June 3, 2025 • 30 mins
On today’s episode, Jason discusses the keys to victory for the Indiana Pacers if they want to pull a monumental upset against the Oklahoma City Thunder in the NBA Finals, the importance of the three point shot for Indiana against OKC, why he believes Carmelo Anthony's comments about Cooper Flagg felt more like a backhanded compliment than anything, and how much it matters than Flagg is a white, American-born player when discussing his marketability.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
This is straight fire with Jason McIntire.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What is up fire, fram It's me Jason McIntyre Street
Fire for Tuesday, June the third, and with no NBA
on a nightly basis, it is getting tough out there, folks. However,
the good news is you've got a great producer, rob Gie,
who hits me with all these topic ideas and we
bat some stuff around so we could easily do and
(00:34):
we might. You know, you never know where once we
hit the record button where this is going to turn.
The Yiannis stuff is interesting. I think the big retirement
in the NFL offensive lineman. Do I call them big
because you know, I bet on the sport, but a
lot of people don't. That's big. But I do think
we haven't really given the finals there due and I'm
sure you know after the Game one ratings come out
(00:55):
and they're not great. People always stop talking about the finals.
Blah blah blah. Get back to Kitlin Clark. Well, she's hurt, guys.
By the way. By the way, I have open as
a tab rob on my computer. This whole Caitlin Clark
Diana Tarassi stuff that happened. She made some comments and
I just have it. We haven't had a chance to get
(01:16):
to it. Clark is hurt, so maybe when we're really
slow we'll get back to it. But I do want
to kind of focus on Pacers Thunder because I spent
a lot of time digging into this rob I essentially
have come to two conclusions. I think the Pacers can
pull an unbelievable upset, and I think at like plus
five fifty or plus six hundred, whatever the number is,
I think there's some value in putting pizza money on
(01:38):
the Pacers. The other part of me it's fifty percent
I think the Pacers can pull the upset. The other
fifty percent says thunder and a landslide. I e thunders
sweep them like it could be that bad, and I don't.
I'm kind of torn on which way to go, because again,
we're not gonna make the fool's errand mistake of saying, oh,
in the regular season, this happened, so that means it
(02:01):
might happen in the playoffs. Is a recent example, the
Celtics obliterate the Knicks in the regular season and then
lose pretty handily in the playoffs. I do like to
factor in experience, and you know, that kind of bit
me in the butt thinking Minnesota had a chance against Okay. See,
that series was a bloodbath because Minnesota was in the
conference finals. And Okase's still really young, the youngest team
(02:23):
to reach the finals, I believe, since like the nineteen
seventy something Blazers or Sonic something go crazy number. But
they are incredibly young. They only have finals experience in
alex Caruso. And you could counter with, hey, Indiana has
what Pascal Siakam like, Come on, Jay, So ultimately, and
(02:44):
I teased this yesterday, is that the things that Okase
does that really give teams problems, Indiana loves that stuff.
They want to push tempo. They don't turn the ball over,
but you could argue they haven't faced pressure like this.
And Indiana loves playing on the road. I mean, they
(03:04):
steal games one and two in New York, they steal
games one and two in Cleveland. You know, this is
what this team does. The thing that concerns me, and
it concerned me against the Knicks and I thought this
would run out, is the three point shooting from the Pacers.
It has been It was, you know, good but not
great during the regular season, and then in the playoffs.
(03:27):
They're not missing from three and they have finished out
game six. They were I believe sixteen from thirty two.
I'm sorry. If you shoot fifteen percent on that volume
in the playoffs, yeah, you're not losing. That's just what happens.
So Indiana number one in three point percentage in the
playoffs sixteen games, are shooting forty percent. That's significantly better
(03:49):
than anyone else. Okasee thirteenth at thirty three percent. However,
Okase makes up for it with the turnovers in the
mid range game of Shay And it's basically what who's
gonna Who's gonna crack first, Who's gonna break tendency? Will
the Pacers all of a sudden start turtling the ball
over and missing threes? Or will okay see suddenly struggle
(04:12):
Because my guess, Rob is that Indiana. And listen, Rick
Carlile is an awesome coach. I mean, you want to
look at his history. This is the guy, and I'm yeah,
let me. I should probably call up the twenty eleven
playoffs real quick, when the MAVs shocked the world and
won the title. But that's the Dallas team coach by
(04:32):
Carlisle and I will never forget this series. They bludgeoned,
and I mean destroyed the Kobe Lakers in the second round. Yeah,
four to oh. They win the first two at Staples,
then they went at home and of course Game four
was an absolute bloodbath. Jason Terry went off. But like
(04:53):
that was a shocking sweep. Okay, absolutely shocking. But not
only did you sweep Kobe, you went to the finals
and took down the heavily favored Miami Heat featuring Lebron
in his first finals with the Miami And that was
the series where Dallas tinkered with some stuff. They did
some zone, they did JJ Berea on Lebron, and the
(05:15):
Miami Heat was shook. Now what does Carlisle come with here?
Because since Okase saw that zone defense from Denver, which
they struggled with in the second round, they've been better
at it. Minnesota couldn't really use it. Okay, see was prepared.
So what new stuff? What wrinkles does Carlisle have up
his sleeve? I can't imagine it's anything like a one
(05:37):
to three one. I don't envision that sort of thing.
But essentially, I think my guess is he's gonna play
the we're not losing to SGA. Get the ball out
of his hands. And if Lou Dorton hit five threes
and JDub hits ten, you know what we'll have to
live with that. That would be my guest that you
don't want SGA to beat you. And you know Indiana
(05:59):
has the bodies to throw at him. I mean, I
think TJ. McConnell can be a pest and irritant, Nie Smith, Nemhar,
they got bodies. Even Shepherd I thought did a solid
job at times on Brunton, He's a little longer, gave
me a different look. So I want to take Indiana.
But you know, ultimately, Rob, I think my head gets
involved and it's like, listen, Jay, come on, Okay, So
(06:21):
he's really good. I know you don't like him, you
don't want to give him respect. You you say Shay
is the third best player in the league without a ring, dismissing,
dismissing him compared to Anton Luca. We know, we get it,
your hater, but ultimately, Rob, I probably should say thunder
in four or five.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
You know, it's funny because of this podcast, people assume
that your takes are my takes. So when you put
out that list on Monday. It was like, Oh, I
can't believe you would say that. I'm like, I wasn't
had nothing to do with that. I wasn't even in
that meeting. Go talk to you know, friend of the show,
Ryan Music, Go talk to Martin Weiss.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Those are the guys that Martin.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Works or that jam of course with on the Herd,
which we can get into that list later if you want.
But as far as this upcoming series goes, again, as
we've said this on this own pod, I've said it
on Twitter, the ratings are going to be horrible, but
the basketball should be tremendous.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
In this series upcoming you mentioned the three point poll.
That's obviously going to be a huge thing. Because one
thing Oklahoma City does similar to what the Lakers did,
they just do it a hell of a lot better
than the Lakers did, is they dictate who they want
to shoot threes. Okay, because you can't take away everything
in today's NBA news flash, like the offenses are too good,
they're too creative, there's too much spacing. You cannot possibly
(07:41):
erase everything. What you have to decide is what are
you comfortable giving up? Indiana shoots a lot of threes.
In the Eastern Conference finals. Of their six main guys Siakam, Halliburn,
Nie Smith, Turner, neam Hard and Obi Toppin, three of
them shot over four ty three percent from three. Nenmars
(08:01):
shot forty three, Siakam was fifty. Nie Smith was at
fifty three percent.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Which is ridiculous. A lot of that was the eight
for nine game, I know, but it's like wow.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
And then the other two guys who are in the thirties,
Halliburton and Turner. Halliburton shot thirty two, Turner shot about
thirty two in the regular season. Turner is a forty
percent three point shooter. Halliburton is a thirty nine percent
three point shooter. So suffice to say, everybody in their
(08:32):
top five, everybody who plays major minutes for them, can
stroke it from deep. How is the defense of Oklahoma City,
which is one of the best, if not the best,
in recent memory, gonna deal with that. I think Indiana
can attack them in certain ways that nobody else has
been able to do.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Throw it so far in these playoffs.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
What they do and what they do well is its
constant player movement, constant body movement. The ball is always
popping here, here, here, here, here. It's not quite as
lethal as what the Steph curry Wards are doing back
in their heyday, where no matter what you did, there's
so many backcuts and guys moving around that somebody's gonna
(09:15):
get open, whether it's Stephan Clay for three, or it's
Iguidala in the layup line in the backcut, or it's
you know, Sean Livingston in the MIDI.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
But what they do do is there's so much controlled chaos,
as the word they like to use.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
Around Indiana, that you don't know whether Miles Turner is
gonna pick and pop.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
You don't know if he's gonna dip under.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
You don't know if what Siakam's doing, because he seems
to be getting a lot of his stuff off, stuff
that's not even called. It feels like Nie Smith has
become a lights out shooter. So what you're gonna have
to see is, and this is maybe something that they
might do which they don't normally like to do in
Oklahoma City, is what Houston did to that Warriors team
with Stephan kd where they pushed them to seven games.
(09:55):
Rather than play their normal defense, what they did was
we are gonna switch everything. It doesn't matter if we
end up with our center on a point guard. It
doesn't matter if we end up with our small forward
on a power forward. Whatever it is, we are gonna
switch it. So we're gonna muck up all the things
that they do. And if that's gonna happen, it puts
(10:16):
a lot of pressure on Tyre's Halliburton to play outside
of himself. Not to say that he can't play one
on one and he can't beat the defenders that they're
gonna switch on to him, it's that that's not how
he likes to play. He likes to get the ball,
move it, get the ball, make a quick decision, and
get the ball out of his hands, either for an
assister for a basket. If you're asking these guys to
beat everybody one on one, I just don't think that's
(10:39):
how they want to do it.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
And it's a big reason why, and we talked about
it yesterday.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
Oklahoma City entered into the series, the numbers already been down,
but at minus eight hundred favorites, that was the tide
for the fifth highest favorite in NBA history.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows, Foxsports Radio dot
com and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR to listen live.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Was it one of those teams a Kobe team? Well,
I guess it was a Kobe shack team, right the
Lakers Pistons. It wasn't Lakers Pistons. I can give you
the numbers right here. I thought it was the Karl
where they lost to where they added Karl Malone and
Peyton and it got smoked.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
So according to multiple outlets, again this number has already
been bet down.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
You mentioned it. It says low as five to fifty in
some spots.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
Okay, so the five or the four teams with the
higher mark in terms of favorites coming into the finals.
The one Lakers over the Sixers were minus two thousand,
The twenty eighteen Warriors of the Cavs were minus ten
seventy five. The ninety six Bulls over the Songs were
minus nine fifty. The ninety nine Spurs were minus nine
hundred over the Knicks. This OKC number is actually tied
(11:51):
with the two thousand Lakers versus the Pacers.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Oh, two thousand Lakers Pacers. That was Lakers, I believe
in six Yes, Kobe Shack teams. Okay, I'm trying to
think too, did any none of those favorites lost. No,
the Bulls were up three to oh and then gave
two to Seattle. Yeah. I don't even think any of
those went seven. So the market's probably accurate here. Hm.
(12:20):
So your your your guest would be what OKA see
in five six?
Speaker 3 (12:24):
I'm taking OKC in five it's gonna be a coronation.
What has been one of the greatest seasons in NBA history.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
Oh, I just can't believe. It's just tough for me
to put that. I mean, statistic wise, Yes, let's see
who'd Okay, so we just said those MAVs with Dirk
went through Kobe and Lebron. I don't think anybody ever
did that.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
It was more impressive than that. I think it was Kobe.
I think it was the thunder and then.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
It was Lebron. Oh, so it was Kobe, k d
and Lebron. Yeah, these guys went through Ja Morant, Jokic,
Anthony Edwards, and Tyrese Haliburton. Come on, this is not
like a historic rook Any stretch. I mean, you know,
(13:09):
Curry getting hurt, stunk, Lebron and Luca getting bounced early
was not great. The other reason I keep coming back
to Okay See is they're just gonna hunt Haliburt, you know,
and the Knicks went at him a lot in the
two games he played poorly last year in the Eastern
Conference Finals, if you if you remember that series, the
(13:30):
Celtics just went at him repeatedly and he couldn't really defend.
He's not a bad defender, but it's tough to ask him.
Hey man, we need you to lead the league team
in minutes. We need you to probably be our second
or first leading scorer. You need to distribute, move with pace,
and oh, by the way, play great defense on every possession.
Like that's a lot to ask of Haliburton. But Rob,
(13:52):
do you remember was it twenty fifteen? Curry? They win
the title, but Lebron didn't have Kyrie or Kevin Love
because Kyrie got hurt in Game one. Yes, and I
forget somebody messed up the arm of Kevin Love. Kelly Olynyk.
There you go, wow, rememory. And then the next year
(14:13):
the Calves went after Curry relentlessly, even after they were
up three to one. I remember that close out game
in Cleveland, where Lebron was just going at Curry every
possession and Curly complained and Lebron at one point looked
back at him and said something, And the crowd's going crazy.
Do you remember that? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (14:32):
And I remember Steph Curry end up throwing his mouthpiece
now at the scorer's table because he was so upset.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
And then of course the Draymond meltdown and you know
the historic comeback. But yeah, it's tough for me to
take the Pacers. I'd love to. I just you're right
those three point numbers. So I looked at their full
playoffs siakam in the playoffs sixteen games, not a trivial
amount of games, forty six percent from Nemhard forty eight,
(15:02):
Miles Turtner forty, Nie Smith fifty. The only guy shooting
under forty in the starting lineup is Halley at thirty
three percent. That being said, remember Julius Randall would look
like an All NBA first team guy in the first
round and the second round, and what happened against OKCE.
You know, he barely could dribble the basketball, and I
(15:24):
think he was benched in two fourth quarters. So it
is it Uphill Clibe. I'm just curious. Rob. You know,
you host a national radio show, You're very plugged in
on the NBA, and what's going on. Do you think
there's more excitement about Janie or Jannis on the Move
and KD on the Move or these finals? No, it's
Jiannis and Kad. Yeah, what about what about the Zion
(15:47):
Williamson lawsuit or the finals? The finals interesting?
Speaker 3 (15:54):
I mean, at least for my purpose, Like on the
show that I work on, Zion has his star so
faded so much that even when we sneak in Zion segments,
they definitely don't hit like they did a year, two,
three years ago.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
And so the Zion chip is sale, the Jamarran ship
is SI. Let's close out with this. So there was
a an interesting Carmelo Anthony quote about Cooper Flag. So
Carmelo is, you know, transitioning to the media. He's going
to be on NBC with the NBA coverage next year,
and I guess he's preparing some lukewarm takes and he's like, Oh,
Cooper Flag's really good. He's really he could do a
(16:27):
lot good at he's good at everything, but he's not
great at anything. And I'm just sitting here like, oh okay,
he's the uh jack of all trades, master of none.
Huh okay, I see what you That to me is
a backhand, a compliment. And when I when I said
this on the herd, of course, all these guys are
like Carmelo stands, Oh dude, we talk. Cooper Flag's not
(16:49):
that great, come on, And I'm just wondering, like he
can score all three levels, right, he can defend one
through five with his length. The guy essentially it was
a scoring machine at Duke. He played USA basketball at
seventeen in the memorable scrimmage in Vegas against Anthony Davis
(17:09):
and Company. And it was like a nip, nip and
tuck game and down.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
To the wire.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
He's eighteen years old. I don't under it's weird. I
consider that comment by Carmelo kind of hate. And again
I'm not reaching here, I hope I'm not. But it
felt to me like a there might have been some
racial undertones, do you know, like unintentionally of course, but
I wonder if people see Cooper Flag, I mean, what
(17:33):
was the last great American white basketball player? Chet Holmgren, Like,
is that is that what it was? And Chet's getting
bodied you know, he's a solid number three this year
for OKC, but he tried to guard Jokis for like
a game or two and then they were like, yeah,
that's that's that's not working. I mean, I like Cooper
Flag a lot. I don't know if he's going to
come into the league and put up Lebron numbers. If
he would, could he average twenty five and five as
(17:57):
a rookie for Dallas rob oh oh geez.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
It depends who they get as their point guard to
replace Kyrie. If they get somebody you know what, De'angela
Russell's available, a guy's who wants to score, then no.
If you get a guy who's willing to sit, like
Chris Paul comes in there for forty five games, is yeah,
I'll be your start til Kyrie comes back. Then absolutely.
Cooper Flag could be a twenty five and five guy
because he can handle the ball too. You know, you
(18:23):
just gotta let him do what he does. It's kind
of I didn't see that Carmelo Anthony comment. It's kind
of disappointing, to be quite honest with you, that he
would say something like that because it goes back to
something that you've talked about on this podcast and on
The Herd and other platforms. Why is it that when
we're discussing NBA players, we got to gravitate towards the
(18:47):
highlight stuff and the electric stuff and the bag and
things like that, And it's like, can.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
He just be a good player?
Speaker 3 (18:55):
Does everything have to be fancy and Sports Center worthy
for you to say, you know what, this dude is
really cooking right now?
Speaker 2 (19:01):
You know?
Speaker 3 (19:01):
Because again full circle, we started talking about the finals earlier.
What does Tyrese Halliburton do exceptionally well that you would say?
Speaker 2 (19:11):
I think he pushes tempo, He led the league in
assist turnover ratio, leads the league in playoff assists. I
would say he's a great floor general whatever that means,
or I would agree with him. But would you say
he's a better passer than Luca? Probably not.
Speaker 3 (19:29):
Is he a better passer than a guy like even
Jokis probably not. Is he a better shooter than a
guy like Donovan Mitchell? Probably not. Is he a better
scorer than Jalen Brunson, No.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
He's not.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
But what he does do is he plays a great
ground game. He finds open guys, he keeps the ball moving,
the ball finds energy. He very quietly was second on
his team in scoring in the Eastern Conference finals, first
in rebounds first and assists first and steals. And he's
not super athletic. He's not really yaming on dudes, and
for whatever reason, he seems to be very effective. For
(20:01):
my money, he's the best point guard in the Eastern
Conference over Brunson I in terms Jalen Brunsy can score,
and we talked about this.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
He scores very.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
Well, but at some point I want my point guard
to be able to do it. If you give most
NBA level players a usage rate of thirty five and
thirty plus minutes a night, I promise you they can
get you twenty and eight pretty much in their sleep.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
Anybody.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
And it's like, again, I'm not knocking Jalen Brunson, but
it just kind of is what it is. Tyree's Halliburn
can dominate without even having the ball like that. That's
the kind of player that he is. And it goes
back to Cooper Flag. Cooper Flag. I don't need him
to yam on dudes like Anthony Edwards. I don't even
a block shots like Anthony Davis. But I've seen enough
for him to know that he can do a lot
of things very very well. And you look up and oh,
(20:48):
what do you know, He's gonna end up with eighteen points,
thirteen rebounds, five assists, three blocks, two steals in thirty
four minutes. They're like, oh, that guy's nineteen and he's
doing that. Like, I don't I don't understand. I didn't
like that comment bout Carmelo Anthony.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
So it's interesting that you go there because it's like, well,
I would love for someone on my team to be
like Tyrese Haliburton. I mean, they're in the finals, but
you know it's gonna happen. They lose the finals, and
then it's well, you know you need a superstar. You know,
Jalen Brunson had an amazing run. Nick's lose. See, you
can't win with a small point guard, and it just
reduced the NBA discussion gets so dumb and reductive. It's like, really,
(21:40):
is that what we're doing? So just because they lose,
you can't win the finals with a small point guard
and when assuming if the Pacers end up losing, see,
I mean they don't have a superstar. You need an SGA.
That's it. I can already tell you what the narra
is gonna be. Siakam's good, but he's no Besgie. He's
(22:01):
no all NBA. By the way, has siakamverbillain all NBA?
I don't even know. I think he's just least one
at least once. Yeah, I mean, you know he's cooking
carling Anton Towns, which you know is not the tallest order,
but still like we do this. You're right, the discussion
gets annoying, and I just think I just feel like
the pushback on Cooper Flag already is getting terrible. Now
(22:23):
he he is going to be going into a tough
spot in Dallas. I would speculate that the MAVs get
off Gafford, try to trade him for you know, I
don't know, they'll have to do him in something for
like a Drew Holliday, uh, because they want defense. Remember
Nico Harrison loves his good defense. So you get a
defensive guard who can be a lead guard, and that
(22:44):
frees up more room up up front for Cooper Flag, like,
I don't even know if he'll start right. Let's say
you trade Gafford, You'll start Lively and Ad because they
beats Soften does one place center by himself. You start
those two PJ. Washington at the three and super Max
Christie at the two and Drew Holliday at the one.
That's a really good team, and then you've got Cooper
(23:06):
Flag as your six man. So the numbers will probably
be down a little bit, but they will go up
because as we know, Anthony David is probably gonna miss
twenty or thirty games. Come on, Rob, you're laughing, but
I know not the reality.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
Yeah, in that scenario, yes, he's gonna miss at least
ten to fifteen minimum. But if I'm Dallas, I would
much rather start Flagg than PJ.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
Washington.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
I mean, I know that PJ and Gaffer were like
their big acquisition to get to the final couple years ago,
but with the way that their team is built now,
especially if Cooper Flag is as good as we all
think he's gonna be, I want to get him as
many minutes as possible right out of the gate, because
you're not gonna win anything anyways, unless Kyrie Irving is
at least like eighty percent of what he was before
the injury minimum.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Oh, I forgot. They have Klay Thompson. My bad.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
Clay Thompson's probably gonna start, right. I think that was
part of the prerequident he was signing there, was he
was gonna start.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
You know, he wants he's gonna soak up thirty minutes
a night at.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
Least exactly, so you know, I would try to get
him as many minutes as possible until Kyrie is back,
so that we know what we have going into it.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
Yeah, you need Cooper Flag. And again I'm not comparing
him to Kitlin Clark, but given the cultural larger forces
at play in America right now, I think it certainly
helps that Caitlin Clark is white, and I think it
certainly helps that Cooper Flag is white. I mean, obviously
basketball has had a good history of white players, but
(24:38):
not any recently. And an American who went to Duke, Like, again,
you add that up, that's like, Okay, the casual fan
who thinks the NBA is all threes in dunks might
check it out for Cooper Fly. I don't know, is
that out of pocket to say rob Am, I gonna
get in trouble. Would you guys get in trouble if
you said that on the radio show? No, No, you
(24:59):
know people are gonna clip stuff anyway and try to
sure thing.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
Yeah, I mean there'll be people who will clip off
anything and try to make it like an aggregator and
a shot at so and so and can't believe so
and so would say this whatever. But you would have
to have your head in the sand to not admit
that Caitlin Clark being white has played a role in
her success her popularity. Cooper Flag, assuming that he is
(25:23):
as good as advertised, him being white is going to
lead to so many more endorsement and marketability opportunities than
somebody who is a comparable skill level.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
As in, Yeah, by the way, did you see that.
I know the headline says twenty eight million in nil,
but he essentially signed deals with New Balance and Fanatics
and that kind of counts toward his nil ledger. Listen,
there are companies out there who are willing to invest
eight figures in an eighteen year old basketball player. You
(25:56):
don't get that a lot. Obviously, Lebron was like a
what ninety million dollars Nike deal. But look in recent years,
Resa Shay, Alex Sar, those guys aren't getting big shoe
deals fanatics thing dropping fifteen mil on them. And Cooper
Flag there is a belief that there is something here
as maybe the next great I don't want to say
White Hope because that's goofy, but he's not going to
(26:19):
be Larry Bird. But could he was John Stocked in
that popular.
Speaker 3 (26:26):
No, but I mean the stock in him alone pairing
was well known. I don't say as well known. But
let me ask you a question real quick. So a
few NBA people that I respect have said that the
maximum like the if Cooper Flag reaches his full potential,
he is somewhere between Kawhi Leonard Jason Tatum. If he
(26:52):
reaches the full as much as whatever everything in his
bag becomes revealed and he reaches it. If he is
in Dallas and he is a comparable talent to Jason Tatum,
who do you think is more marketable.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
Tatum or Cooper Flag? Yes?
Speaker 3 (27:11):
Now, Tatum was obviously probably gonna win more because he
plays for the Boston Celtics. He plays for a marquee brand.
But as you mentioned five minutes ago, the color of
Cooper Flag's skin cannot be understated here.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
We Yeah, I'm a huge Tatum fan, but it's well
documented that he's not the most marketable guy because like
he's I mean, he did. I think his signature play
in the NBA was when he was like nineteen or
twenty and dunked on Lebron. Do you remember that? Yes?
I do, and I think they lost the game. He
was super young, but like that was the most fire
I've ever seen from Jason Tatum. And again, I like
(27:43):
him a lot. I would build around him before SGA.
I'm sorry I had to put that out there, but
you're right. I think Cooper Flag's way more marketable now
the more I think about it, his numbers are going
to be down in Dallas. And also there is going
to be this, Hey, we lost Lucas, so we could
get Cooper Flagg and he's averaging fifteen to eight. That
would be a little depressing. So I do wonder if
(28:05):
Dallas is going to be forced to play him more
then they might want to. And again that's making up
for the Lucas screw up. But I don't know how
we got into ten minutes of Cooper Flag. But I
just I found that interesting because I do think Cooper
Flag is going to be I don't know, Generational is
a bit strong, but like Wemby hasn't made the playoffs yet, No,
(28:29):
is that disappointing? Well, I mean he had a blood
clot and missed a third of the season. I think
I would think they certainly have to make the playoffs
this next year. Right they got to Hearon Fox, he
should be healthy, Like I think Cooper Flag probably is
in the playoffs next year with Dallas, assuming Kyrie comes
back by the All Star break.
Speaker 3 (28:47):
Oh, I mean the Western Conference is gnarly. I mean,
I know they didn't seem that way because of the
way oklaoms He ran through everybody, But when you just
look at the overall depth, you'd have to say conservatively
that the only teams that probably are not trying to
win and at least make the postseason next season are
(29:08):
Utah and Portland.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
Everybody else, I'm.
Speaker 3 (29:11):
Sure believes that they should be in the top ten,
if not the top six.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
If you're those teams are, don't aren't you a seller
like I would love to get off Lourie Marken in
bottom out? We're not going to the playoffs, sell high
on him. I don't know what's up with Sacramento. Do
they move on from Sabonis like they have no upward potential?
Phoenix probably gonna trade KD. But then do they circle
(29:36):
the draam with Booker or do they just nuke at all?
I saw stat Robbs because some of these teams will
be in the luxury tax. Phoenix of course that the
Indiana Pacers haven't paid the luxury tax since two thousand
and four. That's right, that's great, That's insane. So now
the question is do they end up keeping Miles Turner
and say we're going into the tax because we made
the finals. And that becomes interesting because I thought Miles
(29:58):
Turner would be a great get for anybody, specifically Lakers.
But now it's like, oh, they're going into the tax.
And that's where it gets kind of interesting. Like if
you're the Thunder you botched it with Harden back in
the day, do you say we're going early check JDub SGA,
we're all giving you three new deals and do you
make that your Big three or do you move off
(30:20):
JDub if you win the finals. I know there's just
so many options. I think It's actually going to be
a fun summer around these parts, so keep it locked straight.
Fire back tomorrow, talk to you then.
This is straight fire with Jason McIntire.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What is up fire, fram It's me Jason McIntyre Street
Fire for Tuesday, June the third, and with no NBA
on a nightly basis, it is getting tough out there, folks. However,
the good news is you've got a great producer, rob Gie,
who hits me with all these topic ideas and we
bat some stuff around so we could easily do and
(00:34):
we might. You know, you never know where once we
hit the record button where this is going to turn.
The Yiannis stuff is interesting. I think the big retirement
in the NFL offensive lineman. Do I call them big
because you know, I bet on the sport, but a
lot of people don't. That's big. But I do think
we haven't really given the finals there due and I'm
sure you know after the Game one ratings come out
(00:55):
and they're not great. People always stop talking about the finals.
Blah blah blah. Get back to Kitlin Clark. Well, she's hurt, guys.
By the way. By the way, I have open as
a tab rob on my computer. This whole Caitlin Clark
Diana Tarassi stuff that happened. She made some comments and
I just have it. We haven't had a chance to get
(01:16):
to it. Clark is hurt, so maybe when we're really
slow we'll get back to it. But I do want
to kind of focus on Pacers Thunder because I spent
a lot of time digging into this rob I essentially
have come to two conclusions. I think the Pacers can
pull an unbelievable upset, and I think at like plus
five fifty or plus six hundred, whatever the number is,
I think there's some value in putting pizza money on
(01:38):
the Pacers. The other part of me it's fifty percent
I think the Pacers can pull the upset. The other
fifty percent says thunder and a landslide. I e thunders
sweep them like it could be that bad, and I don't.
I'm kind of torn on which way to go, because again,
we're not gonna make the fool's errand mistake of saying, oh,
in the regular season, this happened, so that means it
(02:01):
might happen in the playoffs. Is a recent example, the
Celtics obliterate the Knicks in the regular season and then
lose pretty handily in the playoffs. I do like to
factor in experience, and you know, that kind of bit
me in the butt thinking Minnesota had a chance against Okay. See,
that series was a bloodbath because Minnesota was in the
conference finals. And Okase's still really young, the youngest team
(02:23):
to reach the finals, I believe, since like the nineteen
seventy something Blazers or Sonic something go crazy number. But
they are incredibly young. They only have finals experience in
alex Caruso. And you could counter with, hey, Indiana has
what Pascal Siakam like, Come on, Jay, So ultimately, and
(02:44):
I teased this yesterday, is that the things that Okase
does that really give teams problems, Indiana loves that stuff.
They want to push tempo. They don't turn the ball over,
but you could argue they haven't faced pressure like this.
And Indiana loves playing on the road. I mean, they
(03:04):
steal games one and two in New York, they steal
games one and two in Cleveland. You know, this is
what this team does. The thing that concerns me, and
it concerned me against the Knicks and I thought this
would run out, is the three point shooting from the Pacers.
It has been It was, you know, good but not
great during the regular season, and then in the playoffs.
(03:27):
They're not missing from three and they have finished out
game six. They were I believe sixteen from thirty two.
I'm sorry. If you shoot fifteen percent on that volume
in the playoffs, yeah, you're not losing. That's just what happens.
So Indiana number one in three point percentage in the
playoffs sixteen games, are shooting forty percent. That's significantly better
(03:49):
than anyone else. Okasee thirteenth at thirty three percent. However,
Okase makes up for it with the turnovers in the
mid range game of Shay And it's basically what who's
gonna Who's gonna crack first, Who's gonna break tendency? Will
the Pacers all of a sudden start turtling the ball
over and missing threes? Or will okay see suddenly struggle
(04:12):
Because my guess, Rob is that Indiana. And listen, Rick
Carlile is an awesome coach. I mean, you want to
look at his history. This is the guy, and I'm yeah,
let me. I should probably call up the twenty eleven
playoffs real quick, when the MAVs shocked the world and
won the title. But that's the Dallas team coach by
(04:32):
Carlisle and I will never forget this series. They bludgeoned,
and I mean destroyed the Kobe Lakers in the second round. Yeah,
four to oh. They win the first two at Staples,
then they went at home and of course Game four
was an absolute bloodbath. Jason Terry went off. But like
(04:53):
that was a shocking sweep. Okay, absolutely shocking. But not
only did you sweep Kobe, you went to the finals
and took down the heavily favored Miami Heat featuring Lebron
in his first finals with the Miami And that was
the series where Dallas tinkered with some stuff. They did
some zone, they did JJ Berea on Lebron, and the
(05:15):
Miami Heat was shook. Now what does Carlisle come with here?
Because since Okase saw that zone defense from Denver, which
they struggled with in the second round, they've been better
at it. Minnesota couldn't really use it. Okay, see was prepared.
So what new stuff? What wrinkles does Carlisle have up
his sleeve? I can't imagine it's anything like a one
(05:37):
to three one. I don't envision that sort of thing.
But essentially, I think my guess is he's gonna play
the we're not losing to SGA. Get the ball out
of his hands. And if Lou Dorton hit five threes
and JDub hits ten, you know what we'll have to
live with that. That would be my guest that you
don't want SGA to beat you. And you know Indiana
(05:59):
has the bodies to throw at him. I mean, I
think TJ. McConnell can be a pest and irritant, Nie Smith, Nemhar,
they got bodies. Even Shepherd I thought did a solid
job at times on Brunton, He's a little longer, gave
me a different look. So I want to take Indiana.
But you know, ultimately, Rob, I think my head gets
involved and it's like, listen, Jay, come on, Okay, So
(06:21):
he's really good. I know you don't like him, you
don't want to give him respect. You you say Shay
is the third best player in the league without a ring, dismissing,
dismissing him compared to Anton Luca. We know, we get it,
your hater, but ultimately, Rob, I probably should say thunder
in four or five.
Speaker 3 (06:41):
You know, it's funny because of this podcast, people assume
that your takes are my takes. So when you put
out that list on Monday. It was like, Oh, I
can't believe you would say that. I'm like, I wasn't
had nothing to do with that. I wasn't even in
that meeting. Go talk to you know, friend of the show,
Ryan Music, Go talk to Martin Weiss.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
Those are the guys that Martin.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Works or that jam of course with on the Herd,
which we can get into that list later if you want.
But as far as this upcoming series goes, again, as
we've said this on this own pod, I've said it
on Twitter, the ratings are going to be horrible, but
the basketball should be tremendous.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
In this series upcoming you mentioned the three point poll.
That's obviously going to be a huge thing. Because one
thing Oklahoma City does similar to what the Lakers did,
they just do it a hell of a lot better
than the Lakers did, is they dictate who they want
to shoot threes. Okay, because you can't take away everything
in today's NBA news flash, like the offenses are too good,
they're too creative, there's too much spacing. You cannot possibly
(07:41):
erase everything. What you have to decide is what are
you comfortable giving up? Indiana shoots a lot of threes.
In the Eastern Conference finals. Of their six main guys Siakam, Halliburn,
Nie Smith, Turner, neam Hard and Obi Toppin, three of
them shot over four ty three percent from three. Nenmars
(08:01):
shot forty three, Siakam was fifty. Nie Smith was at
fifty three percent.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Which is ridiculous. A lot of that was the eight
for nine game, I know, but it's like wow.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
And then the other two guys who are in the thirties,
Halliburton and Turner. Halliburton shot thirty two, Turner shot about
thirty two in the regular season. Turner is a forty
percent three point shooter. Halliburton is a thirty nine percent
three point shooter. So suffice to say, everybody in their
(08:32):
top five, everybody who plays major minutes for them, can
stroke it from deep. How is the defense of Oklahoma City,
which is one of the best, if not the best,
in recent memory, gonna deal with that. I think Indiana
can attack them in certain ways that nobody else has
been able to do.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
Throw it so far in these playoffs.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
What they do and what they do well is its
constant player movement, constant body movement. The ball is always
popping here, here, here, here, here. It's not quite as
lethal as what the Steph curry Wards are doing back
in their heyday, where no matter what you did, there's
so many backcuts and guys moving around that somebody's gonna
(09:15):
get open, whether it's Stephan Clay for three, or it's
Iguidala in the layup line in the backcut, or it's
you know, Sean Livingston in the MIDI.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
But what they do do is there's so much controlled chaos,
as the word they like to use.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
Around Indiana, that you don't know whether Miles Turner is
gonna pick and pop.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
You don't know if he's gonna dip under.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
You don't know if what Siakam's doing, because he seems
to be getting a lot of his stuff off, stuff
that's not even called. It feels like Nie Smith has
become a lights out shooter. So what you're gonna have
to see is, and this is maybe something that they
might do which they don't normally like to do in
Oklahoma City, is what Houston did to that Warriors team
with Stephan kd where they pushed them to seven games.
(09:55):
Rather than play their normal defense, what they did was
we are gonna switch everything. It doesn't matter if we
end up with our center on a point guard. It
doesn't matter if we end up with our small forward
on a power forward. Whatever it is, we are gonna
switch it. So we're gonna muck up all the things
that they do. And if that's gonna happen, it puts
(10:16):
a lot of pressure on Tyre's Halliburton to play outside
of himself. Not to say that he can't play one
on one and he can't beat the defenders that they're
gonna switch on to him, it's that that's not how
he likes to play. He likes to get the ball,
move it, get the ball, make a quick decision, and
get the ball out of his hands, either for an
assister for a basket. If you're asking these guys to
beat everybody one on one, I just don't think that's
(10:39):
how they want to do it.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
And it's a big reason why, and we talked about
it yesterday.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
Oklahoma City entered into the series, the numbers already been down,
but at minus eight hundred favorites, that was the tide
for the fifth highest favorite in NBA history.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows, Foxsports Radio dot
com and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR to listen live.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Was it one of those teams a Kobe team? Well,
I guess it was a Kobe shack team, right the
Lakers Pistons. It wasn't Lakers Pistons. I can give you
the numbers right here. I thought it was the Karl
where they lost to where they added Karl Malone and
Peyton and it got smoked.
Speaker 3 (11:21):
So according to multiple outlets, again this number has already
been bet down.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
You mentioned it. It says low as five to fifty in
some spots.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
Okay, so the five or the four teams with the
higher mark in terms of favorites coming into the finals.
The one Lakers over the Sixers were minus two thousand,
The twenty eighteen Warriors of the Cavs were minus ten
seventy five. The ninety six Bulls over the Songs were
minus nine fifty. The ninety nine Spurs were minus nine
hundred over the Knicks. This OKC number is actually tied
(11:51):
with the two thousand Lakers versus the Pacers.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
Oh, two thousand Lakers Pacers. That was Lakers, I believe
in six Yes, Kobe Shack teams. Okay, I'm trying to
think too, did any none of those favorites lost. No,
the Bulls were up three to oh and then gave
two to Seattle. Yeah. I don't even think any of
those went seven. So the market's probably accurate here. Hm.
(12:20):
So your your your guest would be what OKA see
in five six?
Speaker 3 (12:24):
I'm taking OKC in five it's gonna be a coronation.
What has been one of the greatest seasons in NBA history.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
Oh, I just can't believe. It's just tough for me
to put that. I mean, statistic wise, Yes, let's see
who'd Okay, so we just said those MAVs with Dirk
went through Kobe and Lebron. I don't think anybody ever
did that.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
It was more impressive than that. I think it was Kobe.
I think it was the thunder and then.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
It was Lebron. Oh, so it was Kobe, k d
and Lebron. Yeah, these guys went through Ja Morant, Jokic,
Anthony Edwards, and Tyrese Haliburton. Come on, this is not
like a historic rook Any stretch. I mean, you know,
(13:09):
Curry getting hurt, stunk, Lebron and Luca getting bounced early
was not great. The other reason I keep coming back
to Okay See is they're just gonna hunt Haliburt, you know,
and the Knicks went at him a lot in the
two games he played poorly last year in the Eastern
Conference Finals, if you if you remember that series, the
(13:30):
Celtics just went at him repeatedly and he couldn't really defend.
He's not a bad defender, but it's tough to ask him.
Hey man, we need you to lead the league team
in minutes. We need you to probably be our second
or first leading scorer. You need to distribute, move with pace,
and oh, by the way, play great defense on every possession.
Like that's a lot to ask of Haliburton. But Rob,
(13:52):
do you remember was it twenty fifteen? Curry? They win
the title, but Lebron didn't have Kyrie or Kevin Love
because Kyrie got hurt in Game one. Yes, and I
forget somebody messed up the arm of Kevin Love. Kelly Olynyk.
There you go, wow, rememory. And then the next year
(14:13):
the Calves went after Curry relentlessly, even after they were
up three to one. I remember that close out game
in Cleveland, where Lebron was just going at Curry every
possession and Curly complained and Lebron at one point looked
back at him and said something, And the crowd's going crazy.
Do you remember that? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (14:32):
And I remember Steph Curry end up throwing his mouthpiece
now at the scorer's table because he was so upset.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
And then of course the Draymond meltdown and you know
the historic comeback. But yeah, it's tough for me to
take the Pacers. I'd love to. I just you're right
those three point numbers. So I looked at their full
playoffs siakam in the playoffs sixteen games, not a trivial
amount of games, forty six percent from Nemhard forty eight,
(15:02):
Miles Turtner forty, Nie Smith fifty. The only guy shooting
under forty in the starting lineup is Halley at thirty
three percent. That being said, remember Julius Randall would look
like an All NBA first team guy in the first
round and the second round, and what happened against OKCE.
You know, he barely could dribble the basketball, and I
(15:24):
think he was benched in two fourth quarters. So it
is it Uphill Clibe. I'm just curious. Rob. You know,
you host a national radio show, You're very plugged in
on the NBA, and what's going on. Do you think
there's more excitement about Janie or Jannis on the Move
and KD on the Move or these finals? No, it's
Jiannis and Kad. Yeah, what about what about the Zion
(15:47):
Williamson lawsuit or the finals? The finals interesting?
Speaker 3 (15:54):
I mean, at least for my purpose, Like on the
show that I work on, Zion has his star so
faded so much that even when we sneak in Zion segments,
they definitely don't hit like they did a year, two,
three years ago.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
And so the Zion chip is sale, the Jamarran ship
is SI. Let's close out with this. So there was
a an interesting Carmelo Anthony quote about Cooper Flag. So
Carmelo is, you know, transitioning to the media. He's going
to be on NBC with the NBA coverage next year,
and I guess he's preparing some lukewarm takes and he's like, Oh,
Cooper Flag's really good. He's really he could do a
(16:27):
lot good at he's good at everything, but he's not
great at anything. And I'm just sitting here like, oh okay,
he's the uh jack of all trades, master of none.
Huh okay, I see what you That to me is
a backhand, a compliment. And when I when I said
this on the herd, of course, all these guys are
like Carmelo stands, Oh dude, we talk. Cooper Flag's not
(16:49):
that great, come on, And I'm just wondering, like he
can score all three levels, right, he can defend one
through five with his length. The guy essentially it was
a scoring machine at Duke. He played USA basketball at
seventeen in the memorable scrimmage in Vegas against Anthony Davis
(17:09):
and Company. And it was like a nip, nip and
tuck game and down.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
To the wire.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
He's eighteen years old. I don't under it's weird. I
consider that comment by Carmelo kind of hate. And again
I'm not reaching here, I hope I'm not. But it
felt to me like a there might have been some
racial undertones, do you know, like unintentionally of course, but
I wonder if people see Cooper Flag, I mean, what
(17:33):
was the last great American white basketball player? Chet Holmgren, Like,
is that is that what it was? And Chet's getting
bodied you know, he's a solid number three this year
for OKC, but he tried to guard Jokis for like
a game or two and then they were like, yeah,
that's that's that's not working. I mean, I like Cooper
Flag a lot. I don't know if he's going to
come into the league and put up Lebron numbers. If
he would, could he average twenty five and five as
(17:57):
a rookie for Dallas rob oh oh geez.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
It depends who they get as their point guard to
replace Kyrie. If they get somebody you know what, De'angela
Russell's available, a guy's who wants to score, then no.
If you get a guy who's willing to sit, like
Chris Paul comes in there for forty five games, is yeah,
I'll be your start til Kyrie comes back. Then absolutely.
Cooper Flag could be a twenty five and five guy
because he can handle the ball too. You know, you
(18:23):
just gotta let him do what he does. It's kind
of I didn't see that Carmelo Anthony comment. It's kind
of disappointing, to be quite honest with you, that he
would say something like that because it goes back to
something that you've talked about on this podcast and on
The Herd and other platforms. Why is it that when
we're discussing NBA players, we got to gravitate towards the
(18:47):
highlight stuff and the electric stuff and the bag and
things like that, And it's like, can.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
He just be a good player?
Speaker 3 (18:55):
Does everything have to be fancy and Sports Center worthy
for you to say, you know what, this dude is
really cooking right now?
Speaker 2 (19:01):
You know?
Speaker 3 (19:01):
Because again full circle, we started talking about the finals earlier.
What does Tyrese Halliburton do exceptionally well that you would say?
Speaker 2 (19:11):
I think he pushes tempo, He led the league in
assist turnover ratio, leads the league in playoff assists. I
would say he's a great floor general whatever that means,
or I would agree with him. But would you say
he's a better passer than Luca? Probably not.
Speaker 3 (19:29):
Is he a better passer than a guy like even
Jokis probably not. Is he a better shooter than a
guy like Donovan Mitchell? Probably not. Is he a better
scorer than Jalen Brunson, No.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
He's not.
Speaker 3 (19:40):
But what he does do is he plays a great
ground game. He finds open guys, he keeps the ball moving,
the ball finds energy. He very quietly was second on
his team in scoring in the Eastern Conference finals, first
in rebounds first and assists first and steals. And he's
not super athletic. He's not really yaming on dudes, and
for whatever reason, he seems to be very effective. For
(20:01):
my money, he's the best point guard in the Eastern
Conference over Brunson I in terms Jalen Brunsy can score,
and we talked about this.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
He scores very.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
Well, but at some point I want my point guard
to be able to do it. If you give most
NBA level players a usage rate of thirty five and
thirty plus minutes a night, I promise you they can
get you twenty and eight pretty much in their sleep.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
Anybody.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
And it's like, again, I'm not knocking Jalen Brunson, but
it just kind of is what it is. Tyree's Halliburn
can dominate without even having the ball like that. That's
the kind of player that he is. And it goes
back to Cooper Flag. Cooper Flag. I don't need him
to yam on dudes like Anthony Edwards. I don't even
a block shots like Anthony Davis. But I've seen enough
for him to know that he can do a lot
of things very very well. And you look up and oh,
(20:48):
what do you know, He's gonna end up with eighteen points,
thirteen rebounds, five assists, three blocks, two steals in thirty
four minutes. They're like, oh, that guy's nineteen and he's
doing that. Like, I don't I don't understand. I didn't
like that comment bout Carmelo Anthony.
Speaker 1 (21:03):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 2 (21:16):
So it's interesting that you go there because it's like, well,
I would love for someone on my team to be
like Tyrese Haliburton. I mean, they're in the finals, but
you know it's gonna happen. They lose the finals, and
then it's well, you know you need a superstar. You know,
Jalen Brunson had an amazing run. Nick's lose. See, you
can't win with a small point guard, and it just
reduced the NBA discussion gets so dumb and reductive. It's like, really,
(21:40):
is that what we're doing? So just because they lose,
you can't win the finals with a small point guard
and when assuming if the Pacers end up losing, see,
I mean they don't have a superstar. You need an SGA.
That's it. I can already tell you what the narra
is gonna be. Siakam's good, but he's no Besgie. He's
(22:01):
no all NBA. By the way, has siakamverbillain all NBA?
I don't even know. I think he's just least one
at least once. Yeah, I mean, you know he's cooking
carling Anton Towns, which you know is not the tallest order,
but still like we do this. You're right, the discussion
gets annoying, and I just think I just feel like
the pushback on Cooper Flag already is getting terrible. Now
(22:23):
he he is going to be going into a tough
spot in Dallas. I would speculate that the MAVs get
off Gafford, try to trade him for you know, I
don't know, they'll have to do him in something for
like a Drew Holliday, uh, because they want defense. Remember
Nico Harrison loves his good defense. So you get a
defensive guard who can be a lead guard, and that
(22:44):
frees up more room up up front for Cooper Flag, like,
I don't even know if he'll start right. Let's say
you trade Gafford, You'll start Lively and Ad because they
beats Soften does one place center by himself. You start
those two PJ. Washington at the three and super Max
Christie at the two and Drew Holliday at the one.
That's a really good team, and then you've got Cooper
(23:06):
Flag as your six man. So the numbers will probably
be down a little bit, but they will go up
because as we know, Anthony David is probably gonna miss
twenty or thirty games. Come on, Rob, you're laughing, but
I know not the reality.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
Yeah, in that scenario, yes, he's gonna miss at least
ten to fifteen minimum. But if I'm Dallas, I would
much rather start Flagg than PJ.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
Washington.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
I mean, I know that PJ and Gaffer were like
their big acquisition to get to the final couple years ago,
but with the way that their team is built now,
especially if Cooper Flag is as good as we all
think he's gonna be, I want to get him as
many minutes as possible right out of the gate, because
you're not gonna win anything anyways, unless Kyrie Irving is
at least like eighty percent of what he was before
the injury minimum.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Oh, I forgot. They have Klay Thompson. My bad.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
Clay Thompson's probably gonna start, right. I think that was
part of the prerequident he was signing there, was he
was gonna start.
Speaker 2 (24:01):
You know, he wants he's gonna soak up thirty minutes
a night at.
Speaker 3 (24:04):
Least exactly, so you know, I would try to get
him as many minutes as possible until Kyrie is back,
so that we know what we have going into it.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
Yeah, you need Cooper Flag. And again I'm not comparing
him to Kitlin Clark, but given the cultural larger forces
at play in America right now, I think it certainly
helps that Caitlin Clark is white, and I think it
certainly helps that Cooper Flag is white. I mean, obviously
basketball has had a good history of white players, but
(24:38):
not any recently. And an American who went to Duke, Like, again,
you add that up, that's like, Okay, the casual fan
who thinks the NBA is all threes in dunks might
check it out for Cooper Fly. I don't know, is
that out of pocket to say rob Am, I gonna
get in trouble. Would you guys get in trouble if
you said that on the radio show? No, No, you
(24:59):
know people are gonna clip stuff anyway and try to
sure thing.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
Yeah, I mean there'll be people who will clip off
anything and try to make it like an aggregator and
a shot at so and so and can't believe so
and so would say this whatever. But you would have
to have your head in the sand to not admit
that Caitlin Clark being white has played a role in
her success her popularity. Cooper Flag, assuming that he is
(25:23):
as good as advertised, him being white is going to
lead to so many more endorsement and marketability opportunities than
somebody who is a comparable skill level.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
As in, Yeah, by the way, did you see that.
I know the headline says twenty eight million in nil,
but he essentially signed deals with New Balance and Fanatics
and that kind of counts toward his nil ledger. Listen,
there are companies out there who are willing to invest
eight figures in an eighteen year old basketball player. You
(25:56):
don't get that a lot. Obviously, Lebron was like a
what ninety million dollars Nike deal. But look in recent years,
Resa Shay, Alex Sar, those guys aren't getting big shoe
deals fanatics thing dropping fifteen mil on them. And Cooper
Flag there is a belief that there is something here
as maybe the next great I don't want to say
White Hope because that's goofy, but he's not going to
(26:19):
be Larry Bird. But could he was John Stocked in
that popular.
Speaker 3 (26:26):
No, but I mean the stock in him alone pairing
was well known. I don't say as well known. But
let me ask you a question real quick. So a
few NBA people that I respect have said that the
maximum like the if Cooper Flag reaches his full potential,
he is somewhere between Kawhi Leonard Jason Tatum. If he
(26:52):
reaches the full as much as whatever everything in his
bag becomes revealed and he reaches it. If he is
in Dallas and he is a comparable talent to Jason Tatum,
who do you think is more marketable.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
Tatum or Cooper Flag? Yes?
Speaker 3 (27:11):
Now, Tatum was obviously probably gonna win more because he
plays for the Boston Celtics. He plays for a marquee brand.
But as you mentioned five minutes ago, the color of
Cooper Flag's skin cannot be understated here.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
We Yeah, I'm a huge Tatum fan, but it's well
documented that he's not the most marketable guy because like
he's I mean, he did. I think his signature play
in the NBA was when he was like nineteen or
twenty and dunked on Lebron. Do you remember that? Yes?
I do, and I think they lost the game. He
was super young, but like that was the most fire
I've ever seen from Jason Tatum. And again, I like
(27:43):
him a lot. I would build around him before SGA.
I'm sorry I had to put that out there, but
you're right. I think Cooper Flag's way more marketable now
the more I think about it, his numbers are going
to be down in Dallas. And also there is going
to be this, Hey, we lost Lucas, so we could
get Cooper Flagg and he's averaging fifteen to eight. That
would be a little depressing. So I do wonder if
(28:05):
Dallas is going to be forced to play him more
then they might want to. And again that's making up
for the Lucas screw up. But I don't know how
we got into ten minutes of Cooper Flag. But I
just I found that interesting because I do think Cooper
Flag is going to be I don't know, Generational is
a bit strong, but like Wemby hasn't made the playoffs yet, No,
(28:29):
is that disappointing? Well, I mean he had a blood
clot and missed a third of the season. I think
I would think they certainly have to make the playoffs
this next year. Right they got to Hearon Fox, he
should be healthy, Like I think Cooper Flag probably is
in the playoffs next year with Dallas, assuming Kyrie comes
back by the All Star break.
Speaker 3 (28:47):
Oh, I mean the Western Conference is gnarly. I mean,
I know they didn't seem that way because of the
way oklaoms He ran through everybody, But when you just
look at the overall depth, you'd have to say conservatively
that the only teams that probably are not trying to
win and at least make the postseason next season are
(29:08):
Utah and Portland.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
Everybody else, I'm.
Speaker 3 (29:11):
Sure believes that they should be in the top ten,
if not the top six.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
If you're those teams are, don't aren't you a seller
like I would love to get off Lourie Marken in
bottom out? We're not going to the playoffs, sell high
on him. I don't know what's up with Sacramento. Do
they move on from Sabonis like they have no upward potential?
Phoenix probably gonna trade KD. But then do they circle
(29:36):
the draam with Booker or do they just nuke at all?
I saw stat Robbs because some of these teams will
be in the luxury tax. Phoenix of course that the
Indiana Pacers haven't paid the luxury tax since two thousand
and four. That's right, that's great, That's insane. So now
the question is do they end up keeping Miles Turner
and say we're going into the tax because we made
the finals. And that becomes interesting because I thought Miles
(29:58):
Turner would be a great get for anybody, specifically Lakers.
But now it's like, oh, they're going into the tax.
And that's where it gets kind of interesting. Like if
you're the Thunder you botched it with Harden back in
the day, do you say we're going early check JDub SGA,
we're all giving you three new deals and do you
make that your Big three or do you move off
(30:20):
JDub if you win the finals. I know there's just
so many options. I think It's actually going to be
a fun summer around these parts, so keep it locked straight.
Fire back tomorrow, talk to you then.
Host
Jason McIntyre
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