Next on the Drive, Tim McMahon dropping dimes for your NBA daily assists.
Van McMahon, Van McMahan batted in a Land, Texas flood as tickets Mud, He's man, Van McMahon, Van McMahan, the man Man.
What a night of NBA playoff action last night?
Hoping for the same tonight, two hours away from Indiana and Cleveland, and the late night game is.
Golden State, Minnesota. Our next guest.
You know him, you love him.
He's very popular, he's very famous. His star has blown up this year.
Celebrity reporter himself, Tim McMahon on a Tuesday, Timmy, Happy Tuesday.
How are you, howdy, partner? I think you might be exaggerating a little. Then I'm walking through the streets of Oklahoma City right now, and I'd get to be stopped for selfie or auto request.
Well, then they don't know who's walking down their streets. Because you know, ultimately, you were featured prominently on television last night. Did anybody send you a screen? Did anybody send you a screenshot of your reaction Darren Gordon's dunk?
Yeah? And you know what that actually reminds me of? You remember the Donovan Mitchell put back in a playoff game in Houston, YEP, where he followed his he missed like the little I remember it as a floater or a short little jumper, but he followed him up with like a one to two and just jumped and soared
through the crowd and slammed that thing home. And it was the same type of deal where you know those type of plays, you're gonna get six or seven replays, and the last replay I just happened to be in the uh in the background of it, and I had a similar face, at least on this one. I kept my hands down because on the Donovan Mitchell play had a similar face, but I covered the top of my head with my two hands. So not my first rodeo.
In terms of a visual appreciation of the acrobatic arts in the NBA playoffs, I remember that.
And I had three friends last night within five minutes text me the picture of you with your jaw on the floor after Aaron Gordon dunked on chet. So I thought that was kind of fun. I thought that was kind of fun. Tim fun night last night. But before we get there, there actually is some news about our local basketball team that was surprising to say the least. Will Hardy had already had two options picked up, so he had two more years left on his contract.
Well, now he.
Has six excuse me seven, with an extra five as he has signed an extension through the twenty thirty one season. Your thoughts on news that kind of caught some people off guard out this way.
Yeah, I certainly was aware that this is something that had been discussed and that was something that was a possibility. I didn't realize it was as supposed to finish line as obviously it was a look, man, it is a strong, firm, concrete commitment to will Hardy that obviously, and really what this is is a message from not just Justin x Anak and Danny Age, the most importantly Ryan Smith, their belief and their confidence and their commitment to Will Hardy
has not waivered one bit despite the record. And we all understand, anybody who knows basketball, knows the NBA understands the record this year is not a reflection of will Hardy's coaching ability, of his acumen, of his you know, book potential in that role, and this obviously very strongly backs it up. And look, Danny Age has made these kind of long term commitments, you know, during rebuilds before
he maybe the Brad Stevens that obviously worked out. It's ordinarily well for the Boston Celtics, and this is a similar type of situation where they are very adamant that they have found their long term head coach, and I think reasonably so. I think that you know, Will honestly had been too good for the dad for what they're trying to accomplish early on, and it's I don't mean too good for the franchise, been too good for you know, they were winning too much early on in his tendure.
And then that was a large part because he was you know, taking a collection of kind of misfit toys and turn it into uh, you know, a puzzle that that fit and was producted and so you know, they backed that up with the with the contract. I don't know what the numbers are, but obviously the numbers were high enough for Will to be comfortable, Will to be appreciative of the commitment they made and for him to reciprocate that.
So, since you reference that you had some knowledge that these talks were going on, can you illuminate us on how would all well came to be, what the motivation was? You know, when Greg Popovich unfortunately had his stroke and a lot of people wondered what was the future in San Antonio. I heard some people bring Will's name up, but of course under contract here. Ironically enough, Tim, a few years back, you on our show talked about you know, when I said, do you think Quinn is going to
stick around after this whole iteration? You said, well, Pop goes Quinn might slide in there. Of course he lands in Atlanta. Can you help us understand how this process came to be and what the motivation was for both sides to get this done.
Yeah again, Like I think I just mentioned the motivation, and that's Will's the heck of a coach, and you know, Will believe there's a mutual belief the front office and the ownership and Will and vice versa. You know, Will's belief that Jay Z and Danny Ames, who the support of Ryan Smith are going to be able to build a roster there in Utah that's going to give him a chance to be competitive. Look, it's not going to be right away, regardless of the results of the Watery,
it's not going to be right away. It's going to be a process, but you know it is. They've they've got a group that that believes in each other and they're all on board. They're all aligned, you know, and that's important and I think gives them a real chance. As far as exactly how the process, I I can't really tell you that because I I don't have that information,
uh strong enough there. You're right though about the Spurs in the in the sense of, you know, Will's name had absolutely come up with that and that's honestly, that's where the timing is a little bit interesting that this happened after the Spurs. So it's not like, you know, uh, this isn't a situation where Will had the leverage of Hey, san Antonio jobs open because they had filter, you know, they had committed to Mitch Johnson. So that part of
things are is interesting. And I don't have like a solid answer for you on that, you know, I just know that I think Will Hardy has proven that he is an extremely capable of his coach and I don't blame if it has one bit. We want to get him locked up long term.
What is one more thing here?
Then we'll get on to teams that you know, are actually still playing basketball. But what's the reputation of Will around the league? You know, we had we had Jeff van gunny on right after they hired Will, and before Jeff took the Boston job. Unfortunately, you can't join us anymore. He's an assistant with the Clippers. But Jeff coach with Will for Team USA. So we offered some good kind of color and context. But league wide, the reputation of Will Hardy, tim what does that sound like?
I mean, the reputation of Will is that one is that he's one of the great young coaches in the NBA. And you know, again, you saw the last two seasons, not this year, but the previous two years of Jazz Basketball, where they were way more competitive than looking at their roster they should have been, you know, competitive to the point that it was counterproductive. That's because Will Hardy can coach.
And you know he obviously he climbed from the very bottom of the of the ladder in San Antonio to the front of the bench, you know, and he's on that you know, he's on that Pop three. He's a proud number of the pop of his coaching tree. You know,
he mayodoca. Will tell you that Will Hardy was in his role as the lead assistant during the year in Boston when they were together, they went to the NBA Finals and then you know, obviously at some point, I hope is Well's gonna have the opportunity to prove how good as a coach he can be and with a roster that has a real chance to compete and and you know, be more than something or keep with their regulus approach from here five hundred team, that's not where
they need to be, you know, but put together a ross war he has a chance to be playing, I mean at this time of the year, and you know, for me to make some nice spring business to Salt Lake City.
Since, uh, since we were mentioning Popovich, I did want to get your take on the situation since we heard from coach pop for the first time since November of twenty four.
And I don't mean this to sound and maybe this is a me problem.
It just kind of made me sad, you know, watching him, Yeah, listening to him look a different way, sound a different way.
And I kind of missed his snarkiness.
I kind of missed his direct approach and you know, talk about a job Well done the Baxter Holmes piece for you guys at ESPN dot com today. I thought was really really good. And you're somebody that has covered him for a number of years and I'm sure been able to get to know him on a level that maybe most media members have not. As Greg Popovich walks away, Tim, what's your take on the legacy that he has left, even though he's still with the organization.
Well, look, first, it was great to see Pop on his seat, you know, And I know it wasn't like he's obviously got a ways to go physically, and he's still very much recovering and that's the reason that he's not going to be coaching anymore. But it was great to see him on his seat. It was great to see you know, glenm this is the best sense of humor. I mean in the moment where they take the jacket off and it says, he'll have me come on, you know,
and so like he's still popped. He's just not physically able to continue coaching. But his legacy. Look, yes he's the all time winners coach, Yes there's five championships, Yes he has this unbelievable coaching tree, But his legacy is I think evidenced by the fact that who's sitting right there by his side as he's doing this, Who's been by his side as he's been working to come back from a stroke ause he's been going through all these workouts.
It's tim duntan and monogynobly. And they don't have to be. They're not there for you know, for pr purposes or because they think it looks good. They're there because the way this guy builds relationships, and you know, he has that kind of coaching tree because of the way that he builds relationships, because of the way that you know, he provides opportunities and empowers the people that work for him. And you know, miss Johnson is you know he won't be the last, but he's the latest that'll be on
that on that Pop coaching tree. And you know, I have no doubt. I don't know how much Pop's going to be able to physically be around the team. I don't know that he'll be traveling much, if at all, or any of those kinds of things. But I have no doubt that he's going to be an unbelievable resource for a young head coach for sure.
All Right, since you and I last spoke, a couple of series have ended, and I want to get your take on some teams that are no longer playing, But I will. I'll ask the question about Golden State Houston this way.
What impressed you.
Most about the way the Warriors went down to Houston and got that win? And what did Houston say to you taking that team to seven games?
I mean, what impressing most? Yes, Buddy Heel had an unbelievable performance and like the best, the best performance of his life at a great time. But it was a reminder, Hey, this team's got a couple four time champions. This team has another brainer, future Hall of Famer Jimmy Butler, who's been through a bunch of playoff battles, and you know,
their future Hall of Famer's basically showed up. I'm like, okay, you push just to the brink, but we're here, you know, and we're going to continue to hunt the Rockets fans nightmares for a long long time, as they've done for the last decade. And then you know, look, honestly, this series for the Rockets, this is about what I expected. I think I picked Warriors in six, but I thought
that this would be a tough series. I thought that the Rockets would would make it hard on the Warriors, and I thought the Rockets just wouldn't be able to generate enough offense to be a good team four times out of seven, and that's exactly what happened. And a men Thompson is going to be a star. I don't know if he can be your number one offensive option. I don't think Jayden Green can be. He's a sometimes star. He had one good game and six duds. That's tough.
It's tough to rely on that. Fengngoon I like as a you know, my comparison for him tos the bonus. If he's the best player, I don't think you're gonna be able to make deep runs. They need a star, and their hope is that it's going to be homegrown. I think the reality is they're going to need to put some of those assets to use and take a swing in the trade market to really be able to elevate to real deal contender status. I mean they're good. Yeah, they were an underdog is a two seed, but they
were a two seed. They want fifty plus games. They pushed the Warriors to seven games. They're really good. They're not good enough to be a real title threat unless they get that offensive engine and they've got money of assets to be able to do it. It's a matter of them finding one who they feel like makes sense. And what they don't want to do is scrunch their window because they feel like they can have a you know,
really long runaway by out an NBA standards. But it's gonna be an interest in summer in Houston.
They're good in there a pain in he asked him, like nobody wants to play them. Do you think there's any truth to the Durant stuff that's floating out there?
Oh, there's one hundred percent truth to it, you know. Honestly, it comes down to what I just talked about about, do you want to scrunch your window? And so I know for certain, like I might speculate, and I'm not guessing, I know for certain the Wakeets will have internal discussions about Kevin Durant, and those discussions are two things, what are you willing to give up to get them? And then what are you willing to pay him on an extension? And then you know, my buddy Wendy, you know, he
comes up with these things he's a little cashphraise. He goes with the KD triangle. You got to have those two things, and then you've got to make a deal that the other team's willing to take. And then the the part is KD has to want to go your team. I'm certain that Kad would be happy to go to Houston. You know, he's got a lot of respect for the Mayadoka and you know Katie knows basketball. He sees that team,
he sees himself as the missing piece. I don't know that the Rockets are going to be willing to give up. I don't think they're giving them Bonanza package. I'll say that the Sun's stirring getting all three of their picks back. I can promise you that which young players don't ask about him and Thompson, I don't you know. So I don't know I would I wouldn't bet on that deal happening. But it is definitely within the realm of possibility, and it is definitely going to be a real discussion, at
least internally for Houston. Then we'll see how aggressively they actually engage his sons, if at all.
I can't entirely describe why, but for some reason, when I watch Rudy, I feel like I'm watching my little brother and I'm just cheering for him. And since you and I last spoke to him, our guy goes for twenty seven and twenty four and the Minnesota Timberwolves eliminate
the LA Lakers. And yes, I know JJ decided to go small and he was catching lobs over Gabe Vincent, but I was just so happy for him, man, and I just get such a kick out of the lack of social media reaction whenever Rudy has a good game because of how many people crack on him. What do you make of the day that the Tea Wolves disposed of the Lakers and your thoughts on Rudy's game?
Well, yeah, one, I definitely was one of many who were fooled by kind of smoking mirrors Lakers defense that they put together for a couple months in the regular season. That was not a team that was ready for playoff prime time. And the Wolves certainly expose that. And then look, oh man, what a Game five for Gobert. And the funny thing is, like you and I both we've watched Rudy's entire career. We know how stupid sometimes the narrative can be around him. Rudy gets played off the floor
in the playoffs. It has literally never happened. The funny thing is this series was the closest to that actually being true. Through four games, it was his worst offensive It was his worst offensive series through four games. And Game five started and boyle boy, Rudy Chamberlain showed up. Maybe you know Will Gobert who was in the house twenty seven and twenty four. And the thing is, Rudy's problem in terms of playing at small ball teams has
not been the defensive end. It's been his dominance was mitigated on the defensive end. But he's he's never been the reason the defense fell apart, right, He just wasn't able to cover up all his teammates' flaws, or you know, he wasn't able to plug all the holes. The problem with Rudy against small ball teams was he wasn't able to punish them on the other end. And he damn sure punished him on the other end of this game. And he didn't do it by posting up. He didn't
do it, you know, he wasn't Shaquille O'Neal. He did it by domining the glass, grabbing every opportunity bound by you know, dunking it by being available, you know, for for dump off passes and throwing it down and uh, you know, I know, you know, Rudy didn't want to take the victory lap. It's just the first round, all those kind of things. I know how sweet it was for him to dominate Luca's team like that. I know how sweet it was for him to dunk on Luca's head.
I told him you should have talked that Slovenia to him. You can't bleep and guard me bleep a bleeper. And you know what, if this is a Rudy revenge tour, no better foe for the second round than Draymond Green's Golden State Warriors. It's gonna be a fun one for sure.
Do you give I mean, look to ask if you give Golden State a puncher's chances silly because you know who they have on the team. This just feels like it feels similar tim to the problems Houston poses, but Minnesota has more offensive juice. And I want to watch the stuff thing as much as I possibly can, as long as I possibly can.
But your early thoughts on t Wolves Warriors.
I think mack of a series man, And you know, I say what you want about Draymond, but uh, and I love doing Finnish Smith. But Draymond is a small ball center is a different type of animal, you know. Three Like Draymond's it's going to be physical. Raymond, like Rudy's not going to be able to grab twenty four rebounds in the game. I don't think. Maybe he'll prove me wrong and it'll be fun to watch, you know. The other thing is, you know Draymond has four texts
and two flagrant fouls already going into the second round. Yep, you're suspended the seven texts and full flagrant foul points and you've got to deal with Monsieur Gobert. Uh. Let's see, let's see a me gotten Rudy can get Draymond suspended in the series for sure.
All right, last thing I'll set you loose, just your thoughts you were court side. I mean, that was a sole stealing win from Denver, Oklahoma City. He had that thing wrapped up and wondered what it was like to witness that, you know, courtside the brilliance of Jokich, the game winner from Aaron Gordon, and your thoughts on the rest of the series after Game one is in the books.
You know, I thought it was pretty fascinating to hear Shay gild With Alexander's response after that game, and he said it should be fun. You know, basically, Hey, we get to see what we're really made of now, how we respond to some real adversity, because that was a complete and utter meltdown of epic proportions. And pay give Joe like Joeer dominated, and you know, the Nuggets came
back and they took the game. Dude, the fun gave it away, and they gave it away by the offense drying up in the last four minutes, and they gave it away by just like terrible execute Like okay, you executed the analytics game plan, but man, the length. There's
got to be some nuance in there. I mean to get your your I get found on up three, but fouling up three when you are you know, when you're eighty feet away from the basket and two thousand the final thirteen seconds that burn a total of one point nine seconds. And then I love Chit holker Man, but whof his breathing was restricted up there on the free throw line. So you know, I think one of the great things about Okay see, despite the being a young
teams are very mature, they're very even field. I think they've done a great job still making handle success. And that's not my gonna say it's the first time they dealt diversity. Like listen, Chet fractured to telvi Us this year, They've had adversity. But this is a different kind and this is a different monster. This is a championship proven core that you're competing against. This is the three time MVP and by the way, you know what, uh, it's
one game. I believe she's gonna win the MVP. But you know, Dave Robinson won the MVP one year and he face the PEMO Lodge on the play so it ain't head to head. I get that. But Round one of what might be a seven round fight certainly went to Nicole Jokich with underneath Shay to play like he did all year long, which was only worsen once in these playoffs. I mean, Jay and Winz but I could in the first round and not in the Western commence
in my finals last year. And you know, they if they get some situation where they're fouling up three, they need to do a little bit better job of kind of having some nuanced that strategy.
Well said, Yeah, a guy named Karl Malone won a couple of m vps. I'm not sure a guy named Michael Jordan enjoyed that. So we saw how that ended. All right, our guy, appreciate it. Man, enjoy the time. There should be a fun series we'll chat too.
Always a pleasure, all right.
Tim McMahon covers the NBA for ESPN. Get him on Twitter at ESPN Underscore. McMahon wrote a book that was released in March, Luka Doncicch and the Curse of Greatness.
The links to to buy that book or up on his Twitter page.
As he was court sided last night, wat the Denver Nuggets just snatch this game away from Okac