We're back on the Drive with ESPN's Dave mcminnimon joining us for today's NBA Daily Assist Special. Thanks to Timmy Good Time, Bon Temps for stopping by last segment Live in Oklahoma City. You know, Porter, I was thinking as we were talking with Tim, I'm so impressed at the depth of talent with ESPN's NBA people. I mean, we got Bon Temps, we got McMahon, we got wind Horse, we got Malika, we got Shane, we got Legs so good,
Oh my god. I mean, you know, we've got Jay Reynolds, We've got Jeremy Wu, We've got Clinton Yates, We've got Chris Herring. Like their depth, it's top heavy, but at the top it's really good. Oh yeah, Oh there's a well you mentioned a dozen guys. At least I could I could keep couldn't even use them.
I could keep going.
But it's just it's remarkable how many talented people they have at ESPN breaking down the NBA. Our next guest, Dave mcminnimon, live in Oklahoma City.
Oh, Dave, how are you.
Well? I'm not in Oklahoma City.
He got out of it.
I guess I didn't make that top twelve, I guess, so you know, I'm hanging back in LA until Games three and four in Indiana.
How did you pull that off?
I was praying you were in like a lakina in eating Jimmy John's in Oklahoma City or something.
How'd you pull it off?
There was to not bore your listeners. There was some reporting that needed to happen out here. So I am here and then I will go on Monday to Indianapolis, go to the heartland of America and see where the series stands there. Hopefully we have at Lisa split at that point.
Let me guess will Lebron opt in or opt out? Nobody knows.
I really I just saw McMahon posting that bon tempst is zipping around town on a scooter, and I decided I didn't want to be part of that.
You know, okay.
See, I think bird people they call them birds, these scooters out here, they are like the lowest form of humanity. And the fact that Timbonteps would engage in that while a visitor in okay See is very disappointing.
That may have been the best take you've ever had on the show, because I am completely with you.
Dave all right, let's not bury the lead. Let's start with the local stuff.
As Austin Ainge has been hired as the president of basketball Operations for the Utah Jazz. During his press press conference media availability, Ryan Smith himself said that Austin is now calling the shots. He said, it's his show. He's the loudest voice in the front office. Meeting Justin Zannik, the general manager, now reports to Austin and Austin's dad, Danny Ainge, the CEO, also reports now to Austin, his son, which is going to be an interesting dynamic. We'll see
how it plays out. But I don't know how well you know Austin, if at all. Just wanted to get your thoughts on what the Jazz decided to do reshuffling the front office out here.
Actually got to know him a little bit. This past year. I did a story looking back at the Jason Tatum diraft and how he wanted to be a Laker and the Lakers never worked him out. And I spoke to Austin for that story, and I actually very much enjoyed kind of his personality, you know, he The crux of the story was, well, Jason Tatum has shifted the balance in terms of the championship chase between the Lakers and the Celtics, and Austin's line was, well, can we even
say that there are only one championship away anyway? Since when are the people Los Angeles celebrating anything? One in Minneapolis? So I enjoyed that he had that little singer that he provided going deep into the pettiness of the Lakers
Celtics rivalry. But obviously his reputation, of course is that he's the son of Danny Ainge, but that he's made shrewd moves and been very smart about creating the pipeline of the you know, the main red clause system with the Celtics and using that in order to replenish talent around the margins. And I certainly think he would be a wonderful candidate if his name was Austin Jackson. It just happens to be that he learned from one of
the best executives that we've seen, who's his father. And I think it's a very good hire by the Jazz, you know, by my initial thought, and you know, I'll have to reach out to Justin. Hopefully everything's okay with him health wise, and this is this isn't a move that was necessitated by the fact that Justin's going through the health stuff that he has been.
Yeah, and you know, I continue to say, they are only thirty GM jobs, So if you have one, you love it them out or what I just you know, Justin at one point was thought to be high speed ahead to be the main decision maker in Milwaukee.
That went to Horst.
And then when Dennis Lindsay left here, I think most of us included myself, figured the show was now XANAX and it wasn't then and it isn't now. I just wonder if at some point, and your point about his health probably is the bottom line, because Ryan and Ashley in the organization really rallied behind him, and I'm told he loves living here and has lived here for quite
some time. You just have to wonder if a guy is sharp and well respected and it is liked as jay Z at some point just wants to be the guy that calls the shots to build a roster, or maybe he's fine where his feet are at.
I honestly don't know.
Yeah. I mean, generally, when teams are kind of a healthy organism, there is an alignment between ownership coaching staff in the front office. In this case, you know, from just looking at it, I still view this to be a healthy situation. And you know it so long as you believe in your ownership, which it appears. You know, Ryan Smith is someone who's kind of done everything right
since taking over that franchise. You can look at it like we're adding another smart person to the room, versus I need to watch my back.
For sure, for sure, And that's why every time I've discussed it, I prefaced it with I honestly don't know, and we'll see how they work in lockstep together. All front offices have multiple voices, you know. We were texting back and forth about this. One thing that Austin did say when asked about his philosophy on tanking is we will not do that this year or you will not see that this year.
It was interesting.
So vontep's last segment, I presented the scenario of and the Jazz probably going to try to move off of Clarkson good luck. They'll probably try to move off of Collins and Sexton as well, and maybe they can now because all those contracts move into and they'll be expired, be exped deals this year in a way they haven't
been prior to. But if we just operate off the roster they have with the addition of the number five pick and maybe the number twenty one pick, maybe they find a couple of players in the second round they like. And you know, a guy like Lowry Markin and actually plays seventy to seventy five games, and a guy like Walker Kessler actually plays sixty five to seventy games and doesn't shoot seven threes in an insulting way to be unserious about competing along with some of the other players
that have shown some signs. I'm not saying I see a team that wins forty forty five games and sniffs the play in, but I'm seeing a team that maybe wins thirty thirty five and that puts them Dave right in this perilous situation where if they don't finish in the top eight, that pick goes to the team that I think is about to.
Win the World Championship.
And if we're sitting here next spring and the Jazz have won thirty two games and Mark Tatum pulls out the envelope at nine and it's the Jazz that is an epic step in the wrong direction. So how do you think they can to dance this dance if they're not going to manipulate minutes, if they're not going to tank with the idea of also holding onto that pick, what do you think that looks like?
Yeah, I mean listen, I texted you and Porter having seen some clips from the Intrusty press conference for Austin Age and him declaring, we're not going to tank. It
just it doesn't make sense. Now, there is a lesson to be learned that of course need everyone involved, fans included, and those press conferences generally are for messagers to be heard by the fans that the lottery is a lottery and there's no direct correlation between your spot in the standings and the pick that you're guaranteed to get, and so there's a gamble there, and perhaps some of that messaging was a I recognize that this was a gut punch to go through the year that we just had
and not end up with a top three pick, and so I'm not going to say right now that this is our plan for the next year. But we're also aware that teams quote unquote stealth tank and when we talk about a Western conference is stacked as as is. I think we talked about this last week, the Chris Finch comment that there's to be thirteen teams in the West buying for the playoffs. If you're one of the two teams that aren't, and the Jazz are one of the two teams that aren't, it behooves you to be
closer to the bottom than closer to the middle. It just does. And if they are able to be sellers and get off some of those contracts that you suggested, that's exactly what they will be. They will be taking back young players and draft picks in order to move off of Clarkston, Sexton Collins. As you mentioned, that would
be the preferred way to do so. Again, saying something in June can very much look a lot different when we start playing games in the second half of the season from January through April.
And I think it probably means Dave that they will kick the tires on moving off of marketing. Who is really good and has been really good here and likes living here, And as you know, that's an important thing around here to have a really good player that wants to stay here. But he might just be too good to fit into this plan this year of stealth tanking or whatever calling it. And also I'm laughing as I say a twenty eight year old might be too old
for the timeline. But we were talking about this with Bontemps, like the Golden State dual timeline thing that turned out to be a little clunky. So there are a lot of big names that could be on the move. Do you think Lowry Marketing could be one of them?
Certainly could be.
And again, he has really acquitted himself well to that organization. An All Star has proven to be like a reliable player. Obviously he needs to play more than whatever forty seven games like he did last year, but when he's on the court, he produces a guy like that could fit into a variety of teams that are in contention, so that there would be value there. I certainly believe all that. At the same time, then what is kind of the
product you're selling? And again, if they truly believe in as a collier in Kathy George Kessler, you know, being a core to move forward with, than sure. If they don't or are unsure, it's tough to move on from. You know, a bird in the hand for two in the bush in this case, because he is a very very good player who seems to be very content being, you know, the best player of the jazz franchise.
All right, moving off the jazz stuff, let's get over to what Jim Dolan and his Kazoo decided to do this week with their head coach, you know, Dave. One of the things that kind of irritates me about the media stuff and how many different voices there are or how many people like after the fact, like yeah, I totally saw this coming, you know this that or whatever, and look maybe you did.
I don't know. I think this is and I'm biased.
You know, Tom was Jeff's assistant back in the nineties, so I very like, very much like and respect the man outside of him being a coach who I think has done a remarkable job there. I guess the way I'll post it to you is, what's your understanding of why this decision was made. Is it in a vacuum because of what happened against Indiana? Is it player driven
with Cat behind the scenes. Is it an owner who's more interested to being a front man for a hacky band than anything else, Like what exactly went into this decision as far as high you understand it.
Listen, the knicks made or had I should say, so, I can't say with certainty that they made him do this, but they had Leon Rose own this decision with the statement. In the statement, however, it goes out of his way. Leon Rose, the president of besqu vi Oberrations, goes out of his way to phrase Tom Thibodeaux and say that he's part of our family and always will be. To me, that sounds like the statement of someone who wink wink wants people to be to know that it was not
his idea. And I do believe that Leon Rose does have autonomy over the players. So then that would make me believe it's not a player driven decision, that this was about James Dolan, the owner, and that if you want to talk about head scratching moves, well that is the mo of what James Dolan has done since being in charge of that franchise. And so that's where it makes most sense. When something doesn't make sense, you want
to have it make sense. Look at James Dolan and beyond that, certainly, I think the tipping point that would have made it hard for Leon Rose to defend him, and to you know, step in front of any impetus from Dolan is the fact that he benched Cat in Game two of these conference finals. You know, it's a guy that you traded for. He's perhaps as great as as Jenn Brunson is. He's perhaps your most talented player.
And I spoke to someone who was on the Minnesota staff when Bibbs coached Kat back then and said, oh, man, as soon as I saw him in Ben's cat, I knew this could be a problem, because that's what happened back in the day. There was that one game play in game between Minnesota and Denver was before the Plane
Tournament was official. They just happened to be that season where it was the last game of the year that would determine whether the Nuggets or the Wolves get in in the fourth quarter and crunched down of that game, Tibbeto also benched Kat in favor of TODDH. Gibson. And you know, the person I spoke to who was familiar with that Wolves team said, as soon as I saw
that happened, I thought that would be a problem. However, I supposed to like another league exec who said, listen, I heard whispers about Thibeteau and whether it just how high the team was on him over the years, and I was still shocked and surprised to see that decision made after the run they just had. So I think my takeaway is that NBA coaching is no longer merit based. It just isn't. It is at the way of the owner. That's why good for the Coaches Association that everything is
guaranteed money. And you could say, oh, well, you know, why would they do this. Why is going to give a guy a three year, thirty million dollar extension. He gets to walk out the door with that, He gets to walk out the door with that, because you took away his dignity. You know, listen, I was. I still think that Michael mulone decision. You know, good for David Adelman to get that team to the second round of the playoffs and force okay see to a game seven.
But I think if you have Clint State playoff spot as the coach of a team, you should be guaranteed the chance to coach that team in the playoffs, barring anything off the court that would be untoward and perhaps invoke a moral torpitude clause like I think it's out of control right now.
Yeah, some good points in there. I was thinking about this today.
Is it a sign or maybe it has been a sign, And maybe I'm just sload of the uptake here, whether it's Michael Malone or even Taylor Jenkins who's younger but appears to be a little bit more of an old school guy, and Tom is as old school as they come. Is it a sign that the job description has changed where it's more about your And look, I'm arguing with myself as I asked you this question. It's always been about managing egos, and relationships have always been a part
of it. But the days of Greg Popovich and Jerry Sloan and you know, some of these old school guys that are just more about like results based business approaches as opposed to coddle these young stars.
Is that approach simply just out the window now?
I think it's harder and harder to do because you have to establish yourself to be able to do that. So if you're a young coach coming in, you know one thing is that a lot of times the front offices these days are heavy handed in allowing that new coach to pick their staff, and so from the very beginning there undercut in terms of having power when they first step into the organization, it's not even their decision who's going to work for them, and then it only
extrapolates from there. And the initial reporting that Scham's Johnny has shared on the ESPN that the Knicks wants someone who is adaptable and someone who's been more willing to play their bench. That doesn't sound like the resume of someone who is established, because established guys say no, no, no, I know what I'm doing. Back out of my kitchen,
let me cook. A guy who is just happy to get the opportunity kind of has no choice but to listen to the front office, to the analytic walks, whatever it may be, in order to take that input and
have it affect the way they coach. And so you know, I am not reporting this name, but you know, considering the way the Phoenix hiring when with Johnny Bryant and Jordan not being the two final s, Jordan not getting hired, in Johnny Bryant having history with the Knicks organization, I am very curious to see if someone like him is the guy who gets the job, because that would be the type of person that would kind of have to play the bench and have to be less rigid because
there is the idea of well, I am just fortunate to have this job.
Isn't it only fair to point out that there are six and a half maybe seven good players on the roster, Like, if you want your coach to play your bench, maybe don't have campaign Landry Shammitt in a precious at you as three of the four best options off the bench.
This is not a deep roster, Dave.
I agree with you completely, But that would require a front office to point the fingers themselves, which that happens about as often as I get through a radio appearance with you without trying to talk trash on one of my ESPN colleagues is literally never.
All right, We'll end with a thought on the finals. You know, Initially I was like, Yeah, this doesn't feel like it's going to be close. And then I started digging into some of the stuff about the pace and the rebound percentage and free throws, and I'm like, no, now I think it's even more of a mismatch.
It's just like everything.
Indiana can do well, Oklahoma City can also do those things well. I feel like Adam. I respect for Rick Carlisle. I'll give them a game and say it's not as sweet. But how do you think this goes down? Day before I set you loose?
Yeah, I picked okay See in six as some of that was just hoping that we'd get a six game series after two to five game series the last two years. But as I've looked into, you know, reading materials and some of the stat packs we've been sharing, it, YESBN, Like there's two numbers that completely are jumping out off the page to me. One, the Pacers have excuse me, the thunder have forty seven wins this year by fifteen points or more between the regular season and the playoffs.
It's the most all time NBA history. So that would suggest that we may not get close games because they're going to lead by enough so it's not even a question in the fourth quarter. And then the second thing with okay See having home court advantage, they are winning home playoff games this postseason run by an average of twenty five and a half points per game, So like it's blowout. So the only way we get a good series in my is Indy can split the first two.
Those two numbers that I just share with you would suggests that that's very unlikely, and so if it ends up being too okay, See, yeah, I think we're probably going five.
All right, my guy, Well, congratulations on manipulating the system so you could remain in southern California for another few days but enjoy the finals.
Thanks for the time and safe travels.
But okay, thanks bets, doctor ship.
All right.
The Great Dave mcminnimon covers the NBA for ESPN. Get them on Twitter at mc ten is where you find them. Dave stops by today courtesy if I were good friends at IFA Country Store. Summer vacations in warmer weather just beyond the horizon. As the days grow longer and brightly colored flowers begin making their appearance, it's time to start planning and applying Step two of I Phase four plus annual long care Program. It's designed with a blend of
vital macro and micro nutrients. IFA Step two fertilizer promotes strong roots and vibrant colors in your yard. At IFA and IFA dot co op tip off tonight. Game one of the NBA Finals featuring Oklahoma City and the Indiana Pacers, is at six thirty PM.
Mountain time.
It's on ABC, and of course the radio coverage can be found right here after we say goodnight on ESPN seven hundred