June 5, 2025 • 40 mins
On today’s episode, Jason quickly previews the upcoming NBA Finals between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Indiana Pacers from a wagering perspective. Later, author and True Hoop founder Henry Abbott swings by to discuss why he thinks it would be a fool’s errand to trade for veteran superstars like Giannis Antetokounmpo and Kevin Durant, why the Thunder seem like they’re set up to dominate the NBA for the foreseeable future, what moves make sense for the asset-rich Houston Rockets, whether we can expect guys like LeBron James and Steph Curry to keep competing for championships, and much more!
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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 McIntyre.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What is a fire, Fayan, It's me Jason McIntyre, Straight
Bowyer for Thursday, June the fifth, It's officially NBA Finals Day.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Game one.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Feels like it's been forever since the East and West
Conference finals ended mercifully can I say, well, specifically in
the West. But we get the finals tonight live from Okay.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
See.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
It's gonna be a scene obviously, And you know it's funny.
We had this Greek guest lined up, Henry Abbott from
True who he used to be a GUESPN. He's done
a lot of stuff. He is super interesting dude, and
I was like, oh, we can maybe ask him some
final stuff and we just got talking and as you'll hear,
we pretty quickly just moved away from the finals and
got into the offseason. It's some interesting stuff. I don't know.
(00:59):
Like again, I don't want to take any more heat.
I'm just not geeked for the Finals. I have zero
dollars wagered so far. The bets that I have circled
Indye to win the series four to two is plus
ten forty. That could be a nice littleay day. I
can't imagine that India would win Game seven. So if
(01:19):
you're gonna pick India to win, they're not gonna win
in four. Obviously. I don't see them winning in five.
If they're gonna win in anything, it would be six.
I think it's a long shot. And plus ten forty
is the long shot you did just for the f
of it. I had someone it doesn't matter which team
to break the Cavs record of fifty points in a quarter.
(01:41):
I don't know that there's gonna be a lot of
stops here on either side. It's the two of the
faster teams in the league, tempo pace, why not plus
twenty nine hundred? Again, these are long shots. Some pizza
money in June, guys, And I am circling three pointers
because Okac is okay cutting off the lane, not letting
(02:02):
Haliburton get in the lane, but giving up corner threes. Well,
Jade McDaniel's spotty on those, Michael Porter was injured, and
Denver couldn't hit those. And I just wonder if Indiana,
which is shooting better from three than any other team
in the NBA, if siak I'm gonna go nuclear, Couldnee
Smith hit a few?
Speaker 3 (02:24):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
About Obi Toppin, but you just you know nemhard. They
got four starters hitting over forty percent for three in
the playoffs, like Miles Turner could go postal. So I'm
gonna be circling three pointers and just a few long shots. Ultimately,
I've said this all week. It feels like thunder and
four or Pacers pull a shocking upset. I think if
(02:46):
you're looking for the content space, obviously rooting Pacers and
then Okaz Panics. Do they get Yannis? Do they get
Kevin Durant, that that's the obvious rooting interest. So without
further ado, let's get to our guests. Henry Abbot, mister
true hoop.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
You know a guy Jason likes to think he knows
everything when it comes to sports.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
I know what sports fans want, but for.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Everything he doesn't. He knows a guy who does.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
Let's just say I know a guy who knows the
guy who knows another guy.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
All right, let's welcome into straight fire. Guy we haven't
talked to in a minute, but he's got some interesting
insight on the NBA finals. Henry Abbott, true hoop legend.
He's been everywhere in sports and media. Henry how you doing,
my man.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
I'm great, great, what's going on over there?
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Yeah, I can't complain, although it seems like I'm complaining
about no super team in the NBA finals. We're gonna
have our seventh champion in the last seven years. I
don't know, you know, you look at the league from
a big picture in this whole, like, hey, we want
the small markets to keep their guys. We want the
big market spenders to pay the second a print. I
(03:57):
just don't know if this is the best strategy, Henry.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
I want to say this respectfully, like I don't care
about any of that. I want the teams to be
well run, and like I think most teams aren't well run,
and it's been pissed me off for my whole career,
like they just do so many like the Suns right
now are a laughing stock. I mean, it's so amateur
hour over there, and they have all this money and
they're spending it on the dumbest things. And to me, like,
(04:22):
I like these two teams. I don't care what size
market they're in, but they are well built. They're the
model franchises. This is what your local team can emulate.
You're not gonna get Lebron and Luca and your team. Sorry, right,
Like what you can do is you can grind away
and get draft picks and get aaron Ne Smith and
you can get injur andam Hart and you can develop
them and you know, Rick Carlisle has a very real
(04:44):
and defined system we're referring to as blurball. Kennye Atkinson
went off about it after the Casure Limited, like, there's
a reason that the nixt loss is because they wore the
hell out of those stars with a system of they
aren't even good players like Obie Toppins, not great, but
he runs around.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
Really he's solid.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
Yeah, he's solid, and you know, but the plus minus
is bad on him. Right. The Knicks have a better roster,
but they got out coached because they got those you know,
Carl Anthony Towns and Jalleen Munson running all over the place.
There's metrics on this, and they were crap players at
the end of the every Knicks and qunch Time were
crap there. They turned it over as many times and
I had looked up before the last game, but four
(05:22):
games and they had more turnovers than baskets in crunch time.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Wow, And it felt like they were the opposite against Boston,
right coming back from down twenty.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
Yeah, everyone thinks this like clutch thing is like part
of your character. No, like if you're just exhausted, there's
data going way back, and if you're exhausted, you're just
not good.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Yeah. I guess it's less about you know, small market.
I should I should refrace. I don't care like that
they teamed up in Cleveland. I just want the stars together,
you know, I don't know if Miami's a bigger small market.
I just I like it when stars are playing together.
Kevin Durant became and it seems like for some reason Henry.
(05:59):
Anytime somebody who plays in one market and then leaves
via free agency or demands a trade, he's instantly a villain.
Anthony Davis was vilified for going to the Lakers. They
won a title. That team was fun, you know, kd
Okay see the Golden State, lebron To the Heat Forms,
the Heats like those were the teams I was really
ramped up about. Like, I don't know, my wife doesn't
(06:20):
have plans for us for these finals on Thursday, but
I can see myself easily backing out on watching Game
four or whatever because we got we got a dinner
on the books. You know that's not happening if it's
KD vers Lebron, Oh, whoa, whoa, I'm not missing out
on that, you know, I think it.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
Maybe we're also just in a much needed generational shift, right,
like those guys are old, Like Katie's never going to
lead a title team again, Lebron's never going to tell
team again, Steph's never going to tell this is all over.
It's over. We got to say goodbye. There's hardly any
I think I looked it up at some ridiculous number,
like like six percent of the NBA. Don't quote me
(06:58):
on this. There's a true post where I went the numbers,
but I think sixer sentday is thirty one or older.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
And that's it.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
One one point five percent of the NBA is good
and over thirty one Like it's those are we just
named them all practically right, like like your body can't
take this at that age. Like the players who are
gonna win the championships are always like you know, they're
gonna lead the team are almost always gonna be in
their twenties. Like this whole who's gonna get k it
doesn't matter, like all the areness, I don't even think
(07:26):
it matters, like like like because not only are they
on in the downslope with their career and they all
those guys are, but they also come with Supermax contracts,
which just that's why the Sun suck. It's because they
have to pay all these dudes, and like, like the
younger guys can't make that much money, so it's like
you're much better off having you know, Tyre's Halliburton because
he can't make as much as Lebron right, and.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
He's like, oh, that's the take right there. I had
not heard that angle. So what are you saying, Like
the market for KD is what exactly?
Speaker 3 (07:56):
Oh, some I'm going all over pay him because he's KD, right,
But like, but it's just I don't think you can
trade for a super Max player and have that player
lead you to a championship because super Max players are
by definition old. You can't get there until you're basically
it depends on when you hold you over when you're drafted.
But like you're you're around thirty and players speak at
like twenty six, twenty seven, and so you know, their
(08:18):
salaries just fly off the handle.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Like you don't want Damian Lillard, like you know what
I mean.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Like it's like it's but everybody, all we do all
summer is obsessed over these players who've already ascended. But
it's like, oh, you should have been getting tires Haliburt
and Andrew Nemhar. That's how you get to the finals, right,
Like we're all focused on the wrong things.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Right, Like it was like chasing Paul George is a
fools errands be worse?
Speaker 3 (08:40):
Yeah, yeah, could not be a worse idea as far
as I'm concerned.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Like you're too, so if you were, you know, you
said teams are run poorly. If you're advising the Houston
Rockets and their their staff, is that we go Can
we get Yannest without giving up Aman Toompson? Can we
please do it? You would say, let's pump the rights
so slowly.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
That's an interesting one right there. That's a great question.
I look, maybe people who know more about me and
the basketball would feel very confident that, like you know,
like when I give up, I don't know, they have
to give up a lot because it's the salary is
so big just to make the trade work. But it's
gonna be like Steven Adams and Jalen Green. I don't know,
I don't know, like but shng Gooon too, maybe yeah, probably, Yeah,
(09:23):
that's a hard one.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
But is that too much If you make that trade.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
And you now think that just we're gonna win, we're
the favorites this year, then all right, I'm never gonna
be opposed to that trade. But I do think it's like,
you know, Jannis has had one significant injury, which was
a year and a bit ago, right, yeah, that's right.
The next few years we'll have more like it's just
how life goes, right, and so what if you trade
(09:48):
all that and then he's out for a year or
six months or two months like or the playoffs like
I I would for me, I would be very stingy
with trading Shengoon. I would trade Jaaling Green because I
thin he's I'm not sure he's gonna like I'm sure
he's gonna blossom quite the way you want to. He might,
but you know, they don't want better than I do.
But he's a little kookie with the ball sometimes, you know,
he's a little.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
So do you think the Warriors made a mistake trading
for older Jimmy Butler.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
Well, no, because they were. Okay, here's where I'm gonna
really freak people out. The move I think probably, Well,
do you let me ask you this, do you think
they're gonna win a championship?
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Well, if Kirby doesn't go down, I think they were
favored over the Timberwolves. And could they have beaten Oksey?
I don't know. I didn't you know, map that one out.
I'm of the belief that Okasey is not as great
as all of the experts think. So I would have
loved I mean, listen, you can laugh, but I would
have loved to have seen the Lakers against the Thunder.
(10:49):
And I'd say that because the Lakers obviously killed him
late in the season, and then they played again and
everybody's like, oh, okay, so he punted that first game
and then the Lakers were beating them again before Luca
was kind of ejected on a dumb and I'm just like,
I trust Luca. I think he's I mean, I still
think he It's Luca, Jannis and Jokis best players in
the league. So I think Korean and Butler could have
(11:11):
possibly given him around. Do you do you again?
Speaker 3 (11:15):
I think I guess I think the Warriors were lively,
had lively chances in any series they might face, but
I felt like they're I mean, let me just make
up some math like they're forty percent to win against
every team left, but like means they're like not like
they're not gonna win a championship, right, So to me,
(11:37):
like I want to win a championship. So I'm looking
at that as like, Okay, our best available player to
pair with Steph gives us, like, I don't know, a
four percent chance, a five percent chance of winning a
title this year or ever, and so I would trade
Steph and just do the whole thing, do the whole
thunder rebuild. But but that's not if you just just
(11:58):
don't want realistic I mean if.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
No, no, that's interesting because if I were Steph, I
would have I'd said, on here, I would have demanded
a trade. But you can you imagine the reaction if
you went into the owner and Steve Current said I
think we need to trade Steph and start over. What
do you think the pushback would be.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
I just think we get so precious in sports. It's like, oh,
it will be fine, Like everyone's gonna be fine, Like
business may be fine, but they're gonna wind him down,
you know, like the Kobe Lakers, Right, They're gonna have
this like kind of painful wind down, but it's to
be hard to say goodbye, and it's just gonna be
a bad team for a while, right, Like is that
so great? Like is there something wonderful victory in that?
Speaker 2 (12:40):
Well? I don't uh. Are they building a new arena
or this is an arena and it's pretty expensive? So
like you know, if all of a sudden the Lower
Bowl was half full because you got an eighteen win
team and your biggest draw is like pod Zemski or
something that's a tough sell, especially in Golden State. Now,
is that an easier sell? Is? Okay? See or Indiana maybe?
Speaker 3 (13:03):
But dude, but there's a we're getting attached to the name,
Like Steph Curry made his name being like twenty seven
and being an absolute flamethrower. But when he's he's thirty
seven now and we're talking about the years he's thirty
eight and thirty nine and forty and forty one, like
Lower Bowl Like what he's going to suck? Like that's
(13:26):
just math? Right, So do you want him for those
years at his super max price where your team will
suck or do you not want him for those years,
Like that's up to you. But right now, you can
trade him for the sun, the moon and the stars,
right and then yeah, you'll have your two years of
rebuilding or whatever. But then you're gonna have all the
players to get for Steph Curry or you can have
him attire on your watch and then you get nothing, okay, nothing.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
So it's interesting. I'm looking at on Hoop type the salaries.
Curry has two more years at fifty nine and sixty two,
Butler after this has two more. Draymond has two more,
So it looks like they are lining everything up for
twenty seven to be the swan song for Curry and
Butler and then they reboot. But you're saying, I want
to beat everybody to the punch and trade him before
(14:10):
it gets too late, and then I'm not getting a
haul of picks and an SGA type player or whatever.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
I mean, this is me being really cold and calculated.
Like if you decide as a franchise that you just
wanted keep them there his whole career, like I respect it,
like do it. That's great, but just know that it's
coming at the cost of Like, you guys are gonna
have five years of getting out of the woods after that,
like book it like your arena is gonna be empty
after his retirement. Like, it's just gonna be really painful.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
Right.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
The only way Lakers got out because Lebron decided to come, right,
But they probably won't have that, right, You're just it's
going to be super painful to rebuild without the assets
of trading away the Superstar war he still has.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Yeah, that's a good point because remember after Kobe, like
you said, they were in the wilderness for I mean,
it was like brandon Ingram D'Angelo Russell. They had all
those picks, Julius Randall, Lonzo Ball, they it was a disaster. Yeah,
and then Lebron comes and saves them. So are we
getting out of that era where the veteran can come
and save the day?
Speaker 3 (15:05):
I mean, if a really good player or like the
best player ever in the case of Lebron, wants to
come to your team, like, you're always gonna be fine.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Okay, let me give you on for Curry.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
How's this?
Speaker 2 (15:13):
So Curry is went to Davidson obviously, and Charlotte has
been a tire fire for I don't know, since Alonzo
Warner Johnson, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
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Speaker 2 (15:35):
You just said it's not smart to get a guy
like Curry at this age, you know, but if you're Charlotte,
you're now relevant, You're on TV, You're sold out every day. Yeah,
and you've got you you ship LaMelo Ball out of town,
big f a big deal. You've got Curry, Brandon Miller
and whatever else. Is that something that becomes attractive to
(15:56):
a small market team.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
Yeah, I think it makes sense, right, I mean, I
mean that's to the Charlotte to decide. But like I
one hundred percent, you know, NBA billionaires kind of act
like they're running a circus, right, and they just want
like the hoop law and the little dogs jumping through
the hoops and all stuff, and like Steph Curry counts,
you know, like for that. It's like, this is this
league that was started by people who like Build Russell
was traded for the Ice Capades, right, like you know,
(16:20):
like yeah, they would give something up for Steph Curry
and then the Warriors would be you know, they have
all these picks and Brandon Miller and Lonzo Ball whatever
and uh, pretty much better off for sure, one hundred percent.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
Can you fix the Bucks for me? And like a
tight or two.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
I think they're screwed. I'm totally honest, Like, there's this
is about as bad a situation. I mean, I'll become
a Blazers fan and we have those Bucks picks and
that's like that's.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Gold, right this.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
This you know, twenty eight, twenty nine, thirty picks. I
think the Blazers have like two pick swaps and a
pick and there, Like that was brilliant because and you know,
Dame and Giannis are old. I guess Jannis will bring
back a pretty good haul, but I imagine a lot
that will be picks, and those will take a long
time to make. The Bucks have wins.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Can't you get wins and a player the way the
Thunder got SGA and picks?
Speaker 3 (17:10):
Yeah, well you kind of can't. But there is a
very real problem in the mere right now, which is
almost every single team needs to cut salary.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
There's only ok, why is that though?
Speaker 3 (17:21):
Just because of the second Apron blah blah blah.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
And do you think that that is because Adam Silver
got word from the owners we're sick of the super
team crap man, We're sick of it. It's superstars joining
forces and they're not doing that in my backyard. Screw them.
And now all of a sudden, yeah, the Celtics win
the title and they've got to tear it down almost instantly.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
Right, So there's this like pretty hardcore math where if
the TV deal is a certain size and the salary
cap is hard capped at a certain point, the owners
just cannot lose money. And so like they wanted a
hard cap and they couldn't quite get it, but so
they but they worked in years ago this like a
(18:03):
you know, second apron repeater tax blah blah. It all
coalesces into effectively a hard cap. It's only a crazy person.
Matti Shpiel is the only person who will like spend
like a drunken sailor now because the luxury tax is
just so much. I think I forget the number, but
something like ninety million he's gonna write to check for
to distribute to the other teams. And if you're over
the tax line. You don't receive that money, so there's
(18:25):
just so much pressure. And as it happens, everybody's been
spending drunken sailors. So now it's only the Nets have
significant cap room in the whole league, which means everybody
has like some player who has a big salary. He's
maybe an okay player who they would just love to
get rid of for nothing. Everybody has that. So suddenly
Yannis's fifty whatever million he makes is not easy to swallow.
(18:46):
There's nobody seven next year fifty seven, right, Like this
is a like there's no owner who's like, oh, that's
no problem, because it's gonna put them. It's gonna cost
them like a billion dollars in the multiple years of
just like not receiving luxury tax and and just paying
all these repeater tacks and all that stuff.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
So I think is it worth it, Henry? Sorry, Is
it worth it if you think you can win a
title with Giannis and reap all the benefits of a title? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (19:11):
Probably, I mean it depends on the owner. But like
I guess my point is that the SGA package isn't
quite so rich anymore because the world has changed, right,
So like You're not gonna get SGA and five first
round picks for Joannis, right, like like the thunder got
for Paul George, You'll get less because because everyone's a
little more worried about paying him back in the days
of this Paul George SGA swap, like everybody would want
(19:33):
to pay those players, right right, But now it's like
it's a little tight to squeeze him in. Like they're
like if they offered I mean, this might be blasphemy,
but I have a feeling there are a bunch of
teams you offered them, offered Giannis for free, they wouldn't
take him. Oh come on, because you literally like either
it's like just literally cap prohibited, they literally cannot take him,
(19:55):
or it's just the timing's wrong, right, Like Jannis is
gonna be pissed off playing with a rebuilding team. That's
why he's pissed off in Milwaukee Heat. But they're not good enough,
like to have somebody it can't shoot, He's gonna age badly,
Like it's it's he's.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Okay, So we're talking about like the Orlando Magic. Okay,
hey man, we could use a title, we could use relevancy.
I would love to be on TV on Christmas Day
opening night. Yeah, I'm willing to get in the Don't
you think there's at least half a dozen teams who
are clamored would would take that chance for Giannis?
Speaker 3 (20:32):
I mean, the Magic are interesting because they're like a
good athletic defensive team that he would fit in and
make their good defense.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
Even I don't have the shooting.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
Really, they don't like he can't solve that?
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Yeah, what about like not as sexy but like a
Chicago They have no big salaries on the books. The
problem is Jianna is ain't gonna win there, right would
he be pissed?
Speaker 3 (20:53):
He's a the team. So my true Hohop partner, David
Thorpe has thought about this more than anyone. To him,
the proper landing place for you, honest is Oklahoma City.
Oh stoping? Come on. They got infinite assets to trade
and they have shooters everywhere, and they play the super
lovely defense like they're gonna win everything for.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
A long Okay, but but hold on, hold on, I
haven't read mister Thorpe's piece, But what star am I
getting SGA in this deal? Obviously not thunder SGA like
Clipper SGA, what star am I getting? And how many picks?
Speaker 3 (21:27):
I mean they have fifteen picks to trade.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
Yeah, but again I don't want to be I don't
want to just be making picks all the time. I
need I need a player or two, like the way
the MAVs got Anthony Davis and a young Max Christy.
Now they got no picks, which is kind of embarrassing.
But I'll tell you right now, I don't want j
Dub because I gotta pay him.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
I mean, I guess I would say, like the thunder
are like the Chase Manhattan Bank, they have the most
of everything, and like or you want to make a
deal with like Bob's Bank, right, like this is the
big store of assets. Like I don't know exactly what
the combination would be. You honestly, you probably have to
include like some of those bigger salaries like Caruso. Yeah,
(22:10):
but I think you know you probably end up like
chet Holmgren, Hartenstein, Dort, something like that, and and then
a gazillion picks.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
G gets Janis. I would I would take chit as
a as a building block.
Speaker 3 (22:25):
I would too.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
I don't caruse so I guess I don't know.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
Oh he's so good.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
I love is good when he's surrounded by awesome guys
like the Lakers in here. How was he in Chicago?
Speaker 3 (22:36):
You know? I mean he was great, but they sucked.
That's just that's not his fault, you know.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
Yeah, but it feels like he's being pumped up a
little bit because he's surrounded, Like, hey man, you don't
have to do much. Just go out there and be
a pest, you know. And he was amazing defensively against Yo.
Can he be your third best player on a contender?
Speaker 3 (22:58):
I don't know. It depends the word best means, I guess,
but I feel like, you know, if you want to
have the best defense in the NBA, you want him, right.
You're so much better with him than without him, right,
He just in in the advanced metrics. He's literally the
best defender in the NBA right now.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
So outside of Okac, does anyone make sense for your honest?
Speaker 3 (23:21):
I mean, I don't. I think Houston will do it.
But I could see the argument for Houston, right they're
they I think they wouldn't. They wouldn't. How many games
did they win?
Speaker 2 (23:30):
These about fifty games?
Speaker 3 (23:32):
I mean the playoffs like two?
Speaker 2 (23:35):
Yeah, an offense was an issue.
Speaker 3 (23:37):
So like they have this they're they're the there's this
team that's allegedly like on the rise, they're coming now
and they're maybe not coming now. So to me, like
they might be worth checking it up a little bit, right.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Well no, no, wait, they won three because it went
to game seven and they guess it was a game seven.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
Yeah, yeah, So I.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
Would would you do Jalen Green, Shengon and you know
three number ones?
Speaker 3 (24:04):
I wouldn't.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
You would not wow? See, I guess the logic is, hey,
man Reed Shepherd, he's getting he's goett next. We don't
lose that much. Tarry Easton is cheap and very good.
Who's the other young oh Jabari Smith? They still have
who is ascending? The problem is I don't know who
they're who. The clear two is it might be a
men Thompson, Right, he's so good?
Speaker 3 (24:26):
Yeah, I I The Thunder have this other lesson, which
is just get better, just grow, you know so many
This is one of the most incredible dorky things I know.
So lou Dort was the fourth best defender in the
Advanced Stats last year on the Thunder. He did not change.
He stayed exactly where he was and now he's the
(24:46):
tenth best in the advanced stats because everybody else just
got better.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
That's what what metric is.
Speaker 3 (24:53):
That defensive EPM, So like dunks and threes. This guy
Taylor Starr made like think it's probably the best, like
one number status who's doing well? But yeah, he I
mean that was they also they brought in Cruso and Harnstein,
who are you know, also better? But all these like
Isaiah Joe and Cason Wallace, like they went from okay
(25:14):
defenders to really good defenders, which is why the Thunder
probably went a championship.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
Yeah, I do wonder and again I haven't. I just
went to dunks and threes. But I don't have a
lug in anyways, how much of that Henry is because hey,
these guys Keyson Wallace, Isaiah Joe, they're playing like twenty
twenty five minutes a game as opposed to thirty five
to forty in the playoffs like most of the other stars.
It's not that hard to be full on energy. We
(25:41):
had Dave mcmhaman on and he said an NBA player
told him the Thunder were the best college basketball team
in the NBA because they had like ten guys, all
young and all just running full tilt the whole time.
And I don't want to say the numbers are deceptive,
because the numbers are the numbers, but it's like they're
(26:01):
so deep that it makes them like the Knicks. Right,
we saw them We're down against the Pacers. We saw
the Lakers who had no bench against the Thunder just
totally collapse three times in the clutch.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
Thunder really aren't.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
Collapsing in the clutch because they got twelve guys and
everybody's fresh all the time. Is that Is that fair
as a counter or no?
Speaker 3 (26:21):
I mean that's the strategy, right, Teams aren't doing that?
What the fuck are you doing?
Speaker 2 (26:25):
Right? Likely, he's like big done.
Speaker 3 (26:27):
The game is gonna be played at the highest speed
in the history of the game. Like if you have
a thirty nine year old star and you're plan to
play in forty one minutes, you're going to lose great period, Right,
So you need to have Isaiah Joe, Right, this is
the strategy. What's your strategy? This is why tomp throw
got fired, right, Like, what's your strategy? Develop your eighth, ninth, tenth,
eleventh players? Like, if you're just gonna start playing game
(26:49):
three these commerce finals, What the hell is way too late? Right?
Like plan now for game one next year, right, Like
we need to have eleven guys, Like this is what
we're learning, Like you need to run really fast and
jump really high, Like that's what you're gonna need.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
And it hasn't always been that way, right because people
are like, oh, nobody in the NBA plays defense. Nobody,
you know, interesting.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
Little pest conference. He's like, he's like they have an
intensity measure in Cleveland. He's like an Indiana's way up here.
He's like the rest of the league is down here.
He's like, we're like top five and we're like here,
but Indiana is like off the charts because they're playing
Obi Toppen and they're playing these guys who like, they're
not playing them because they're super good. They're playing them
because they're gonna wear you out and it's super effective.
It's gonna come into the finals.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
So wait to say, how do you measure intensity? I
that's that's just the thing that's hard. I mean, I
guess like I wear a whoop. I don't you know
you have one of those things.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
I don't wear one, but I know what you're talking
about it.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
Yeah, and like it can say, hey man, you're going
super hard. Uh, you know, I played volleyball and like
a max out of like one seventy five, but basketball,
I'm up to one eighty five, one to ninety and
so I guess that means my intensity is higher. But
how are they they.
Speaker 3 (28:00):
This company's second spectrum. Second Spectrum has like cameras in
the ceiling of every NBA arena And I'm not sure
what the special sauce is for the Cleveland version, but
the raw material of it is, you know, you can
see how fast is Jalen Brunson. That's his burst of acceleration,
and you know how much is he cutting? And is
he hitting people? And like you know, you can kind
of they have some way they're tracking it, which is
(28:20):
like their workload. And I guess you can you know,
according to Kenny, it's not even close. You can see that,
you know, the Pacers are just going way harder than
everybody else, which is exactly They're two years into doing this.
They did this last year in the playoffs too, right,
and yeah, and it works.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
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 (28:46):
Zion Williamson, what do you do Henry.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
Not trade for him?
Speaker 2 (28:54):
Like they got to? I mean, obviously he's got a
lot of legal issues swirling. Now we'll see what happens there,
but there was already talk they could move off him.
I mean they're a bit of a mess with the
Dejanta Murray injury. CJ McCollums making a lot, Zion Like,
I don't know where these guys are gonna go. You
said everybody needs to shed salary, but like, yeah, easier
said than done. I mean Trey Murphy, Holy cow, he's
(29:15):
making twenty five mil next year and he's only the
fourth highest paid guy of the team.
Speaker 3 (29:19):
Yeah. Yeah, no, they're they're a mess. So I just
wrote a book called Ballistic, which is about injury prevention, right,
And there's this this slab in Santa Barbara where they
take people like Zion Wimpson and fix them with like
super intense biomechanical examination, and they'll get to like the
root cause of why design keep getting hurt, And let's
train that little oddity of movement rather than just catch
(29:41):
each thing as it breaks. I feel like there's hope
that he could discover what his upstream issue is that's
causing he obviously has some kind of funky movement, right,
He's not landing well, and you know most non content
injuries are caused by landing, you know, so maybe you know,
he could go there and they would save him. That
(30:04):
would be my best help, my best hope for him. Oh,
he's done a bunch of crazy training, right. There are
these pictures of him like at midnight in the summer
on the asphalt, like doing his training, and like that's
that worked when he was sixteen. It really did because
he was sixteen, right, And it doesn't work when you're
twenty six. So I would not I would you. It's
sort of like Ben Simmons to me, Like I thought
(30:25):
Ben Simmons was a super good player in phillyday. Would
you trade for him?
Speaker 2 (30:30):
Like?
Speaker 3 (30:31):
Is he okay? Can he run? Can he jump?
Speaker 2 (30:32):
You know, I don't think he nobody's touching him. Let
me go to the Knicks real quick. You saw the
numbers in the in the series against the Pacers with
Brunson and Towns. The Pacers found a hack. The Knicks
are very susceptible. So the Knicks started to split them up.
Things got a little better, but it was a little
too late. Do you need to move on from one
(30:54):
or the other?
Speaker 3 (30:56):
I thought they were good. I was willing bestpa Town,
to be honest, I thought that he just got ferocious
in a way that we haven't seen before. And I
was like, this is pretty effective. You know, he's not
the same guy he used to be. And I think
that pretty committed to Brunson now, not just because he's
been good, but because, like, this is a family thing.
You know, William Wesley de facto runs the Knicks, and
(31:18):
Rick Brunson was his first client dozens of years ago,
and they've been together forever. Right, There's no way they're
training on Brinton. I just don't see that happening. So
I think the moving on from Thibodeau thing is really
about can we just get eleven to twelve guys so
that those guys aren't so exhausted at the end and
cracking their knees on the floor and limping around and
(31:40):
looking so like.
Speaker 2 (31:41):
A I'm sure Thibodeau would counter with, well, wait a second, Henry,
We've got eleven guys. Leon Rose. We got a great roster.
Tibbs just didn't play him and then Tis would come
back as those guys can't really contribute. Tyler Kolek I
like him a lot. Is he ready, the Da da
or whatever his name is, the French kid? Is he ready?
And and you know Landry Shammitt and Delon right, if
(32:02):
that's banking me on winning the series, I'm cooked? You
know that. I think that's what he would.
Speaker 3 (32:06):
Respond with, Yeah, he would. But two things. One is
last year he didn't play Alec Burks for months and
then they had so many injuries they needed and then
he was good, Like well, now we know he could
have been better if you guys been building trust with
them for months leading up to this. That's the problem
is like Landry Shammitt was good actually in these playoffs,
but he just came out of he came out of
(32:28):
moth balls for Game three. Like Rick Carlisle has been
taking your Landry Shammitz or actually your Obie Topping and
making him good like all year long, right, Like you
got to like integrate them and build trusts and have
them so he knows who's gonna cut where. And like
Obie Top and hit the Big Three because he like
made eye contact with the inbounder and like slipped away
(32:48):
and like like you know, they they they've been doing this, right,
This is what they do for a living, is these
players together. And like Landry Shamitt, no one used to
playing with him on the knicks like he's been he
hasn't played right and I feel like this just too little,
too late from Thibodeaux and he doesn't really believe in them, right.
He was forced from going down oh two to haul
a couple of guys off the bench that he never
(33:09):
would have wanted to play, right. It wasn't even that much.
It was like after game four, I think I looked
it up, like you know those two guys sham It
and who else did you mention? I almost forget his name?
Speaker 2 (33:21):
Dylan did right?
Speaker 3 (33:22):
Yeah, Dylan, Right, They've played like twenty three minutes total each.
It's like whoop did damn? Do you know? Like it
was like it just didn't play that much. Mostly it
was Kat and and Jalen will save us and then
Dylan got so tired he had the head. But Andrew Nemhart, Yeah,
he was very frustrated.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
I like where you're coming from Henry. I just, first
of all, have you consulted for any NBA teams yet?
Speaker 3 (33:47):
Well? No, I've never been paid for that. But I
do get phone calls sometimes from coaches and stuff who
want to know about this kind of stuff.
Speaker 2 (33:53):
Yeah, and when you say some of this, and I'm
assuming they consider it dramatic sweeping suggestions, what's usually the response, like, Bro,
you're crazy or no.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
I think like Kenny Atkins, I really think it's worth
watching Kenny Atkinson's press conference after the Habs got kicked out,
and he was like, this is just the league we
live in now, Like we have to be able to
keep up with these pacers who are up here, and
we don't have a way to train that. We haven't
figured out how to train that hard. You can't train,
you can't simulate that game in practice because Rick Carlos
has had the Pacers practicing something that people haven't done
(34:27):
in basketball before, and so like, this is what you
got to figure out. This is your challenge now. If
you can't figured out, you're going to lose to them, right,
And so I assume the whole legal figured out, But
I don't think you're gonna figure it out with thirty
nine year old players.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
Yeah, damn, so that sounds bleak. I guess we could
wrap up with sorry, are you know? I know the
Lakers have an old guy in Lebron, but they have
a transcendent player in Luca.
Speaker 3 (34:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
Is there a world where they're just a player away
with a rim running big, a rim protector. I'm just
gonna nick Claxton whatever.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
As a Blazer fan, I think as you guys should
get DeAndre Aiden.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
Come. By the way, are you friends with that guy
at the Blazers who was at ESPN? I'm spacing on
his Tom Harristrow. Is he with the Blazers?
Speaker 3 (35:15):
Yeah, he's on the Blazer podcast now?
Speaker 2 (35:17):
Yeah? No, no, I'm at the Brazer front office.
Speaker 3 (35:20):
Oh yeah, I know I was talking about.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
He's the international.
Speaker 3 (35:22):
Scout guy, Mike Schmitz Schmidtz Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I
know that guy. I've known that guy for a long time. Yep.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
So I don't know what they're doing. I look at
Portland and like they seem to be, like you said,
all over the place. The eight and move was just goofy.
They haven't moved off Jeremy Grant. It doesn't seem like
they have a plan in place for the Shaden Sharp,
Scoot Henderson and Ferny Simon's thing. Do you know what's
happening in Portland?
Speaker 3 (35:49):
You know, I this will be yet another surprise. I
think they're doing a great job. Yeah, they happen. So
nobody wanted their Jeremy Green, right, nobody wanted their Anthony
Simons at the price they wanted. But as I mentioned,
the whole league wants to reduce salary and those are
all becoming expiring contracts now, so they're going their value
(36:11):
will go up, not down, right, So so they you know, yeah,
I think they thought they were going to get something
great for them a year ago and they didn't, so
swinging a miss. But but now like there, Jeremy Grant
is still has years, Jeremy S.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
Grant still has but Aighton's expiring next season, Simons is expiring,
Robert Williams, Matthias Thibel, he has a player option. So
they're going to be moving losing some dudes. But here's
my thing, So I get it, nobody wanted your dude.
So essentially, did you hunt on a full year Henry No?
Speaker 3 (36:43):
Because I okay, here's the part that drives me crazy.
Is like even Blazer fans aren't thinking about this. But
I'm telling you as someone who runs a business with
the guy who invented private player development coaching and basketball,
David Thorpe. Like players improving player development is very rare
in the NBA, Like players don't take big leaps. But
but the Blazers are getting better Chauncy Beilts. I was
(37:05):
not a fan when that hired him. I thought the
sexual assault thing was very poorly handled. But the fact is,
go look year over year, those Blazers, those young Blazers
have gotten way better. The second half of the year,
they were top five defense. Like I actually think that
they're they're copying this Pacers model, Like they're gonna have
this crazy Timani Kamara Denny of DIA, like matis stible.
(37:27):
This a crazy high energy defense they have going is
is gonna be a problem for the league. And we'll
see if Shade and Shop develops, We'll see who they
get with the eleventh pick, Like, we'll see how the
how the offense goes. But I like the improvement they've
already done is a very rare jump that like like
like the like how long has Charlotte not done that?
You know what I mean, like a long time.
Speaker 2 (37:48):
So okay, first of all, I think some people just
heard the names you said and were like, come on,
those aren't real players, are they. I guess nobody pays
attention to the Blazers, But I will ask this, how
much of it is Camara and company kind of showing
well when none of the games mattered. They were playing
irrelevant games basically from the All Star break on, and
(38:11):
one could even argue, well, I don't know, were they tanking?
Speaker 3 (38:14):
Would you say they actually didn't? So at the trade deadline,
Joe Cronin said that he didn't. They were on a
winning streak and they had they were in the mix
for the play in, and he said he didn't want
to mess up the team because they want to see
if they could make the plan and they fell a
little short. But I don't think they were. You know,
(38:35):
I actually think they're now, Like I don't think it's
time for them to trade for a big name player,
but I think it's they have enough, Like you kind
of know who's going to be there on their next
good right, there are some keepers in the mix.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
Now, Okay, is there a world where the Bucks say, bro,
we want to get off contracts. We want to bottom
out s Portland, give us your expirings. Eighton Simons, toss
in I don't know, Scoot or Sharp and then a
draft pick and then we'll give you honest and we'll
(39:08):
just be able to clean up our books that way,
as opposed to build something. We'd rather clean up our
books that we're not paying a luxury tax as opposed
to trying to contend. Is that like a pipe dream.
Speaker 3 (39:17):
Well, there's a particular reason why the Bucks would call
that team, which is they Bucks who are going to
be bad soon want their picks back right. So the
Blazers are the team that has their picks right. So
they're one of the teams. Other teams have Bucks picks too,
traded away everything you can trade, so they might. But
it just it seems like such a schedule mismatch. Right,
(39:39):
you'd end up with you know, Giannis and the kids,
and Gianness is not gonna like that. Yeah, he seems
like close. It'd be so frustrating for everybody.
Speaker 2 (39:47):
I kind of want to ask about Toronto, but I
just feel like that's total nonsense.
Speaker 3 (39:52):
I don't really know what they're doing. I don't really
get it. Like, besides smart, I'm sure he knows more
than I do, but it seems like a little yeah
trade away scal was was bold and worked out really
well for Indiana. You know, they just they didn't get
they got, like Jonathan Magbo was one of those draft picks.
He seems like, maybe it'll be good, but they just
(40:12):
didn't get much they got. You know, they're a very
middling team. Now.
Speaker 2 (40:19):
Yeah, there's a lot of that in the league. All right.
Henry Abbott true who great stuff. The name of the
book he wrote was Ballistic.
Speaker 3 (40:25):
Ballistic came out May sixth.
Speaker 2 (40:27):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (40:27):
Congrats man, Yeah, change look at me.
Speaker 2 (40:31):
Just changed Zion's life, change science life.
Speaker 3 (40:34):
There's a great that. One of my favorite little like
blurb on the book is from Pablo Tory and it says,
if you have hips by this book.
Speaker 2 (40:43):
Pablo Torri he's that's that's a guy crushing Belichick these days.
Speaker 3 (40:47):
Yeah, he's mixing it up out there. Yeah, he's like,
you know, yeah doing that.
Speaker 2 (40:51):
Yeah, all right, buddy, Thanks a lot, Henry.
Speaker 3 (40:53):
Thanks to Jason
This is straight Fire with Jason McIntyre.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What is a fire, Fayan, It's me Jason McIntyre, Straight
Bowyer for Thursday, June the fifth, It's officially NBA Finals Day.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Game one.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Feels like it's been forever since the East and West
Conference finals ended mercifully can I say, well, specifically in
the West. But we get the finals tonight live from Okay.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
See.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
It's gonna be a scene obviously, And you know it's funny.
We had this Greek guest lined up, Henry Abbott from
True who he used to be a GUESPN. He's done
a lot of stuff. He is super interesting dude, and
I was like, oh, we can maybe ask him some
final stuff and we just got talking and as you'll hear,
we pretty quickly just moved away from the finals and
got into the offseason. It's some interesting stuff. I don't know.
(00:59):
Like again, I don't want to take any more heat.
I'm just not geeked for the Finals. I have zero
dollars wagered so far. The bets that I have circled
Indye to win the series four to two is plus
ten forty. That could be a nice littleay day. I
can't imagine that India would win Game seven. So if
(01:19):
you're gonna pick India to win, they're not gonna win
in four. Obviously. I don't see them winning in five.
If they're gonna win in anything, it would be six.
I think it's a long shot. And plus ten forty
is the long shot you did just for the f
of it. I had someone it doesn't matter which team
to break the Cavs record of fifty points in a quarter.
(01:41):
I don't know that there's gonna be a lot of
stops here on either side. It's the two of the
faster teams in the league, tempo pace, why not plus
twenty nine hundred? Again, these are long shots. Some pizza
money in June, guys, And I am circling three pointers
because Okac is okay cutting off the lane, not letting
(02:02):
Haliburton get in the lane, but giving up corner threes. Well,
Jade McDaniel's spotty on those, Michael Porter was injured, and
Denver couldn't hit those. And I just wonder if Indiana,
which is shooting better from three than any other team
in the NBA, if siak I'm gonna go nuclear, Couldnee
Smith hit a few?
Speaker 3 (02:24):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
About Obi Toppin, but you just you know nemhard. They
got four starters hitting over forty percent for three in
the playoffs, like Miles Turner could go postal. So I'm
gonna be circling three pointers and just a few long shots. Ultimately,
I've said this all week. It feels like thunder and
four or Pacers pull a shocking upset. I think if
(02:46):
you're looking for the content space, obviously rooting Pacers and
then Okaz Panics. Do they get Yannis? Do they get
Kevin Durant, that that's the obvious rooting interest. So without
further ado, let's get to our guests. Henry Abbot, mister
true hoop.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
You know a guy Jason likes to think he knows
everything when it comes to sports.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
I know what sports fans want, but for.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
Everything he doesn't. He knows a guy who does.
Speaker 3 (03:14):
Let's just say I know a guy who knows the
guy who knows another guy.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
All right, let's welcome into straight fire. Guy we haven't
talked to in a minute, but he's got some interesting
insight on the NBA finals. Henry Abbott, true hoop legend.
He's been everywhere in sports and media. Henry how you doing,
my man.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
I'm great, great, what's going on over there?
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Yeah, I can't complain, although it seems like I'm complaining
about no super team in the NBA finals. We're gonna
have our seventh champion in the last seven years. I
don't know, you know, you look at the league from
a big picture in this whole, like, hey, we want
the small markets to keep their guys. We want the
big market spenders to pay the second a print. I
(03:57):
just don't know if this is the best strategy, Henry.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
I want to say this respectfully, like I don't care
about any of that. I want the teams to be
well run, and like I think most teams aren't well run,
and it's been pissed me off for my whole career,
like they just do so many like the Suns right
now are a laughing stock. I mean, it's so amateur
hour over there, and they have all this money and
they're spending it on the dumbest things. And to me, like,
(04:22):
I like these two teams. I don't care what size
market they're in, but they are well built. They're the
model franchises. This is what your local team can emulate.
You're not gonna get Lebron and Luca and your team. Sorry, right,
Like what you can do is you can grind away
and get draft picks and get aaron Ne Smith and
you can get injur andam Hart and you can develop
them and you know, Rick Carlisle has a very real
(04:44):
and defined system we're referring to as blurball. Kennye Atkinson
went off about it after the Casure Limited, like, there's
a reason that the nixt loss is because they wore the
hell out of those stars with a system of they
aren't even good players like Obie Toppins, not great, but
he runs around.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
Really he's solid.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
Yeah, he's solid, and you know, but the plus minus
is bad on him. Right. The Knicks have a better roster,
but they got out coached because they got those you know,
Carl Anthony Towns and Jalleen Munson running all over the place.
There's metrics on this, and they were crap players at
the end of the every Knicks and qunch Time were
crap there. They turned it over as many times and
I had looked up before the last game, but four
(05:22):
games and they had more turnovers than baskets in crunch time.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
Wow, And it felt like they were the opposite against Boston,
right coming back from down twenty.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
Yeah, everyone thinks this like clutch thing is like part
of your character. No, like if you're just exhausted, there's
data going way back, and if you're exhausted, you're just
not good.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Yeah. I guess it's less about you know, small market.
I should I should refrace. I don't care like that
they teamed up in Cleveland. I just want the stars together,
you know, I don't know if Miami's a bigger small market.
I just I like it when stars are playing together.
Kevin Durant became and it seems like for some reason Henry.
(05:59):
Anytime somebody who plays in one market and then leaves
via free agency or demands a trade, he's instantly a villain.
Anthony Davis was vilified for going to the Lakers. They
won a title. That team was fun, you know, kd
Okay see the Golden State, lebron To the Heat Forms,
the Heats like those were the teams I was really
ramped up about. Like, I don't know, my wife doesn't
(06:20):
have plans for us for these finals on Thursday, but
I can see myself easily backing out on watching Game
four or whatever because we got we got a dinner
on the books. You know that's not happening if it's
KD vers Lebron, Oh, whoa, whoa, I'm not missing out
on that, you know, I think it.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
Maybe we're also just in a much needed generational shift, right,
like those guys are old, Like Katie's never going to
lead a title team again, Lebron's never going to tell
team again, Steph's never going to tell this is all over.
It's over. We got to say goodbye. There's hardly any
I think I looked it up at some ridiculous number,
like like six percent of the NBA. Don't quote me
(06:58):
on this. There's a true post where I went the numbers,
but I think sixer sentday is thirty one or older.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
And that's it.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
One one point five percent of the NBA is good
and over thirty one Like it's those are we just
named them all practically right, like like your body can't
take this at that age. Like the players who are
gonna win the championships are always like you know, they're
gonna lead the team are almost always gonna be in
their twenties. Like this whole who's gonna get k it
doesn't matter, like all the areness, I don't even think
(07:26):
it matters, like like like because not only are they
on in the downslope with their career and they all
those guys are, but they also come with Supermax contracts,
which just that's why the Sun suck. It's because they
have to pay all these dudes, and like, like the
younger guys can't make that much money, so it's like
you're much better off having you know, Tyre's Halliburton because
he can't make as much as Lebron right, and.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
He's like, oh, that's the take right there. I had
not heard that angle. So what are you saying, Like
the market for KD is what exactly?
Speaker 3 (07:56):
Oh, some I'm going all over pay him because he's KD, right,
But like, but it's just I don't think you can
trade for a super Max player and have that player
lead you to a championship because super Max players are
by definition old. You can't get there until you're basically
it depends on when you hold you over when you're drafted.
But like you're you're around thirty and players speak at
like twenty six, twenty seven, and so you know, their
(08:18):
salaries just fly off the handle.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Like you don't want Damian Lillard, like you know what
I mean.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Like it's like it's but everybody, all we do all
summer is obsessed over these players who've already ascended. But
it's like, oh, you should have been getting tires Haliburt
and Andrew Nemhar. That's how you get to the finals, right,
Like we're all focused on the wrong things.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Right, Like it was like chasing Paul George is a
fools errands be worse?
Speaker 3 (08:40):
Yeah, yeah, could not be a worse idea as far
as I'm concerned.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Like you're too, so if you were, you know, you
said teams are run poorly. If you're advising the Houston
Rockets and their their staff, is that we go Can
we get Yannest without giving up Aman Toompson? Can we
please do it? You would say, let's pump the rights
so slowly.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
That's an interesting one right there. That's a great question.
I look, maybe people who know more about me and
the basketball would feel very confident that, like you know,
like when I give up, I don't know, they have
to give up a lot because it's the salary is
so big just to make the trade work. But it's
gonna be like Steven Adams and Jalen Green. I don't know,
I don't know, like but shng Gooon too, maybe yeah, probably, Yeah,
(09:23):
that's a hard one.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
But is that too much If you make that trade.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
And you now think that just we're gonna win, we're
the favorites this year, then all right, I'm never gonna
be opposed to that trade. But I do think it's like,
you know, Jannis has had one significant injury, which was
a year and a bit ago, right, yeah, that's right.
The next few years we'll have more like it's just
how life goes, right, and so what if you trade
(09:48):
all that and then he's out for a year or
six months or two months like or the playoffs like
I I would for me, I would be very stingy
with trading Shengoon. I would trade Jaaling Green because I
thin he's I'm not sure he's gonna like I'm sure
he's gonna blossom quite the way you want to. He might,
but you know, they don't want better than I do.
But he's a little kookie with the ball sometimes, you know,
he's a little.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
So do you think the Warriors made a mistake trading
for older Jimmy Butler.
Speaker 3 (10:14):
Well, no, because they were. Okay, here's where I'm gonna
really freak people out. The move I think probably, Well,
do you let me ask you this, do you think
they're gonna win a championship?
Speaker 2 (10:28):
Well, if Kirby doesn't go down, I think they were
favored over the Timberwolves. And could they have beaten Oksey?
I don't know. I didn't you know, map that one out.
I'm of the belief that Okasey is not as great
as all of the experts think. So I would have
loved I mean, listen, you can laugh, but I would
have loved to have seen the Lakers against the Thunder.
(10:49):
And I'd say that because the Lakers obviously killed him
late in the season, and then they played again and
everybody's like, oh, okay, so he punted that first game
and then the Lakers were beating them again before Luca
was kind of ejected on a dumb and I'm just like,
I trust Luca. I think he's I mean, I still
think he It's Luca, Jannis and Jokis best players in
the league. So I think Korean and Butler could have
(11:11):
possibly given him around. Do you do you again?
Speaker 3 (11:15):
I think I guess I think the Warriors were lively,
had lively chances in any series they might face, but
I felt like they're I mean, let me just make
up some math like they're forty percent to win against
every team left, but like means they're like not like
they're not gonna win a championship, right, So to me,
(11:37):
like I want to win a championship. So I'm looking
at that as like, Okay, our best available player to
pair with Steph gives us, like, I don't know, a
four percent chance, a five percent chance of winning a
title this year or ever, and so I would trade
Steph and just do the whole thing, do the whole
thunder rebuild. But but that's not if you just just
(11:58):
don't want realistic I mean if.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
No, no, that's interesting because if I were Steph, I
would have I'd said, on here, I would have demanded
a trade. But you can you imagine the reaction if
you went into the owner and Steve Current said I
think we need to trade Steph and start over. What
do you think the pushback would be.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
I just think we get so precious in sports. It's like, oh,
it will be fine, Like everyone's gonna be fine, Like
business may be fine, but they're gonna wind him down,
you know, like the Kobe Lakers, Right, They're gonna have
this like kind of painful wind down, but it's to
be hard to say goodbye, and it's just gonna be
a bad team for a while, right, Like is that
so great? Like is there something wonderful victory in that?
Speaker 2 (12:40):
Well? I don't uh. Are they building a new arena
or this is an arena and it's pretty expensive? So
like you know, if all of a sudden the Lower
Bowl was half full because you got an eighteen win
team and your biggest draw is like pod Zemski or
something that's a tough sell, especially in Golden State. Now,
is that an easier sell? Is? Okay? See or Indiana maybe?
Speaker 3 (13:03):
But dude, but there's a we're getting attached to the name,
Like Steph Curry made his name being like twenty seven
and being an absolute flamethrower. But when he's he's thirty
seven now and we're talking about the years he's thirty
eight and thirty nine and forty and forty one, like
Lower Bowl Like what he's going to suck? Like that's
(13:26):
just math? Right, So do you want him for those
years at his super max price where your team will
suck or do you not want him for those years,
Like that's up to you. But right now, you can
trade him for the sun, the moon and the stars,
right and then yeah, you'll have your two years of
rebuilding or whatever. But then you're gonna have all the
players to get for Steph Curry or you can have
him attire on your watch and then you get nothing, okay, nothing.
Speaker 2 (13:47):
So it's interesting. I'm looking at on Hoop type the salaries.
Curry has two more years at fifty nine and sixty two,
Butler after this has two more. Draymond has two more,
So it looks like they are lining everything up for
twenty seven to be the swan song for Curry and
Butler and then they reboot. But you're saying, I want
to beat everybody to the punch and trade him before
(14:10):
it gets too late, and then I'm not getting a
haul of picks and an SGA type player or whatever.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
I mean, this is me being really cold and calculated.
Like if you decide as a franchise that you just
wanted keep them there his whole career, like I respect it,
like do it. That's great, but just know that it's
coming at the cost of Like, you guys are gonna
have five years of getting out of the woods after that,
like book it like your arena is gonna be empty
after his retirement. Like, it's just gonna be really painful.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
Right.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
The only way Lakers got out because Lebron decided to come, right,
But they probably won't have that, right, You're just it's
going to be super painful to rebuild without the assets
of trading away the Superstar war he still has.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Yeah, that's a good point because remember after Kobe, like
you said, they were in the wilderness for I mean,
it was like brandon Ingram D'Angelo Russell. They had all
those picks, Julius Randall, Lonzo Ball, they it was a disaster. Yeah,
and then Lebron comes and saves them. So are we
getting out of that era where the veteran can come
and save the day?
Speaker 3 (15:05):
I mean, if a really good player or like the
best player ever in the case of Lebron, wants to
come to your team, like, you're always gonna be fine.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Okay, let me give you on for Curry.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
How's this?
Speaker 2 (15:13):
So Curry is went to Davidson obviously, and Charlotte has
been a tire fire for I don't know, since Alonzo
Warner Johnson, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
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 (15:35):
You just said it's not smart to get a guy
like Curry at this age, you know, but if you're Charlotte,
you're now relevant, You're on TV, You're sold out every day. Yeah,
and you've got you you ship LaMelo Ball out of town,
big f a big deal. You've got Curry, Brandon Miller
and whatever else. Is that something that becomes attractive to
(15:56):
a small market team.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
Yeah, I think it makes sense, right, I mean, I
mean that's to the Charlotte to decide. But like I
one hundred percent, you know, NBA billionaires kind of act
like they're running a circus, right, and they just want
like the hoop law and the little dogs jumping through
the hoops and all stuff, and like Steph Curry counts,
you know, like for that. It's like, this is this
league that was started by people who like Build Russell
was traded for the Ice Capades, right, like you know,
(16:20):
like yeah, they would give something up for Steph Curry
and then the Warriors would be you know, they have
all these picks and Brandon Miller and Lonzo Ball whatever
and uh, pretty much better off for sure, one hundred percent.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
Can you fix the Bucks for me? And like a
tight or two.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
I think they're screwed. I'm totally honest, Like, there's this
is about as bad a situation. I mean, I'll become
a Blazers fan and we have those Bucks picks and
that's like that's.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
Gold, right this.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
This you know, twenty eight, twenty nine, thirty picks. I
think the Blazers have like two pick swaps and a
pick and there, Like that was brilliant because and you know,
Dame and Giannis are old. I guess Jannis will bring
back a pretty good haul, but I imagine a lot
that will be picks, and those will take a long
time to make. The Bucks have wins.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Can't you get wins and a player the way the
Thunder got SGA and picks?
Speaker 3 (17:10):
Yeah, well you kind of can't. But there is a
very real problem in the mere right now, which is
almost every single team needs to cut salary.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
There's only ok, why is that though?
Speaker 3 (17:21):
Just because of the second Apron blah blah blah.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
And do you think that that is because Adam Silver
got word from the owners we're sick of the super
team crap man, We're sick of it. It's superstars joining
forces and they're not doing that in my backyard. Screw them.
And now all of a sudden, yeah, the Celtics win
the title and they've got to tear it down almost instantly.
Speaker 3 (17:42):
Right, So there's this like pretty hardcore math where if
the TV deal is a certain size and the salary
cap is hard capped at a certain point, the owners
just cannot lose money. And so like they wanted a
hard cap and they couldn't quite get it, but so
they but they worked in years ago this like a
(18:03):
you know, second apron repeater tax blah blah. It all
coalesces into effectively a hard cap. It's only a crazy person.
Matti Shpiel is the only person who will like spend
like a drunken sailor now because the luxury tax is
just so much. I think I forget the number, but
something like ninety million he's gonna write to check for
to distribute to the other teams. And if you're over
the tax line. You don't receive that money, so there's
(18:25):
just so much pressure. And as it happens, everybody's been
spending drunken sailors. So now it's only the Nets have
significant cap room in the whole league, which means everybody
has like some player who has a big salary. He's
maybe an okay player who they would just love to
get rid of for nothing. Everybody has that. So suddenly
Yannis's fifty whatever million he makes is not easy to swallow.
(18:46):
There's nobody seven next year fifty seven, right, Like this
is a like there's no owner who's like, oh, that's
no problem, because it's gonna put them. It's gonna cost
them like a billion dollars in the multiple years of
just like not receiving luxury tax and and just paying
all these repeater tacks and all that stuff.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
So I think is it worth it, Henry? Sorry, Is
it worth it if you think you can win a
title with Giannis and reap all the benefits of a title? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (19:11):
Probably, I mean it depends on the owner. But like
I guess my point is that the SGA package isn't
quite so rich anymore because the world has changed, right,
So like You're not gonna get SGA and five first
round picks for Joannis, right, like like the thunder got
for Paul George, You'll get less because because everyone's a
little more worried about paying him back in the days
of this Paul George SGA swap, like everybody would want
(19:33):
to pay those players, right right, But now it's like
it's a little tight to squeeze him in. Like they're
like if they offered I mean, this might be blasphemy,
but I have a feeling there are a bunch of
teams you offered them, offered Giannis for free, they wouldn't
take him. Oh come on, because you literally like either
it's like just literally cap prohibited, they literally cannot take him,
(19:55):
or it's just the timing's wrong, right, Like Jannis is
gonna be pissed off playing with a rebuilding team. That's
why he's pissed off in Milwaukee Heat. But they're not good enough,
like to have somebody it can't shoot, He's gonna age badly,
Like it's it's he's.
Speaker 2 (20:11):
Okay, So we're talking about like the Orlando Magic. Okay,
hey man, we could use a title, we could use relevancy.
I would love to be on TV on Christmas Day
opening night. Yeah, I'm willing to get in the Don't
you think there's at least half a dozen teams who
are clamored would would take that chance for Giannis?
Speaker 3 (20:32):
I mean, the Magic are interesting because they're like a
good athletic defensive team that he would fit in and
make their good defense.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
Even I don't have the shooting.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
Really, they don't like he can't solve that?
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Yeah, what about like not as sexy but like a
Chicago They have no big salaries on the books. The
problem is Jianna is ain't gonna win there, right would
he be pissed?
Speaker 3 (20:53):
He's a the team. So my true Hohop partner, David
Thorpe has thought about this more than anyone. To him,
the proper landing place for you, honest is Oklahoma City.
Oh stoping? Come on. They got infinite assets to trade
and they have shooters everywhere, and they play the super
lovely defense like they're gonna win everything for.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
A long Okay, but but hold on, hold on, I
haven't read mister Thorpe's piece, But what star am I
getting SGA in this deal? Obviously not thunder SGA like
Clipper SGA, what star am I getting? And how many picks?
Speaker 3 (21:27):
I mean they have fifteen picks to trade.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
Yeah, but again I don't want to be I don't
want to just be making picks all the time. I
need I need a player or two, like the way
the MAVs got Anthony Davis and a young Max Christy.
Now they got no picks, which is kind of embarrassing.
But I'll tell you right now, I don't want j
Dub because I gotta pay him.
Speaker 3 (21:49):
I mean, I guess I would say, like the thunder
are like the Chase Manhattan Bank, they have the most
of everything, and like or you want to make a
deal with like Bob's Bank, right, like this is the
big store of assets. Like I don't know exactly what
the combination would be. You honestly, you probably have to
include like some of those bigger salaries like Caruso. Yeah,
(22:10):
but I think you know you probably end up like
chet Holmgren, Hartenstein, Dort, something like that, and and then
a gazillion picks.
Speaker 2 (22:19):
G gets Janis. I would I would take chit as
a as a building block.
Speaker 3 (22:25):
I would too.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
I don't caruse so I guess I don't know.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
Oh he's so good.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
I love is good when he's surrounded by awesome guys
like the Lakers in here. How was he in Chicago?
Speaker 3 (22:36):
You know? I mean he was great, but they sucked.
That's just that's not his fault, you know.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
Yeah, but it feels like he's being pumped up a
little bit because he's surrounded, Like, hey man, you don't
have to do much. Just go out there and be
a pest, you know. And he was amazing defensively against Yo.
Can he be your third best player on a contender?
Speaker 3 (22:58):
I don't know. It depends the word best means, I guess,
but I feel like, you know, if you want to
have the best defense in the NBA, you want him, right.
You're so much better with him than without him, right,
He just in in the advanced metrics. He's literally the
best defender in the NBA right now.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
So outside of Okac, does anyone make sense for your honest?
Speaker 3 (23:21):
I mean, I don't. I think Houston will do it.
But I could see the argument for Houston, right they're
they I think they wouldn't. They wouldn't. How many games
did they win?
Speaker 2 (23:30):
These about fifty games?
Speaker 3 (23:32):
I mean the playoffs like two?
Speaker 2 (23:35):
Yeah, an offense was an issue.
Speaker 3 (23:37):
So like they have this they're they're the there's this
team that's allegedly like on the rise, they're coming now
and they're maybe not coming now. So to me, like
they might be worth checking it up a little bit, right.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
Well no, no, wait, they won three because it went
to game seven and they guess it was a game seven.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
Yeah, yeah, So I.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
Would would you do Jalen Green, Shengon and you know
three number ones?
Speaker 3 (24:04):
I wouldn't.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
You would not wow? See, I guess the logic is, hey,
man Reed Shepherd, he's getting he's goett next. We don't
lose that much. Tarry Easton is cheap and very good.
Who's the other young oh Jabari Smith? They still have
who is ascending? The problem is I don't know who
they're who. The clear two is it might be a
men Thompson, Right, he's so good?
Speaker 3 (24:26):
Yeah, I I The Thunder have this other lesson, which
is just get better, just grow, you know so many
This is one of the most incredible dorky things I know.
So lou Dort was the fourth best defender in the
Advanced Stats last year on the Thunder. He did not change.
He stayed exactly where he was and now he's the
(24:46):
tenth best in the advanced stats because everybody else just
got better.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
That's what what metric is.
Speaker 3 (24:53):
That defensive EPM, So like dunks and threes. This guy
Taylor Starr made like think it's probably the best, like
one number status who's doing well? But yeah, he I
mean that was they also they brought in Cruso and Harnstein,
who are you know, also better? But all these like
Isaiah Joe and Cason Wallace, like they went from okay
(25:14):
defenders to really good defenders, which is why the Thunder
probably went a championship.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
Yeah, I do wonder and again I haven't. I just
went to dunks and threes. But I don't have a
lug in anyways, how much of that Henry is because hey,
these guys Keyson Wallace, Isaiah Joe, they're playing like twenty
twenty five minutes a game as opposed to thirty five
to forty in the playoffs like most of the other stars.
It's not that hard to be full on energy. We
(25:41):
had Dave mcmhaman on and he said an NBA player
told him the Thunder were the best college basketball team
in the NBA because they had like ten guys, all
young and all just running full tilt the whole time.
And I don't want to say the numbers are deceptive,
because the numbers are the numbers, but it's like they're
(26:01):
so deep that it makes them like the Knicks. Right,
we saw them We're down against the Pacers. We saw
the Lakers who had no bench against the Thunder just
totally collapse three times in the clutch.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
Thunder really aren't.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
Collapsing in the clutch because they got twelve guys and
everybody's fresh all the time. Is that Is that fair
as a counter or no?
Speaker 3 (26:21):
I mean that's the strategy, right, Teams aren't doing that?
What the fuck are you doing?
Speaker 2 (26:25):
Right? Likely, he's like big done.
Speaker 3 (26:27):
The game is gonna be played at the highest speed
in the history of the game. Like if you have
a thirty nine year old star and you're plan to
play in forty one minutes, you're going to lose great period, Right,
So you need to have Isaiah Joe, Right, this is
the strategy. What's your strategy? This is why tomp throw
got fired, right, Like, what's your strategy? Develop your eighth, ninth, tenth,
eleventh players? Like, if you're just gonna start playing game
(26:49):
three these commerce finals, What the hell is way too late? Right?
Like plan now for game one next year, right, Like
we need to have eleven guys, Like this is what
we're learning, Like you need to run really fast and
jump really high, Like that's what you're gonna need.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
And it hasn't always been that way, right because people
are like, oh, nobody in the NBA plays defense. Nobody,
you know, interesting.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
Little pest conference. He's like, he's like they have an
intensity measure in Cleveland. He's like an Indiana's way up here.
He's like the rest of the league is down here.
He's like, we're like top five and we're like here,
but Indiana is like off the charts because they're playing
Obi Toppen and they're playing these guys who like, they're
not playing them because they're super good. They're playing them
because they're gonna wear you out and it's super effective.
It's gonna come into the finals.
Speaker 2 (27:34):
So wait to say, how do you measure intensity? I
that's that's just the thing that's hard. I mean, I
guess like I wear a whoop. I don't you know
you have one of those things.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
I don't wear one, but I know what you're talking
about it.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
Yeah, and like it can say, hey man, you're going
super hard. Uh, you know, I played volleyball and like
a max out of like one seventy five, but basketball,
I'm up to one eighty five, one to ninety and
so I guess that means my intensity is higher. But
how are they they.
Speaker 3 (28:00):
This company's second spectrum. Second Spectrum has like cameras in
the ceiling of every NBA arena And I'm not sure
what the special sauce is for the Cleveland version, but
the raw material of it is, you know, you can
see how fast is Jalen Brunson. That's his burst of acceleration,
and you know how much is he cutting? And is
he hitting people? And like you know, you can kind
of they have some way they're tracking it, which is
(28:20):
like their workload. And I guess you can you know,
according to Kenny, it's not even close. You can see that,
you know, the Pacers are just going way harder than
everybody else, which is exactly They're two years into doing this.
They did this last year in the playoffs too, right,
and yeah, and it works.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
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dot com and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 2 (28:46):
Zion Williamson, what do you do Henry.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
Not trade for him?
Speaker 2 (28:54):
Like they got to? I mean, obviously he's got a
lot of legal issues swirling. Now we'll see what happens there,
but there was already talk they could move off him.
I mean they're a bit of a mess with the
Dejanta Murray injury. CJ McCollums making a lot, Zion Like,
I don't know where these guys are gonna go. You
said everybody needs to shed salary, but like, yeah, easier
said than done. I mean Trey Murphy, Holy cow, he's
(29:15):
making twenty five mil next year and he's only the
fourth highest paid guy of the team.
Speaker 3 (29:19):
Yeah. Yeah, no, they're they're a mess. So I just
wrote a book called Ballistic, which is about injury prevention, right,
And there's this this slab in Santa Barbara where they
take people like Zion Wimpson and fix them with like
super intense biomechanical examination, and they'll get to like the
root cause of why design keep getting hurt, And let's
train that little oddity of movement rather than just catch
(29:41):
each thing as it breaks. I feel like there's hope
that he could discover what his upstream issue is that's
causing he obviously has some kind of funky movement, right,
He's not landing well, and you know most non content
injuries are caused by landing, you know, so maybe you know,
he could go there and they would save him. That
(30:04):
would be my best help, my best hope for him. Oh,
he's done a bunch of crazy training, right. There are
these pictures of him like at midnight in the summer
on the asphalt, like doing his training, and like that's
that worked when he was sixteen. It really did because
he was sixteen, right, And it doesn't work when you're
twenty six. So I would not I would you. It's
sort of like Ben Simmons to me, Like I thought
(30:25):
Ben Simmons was a super good player in phillyday. Would
you trade for him?
Speaker 2 (30:30):
Like?
Speaker 3 (30:31):
Is he okay? Can he run? Can he jump?
Speaker 2 (30:32):
You know, I don't think he nobody's touching him. Let
me go to the Knicks real quick. You saw the
numbers in the in the series against the Pacers with
Brunson and Towns. The Pacers found a hack. The Knicks
are very susceptible. So the Knicks started to split them up.
Things got a little better, but it was a little
too late. Do you need to move on from one
(30:54):
or the other?
Speaker 3 (30:56):
I thought they were good. I was willing bestpa Town,
to be honest, I thought that he just got ferocious
in a way that we haven't seen before. And I
was like, this is pretty effective. You know, he's not
the same guy he used to be. And I think
that pretty committed to Brunson now, not just because he's
been good, but because, like, this is a family thing.
You know, William Wesley de facto runs the Knicks, and
(31:18):
Rick Brunson was his first client dozens of years ago,
and they've been together forever. Right, There's no way they're
training on Brinton. I just don't see that happening. So
I think the moving on from Thibodeau thing is really
about can we just get eleven to twelve guys so
that those guys aren't so exhausted at the end and
cracking their knees on the floor and limping around and
(31:40):
looking so like.
Speaker 2 (31:41):
A I'm sure Thibodeau would counter with, well, wait a second, Henry,
We've got eleven guys. Leon Rose. We got a great roster.
Tibbs just didn't play him and then Tis would come
back as those guys can't really contribute. Tyler Kolek I
like him a lot. Is he ready, the Da da
or whatever his name is, the French kid? Is he ready?
And and you know Landry Shammitt and Delon right, if
(32:02):
that's banking me on winning the series, I'm cooked? You
know that. I think that's what he would.
Speaker 3 (32:06):
Respond with, Yeah, he would. But two things. One is
last year he didn't play Alec Burks for months and
then they had so many injuries they needed and then
he was good, Like well, now we know he could
have been better if you guys been building trust with
them for months leading up to this. That's the problem
is like Landry Shammitt was good actually in these playoffs,
but he just came out of he came out of
(32:28):
moth balls for Game three. Like Rick Carlisle has been
taking your Landry Shammitz or actually your Obie Topping and
making him good like all year long, right, Like you
got to like integrate them and build trusts and have
them so he knows who's gonna cut where. And like
Obie Top and hit the Big Three because he like
made eye contact with the inbounder and like slipped away
(32:48):
and like like you know, they they they've been doing this, right,
This is what they do for a living, is these
players together. And like Landry Shamitt, no one used to
playing with him on the knicks like he's been he
hasn't played right and I feel like this just too little,
too late from Thibodeaux and he doesn't really believe in them, right.
He was forced from going down oh two to haul
a couple of guys off the bench that he never
(33:09):
would have wanted to play, right. It wasn't even that much.
It was like after game four, I think I looked
it up, like you know those two guys sham It
and who else did you mention? I almost forget his name?
Speaker 2 (33:21):
Dylan did right?
Speaker 3 (33:22):
Yeah, Dylan, Right, They've played like twenty three minutes total each.
It's like whoop did damn? Do you know? Like it
was like it just didn't play that much. Mostly it
was Kat and and Jalen will save us and then
Dylan got so tired he had the head. But Andrew Nemhart, Yeah,
he was very frustrated.
Speaker 2 (33:40):
I like where you're coming from Henry. I just, first
of all, have you consulted for any NBA teams yet?
Speaker 3 (33:47):
Well? No, I've never been paid for that. But I
do get phone calls sometimes from coaches and stuff who
want to know about this kind of stuff.
Speaker 2 (33:53):
Yeah, and when you say some of this, and I'm
assuming they consider it dramatic sweeping suggestions, what's usually the response, like, Bro,
you're crazy or no.
Speaker 3 (34:06):
I think like Kenny Atkins, I really think it's worth
watching Kenny Atkinson's press conference after the Habs got kicked out,
and he was like, this is just the league we
live in now, Like we have to be able to
keep up with these pacers who are up here, and
we don't have a way to train that. We haven't
figured out how to train that hard. You can't train,
you can't simulate that game in practice because Rick Carlos
has had the Pacers practicing something that people haven't done
(34:27):
in basketball before, and so like, this is what you
got to figure out. This is your challenge now. If
you can't figured out, you're going to lose to them, right,
And so I assume the whole legal figured out, But
I don't think you're gonna figure it out with thirty
nine year old players.
Speaker 2 (34:40):
Yeah, damn, so that sounds bleak. I guess we could
wrap up with sorry, are you know? I know the
Lakers have an old guy in Lebron, but they have
a transcendent player in Luca.
Speaker 3 (34:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
Is there a world where they're just a player away
with a rim running big, a rim protector. I'm just
gonna nick Claxton whatever.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
As a Blazer fan, I think as you guys should
get DeAndre Aiden.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
Come. By the way, are you friends with that guy
at the Blazers who was at ESPN? I'm spacing on
his Tom Harristrow. Is he with the Blazers?
Speaker 3 (35:15):
Yeah, he's on the Blazer podcast now?
Speaker 2 (35:17):
Yeah? No, no, I'm at the Brazer front office.
Speaker 3 (35:20):
Oh yeah, I know I was talking about.
Speaker 2 (35:21):
He's the international.
Speaker 3 (35:22):
Scout guy, Mike Schmitz Schmidtz Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I
know that guy. I've known that guy for a long time. Yep.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
So I don't know what they're doing. I look at
Portland and like they seem to be, like you said,
all over the place. The eight and move was just goofy.
They haven't moved off Jeremy Grant. It doesn't seem like
they have a plan in place for the Shaden Sharp,
Scoot Henderson and Ferny Simon's thing. Do you know what's
happening in Portland?
Speaker 3 (35:49):
You know, I this will be yet another surprise. I
think they're doing a great job. Yeah, they happen. So
nobody wanted their Jeremy Green, right, nobody wanted their Anthony
Simons at the price they wanted. But as I mentioned,
the whole league wants to reduce salary and those are
all becoming expiring contracts now, so they're going their value
(36:11):
will go up, not down, right, So so they you know, yeah,
I think they thought they were going to get something
great for them a year ago and they didn't, so
swinging a miss. But but now like there, Jeremy Grant
is still has years, Jeremy S.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
Grant still has but Aighton's expiring next season, Simons is expiring,
Robert Williams, Matthias Thibel, he has a player option. So
they're going to be moving losing some dudes. But here's
my thing, So I get it, nobody wanted your dude.
So essentially, did you hunt on a full year Henry No?
Speaker 3 (36:43):
Because I okay, here's the part that drives me crazy.
Is like even Blazer fans aren't thinking about this. But
I'm telling you as someone who runs a business with
the guy who invented private player development coaching and basketball,
David Thorpe. Like players improving player development is very rare
in the NBA, Like players don't take big leaps. But
but the Blazers are getting better Chauncy Beilts. I was
(37:05):
not a fan when that hired him. I thought the
sexual assault thing was very poorly handled. But the fact is,
go look year over year, those Blazers, those young Blazers
have gotten way better. The second half of the year,
they were top five defense. Like I actually think that
they're they're copying this Pacers model, Like they're gonna have
this crazy Timani Kamara Denny of DIA, like matis stible.
(37:27):
This a crazy high energy defense they have going is
is gonna be a problem for the league. And we'll
see if Shade and Shop develops, We'll see who they
get with the eleventh pick, Like, we'll see how the
how the offense goes. But I like the improvement they've
already done is a very rare jump that like like
like the like how long has Charlotte not done that?
You know what I mean, like a long time.
Speaker 2 (37:48):
So okay, first of all, I think some people just
heard the names you said and were like, come on,
those aren't real players, are they. I guess nobody pays
attention to the Blazers, But I will ask this, how
much of it is Camara and company kind of showing
well when none of the games mattered. They were playing
irrelevant games basically from the All Star break on, and
(38:11):
one could even argue, well, I don't know, were they tanking?
Speaker 3 (38:14):
Would you say they actually didn't? So at the trade deadline,
Joe Cronin said that he didn't. They were on a
winning streak and they had they were in the mix
for the play in, and he said he didn't want
to mess up the team because they want to see
if they could make the plan and they fell a
little short. But I don't think they were. You know,
(38:35):
I actually think they're now, Like I don't think it's
time for them to trade for a big name player,
but I think it's they have enough, Like you kind
of know who's going to be there on their next
good right, there are some keepers in the mix.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
Now, Okay, is there a world where the Bucks say, bro,
we want to get off contracts. We want to bottom
out s Portland, give us your expirings. Eighton Simons, toss
in I don't know, Scoot or Sharp and then a
draft pick and then we'll give you honest and we'll
(39:08):
just be able to clean up our books that way,
as opposed to build something. We'd rather clean up our
books that we're not paying a luxury tax as opposed
to trying to contend. Is that like a pipe dream.
Speaker 3 (39:17):
Well, there's a particular reason why the Bucks would call
that team, which is they Bucks who are going to
be bad soon want their picks back right. So the
Blazers are the team that has their picks right. So
they're one of the teams. Other teams have Bucks picks too,
traded away everything you can trade, so they might. But
it just it seems like such a schedule mismatch. Right,
(39:39):
you'd end up with you know, Giannis and the kids,
and Gianness is not gonna like that. Yeah, he seems
like close. It'd be so frustrating for everybody.
Speaker 2 (39:47):
I kind of want to ask about Toronto, but I
just feel like that's total nonsense.
Speaker 3 (39:52):
I don't really know what they're doing. I don't really
get it. Like, besides smart, I'm sure he knows more
than I do, but it seems like a little yeah
trade away scal was was bold and worked out really
well for Indiana. You know, they just they didn't get
they got, like Jonathan Magbo was one of those draft picks.
He seems like, maybe it'll be good, but they just
(40:12):
didn't get much they got. You know, they're a very
middling team. Now.
Speaker 2 (40:19):
Yeah, there's a lot of that in the league. All right.
Henry Abbott true who great stuff. The name of the
book he wrote was Ballistic.
Speaker 3 (40:25):
Ballistic came out May sixth.
Speaker 2 (40:27):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (40:27):
Congrats man, Yeah, change look at me.
Speaker 2 (40:31):
Just changed Zion's life, change science life.
Speaker 3 (40:34):
There's a great that. One of my favorite little like
blurb on the book is from Pablo Tory and it says,
if you have hips by this book.
Speaker 2 (40:43):
Pablo Torri he's that's that's a guy crushing Belichick these days.
Speaker 3 (40:47):
Yeah, he's mixing it up out there. Yeah, he's like,
you know, yeah doing that.
Speaker 2 (40:51):
Yeah, all right, buddy, Thanks a lot, Henry.
Speaker 3 (40:53):
Thanks to Jason
Host
Jason McIntyre
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