The Athletic NBA Daily
Bucks & Thunder advance in NBA Cup | The Athletic’s Front Office Rankings
Wed, 11 Dec 2024
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 39 points as the Oklahoma City Thunder eliminated the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA Cup quarterfinals. The Milwaukee Bucks knock out the Orlando Magic thanks to 37 points from Giannis Antetokounmpo. Dave DuFour and Zena Keita are joined by the Athletic’s Eric Nehm and Andrew Schlecht to breakdown the Bucks and Thunder victories and their paths to success in Las Vegas. Then, Zena and Dave take a look at some of the teams that were not included in the Athletic’s front office rankings and discuss the Jimmy Butler trade situation.Host: Dave DuFourWith: Zena Keita, Andrew Schlecht, Eric NehmExecutive Producer: Andrew SchlechtAudio Producer: Grayson MoodySubmit your questions to The Athletic NBA Daily mailbag: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5939460/2024/11/25/nba-podcast-mailbag-athletic-daily/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Chapter 1: What happened in the NBA Cup quarterfinals?
Good morning and welcome to the NBA Daily for December 11th, 2024. Coming up, it's the NBA Cup. We've got the quarterfinals. So we got Eric Name and Andrew Schlecht on to talk about the winners from last night's game. And then at the end of the show, Zena and I are going to take a look at the new front office rankings over at The Athletic.
We're going to talk about some of the teams that were left off. Good morning, everybody. Good morning, Zena. Good morning, Eric Name. How are you, buddy?
I'm great. How are you?
Hey, I'm doing all right. Are you excited to go to Vegas? The Bucs get the big win over the Magic, although it was a little bit scary there for a little bit, but they got the win heading to Vegas looking for redemption.
Chapter 2: What did Giannis Antetokounmpo's performance mean for the Bucks?
Yeah, no, I actually am. It's funny. During his postgame interview, Giannis had mentioned the fact that last year was a little crazy. And essentially what he meant was they won on a Wednesday. They showed up on a Thursday for practice. They played on a Friday afternoon and then they lost. And in the locker room, they were yelling at the coach and that got out.
And yeah, it's probably an episode that all of the Bucs would like to forget and hopefully have a better trip to Vegas this year.
They do feel like they're a little bit more together, especially when you consider where they started at the beginning of this season and now where they're at today. But Eric, this game was supposed to be the sleepwalker. This is supposed to be right. Go right to Vegas. Go ahead and book your ticket.
You know, when you think about what Orlando was able to do against the Bucs, what concerns you most about the Bucs going into their next competition in the cup?
Yeah, I mean, I think any team that can be really physical with them defensively is going to be a team that they're going to not necessarily struggle against, but it's going to be difficult for them to do so. You know, they're built on two guys, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damon Nillard. And Giannis, when he's at his best, is overpowering smaller players. When the Orlando Magic have...
five six ten dudes that they throw out on the floor well there's not guys out there that you know it's just gonna overpower and then conversely when those six ten and six five and six four guys can all move really well well then damien willard's ark mainly uses quickness in the same ways that he normally can uh and you just that this magic team i think first of all deserves all of the credit in the world like
Jamal Mosley, I named him as my coach of the year when we did the roundtable at the Athletic earlier this week. He's got them all the way bought into that culture that it does not matter who the 10 guys are that are playing tonight. You're going to go out there. You're going to work hard on defense. Yeah. you're going to just do everything you can to make it hell on the other team.
And that's what they did to the Bucs tonight. So I would say, I think if, you know, the Bucs play another top three defensive team, it could be a struggle. So that would mean what? The Thunder get to the finals? That would be a tough one. The Thunder are very physical. They're a great defensive team. That would be another team that the Bucs could struggle against.
I think on a normal night against normal defense... The Rockets?
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Chapter 3: How did the Thunder secure their win against the Mavericks?
Mm-hmm.
Except when your athleticism is dwindling and you can't hit threes in the same way that you used to. And to start the year, Pat Compton was out there a lot. And I think pretty quickly after the first five games, it was like, Pat's not as athletic as he needs to be. He doesn't have the legs anymore. He's not shooting it the way that he needs to. So let's find those things in other places.
And they found them in AJ Green and they found it in Andre Jackson Jr., In an ideal world, you could combine those two and make a super role player. That would be awesome. Super AJ! Right, 100%. You put it all together, that'd be amazing. They don't have that. But they do have two guys that can do two very useful things. And with AJ Green, it's a three-point shooting. He's, I believe...
Going into today's game, as far as efficiency goes, the most efficient shot you would get in an NBA game outside of a Nikola Jokic shot was an A.J. Green shot. Wow. The whole league. An A.J. Green shot was the most valuable shot in the entire league. Shout out A.J. Green. He can shoot the three, and he doesn't play outside of himself. He doesn't try to do those other things.
He just does his job. He's playing with Giannis. He's playing with Dame. He's got... Brooks stretching the floor. But he also holds up on the defensive end, Eric. I think that that's his path to more minutes is to get even better at that end. I mean, he's big. Andre Jackson, I mean, this is stuff we've been talking about for years together.
Eric, where this team has lacked young athletes, just athletes in general. And so, like you said, slow start is a good excuse to see what they got. Doc's not exactly like going to be the fastest guy to put the young guys.
He doesn't love young guys.
I mean, this is kind of worked out in their advantage. And now, you know, you can see where they're starting to build some momentum. And look, man, the NBA Cup, that's what it's all about, right? Like they respect the cup. They're going for the cup. Eric, I got to ask you, though, before we get you out of here. Where is the one place you're definitely eating in Vegas?
You're a food guy. Um, I, this is gonna be really hard. A Carbone reservation on like three days notice is not going to be the easiest thing, but there are some spicy noodles that I like in the one spot at the Ari. I forgot what it's called, but I, you can to go those noodles.
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Chapter 4: What are the concerns for the Bucks heading into the next competition?
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Over at The Athletic, we've got our front office rankings. They're hot and fresh today. And look, we're not going to spoil those here. This show comes out early in the morning. Go and read them. Go get your coffee. Sit down. Take a look at those front office rankings. The guys at The Athletic, they interviewed and asked questions of 40 executives across the league. That's GMs, VPs, assistant GMs.
And they each listed their top five teams. And it was scored like MVP voting. So, you know, they... They put a little bit of thought into how they did this. If a team didn't receive a vote, they didn't make the list at all. And Xena, you know how I like to do things.
I actually thought the teams that were left off the list would be an interesting way to talk about this list because, you know, you go through and you look and you say Pelicans. All right. Well, they've had like some rough injury luck, but you can see how they could be overlooked. Right. They haven't had any recent success. But, you know, the Blazers, they're tanking.
They at least are doing something with purpose. So you see that. But the Atlanta Hawks have actually done a pretty good job here recently. Yeah. And I'm surprised that they didn't get a single vote.
That had to be my most surprising one to not see their name, especially considering you just mentioned the Bells. But yeah, the trade between the Hawks and the Pels, the Hawks absolutely won that trade. When you think about all the superstars around the NBA needing a change, whether it was through trade, whether it was signing a big free agent or building within the roster that they have.
The Atlanta Hawks are the perfect example of how to do that. You're seeing Trae Young not have to carry the burden as much of being the sole scorer of that team. And in that trade, you get rid of DeJounte Murray, you bring in Dyson Daniels, you bring in EJ Liddell, and you bring in Larry Nance Jr. Okay. Larry Nance Jr., not their biggest forward, sure. Not playing a ton of minutes.
You get rid of EJ Liddell, give him to the Suns, bring in a David Roddy, He's playing 15 minutes for them. Solid forward minutes, picking up the slack in general. Overall, you're having your team, your core build around Trey Young. Great role players drafted well. And then you have a bright future in some of these young stars that you picked up in the trade.
Not to mention two draft picks, first round draft picks in that trade. I'm sorry. Kudos.
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