Jesse Aron
Appearances
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
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The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
They run up the floor, and I think it was 2-0-4 left in the game. They're down by 11 at this point. They sprint up the floor and run a Halliburton-Ben Shepard pick and roll with like 20 on the shot clock. And I guarantee you, the Knicks... we're not ready for a Ben Shepard.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
Ben Shepard was even in the game until like three minutes before Ben Shepard slips the screen, catches a pass on the move, kicks it to knee Smith. And it's like, what, what just happened? Ben Shepard? Like, I think the Pacers deserve a lot of credit for foisting those breakdowns on the Knicks. And at the same time, After the second Neesmith three, you've got to be like, we've got to tighten up.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
What is our coverage on this stuff? What are we doing? And the Knicks defense just was not good enough in regulation. And at the end of overtime, that's where, to me, they lost the game. And the Pacers deserve a lot of credit for that, too.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
I honestly don't even remember off the top of my head.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
And then I don't really know what happened. I woke up at home. I got home somehow. Aaron Neesmith hit a thousand threes. Tyrese Halliburton hit an absolutely iconic shot that everyone thought was a three, except Kenny the Jetsmith, apparently. And it was a two. And even Tyrese Halliburton thought it was a three. And he wouldn't have made the choke sign if he thought it was a two.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
Well, they did foul him. He got fouled twice and they didn't call it.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
It's incredible that the top and dunk – on which the Knicks don't foul intentionally, but do foul him at the rim, like blatantly.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
And he should get an and one. And if he makes the free throw, it's a four-point game and it's over. And he doesn't get a free throw. And then Rick Carlisle does not foul up three. And the Knicks get two great looks, given the situation at the basket, Brunson and then Towns, and miss both of them.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
the top and non-call into those missed threes is like the 18th craziest thing that happened in the game. In most games, that's the craziest thing that happens, and that was not even in the top 10.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
We haven't even talked about the most underrated crazy sequence of the game, and boy, am I looking forward to the last two-minute report, because despite all this, despite the collapse in regulation, despite all of it, the Knicks go up four in overtime about two minutes in, Andrew Nebhart draws cat on a switch, beats him off the dribble, help comes. He bounces it to Miles Turner at the foul line.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
Miles Turner just drops the ball, drops the ball down for Jalen Brunson, run out, lay up. And damned if I am not 100% sure, Miles Turner blocks it at the backboard. Is it a goaltend? Is it not a goaltend? TNT only showed one angle of it. And I know for a fact that they are now looking at every angle that they have to see for the last two-minute report what it should have been.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
And he told me after the game, he was a little chagrined. And I was like, well, at that point, you better win the goddamn game at overtime. He's like, yeah, I know. And the Pacers do it again. The win probability chart Pacers do it again. The Knicks collapse. The Pacers come back. I'm the only one, me and Mike Vorkanoff from the Athletic are the only ones left on press row.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
I don't know what it's going to say. Have you rewatched it?
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
If you had to force me to bet money, I'm betting money it was a goaltend. Almost nobody was even talking about that play after the game. And then, so the Knicks could go up six. Instead, Nembhard hits a three in transition to cut it to one. That might be the single most important moment of the entire game. I'm going to bet the last two-minute report says it was a missed goaltend.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
They can't review it. The refs can review it voluntarily if they call a goaltend. If they call nothing, they can't review it. If they call nothing, there's nothing to challenge if the Knicks had a challenge, which they didn't. I just think that frozen moment is going to get lost. Now, the bitter Knicks fans, it won't get lost with them.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
That happens so fast, and the Nebhard three comes, and I'm like, what? It was one of those moments where you're watching, and you're like, wait, what just happened? Can we stop for a second? What the hell just happened? What a swing.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
There are a couple other things I just want to say about the feeling of the game and the feeling of these Pacers who are beginning, even among hardcore basketball analytically minded people, beginning to give off a vibe of like, is this just a destiny season? Like, is this just is this is going to keep going like this? Number one, the Halliburton shot.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
It bounces so high that it's off the television screen. You can't see the ball for like a split second. That's how high it goes. And it bounces back down. and perfectly through the center of the rim, like you could not script a cleaner path through the net. And we were all standing at that point. And maybe it's because we're all trained by the Kawhi shot in 2019.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
When that thing hit the rim and went up, There was not one ounce of my soul who was ready to book it as a miss. I'm like, I am watching this like a hawk the whole way through. And the other thing I'm watching like a hawk, these fucking pacers, excuse my, not excuse my language. These fucking pacers have me watching for free throw lane violations. Like I'm a goddamn tennis line judge.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
Like every free throw late in the game. I'm like zeroed in on all the guys. Is there a lane violation? Who's boxing out? Who it's just, these games are just insane. This is the craziest one of three, but all three, I mean, they tweeted something. I got to find the tweet. There's the record.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
And I turned to him and I swear to God, he'll verify it. When Ananobi goes to the line, Up, what are they, up one? I don't even, like, up one at the end of the game. I told him, I said, he's not going to make both. He's going to make one out of two. Halliburton sprints up and makes that shot. They win in overtime.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
They're like, they have three of the four wins in NBA history out of thousands and thousands and thousands of games where you're down X with X left.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
He just laughed.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
Let's also take a second to remark on the fact that down to Halliburton drove into the lane, saw Mitchell Robinson and did just a straight up U-turn. Just like, you know what? Fuck this. I'm going for three. Just a straight up U-turn.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
direct 100 360 degree u-turn backwards like you don't see NBA players just go backwards a lot and it was like I'm just shooting a three and I there was no part of me that thought it was a two I thought it was a three in real time from way up in my perch I was like this is the most unbelievable shot I've ever seen I didn't even see him do the choke sign because um because I'm too far up to see it.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
And look, I guess there was like, Rick Carlisle pseudo defended him for using the choke sign and said, Tyrese has earned the right to the, like, is anyone mad that he used the choke sign?
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
And that ain't even, well, it is the craziest part, but there's more craziness in overtime. Chris Mannix, have you recovered? Do you, like, do you believe, like, do you believe what you witnessed? That's the craziest game I've ever been to.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
Can we also let Tyrese's father back into the games? Because if the Pacers are going to be doing this and Tyrese, his son, is going to be making shots like this, let him back into the game. Let him back into the game.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
It was a little embarrassing. Let him back in the games.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
Jermaine O'Neal dropped fake turtle in Detroit. Your cold logic is probably correct. Before we move on to what comes next, any other memories from this game or things that stood out from the game itself? Or before we move on from game one and look a little bit ahead to game two, is there anything else you want to say about this game?
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
We do have to talk about... I agree. We do have to talk about one more thing, which is... Tibbs' decision to foul up three, starting with 12.1 seconds left in the game. It's a three-point game after Kat misses a second free throw timeout. Pacers inbound the ball. And now I'm sitting there like, are they going to foul? Is it too early to foul? I'm generally like eight seconds is my borderline.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
Dagnall got hammered for this, including by me in game one of the Thunder Nuggets series. And with 12.1 seconds left, they start to play the foul game. Neesmith makes two out of three. Then they inbound the ball. Ananobi gets fouled with seven seconds left. And there we go. Then Tyrese makes his shot. Was that too early for you? What did you think of that?
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
Also, not even in the top 20 of crazy things that happened. During that entire sequence, when the Pacers fouled Cat intentionally, the Knicks almost threw the inbounds pass away. And then before the Pacers fouled Ananobi intentionally, Jalen Brunson almost threw it away trying to save it off of a Pacers person in a double team. And it hit nobody and bounced high in the air right to Ananobi.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
And you're like, oh my God, what is happening?
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
I'm going to contradict myself a little bit and say this. I didn't mind the decision to foul up three. And I can hear the Thunder fans saying, well, I don't understand. Why did you mind Dagnall doing it with a little bit more time, but not much more time? A couple of reasons. Number one, the Nuggets are a horrible three-point shooting team.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
And the Pacers are an incredible shot-making team from everywhere on the floor. And I'm absolutely terrified of them getting a game-tying three, even at home. Number I'm not saying I love the decision, but I understood and didn't mind it. Number two, part of the criticism I had of Dagnall was the second foul up three with like 10 seconds left.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
Jokic was stuck on the bench with no way to get back into the game. That was my primary beef with that one. I understood it. I don't I don't love fouling up three that I mean, I was surprised the Pacers didn't foul up three late in the game. It almost cost them. But anyway, OK. I guess we got to talk about game two because the series is still going on.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
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The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
What are you going to look for in game two other than have the Knicks come out? Is there any adjustments? Is there anything you have in mind?
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
78 combined points for those two guys. 78 combined points.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
Yeah, both teams, I mean, it was an offense, the offensive ratings are off the charts. These are two teams whose offenses are better than their defenses. And for the first time, really in the whole playoffs, almost the Knicks offense looked pretty comfortable against the Pacers defense. I thought both teams, hunted there was it was almost like a mirror image kind of series where you know
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
Each offense is going to hunt the opposing point guard fairly relentlessly. The Knicks hunting Halliburton. The Pacers hunting Brunson. Actually, I think the Knicks could probably hunt Halliburton a little bit.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
119, 105, Jalen Brunson stepped back three. I'm like, I got the play by play up. I have to have it up.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
So here are some numbers according to the tracking data. Halliburton was defending the screener on the pick and roll nine times and defending the ball handler on a pick and roll only five times. Now they obviously have him hiding on Hart and Bridges, and which of those he's hiding on is critical. It was more towards Hart at the end of the game.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
which prevents Miles Turner from guarding Hart, which is an adjustment I keep waiting on for one of them to crack on who's guarding center, but we'll get there. So that's 14 combined pick and rolls defended. I actually think that that undersells the degree to which the Knicks went at Halliburton.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
Cause I think they're missing some screens, but also like when he was on bridges, they posted up bridges a few times. They ran some off ball actions with Brunson and bridges that kind of flummoxed the Pacers and got some good scores on cuts and all that. Brunson,
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
had to defend 23 pick and rolls as the screener defender and 12 more as the ball handler defender so that's 35 compared to 14 for halliburton and as you said like it's not just halliburton like brunson really likes the nemhart matchup and is hunting that one too um so but i so i think that's indicative of like the knicks could dial that up a little bit but again offense wasn't the problem um
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
the who cracks first on the pick and pop center thing is another sort of mirror image matchup. Um, just like in the regular season matchups for the most part, Miles Turner guarded cat and cat guarded miles Turner. And, you know, the teams are still negotiating. How do we want to handle pick and pop jump shots? Um, For the most part, they didn't really do anything dramatic.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
There was a few late switches here or there. There was a few times where the Pacers would send a third guy flying into Towns' vision or the Knicks would send a third guy flying into Turner's vision. I think both teams would be on the lookout for that. Both teams set a lot of those picks super high on the floor, like a lot of half-court picks to try to get the defense backpedaling and confused.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
But I still think at some point, one of these teams is going to crack And the Knicks are going to put towns on Siakam or towns on knee Smith, or the Pacers are going to put Turner on heart, which again is more complicated because that means Halliburton's guards got to guard somewhere else. I think the offenses are going to like what I'm fascinated by which team breaks first in that regard.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
And the last thing, uh, Robinson Towns, just seven minutes together in the game, plus 12 and seven minutes. I understand that Tibbs is probably like, we cannot put ourselves at a speed deficit against this team. But Robinson is such a monster on the glass against a team that is absolutely paranoid about its rebounding. Again, more Robinson Towns comes at the expense of one of their core players.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
I felt that was not quite enough of that.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
Um, Yeah, I mean, just the offensive rebounding is a major area of concern for the Pacers. The Knicks had 13, I think, last night, which they will live with if that's what it ends up being. I always want more Siakam involvement when it gets into the half court. He looked very comfortable posting up Bridges and Hart, and they can get those switches. Anybody but Ananobi, basically.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
He looked super comfortable. I'd go at Brunson, whatever inverted pick and rolls, whatever. I always... I always liked that when the Pacers do that. And, you know, there are some other, other little things here or there, but this is an offensive oriented series. It was an offensive oriented first game. And, uh, it's just, I, I, I, I expected a long series. I expected a crazy series.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
I expected a dramatic series. I did not expect that. That was, we may, we may never see a game. I may never see a game in person like that again. And I was like acutely aware of it during the game.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
There is, as Toronto fans know all too well, a fun Toronto Raptors what-if coursing through these entire playoffs. I mean, even Van Vliet having some big games for the Rockets. And, you know, look, the Raptors...
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
kind of bailed out of that team in some ways, maybe prematurely in some ways, I thought they waited a little too long once they made the decision and the trade return wasn't as strong as it was.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
There's an interesting discussion to be had about, did they get a little over exuberant about a over exuberant about building everything around Scotty Barnes right away and be over paranoid about the next contracts for the end and OBC outcome Van Vliet group. Cause those guys are all very good players. maybe you can't keep three of them. And if you keep two of them, what's the point?
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
Like, where are we going? I, you could, you could explain it all the way. And if next year goes much better than expected for the Raptors and they're healthy and quickly has a big year, et cetera, like this will all be forgotten about, but Raptors is a tough watch right now for Raptors fans. It's a lot of, a lot of good memories slash like, like longing nostalgia. Yeah.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
Any parting thoughts, Chris Mannix? Have you recovered yet? Do you feel like you're going to need a nap today? What do we got?
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
Well, look, I mean, I could compare it to Milwaukee, Indiana, round one, Cleveland, Indiana, round two, but I wasn't at either of those games. It's funny because even my dad texted me and he said that has to be the most exciting game that you've ever been to. And it was almost so bizarre that it wasn't as exciting as you would think it was until the moment when it became really exciting.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
And by that, I mean, like, forget the stakes for a second. Like Warriors-Cavs game seven, the score was so close for so long and insane.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
this that every single moment was tense for a long time this the score was so lopsided and with such little time left that the first couple of knee smith threes you're like oh that's weird like that's happening okay what's what's going on here and like your excitement had to catch up to the actual excitement level of the game like it wasn't i wasn't like feeling super tense until
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
Maybe the free throws with Kat at the line. I was like, all right, now this is real. It was just a bizarre set of emotions for me as just guy on press row, let alone someone fucking playing in the game. Oh, my God.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
No, I think it's one of those decisions like, you know, once you've made it, you've made it. You can't break up with a girl and then two days later be like, hey, I think I made a mistake. Can you take me back? Because then you're going to miss too much. It's going to take too long to get up there. You got to just watch the game. Okay, Chris Mannix, SI.com. Read him.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
Listen to him on OpenFloor a lot. If you like boxing, he's your guy too. I don't really follow boxing, but every once in a while I pepper you with a question. Thanks for your time, buddy, and I'll see you next time.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
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The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
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The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
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The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
Let's bring in a man that I have referred to before as the best to ever do it, the most important basketball analyst of the modern era, John Hollinger of The Athletic, my old friend, my old colleague. I'm not going to lie to you, John. The assignment today was let's each pick three teams that general classification was we sped by them a little too fast after they got eliminated.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
We threw them out of the playoff car, left them on the side of the road, didn't really think so hard about their postseason, offseason dilemmas. And I want to go back now that we only have one game and revisit. And then the Knicks Pacers game happened. And I can't lie to you. My brain is somewhere in the bowels of Madison Square Garden.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
So if I suggest to you that the Kings should look into trading Jason Thompson for a protected first-round pick or something like that, just bear with me because it's been a hell of a 24 hours, my friend. How are you doing? I'm doing great. I'm still recovering from that game as well. Oh, my God. Okay.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
I'm going to make the first draft pick in our offseason because I'm greedy and I want to make sure we get to this team. And I'm not sure that you picked them. Okay. So, again, the idea is teams that were eliminated play in or play offs. And we just forgot about them. And we want to give them a little attention because they have some interesting dilemmas. My first pick is the Sacramento Kings.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
Okay. They have... You know, ironic that we're bringing them up today after Tyrese Halliburton hits yet another iconic shot. Because you might remember, John, the Kings used to have an abundance of point guards.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
A plethora of point guards. Now they have kind of none, depending on how you classify Malik Monk and Keon Ellis and Devin Carter, the guy that they drafted and who barely got into rotation after injury. They have Domanis Sabonis looking around like, So do I play for the Bulls now? Or is this the Kings? What's going on? Do I want to be here with all these years left on my contract?
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
I have a couple of free agents. They have a key on Ellis team option decision. They have a Zach Levine place for the Kings. Did you forget that Zach Levine now plays for the Kings? Cause I kind of did extension decision. They just fired their coach mid season, hired a new coach, total front office turnover. Scott Perry is involved. All of a sudden, Vlade Divac might be involved.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
Jeremy lamb is just lurking somewhere. Yeah. what is this team doing? What are they going to do? What's interesting to you about my Sacramento Kings? Yeah, my Sacramento Kings.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
Vivek is an interesting NBA character. Always keeps you on your toes in Sacramento. How long do you think, do you think their search for Scott Perry as GM or whatever his title is, was longer than the Bulls' search for Fred Hoiberg as coach all those years ago? Like, do you think they scoured the Japanese league for the best up-and-coming front office executives before landing on Scott Perry?
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
Ooh, a Grizz reference from my old Grizz buddy. Okay, so here's where we are. The Kings, you're better at the cap stuff than I am. And also, again, my brain is somewhere up in the air with the basketball on Tyrese Halliburton's last shot last night in regulation. The Kings are somewhere around $20 million below the luxury tax with nine guys under contract. So probably a little bit less than that.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
They've got a deal key on Ellis. They've got some free agents, Trey Lyles, LaRavia, who they're very limited in resigning. They owe their pick to Atlanta. They owe a 31 swap to the Spurs, but they have a 27 pick unprotected from the Spurs and a 31 pick unprotected from Minnesota, which was the real gem of the De'Aaron Fox trade, the second point guard out the door.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
And they have Sabonis on the books now through 2027, 2028 at almost $50 million that year. I just like, what, what, they have the Keegan Murray extension decision. That's going to be a big number, whatever it ends up being. Should it be? I mean, like they're all, it's always a big number, right?
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
Like big is, I don't know how big, but is it going to be, if you had to go over under 29 and a half million starting salary, what are you going to predict?
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
I'm not saying should, I'm saying what is it going to be? Hmm.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
I mean, he was, I think, the biggest casualty of the DeRozan acquisition. And I've had multiple front office executives from other teams over the last year be like, Again, he's a little bit of a polarizing player, but be like, I think that guy's good, and he's just kind of lost now there. He doesn't have a clear role offensively.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
He's less involved with the Sabonis two-man game than he was even a year ago. But I just think guys get paid. Big lottery picks who are successful, and he's been relatively successful, three-point shot up and down. They just generally get high numbers. But I'm just more like...
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
I was, look, I've been wrong about a lot of stuff as we always are, right? I was famously on Aaron Neesmith Island when he was in Boston to the point that in the first Boston Heat series of this post-bubble era, like 22, I don't remember what year it was. He wasn't playing. He got in like one game and blocked Tyler Hero at the rim and blah, blah. I was in Miami for a game
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
What's the pathway for this team to actually be... I mean, in a Western Conference, it just gets better and better every year. I just don't... I don't even know what this... It had an identity. The Beam team had an identity. The identity was maybe going to top out with a first-round playoff win at some point.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
I will go to my basketball analysis grave saying that they would have won that series against Golden State if Fox's finger had been healthy toward the end of the series. But it wasn't, and they lost. But it was at least something, something that could attract fans, something that people could enjoy.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
Now I just don't even know what the team is other than like the Bulls 2.0 except Sabonis instead of Vucevic.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
Well, I have a bunch of fake Sabonis trades teed up. Should we do? I mean, but like before we do that.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
They're just going to keep throwing stuff at the wall. And like, you know, this again, better than I do, but if they re-sign Murray for a big, a even decent number, if they bring back Keon Ellis, you know, let's say 10 a year, Keon Ellis is good. Like I think he should have played more last year. Yeah. And you factor in their draft pick next season. Yeah.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
And, you know, if they use like the MLE in any of these off seasons or they re-sign Lyles or whatever, like they're going to be butting up against the tax in 26, 27. Like, and that's like a typical thing you see with all these teams who are kind of mediocre and wandering purgatory. And you do their caption. You're like, my God, they're going to be like right at the tax in two years.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
And like, nobody wants to be that for a team. That's, I mean, you just compared them to the Charlotte Hornets chasing the eighth seed. That's that made my stomach hurt. I mean, am I wrong?
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
Put your front office hat on. What do you do with this team if you're Scott Perry? I mean, if you're Scott Perry and you're giving carte blanche, which you won't be because of Vivek, but what should they actually do?
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
And he was standing with his agent, Mike Lindeman, after the game. And Mike was like, hey, come introduce yourself. Mike knew that I had been on Aaron Neesmith. I had talked about it on my podcast that he needed to play more. I didn't understand why he was never playing. Not a great guy chance. And he waves me. I was like, you got to introduce yourself to Aaron.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
No, you're a cap genius and I'm a cap genius. just okay mediocrity guy. Levine is at 47.5 million next year and has a player option for 49 in 26, 27. I believe that he is extension eligible. Now I believe they could do something and go to him like, Hey, could you opt out? And could you decline the player option? Go down.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
We'll extend you long-term. Yeah. And I'm just not sure. what the price is where I want to be in the Zach Levine business for the next four or five years at, you know, again, if the number drops, it'll be 25% of the cap, something, but like, I just don't know where that is taking me and how actually movable that is.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
So I'm like, I would kind of lean towards, I'm just going to like play it out with Levine and see how the year goes.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
So it's, I mean, he's good and he had a nice bounce back year and his shooting numbers rocketed back up to where they were. It just, because of the defense and because of the playmaking limitations, it just never seemed like he's good and he deserved to make the all-star team or two that he made in the East, the least, but I just, it just never seems to lead anywhere. All of that. Interesting.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
Should I just do my fake Sabonis trades now?
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
So he's like, Aaron, this is the guy who's been saying like that you should be playing. I walk into the locker room last night. I haven't talked to Aaron Neesmith in like three years. And I go to prepare to introduce myself to him. Like, hey, Aaron, I'm Zach.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
I really enjoyed this. It was a great time. Okay. I'm going to save a couple of them for later because they touch on other teams. I'm just going to preemptively say this. Any Sabonis to Chicago for Vucevic and stuff, the league should step in and ban it. It should not be allowed. The team should not be allowed to trade for each other.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
The Kings should not be allowed to have Vucevic, DeRozan, and Levine on the same team. It should be banned. It should be vetoed, whatever the proper terminology is. And I actually think that's the trade that, like, makes the most theoretical sense. The Bulls get to grab, like, oh, my God, he's an all-star. Win now. He's made all NBA. Win now, team. The Kings get salary relief.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
Vujovic's deal is expiring. They get a stretch file. No, we're just going to know. It's a Lithuanian connection, too, Zach. Oh, that's true. That's right. I'm just, I'm getting out in front of it and it should be banned. This was my one realistic Sabonis trade. That was the one you had? Yes. All right. Can I give you the, just an absolutely insane who says no to steal from my boss? Okay.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
And I know who says no is actually one of the players involved in this theoretical trade that I'm making up that may or may not even be legal. Who says no? Straight up, Kevin Durant for DeMontis Sabonis. Oh, that's spicy.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
Durant will say hell no, obviously. Durant will threaten to retire. But, like, I can see the Suns fans being like, well, that sucks. We traded 19 million first-round picks in Bridges and Cam Johnson for Durant. Cool. You're not getting that back, right? You have no center of any consequence. You hated every center you had on the team. Yeah. You –
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
I mean, look, I don't think they would ever do it because of what you said about Sabonis and how he kind of pinned you into upper crust mediocrity. But I do think it's like not a crazy theory. I mean, it is crazy.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
This is why I have you on because you're just thinking a step ahead of me. Okay, can I give you my favorite Sabonis destination and one that I think is actually somewhat realistic? Okay. And it's poetic. There are copious Sabonis to Portland trades that are workable, make sense, send Phoenix a center. I think you know who it might be. It's funny. No, no, not Sabonis for DeAndre.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
Well, but we can do Time Lord. We can throw a Time Lord in there if we need to.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
um i think i mean i guess it's it's a bridge burned with ayton but um i mean i know it's a bridge burned with ayton yeah but there but sabonis back to portland sabonis makes sense in portland his dad played there like that would be kind of a fun one but i don't i don't necessarily know that there's a realistic road back to i tried with new orleans they're just too funky i can't get i can't get there with new orleans so i don't know what the poor poor kings at the end of the day the
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
Yeah, Aiton. I said Bridgeburn. I don't know why I said that. That's not relevant. But Aiton to SAC for Sabonis actually kind of makes sense. I don't know if it makes sense for Sacramento, but I don't mind that one. You could throw Thibel and Picks. There's a lot of ingredients you can throw around, but I don't know that there's any realistic appetite for that. I think it's a good one.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
Yeah, I think there's something there. But you're right. The extras would probably kill it. The extras that Sacramento would want for an all-star, all-NBA-level player. And then you would try to get, like, is Portland going to try to get cute and throw Jeremy Grant in there somehow for salary relief? But I like that one. Okay, you pick a team. I feel bad for the Kings.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
That's all I am with the Kings. You pick a team.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
I did almost no real prep other than my day-to-day living in this world prep on the Clippers. So I'm fascinated by what you see as the central questions for the Clippers. You take it away.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
in a game of that nature and a game that should have been over, not just when we're talking about it being over, but it felt over when the Knicks went on a gigantic run with Brunson on the bench with 5,000 OGN and OB who had a spectacular game right up until he didn't on defense, put the game seemingly in safe hands.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
So the most they can give him is the 140% of that, right? Yeah, so they can bump him up to 28 in the 26-27 season, which is probably...
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
It's fair, but my hunch would be my hunch. This is just an educated hunch. And, but maybe you disagree because Norm had a great year. Like there was a whole Norm Powell should make the all-star team thing, which I didn't have him on my all-star team, but he was great. Borderline candidate. My hunch is they would value the cap flexibility more than Norm at that number. But I could be wrong.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
You know... Maybe a year ago on my old podcast, I had fake Kawhi Leonard trades, and some of them were good, and some of them made sense. I remember one was involving Minnesota, and obviously the landscape there has changed dramatically. I just don't know that any other team has any faith that Kawhi Leonard will be healthy enough and healthy enough when it matters.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
And he was healthy late this season. Great to very good to just good at the end of the playoffs. I just don't know that there's going to be a trade there that appetizes the Clippers' interest, unless the Clippers are just doing it for kind of what they did with Paul George, where it's like, we're willing to just sort of take a mini step back. And they didn't end up taking a step back.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
But we think we can thread the needle of salary relief plus not as big of a step back as you think we're going to take.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
If I had done that, I would have already been at the bar across the street chugging beers and talking all my shit to every – I probably would have gotten murdered by a mob of Knicks fans. Aaron Eastman is just on his phone like, hey, what's up? I remember you checking – I couldn't believe it.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
Ben Simmons didn't cut it for you. My favorite thing was it, the percentage of NBA people shrinks with every transaction, but it's, there's still like a solid plurality of NBA people who talk themselves into the Ben Simmons thing on a new team. I don't know, but like Ben Simmons, like he's bringing the ball up. He's spraying it out. And I keep saying like, I'll believe it when I see it.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
And sure enough in the playoffs, it's like, where's Ben Simmons? Oh, he's not, he doesn't, he doesn't play anymore. Yeah. Clippers are interesting. I never bought they're the second best team in the West kind of buzz. I picked the Nuggets in seven in the first round, but they were really, really good.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
And I don't know if they could have beaten Minnesota in a playoff series with Minnesota fully healthy like this, let alone Oklahoma City. My guess is they just run it back in some... Speaking of... Speaking of things we ran past, I would be curious to get your take on this. One of the more – I don't know if it was strange.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
All right. Woo. Coming up on the Zach Lowe show. I think that game happened. Nick spacers. Was that a fever dream? I think I was there. All my sights and sounds from the game analysis of the game. What happens going forward? And then my old buddy, John Hollinger, we start talking some interesting off season teams, fake trades, moments of tension that are coming up in July. Can't wait.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
It was just like, huh, trades of the trade deadline was the Bogdanovich-Terrence Mann trade where the Clippers also got three second-round picks in that trade. Now, Bogie's contract, I believe, runs a little – no, Mann's contract runs a little longer.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
Mann had the bad contract, yeah. Well, the bad is stronger, just longer, right? What did you think of that trade? That was a strange – Yeah, Mann's contract is $16 million guaranteed in 2028. Bogey's is team option 2027. Team option in 2026, yeah. So significantly shorter.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
Can we move on to my next team then? Cause that's a nice transition point. To my next, we just sped by them. Hey, who's on the Team Again team? The Atlanta Hawks. Speaking of trades that worked out, the second DeJounte Murray trade was like salvation for the Hawks. Now, they're still out.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
The next three drafts, the Spurs still control, including this one, from the first DeJounte Murray trade, which was a mistake. but the fact that they dug out of it and got, uh, I believe they have a 27 Spurs pick. They have a, no, they owe the 27. Sorry. They have a 27 new Orleans or Milwaukee pick and they have the Lakers pick this year.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
And of course they have Dyson Daniels, who's up for an extension coming off most improved player. Um, Without that trade, they're like dead in the water. And then they fire the GM who made the trade, which is like I still don't really understand what happened there.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
They have Clint Capella, unrestricted free agent. I'm expecting him to not be on the team next year. Correct. Karis Levert, unrestricted free agent. I'm expecting him to be back on the team next year. Correct. Larry Nance, unrestricted free agent.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
I would lean on him being back on the team next year as the backup five to Okongwu, who kind of sneakily broke out in the second half of the season because he'll come cheaper than Capella, maybe.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
I agree. And I don't know who that's going to be. They do have a decent even even after resigning, presumably a couple of these guys, they still will have a decent amount of space below the tax, I think, to get that done. Yeah, I also have the same dilemma that maybe a higher end version of it. that the Kings have with Levine, which is the Trey young extension dilemma.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
Trey young has a player option for 26, 27 at 49 million. And I don't really know what you do with that. Like Trey young is very, very good. I think Trey young's actually become underrated. I think he's really good. A great passer obviously has massive limitations as a defensive player. You know, look, over the years, there's been a lot of buzz of, do people like playing with Trey young?
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
Is he still, is he too ball dominant? Is he like monopolizing the offense to hunt for assists is like, yeah, he gets a lot of assists, but at the expense of ball movement and cutting and like everyone touching it, he's like the anti Halliburton in that sense. Like they get the same amount of assists, but in very dramatically different ways. Um,
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
And last year he did just veer a little bit into not a new style, but like enough of getting off the ball, sometimes actually moving off the ball, not just standing near half court. I think I said on some podcast about a month or two ago, he set more ball screens this season than he did in all of his prior seasons put together, according to tracking data.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
Ran more pick and roll, unconventional pick and roll combinations that fit their personnel. Jalen Johnson, who we should probably talk about as a breakout star-ish player before he got hurt. Dyson Daniels inverted pick and rolls, all of it. And just like shifted the Hawks offense just enough to like, It's a little different. Guys are a little more involved. It's a little more unpredictable.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
We can sit here and make up fake Trae Young trades, and I don't know that there will be any great ones, but I'm going to say this, John Hollinger. If I'm the GM and I'm not, First of all, I would be fired immediately, which seems to be the MO. Just keep firing people. Second, I think I'm keeping it together. Unless I get a really good offer.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
Now, I don't know what the extension numbers should be, but this team is pretty good, and the East is so bad that if they kept this team together... Is there a world where they're like the three seed next year?
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
Yeah. No, I mean, in the East, you could just could. I mean, their starting lineup is Trey Young, Dyson Daniels, Risa Shea, Jalen Johnson, Okongu. That lineup played 16 minutes together last year, by the way. 16. And they have a decent enough bench with Niang and Mann, and they need a backup point guard and a backup five.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
I don't know what the Kobe-Bufkin experience is going to be, so there are some holes there. I don't know. I don't know that I'm going to get an offer for Trae Young that's good enough for me to just be like anything, but hey, I think we're pretty good. Let's keep it together. I don't know. What do you think?
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
Vetoed by me. Commissioner me.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
They're on my list. So here are the Kings and the Hawks. I should have said this during the Kings section with Sabonis. They have these pieces that are just, you know, they're good and they're expensive and no one is super satisfied on either end of it. But like if the Kings trades a bonus, they need a center. They need to get a center somewhere along the way.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
If the Hawks trade Trey Young, they have no point guard left on the team other than Kobe Bufkin. They need a point guard. And so you have to consider that when you're making up your fake trades. You can't just trade Trey Young for like a bunch of stuff and no point guards, unless you're just tanking and you don't even control your pick to tank. Exactly.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
In considering that, there is like a Trey Young from Malik Monk plus DeRozan plus draft assets that at least like I can say Malik Monk is kind of a point guard. And that's why the Sabonis 8-1 kind of made sense to me too. But what was your Sacramento? Like this is two of my crazy, my unpredictable, whatever interesting teams trading with each other, which I thought a lot about.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
I thought about Sabonis to Atlanta, too, to pair with Trae Young, but that's, again, it's a very expensive duo that I don't know is going to lead you anywhere. But Trae Young for Sabonis. Oof.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
What about... I mean, the obvious ones are Orlando, but that feels like a bigger swing stylistically than the Magic, as starved for offense as they are, are going to be willing to make.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
It's less about the talent and even less about the price tag, although a lot of, like if you're going to have Ben Caro and Wagner on maxes, a third guy at that level, teams are very reticent to put three of those guys together. But even stylistically, like that's almost too big of a swing. I agree with that.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
Well, he still doesn't really do much creatively off the dribble or anything, which is one reason why Brunson is on him. And I still think the Pacers can probably use him more as a screener and other ways to hunt Brunson, but we're not going to talk about strategy quite yet. Here are some of the things that happened to me. Yes, just some of the scenes from a day
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
I tried Miami with like Rozier and Wiggins and Jaquez, and it just becomes unwieldy salary-wise and apron-slash-tax-wise. I tried Brooklyn with like Claxton and D'Angelo Russell, but it doesn't make any sense.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
Yeah, I mean, that crossed my mind, but that's, you know, just put a pin in it, I guess. There was some Utah buzz at the combine, and I think that was bogus. You could do like a Sexton Collins draft equity stuff for Utah if Utah is just like, oh, my God, gut punch. We're picking fifth or sixth.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
And the theory going around was, well, Utah just got this gut punch in the lottery. They're just looking at another year of being like 14th or whatever in the toughest conference by far. At what point do they just have to do something, whatever it is, to pair someone with Mark and maybe this is the one that makes sense.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
I didn't get the sense that the Jazz were going to be super interested in that. So I don't know. I'm out. That's it for me.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
and this does not apply to Levine because he's on his third team or whatever and is just not quite the same caliber of player as Trae Young. That's one, like, if you don't get the extension done, it's not a great sign for the relationship between player and team. You know, this is a franchise player. This is a guy you traded Luka for. This is a guy who led you to the conference finals.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
He's beloved in Atlanta. Everyone does the ice tray shiver thing. If you don't get that done, That at least sort of changes the dynamic with Trae Young and the Hawks, don't you think?
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
You want to pick one of your teams? I only had one team left, and we have talked about them a bit on this podcast, so I don't need to talk about the version.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
Go, do it. I love it. Everyone knows I have a soft spot for the weirdo, offensively challenged Orlando Magic.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
And that will put them- All right, so to clarify for everyone, that is Mo Wagner, 11 million. Gary Harris, seven and a half million. Corey Joseph, three and a half million. The last two- Caleb Houston. And Caleb Houston. But Gary Harris and Corey Joseph, preposterously important in their admittedly injury-ravaged playoff rotation. And Caleb Houston at 2.2. So you think they decline all of them?
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
where if this had been a movie and I was watching this game on press row, some director would have done a cool trick where like my teenage face flickers on the screen in replacing my adult face. Because like, I can't believe I'm watching 30 years later, 25 years later, the Pacers Knicks is like my coming of age as an NBA fan. And all these years later, I'm watching another classic
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
You think they find, you think they understand that now? I think that the point has been hammered home to them after.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
A thousand straight years of bad offense. I think that's even more important than the shooting. So then the question becomes, I mean, Simons is on a good contract at 20 something million for a couple more years, right?
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
Is that right? Yeah, something like that. I don't know. I'm not looking it up.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
And so then you just come into the – not problem, but whatever his extension number is, it's not going to be small. It's not going to be the max, but it's not going to be small. I mean, Simon's a good player, but maybe it's Suggsy. Maybe it's a little less than Suggs. Maybe it's whatever. Maybe it's exactly what he makes now. Yeah.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
Simons plus Suggs plus Bancaro plus Wagner, the last two on presumably Max and in Bancaro's case, maybe Supermax-ish deals. It's a lot of money. It's four guys making a lot of money, which is the Suggs contract is so interesting to me because every time Orlando comes up in like a fake contract,
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
star trade, people say, well, you can't have Suggs plus Wagner plus Van Carrell, plus another super duper expensive guy. And in my head, I'm like, I kind of think Suggs goes out in all of those trades. I think that contract is, is there partly because Jalen Suggs is awesome when he's available, but also because it's a little bit handy in trades.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
I wouldn't assume that Jalen Suggs is on the magic for the next like 10 years.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
That's called the Zeke Nagy effect.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
I'm just talking about $8 million and doesn't play for a team that's suddenly expensive is hurtful.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
Um, another team that I believe owns all their picks that we're not going to talk about because I, I made this as you had to have been in the playoffs or the play in, um, but is kind of cousins to Orlando because of the Jeff Weltman relationship.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
I just, I don't know that the Raptors will do anything all that interesting this off season because they made their big ish move with the Brandon Ingram trade. I do think there's a somewhat of an urgency there with an ownership transfer and some other stuff going on.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
In Madison Square Garden. And another Pacer. Two pacers, really, Neesmith and then Halliburton putting together an insane run of shots culminating in a misapplied choke sign. And by the way, I'm not going to say who, but I had one basketball luminary this morning educating me on what aura farming is. Did you know about this, Tyrese Halliburton?
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
to hit the gas a little bit and try to win games next year and not have another... And obviously injuries totally killed their season and were the reason why they shot themselves in the foot for the last six weeks playing bizarro rotations and essentially losing games on purpose. But I don't know. Just have my eye on them. Okay, my last team was Cleveland. Who was your last team?
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
My last team was Memphis. I don't want to talk about Memphis. I've talked enough about Memphis. The Cavs, I just... Again, we zoomed by them because they lost. It was not great. They were banged up. They lost a heartbreaker in game two and never quite recovered from that against Indiana. We all know they're expensive. We all know they have four core guys. We all know that...
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
kind of sustaining a team at that level of money is going to be interesting so they're even more expensive than i realized they are yeah way over the second apron yeah not way over but like non-trivial amount over the second apron without re-signing ty jerome or sam merrill and um I don't know that Ty Jerome is even going to be able to come back on a tenable deal.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
I think they would like to get Merrill back. They have a Struis extension conversation. They could have, if they wanted to, and a Dean Wade extension conversation and a DeAndre Hunter extension conversation. I don't know if they want to do any of those things. Yeah. You know, Dan Gilbert spends a ton of money. they could try to dump a Coro who turned into a pumpkin every playoffs.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
I don't know what the price of that would be for a team that already owes all of its draft picks through 2029. Exactly. And, you know, I have a couple things to say on this. Number one, Mobley winning defensive player of the year and or all NBA and bumping his contract up to 30% of the cap. It's a huge, huge deal for them. Yeah. And it just brings me back to...
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
I continue to – I proposed this first in 2018 in a column when it was very clear that teams were going to – some teams in some situations were going to run away from the Supermax even with homegrown guys that they drafted or that if they wanted to keep them, they did so knowing that the contract was going to be a damaging, bad contract.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
I continue to think that for at least – and we could – I need to think it through more. But for you draft a guy – And particularly in the apron era, you draft a guy and he makes the super max on your team. So he's not been traded. Whether it's 30% of the cap for a guy of mobile stage or 35% of the cap later ahead of when you would normally get it.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
I think there's got to be some tax apron cap relief for that contract. Now, I don't know exactly. Maybe it doesn't count to the tax. Maybe somehow it doesn't count to the apron. I've proposed things like maybe you get like an extra little mini mid-level exception. I don't know what the right answer is, but it just feels wrong to me that Evan Mobley making –
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
all NBA and winning defensive player of the year is anything but a massive victory for the Cleveland Cavaliers. It's something they should be rooting for. It's something every team that has a player like this should be rooting for. And now they're just like in this apron jail where they can't do anything. Right. They can't. It's like they can't aggregate salaries.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
They can't take back more in a trade. And they're left to at least I don't know what they're going to do. I don't think they want to do anything. I think they love their four players. I think that's actually smart not to overreact to a second round beating when your roster was a little bit banged up. But, you know, there was trouble. There was some troubling stuff that happened that series.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
I think acting rashly is probably a mistake, but. Like, Jared Allen's extension hasn't even kicked in yet when he goes from like $20 million to $30 million in a couple years. And Garland, Mitchell, Allen, Mobley is just going to be really expensive. I just, you know, sit here and – if you had to rank – go ahead.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
And this person who I will not name was like, did you know this? My niece told me what this was. I'm like, I have no idea. But he said that. I'm like, I don't. Okay. So my day began. with some meetings at the Pacers hotel with some, with some people with the Pacers. And they're, they're just, we're talking about the comebacks against Milwaukee and Cleveland.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
I bet he makes second team All-NBA, which is being announced later this week.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
And all of them were like, yeah, our team's just weird. This is what we do. Like none of it surprises enough. If we literally like, if we get down again like that, we're not going to be surprised if we do it again. And then like, whatever. Then I walk out to go to the arena and, And like fans do, fans have discovered where the Pacers are staying.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
We went through all the fake Trae Young trades, right? And I think a lot of the same destinations would apply to Darius Garland only with more urgency. Like if I'm Orlando, that's the guy I'm calling about. And I'm thinking about putting a lot of chips in. Yes. Yes. Now to your point, You know, Cleveland in that deal, fake theoretical deal. Okay.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
To be clear, taking back Suggs doesn't really do much for their salary relief. And also thrusts Donovan Mitchell into a position where he really is like the sole creator of offense from the perimeter. And I think they'll continue to hand more and more of the offense to Mobley as he gets more experience. But that's a lot on Donovan Mitchell.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
And it already feels like in the playoffs every year, it becomes like Donovan Mitchell against the world. Yes.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
for the Cavs I would rank like if you're going to rank who are they of their core for who are they most likely to trade in the next two years I still think it goes one Allen to Garland and then it's just Grand Canyon size chasm to the other guys I just don't I don't see them moving Mitchell or Mobley barring something insane happening even the bill floated the Mobley for Giannis fake trade which is illegal by cap rules on its own merits
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
It's an interesting one. It is interesting if you could find a way to actually do it. And I think you could. You'd have to dump Hunter somewhere in a separate deal, like to Brooklyn or something, and then you could do it. I think Cleveland would even be risk-averse doing that as great as Giannis is. That's just my read.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
Usually that scene is like it's Pacers fans awaiting their favorite players or neutral fans just want to see NBA players getting on the bus. I walk out. There was a couple of players in front of me getting on the bus on the way to the arena. And it's Knicks fans being like, Nixon six. What's up? Whatever Nixon. And I'm like, oh, my God. After the game.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
Well, and again, the salary constraints come into play here. It's both salary constraints and you won 64 games. Any trade that is a step back is going to be a very hard pill to swallow.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
And I say that because, you know, we know that there's one team that is going to be on the hunt for a rim running center and has like contracts to trade and a draft pick and a swap to trade that they already traded for Mark Williams. And that's the Lakers. But I just don't like, what am I taking back in that trade? That is interesting to me.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
If I'm Cleveland from like a wind now perspective, like the swap and the pick are interesting to me, but like, You know, Maxi Kleba plus Gabe Vincent. I can't even do that. That's more money than Jared Allen makes. Maxi Kleba plus Connect plus another salary is like or like Gabe Vincent plus Connect or like I'm not getting Reeves. I'm not getting Finney Smith.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
And if I'm the Laker, like Hachimura is good. Hachimura is a success story for the Lakers. They got him on the cheap. He's a really good player. I understand that I have this urgent need for rim protection and a lob threat and all that, but I don't love Rui plus assets, plus real draft equity assets for Jared Allen. And I don't know.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
I mean, there'll be other teams, but they're the obvious one that is going. The Lakers are going to get a center come hell or high water. I don't know who it's going to be, but Jared Allen is the archetype of a player that I would be looking at if I were them.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
Remember, remember a month into the season when connect was the toast of the town. Oh, what a mistake. All these 16 other teams made. And yeah, they're like here, the 1700 word inside the story of how the Lakers stole Dalton connect. And then the playoffs come around. I was like, wait, is he on the team? Wait, wait, he practiced for Charlotte, but he came back. Right. He's still on the team.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
That's what I want. I want the oral history of Dalton connects one practice with the Charlotte Hornets. That's what I want.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
uh john hollinger i believe he could only was allowed to witness the practice and could not actually participate in it since the trade all right so i still want the story was he on his phone was he actually paying attention what was the conversation with charles lee like were they were they already was charles lee on the whiteboard like jj reddick was at the draft he was like oh i was so excited i was on the whiteboard during the draft drawing up plays for don't connect that don't connect turns out won't even remember and i'll have to take him out of the game because he doesn't know what to do
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
One front office Pacers executive who I will not name wanted to show me how sweaty he was underneath his blazer from the tension. I was like, I don't want to see it. Another Pacers front office employee who is watching the game in the locker room
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
John Hollinger writes for The Athletic. Everything you write is immediately, I'm dropping whatever I'm doing to read it. It's the best basketball writing that exists. Too kind. Hollinger, Duncan, Nate Duncan podcast once a week. Once a week, right? Yes. I don't say it facetiously. The best I ever do it. It's great to see you. It was great to see you at the Combine.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
You were wearing your Commander's gear. You're all about the Commanders. It's all happening for you. And I will see you. I'll see you at the finals probably, right? Yes, sir. Let's grab a brewski at the finals. John Hollinger, everybody. All right. That's it for the Zach Lowe show. It's Thursday morning. We will be back on Monday morning.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
The Pacers probably will have overcome a 25-point deficit in the last 90 seconds of a game by then. So God only knows what's going to happen over the weekend. But we will see you on Monday. And thanks today to on the production crew, Jesse, Chris, Bobby, and Oscar. See you all on Monday.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
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YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
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The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
admitted to me that when Tyrese hit the shot not only did he think it was a three he was so convinced it was a three he ran from the locker room out into the tunnel screaming profanities that they had won the game and then was like oh oh it's a two I mean just the scenes are insane just I can't even believe what I saw I don't know and this is a game where it's like
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YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
All coming up on the Zach Lowe show.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
these are not the tropes that I usually buy into, but when you combine that, the Pacers just do this over and over again with the fact that the Pacers play a fast, random, relentless style. Like I had someone with the Cavs tell me this week, I honestly think we were not prepared and not prepared. Like there was a fault in coaching preparation. It's just their sheer relentlessness.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
I think caught us off guard combined with the, the level of gut punch that was on your home floor. I am actually interested to see like, what is the Knicks response to this? What is the Knicks response if they're up by 10 with two minutes to go in game two? Cause you were there. Well, you weren't, you weren't still out there, but like when the crowd was hushing, like, shh,
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
When Cat went to the line and then Obi went to the line and the people in the crowd were making the shh sound for everyone to be quiet so audibly that I was like, this is making me nervous and I'm not the one shooting the free throws. That nervousness is going to be dialed up by like a hundredfold. I don't know how the Knicks response is.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
There was a lot of talk about – I saw a lot of talk and heard a lot of talk. I've rewatched the end of the game like seven times. In the car home to Connecticut, I rewatched it like four times, and my brain was still breaking. There was a lot of talk about how the Knicks went into prevent mode on offense and how that cost them. And I actually don't really think that that is all that important.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
There were two possessions when they went into prevent mode. Well, they took time off the clock every time, but not every time, actually. The two possessions I think people were talking about are Brunson misses a step back three over Ben Shepard after killing the clock. It's a good look. And he had just made that exact same shot the previous possession. The second one was 141 left to go.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
It's still 119, 111. Cat misses a catch and shoot three at the end of the shot clock. Great look like Brunson drew a double team kicked to heart who swung it to the cat. Great look. If you want to say they're in the bonus and they're up by whatever, and they should be trying to get twos or get to the line. Okay, sure. Like Brunson did try to get twos and get to the line.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
He got almost triple teamed and was left to kick the ball out. Those are good shots. Other than that, They actually almost went too fast on some of these. Like Brunson got a layup with 58 seconds left. I mean, he just blew by Shepard, put him up by nine. The next possession, they broke the press. Cat laid the ball up in without wasting any time, really hardly at all. Put them back up by eight.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
The next possession after that is when it all starts to go haywire. When again, they go fast and Brunson hits Ananobi under the rim with a pass that bounces a little high. Ananobi drops it. There's the challenge on the Siakam loose ball. Like... I don't think prevent offense had much to do with it. The Knicks lost the game on defense.
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
They lost the game because their defense on those, uh, knee Smith threes, the switches were late. The communication was bad. They frankly looked like a team that was fatigued. They lost the game on defense again. Um, in overtime when, uh,
The Zach Lowe Show
YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
Ananobi did not box out Siakam on a critical rebound and Tyrese Halliburton scored on a reset when Andrew Nembhardt back cut Josh Hart for the go-ahead layup and then he deflects the ball out of bounds. You can go back and look at those Neesmith threes. The defense just isn't there. There's just way too much space.
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Part of that, I think, is the Knicks... I don't know if they relaxed, but it was almost as if they didn't know, are we switching? Are we not switching? Part of that is, I think you have to credit the Pacers. They play so fast and so randomly that things are just happening before you even know that they're happening. And as an example, Siakam to Neesmith on little pitch plays...
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YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
accounted for two of those threes in the last minute. Siakam is sprinting the ball up the floor, drives right at Ananobi, one of them, drives right at Ananobi, gets Ananobi backpedaling, Siakam stops on a dime, sets a screen, and pitches the ball to Neesmith in one motion.
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YES 'CERS!! Last Night’s Crazy Comeback With Chris Mannix. Plus, Some Intriguing Offseason Teams With John Hollinger.
Ananobi is so far into the paint because he was defending a screeching, fast Siakam drive that he can't get back out there on the other side of the screen. Siakam looks like Draymond Green in some of those threes, doing the exact same stuff. And the communication was there, but credit to Pacers. Another one was they run up the floor. I don't even remember which one this was.
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Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
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Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
Yeah, they lost like the sun swept them, whatever. He just doesn't. And they just find a way to win these games. It's also cool. Like these teams are playing to type a little bit. Denver is plus 19 in free throw attempts. I think that's actually a win for the Thunder that it's just plus 19 because the Thunder foul a lot and they don't get to the line much.
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Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
OKC has forced 33 more turnovers than Denver, playing to type. Denver is a big plus on the offensive glass, playing to type. As we go to Game 7, we can talk tactics, if you want, and things that I think Denver has figured out in Game 5 and 6, and what might...
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Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
portend out of that for game seven or we could talk about jalen williams and i think we should probably talk about jalen williams who is averaging 16 a game on 33 shooting and has had precisely one good offensive game in the entire series and if you take that i believe that was game three and if you take that game out he's averaging 13 points a game on 28 percent shooting and
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
When Strother closed over Michael Porter Jr. last night, and if we see that lineup again, which I suspect we will, Denver had to rejigger the matchup so that Jamal Murray was on Jalen Williams.
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Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
And they keep putting Jamal Murray, when they have to, on Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren, who are my two biggest X-Factors of the playoffs, and kind of waiting to see if either of those young rising stars can do anything about it. And so far, they haven't. Well, Chet's had some moments and Chet was big, not necessarily against Murray, but he was big last night.
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Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
So I ask you as someone who's watched every game of this team, who's talked to these guys a million times. What is is this just a guy missing shots? What do you think his mindset is going into game seven? Like what's how worried or what's going on here?
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Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
Well, not only that, I hate, I'm sorry to interrupt you, but we should mention another massive play in that game was 93-86, Thunder down seven. Peyton Watson chased down block on Jalen Williams. And then Denver comes and gets a basket right away. A Russ put back to go up to nine, like the five to nine swing. It wasn't a missed dunk. It was just a great play by Peyton Watson.
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Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
Anyway, continue on Jalen Williams.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
Andrew, are you ready for the biggest Oklahoma City Thunder game in nine years? And I don't need to go back to what was happening nine years ago. Are you ready for what that atmosphere is going to be like? Are you ready? Are the young guys ready?
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Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
Yeah. If Jamal is on Jalen Williams, have him set some screens and have him vary it up. Have him slip. Have him or inverted pick and rolls with Shea as the screener. Shea's an incredible screener, as you know. And flare out of some of those. Slip some of those. Whatever. I'm going to ask you a very unfair question. I'm going to just be upfront about it.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
If they lose Game 7 and Jalen Williams is meh again, you know what the obvious question is going to be. It doesn't seem like a Presti move to make a rash, young, rising star for older, prime age, whatever, established superstar. Having set up his cap sheet precisely for the second apron era. We're going to have these three max guys.
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Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
You know, we've got guys like Caruso's on a mid-tier extension, Hartenstein's on a pretty high tier but not max contract, movable, short. Young guys are coming up. We're going to sort of flip pieces as we go. Cason Wallace probably looks like a member of the prime, the core, rather, if we can keep him around. Seems like a non-presty move, but...
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Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
As you know, this would be the second straight year that they would lose in this round. I picked them to win the series, so I guess I have to say I think they're going to win game seven. But you just have to start thinking about these things. It would be the second straight year they lose in this round.
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Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
It would be the second straight year that the two supporting guys kind of don't give you enough in this round. And the Thunder have every trade asset in the world to try to do something. Is this even a conversation?
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
So I was going to be polite and not even bring up the ghost of Hardin. So you brought it up for the record. I didn't bring it up. I was just going to let it sit over there, hovering, hovering, getting ready to go to the club and have some fun. It's hovering. Yeah, of course. The ghost club. I wasn't even going to bring it up. You know, I think you're probably right.
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Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
And I think that's probably the right thing to do. The only hesitation I would say is this. Giannis is the one you have the meeting about. Giannis is that good and that guy. And by definition, it would be short-sighted. Literally, by the most literal definition, it is short-sighted. It is shrinking your window to build a great team because of age and salary cap concerns.
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Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
And all the other stuff you'd have to include. It's not going to be a straight-up trade.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
It's Giannis. And you have to have a meeting. And we have seen very recent examples, like this week, of... these title windows come and go faster than you think they're going to come and go. No matter how young your team is, no matter how deep your team is, you can't sit here ever and be like, well, we're going to have like a Patriots run. Like that just has there.
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Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
Like the Celtics are the closest ones to having had that. And they passed up on lots of opportunities to trade probably Jalen Brown for an older superstar. And they were paid off for doing that. Whether it was Kawhi, Paul George, Jimmy Butler, they were paid off. But they won one title and now they're awash for a year and a half minimum next season and who knows what else.
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Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
But I think you're still probably right. And to your... Giannis is the right name because J-Dub was already a borderline All-NBA player this year. I did not have him on my All-NBA team. I suspect he'll make a lot of ballots because the Thunder were that good. And so, like, you know, I'm just making up names. Like, Devin Booker. Like, they were roughly equivalent players this year.
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Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
I think Devin Booker's a better player and fits what they need offensively better than J-Dub does. But that's like... That's not moving me if I'm the Thunder. Giannis is at least like, okay, this is a guy who's in the MVP top five every year. We already have a guy who's probably going to win MVP. But I think you're probably right.
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Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
And I'll tell you another reason why I think it's an unfair question. I had somebody – I had two, actually. I was at the Combine during Game 5, and I had two. And I eschewed, eschewed, eschewed, eschewed all dinner invitations that night because I was like, I'm sorry. I'm watching the game in my hotel room. And by the way, I have to tell a Ringer Spotify story while I do this.
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Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
I saw Russillo at the Combine that afternoon, and I was like, hey, man – you know, I might want to watch the game tonight. If you want to watch it together, like grab a beer, you sit at the bar and like, I know we're probably going to have to rewatch it the next morning because we're serious. And Rusillo just, I admire it so much because it reminds me of people who are like,
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Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
when you meet one of your friends on the platform of a commuter train and then one of you has to be like, all right, this conversation is over. I need to work on the train. Russillo was like, I'm going to be honest. I'm not going to see it tonight. I'm going to watch the game in my hotel room. I was like, you know what? I should do the same thing. I love it.
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Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
I got two texts from two separate executives after that game, after the Thunder won that game, saying some version of that game might have been the NBA championship right there. And that's why... I think the question is a little unfair. This series could be the NBA finals.
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Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
Look, forget the teams. This is why we do this. This series and this game is why anybody follows sports. This has been the perfect series. The perfect series. It is such a classic NBA series. It's the young team against the old lion. Denver's not that old. Just let me have the trope, okay? It's the young team
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Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
I frankly, particularly given what's happened to Boston and Cleveland, I frankly think that's a little bit disrespectful to the Timberwolves who have been awesome and have played these two teams really, really well.
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Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
And are on a roll and are healthy and deep. But like that's the level this series is like you can call it a second round series and frame it that way. Oh, another second round disappointment. Or you could say it's two teams who can clearly win the championship for all Denver's flaws. They are proving in this series they can win the NBA title. with Michael Porter Jr. playing with one arm.
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Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
So I think it's a little flip to say, oh, this is like Game 7 is the whole NBA championship. I think it's a little flip and a little unfair to Minnesota, but I also don't think it's a ridiculous way to view the remaining landscape of the playoffs.
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Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
It's amazing. You know, first of all, David Adelman deserves to keep the nuggets job full stop. Yeah. Second of all, You mentioned Jokic, and obviously he had a masterpiece in Game 5.
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Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
And I can tell you from being at the Combine and talking to people that the Nuggets were keenly aware that they, quote, wasted an all-time Jokic performance because of the underwhelming rest of team supporting cast around him that night. I'm looking at the box score from last night. Yeah, 23 from Brown. You focus on that. 25 from Murray.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
Didn't end up being a great Murray game, but was good enough, particularly early. And then you just scroll past, oh, 29, 14, and 8 on 9 of 14. You just take these games for granted because it's not a crazy game. He started kind of slow. And then you look at the box score. It's like, oh, he actually led the team in all three categories again and made a big defensive play on Chet. late in the game.
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Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
It's like incredible how good this guy is. And Shea was awesome. And Shea was awesome in game five down the stretch to made the biggest shot of the game prop, maybe to put them up six on a play where they put Jokic through the torture chamber of multiple pick and rolls. And he just was not up high enough.
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Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
And it's just been, this is just like, you're talking about game seven and pressure and championships. I'm literally getting goosebumps as you're talking. This is why we do this. This is the game. This is the game. of the NBA calendar. Maybe there'll be one that replaces it later in the playoffs. And I just want to say, for the record, we're talking about Jalen Williams, three of 16.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
The mental toughness these guys have to play under these circumstances and just sort of free their minds and play. I would... I choke in a game of horse against my daughter if there's pressure on the line, okay? It's like, I would want... Like when I watch soccer penalty kicks, I've said this before. I just would be like, coach, I'm not taking one.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
Just take me out of the, like, I want no part of it. These guys, the mental toughness and the ability to just, if I fail, move on to the next thing is just incredible.
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Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
climbing and scrounging to seize its place at the top of the hierarchy to knock the old king not the king last year but you know the reigning mvp and all that knock him off the mountaintop and it's just like a classic young team they have moments they've had moments where it looked like they're frazzled, it's coming apart, maybe they're not ready for this.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
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Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
Thank you for bringing that up. I am derelict as a sleep deprived podcast host for not bringing that up within three minutes because he's that big of a deal. And it's amazing that he has so many clutch shots in the playoffs, dunks and threes that I didn't even like. It took me a minute to mention the game one game winning three with like three seconds left in the game.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
On the one hand, you could frame that injury, if it's an injury that sustains at all and knock on wood, hopefully it doesn't, as wow, so regrettable for the Nuggets that up 12, 14, whatever late in the game. Aaron Gordon is bringing the ball up under pressure and they just can't like, they just sort of ceased to function for 45 seconds and turn the ball over four times.
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Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
And now I'm one of those turnovers. He has to lunge and here's what happens. On the other hand, you also just have to, I mean, you don't credit the thunder for an injury, but you have to credit the thunder for creating the circumstances around it, which is a, we're not quitting B when we dial in, we can force a shit ton of turnovers and make you play under duress. I thought they didn't pack it in.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
They could have easily packed it in. The margin was like 99.999% insurmountable. And... you know, they created kind of a shit happens moment. And to an awesome player who is Mr. Nugget, who I have waxed poetic about many times on this podcast before is like, this is sports Nirvana, Aaron Gordon in Denver. This is a destiny. This is all the cheesy hokey stuff you think about in sports.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
Like this is what this player has fit on this team. This is what this player has meant to this team. And you just hope he can be, I want everyone a hundred percent. That's all.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
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Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
And they have to battle through them and prove in those hothouse moments, say, yeah, we are ready for it. Game four, I think, was the most telling one. It felt like it was unraveling in Denver. It felt like it was going to be 3-1 Nuggets. The offense was stalling out. The zone was working. And... Wiggins, Caruso, Wallace hitting threes, reset the team.
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Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
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Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
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Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
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Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
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Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
Small picture, is there anything strategically that has struck you from the last couple of games, any part, and has you asking questions or looking for stuff in the biggest game of the year?
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Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
Then game five, it's nip and tuck in Oklahoma City. If you lose that game at home, Denver's up 12. You're going to Denver facing elimination. It's not going great. And Ludort. Two for 10 the previous game, Lou Dort. Shot himself out the damn game previous game, Lou Dort. Just to settle down. Settle down. I got this. Moon ball, ceiling scraping threes to get the thunder inching, inching, inching.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
Well, J-Dub wiped away, you know, it doesn't even need to be a whole game. He wiped away a meh game five with one big kick three wide open to put them up 106-103. And to me, he semi-wiped away a disastrously bad game four when he was two of 13 on a back-to-back possession stretch that I think I mentioned last episode where against the zone, he misses a wing three with like three minutes left.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
And on the very next possession, did he airball it?
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
There's been some rough like Chet had one last night that was like, whoa, close the barn door. And on the very next possession, he gets the ball in the exact same spot and is like, I'm putting my head down. There's a diagonal gap here. I'm taking it and laid the ball in. And that showed a certain mental toughness and awareness to me. And like, yeah, you make that shot and you win the game.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
I don't really care that you went two of 13 because I know what I'm getting defensively from you and everyone on this team every minute. There is like zero let up. To me, the thing that has been most interesting about games five and six is the And is that the Nuggets have digested the Thunder's defense. There's not a lot of answers to it.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
It's just going to be an awesome defense every single game. You're just trying to scrounge out, like, can we get to an average offensive rating? Because maybe our defense can hold them to worse than that. But they have figured out that Holmgren is going to be on Aaron Gordon, sometimes Christian Brown, and his one job is going to be at the basket.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
If it's a Jokic post-up, and by the way, Jokic is posting up a little bit less in this series than he has typically against the Thunder, and it's because it's not working. If it's a Jokic post-up and Aaron Gordon's in the dunker spot, you're like a second guy guarding the rim, guarding Jokic, forcing Jokic away from the basket. If it's a Murray-Jokic pick and roll, I've talked a lot about this.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
Their strategy is sell out to let Murray drive. We are not giving Jokic the pocket pass. We are staying attached to Jokic. We're giving Jamal Murray drives because you're driving in to Chet Holmgren and other help defenders. And if you kick it out to these other guys to shoot threes, we're living with that.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
And what the Nuggets have started doing more in games five and six is taking Holmgren's guy and bringing him up the floor into the action. So as an example, Aaron Gordon ran 15 pick and rolls combined the last two games. Previous four games, according to second spectrum, 15 total. He's setting stagger screens.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
Like Christian Brown, when they put Holmgren on Christian Brown in game five down the stretch, they did the same. Jokic saw it right away, and you could see him point, switch up the whole offense, bring Christian Brown up into this play, get Holmgren up the floor. They ran at the beginning of last night
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
some split actions with Aaron Gordon and Jamal Murray to get the Thunder defense moving and pointedly to get Chet Holmgren up the floor and involved. And I don't really know, like sometimes there is no answer for that. Sometimes Chet Holmgren is still in the dunker spot where he wants to be. But more and more, that's been a really smart, Aaron Gordon's even bringing the ball up a lot.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
He got injured doing that, but he's bringing the ball up a lot precisely for this reason, to keep Chet Holmgren high on the floor. And that's been an interesting little tactical battleground to me because, again, there aren't a lot of answers. This isn't always going to be an answer, but that was a really smart adjustment by David Adelman and the coaching staff, I thought.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
And then shouldn't be overlooked because they go on and win by six or eight or nine. When Jokic hit the Sambor three, the ridiculous Sambor three that only he can hit. A three that when it went in somewhere in the world, Anthony Davis felt a shutter go down his spine because he's seen that in his face in a big playoff moment. When he hit that shot,
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
I'm not going to say pretty good. I'm going to say for a guy who's kind of a bit player, he has been essential to the Thunder in this series. He's made enough shots, both twos and threes. He's held up defensively against Jokic. I mean, he's beating the hell out of him, but he's holding up defensively. So you just nailed the other subplot for me.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
They have essentially punted Holmgren at the five when Jokic is on the floor. And Jokic is going to be on the floor for between 42 and 48 minutes of game seven. And I've been waiting to see if there's a moment other than last night, desperation, we're going to put Isaiah Joe on the floor and go Chet at the five because we're way behind.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
Is there a moment where they decide to stress test that again against Jokic? And, you know, they did it last night. Immediately, they just gave Chet Holmgren a pick and pop three and he missed. I think Denver would be fine with that. I don't think they're worried about Chet Holmgren raining threes on them and how it might bend their defense.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
But I've been waiting for that card to be played again and waiting to see how does Denver respond. Because one way they might respond is just not putting Jokic on Chet Holmgren at all. Put him on Caruso. Put him on Dort. Put him on Wallace. They have other ways to do that, rotating around. They'll put him on Holmgren and have him drop and someone else will rotate, whatever.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
I don't, but I think they correctly have decided like that may not be viable against not just Jokic, but Denver's just much bigger than they are. And the risk on the glass is, is enormous. But I do think I've been waiting. I've been waiting for like five, like a three minute stretch in the second quarter. Let's try it out and see what happens.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
I don't, but maybe last night I, it was like you said, a desperation move. I don't, I don't, I have no clue if we're going to see it again. I've just been in my head waiting.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
A couple of, I don't know if we're going to see it again. I'm rooting for it because I just like tactical variety and like, yeah, throw this at you out of nowhere, see how you respond. A couple other notes from the series. I mentioned Jokic post-ups. He's averaging 12.5 post-ups, post-touches per 100 possessions. Against the Thunder in the regular season, that was closer to 16.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
But it's still a lot. Yeah. The numbers, according to Second Spectrum, 0.87 points per possession when Jokic shoots or one pass away shoots. 0.825 points per possession overall. That's unthinkable defense. That's unthinkable. Yeah, you've got to be feeling great about that. Those numbers are absolutely unthinkable. And yet I still wonder when all else fails, can they go there more?
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
And if Hartenstein's on him, space the floor in a way that Chet is somewhere that's not threatening. Or if Chet is stuck on Michael Porter Jr. because that's the matchup on the other end, go right to it because Chet's not going to be in position to help. But they have done... The word is unthinkable. To hold Jokic to that through six games is crazy.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
Yeah, it was in Oklahoma City, and they're at home. That was another moment where it was like, okay, what do you got? Because the big fella just did that in your freaking face when you had some momentum and tied the game. Jalen Williams hits a three. Shea hits a three. And then last night, the opposite happens. The old lion, aging old lion, they're teetering.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
You know, I mentioned that stretch in the second quarter last night where it felt like the Thunder were seizing the series with their defense. Like Denver just couldn't do anything.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
And a lot of the possessions were perfectly textbook execution of the scheme I'm talking about on Murray Jokic pick and rolls where they just hug Jokic and let Murray go and help behind it and just smother him at the basket. one of the possessions Caruso was on Murray and they did not even need to deploy that strategy because Caruso was, I mean, you can go back and watch it literally unscreenable.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
They ran one screen and then flipped it and ran it the other way. And like, like a magic trick, Jokic is this gigantic body. The space is like this tight and Caruso just gets through it unscathed twice in a row. And I don't even know how he did it. And Jamal Murray gets the other end of the screen. He's like, what the hell? This dude is still on me. Um, okay.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
A couple other numbers and I'll let you go. Denver zone defense has changed the entire series. They've gone all in on it. It has been by the numbers significantly better than their man to man defense. Uh, according to the tracking data. I won't bother getting into numbers, but it's been better. It's been very good.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
And I'll tell you, the Wolves are watching this, for sure, obviously, because I went back and looked at some Wolves-Thunder stuff. The Wolves are not a big zone team at all, unless they're playing the Thunder. Now, the Wolves-Thunder matchups were all screwed up by injuries this year. Three of them occurred in an eight-day span where tons of guys were injured. But...
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
Almost like half Minnesota's zone possessions this season came in four games against the Thunder. And you can bet they're watching this. And the second thing, and again, that's like either the threes go in and they've had some really creative plays where they screen the middle of the zone and Hartenstein's gotten a lot of dunks when help comes. I don't know what other zone. I'm not a coach.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
I'm not a zone tactic expert. I'm not sure what magic tricks that Mark Dagnall and his staff can pull. It's been just very interesting to see Denver become the heat. We're just a zone team now. It's what we do. And the last thing, and I wonder what you watch for during these stints of the game, and if there will be any in game seven.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
The Nuggets are only, and I say only, not facetiously at all, minus 15% in 47 minutes with Jokic on the bench. And there have been a few games, I think they were plus one with Jokic, the Thunder were plus one with Jokic on the bench last night, or the Nuggets were plus one. Somebody was plus one. Where those minutes have been a wash, or Denver's even won them by a point or two,
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
Yeah, you just got to do better than that. And like I said, in game in game seven, there might be 90 seconds. That might be all it is. So it might be irrelevant. But I wonder what you've seen during those minutes, because I think the Thunder have to be kicking themselves for that, too.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
Oklahoma City, you could feel it, right, Andrew? Second quarter. Oklahoma City goes up 12. And there's a stretch of like six minutes in the second quarter where Denver cannot do anything on offense. When they can't even inbound the basketball at one point on offense. When Oklahoma City's defense reached a level of precision and frenzy.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
They played all five wings last night for a couple minutes without Jokic, right?
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
This is it, man. This is why we do sports. Any parting thoughts about this game coming up? I will cede the floor to you. Andrew Schlecht covers the Thunder better than anyone in the world. He's all over this team. His podcast is really fun. He contributes across the athletic. And with that, I will cede the floor to you.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
Anything else we haven't talked about or anything about this game that you would like to end with?
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
I'm going to go run through a wall now based on the speech you just gave about Legends Will Be Born. I'm just going to run around my neighborhood screaming. Andrew, thanks for your time. I will talk to you soon. Enjoy Game 7. All right. I haven't talked about Nick Celtics since Boston's awesome, inspirational, resolute home win in game five.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
I'm not going to talk about it much now because game six is tonight in, I don't know, like 10 hours as I'm recording this. But I do want to say, first of all, just an awesome game for the Celtics. Awesome game. One of the best games all around Jalen Brown has ever played. Career playoff high and assist. Just calm, chill, make the simple play. Awesome Luke Cornett.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
I mean, not awesome Luke Cornett game. The Luke Cornett game. The all-time Luke Cornett game. Luke Cornett's good. I don't know what to tell people. He's been good for a few years now. He's just good. And he's had an interesting transformation from in Chicago. They tried to make him like a pick and pop big.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
And the Celtics have gone all the way the other way and made him a dunker, rim protector, shot blocker extraordinaire. What a game for Luke Cornett. Home crowd looked awesome. And Derek White just like, you need me to score 30? I'll score 30. What a player Derek White is. And we've already talked about the implications of the Tatum injury.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
Not this year, not just next year, but big picture for the Celtics. And the potential of... major roster changes next year and going forward to kind of reset the financial books, reset around Jason Tatum and who's left when Jason Tatum comes back is sort of a larger question. I've already said like Derek White, I mentioned this with Bill on Tuesday, he's the one with all the trade value.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
And it's hard to be both at the same time, both precise and frenzied. And Denver could not score. And it felt like, uh-oh. And Chet, who's been a bellwether in this series... Has a nice up and under against Jokic and Aliu. Hits a three. To put them up 12 and it's like, okay, the young team is here. They've arrived. The old team is on the ropes. They can't figure out this defense.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
He's the one that could fetch you the mother load. Not a mother load, like superstar mother load, but, you know, picks, picks, picks, picks, young player. Drew's got three years left and he's aging. KP's on an expiring deal and he, quote, can't really breathe, according to Joe Mazzullo. Seems like a problem. You need to breathe to live, let alone play basketball.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
And Jalen Brown, you know, you can talk about that if you want, but he's on that gigantic contract and... I've seen theoretical pieces like, would the Mavericks trade the number one pick in the draft for Jalen Brown? And I'm like, am I crazy or would that be like – I mean, I've already said I think trading the number one pick in a Giannis-centric deal would be a bad idea for the Mavericks.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
For Jalen Brown, am I missing something? Why would they do that? But Jalen Brown is very, very good and would have trade value elsewhere or otherwise. Derek White's just an awesome player. The idea of trading Derek White, I mean, there were people within the Spurs who were like, this guy's a really good winning player. Why are we trading a really good winning player?
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
And he's turned into even more of a really good winning player with the Celtics and just that depressed. But anyway, the Knicks. Don't mess around with this, Knicks. Don't mess around. Don't go to Boston for Game 7 because they've already proven to you, yeah, that formula, that motivation, that sort of adrenaline, whatever, it's hard to replicate that game after game.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
The Knicks, I think, have now seen Boston without Tatum and will make some changes about their defensive scheme in Game 6. But don't mess around. Don't go home and play this team. This team's got talent still, even with Porzingis doing nothing, even with Tatum out. They can win one game at home on talent and three-point shooting volume on math.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
The math is mostly tilted toward the Knicks in this series. Don't mess with the math. When this game at home, this is the biggest Knicks game in 25 years because every game now is the biggest Knicks game in 25 years. When the Knicks traded for McHale Bridges, all the picks, five first round picks, blah, blah, blah. They opened. It was a statement. We're opening a window now.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
We're opening a window now. We don't know how long it will be, but Jalen Brunson taking a discount is going to help it prop open maybe a little longer, and then the cat trade comes after. The window was intended to start now and persist as long as it was financially viable, and this starting five was financially viable. Boy, oh boy, is the window open now.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
The window has been – there is not even a window. There's just like the window has been blown out in a storm of injuries and chaos in the Eastern Conference. You need a window installer to come put it back. The window could not be more wide open. The Celtics are devastated by injury. Next year is up in the air for them. The Cavs, they got banged up.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
Yeah, they had all their players at the end, though, and they pooped the bed again in the playoffs. The window is open now to make the finals for the first time since 1999 to face the Pacers. And by the way, the East, I talked about this on Tuesday with Bill after the lottery. The conference imbalance, the number one and two picks going to the West. Giannis potentially being on the move.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
There's some chance he goes to the West if he is indeed on the move. The Celtics on and on and on. The window's open, it's wide open, but you zoom out for a second. The Bulls must be throwing a party. Like, hey, all we do is kind of stand pat, plus or minus Zach Levine. Could we be like the fourth seed next year? Are we staying at a Pacers dynasty? Is that really where we are?
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
Imagine being the Hawks. Just fired your GM, Landry Fields. I haven't even talked about that. I thought Landry Fields did a pretty good job digging out of one DeJounte Murray mess and creating another DeJounte Murray mess for the Pelicans and getting Dyson Daniels and Risa Shea and Jalen Johnson. Well, that wasn't his draft pick, but still.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
And now there's like, well, Trae Young, what's his future? And now you're the Hawks. Like, hey, could we be the fourth seed next year? Could we be hosting a first round playoff series? This conference is so goddamn bad. Anyway, the window's wide open for the Knicks. Don't mess around. You should win this game. I think they will win this game.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
This is the moment for the Nuggets. And in one minute and 45 seconds, they go on a 12-0 run. That was the key stretch of the game. Then they pull away. Every game has had a different hero. This is just like, it's too good. It's too good. I don't want it to end.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
And I think a couple of things that I'm watching for are they seemed confused. in their pick and roll coverage in game five, Carl Anthony Towns in particular. Now Carl Anthony Towns is always a little confused and addled in pick and roll coverage, but I think they were caught in between this.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
We're got to switch everything to keep the Celtics in front of us and, and bait them into playing ISO ball and not give them threes. And Hey, wait a second without Tatum,
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
Can we play maybe a more traditional pick and roll coverage and drop back a little bit and really test their driving and their playmaking and see if they can actually generate good shots without Jason Tatum against a traditional defense? And you could see them messing up. Like, are we switching? Are we not? Oh, someone got open for a three.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
And I would not be surprised if we saw they're still going to switch because it's worked. If we saw a little bit more traditional pick and roll coverage, kind of testing out, OK, Jalen Brown. Come into a drop pick and roll scheme. See if you can spray it out. See if you can make enough plays to win the game. Drew Holiday, you know, see if you can do it. Derek White, you're awesome.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
We're going to test you out a little bit, particularly with Mitchell Robinson at center and in the pick and roll. What a series for Mitchell Robinson. This. is the fully actualized Mitchell Robinson. This is maybe as good as it's going to get. Maybe he can play more minutes in the future.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
I remember five years ago, four years ago, writing my annual most intriguing players piece for ESPN.com and writing about Mitchell Robinson in the piece. I don't remember what season it was.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
And he was so in his infancy as an NBA player that I remember talking to him about using his arms on defense, using the giant wingspan and how there'd be too many possessions where he'd be defending the pick and roll with his arms at his sides and how the lowest hanging fruit. Now, it's harder to maintain a pose like that than you think. It takes energy.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
but how the low hanging fruit for him was just like, use your arms, man, get out. And how coaches had talked with him about it. And he knew that it was a problem. Now he's like impenetrable on the pick and roll. He can come up to the level of the screen. He can drop back. The arms are out. He's just been awesome defensively.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
And then you throw in the offensive rebounding at six or six from the free throw line. You do it. You go, Mitch. Nobody wants to see hack at anybody. Um, That's one thing I'm watching for. I'm watching for Boston's smaller lineups that worked more Peyton Pritchard. I'm watching for... Can Cat do anything with Drew Holiday? That's the matchup now for him.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
He had a couple of face-up drives late in the game. Can he get going a little bit that way? I'm watching for Ananobi. Ananobi's been kind of invisible offensively in... I don't know, three of the five games in this series. And he's got Derek White on him now because of the way the matchups have changed. Jalen Brown is guarding Jalen Brunson, on and on and on. And without Tatum.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
And Derek White's an elite defender, and I don't want to just give the ball to OG Ananomi, but a couple post-ups here and there, run him off some pin downs, just get him a little bit more involved the way they've gotten Mikael Bridges more involved. Some of the things that I'm looking at in this game. And there's not much more to it than that. It's a big, big moment for the Knicks in this core.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
This is a game. You don't have to win it because if they lose tonight, I could absolutely see them winning game seven and boss. They're just more talented, like home road, whatever. They're more talented. But boy, would it be a nice statement of, you know, we are here. We know the window is open. We're not even going to mess around with game seven. I can't wait for this game tonight.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
And all my Knicks fans, friends are on pins and needles. Get back to the conference finals for the first time. In forever, but the Celtics, give them credit. They're going to make the Knicks earn it. The Knicks are going to have to earn it tonight. Okay, let's bring in Logan Murdoch and talk about the Golden State Warriors. All right.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
One of the cool things about joining Ringer Spotify is that I have full access to all these awesome people that I can collaborate with now. And Logan Murdoch, maestro of the real ones with Raja Bell and some dude named Howard. I don't know about the third guy. We're going to talk about the Warriors, but it's a thrill to work with you, man. How you doing?
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
I like it. We just had about five minutes of baseball talk off air before this. So I'm fired up now. Because I know you're an A's fan, and some of my fondest memories are at A's games. And I am a newly unlapsed Mets fan. So anyway, enough baseball. The Minnesota Timberwolves dismantled the Warriors in five games. Minnesota fans, we will talk about you. You are going on to live in the playoffs.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
You have a whole other round. Congratulations. You earned it. You dismantled the Warriors. You did what you're supposed to do. You're an awesome team. I talked about you a little bit in the Thunder segment. We're going to get to you. The Warriors are the Warriors, though.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
And what happens to them is very important because, A, they're very popular, and B, they have an all-time legendary player in Steph Curry who missed the last four and a half, four and three quarters games of this series and was a fireball during his brief, I think, 13 minutes in the series. And so naturally, Logan... we must wonder what comes next for the Warriors. And is this just it?
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
And if this is it, not that it's over, but if this is essentially the team... Steph, Draymond, Curry, whatever supporting pieces remain until we go out and retire. Is that good enough? And I don't mean is it good enough to win the title because I don't think it is and I don't think it was this year.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
But is it good enough to satisfy the fans and to make everybody feel as if they've at least given Curry the chance to compete at a high level during the twilight of his career?
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
All right, coming up on the Zach Lowe Show. Game seven, baby. The two sweetest words in sports. We've got Andrew Schleck coming on to preview Thunder Nuggets. Little Nick Celtics interlude ahead of tonight's game. And then Logan Murdoch on, okay, what happens to the Warriors now? All coming up on the Zach Lowe Show. Welcome to the Zach Lowe Show. It's Friday morning.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
Yeah, when they lost in the play-in last season, I wrote a big piece on sort of where do they go, where have they been, free SPN. And I ended it, the general thesis of it was, if there's a fairytale ending to be had for Steph, we probably already saw it in 2022. And then I went on to say something to the point of, You know, there's nothing wrong with being a good team in the Western Conference.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
There's actually a sort of honor in scratching and clawing and winning 48 to 52 games in an absolutely loaded conference, which just somehow keeps getting even more loaded. And being a team that can plausibly make the second round and being a team that if luck actually goes your way, you could make the conference finals. And once you're there, it's like, you know, whatever. But like...
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
a championship extraordinarily unlikely, but there's an honor in being that competitive. And I think almost more interesting than the where do they go from here conversation, because I think we know where they go from here. They have Kaminga as a sign and trade possibility. And I agree with you. I think they have some eyes on some pieces that they think fit. I don't know who they are,
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
And it's not Giannis. Like, they have hot take. They'd love to get Giannis. Like, kudos to the front office for identifying Giannis as a diamond in the rough. If they don't get Giannis, I think they've got some names that they'd look at. And they have, you know, Pajemski's solid. Moody is a problem right now. They need to figure out what Moody is, if anything.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
And Kaminga is either going to be on the team or going to get them something in return. And they owe their pick to Miami this year. They owe a top 20 protected pick to Washington in 2030. Other than that, they control all their picks and swaps. So after this draft is over, they have some ammo to get stuff. once that pick is sent to the Heat. So I think we kind of know where they're going to go.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
I don't know if there's a big plot twist here. The more interesting question is, you know, they landed on Butler as the guy, right? That ended up being the move and it didn't cost them all that much, which I think is a win too. And I put this to you, like, Is there a road not taken? Is there a missed opportunity that's any over the last three to four years post Durant post rebuild post title?
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
Is there a player? Is there a trade? Is there a conversation that is a road not taken missed opportunity that would have left them in a better spot than they are in right now?
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
I don't remember exactly what the score is. When they went up 12 in the second quarter. And Denver, you will not see the Nuggets offense in a way like that ever. I mean, they were strangling the Nuggets offense. And of course, in there, SGA picks up his fourth foul on a stupid reach-in, which really helped turn the game. They're in minus five for the series with Shea on the bench.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
I forgot about the Memphis one with Draymond, and I don't even know that I was aware that that package was available to them. I mean, that's interesting. I don't know if it really changes their life. If you go back... I mean, obviously the number one, what if his Wiseman and absolutely.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
In fact, he was really the only two timelines guy who contributed much of anything to the 2022 title run, which brings me back to Wiseman. And look, it's not just that they missed on Wiseman and who they could have gotten for Wiseman, which is maybe LaMelo, maybe Tyrese Halliburton. If you look back at that draft, it's kind of a disaster between... LaMelo at three and Halliburton at 12.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
It's not a total disaster. Like, Abdi is in there. Toppin's all right. Okongwu's all right. Like, Okongwu's actually pretty good. But anyway, they also tried to... They sniffed around trading that pick for a veteran and couldn't really find anything that they liked. They sniffed around trading down and couldn't really find anything that they liked. But the bottom line is...
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
The two timelines thing, it's not really... First of all, it was an accident. It wasn't like they plotted it. Everybody got hurt and suddenly they lucked into the number two pick. It was a complete accident. And the spoils of it this is generally what happened. This is why these things don't happen.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
But did you think... I mean, I felt, and I wonder if you felt... Like, oh, this is it. They've arrived. The games four and five were the mountain, and now this is kind of going to be the coronation. Did you start to feel that at all? Because I can't lie. I picked OKC in six, and I felt it at that moment.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
Like the most likely outcome all along was that the old guys get old, the young guys get better, but not enough better and not soon enough to help the old guys coalesce into this like team that's multi-generational and awesome. And, and, I still think there's hope for Moody. This playoffs was a disaster. Kaminga, we don't need to overdo. And Wiseman's long gone. I mean, that's the fruits of it.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
The other one was this Paul George marketing thing this summer. I don't really... In my reporting at the time, and I double-checked yesterday, I don't think either of those things were really... like, even close to close.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
And I don't think marketing was ever really in play for them based on what Utah was going to ask for.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
I don't know if he's two of the three things, and he's definitely not all three of those things. What was it? It was exciting. Check. Can play basketball. I think so. Eye of the beholder. Can galvanize a fan base. He certainly can galvanize pockets of a fan base in both emotional directions.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
I am contractually obligated to mention that the Moses Moody pick could have been Alper and Shen Goon or Trey Murphy III, but it was not.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
There's a reason I mentioned him. No, Moody and Kaminga are the same draft. There's a reason I mentioned him because everyone focuses on Shengun. But like, Trey Murphy, the third's good and would have fit what they need. But look, every team can play these what-ifs, right? Every team has these draft stories that this guy could have been here, that guy could have been here.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
We had Halliburton high on the board, whatever. The bottom line is this. I think this is like a success for the Warriors to get Jimmy Butler. And look, if Joe Lakeup was scared of a post-Steph future, I don't know what he's feeling like after watching these last four games against Minnesota when Jimmy is...
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
He got sick before game four.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
Yeah. I talked about that in the previous segment about tonight's game and and how depressing trading Derek White would be for Boston and just the sort of dilemma they face in terms of how much of a reset do we really want to have and who do we want to be back here when Tatum comes back, who has trade value in the interim, and where Derek White fits in that conversation. But my point is this.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
I think trading essentially Wiggins and a first-round pick for Jimmy Butler – And building a team that went whatever their record was with Butler and Curry was very, very good.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
Over a non-trivial period of time. is an unmitigated success because they did not go... Their fear with marketing is we go all in for a team that's just pretty good and we're left with not enough stuff and not good enough of a team. They went half in for a team that is pretty good to very good. That's fine. That's a success. Butler fits how they want to play.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
They essentially, given his player option that he had, they essentially added one year of big Jimmy Butler money to what was there anyway. I think that's perfectly fine. I don't think any of these missed opportunities are, A, some of them were just not really available, and B, I don't think they put them in a position that's any better than this. And the only thing...
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
I don't remember all my reporting at the time. The only one that I look back at as I wonder how serious they were and how interesting it got was... I know they talked to the Raptors a little bit about Ananobi. I don't know if Siakam ever came up. Those two guys... And now they went for decent prices.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
When you look at what the Knicks gave up and quickly and Barrett, you can, you know, value quickly how you want. And the Pacers gave up Bruce Brown and three first round picks, none of which projects to be very good. Like the Warriors could have gotten into those conversations, one or both of them, probably just one. Those are guys that are interesting to me.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
But again, I don't know how realistic they were. And I think where they've ended up with Jimmy Butler is totally fine. And it's okay to be a good team in Steph's twilight.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
Well, and Looney is a good name to bring up because everyone is focused on Kaminga's free agency. And I assume the Warriors will tender the qualifying offer and restrict him, obviously. Yeah. Looney's a free agent. I believe Gary Payton. The second is a free agent. Like they have big decisions on these guys. And these are like either or decisions.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
It's like either this or a salary slot for another player, either like, it's not easy to bring all these guys back at, let's just say between seven to $10 million. Cause you do that. You're into the tax. You're maybe you're definitely into the tax. You're probably still ducking the second apron or the first apron, although it could be close. Um, And you don't – you get your mid-level.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
Some of these guys, it's going to be tricky. But they are very, very – they're very – and you mentioned – it's good that you mentioned Denver because one of the things – forget the Minnesota series. That's over. Steph gets hurt. They're drawing dead without Steph, and Minnesota did their job.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
Steph or no Steph, you got to be watching this Nuggets Thunder series and being like, I don't think we can play quite at that level. That's kind of a reality check for where the Warriors are. And getting to that level is going to be really, really hard. And that's okay because Denver could maybe not. I don't know. We'll see what happens with these teams. But that's fine.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
It's just that's a reality. I'm watching that series like, man, that is some high-level, physical, nasty stuff.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
I felt it. I mean, I was starting... I mean, when you get a series like this, you start thinking about big picture implications for whichever team loses, right? And so my brain naturally has already... I've already started thinking about, like, where does Denver go from here? And it happened fast. Like, to the Nuggets' credit, they turned it fast.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
Did they play with their food or is Houston just good? Like that's like the Western Conference. You hear the number of of playoff series you get where you're like, oh, this is probably a walkover for us is like pretty much zero unless you're the number one seed and you get a Memphis this year. And that was a Walker like this is just life in the West.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
Well, I mean, I thought that was going to be a long series beforehand. I picked Warriors in seven. But you're right. I mean, all these series, if you get out of them early, although the rested teams have not played well in the game ones this round, it's still just the wear and tear is so severe.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
And the wear and tear of having Alper and Shangoon and Steven Adams beat the hell out of you for seven games is very severe. And Amin Thompson and Tari Eason and on and on and on.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
And a guy who deserves a ton of credit for that run in last night is Christian Brown. He started it with a three against... Against the Thunder. I think the Thunder were might have been. I can't remember if they were. I don't know what defense they were playing. They played zone a little bit here and there last night. A couple possessions. And he was like, we got nothing going on.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
Any parting thoughts? Everyone should read your piece. This is the depressing thing about the media landscape is that that piece got a lot of attention, but it got a lot of attention because of one detail about Jonathan Kaminga looking off Steph in one game that pissed the coach off. By the way, you can see it every time Kaminga makes a mistake. First of all, they're very loud mistakes.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
And second of all, like, You can see the coaches on the bench just... They don't hide it. Like, he closes out on Nas Reed with the hand down, with no hand up, with the hand down. Oh, you can see it.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
In fairness, Moody did not really get to play through his mistakes in this playoffs, and Pajemski did get chastised a couple of times. It's going to be interesting for the Warriors. I just think You know, barring some sort of lightning strike, this is just what it is, and that's completely fine. Any parting thoughts, Logan Burda?
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
It's been fun, and this has been fun, and it's going to be an interesting offseason. Logan Murdoch, Real Ones with Roger Bell and Howard Beck is a must-listen. Read his column on the Warriors on The Ringer if you want to know more about the future of this team, the future of Jonathan Kaminga, the president of Jonathan Kaminga, everything Jonathan Kaminga. Logan Murdoch, thank you, sir.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
All right, that's it for today. We will see you guys back on Monday when, oh my God, one of the Nuggets and Thunder is going to be out. The Wolves are going to be playing the other one. Nick Celtics, we'll see what the state of that is or has been. What a wild playoffs, wild lottery, wild everything, all covered here on the Zach Lowe Show. So we'll be back Monday morning.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
I'm bringing the ball up. You turn. I'm just jacking this three. And it went in. And somewhere in there is a Caruso miss after Shea goes out with four fouls. Aaron Gordon run out dunk. Brown hits another three against the zone, and it just happened so fast. Not a coincidence that I think it happened when Shea went out because their offense looked a little rattled without Shea.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
Thank you to Jesse, Jonathan, and Bobby on the producing staff for today's episode. We will see you after the weekend. Buckle up. Must be 21 and over and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 and over and present in D.C. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit fanduel.com slash RG.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
Call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut or visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit GamblingHelplineMA.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24-7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-877-8HOPENY or text HOPENY in New York.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
And then, as you mentioned, Dort hits the big three to put him up three at the half. I mean, that was... That was the game right there to me. I mean, the game was decided later, but Denver's ability to climb back into the game in a blink was just a testament to their toughness. And they overcame a great Shea game last night. Shea was cooking last night, 32 points on just 16 shots, 11 free throws.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
He's learned to pick his spots and run the ball up the court and find times to attack early before Denver can set. It's weirdly effective zone defense. Denver, I guess, is now the Miami Heat. They just play zone defense. Like they've just become his own team. And the cool thing about this series is you said every game has been tactically different. That's true.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
Every game has had a different like hero story to it. And we can go back through them if you want, but just like every game, it's been so much fun. And game seven is going to be, is going to be wild.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
And we have at least one, maybe two, we'll see what happens tonight, but at least one Game 7 in what has been a series that has exceeded the considerable hype and exceeded my considerable expectations. A series that has been a defensive war between the best defense in the NBA and a defense that has found some answers against a Thunder offense that is searching for some answers. Nuggets, Thunder.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
I'm not going to say I predicted it, but about 10 days or a week ago on this podcast, I jokingly said to some... I don't know who even the guest was. I said, look, sheepishly, I said, look, I know I'm higher on this guy than probably anyone except for Calvin Booth, but I just wish that Julian Strother...
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
you know, did not have these mid season injuries two years in a row that sort of undid any attempt he had to crack the rotation and earn the coach's trust. Cause I think they need him and I think he can play. And so last night it was rocking in the straw, their straights. It's not an Island. It's a straights. It's me and Calvin booth. And we're in a,
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
few other random people, members of Julian Strother's family, pounding Mai Tais and just loving life on Strother Straits. It's a wild experience, man. You mentioned he gets hyped. I think the Nuggets would like him to be a little less hyped because defensively, he's just kind of running around out there doing stuff and doesn't even know really where he's going or where he should rotate.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
And it's just sort of a matter of time until... he just runs into a screen and falls over or misses a rotation completely. Just, like, settle it down. But to your point, like, Russ was bad last night. We got bad Russ again. And Peyton Watson is just... He's going to top out at, like, 11 to 12 minutes. They just... They need somebody. Somebody else. And it was Strother.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
Do you want to... Can we just go back through every game real fast and just, like, the craziness of every game? Yeah, I would love to. So, if the Thunder lose this series... Lose game seven at home. I think they're going to look back at game one as just the game that they will rue forever because they should have won the game. Definitely.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
They overthought their defensive matchups, starting with Chet on Jokic. I couldn't believe they did that. I mentioned in my preview that I didn't think that would happen. I thought that was a bad mistake. The fouling up three mismanagement of timeouts, letting Jokic get back on the floor. All of it was a disaster. Um,
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
But that's a Jokic game, 42 points, 22 rebounds, and Caruso was awesome in that game. Game two is the blowout. By the way, the Thunder for the series are plus 32, but Denver is plus 11 if you exclude game two. I know you can't just exclude game two because it's whatever, but plus 32 is incredibly misleading, obviously. Game three...
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
Another you're going to rue this one game, but not as bad as game one. Up three. Shea has the ball. 40 seconds left. Misses a decent shot. Aaron Gordon. Aaron Gordon. Should have mentioned him in game one. Has the big three to put Denver up at the end of game one after Chet misses two free throws. you know, another three at the end of game three to tie the game at overtime, they lose.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
That's the MPJ game. If you want a hero from that game, MPJ playing with one arm, 21 points on seven attempt shooting. Game four, I mentioned the bench guys. Game five, I mentioned Dort. Game six is Strother. Which of those games do you think they would regret more? Game one or game three?
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
Well, it's not. And that's what Denver does. If you give them life in these close games, they have the best clutch player in the league. Apologies to Jalen Brunson. They have the best player in the league. Apologies to Shea Gildress Alexander and all of Oklahoma City. And they just... they've lived these moments. I mean, this feels like the 20th seven game series that Jokic has played. Yeah.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
A tactical war, just there's so much high-level stuff going on in this game. To help us break it all down and look ahead to the two sweetest words in the English language, Game 7, Andrew Schlecht, co-host of the Down to Dunk podcast. He works for The Athletic. He's all over the airwaves. He's based in Oklahoma City. Down to Dunk is a Thunder podcast if you don't know.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
And I said before the series and arguing with a couple of people, again, I picked thunder and six. I remember saying thunder. I thought, I thought the thunder should win. Um, And I just thought Thunder in five, which a couple of people I know were picking that. Like Jokic doesn't lose short series when the team is healthy. Like when they had no Jamal, no Michael, whatever.