The Ringer NBA Show - What Else Is Happening in the NBA, Other Than the Finals? | The Answer

Episode Date: July 16, 2021

This week Chris and Seerat start by talking about all the other news in the NBA, besides the Finals, including Team USA having to make last-minute roster changes (14:15) and reports of Damian Lillard requesting a trade (2:00). Then they discuss their general observations and thoughts going into a pivotal Game 5 of the NBA Finals (25:28). Hosts: Chris Ryan and Seerat Sohi Production Assistant: Isaiah Blakely Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Flying Coach is back for a second season. Peter Schrager and Rams head coach Sean McVeigh are joined by guests from around the sports and entertainment world. They're discussing the latest NFL news, telling stories from their careers, and breaking down games from their unique perspectives. Check out Flying Coach Season 2 on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, everybody? You're about to hear the latest episode of The Answers. Cyrith and I recorded before two really crucial things happen. One, Javelle McGee is an Olympian.

That's a world we live in. And so Javel McGee is going to be replacing, taking one of the roster spots opened up by Kevin Love and Bradley Beal dropping off of the Olympic teams for various reasons. When Cyr and I recorded, we were speculating about who could possibly take that spot. It's going to be Kelden Johnson and Javelle McGee. I don't know if you gave me a million guesses. I don't think I would have come up with Javale McGee. So enjoy that segment of the podcast where we speculate about whether Kevin Heter might have been a good pick.

And then one other note, we talk about Damien Lillard and a possible trade request that's being reported that could be coming down the line in a couple of days. days. Dame talked Chris Haynes today for Yahoo. And I would not say he offered much clarity on his situation, but he certainly didn't say, I'm in Portland for my entire career. Let's get this done together. There's a lot of talk about accountability and getting better and feeling like the team's not good enough. So I would not feel great about that if I was a Portland Trailblazers fan. Dame Liller could be on the move. We don't know if it's going to happen. I think it might happen soon because of the draft. And Syriott and I talked about that. So let's get into the answer.

Hello and welcome to the winner NBA show. It's The Answer. I'm Chris Ron. I'm joined by Syrit. So you were here to ask the question. What else is happening in the NBA besides the NBA finals? We'll talk some finals later, game five coming up on Saturday, but this is Friday, July 16th,

and we woke up and we looked at the internet, the cool parts of the internet. And there was a ton of news, Syrit. Yes, we sifted through the muck. This was like an old school, like we were just talking about, this was an old school day where you like get on real GM message boards

and just read about some NBA, some NBA Cummings and Go. Yeah, it was kind of a strange day in that, like, I logged on and I actually immediately found what I needed to know today. So it's always nice. It's always nice when you can have a day where you go through the luxury of not figuring out what's happening in the rest of the world as well. Yeah, it's, like, tough too because, like, if you're an MBA writer, you will, like,

often, like, refer to Twitter because it's the most, like, quickly breaking source of news. Like, that's where it first shows up. But often you will see a trending topic, and it'll be, like, Lillard. and then you'll be like, oh, God, what happened? And click on it. And then it's 100,000 tweets saying, why is Damian Lillard trending? And then there's a couple of, like,

you know, Bulgarian highlight sites that have, like, Dame highlights from two playoffs ago. And then finally you find out what we find out today, which is that Henry Abbott is reporting that Damian Lillard is going to request a trade. In the coming days, Sir, when you see that, how much, how credulous are you about that? It feels like it has some cred.

Obviously, yeah, this has been, it seems like this has been something that's in the tea leaves for a while now. So I guess like while we wait for the stamp or like for him to actually do it, I don't know. I'm still processing all of this. So I think let's start with the Sixers since we are lucky enough to have you here. We're lucky enough to have you here. As a Sixers fan when you woke up this morning, I found out that Dale Miller might really be on the trade block. what kind of things were going through your mind.

Have you already been on the trade machine yet or no? I have. I have been on the trade machine. You know, as a boy growing up in Philadelphia, really like the ceiling for my dreams of C.J. McCollum and maybe Robert Covington coming back for Ben Simmons, if that was going to be the trade, it really was hard for me to imagine

that this could get screwed up so sideways in Portland that they would be looking at like the possibility of damn asking for a trade. Now, obviously, like Portland has quite a bit of leverage in this situation. We've seen superstar players ask out of town, and it goes poorly, but they still pretty much get what they want. Like, we've never seen a situation where a guy asks for a trade,

well, in the most more recent years, I mean, where a guy asked for a trade, and then the GM of that team is like, cool, I'm going to send you to Oklahoma because that's the best package. Do you know what I mean? So it's almost strange how, like, these trade requests, also then come with like fantasy basketball, like ideas of like, well, let's put them on the Sixers. Let's put them on the Knicks.

Or what about the Heat? Or what about the Lakers or the Warriors? And it's like, well, what about, what about like Oklahoma or Orlando who might have like a bunch of pit picks or some young players that could actually revitalize Portland on a long term basis? But as like, you know, I mean, dare to dream, right? Like, I mean, like, I would do pretty much anything it took to get Damien Lillard paired up with Joelle and B. Yeah, it's, it's, it sounds like, it sounds, though, you're like you're not even. allowing yourself to dream yet. It feels like he's just like...

Oh, no way. But they do. So, yeah, so what we've seen so far, and I get, I get why you're thinking that, because what we've seen so far is that insofar as there is a list. It doesn't look like the Sixers are on it. I've seen the Lakers, the Knicks, and I think there was one of the Warriors.

The Warriors are really interesting. They can probably put together the best package. They also have, like, they have Steph Curry, who plays, a lot like Damien Lillard. And I'm not saying you can't have two guys like that on your team. I'm just really curious what that would look like. And essentially just like, you know, they stuck out as a very interesting, like, they made this trade.

That team would look crazy, like crazy good. Yes. Yeah. Like you bring Clayback. You have Steph. Is that like, that's just like the Splash Brothers 2.0. The Splash triplets. The Splash triplets.

Yes. Exactly, exactly. Yeah. I mean, I think that that, you know, if you would ask me about that maybe 18 months ago and just, let's just like, we played this game where we were like, what would Damien Lillard look like on a Warriors team?

I would have all sorts of hangups about defense or is there enough ball and yada, yada. But I watched the nets in the playoffs. You know, I just kind of, I'm kind of like, I'm open to the universe telling me that anything is possible in basketball now. Like, I don't know if we're, for as much, much as, you know, maybe the two finals teams are traditional in some ways, like, in terms of,

like, their interior strength and, like, they have, like, a very traditional point guard system, and then they have, like, a superstar who gets volume scoring. Like, I'm kind of open to the idea that Dame, Steph, and Clay could shoot you out of any bad situation. Yeah. And they also, I think they'd have enough defense as well on the back line. And they also, they have the ultimate connector in Draymond Green as well. I think it'd be a lot of fun. It'd also just be, like, super spacey just in terms of not only can these guys shoot, they can actually shoot from anywhere on the court. Like, it would change, it would change, uh, the geometry of the court. And I think you would actually find like somebody like Draymond, for example, probably getting more open layups than ever.

Uh, and everybody else in the team, too. It would really bounce them out because, like, if you, like, watching the Warriors last year was like, like, they needed that clay type. So if they get dame and clayback, like, it's just, man, like, that would, that would bolt them right back into contention and would be like a really interesting, I think, I don't know, like philosophical, I don't know what you want to call it. Like, it would be, it would be like an incredible game. It would. It would. It would. It would. Especially with the bucks in the finals right now, right? Yeah, exactly. We're seeing what just happened. Like, you had the ultimate like year of attrition. But like this just

kind of, it's interesting. I'm interested to see how much GMs and, uh, and scouts and stuff, like actually care about the results of this season because a lot of what we're seeing and not to say it's an asterisk or anything. I think every team has to meet a moment. This moment is about basically being able to like withstand. Like this is just like, can you survive? And on the buck side of it, they're also good at making other people very tired. So it's a unique year.

If things like just kind of flip back and it was just all offense again, like it is in a regular season, yeah, I'd be really interested to see like what a, hyper offensive team like those warriors could do. What kind of trade package do you think that Dame would command at this point? So I think for the Warriors, it would be the boat. It would be basically Wiggins-Wiseman 7 and 14, or at least that's what I would ask for if I was Portland. You know, in Henry's report, he says that they're going to ask for,

that Dame's going to ask for a trade in the next couple of days, according to our source close to Liller. On one hand, I find that hard to believe because on Monday, Damien Liller gets on a charter plane to fly to Tokyo for the Olympics. And you would think that generally speaking, guys try to keep the distractions to a minimum, especially if you're playing for somebody like Popovich, who's just like, let's kind of keep focused on the task at hand. On the other hand, basketball moves on, and like we do have the draft coming up.

So the Warriors sitting on these two picks, relatively high picks, it would suggest that if something was going to happen, it would happen relatively soon. So I'm kind of like now, after this Abbott story along with, with the Haynes story, there's too much smoke for there not to be fire. I wonder whether or not there is an even sweeter deal out there for it or what kind of

where Portland is in their state of processing the possibility that Lillor could leave. Well, let me ask you this, let me ask you this, Chris. What do you think the Blazers actually want out of this situation, right? Like, it's that's what makes it really hard to come up with like different scenarios

for him. Like we can kind of throw out everything right now because I don't really know what the Blazers would do from here. Like would they just want to like, you know, get back like a Ben Simmons, Seibel maxi type of package and then just retool and keep going and keep trying to make the playoffs. Are they going to just have a fire sale after this? Is CJ going to be on the board? Is NERCHAG going to be on the board? It's really hard to say. Like, I don't know. They could go in a lot of different directions. I don't know. I don't know where they're processing. I mean, In Henry's piece, there's a suggestion that Jody Allen would be, like, ready to sell soon.

Yeah. And that that is, like, another component of the story that we haven't really considered is just the idea that this might not be the same franchise that we've known it, because Jody obviously took it over for Paul Allen after his passing. And I don't know. I mean, like, you know, Henry's piece sort of emphasizes this idea that whoever were to buy the Blazers, obviously this is farther down the line, would want this situation taken care of by previous ownership. rather than being the person who comes in, buys an NBA team, and immediately sells the, trades the franchise player.

Yeah, I think there's a lot of different things that you might want if you're an owner, though. Like, there is also, like, let's not forget that these are billionaires at the end of the day, right? Like, I could see somebody saying, well, like, I'll buy the team, and Dame has a ton of value, and he puts fans in the seats, and he makes the franchise worth more, so we want him here. And I'll try to see if he wants to stay, like, where? will course correct. There's also a possibility that, you know,

you might want to buy the team cheap and, you know, not really necessarily have a lot of cap on the roster, or you might want to have a team that can still fill up seats. Like, I think that it's hard to, like, again, like read too much into what, like, a potential future owner might want. Unless Henry knows that there's, like, somebody who wants those specific things.

We're just so early in the process right now in terms of even, like, the idea of Jody Allen selling the Blazers is just like that's another thing that's new as well. Like this, I mean, this franchise could just look completely different. Because I also, I mean,

like, I imagine that if you sell the team, I mean, they just hired Chauncey. And, oh, by the way, while we're here, the Oregon public radio

did a report that, do you see that? I did. It turns out that maybe they didn't investigate shit. Independent navigation was, yeah, it was not,

yeah, what a shock. I can't believe that. I just, I can't, it was, I thought it was proprietary, right? So I get it, right? It's right. It seemed like, so like they went to an F, the report said basically that they didn't, in their, in their thorough investigation of Chauncey's past and the sexual assault allegations, that they didn't contact the lawyer of the victim or the victim herself alongside like other people. that like pretty much everybody that the Oregon Public Radio report that they contacted were like, yeah, I know the Blazers didn't. Nobody reached out to us. It was an FBI, a former FBI guy that it seems like is who they use for when they want to scout and find out stuff about players, which is not really an investigation. That's just you using your scouting department, which by the way, not the best, not the best scouting department. So I don't know. But yeah, I think, I mean, I think that's that could all kind of,

fall apart too, right? Yeah. Like, is he going to have his job in like 24 hours? Like, what is happening? Like, you know. No, I mean, if Damian Lillard, before he gets on a plane to Tokyo is just like, by the way, trade me. Like, and talk to my agent, we're going to get this taken care of. Like, you could see a completely different port on the trailblazers in 10 days.

Yeah. Or, you know, they could get this all smoothed out. They could have a come to Jesus talk, figure it out. And Dame and CJ and everybody else are coming back. And maybe they trade CJ and Covington for Simmons or whatever they do. a lot of things look one thing that we have learned over the last like 12 years especially is lots of stuff happens at team USA practice yeah it's kind of the best place to be if you're if you're demanding a trade actually i mean if i'm neil o's she i'm bricking myself because this is the last the last thing i want is damian lillard quarantining with a bunch of other superstars

well is it really a bunch anymore is that i mean we're we going from a bunch too so that's a great segue that's a great segue into the issues plaguing uh Team USA. This is really sad, too, because Bradley Beal is going to miss the Olympics because he's in the health and safety protocols for COVID. And I have to admit, I was actually quite moved, like, the sort of quotes that were coming up about, like, coming out from the camp, from Pop, from Dremont, about how much being on the Olympics team meant to Bradley Beal and how heartbroken he is about it. They all followed this news up with Jeremy Grant is going to be in, he's quarantining

out of like an abundance of caution, I think, because he had had some contact. but I assume Beal. And then this morning, on Friday, Kevin Love pulled out of the Team USA for reasons relating to injuries that he's still sort of recovering from. Love was by far the most controversial selection for this Team USA squad. I mean, I guess like if you were making the case form, it was like outside shooting, veteran leadership, you know, been there, done that. But now Team USA is facing the reality that with Drew Holiday and Chris Middleton and

Devin Booker still playing in the NBA final. finals, Jeremy Grant in this health and safety protocol, and Kevin Love and Bradley Beal off the team, they have like six guys. Now, there is a huge talent pool for them to draw from, presumably, even though there's a lot of superstars who aren't going to be going. But I guess it's worth noting that Trey Young has already begun the social media campaign to be included. And there's talk of Tobias Harris joining the team, although Toby is apparently out of the country right now. So Team USA needs some guys. Some American he is. God.

I know, right. Yeah, I mean, look, six guys is enough to win an NBA championship. So, yeah. That's true. That's true. What do you, have you been gotten a chance to watch any of the international, like, the warmups this week? Not a lot.

Not a lot. I mean, I'm seeing, I'm seeing everybody that's kind of, that's kind of freaking out about it. Seeing like, also Duncan Robinson might be a guy that, that potentially could replace Bradley Beale. It really sucks for Beal because, like, he's not in a winning scenario right now. And the thing that I think that players like that really benefit from in these team USA settings is like seeing seeing how a coach like pop operates and just seeing like, oh, this is like this is state of the art. And this is how like teams actually work if they want to get to the promise land. And it's like it's actually like very informative for players that haven't really necessarily had that experience. But I think like this actually because like obviously there's a there are a ton of American players that could that could join this team and it would all probably end up being okay. I say that. is somebody who has not been watching, by the way. Just to be completely clear.

As a Canadian, I'm still buying into American exceptionalism through absolute ignorance of the situation at hand. The reason I was asking is I was wondering if you had maybe seen anything from the course of the first couple of games, which have been pretty much abject failures to the exception of the Argentina game, to be like, oh, what they need is this person.

And because that's why everybody is like, they need Trey. They need a creator and a shooter. I know this is nuts, I would actually, after watching what he did in the playoffs and understanding that they need somebody who's maybe going to be a 10th 11 guy is maybe Kevin Herder? I like that. Just because like his ability to sort of get his own shot but also be a secondary playmaker might work. Hey, like, just do a package deal.

Bring the two, the Hawks backcourt in. Yeah. So let me ask you this. Like, first of all, why is, why is Tray Young? Like, why does he have to lobby? Shouldn't it just be like, hey, Tray Young, you want to be like, oh, you want to be like, oh, you want to be. on Team USA, like, here is your jersey. Like, when can we send the plane?

Can you get here right now? Like, why does he have to lobby? Here's my argument against Trey Young is that, I don't know if you've been following along on social media, but, like, definitely, like, the prevailing sentiment coming out of these games is, like, cry more, you guys, because they're not getting the calls that they typically do in the NBA. Like, the FIBA refs are just letting them play. And getting calls is a very important part of Trey Young's game.

Yes, obviously. Obviously. So I wonder whether or not there's a little bit of trepidation It'd be like if this guy is actually not going to get to the line that much Or not as much or a lot of his tricks might not work I'm not saying Trey Young isn't like amazing I'm just saying if that's a huge component of his game And the Fever refs are like not today

It'll be I don't know if maybe they're just like Hey we need somebody who's like a little bit Who's got like other components to their game other than that Which he does but I'm just saying that's a huge part of it Yeah but I mean I think he could just be he could just be such a good playmaker for them probably probably. No, yeah, he'd obviously have to adjust. And it seems like everybody on Team USA would have to adjust.

But, I mean, look, this is Trey Young, and he is, like, one of the most intuitive basketball players ever. And it sounds like they need a connector. So I don't have an issue with, like, going with a guy that can, like, pass out of pretty much any trap and, you know, get to the rim at will. And it's also, like, you know, has, like, the toughness to withstand the hits. Like, I think he would be able to be one of the guys that adjust to the fact that they're, that's the thing. they're not necessarily getting the calls that they're used to here. That's really funny, though. I saw some of the tweets about that.

I think it might be good practice for the team USA players, especially like coming into a season where the rules are going to change anyways. Like, you might as well just get a jump on it and get some of these games where you already, like, figure out what this is going to look like. Well, Devin Booker's getting experience on the other side because he's just like, nobody calls this on me taking dudes out. Yeah, just playing at the Pfizer Forum and being guarded by PJ Tucker and Drew Holiday and And pretty much everybody else in the team is pretty much enough for him.

But before we go to the suns, like, I think it'd be interesting to think about, like, some more young guys that Team USA could be good for, you know? Just like that experience. Like maybe, like, Herder is actually a great one. Herder's a great one because he's on that precipice of, like, maybe he could be a star one day. I'm trying to think. I mean, was Brandon Ingram in the, in the, like, the larger pool, guys? Let me, let me pull up the pool. So here are the guys that are on the select team.

Sadiq Bay, Miles Bridges, Anthony Edwards, Darius Garland, Ty Halliburton. Ooh, I would love to see Tyler Halliburton. Come on. We just answered our own question. Tyler Hero, John Jenkins, Kelden Johnson, who Woj just reported might get pulled up. Josh McGettie, Dakota Matthias, Emmanuel Quickly, Nas Reid, Cam Reynolds, Isaiah Stewart, Obitopin, PJ, and Patrick Williams. I would love to see Patrick Williams in that setting too. That would be cool.

Yeah, I think probably, I mean, like, if Pop goes Kelton Johnson, I guess he knows best, but that is like real Spurs' favoritism. I think, yeah, I agree with you, though. Like, I think that that's the right choice. I mean, Pop can do whatever he wants at this point. But I think, I mean, a guy like Patrick Williams would be really interesting to see there because, like, he plays for the Chicago Bulls. I would also love to see, like, pop with more rookies.

that would just be a fun thing to put him through he essentially is doing that with the spurs now yeah that's true that's true Tyler Hero would be interesting I would love to just see him in a team USA jersey yeah I like I like this this idea especially Thai Halliburton too another guy who doesn't play for a great franchise in the Kings

and clearly like you know has a lot of potential to be a star one day like this could be really good for somebody like him too, Anthony Edwards as well. This could be cool. This could be cool. Also, a lot of these guys aren't going to be available anytime soon. So, I mean,

that's true. So they wouldn't have to worry about their heads getting turned while they're on Team USA and joining the net the nets. Yeah, at least not for like another like seven or eight years. Like you'd really, you'd have to plant those seeds really early here. Just to put a bow on all of our non-finals talk before we get into

NBA finals observations, I will mention that we are hitting like the conspiracy theory level of Simmons trade rumors. Like yesterday I saw an unconfirmed video of several like Lamborghinis being loaded into the back of a truck that reportedly belonged to Simmons and that like he was he was selling his Philly area house. Mark Stein a couple of days ago reported that a couple of teams have reached out to the Sixers. See it was the Kings, the Pacers, the wolves and the calves are known suitors.

and Stein also reports that Toronto is also said to have expressed interest and more teams will emerge. So, I don't know, you kind of see these two, you can kind of see the offseason kind of developing in front of our eyes. If this Lillard thing turns out to be real or if he does request a trade, if he makes that quick trade request public and puts pressure on the Blazers, the Simmons thing, the Sixers have not gone out of their way to tamp down the idea that they're not looking in, you know, they're looking into ways to improve the team. I think I've also seen a kind of counter-narrative start to emerge from certain sectors of Philly Twitter that's like, actually Simmons is not that bad. So I was kind of assuming that that would happen because they've got eliminated in the second round.

There was enough time to pass. Enough time would elapse that people would start to talk themselves back into Simmons. I certainly am open to that. I'm open to that happening because I just don't want to see the Sixers get some crap package that has like a pick swap and two like okay players. What, yeah, what's your internal monologue on that right now?

Like, how would you feel if, if Simmons was back? That there would need to be like a real, like, almost like a weird, like group therapy in the press going on where like there was like an acknowledgement on Simmons's part that like something went really wrong during the playoffs and that like that he will really will like start to work on his on his shot and start to introduce different. elements to his game. And that like I think you would actually need Embeddon Rivers on the on board because those were the guys who came out after after the six were eliminated against the Hawks and were like basically like we lost because of because of the way Ben played. I think they almost kind of did that therapy session or they they opened up the potential of it with I think Doc said something along the lines of like we're going to help him and we know how to help him. And even Ben when he was doing his exit interview, he just talked about how to

how we need it to get right mentally. So, you know, I think if there is an acknowledgement that there is something going on there and they do legitimately want to fix it, then I think, like, why not, right? I don't know how much of that is actually possible in this setting. Like, I think in these scenarios,

sometimes you just want to, like, get away from the situation. I also think that, like, you know, Embed and Simmons after that, like, you're right. They probably, like, you know, they're going to have to sit down with ESPN, right? Like, maybe just do it. Maybe, maybe, maybe just do like one of those interviews where like they're both side by side trying to find a way to crack jokes. They're going to have to get a red table.

They're going to have to really share. Let's take a quick break and we'll come back and talk about the very, very important game five, which is on Saturday night. Okay, we're back. Sarah, I know that you went on Bill's Pod and you, you empty the notebook. So people should definitely check you out on Bill's Pod with Jackie Mack talking about the finals. wondering if you had any, I don't know, any, like, general feelings going into game five. Do you think it's basically, I have, like, a feeling when it's, it's for the bucks, like, I was wondering about this because I was just coming out of the Euro tournament. So, like, and the

Euro soccer tournament and watching how different managers manage their teams through the tournament itself and decided when to sort of press the gas and when to hit the brakes and how to, how to, like, kind of adjust through that. And, you know, We've been watching, like, Janus pull himself out of games. And he's obviously, like, a little bit tired at certain points. And he's also playing, like, at a historic level. But if you're bud and you're the bucks, do you go for broke and try to end this in six? Yeah, I think you have to.

Yeah. You have to. I think, I mean, it's, I'm of two minds about this. Obviously, you want to try to win at home. And that would be their opportunity in the sixth game. But they haven't really been able to, like, they have to win this game five on the road in order to do that. which would show that they're able to win on the road, you know what I mean? Which we just don't, yeah, right.

It's just, I'm not sure that any of it makes sense anymore. Yeah. I do. I mean, I picked Sons and Seven and I'm starting to, I'm still going to hang on to it because I do think Home Court Advantage is really important in this series. But I am starting to think that like the longer this series goes, though, the more it favors the Bucks because they are just putting the hurt on the Sons, man. Like, it's just, I got exhausted in the third quarter.

quarter just watching Drew Holiday play defense on Chris Paul and like watching Janus make help side rotations. That was even before the block, which was like symbolic, I think, of what the bucks have done this season, which is just like take, take this idea that offense is better than defense and have Janus just say, no, actually I can be two places at once. So it's all good, guys. Like, I can I can rotate to the rim and close out on your corner shooters. And Drew can do that too. And PJ can do that too. And that's just, that's really difficult to, to withstand over the course of a seven-game series. I do think they'll get a little bit more zip

the ball in general at home, the Suns will, and hopefully get a couple more role players involved. But yeah, like, I just, I feel like the longer this series goes, like, the more, the more it favors the buck. So actually, like, maybe let's flip this. Do the Suns have to win in six?

Like, do the sons have to win on the road? I think that they, so the big question to me is just at the end of game four, it just looked like Chris Paul couldn't. use his left hand. Like it just did look like something had happened. And I think it was his left hand. And it just seemed like every time he tried to cross over,

that big turnover happened when he tried to switch hands with his dribble. And it just looked like his left hand could not control the ball. It looked a lot like that game too he had against the Lakers. Yeah. And like so he has been banged up throughout these playoffs. And over and over again seems to be able to like rise to the occasion and come back when his team needs him. He has been giving, you know,

he has been playing more minutes than he usually plays. He has been scoring more than he typically does. He has been giving like the sons everything he's got. He obviously understands the opportunity he has here. And I'm sure you would basically need to chop his hand off to get him like to have him not play. But that being said, like if Chris Paul can't go left at all, like I think that this is a shorter series than we're thinking. If I'm the sons though, like I like my chances in a game seven at home. Me too.

You know, and that's and that's the thing. I'm just curious whether or not, like, Bud has to make any kind of, like, if there's a gamble involved. I know that we, like, and I don't mean gamble as a replacement for adjustments, like we usually do on the show? I mean, Gamble, like,

do you push guys to the max in game five to try and steal one from Phoenix and then go home and win it where your role players typically play a lot better? In fact, most everybody plays a lot better in Milwaukee, except for Yonnas, he just plays great everywhere. Or do you kind of like sort of manage

it the way you would any other game or any other finals game, I guess, and accept the fact that is a best of three series. How would you go about doing that if you're bud? I don't know. I would just honestly, like, whatever it took, whatever prayers or like spells needed to be cast to get holiday upwards of 40% from the field, I would say them, I would cast them, I would bring in any kind of like spiritual consultants you needed. I don't know. To me, it's like, holiday is the difference between them winning and losing on the road. Yeah, yeah. It's interesting. Like, So Holiday, Holiday, to me,

is kind of playing the, I'm gonna call it like, without the playmaking, like a hybrid Dremont slash Roberson, Andre Roberson role. Oh my God. He's like, he's not necessarily doing like the Andrea Roberson role

by design. He just happens to be missing his shots and probably shooting more than Roberson ever, ever really shot. But no, and that's to say that I think his role in this series is just going to be to be the defensive guy. Like, we just talked about Chris Paul.

Like, all of the stuff that is happening to Chris Paul is happening, A, because of his injuries, obviously, but also because Drew is the absolute worst guy you want to be going against when you have injuries, when you're Chris Paul, when you just don't have the length against him. And he can actually, like, he makes ball protection for everybody hard. Even a guy like Chris Paul, even a guy like Devin Booker, who has also, like, become, become a lot more careful with a ball. And, like, that's just really difficult to withstand.

He's picking him up full court. He's just doing everything that he can. So I think the Bucks are kind of already playing that style, and they were playing that style on the road, just like giving it everything that they have. I just, I'm curious to see whether that defense will travel. And like, they always say defense travels, right? But it just didn't in the first two games.

And the Bucks win with their defense. I'm curious to see if it'll travel. And then if it does, is there anything that the Sons can actually do about it? Like how many of these errors are just unforced? Is it like fatigue, though? I mean, I'm honestly like at this point, like, it's almost hard to see the chess move because they're simply running out of pieces.

Like, they're just out of guys. And so that there's not like this, there's no magic rat, like there's no rabbits to pull out of a hat. It's like he's got the, these six and a half, seven dudes he can play. It's funny how we've seen over the lot, of course of the playoffs, we've lost a lot of really big superstar players. but it's the role players going out

that actually seems to throw off the chemistry as much as anything else. It's the Dario Sarich. It's the Dante DiVincenzo. It's the Danny Green. It's those guys who are like kind of, yeah, you wouldn't notice them in a box score and maybe they don't swing a game,

but the minutes that they play have like a ripple effect on the other guys on the team. And I almost wonder whether the lack of front court depth right now is kind of catching up with the suns a little bit. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, as soon as Dario went out with that front court just really thinned out.

And then you've also seen Tori Cress. he got hurt and then came back. Cam Johnson, I think it looked like it was a turned ankle, then he came back. And, you know, Crowder, and you had the eight and foul trouble in game three that just really, really exposed how bad their depth could be in the front court.

We had the Kaminsky minutes in game three, which were just an absolute nightmare. The Kaminsky and Teague minutes need to be put on like a Bezos rocket and sent into outer space. I don't want to think about that. the fact that Jeff Teague and Frank Kovinsky were playing finals. Oh my gosh. Yeah. It's always funny what you get out of like a players like that too.

Like on the road, like it was just, that was really, really ugly for him there. And we didn't see him in game four. Maybe we'll see him at home. I do think that the sons have a little bit more to give on offense than they have. McKeel Bridges was was really good at, at home. I think him being back home and Aiton being back home, this might be a good game to try to get those guys going, get them more involved. I think a couple more post-ups.

I think add some things in game five that will help you in game six in terms of, like, I don't think they can play like the beautiful game on the road against the Bucks defense. Like that just plays right into their hands. That's when the turnover start. Like that's, that's when you get in the passing lanes. And that's also like, that's when you get the transition opportunities that the, that the Sons can't do anything about. Like they had a lot of plays where they just like, they weren't really boxing out appropriately.

I also think, like, you know, is that a measure of fatigue? And they weren't getting back. But they also had some where it's just like, yeah, if you're going to get in the passing lane at the top of the court, Chris Paul is not going to outrun Chris Middleton or Drew Holiday with a running start. They just don't have that guy that can, you know, go coast to coast. So slow it down a little bit and see if you can get Aiton going in the post, McHale going in the post, maybe even Chris going in the post if he's feeling up to it. Obviously, Devin Booker going in the post.

they have a lot more than I think they have given yet. I love this. You're just such a traditionalist. You're just like, let's bring the 80s jazz back. No, it's a modern post offense. Like, you know, like. I know. Yeah, they just, they need easier opportunities at the basket.

They just need to, they need to find a way to get that. They shot 54% from mid-range in game four, and they still didn't win the game. They haven't been getting their corner threes. they haven't been getting rid of the rim. They only had 18% of their shots at the rim. That's just, that's, like I said on Bill's Pod, but like, it's just, it's not tenable. Like, you just can't run offense that way, especially when you're going to get outshot. Like, you can, they can clean up on the offensive rebounds.

And they should never, like, they should never have a 17 to 5 disparity again like they did. But I don't think that they're going to win the boards. So they have to win somewhere. So, like, that's just, that's one of the things I've just been thinking about in terms of, like, what the sons could do. Can I tell you a non-basket I have about the NBA finals that I just want to get on the record here? I'm all good.

I think Bill mentioned this on his pod with Ryan, so I appreciate him seating this. Like, I would honestly rather listen to Vuvazella's than watch Sons fans do the free throw counting thing. What is Voovazelah? Like, we're going to get to get to that. What is Voovazelas? Remember from the World Cup in South Africa?

The br... That sounds like they... It was like the horns that they had in the stands. And it basically makes like a buzzing bee sound. But like when a hundred or a thousand of them are going, it drives you out of your mind. I'd rather listen to that than cut away to some dude wearing the like the sun's version of the,

it's always sunny green man outfit. Counting down Janus's free throw attempts. Wow. Of all the things in the NBA finals. You'd rather torture your ears than watch other humans, other human beings just, you know, be joyful. After what we've all been joyful. They're being lifeguards.

They're being very exuberant. Have you, I just read an article about collecting everest. They're saying no running on the side of the pool. Look, I'm enjoying. No, here's the thing. The issue of these games in the playoffs is not like whether or not Janus is taking 12 seconds. It's the fact that we have 47 stoppages of play in the last two. minutes to judge whether or not some quantum leap took place between the ball touching

campaign's finger or another guy's finger. Like, that's the reason why these games feel slow. Yannis can take as much time as he wants to free throw because usually he's there because six dudes tried to attack him as he was going up to the rim. And it's just like, I, for some reason, I feel like when they, when this whole thing started, I was like, that's amusing that they're counting. And now it has become like one of the sort of takeaway. I will have from the playoffs is these,

is other fans counting to 10 on Janus. And it's like, this is not actually a thing. Like, there are other sports that are super slow. There are other parts of the NBA that are really slow. Like, let Janus take 12 seconds. Nobody cares. Yeah, I don't, I don't necessarily think that they are protesting the, you know, the way that replay review has ruined the game.

I like it. I like it. I like Janice's reaction to it. Him just being like, yeah, you got to find a way to make it fun. Like just a whole bunch of people in the arena booing me while I work on my biggest weakness in the... So will you support me if I dress up like Ben Franklin and go to a Nets game and start counting

how many steps hard and takes? You had me at Ben Franklin. I think you should dress up. You should dress up as like the ghost of James Naismith and do that. Yeah, yeah. And then talk about how this is ruining the purity of the game, right? Yeah, yeah.

I think we actually just came up with a new segment. Okay. All right. Chris Ryan as Ben Franklin or James Neosmith. We'll maybe put a poll up on Twitter and see what people say. I don't want to look at the responses to that Twitter poll. Is there anything else you want to hit before we get out of here? Let me think. I think we pretty much hit everything.

No, well, one thing we actually should talk about is you mentioned this in the rundown. We haven't had a fight. Oh, yeah. This is my other big complaint. This is my big complaint is that we haven't had. a Draymond crotch strike. We haven't had LeBron and D. Wade

making fun of Dirk being sick. Like we haven't had like a extracurricular thing that comes onto the court and like kind of changes the complexion of the finals. Like every finals needs a red wedding. Yeah.

You know, we need to get like, we need to get a little drama going and the closest we get is Crowder and Portus. Do these two teams like respect each other too much? They're too happy to be there. Yeah, maybe it's that. Maybe it's that. It is just a surprise.

though. Like this is a Chris Paul team. You got PJ Tucker on the other end. Bobby Portis, like you mentioned. Also, Devin Booker. Devin Booker, known to be at the front of a lot of of a lot of squabbles. Very loyal guy, a fighter, you know. Yeah. There's definitely some guys out there.

I mean, Crowder is due. I want, what I won't, you know, like there was a play in the Atlanta Philly series where like, Trey Young was dribbling, like going down court, full speed and just, threw on the parking break and Dwight Howard like essentially hurtled him but like collided with him at like full speed as Trey just stopped short. Somebody's got to do that in this in this series. I'm looking at Chris Paul. Like Chris Paul needs to get into his shit lord bag and really like gum it up.

If things are going wrong in game six, like he has got to throw a ball on a guy's crotch. Like we need it for the culture. What if what if they just changed like what if, okay, let's say let's say Chris in his left are just not feeling great and they play him off the ball and they just tell him go be the most annoying you can be like don't even worry about don't worry about running the offense like we'll play you off the ball for the most part like Booker you know he's he's he is ready to he's played point guard in in Chris Paul's absence and you know when he's off like we can we can give the ball to campaign who also I mean campaign is is due for a big game it's like the stage is very very much set for campaign to have a big game five um yeah I think

I think, I like the idea of, okay, now you are just going to play the role of like the free safety defender slash like just nuisance. Like any opportunity that you get like. The point guy to be Patrick Beverly. Yeah, I think he can channel some of that. I think he can channel some of that. I love Chris Paul at his most annoying. It's like, it's actually become quite endearing to me. Just because it's like, he'll do anything it takes.

And I don't mean that in the cliche, like he'll do anything it takes. But like, this dude will literally do anything, anything. Yeah. And that's like, that is the injection I need into these finals. Because, like, there isn't really a Patrick Beverly on the other side with the Bucks. Like, the Bucks defenders are like, they're serious professionals. Like, they're not, they're not getting into the son's head because, like, they're just, they're incrementally doing it on every possession.

Like, they don't need to find a dramatic moment to make it happen. It's just, like, it's just kind of wearing on them over and over again is they just, they're just doing their jobs, you know? Like, I would like to see if Chris Paul can be annoying enough to turn, to get into one of those guys's heads. I think, to see, like, can you get a rise out of Drew Holiday? I don't think, oh man, Drew's like, like, that's, like, Drew and Chris Middleton both. Like, I just, I just, even the honest, like, I just picture them, you know, on a beach with a straw hat and a toothpick. I said this about Middleton, but I'm realizing this is just kind of the vibe of the entire team. Like, yeah.

They are very intense, but like, can you annoy them? Maybe Bobby Portis? Like, he seems like he might have, like, they all have an edge to them that they've really balanced out. Bobby Portis might be the one guy that is not quite there, but I don't even know. Like, I don't know. It seems like maybe not. He's been these scenarios a couple times now and, like, brought positive energy and not

really let it, like, get negative. So we'll see. I know. I think the takeaway from this entire NBA finals is has Bobby Porters gotten soft? And it's. Chris, it's Chris Paul who will have the answer and that will be the topic of the answer next week. That's right. Siri, thanks so much for joining me.

Everybody enjoy your weekend, enjoy Game 5 and we'll talk to you next week.