The Herd with Colin CowherdColin discusses the Thunder winning the NBA championship with their game 7 win over the Pacers and why despite their historic run, they shouldn’t be considered one of the all-time great teams. He tells you why he was right about Kevin Durant and wrong about Shedeur Sanders. He also talks to Ric Bucher about where the Thunder ranks among the last 7 NBA champions and how KD fits with the Houston Rockets.
Thanks for listening to the Best of the Herd podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday on Fox Sports Radio in noon to three Eastern nine am to noon Pacific. Find your local station for the Herd at Fox Sports Radio dot com, or stream us live every day on the iHeartRadio app by searching Fox Sports Radio or FSR.
This is the Best of the Herd with Colin cowher on Fox Sports Radio.
Ah, here we go, we are live. It's the Herd wherever you may be and however you may be listening. Thanks for making us part of your day. John Middlecop is going to be filled in for the next three days. My buddy, John Middlecop got a very popular podcast at the volume three and out. Former NFL scout, You know you're a self admitted football guy, and I like football more than basketball. But I did grow up in the seventies and the Pacific Northwest with Bill Walton and the Blazers and the Sonics, and people always lament the seventies NBA. John, there was no great dynasties, and I defended because I collect basketball cards when every other had baseball cards. But I got to admit last night that kind of felt like a nothing Burger did it not.
It was a big win for the small markets. I guess.
I guess it was that a small story. Listen, we have entered in the last seven years, a new NBA, the champions. They're good teams. Jo Kich the only All Star on Denver. Yeah, you can. You can see him, Thunders, Celtics, Nuggets, Warriors, Bucks, Lakers, Raptors, Folks. OKC has one Elite score. He had three bad games, shot twenty four percent from three chat Hongren disappeared for five games. J Dubb disappeared for several and they won. That's the champion. I'm not sure they do if Halliburton remains in the game. Baseball's best teams right now are stacked and feel like it. Attendance ratings up. The NFL's best teams Ravens, Kansas City, Philadelphia, stacked ratings up, the new NBA. It's like you're battling the CBA as much as opponents. In fact, Okase is so young they could potentially be significantly better over the next three years than this season. They've got two first round picks. They're young players like homebren who's talented but wildly uneven you have no idea what you're getting quarter to quarter. J Dubb, what a ceiling, but what a disappearing act. Alex Caruso literally had to show Okase's young players how to open champagne bottles. America's event Driven. Now it's a Tom Cruise movie, a Taylor Swift tour. The world up, the college football playoff, the super Bowl, and these NBA playoffs. I know I tried to defend them, but last night, after that Halliburton injury, it felt small. I don't want every NBA champion to feel like the two thousand and four Chauncey Billups Pistons. I don't. Last night, I'm watching that game because I'm a sportscaster. I missed MJ's Bulls, Katie Steph Clay Draymond Warriors, the heatles Hell. I missed the Duncan Manu Tony Parker Spurs. This is not a knock on Oklahoma City. They won due to roster construction and depth, which is not exactly a great movie poster. The new NBA is the era of accounting where you have to draft really well and develop really well and then cross your fingers where players stay healthy and the last team standing, was the healthiest and maybe has the best. GM has tremendous roster construction. But again that doesn't get me to goosebumps. This felt like a great day for Oklahoma, maybe a neat day for Oklahoma and surrounding areas. And I know I sound like a buzzkill. I'm not telling you how to feel. I'm just telling you how I feel. I think Indiana ten years from now will be the team you remember now.
Maybe I'm wrong.
Maybe OKC goes on to win six titles, seven and they're one of the greatest dynasties ever because the new CBA doesn't allow for star stacking, and really the gms will be as big as the players. But when I watched the Dodgers podres last week, it jumped off the television. The animosity, the intensity, the stars, it was everywhere. And I felt last night there's the old saying video killed the radio star, and the new CBA has killed basketball stars. They can't play together. So just think about this. In terms of all time great teams, OKC has one elite score three bad games, couldn't hit three pointers. The number two and three scorers really struggled. I mean chet Holmgren was the invisible man for like four games in the series, maybe five, and they won. That's why Indiana was so captivating. Rick Carlisle, the oldest coach in the league, the most overrated player in Halliburton. If not for the injuries, maybe I feel different. And I'm happy for Oklahoma City. They have probably the best young executive in the league in Sam Presty. But it felt small, and when the Celtics lost Tatum and the injuries throughout the playoffs, it just didn't feel big. And it hasn't for seven years unless your team won. And here's SGA after.
No matter what, like, you go into every I wanted to win and sometimes it just doesn't go your way, and tonight could have been one of those nice but we found a way. I'm so proud of his group. I wouldn't rather done it with any other group in the world. It feels good to be a champion.
So I thought it was interesting. Earlier in the day, the KD trade came down and people were so excited.
Here's what's funny.
He didn't have much of a market, but we were so excited for basketball that you know, thirty six, thirty seven year old Kati going to Houston felt bigger than Game seven, especially after the Haliburton injury. So Kevin Durant to the Rockets, I said this for the last two weeks. Why isn't there a bigger market? I do think this could help or hinder his legacy because KD is starting to feel a little like old Shack and current Aaron Rodgers kind of sad. Katie to Brooklyn was an absolute mess. Katie to Phoenix was underwhelming, although it should be noted Phoenix was about a five hundred team when he played three and seventeen when he did so, he wasn't the problem in Phoenix. I think it's going to work. This to me, is the perfect place to go. So they have things Phoenix didn't. They have an infrastructure that the Suns didn't. Houston has a great coach, they just gave him an extension. They have size Phoenix doesn't. They've got depth. He didn't have to play sixty eight games a year. They've got multiple players, Cam Whitmore, Javari Smith reed Shephard he doesn't have to be on the floor a lot until big games in the playoffs. So I think this is exactly what Houston needs, and strangely, it's exactly what Kevin Durant needs. A relevant team, excellent owner, one of the top five richest owners in the sport, excellent coach, lots of depth. Shen Goon will be the centerpiece of the offense. Aman Thompson will be the defensive stopper, and then the team has all sorts of lay around him. So Kevin doesn't have to be as great defensively as he was probably six seven years ago. I mean, Houston was held under ninety points twice by the Warriors. They can't shoot, so he's absolutely necessary. I think he's a perfect fit. They've got all the structure, and by the way certain people, Shack was often distracted. Aaron Rodgers clearly needs structure. That's why I've said Aaron and Katie are similar. They're very good when structures already present, because what Katie doesn't want to do is end up being if this goes sideways A yeah, butt guy. Yeah it was great, but he didn't win big without Steph. Yeah, he had to bounce around. He had eight different head coaches. I mean, yeah, he was great, but when you really compare him to like Lebron and staph. You know what, is he kind of a wander? I think Kevin Durant's game, his talent. He was the number one mid range in the league last year. Only two people in the NBA also average twenty five a game and then hit forty percent on threes. Your kitchen, Kevin Durant, He's still an elite player. If he remains healthy for the next two years, it will feel like the Houston Rockets stole KD from Phoenix. If he crumples to the ground, cross your fingers. He doesn't, then maybe Phoenix likes the assets they got.
Here's Kevin Durant.
Yesterday he had a part of the Houston Rockets. I'm looking forward to it crazy, crazy last couple of weeks when I'm glad it's over with. You know when people could just hang your career in the balance like that and just choose what they want to do with your careers and nerve record feeling, but being able to kind of dictate what you want to do, and then being with a team that values you. And I'm looking forward to it having.
People are going to hold on to that dictate what you want to do.
Did you have a hand of that most definitely.
Yeah. I mean they asked me where I wanted to go some of my destinations. I gave it to him.
Here we are U.
Yeah.
Again.
Everybody wants to pick a side on trades, winner and loser. If Katie remains healthy, Houston's going to feel like they won this trade because they only had to give up one first round pick if he has injury issues, and the number ten pick the Son's got in the draft hits. Jalen Green's expensive, but he'll be productive. Dylan Brooks will start for them, a bunch of second round picks they can play around with. Then maybe it feels like Phoenix won the deal. But I do think Kevin Durant's game is too good to be sort of lumped into a yeah butt guy. One of the best NBA offensive players of my lifetime. And I started watching this sport in nineteen seventy one seventy two, so I'm.
Happy for him.
Well, you live in the Arizona area, he said something, John. I thought it was interesting. You know, he's just got such an interesting personality. He'll go on Twitter and talk to people, He'll see him on the street, you go to games, he'll talk to people. He said yesterday, he goes, you know, they didn't want me, so I'm glad to go. How did people in your hometown, Phoenix, how did they view KD and the whole KD Beal experiment.
Yeah, I think the Suns have just been a disaster and people are tuned out. I think the expectations when they traded for him were pretty high. I mean, you get a Kevin Durant the same thing with Brooklyn. You're expecting we're gonna compete for the championship. Last year wasn't even close. Now, not all his fault. The owner's a little crazy. I mean, you know, Draydon for Bradley Beal absolutely backfired. I actually think this situation Houston feels three or four years a little too late. I mean, he's thirty seven, Colin, he's he kind got in the NBA when he was nineteen years old, so he a lot of wear and tear on this body. If he would have got there, like when he moved to Brooklyn, a situation like this.
Who knows, I don't know. It's had a lot of injuries lately.
Come Yeah, now he's playing about sixty sixty five games and the good news is they have a lot of length in Houston and a lot of young guys, so he does not have to be you know, it's pretty clear they're going to keep him around for the playoffs. Ye they got him. I mean they got to the playoffs without him, and they Jalen Green is not a defined player.
He's too expensive.
I think it will pay off for late, but you cross your fingers on health because with KD you know what, with the Warriors, that is now a thing in his career.
Are you confident that he's going to be there for more than a year and a half at this point, I kind of a traveling circus a little bit.
I do think I've heard for years NBA players like Houston. They like living there, no state tax, middle of the country. My take is this is where he ends it, and I think it's a pretty good spot because I do think they have a defensive culture. He's not the defender he used to be, but they have a defensive culture and they have the length and quickness Amend Thompson, so they won't need they really need him to grab it and shoot it. They shot fewer three pointers than anybody in the playoffs. They had two games with the Warriors under ninety points like he is exactly what they need and they don't need him to be multiple in roles. Bro catch it, shoot it, score hit threes. That's all we need, and I think that's what he provides totally.
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd Weekdays and newone Easter non a Empacific on Fox Sports Radio FS one and the iHeartRadio app.
Hi, this is Jay.
I'm the producer of the Pauli and Toni Fusco Show. Usually in these promos they asked you to listen to the show. I'm here to ask you please don't listen to the show. The hosts are two absolute morons who have the dumbest takes on sports imagicable. Don't listen to the show so it can get camped.
Who what, what the hell are you doing in our studio?
Ignore that fool.
Listen to the Paula and Tony Fusco Show on the iHeart Radio app or wherever you get your podcast.
He's still moving, so you know. I as I started the show today, I was thinking, I don't want to be mister negative. Okay, see, because I'm really impressed with Sam Presty, the fans there. It's their first title since they've moved. They thought they were going to get one with k D and Harden and Russell Westbrook and they didn't and it's heartbreaking. So I was happy for him last night, but I just thought once Halliburton got hurt, I'm like, Okay, this is a really forgettable final. This is the worst and it's not their fault. They deserve it. But I was saying, is we're we have entered a new NBA. This is the seventh different champion in seven years, and a lot of it's because it's Adam Silver's NBA. So David Stern took the league over from Larry O'Brien and they needed big markets to flourish. The league wasn't doing well financially. The finals were on tape delay. I mean seriously, playoff series run a tape delay. The league was a mess, and so David Stern leaned into stars and big markets and had no problem with dynasties. But Adam Silver inherited the league where the ratings were down post Jordan, but the league was making a lot of money. It was culturally relevant and there were a bunch of dynasty after dynasty after dynasty, and a lot of the market owners were complaining that it's very pro Laker Pro, Celtic Pro, Miami Pro, big market. So Adam Silver, it takes a commissioner five or six years to create their own league, and I think this is the league he wants. I'm not sure it's going to be popular, but it's a league that's collaborative. You can't stack stars, and we're seeing it in real time the last seven years. Oklahoma City excellent defensively, but basically one elite score and he didn't even shoot particularly well, especially from three, and they still won. So I said, I took the last seven champions. Let's rank him in order of how where they rank in this seven year stretch. I think of the seven champions, I would put the Raptors as number seven. It was very Kawhi Leonard dependent. It was Fred Van Vliet and Kyle Lowry and Danny Green and Serge Ibaka. It wasn't a great team. I mean, they went six plus games in each of the three rounds. They got very fortunate on a bounce against Philadelphia. Again happy for them, a one and done. That is the weakest champion in the last seven years. I don't mean to beat upon the Thunder, but I think they're the sixth rated team. Listen, they have one offensive player. It's mostly depth and roster construction. Their second and third best scorers like Chet Holmgren and j Dubb disappeared in games and.
They still won.
And also, are we sure they would have won a Halliburton played great team defense, but I thought they had the second best coach in the finals. Their best shooter shot twenty four percent from three. They're going to be noticeably better the next three years than this year. Number five. I'd played the Milwaukee Bucks again, a team that had to come back from multiple.
Two deficits to win.
Now it was Chris Middleton in his prime, Drew Holliday in his prime, A Yannis emerging as a superstar a previous year or two. So again they felt like defensively the best team in the league. They fell behind in multiple playoff series and were in trouble and had to go multiple games. I would put them at number five, number four of the Warriors. It was the end of the run, end of the dynasty. Now they got a really good final from Andrew Wiggins. Jordan Poole was a good role player, but Steph Claying Draymond passed their prime. It was the last legs of a dynasty. I thought they were done. Remember when they flew cross country back to Boston. I think they trailed in the series like two to one. I thought they were done. I thought they were toast, and then they went to Boston and Tatum and Brown they just weren't quite ready yet to seize it. I would put the Warriors of the last seven champions at number four. I would put the Nuggets at number three. They're a little like OKC. You got one great star. The difference is Jokic is the best player in the world. They They also were dominant in the conference finals and the finals. They lost only one game. I got fooled by this team. I thought they had a long run, but then they started losing really valuable pieces like Brown and KCP. I put Denver number three. The best overall roster of the last seven is Boston. The question is what was Tatum? Brown won the conference MVP and the finals MVP dominant season sixty four and eighteen, did not lose more than one game in any series, and I think one through ten in the last seven years.
This is actually the best roster.
You could say all you want about OKC, but Jalen Brown is better than any number two player for Oklahoma City. And Derek White, I mean everybody. He was our number four or five starter. You knew you were getting great defense in threes from Derek White in every game. So this is the best collection of talent in the last seven years. But I think the best team was the Lakers AD in his prime, Lebron playing like he was in his prime, Alex Caruso. You just didn't know who Alex Caruso was yet. He was a great defensive player KCP, who's always been a big shot maker in the playoffs. They had the best record in the West before the league shut down with COVID, so they don't get a lot of credit. But as the other old veteran teams crumpled, they had Lebron AD and really really chue good role players. Again, you just didn't know. I didn't know much about Alex Caruso. We find out now he's a pretty solid player. So that's where I would rank the teams. Again, if Jason Tatum was a more decisive big game star, I'd have no problem putting the Celtics above the Lakers because I thought one through nine the roster is better. I mean, I mean, when you can go you know, the twenty twenty four Celtics. Just just look at how good Derek White is at an NBA player. He was off an option number four. But I don't think even that the Lakers are an all time great Laker team. I would say the Showtime Lakers are much better. The Shaq and Kobe Lakers are better. The Kobe Gasol Lakers, to me, are better than this Laker championship team in the bubble, I would agree.
And the Warriors team, remember Jordan Poole played a pretty big role. Steph Miss some time. Remember Steph Miss some games. I think Jordan Poole was starting. So yeah, I mean it's we have some great individual players over the last seven years, but the teams. But this is kind of the nature of Adam.
Silver, right.
All these players moved, not stop. This is in the nineties where guys are on the same team. Reggie Miller played for the Pacers for what eighteen years? Those days are done?
Yeah, yeah, okay, So I started reading on the flight to LA yesterday afternoon. I started reading Caitlin Clark book by Christine Brennan, and I just wanted to know, like the rest of you, ninety percent of us, me and you. We started watching her her junior year, her last couple of years at Iowa. Right we oh man, she shoots three. She looks like Steph Curry. But when you read this book, Christine Brennan really holds the WA accountable, and she says the league was simply not prepared for and didn't do their homework. So the NBA has I think through the years in the NFL, they kind of know when a star is coming and they often soften up the schedule. The WNBA did not do that for Connecticut, having them play New York and Connecticut early. But this book talks about a specific moment sophomore year. Sophomore, she goes on the road to face Michigan, a twenty and two team. She dropped forty six points, ten assists, played every minute. It was her third forty point game of her sophomore year, and in the book it details how people are that were at the game realized, oh, she's doing things. We have never seen a woman's basketball player do forty six points tenn assists played every minute. There's also stories, and I don't expect the NWNBA to have information when she was in seventh and eighth grade, But one of the fascinating stories is she was down when she was like in the seventh or eighth grade. She was down eleven points with a minute seven left. Caitlin Clark won on a thirteen to nothing run to win in like the seventh or eighth grade. But one of the criticisms I've had with the WNBA is it is your job to know and identify stars before they're at your doorstep. You gotta see him coming up the driveway. And when you read this book, I think Christine really holds them accountable and the WNBAS pushed back. But her shooting distance multiple forty point game, you don't get a lot of forty point games, forty five point games from college men's basketball players, like you just don't see that. So she's dropping forty six as a sophomore. People that are at the game are talking about her passings actually better than her shooting. She's a revolutionary player. So I think the book really dies sects some of the lack of preparation or awareness, and you know, you can just like. Also, Christine Brennan holds women's basketball accountable for not putting her on the Olympic team where they didn't have a lot of great perimeter shooters and she was emerging as a noteworthy player when they were making those tryouts. So Christine Brennan last week on the Herd on Caitlyn's impact to THENBA, this.
Athlete, Caitlyn Clark is so important to the financial future of the WNBA at the time. By the way, as you know that the CBA, the Collective Barnaining Agreement is open and will be being negotiated, all of these things that we would see arenas having to be games being moved to bigger arenas, and that we'd be talking about a female athlete. Never in my lifetime did I think I would see that. And I think that's what makes this so remarkable and so different from another phenom coming into a sport.
The book is called On Her Game. It really breaks down how all the signs were there, not as a junior, not as a senior. They were in the big ten on display late sophomore season, she was doing things, making passes and taking shots from areas women did not shoot from and the people that were in attendance at these games, especially the one in nine Arbor, were all struck by what they saw and word was traveling really fast. John, We're going to our number two. Colin right, Colin wrong. Rick Buker stops by. It's the Hurt.
Be sure to catch live editions of the Herd weekdays and Noone Easter, non a Empacific.
Here we go, hour two. It is a Monday. We are alive and It's the Hurt. Wherever you may be and however you may be listening. Thanks for Megan.
I's part of your day.
My buddy John Middlecot part of the volume three and our podcast is joining us this week. Jane mackin is. I think he's doing a volleyball tournament in Scottsdale down in your home. Oh, I'm switch spots. Yeah, the war. It's a little warm. So I all want to be mister Buzzkill. I know, I stay off the phone right like, but I'm probably getting crush today because I just think we have to be honest, and I do think Oklahoma City is become another one of these teams where I'm kind of left watching it thinking, yeah, yeah, I guess they're the champ. It's roster construction, it's defense, it's depth. And I just got when Halliburton got hurt last night. It just was a gut punch. I felt so bad for him. I felt bad for me as a consumer. Just wasn't that interesting. So we do it every Monday. Where Colin was right, where Colin was wrong, and here we.
Go where Colin was right.
I said last week, five things I trust will happen in Game seven, and they mostly did. Oklahoma City's defense was great, Rick Carlile's coaching, I mean they let it half SGA got to the free throw line. And Okc's bench was very good. Young benches usually are at home, So I think this game Game seven. I don't know who would have won without Halliburton's injury, but I thought it was a fairly predictable sequence of events that would occur regardless of the winner. Where Colin was raw. I don't trust young playoff teams. In fact, the Bubble is the only time in my adult life where young teams flourished. And I had my questions about OKAC, Yeah, all right, they'll be great in the regular season, and they ended up being a very mediocre road playoff team. But they remained healthy, they were good at home. They won the games they had to against Indian Denver, and so I didn't know if this team was gonna win. I kept being told Colin, they're gonna mow through the West. Well they didn't mow through Indiana and they didn't mow through Denver. But I'll take a wrong where Colin was right, Kevin Durant to the Rockets. To me, this was the obvious fit. You know, Houston didn't have to give up a second first round pick, and now Phoenix is sort of ball centric, guard heavy. So I don't know what it looks like for Phoenix, but I do think he works here. And the Suns were three and seventeen when he didn't play. He's a get a bucket guy. He's agreeable, he can catch and shoot it, he's got length, and he's gonna give you about sixty sixty five games. But because of the construct of the Rockets roster, that's gonna be okay. So I like the move for KD where Colin was raw Team USA. How about this plus seven point differential? Number one in the Gold Cup so far surprising because I think without holistic and Weston McKinney. They lack creativity in the midfield, but the highest scoring team right now in the Gold Cup. What's interesting is we don't know what we're doing in goal, which is usually our strength as a country. They were distracted and kind of, to be honest, reeling before the Gold Cup. So I am surprised as the competition ratcheted up that they've scored and been this competent where Colin was right well, Multiple sources in an ESPN story reported around the NBA the Lakers selling to Mark Walter was going to help the Lakers become what I've been preaching for five years, a big time sports brand. Their very mom and pop. They're very Cincinnati Bengals with a much better brand, very small, insular. They need a fresh set of eyes and perspective. I think this was needed, and the ESPN article last week had multiple sources saying they've needed to graduate to the next level the billionaire club for several years.
Where Colin was raw well.
Shador Sanders immaturity and bad judgment. I'm selling my stock. It's not the end of the world, and nobody's saying it is. But when you're a fifth round marginal prospect at quarterback, the maturity position. You can't get caught speeding twice in a week, going over ninety miles an hour. You just lack the judgment and self awareness for a position fair or not that demands an adult and great decision making. At twenty four years old, he's a good quarterback prospect. He's not special, he's not great. He doesn't have a huge arm, he doesn't move like Josh Allener, Lamar Jackson or Tyler Murray. In the end, I overvalued him, overlooked some of the maturity stumbles, and now here we.
Are where Colin was right.
Dodgers Padres. We've been on this since last year in the playoffs. This is the best rivalry in sports. Maybe it is an unbelievable rivalry. They met last week. We had ejections, drama, suspensions. They were throwing at each other, the managers were bumping walk off home runs. This is everything a rivalry should be. There's a proximity geographically. Machado, the former Dodger is now a Padre. The Padres are a young and cocky. The Dodgers are winners and more established. All the great things that make a great sports rivalry. And that's a baseball series in June that had the feeling of a playoff series.
We said it last year.
This not the Yankees in Red Sox is must watch television. Where Colin was right. I've talked about that. Caitlin Clark isn't part of the the moment.
She is the moment.
Last week, Sophie Cunningham, who's been in the WNBA seven years, sold her jerseys out in a day and the three hundred and fifty thousand IG followers by just fouling somebody hard in support of Caitlin Clark. Sophie Cunningham's been around seven years, nobody paid much attention. Suddenly you can't keep her jersey's on the rack because she's just defending Caitlyn Clark. That is the definition of a transformative basketball player.
Caitlyn Clark is not part of it. She is the moment.
It is a Taylor Swift tour. I don't care who plays before and after. I don't care about anybody else on the label. It's all about Caitlyn Clark. Colin Wright, Colin wrong on a Monday. And with that, Rick Buker is now saddling in. He's gonna join us today. A perfect guest. I was mister buzz killing the opening segment. The soon were my goodness, I know, and listen, I'm happy for champions. It's a small market. It's like the Packers winning. Like you feel good for him, But we have seven years and this is now Adam Silver's NBA. If you'd never seen Okac play, and I said, there's this team. They have one elite scorer. He was awful from three point, had three bad games. Oh, their number two and three scores were no shows in multiple games. Oh, and they won. Yeah, can we be honest? Is roster construction and defense is what we'll remember this champion as.
No, I'll remember it as the youngest champion that we've ever seen. So all of those warts that you mentioned out mentioned which are legit, are a byproduct of that. And yes, the air was taken out of it when Tyrese Haliburton got like Unfortunately, we had our expectations for a game seven the way this series had gone back and forth. But the poison maturity that they showed throughout the playoffs in spite of their youth, impressed me. And yes, we're just getting introduced to these guys. And let's face it, Jake Ejes Alexander for an MVP and for I mean you just you just look at the at the at the body of this team like you don't have any personalities that jump out at you. Like they just don't have those dinings you don't have, Like I mean, Dylan Brooks would be like Ronald McDonald on this team, you just be like he'd be ne on right, Like they don't have They're just a bunch of nice guys winning a championship so young that the vast majority of them, I mean, Alex Caruzo is probably the biggest personality right in firms of just kind of presence in Ara. These guys didn't know how to open up champagne bottles.
That's how young they I I and I'm not criticizing him for it, but Chet Holmgren disappeared, Jada was all over the map. Generally that would signal you're in trouble.
Yeah.
Well, but let's keep in mind, prior to this year, which is what made this run such a surprise, they had never been past the second round. Like, this is a team full of guys, and I felt it. In Game six, they got the championship Jitters, they got question right, and they did in Game seven as well, in spite of the absence of Tyree, like there was suddenly in the I'm like, wait a minute, could the Pacers make a comeback in this? And here I experienced this with the San Antonio Spurs. I believe it's part of what happens in small markets is that it means so much to the fans there. And look, I'm not saying that the New York Knicks and the Lakers fans, but there's their condition expect big things, right, so when things go a little wobbly, they don't immediately go, oh, are we not going to get what we've always wanted our entire lives. Well, there is that vibe in the building, and teams, particularly young young teams, pick up on that. I saw the San Antonio Spurs go through the same thing. Their crowd would get so nervous that they would start to press and there were probably some games and some championships that they love they missed out on because they were affected by that crowd. I saw the same thing with Oklahoma City. But I am not taking anything away you It sounds like you are taking something away from first of all, because it wasn't entertaining enough.
No for the great Colin Cowen.
No the hell, I mean, listen, you put it out there. They I mean just they were an average road team in the playoffs. Their regular season attributes were deserved, but it largely was a young team playing with high energy and depth and you know his the Derrick Rose Bulls regular seasons reward the focused and energized. Sure, they were going to be a regular season juggernaut, just like I think Houston was a great regular season team.
But you knew they weren't going to get there.
Yeah, they didn't have enough shooting. I am not like my is you deserve it. I'm happy for you. But it felt small, and they felt like the Halliburton injury was a bit of a break because Indy was playing and Halliburton was playing. Yeah, totally on game early.
This would have felt different if the Boston Celtics had been there.
I think part of it was.
The yes, that's true, like that's right, felt from the very beginning like OKC was supposed to win this and a lot of people thought they would win it handled good didn't I didn't see it that way because you didn't that the Pacers had more you did than people gave them credit for. But so it felt And I think people are downgrading Oklahoma Cities championship now because they're like, it was the Indiana Pacers and you had to go to seven games to knock them out. But I still I'm going to look at the fact that they are so young and their regular season record had us all expecting them to get it done. I think they expected to get it done, but they had so little experience at this level.
The game six in Indy when they just laid an absolute egg was and that's when I kind of changed. I was like sure, I said on the air after that game, I'm like, Okay, these.
Are good teams.
Yes, I was still holding on him, like if they win in game six at Indye blow him out and I'm like, Okay, that's that's bad.
You know for a championship team. It feels like they have another step to take.
Oh god, no quote, they'll be much better next year. Well, home run, I don't know what I get from him.
Offensively, Yeah, I think he I mean, I think people discount the fact or don't take into account the fact that he's played as little as he has.
He's played one full season. He missed fifteen games this year.
Didn't you play one year at Gonzaga?
Yes, yeah, yes, so there's that.
But I don't I don't know if they're going to be back in the finals next year. I don't know how much better they're going to be next year, because I think we've we've automatically we looked at Denver and Milwaukee and Boston, the last three champions, and we're like, oh, this is the beginning of a run.
And that hasn't been the case for any of them.
Right.
I got fooled by Denver. I got fooled. I thought they were going to keep Brown in casep and and I thought they Michael Porters, I thought always a bit over value, by the way, So I ranked the last seven champions one through seven. You're already smirking. You already have.
This full disclosure. I've seen it ahead of time.
So Toronto again, I was.
Can I just ask a questions? No? No, go ahead, go ahead?
How much? What? No?
I'll ask it after you show it, because it'll it makes sense.
So you're going to push back. I think the Celtics have the best of I mean, Jalen Brown was their number two player. Nobody in OKC is as good as Jalen Brown consistently as a number two. I mean, Tatum and Brown are better than sgs. And I also think when Derek White, you're four, He's an elite defender and was a very consistent on when you can go to al your talent, talent Horford off the bench.
Yeah, in Trew Holiday, all of it pure talent. Boston Celtics better than this.
Lakers Lakers because Ad and their prime Lebron close to prime. What is that reaction? Who's wrong on that?
Nick Wright put this together? He had to have.
This is is there small type on the bottom and Nick Wright production? It has to be Look, I agree with you at the bottom of the list, but the fifth team should be the Los Angeles Lakers winning in an antiseptic environment.
We just talked about the Thunder. What's that that's harder no home court, no road.
You just talked about the Oklahoma City Thunder having to go through that. You have a an Anthony Davis and Lebron James who can't stay healthy through an entire season, and we're going to take three months off in the Benning. We're going to basically play two half seas and they win a championship off of that, and you're gonna put them at the top of the list. These Boston Celtics talent wise, are much better at their peak at that twenty twenty team Anthony Davis you said was prime Anthony Davis. I would push back on that a little bit, but let's say I'll go with you on that is prime Anthony Davis better than prime Nikola Jokicic in No, No.
Twenty twenty three.
Problem was with that Nuggets team. They didn't play any defense, a bad defensive team. The Clinkers were an exceptional defensive team and very good role players, a dominant big Lebron antiseptic basketball.
They were fighting COVID.
There were just so many variables that are so unusual that to put them number one, like I might even let.
You skate if you had them like third or fourth. But you have them. There's no Nick somewhere right now is going you tell them Colin, Well, we're good friends.
Okay, how about this?
Everyone to this point, everybody wants to pick a winner and a loser. Sons should have got sons now, just have a bunch of guard guards that want the ball in their hands. You know, it's Jalen Green, it's Bradley Beal, It's Booker, It's like it. But if the number ten pick can play and Jalen Green is productive, we'll see. I do feel like if you could have told me a player for Houston to grab, I would have said it. In the whole league, I would have said that guy, it feels like a perfect fit.
Yeah, it's considering what they gave up, which I don't think was a whole lot. Jalen Green got exposed in the playoffs as not being.
Your go to guy. Dylan Brooks.
You got to add into the equation in order to make the numbers work. And only one first round pick. I don't care about the second round picks. That felt like a consolation prize. But I think you're looking at it from the phoenix and.
In not a complete way.
I don't believe that Jalen Green and Dylan Brooks are long for.
That team, So I'm going to keep moving pieces.
What they got was movable pieces, and I can see a playoff team needing that last defensive firestarter type and that's going to get a Dylan.
Brooks or a young team that says, oh.
We can get a number two pick in Jalen Green who's still young, and the contract is right, Like, I see those as.
Additional first round picks.
They're they're in the process of dismantling the Phoenix Suns, and this was the best deal that they could make under the circumstances. I still think the ideal place for Kevin Durant would have been the Denver Nuggets, and I would have given up Jamal Murray to make that happen, because the idea of Nikolae Jokic being her orchestrator and Aaron Gordon and Kevin Durant flanking him. I'm sure what the what the Nuggets offered was Michael some package involving Michael Porter and Peyton Watson and a pick or whatever, and this was more attractive the Houston.
The Houston package was.
But if I'm Kevin Durant and I have my choice between the two, and Kevin did drive this.
I mean, it's why what it sounds.
Like, it's why they had to make the best deal possible. If I was Kevin, I would have been looking at Denver rather than Houston.
Yeah, and they also have enough length. He didn't have to play seventy five games. He didn't have to be he didn't have to be a rim protector. They got a lot of length and a lot of You.
Don't have to be a leader. That's exactly, don't have to be a leader.
He could be a score he gets that's when he's at his best.
But Emaodoka and Fred van Vliet and the culture that they have created, all he has to do is go in and do what he likes to do, which is to who.
So the draft is Wednesday, and uh, you know, I think this is a very strong domestic draft. There are people who have been following for years who say there are twelve players who have potential and the right fit could be all star level players. It does sound like a one of the Rutgers kids. The kid going Harper too, I think is really an interesting player. Don't know about the bigger kid. Doesn't have assist not a playmaker, not showing up to workouts. What are you hearing about the draft? Do you think there'll be movement because we see this in the NFL rick where you have weak draft. This past draft was a weak draft. This appears to be one of the stronger drafts in the last five years, and.
Depth wise, I don't know that there are any like franchise changers. There's probably going to be one, because.
There always is Cooper Flagg.
But I don't think.
He's a I don't think he's I think he's part of a core. I don't think he's your number one. Wow, I don't think he's a number one.
You don't think he's as good as Jason Tatum.
All the numbers that do forth in terms of exactly where Jason Jason Tatum is a number one with the right pieces around him, right, so he's more Can he kind of be that?
Yeah, I can put him in the Jason.
He's a more aggressive offensive player than Tatum and defender at this point.
He's Yes, I would agree with that.
He's got a little more nasty to those than Tatum, no question about that. I need to see how his the level of his athleticism, because I think that what he was able to get done at Duke and at the college level is because of his size and his length was such a significant advantage. He's big, but he's going to play that three four and you've got to be super quick and athletic to play that in today's game. I need to see whether his whether he has enough of that and the other The other part that always makes it a little nervous is that he already has a very refined game. His his skills are already at a really high level. How much better can he get in those categories?
I think that's going to be the question.
I think he's When I watched him at Duke, my takeaway was always, Wow, he's aggressive and he is long. Yes, he's a big, big kid. That's why it makes him a good defender. You can match up with me.
He knows how to use his length. So yeah, no, No, I like him as a two way player. Like if you were asking me, can he be the core of a championship team? Based on what I've seen, Sure, I think he has all the ingredients. Can he lead a championship team? That's what I would That's what I need to see, And I don't know if he has that elite athletic ability that is necessary to fit that.
Finally, I've been on this for years. The playoffs started April fifteenth, ten days before the draft, and they just wrapped up ten weeks. Is a long time. With a seventy six billion dollar deal, everybody's going to eat. We don't need seven game first rounders. We had eight achilles tears, three in the playoffs. The game now has more spacing, more movement, more herky jerky among greater athletes. Players don't play themselves into shape. I think the NBA has to look at these injuries and go, guys, and Baseball's done this and they've all worked. We do not need ten weeks the playoffs. We do not need seven game first rounders. You know these achilles terrorsts. That's an old man injury. That's a wear and tear injury.
Yeah, I one, I don't know that that's the solution.
I agree with you that the wear and tear, that this is a byproduct of the way the game is played now. It's more athletic than ever, it's more up and down. There is more stress. I would say that Tyrese Haliburton, the reason that he had that injury much the same way that KD was because they made a run to the Eastern Conference finals last year and they were in the finals this year, back to back years. The way the game is played now, when you have players that you rely on as much as the Pacers do in Tyrese Haliburton. In order to push the tempo, you open yourselves up to this.
I believe they.
Have to look at much like what OKC has done and in part what Indiana has done, is that your depth and versatility of your team is there. Your roster is the answer to being able to survive a season and a long playoff run.
The reason that I don't like the idea of shortening.
It is because I do believe that grind and enduring the season and the postseason is part of what makes you a champion, and we would be changing the metric in terms of how a championship team ultimately.
Paul, We don't care about the stats like that, do Le.
Honestly, I think that Lebron wants it to go to forty minutes because he knows that they will take everybody out of ever challenging any of his homers. So Shad, Yes, that was Shade. This is I'm getting back to the beginning. Was with your Lakers, your your Lakers take.
You always tell me you're such a Lebron fan. It sounds like it.
I think the rosters. I think the rosters that's a whole another subject. I think the roster. They have to accept that the rosters need to be expanded, and that gms have to do a better job of understanding the way the game's played. We have to do what oka CE in Indiana did, which is we have to get into the idea that we're going to play nine and ten man.
Rots in the playoffs, which has never been Yes.
I think the reason you saw the last two teams standing was because of how they approached it.
Yeah, great stuff, Rick Buker, I love my list. Lakers number one.
Oh my god,
