NBA Awards check-in + NBA Cup predictions

Summary

The Athletic NBA Daily – Episode Summary

Episode: NBA Awards check-in + NBA Cup predictions
Date: December 1, 2025
Hosts: Dave DuFour, Zena Kada, Esfandiar "S" Baraheni, Anna

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Overview

This fast-paced episode marks the NBA’s quarter-season point. The hosts dig into early races for MVP, Rookie of the Year, and Coach of the Year, then debate who will win the NBA Cup as the tournament reaches knockout stages. The tone is lively, analytic, and fun, with banter and strong opinions throughout.

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Key Discussion Points

1. MVP Race at the Quarter Season

(Starts at 03:15)

• Current Standings:
  Thunder blazing at 20-1, raising MVP debates.
• Frontrunners:
  • Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (OKC)
  • Nikola Jokic (Denver)
  • Luka Doncic (Lakers)
  • Giannis Antetokounmpo (Bucks)
  • Kade Cunningham (Pistons), Tyrese Maxey (Sixers) also mentioned.

In-Depth Arguments:

• SGA's Case:

  • Best player on the best team.
  • Two-way dominance: 30 PPG, 40% from three, top 2 in steals and blocks, driving historic defense while Jalen Williams (J-Dub) was out.
  • “It's SGA's award right now.” – S (04:16)

• Jokic's Case:

  • Averaging a 30-point triple double, leading league in rebounds and assists.
  • Analytics and betting models still favor Jokic.
  • “The numbers are just at this point, video game numbers.” – Dave (06:24)

• Luka’s Growing Case:

  • Fewer games played, but leading in scoring (35 PPG), high rebounds/assists, defensive improvements, and strong Lakers start.
  • “The Luka case is getting stronger...” – Anna (08:21)

• Giannis:

  • Outstanding play, but Bucks record trails the Thunder.

Memorable Quote:

“Best player, best team. It feels like a simple conversation to me.”
— S, 04:28

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2. Rookie of the Year Check-In

(Starts at 09:44)

Frontrunners:

• Khaman “Khan” Knipple (Charlotte)

  • Immediate impact, clutch shooting, compared to Klay Thompson in readiness and poise.
  • “He is someone that can come in, he can win games, he can take the team on his back, get to his spots, put up his shots.” – Anna (11:22)
  • Averaging 40%+ from three on high volume; declared “killer instinct.”

• Cooper Flagg (Dallas)

  • Slow start, improving rapidly, showcased full skillset vs. Clippers (“they looked like traffic cones while Cooper was operating” – S, 10:28).
  • Team experimenting with his offensive role.

Other Notables:

• Derek Queen (Pelicans): Handed keys to the offense.
• VJ Edgecombe, Cedric Coward, Rob Dillingham (“Fears”): Noteworthy flashes; “so fast and really good on defense” (Anna, 14:40).

Key Point:

• ROY now favors Khan, but Flagg (and a few others) not far behind—plenty of season left.

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3. Coach of the Year Candidates

(Starts at 15:33)

Top Picks:

• J.B. Bickerstaff (Pistons):

  • “Breath of fresh air... changed their entire mentality and approach.” – Dave (16:14)
  • Elevated young roster, but hosts debate how much is his work vs. organic player growth.

• Darko Rajakovic (Raptors):

  • “A lot of X's and O's... putting on a clinic every single night.” – Dave (18:41)
  • Integrated Brandon Ingram into an existing core, balanced complex roles, defense improved.
  • “Number one in out-of-time-out plays in terms of efficiency… reshaped their offense.” – S (19:42)

• Mark Daigneault (Thunder):

  • Impressive, but expectations were already high after last season’s success.

• Other Mentions:

  • Eric Spoelstra (Heat): New offense, maximized Tyler Herro and role players.
  • Jordan Ott (Suns): Massive overachievement, elite defense.
  • Ime Udoka (Rockets): Player development, unique point guard duties.

Memorable Moment:

“Coach of the year is good because... you could make these cases for these other guys.”
— S, 21:30

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4. NBA Cup Predictions

(Starts at 27:02)

Teams Advancing to the Knockout Stage:

• OKC Thunder, Phoenix Suns, Lakers, Spurs, Magic, Heat, Raptors, Knicks

OKC Favored:

• All hosts agree Thunder are the runaway favorites.
• “Oklahoma City is clearly gonna win the NBA cup, right?” – Dave (27:35)
• “Yes, yes, yeah, they got it.” – Group consensus (27:36-27:43)

Possible Challenger Scenarios:

• Phoenix Suns pose threat in next round.
• Lakers–Thunder semifinal in Vegas would be a “home game” for the Lakers (28:36), with conspiracy jokes if that’s the matchup.

From the East:

• Knicks vs. Raptors: Rematch after a recent Knicks blowout.
• Despite Raptors' drop and some injuries, S thinks they have a shot but Heat are more dangerous:
  • “If there's one team I'm kind of looking to in the NBA cup, truthfully from the east... it's the Heat.” – S, 30:02

Tournament X-Factors:

• Single elimination—“guard play matters so much.”
• Microwaves scorers (Tyler Herro, Norman Powell) can swing a game.

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• “He’s shooting 40% on nearly eight attempts a game... but he’s also getting downhill, getting to the basket... he’s a very heady player.”
  — S, on Khaman Knipple, 12:41

• “You could script this? The best team, hottest team in the league against the Lakers in Las Vegas on a Saturday... Interesting.”
  — Dave, 28:36

• “We got to come up with something like March Madness for the NBA cup tournament...”
  — Dave, 30:57

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Segment Timestamps

• [03:15] – MVP Race Analysis
• [09:44] – Rookie of the Year Breakdown
• [15:33] – Coach of the Year Debate
• [27:02] – NBA Cup: Knockout Stage and Predictions

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Recap & Listener Questions

Episode closes with calls for listener takes on MVP, Coach of the Year, ROY, and Cup winners:

“Let us know in the comments on YouTube who’s your MVP right now, who’s your coach of the year, who’s your rookie of the year, and who’s going to win the NBA Cup.”
— Dave, 33:13

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Summary Table

| Award | Frontrunners | Key Arguments | |-------------------|-------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------| | MVP | SGA, Jokic, Luka, Giannis | SGA: best player, best team. Jokic: video-game stats. Luka: Lakers surging.| | Rookie of the Year| Khan Knipple, Cooper Flagg | Khan: poised, clutch, huge role. Flagg: figuring it out, upside still big.| | Coach of the Year | Darko Rajakovic, Bickerstaff, Spoelstra, Ott | Darko: tactical mastery, integration. Bickerstaff: culture shift. Spo: new offense on the fly. Ott: Suns' surprising success.|

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Final Takeaways

• SGA is the MVP favorite among hosts, but Jokic and Luka are argued strongly.
• Rookie race led by Khan Knipple with Cooper Flagg close behind.
• Coach of the Year is highly competitive, with Darko and Bickerstaff leading but several worth candidates.
• Thunder are overwhelming picks to win the NBA Cup, with the Heat as a potential sleeper from the East.

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Listen for: Real-time stat arguments, playful banter, and sharp breakdowns of evolving NBA narratives—perfect for catching up on the season’s early surprises.

Transcript

[Anna]

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[Dave DeFore]

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[Anna]

The holidays are coming and I've got a Boost Mobile gift just for you.

[Zena Kada]

Aww.

[Anna]

For me, Anna? Yes, Anna, you deserve a gift.

[Zena Kada]

The Boost Mobile unlimited plan is just.

[Anna]

$10 a month for the first two months, then $25 a month forever with.

[Zena Kada]

Unlimited data, talk and text. It's a gift.

[Anna]

Thanks, Anna. Anytime, Anna.

[Esperaheni]

The holidays are here and the best gift is for you. Offer [e-mail] after your first two months.

[Dave DeFore]

You'Ll pay $25 a month unless you go online or call to cancel. Requires autopay.

[Zena Kada]

Hey, Andrew Schlecht here. The NBA on Prime is back this Friday with another great doubleheader. The action starts with one of the best rivalries in sports as Luka Doncic and the Los Angeles Lakers face Jaylen Brown and the Boston Celtics. Then Cooper Flagg and the Dallas Mavericks meet SGA and the Oklahoma City Thunder. And if you're not a Prime, if that's not a problem, sign up for a 30 day free trial to get started today. The Lakers and Celtics, the Mavericks and Lakers both really intriguing matchups. What can the potential Rookie of the year do against the potent Thunder defense? And then Luka? Just doing anything is magical against this frisky Boston Celtics team that is led by Jaylen Brown, who's had a really nice year. Coverage starts Friday at 6:30 Eastern only on Prime. Restrictions apply. See Amazon.com SL Amazon prime for details.

[Dave DeFore]

Good morning and welcome to the NBA Daily for December 1, 2025. I'm Dave DeFore here with Zena Kada and Esperaheni. Coming up, we hit the quarterway mark of the season. We figure it's a good time to check in on the awards while the algorithm says that too. And we're going to catch up on the NBA cup and try to pick some winners before the playoff. What's up guys? Hope you had a good holiday.

[Anna]

Morning.

[Zena Kada]

Morning.

[Esperaheni]

Yeah, the playoffs. That was a great word to use for the cup. We're respecting it here, right?

[Dave DeFore]

Yeah, around here we respect the cup. I don't have my towel from last year, but I should be waving it right now.

[Esperaheni]

I actually.

[Anna]

What an amento.

[Esperaheni]

I use it as a placemat for my moisturizers and hand creams and all that. It's.

[Dave DeFore]

It's great.

[Esperaheni]

It's great for that.

[Dave DeFore]

Just letting you guys know, I will admit it is a dog towel. So my dog, you know, my dog is one of these dogs that when he drinks water, his whole face goes into the water bowl.

[Esperaheni]

Oh, I know, exactly. Because my dog is the same way.

[Dave DeFore]

Yeah. And so. And you know, if you walk around in socks or slippers, that's awful because they're soaked. Yeah. So I've been trying to teach him to wipe his own face. And I use the NBA cup towel shout out because we respect the cup.

[Anna]

That's right.

[Dave DeFore]

This house. All right, we're going to talk about that after the break. But guys, look, we've hit the quarter of the way mark of the season. The Thunder are now 20 and 1. Well on their way to that 70 win season, actually. Did I undersell them with 70 wins?

[Anna]

Maybe 80. Very valid.

[Dave DeFore]

It's kind of feeling like it. But anyway, this is like, it's a great time to, to check in on the awards because I do think things are really interesting and oftentimes we feel like the awards are wrapped up by now. And so let's check in on some of the races. I actually think that, you know, usually we would say, well, we'll save the MVP for last. It is the most interesting award race to me. And there is a legitimate race for MVP coming into this year. I think I, I was along with the consensus. Hey, Nicola Jokic. No way you're winning another one. Shea, your team is so good. It's going to be really hard for you to, you know, go back to back. I just disagree with myself at this point. I think one of those two guys is likely to win it.

[Esperaheni]

Yeah, I mean, I think, look, it's. Again, it's early and we do this whole thing where we're, we're predicting it a month in, but I think it's SJ's award right now.

[Dave DeFore]

I, I agree with that.

[Esperaheni]

Like 20.

[Anna]

Yeah, yeah.

[Esperaheni]

20 and one. How do you dispute 20 and one?

[Anna]

Right.

[Esperaheni]

The best defense in the league so far. They just got Jalen Williams back, by the way. Welcome back, J Dub. They've been doing this without their second best player, and a lot of it is because of sga, who is also, by the way, I think, having his best season. He's doing it on 30 points per game, doing his 40% from the three point line, which was always the thing about him. It's like, can he be that consistent three point threat? He's obviously elite as a mid range scorer. He's elite free throw shooter. He's also a great defender, which I know people will harp on when it comes to Jokic. So I don't know, I feel like it's not that much of a discussion right now. I know what Jokic is doing is impressive, but what OKC is doing, what Shea is doing on top of that, the best player, best team. It feels like a simple conversation to me.

[Anna]

Yeah, I'm with you on the best player, best team. I feel like that's what the MVP conversation has always been about. But like when you look at the numbers, it, it supports Shay as well. The interesting part about it is, Dave, you started the season, I think actually opposite of me. I was like Nikola Jokic absolutely could still win an MVP this season just because last year he didn't win it.

[Dave DeFore]

Right.

[Anna]

And what was happening last year, even better numbers than he had in his MVP year. And so I knew it was going to be a race. I still don't count Nicole Jokic out of this, but SGA feels like the obvious choice not only because of everything that s just laid out, but particularly because he's a two way player. Like that best defense aspect. Shay, Gillis, Alexander, out of everyone that's in the conversation right now, is still in the top two in steals and blocks.

[Dave DeFore]

Yeah.

[Anna]

On top of being this offensive production powerhouse for okc, Giannis is the only person that I would say comes close to what Shea is doing. But let's look at the Bucks record versus okc.

[Dave DeFore]

That's right.

[Anna]

There's your difference.

[Dave DeFore]

Yeah. I will say that our friends at BetMGM and the NBA's own MVP ladder disagrees with us because they all have Nicola Jokic as the front runner right now. I mean he's averaging a 30 point triple. Double the numbers. As we say every single year. The numbers are just at this point, video game numbers. They're hard to wrap your head around. Let me run through the top five again, thanks to our friends at bet. Mgm, Nicola Jokic, Shay Gilders Alexander is second, Luka Doncic third, Giannis Anticompo is fourth and Kade Cunningham fifth with Tyrese Maxey six. I do want to give him just a little shout there. I, I think that that list is pretty close to mine. I, I would probably, I, I would like I said I would move Shea to one Jokic two. I, I think Luca, what he's done this year, the number of 40 point games that we watched him have and they haven't been fully healthy there either. And we talk about winning and man, the Lakers have just won games when it doesn't feel like they should now 14, 4. As we head into Monday. I mean I, I think Luca as sort of this dark horse, you know, if the Lakers are the, you know, two or three seed, he's probably going to have an argument.

[Esperaheni]

Yeah, I mean he's scoring like anybody like 35 points per game. You mentioned the multi multiple 40 point games but like he's also doing it ridiculously from two point land. So he's getting inside the arc. That little like step back mid range jump shot that he has is butterfly. There's, there's really no one that's able to stop him or Austin Reeves. And now you add LeBron James as a third fiddle. Crazy to say third fiddle but like his efficiency is going to go up too. So that'll help his case MVP wise again. It's just hard when Jokic is leading the league in rebounds, leading the league in assists, also averaging 29. And then SGA is, you know, as we said, best player, best team. How do you beat those cases? That's the question when it comes to Luka, right?

[Anna]

Y', all, I'm not gonna lie to you. As we're talking, the Luka case is getting stronger.

[Esperaheni]

It's good, it's a good case.

[Anna]

It's getting stronger and it's, it's. Of course we gotta look at how the Lakers end up playing out. But Shay's played 20 games, Luka's only played 14. That's noticeable of course, but leading the 35 out of that group of Shay, Nicola and Luka, Luka's leading them in that 35 points a game. But he's also got the total rebounds of eight and a half. The assist is at nine. He's close to the triple double and he actually has the same number of the stocks, the steals and blocks. So he's actually doing some things on defense as well. Only thing that he doesn't have over Shay, his three point percentage has not been hitting this year. He's at 34% whereas Shay is at 42. The case is strong for Luca and I'm talking about, I don't, it's not better than Nicola, but it might be. Ah, this is tough. Let me, let me just wait. Now look, I'm just saying Dave, this is Getting interesting.

[Esperaheni]

The Thunder just got J Dub back.

[Dave DeFore]

Is like half of the case, which is completely unfair. I mean, yes, let's take the a team that's 19:1 and we're going to give them just supercharge them with an all star.

[Zena Kada]

Their answer is going to be.

[Anna]

Their answer is going to be. Listen, Isaiah Hartenstein is not playing right now. So listen, they've had a lot of.

[Esperaheni]

Ins and outs, right?

[Anna]

They've had some ins and outs in their roster as well.

[Dave DeFore]

Yeah, there's always somebody out. Okay, guys, this one a little bit surprising to start the year. Rookie of the year. If you asked me right now, I'm saying Con canople is the rookie of the year so far. I mean he, look, he hit that big shot the other night. He seems to just come in and he looks like Klay Thompson is a shooter, knows where to be all the time and was just ready to play day one. Obviously a different role than, than the other names on the list that we're going to talk about. Like Cooper Flag, you know, struggled a little bit out of the gate. But our friends at BET MGM disagree with me on this one too. They've got Cooper. Flag still is the favorite, which maybe not wrong S, you know, like it's not like he's not having a good year.

[Esperaheni]

Yeah, no, he, he's starting to figure things out again. I mean he had his best game of his career against the Clippers and to be honest with you, I think a lot of players can say that right now because the Clippers look terrible. Yeah, but Cooper took full advantage. Like it was kind of funny because the Clippers were wearing their orange uniforms and they looked like traffic cones while Cooper was operating. You know, it looked like he was having a field day in practice. But no, he was, he was awesome in the that game. He was like getting to his mid range spots. He was using his athleticism. He's also a great rebounder, like doing all the little things that we know Cooper is able to do. I, I think right now as things stand, the other Duke player in con caniple is winning rookie of the year. But long season and Cooper is figuring it out. They're playing more guards next to him. I have a feeling that like in three months we'll be saying Cooper is the rookie of the year.

[Anna]

I think the main difference right now between Cooper and Khan, for me, Khan has made an identity as a killer. Like he is someone that can come in, he can win games, he can take the team on his back, get to his spots. Put up his shots. He's not right now. And it's unfair to Cooper because he's been put in this position where he had to early in this season be a distributor. He had to be a facilitator. And that was a little bit, not necessarily out of his box, but it was outside of what he's probably been expecting to be in the NBA. And he had to adjust to that. So I'll give him credit. But Con Knippel, I don't know what he expected going into Charlotte. I don't think any of us expected him to have to be the guy, especially with Lamelo's absences early in the season. But man, like, he has fully owned that identity. And I think that that is an, that's enough for me to look at him and say, that's a rookie of the year. Because for me that title is all about, of course, the performance early in your career. But it's also about you are so young and you're not supposed to be capable of immediately entering into a role and impacting a team and impacting a team's winning and impacting a team's competitive level but. Or competition level, but that's exactly what Con is good for. And I give that to him.

[Esperaheni]

He's. He's mislabeled, right? Like, I think Khan coming out, he was mislabeled as like, all right, this is like a good shooter, right? And like, don't get me wrong, he is a great shooter. He's shooting 40% on nearly eight attempts a game or actually more than eight attempts a game to start the season. That's elite. But he's also getting downhill. He's getting to the basket, he's aggressive, he's looking for a shot in the mid range area.

[Anna]

He's smart too.

[Esperaheni]

He's a very heady player. So like he, he works as the screener in guard screening actions with him and Lamel Mellow or him and Colin Sexton. He had a huge shot against the Raptors to tie the game and send.

[Dave DeFore]

It plays for him after they're benching Lamelo and Brandon Miller, right? Like the CO he's got, the coaching staff trusts him and they're seeing him every single day. I mean, and this is one of the things about Cooper Flag. Cooper Flag doesn't get the chance to fail early on if Jason Kidd and the coaching staff didn't like what they saw in practice.

[Zena Kada]

Right?

[Dave DeFore]

And so, you know, a little bit of this for Cooper Flag is that it's the expectations versus the reality, 100%. And Zena, I thought you made a good point. Once he settled and. And same thing. Once he got guards around him and he was able to come, just be this. This. This monster, you know, this finisher.

[Esperaheni]

You.

[Dave DeFore]

Then you get to see him as a secondary playmaker and things like that. Was there anybody else in the rookie class? I mean, Dylan Harper, you know, missed so much time, I feel like he probably would be in this conversation. But anybody else that you guys feel like really belongs near. Near con and. And Cooper.

[Esperaheni]

Yeah. Look, I think there were really good starts for Cedric Coward and for VJ Edgecomb. And I agree with you that if Dylan was healthy, he would be in here, too. But keep an eye out for Derek Queen because the Pelicans have handed him the keys, right? He's the. He's their number one guy now. He's running all the offense and, like, the usage will be there for him to get a lot of opportunities, put up numbers. You guys know I'm a big fan of dq, so I. I just.

[Dave DeFore]

Just put out. Man, he can play a game that's fun to watch.

[Anna]

Yeah, that's hilarious. You say Queen because I was. I mean, Queen's on my list as well. I was definitely going to say VJ Edscomb, but Fears is on my list. Yeah, Fears. I mean, literally just got to see him live against the warriors so fast, like. Yeah, well, you know how we were. We're complaining about the pace of the league right now. Blame fierce people like him. He's so fast and also really good on defense. Makes great plays. Like, he's so competitive, too. I mean, he got ejected in that game against the Warriors. Like, I. Both those rookies keep an eye on them. If they can find a way to close some games, they'll start creeping up this list. I don't think they're going to outdo the Duke guys, though.

[Esperaheni]

If there's one thing Troy Weaver can do, it's draft players.

[Dave DeFore]

Just listen. These guys are talented, and we're going to continue to make fun of the Pelicans for trading away next year's pick, but these guys are pretty good.

[Esperaheni]

Yeah, they're good.

[Dave DeFore]

Okay, guys, the last one that I really think is kind of interesting right now, as we're a quarter of the way through the season, Coach of the year, and this award is often about, again, expectations. You know, if you take a bad team and you can get to the play in, you got a shot at Coach of the year. If you take a good team and you make them great, you can win Coach of the Year, too. It's a. It's a unique award. And this year, right now, J.B. bickerstaff is our. Our front runner for Coach of the Year. And you know, Zena, look, we've been on the Pistons since last season. We Talked about how J.B. bickerstaff came in there. Breath of fresh air, just completely changed their entire mentality and approach.

[Esperaheni]

I.

[Dave DeFore]

This feels like the front runner to me, too.

[Anna]

Okay, so before I get into my thoughts, I want to put this out here in terms of how coach of the Year is defined, because this conversation is interesting if you're looking at what's changed with the team versus what's changed with the players on that team.

[Esperaheni]

Right, Totally.

[Anna]

Okay. So, like, looking at the definition of what this award has been evaluated, it recognizes coaches for elevating team success, often through strategic innovations, player development, or overcoming challenges like injuries or roster changes. Okay, so thinking about last year, thinking about Kenny Akison, like, that the whole thing was the strategic innovation, right. That the constraints led approach that Alex Rama was doing. Like, it was genius that he was able to do that. We talked about who was still in that conversation too, though. Jamal Mosley. Why? Overcame the injuries and the roster changes and things of that sort. Where I am, I love the idea of J.B. bickerstaff, but where I'm looking and I'm like, wondering, hmm, is it JB as much as it is the team also elevating and their play elevating? Right. Like, we're seeing Kay Cunningham come into his own. Yeah, right, right. And we're seeing Jalen Duran come into his own. And I'm like, of course you need a coach to be able to funnel that growth. But I do feel like we're now finally seeing. We're seeing them reap the success of, like, just being patient. Whereas I look at Darko in Toronto, and I'm like, this was someone that had to integrate BI into an already established system and really find a way to balance RJ Barrett, Scotty Barnes, Brandon Ingram. And I feel like that required a little bit more strategic and, like, innovation in understanding, making sure everybody knows what their roles are and what they want to do, especially on defense. So with that, I'm thinking JB is actually my close second. Yeah, I'm looking at Toronto for part of this definition, like a combination of player development and strategic innovation.

[Esperaheni]

I don't even have to keep here. I don't even have to cape.

[Dave DeFore]

No, Darko. Darko. Look, as a basketball coach, I'll just Tell you, Darko is he runs a lot of stuff and he's putting on an X and O's clinic pretty much every single night. Like you talked about the way that they've used bi. I mean, they, they clearly spent time trying to figure out how do we put him in the best position for us to win while he also was allowed to do stuff. You know, because there's this thing where you can constrain players to a point where they, they just don't want to go out and do stuff. So you've gotta. You gotta go along with him. I think he's done a really great job. S. You know, we're not gonna give you a chance to talk about this, unfortunately. I'm assuming you're going with Darko. I mean, I will say this. Let me, let me run down the list real quick. Yeah, I was about to do the same thing. Yeah, Darko. And then it's Mark Dagnaut, Mitch Johnson, Eric Spoelstra. And you know, not to dismiss these guys. Dagnalt is also interesting to me. Just being 21 after coming off a title, I don't think that he's done. It's not as impressive of a job as what Darko has done so far.

[Esperaheni]

So look, I mean, I agree with you guys on the Darko case. You guys kind of made it for me, so thank you very much for that. But like, I ultimately, to add to your points about him kind of cooking on the X's and O's front shout out to Sampson. He made a video essay about this. But they are number one and out of time out plays in terms of efficiency. So sideline, out of bounds, baseline, out of bounds. They basically consistently get a good look to start the season. They have reshaped their offense. So I completely agree with you guys that this is the award for Darko to win. The other guy that I'm looking at though, and just to kind of be the devil's advocate here, is Eric Spoelstra. Because if we go back to that definition, they have completely changed their offensive philosophy. They're not running that many pick and rolls anymore. Tyler Hero is back and he's trying to buy into the system and he's saying he's willing to buy into what they do. This team is running like crazy. They are defending like crazy as well. They, in my opinion, are exceeding expectations. I didn't think the Heat would be as good as they are right now. Spo has forever been named one of the best, if not the best coach in the NBA and he hasn't won coach of the year. If there is a year for him to actually do it this kind of.

[Dave DeFore]

Well, they've gotten so much buzz too about the changes in their offense, you know, from us. And I will say one more name on the list, number six, right behind Eric, Eric Spolra, who deserves so much more credit than maybe he's going to get J.J. redick for the same reasons that we gave for talking about Luca and his MVP run. I mean what, what he's done with Luca missing time with LeBron missing so much time with their center rotation being, you know what it's been. I mean they've had a lot of guys in and out. That offense is so much fun and it is going place. I mean when with LeBron out there, it's completely supercharged.

[Esperaheni]

This is why coach of the year is good because like I think to, to your guys point, Darko has a very clear cut case. But you could make these cases for these other guys.

[Anna]

Yeah. And that's why that definition and like that's why I wanted to read it out loud because it completely makes you understand why an Eric Spolzer is always going to be in the conversation regardless of his personnel. He is always bringing that strategic aspect of it. Right. And then I even look at like IME Udoka. Like you've got Ahmed Thompson while Fred Van Vliet is out being your main point guard, but Alpern Shangoon is really your main point guard. Taking the ball off the floor. Right. Seeing the player development that we've seen in Reed shepherd. What the guy that was at the end of the bench last year. Like this is when there's so many different.

[Esperaheni]

Let's throw Jordan in there for the Phoenix Suns. Did anybody here think the Suns would be as good as they are? They're defending Well, I love the brand of basketball that they play. Colin Gillespie is hooping like I don't know, man. There are a lot of coach of the year candidates.

[Dave DeFore]

Jordan Ott.

[Esperaheni]

Good, good.

[Dave DeFore]

Jordan there to throw a lot of surprises so far. Guys, stick around after the break. We're going to try to pick a winner for the NBA Cup.

[Zena Kada]

Hey, Andrew Schlecht here. The NBA on Prime is back this Friday with another great doubleheader. The action starts with one of the best rivalries in sports as Luka Doncic and the Los Angeles Lakers face Jaylen Brown and the Boston Celtics. Then Cooper Flagg and the Dallas Mavericks meet SGA and the Oklahoma City Thunder. If you're not a Prime member that's not a problem. Sign up for a 30 day free trial to get started today. The Lakers and Celtics the Mavericks and Lakers both really intriguing matchups. What can the potential Rookie of the Year do against the potent Thunder defense? And then Luka Just doing anything is magical against this frisky Boston Celtics team that is led by Jaylen Brown, who's had a really nice year. Coverage starts Friday at 6:30 Eastern only on Prime. Restrictions apply. See Amazon.com Amazon prime for details. As a small business owner, you don't have the luxury of clocking out early. Your business is on your mind 24 7. So when you're hiring, you need a partner that works just as hard as you do. That hiring partner is LinkedIn Jobs. When you clock out, LinkedIn clocks in. LinkedIn makes it easy to post your job for free, share it with your network, and get qualified candidates that can manage all in one place. I've been in a position where I need to hire many times and I never had the luxury of having LinkedIn jobs help me as a user of LinkedIn jobs. Now I find it incredibly easy to find the most qualified candidates. Here's how LinkedIn jobs works. Number one post your job. LinkedIn's new feature can help you write job descriptions and then quickly get your job and front of the right people with deep candidate insights. You can post your job for free or you can pay to promote promoted jobs. Get three times more qualified applicants. Number two get qualified candidates. And at the end of the day, the most important thing to your small business is the quality of candidates. And with LinkedIn you can feel confident that you're getting the best. Based on LinkedIn data, 72% of small businesses using LinkedIn say that LinkedIn helps them find high quality candidates. And finally, share it with your network. You can let your network know that you're hiring. You can even add the hashtag hiring frame to your personal profile and get two times more qualified candidates. Find out why more than two and a half million small businesses use LinkedIn for hiring today. Find your next great hire on LinkedIn. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com Athletic MBA that's LinkedIn.com Athletic MBA to post your job for free. Terms and conditions apply. This episode is brought to you by Gab. It's that time of year again. The holidays are coming fast and if your kids are anything like mine, that list is already getting pretty long. And let's be honest, some of the things on that list make us stop and think like a smartphone. I've got three boys that are all of age to have a smartphone. I'm telling you it's something that we talk about constantly and there are tons of concerns around it. And that's why I was so relieved when I found Gab. Gab offers phones and watches made just for kids. No Internet, no social media and just the right features for their age. Kids want phones to feel independent and connected. As parents, we want them to know they're safe. With Gab, you can have both and protect them from scary stuff. With Gab's tech and steps approach, kids get the right tech at the right time. From watches with GPS tracking for the youngest explorers to the perfect first phone with no Internet or social media to the teen phone with parent approved apps. So get ready for a Christmas morning they'll never forget the one where they get their first phone. And really it's a gift for you too because these kids safe phones will give you peace of mind. Visit gab.com mbadaily and use the code NBA daily for a special holiday offer. That's G A B B.com NBA daily Gab tech and steps independence for them. Peace of mind for you.

[Dave DeFore]

All right, we're finished with group play in the NBA cup and we're on to the tournament play. Guys, we're going to be in Vegas for the semifinal and the final. So if you're going to be out there, let us know. We're, you know, we'll see you outside or catch you in the arena. We okc, the Phoenix Suns, the Los Angeles Lakers, San Antonio Spurs, Orlando Magic, Miami Heat, Toronto Raptors and New York Knicks have all moved on to the knockout stage. This is easy. Oklahoma City is clearly gonna win the NBA cup, right?

[Esperaheni]

Yes.

[Dave DeFore]

Yes.

[Anna]

Yeah. Yeah. They, they almost stay in the format. They got it. They got it.

[Esperaheni]

Yeah. No, they almost won it last year, right? That's right. They almost. And look, there's still some guys on the. Even though most of the dudes got paid and you know, Shay got his money and Check got his money and J Dub got his money, there's still some young guys there that could be getting some extra money.

[Dave DeFore]

Mitchell, AJ Mitchell's contract is way too low.

[Esperaheni]

Contract.

[Dave DeFore]

Like the rest of the team should Maybe just give A.J. mitchell, you know, their winnings.

[Anna]

Yeah.

[Dave DeFore]

Because of how good he's been. I will say this though, like, okay, OKC has to get through Phoenix and Phoenix is tough, but we expect OKC to win that game. Yeah, but Lakers spurs is is interesting to me because we don't think that wimby's going to be back for this. We're not sure. And the Lakers have been so good. If we wound up with a Lakers Thunder semifinal in Vegas on a Saturday, did the. I don't know guys, that, that I'm gonna put, that's a home game for.

[Esperaheni]

The Lakers, by the way.

[Dave DeFore]

Put on my conspiracy hat here. The best team, hottest team in the league against the Lakers in Las Vegas on a Saturday. Huh? Interesting. It's all. I mean, would you, could you script this?

[Anna]

Could you script it? I don't know. I mean they, they won pretty handedly last time. OKC won pretty handedly last time they met up with the Lakers. Of course they've made some adjustments and look a lot better these days than the last time they faced the Thunder. But yeah, it, either way it's going to be a star studded affair for the NBA cup, which we have a lot of respect for. So.

[Esperaheni]

Absolutely, yeah.

[Dave DeFore]

Anybody from the east got a shot? S. I mean look, your Raptors, we, we found out after their winning streak that they're actually frauds because they lost a couple in a row. They got, they got really hammered by the Knicks Sunday and they got to play the Knicks, you know, in the, in the tournament. Did the Knicks have their number or are they going to be able to get through?

[Esperaheni]

Yeah, no, they, they were. Look I'll, I'll start shooting them some bail here. Second night of a back to back, no Yaka Portal, no RJ Barrett, they were undermanned, et cetera, et cetera. So I'm, I'm okay with it. I Look, I actually, I like their chances against the Knicks. The Knicks specific scheme of like one we are going to run, we're going to shoot a lot of threes is an exact opposite of what the Raptors scheme defensively wants to do. And so it's a tough matchup for them. If there's one team I'm kind of looking to in the NBA cup, truthfully from the east side that can make some noise. It's the Heat.

[Anna]

Yes, it's the Heat. I'm with you. I'm with you.

[Esperaheni]

Look, you have spo, who again who I vouch for is probably the best coach in the NBA. They have this funky style that like single elimination basketball, you can run and gun, you can get up a lot of points. The pace is fast. I don't know, I kind of, I kind of like the Heat.

[Dave DeFore]

Are you saying Tyler Herro is tournament tough?

[Esperaheni]

He's tournament tough. Yeah, he's built for it.

[Anna]

They actually. It's a really good point. I mean, whether it's Norman Powell, Tyler Herro, like, they have these kind of like microwave scores, Right. That are built in, and their microwave scores are built for these type of things. This is why you tournaments were so fun. Right. Because you just never know in those type of moments where it's one and done, who's going to show up in that moment. And I really feel like the Heat, looking at their personnel, have more of those type of players on their roster than anyone else in the East.

[Dave DeFore]

We got to come up with something like March Madness for the NBA cup tournament. You know, like, I. I wish it was like that. Like, I wish the NBA did have that thing where you get into these weird tournaments and all. Once they start, it's like, guards matter so much. Kevin Walker is going to win 12 straight games.

[Anna]

Everything. Yes.

[Dave DeFore]

Right. I mean, you know, it's just unfortunately, NBA games, you know, it's tricky.

[Esperaheni]

Once they start incorporating Barcelona and Real Madrid and Bayern Munich into this NBA cup, it'll be.

[Dave DeFore]

I'm just going to go ahead and be a front runner on saying that. That is not happening ever. You have international basketball windows happening right now. So, like, there's FIBA World cup qualifying, by the way. Shout out to Gio Shermani, who played his last last game for the Georgia national team over the weekend. But you just have too many competing things happening this time of year. And the Euroleague added a bunch more games. So, like, you know, the NBA is going to have to get in line for those guys. The NBA cup as it stands is great.

[Esperaheni]

It really is.

[Dave DeFore]

Yeah. Yeah. Okay, so okc, we're unanimous here.

[Esperaheni]

I don't think anybody else has a shot. I would love to come here and say the Rafters are going to win it all, but no, I don't think OKC is going to win it all.

[Dave DeFore]

I just can't figure out when. When the Thunder are going to lose their second game.

[Esperaheni]

I. I like. I think maybe if Wemby comes back for that Christmas game, there's a shot that's like the next one where they might lose.

[Dave DeFore]

Yeah, they play this. They play the spurs two games in a row. So they play on the 23rd and on Christmas Day, you know, maybe. Maybe there's a chance the spurs can catch him sleeping on one of those days. Yeah.

[Anna]

Remind me, did Shea play well in the NBA cup last year?

[Esperaheni]

He played well in their semi finals.

[Anna]

Right. And I feel like that's not the first time we saw that.

[Dave DeFore]

Revenge game coming.

[Anna]

I don't know, I'm just saying, like, I don't know if that. Or it could be the opposite, which is.

[Dave DeFore]

Oh wow, the lights are too bright for Shay.

[Anna]

That's a joke. That's a joke. Yeah, no, we'll see what happens. But that could be the only way that OKC takes an L in the in the NBA cup is if they have an off night and someone takes advantage.

[Dave DeFore]

Well, Davion Mitchell, you never know. Never true. There you go. Could run into him in the final. All right guys, let us know in the comments on YouTube who's your MVP right now, who's your coach of the year, who's your rookie of the year, and who's going to win the NBA Cup. Because I. I don't know. I think OKC has got this thing locked up that's going to do it for the show, guys. Thanks to Esperaheni and Zena Kada. I'm Dave Deford and this has been the NBA Daily. Thanks for waking up with us. Banking with Capital One helps you keep more money in your wallet with no fees or minimums on checking accounts and no overdraft fees. Just ask the Capital One bank guy. It's pretty much all he talks about. In a good way. He'd also tell you that this podcast is his favorite podcast too. Ah, really? Thanks, Capital One Bank Guy. What's in your wallet? Term supply. See capitalone.com bank capital1na member FDIC.

[Anna]

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[Dave DeFore]

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