It's Thunder & Pacers for All the Marbles & Thibs is Out in NYC

On this episode of The Drive & Dish NBA Podcast, hosted by Justin Cousart (@JustinContheAir) and Kevin Rafuse (@rafusetolose), the guys start the show with the news that the Knicks have fired Tom Thibodeau after their Eastern Conference Finals loss. They debate if the the move was too rash following a great season for the Knicks or if the book has been written on Thibs' coaching style on ready. Plus, we look at Minnesota's exit and discuss the biggest changes that could be coming this offseason and how the Timberwolves can get over the hump after two straight WCF losses. After the break, the duo dives into everything NBA Finals. We know OKC is favored but can Indy shock the world? A look at how similar these squads are as well and the matchups that will define the series. Will Justin also curse another team by picking them? In Who's Ballin Who's Fallin, Adam Silver talks small markets, the Suns hire Jordan Ott, the Pacers travel difficulties and a final farewell to the NBA on TNT. Finally, Immaculate Grid is back! Listen to the show wherever you get your podcasts and watch the show on YouTube.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is the Drive and Dish podcast, The Drive. Welcome
to you. To start it off, it's and just let's go.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
The conference finals officially over, so we are here to
talk basketball and obviously talk about the NBA Finals, which
is going to be the Oklahoma City Thunder shout out
to Jacksonville.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
I guess we could say legend Cory Simma, who is
a OKC fan. Anybody that lives in the Jacksonville area.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
Wow, you just gave Cory legend over overbursh and beads.
That's crazy.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
I had to I actually had to do an event today,
which is what threw me off for this. By the way.
Uh we did a weather expo because we are four
days into hurricane season and we already have a potential
situation going on. Uh, but we did a Hurricane X
of bo with all the meteorologists. So Bursch, Beata bas Simma,
and Trevor Gibbs all came in and Uh, I was gonna.

Speaker 1 (01:07):
Say, I don't know what trub but I mean Corey
I didn't know as much too, because like Corey was
kind of near the end of my time there. Yeah,
Garren and Bursch, I love both of them. Obviously like Garrett,
we would hang out with like outside of work, and
Bersh was like, Bursch is a certified legend of me,
Like one of the nicest dudes that you will ever meet.
Incredible meteorologies. Great, Yeah, yeah, Like dude was waking up

(01:28):
at like seven in the morning to file live reports
for OKAV when he wouldn't be on the air until
much later in the day. So yeah, you know, give
that man, Mike Bursch his flowers for sure.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
And they and they all still do it, like they're
still doing it. Corey and and Beaten Ball all have
kids about Quinn's age, so we're all like in this
we all bond over that. Although Corey's simma, if I'm
not mistaken, is either from the Oklahoma City area, he
has ties to it because he is a huge Oklahoma
City thunderfan, because he brought it up today at the

(01:59):
Weather ex Like he brought it up and he said
go thunder, and I was like, oh right, I got
a podcast tonight and so and so him and I
talked thunder all the time, and you know, I should
have asked him if he counts the Sonics win as
a thunder like.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
Final win it's also a.

Speaker 2 (02:20):
Topic that's a topic that has been brought up on TV,
ESPN or wherever.

Speaker 1 (02:24):
But I don't think you count it. And like, I
know you count it because like it's on the on
the jersey, right, they have the patch on the back
of the jersey and like again shouts in nineteen seventy
eight Sonics NBA Champs. You know, super cool for Seattle.
But it's awkward, right, like because it's not just that's
the only franchise that did this, Like you know, you
go back use the Sixers. The Sixers first championship as

(02:44):
a franchise was in nineteen fifty five as the Syracuse Nationals.
Obviously they won two in Philly, but you know, does
that really count when you know it technically counts in
the lore, But I don't think you really count that.
I think most Oklahoma City fans will probably view this
as their first championship, seeing is it's the first in

(03:05):
that city. You know, I think they're all treating it
as such. Yeah, but yeah, I mean, look at dude,
the League of Parody, how about this the NBA. For
as dynastic as that was all the early years of
this podcast, we're now going on what is this the
seventh or eighth consecutive new champion in a row, and
in this instance, like you said, a little bit of
history with either the first championship in Oklahoma City or

(03:27):
the Indiana Pacers putting their first championship on the board
first time back for the finals for them since two thousand,
the first Kobe and Shaq championship, and.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
It was pretty much confirmed we were gonna get a
new time winner from the final four team the Knicks
would the.

Speaker 1 (03:41):
Knicks would have been the only team that's won in
the past. But again the Nicks having won since the seventies,
so like a long drought would have won. Minnesota has
never won before, so in the first for them, Minnesota
fans are the most tortured fans in all of sports.
And like we'll talk doo meter for the Timberwolves in
a secon We're gonna start with the Knicks first. But yeah,
the Minnesota the Twins have won two championships World Series

(04:03):
and they were in like I think nineteen eighty seven
and nineteen ninety one, and then the Timberwolves have never won,
the Vikings have never won the Super Bowl, and the
Minnesota Wild have never won the Stanley Cup, so like, yeah,
it's been quite literally all but one year of my
lifetime since Minnesota won a championship in any sport. Like
I you know, when you certain individual teams obviously have

(04:25):
longer droughts, like you know, with with you know, not
to keep going back to Philly, but like, what is
a Philly fan like you have a fifty year plus
drought for the Flyers, and you have quite a substantial
almost fifty year drought for the Sixers now at this point,
but like, yeah, you still got two Eagles in the
last few years. The Phillies won the World Series in
two thousand and eight, so like you've got something at
least recent to hang your hat on. You know, other
cities can certainly have that as well, but yeah, poor

(04:49):
Minnesota fans they're there. I almost feel like they're higher
on the doom meter than they would be just because
of that. Like it's like it's like a region wide
existential crisis.

Speaker 2 (04:58):
So I I also not to be outdone with this
amazing talk about finals, which we are going to get
into a little bit, we do have other news. After
their best run in twenty five years, the Knicks have
fired Thibbs. I was kind of doing some quick looking.

(05:19):
So this is AI that just pulled it up on Google.
So forgive me if I'm wrong and don't have this right,
but it looks like obviously Mike Malone, Thibbs, Frank Vogel
all were coaches that were fired, you know, after some
finals appearances. This one obviously is like almost immediately after
getting close to the conference well literally in the conference finals.

(05:39):
But on top of that, he just added to the
list of coaches and gms that were fired this year.
This season. You want to talk parody, We've We've lost
a lot of coaches, Sacramento, Memphis, you know, not to
be outdone with Denver Letting what Malone go wasn't like
five days, you have three games left and now Fibb's out.

(06:04):
What do you make of it? Because now, you know,
it feels like there's a few different ways to take this, because,
like I mean, you almost feel like they should have
run it back. But I'm also a very noted clock
management Thibb's hater on this podcast, so I kind of

(06:26):
back off saying they should have kept him, because I
do feel like if you had a little bit of
a bigger rotation and you kind of manage the players
times a little bit, like I don't know, there's also
that argument that we could get into later, and I
know a few of the listeners don't want to hear that.

Speaker 1 (06:43):
It's a nuanced conversation. No, seriously, it really like there
there isn't an answer here, and like I'm gonna do
the like here's one hand and here's hand two, and
we're gonna talk about what's each. In terms of my
initial reaction, the only reason I'm surprised is because I
thought that that Boston soon would buy him another year,
Like we talked well going into the playoffs. I definitely

(07:05):
thought Timms was on the hot seat a little bit,
and probably more than people gave him credit for. The
Knicks have invested a lot of resources into this roster.
But I also feel like the Knicks like, yeah, it's
a little disappointing the way you went out to the Pacers.
I feel like you, you know, you had a chance
to win that series and you didn't, And I think
you really look at Game one and go, hey, like
that feels like the moment where we lost this series,

(07:26):
like we had a chance to really set the tone
and we kind of never got back on the same foot.
So yeah, but I did think them getting past the Celtics,
a team that I think most people thought were better
than the Knicks, would have bought him another year at
least and maybe if they were underachieving next year, then
they would pull the trigger and make the decision.

Speaker 2 (07:45):
And I guess it's kind of hard to compare it
because obviously people play less games, and so it's hard
to compare it, you know, fifteen games to eighteen games
or whatnot. But when you just do this seaeasons playoffs
right now, obviously the first five players are the starting

(08:06):
five for the Knicks. In terms of minutes totals. The
next closest is Anthony Edwards at five hundred and eighty
four point eight. Again, he played fifteen games. Mckil bridges,
who led the league in the playoffs at least four
minutes at eighteen games, so three more games that's worth mentioning.

(08:26):
But is that seven hundred and six minutes? Yeah, no,
that's a lot more. I get it's four games, but
like you know, you go to Halle, who's played sixteen games,
so that's two games less. Halle's only have five hundred
and sixty one. He's tenth in the league at least
for playoff minutes.

Speaker 1 (08:44):
You know, well, so again you go back to the
hand one in hand two things right, So like here,
because you're talking a lot about hand to so let
me just finish hand one first hand one to me,
goes man, There really just is no job security in
the NBA anymore. Because you're right, Tim's got the knicks
of their first conference finals in twenty five years, and
going back to the Boston thing, I don't really think

(09:05):
this team underachieved. I feel like getting to the conference
finals is a pretty successful result with this roster. I
think you're super bummed because you lost to Indy. Now
for the second year in a row, you lose them
in the second round, you loose to them in the
conference finals, and I think you know it's one of
your rivals going back to the nineties, but now even
at this time too, I think the way it happened

(09:25):
again so notably in Game one in particular. You know,
maybe that, but you're right, I'm also looking around and
going was coaching the issue this year? Now? The other
hand of me is hands who is a lot of
what you're talking about because it feels like the Eastern
Conference Finals was a lot of TIS weaknesses on display,
and these are weaknesses that we've known about for a
long time, and it's kind of like TIMS is a

(09:46):
known product, Like you're right, that team had no depth,
And why did the Pacers win that series? Largely because
of their depth. They just were able to provide more
bodies out there. The Knick's got no productive minutes off
the bench out of anyone that wasn't Mitch Robinson and
Douce McBride. And even then, like I love Mitch, Mitch's
in there more for defensive purposes. You're not really relying
on him to cover a heavy offensive load. So it's

(10:09):
one of those starting five guys is off. If they're
not giving you the production that you need than it
is you just have such a smaller margin for victory.
And when you look at the teams that are in
the finals with Indye with Oklahoma City, they both have
a ton of depth, like that does loom large, you know,
And so I think in a way, you got to
kind of you got to tweet the roster a little bit.
You got to change that. The other thing, too, is

(10:31):
it's like I was never really impressed with Tim's like
end of game offense a lot of the times, like
the Knicks end of game offense was give the ball
to Jalen Brunson and let's go, which, to be fair,
has been a pretty successful strategy for large points of
the season. Like Jalen Brunson has been phenomenal down this stretch,
but it doesn't feel like he tried to even do
anything different all the way until the conference finals, and

(10:51):
at that point it's kind of like, hey, we're making
adjustments now because we don't have anything else, Like you
almost got mandated into those adjustments. So I don't know.
I'm torn, I really am, because there's a part of
me that says Tims isn't known products, like I feel
like i'd love this, and with some of the names
that you mentioned out there, like specifically Mike Malone, but
even Taylor Jenkins as well, Like all the things we

(11:12):
said about Mike Malone, I kind of feel like about
Taylor Jenkins in Memphis, like I feel like he should
get another shot somewhere. But the timing of it feels
a little weird. After you beat the Celtics and you
lose in the conference finals when it's your objectively most
successful season in probably twenty five years.

Speaker 2 (11:29):
Well, and it's interesting because you look at the last
game of Pacers and Nicks right that game, which I'll
say it felt like, you know, Jalen Brunson specifically, but
it just felt like they were running on fumes, man,
Like they just didn't have the energy. That's when you saw,

(11:50):
you know, closer to a nine man rotation. Shamitt started
getting some time, right, started getting some time, you know,
eleven minutes and fifteen minutes here and so, like Bibbs
started to go to depth, but only because his hand
was fully forced to do so. And so there is
a little bit of that. It's also worth mentioning three

(12:11):
on the last five UH coaches of the year now
have been fired twenty one, twenty two, and twenty three
have been fired.

Speaker 1 (12:19):
Wow, that's crazy.

Speaker 2 (12:21):
And so that's the other part. It's it's, uh, who
is this blog? So I can Cleveland dot com caves Okay,
so it's just a it's just a cabs blog talking
about it essentially, I like a caves blog.

Speaker 1 (12:36):
Bro. It's probably the website for the city.

Speaker 2 (12:38):
It probably is, but whatever, well either way, But but
what they're saying is three out of the five Coach
of the Year agone and it's not because of coaching.
They kind of I like this this thought process. They
said they were fired because they outgrew their approach to
the game. So well, I say that with if you

(13:02):
look at the Knicks and you go, what's next, how
do we get to the actual finals? Now, the answer
is probably a few depth players that are reliable. And
if that's the case, then yes, this's gotta go because
he's not gonna play him, right.

Speaker 1 (13:21):
I mean kind of yeah, yeah, But did you notice
the Knicks through Karl Anthony Towns under the back and
again glass acat playoff experience, he had one of the
best playoff games I've ever seen him have in Game
two there in that series, like huge in the fourth quarter,
got them w can set him back to Indy tied up,
And there are other ones where he was just a
complete liability on the defensive end. He got targeted multiple

(13:42):
times by Indy man. They threw him under the bus
and record amounts of time. There was an athletic piece
up with then I feel like four hours saying that
they were like, yeah, we just can't figure out why
Karl Anthony Towns missed these defensive rotations and missed this,
and it's like it is he's such a weird player
come playoff time. He's the other thing too, You can't
get like that. Dude takes so many bad bowels, Like

(14:03):
I've never seen a player just consistently put himself in
foul trouble unnecessarily like Karl Anthony Towns.

Speaker 2 (14:09):
It was yes, so so it was game. It was game.
Was this two game three, no game two where they
when they lost one oh nine to one fourteen. And
I only know this because I was I was being
a delinquent and betting on the game, uh specifically the
overs per quarter. And I'll give you that story in

(14:29):
the second too, because that's actually kind of hilarious and
I think anybody that sports bets will will laugh along
with me. But either way, I was betting the quarter
overs and the first two quarters cat was a lock.
The dude couldn't miss. He was making these shots. It
was crazy, and I was like, oh, this guy's gonna
get me to my over, which a spoiler doesn't happen, but.

Speaker 1 (14:50):
It's always how it works, bro.

Speaker 2 (14:51):
Yeah, But what's crazy is halfway through the second the
announcers talked about how Karl Anthony Towns was like a
minus twenty on the floor, and I was like, how
is that even possible? The dude hasn't like he's just
making threes, making shots like he was just making these shots.
It was so baffled to find out that he was
a negative on the court.

Speaker 1 (15:14):
It's the Cat experience. It's so odd. It's it's and
you can't just like you kind of know what it is.
It's happened in Minnesota, and you're right, it's weird because
you can't say you can't win playoff games with Cat
because again, this is back to back years. This guy's
in the conference finals on two separate.

Speaker 2 (15:28):
Teams, which, by the way, he does feel like there's a.

Speaker 1 (15:31):
Limit, like he is. For as great as Karl Anthony
Towns is, there is so much still like there's just
that little bit of meat left on the bone where
it's like, man, he should be like the best center
in the league.

Speaker 2 (15:42):
By the way, in that game, specifically just on the
Thibs comment, the only player that played there were everybody
pretty much six players played over twenty five minutes. You
could probably guess who that is. Campaign is the only
other player to play minutes at nine minutes. Everyone else
was a coach's decision. So that goes back to the

(16:04):
Thibs comment, but to the betting the overs. Right, the
first quarter was fifty two and a half points total
between the two teams. I was like, that's pretty doable.
These two dropped like one thirty each in the first game,
so I went for it. Didn't hit. Second quarter, was like,
all right, now I gotta make my money back. And

(16:25):
it was at fifty three and a half and I'm like, okay,
well they got close second quarter, like we're picking up speed,
let's go. It didn't hit. So I'm looking at the
third quarter over while we're at halftime, and it jumps
up to fifty eight and a half and I'm like, well,
we didn't hit fifty two and we didn't hit fifty three.
There's no way they hit fifty eight. So I bet

(16:46):
the under. They hit the over, and so I go, well,
now I really need to make my money back because
I've just lost three bets in a row. Let's bet
the nicks.

Speaker 1 (16:55):
The worst advice ever, by the way, justin that is hard.
That is exactly how they get right, and I can't.
It's it's exactly when you play video games and it's
like you've lost four games in a row and you're like,
I can't it a bet. I can't end on a loss.
There's no way. And then next thing you know, it's
two am and you've lost nine games in a row.

Speaker 2 (17:11):
Well, so I go, all right, let's make.

Speaker 1 (17:12):
That ever happens to me. Of course that never happens.

Speaker 2 (17:14):
I go all right, well, let's make the money back.
Let's bet the Knicks, who are losing by two points
right now, so it's like a plus whatever. So I
put the rest of my money on that, and the
Knicks obviously lost one, fourteen to one or nine. So
I lost four in a row. It was impressive at most,
but all that to say, yes, I understand what you're
talking about with the cat experience. The other part of
that was in that game, specifically game two, Pascal Siakam

(17:38):
had thirty nine points, and I'll tell you what, I
didn't realize he was scoring so much until like the
end of the third when they're like, yeah, he's at
like twenty eight points. I was like, how is this
What like if we've been watching the same game. I
didn't even realize he was just going off like that.

Speaker 1 (17:53):
Yeah, so it always feels it's felt always kind of
sneaky with Pascal Siakam and you're right, like you'll look
up and you'll be like, oh, wait a minut he
had forty points last night, Like what because it's it's
not as flashy. I guess it's just very you know,
guy gets the points, gets buckets. I did laugh. Shout
to our guy Andrew Morgan, who just you know, a
huge Knicks fan. Literally his Twitter name is at nicks Brew.

(18:15):
I knew the season was over when Justin picked the
Knicks to win the series. That's toughal.

Speaker 2 (18:20):
I liked his uh, I liked his subtle. I knew
he was doing it so that he could get TJ
McConnell in the.

Speaker 1 (18:28):
Listen. Yeah, that's how bad it's gone for us. It
really is at the point where I'm like, man, I
hope TJ gets one. Maybe the process was worth it
then if that guy gets one.

Speaker 2 (18:37):
But dead serious out of all of it, I am
now like, in terms of NBA trying to get some
kind of fandom going, I am zero for three now
with Sixers Memphis and then picking the Knicks.

Speaker 1 (18:53):
All right, Well, I can't wait to see you pick
in the finals. So we'll get that coming up here
in a second. I'm looking forward to it.

Speaker 2 (18:59):
Here's a spoilers, damn Chalky so.

Speaker 1 (19:01):
Well, hey, I mean, maybe the Indianapolis residents are thrilled
to hear that they're taking the streets as we speak.

Speaker 2 (19:08):
J McConnell's doing it for him.

Speaker 1 (19:11):
We did it, do it for our guy, all right.
But before we get into the finals preview and you know,
intro the show and all that, I do want to
talk a little bit of Minnesota and the doom Meter
as well. I guess we never really ranked the Knicks.
They're not at the top, but they're definitely not at
the bottom either. I feel like they're I feel like
they're in the upper third. But we'll see. I mean,

(19:32):
the Tim's firing definitely added a wrinkle to it. But
I don't again, I don't think it's like Milwaukee, Cleveland,
Boston even necessarily Boston is so tough to rank because again,
like you just won, but Tatum losing the year of
his prime and it being Achilles is so brutal anyway, though,
But with winning cures a lot for the Timberwolves. A

(19:54):
second straight conference finals exit a little disappointing, you know,
again this one to okay, see, I mean the general
vibes like they've already done obviously their their exit interviews
and stuff like that. Like the president of Basketball Operation,
Tim Connolly came out and basically said, like, look, we're
not trying to shake it up really that much this offseason. Like,
we're happy with the core, We're happy with the dance development.

(20:16):
You know, with with the additions of Julius Randall, who
is somebody that they're going to have to, you know,
come to contract for with naz Reid, you're going to
have to make a decision on what you want to
do their long term. But yeah, I mean I get
and obviously, like a lot of this is going to
come down to ants continued development and ants continued ascendence.

(20:36):
I think losing in the conference finals and again going
back to that Minnesota drought adds a little more to
the doom meter there. But given again that you made
such a drastic change in the past offseason with moving towns,
you know, you kind of took a gamble on that
and it worked a little bit like Randall was. I mean,
this is, in my opinion, was the best playoff run
he's had his entire year or his entire career. I

(20:59):
should say, you know, I think you're a little disappointed,
you know, just because Okay, see kind of like they
were pretty in control of that series. I think that
would be the disappointing elements that you weren't really close.

Speaker 2 (21:11):
And I guess if we're being honest with ourselves, like
in my opinion, I view the Thunder as a significantly
better team. So that doesn't surprise me that, Okay, se
was essentially in control the whole time.

Speaker 1 (21:28):
You the last episode you were on and by the way,
like you know, twenty minutes in this episode, shout out
to our guy Chase Bunker for filling in last year.

Speaker 2 (21:34):
He asked me if if I watched the episode yet,
and I'm like, no, I haven't had a second because
I kind of hit the ground running when I got back.

Speaker 1 (21:42):
But we, uh, yeah, but where we talked, You and
I talked a little bit before when Game seven was
about to happen with Minnesota and or not with Minnesota
with Okay scene with Denver, we were saying for Minnesota,
like you went Denver because the matchup is so much
better where with Okay, see, it just wasn't. I mean,
the biggest question from Minnesota for me this offseason is,
you know, we talk about Randall and Reid, the bigger ones.

(22:05):
Who is Alexander Walker Like Nikille, Alexander Walker has been
great defensively for them, but you know, just the kind
of the like you're perfect three and D guy for
the modern NBA. He's an unrestricted free agent this year.
There's no planet where you're bringing back Alexander Walker, Julius
Randall and Reid and not going under the second ape
or not being over the second apron. So like again,

(22:28):
if you want to go over to the second apron,
that's fine, but it's just like you understand that you're
you're paying a lot, like you're gonna get penalized for that.
You know, they've got some young players who they're interested in,
who you know, maybe are you know, due for some
more playing time and they're gonna need them to fill in.
You know, you look at guys like Jalen Clark, you
look at like Rob Dillingham and Sharon Terrence Shannon Junior,
for example, you know that would be the way to

(22:50):
keep this going. What it really comes down to his aunt. Obviously,
the big story too is you've got the new ownership
coming in there. You know, Mark Lare and a Rod
are just waiting him approval. But that SAWA which has
been going on for like two years now, I feel.

Speaker 2 (23:03):
Like, yeah, I like forgought about it kind of and
then I was like, oh, wait that's still going on.

Speaker 1 (23:06):
Yeah, well that's about to be over. So yeah, I
guess like there's a little you know, I think consistency
there for everybody where, you know, there's not really as
much stress. You don't really anticipate them blow. I mean,
certainly after last season, like you're not gonna do anything
to that extent, Like there's not gonna be a shocking move.

Speaker 2 (23:24):
I think, Yeah, I have trouble putting him on the
doom meter lower than higher. I guess only because kind
of what you were saying. I don't think they need
to make any drastic changes. I think they just needed
a few tweaks here and there and they could be
right back to it. And if ants you know, true

(23:44):
to his word, no one's gonna work harder than him
this offseason. I definitely believe in him to do it now.
I am definitely interested in hearing your thoughts on I
think it was Chuck that said it, where he's like,
SGA can be the face of the NBA and ANT
can't know if you.

Speaker 1 (24:00):
Saw that, why, what was the reason?

Speaker 2 (24:04):
I'll have to find the reasoning again. But I like
vaguely caught him saying it during one of the broadcasts,
and I thought it was kind of an interesting statement
to say. I'll see if I can find the reason
about it. Maybe we'll bring it up on another podcast
and kind of do a deeper dive onto the meaning
of that.

Speaker 1 (24:20):
But too, that's kind of my thing is it's like, yeah,
because even now, like we Lebron is still the face
of it all. But like so step So.

Speaker 2 (24:29):
Is about to piss you off. You can't have the
face of a franchise be in a bottom TV market rating,
you know what I mean?

Speaker 1 (24:39):
Like you are, Yeah, you are piss me off. I
hate that's so much. I'm like Adam Silver is somewhere
just like his head is exploding knowing that there's a
final and it's indie versus okay, see, and I love
every second of it.

Speaker 2 (24:53):
If if you if you were wondering the TV market.
OKAC is ranked forty seventh and Indy is twenty fifth
per the Nielsen ratings. What's interesting the ringer actually has
this out so in the last four years, Milwaukee thirty eighth,
Denver seventeenth, which is I mean, that's relatively smaller than normal.

(25:17):
But it's like, yeah, Adam Silver's out here trying to
spin every single way to make this fun. Is like, yeah,
your viewership's going on be down.

Speaker 1 (25:23):
Oh dude, he wanted the Knicks to be good so
bad is it? It's so lame that viewership's probably going
to be down because like this is going to be
an entertaining matchup, Like we'll you know, we'll talk the
full finals preview. We'll finally get to that here in
a sec. But I don't know, I'm excited. I'm looking
forward to a fun series. I'm with you, though, I
don't think Minnesota is super high on the Duke meter,
like they're they're right at the middle, but I have
them closer to the bottom than I do to the top.

(25:45):
So you know, we'll see what they do a few
big decisions of the offseason. We'll see if they what
they end up doing with that trio. Guys we talked
about Welcome everybody the Driving Ish NBA podcast. My name
is Kevin Rafe's joining me as always my co host
Justin Kusart.

Speaker 2 (26:00):
Number one thing you could take from the Pacers is
that it's impressive how hard they all play all the time.
For sure, all these scenes play hard, but you're right,
the Pacers like they they grind.

Speaker 1 (26:15):
They just they everyone because again like there's Hallie is
that guy and so Siakam. Honestly, you shoul get a
little more credit for it, but like they don't have
that like world breaker. I feel like the way that
some championship team, like with Denver Jokic, where it's like Yodayo,
which is unbelievable, the Bucks have you, honest like who

(26:35):
is that? For the Pacers and even for the Thunder
Like is I think you know SGA winning MVP this year?
I think you can kind of argue that a little bit,
but like there's still a valid discussion if like SGA
is like a true world breaker like that, I think
he is. I kind of do too.

Speaker 2 (26:51):
I also think also I also think like if it
hasn't happened already, because I know he's had some really
good defensive plays. I think we're really going to get
put onto some of the defense that Alex Caruso is
bringing to the team.

Speaker 1 (27:03):
Dude, NBA Twitter is known for ages like the casuals.
If you ever figure that out yet, you better catch up.
All that dude does is he just wins. He wins
playoff games. He's a guy you want. I love full Arena.

Speaker 2 (27:17):
I love slash. Hate the transitions that people do with
Alex Caruso on social media, yes.

Speaker 1 (27:24):
I mean all that whole genre is completely unhinged.

Speaker 2 (27:27):
Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1 (27:28):
Oh my god. I saw a little person take off
the other day, like randomly in a living room, and
then somebody mash it up with I mean wrong sport,
but like with Jose Altuve, and I was just like,
oh my god, man, like people are out of their mind.
If you're out of your mind and want to leave
us a bad review, don't do that. But if you
want to leave us a good review on iTunes, do
that on the podcast and I'll read her on the show.

(27:49):
If you're not an Apple user, Google Play, story Speaker, Spotify,
tune in, Amazon Music Player, at them anywhere you can
find a podcast, you can find.

Speaker 2 (27:56):
US, yep, and we are on YouTube driving Dish NBA.
You can watch the video a lot of you know,
we'll do immaculate grid, so there's some video to it.
You can follow us there driving Dish NBA on YouTube.
Subscribe you'll get notifications when the next episode is coming out.

Speaker 1 (28:14):
Now word more sponsors.

Speaker 2 (28:17):
So the NBA Finals Game one will kick off tomorrow,
depending on when you're listening to this. For a continuity sake,
we are recording this on the fourth that's game one,
just to run down it. Then Sunday, Wednesday, Friday, if needed, Monday, Thursday, Sunday.
It would be crazy to me if this went only

(28:40):
four games my prediction, and we'll just do that before
any kind of breakdown, just because I'm really ready to
fire the cannons. Okay, Thunder Game one, Thunder Game two,
Pacers Game three, Thunder Game four, Thunder game five.

Speaker 1 (28:56):
Okay, all right, not a bad prediction.

Speaker 2 (28:58):
Honestly, I only do that because I have money on
it now too, So.

Speaker 1 (29:01):
Oh okay, wow, you are right for every individual game,
all right? Not bad. No, I think I'm generally with you.
I think I'm at okac In six, I'm gonna give
the Pacers credit like this. That's also probably me being
a quote unquote Pacers guy. I feel like they made
me look really smart on the podcast the last few months,
like talking about how much I believed in this squad
and I love their depth and how I thought they

(29:23):
played hard and you know, I like their pace and
all that fun stuff. You know, no pun intended, but
uh yeah, I mean, look, okay See is the better
team here, Like there's no doubt about it. Like we've
been saying this all year long. It's like, I'm not
going to suddenly back off more in the finals that
okay See is now suddenly not the best team in
the league. I think that Indy has a much better
chance of winning than I think a lot of people

(29:44):
are going to give them credit for. But yeah, like
I'm not just gonna jump off this cliff again. Okac
had in Game seven to me that coming to like
the the we're here, we're ready moment, because when they
were down early to Denver, it was like, yo, is
this course still not have the seasoning on it? Like
are they really gonna let the lights get too bright?

(30:05):
You know? Jalen Williams have been struggling as shee at
a rough fourth quarter and they just turn it on
it and just dominated that game. And ever since they
flipped the switch there, it feels like they've been rolling,
like obviously like a pretty easy time with Minnesota. Yeah,
I mean it's the the way they played defensively obviously
is the key here too. Like I just think they

(30:25):
have the personnel to really make Hallie's life difficult, Like
you mentioned Caruso, You mentioned lou Dort, who's one of
the better defenders in the league. Like I think Holmgren
can you know, play with Siakham and he can you know,
give Miles Turner a little bit of a run.

Speaker 2 (30:37):
Like there there is some question that I have in
terms of size advantage. Obviously that leans Okay, see with
Hartenstein and Chet, you obviously have Miles Turner and and
it's been documented and obviously you saw it when they
brought out Thomas Bryant and Tony Bradley to kind of
deal with the bigger guys with Cleveland and New York.

(31:00):
But like, I wouldn't put any of those other tandems
as this whole home grind Hertenstein tandem that we were
about to see go up against him. So I am curious.
I think that will be a very low key duel
to see Thomas Bryant Tony Bradley versus those two. I
also think Andrew Nemhart is going to be a big

(31:21):
contributor because I mean we saw what he can do. Yeah,
you've seen it all playoffs, but I think he's going
to be a little bit of an X factor as well.
And how does okay see defend that? Do you just
kind of like what you were talking about, do you
move Caruso around to the hot hand at the time

(31:42):
and try to have him shut it down. There's other
defensive guys, but we were obviously talking about Caruso. You know,
I'm curious to see if that's something that that happens.

Speaker 1 (31:52):
Well, you mentioned the big guys too, and now like
you're right, Okay See on paper definitely has the advantage
with that Hernstein and with home Grin, but everybody on
Indy can kind of shoot, and so like does that
help like if an he's not crashing the PA and
I know Hallie's been driving a lot, like that's gonna
be you know, how they play that Interior defense is
going to be a huge portion of that as well,
because we know so many times he gets into the

(32:14):
lane and he just finds these shooters. The pacers have
been knocking down shots left and right this entire run.
Like that's a big question to me, is It's like
you're right, like, do you wonder if the thunder goes
small here? Do you play chet and just you know,
run four you know, run more wings and try to
keep them off the three point line. Like I'm interested
to see if Mark Danielle makes that adjustment. You know,
they've they've with with Chet Holmgren on the other side,

(32:38):
Indy's been guarding him with centers. You know, maybe do
they try to play a smaller version as well. I
don't know.

Speaker 2 (32:45):
I did see that at least in the stats. Okay,
see has the rebound advantage by a decent amount. Everything
else is relatively closed points assist, but rebounds They've got
like five ish more rebounds per game. So I think
that leans into a little bit of that size advantage
conversation and what do those second chance points kind of

(33:07):
look like in those moments? It could be could be
very interesting. So again that leans that leads me to
that all those little stats essentially leans me to go
with Oka see, which I know is Chalky. They're the
number one seed and the Pacers on the four seeds,
so that's why I go Chalky.

Speaker 1 (33:28):
I guess no, what's the other big matchup to me? Here?
It's the turnover battle? Oka See leads the league enforcing
turnovers and the Pacers are the third best team at
not turning the ball.

Speaker 2 (33:38):
What was the stat that how he had like thirty
and did he have a triple double with no turnovers
or something like that? Like, holy cow, he.

Speaker 1 (33:46):
Did the It was like the game against the thunder
he had Oh, never mind, just kidding, that was horrible.
I did forget about that that first batch of begats thundered.
You only had four points, just one turnover.

Speaker 2 (33:59):
But it was in the it was in the playoffs.
I think it was against the Knicks. He had a
game where he had a twenty eight turnover. Here it is, yeah,
twenty eight point field goal. Oh jeezus, field goal shots
were pretty damn bad. This is definitely not the right game. Yeah,
this was when they lost, So hold on, I'll see

(34:19):
if I can find it. There was a stat that
he had that was like he he dropped some crazy
stat and had zero turnovers with it, I'll say, if
I can find it forty real quick, I'll look for it.

Speaker 1 (34:32):
There's only and this is per Yahoo, there's only three
players in the last three seasons who have played five
thousand total minutes and assisted more than forty percent of
their teammates basket while turning it over a fewer than
fifteen percent of the time. And that's Halle Jokic and
Luka Doncic. So not exactly a bad company there.

Speaker 2 (34:51):
So according to Oh, I hate this Google AI thing.
It's not giving me enough stats. Hoopikes, I'm using AI
to get stats. I just googled it. I said, Hallie,
no turnovers and that's like he had a thirty point
fifteen as this game with zero turnovers.

Speaker 1 (35:11):
Yeah. No, I feel like I remember that. I don't
remember when it was exactly, but I could have sworn
it might have been. I don't know, man, I have
no idea. Yeah. Like again, these teams are so similar, right,
Like That's that's my biggest takeaway too, is it's like, right,
they're they're both great defensively, they both hit open shots,

(35:32):
they both play good defense. They both want to get
out and run. I think Oka, see you know kind
of has a little more flexibility in the sense that
they're probably a little better at half court offense than
India is. Like I think they can kind of do
both styles. It just all comes down to the fact
that it's like everything I think Indy is good at,
I think OKAC is good at, it's just a little
bit better. And so you know, I really want Indy

(35:53):
to force this series and not be a five game series.
But yeah, like you're right, I keep going back to
OKC and five are OKC and six like again, And
the other thing that we haven't really talked about is
it's like I am interested to see how this is
called U The Pacers played tough, and like the Pacers
generally against the Knicks, like there weren't really a ton

(36:15):
of whistles like I thought they called let you know,
they let them play. Essentially, I'm not saying SGA is
a free throw merchant. I'm not fully at that level,
but like SGA makes a lot of bread and butter
off getting the line, like he's one of those guys
who's lived on the getting the tickie tak kind of
calls and stuff that does make me very interesting to see.
I was called like if they let them play a

(36:36):
little bit, that probably favors Indy and so I think
that could, you know, be an interesting thing to keep
an eye on through this matchup as well.

Speaker 2 (36:42):
Again, just just another nod to the Pacers. It is
wild that the Knicks are the only team that pushed
him past one game in this playoff. Bucks four to one, Pacers,
Cabs four to one Pacers, Knicks forard it too, and.

Speaker 1 (36:58):
Every one of those series after the I mean, post Calves,
you could have, like I had them beat in the Knicks.
I thought that was a fifty to fifty. You could
have definitely argued the Knicks were the favorite there, like,
but you know, everybody knew they were gonna beat the Bucks,
at least in my opinion, everybody that watched the NBA
this season knew that they were too. But you're right,
like ever since then, like you know, they the way

(37:19):
they bulldozed the Calves, I mean, the biggest reason I
had the Calves so high on doom Leter, like they
just they did. They bulldozed them. And I think then
with the Knicks too, like you said, after taking that
game one, like they didn't bulldoze the Knicks but when
it was three to one, and especially when it was
two zero leaven the Garden, it was like, hey, you
gotta feel pretty good about this.

Speaker 2 (37:39):
Yeah, And I think if you the Pacers go back
and watch okay see Nuggets and see what happened when
they pushed them to seven. And you know, again, if
you get them to seven, that's a fifty to fifty
ball game and you can go it from there. But
I think you'll see how to handle the the the
hype problems. Watch what Yokic and they were doing down low,
and maybe there's a little bit to take from that.

Speaker 1 (37:57):
It just feels like, okay, see the first two Allens
was kind of like passive at points where it was like,
you guys are too good to be losing these games.
And the way they just haven't been since that game seven,
it's like, no, we're here, Actually, no, we're we're here,
and we're ready. You know that they've been building this
all season. This is it's been championship or bust the
whole time. I think a lot of smart people pick

(38:19):
them to win the title before the end of it,
before the season started. I think they're probably gonna be
right at the end of this. You know, like likely
championship going to OKC so you know, get get the
Sonic ready, get ready to go to the Oklahoma River
Walk and uh, you know, we'll see if they're partying
down there, and if not, hey we're going Indie too
because they're gonna turn it up too for that first championship.

(38:40):
That'd be really cool to see. All Right, who's bond?
Who's falling? Our NBA version of the sock market, we
always like start with the good before the bad, uh,
and so bond from me. This week we talked about
Tim's getting fired. How about a little bit of a
breaking news this Phoenix Suns have themselves a new head coach,
Jordan Ottuh. He is an assistant coach from Cleveland. Uh.
He again is now the Suns coach. He's forty years old.

(39:02):
He's been in the league since twenty twelve. According to Shams,
he's rooted in principles of strong offensive and defensive creativity,
player development, and toughness, which I feel like is a
bunch of ways to say nothing but yeah. Replacing Mike
Boonholzer again a big off season ahead for the Suns.
We're gonna see what they do with Kevin Durant will

(39:24):
go from there. But apparently Devin Booker was involved in
the search, so at least he got that going.

Speaker 2 (39:29):
Mm hmm. Yeah, get him from a team that choked
in the semifinals. That's cool. Sorry, I also really want
to make a Chapel Roone joke with the way that
Ott is, what is that hot to go?

Speaker 1 (39:46):
No, you're working, Just keep work, shopping it You're good.

Speaker 2 (39:48):
Yeah, you will get there. I'm sure the Suns will
get there too. I mean you might as well. But no,
I mean, obviously, if Booker's interested, he's obviously the future
of the team, and if this is what he wants,
I think obviously you got to do that and go
for it. And so I'm interested to see what happens.
Obviously the joke about the Cavs, yes, but but they
were very impressive this year, so I think it is just.

Speaker 1 (40:09):
That's why they got me to buy back in. That's
why I'm so mad at them. They got me to
buy back in because they had such a good regular season.
It was such a dominant regular season that I said,
all right, I'm gonna go against what I said all
year long, is that they're not there. It doesn't matter
until the playoffs. You know what, I'm gonna give you
an auto ticket to the conference finals. And they got

(40:30):
chumped by the Pacers. They didn't just lose, they got
dog walked by Indiana, and so, you know what, you're right.
I'm kind of you know, put it on Cleveland a
little bit, but that.

Speaker 2 (40:40):
Is why mark it down. Until I am proven wrong.
I will never leave my podium, my pedestal about how
the Orlando Magic choke it out at the back half
of the season, usually because of injuries. But I will
not back off that until they prove me wrong. Get
get into the playoffs healthy, get to the conference semifinals,

(41:00):
and we can talk.

Speaker 1 (41:01):
Do you do the new Magic jerseys?

Speaker 2 (41:04):
No, I didn't see him.

Speaker 1 (41:05):
They're cool. I like the there's a white one, a
blue one, and a black and blue combo one. I
gotta be honest, I hate the hybrid. I think it stays.
The blue one is okay, the white one is fire.
The white one is super cool. But yeah, it's like
the pinstripes. I like the pin stripes of the blue.
I just I they didn't use what did they use

(41:26):
Orlando one? Or they use magic?

Speaker 2 (41:28):
It's as magic with the star as the Uh.

Speaker 1 (41:31):
I kind of wish it said Orlando, but whatever.

Speaker 2 (41:34):
Like a blue one, the all blue one with white
stripes says Orlando. The other two say Magic.

Speaker 1 (41:40):
No, That's what I'm saying. I wish the blue one
said Magic. I like the white one. The mixed one
is okay.

Speaker 2 (41:47):
I kind of like the mixed one though, the blue
and black with the fan base.

Speaker 1 (41:52):
The fan base has been more about it, so I
definitely think I'm in the minority there. I don't know,
we'll see. They just came out I think a day
and a half half ago, so.

Speaker 2 (42:01):
Even the logos the icons are different.

Speaker 1 (42:03):
Shout out to shout out to our guy, uh, our
guy Lewis for the Magic who I I uh? Lewis
acts in a former podcast here he works with the
Magic now and his cracking up because he was like
we're all laughing at the tweet where the Magic was
like thank you Internet for not leaking this, Like thank you.
I was like, I was like, Luke, good for you.

(42:24):
You're a good employee. Didn't leak me information. Way to
be all right, who's uh, who's balling for you? This week?

Speaker 2 (42:31):
Ballin for me is going to go out to Adam Silver,
who is on a it's not a small market uh
final store right now. But that is not why he's
on my balling is Uh. He came out and announced
that next year's All Star Game is going to feature
a Team USA versus Team World, which is what we said,

(42:52):
and a zero percent surprise because of the hockey stuff
that went down.

Speaker 1 (42:56):
Thank god, common sense rained. Like that's all it comes
down to, like this, that's the only way I can
even think of to make it competitive. We'll see if
it actually is. But USA versus the World, you may
you may have our attention a little bit, all right.
Fallen for me is the Pacers travel plans because there's
severe weather in Oka. See. I don't know if you've
heard about this, but they have tornadoes in Oklahoma. Uh

(43:19):
but yeah, they're they're charter flight got the verted to
Tulsa and then I had to like stop and refuel
and get back up in the air to Oka. See.
So uh yeah, kind of an unfortunate uh start to
the travel for the Pacers. There.

Speaker 2 (43:30):
What's that Kelly Clarkson song about down to the bones
and watch it all blow away storms in Oklahoma? Is
that Kelly Clarkson.

Speaker 1 (43:40):
I have no idea. It sounds like a little rain.

Speaker 2 (43:42):
In Oh uh, I'm gonna google it away. It's called
blown away, all right, there you go.

Speaker 1 (43:51):
Oh I do know that song. I think I haven't
heard that.

Speaker 2 (43:54):
Get all down and wash it blow away?

Speaker 1 (43:57):
Yeah yeah, okay, yeah, you're right.

Speaker 2 (44:00):
I don't know why you said that when you said,
in surprise it rains or is there storms in Oklahoma?
That's what made me think of it. So yeah, here
we are. Yeah, man, I mean, obviously that sucks. I
don't know. Does it affect them at all? Do you
think it has any impact?

Speaker 1 (44:14):
No, they got there multiple days early. They're fine, Like
you'll have a day to adjust. It's not like they
were in a tornado or something. All right, fallen for me?
Oh that was I just did fallen? Just kidding, who's
fallen for you this week?

Speaker 2 (44:28):
My falling is I guess all of the NBA viewing
experience world. Kevin Harlan signed off on NBA on TNT
for the final time. It was emotional, It's sad. It
was a great halftime show. It's just a great show
in general, and obviously it's gonna be a bummer to

(44:48):
have them not be on TNT.

Speaker 1 (44:51):
Yeah, I mean that's the thing is, it's like it's
weird because they are going to ESPN, and like, I
feel like the tributes almost kind of went too long
a little bit, but bro, you're still the last night,
it was great. They got their money's worth. I love
Shack going out, I mean the shouted Shack be in
the one and Kenny for crashing out well while Chuck
was the calm one. But yeah, I mean all of it,

(45:12):
like Kevin Harlan and Reggie Miller was was really emotional
and that was I mean, that was kind of destiny
that Reggie's last game on TNT was calling the Pacers
getting back to the conference finals, you know, for the
first to the finals since first time since they went
so a little bit. Yeah, full circle there and closed. Yeah,
I mean it's interesting. It will be very interesting to
see how this plays out on ESPN. Obviously, like a

(45:34):
lot of personalities clashing. There a lot of difference in styles,
so we're certainly going to be seeing here sooner than later.
But all right, it's been a little bit. Should we
fire up some immaculate grid or what?

Speaker 2 (45:46):
Sure, I will share my screen.

Speaker 1 (45:50):
I think we've been like three weeks. I mean, I've
still been playing it. They've Loki added a bunch of
new categories, which is great. I'm really pumped about it.
Like you know. They add I've seen block per season.
I've seen the old per season, which is good because
I feel like they're kind of getting stale.

Speaker 2 (46:04):
Honestly, can you still see it? I clicked?

Speaker 1 (46:06):
I can see your screen, yes.

Speaker 2 (46:08):
But you can't see Immaculate Grid, right, I.

Speaker 1 (46:09):
Can't now no, I could right there, yeah, because that's
going back and forth the final schedule. But we're good now,
all right. So for the podcast use it or for
the podcast listeners, I should say you can always watch
the driving a good lord, you tell it's the end
of the day. You can always watch the video version
of the podcast at Immaculate Grids. Just search YouTube Driving

(46:30):
NBA podcast. Before the podcast listeners are rows this week
from top to bottom, the Rockets, the Heat, and the Bucks.
Are columns from left to right, the Sixers, the Grizzlies,
and ten thousand career rebounds. So justin I will start
with you. You're going right to Sixers and Rockets. What
we going, babe?

Speaker 2 (46:51):
Okay?

Speaker 1 (46:52):
Yeah? Fired up, processed guy, I mean a lot of
answers there. Yeah, point, I mean, I mean probably the
biggest one there. It's gotta be hardened, right.

Speaker 2 (47:01):
Oh yeah, I didn't even think of Harden.

Speaker 1 (47:04):
Harden sneaky one is and honestly, if you want to
use him for ten k rebounds because the rockets, Chalky
ten k rebounds is obviously a chem Olaje one. The
other one there, though, is Charles Barkley's about Chuck. Chuck
ended his career in Houston. He's unfortunately a year late
getting that ring with AQEM. But yeah, Chuck has ten
thousand let's go, Yeah, a little bit lower.

Speaker 2 (47:25):
So obviously sixers and the heat. Jimmy Butler's an easy one.

Speaker 1 (47:31):
Josh Richardson is the opposite. Yeah, Andre dala Igodala is
in Miami for a year.

Speaker 2 (47:40):
He would be an interesting one. You want to go aggy, Well,
I'm trying.

Speaker 1 (47:43):
To think what else we got to like PJ. Yeah,
literally took the words out of my mouth. Yeah, God,
there's another. Uh, there's a more recent one. I feel
like I'm missing. Oh, if you want to he's another.
If you want to keep the process thee going with
Dwayne Deadman War.

Speaker 2 (48:00):
Dwayne Deadman did Michael Carter Williams end up on either
the Bucks or that the Bucks.

Speaker 1 (48:05):
Yes, for sure, the Bucks was the initial trade.

Speaker 2 (48:07):
Baby, that's what I thought. Ye should we process this.

Speaker 1 (48:11):
Whole process it? Yeah, deadman and mc W I'm with it.

Speaker 2 (48:15):
Oh d m o N D m o N. The way.

Speaker 1 (48:23):
I think he's from the Bahamas. I believe that's what
his ethnicity is. I could be completely wrong there.

Speaker 2 (48:30):
I thought Carter would get it, but I guess that
was bad.

Speaker 1 (48:33):
I mean, in every reason evinced first.

Speaker 2 (48:37):
There he is. Okay, process that whole row. Baby, let's go.

Speaker 1 (48:42):
No, it would be really low. Is the opposite of that?
Uh deal? Or you know, maybe I don't actually was
he actual there? Jared Bayless was was a six or
at one point he was a Buck, but he would
be very low because I think I think he was
in that deal. But yeah, either.

Speaker 2 (48:56):
Way, did did oh?

Speaker 1 (48:59):
G A.

Speaker 2 (49:00):
Mayo played for the Grizz.

Speaker 1 (49:02):
And the Bucks. He got drafted by He got drafted
by the Grizz. Bro Now for O j O. J
was one of the most hyped basketball players at high
school of all time.

Speaker 2 (49:12):
Okay, yeah, OJ Mayo Okay, one of the one of
the lebron point Guards definitely ended up as charmers. Yeah,
there it is.

Speaker 1 (49:23):
Yeah, I'm just going for I'm cool. We're just going
I'm going down going our first thought because we're cruising obviously,
like I'm going to break the flow Rockets.

Speaker 2 (49:31):
Oh babe, Desmond Baite?

Speaker 1 (49:35):
Right wait did he Rockets drafted by the Grizzlies.

Speaker 2 (49:41):
Yeah, and then didn't he get traded to the rock No, no, no, no.

Speaker 1 (49:43):
No, no, Desmond being there's no planet where he ever got
traded to the rock He's on a max contract with
the Grizzlies. He's very much a Memphis Grizzly.

Speaker 2 (49:53):
No, no, no, who okay, who am I thinking? No, no, no, no, no,
who am I thinking of? Grizzlies went to the Rockets recently?

Speaker 1 (50:01):
I mean if you had Steven Adams and Desmond Baine
mixed up that.

Speaker 2 (50:04):
No, no, no, Adams works no, oh my god, he
was like getting in trouble for antagonizing Lebron.

Speaker 1 (50:16):
Oh.

Speaker 2 (50:16):
Dylan Brooks Brooks, Brooks ended up on the game. That's
who I'm thinking about.

Speaker 1 (50:20):
Dylan Brooks thinking, Okay, that gives you some bail out
a little bit. I like, just what are you talking about?

Speaker 2 (50:31):
Really recent though? I feel like they're gonna be higher.

Speaker 1 (50:33):
Dylan Brooks will be high. The other player who I think, I'm.

Speaker 2 (50:37):
Still well, did he end up at the Rockets at all?

Speaker 1 (50:39):
No? Or the Grizz. I don't think my uh oh
my god. I think Chandler Parsons ended up on the
Grizz like late, I know, be a good one. Yeah,
he definitely went to the Grizz because it was after
the Dallas contract and they it was when started to
play a little bit again.

Speaker 2 (50:57):
Parsons. Man, Wow, that's right. Yeah, fourteen percent is wild
that that's that high.

Speaker 1 (51:03):
He's a sneaky like. People use Chandler Parsons a lot. Yeah, okay,
so he ten k rebounds. I mean, Shack's the obvious one,
and I'm trying to think of like.

Speaker 2 (51:17):
Other centers.

Speaker 1 (51:19):
Well, I don't morning. I feel like has burnt me
on ten k before. And that's where I feel like
I show the like I play immaculate grid.

Speaker 2 (51:27):
But still definitely wasn't long enough.

Speaker 1 (51:29):
Boston wasn't long enough. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (51:32):
I don't think Wade would have ten k.

Speaker 1 (51:34):
There's no way Wade would. It's just like it's gonna
be the question is that Braun did it and I
know he, like Bron.

Speaker 2 (51:43):
Has to have done it right.

Speaker 1 (51:45):
He has to have done it. The other one, I
like Kevin Love has to be close, right. I trust
play Bench nights down the end.

Speaker 2 (51:55):
I trust Lebron more than Love.

Speaker 1 (51:57):
I do too, and I think Lebron will be lower
than Shack, so I would be down to do Lebron there, Oh,
no respect. I'm surprised that doesn't come up only it should.

Speaker 2 (52:11):
Crazy that that's high.

Speaker 1 (52:12):
I think Shack is in the sixties. Dude, I always
got high. I don't. I don't know anybody else on
the heat was ten k because like I just look
at Morning has like five k, which is stunning to me.
And Kevin Love I just looked up as ninety four hundred,
so he's just a little short bucks ten k. The
obvious one is Kareem. Kareem's the easy one. I don't

(52:36):
know if brook Lopez has ten k.

Speaker 2 (52:38):
He's got the years, but like, yeah.

Speaker 1 (52:43):
God, like I don't know, he's not. He's never really
been like a big rebounding guy. I asso see him
with like kind of playing outside of the paint.

Speaker 2 (52:51):
No one ended up there for like a year stint.
That's like a Drummond or something.

Speaker 1 (52:58):
No, because that's my Drummond has and Yannis hasn't been
there yet. I'm trying to even think of like like
I don't think Glenn Robinson, for example, like he was
a good rebounder me, he was never getting ten k. No, Like,
that's truly one where I don't know. I mean short
of I mean, I'm sure there's like again like a
boomer in there somewhere who probably has ten k. God. Yeah,

(53:24):
I truly don't think I know anyone other than Kream
for the Bucks who is ten k. Like I imagine
Giannis will at some point, he just doesn't yet.

Speaker 2 (53:33):
Yeah. Yeah, let's just go Kareem.

Speaker 1 (53:37):
I want to see. Yeah, I'm going to google this
after the.

Speaker 2 (53:41):
First person that shows if you put in k that's funny,
all right, that was ninety one percent. Yeah there's five.

Speaker 1 (53:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (53:52):
I mean, oh but it's not going to filter it.

Speaker 1 (53:55):
No, I know that that's always what it does.

Speaker 2 (53:58):
Yeah, so huh yeah, I'll pull it over here and
see if I'll give you the grid back and see
if I can pull it over here. Who has Kareem?

Speaker 1 (54:06):
I'm doing it too. We're doing some live on the
thing has played for the Bucks and has ten thousand career.

Speaker 2 (54:16):
Rebounds get your results. Yeah wow, it's gonna make me.

Speaker 1 (54:26):
Umm oh, that's all right, that's not helpful. Okay, yeah, well,
we'll come back to it later. Either way. Kareem is
super high as we'd expect. Can you scroll down to
our most popular answers?

Speaker 2 (54:36):
Just interesting? Vouch by the way, off topic, Vooch has
ten k oh.

Speaker 1 (54:42):
Wow, that's that's a great answer for the sixers. Can
you do the most popular ones? My bad?

Speaker 2 (54:48):
Oh most popular? Sorry?

Speaker 1 (54:49):
Yeah, yeeah, yeah, yeah, and then we'll go back to
our grid. Most popular answers for it was James Harden
for sixers and Rockets, Dylan Brooks who you mentioned for
rockets and Griz chem Olajuan rock It's ten k rebounds,
Jimmy Butler sixers at heat, Mike Miller Heat and Grizz,
Shaquille O'Neil heat ten k rebounds, Drew Holliday sixers and
Bucks grease and Allen your boys stun you didn't drop

(55:11):
him for Bucks and Grizz cream mebdual Jabbar number one
for Bucks and rebounds. As you would imagine, Margaret, if
we want to run him back one last time. We
have kJ McDaniels for Sixers and Rockets, Dwayne Deadman for
Heat and Sixers, Michael Carter Williams for Bucks and Sixers,
Chandler Parsons for Rockets and Grizzlies, Mario Chalmers for Heat

(55:32):
and Grizzlies. OJ Mayo for Bucks and Grizzlies, Charles Barkley Rockets,
ten thousand career rebounds, Lebron James Heat ten k rebounds,
and Kareambdal Jabbar Bucks ten k rebounds. Thank you everybody
for listening this episode of The Driving Dish Mea Podcast.
Appreciate you guys as always, happy finals. We'll be back
actually soon later.

Speaker 2 (55:51):
House Keeping on the flo, Oh, you know who'd have
been sneaky for who? For ten k rebounds on the Bucks?
Paul Gas Saul, Oh, that is a good one. Yeah,
play three games for them in eighteen nineteen.

Speaker 1 (56:12):
He only played the Wow. I thought he'd played more
than three games for them. I remember him playing for
the Bucks genuinely like that part doesn't surprise me. It's
the WOW. I definitely thought he played more than that.

Speaker 2 (56:20):
That's one of them, at least.

Speaker 1 (56:22):
Housekeeping. While we're here talking schedule, just are we good
for regular recording time on Saturday? I usually wi't do
this live on the podcast, but are we rolling on Saturday? Okay,
I think I'm good, so in that case, So for housekeeping,
we'll have this episode. This is out. We'll be back
in a few days actually, so you'll get another episode here.
We're gonna we'll break down Game one, talk about our

(56:43):
first impressions of the finals. Yeah, and then we'll be
back midway through the series to stay tuned for all that. Again,
Li's review on iTunes good a bad? Read them on
the podcast. If you're not an Apple user, anywhere you
can find a podcast, you can find us.

Speaker 2 (56:54):
And obviously you want to watch the Immaculate grid or
play along as we go, there's video version. Just go
to Driving Dish NBA on YouTube. You can subscribe. They're
like you would a podcast, and obviously get notifications when
new episodes are coming out. I think we've done my
dance is today, so why don't we dance Wednesday?

Speaker 1 (57:14):
See the star side? Okay, money are I think they
can