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- [00:01]
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- [00:38]
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- [01:15]
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- [01:57]
Dave Defor
Good morning and welcome to the NBA Daily for May 8, 2026. I'm Dave Defor here with Esperaheny. Coming up, the Thunder take a 20 series lead over the Lakers. The Pistons take a 20 series lead over the Cavs and we've got the lottery coming up this week. Good morning everybody. What's up? As the sun is bright. S has the shades on.
- [02:23]
Esperaheny
That's right. Yeah, I'm doing, I'm doing the shades because we're going to be throwing a lot of shade at the referees here at this. In this episode. I apologize to John Goble.
- [02:33]
Dave Defor
Yeah, well maybe the Lakers are going to wind up having to apologize in the form of some fines. Let's jump right into that. Thunder Handle the Lakers125, 107 as this felt like a game that the Lakers might steal. Yeah, at a certain point. But if you look at the box score, it was like 66, 64 you know, and when I'm watching these games, I've got the play by play going. I've got the box score, got the game. 66, 64. Lakers feel like they're in control a little bit. But then you look at the box score. Lakers were shooting 47% from three. At that point, lights up, the Thunder were shooting 27%. And then that all changed. And this Thunder team, one of the ways in which is different s is that it actually has more shooting than last year's team. A.J. mitchell was great off the bench. Jared McCain was fantastic. I mean they just have some guys beyond Shea who didn't really have that great of a game. Second game in a row. I think the Lakers have done a good job on him, but they just have more guys. The faucet is so much harder to turn off on this year's team.
- [03:39]
Esperaheny
The Lakers are playing anybody but Shay defense, daring anybody other than Shea Gilders Alexander to beat them. And why not, right?
- [03:47]
Men's Wearhouse Advertiser
No.
- [03:47]
Esperaheny
Jalen Williams like try for AJ Mitchell and Chet Holmgren and Jared McCain to beat this Lakers team. But guess what? Those were exactly the guys that beat the lakers tonight. Jared McCain was lights out. I think he probably had his best game as an Oklahoma City Thunder, especially given the stakes playoff wise. The shooting was awesome. He knocked down four threes. AJ Mitchell continues to step into a massive role with J Dub out and just like ho hum, just very, very good offensively.
- [04:15]
Dave Defor
Yeah.
- [04:15]
Esperaheny
And then Chet Holmer knocked down his shots as well. So I think this is the game plan the Lakers should be doing. You know, even Stan Van Gundy on the broadcast was like, I kind of like what the Lakers are trying. It's just that this Thunder team is a buzzsaw that has so many options to go to. It's. It's laughable because you're right, SGA got into foul trouble. Right. I think he had four at one point. He finished with four as well. One of them was that that foul or flagrant foul call.
- [04:42]
Dave Defor
We'll talk about, we're going to talk about those.
- [04:44]
Esperaheny
Yeah, but, but look, this was the game for the Lakers to steal because they shot the ball well. Austin Reeves and LeBron had a good game and overall Shay didn't have a good game. And yet you lost by nearly 20 points. That's a testament to the how perfect of a game you have to play against this Thunder team even when they're not at full strength. Which is crazy.
- [05:06]
Dave Defor
Yeah. I mean, listen, when you, when you get the sort of scoring off the bench that, that The Thunder got it. It's hard to win.
- [05:12]
Esperaheny
The.
- [05:13]
Dave Defor
The Thunder can play nine or 10 guys. Like, they have nine or 10 guys that are playoff rotation guys. Yeah. And the Lakers don't. The Lakers are down, you know, their best player, obviously, but their bench is shallow. You know, Luke Canard's not 100%. He, you know, and also he's not super aggressive. Anyway, that being said, like. Like you said, LeBron had a really great game. Austin Reeves had a good game. Scoring was great, too. Rui. Sticking shots, which is just what he does in the playoffs. This felt like if they were going to take one, this felt like the one that they would take. I just don't know if they've got. They don't have enough guys to have the energy to finish this thing out. That's how it feels right now.
- [05:53]
Esperaheny
They played a great first half of basketball.
- [05:55]
Dave Defor
Right.
- [05:56]
Esperaheny
You need 48 minutes against OKC. And I just. I don't know if they have the answers. And obviously, I know a lot of Lakers fans are going to be mad about the officiating tonight. It's funny because I bet you there's a lot of Thunder fans who are also mad about the.
- [06:08]
Dave Defor
You know who else was mad about the officiating, watching the game? Me. S. Listen, man, look, I don't want, like, to get into, like, my resume or anything.
- [06:16]
Esperaheny
It's a lame thing to talk about. Officiating is a lame thing to talk about. But I agree. I agree. We got to talk about it.
- [06:22]
Commercial Announcer
Yeah.
- [06:23]
Dave Defor
Look, I've taught the sport in a lot of different places, obviously. Like, I watch all these games from night to night, from sometimes play to play. You just don't know what the calls are going to be. I mean, I can't tell you what's a flagrant and what's not, even when we see the slow mo. I'm often told that I'm wrong. There was a, in my opinion, an obvious clear path foul by Marcus Smart. That was just. Nope, not gonna happen. I. I mean, continuation, look, continuation was also really. LeBron gets fouled on the way up shooting. And it's just. That was such an obvious and one. And I do think that the NBA, you. We talk a lot about tanking. We talk about lottery reform. We talk about the season being too long. Everyone's hurt all the time. The referees.
- [07:08]
Esperaheny
Yeah.
- [07:08]
Dave Defor
Inconsistency is an issue. They don't call travels. I mean, Steph Castle carries every single time he dribbles. It's. This is. It's a. It's a Real problem.
- [07:20]
Esperaheny
You don't have to single out Steph. I'm not meaning to guys in the NBA.
- [07:24]
Dave Defor
Who cares? Yeah, yeah. Cooper flag. You know, Rookie of the Year Cooper flag. Every dribble, his hand goes under the ball. And I just. Consistency. Because like you said, if you're. If you're, you know, around or talking to any Thunder or Lakers fans, they are equally mad about the referees. Yeah, the. The. I mean, Alex Caruso gets attack in this game, yelling at the refs. You've got multiple Lakers just like hounding the refs all game. It's about as mad as I think I've seen LeBron in years. That's a problem.
- [07:57]
Esperaheny
Yeah, it is a problem. He was livid. I mean, post game, you saw them basically go at the referees. They had to get separated with the security and whatnot. I think, I think the funny part is, like, on both sides of this team, there are guys who get the foul merchant thing. Like Austin Reeves. Right. People talk about him as a foul merchant. Obviously, there's a conversation with.
- [08:18]
Dave Defor
He does sometimes look like he's playing with a couple of bananas taped to his shoes.
- [08:22]
Esperaheny
Likes to slip around. Yeah, man. Look, in my opinion, it's part of the game. It's. It's artful, if you want to get into that. Like, I actually had a really great conversation with a draft prospect today, and what he said was, mike, be disciplined. If you're a good defender, be disciplined. And don't foul. I just. I guess my thing is refereeing officiating is really hard.
- [08:44]
Dave Defor
Yeah, let me. I want to hear that. What that guy says after a couple years in the NBA.
- [08:47]
Esperaheny
Okay, that's true.
- [08:48]
Dave Defor
Because here's what happens. I. I happen to know some referees. I know some retired referees, happen to know a retired referee that teaches players how to work the refs, how to game the system, what spots on the court can you be on that are hard to see and foul part of the game? Sure, it's gamesmanship, but that doesn't mean that I want the obvious stuff to be. I want it to be black and white. When it's black and white, Clear Path was something that was designed like the league just put this.
- [09:14]
Esperaheny
That is very. That's obvious.
- [09:17]
Dave Defor
The most obvious one to me was Clear Path. I. I also. I think that a lot of the mistravels and carries and stuff, some of those are inconsequential, and I don't necessarily want them to stop the game, but I do believe that we need to find some level of consistency. I mean, even Just with the contact from game to game, you watch different series, it sometimes feels like a different sport. And we already know it switches from a different sport regular season to the playoffs. So I think it takes away some of your credibility as a sports league. When you're refereeing is not up. Up to speaker zero.
- [09:47]
Esperaheny
I think it's also worthwhile to have a discussion about the difference between regular season and playoff refereeing. You know, like the, the amount of physicality that's allowed in the playoffs versus the regular season and then the inconsistency between different refs in the. In the regular season versus the playoffs. Like, I think that's a valid conversation to have either way because you see such a big discrepancy in the level of physicality allowed game to game. I think that's something that they should capture. It's just how have they not had this conversation at the league level yet is I guess my question. But again, officiating is really hard. Yeah.
- [10:24]
Dave Defor
Especially the NBA. Yeah. These guys are. They're, you know, obviously they're very tall and fast. It's a vertical sport. Like, I mean, it's moving in four dimensions. Yeah. Right. It is difficult. Okay. Since we've been talking about refs, I want to point you guys to the athletic law. Our guy Law Murray, he wrote a piece on Shea Gilders Alexander, quote unquote, free throw merchant, about his free throws and like, how it's a part of his game. It actually is great. I mean, Law Murray also part of many people. A lot of people.
- [10:53]
Esperaheny
Yeah. Are.
- [10:54]
Dave Defor
Are merchants at the free throw line. Yeah. Speaking of, should we talk about the Cavaliers and Pistons?
- [11:01]
Esperaheny
Do it. Man, what a, What a season for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Yeah.
- [11:05]
Dave Defor
This is going to be probably more about the Cavs and the pistons. The Pistons win 107. 97. Look, everything so far that we talked about coming into this series, in my opinion, we've seen, I think the Pistons clearly the tougher team. Their defense, wow. Really doing a great job of just frustrating the Cavaliers. But the Cavs have just. No showed this and a bunch of different guys. A lot of people will say James Harden first. We're not going to start there. I want to start. How do you feel like Donovan Mitchell's been two games into this series. Has he played like he's the best player on the Cavs?
- [11:42]
Esperaheny
I don't think he's played like he's the best player in this series, you know? Well, definitely not. And I think that's what's required of him if the Cavaliers need To have a chance to win this thing. I, I, you, I had my piece about Mitchell, especially in that Raptor series. I did not think he was the best player in that series. He needed to be the best player in that series for the Cavs to handle business. The way that he struggles as a playmaker I think is really concerning because of how limited James Harden can end up being in the playoffs. Right. You think of. It's kind of like a combination thing between their backcourt. Asar Thompson has completely locked up James Harden. He's nullified him. He's, he's made it so that James Harden is a non factor in the series. And, and so now so much of the playmaking pressure is back on Donovan Mitchell. And this is something we, we remember from the start of this season when Darius Garland was hurt.
- [12:34]
Dave Defor
Yep.
- [12:34]
Esperaheny
And so much of the usage was on Donovan to create every single thing. He's a great scorer. He's a, he's an incredible three level guy who can get to basically any shot and I think he shot good enough tonight. But the assists, the inability to create and create for your teammates in a consistent way really limits the Cavs. And that has a cascading effect to Mobley, to Allen, to Dean Wade, to Strust, to whoever it is, because they can't get their offense, they can't get their offense going without James Harden. And that's a huge issue in this series when one guy on the Pistons has completely taken away him. So.
- [13:13]
Dave Defor
Yeah. Well, let's go to Harden then. Harden just been a complete disaster. That $42 million player option coming up this summer is just weighing on everyone's mind, I'm sure So far, in two games in the series, 11 turnovers, 10 assists, nine made shots. Yeah.
- [13:33]
Esperaheny
Nine, 10, 11.
- [13:34]
Dave Defor
Wow. Yeah.
- [13:35]
Esperaheny
That's crazy.
- [13:35]
Dave Defor
That's pretty brutal this game, by the way. It swung on a star. Thompson being in and out of the game.
- [13:41]
Esperaheny
Yep.
- [13:42]
Dave Defor
The Pistons came out. I thought that, look, they looked like they were going to blow them out. Assar gets into foul trouble, all of a sudden Cleveland gets some stuff going. Assar gets back out there and shut down again. So, you know, I think that when we, when we're looking at these two teams, like we talked about, Assar and Cade being able to handle Harden and Mitchell up front, I think they've done a really great job. Kade Cunningham, 25 points, 10 assists. This guy so far in his playoff career, I mean, he's been fantastic. Not, not a playoff riser necessarily, but he has been consistent to what he did in the regular season, I think, so far, which is, you know, MVP candidate level season. So that's exactly what they need. You know, Jaylen Duran has been better, I think, inside, obviously, not affecting the game as much, you know, on the offensive score.
- [14:33]
Esperaheny
Yeah.
- [14:33]
Dave Defor
But. But the truth is what he's done, he's completely shut Mobley out. What he's doing inside, defensively, he is just taking away anything that they want to get to Evan Mobley in this game. You know, a lot of, again, a lot of people are going to be asking questions who's going to step up for the Cavs. Evan Mobley had nine points. Yeah.
- [14:53]
Esperaheny
You know what? I want to credit you on this because before the playoffs, you said one guy that would be on the hot seat was Kenny Atkinson.
- [15:01]
Dave Defor
Yeah.
- [15:01]
Esperaheny
And I kind of looked at you crazy because I thought, well, you know, they're going to give this a year. You know, obviously Harden, they're trying to reincorporate guys, but it actually does feel like Kenny Atkinson is going to be on the hot seat. Now, the discussion that you see within Cavs fandom and the way generally this game has been, the series has been run by Kenny Atkinson. Some of the lineup decisions, I mean, they. They don't have much wing depth to go to. Max Schrouss, Dean Wade and Jalen Tyson are really the only guys that they go to. The Cavs get small really fast, but they haven't done a great job of staggering their bigs either. It feels like the Jared Allen combination or Evan Mobley separately hasn't been gone to. He hasn't gone to it enough. And I feel like it just. It's one of those things where it pops out to me now that darker Yakovic out coached Kenny Atkinson in the first round, and now it's J.B. bickerstaff, the former Cavs head coach, that seems to be out coaching Kenny Atkinson in the second round. I. I don't know.
- [16:05]
Dave Defor
It's tough, though, because part of this is like there are moments where James Harden looks. Looks off an open three pointer. He drives right into the teeth of a defense and throws the ball away.
- [16:15]
Esperaheny
That's not coaching.
- [16:16]
Dave Defor
That's not coaching. Yeah. Like, James Harden's supposed to take that shot. Donovan Mitchell not making the pass, not seeing the pass. I mean, again, the coaches get blamed for a lot of this stuff. I will say what I. What I see lacking is some kind of ingenuity. Like, we've been given Nick Nurse credit for, you know, basically being in a cave with a box of Scraps and building Iron man out of it. And where's Kenny Atkinson with all this talent? Where is your curveball? Where's something new? Where's something we haven't seen? Donovan Mitchell can give you 40 and they're going to shut everyone else down. How do you win the basketball game? Because they're not doing it on the defensive end either. Like this Pistons team is not some world beating offense. You should be able to shut them down. Like the Orlando Magic did a really good job.
- [17:03]
Esperaheny
I thought this is, this is the other part to this. Like, can you imagine the difference for Cade Cunningham being guarded by James Harden instead of Jalen Suggs?
- [17:12]
Dave Defor
The.
- [17:12]
Esperaheny
The level of ease at which Cade can get to his spots. And then on the other side, Tobias Harris is not attacking the bigger Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner. Tobias, by the way, incredible start to this postseason. He's had seven straight games of 20 plus points looking like that second star that we thought the Pistons needed, you know. And Tobias Harris has answered in a major way. So like the Pistons are just getting an easier go at things. Dennis Jenkins looks better and more comfortable in the series. Duncan Robinson, those shots are a little bit more uncontested. So the threes are falling more often. The Pistons offense looks better now compared to what it did with the Magic. Just because of the Cavs not having really any kind of problems of stopping them at the point of attack. I feel like that's the big issue for Cleveland as we head to, as we head to game three is how are they going to get stops against this Pistons team? How are they going to not force turnovers or how are they going to not turn the ball over? Because turnover seemed to be a huge issue for this team too. It's just, it's tough. It's looking like to your point, the physicality is really getting to this Cavs team. And you know, it's. It's like what is that? Three little pigs like you? The big bad wolf was going into different houses or whatever. And so the Raptors were the stick house and the Pistons are like the brick house and it just, it's tough, man.
- [18:37]
Dave Defor
You have to come up with something. But huffing and puffing.
- [18:39]
Esperaheny
Exactly. Absolutely. Exactly.
- [18:40]
Dave Defor
Yeah. Guys, stick around. After the break. We're going to discuss which fan base deserves to win the lottery the most.
- [18:50]
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- [19:27]
Commercial Announcer
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- [20:01]
Dave Defor
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- [20:20]
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- [20:21]
Dave Defor
Join the 15,000 companies using Vanta to prove trust. Go to vanta.com calm. Okay guys, we wanted to try out a new segment. It's our last segment of the week. We're going to call it crunch time because we're down at the end of the wire here. We're going to jump into a few topics that we want to hit either looking ahead to the week, weekend, or maybe some stuff that we missed this week. And I want to start by telling you guys, SNI will be live during the lottery. We're gonna go live like 10 minutes before the lottery starts on Sunday, Mother's Day. My mom lives thousands of miles away, so I'll call her in the morning and get it out of the way. Don't worry. Not skipping out on any family plans. We will be there. Come and join us over on our YouTube channel, the Athletic NBA Daily. Easy to find on YouTube if you don't already watch us. There's s In the spirit of of the draft lottery, which fan base do you feel like deserves to win the lottery the most?
- [21:27]
Esperaheny
Well, first of all, let me preface this with this is going to be the greatest NBA draft lottery of all time. The theatrics. I'm not kidding. I actually am not kidding. The theatrics behind this draft lottery will be incredible. The Pelicans don't own their pick. It goes to the Atlanta Hawks. The Milwaukee Bucks, by virtue of their own trading, don't have full control of their pick. They will get a lottery pick but they don't know if they're going to get a great lottery pick or not. The LA Clippers do not own their pick. It might go to the Oklahoma City Thunder. Actually will go to the Oklahoma City Thunder. How great of a pick that will be, will be to. Will be determined. And then of course, the Indiana Pacers, they made a trade at the deadline. If it doesn't end up in the top four, it goes to the LA Clippers, or I believe it was top five or top four. I can't remember exactly what, what it was, but either way doesn't matter. That being said, this is going to be incredible theater, like theater level stuff. I wish they, I wish they televised the entire thing. You know, even the, the, the little balls being dropped and whatever.
- [22:31]
Dave Defor
I want to see it all with a new format. When every single selection is drawn, I, I have a feeling that they'll drag that out for TV. That could be, that could be the NBA's version of the NFL draft.
- [22:43]
Esperaheny
Right.
- [22:43]
Dave Defor
Because I do think that you would get a lot of fan bases watching it. Meanwhile, the NBA draft could literally be an email. Yeah.
- [22:49]
Esperaheny
Oh yeah, it definitely could.
- [22:50]
Dave Defor
Yes. All right, so which fan base are. Are you rooting for here?
- [22:54]
Esperaheny
All that being said, I would love for the Sacramento Kings to win the number one pick. Yeah, I just think they need something, man, and there really isn't anything on the roster that, that gives that Kings team and a great fan base, like a level of hope. You know, there are veterans on that team that they might be able to trade. There's some fun young prospects and a Maxime Reynaud and Dylan Caldwell and Nate Clifford, but there's no one that they're building around. And I just, I think it would be cool if the Kings got the number one pick because there's also the aspect of hopefully the Kings don't mess it up again. Shout out Marvin Bagley. But yeah, we'll see. Kings, that's my pick.
- [23:34]
Dave Defor
How about you? I like the Kings. I think that that's, that's probably the most. Like, we're rooting for you guys. Yeah. It's not like it's not your fault that your team is poorly run. If you're a Kings fan, like, we want you to have good players. I think if I, if I'm saying just like, what's the most interesting. Atlanta. The Atlanta Hawks, they were such a good story this year. Their turnaround during the season. They had that, the nice playoff series. I think they showed some stuff, add some more young talent to what they're already building there cheap young talent which they could use. They go out this summer, maybe they find a big man. All of a sudden they're cooking, especially in the East. So I just think that as far as shaking things up, man, the Atlanta Hawks landed number one pick.
- [24:15]
Esperaheny
But if we, if we. So if we go by the Mavericks way last year, where, you know, the basketball gods gifted it to them because of Luka Doncic or whatever, right. The trade, the conspiracies, etc. Etc. Who is that team in the lottery? Do you feel like there's a team like that in the lottery? You know who I would say?
- [24:34]
Dave Defor
Who's that?
- [24:35]
Esperaheny
It would be like the warriors or the Bulls getting the first.
- [24:39]
Dave Defor
I mean, the Bulls getting the, the number one overall pick would just change the franchise completely. They have nothing right now. Modest Bouzelis, nice player. They don't have a franchise cornerstone guy. And this would give him an opportunity to gm, Honestly, get, get another boozer on the Bulls. That's like, that sounds like a winning combo to me. Speaking of our second item in crunch time, John Hollinger's top 15 prospect list is out at the Athletic this morning. I'm not going to spoil it here. Go and read it over at the Athletic. Absolutely. But Cameron Boozer, number one, no surprise there. S. Were there any surprises for you in the top 15?
- [25:21]
Esperaheny
Not really, no. To be honest with you. I, I mean, like, I, I don't want to say it's chalk. There obviously all are some interesting takes from Hollinger to like, you know, especially at the end of that top 15 that I think people will be interested in. Guys that I think you will like. Yaxel Landenborg, think you will like him. A guy that just feels like a
- [25:40]
Dave Defor
Dave Duor type prospect, a Euro sounding name. I.
- [25:43]
Esperaheny
He's. I don't know, to be honest with you. Caleb Wilson, also another guy that I think you would be a fan of. He's just high energy dude. Very, very fun to watch. Like, you watch the film and you're like, whoa, this is, this is an incredible athlete. So those are two guys that I think you need to keep your eye on for the next couple, what, a month and a half until the draft?
- [26:04]
Dave Defor
I mean, listen, John Hollinger compared Boozer to Jokic and wow, I'd like to see that. That's. Yeah, come on, Bulls. Get that, get that number one pick. That's what we need. Okay, we got an injury update now. OG Anunoby is day to day with the hamstring. We do not know if he's going to play. Day to day is a good sign, though, S, because we've seen a lot of these hamstrings, and the first report is week to week, so I'm hoping that this is a baby one.
- [26:31]
Esperaheny
It.
- [26:31]
Dave Defor
Hopefully nothing. Yeah.
- [26:32]
Esperaheny
Ian Bagley mentioned that it seems like there's actually optimism that he might play in game three. So that's. That's great news. Even that we are at that stage already means that he's avoided a significant injury. And truthfully, given where the. The Knicks are at right now in the series, I. I think they can slow roll this. I think they can make it so that he rests a game, maybe comes back for game four. And, you know, they're. They're cooking.
- [26:56]
Dave Defor
I don't know about that because you've got to worry about Josh Hart, too. Josh Hart's got a sprained thumb. I mean, we watched him kind of dancing around the court all. All night after he hit it. And Joel Embiid is questionable. If Joel is going to play and you're somehow down Josh Hart, you'd have to have OG Anobi. You just. He's too important to what they do defensively.
- [27:17]
Esperaheny
But you. You don't want to risk aggravating, you know, playoffs.
- [27:21]
Dave Defor
I know the issue. This is the tricky part. What happens, like, do you. You're up two. Oh, maybe you drop one of the Sixers in Philly, and then you gotta win another. You gotta win game three in Philly.
- [27:32]
Esperaheny
That's how the playoffs work.
- [27:34]
Dave Defor
Yeah. Gotta.
- [27:35]
Esperaheny
Gotta handle business. These Knicks are hooping right now.
- [27:37]
Dave Defor
I feel like they.
- [27:39]
Esperaheny
I don't know.
- [27:39]
Dave Defor
I would.
- [27:40]
Esperaheny
I would rest. OG that would be my medical advice if I.
- [27:47]
Dave Defor
Okay. And James Harden had another game in which he had more turnovers than made shots. And s. I don't know. Do you watch the studio show as much? We don't talk about the media often on here.
- [27:58]
Esperaheny
No, not really. No, not often. No, we don't.
- [28:00]
Dave Defor
Well, I didn't see this, but it came across. You know, it was sent to me.
- [28:04]
Esperaheny
Social media.
- [28:04]
Dave Defor
Yeah. Well, Draymond Green was on inside the NBA filling in for Shaq. And honestly, he felt like Shaq when he first joined that show. Yes, he doesn't quite fit the vibe of I'm hanging out with my fun uncles, you know, watching basketball. And I was struck by the tone of the conversation between Draymond. It was Barkley. No, it wasn't awkward. It was mean. See, like, the thing about it is, I. I think if you watch this show, and you think, like, it's easy to do. I. I doubt it's very easy to do what they do every night because they have to be fun, they have to be funny, but they have to do it without being mean.
- [28:43]
Esperaheny
Yeah.
- [28:44]
Dave Defor
Charles Barkley, he can say pretty much whatever he wants, and it's. We're kind of laughing along with him, you know, I. I don't feel like he's ever making fun of someone. Man, Draymond just came across really kind of mean on that show. I don't think that, like, it's necessarily a good fit to have him there.
- [29:01]
Esperaheny
Yeah, I agree with you. I also think, to your point, one of the things is that Draymond takes things a little bit too seriously. Like, he's still a player. He's still currently an NBA player. And so I think he's. He's. He's not far removed enough like Chuck or even Shaq now. Right. To make fun of and be the butt of the joke and just enjoy kind of being on that stage. Whereas, yeah, like, Chuck can laugh at himself. You know, Draymond mentioned he didn't want to be the Houston Rockets version of Charles Barkley.
- [29:32]
Dave Defor
Right.
- [29:33]
Esperaheny
You should go and check. Charles Barkley with the Houston Rockets wasn't that bad. Western Conference finals run was averaging 20. It just. It feels like there was some context missing to what Draymond was trying to say. And also, the jokes did not hit. You know, we've all been there where the jokes do not hit. And tough.
- [29:51]
Dave Defor
I mean, I don't know about. I don't know. Maybe speak for yourself on that one. No, I'm with you. I also think some of this is a little bit of rings culture. Charles Barkley being known as one of the best players to ever play to not win a ring. I. I think it just maybe that plays into it. I don't know. I don't love it. I don't see those shows very often just because I'm typically watching. I've got multiple games I watch on League pass, so we don't see them, but when stuff like that happens, it reminds me of why I'm not into those shows. Yeah, that's not fun. I like it much more. Like, give me the Gone Fishing segment with the old guys having a good time.
- [30:28]
Esperaheny
Just.
- [30:29]
Dave Defor
I want it to feel like, hey, they might crack a beer on that. That's. That's a good vibe for basketball.
- [30:34]
Esperaheny
Yeah, go run and try to chase the screen and. And touch. You know what I mean? Like, that's part of their the bit that they do, like, have bits, have fun. Also, you know, the thing with Draymond right now is he's also in another beef with Austin Rivers. Like there's, there's too much beef to handle your Draymond Green right now, you know?
- [30:51]
Dave Defor
Yeah, but oh, well, he's got it. He's got all this time on his hands, right? Like no playoff games to play. All right, that's going to do it for the show, folks. Thank you guys for hanging out with us. Man, the playoffs have been so fun. Thanks to Esper Henny. I'm Dave Defor and this is Ben, the NBA Daily. Thanks for waking up with us. Thanks for listening. Make sure you hit the subscribe or follow button so you never miss an episode. If you enjoyed it, drop a, like leave a rating or let us know in the comments. Thank you guys for waking up with us.
- [31:31]
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