Andrew Schlecht and Alex Speers are joined by Mike Vorkunov to discuss the NBA lottery, reform and the sale of the Blazers. Then they do a championship draft. Then they are joined by Caitlin Cooper of Basketball, She Wrote to discuss the Indiana Pacers and their run to the East Finals Then they play a fun edition of Andrew vs. the Beat, a trivia game where Andrew is pitted against a beat writer.Host: Andrew Schlecht and Alex SpeersWith: Mike Vorkunov and Caitlin CooperExecutive Producer: Andrew SchlechtAudio/Video Editor: Gonzalo Torres Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Chapter 1: What are the highlights from the NBA Draft Lottery?
Looking forward to that. So Mike, this week you got to witness one of the most dramatic and bizarre draft lotteries in NBA history. You're one of the media members invited to the lottery drawing room where the actual draft order is determined in front of team officials and other media members. What were some of the highlights from that overall experience for you?
I think firstly, it was, you know, just like I think when Dallas won the lottery, everyone, everyone's everyone's reaction and like the theme of the night was just utter disbelief. Right. Like it was a combination of shock.
surprise laughter uh you know you had execs saying like nico traded cooper for luca for cooper right like i think everyone i don't say they were in on the bit but like everyone had the same thoughts pretty much uh because it was such a wild outcome that i think was probably the most unpredictable way the lottery could have gone i know they didn't have the longest odds but it was probably the most like chaotic uh potential outcome
And then, you know, there's, there's a lot going on aside from San Antonio and number two pick, there's the rollercoaster ride of what happened with the Sixers and the Thunders picks, which are kind of, uh, you know, conjoined there. And it was really funny, uh, When you're in this room, you're in there, the first 15 minutes, all your communications are taken away. Your phone's taken away.
If you have a digital watch, they take that from you. And so you're in there for like 75 minutes, hour and a half. And the lottery's done in 15 minutes. Like it's just, it goes like quick. And the rest of the time, you're just there to talk to people. And at some point, the broadcast, the ESPN broadcast of the lottery comes on.
And usually people don't watch it because they know what's going to happen already. And sometimes they do. Like, I remember in 2019, the year that the Knicks were one of the three teams with the highest odds, they kept playing up the Knicks angle on the broadcast and, like... So can the Knicks win the number one pick? And inside, everyone knew it was already not going to happen.
And there was just some laughter at that. This time, the broadcast was about how, if you remember, Kevin Nagande at some point says the Sixers lost their first overall pick. And there was some grumbling about it and some laughter about it. And then when he comes back around, he's like, oh, wait, never mind. They now have a top four pick. It was the same type of reaction.
It was this very in-real-time response to the broadcast reaction vis-a-vis that you knew the future already. So it was kind of funny to watch because everyone was watching the broadcast, including Sam Preston, who was obviously in the room there on behalf of the Thunder. But yeah, I think once everyone kind of internalized that the Mavericks won the lottery, the vibes were interesting.
It's probably such a cool environment, too, because it... because you don't have your phones, like that's probably the first thing that people go to after like an event like that. And you not having that forces you to like actually interact with people. I'm sure it just creates like one of the more like unique environments that you can be in right now in sports.
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Chapter 2: Is the NBA Draft Lottery rigged?
And so you just start talking to some GM or you start talking to some NBA person and everyone's in the same way. Like, I got to talk about this. The only people I can talk about it with are stuck in this room with me. So let's just talk about it for the next hour and like try to digest what just happened. That's so awesome.
So Dallas getting the number one pick unsurprisingly and understandably set off a lot of talk from NBA fans about the lottery being rigged. Now, Mike, back in 2019, you wrote an article where you investigated the idea of rigging the lottery and how realistic of a scenario it would be to pull off. What were some of your big takeaways from doing that story?
Well, for one, the NBA does not like when you talk about rigging the lottery. I think understandably so. When I got on the phone to talk with someone from the NBA about this, I still remember their first response was, so you want to talk about committing a felony? Which, in the past, where we've seen past lotteries get rigged, yes, it was a crime to do that. We've seen that with state lotteries.
So kind of a taboo subject, but, you know, it's really hard to do. And I think that's why the league goes for the level of transparency that it does. Right. It allows media members, allows someone from each team in there to make sure that everyone knows it's on the up and up. And.
You know, we watch this big, clear lottery machine, this big drum with air circulating through it, and the ping pong balls come up to the very top in succession for four numbers just to make sure everyone understands, like, this is how it works. Stop asking us after the fact if it's rigged. And I think it's fascinating, really.
It's more of like an exercise in how the human brain works more than anything else, right? If we're unable to... If we're unable to understand things that we did not expect or that we can't clearly explain, we start kind of creating conspiracy theories. Right. And we've seen this a lot in the last few years.
Like we start creating conspiracy theories to explain the unknowable or what we don't want to hear. And in some way, it also kind of just explains maybe our lack of really truly being able to internalize probabilities. Just that if something is unlikely to happen, does not mean that it actually will not happen. Right. So 1.8 chance does not mean a 0.0 percent chance.
I also feel like a lot of fans don't realize that you can go watch what you saw. It is on NBA.com. They put the actual draft lottery in that room. That video is online. You can just go watch it. They don't publicize it that much, but it's there. You can go watch it.
it's not a very exciting video everyone's very like chill in the room now which i kind of don't like i remember the first year i did again was 2019 and uh it was the zion lottery and the pelicans won and alvin gentry was in there for the pelicans and he just jumped up and he screamed you know f yeah uh it was great and i was like this is how you need to react to winning the number one pick in a year with like a zion like draft pick and then every year since like everyone's like
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Chapter 3: How have lottery reforms impacted the NBA?
And this comes on the back of a month and a half ago, we were talking about a different kind of lottery reform, which is to try to help against tanking, which would essentially be downweighting the lottery odds for the worst teams to stop the Jazz from doing what they did or the Sixers from doing what they did. But the reaction out of this lottery is,
and i i think they had it even before this was just that like maybe we need to find a way to reward not reward to give a chance away for the worst teams to get talent you know this is their best way to acquire like the potential great player like no free agent's gonna go to charlotte nobody's gonna push their way to utah um dc is a huge market but that just hasn't been how their history has gone and so it's
you know, some people might be interested in kind of pushing up to 20% or whatever that might be for the worst teams. And it's kind of, it's a hard road to walk if you're the NBA trying to figure out like, okay, how do we make the lottery so nobody tanks?
But then also, how do we make the lottery so the Washington Wizards can get out of this multi-year tank with some level of talent that's not, you know, the number six pick and Alex Saar? Because, you know, the part of it too is not just... are you lucky in the lottery? Are you lucky in the lottery in the right year? Right?
Like getting them more is not the same as getting the pick this year or 2023. Not even close. Yeah.
So in addition to attending the lottery, you also wrote an article this week for The Athletic about home court advantage in the playoffs and how its importance has changed over the years. This is obviously a huge topic for a lot of Nuggets and Thunder fans this weekend. What were some of the key stats from your findings?
And do you have any theories as to why home court advantage isn't quite what it used to be? Man, I miss home court advantage.
It was fun. RIP home court advantage. I guess we'll see for this weekend. I know.
Yeah, I mean, the stats are...
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Chapter 4: Why is home court advantage declining in the NBA?
So those are two things that I'll definitely be following. I am kind of curious to see, uh, you know, the further impact of the second apron and the finances of the new CBA, the financial rules of the CBA, right? Like the Celtics have a big decision to make. If they keep this team together, they're paying what? $470 million or more in total salary plus luxury tax.
You know, everyone's trying to duck out of it. Will the bucks try to duck out of the tax altogether? Right. Um, even if they keep Giannis, um, You know, this is this is the further this is, I think, another kind of flashpoint in the new CBA because the new repeater taxes kick in this summer.
And they're going to be very, very, very expensive, which makes, you know, even harder for teams to be living not only in the second apron, but just above the luxury tax altogether.
Yeah, on the blazer. These are not sexy things. It's so wild to me that Phil Knight makes that offer of $2 billion back in 2022. And at the time, it seemed like you know, competitive, you know, it didn't seem out of the realm of possibility that they might be sold, you know, if there was some more negotiation. And now just three years later, that is, that would be such an uncompetitive offer.
You know, it seems like with the Celtics selling for 6 billion, like, is it realistic that the Blazers could be sold for like 4 billion? I mean, that's what the Suns were sold for.
I mean, I would think that's, you know, I would think like three and a half billion is the floor of the Hornets, right? Kind of a smaller market, no history kind of franchise went for three billion dollars a few years ago. I would think the Blazers are at four.
But again, and this is this is a qualifier that I'm throwing up as of right now, and I'm still trying to get a kind of like a lay of the land. But if you expect the NBA to expand within the next few years, you're Do you show as much interest in the Blazers? Right. Or do you try to get ahead of expansion?
And that drives the Blazers price up because some people are thinking they can get in for a cheaper price there to buy an NBA team. So the interplay of those two things is kind of fascinating. But yeah, like these these prices are astronomical, you know, and like the Paul Allen Trust also has or the state also has the Seattle Seahawks and like.
What are they going to go for when they hit the market, right? Are we going to see a $10 billion NFL team? Like all these numbers. Who's rich enough to buy them becomes the question here.
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Chapter 5: What are the future business trends in the NBA?
Endlich wieder Coca-Cola Gläser bei McDonald's. Hol dir die ikonische 20 Jahre Edition in 5 exklusiven Farben und Designs für deine Sammlung. Jetzt gratis zum MacMenü. Nur in teilnehmenden Restaurants, nicht zum MacMenü Small. Solange der Vorrat reicht.
All right, Al, it's time to bring on somebody that every time I talk to her, I feel like I learned something and I'll simultaneously feel like I don't know that much about basketball and it excites me to bring Caitlin Cooper back on the pod. Basketball, she wrote, is her blog and she is just a gift to the NBA community. Caitlin, welcome back to the show.
Thanks for having me on. That feels a little hyperbolic, but I appreciate it.
I mean, whatever. It's true. It's true. We love hearing your insights about the Pacers. So let's start by going back to mid-December when everything started clicking for this Pacers team. From December 13th, Indiana won 70% of its games and had a top eight offense and defense per clean the glass. What were some of the major factors that led to the second half success that we saw for the Pacers?
I think the biggest turning point was, ironically, they went winless in the in-season tournament after being the darlings of the in-season tournament a year ago. And because of that, they got four days off to really recoup from practices to finally get healthy again. I think that they went back to the drawing board on some things.
And the most important returns was Andrew Nembhard was no longer on a minutes restriction. He was the biggest motivating factor in my mind on the strides that they made at the defensive end. He sets the tone there. Aaron Neesmith, it took him a little bit longer to come back, but they got their point of attack defenders back. Tyrese Halliburton made some strides on that end of the floor.
They started turning the ball over a lot less, which is important to them, not only offensively, but also defensively, especially for a team that plays so quickly. It can be very hard for them to stop on a dime and get back. Plus, that allows them to set their ball pressure defensively defense, which is very important to their scheme there.
They found a role that suits Pascal Siakam, Miles Turner got better. A lot of things were all coalescing at the same time, but them having that practice time and being healthy, I think was the biggest motivating factors and what the turnaround ended up being.
In addition to this, I think it was, I think it was most people expected that Tyrese Halliburton, once he started looking more like Tyrese Halliburton, that the offense would come around and it did. What they did defensively was a much bigger surprise, at least to me and what my coverage was.
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Chapter 6: What led to the Indiana Pacers' turnaround?
Okay. Question number one. During round one, Tyrese Halliburton had double digit assists in four consecutive playoff games. There are only 10 players in NBA history who have accomplished that feat, including two active players. Who are the two active players that have had 10 plus assists in four consecutive playoff games? You get one point per correct answer. Nikola Jokic? No, Andrew. Bad.
Okay, Caitlin, you get a chance to steal. That's the first time you've ever said bad to me after answering. Bad, Andrew. I'm going to go with Chris Paul. Yes, a very good guess. Very good guess. Chris Paul is one of the answers. Can you get the other name?
I'm going to go with LeBron.
LeBron. No, it is a guy who's currently playing. In fact, he plays on Jokic's team, Andrew. It is, of course, Russell Westbrook. Russell Westbrook, son of a gun. Yeah, that was bad. I deserved the bad. I don't know if I would have gotten that poll. It's kind of surprising that Jokic hasn't done it. Okay, Caitlin, you're up by one and you control the board.
Go with number seven.
Question number seven. Oh yeah, this one's hard. Pascal Siakam leads the Pacers in career playoff games with 80 games played. He leads the team. Which NBA player has Siakam played the most playoff games against with 12 games played?
Well, my first inclination was Giannis because I know that the Raptors played the Bucs in the playoffs and the Pacers have played them twice, but Giannis didn't play last year. It's an active player that he's played the most playoff games against.
Correct. And I think the Raptors played Boston.
They played Milwaukee in that run. Who else did they play in the run to it? The other inclination is LeBron because it feels like every Eastern Conference player probably plays the most playoff games against LeBron. Let's go with LeBron. I feel like that's the safe answer here.
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Chapter 7: How did the Pacers improve their defense?
Really? Question number four. Miles Turner already has 25 blocks this postseason, which leads all players in the league. Unless Chet had more than three last night. I didn't actually look it up after that. He did not. Okay. He did not. Great. There are only three pacers left. who have ever had a postseason with 25-plus blocks. Can you name all three? So this is in a single playoff run.
They get 25-plus blocks. Three Pacers in the past have done it, other than Miles. Wow. You get one point per correct answer.
Jermaine O'Neal.
That is one. Correct. Roy Hibbert. Roy Hibbert, that is correct.
Can you get the final name in all three points? Rick Smith. It is not Rick Smith. Andrew, you can steal one point. Oh, boy. 25 plus blocks.
25 plus blocks. Not Miles Turner. We said Roy Hibbert. We said Jermaine O'Neal. Yeah, those are names that were obvious to me. Gosh, I don't know. This feels wrong. Also, Dale Davis.
Andrew, that is correct. Wow. For one point. There you go, Andrew. Does the comeback start now? You're down 5-2, Andrew, but you have control of the board. Wow. I'm in shock that that was correct. Number five. Question number five. Aaron Neesmith has already committed 40 fouls through 10 playoff games.
The last time the Pacers made consecutive conference finals in the 98 and 99 playoffs, who led the Pacers in personal fouls committed in both playoff runs? Easy question. There you go. Wait, what? Okay. So forget the intro. Okay. It's about your knee Smith. Not important. Yeah.
When the Pacers make consecutive conference finals in 98, 99, who was the Pacer that led them in personal fouls committed in both playoff runs? Wow. Who's just out there hacking away.
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