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June 2, 2022 22 mins

On today's episode, Jason gets the party started with a quick note on a minor transaction in the NBA that could end up paying big dividends. The Brooklyn Nets' decision to differ their first round pick from the Philadelphia 76ers to 2023 is something more folks should be talking about. If the James Harden experiment continues to go awry or if Joel Embiid gets struck by another injury (neither of which would be all that shocking), the Nets could find themselves with a lottery pick. Later, Jason brings you an in-depth preview of the upcoming NBA Finals between the Golden State Warriors and the Boston Celtics. J-Mac has already gone on the record as picking 'Warriors in 6', and that seems to be a pretty common prediction from NBA analysts. At this point, it almost feels like anyone who is picking Jayson Tatum and the Celtics to win the series is only doing so as a way to cut through the media clutter. Having said that, if Golden State does in fact bring home the bacon, what then will that mean for Steph Curry's legacy? Would he have passed Magic Johnson as the greatest point guard in NBA history? Does it end any debate about whether or not he's a better player than Kevin Durant? Would a championship and an NBA Finals MVP vault him into the all-time top-10? 

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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. What is up?
Straight Fire? Fam, It's me Jason McIntyre. Straight Fire for Thursday,
June two. It's NBA Finals night. It doesn't quite have
a super Bowl field to it, but I have had
more people ask me, Hey, were you gonna watch Game one? Yeah,

(00:27):
you guys are gonna hit a bar, A bunch of
guys dad looking. Hey, listen, it's a Thursday night. It's
an excuse to get out nice weather. School years nearly
over and we finally get Game one Warriors. I've had
a week off Celtics obviously, less time getting pushed to seven.
So Game one tonight, Well, I'll give you some bets,
some actionable wagers. I know you guys are are going
to be firing. I don't know about you, guys. I

(00:49):
don't mess around betting on baseball. I think it's highly
volatile and risky. I don't watch you NHL. I have
no idea what's going on in the postseason. Don't bet
on that. This is really my final gambling opportunity until football. Basically,
I mean, maybe you know, if somebody says, hey, hey,
I got something for you in this tennis match, ja

(01:11):
it's a lock, maybe I'll throw it, but that's very
rare that I'll just be gambling on anything other than basketball, football,
and football obviously is number one, clearly, But that's months away,
and you know we're about to hit the dry spell.
I nearly considered opening today's podcast with Johnny Depp winning
a fifteen million dollar verdict against Amber Heard in the

(01:32):
TikTok Trial of the Century. In real talk with you guys,
I didn't watch one second of it. I haven't watched
any of the analysis anytime, Like I have the news
on while I'm working in the office, anytime I see
the Johnny depping and just mute, you know, change the
channel or whatever. I'm not into it now. My wife
followed it very closely on TikTok. We discussed it sometimes,

(01:53):
and I will be honest. When I saw the verdict,
I was stunned. You know, most of these cases the
guy loses um Amber heard apparently certifiably crazy. Yeah, I
got guys tweeting at me. Have you seen Johnny Depp's
lawyer always gotta be dating? Or oh she's so hot
and smart and all this suff I'm just like, you know,
this has been like a big deal. I just you know,
it's it's a it's a big blind spot that I

(02:15):
have in in the culture right now is the Johnny
Depp trial. I just I didn't pay attention to it.
You've got to kind of condense what you want to
focus on. For instance, this week, went to a Dodgers
game with a couple of buddies and we got, you know,
Fox hooked up some really nice seats and we're at
the game and you know, Pittsburgh sending batteries to the plate,

(02:35):
and I'm like, who are these guys? Honestly literally never
heard of almost anyone in the Pittsburgh Pirates roster. And
it was just studying, Like you know, I obviously I
like baseball, Going to games is super fun watching them
following on hundred sixty two. That's a slog. It is
tough postseason obviously very exciting, But blind spots, you know,

(02:58):
for instance, I know nothing think about the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Couldn't tell you who's winning each division in Major League Baseball,
but I can't tell you this. The Nets Sixers had
a big situation on Wednesday, apparently based on the Ben
Simmons James Harden deal, one of the options for the
Nets was they can take Philly's first round pick this year,
which is twenty three, or they can decline it and

(03:22):
kick it to next year. And I thought this was
a significant thing on on Wednesday, and I start texting
people about it and they're like, yeah, I guess it's
kind of interesting. The Nets said, we don't want the
Sixers pick twenty three this year, We'll take next year.
So it's an option to maybe see what happens with
the Sixers, and perhaps the Nets feel the James Harden

(03:42):
thing could implode. By the way, I haven't seen anything
about James Harden except partying in the off season. Now listen,
if I was his age and single and wealthy beyond belief,
I'd probably be doing the same thing. That being said,
there's a large segment of the NBA who are in
the gym as soon as the season's over. Jayson Tatum,
Thay Mislead instantly in the gym after numerous postseason losses,

(04:06):
and now is in the NBA Finals. That being said,
I think this is a smart move by the Nets
because in reality, there is a chance that the Sixers
implode next year. Let's say James Harden isn't what the
team next year that that's an option. I'd say a
small chance of it happening. Obviously very very bad for
the Sixers. Let's just say Joel Embido, as we all

(04:26):
know an injury history. Anything happens to empat. Now if
Harden's out there and something happens to him, bet you're
looking at like a team. And now you're talking about
a lottery pick that conveys to the nets. So it's
obviously very smart. And of course, you know, Sixers fans
are like, oh, they're stupid. We're gonna be way better
next year, you know, hard and a full season. And
I'm just like, alright, guys, keep dreaming, keep on dreaming. Um.

(04:50):
So I thought that was like a significant news. Obviously,
I'm also the guy watching Argentina three Italy zero in
a soccer match. Messy was incredible. Sports Radio has the
best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of
our shows at Fox sports Radio dot com and within
the I Heart Radio app search f s R to

(05:10):
listen live. While I was doing that, and I know,
only like seventeen people will care about this. Obviously, it's
Liga MX offseason, so moves are happening. I was researching
players that Nick Coxa could go after players nickox is
getting back from loan, and it is fascinating and super confusing.

(05:32):
I do have a couple of guys who are hardcore
NW COXA fans sending me messages on i G with like, hey,
look at this guy and the I mean the guy's
providing stats and background. It's like pretty interesting stuff. The
problem is trying to understand the complex nature of the
contracts out there is very difficult. I mean it is
a weave of website. This is not the NBA where

(05:54):
if you go to literally hoops Hype salaries, you can
get every nb A team, look at the salaries for
every player and how long they last, with like a
color coded player option, a color coded qualifying offer. It
is so easy to make up trades for the NBA
that way. NFL does you know. I don't think there's

(06:15):
a one stop shop that's as good, obviously because there's
so many more players. But that's my go to for
the NBA instantly like, oh, how did the MAVs look
next year? Boom? You could just call up their salary
chart and look at them. For soccer, it is very difficult,
especially um you know, international soccer. So like I spent
a lot of time doing that and came across a
couple of one interesting oddity as I was researching that

(06:38):
and the NBA Finals. I don't know who came up
with this, but the last three NBA teams in the
playoffs that beat Jimmy Butler won the championship. Kawhi Leonard
beat Butler in you guys remember the Game seven, incredible
shot from the corner by Kauai lucky shot, Butler was
on the sixers. The following year, Lebron beats Butler in

(07:02):
the Bubble NBA Finals. Butler was obviously incredible. And then
last year the Milwaukee Bucks take down Jimmy Butler Jimmy
Buckets in the playoffs. Uh heat did not put up
much of a fight in that one, and that was
when they knew they knew they needed to anny up.
They ended up getting lowerry and that fizzled out here
in these playoffs. But the last three teams to beat

(07:23):
Jimmy Butler won the title. Now, of course that leads
to the Boston Celtics this year. Now, I will say
before I go in this ramble, about the finals and
and kind of a media rant if you will, I
will point this out. I don't know many people who
are taking the Celtics, and that's always one of those

(07:45):
Wait a minute, because you know we talked about this
during the NFL, right, if you see, I don't know,
let's just take Seahawks Cardinals, and of the people are
on the Cardinals against the spread, and everybody's talking about
Cardinals are gonna crush them. I'm loading up on Cardinals
in DFS and fantasy. Take a pause and just take
a look at Seattle. Maybe covering the spread one of

(08:05):
those deals I listen. I usually just put out my
pick and thoughts on social media and people reply and
I'll see. I would say, people are taking the Warriors
in six or seven I've seen so. Then I went
to ESPN and they have like they canvass all their

(08:28):
NBA reporters, Right, So twenty guys cover the league, twenty
guys and girls cover the league, and fifteen of them
pick the Warriors, five pick the Celtics. And I thought
about it. I'm like, what are these people act? Do
they believe the Celtics or the side, or are they

(08:50):
doing that to cut through and this is gonna be
just a quick media rant. So you guys know, back
when I owned the Big Lead the website, and we
would have to cover obviously all the big sporting events,
and it's easy. During the season, there's a million things
going on. You get to the NBA Finals, it's two teams. Yeah,
there's a couple of stars. It is obvious that it's

(09:11):
gonna be tough to cut through cut through the media noise.
Right now, it's amplified to the nth degree with social media,
TV shows, radio podcasts are now a thing. Like if
everybody and their mom is picking Warriors in six and seven,
it's tough to cut through. So is the move to
go counter programming. Hey give me the Celtics and six.

(09:34):
Wait what you're taking the Celtics. I just looked at
their roster. They don't have one player who's been in
the NBA Finals ever, their head coach is a rookie.
You're taking them? Really? And I wonder if these people
genuinely believe the Celtics of the side or are they
saying it to cut through and kind of get out
get their name out there, because it's it's very difficult.

(09:55):
I mean if you even look at the narratives in
the NBA Finals, every thing is slanted toward the Warriors
and specifically Steph Curry. Can you find me one person
who has said, Wow, remember three years ago when the
Celtics were like, should we break up Tatum and Brown?
And then remember two years ago when people were saying
the exact same thing, should we break up Datum? Around?

(10:17):
And then last year do we trade Marcus Smart? Like?
What do we do? Do we move Brown? Remember, like
Tatum is the guy, but can you trade someone else?
And kind of do we need to make that change?
In now? Boston kept it, stay the course and oh,
by the way, they're in the NBA Finals. And we
had been doing this with Portland forever, right with Damon
c J. And they make the Western Conference finals. We're close,

(10:39):
We close for close next year bounced following year doesn't
work and then Dames left alone and c J. McCollum
has traded to New Orleans. And this is kind of
what we do in the media, right the build up
followed by the tear down. I mean, Jason Tatum obviously
at the very beginning of his career in Boston was incredible,
just a Monster, and you could see they were gonna

(11:00):
be good. But again three or four years later, no,
no trips to the finals. Well, just how good are they?
Did Jana's pass them? Brooklyn's got a super team? Are
they ever going to get through? And they got through?
Now they got helped by no Middleton obviously, and the
Ben Simmons, Joe Harris's injuries too, Um Brooklyn and of
course Miami had their issues with Lowry and Tyler Hero

(11:22):
and you could say Boston got a little fortunate, but
it's it just struck me as a little bit odd
that nobody seems to be picking Boston, which is kind
of a red flag. Now, if you remember a couple
of weeks ago, I was saying on here that Boston
scares me if I'm the Warriors, and I would much
rather have seen the Heat. Frankly, I would much rather

(11:43):
see the Bucks without Middleton. Now, I guess Middleton would
have been back by the finals. But this is not
a great matchup for Golden State. And I'll tell you why.
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Fox sports
Radio dot com and within the I Heart Radio app.
Search f s R to listen live. So for starters,

(12:04):
Marcus Smart is one of the best defenders in the league.
He just won Defensive Player of the Year six four
long physical you know he's cut from the Tony Allen mold.
And if you guys remember Tony Allen, the guy who
would shout first team All Defense playing for Memphis a
few years back, Tony Allen gave Curry problems. I think
it was a twenty fifteen playoffs Memphis actually led to

(12:24):
to one and then Golden State just steamrolled him the
rest of the way and ended up winning the championship.
But Smart historically has given Curry lots of problems. And
this has also led me to and I touched on yesterday,
if you're looking for two long shot m vps outside
of Curry and Tatum, who are heavy favorites, you know,
Jalen Brown is probably gonna get a little action. I
can't see it on Clay. I guess I said Jordan

(12:47):
Pool was thirty to one yesterday. Marcus Smart has some value.
This is a guy if he's able to hound Curry.
And you know that narrative is out there. Oh Curry
in a silly, erroneous narrative, Curry's not go to the finals.
I mean the guy. I think he's the eleventh leading
score in NBA Finals history. He's he average like twenty
four game in the finals. Now are his numbers down?

(13:07):
Of course, everyone's numbers are down in the finals. That's
how it works. Now. Smaller guards have had issues in
the in the playoffs because they can be kind of
shut down. You hug him up on the perimeter, and
then when they're driving in the lane, they're meeting many,
many big bodies, and I just this is not a
great matchup for Curry. Not only Marcus Smart, but Tatum

(13:27):
and Brown are long. They'll give problems. I will grant Williams,
who's done pretty well defensively. I think he's gonna be
a huge factor in this in this series because another
minor take I have is, you know, Robert Williams barely
could play in Game seven for the Celtics. He's been
injured with a various assortment of injuries. And if he's
not able to go, where's the depth behind Al Horford, who,

(13:48):
I will remind you guys thirty five years old and
was gassed at the end of the Miami series. He
was tired in the Milwaukee series. If you remember he
had in Game five I think it was, oh no,
maybe it was Game six, but he had thirty points
in a in a tremendous effort. He got him through
the third quarter, and then in the fourth Tatum took over.
But that was like his best game of the playoffs.

(14:11):
He emptied the tank in that one. He did nothing
in Game seven, absolutely nothing against Miami. He looked tired,
and then he had one of those turn back the
clock games Game two twenty and fourteen. He was okay
in Game five, but otherwise look at at Home for
he didn't do much. The guy's tired two back to
back seven game series, and now they're gonna he I
know he's a historically good defender. Now he's gonna be

(14:31):
tasked with chasing the lens of Curry and Pool and
Clay and fighting through a gauntlet of screens. This is
not great for Boston. So if Robert Williams is is
not gonna be a factor here due to injuries, Boston
is in deep trouble and I could see it getting
them getting bounced in five. I definitely like Golden State
in game one. I already took the three and a half.
Now the problem, of course, is the world is on
the Warriors. Here everything lines up Boston. You know, I

(14:55):
was drilling down a little bit on this, uh, the
three point shooting that they're gonna face from the Warriors.
Boston's opponents in the playoffs were not volume three point
shooting teams, the Nets, the Bucks, eleventh, the Heat eight.
Weir's attempt more threes than all of those. You basically
have to change your entire strategy going from we gotta

(15:16):
stop k D. We we gotta stop k D, shut
him down, we gotta do everything. Okay, we gotta stop
you honest, we gotta we gotta do the fence. We
gotta focus on your honest, we can't let him beat us.
And then Jimmy Butler. So you're going from forwards to
now a guard in Curry and more of a system
that they run where it's hey, we're gonna spread you out,
do the pick and roll, and there's gonna be so

(15:37):
much space because you've got a Curry guard. Curry thirty
ft from the hoop. By the way, I'm sure you
saw the Instagram video I posted, uh from him Curry
shooting Wednesday. It was incredible. He's doing all this sidestep
stuff and step back threes, makes thirteen of them in
a row from the corner, all different moves like handle
vision everything. It was incredible, like like it's magical. And

(15:59):
the Celtics now have to guard him thirty feet from
the basket. Well, what does that do? That creates open
lanes to run for the likes of Wiggins, for the
likes of Jalen Brown and Boston. If they don't have
Robert Williams on the back line, it's gonna be another
layup line like it was against the Maps. And so
there is a scenario where the Warriors steam roll. And
that being said, I'm not gonna you know, I'm still

(16:19):
picking the Warriors and six because who knows, maybe Rob
Williams goes all seven games if he's healthy. It's a
game changer because it's not Andrew Wiggins. You're not gonna
be laying up and dunking it like you were against
Dallas and Clay Thompson master the reverse in the in
the finish, that's gonna all be challenged at the rim.
So I wonder if Williams can't go, you know, they
don't have confidence in Daniel feets. Are we gonna see

(16:39):
a big Grant Williams series? Now, he of course had
the Big Game seven. He is also prone to thinking
he's a lot better than he is, and there is
a scenario where he shoots them out of the game.
And I don't want to do the one on one
matchups because that's not really how the NBA works at
this level. Basically, you hunt the weakest matchup, and you

(17:00):
know you could try to hunt Curry, but he's he's
a plus defender for his length compared to a guy
like Jordan Pool, who we know, kid could barely guard
a chair at this moment. He was mercilessly played off
the court by the Mavericks in much of that series.
He dominated Denver for a couple of games, detonated early
against Memphis, and then obviously they saw like, oh my gosh,
this guy can't guard anybody. Let's put him in action

(17:23):
every time down the floor. Let's go right at him
and if he's gonna foul out or guess what, he's
gonna get played off the court because he can't stop anybody.
And that led to some Moses Moody minutes, some commingam minutes.
I still think there is a little bit of value
on Pool simply because they're gonna need offense if Curry
is unable to get you know, forty point knights that

(17:43):
he is prone to do. If he can't do that,
what are we talking about. Clay Thompson is not gonna
give you twenty five every night. He's not. He's I'll
show up for a half, I'll show up for game
six if there is one, and maybe another game. And
like here they're like, he's just not the guy he was.
It's not a knock, that's just reality. And now we
can what expect Andrew Wiggins to pump in twenty five
a night. Um, it's just a weird scenario for Golden

(18:06):
State where it's like, if you can't count on Curry,
suddenly who is there? Because after Jimmy Butler, remember there
was nobody nobody on miamime is Tyler hero? And then
he got hurt and it was like, jeez, Max Strus,
So we are we serious here? I like the Warriors
to win the series. And the one thing that unnerves
me a little bit is that and I touched on
the media stuff earlier. When you look at the narratives

(18:29):
going into this there's three that are basically dominating the
conversation this week is Steph Curry gonna pass Magic Johnson
is the best point guard with a championship, which ignored
they forget the series. Let's look historically, like, can we
slow the role a little bit? Like I love talking
about that stuff. No, no, cap is my my little
eleven year old sist I love. I could talk endlessly

(18:50):
about Curry Magic. I think I started it four years
ago on cow Hurt Joe. Not the brag, but I said,
Curry is the second best point guard and all these
John Stockton truthers and these Isaiah Thomas people and have
the check in this nonsense. I was like, no, stop,
Curry's number two. And that was when they were ascending
with Duran and dominating. Um. Magic, as I've told you guys,

(19:11):
was my favorite player growing up. Loved him. First NBA
game I went to was at the Garden Um. It
was Patrick Ewing against your bar. Magic Johnson was there
and I was just like, this guy's controlling the game.
Oh my, I can't take my eyes off them. I
want to be this guy. And then the second game
was at the four of My dad had a rare
business trip out west and we went to Lakers Nicks.

(19:33):
I don't know how they stumbled into tickets, but we
went at the Forum and it was great. And again
it was like Magic Johnson, Oh my gosh, this guy's great.
And of course that was at a time when you
couldn't see every single game Tuesday night, Thursday night, Sunday night.
It was like, you know, game of the week I
think on NBC back and then maybe I don't even know,

(19:54):
maybe it was CB. You know, CBS I think had
the rights in the eighties, Dick Stockton and Tommy Heinson
were the announcers. Like you couldn't see that many games,
So seeing Magic up close, I was like, oh, I
love this guy. And then of course Curry passed him.
This is a fun stat. Magic played thirteen seasons Curry
and is in his thirteenth season. It doesn't seem like

(20:14):
that's possible because Curry looks way younger than Magic did
at thirty four, but they're both played thirteen seasons. Now,
I don't think Curry can pass Magic. With a championship
at the finals, MVP, he's looking great heading into your
thirty thirty seven. That's all I'll say. I'll just leave
that at that. So that's one narrative. The second one
is just Curry pass Durant in this mythical all time

(20:36):
ratings thing, which of course there's no consensus, but we
love to talk about it at nausea. Curry passing Durant
is spicy. I don't necessarily think we can go there
yet again because they haven't won the championship. That being said,
Curry wonner title before Durant, with Durant and after Durant,
He's got a really strong case. And the last one,

(20:56):
of course, which I have touched on a little bit,
which I I think there is merit to it, does
Curry have a case as a top ten all time player?
And I'll just say he's building a very strong case,
hypothetically as the guy who just said I hate that
people are talking about this. That being said, if Curry
wins the title and the finals MVP, He's got two

(21:17):
scoring titles, two regular season m VPS four titles, and
now the finals he's got like I mean, there's like
seven players on the planet who have done that in
the history of basketball. Now, who you brewed out is
the question, and we'll have to go there after the finals,
when there is a lot of downtime because there's really
no NFL action. College football is trying to get in

(21:38):
the discussion right now with some with some stuff. Rob
g wanted me to touch on the golf Dustin Johnson thing.
I'm gonna I'm gonna wait on that. Um. It is
a little spicy. This whole Saudi Arabia Tour and the
p GA seems to be crumbling where they can fireback
at Dustin and Phil. They're just gonna alienate some of
the top most popular golfers. It's a spicy story. I'm
not I don't know enough. Maybe we'll have a golf

(21:59):
guest New Week if this story keeps buildings team. But
right now it's all systems go. I got the Warriors
in six. I'm excited for the finals. I think Curry
wins the m v P. But again, Pool and Smart
are the two dark horses. Obviously, I would not be
shocked if Boston one. I think they're that good. I
think the more fun discussion for Boston is over under

(22:22):
two and a half finals trips for Jason Tatum, like
how loaded is the East can these guys get back
here because remember we saw it hardened. K D. Russ
got there, never got back there again. It's tough to
get to the finals, which and I'll end on a
Lebron note, which is why Lebron deserves more credit. Getting
to the finals is way more than half the Battle

(22:44):
and Curry sixth trip in eight years. I'm I'm stoked.
I will go one oh seven to eighty nine. Warriors
runaway with it late one of seven nine a game
one Warriors covered the spread. Enjoy it. Talk to you tomorrow.
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