Yeah, you know, we have a bunch of comments in here. A couple worth mentioning, Wesley Moody says, man, the progression of eight in just over the last four to five months is insane. Can't think of another player who's done this in such a short amount of time. I think we've, we've been kind of roused. We've been kind of our brains across all the ringer NBA shows this last couple of of months really trying to think of comparisons. I mean, there are players who emerge and there are players who make

leaps, but there aren't very many players who I think look transformed. You know, it's kind of like his his progression has met the moment, which rarely gets, you rarely get an opportunity to have that happen where like, you're like, huh, well, if I work extra hard, we might win an NBA title. And that is obviously something that has just been like drilled into him by Monty and Chris and whoever else. And maybe he just realizes it himself. But you have to sometimes incentivize development. You know, because like it's not always just going to be because, hey, like you might get paid more or like you might get more DAP or like people might put you in a top 10 or 15 player conversation. You might, sometimes it has to be like, hey, if I do all this stuff that maybe I don't want to do or I never really thought about doing because I was always the best player in the gym. that actually might help our team win the NBA championship. That's pretty pretty friggin' rare. And it's like a lot of fans from a lot of other NBA fan bases watching this series.

And there might be a couple of teams out there that are like, that should be us, but it's not. No, I think like there's really, it's a really, really rare transformation to make. And I wonder if it's almost like, it's something that becomes easier to make when you watch other people make it. Because that's also like the same transformation that it feels like Monty Williams made as a coach too.

earlier in the season he was talking about how well like it's well documented now he he kind of went on this long sabbatical where he toured a bunch of you know he went to like fortune 500 companies he went to like different teams he went to a lot of places to figure out how teams work and he also went to his old players in uh in new orleans and he said look like what is it that went wrong like what can i improve and one of his players told him him, look, like, when I played for you, like, I was terrified. I was terrified to make a mistake. And, like, he basically said, like, that moment made him feel, like, just a lot of, he felt horrible. Like, he just was like, am I really that guy? Like, I don't want to be the person.

Like, nobody wants to be that person, but I think sometimes you don't know that you're being that person. And he kind of just, he actually changed. He actually changed something that is very difficult to change about yourself. Like, we always, look at, like, the way we talk about Chris Paul, right? Like, now all of his traits, like, Ryan Curtis had a great column at the ringer about how we are going to talk about all of his traits very differently now that he is in a winning situation, even though those traits haven't necessarily changed. Like for Chris, it feels like his environment has changed. Whereas for Monty and for Aten, it feels like they have both changed. And both of those things are just really cool to watch. Enrico Douglas said at our chat, literally every son in the rotation and their coach have overachieved this year versus expectations and historical reputations. And so it's the same thing for Aiton. can't remember this much universal improvement from a group of guys. There are a couple of people in the chat and I think in general, like, there's a little bit of cynicism about this finals matchup.

I think that despite a two-time MVP and one of the greatest point guards of all time facing off in a finals, like there is a little bit of a feeling like we are missing out because of some of the injuries that afflicted superstar players and everything. But, you know, while I definitely felt like ESPN was laying it on a little thick with the cutaways to the value, fans. Like, I don't remember, I don't know whether it's like the people who are directing the Euro the Euros games are also directing these finals games. It was just like every time Janus took a free throw, there was like a panoramic portrait shot of 75 Phoenix fans. I was like, I got it. They're counting. You could just stay with the basketball. Also, those fan cameras have also become

better this year too. Have you noticed the quality is just so much better than it used to be? Yeah. I think that's part of it as well. It's like the cameras that they use that like the masters to show like guys walking off the green. It's like those, those portrait cameras. They're amazing. I like it. I like it.

It makes you feel like you there. We've watched this Bucks team have false starts in, in games, in series throughout this playoffs. I think that the best team that they probably have faced, well, the best team that they would have faced would have been that net, with the Nets team,

I think, at their full strength. I'm trying to, like, envision a world in which, yes, they come out game three, Pat Connetton actually can hit water falling out of a boat and we start to talk about like them getting back in the series. But there is the conventional wisdom in the chat here on the Green Room in the world, I think is kind of like this feels very gentleman sweepy. Do you feel like the Bucks can make it a series? Oh, absolutely. First of all, like we're still waiting on the status of Tori Craig. after Sarich got hurt

Tori Craig was like the lifeline That's a good point I forgot about Sarish getting hurt too Yeah Yeah yeah like Charks would get great call him today About how the Bucks could have had Tori Craig Like they pretty much just let him walk And they can still win the finals without him

But man it'd be really nice to have him And if they didn't have him this game They might have lost this game I don't really know how they would have replenished the depth And you know Tori Craig is like He's a gamble And actually I want to make a suggestion And we call all adjustments

from now on gambles. Okay. Yeah. Let's just call everything a gamble. Is this just like an oath that you and I make to each other? Or is that like something you want to like institute as like a constitutional amendment? Look, I'm not power hungry that way. Let's start small and see if it catches up.

Yeah. Yeah. Look, if I feel like if it's a good idea, it should naturally catch on. We don't really need to give it more of a push than we're already giving. Think the more organically we let it happen. Let people think it's their idea. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah.

But I think that would help us kind of understand what it is to be a coach in those moments. Because everything is a gamble. We say adjustment, like, oh, if they do this, they will win. Like, that is not how basketball works at all. Like, I think you could see little moments of that in this game. Like Tori Craig, for example, every time you put him on the floor, it's a little bit of a gamble. A little bit less every game, he's getting a little bit better. But, like, he makes a couple boneheaded plays where you were like, dude,

but then if he makes his three like he did today, it works out really well. And you're going to have that now with Frank Kaminsky, who is like just going to be more famine than Feast, who is going to have to play.

But might have a game where it's like, hey, he hits like four three, so you don't feel it as much. So that's, that is my suggestion. But yeah, I think that's a big reason that they could come back

in this series. And it gives me kind of flashbacks to the Brooklyn series where the bucks just, every win is going to be difficult against them. Like, you have Chris Paul and Booker bumping up against Drew and Chris in order to get their mid-range shots off, which will work. But how many times are you going to bump up against somebody that is as strong as Drew Holiday who went LeBron James and, like, finished over a wraparound on Booker.

And I thought that could be a moment where the game changed. Yeah, I did too. And not get exhausted. I think that's very difficult. And I think the longer this series goes, the better situation it probably is for the Bucks. Even with Janus's knee. Now obviously you need that to hold up, but beyond that, like, you can kind of start chipping away.

They're going to go home. I wouldn't be surprised if they came back with a two-two split. I do think the suns are going to win this series, but, like, we got to remember. Like, there's a reason this team got here, and they do get better a series goes on. Yeah, and this is definitely, like, not their first rodeo being down. So I think that that actually, like, I was watching, I think both Italy and England in the, in the euros have remarked. upon like we were glad like England I think whatever but like they were both like we're glad

we gave up a goal because they were both really really solid defensive teams throughout the tournament and then recently had games where they went behind for the first time basically in the tournament and they were talking about like it actually felt good to feel that way like because like we didn't know how it felt until now and if it had happened in the final maybe we wouldn't have known like quite what to do for the bucks it's like you guys have been here before like you've been before with Kevin Duran about to step on your neck. Like it's, it's like you can do this. You know, like, so, like, this is, this is like, I think that this is a team that's been

through some really difficult, disappointing post seasons. And I think that they will go in and really, really, really give it their best shot. I don't think they're going to roll over and make this into like a, like, all-hill, all-hell Chris Paul thing. But man, it's going to be that, that, that, that, that, like, front court depth thing you're talking about might be the, one soft spot on the suns. I just think that, like, Janus is just dragging that, like, around a little bit, the 40 points

aside. Yeah, he is, he is. But I just, I just think about, I do think the suns are going to win this series, but I just think about, okay, now you got to put Jay Crowder at the five for longer than you would ever really want to. I don't know. It's tough because, like, I get the feeling like, so Janus is Janus. And then you basically have Chris and Drew and, and, and, and, uh,

Paul and Booker, I don't feel like Paul and Booker ever have nights where they vanish. You know what I mean? Like in one way or another, I mean, Paul had a couple of iffy games and he's obviously been battling some injuries throughout the postseason,

but Booker has just emerged as like consistently like a 27, 28 to 30 point guy per night. He's never going to get rattled by being in somebody else's gym, by having Patrick Beverly in his pocket, by having people yelling at him, by getting his nose broken. Nothing seems to deter him.

So it's like really interesting. incumbent, as a lot of people in our chat are pointing out, that, like, this series might get won or lost by, because of Chris and Drew. Like, and whether or not they turn up. Yeah. Yeah. So, somebody made a great point in the chat that a lot of Drew's points come from being in the offense, and so do Chris's. I think for Drew, he has a little bit more, I think the onus is a little bit more on him to make some self-generated points as a point guard. And I think honestly, he tried. He came out firing out of the gate. He probably could have taken it a little bit more to the rim

earlier in the first quarter. But I mean, he had scored, I think, their first eight points and was pretty consistently taking to the rim, getting into the passing lanes. Like, he had some bad misses. But overall, I mean, like, you kind of got a Drew Holiday game. I know that I think people will disagree. But I think that's kind of what you get when you sign Drew Holiday.

Like this is why. I mean, I know that they couldn't have gotten Chris Paul, especially knowing what we know now. This is kind of where the Drew Holiday experiment lives or dies. And it could very much live. I think he is somebody who will get better as a series goes on. But this is his game. He's not going to be like, let's come off of a screen

and, you know, snake the pick and roll and get a really intentional shot. Like, that's just not what his game is. It is a little bit like, I think I think that's what maybe the chat was saying in terms of getting his points in the flow of the game. game. But Chris, on the other hand, man, like, Chris really just needs to get himself going. I think, I don't know if it's a function of the offense, but what do you think about that? Like, how can Chris enter this series? I, I feel like he needs, like, a bunch of people are saying, like, he needs to have, like, a signature night. He needs to have a 30 night. He needs to go home. He needs to be,

whatever happens to him when he is in the Wisconsin state, like, border and then just, and become the guy that, like, I think that he's shown it. He definitely showed himself to be during the end of the Atlanta series. He, where he and Drew kind of like emerged. There's one that, somebody brought up,

Matt Brown in the chat brought up a really interesting point that I hadn't really considered. Is it just me? This is from Matt. Is it just me? Or did the bucks

outside of Yannaa seem indifferent? I was hoping to see someone else get angry. And then Enrico Douglas, a couple of messages later, is like, this is not an angry team. There's no dog in any of these guys except Yannis.

It starts with the coach and trickles down. And some have argued this is their fatal flaw. That's like a, we don't know that that's the case. But when you watch the bucks, do you see a team that looks like they're fighting for their lives?

PJ does, but PJ doesn't look like it, but PJ can't do anything defend and get a couple corner three. PJ can't score them back into a game if he's angry, you know? Yeah, he's not a game-changing defender either. He's a play-changing defender. He can make a few differences in a possession. but not in the way that, you know, Yanis can come over weakside

and like legitimately just change the shape of a game with a steel and a dunk. I don't, like, Drew can do that in the passing lanes too, and I think, you know, he showed up. He was Drew Holiday and Middleton's got it in him. He not necessarily offensively. I think that's his issue, right? Like he doesn't go for the kill shot the way that Booker and CP3 do. Maybe that's the issue.

because I do think that they have dogged defenders. But yeah, maybe it's that. Maybe it's just needing him to become the guy that's like, no, this is me, I am going to be him now, right? And that's something that I think is just like been, that's been Middleton's, I don't want to say struggle. He's an incredible score. But yeah, he hasn't necessarily stepped into the moment.

Somebody in the chat said that every time the Bucks needed something, he took a bad shot. And I think that those are the things that you start to figure out very, very slowly as a score. Like those come, those come kind of like when you're in like the decade zone of, at least if you aren't a lifelong score, like some of the guys that he's going up against. And that's kind of, that's his challenge, I guess. That's his whole team's challenge.

But I do think they showed up defensively. I just think there were a couple, there were a couple bad plays in transition. And I think in general, the Sun's transition defense was just better. But that, I mean, this game was a scramble. We have to remember that. The Suns won the scramble. But this game was a scramble. It wasn't like, it got tight.

Yeah, it wasn't like the Bucks weren't trying. The Sons were just really good. I think we can go back to that possession that we talked about in the second quarter, 305 words. I haven't counted any passes. Do you want to read me the rough version of this 305 words? Okay, all right. Okay, we have Chris Paul forcing Drew to the middle.

Aiton. Okay, actually, you know what? That is a start. That's cheating. Okay, we'll get it from like the start of the possession. All right, so Chris Paul has it in transition. He's got Drew on him. Yannis is ready to help on the Aton lob.

So Chris Paul pulls back, jump passes to Booker, but then Drew gets there, and then he beats Drew, and then Connington's already turned around to help, and then Janice is ready to take the Aiton Lobbs still. So Booker passes it to Crowder, which is through two people. That could have been a steal. Crowder swings it to McHale in the corner. I'm not even, okay, this is three lines. There are, there are about 20 lines. This sounds like an episode recap of like mid-period battle-stress of. Star Galactica, where you're like, there are nine cyborgs, but two of them are actually friends

so they don't count. I should do like the madman thing where I just pull like little snippets that don't make any sense. That's what I'm going to do for the rest of it. Right hand corner, Hall of Famer, gets Tucker in the air, swarming behind him. You know what? I did allow for some imagery. That's probably part of the reason. Yeah, yeah, drops into the rim.

Interior scoring. All right, you guys can figure out the rest. It was an incredible possession. You all watched it. You all watched it. Rob Mahoney says, hard to watch that beautiful game, Sun's possession and Nazi incredible fight

and the buck's trying to keep up. That's a really good point, Rob. You know, it's like, maybe I'm just an old-fashioned guy who likes to see Duke point guards slam on the floor with two palms. You know what I mean? That's what it means fight to me.

Chris Law says Milwaukee couldn't get a stop when they needed one either giving up too many open threes or getting caught with the bad double teams. I'm not, I agree with that. you know, like, I don't know. So what else do you talk about here? That is a problem.

I think that's part of it. And, you know, this is going to be a little bit of a shot at butt, I guess. But, you know, they made these adjustments with the switching and everything pretty late into the season. I don't think they are exactly at like a synergistic place with it the way that the sons are. Like the sons with their offense, they were seventh in the league. but in the last 15 games, I think they had the second best offense in the league. And that's kind of from using the regular season.

The Bucks did a similar thing, just didn't use it as effectively. And I think you can kind of see that here. The biggest point is some of the doubles, but also just Drew and Brooke Lopez need to figure out what they're doing on the screen coverage. They are constantly miscommunicating, and it is now the second game in a row.

That's something that they should have cleaned up after game one, and it just didn't get cleaned up. they still are kind of like you know Drew will go on one guy Brooke will go on the other guy I think that's like that created a couple threes I think it created a lob that is just a level

of I guess synergy that they don't have but also maybe something that wasn't caught I don't know but yeah you see it you see it when they try to make like these adjustments what do you think of Hey come on we're some gambles

we're trying to start something here when you see these types of gambles it has been an interesting series in terms of the gambols. Started off the first game with a lot of the switching, hugging in, but not quite as much as they hugged in today on the drives. And now they're back to looking like the original Bucks defense, at least that first half did. And it gave you everything you thought it would,

just the sun's relying on three-pointers. And then towards like the second quarter, They did this very sunsy thing that has like, I get that the Chris Paul thing is getting a little bit old in terms of, you know, Chris. Yeah, Chris Paul is amazing. Yeah. We gave him his coronation for the Western Conference finals and now I feel like we're like we've talked about this a lot. But yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. But you and I didn't get to talk about it. So go ahead. We didn't. We didn't get to talk about it. And I didn't get to talk about it, which is the most important thing, really. I need to get this up off my... No.

No, but there was a point in this game where... I think they realized, like, that they couldn't just get three-pointers, and they started getting closer and closer to the mid-range shots, and I was talking to an assistant coach who told me that they call these, like, I think they called him kill zones, and it's basically, like, all the spaces that Chris Paul likes to get to, like, the elbow within the paint, like, yeah.

And his point was that their short mid-range jump, and usually you have a foot in the paint and they're better shots than mid-range shots. And a couple years ago, Booker stole those moves from Chris Paul. And that's kind of part of the reason why you see this like mind meld. And I think that's why Suns fans are frustrated too, because they're saying like, look, no, he's been developing these moves for a really long time. It's not like he just like suddenly became Chris Paul. But ironically, it still did kind of come from Chris Paul.

So, you know, both sides. This is the thing, though, is like we've had all these, like, testimonials for, like, what Chris has done to transform the Sons and to take them to this next level after they had this, like, organic, sensational bubble run, but which was really just, like, a big promise. And, like, any NBA fan has probably seen their team get hot at some point and been like, man, next season, we put it together. I don't think necessarily, like, yeah, he transformed them, but, like, there might, this might be a case where, like, the superstar acquisition actually fit.

And it wasn't just like, hey, we're, we've got the cap room or we need to make the playoffs or our, the owner wants a big name to sell tickets or whatever, anything like that. It's like one of the rare times where I think there was actually like precision and thought and fit taken into consideration on top of, hey, like you're, you're one of the, you know, 50 greatest players to ever pick up a basketball. It would be great if you came here and we sold some season tickets. And maybe like with all this Lillard stuff and Beal stuff that we'll probably be hearing about over the summer of like, oh, which superstar player is next to move. And whenever there's, you know, once we get into like Kauai rumor season or whatever, like also to consider like it's not just the cap room and it's not just the location, but it might also be fit. Yeah, absolutely. I think this was one of the most, looking back at it, one of the most intentional free agency moves ever. you had, because the Sons were also trying to play a little bit more like those Rockets teams were. You know, going back to, I think, like, the 19th season, in training camp they would talk about, hey, like, yeah, I think this team reminds us a little bit of the Rockets with, like, you know, having Booker and then being able to, you know, using him as a pick and roll guy in spacing.

Obviously, they didn't have Chris Paul at the time, but that's, there's a similarity between those teams in terms of, how they operate. And then looking at the way that Booker plays, just how much he slows the game down, how he operates in pick and roll, and also Monty, just him being a little bit more of a reformed, tightly strong coach, I guess, you know?

Yeah. Somebody who's smoothed out some of the edges. And it really just worked out. But all those guys, the three of those guys, have enough similarities that I think that they could alongside, you know, bring in Jay Crowder. I think McHale Bridges seems like somebody that you don't have to necessarily massage too much.

You have that core, and then all of a sudden, that's enough for this fulcrum of a culture to build. But you need a little bit of sameness. There's a couple, especially Brian Gibson brought up, the Milwaukee was a rumored possible destination for Chris Paul when it was clear that Chris Paul was going to probably leave Oklahoma after that one, frankly, incredible year that he had there. that's a really interesting what-if, and it's a really interesting conversation about whether or not he would have fit as well in Milwaukee as he does in Phoenix. And, you know, Brian brings up the point

that the Bucks didn't move the needle because Drew's timeline matched Janus's, I think, a little bit more appropriately, I guess, age-wise. I don't know. I think that... I don't know if that was a possible trade for the Bucks, really. Sure. Chris Paul wanted to go to Phoenix. Yeah.

And I think the Thunder, so long as it was a reasonable deal, were pretty determined to do right by him. And to accommodate him, yeah. Yeah. Like he wanted to be on the West Coast because of his family. And I also think he wanted to play with Booker. He wanted to play with Monty. He talked about watching them in the bubble and seeing like, you know,

that there was something going on there. Obviously, you know, maybe if the bucks go extra hard, the Thunder are like, ah, sorry, Chris. You know, like that we wanted to honor your wishes, but not that bad. sadly. Like, that's maybe a possibility. I don't know. But it's not like it was, the Bucks had a choice of like pressing a button between Drew and Chris. Chris would have been, I think, probably would have fit better, but I don't know if that was that possible. There's a Alex Furrier. Sorry if I'm mispronouncing your last name, Alex. Thought experiment, not going to happen,

but an interesting exercise in team building. In a universe where Chris Paul opts out. So let's say money bags Bob Sarver is like I don't I don't want to pay Chris Paul 40 million dollars or whatever and Chris Paul opts out um and Kauai Leonard leaves the clips and has interest in the sons who would they want more I think if Chris Paul wins an NBA title with the sons like he's coming back to the sons Chris Paul's coming back to the sons like it's our I think that's already done yeah he'll get he's like done done but like guys yeah we'll have like a day or two of could the Knicks get involved here. But yeah, obviously already like Kauai speculation, I think just because Kauai doesn't really comment on stuff. Enrico says Chris would have improved any team, but it's obvious

that the son's culture was ripe for him to step in there and do his thing. It was such a perfect marriage, kind of reminiscent 2011 Mavs where so many pieces fell into place for the aging superstar. Difference is just that the dudes, the dudes came to Dirk in 2011 and then this year Chris went to the dudes. That's a good point. Dude, fellas. Yeah, just guys being guys in Phoenix. What else should we hit about this game? I feel like it's a pretty rich tech so far,

but I do feel like NBA finals really start when you go back to the, to the sort of lower-seated teams, Jim, and see who's who. McKeel Bridges. Let's talk about McKale Bridges. It doesn't hurt at all. Yeah, well, I heard the gulp and I'm sorry. And if anybody's wondering why it took this long to bring him up.

Michael Bridges of Villanova University and briefly the Philadelphia 76ers. 27 points tonight, seven boards, eight for eight from the free throw line, three for nine, doing his business from beyond the arc. Go ahead. I thought he was remarkable tonight. I thought he was awesome. Yeah, that actually brings me right back to the kill zone thing. He started doing that.

That was kind of the coolest thing about this game. McKeel Bridge is obviously going to be able to spot up and he'll be able to drive. Pulling up, fading away, like, he's Chris Paul now. I was like, okay. Like, you've seen that a little bit, but it's just really cool to watch. Like, this is, when a guy like Mikhail has a game,

has like, a young player like Mikhail has like the sort of game of his life moment in the finals, you always wonder. Like, is this, like, Seacum was having it when the Raptors won the championship. And he always wondered, I was like, okay, is this real? Is he just playing out of his mind? Right now, it doesn't particularly matter because. He stepped up in an incredible moment. But it's just really cool to watch.

He also, this is something the Sunso has actually really done well in both games. Him and Crowder and Aiton. Aten, although the third quarter on Janus, notwithstanding, have managed to withstand the physicality of the first quarter that the Bucks always come out with and adjust to it. They did that in game one when Yannis came out and was really aggressive, was just bumping Crowder, Aiton, whoever out of the way. And then today, the same thing happened with Middleton.

And I don't know, maybe Monty Williams made like a wired speech that we didn't hear to McHill Bridges because that consistently keeps happening. Rebounding was great. Booker's rebounding, Booker's offensive rebounding. Really impressive. I thought he had some moments there where the game could have turned and he found an offensive rebound. And he either, like, there's the one fader where he just. put it right back up himself and like found there was one where he found a shooter uh on a on a

baseline drive i think it was like he's just he's somebody said this in the chat uh too where it just doesn't look like he's surprised at all by any of this no um that is which might be which might be like it just it might be specific to him it might be this is what happens if you get like a guy who spent a couple years of illanova and is played in and some big tournaments and is a little bit more experienced. I don't know. The seasoning might be right. He also just seems to be a person whose role allows him to be as much or as little to play as much or as little a sized role within a game itself. He has a very specific like assignment per game. But then like there's room to grow. There's room to kind of expand.

There are people in here being like, is his ceiling Kauai? Like I think Kauai is probably like a stretch. I think J. I think McAale can be like incredible, but I don't know if he's going to be Kauai who sometimes looks like friggin' Jordan when he's healthy. Like it's hard, it's hard to say that. Maybe Paul George is a ceiling for him. Yeah, but Enrico points out that 2018 Villanova team just keeps looking better. Bridges making huge plays. Devencenzo surely missed by Milwaukee. Brunson's important for Dallas and Pascal was useful for Golden State Warriors. Go Wildcats. I'm personally a Temple Alice fan, but like, I'll allow it. there was a good comment here though about from peter voight which was uh he was asking us

what is the lesson if any the other teams will take from the sons and james jones on team building if they win a title is it as simple as sign chris paul i mean anytime you can sign chris paul um i think i think it's a really interesting question especially with this draft coming up uh you have the pistons obviously have the number one pick they have a team that might be actually just ready to go right now. If they take Kate Cunningham, he ends up being exactly who he's supposed to be, which is probably going to be a player that's, you know, able to contribute right away. And they already have Grant. They have Sadiq Bay, is going to be a year older. Isaiah Stewart's going to be a year older. They're a team that could kind of mix up the whole

veteran plus young player thing. You also have the Toronto Raptors who have the fourth pick. I don't know who they're going to take with that. That kind of probably just depends on who's left on the board. But another team that has that has that has that has, that has, that has, that has. veterans has some younger players, and really just needs a little bit of an injection of talent to get back where, depending on how good the pick ends up being, like maybe it's nothing, maybe it's the playoffs, maybe it's like legitimate contention. It is going to, like we did an answer episode on this. It is going to change team building. Players are just so much more ready to win right away. I think that it actually kind of might provide an advantage for small market teams down the line where if you are

able to actually get, have your star be ready to win within their first major contract, that is incentive for them to stay. Right. A couple of people have mentioned in the chat, but like, it's been essentially the NFL rookie quarterback model. Which is? Which is just essentially like, you get a quarterback who's like right out of college, but is on a relatively inexpensive value contract for that position. Now, obviously the sons are paying, they're paying Booker already and they're paying quite a bit for Paul. But they've got guys like, Aiton and Bridges who are on relatively good deals, Crowders,

who are helping out a lot on, on really good deals. So like, in terms of the distribution of their salary cap, they're really like, they're very smartly allocated. But yeah, like in the NFL,

you basically get like Russell Wilson on his rookie deal. And you can have like a Hall of Fame defense on the other side because that money for Russell Wilson is relatively capped. Mm-hmm. Okay. Yeah. That sounds like exactly what it's, it's somewhat like it.

It's more just like the Aiton and Bridges being on these acceptable deals, I think, is what basically we're talking about. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, any championship team needs to manipulate the cap somehow. So, yeah, with playoff ready players, that's going to be one of the ways to do it. So it makes a ton of sense. The only thing I'd say is that, you know, nothing succeeds like success, right? Like right now we're looking at the suns like they're a formula.

And really, what if they're just a really good team that, isn't a formula for anything other than if you put all these specific guys together it'll turn it to something good what if we play pop psychologist let's go Dr. Melfi with it and rather than say like how you would team build

do you think that it incentivizes your Lillards or your Beals to be like I'm really just a it's just a playoffs away it's just like get me on a good team and let's see what happens to say I'll stay or go To say I'll go.

I mean, well, for Beal, I'd go. I think for Lillard, like, whatever. Like, I don't know what the Blazers can do to really change who they are. But for a Beal. And if Beal's like, you know, I love Washington or whatever, but like Washington's pretty far away from having D'Andre Aiden and Mikhail Bridges and Devin Booker around him. Yeah, I think if you see the way that a city like Phoenix is embracing Chris Paul, you might say, oh, yeah, you know what, this might actually be pretty cool.

Oh, that's a Vance Williams suggests would love Beal on Memphis but would they demand Jaron Jackson Jr. It would be pretty criminal not to. Yeah, I think you have to.

I think the team that could probably quickly, not be as good as Phoenix, but like if everything broke right, you wonder what Oklahoma could do because they have so much of that cap room.

Had they gotten, especially had they gotten some of like the sort of dream dream picks that they could have had like one in five this year or whatever, like then that would have been like pretty significant if they had gotten like Cade and. Yeah. Scottie Barnes and then added that to Shagall, just Alexander and Kemba or traded Kemba for other pieces. Like I feel like Oklahoma has that flexibility to like slingshot back into like at least

respectability if not contention. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, Biel, throw Biel onto that team, and, like, you can make some noise in the Western Conference. Right, and, like, if you're the Thunder, you could just be like, you guys want six first rounders? Yeah. Yeah, I mean, they could do that with really any, like, they could do that twice. Anybody who demands a trade for, like, the next, like, just, just gather together all of the disgruntled players in the NBA on one team. That would be a fun experiment.

Yeah. We could get, we could get Brad Biel there. Who else is disgruntled? I've forgotten now. We're in the thick of this. Benz, is he disgruntled or is the team disgruntled with him? I think it's a little bit of both. Did you see he's at Wimbledon?

Is he? Yeah. Shout out to Ben Simmons. I wish I was in London. Is he practicing right-handed? I think he's just practicing watching another sport besides basketball. We'll take a couple more questions before we get out of here. Rob Mahoney points out still amazing that Phoenix has the vibes of a slow-cooked team,

but kind of a mercenary model. It's true. It is like you get your Crowder in. Crowder's like the kind of guy, like always the fifth guy on like your contender. Let me know if you guys have any more questions. We can hang out for another couple of minutes. That actually reminds me of the Raptors.

And I think this might actually contribute to why Phoenix has been able to do it. I think when Kauai came to the Raptors, there was this attitude of, okay, this is our shot. Everything in this season because of this trade now means that we are playing only for a championship. And I think when the whole team starts to have that mentality, it just becomes like a mission statement. Like that is all we care about.

Everything from that point on, like you can't care about the regular season anymore. So all of a sudden, like, you know, you can give all the players these lessons about like, okay, this is what it's going to look like in the postseason and they're not rolling their eyes, right? Like they know that that's a mission. They know that this is like, this is their timeline.

Like they see that Chris Paul is, yeah, maybe he'll be here two years. Maybe he'll just, you know, hang out forever. who knows but you know who knows I'd be pretty happy if I was him but you know that the timeline is finite in Chris in Chris's case because of age and maybe

that becomes a galvanizing force for everybody right then all of a sudden if you're McKill Bridges or you're DeAndre Aitin who are both of them are sacrificing their individual games right now both of them like you don't I think McHill could do something close to that more nightly like I think he could have even like closer to a Harrison Barnes rule right and Aiton, you know, sacrificing his whole post-up game.

I think that's an easier pill to swallow when you know that this is for the right now. You know what I mean? I completely agree with you. We can wrap it up there. We did a good shift with you guys on Green Room. I really, really appreciate you all coming to hang out. You can listen to the Ringer NBA show pretty much every day of the, week. We've got Bill and

mismatch going tonight too as well. So tons of stuff to listen to tonight and tomorrow on the Ringer podcast network. Thank you to Siritt for joining me on this live episode of The Answer. And we'll talk to you guys soon. Thank you for us.