 What's up, everybody? It's Jason McIntyre here with Rick Buker, a special NBA playoff edition. Rick, tremendous game last night between Portland and OKC. Damian Lillard ends the game with a 37-foot step back three. I loved the decision. Paul George took a shot at it. Your thoughts on the shot, was it a good shot or a bad shot to end the game? It was a bad shot. That's a bad shot. No, no, no. 37 feet. Obviously, it's a better shot for Lillard than it is for most other guys. Are you going to start that? Is that going to be a hashtag now? No, no, no. That's actually something I was told. It had already been established because he'd hit a number of shots from that spot. So it wasn't the first time that he took it. And what I appreciate about it is that it was a reason. There was thought that went into taking it. It wasn't just a bailout. I've got nothing. What the hell? I'll just hoist it. He knew that through the course of that game, he had been attacking the rim, hadn't always been able to finish, was getting bumped physically. They weren't making the calls. So he looked at it and said, it's a tie game. I have this shot in my bag. I'm not going to get the call. I can't expect to get the call. And so I'm going to go ahead and take something that I know I've made before. Not just before. Five for five in the series beyond 30 feet for the season, 37%. I think it's a good shot. Again, I like your logic with the they're going to foul him and he's not going to get the call. I'm surprised. Okay. See didn't do something differently defensively. Damien's had 47. Yeah, the ball out of his hands. No, but anybody else beat me 37 feet away from the basket. You can't double a guy that far away. They have too many other guys who can score. You don't need a three instead of him taking a 30. Look, if you're asking me, do I let Lillard take a, and by the way, stepped sideways, there was so much wrong with that shot. It wasn't even straight. Russ Westbrook takes more technically correct shots than what that shot was stepping sideways, falling back, hitting it good on him that he made it. It says a lot about him. It's also a reflection of the fact that he knew coming off of last year when they got beat by the pelicans. Yeah. That going up against big guards and had Paul George on him that he needed to expand the floor for himself. Come with Steph Curry. Both he and Siege of exactly because of the size. If he's playing from 26 feet in now you can double it. Yeah. Now you can trap the ball out of his hands. Now you can smother him and make him shoot over you from 37 feet. There's no like I'm glad nobody said Paul George. Well, you should have closed out harder or whatever 37 feet you can't close out that hard in that situation. I'll say this. He opened the series. There's a clip floating around social media. His first shot within the first 20 seconds of the series was a three from the logo. Yeah. And he made it to start the series. Pretty incredible. All right. Let's move on to the next question. Rick does this series and I know it's just for five games. Does it cement Damia Lillard is a top 10 player in the NBA? No, I mean as for anybody as of right now. Yes. In prisoners are the moment prisoners of the moment. Yes, go ahead throw him in your top 10. He's a top 10 play. You know what? He's the best point guard I've ever seen. He's amazing. My Rick 22nd time. I hold a lot of people are going to vote him as second team all NBA point guard, right? Yeah. That would put him in the top 10. If you're looking at Curry and Harden is the first team. Kyrie and Dame is the second team. No, I know because it's position. It's position. He can be there. He can be the third or fourth best guard or point guard and not necessarily be a top 10 play especially especially because if you look if you're looking at guys like Kevin Durant and Kawhi and Yanis and you've got any number of point forwards that are going to be in that top. So let's quickly rattle through it. Okay. Yanis we both have top 10. James Harden top 10. Yes. Kevin Durant top 10. Steph Curry. Yes LeBron. Yes. Okay. So that's five. Yes. Kawhi Leonard. Let's put him to the side right now. Okay. I have a top 10. You know what? I take that back. Put him in. Kyrie Irving would be seven. Put him in. Okay. Now we're getting down to what I think is the tough area. Yes. Paul George is probably going to be the third. He's in. Okay. He's in. He's in. Joellen Bede. I have him in. Oh, you're taking Joellen Bede to build your team around over Damien Lillard. I know it's simply kind of a different question, but in a guard wing league. Yes. But there's so much that Joellen Bede can do. He has range. My greatest concern about building around Joellen Bede and somehow how did we go from our top 10 to guys that we would build around? Or we say. Yeah. Okay. Well, that's your top 10. I mean, there's a distinction because this is the thing that Philadelphia is going to have to face. Ben Simmons and Joellen Bede cannot coexist on a championship team. We agree on that, right? You're going to have to make a decision between those two. If it's talent, there's no question. Joellen Bede is the guy that I keep and I move Ben Simmons. But there's a big. There's the health factor. I don't know. I mean, Joellen Bede for his age, the fact that he's already sitting out games with sore knees and a sore back. Like can't do back to back season. Like it's fifth year in the league. Exactly. Can I count on that? So, but if it's just a matter of talent, when you're the best player at your position and he is, when healthy, the best player at his position. I think I hear somebody at the door. Anthony Davis is knocking. What? He wants to know how you do not have three time all NBA first team player, Anthony Davis, who a year ago, first team all NBA, first team all defense. And now Anthony Davis, because he missed like 26 games. He's chop livering. Wait a minute. Which year are we talking about the best 26 games? Because he's missed a lot of games, a lot of seasons. He's had some injury issues. You've got to have him top 10. No, I've always had this issue with it. AD is not in my top 10. Really? AD might not be in my top 15. I am not. All right. All right. Do we have to stop down here? No, no, no. Come on. Anthony Davis on top 15. Talent wise. And this is kind of the distinction when we get into the Damien Lillard conversation. Because there are so many intangibles that Damien brings to the table. His leadership, his dedication to the trailblazers. And I know that sounds kind of quaint. That's important right now. But the fact of the matter is, like, he's brought that team together. And this goes back to his AAU days. He was on the Oakland Rebels. They were the team that wasn't sponsored. They were the team that had to have bake sales and sell beef jerky. And they had to do all kinds of things to scrounge up the money to go to tournaments. The Oakland Soldiers were the team. They were the big team, yes. They were the Nike sponsored team. LeBron came in and played for them. Remember Leon Powell? Yes, yes, yes. Remember him covering high school basketball back in the day. Exactly. Now Damien will tell you, the Soldiers didn't want him. The Soldiers will say, no, Damien could have come and played for us. But he didn't want to. Nobody wanted to. We were state, yeah. Bottom line is, he stayed with the Rebels. And they eventually played a tournament where they beat the Soldiers. He stayed with the group of his friends that he grew up playing with. And he's always had that mentality that, you know what, if I stay with, if I stay loyal, if we stay together, our continuity and our dedication to each other will trump pure talent. So what we saw and what we've seen with these trailblazers is something that Damien Lillard has basically built his entire career on. And that's where, that's one of those intangibles that when you get to the NBA, it's still about talent. You can't quantify that, really. Physicality, it's about all those things. Let me add one quick note. So I do have Dame Top 10. I would take him over Kawhi Leonard right now. I think he's got that killer mentality at the end of the game. You think Kawhi doesn't? I don't know that he does. He played with the Spurs where he was second banana to Tim Duncan. He played with the greatest coach. I need to see what he does in the Sixer series. I'm discounting New Orlando Magic who tried to defend him with Jonathan Isaac and Aaron Gordon. Jimmy Butler Kawhi Leonard is going to be a show next round. I like Butler a lot. I would put him in contention for Top 10, Jimmy Butler. Yeah, the first round matchups, I mean, you're probably going to see Kawhi Leonard on Ben Simmons. Yes. A great deal. And Kawhi Leonard has eaten Ben Simmons' lunch. Ben Simmons is 22, Rick. I'm a big Simmons guy, but one last one. That's where Kawhi is good. Kawhi is good as a great two-way player. My concern with him is not that he's not a closer. I think he's happy to have the ball at the end and take the shot. It's that does he make everybody better? Is he a playmaker? Or is he really kind of an isolationist? Where if I tell him to stop this guy, he can stop that guy. If I tell him to go score on this guy, he can score on this guy. But if I ask him to blend what you're doing with the rest of the team, can he do that? Because he started his career as a blender in San Antonio. Let me just remind everybody, Anthony Davis a year ago at this time swept Damien Lillard out. Now he had help from Holiday. Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. It was Damien Lillard against Yusuf Nurchkic. All right? And the difference in that series was Rajan Rondo and Drew Holiday swallowed up C.J. McCollum and Damien Lillard. And C.J. McCollum and Damien Lillard came back this year and said, we have a problem playing against big guards. I mean, let's be honest, I am not giving that series to A.D. A.D. was not the difference maker. Unfortunately, I know the stats in front of me. Holiday was tremendous. This year, you know who the best player on that team was? Even when A.D. was there? You know who it was. You know who it was. Julie, don't tell me you're going to say Julius Randall. No, no, no, no. Just make it, sir. No, okay. Mr. Holiday, yeah. Yes, he was phenomenal. Yes, he was at the end of games. You talk about being a closer. That's my problem with A.D. A.D., talent-wise, I would agree with you. Is he a top 10 talent? Yes, because he's a great two-way player, athletically, but I'm putting him in that Tracy McGrady camp of a guy who is a phenomenal talent as a basketball player. 26. But at this point, he still doesn't know how to apply. I can see the headlines now. Anthony Davis is not a top 15 player. That's a good one. All right, let's move on to the next one, Rick. Okay, see, we'll put a button on the Thunder season. Paul George turns 29 in May. Russell Westbrook, 31 in November. Thunder have a lot of soul-searching to do. I think the second highest luxury tax in the league. Not a lot of wiggle room. What do you do? Do you try to trade Russell Westbrook? And does anybody want that salary? I don't think you trade Paul George your thoughts on where the thunder go from here. No chance, no way that they trade either one of those guys. Let's not forget it is Oklahoma City. And the ability to sign superstar players to long-term contracts is the exception, not the rule. They were able to do that. You also have two superstars in Russ and Paul George who are compatible. Do they play well together? I think they can play well together. Look, it stretches. Russell Westbrook can become a sharer. I know he's a great assistant. He can become a distributor and seed to Paul George for parts. But for a full season and a couple rounds in the playoffs, I don't know that this tandem is ever going to get out of the first round. He was, oh, I fully believe that they have that capability. Russ does have to change. But I saw Russ change from last year. Russ, the last time you saw him last year was against the Utah Jazz when he scored, what, 45 points on 43 shots. It was the battering ram Russ Westbrook. I saw a different Russ Westbrook this year. Paul George doesn't become an MVP candidate if Russ Westbrook is not willing to take a back seat. Now, Paul George got hurt and then Russ took over again. I can't fault him for that. I will go to game five fourth quarter leading by 15. Yes. About eight, nine minutes left. Russ down the stretch. He had a couple big shots, late third, early fourth. Down the stretch, he misses the layup with 20 seconds left. Couple turnovers, couple missed jumpers. He didn't have confidence in his jumpers. He's deferring to Schroeder. For sure. You're arguing both ways. He doesn't defer. He doesn't play with others. But Schroeder is on fire from three and he's giving in the ball and he's exercising for that. I can't do that. And by the way, Paul George PG got the ball plenty of times in those last five, six minutes. They hit any one of those. Who are we blaming? Where's the blame game? Billy Donovan, let's get him out of town. Steven Adams, we've got to blame him. No, no. They didn't have Andre Roberson because that's what I'm hearing out here on that when I turn on a TV or radio. Blame Russ Westbrook psychiatrist or the one that he hasn't hired yet. Because ultimately that's, if Russ plays with the poise and blending his game with everybody else the way he did last night, he does that for the entire series. He does that all year long. Then they're not the sixth seed. And they've had some practice under pressure situations of operating that way. It's just, he suddenly faced elimination and he decided, you know what? I got to stop all this rage thing. I just got to be focused on the job at hand. Damian Lillard has been focusing on that approach for years. Russ shot 36% for the series. All right, let's move on Rick. Next question. So nine free agents on this list. We're trying to do tiers of free agents. We'll go through them a couple of layups. We won't spend any time. Can they be a number one and alpha on a championship team? Yes. Or a number two or a three. Kevin Durant, get that out of the way easily. Well, Kevin Durant and Kawhi Leonard demonstrated that they can be the best player on a championship team. So you put them there. I would also put Kawhi Irving on that tier. One, because I think Boston's going to win it this year. I'm still saying that in spite of them trying to prove me wrong all year long. For the regular season, yeah. And he does have a championship to his name where he hit the biggest shot and he played a big role. So has Kawhi fully earned that status? Anybody who wants to say not quite yet, I'm with you. I believe that he can. So I'm going to put him in that category. No disagreements there. Now where it gets a little tricky. Yes. Guys like Clay Thompson, Jimmy Butler, Kemba Walker. Are they all twos? Is Clay more of a three? Can Jimmy Butler be a one as he was in Chicago when he had some great showdowns with LeBron in the East? Yeah. I'll let you go first. Who do you want to start with? Clay Thompson can be a two. He can be the second best player on the right team. I believe in many ways, if you look at the Warriors pre-KD, he was essentially that. Yes, Straymon Green played a big role. Harrison Barr. Andre Aguadala, Sean Livingston. It was a collection. But on that team, Clay Thompson demonstrated in the postseason, oh, we need to get a game with our backs against the wall. He did it against Oklahoma City. So Clay's a two. Jimmy Butler, who was maybe a two in Minnesota, Minnesota, I know him and Andrew Wiggins and a bit of a turf war. I don't know who the two is to your guy, Joe Ellen Beat and Philly. I mean, is it Tobias Harris who we'll get to shortly? I personally am a big Jimmy Butler fan. I think I cannot wait for the Kawhi Leonard showdown. I have Butler as a two, Rick. So I have originally, when I'm looking at my list and I went through this, I had Clay, Jimmy Butler, Tobias Harris, Kemble Walker all on that second level. Because I think that, and I don't championship, but if you took Kemble Walker and you had him play with LeBron James, I think he could be a poor man's Kyrie Irving. I think he has that potential. But to be honest, if I really look at this, it's K.D. Kawhi-Kyrie on the first level, Clay Thompson on the second level, and then I'm not sure that I can put anybody else on that second level. Because Butler doesn't shoot it well enough, maybe? Well, and what has he done? He's had the opportunity. He was their number one. Okay. He couldn't get by LeBron. He couldn't get by Prime LeBron. Well, and if it wasn't for Rajan Rondo, they're not even doing what they did. So I don't know that Jimmy has earned that status. Tobias Harris, I like a lot. I think both Jimmy and Tobias have the capability of being that. But have they proved to me that they are that? Clay Thompson has proved to me. Proved, yeah. Those guys, they still need to show me. So Tobias, you have on the same level as Jimmy Butler? I put them in sort of the same category. Interesting. Yes. Okay. All right. Kemba Walker, you think can be a Kyrie Irving. Let's move on to a couple guys who are going to face off this round. Chris Middleton and Al Horford. Can either of those guys be a two? We've seen Horford on some good Hawks teams. I don't think he's a two at this age in his career. No. He's not a two. And Chris Middleton is, he was, he's a nice story. I mean, he, like, he's an all star. Interesting. He's LeBron. Okay. You said if LeBron gets Kemba Walker potential contender, if he gets Chris Middleton, is he not a... Oh, what? Chris Middleton's a great shooter. One of the best shooters in the league. All star this year. So is Kyle Kuzma. I mean, like, Chris Middleton, and I don't want to take it as a G-league guy who became an all star. My hat is off to Chris Middleton. But is Chris Middleton going to be any better than he is right now? What's the growth... See, Tobias Harris, I think can be better. I actually think Kemba Walker can be better. But does Kemba fit as a two? He needs the ball all the time. High volume player in Charlotte. I know he had no number two or three. I think you can play Kemba off the ball the same way. I mean, when you say that about Kyrie Irving, he always needs the ball, right? I think he needs the ball in certain situations. It depends on what you have. If you have a playmaking three, then I think that Kemba Walker can be what he is and he can be very effective in that way. I like all these guys. I think you're low on Chris Middleton. So the Bucks have the... Oh, hi on the Chris Middleton story. They have the Vegas odds to win the East. They're the favorites to go to the finals. Chris Middleton clearly their second best player. I know Bucks has been good. Who has them as the favorites to go to the finals? The guys in the desert who have booked casinos setting lines for many, many years. So just to be clear, Middleton a three. So do you have him as their three or is Eric Bledsoe their two now? Bledsoe has been phenomenal first team. All defense very likely. Well, this is what makes Milwaukee difficult and challenging is that it's a collection that is the two or the three. Chris Middleton is the beneficiary of a very good team and they have to pick somebody to be an all-star to represent that team. Because they were so good, you have to have a second all-star. But his numbers were there. Unfortunately, I don't have them in front of me, but Chris Middleton. No, no, no. He's a very, he's a very good player. Is he a four? What do you want to just make him a sixth man? Let's make him Vinny Johnson coming off the bat. He's, I mean, he's a three. He's a three. Okay. All right. Let's move on to everybody's favorite free agent, Kevin Durant. And this one, you know, listen, you've been saying Kevin Durant to the Knicks. The world has followed you. I remain on Kevin Durant should stay Island. I don't know how we really want to frame this, but when you look at upside for Kevin Durant, long-time legacy, would it mean more for him to win four straight in Golden State, where he could win four straight finals, MVP's, something Michael Jordan never did, Larry Bird, Magic, none of those guys in the modern era have won four straight. Or would it be more beneficial for him to leave and win a title the way LeBron, now LeBron went home, KD would be going somewhere as a mercenary to New York or Brooklyn or the Clippers or what have you. In the minds of basketball people, staying there and winning four would be infinitely more valuable than going anyplace else and winning another one. It's just that Kevin Durant isn't looking at things in a conventional sense. Like, we're all judging it based on standard basketball legacy. Well, let me talk about who are basketball people? People who are on the league, fans, media, former players, how would you want to qualify that? I mean, all of the above. All of the above. Players, GMs, executives, everybody is of the mind. Stay. I mean look what you have and you're going to be good and you're going to be good for a while and you can win more championships and you're in the Bay Area. Like, what's not to like? Silicon Valley, venture capital. But KD doesn't look at it in the pure prism of I could win four championships in a row and nobody's ever done that because he has ancillary things that he wants to accomplish and challenges that he wants to take on. And one of them certainly is that he wants to be and this is the supreme confidence that he has. Build it around me. Let me go get a championship. Let me do it in a big market. A big market where I can take advantage or pursue all of the business and outside interests that I have. He wants to conquer a lot of kingdoms. Saying to him, yeah, but you could conquer the basketball kingdom. He's like, yeah, yeah, I could. But there's like three or four other ones that I want to get to and he's never going to conquer those. In the basketball kingdom, just four straight. He's only going to be what, 31 this fall? Yes. I mean, this would be three straight if he wins it in four if he stays, but I don't know. I put him in the Jordan LeBron discussion if he can do four straight, especially if he continues with the finals MVP's. The stats are there. The stats are there, but look, nobody's, even as of right now, when you ask people, who's the best player in the league right now? Everybody has to kind of think about it. Oh, not me. It's K.D. No doubt about it. Been since he got to Golden State and destroyed LeBron head-to-head in the finals. But here's, then you are unique because I think most people still look at it as K.D. joined a championship team. I just, for a guy who's won two finals MVP's, I've never seen a guy who's done that who's still looked at as a member of the band. Because he's not Ringo, but he's George Harrison. It's so frustrating to hear these, not you specifically, but these dopes out there on social media. Well, he just joined him. They had lost the finals. He's won the finals MVP twice. Yes. Michael Jordan won nothing without Phil Jackson. Won nothing without Scottie Pippen. Okay. But even you would say to this point, it's still Steph Curry's team. He still does more in this intangible way as a leader, as involving everybody. I mean, there's still the criticism this year. When it becomes too K.D. centric, they're not as good. So that's the rub. And this is the other part when it comes to basketball. And this has been K.D. And this is people who know him and have been with him for a long time have told me. At his heart, the thing that he gets the most pleasure from is putting the ball in the basket, is being that supreme scorer. He likes nothing more than that. With the Warriors, he's always having to share. He's always having to be part of. And winning a ring as part of, as opposed to winning a ring. And you know what? I get to light everybody up whenever I want. Yeah, but Rick, we both know. Listen, if he goes to New York, life is lonely when you're passing a Frank Milikina and whoever's left on that awful roster. I mean, that team is so bad. He's going to need Zion and Kyrie Irving if he wants to win a ring in New York. You know who I am. I'm K.D. The amount of confidence that he has. He put it in with Russell Westbrook and James Harden. I know they were young against Prime LeBron and Wade. They were young. They went to the finals. They had a coach who had never been there before. They were going up against a team that was out for revenge. There were a lot of dynamics there. Rick, how about this, if he goes to New York and they don't get it out of the second round because Kawhi stays or the Sixers keep their core or the Bucks add somebody, then what? Forget about Kevin Durant as a top player in the league. That's a joke. That's such negative thinking. I know. I'm a positive guy. Too much Christmas Sard around Rick. It's starting to become negative. When K.D. is not looking at, oh, but what if, K.D. is looking at... When? Yeah. Look at all the things that I could do. You get Zion and Kyrie. Yeah, I understand that. I think they could win that. All right, let's move on. Finally, NBA TV ratings are down. I believe 18% was the number I saw yesterday. It feels like an NBA Finals matchup with the Rockets and the Warriors. Rick, for the league's sake, who do they want to win this series, Golden State and the same old Golden State Warriors or New Blood and the Houston Rockets? No, you have to have the Golden State Warriors. You have to have the King, you have to have Steph Curry, K.D., the Star Power, no offense to James Harden. Chris Paul is not quite there. Chris Paul will be angry to hear this. Well, but he's just, he's not the same player. He's not on the same level. But the Warriors, the familiarity sells. The stardom sells. And the idea that you could have Warriors and the Celtics. I mean, we're looking at Toronto. We're looking at Milwaukee. Okay, maybe. I wonder if Giannis brings in a different global feel to the game. He's not a very relatable player. He's just a total unicorn at what? 11 with the wingspan of a condor. I don't think kids can relate to him the way they can, Steph Curry. Yeah, and just, he's not fully bloomed yet when it comes to being able to attract people like that. But I believe the main reason that we're seeing the percentages fall off is because the NBA has become a game where the interest is in the transactions. There's more interest in where K.D. is going to play next year and who LeBron is going to get next to him. Then there is about the actual game. You're not excited for the Warriors, Blazers, Western Conference sweep? Actually, I am. Because you have two home courts. You have two arenas that are awesome. In one little quadrant of the country. Easy travel for me. And the atmosphere is going to be phenomenal. But here's the thing. I'm going to be in those buildings. I know these guys. I know the history of these guys. So for me, I'm an outlier and that I still love watching the game. I know how much Lillard, being from Oakland, doesn't want it to be Steph Curry's town. There's so many dynamics there that I want to watch and I want to watch them play out on the court. But I think the landscape that the NBA has conquered when it comes to sports fans has been with people who play fantasy sports who don't necessarily love the game of basketball. They love the idea of making transactions. I'm imagining if it was Katie and LeBron together or Jimmy Butler and Kyrie and Katie got together in New York. The fantasy aspect of following sports is eclipsing reality. My wife, Rick, tried to propose a vacation the first week in July. There's no chance. We could have like seven superstars leave in the league. I got to be all over this. Alright folks, for Rick Bucher, I'm Jason McIntyre. That's your NBA Playoff Special.