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- [00:01]
Unidentified Person 1
We're lost and kickoff's coming up. I don't want to miss the lineup. I'm gonna ask that man for directions. Hi there. We're trying to get to the stadium.
- [00:10]
T-Mobile Representative
Well, you're gonna take a left at the old oak tree at this here road. Nah, I'm just kidding. Let me get my phone out.
- [00:17]
Unidentified Person 1
How is there signal out here?
- [00:19]
T-Mobile Representative
T Mobile and US Cellular are coming together so the network out here is huge. We get the same great signal as the city. City saving a boatload with benefits. And there's a five year price guarantee too. Okay, here's the turn.
- [00:31]
Unidentified Person 1
Actually, can you pull up the way to a T Mobile store?
- [00:35]
T-Mobile Advertiser
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- [00:59]
Grainger Advertiser
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- [01:32]
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- [01:47]
Andrew Schlecht
man, he looks impressive.
- [01:49]
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- [02:13]
Dave Deflor
Good morning and welcome to the NBA Daily for May 6, 2026. I'm Dave Deflor here with esperaheny coming up.
- [02:20]
Mom (Verizon Advertiser)
Woo.
- [02:21]
Dave Deflor
Cavs, Pistons is physical. We're going to talk about that. And the Thunder handled the Lakers. Andrew Schleck's going to check in with us from Oklahom City. Good morning, everybody. What is going on? S. Bon Jorno, everybody.
- [02:40]
Esperaheny
How's it going? We're going to hit a different language.
- [02:44]
Grainger Advertiser
Yeah, we'll figure it out.
- [02:44]
Dave Deflor
Yeah, we'll figure it out. We're searching.
- [02:47]
Esperaheny
Iron sharpens iron, as they say, like the Detroit Pistons and Cleveland Cavalier.
- [02:53]
Dave Deflor
You know, actually, before, before we get to the game, I want to ask you, S. Did you have a chance to read John Hollinger's piece over at the Athletics where he.
- [03:02]
Esperaheny
Yes.
- [03:02]
Dave Deflor
He made a case for the new tanking or anti tanking rules that are going to be instituted through a flatter lottery. Of course, that whole bottom three being ineligible for the number one pick. And he made a strong case. I, I thought that this is a good thing and that the. Maybe the downside benefits of it are existing, but it could be a nice bridge to get us to the next
- [03:30]
Esperaheny
better idea, whatever the next thing is. Yeah, look, I mean, John Hollinger has worked in a front office, right. He knows very well how these GMs operate and work. And I think that for the most part provides him with a level of context that just I cannot, you know, but at the same time, from a fan perspective and from watching the games and also kind of understanding just the value of the draft, I think, I think it doesn't work still. I still do not believe in the lottery. John, I'd love to debate you. You know, if this was the WWE thing, I'd love to have this conversation.
- [04:09]
Dave Deflor
They don't debate and come on, you know, call out trying to put together a, A series of. Well, maybe we'll do a debate series.
- [04:17]
Esperaheny
Look, the lottery is Sunday. What a better time to, to debate what might happen in the next lottery than at some point this week? I don't know. I also, I have a video for the Athletic coming out in like three days talking about how the lottery reform is a terrible idea.
- [04:34]
Dave Deflor
Well, guys, go and read Hollinger's piece at the Athletic and then when S's video comes out, you guys be the judge, who's the counter. Correct. Is it S or is it John Hollinger, former NBA, you know, former for GMs. I don't deny that. Y. Yeah, I'm g. Listen, I, I did appreciate that. I don't know, I thought, I thought it. Actually, he made a compelling case. And I do think that the bottom three is going to cause people to work to save their jobs. Right. So they're going to be trying to win games desperately, like the front office. You can't just flat out stinks. But that being said, like, if you, if you apply that to this year, the Sacramento Kings tried to be good, bless their hearts. They were just.
- [05:20]
Esperaheny
Indiana Pacers tried, but they were injured.
- [05:23]
Dave Deflor
Okay. Yeah. I mean, they were quick to pull the plug. We. Maybe they're a bad example. But I.
- [05:27]
Contentful Advertiser
Okay.
- [05:27]
Esperaheny
I will also say my. One of my biggest gripes with flattened lottery odds is the fact that they're also including more teams. The biggest issue, if we're talking about games being played in March and April and how bad it looked.
- [05:40]
Dave Deflor
Mm.
- [05:40]
Esperaheny
The big issue is the amount of teams that are doing it right. Not, not the two or three teams that are bad and can't win and are actively tanking, but the fact that the Bulls and the Mavericks and the Grizzlies and all these teams are jockeying for further positioning. Maybe this lottery system helps because everybody gets, you know, the same odds, but I just, I think adding more teams potentially causes more trouble. That's my whole.
- [06:07]
Dave Deflor
I mean, you already have like 75% of the. The games on a given night in March being affected by it. I understand. Listen, there's going to be unknown sides. There's pros and cons to it.
- [06:17]
Esperaheny
I understand that.
- [06:18]
Dave Deflor
So we got to get. We're going to try to get John Hollinger in here to talk about it. Let's talk about the Cavs and Pistons. Game one of their second round series last night. And man, it could not have gone any better for the Detroit Pistons. They win 111, 101 and s the thing that I really liked about it. I thought that out of the gate they looked like the Pistons. This wasn't like the first round where I was like, where was the defense that we saw all regular season long? Where's Jalen Duran? And listen, we're going to talk. I mean, he didn't shoot the ball all that great, but he still was effective. He had so many offensive rebounds. I thought he won the interior battle between these teams. But this was a Pistons game. They just, they out physical. I, you know, I said on the show yesterday I thought the Cavs were a little bit too soft to beat the Pistons in a seven game series. I think game one proves that point a little bit. You know, I mean, it is only game one, but man, from a physical standpoint, Pistons win big time.
- [07:16]
Esperaheny
Yeah, I thought, you know, coming into the series, the main question I had was which team will look better offensively? Because both of these teams played grueling teams in the first round. You know, between the Raptors and the Magic, those two are very physical. So which team is just going to look like they're relieved to play the other? And I honestly think it was the Detroit Pistons from game one. The way that the ball was flowing. Cade Cunningham was punishing Jared Allen in drop and if you're going to play drop against Cade, he's going to have a Runway to barrel to the basket. The secondary guys for the Pistons in Tobias Harris in a Sar Thompson, even Duncan Robinson, like they just had more daylight to operate. When it's not Jalen Suggs on the other side and it's James Harden and Donovan Mitchell, there's just more avenues for the Pistons to attack. So it looked like they had more freedom. And on top of that they turned, they, they forced a lot of turnovers in this game and the Cavaliers have struggled immensely in the playoffs when it comes to taking care of the ball. James Harden ended up with seven turnovers. I believe it is a another game for him in this playoff run where he's had more turnovers. That's his third one than field goals made. So that's, that's the impact of a guy like a Sar Thompson who is draped on him. And when you don't have James Harden's playmaking, you're forcing the ball into Donovan Mitchell's hands. And we've talked about Donovan Mitchell's limitations as a playmaker and that has the trickle down effect of you don't have as effective of a game from Evan Mobley and Jared Allen. And so there's a cascading effect to the, the Cavaliers offense when James Harden is isn't able to get his game off. So I think it's a combination of Pistons just look better because it's a worse defense that they're facing in the Cavs and then defensively they can throw out exactly what makes the Cavaliers struggle.
- [09:12]
Dave Deflor
And listen, I will give JB bigger staff credit. His best lineups did not feature two non shooters. We he got Caris LeVert out there. He got Dennis Jenkins out there for extended run even though he started the game off poorly. Which I think JB Biggerstaffs kind of had a tight leash as far as Dennis Jenkins goes if he does get
- [09:32]
Esperaheny
some big shots in this game though, right?
- [09:33]
Dave Deflor
Yeah he and he did. And, and I think that this, this offense looks so much better when he's out there in the starting lineup in place of Asar. Not to say that Asar wasn't important in the game but it offensively one of the Reasons why the Pistons look so good for so often was because Danish Jenkins was a guy that you had to guard out on the perimeter. It just opened up the floor a little bit more for Jalen Duran. Like we saw him get a couple of buckets in a row late in the game. Like the, the drop off game, Cade driving, being able to drop off to Duran during getting a bucket that was there because the lane was there. So that's something, something to watch for me. Like will we see even more of that going ahead in this series in game two? Because I think that they still have the defense because frankly the Cavs just aren't making anyone pay right now. Whether it was the Raptors in the last series or, or now the pistons in game one of this series. You know, you mentioned the turnovers. 10 turnovers combined between James Harden and Donovan Mitchell. The Cavs had 19 for the game. And no one's lighting the world on fire shooting the ball. You know, I mean, they didn't really like none of these guys had a good shooting night. Donovan Mitchell, you know, you think about down the stretch of a game, the Cavs actually tied this game up with five minutes to go. We got into crunch time and the Pistons just took off again. They called a timeout, they turned up the physicality and just Cleveland just had nothing.
- [11:00]
Esperaheny
I think the best stretch that the Cavaliers had in this game was when Max Stru and Dennis Schroeder weren't, were in and they spurred on that, that comeback. I mean, Streuss ended up with 19 points in this game. His ability to space the floor and also capitalize on advantages is so key to the, to the Cavaliers offense. And then Schroeder is just another guy who can handle the ball. So you're not necessarily forcing Harden and Mitchell to create everything. There's another guy out there who can kind of get it off of the bounce. My question moving forward is how do they make the game easier for James Harden? Because if you, if you have to deal with a Sar Thompson for 35 minutes a game, you're going to be exhausted. I just, I don't know what the answer is to that.
- [11:45]
Dave Deflor
We've seen this before. We've seen this before and we've seen James Harden stand at half court before. Yeah. And allow his team to play four on four. But we've never seen him, you know, pass and relocate. That's, that's not his game. He's not going to come off a screen. You know, there you don't set a pin down for James Harden or, or get him on a secondary action. It's just not the guy he is. There were times when he was effective, but they just have so many big bodies that they get, whether it's Tobias Harris, Assar Thompson, Kate Kate Cunningham himself. I mean everyone was willing to guard Harden at one point and they, this team is pretty disciplined about, about no dumb fouls. I mean outside of Duncan Robinson, there's not a lot of guys that do dumb fouls on the perimeter. And I just think that it takes Harden out of his game. A lot of turnovers for him wind up looking, he's looking for the whistle and then throws the ball away. And so, you know, I just think that this Pistons team with their discipline on defense and, and their ability to be physical without fouling, I think that they are suited to, to guard him well. Frankly like Donovan Mitchell has to have a big series because I think that he's the guy that could maybe exploit it. Quick first step. No, he's a big shot maker. They want to hang, I think and drop a little bit because they want to be able to switch out top just in case, you know, Harden coming off a screen. Absolutely. And so during dropping that it's wide open for Donovan Mitchell to hit that mid range. So that's something I'm looking for in game two. And then look, Evan Mobley, frankly like 14 points is just not enough out of him in a series where he should have a positional advantage.
- [13:26]
Esperaheny
Yeah, it's a combination of him and Jared Allen. And I think it just the level of aggression that wanes between those two guys on a game to game basis is obviously concerning. I think it does have to do with the guards and those guys getting the ball into advantageous spots. But they have force fed so many self creation opportunities for Mobley for the last two, two seasons. I mean a big part of hiring Kenny Atkinson was quote unquote unlocking Mobley. And I just, I ultimately think like that hasn't come to fruition in the way that the Cavaliers expected. So they still need to force feed those guys in a way that makes life easier for them. If those spoon fed buckets aren't available to them, their offense isn't there. And you know, after Jared Allen had that Hakeem Olajuwon, whatever Wilt Chamberlain type of game in game seven, he completely disappeared in this one. I just, I feel like that level of inconsistency from your front court makes me question, you know, this, this team's legitimacy of actually making a run. I feel like they also will be forced to stagger them more often because that's what happened towards the end of the Raptors series. Going double big presents a lot of problems for you offensively. Can you go to Mobley at the 5 or Allen at the 5 individually and maybe space out the game a little bit better that way? That's just one of the things that they can do.
- [14:48]
Dave Deflor
Neither one of those guys is going to take advantage of a, a size mismatch on offense in any way really. The, the two of them, they're not really spacing the floor for you if the other one's involved in an action. I mean it's kind of the opposite problem of what Detroit has, right. Like they've, they've got to get a non shooter off the court. They got to get a big off the court and. And then again back to Jaylen Duran. I want to, I want to mention this because you look at a box score and you see 4 of 11, you're like, oh, another rough game. But the guy had seven offensive rebounds. I mean he absolutely was dominant inside, had a couple blocks. This is the stuff that I was talking about with not being soft.
- [15:26]
Verizon Advertiser
Right.
- [15:26]
Dave Deflor
The Pistons just absolutely are able to out physical the Cavs in every single way. It's going to be up to the Cavs in game two. I think to find a way to outskill they're going to have to hit shots. Like they need a huge three point shooting game. I think in game two if they're going to bounce back, they have that ability.
- [15:42]
Esperaheny
I mean, look, Cavs fans know they call it a cavalanche for a reason. That they have that ability to drop 20 on you. That's how they came back in the second half in the first place. But I just. You need to get life easier for James Harden. I think that's question number one is how do you make life easier?
- [16:00]
Dave Deflor
Set those screens higher, man. You got to get those screens out. Give them a Runway. Yeah. 30, 35ft. Let him get downhill and actually force Duran to come up and fill that space pro again. One of the reasons why I think it's Donovan Mitchell and not Harden is because Donovan Mitchell will pull the trigger on the, on the 20 footer and James Harden just won't. And, and there's a point in which you got to hit those. I mean Donovan Mitchell in the mid range is actually very good. I mean one of the reasons why those Utah and Denver series were so amazing was because Utah had to give up the middle and Donovan Mitchell was able to take it. So I think he's gonna have to play a little bit of hero ball actually if they, if they want to get out of the series. Let's look ahead to tomorrow. We got, we got a couple of game twos. The, the Sixers and Knicks obviously blowout in game one. Wolves, spurs shocking upset. I think more so because we didn't know Anthony Edwards was going to be in the game, much less be as effective as he was. What's the biggest adjustment you want to see tomorrow either game for the Sixers?
- [17:05]
Esperaheny
I gotta just press the play better button, man. I. Get some sleep, get some sleep. Get some rest. Honestly, throw out the tape. You know, outside of finding ways to guard Carl Anthony Towns and Jalen Brunson in actions, I, I don't think there's anything that they can do differently offensively to give them better looks. It is going to be a lot of Joel Embiid at the nail. Joel Embiid in the mid post area. The double will come. How do you create shots from there? The shot making of the other guys need to. Needs to just turn out well. Also like you need an aggressive Tyrese Maxey game. Him putting pressure on Jalen Brunson. You guys talked about it, you and Xena yesterday. But like putting pressure on Jalen Brunson to defend more in actions is the key to unlocking the Sixers team. At the same time, I think they need to find a way to guard what Cat and Brunson and you know, OG and Josh Hart are doing with that flex action. So many off ball screens, so many opportunities to. To get back door cuts and whatnot. You have to be smarter on defense. I would just say play better. That's the Solution for the 76ers.
- [18:11]
Dave Deflor
For the Spurs, I think that their guards and wings are going to have to defend the paint from the perimeter. Minnesota was able to get downhill too fast too often. I mean, a lot's being said about Wemby's blocks, including the ones that maybe weren't blocks and look, how do you feel about that?
- [18:29]
Esperaheny
Do you. Do you feel like a lot of.
- [18:30]
Dave Deflor
One of them was definitely a goaltend. One of them was absolutely a goaltending. It was off the, it was off the backboard. The rest of them, they're debatable. I, I need to look at the tracking stuff and I mean, you know, I feel like at this point a lot of his blocks, they're either, you know, it's a goaltender not. But I don't know how do they
- [18:46]
Esperaheny
not have A machine that detects that at this point, you know, well, there
- [18:50]
Dave Deflor
is tracking for the ball, but not in. I don't think it's good for real time. And, and to me, if it's close, you might as well call it and go and look at it.
- [18:58]
Esperaheny
Yeah, yeah, I agree.
- [18:59]
Grainger Advertiser
You know, I agree.
- [19:00]
Dave Deflor
I, I, I feel like I, I don't know, I do hate to call
- [19:02]
Esperaheny
it often with Wemby, though, because he catches it in like he hits it right at the top very, very often.
- [19:08]
Dave Deflor
So, but it did, I mean, look, you know, I'm not, I'm not Chris Finch, so I didn't count eight points taken off the board. But there is something to, I mean, they missed a crude, in my opinion, a, an easy goaltend call on him. But again, part of this, the plan for Minnesota, which I think was great, getting those big seal and screens down low to get Wimby out of the play, pull Wemby out of the paint stack, screen him, keep him out of the play, get downhill, force him to play from behind so that he is more likely to foul trying to reach over, going for blocks. I thought it was genius. But part of this is because the spurs guards did not do a good enough job at the point of attack and, and they didn't do a good enough job with the scram switch. This, the switch that comes before the play. So making sure that, okay, we've got Wemby on, on Teron Shannon Jr. We know that they're going to pull him up into the screen. We got to switch that as it's happening so that Wimy can still stay back and be the low man and protect because you'd rather him deal with getting screened down low by Julius Randall and having to come over the top because at least still he can contribute to rebounding and he does, you know, distract around the rim. But if he's out top and he's playing from behind and trying to come over the top, it's just going to put him in foul trouble. Physically, it's just going to be more demanding for him and he's just going to be less available and, and frankly, it's harder for him to impact the play because, I mean, they've pulled him 20ft away from the rim. So for me, I just need the spurs defense to lock up on the perimeter.
- [20:40]
Esperaheny
Yeah, I agree with that. And I actually, I thought the Wolves did a really great job of going offense defense with Nas Reed and Rudy Gobert at the end of the game because that also spaces out. Wemby and you're not having him camp out near the rim. It's, it's. He has to respect Nas as a shooter and so the Wolves just do a great job of on the margins. We have five guys out there who can shoot right. Anthony Edwards has the ball. Julius Randle can create his own shot. It's a lot harder for the spurs defense to pinch in versus let's say an OKC team that isn't as great of a shooting team but has one source of offense in sga. The Wolves can kind of hit you from all different types of directions, which makes them a little bit more dangerous to the spurs defense.
- [21:21]
Dave Deflor
Their curveball lineup being all shooters is. Is something that the spurs are going to have to solve for. And by the way, Rudy Gobert still looking great. I mean he had an excellent game and really has done about as good of a job one on one on now Jokic and. And Wimy in one game that we've seen maybe anybody. So Rudy, look, man, he was disrespected by the. By that defensive player of the year vote.
- [21:46]
Esperaheny
I was disrespected for him, man. It should have been him. Anyways, that's. That's another story for another day. I think this is going seven, by the way.
- [21:54]
Dave Deflor
It's going to be a battle. Yeah.
- [21:56]
Esperaheny
This just feels like it's going to be a long series now, especially because Ant. Ant doesn't look 100%, but he looks good enough to make this a series in a legitimate way. And the scoring in the fourth quarter was incredible. I. I don't know. I just feel like we're in for an all timer.
- [22:11]
Dave Deflor
Yeah, we'll see. If Ant boxes out in the last two minutes of game two. We'll see what happens. Guys. Stick around. After the break, our man Andrew Schlecht was in the building for Thunder Lakers and he's here to talk about it.
- [22:27]
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- [23:03]
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- [23:22]
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- [23:33]
Grainger Advertiser
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- [24:09]
Dave Deflor
Game 1 of the second round series in the Western Conference between the the Thunder and Lakers and man, the Lakers just didn't have enough for the Thunder. Even though the Thunder looked rusty after nine days off. Our man Andrew Schleck, you may know him as the host of down to Dunk, also the Saturday Slam and Jam. He was in the building, as he usually is. Andrew, how's it going? Were, were you bored during the game? Like h How was it for you?
- [24:36]
Andrew Schlecht
It's going great. It was a. It was. It's just fun being back in the arena. The Thunder haven't played basketball in a long time, so it's fun watching them play again.
- [24:45]
Esperaheny
Yeah, it felt like they were kind of slow rolling things, you know, always keeping the Lakers within distance. It was like 10 points, I think at one point. You know, obviously early in the game it was tied up, but it always felt like the Lakers were in striking distance until the Thunder just pulled away. Was that a matter of rust or was that something the Lakers were trying to do?
- [25:06]
Andrew Schlecht
I think it's probably a little bit of both. I do want to give the Lakers credit because they were, they were doing a good job on Shea. I mean, they were throwing these like double. He'd see two or three at times, you know, as he's trying to drive and they were wanting him to get rid of the ball, but turns out that was not a great strategy because they had guys like Jared McCain who was hot. Chet Holmgren had an awesome game. Lou Dort was 2 of 5 from 3. AJ Mitchell, who I'm sure we'll talk about a lot played well in this one. So, like, the Thunder handled it okay. They just turned the ball over a lot. They had 16 turnovers in this one, which is just uncharacteristic of them. I mean, I don't remember the last time I saw Shay have six turnovers, especially in a playoff game. That's just very uncharacteristic of him. He had just had some weird sloppy passes. And it, when you talk to the guys in the locker room about it, a lot of them like, yeah, we haven't played in a while and when you have a layoff this long, there's going to be some rust. And you know, they, they had the same layoff last year and they lost game one to Denver and round. In round two. And I think some of that was rust. Then luckily the Thunder able to handle their business today. They were a 15 1/2 point favorite in this one, which might be the
- [26:22]
Esperaheny
biggest ever in a playoff series.
- [26:25]
Andrew Schlecht
I think it is like the biggest since LeBron has played in round two. It's like the largest margin.
- [26:31]
Esperaheny
Wow.
- [26:32]
Andrew Schlecht
For a LeBron team. And it. Yeah, but they were right, you know, 15 and a half, probably, probably a
- [26:40]
Dave Deflor
good one the last time Shea had six turnovers. By the way, game six of last year's finals.
- [26:47]
Andrew Schlecht
That makes total sense.
- [26:49]
Esperaheny
Yeah, yeah, that makes sense.
- [26:50]
Dave Deflor
Look, okay, so they were, they looked rusty. I thought Shea, again, the turnovers, they were just uncharacteristic. But you got big play from a bunch of different guys. And this has sort of been the story of the season for the Thunder. We're going to probably call this one the Chet Holmgren game. You know, it's funny to think about how we, we started this season saying, hey, the Thunder, they need more Chet Holmgren. And then as J Dub went down and wasn't available most of the season, he was night to night. You didn't really know if he was going to be the second banana. I thought he looked great. I thought he looked really, really strong against a bigger Lakers team, you know, inside than. Than maybe we would think he could handle. What do you think about Chet and, and how big is that to see Chet be able to fill it up, like actually score when Shay didn't have it going?
- [27:40]
Andrew Schlecht
Yeah, he was aggressive. I thought he was just always kind of in the right spot. Like, that's the one thing that really sticks out about Chet is his basketball iq. Defensively, that's always there. That's there every night, whether he's scoring eight points or 22 points. Like, defensively, he's always going to bring it. But tonight, offensively, he was there, too. He only took two threes. He had both of them. I'd like to see him take more of those because I do think his ability to space the floor is just one. A look that a lot of teams can't hang with, and so I'd like to see them do that. I don't think the Lakers can really hang with it because then you basically have to, like, downsize to Rui at center, and then you lose, like, quite a bit of, like, rebounding and size and rim protection. And so I'd like to see them try to stretch out the Lakers a little bit more. But Chet was great on this one. He. He had this. He had, like, a floater that he missed, that he, like, gave him, like, a self value. There was just, like, a lot of fun moments in this one. But I think, like, the biggest thing is he was really good on the boards. He had 12 boards in this one. It was something that we look back whenever he was the lone center for the Thunder two years ago, it was always a huge deal. It's like, Thunder are bad at rebounding. How are they going to keep up on the boards? But Chet's gotten better himself, which, like, just makes them even harder to, you know, defend. It makes them harder to just go up against. And this Lakers team is big. Like, they play big. They've got. They've got good size with LeBron at the 3, Rui and Aiden, but with Chet and I heart, they. The Thunder did pretty well tonight.
- [29:09]
Esperaheny
Yeah, I know. I remember that Maverick series for Chet was a big inflection point, rebounding wise. Right. Especially in that elimination game. Everybody was talking about his inability to rebound. So it's great to see him become a very, very good rebounder for this team. AJ Mitchell is also a guy who's. I mean, we've talked about a lot on this podcast, stepping into a bigger role, especially with J Dub injured and not available. Do you. Do you feel like this is just who he is? Like, given the extra responsibility, given, you know, the extra us, this is just what we should come to expect from AJ Mitchell moving forward is efficient. Offensive outings, consistently, like, that's. That's who he is.
- [29:50]
Andrew Schlecht
I think so. I mean, he's just uber aggressive. I mean, he had. He hasn't played that many NBA games. He's right. Was injured a lot in his rookie season. He was in and out with injuries this year as well. But he, like, came into the NBA with a ton of confidence and like, he is so calm in, like, these moments that don't really make sense for him to be calm. He is not really. He played one game in the NBA playoffs last year, and it was in the finals. And I was talking to him about it tonight because it's. It's just. It just stuck out to me, like, watching him play these big games in round two. He's the focal point for the Thunder when Shay's off the court. It's like I said, do you ever just think about whenever Mark Degnoff just threw you in the game in the NBA Finals? And he said, like, he. He said it's kind of crazy going from that to being like, having this big role. But he also acts like he belongs. Like there's. There's no fear in his eyes. He's super steady. Defensively, he was pretty good. He started on Austin Reeves in this one, and Austin had a really bad night tonight that wasn't all on AJ But I thought AJ Did a good job. I think defensively he's probably underrated, but offensively, like, he can be a second engine to a team. Like, that's. That's clear.
- [31:10]
Dave Deflor
Yeah. Is it pretty clear that Jared McCain is a buy low guy? Did Daryl Morris sell high on Jared McCain?
- [31:19]
Verizon Advertiser
I.
- [31:21]
Andrew Schlecht
We're all just fantasizing about a Thunder Sixers finals where Jared McCain, like, hits a three in game seven.
- [31:29]
Esperaheny
Oh, that's awesome.
- [31:29]
Dave Deflor
Yeah.
- [31:31]
Andrew Schlecht
No, I mean, Jared was awesome. He. He's electric. The crowd just loves Jared and they want, like, they want him to succeed so badly. Like when the ball hits his hands and he's on the perimeter, the crowd just like, starts to like, rev up.
- [31:45]
Dave Deflor
Yeah. Fans are too online, Andrew, and maybe this is your fault. I think they do it because they know Sixers fans hate it.
- [31:54]
Andrew Schlecht
Oh, it is.
- [31:55]
Dave Deflor
It is. It is really funny. Realize that. That Jared McCain scored more points last night than the Sixers bench did in game six and seven combined.
- [32:05]
Esperaheny
Wow.
- [32:06]
Andrew Schlecht
This is true. This is true. He was electric. Four or five from three. He was feeling it. There's really nothing more fun. There was the transition one where it was McCain to AJ in the corner. AJ right back to McCain. McCain hits the three. The crowd goes wild. Very. It's very fun to watch him play basketball. It's a weapon they didn't have last year.
- [32:25]
Dave Deflor
Yeah.
- [32:25]
Andrew Schlecht
I mean, you even saw it tonight. Like Isaiah Joe play. They. They didn't came put a little bit more than Joe, but like, McCain gets in and he can find threes so easily. It's a skill where Isaiah Joe, he's a really good three point shooter. Sometimes he has trouble finding threes because the Lakers are so locked in on removing that from his game that he can't get there. But Jared is just like a magnet to like finding these spots and to have just another weapon that you can just throw in there. And I think that they were kind of throwing out Isaiah Joe, McCain, Aaron Wiggins, Alex Caruso as like an option as well. Just like, hey, who's, who's got it tonight kind of thing. They threw 11 guys out there in the first half and it was Jared, he was super aggressive and he, he was like the reason why they're able to win by 18.
- [33:11]
Dave Deflor
You got a up close view of playoff LeBron at age 41. I mean, look, we just watched that game three against Houston goes down as one of my all time favorite LeBron games.
- [33:24]
Esperaheny
Just the way he's controlling, the same age as the coaches, man, he's, I
- [33:28]
Dave Deflor
mean, he's almost my age, right? Okay, so let's just relax with how old he is. But he doesn't look it except for when you watch him. Like, you watch him think the game on the court. You can watch where he's always in the perfect spot. He's selling other guys where to go. I mean, you know, like, I don't know. This could be LeBron's last season and I don't know if enough of us are thinking this way. And so like we were texting during the game and I was like, Andrew, this is so cool that like we're getting like a vintage version of LeBron. I mean, they're running the same elbow series stuff that they were running in Cleveland. It really, it's a taste of what he used to be.
- [34:05]
Esperaheny
This is last season.
- [34:07]
Dave Deflor
What's it like in the building, man,
- [34:09]
Andrew Schlecht
it's such a treat to be able to watch him in person. I mean, we haven't seen LeBron playing playoff basketball in OKC since the 2012 finals. And so just to have like him back in these high leverage games is very cool. To see him score 27 points on 17 shots. Just finding guys in the corner, like making Rui Hachimura into like this massive weapon for them is just like very cool to watch. And just seeing him like think the game at such a high level is, it's amazing. And I don't, I, I hope that people can kind of soak it in a little bit. There's no way this is his last season. He's too good. He's too good for this to be his last season.
- [34:52]
Dave Deflor
I looked at a career tracker for him and kind of, you know, it looked at different factors, statistics, obviously across the board, and then also how much guys move on the court, all that tracking data, and he's still at an all star level. Legitimate, statistically, an All Star at 41. So I don't know. I mean, who's gonna sign an all star free agent this summer?
- [35:14]
Esperaheny
That's a good for the minimum.
- [35:18]
Dave Deflor
Sure.
- [35:20]
Andrew Schlecht
Yeah. It's phenomenal.
- [35:21]
Esperaheny
I. Look, I agree. I. I don't think this is going to be his last season. I also agree that he's playing all star level basketball. If he wasn't injured to start the year, he probably ends up on for all NBA consideration. I mean, that's. That's how good he was. I have to ask you, Andrew, what happened to Jared Vanderbilt in this game because he got injured? It looked very gruesome given the reactions on the court. What happened to Vando?
- [35:47]
Andrew Schlecht
So Jared, he. He hit his finger on this backboard over here and you could see he was in a ton of pain.
- [35:55]
Dave Deflor
Yeah.
- [35:55]
Andrew Schlecht
Like, not a normal amount of pain that players have. Like, even if, like you hurt your knee or you hurt your wrist or something.
- [36:02]
Dave Deflor
I thought it was a dislocation when it first happened.
- [36:05]
Andrew Schlecht
So he reacted in a way that was like, kind of scary. And I was asking Thunder players because, I mean, most of you have probably seen like the videos of the Thunder players reactions, and so there are a few things happening. So, yeah, Vanderbilt walks over and he is like in so much pain and he kind of like brings his hand out and you can see that really at the knuckle. His pinky's gone. Okay. They were so. Okay, I'll keep the story going. The pinky's gone. They are looking for half the pinky on the ground over here. But it turns out, because when you look at it, all you see is bone. All you see is bone on the end of it. Okay.
- [36:52]
Esperaheny
Oh, my God.
- [36:53]
Andrew Schlecht
However, it was hanging on by a thread and they didn't know, but like, there was a group of the medical staff looking on the ground over here in the corner in OKC for half the pinky.
- [37:05]
Esperaheny
We got to do a not safe for work. Oh, my goodness.
- [37:08]
Andrew Schlecht
And the. The guys over here, I mean, I was talking to one of the Thunder players and he was like, that's something that a surgeon sees.
- [37:16]
Dave Deflor
Yeah.
- [37:17]
Andrew Schlecht
That's not something that a basketball player sees. He's like, I see people get scratched. I see People, you know, do, you know, tear up their knees or their wrists or whatever, like all the time and it's like, yeah, that's brutal. Like, I don't see that. Like, that's something a surgeon's supposed to see. It was hanging on by a thread. I saw Jared walking out of the locker room with. With a splint on, but it was gruesome.
- [37:41]
Esperaheny
Like something that gonna do for that. Wow.
- [37:44]
Andrew Schlecht
The amount of force that he. The amount of force that you had because he hit it on the backboard. The amount of force he had to have must have been insane.
- [37:52]
Esperaheny
Yeah.
- [37:53]
Andrew Schlecht
Because it is something that like the. I mean, several of the guys, like, I've never seen anything like that in all my years of playing basketball.
- [37:59]
Dave Deflor
Wow.
- [38:00]
Esperaheny
Wow.
- [38:01]
Dave Deflor
Well, okay, well, get well soon. Jared Vanderbilt, please get well. Don't do a Ronnie lot, please. It's just a basketball game. You, you know. All right.
- [38:12]
Verizon Advertiser
Wow.
- [38:12]
Dave Deflor
On that note, that's gonna tour for the show, guys. Thanks to Andrew, there's no proper way down the dunk. Saturday, slamming jam. You know them, you love them. Thanks for hanging out, Andrew. For Esperahenny and Andrew Schlecht, I'm Dave Dufour and this has been the NBA Daily. Thanks for waking up with us. Hope you didn't eat breakfast. 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.
- [38:58]
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