But what do you think about this message that Doc Rivers sent?

It's not wrong, right? Like, I think it might not be 100% correct.

I don't know if Mike Budenholzer would agree with, like, he only plays one way.

Budenholzer came in, put his system in.

Giannis kind of played around it.

won a championship.

Like, they were, you know, they were very successful in the regular season, finally broke through.

misses.

You know what I mean?

Oh, absolutely.

I mean, look, like David Robinson was old as a rookie when he came in too, right? Like sometimes that's okay.

Sometimes you can come in and still ball out.

Like I think with, you know, Dylan Harper was someone last year who started slow because of injury and he, you know, he went crazy in the playoffs and looked great.

And now they're like, oh, we shouldn't have re-signed De'Aaron Fox to this extension.

How do we get him time? Those are great, you know, great problems to have.

Like, what's that all about? What's going on?

You know what I mean?

Oh, absolutely.

I mean, look, like David Robinson was old as a rookie when he came in too, right? Like sometimes that's okay.

Sometimes you can come in and still ball out.

Like I think with, you know, Dylan Harper was someone last year who started slow because of injury and he, you know, he went crazy in the playoffs and looked great.

And now they're like, oh, we shouldn't have re-signed De'Aaron Fox to this extension.

How do we get him time? Those are great problems to have.

Like, what's that all about? What's going on?

You know what I mean?

Oh, absolutely.

I mean, look, like David Robinson was old as a rookie when he came in too, right? Like sometimes that's okay.

Sometimes you can come in and still ball out.

Like I think with, you know, Dylan Harper was someone last year who started slow because of injury.

And he, you know, he went crazy in the playoffs and looked great.

And now they're like, oh, we shouldn't have re-signed De'Aaron Fox to this extension.

Like, what's that all about? What's going on?

You know what I mean?

Oh, absolutely.

I mean, look, like David Robinson was old as a rookie when he came in too, right? Like sometimes that's okay.

Sometimes you can come in and still ball out.

Like I think with, you know, Dylan Harper was someone last year who started slow because of injury and he, you know, he went crazy in the playoffs and looked great.

And now they're like, oh, we shouldn't have re-signed De'Aaron Fox to this extension.

How do we get him time? Those are great, you know, great problems to have.

Like, what's that all about? What's going on?

But what did we learn? What did you think you learned? What are any big takeaways that you have from this game, if anything?

I think you can see, not to quote Nico Harrison, I think you can kind of see the vision here, right, with the Sixers.

Now, I do think, you know, I don't think they played a great game, but when you look at all the factors of like this is their first like actual basketball game together, right? I know they played the Nets at one point in the preseason, the guys, but like this is a real basketball game.

And seeing, you know, you guys mentioned the rotations and Nick Nurse and the job he did in this.

I completely agree.

I'm not a huge Nick Nurse guy in terms of like fit for this team, but I thought he managed it perfectly, especially in the environment.

You want to go out there and yeah, it's just game one and there's still six months of regular season and three months of playoffs and everything.

When you see all four of these teams play today, have they really wavered for you guys of any kind? Or what do you guys think?

"... hate giraffes."

I, I think...

I'm really big on this lately, I think it would be so fun to fake your death-

[laughs]

They're all, uh, they're all to that song, "I'm gonna have the best fucking night of my..." It- that's every video is that song that David Guetta song.

Mm-hmm.

Uh, and then we're back to five days a week.

Uh, Cinephobe, Here's the Science, Emotional Hoops, uh, Deals and Dunks on SiriusXM NBA Radio, not for a couple more months, but back when the season's back.

Yeah.

I'm trying to think the, the, the inventory at a Linens N' Things.

It's like linens and kitchen shit.

Yeah, you can get you, like, a mixer.

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Mm-hmm.

Now, I'm curious, when you say it's between Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers, would you still have the Miami Heat and the Philadelphia 76ers in the conversation, and how would you power rank the four of those?

those?Yeah, yeah.

I think, I mean, I think you even have to still have Minnesota and Denver in it, right? Like, I, I do think all those, all six of those teams are, are technically in the mix.

I just...

Like, I'd probably put, like, Denver and Minnesota, we can have them tied for fifth.

Uh, I would put probably Miami fourth, just because I think that the...

Not that LeBron doesn't want this, but that would be so much responsibility for him on the court.

What do you say about that roster?

Now, I'm curious, when you say it's between Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers, would you still have the Miami Heat and the Philadelphia 76ers in the conversation, and how would you power rank the four of those?

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think, I mean, I think you even have to still have Minnesota and Denver in it, right? Like, I, I do think all those, all six of those teams are, are technically in the mix.

I just...

Like, I'd probably put, like, Denver and Minnesota, we can have them tied for fifth.

Uh, I would put probably Miami fourth, just because I think that's a...

What do you say about that roster?

Now, I'm curious, when you say it's between Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers, would you still have the Miami Heat and the Philadelphia 76ers in the conversation, and how would you power rank the four of those?

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think...

I mean, I think you even have to still have Minnesota and Denver in it, right? Like I, I do think all those, all six of those teams are, are technically in the mix.

I just...

Like I'd probably put like Denver and Minnesota, we can have them tied for fifth.

What do you say about that roster?

So LeBron plus Joker plus Murray, do they narrow the gap between Denver and OKC and San Antonio, or is this just fantasy hoop stock?

I mean, look, I, this may be m- my own ego getting scarred here, because all season long, I was like, "Hey, Denver's as good as OKC, as good if not better than San Antonio.

Like, we need to be respectful of this Denver team.

They beefed up their bench.

They got, you know, an actual backup center in there, so the Jokic non-minutes aren't so bad." And then they got smoked by the Timberwolves in the first round.

[laughs] Now, I think a lot of that was injury, right? Aaron Gordon injured, Peyton Watson injured, so this team, in theory, when healthy, I do think is a contender, and adding LeBron to them would be phenomenal.

But you've got two straight years of Aaron Gordon having hamstring issues in the postseason.

Tell me who's going to be the third scoring option on this team now that LeBron is gone.

What have you been hearing out there? What's a major free agency move that you think happened in this coming week?

I don't think it's going to work, but a lot of teams are trying to steal someone away.

So whether that's Walker Kessler, whether that's Jalen Duren, which obviously restricted free agency, it's fine.

I hate restricted free agency because I don't like how it limits the player.

Obviously restricted is in the name, but everyone's always like, so what's a better system? I don't know.

That's not my job.

I can't, I'm not smart enough to come up with that stuff, but with restricted free agency, I don't know that you can offer enough money, high up your cap space and get Jalen Dern away from the business.

LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Kawhi Leonard.

So all of that, if he does accomplish that tomorrow, that feels like a legendary moment.

I mean, to do what he's done already in his career is...

I mean, we haven't seen it a lot.

It is pretty rare.

And obviously, I wasn't around for this, but it reminds me of everything I've read, what I've watched about, hey, second year in the league, Kareem took a Bucs franchise that was only three years old and won the championship.

And he was 23, 24 at the time.

Wemby's like 22-ish.

Do you like the new NBA draft lottery that will come into effect in a year from

No Diddy.

No, I, I'll, I'll [laughs] definitely no Diddy.

I do think, like, yeah, he's a horri- he's a horrible three-point shooter, especially for, like, what you want as a guard.

I wonder how much of not creating space is because they literally have one shooter on that team.

I do think that matters.

Like, you have so much that is just paint focused and, and, like, I don't know.

I don't, I don't know that you're, you're worried about too much of the s- of, like, swinging s- you know, the pass or whatever.

[laughs]

Yep.

It's lost its luster.

Um, you know, it, it all comes back if the players care.

They're trying a new gimmick this year with the International versus US.

I- it...

Much like a, a few of the other gimmicks that they've tried over the years, I bet it works the first time.

It's about sustaining it, right? And so it really needs...

Yep.

We're playing against you.

Yeah, like I... (laughs) Yeah, I don't think it was th- anything bigger than that.

So $113 million to go away, and instead of him eating up one third of the salary cap for the Bucks over the next two years, now it's going to be about 15% of the salary cap over the next five.

It's a massive risk.

Myles Turner does not cost $27 million a year.

He costs $49 million a year for the next four years of, of that contract, because they have eaten that money of Damian Lillard's and spread it out over five seasons.

So you have to factor that in.

Who is the second best team in the West now behind OKC?

How much growth did you see from OKC, especially in road high-leverage situations on their way to the title?

It was huge.

I mean, uh, it...

You could look at it and say they weren't totally tested throughout the postseason because they had an easy time with Memphis.

They had an easy time with Minnesota for the most part.

But they were tested in those series.

Like, I think we focused a little bit too much on the first two games against Memphis in which they just obliterated them and made them look like a G League team.

How does the addition of Durant potentially change the balance of power in the West?

Great close-out.

...

he jumps, has to drop the ball.

If I'm Sharp there, and it's easy to, you know, second guess it, the refs were so bad, and they're college refs so they're always bad, and I don't think they were one-sided, but the refs are so bad.

I hold that, that, (laughs) that rock until he gets to me.

I would throw my body into him, toss up some garbage, and make them call that foul, or they're the, they're the enemies forever, right? Like, you gotta, you gotta f- throw some contact in there.

You know, he, he at least didn't touch the ball and get the turnover.

(laughs)