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Speaker 1: welcome to night. You're at the volume. Happy Saturday, everybody,
Speaker 1: Oh ball, If you guys are having a great start
Speaker 1: to your weekend. Well, the basketball gods looked on us
Speaker 1: kindly today and finally gave us an entertaining basketball game.
Speaker 1: Now had kind of a brutal final sequence which we'll
Speaker 1: get into. But the Dallas Mavericks end up closing out
Speaker 1: the Oklahoma City Thunder in six games, are gonna advance
Speaker 1: to the next round to play the winner of that
Speaker 1: Minnesota Denver game tomorrow, which is gonna be an exciting one.
Speaker 1: We're gonna get into all the details. I'm gonna talk
Speaker 1: a little bit about Shay's first playoff series as well,
Speaker 1: which I thought was a revelation, and then we're gonna
Speaker 1: talk a little bit about Oklahoma City looking forward as well.
Speaker 1: You guys know the joke before we get started. Subscribe
Speaker 1: to a brand new YouTube channel so you don't miss
Speaker 1: any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at
Speaker 1: underscore JSNLT so you guys don't miss you announcements. Don't
Speaker 1: forget about a podcast feed wherever you get your podcast.
Speaker 1: Own our hoops tonight, and then keep dropping mail bag
Speaker 1: questions in those YouTube comments that we can keep hitting
Speaker 1: them throughout the remainder of the postseason. All right, let's
Speaker 1: talk some basketball. So I want to kind of start
Speaker 1: with that final sequence. You know a couple things the
Speaker 1: it was gonna be chaos kind of no matter what.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna start with the final play first, and then
Speaker 1: we'll get into some of the other crunch time details,
Speaker 1: like Luca kind of had his head down and was
Speaker 1: just his way to the basket right, and so that
Speaker 1: kind of baited Shay into making that gamble, and when
Speaker 1: he did, you know you're gambling on a player in Luca,
Speaker 1: who obviously has struggled with turning the ball over a
Speaker 1: little bit in this series, but he's a guy that
Speaker 1: has pretty good floor awareness, probably knows what's going on,
Speaker 1: and he kind of regained control of the basketball just
Speaker 1: in time to shovel it out there to PJ Washington,
Speaker 1: and then from there, Shay has no choice but to
Speaker 1: go with just a chaotic like hard close out right,
Speaker 1: and so PJ pump bakes and Shae goes for it
Speaker 1: and from there, like, if you're Shay, you just have
Speaker 1: to You've broken his rhythm already. You broke his rhythm.
Speaker 1: Now he's just jacking the shota right, so it's not
Speaker 1: even worth swiping back the way that he did, So
Speaker 1: like there was a risk involved there. I didn't like
Speaker 1: to call yes by the absolute letter of the law.
Speaker 1: By the book, he did come through and hit him
Speaker 1: on the forearm after hitting the basketball, but generally speaking,
Speaker 1: like when you start a block by hitting the basketball first,
Speaker 1: I'm more or less of the opinion that everything else
Speaker 1: is fair game from there. Obviously, I know Mavicks fans
Speaker 1: will disagree, but at the end of the day, like
Speaker 1: I didn't really have a I didn't have a problem
Speaker 1: with the call standing after review, but I'd prefer that
Speaker 1: that doesn't get called. But even under that circumstance, Tyree
Speaker 1: hit a little swim move from the elbow and he
Speaker 1: had the inside angle on that offensive rebound put back,
Speaker 1: and I think he was just gonna get the game winner,
Speaker 1: or at least what would have amounted as to the
Speaker 1: game winner after that. And like, even if you don't
Speaker 1: use the challenge there and you have your time out,
Speaker 1: Tyrie's put back would have taken considerably more time off
Speaker 1: the clock, and so it would have been Thunderball down
Speaker 1: by one, but like maybe even less than a second left, right,
Speaker 1: I didn't see exactly how much time would have been left,
Speaker 1: So like it was ugly. You hate to see a
Speaker 1: series end like that, But I feel like, even if
Speaker 1: the whistle doesn't blow there, Dallas wins the series. And
Speaker 1: if again, if you're Oklahoma City, if you're Shay, and
Speaker 1: Shae was Shaye was unfreaking believable in this game, And
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk at length later about how impressed I
Speaker 1: was by him in his first ever playoff run. Is
Speaker 1: the number one option on his team. But you broke
Speaker 1: his rhythm, make him take that tough like kind of
Speaker 1: break rhythm, pump fake three point shot in the corner,
Speaker 1: and live with the results. As soon as you start
Speaker 1: swinging back around trying to block the shot, that's when
Speaker 1: you open the door up for the whistle, which is
Speaker 1: what's gonna give him three chances to make two free
Speaker 1: throws to win that game. And so like ugly don't
Speaker 1: like the whistle, feel like Dallas wins even if they
Speaker 1: don't blow the whistle. So it felt to me like
Speaker 1: the right team won. And even if you look at
Speaker 1: Oklahoma City potentially stealing that game, they lost their last
Speaker 1: two home games against Dallas and didn't look particularly great
Speaker 1: in either of them. So feels to me like the
Speaker 1: right team won the series, even though that was a
Speaker 1: very very unfortunate kind of sequence to end the game.
Speaker 1: That said, down the stretch, it kind of felt like
Speaker 1: right around the mid third quarter on, it kind of
Speaker 1: felt like this relentless wave from from Dallas, like Kyrie
Speaker 1: got it going in that third quarter, Luka Doncic got
Speaker 1: it going. Kyrie went on another run in that fourth
Speaker 1: quarter stretch, then Luca got it going down the stretch
Speaker 1: of the game. There was just unbelievable shot making all
Speaker 1: over the floor. Kyrie hit this like bailout three at
Speaker 1: the end of the shot clock where he took this,
Speaker 1: I need to go back and look because the footwork
Speaker 1: on it was so fascinating to me. He was like
Speaker 1: squared up with the defender and he like just threw
Speaker 1: the ball out to the left and covered like twelve
Speaker 1: feet with some wild hop step and then rose up
Speaker 1: and knocked down the three. I need to look at
Speaker 1: the footwork there because that was super fascinating as like
Speaker 1: a move to go to when you need like emergency
Speaker 1: separation at the tail end of a shot clock. I'm
Speaker 1: really curious to see what that one looked like a
Speaker 1: little bit closer, But like Kyrie and Luca were just amazing,
Speaker 1: and it kind of felt like Shay was just stiff
Speaker 1: arming them the entire stretch, right Like they go on
Speaker 1: that stretch in the middle of the third quarter, and
Speaker 1: I think I think Dallas got it to two if
Speaker 1: I remember correctly, and Shae hits like that one leg
Speaker 1: bank shot off the glass, he hits the short fade
Speaker 1: away off the right baseline, he hits the step back
Speaker 1: three that seven points just kind of like stiff armed
Speaker 1: that advance from Dallas, and then down the stretch of
Speaker 1: this game, Dallas like had zero answers for Shae. Remember
Speaker 1: we got earlier in the series that that Luca I
Speaker 1: think in the postgame presser was like asking for the
Speaker 1: for Dallas to start double teaming Shae because they were
Speaker 1: having trouble guarding him, and they randomly double teamed him
Speaker 1: on a late possession in the game and Jalen Williams
Speaker 1: got wide open for three and knocked it down even
Speaker 1: on the the lob the Chet that gave Oklahoma City
Speaker 1: the lead late, Like Shae kind of turned the corner
Speaker 1: in Chet's man stepped up in help and Chet was
Speaker 1: just wide open on the baseline. It was they were
Speaker 1: just compromised no matter what they did with Shae. They
Speaker 1: tried running zone that didn't have a ton of success either,
Speaker 1: and so it just was they just were really struggling
Speaker 1: with Shae. And then on the other end of the floor,
Speaker 1: Oklahoma City was struggling with Luca and and it just
Speaker 1: turned into a shot making contest and Dallas just made
Speaker 1: more shots. I thought Derek Lively was unbelievable on the
Speaker 1: offensive glass in the fourth quarter. We saw the tip tunk,
Speaker 1: but he was drawing fouls, getting offensive rebounds, was really
Speaker 1: doing some damage to Chet underneath the rim just by
Speaker 1: being physical and beating him to fifty to fifty balls.
Speaker 1: And we're going to get into more detail with this
Speaker 1: with Oklahoma City, but you know what was the biggest
Speaker 1: problem with Oklahoma City all season the ability to control
Speaker 1: the defensive glass. I think they were twenty seventh or
Speaker 1: twenty eighth in opponent offensive or in defensive rebound percentage
Speaker 1: and fourteen to seven in offensive rebounds tonight twenty seven
Speaker 1: to eight in second chance points in favor of Dallas.
Speaker 1: That's the game. That's the game right there. So like
Speaker 1: the issue that plagued you all season long ended up
Speaker 1: being what costs you at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: which is what we'll get into when we talk a
Speaker 1: little bit more about Oklahoma City down the line. But
Speaker 1: shout out to Derek Lively. I thought his activity was
Speaker 1: incredible and then big plays down the stretch. PJ. Washington
Speaker 1: got in foul trum. Those of you guys who've ever
Speaker 1: played the organized basketball know that, like when you get
Speaker 1: in foul trouble, it's really frustrating because like you're playing
Speaker 1: in these short spurts. Even when you get back into
Speaker 1: the game, it feels weird to be out there because
Speaker 1: like you're out of rhythm and everyone else has got
Speaker 1: like a good sweat and is ready to go, and
Speaker 1: you've been sitting for a long time. Like foul trouble
Speaker 1: can really be problematic for rhythm. And he was struggling
Speaker 1: to make shots, but he had a couple of big
Speaker 1: ones down the stretch of this game, including the foul
Speaker 1: shots late. Obviously they were struggling with Shaye, but he
Speaker 1: also got some big stops on Shay down the stretch
Speaker 1: of this game. He struggled. You know, I was looking
Speaker 1: at the matchups and I thought PJ. Washington would be
Speaker 1: able to hold that better against Shae, And honestly, the
Speaker 1: off the dribble stuff caused more problems like dribble penetration.
Speaker 1: Shae was able to beat him a little bit easier,
Speaker 1: but on the possessions where PJ was actually able to
Speaker 1: keep him in front, his length was a factor and
Speaker 1: he was able to kind of absorb that off arm
Speaker 1: and get really good contests and force him into some misses.
Speaker 1: Darre Jones junior that ridiculous fade away he hit. But
Speaker 1: even then it was like, like that was classic Shae,
Speaker 1: Like Derek Jones hits this tough fade away over chet
Speaker 1: Holmgren goes sliding into the scorers table. Crowd's going crazy,
Speaker 1: and Shae just dribbles up the floor, just hits a
Speaker 1: hard in out dribble step back on on PJ. Washington
Speaker 1: and gets just barely enough separation and knocks it down
Speaker 1: and you're like, holy shit, here we are again. One fifteen,
Speaker 1: one thirteen. Like, I can't say enough about Shaye. I
Speaker 1: thought he was unbelievable. But Dallas whether the storm again.
Speaker 1: Close out games are hard, Like this was kind of
Speaker 1: a weird game of like ebbing and flowing energy. Right
Speaker 1: like Oklahoma City comes out the gates red hot, they
Speaker 1: get up by ten. Dallas scrounges, you know, just kind
Speaker 1: of works really hard, gets back into the game and
Speaker 1: they tied it. I think it was like forty two
Speaker 1: forty two in the middle second quarter. And then okay
Speaker 1: See goes on this crazy run to end the second quarter.
Speaker 1: They force Dallas into a bunch of turnovers. They're running
Speaker 1: out in transition, they're getting dunks and wide open corner threes.
Speaker 1: All of a sudden they're up by what were they
Speaker 1: up at the halftime, like fourteen fifteen points, right, and
Speaker 1: like then you go on this crazy run and you
Speaker 1: fight back, and then Shay goes on his little seven
Speaker 1: zer run that goes on right, and then in the
Speaker 1: fourth quarter of you're battling and here comes Shay again,
Speaker 1: and here comes Jalen Williams. Like it was just that
Speaker 1: close out games are hard. You can't replicate the urgency
Speaker 1: that comes from actually facing elimination, and so I thought
Speaker 1: it was an impressive job from Dallas to just kind
Speaker 1: of weather that storm and get through it. And again,
Speaker 1: like we said at the top, like hate to see
Speaker 1: a series end like that, but I every way I
Speaker 1: look at that possession with the one hinged piece being
Speaker 1: the whistle, even if that doesn't get blown, I still
Speaker 1: think Dallas wins that game in all likelihood, So like
Speaker 1: it's ugly, but it felt like the right team won.
Speaker 1: Moving on to Dallas in the next round, I'll be
Speaker 1: picking Minnesota or Denver, regardless who comes out. I think
Speaker 1: both of those teams are playing at a little bit
Speaker 1: of a higher level right now. But I think Dallas
Speaker 1: has a chance against those two teams in a way
Speaker 1: that Oklahoma City didn't in terms of Oklahoma City's lack
Speaker 1: of size, like as we talked about, like Dallas isn't
Speaker 1: particularly big, but they were able to out big Oklahoma
Speaker 1: City in a lot of different ways, like even just
Speaker 1: chet struggling with Derek Lively down the stretch of this game,
Speaker 1: right twenty seven to eight and second chance points like
Speaker 1: that's really difficult to weather under any circumstances. And we
Speaker 1: all know what Aaron Gordon and nikolea Jokic can do
Speaker 1: on the front line. We all know what that super
Speaker 1: athletic Minnesota Timberwolves team can do on the front line.
Speaker 1: So like, I don't think Oklahoma City would have had
Speaker 1: any chance in the conference finals, whereas I think Dallas
Speaker 1: does have a chance. And again with Dallas, it's gonna
Speaker 1: be all about you know, both specifically Denver, and I
Speaker 1: do believe Denver will win tomorrow, though we'll see. I
Speaker 1: think Minnesota has a good chance if Denver were to advance.
Speaker 1: Denver is very much a load up type of defense.
Speaker 1: They like to bring Jokich up to the level of
Speaker 1: the screen. They like to tag the roller usually the
Speaker 1: weak side is where the openings are, and Luka Dancic
Speaker 1: is just one of the very best players in the
Speaker 1: league at getting the ball across the floor to the
Speaker 1: weak side corner. As a matter of fact, I actually
Speaker 1: think that Denver is gonna have to think long and
Speaker 1: hard about using more of a load drop coverage to
Speaker 1: try to stay out of rotation as much as possible
Speaker 1: and try to count on on Cacp and Aaron Gordon
Speaker 1: to just get enough stops. But it's gonna be really
Speaker 1: really interesting matchups in the next round. A big part
Speaker 1: of winning tonight is you get yourself three days. I
Speaker 1: think I heard Luca in the postgame interview say that
Speaker 1: he's gonna that the team's gonna probably take tomorrow off
Speaker 1: before they start practicing. That's gonna be big, just in
Speaker 1: terms of getting Luca's knee a chance to have some
Speaker 1: additional rest going into the next round. Like this is
Speaker 1: a you know, to quote Lebron James because he says
Speaker 1: this every year, but like every round gets harder no
Speaker 1: matter what you think, no matter how hard you think
Speaker 1: the matchups are, every round just ends up getting harder.
Speaker 1: And like even for Denver, if they survive Minnesota, Like,
Speaker 1: they're not gonna be able to think like, oh, we're
Speaker 1: going into an easier matchup against Dallas. No, Like, Dallas
Speaker 1: just is just a different basketball team and they have
Speaker 1: a lot more offensive firepower than Minnesota had, and they're
Speaker 1: gonna present a whole other different set of challenges. And
Speaker 1: like even for Minnesota, Like Minnesota, if they beat Denver tomorrow,
Speaker 1: like you're gonna sit there and think like, oh, it's
Speaker 1: gonna No, it's not gonna get any easier. Dallas is
Speaker 1: going to present their own set of issues for Minnesota.
Speaker 1: It's going to be a challenge under any circumstances. We
Speaker 1: will have a full series preview on Monday morning after So,
Speaker 1: like the schedule as of right now, Tomorrow is Nick's Pacers.
Speaker 1: It's a three thirty Eastern start. I'll be going live
Speaker 1: on YouTube after that game. Then the night game is
Speaker 1: Denver Minnesota. I'm gonna be going with Colin that night,
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure. But even if I go with Colin,
Speaker 1: I plan on doing an instant reaction after that game
Speaker 1: on my feed, and then Monday morning will have a
Speaker 1: series preview. So Mavericks fans keep an eye on the
Speaker 1: feeds for Monday morning. Moving on to Oklahoma City, I
Speaker 1: want to talk a little bit about Shay's first playoff
Speaker 1: series first, just kind of focus in on him and
Speaker 1: then look at Oklahoma City as like a whole, you know.
Speaker 1: I was really curious to see what Shay's first playoff
Speaker 1: run would look like. As the number one guy, he
Speaker 1: kind of falls into a category of players similar to
Speaker 1: James Harden, Trey Young, Luka Doncic, that are very heliocentric
Speaker 1: in the sense that so many possessions involve Shay picking
Speaker 1: on a matchup, dribbling, you know, fifteen to twenty times
Speaker 1: on a possession before he gets to his spot. And
Speaker 1: I've always had this kind of theory that when heliocentric
Speaker 1: players they face the same perimeter defenders over and over
Speaker 1: and over and over again, that they have the propensity
Speaker 1: to get solved sometimes. And I thought we saw that
Speaker 1: in a big way with James Harden, and I think
Speaker 1: we've seen that quite a bit with Trey Young over
Speaker 1: the years, but specifically with Luca was the first guy
Speaker 1: that kind of dawned on me where it's like he's
Speaker 1: got some resiliency because he's just willing to attack from anywhere, Like, yeah,
Speaker 1: he might control all these possessions, but like, if he
Speaker 1: needs to go to the mid range, he can go
Speaker 1: to the mid range. If he needs to go to
Speaker 1: the post, he can go to the post. If he
Speaker 1: needs to work from beyond the three point line, he
Speaker 1: can work from beyond the three point line. If he
Speaker 1: needs to function more as a playmaker against a loaded
Speaker 1: up defense, he can function more as a playmaker against
Speaker 1: the loaded up defense. Whereas with James Harden, it was
Speaker 1: like all live dribble, all ice own pick and roll,
Speaker 1: all from the wings, all step back the reason layups,
Speaker 1: and then he kind of sort it added a floater
Speaker 1: towards the tail end of the of the Houston run right,
Speaker 1: So like that was in a lot of ways what
Speaker 1: I thought led to James Harden having some struggles, specifically
Speaker 1: with Shae. What I was really curious about is he's
Speaker 1: not a guy we really think about is over like
Speaker 1: a absolute top tier athlete, and he doesn't have the
Speaker 1: size that Luca has, Like Luca has like a really
Speaker 1: really big frame, and so like, as long as he
Speaker 1: can control angles and leverage, like he's just so damn
Speaker 1: big that he it's kind of like that final possession,
Speaker 1: like lou Dort couldn't stop Luca from getting two feet,
Speaker 1: you know, damn near right underneath the basket before Shay
Speaker 1: came in and helped, because lucas just big as hell
Speaker 1: and there's not a whole lot you can do about that, right,
Speaker 1: So I was really curious to see a slender, not
Speaker 1: top tier athlete type of player like Shay to see
Speaker 1: how he look in his first playoff series, and he
Speaker 1: just passed with absolute flying colors. No one can guard
Speaker 1: the guy. His hesitation start stop movements keep everybody off balance.
Speaker 1: I talked about this at the end of the The
Speaker 1: Last Night Show in the mail bag, But he has
Speaker 1: this move where like he'll go between the legs kind
Speaker 1: of slow, but then as he goes between the legs
Speaker 1: kind of slow, like he'll be down in this lungey
Speaker 1: looking stance where he's like got all of his kinetic
Speaker 1: energy just kind of like saved up right. And then
Speaker 1: when the ball gets to that other hand, whether it's
Speaker 1: right to left or left to right, just like somewhere
Speaker 1: right like a split second after he gets it in
Speaker 1: his left hand, he'll just take off and he gets
Speaker 1: like a lot of separation with that that first step
Speaker 1: and gets and he can beat He gets beat people
Speaker 1: off the dribble extremely easily. Like there was a play
Speaker 1: in the first half where he was I think he
Speaker 1: was being guarded by Derek Jones Junior, but he got
Speaker 1: screened and Derek Lively was in the drop and he
Speaker 1: just went right around Derek Lively so easily got into
Speaker 1: the paint and I think he ended up missing a
Speaker 1: reverse layup on this play. But I remember sitting there
Speaker 1: thinking like, like he's so like he has not had
Speaker 1: any trouble getting to his spot over the course of
Speaker 1: this series, and like one of the unique things about
Speaker 1: Shaye too, And you know, they what was the phrase
Speaker 1: that I think I Richard Jefferson saying that the thunder.
Speaker 1: You know, staff and players they referred to him as
Speaker 1: like mister consistency or mister consistent or something like that.
Speaker 1: And a big part of that is he's willing to
Speaker 1: work close to the basket when you're taking shots. Again,
Speaker 1: like I talk about three level scoring, Shay's not taking
Speaker 1: a ton of like twenty footers, right, Like it's a
Speaker 1: lot of like he'll take the threes, like he'll take
Speaker 1: twenty four footers, but like, for the most part, his
Speaker 1: jump shooting is like fifteen feet in in and so
Speaker 1: when you're taking the majority of your jumpers fifteen feet
Speaker 1: in in, those are just higher percentage shots. It's like
Speaker 1: four level scoring, right. It's like there's there's threes, there's
Speaker 1: the rim, there's long twos, and then there's short twos.
Speaker 1: And so because Shay's able to get to his spots
Speaker 1: against basically anybody, and because he can hit you know,
Speaker 1: close to fifty percent of those shots, there's a resiliency
Speaker 1: with Shaye that I found really impressive. Like, I think
Speaker 1: his worst game in this series, if I remember correctly,
Speaker 1: I think he went ten for twenty. Like, that's not
Speaker 1: that bad of a game, right, Like, there is a
Speaker 1: resiliency with Shae that shined through in a big way.
Speaker 1: And you can point a lot of different different directions
Speaker 1: for where things went wrong for Oklahoma City in this series.
Speaker 1: None of them were Shay. He was right there with
Speaker 1: Luca and Kyrie the entire series and outplayed them in
Speaker 1: many cases. Shae was incredible. Can't say enough about how
Speaker 1: impressed I was by him in his first playoff runs.
Speaker 1: He has just continued his ascent on schedule from what
Speaker 1: we saw a couple of years ago when he first
Speaker 1: started flashing that superstar potential. Talking about Oklahoma City looking forward,
Speaker 1: a couple of things. Don't worry too much about the
Speaker 1: downsides of what you saw from Oklahoma City this year.
Speaker 1: Some of the execution errors, some of the drive and
Speaker 1: kick decision making that was so poor. Some of the
Speaker 1: rough nights that like Jalen Williams had where he's struggling
Speaker 1: to kind of read the floor and see what was
Speaker 1: happening around him. So much of that was young players. Now,
Speaker 1: I understand that the theme of this playoff run has
Speaker 1: been young players doing well, but the truth of the
Speaker 1: matter is, it's not the early twenty guys that have
Speaker 1: been doing well, except for Anthony Edwards. It's mostly been
Speaker 1: the late twenties guys that have been controlling the show
Speaker 1: here in this postseason run. Like these Thunder players are
Speaker 1: excruciatingly young compared to a lot of these other teams
Speaker 1: out there, and when we've seen other young teams make
Speaker 1: runs like the Thunder in twenty twelve, there were a
Speaker 1: lot of veteran presences on the roster, Guys like Kendrick Perkins,
Speaker 1: Guys like Derek Fisher. They had an element of experience
Speaker 1: in their rotation that was substantial in something that I
Speaker 1: think made that team different. So like, you're gonna just
Speaker 1: get several orders of magnitude better next year, just by
Speaker 1: getting another year another offseason of workouts for all these
Speaker 1: guys and like Chet unbelievable defensive playoff run. But hey man,
Speaker 1: the three point shots not as consistent as it needs
Speaker 1: to be. So he's got to get in the gym
Speaker 1: this summer and turn himself from a shooter into a maker.
Speaker 1: He's got to be a guy that you can't just
Speaker 1: live with the lake close out on, but a guy
Speaker 1: that you absolutely have to be there on the catch
Speaker 1: or he's gonna burn you. That's an opportunity for him
Speaker 1: to get some more Jalen Williams. I think he learned
Speaker 1: a little bit about the difference in intensity in these
Speaker 1: environments and how getting separation for these shots and making
Speaker 1: reads when you drive into traffic are a little bit tougher.
Speaker 1: Another offseason for him in another eighty two games of
Speaker 1: reps will go a long way towards helping right now,
Speaker 1: as far as the personnel gap goes, we talked about
Speaker 1: it all season long, no matter how many games the
Speaker 1: thunder one, no matter how many times they beat a
Speaker 1: really good team at the top of the league. I
Speaker 1: consistently said, you can't win in the NBA playoffs if
Speaker 1: you're that bad at defensive rebounding. And they just do
Speaker 1: not have a big forward that they can play alongside
Speaker 1: Chet so that they have a physical profile that allows
Speaker 1: them to contend on the defensive glass. And that's just
Speaker 1: something that they're gonna have to address this offseason. I
Speaker 1: think that they're like the perfect candidate for a team
Speaker 1: that I think should be throwing everything on the table
Speaker 1: for a guy like Lori Markinen. I think if they
Speaker 1: can get a big four and specifically a guy who
Speaker 1: specializes playing off the ball, your on ball creators are great.
Speaker 1: Shay is perfect, Jalen Williams is perfect. That everything is
Speaker 1: great about that. The guy that you need to find
Speaker 1: somebody who is a professional off ball player, but one
Speaker 1: that can help you on the defensive glass and can
Speaker 1: help you in low man possessions. I think Lori Markahen
Speaker 1: would be perfect. He's like the absolute like shoe In
Speaker 1: like cannot conceive of a better basketball fit for that
Speaker 1: power forward spot next to Chet. He's big, he's strong,
Speaker 1: he's very good athlete. He would be in a role
Speaker 1: that accentuates what he's great at. I think that that's
Speaker 1: the kind of direction they need to look to go.
Speaker 1: But everything else is like everything else is the sky's
Speaker 1: the limit for this Oklahoma City team. You love the depth.
Speaker 1: Lou Dort played Luca into two of the worst playoff
Speaker 1: games I've ever seen him play in Game one in
Speaker 1: Game four, that's the credit to lou Dort. I saw
Speaker 1: lou Dort make Luca lose his composure in a way
Speaker 1: I've never seen him lose his composure before. You've got
Speaker 1: one of the best big perimeter defenders in the league.
Speaker 1: Now he's got to work on not fouling as much.
Speaker 1: He's got to kind of find a happy medium in there,
Speaker 1: but he's going to You've got everything looks everything looks great.
Speaker 1: You just have to upgrade that Josh Getty position into
Speaker 1: a bonafide, legitimate two way power forward that can kind
Speaker 1: of anchor things for you on the front line. Great
Speaker 1: season though for Oklahoma City. Really think they're gonna be
Speaker 1: a perennial powerhouse in this league. Just too young and
Speaker 1: a little too small and a couple of critical weaknesses
Speaker 1: that did them in this season. All right, guys, that
Speaker 1: is all I have for tonight. As always, as sincerely
Speaker 1: appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show.
Speaker 1: We're going to be back tomorrow right after the final
Speaker 1: buzzer of Nick Pacers with a breakdown of with an
Speaker 1: instant reaction to that game, and then again in the
Speaker 1: evening with Colin and most likely my channel as well
Speaker 1: to break down timber Wolves Nuggets. And then all you
Speaker 1: Maverick's fans don't forget, We'll have a series pre you
Speaker 1: on Monday morning. I appreciate you, guys. I will see
Speaker 1: you tomorrow. The volume