Hour 1 - The Thunder win the title

Published Jun 23, 2025, 9:05 PM

Colin 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

The NBA playoffs are too long and the injuries seem to show us that

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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 defend him 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 okac'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 Cup, 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 and 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 night wanting 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 have 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 didn't, 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 length around him. So Kevin does and 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 where 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 Steph, you know what is he kind of a wander. I think Kevin Durant's game, his talent. He was the number one mid range shooter 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 reckingd 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 hoving.

People are going to hold on to that dictate what you want to do. Did you have a hand in this?

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, Uh yeah again.

Everybody wants to pick a side on trades, winner and loser. If Katie remains healthy, Houston's gonna 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 Katie 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, No, 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. Yeah, 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 sure late, but you cross your 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.

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He's still moving.

It's great to be back, John Middlecoff joining me today. Don't forget in the forty minutes from now, where Colin was right where Colin was wrong. Rick Buker, Alexi Lawless stops by. He's all fired up, so listen. I'm like you, I've sat around all day. I thought, okay, you don't get many game sevens. I thought the Indiana Pacers were an amazing story. It's one of the craziest playoff runs. They were underdogs to Milwaukee. They were supposed to get rolled by Cleveland. They weren't gonna beat the Knicks. They even sold game one of the finals in Okac. It's just you don't get stuff like this. And then Tyrese Halliburton, this incredibly likable guy and is kind of crazy dad. Sometimes he was along for the ride and then he gets hurt and you're like, oh, you can't beat Okac with one ball handler and just TJ McConnell.

But last night was a real gut punch. It was hard to stomach.

And this was the eighth achilles tear this year in the NBA, most ever, and the third in the playoffs, most ever. The NBA is on notice shorten the playoffs. They started two weeks before the draft the NFL draft. The NBA is faster, there's more spacing, there's way more movement. Players are just moving more. It's twitchier. When you can see his achilles flop. Oh, it's gutting. An Achilles tear used to be what old guys did at fifty eight playing handball. It was an old guy injury. It wasn't for twenty year olds. That tells you everything. And baseball, for the record, has made multiple tweaks in the.

Last three years.

The sport has greatly benefited the NFL tweaks in season. We love the NFL. The NBA has never been a stubborn league. Move off seven game playoff series until you get to the finals.

MJ.

The most popular to the league ever was five games in the first round. Maybe you can do conference finals at seven. But the NBA just got a seventy six billion dollar TV deal. The billionaires are gonna be okay without another home game. Everybody's gonna eat. Adam's gonna eat the owners are gonna eat, the players, the coaches. Seven to eight figures everywhere these early round seven games. When you look at these injuries, the achilles injury, it's a wear and tear injury. You're just fatigued, you're tired, you're pushing it. Like they always say, you know, you tear the achilles on the last ski run of the day, or as you get older, you're an old guy and you're pushing it. That's where this usually happens. So next year, think about this. Two of the most captivating players that we argue about, Jason Tatum of the Celtics won't play next year, and now Tyree's Haliburton because the lateness of this injury, probably will not play next year. You're gonna tell me the Eastern Conference I don't get Tatum and I don't get Haliburton.

You think that's good for the league?

I was thinking watching this injury, I'm thinking, you know who really benefited in the East this year, Orlando and the Knicks by getting knocked out earlier, they'll have a healthy roster.

So I just look at this.

College basketball in March gets bigger ratings than the NBA often gets in the playoffs. Why urgency make the games matter. I'm not asking for one and done, But when you're seeing eight injuries in three tears over a course of a season, these are the worlds, are the world's best athletes. They're in incredible shape. Very few of these guys play themselves into shape. They come in finely tuned, and the NBA should not be a war of attrition once again, think about this, the NBA Playoffs. The playing tournament started April fifteenth. Okay, fourth of July is around the corner. These things are too long. It doesn't take ten weeks to realize. Yeah, that team that dominated the regular season also ended up winning the NBA Championship. If a team can win in five, they're good enough. If you're losing in five, you're not good enough. And so I think Rick Carlisle highly emotional after. I think on a more personal level, but on a level for all of us, you kind of felt like, oh, you felt a little cheated yesterday. The Ola Garks and the billionaires have a seventy six billion dollar or contract coming. They can give a couple of games back. Here's Rick Carlisle.

After what happened with tyresee is uh, it's just all of our hearts dropped, but he will be back. He authored one of the great individual playoff runs in the history of the NBA, with dramatic play after dramatic play. It was just something that no one's ever seen.

Uh, and and nobody wants to see again. How it ended again. The NBA and most of these leagues. You know, we always thought baseball was the stuffy sport, unwilling to change. And Rob Manfred has stepped up and made change after change, and they've all worked. Baseball is much easier to watch two hour, thirty five minute games. The game flies by. It's really made baseball. It's given it a bit of a renaissance. And I say that as a guy that for about fifteen years stopped talking baseball. It was too slow. None of the kids in my house wanted to watch baseball.

It was soccer.

That's not the case anymore. The games are faster. The NBA needs to act quickly succinctly shave playoff games. We don't need ten weeks. Here's John Middlekoff with the news.

No, no turn on the news. This is the Herdline News.

Well, Colin, Caleb Williams, and Ben Johnson head into their first season together, with obviously Ben coming over from the Lions this offseason. Speaking at the Fanatics Fest yesterday, Caleb was up there with Peyton and Eli. He discussed how that his relationship with his new head coach has grown this offseason.

It's been awesome. Ben Johnson.

He uses some choice words every day towards me.

He's tough.

I loove him, He's awesome. It's been great Bay around and we hang out in his office and just you know, we have watched some times things like that, and just you know, O this bonding relationship to be able to you know, last a while.

I think it's interesting because I and you and I have talked about this privately and on our podcast, is that offensive coaches in this league are better with old lines. If you look at the highest rated O lines the last ten, seven eight years, most are offensive coaches.

If you look at some of the worst.

Old lines, it's often New York Giants excluded defensive coaches McVeigh, Andy Reid. They can fix offensive lines quickly. The Steelers have been trying to rework theirs for years. The first thing Ben Johnson did is fix the interior O line. And I thought, regardless of what happens this year, and regardless of Caleb Williams, is good enough. Ben came from Detroit and went Joe Tooney Drew Dolman, the Rams guard. He's like, I got to protect this guy's feet. And so you know, as somebody you are a scout in this league. I don't know if Caleb Willi will be a star, but that that initial move in free agency by Ben Johnson told me he's got because that's what McVeigh did in LA with Goff left tackle, fix the interior a line. So I actually have a lot of confidence in a team that I shouldn't.

Yeah, I mean this was a head coach.

How often do we see now guys that get at these opportunities not jump immediately.

We just saw Liam Cohen. Ben Johnson was kind of the opposite of that.

He waited he I mean, remember he kind of hung up the phone as Washington was flying to him. Turns out that was a pretty good job. I think the key for a lot of these young offensive coaches. Remember when McVeigh got to the Rams, Kyle got to the Niners, run the ball, even Lafleur when he got to the Packers, they started Aaron, You're not just going to carry us on your back. Kayleb's been used to that. That's how he played with USC. It's not going to work in the NFL that way. So I think they got to get him under control. The roster's pretty good. The problem though, Colin Division. The schedule is not easy. Side good luck to these two.

Yeah, I mean we I said this last year.

Minnesota ended up having a great year, but I said if Minnesota finished in fourth place, it would be the most dynamic fourth place team you'll ever see. I kind of feel like Chicago doesn't have Detroit roster.

They don't.

They don't have the continuity and the momentum of green Bay. And do they have the coach of Minnesota.

So I don't know.

You know, I feel like if I said to you today ten and seven, would you take that in Yes, you would take it.

If you're a Bears fan or Ben Johnson or kaylet can.

This is the hard part about this job. No Dallas winnderstand why. It's a tough job. But they have won a lot since winning the Super Bowl. They just haven't won that often in the playoffs, but they've been in the playffs life.

This Bear's team, beside the Erlacker run now for about fifteen has been not very good. And obviously, you know Aaron Rodgers, Minnesota has had a lot of good teams over that time. Now, Detroit, I would say Detroit healthy second best roster in the NFC behind Philadelphia. So it's just it's diffic and the pressure. I mean, you're there a lot now that that market. It's it's a football town. The expectations and the results don't exactly match up.

So's tough job for these too.

No listen, since May, there's two topics in Chicago now, the Cubs and the Bears. Like that is the topic. Everybody is interested. So but you know those Caleb said this when he went there. Chicago cares about sports. It's fun to be in those markets.

For sure. This is a cool story. Sean McVeigh and the Rams.

They made an unusual decision this offseason, holding their mandatory mini camp in Maui. Players were encouraged to bring their families with them, and McVeigh talked about what it meant for the team's bun.

It's about connection and being able to get some time. It's cool to be able to you know, really, for me, meet a lot of these guys families that maybe I haven't met quite yet, or see their wives or girlfriends or their.

Kids, and so that's been a really cool thing so far.

This is about being able to get some good quality time with each other and then being able to use the platform that we're blessed with to be able to give back to a community that went through some similar things that we can all understand and kind of empathize with.

It's really remarkable. This feels a little different than a previous coach we dealt with.

Do you think that Lombardy, Parcels or Belichick would have taken this team to Honolulu and play a little golf?

I don't.

I don't know this to me, screams though twenty twenty five, it's got it all. NFL a business deal with nowI tourism. You know, very player family, senters McVeigh. Young kind of has a collegiate feel to him. I mean I saw pictures of you know, Whitworth's along for the trip, DeVante Adams, They're playing golf.

Everyone's wife went.

You know.

The NFL is a little different than you know, definitely the one I grew up in the nineties and even the two thousands. It's very player centric. It's not the NBA, but it's it's a different version of you know, management. They control everything you got to give it and they have a young team Colin and the expectations are pretty high.

So a lot of good vibes right now. Mcde well.

And I also think you've asked the players to play another game. You're probably going to ask them to play an eighteenth game, and you're now asking teams to regularly play overseas, and the league's never had more revenue. So to me, you know, we've all had bosses. When the bosses are making a lot of money, I'm always okay with it. Spread the wealth a little bit, and so I think in the you know, John, the other thing with all the new cbas there's just less hitting it practice, and I think there were certain cliches.

We've always grown up with that.

But the more and more you read about studies, they're like, if kids don't start hitting till they're thirteen or fourteen for football, they're.

Going to be just fine.

And you don't need you don't need a ton of hitting in these ota in mini camp.

Do you remember when the CBA changed, I think in twenty eleven.

Yeah, Harbaugh and Pete Carroll got in a little trouble in the offseason because they were being a little too aggressive on defense.

Those days are done.

The off season is really about hanging out, being with your crew, go into hockey and basketball games and you know, getting to know your new team because we.

Have so much turnover now in the NFL.

YEP, agree, Okay, this one's interesting because your guy Sam Darnold is now in Seattle after an incredible season with the Minnesota Vikings.

It did not end very well.

Remember the Vikings went fourteen to two and looking to win the division, but ended up losing their final game and they got completely outplayed by the Rams in that wildcard game in Arizona.

Donald has been open about how.

He played too close, how he played to close out the season, saying, we laid an egg as an offense.

You know, here's the thing though, let me defend them. So they lost in Detroit, right, that was one of the games, biggest game in Detroit probably at okay ye, that was my argument, John I said, guys, this is the biggest game in Detroit. You were not winning that game. Now, it was uglier than you want. You were not winning that game. It's also a division rival. Those are hard games, and the Rams game again because it's back to back, is easy to pick on. But by the end of last year, Jared Verse was becoming a top five defensive player in the league. That Ram defense, because of its youth, from week three to week fifteen was a different defense. This team had Philadelphia beat in Philadelphia. So Darnold goes to Detroit and he didn't play well. And then that Rams team in the snow is the only team in the playoffs where you felt, oh, Philadelphia is in trouble. We have to give some credit to the Lions and the Rams. They are Those were tough spots for that offensive line in Minnesota.

And I think if Kevin O'Connell could get a redo, you know, I think there are two different versions. You and I talk a lot about this about the young crew, the Laflores, obviously, Kyle. They like to run the ball Arthur Smith up up in Pittsburgh, Kevin, and rightfully so, because it worked most of the year, throw that ball, baby, well when it's not working well. Who's the offensive coordinator in Seattle Kubiak?

Where's Kubak come from?

Shannon?

He's basically a Shanahan family member.

They're gonna try to run the ball slow down the game because when you get in positions when you're down a couple scores. How many quarterbacks Josh Allen Patch Mahomes, Matt Stafford. Still there's only a couple guys who can really carry you in that environment.

Yeah, I agree. I think Johnolan's gonna play well.

I think their team pretty good on paper, you know, I mean, they got a lot of good young talent. People will act like Seattle because they haven't been the playoffs last couple of years. They're not winning four or five games. They won ten games last year. Colum we just said the Bears would sign up for ten and seven. Seattle went ten and seven. So it shows you the NFC was a little top heavy, but it was actually pretty deep last year.

They don't have the.

Quarterbacks, but they have a lot of good teams, a lot of good coaches. I'm pretty high on Seattle coming into this season.

Well, if JJ McCarthy hits, so you have a Caleb, you have a Jaden, you have a JJ McCarthy Pennix. The reason the AFC separated from the NFC they hit on quarterbacks. Yeah, like three years in a row they hit on all their quarterbacks. If this quarterback class is as good as that, like Herbert Joe Burrow to a one, We're gonna look up at the end of this year go. The gap between the AFC and the NFC, especially with the rebirth of Darnald and Baker, it's pretty close.

A lot of good coaches in the NFC, a lot of young offensive hot shots. I think Mike McDonald if he was an offensive guy, we would talk about him like McVeigh or Kyle. So Dan Campbell's turned into, you know, the version of the Hardball Brother. He's like the third Harrorball Brother. So really really good coaching. I think in the NFC they might not have the quarterback star power, but the high end coaching is pretty impressive.

John Middlecoff with the news.

Well, that's the news, and thanks for stopping by The Herd Line News.

Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays and noon Easter nine am Pacific.

Bryson, Keepka, Rom, Phil and DJ, some of the biggest names in golf are headed for the Texas Shootout and Live Golf Dallas. Catch coverage of around one Friday at two pm Eastern and around two Saturday at three point.

Thirty all one f By the way, Chicago's getting a tournament. People are already talking about it up there, so they got big stars, so you know, I. As I started the show today, I was thinking, I don't want to be mister negative oka 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 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 oh 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 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 Holiday 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, but 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 Clay and 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 Jokich is the best player in the world. 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 get 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, really 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 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 Lakers 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 Caitlin's 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 as 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 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 WNBA is 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 the WNBA.

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 an arbor, were awe struck by what they saw, and word was traveling really fast. John, we're going to our number two. Colin right, Colin wrong. Rick Bucker stops byes the hurt

The Herd with Colin Cowherd

The Herd with Colin Cowherd is a thought-provoking, opinionated, and topic-driven journey through th 
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