Speaker 1: Welcome to the best of the Week for What's Right
Speaker 1: with Nick Right the best takes in moments from this
Speaker 1: week on the show. Enjoy. All right, let's do one
Speaker 1: quick NFL thing and then get to some listener questions.
Speaker 2: Saquon Barkley told Reid blank and Ship and Cooper Degene
Speaker 2: on their podcast that the.
Speaker 1: Man did you hold on? Did you know this demand
Speaker 1: before we even get to it? I bad news for us.
Speaker 1: We're now competing with a red Blanken hip Cooper dejen project.
Speaker 1: That's that's That's a nice tand I clear my schedule.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have to catch up on the archives there.
Speaker 1: All right, man, oh man, I bet that's an insightful show.
Speaker 1: I'm excited to listen.
Speaker 2: Okay, go ahead told him that that twenty twenty four
Speaker 2: Eagles team the top five team in NFL history. You're
Speaker 2: obviously a NFL historian.
Speaker 1: How true is that? Not only is it not true,
Speaker 1: it's not even you can't even you can't even make
Speaker 1: a credible argument for and by the way, Sakuan said
Speaker 1: they were a top five team of all time and
Speaker 1: then listed five other teams in his top five, which
Speaker 1: then would make them. I guess the top six team
Speaker 1: of all time, but one of the teams he listed
Speaker 1: was the two thousand Ravens, which is not a top
Speaker 1: twenty team of all time. Like, none of this makes sense,
Speaker 1: But the seventy two Dolphins that went undefeated had the
Speaker 1: number one offense and the number one defense and beat
Speaker 1: teams by an average fifteen points a game. That's a
Speaker 1: top five team of all time. The eighty four nine
Speaker 1: Ers that went fifteen to one annihilated their po season
Speaker 1: opponents start to finish, had a top two offense, top
Speaker 1: two defense. The eighty five Bears that everyone talks about
Speaker 1: the greatest defense of all time, which it had, but
Speaker 1: it also had the number two offense in the sport
Speaker 1: that year and beat their playoff opponents. De Monse ninety
Speaker 1: one to ten is a top five team of all time.
Speaker 2: The Bears quarterback ever thrown from more than four thousand yards.
Speaker 1: I know because they had.
Speaker 2: Defense I guess was amazing.
Speaker 1: But okay, the defense was amazing, and they had an
Speaker 1: amazing running game. They scored the second most points of
Speaker 1: any team in the league that year. The the who
Speaker 1: are the other teams? I'm leaving out an obvious one
Speaker 1: ninety two Cowboys pretty good. Seventy eight Steelers which had
Speaker 1: I think eleven Hall of Famers, they're pretty good. The
Speaker 1: seven Patriots didn't win the Super Bowl. The the greatest team
Speaker 1: I've ever seen the twenty sixteen Patriots that went fourteen
Speaker 1: and two and ran had a top too offense and defense.
Speaker 1: They were pretty good. Uh, the ninety eight Broncos in
Speaker 1: route to a back to back championship. Like listen, the
Speaker 1: Eagles had the number eight offense, number two defense, and
Speaker 1: were in one score playoff games in rounds one in
Speaker 1: rounds two? Now, did the Eagles have a top five
Speaker 1: Super Bowl performance because of what they did and who
Speaker 1: they did it to? Sure? All listen to that. You
Speaker 1: want to say, did they have a top five all
Speaker 1: time final two games by just dismantling the Commanders and
Speaker 1: then dismantling the Chiefs. Sure, I'll listen to that. But
Speaker 1: top five? Yeah, but they still scored fifty five, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean? Or whatever they scored like the Sure,
Speaker 1: but I just again, everyone just leave the list to me.
Speaker 1: Your guys lists suck. And again I just and he
Speaker 1: wouldn't even it was so his top Here were his
Speaker 1: top five teams of all time for the record, seventy
Speaker 1: two Dolphins because they're undefeated. Good job, eighty five Bears,
Speaker 1: good job the two thousand Ravens, who it's not even
Speaker 1: a tenable opinion. And then he was like one of
Speaker 1: the Brady teams and one of the Mahomes teams, like
Speaker 1: that's not even like a thing, and so I just
Speaker 1: like whatever, all right, let's remember to everyone like rate, subscribe,
Speaker 1: review if you have time to, you know, when you're
Speaker 1: not listening to the Read blank and Ship Cooper Degen podcast,
Speaker 1: if you want to check out what's right with Nick right,
Speaker 1: we'd appreciate it. You know you think I'm being rude there, Demansey.
Speaker 2: The podcast, It's gonna be very insightful, and you know.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go do a three cone drill after this
Speaker 1: after our pod.
Speaker 2: So you unveiled your latest rendition of Club Superstar, and
Speaker 2: you took Donovan, you put hot Donovan Mitchell in and
Speaker 2: Hallyan for the first time, you took embiid and a
Speaker 2: d out. Could you explain to us your process and
Speaker 2: how the club management goes about getting these guys in
Speaker 2: and out?
Speaker 1: Yeah, so all right, so tell me. So, here are
Speaker 1: the twelve guys in and we can put the graphic
Speaker 1: up Halliburton, Brunson, Joker, Shay, Luca, Jannis, braun Steph, Donovan,
Speaker 1: Durant and Tatum. It's a twelve person max, So if
Speaker 1: you want to put someone in, you got to kick
Speaker 1: someone out. We took out Embiid because of all the
Speaker 1: injury stuff and ad for similar reasons. You might be like,
Speaker 1: then how does Tatum stay in? Tatum has been so
Speaker 1: consistent and so durable that you know, one season long
Speaker 1: injury does not get him kicked out? Like his spot
Speaker 1: is secure? Uh, you seem to have I mean the
Speaker 1: hardest call was Donovan.
Speaker 2: Donovan Mitchell surprised me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so who would you would you have any of
Speaker 1: those guys in over him?
Speaker 2: That's what I was I was trying to think of.
Speaker 2: I mean, uh, yeah, Anthony Davis is the because.
Speaker 1: In line was Wimby, Cad Shingoon and Devin Booker. Wimby
Speaker 1: is the obvious next guy in, but he's got to
Speaker 1: actually do it, you know what I mean, He's got
Speaker 1: to actually earn his way in. And so I I
Speaker 1: you know, I did a bit job with that had
Speaker 1: all that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I understand how Donovan Mitchell slips in.
Speaker 1: There the sorry can you hear me? Sol Demons?
Speaker 2: Yes, I've got you.
Speaker 1: Okay, good, Sorry about that, my I knocked my AirPod
Speaker 1: out of my ear. I mean, a D is a tough,
Speaker 1: tough one. And the argument against Donovan is, you know,
Speaker 1: eight years in the league and the playoffs every year,
Speaker 1: never in round three. It's hard, though, to use that
Speaker 1: as an argument to put a D n over him,
Speaker 1: because do I think Donovan could have you know, made
Speaker 1: a conference finals or an NBA finals alongside Lebron like
Speaker 1: a D. Did I do? Like we when a D
Speaker 1: was the guy he never got past round one. It's
Speaker 1: a tricky spot. Donovan is for a guy who hasn't
Speaker 1: been deep in the playoffs, he's not a playoff dropper,
Speaker 1: like you know what I mean. It's up huge numbers,
Speaker 1: and Brew raised the question do we not have twelve superstars? Right?
Speaker 2: That's the other thing I was kind of thinking, but
Speaker 2: go ahead, It's just like no, go ahead. Was just
Speaker 2: looking around at the teams. I'm like, who can get
Speaker 2: in over this guy? But it's like it's a little scarce, right.
Speaker 1: It's a weird because the league is so deep on
Speaker 1: really good players. But maybe a little thin on great,
Speaker 1: great players because the other argument was should Kevin Durant
Speaker 1: be out? And my answer to that question is, he's
Speaker 1: such an iconic player who still plays at a high
Speaker 1: enough level. I don't feel comfort He's still twenty seven
Speaker 1: a game, you know what, I don't feel comfortable, yeah,
Speaker 1: taking him out? So to me, those are the twelve
Speaker 1: What are your follow ups here? Yeah?
Speaker 2: I care to explain how Joki took Lebron's throne.
Speaker 1: That was an editorial choice made by the artist Jack Perkins,
Speaker 1: who does a great job. You can follow him on
Speaker 1: Twitter at Pure Hoop and listen. I give him the lists.
Speaker 1: He makes the picture. I gotta tell you, I wasn't
Speaker 1: thrilled with seeing Lebron out of the throne, but I
Speaker 1: guess Jokers earned it for now. But yeah, that was
Speaker 1: not I didn't trust me. I didn't I didn't demand
Speaker 1: that now I did hear.
Speaker 3: That.
Speaker 1: I'm okay with Lebron being moved out of the throne
Speaker 1: because he's no longer in the argument the best player
Speaker 1: in the league. MI Pal Simmons yesterday did a top
Speaker 1: fifteen player pyramid and didn't have Lebron on that. Now
Speaker 1: that's an outrage, Like, that's just objectively that. Here's the
Speaker 1: thing about the Lebron rankings that is so irritating to
Speaker 1: me at times, people keep primative surely downgrading him because
Speaker 1: of his age, when we just saw he just finished
Speaker 1: sixth in MVP voting, sixth. He just finished firmly second
Speaker 1: team All NBA. So why all of a sudden is
Speaker 1: he not one of the fifteen best players in the league.
Speaker 1: Like you, the Lebron is anywhere you You could fairly
Speaker 1: argue for Lebron to be as high as fifth and
Speaker 1: as low as tenth best player in the league. But
Speaker 1: that's it. And the what is frustrating to me about
Speaker 1: Bill's ranking specifically is the he still has Steph Curry
Speaker 1: as like the seventh best guy. There's no there's there's
Speaker 1: no way to look at this NBA season and say
Speaker 1: Steph was better than Lebron, not by stats, not by
Speaker 1: team record, not by individual accolades, not by any of it.
Speaker 1: Now you can say his team made it one round
Speaker 1: further in the playoffs, so be it that that part
Speaker 1: is true, But that's it was that, but that team
Speaker 1: also was and be like, well, how much of Lebron's
Speaker 1: team success this year was because they traded for Luca.
Speaker 1: STEP's team was sub five hundred when they traded for Jimmy. Like,
Speaker 1: that's a weird one for me. But set that aside.
Speaker 1: Lebron obviously still superstar. Steph's obviously still a superstar, and
Speaker 1: that's you know, that's where we're at all, right.
Speaker 2: Next, do you think that Halliburton still would you still
Speaker 2: given him a spot if he would have lost in
Speaker 2: round one?
Speaker 1: No? Now, I submitted this list before round one was over.
Speaker 1: I submitted this list. I took a screenshot of it
Speaker 1: yesterday to send to Gianna of when I submitted this list.
Speaker 1: I submitted this list May seventh. So let's see where
Speaker 1: we were in the playoffs on May seventh. I've got
Speaker 1: to I can pull that up quickly. So when I
Speaker 1: submitted this list, we were the games that had just
Speaker 1: been played. Is the Pacers had just taken a two
Speaker 1: to zero lead on the Caves. Oh, so that's interesting.
Speaker 1: I didn't even realize that I submitted this list the
Speaker 1: morning after Halliburton executed that insane comeback on the Calves.
Speaker 1: And so maybe I, you know, maybe I was kind
Speaker 1: of in the afterglow of that. But he's proven me
Speaker 1: right by his performances throughout. And the other thing is
Speaker 1: so no losing in round one? No, But had they
Speaker 1: ended up losing in round two to still been comfortable
Speaker 1: with it?
Speaker 3: All?
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Speaker 2: Oklahoma City dominated Minnesota. Last night, the defense was humming
Speaker 2: all of OKC stars were looking good. People want to
Speaker 2: talk about the probability of this being a dynasty. You
Speaker 2: think they should hold the brakes on it. What is
Speaker 2: OKC gunning for here historically?
Speaker 1: Well, listen, they are four wins away demons from one
Speaker 1: of the single greatest seasons in NBA history. Like that
Speaker 1: part is that has to be There's two real metrics
Speaker 1: for two hard metrics for how good your seaton, like
Speaker 1: how good your season was, and then some softer metrics.
Speaker 1: But the first one is how many games did you win?
Speaker 1: What was your record? And they have now become the
Speaker 1: fourth team ever to enter the finals with eighty victories.
Speaker 1: And now, when we go long to long term history,
Speaker 1: you got to recognize that the playoffs have expanded a
Speaker 1: bit and changed but a shorthand. You know, the ninety
Speaker 1: six Bulls who won seventy two regular season games did it.
Speaker 1: The ninety seven Bulls who won sixty nine regular season
Speaker 1: games did it. And the seventy three win Warriors who
Speaker 1: won seventy three regular season games but did not win
Speaker 1: the championship. They all did it. They all got to
Speaker 1: eighty wins before the start of the NBA Finals. So
Speaker 1: check off that box. As far as you know, that's
Speaker 1: really a regular season stat. It means how many regular
Speaker 1: season wins did you get? But we already knew sixty
Speaker 1: eight wins. The list of teams to win more than
Speaker 1: sixty eight games in a single season are those two seventy,
Speaker 1: the seventy two win Balls, the sixty nine win Balls
Speaker 1: that I mentioned, the seventy three win Warriors, and then
Speaker 1: one other team, the sixty nine Lakers that they went
Speaker 1: on to win the championship. That's every team that won
Speaker 1: more regular season games than these Thunder The teams to
Speaker 1: win sixty eight games are also at least well, one
Speaker 1: of them is an all time team. The other one
Speaker 1: came up short to the Knicks in the conference finals.
Speaker 1: You have the eighty three Sixers, who I'm sorry, not
Speaker 1: the eighty three sixers, the sixty seven sixers, the eighty
Speaker 1: three sixers that were I put them there because I
Speaker 1: think they're one of the greatest teams ever, the faux
Speaker 1: Fox Fox Sixers, but that was not they were not
Speaker 1: the dominant regular season team. These teams were. And then
Speaker 1: the seventy three Celtics, which came up short, and then
Speaker 1: this Thunder team. If we lower the threshold to sixty
Speaker 1: seven wins. Then it gets a little fuzzier because you
Speaker 1: have some great teams and some not so great teams.
Speaker 1: Sixty seven wins, the eighty six Celtics in the short
Speaker 1: on the short list of greatest team of all time, Like,
Speaker 1: that's pretty undeniable that you've got to at least include
Speaker 1: them when you are discussing who are the greatest teams
Speaker 1: of all time? The eighty six Celtics have to be
Speaker 1: on that list. The ninety two Bowls, who I actually
Speaker 1: think might be maybe the best of the Bulls teams
Speaker 1: that finished off the first three peat. There's at least
Speaker 1: an argument there. The two thousand Lakers, the first championship
Speaker 1: with Shaq and Kobe, the twenty fifteen Warriors, which is
Speaker 1: the first championship with Steph, the twenty seventeen Warriors, the
Speaker 1: first championship with Stephan Durant, and then a couple teams.
Speaker 1: One that gets kind of is a punchline, and the
Speaker 1: other is an all time great team that ran up
Speaker 1: against another all time great team. The punchline is the
Speaker 1: seven MAVs, who lost in Round one after winning sixty
Speaker 1: seven games to the We Believe Warriors. And the other
Speaker 1: one is the twenty sixteen Spurs who just happened to
Speaker 1: be it. I mean, that team was unbelievable. They got
Speaker 1: clipped in round two by the twenty sixteen Thunder, who
Speaker 1: then ran into the twenty sixteen Warriors, who then ran
Speaker 1: into Pete Lebron James. But so to do this quickly,
Speaker 1: teams to win sixty seven plus you have first year
Speaker 1: Steph won a title, first year Stephan Kde won a
Speaker 1: title together. You have the first year Shaq and Kobe
Speaker 1: won a title. You have Jordan's Bulls the third time
Speaker 1: they won a title, and the best Celtics team of
Speaker 1: all time, the eighty six Celtics. Those are the sixty
Speaker 1: seven win teams plus the two with that I just
Speaker 1: mentioned that didn't win the title. The sixty eight win
Speaker 1: teams are this year's Thunder. And then you add to
Speaker 1: it the seventy three Celtics not you know, at a
Speaker 1: disappointing playoffs, and then sixty seven six Ers with Wilt
Speaker 1: won the title, and then sixty nine win teams Jordan's Bowls,
Speaker 1: the fifth championship, the Laker team that had the thirty
Speaker 1: three game winning streak in seventy two, the ninety six
Speaker 1: Bulls won seventy two, and then the Warriors the seventy
Speaker 1: three win Warriors. So that's the company they keep. So
Speaker 1: there's one kind of hard piece of data, how many
Speaker 1: games did you win? The other one is were you
Speaker 1: blowing people out? And teams that finished the year with
Speaker 1: a ten plus point differential? Eighties last year's Celtics and
Speaker 1: then the eight Celtics, Kareem's Bucks in seventy one, the
Speaker 1: Durant first year Durant Warriors, that other Warriors team the
Speaker 1: first year they won the title, the Bowls a couple times,
Speaker 1: and the Lakers in seventy two. The Thunder beaten teams
Speaker 1: this year by almost thirteen points per game. So they
Speaker 1: check both of the hard metric boxes. You then add
Speaker 1: the kind of softer factors. How good was the league
Speaker 1: in that time? I think the league's as talented as
Speaker 1: it's ever been. What was their path to the finals
Speaker 1: and to a championship? That one probably cuts against them
Speaker 1: a bit. They are not going through legendary opponents en route,
Speaker 1: and they won't face a legendary opponent in the finals.
Speaker 1: They did, however, go through a legendary player in Joker
Speaker 1: and that was a classic set game series. Another kind
Speaker 1: of soft factor. Did they have an all time player
Speaker 1: on their team all time? I don't know yet, but
Speaker 1: the guy who had the best season this year and Shae,
Speaker 1: Yeah they did. I mean, Shay was unbelievable in the
Speaker 1: regular season, has been almost as good in the playoffs.
Speaker 2: Would not have would not have an all time player
Speaker 2: make it a better feat.
Speaker 1: It might make it more impressive, but it's hard to
Speaker 1: argue when you're talking about the best single seasons in
Speaker 1: NBA history, it's and I left out some of the
Speaker 1: sixty six win teams and some of the best teams
Speaker 1: ever were sixty six win teams. Lebron's Heat that had
Speaker 1: the twenty seven game winning streak I mentioned earlier, the
Speaker 1: eight Celtics, which were awesome. Those were the margin of victories.
Speaker 1: I mentioned Kareem's Bucks that you know there are some
Speaker 1: a couple Lakers teams, one with Magic, one with Kobe.
Speaker 1: Oh those were sixty five, not sixty six. But it
Speaker 1: would make it more impressive. Maybe demands, But when we're
Speaker 1: talking about who the greatest teams of all time are,
Speaker 1: and if we're trying to do the hypothetical, if they
Speaker 1: were to match up against each other, right, you want
Speaker 1: to be able to say, our guy can at least
Speaker 1: kind of look eye to eye with your guy. And
Speaker 1: if your guy is peak Wilt Chamberlain or peak Michael
Speaker 1: Jordan or peak Larry Bird, and my guy is yeah,
Speaker 1: Chauncey Billips and again. And I'm just picking a team
Speaker 1: that won the title, even though they're not in the
Speaker 1: all time team discussion. That's gonna be a harder argument
Speaker 1: to make. Shay is making an argument that he's building
Speaker 1: an all time resume. It's a weird one because of
Speaker 1: how he started, and it was a slow progression, but
Speaker 1: he's just got better and better and better every single year.
Speaker 1: I so I am okay with saying this is an
Speaker 1: all time single season. I am not okay with saying
Speaker 1: this is an all time team because what the other
Speaker 1: all time teams had was stacked accomplishments, you know, multiple finals, appearances,
Speaker 1: multiple championships, and the teams kind of bleed together. But
Speaker 1: single season it's that. But that then gets us to
Speaker 1: the point you were making. And I understand Pacer fans maybe,
Speaker 1: or Nick fans even or like, my god, you're acting
Speaker 1: like they won the championship yesterday, and to that I
Speaker 1: would say, no, I'm not. I actually acted like they
Speaker 1: won the championship on Monday night, because to me, they did.
Speaker 1: That was the That was the end of the competitive
Speaker 1: portion of this year's NBA season. And that's not to
Speaker 1: say the Pacers or the Knicks can't beat them in
Speaker 1: a game. But when a team has home court and
Speaker 1: that team beats people in the playoffs at home by
Speaker 1: fifty one, nineteen, forty three, seven, thirty two, twenty six,
Speaker 1: fifteen and thirty with one loss coming on a buzzer beater,
Speaker 1: they're gonna win the championship when they also are a
Speaker 1: team that can, if it were to happen, Demons deal
Speaker 1: with injury better than any other team in the now.
Speaker 1: They can't deal with an injury to Shay, but nobody
Speaker 1: can lose their best player. They could, but they they
Speaker 1: could lose JDub or Chet and still win the championship
Speaker 1: much less lose what I mean, go ahead?
Speaker 2: Oh no, yeah, I don't know. I feel like Cheed
Speaker 2: is such a presence. Chet losing Check probably put them.
Speaker 1: Oh, I think it would change them, but I wouldn't like,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't write them off any of these other teams,
Speaker 1: if they lost one of their three best guys, you
Speaker 1: would basically just write them off. You couldn't do it
Speaker 1: with this team because of how deep they are. So
Speaker 1: I have and I'm not trying to give myself credit here,
Speaker 1: I am trying to remind the audience. I guess I
Speaker 1: was not one of the loud Thunder skeptics. Now. I
Speaker 1: didn't pick them to win the championship because I thought
Speaker 1: the Lakers could beat them. After I saw the Lakers
Speaker 1: beat them in a game the Thunder wanted and then
Speaker 1: the Lakers play them to a tie until Luca got
Speaker 1: kicked out, and I was like, Okay, I think the
Speaker 1: Lakers are the one team that can give them real
Speaker 1: prime problems. Maybe Boston. But I thought the Thunder were
Speaker 1: a legitimate championship caliber team all year, and the moment
Speaker 1: the Lakers went out, I said, I think they're gonna
Speaker 1: win the title. With all that said, I think the
Speaker 1: dynasty talk is so silly, and I understand folks argument
Speaker 1: is they are set up so well. And I will
Speaker 1: just make the point that I made on Tuesday again.
Speaker 1: We think every team almost is set up so well
Speaker 1: when they're in the midst of winning, and to which
Speaker 1: some people will reply, yeah, but those teams weren't as young.
Speaker 1: That's true that the Bucks in twenty twenty one, or
Speaker 1: the Nuggets in twenty twenty three, or even the Celtics
Speaker 1: last year weren't as young. However, with the Bucks and
Speaker 1: the Nuggets, we did feel like their best player was
Speaker 1: in already in once they won the title, the historically
Speaker 1: great conversation, and Shay isn't quite in that yet. Like
Speaker 1: we thought, yes, this Thunder team's younger, but we thought
Speaker 1: that Giannis and Joker in that moment were a tick
Speaker 1: above where Shay is in this moment. And the other
Speaker 1: argument people are going to make is yes, but the
Speaker 1: nugget it's the for the Thunder, it's all that draft
Speaker 1: capital that they have, And that is true, but it's
Speaker 1: also a little misleading. So the the Thunder's draft capital
Speaker 1: is more quantity than quality. So I'm I'm going to
Speaker 1: go through it just too. And this is courtesy of
Speaker 1: real GM to remind people what they have, because what
Speaker 1: you're gonna see is it's a ton of stuff, and
Speaker 1: it's a ton of stuff that theoretically they could use
Speaker 1: in trades, but it's not like oh Man, that could
Speaker 1: be the third pick of the draft. Okay, so this
Speaker 1: year they have the fifteenth pick from Miami and the
Speaker 1: twenty fourth pick from the Clippers, at least I think
Speaker 1: fact checked me in the because I don't have this
Speaker 1: year's pulled up. Fact check me in the doc if
Speaker 1: I'm wrong about this year. But they the then next year,
Speaker 1: what they have. They have Houston's pick next season protected
Speaker 1: one through four, So Houston, we think Houston's going to
Speaker 1: be quite good next year, so a late pick next year.
Speaker 1: And then they have I want to make sure I
Speaker 1: get this right, the Clippers pick next year. So I
Speaker 1: think the Clippers showed us this year that they are
Speaker 1: going to be at least a credible team, and so
Speaker 1: are those are fine picks, but none of those appear
Speaker 1: or feel like those are going to be, you know,
Speaker 1: I lottery top ten picks, right. And then they have
Speaker 1: Phillies pick next year potentially, and again they only get
Speaker 1: two of these, So these are the best ones they
Speaker 1: could get. Phillies pick if it falls outside of the
Speaker 1: top four, and Utah's pick if it falls outside of
Speaker 1: the top eight. The moral of the story is next
Speaker 1: year they are going to have a bunch of extra picks,
Speaker 1: and they all look like they are not going to
Speaker 1: be lottery picks because Utah is the only team on
Speaker 1: that list that is likely going to be in the lottery,
Speaker 1: and Utah likely is going to be able to keep
Speaker 1: their pick because it'll be in the top eight. In
Speaker 1: twenty twenty seven, they again they get the Clippers pick,
Speaker 1: and that's unprotected. Maybe that could be good. Maybe, and
Speaker 1: Denver's pick, which, assuming Joker doesn't retire, is not going
Speaker 1: to be that good. And in twenty twenty eight they
Speaker 1: can swap with Dallas. Again, do we think Dallas, now
Speaker 1: that they have Cooper Flag and Anthony Davis is there,
Speaker 1: that that's going to be a top five pick? No,
Speaker 1: And then that's really I think they have one more
Speaker 1: Denver pick later, but again, unless we think Joker is
Speaker 1: going to retire. So the point I'm making in a
Speaker 1: somewhat convoluted fashion is it's a lot of stuff, but
Speaker 1: it's not great stuff. Now the argument there would be demons. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but they can package that stuff for a star. And
Speaker 1: that then gets to to me the next interesting domino
Speaker 1: for the Thunder, which is, yeah, are they going to
Speaker 1: want to be expensive? Are they going to want to
Speaker 1: for the first time in franchise history be a big
Speaker 1: luxury tax butt up against the apron type of team.
Speaker 1: And my answer to that question is I don't see
Speaker 1: why they would now. And you can say, well, they
Speaker 1: want to check right, correct, right, They didn't want to
Speaker 1: pay it then, And you can be like, well, but
Speaker 1: now they won a championship. That could cut either way.
Speaker 1: Maybe you would be like, they want a championship now
Speaker 1: they just want to win, win, win. They also want
Speaker 1: to be like, we want a championship without having a
Speaker 1: super expensive team, so why do we need one? And
Speaker 1: so it is a different NBA guys, and it's a
Speaker 1: different NBA. Also in this regard the onl like the
Speaker 1: guys who have reeled off a bunch are guys who
Speaker 1: are top ten all time players. The one guy who
Speaker 1: is pretty consensus outside of the top ten who reeled
Speaker 1: off even two is Isaiah Thomas, and he's firmly in
Speaker 1: the top twenty, but outside the top ten. So Joker
Speaker 1: would have checked those boxes. Little Unlucky some Jamal Murray's injuries,
Speaker 1: you know, Jannis could have potentially little Unlucky, uh didn't
Speaker 1: have you know, this type of pick Bounty though, to
Speaker 1: be fair in Milwaukee, to make up for some of
Speaker 1: those mistakes. And I'm not saying Shay is not Shaye.
Speaker 1: I said all year was the MVP. But it is
Speaker 1: surprising to me how many people who a month ago
Speaker 1: were quite convinced the Celtics were about to reel off
Speaker 1: a bunch of championships are now convinced the Thunder are
Speaker 1: about to reel off a bunch of championships. And so
Speaker 1: I you know too long, didn't listen all time single
Speaker 1: season team. Yes, set up pretty well for the future. Yes,
Speaker 1: going to win this championship without a doubt. Yes, ready
Speaker 1: to pencil them in for multiple titles. No, So that's
Speaker 1: where I land on Oklahoma City. They will be in
Speaker 1: the mix for years to come, but as a lot
Speaker 1: of teams can attest, in the mix doesn't really buy
Speaker 1: you anything in the modern NBA