00:00it is christian clark good morning sir hey guys how are you doing i'm headed north on i-35 right
00:07now all right so let's talk about that so obviously game five of oklahoma city and san
00:15antonio and i know we're all excited about that but i was looking at some of the betting odds for
00:19whoever wins would be a pretty heavy favorite against the knicks and i understand the perception
00:26of the eastern conference playoff run but does it stand to reason to you that whoever wins this
00:32series would be that big of a favorite over the just crushing everybody knicks
00:39oh man that's i i don't know that i'm there um you know going into the playoffs you know if
00:45you
00:45would ask me you're gonna take oklahoma city or the field i probably would have taken oklahoma city i
00:50mean i was that high on them but i mean what the knicks have done is is unbelievable and i
00:55saw
00:55you know somebody on social media make this comparison i didn't think it was ridiculous
00:59it feels a little 2011 mads-ish i mean it's there's a lot of talent but it just fits together
01:05really really well you just have to respect the execution i mean they're just they're just crushing
01:10everybody right now how quickly have the spurs grown up though like that's one of just watching
01:18how how they've played there have been moments where i kept going okay they're too young for this
01:22moment and then they're like no we're not we're gonna make a play here
01:26yeah that's that's been you know maybe the most surprising thing of of the postseason to me um i
01:33i i thought they were going to have to take some lumps and and we'll see you know how the
01:38rest of
01:38this western conference finals shakes out um but i mean look women yama at 22 years old i think he's
01:45the best player in the world you know i wasn't i wasn't ready to go there you know before the
01:49playoffs
01:50like i think you can make an argument for yokich definitely make an argument for sga after watching
01:55the playoffs so far i think wendy is clearly the best player in the world at 22 dylan harper has
01:59had
01:59some unbelievable moments i mean game three against portland no wendy scores like 20 20 points in the
02:08third quarter and step castle is just a dog he's a stud i mean doing a lot of the work
02:14on sga um you know
02:16when he goes in the lane he's always jumping off two feet it looks like he's jumping off a trampoline
02:21um you know fun player to watch they're they're ridiculous i i can't believe they look this
02:27this comfortable when all those guys are 20 21 22 is your favorite part about wendy when he takes a
02:33shot and doesn't automatically fall down
02:39i i do like that i i was afraid of that uh that spurs fan who's sitting courtside uh a
02:45gal who had
02:45a uh a fake oscar i think yes you're the way believer i'm a fake oscar i thought that was
02:51pretty
02:51good i thought that was pretty good well if we're obviously around here we're looking at this series
02:57as mavericks fans i mean like either way feels like both of these teams are going to be a force
03:03to
03:03be reckoned with for a long long time so i did want to know and i know it doesn't have
03:08to necessarily
03:09be one or the other but i kind of wanted to get your insight where do you fall on the
03:13idea of trying
03:14to load up the like kairi flag super team versus kairi doesn't really fit cooper's timeline and maybe
03:22you take a step back for the full rebuild yeah i think in general i would be trying to slow
03:30play this
03:30a little bit with cooper masai ujiri interestingly to me said something kind of along those lines
03:37um the last time he publicly spoke right after they let go jay kid he said look like our best
03:42player
03:43our franchise player is 19 years old like there's no reason to try and rush this thing and you know
03:49i think he's right um i don't know that you necessarily have to trade kairi you know tomorrow
03:56or anything i mean look i think i think you should absolutely like see what's out there gauge the
04:01value um but you know i i think you can definitely use the beginning of the season until february is
04:08kind of an evaluation period how are things going okay if we feel like we're just we're not even close
04:13you know let's let's pull the trigger on something kairi related um but but i would absolutely not
04:19be trying to rush this thing because yeah oklahoma sanatonia are oh very tough to beat so there's no
04:29part of you then and i know this is kind of along the lines of what you were just saying
04:32no part of
04:33you that would want to make the trade now load up with whether it's this draft or future drafts for
04:41a gm and president of basketball operations team that is known for finding talent in a lot of great
04:47draft places yeah i mean the the tough part about this upcoming season is the mavericks don't control
04:56their own first round right unless it falls in the top two they've they've got to send to charlotte
05:00because of the pj washington deal so it it makes it kind of tricky from a team building perspective
05:07or on one hand you know as messiah jerry said our franchise guy's 19 i mean this guy's a teenager
05:13for
05:13uh six seven more months like there's no reason to rush into this but but the difficult part about
05:19it is slow playing it well we don't control a lot of our own picks i mean this first could
05:23slow play
05:24it a little bit with lemby i mean they were they're not very good his his first two years and
05:28then
05:28obviously they really hit the gas pedal but the mavs are in a trickier spot team building wise because
05:35a lot of their picks are outgoing from stuff they did to improve their roster around luca
05:40now look you you can there's there's players who have value on this team and you can get
05:47you know probably other people's draft picks and things like that and you could try to build that
05:51way and that's probably what they're going to try to do in some ways um but it does make it
05:57difficult
05:57because you know after this year you don't control your own first round pick again outright until 2031
06:04how long do you think it's going to take don staley to whip this group into shape for the upcoming
06:08season
06:11yeah i did uh i wrote a thing i'll say here's five names oh i read it yeah yeah and
06:17that was
06:18the one people have really you know gotten attached to um you know if i was putting odds on it
06:25i'd
06:26probably put very long odds of that happening uh you know i think she was fifth on the list and
06:32i put
06:33her on there because one i had you know a couple people like someone who runs the team say i
06:37wouldn't
06:37be surprised the interviewer and i i basically worded it like that i think if you look at
06:41masai ujiri's you know track record two one that when the raptors were hiring a coach in 2023
06:47they did interview becky hammond you know i don't i don't think masai ujiri is like afraid of that part
06:53of it um and you know he's proven if you just look at his last coaching search like he he
06:58will he
06:59will definitely cast a wide net i mean that was like an exhaustive process the raptors went through
07:04before they ultimately hired derko ryakovich i mean they talked to thank you hammond jj reddick
07:09you know a bunch of assistants in the league um so i think i think they definitely going to cast
07:16a
07:16wide net so i and obviously people around here are familiar with sean sweeney i was hoping you could
07:22tell us a little bit more about either the coach or why you think the interest would be there
07:27for micah nori and tiago splitter because i'm interested in those two
07:34yeah so i mean micah nori there's there's a connection there um ethan casson who's the
07:40mavericks president on the business side um i think he's you know got a lot of juice with the
07:46mavericks right now um and you know i i think he worked with tim connelly and that was part of
07:52the
07:52reason you heard tim connelly's name floated here you know before they hired masai um you know mike
07:57and micah nori's he's done it for a while you know he interviewed for the nicks and the lakers
08:02head coaching jobs and he also worked with masai ujiri a long long time ago uh mike and nori kind
08:07of got his start with the raptors you know and masai ujiri's first go around there when masai
08:12was a scout and then the assistant gm so you know there's familiarity with a couple of people who
08:18you know have a lot of the power in dallas and um you know everything you hear is a great
08:23demeanor
08:24he's obviously done you know a good job being the lead assistant in minnesota they've they've had
08:28some of their best years ever these past five years um so i think they probably hear that one
08:33a lot is is is john shire one of those names that like just makes sense because he's coached the
08:39player in the past or is there like a legitimate this dude can coach in the nba yeah i mean
08:46honestly
08:46i've i heard john shire's name you know just kind of whispered about whispered about um probably in
08:53april like more than a month um you know there's certainly a lot of people who you talk to who
08:59are
08:59like i just don't think he's leaving dude he's only been there four years you know he's knocked on the
09:03door of winning national championship there but hasn't got it yet like i just don't see him leaving
09:07at this time but there are people in nba who are like yeah he would leave he would go to
09:13the nba for
09:13the right amount of money um and i mean the chance to coach cooper like that's got to be appealing
09:18pretty pretty blank slate around him and the other part of this is like man patrick dumont will
09:26he'll spend money and he'll let you do your job and i think that's why you know like that's pretty
09:31attractive to people in the basketball world like it's that's any job it's like any job where they're
09:35going to pay you and let you have autonomy like that's not bad right i mean they got they got
09:39a guy
09:40who already won a championship with messiah um so you know i think the cooper factor is obviously
09:45the biggest one why you hear that name um and you know i i think there's a feeling that like
09:51this could be a good organization and a lot more stable than it has been going forward
09:58plus plus the team's full of uh former duke players too so like you know trying to make sure
10:03you help keep all that together there's there's a lot of dookies yeah we'll we'll see what happens
10:09with kairi uh big year for derrick lively he's actually eligible for contract extension this
10:15summer uh well me make sense just play that one out and see because he hasn't been it all the
10:21past
10:21two years um but uh yeah there's some there's some dookies i don't know i think i think john
10:28shire would be super intriguing i mean if we're is it like i would i would for sure be doing
10:35my due
10:35diligence there would you try to also trade up and get cam boozer and then take
10:39isaiah evans as well to just really fill the team with as many duke players as possible
10:46yeah just go just go straight duke um i don't know there's already a lot here there's already a lot
10:52i don't know that i like that much duke now if we i'm with you man i'm with you well
10:59i disagree
11:00with all of that but that's fine he's a big duke guy though so that's a big thing he's a
11:05huge duke fan
11:06so so please don't take my head coach away all right so if we went in completely the other
11:12direction i know we have heard a lot of kind of rumblings about yannis with the heat mark stein
11:20said hey maybe the mavericks could be a dark horse suitor do you see the mavericks fitting in
11:25with that idea whatsoever if they kind of went the opposite direction of what you jerry said and was
11:32like screw it let's try to win now yeah i mean i like you i think you know there is
11:39like a yannis
11:40and messiah connection and i think that makes sense i mean to me i don't really see it because
11:46i think like cooper and yannis kind of have some similarities i mean like the one thing you want
11:51to put around them is shooting um and it's tough to put you know like cooper shot 29 from three
11:58this
11:58past year like to me a great player is find a way to figure it out but like that's not
12:02a it's not like
12:03a super clean basketball fit and you know like yannis is what he's 31 going on 32 like there's a
12:10lot
12:10of miles on him um i don't think it makes a ton of sense unless it's just a great deal
12:15i have a hard
12:16time seeing that one and since you're headed up there to cover it do you have a feel i know
12:21this
12:21series has been crazy about who the knicks will play in the nba finals look my my pick my picks
12:30going into the playoffs were were a thunder and the knicks in the finals i'm not gonna i'm not gonna
12:36stray from it i guess i'll i'll stick with it um but i don't know i mean the seven foot
12:42five guy
12:43hitting half court shots uh yeah he's certainly good enough to to win san antonio this series so
12:50i'm excited to just watch him in person it's been it's he's been just ridiculous man thank you so
12:56much for the time especially while you're in the midst of going to cover a whole other
13:00sporting event christian we really appreciate it this morning thank you guys appreciate it
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