Like, what are the Thunder trying to do even though I think we all know the answer is money to some degree.

Yeah, I, I think there are two different answers.

So I would say that like the Aaron Wiggins trade it, it was, there was some financial motivation for it for sure, but there was also the fact that the Thunder have these two first round picks, one was the 12th pick, the other one was 17, that they didn't have a roster spot and so someone had to go.

And unfortunately Aaron Wiggins had a really rough second half of the season, didn't really play a ton during the playoffs and when he did play he wasn't great.

And so I think at that point in time like Thunder really, they had kinda like pressure tested guys the last two years of like, "Okay, are you able to compete, you know, deep into the Eastern Conference Finals?" And I think they found really this past year that like the two guys that really couldn't were Isaiah Joe and Aaron Wiggins who just kind of fell out of the rotation.

Didn't see them in game seven of the Eastern Conference Finals.

And so part of it is like they had to have a roster spot for these two first round picks and those were kind of the two guys.

Yep

Mm-hmm.

That's where I th- That's how good this draft is.

So I'm more team stay at 12 and 17 than take both of them and move up, but if you get PJ Washington as a result of that, you add some toughness, some rebounding, some size, a guy that can play next to Chet, next to Iheart.

I think he makes a lot of sense for OKC, and then you get to move up in the draft.

If you go- If you came away from the draft with Burries and PJ Washington, I think-

Yeah

...

the conference finals, which is a huge deal for them.

Uh, 1B presents a very strange, uh, just it's very hard to figure out how to deal with him, and I just think the grass isn't always greener if you move on from Chet.

Yeah.

I mean, people wanna talk about Giannis, 'cause it's kind of like the obvious thing is that the Bucks are ready to move on from Giannis, and they need good young talent, and, you know, Chet's getting the pay raise that would allow them to kind of make th- that trade possible.

I mean, it's not an, it's not an illogical thought, I would say.

But you are losing eight years there between Chet and Giannis.

You talked about Giannis' injuries, and is...

What's funny is that what might have made Giannis work for the Thunder is...

Yeah

S- he could not find any role on offense at all, no matter who he was playing with in the series.

Yeah, that's been part of the struggle with him, is, is offensively, when you look at Chet's game, and why I've mentioned the, the creators, is that he's been a play finisher almost only.

And his three-point shooting has somehow gotten slower to where the Spurs felt so confident in cheating off of him and being able to recover in time to make him just not even attempt a three, that they...

That was part of their game plan that really worked, is that they just took away the three.

And they could do it while not just, like, staying glued to him, which became a huge problem for the Thunder.

And so to me, like, speeding up his release.

There was even a time where, like, there's no rotation on the ball either as it's heading to the rim from Chet from three.

... it's time for that now.

And I'm curious, what's the reaction in Oklahoma City to all the talk about SGA and the flopping and how they could draw phony foul calls from the officials? Is there a lot of talk about that in Oklahoma City?

Yeah, I think from Thunder fans, it's probably more of eye-rolling than discussion happening.

And I think as far as the officials go, I think the real major thing is just the inconsistency that's existed from game to game, which really isn't anything new.

You have these different crews that officiate games differently.

Now the league has needed to get a handle on something like that for a long time.

Um, but that's just kind of the nature of it too.

And it also like plays into the fact that when we talk about the Spurs being, uh, a team that needs more experience, that's kind of part of the reason why it's like the thunder adjusted to the way that the game was being officiated in game five and, and made adjustments that I think were, um, ultimately really good for them.

Did you think that too?

Mm-hmm.

And they are within arm's reach of him whenever he is, uh, setting up on the perimeter, so that's tough.

He did have a, a dunk in this game, which was nice.

Like, he, he was a little bit more aggressive.

Uh, but yeah, I don't, I don't know that there's gonna be huge expectation for Chet to be involved more than just, like, what he was defensively.

And even Mark opted to pull him from the game-

... and also to tap out rebounds, like, it's just not there.

It's there in, like, sm- we saw it in smaller spurts tonight more than in game one, but still not anywhere near where he was against LA or against Phoenix.

What, what was the secret?

I mean, loading up on Shai, which is what almost everybody does, that's nothing different.

But when you have the back line defense of Victor Wembanyama, that's different.

That's, like, the difference.

And the problem is that they weren't finding good enough shots for guys really other than Dub and Alex Caruso.Like AJ Mitchell could not get involved.

Chet could not get involved, which is really nothing new against the Spurs.

Right.

But I do think the biggest difference was, like, the way the Thunder functioned as an offensive unit.

What's it been like? Like, what's it like in the building?

Man, it's such a treat to be able to, to watch him in person.

I mean, we haven't seen LeBron playing playoff basketball in OKC since the 2012 finals.

Uh, 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 m- a 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, uh, it's amazing.

And I don't...

I thought it was a dislocation when it first happened.

Where is he at? What's his status? How's he looking moving forward here with the possibility, possibility of a return at some point?

Yeah.

He's listed as out tonight for game one, which is not a surprise.

He's week to week, and so we're at about two weeks from his initial injury.

I, I wonder if, if they'll kind of see how the series goes a little bit to see if and when they need to bring him back.

M- my, my guess is that he will play at some point during the series, that they wanna get him a little bit of time before they get to the conference finals.

But, um, I, I don't think that they are in any rush with JDub.

Mm-hmm

Can we learn anything from the four regular season matchups?

It's hard because there weren't a lot of those games where everybody was healthy, I think, for both the Thunder and the Lakers.

I do think we learned DeAndre Ayton played in all of those games.

He was terrible in those games.

He averaged 5.8 points per game, 4.8 boards in 24 minutes.

He was almost nothing out there, so I'm really curious about... that Jake Laravia played in all those games like I don't know there's really not a ton to learn from from those games I mean the last one that we saw too where Luka and Austin Reeves got hurt in that game.

But even before they got hurt, the Thunder were just absolutely steamrolling them.

What's your take on where San Antonio is right now? How are they looking in your mind?

How have you seen his performances against this Thunder defense in comparison to other star players that this Thunder defense has keyed in on throughout the season?

Yeah, I think, kinda what I mentioned before, it's just tough for Book to be a driver against the Thunder, and they have, like Lu Dort gives everybody trouble.

Now it's, it's, if, if you're a little bit faster, if you're like a faster guard that can like get into the paint, those guys can have some success against Lu.

It's these bigger guards like Booker that just have a hard time.

Like Donovan Mitchell is another one that kinda has a hard time with Lu, and I think that he's-- Lu is just like the perfect size and speed to compete with a guy like Devin Booker.

And so they've really made Book more into a passer, more of a facilitator than he probably wants to be.

I mean, you even just look at his shot totals, like it's not anywhere near where he was in the regular season.

But as the series shifts here to Phoenix in games three and games four, what adjustments do you think the Suns could make to make this series interesting and maybe extend it by a game or two?

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Um, and had three assists in this one, two blocks.

Like, this was a, a really impressive performance from J Will.

He continues to get better.

I mean, this is a guy that was not supposed to be this player.

Go, go watch, like, five minutes of him playing at Arkansas.

To feel better sooner, it's on Prime.

What has that been like this season?

Yeah, it's been a, a weird season so far.

You know, they started 24 and 1.

They were amazing, and then they went through this stretch where they could not beat the San Antonio Spurs.

And it was just like why can't they beat the Spurs? And Stephon Castle is, like, hitting all his threes.

And they don't look as good.

And then they have this stretch of just a ton of injuries where they lose Ihart, and they lose Shai, and they lose JDub, which has been for most of the season anyways.

Hmm

So how big a surprise is this and how big is it, a change is it for Cason Wallace?

Yeah, it's pretty big.

I mean, he had 10 assists the other day against the Cavs.

That was a career high for him.

He'd never really approached that.

Uh, he's more capable of doing stuff like that.

I don't think that's an every night thing with him.

What, what has that been like for them figuring that out, a- and if there's anything replicable from that?

[chuckles]

...

And I was talking to him post-game, and he was saying, like, he prepared in the off-season a lot more just for, um, specific parts of his body.

He said, like, he's had, like, nagging stuff with his knee and nagging stuff with his shoulder, and he felt like his, like, prep over the, the summer, just to, like, keep all of that really strong, has, like, helped him, like, carry his athleticism through the season.

You can kinda see that.

You know, he played 30 minutes tonight.

He's not gonna play 30 minutes a night when Shai, and JDub, and AJ, and Alex Caruso are all in the game, but, like, he's been ready, and he stayed prepared.

Yep.