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Dave DeFore
Level moment from AT&T business. Say you've sent out a gigantic shipment of pillows and they need to be there in time for International Sleep day. You've got AT and T5G so you're fully confident, but the vendor isn't responding. And International Sleep Day is tomorrow. Luckily, AT&T 5G lets you deal with any issues with ease so the pillows will get delivered and everyone can sleep soundly, especially you. AT&T 5G requires a compatible plan and device. Coverage not available everywhere. Learn more at @. Good morning and welcome to the NBA Daily for June 3, 2025. I'm Dave DeFore here with Esperaheny. Coming up, Shay Gilgis Alexander. Is he having the best season ever? We're going to debate it and Mike Vorkanoff is here to talk about the NBA and why the ratings are not a big deal for the final Good morning everybody. Good morning. As a little rating today, I know you're fired up for that S. Oh yeah.
Esper Henny
I love ratings talking.
Dave DeFore
Yeah. Actually Mike Vorkanov wrote a great story over at the Athletic that I actually enjoyed quite a bit that lays out the case for why. Look, ratings talk is boring but don't matter business aspect behind the the ratings, you know, really like the ratings are not important at all.
Esper Henny
It's a good way to boost these stars, having them on this Type of platform. And in future, who knows what it is.
Dave DeFore
But yeah, we have a great talk with Vor after the break and we. We really go into Thunder and Pacers and. And the basketball a little bit on the TV stuff. But as I. I want to talk because we just haven't had a chance to really reflect since Shay won the mvp because, you know, we've had conference finals games every single night up until now. And, you know, this guy is having one of these seasons that will point to, you know, if they wind up winning the finals and if he's the finals mvp. We're going to compare this to some of the seasons that Michael Jordan put up. Shaquille o' Neal had a season where he led the league in scoring. Where does this stack up for you if. If he seals the deal? I mean, there's a lot of if here, right? We still got a couple of weeks.
Esper Henny
Yeah, there definitely is a lot of ifs in the sense that he has to win the NBA championship and likely win finals mvp, because I think that's a very, very nice cherry on top to what has been one of the best seasons of all time. Uh, if you look at it, it's only him, Michael Jordan and Shaq to have a scoring title, an MVP and potentially finals MVP in a championship. So if he nails down the other two things, he's in rarefied air with two guys who, you ask any NBA history guy, have had some of the most historic, dominant seasons in NBA history. The season that, like, recently reminds me of this is 2014, 2015. Steph, where, yeah, he. He was really great. I don't think he won the SCOR title, but he was near the top of the league and winning the scoring title. Obviously one mvp, they won the title that year, but didn't win Finals mvp because that was the Andrea Gadala year. We can debate about whether that was the right call or whatnot. I don't know how you feel about that.
Dave DeFore
I mean, there's no debate. Steph should have won the finals.
Esper Henny
We're on the same page then. We're on the same page. So that's a recent memory of a great season that I can think of. It's funny to think of the fact that in Jokic's year where he didn't win mvp, he ended up winning the title. And so it's hard to parse through. He had an incredible stretch. You could argue that he had his best season yet this year, but in terms of pure resume, yeah, SGA is absolutely having one of the best seasons of all time just because everything has been perfect. And oh, by the way, they won 68 games. And oh, by the way, they are one of four teams to win 80 games before heading to the NBA Finals. It's like, it's, it's pretty hard to poke and prod at, like, any issues with what Shea did this season.
Dave DeFore
Yeah. But now the, the on the other side, if he doesn't pull this off, right, like, if they don't win the finals, we're going to look back on this season and we're going to, we're going to call Shay a fraud. You know, we're going to do all the things that we do. I mean, it is, it is funny. Like, this guy has had just this incredible run. You mentioned it. Best record in the league, scoring champ, mvp. I mean, they, they nearly pulled off the NBA cup, you know, final. I mean, you know, they could have done that.
Mike Vorkanoff
True.
Dave DeFore
You know, we're still talking that up. And if he manages to, after the playoff run that he's had, if he manages this, you know, to, to win a Finals, get the finals mvp. I mean, I definitely think this is probably one of the four or five best seasons individually that anyone's ever had. I mean, we could, we could split hairs on the Yoko cheers because of the true shooting. And you know, we can dig into those numbers and it's different.
Esper Henny
Can I ask you, like, off the top of your head, do you. Because Steph is the one name that pops up to me. You can list any of the recent Yokich years, and that's one. LeBron is another that you could think of in the years that he was MVP and won a title. Like what names pop up to you when you think of a season that SGA has had like this in terms.
Dave DeFore
Of the winning, basically. Yeah, it's basically that. I mean, Michael Jordan winning like defensive player of the year and all these things. He. Jordan had a few years where it just felt like he owned the award season.
Esper Henny
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Dave DeFore
But, but to do that and to have by far the best team, like your team is the best team in the league, runaway mvp. I just think that, yeah, it's. It's one of the four or five that I can think of. I'd put it up there with that Steph season, which statistically is a ridiculous thing to say, maybe just because of the way that Steph shot. But as far as winning goes, I mean, which is really what matters, that's the stat that matters the most. This is one of the Winningest seasons any player has ever had. Right. Like just games and awards, first team, all NBA. I mean, it's just undeniable that he, you know, had a better year than every single player out there. Yeah.
Esper Henny
It's also crazy because he's still getting better. Like he's 26. And I know we kind of prop this up and say this about a bunch of superstars, but it's because they're that good. Like when you, when Jokic was young and he won his first mvp, we're like, this guy can still somehow even get better on the defensive end. And when Giannis won his defensive player of the year and MVP season, it was like, this guy could become a better playmaker. He could become a better, more well crafted mid range scorer. And I think with Shea, he's having a season like this and you're like, yeah, he could probably end up being a better passer, better playmaker, even better from three. It's just, it's crazy to consider he's only 26 years old and he's doing this.
Dave DeFore
Yeah. You know, if you're watching on YouTube, let us know in the comments if we missed a season that someone had. You know, historically, I mean, look, miss me with the Wilt Chamberlain years because obviously, like, those are ridiculous. But you know, somebody recently has had a season that I'm just not thinking of. Let us know. But I think Shay has yet.
Esper Henny
Look, individual seasons of numbers and everything. But when you think numbers, accolades, team success, everything together, it's really hard to poke at this SGA season.
Dave DeFore
Yeah, guys, stick around after the break. Mike Vorkanoff here to talk Thunder Pacers and the X factors that are going to swing it for the Pacers. Foreign.
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Paige Desorbo
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Dave DeFore
There's been a lot of conversation the last few weeks about teams being based out of Oklahoma City and Indianapolis making the finals and how it's supposed to be a nightmare for the NBA. My guy, Mike Vorkanoff over at the Athletic, he covers a lot of the business side of the NBA. He actually wrote about this and why it's not actually a disaster. First of all, it's good basketball. But, Mike, lay out the case for me that Thunder Pacers is actually a good thing for the NBA.
Mike Vorkanoff
Well, I'll tell you what. The ratings apocalypse, if it does hit, will not take out the NBA. They will survive. I promise. I think I. I think a lot of this is based on we've all become kind of sports media viewers and consumers and critics. Right. To. To steal from.
Dave DeFore
It does seem like people comment on podcasts about other podcasts a lot. Like, it just seems like that's a. The whole ecosystem there.
Esper Henny
That there's definitely an ecosystem.
Mike Vorkanoff
I mean, like, it's a great way to feud, and I'd love to see you guys do that. Like, I would love that.
Esper Henny
Thank you.
Dave DeFore
Nobody wants beef with this podcast.
Esper Henny
Yeah, we. We could call someone, whatever, Right?
Mike Vorkanoff
So, yeah, I mean, everyone cares about ratings. Part of it is, like, some people have real concerns. Some people care about it because they care about the business of sports. Some people use it as, like, concern trolling. Right. Where they don't actually care and use it as kind of like, you know, as weapons of misinformation or reasons to critique the NBA and other sports at the WNBA. Like, all that type of stuff. Look, OKC, 47th biggest media market in the NBA. Sorry. In the country. Third smallest in the NBA. Indy has the ninth smallest media market in the NBA. We'll probably get low ratings. Yeah, probably. Does it matter for the league? No, it doesn't. Yeah, they're getting the same amount of money either way. They're in the last year. Their current media deal, their next one already is, and they already signed that one, right?
Dave DeFore
Yeah. Who knows?
Mike Vorkanoff
Will TV ratings really matter as much by 2036? We might have subscriptions, we might have orbital views. I don't know. Like, I don't know what we'll be doing by that time. But it, like the NBA probably would have on the whole made more money if it was like Knicks, Minnesota, or, you know, if the warriors made a run or something like that. Like ticket revenue gate, all that stuff matters, right? Like that money teams get. They split it with the league. They split it with the MVPA merchandise sales. That matters. Like, that's all money that they can make that they probably would have made more of. Okay. See, as strong as a fan base as they might have, like it has half the amount of people in the entire state than the city of New York. Right. Like that stuff matters. But it's not gonna be the type of thing that has any really huge impact on the NBA because the NBA, like every other professional sports league at this point, is so dependent on media rights. And the meteorite steel is locked in like they're getting 75 billion for the next 11 years.
Esper Henny
Those, those, those checks are gonna cash. Regard.
Dave DeFore
There's a few things at play. Number one, I'll tell you, just firsthand experience here on our show, the Thunder do numbers, right? Like, people have paid att. This is a great basketball team. They play a fun and exciting style. They have an mvp. I, I think that people actually are very curious about the Thunder. I think it's a little bit of an opportunity for the NBA who already drives their fans to pay attention to the entire league. This is not a regional sort of league like Major League Baseball where, you know, you might only get Yankees fans watching Yankees games. I mean, everyone watches pretty much every team except for the Charlotte Hornets.
Esper Henny
It is interesting that, like, we even have these conversations regarding the NBA when in the NFL it's like, oh, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. And you know what I mean? Like, it doesn't kind of compute to me. If you look at the.
Dave DeFore
You can put a team from Canada in the super bowl and it would do numbers because the super bowl itself.
Mike Vorkanoff
Is an event to back that up. When Cleveland was in the Finals, nobody complained because had it LeBron.
Dave DeFore
Right, right, right.
Mike Vorkanoff
And so how do you get not the next LeBron, but, like, someone who might potentially get to his level is for someone like SGA to get to the finals year after year after year, win MVP after MVP after mvp. So this is the first step in something like that potentially happening. And like, OKC might actually happen. Like, we. We don't know. They're. They're pretty well positioned to get here, like, two, three, four.
Esper Henny
Yeah.
Mike Vorkanoff
Eight million years in a row. I don't know. Like, this is. And I think that's how some around the NBA view, too, is, like, the ratings this year will probably be suboptimal. I'll use that word. It won't be great. Right. But it might be an investment in the future in the sense that now you expose Tyrese Halliburton to a different kind of audience than people who are watching the finals of the NBA cup or even the Eastern Conference finals right now. He gets exposed to a much larger audience, and that makes people watch next year, the year after. Like, I had that stat in my story, which is the Denver Miami Finals. They didn't have great ratings, but they saw, I think, a 30. The NBA saw a 32% increase year over year in national televised game viewership for games that had the Nuggets.
Dave DeFore
Right. Yeah.
Esper Henny
So there's. I'm assuming the same thing applies to Giannis, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Mike Vorkanoff
And I think they had 21 for Bucks games the year after they won the title.
Dave DeFore
Yeah.
Mike Vorkanoff
So, I mean. I mean, there are different ways that this all kind of goes. And you have to bridge to the next generation of stars. He has to find a way.
Esper Henny
Right.
Mike Vorkanoff
Like, we still see LeBron vs Steph on Christmas Day, and that has an end point.
Dave DeFore
Yeah.
Mike Vorkanoff
So you have to, you know, like, Dave and I talk about wrestling a lot. We're big wrestling fans. You got to start building up like the next star.
Dave DeFore
Right. Some new guys got to go over so they look good. I will say this. I mean, I think the. The trick here is that the NBA really wants to recapture the casual fan. And, you know, like, you don't have Michael Jordan. I understand it. But the truth is. And I want to just. We're off the TV topic now. I did want to talk to you about it because I did enjoy the piece, but I want to talk to you about the hoops part, because if I was a casual fan jumping in, this is going to be an electric series. When you consider, number one, style of fight. Right. Like, just consider the contrasting styles and how they. They go head to head against each other, but also two deep teams, both teams play defense, fast paced offense. I mean Mike, I really want to know, like what are you excited about with this finals matchup in particular? I mean you follow the entire league, you write about the entire league. So, so you know, you know these teams as well as anybody. What are you pumped about?
Mike Vorkanoff
Like, I'm excited for the pace of play. Like I think it's going to be electric. As you said Indy. Everyone talks about how fast Indy played against the Knicks. Right. They couldn't contain their, their pace. They couldn't catch up to their speed and like couldn't keep up with Pascal Siakam leaking out after he even made baskets. Plays super fast. OKC has played faster in the regular season and the playoffs. They are a faster team. Like I, I think back to, I think it was the first OKC Cleveland matchup this season. Awesome game. The pace was great, the offense was great. Like we could see that for X amount of games in this finals. And as a product like that matters for the NBA. And I think if people watch and they tune in and they give it a chance, it is more likely that they stay and watch a game like that than even if the Knicks had made it.
Dave DeFore
Right? Right.
Mike Vorkanoff
You know, Knicks have a huge audience, but like Jalen Brunson, foul grifting, not great television. Their pace is a little bit slower. Like Cat isn't as aesthetically pleasing a type of player.
Esper Henny
It's a less entertaining brand of basketball compared to what the Pacers were. And like to your point about the pace, I think that gets the casual fan hooked too.
Dave DeFore
Right.
Esper Henny
They get in, they're like, wow, this is a completely different pace than what we're used to in the regular season for the most part. Is there like a, an X factor or someone you're looking at as, as a guy who can swing this series?
Mike Vorkanoff
Either way, I'd love to hear your guys opinion. But for me it's Pascal Siakam like and I know that maybe a cop out, maybe he's not an expert.
Dave DeFore
He's the best player on the Pacers. I do think that he's very.
Esper Henny
Dave has been riding that take. Eastern Conference Finals mvp.
Mike Vorkanoff
Yeah, Eastern Conference Finals MVP plays, plays you out pretty well. I'd say that mostly because he's not as capable of getting his own shot and as producing. And Indy will need someone aside from Hal Burton to create offensively. Whether that means playmaking off the dribble or whether it means just busting his butt down the court as he so often does to just create easy buckets.
Esper Henny
Yeah.
Mike Vorkanoff
And there's sometimes where. I think there's a few games against the Knicks where they really struggled because there was no one there to give Halberton help. And New York, for like quarters and maybe halves at a time, did a good job of kind of like slowing Halberton down. And OKC is as capable as anyone doing that because they have the. Not only like one or two defenders, they have a whole set of ways. You know, they have waves of defenders that they can throw at him between Dort and Jalen Williams and Alex Cruz and all that type of stuff. So Siakam's got to be more consistent. And if he can be that kind of player, then I think it can be a longer series.
Dave DeFore
Yeah, I mean, look, my. I really want to say Thomas Bryant is the X factor, but the truth is. It's Miles Turner. Right?
Mike Vorkanoff
I was gonna say. Yeah, Miles Turner.
Dave DeFore
It's Miles Turner, Right. Miles Turner is the X factor here. Right. He's gotta. He's got to go up against Chad. He's got to go up against Hartenstein. He's got a. He's got a rebound at a different level than he did against the Knicks, and he's got to hit those threes, those trail threes that they love. I think Miles Turner is the key to the series if the Pacers are going to compete. You know, I. I think we picked OKC in six. I mean, it's very probably a pretty basic pick out there. I'm not saying we're breaking any new ground, but if this gets to 7 or if the Pacers have a chance to win, it's going to be because Miles Turner kind of goes off to a certain degree. I think actually he could in this year. I mean, this is a pretty good matchup for him individually. It depends. Maybe they start guarding him with like J Dub and it takes them completely out of whack. I don't know. I mean, I think the coaching matchup is the thing I'm more fascinated by, but that would be my X factor. What about you, S? I mean, you asked the question.
Esper Henny
Yeah, I think I love the Miles Turner shout just because that's the guy who can stretch the floor. And both these teams like to play five out offense like, like they can. They're capable of doing that. I think my X factor is probably Andrew Nemhard because who in the world is going to guard SGA on that team? Yes, it's going to be Nemhard. Who's Been doing it for most of the time that OKC and Indiana's matchup this season, like, if he can make life hell for sga, and it's really hard to do that, nobody has been successful in doing that this season. I mean, this is a guy who's having one of the most efficient scoring seasons we've seen in NBA history. If he can just make life difficult for sga, that's the. That's the version of the series where the Pacers might be able to win. But, man, is that a tall task. That is a very, very tall task for Nemhard, who also struggled against Brunson a little bit until that Game six. Like, he was incredible in Game six to lock up Brunson. Made it hard on him, pressured him up the court. But for the most part, that was a pretty tough series for him, you.
Mike Vorkanoff
Know, Can I throw one more out there? Yeah, we're talking about it. Yeah, go Benedict Matherick. I think they're going to need a good series from him. He struggled for most of the Knicks series, and he got replaced by Ben Shepard at times, or he just had his minutes cut down. Like, they need a guy like him who they can A, use defensively to throw in there and play capably, and B, like, he. He got to the line pretty frequently in the Beach Conference finals, and they're going to need that to get some OKC guys in trouble.
Esper Henny
It's true.
Mike Vorkanoff
And they're going to need another guard to just like. Like, cause some trouble offensively. Because I. I'm curious what you guys think. I. I'm worried about the T.J. mcConnell minutes a little bit different.
Dave DeFore
Like, I've been worried about TJ McConnell minutes basically the entire time he's been in the league.
Esper Henny
But, guys, he just continues to produce.
Dave DeFore
Yeah, I'm done doubting T.J. mcConnell. And I understand, like, there's this thing where when he dribbles the ball, it looks like. I don't know, he would really cook Bob Koozie. Right. But you don't see him breaking down the Oklahoma City Thunder defense. But the truth is, he doesn't turn it over a ton and link, like, he finds a way to get through it. You know, daring this guy to shoot turned out to not be great in certain spots. So. I don't know, man, I can't doubt. I will say this. It is funny that, that we named four people between the three of us, all Pacers. I mean, this is.
Esper Henny
Well, because it's.
Dave DeFore
Because it's. That's what it's going to take it is someone's going to have to really break out. And I would say Siakam has to just perform, but one of those other guys has to break out. You know, again, I mean, the fascinating part about the series is that you have two coaches that are willing to go deep into their bench. They're willing to break guys out. I mean, Oklahoma City played 10 guys in the first quarter of Game 1 of the Western Conference finals. That's kind of amazing. Kenrik Williams was getting run in that in the first game of the conference finals.
Esper Henny
And for Indy, it's like, did we expect Tony Bradley to play minutes in the Eastern Conference finals?
Dave DeFore
Not at all.
Mike Vorkanoff
He.
Dave DeFore
Eventually Thomas Bryant has to fill in because he gets hurt. And all of a sudden this is, this series is going to be so much fun.
Mike Vorkanoff
Do you, do you think that Indy. And I'm going to put this again at the focus on any. Because we're all kind of like thinking they're at the disadvantage here. And so you're, you're kind of like thinking through what they need to do to win the game or let alone what their margin for error is like. Can they afford to be to play as deep with their rotations in this series? I know it's their thing and I know they need it potentially too, like, so they can maintain their pace for a full game and they play so hard and all that stuff. But like OKC is just as deep. And I feel like when you're Putting in your eighth night, 10th best player for important minutes in a finals against a team like OKC who's like that, like that can burn you a little bit more than it could against the Knicks or the Bucks because those are just, you know, they don't have the same depth.
Dave DeFore
I'm guessing they're both. I'm guessing both teams are down to like eight.
Esper Henny
Can I just throw out my stats since I have it here? I feel like we're in the conversation. Okay, okay, look, so, so I was thinking about this guys, about like, how can Indy win this game? What is the, what is the way to attack okc? Okay, there's not a lot of ways. Okay. This team won 68 games. They, they won 80 before they got to the NBA Finals. They're very, very good basketball team on their pace, on a pace to be like historic. Okay, Great, great defense. They have that superstar player in SGA that can rise up to the next level. But, but three point shooting is an interesting thing. Here they are 50 in the playoffs when they've shot better than 35%. They are 7 and 4 in games where they've lost and shot worse than 35%. Those games are the blowout against Minnesota and then three games against Denver. So you start thinking about, okay, what happened in that Nugget series, right? What did they do? What did Denver do to make it hard on them? Three point shooting wise? They crowded sga. They dared the rest of the other guys to shoot them. And this is why, maybe from an OKC perspective, the X factor is J Dub, Chat, Caruso, Dort and those guys knocking down their shots against Minnesota. Chat 36%, J Dub 46%, Caruso 41%, Dort 37% against Denver. These are insane numbers. Chet 22%, J Dub 23%, Caruso 42% and Dort 29%. If you're hitting your shots, you're not going to be like, OKC is going to beat you every single time. If they're hitting their shots, if you get a couple of games where they miss their shots and they're funneling it to Lou Dort and he has a 2 of 10 day, that's the way you can beat them.
Mike Vorkanoff
Yeah, I think that's fair. And I have more questions. Yeah, I think that's a great point because I was going to say I have more questions about OKC being able to score reliably.
Esper Henny
Right.
Mike Vorkanoff
Like, like, will they be able to score with Indy? I think that's, you know, and they really struggle to do that against Denver. Like you said, at times, like, and Denver's not a great defensive team.
Esper Henny
Yeah, but they found a way, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Can Denver go zone? I don't know. That's the, that's my, that's what I'm thinking.
Dave DeFore
I, I will, I will say this. I, I think that the Pacers and their pace of play is going to work to their advantage. The fact that they have this egalitarian offense where Andrew Nemhardt sometimes is initiating the offense and can get into the mid range, they just have a guys that can score from different places. So this is the key to, to their victory. Right. If they're going to come out and win games in this series, it's just to be extremely versatile and to get buckets everywhere. Whereas with okc, if you can shut down the, the SGA faucet, all of a sudden it gets a little dry out there. I mean, Lou Dort, you know, we, we saw him miss what, 20 threes in a row or something. They can, they can definitely find themselves in the desert. Mike, you got anything else before we get out of here on this series?
Mike Vorkanoff
I, I just struggled to see the way that Indy takes this. I don't know what you guys think.
Dave DeFore
But like, yeah, most cases checked every box, right?
Esper Henny
Yeah. It's hard to even the stat that I just brought to you guys. I'm like, this is, I'm really grasping at straws here to figure out a way.
Mike Vorkanoff
Yeah, I guess maybe if they just turn up the three point volume so much like they start to math, math their way to a win. Maybe, I don't know.
Dave DeFore
Maybe. Hey, Rick Carlisle has done it before. I'm gonna keep reminding everybody that Rick Carlisle has done it before.
Esper Henny
This is also the thing where it's like, if we're circling back to the small market thing, this is why this series is good. This is why this series will be entertaining.
Mike Vorkanoff
You know what rhymes with J.J. barea? TJ McConnell.
Esper Henny
That's gonna do TJ McConnell, folks.
Dave DeFore
Thank you to Mike Vorkanov. Go and read him over at the Athletic. He'll be covering the finals. Thank you to Esper Henny, as always, who I'm going to see in person couple days. I'm Dave DeFore. This has been the NBA Daily. Thanks for waking up with us. Foreign.
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Elise Hu
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Dave DeFore
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Mike Vorkanoff
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Elise Hu
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Podcast Summary: The Athletic NBA Daily – "Is SGA Having One of the Best Seasons Ever?"
Release Date: June 3, 2025
In this episode of The Athletic NBA Daily, hosts Dave DeFore and Esper Henny delve into the outstanding performance of NBA star SGA (presumably an acronym for a prominent player, contextually similar to legends like Michael Jordan and Shaquille O'Neal). Joining them is Mike Vorkanoff, The Athletic’s expert on the business side of the NBA. The discussion centers around whether SGA is on track to have one of the greatest seasons in NBA history, the implications of the current finals matchup between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Indiana Pacers, and the broader context of TV ratings within the league.
Dave DeFore opens the conversation by highlighting SGA's exceptional season, mentioning his MVP status and outstanding statistics:
"If they wind up winning the finals and if he's the finals MVP, we're going to compare this to some of the seasons that Michael Jordan put up." ([03:10])
Esper Henny concurs, emphasizing the rarity of SGA's achievements:
"If he nails down the other two things, he's in rarefied air with two guys who have had some of the most historic, dominant seasons in NBA history." ([04:00])
The hosts compare SGA's performance to legendary seasons, citing Michael Jordan and Shaquille O'Neal as benchmarks. They discuss the possibility of SGA winning the championship and Finals MVP, which would solidify his season as one of the all-time greats.
Dave DeFore further elaborates on SGA's dominance:
"This is one of the Winningest seasons any player has ever had... it's just undeniable that he had a better year than every single player out there." ([06:00])
Esper Henny adds to this by noting SGA's potential for future growth:
"He's still getting better. Like he's 26... it's crazy to consider he's only 26 years old and he's doing this." ([07:10])
The conversation shifts to the current NBA Finals matchup between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Indiana Pacers.
Dave DeFore introduces the topic:
"There's been a lot of conversation... about teams being based out of Oklahoma City and Indianapolis making the finals and how it's supposed to be a nightmare for the NBA." ([10:17])
Mike Vorkanoff presents a counter-argument, suggesting that this matchup could be beneficial for the NBA:
"The ratings apocalypse, if it does hit, will not take out the NBA. They will survive. I promise." ([10:48])
He emphasizes that despite Oklahoma City and Indianapolis being smaller media markets, their presence in the Finals showcases good basketball and provides exposure for emerging stars like Tyrese Halliburton.
Dave DeFore adds that the style of play between the two teams could attract casual fans:
"This is going to be an electric series... contrasting styles... two deep teams, both teams play defense, fast-paced offense." ([16:07])
The hosts and Mike Vorkanoff analyze the pivotal elements that could determine the outcome of the series.
Defensive Challenges for Pacers:
Pascal Siakam's Role: SGA's performance is crucial. If he can consistently produce and support his team, the Pacers stand a strong chance.
"Siakam's got to be more consistent. And if he can be that kind of player, then I think it can be a longer series." ([18:06])
Miles Turner as the X-Factor: Dave identifies Miles Turner as Indiana's key player who can influence the series significantly.
"Miles Turner is the X factor here. He's gotta... hit those trail threes that they love." ([19:08])
Indiana’s Defensive Strategies:
Andrew Nemhard's Impact: Esper highlights Nemhard's potential to disrupt SGA's gameplay.
"Andrew Nemhard... if he can make life difficult for SGA, that's the version of the series where the Pacers might be able to win." ([20:07])
Benedict Mathers' Role: Mike suggests that Mathers needs to perform effectively to aid Indiana's defense.
"They need a guy like him who they can use defensively to throw in there and play capably." ([21:08])
Depth and Coaching Matchups:
"Two coaches that are willing to go deep into their bench... making this series so much fun." ([22:25])
Mike Vorkanoff addresses concerns about TV ratings due to smaller market teams reaching the Finals, arguing that the NBA's robust media deals ensure stability regardless of ratings fluctuations:
"They're getting the same amount of money either way. Their current media deal, their next one already is, and they already signed that one, right?" ([12:17])
He also discusses how exposure for players like Tyrese Halliburton can benefit the league in the long run by attracting a broader audience:
"He gets exposed to a much larger audience, and that makes people watch next year, the year after." ([14:01])
Dave DeFore and Esper Henny agree that the quality and excitement of the gameplay will likely sustain or even grow the NBA's viewer base, despite initial rating concerns.
The episode concludes with a consensus that SGA's season is historically significant and that the Finals matchup between Oklahoma City Thunder and Indiana Pacers, while unconventional, presents an exciting and potentially beneficial scenario for the NBA. The hosts express optimism that both the on-court performances and strategic coaching will captivate audiences, ensuring the league's continued success and growth.
Dave DeFore wraps up the discussion:
"This has been the NBA Daily. Thanks for waking up with us." ([29:35])
Dave DeFore: "If he nails down the other two things, he's in rarefied air with two guys who have had some of the most historic, dominant seasons in NBA history." ([04:00])
Mike Vorkanoff: "The ratings apocalypse, if it does hit, will not take out the NBA. They will survive. I promise." ([10:48])
Esper Henny: "If he can just make life difficult for SGA, that's the version of the series where the Pacers might be able to win." ([20:07])
Dave DeFore: "Miles Turner is the X factor here. He's gotta... hit those trail threes that they love." ([19:08])
This episode of The Athletic NBA Daily provides an in-depth analysis of SGA's remarkable season, the dynamics of the current NBA Finals, and the broader implications for the league's future. Whether you're an avid basketball fan or a casual observer, the discussion offers valuable insights into the evolving landscape of professional basketball.