Windy’s trade prediction for Giannis 👀 + Can the Knicks or Pacers take down OKC? | First Take

Windy’s trade prediction for Giannis 👀 + Can the Knicks or Pacers take down OKC? | First Take

earlier free agency in the summer. So there could be endless possibilities for a number of NBA teams with names like Giannis, Kevin Durant floating out there this off season and Shams had an eyeopening comment about this Tuesday on the Pat McAfee show. Listen up guys. I think this off season might be the most craziest ever. You have the parody in the league sucks. It’s so thin right now like as far as the thin line of where you can win a championship or you might be falling into the lottery. And I think the the ability to go out there and improve your team and get there to championship level, I think that’s on the minds of everyone around the league. All right, this calls for a windy watch. Wendy, all eyes on you. Uh, what team and star are you watching out for this off season? Okay, so obviously we know that Giannis is going to be the guy who creates a domino effect. Before I even get to Giannis though, can you please just Molly just stay with me one minute? Sure. What was the most impactful trade that led to that was in the that led to the 2024 championship? The answer was Drew Holiday being traded to the Boston Celtics. Okay. What could end up being the most impactful trade that affects the 2025 championship? I would argue that it might be Alex Caruso being traded to the Thunder. Okay. So, while I understand that the star players drive so much of what happens in this league, the NBA is at a place where right now depth matters and putting all your team into two or three star players, I don’t think is necessarily a winning formula. Okay, that’s my preamble. I’ll put that aside. What I think is important about those two trades was that the the Drew Holiday trade doesn’t happen until the Dame Lillard trade happens. So yes, we are going to focus on what happens with Giannis. Absolutely. Giannis’s decision about whether he wants to be traded or not. Secondly, about whether or not Giannis is going to have a full control over where he gets traded because he’s got two years on his contract. It’s a little bit of a gray area. uh the Bucks to get the maximum value may not be able to give him exactly what he wants, but giving him exactly what he wants may make things a lot easier. So, I think that’s a big factor. But the key to me is the Giannis domino effect, where he might get traded and what that might trigger, both with the teams involved in the trade and the other teams that come around it. So Giannis is going to say a lot of things. And while I could list you a bunch of teams that could make a big offer for him, if I was Giannis and I’m looking at the lay of the land right now, I want to stay in the Eastern Conference. I don’t want to go to a Western Conference team because it’s going to be a really hard mountain to climb. The only problem with that, and I understand that completely, Wendy, I hear you. What Eastern team has both the assets to go out and get Giannis and then have enough on the other side of a trade to seriously contend? And I I just I look at the you you know, we know the usual suspects. Everybody’s going to mention New York first, going to mention the Knicks. They might even mention the Nets, which to me is slightly insane. Um but if you look at a team, I’m going to go West now. If you look at the Spurs that are sitting there with the numbers two and 14 picks in the second in the first round, the very first round. And if you’re Milwaukee, that’s got to attract you. And you can I’m not giving up Castle. Don’t even mention his name. I’m not coming to the phone or staying on the phone if you asked me to give up the rookie of the year who I think has a bit of early SGAism. If you want to look at a guy and project a little bit, Castle to me has that. I’m I’m not giving him up. But there there there’s some players on that roster I can give up and still come away with De’aran Fox, Wimama, Giannis Anakmpo, and the rookie of the year that look at look at the four players you come back with on the other side of such a deal. I don’t know that anybody in the can anybody in the East match that? I don’t know if they can match it, but there there is one team in particular that I think is going through a revamp and a gap year in the Boston Celtics where it could be interesting. Right. Jason Tatum, one of the two stars have to. Right. Jaylen Brown. I mean, Jason Tatum I probably on the side of Jaylen Brown more than Jason Tatum because of his versatility and how he plays. They’re also new ownership. So, it’s fluid, right? New ownership coming in. um what kind of salaries can he actually sustain and Porzingis getting older, Al Horford getting older, Drew Holidayiday getting older, you know, you have Derek White kind of lingering there. I would rather keep Derek White. I’m not sure draft collateral what they have, Brian, but it seems like Boston’s in that sweet spot to a degree. At least in my opinion, maybe. Also, I just want to throw out one other name, Brian, before you respond. What about Miami? They need someone. I don’t know if they have the pieces to do it, but Miami needs a star. Again, the equation to me is enough to get give up to satisfy Milwaukee in a trade and enough to come on the other side of it and Giannis to be somewhere where you still got enough to win. That is easier in the Eastern Conference to Wendy’s point, but I don’t know Wendy. And then there’s the KD of it all. I don’t think Miami I don’t think Miami has the perfect set of circumstances. I think Boston was more interesting before the devastating Tatum injury because I don’t know what you’re going to possibly think you get from Jason Tatum next year. Before that, I think that was a real conversation and maybe it still could be. I think New York is definitely a conversation for sure, but New York Spurs New York means New York. Brooklyn would Brooklyn would be in the Nets. Brooklyn is saying this is Brooklyn doesn’t have a Brooklyn’s a good spot, too. Go ahead. It’s a great I love Brooklyn. I’m a Nets fan. Just go ahead, Wendy. Sorry. Yeah, Brooklyn doesn’t have a a real, you know, they might have a plan, but they don’t have a demonstrable pathway right now that that if they traded for Giannis on the other side, they would have a championship team ready to go. So again, this comes down to whether the Bucks are getting the highest value or they’re working with Giannis. We don’t have a clarity of that yet. It’s so very important, but Wilbond is correct. The Spurs could probably put together the best package, including the number two pick in this draft. Um, and if if you were okay with saying, “All right, I’m making a fiveyear, three or fiveyear decision.” Yes. If you’re making a a one to twoyear decision, I mean, I was listening to Chris Finch last night and he was laying out how he thinks 13 or 14 teams in the West next year could be quote unquote going for it. And he went so far as to say you could have a great year in the Western Conference next year and go 42 and 40. Those are his words, having just led the six seed to the Western Conference Finals. So, I don’t think you can just ignore that. Have reached their fifth NBA finals in franchise history, and they’re the second since the team moved to Oklahoma City. In the first round, the Thunder mounted a 29point comeback in game three. The Thunder outscored the Grizzlies by 78 points in the series, their second largest point differential in franchise history. In the Western Conference semi, the Thunder clinched the series in blowout fashion, beating the Nuggets by 32 points in game seven. 32-point win, the seventh largest in a game, seven in NBA history and largest in franchise history. The Thunder routed the Timberwolves last night by recording their four 30-point win of the postseason, earning their ticket to the NBA Finals. The team’s fourth 30point wins are the most in a single postseason in NBA history. The Thunder will face the winner of Pacers and Knicks in the NBA Finals. The Thunder went 2-0 against the Pacers in the regular season, winning by an average of 13 and a half points, and were 2-0 against the Knicks by an average of 17 and a half points. Overall, the Thunder went 29-1. That’s unbelievable. Against the Eastern Conference this season, the best record by any team against the opposite conference since conferences were established in 1970. All right, I know I threw a lot of numbers. That was a lot of numbers. I know I probably bored you. But that last one against the Eastern Conference. Come on, Monica. You were impressed with that. Who’s the one? Did Cleveland get him? I don’t know. We don’t need to know. We need to know. Monica, after all those numbers, you’re going to ask me the one night. My bad, Molly. It’s not you. That’s messed up. What a blow spot. It’s not you, Molly. No, it’s not you. It is Cleveland. I thought, our amazing producer, I I wasn’t sure. Okay. Great to have you with us. Uh, will then, can either the Knicks or Pacers take down OKC? It’s hard to see. I It’s just hard to see at this point because of the way OKC is playing. Like, I’m not pinning what we saw last night and in these last couple of games on Minnesota as much as I’m crediting Oklahoma City for just they’re flexing right now. They’re they’re understanding and realizing all that they can be right before our eyes. And we’ve seen this happen with championship teams over time. I go back and I think about Kobe and Shaq when they got on that run and it was almost like they looked at themselves and said, “Oh my god, can you can you believe we can do this? We saw this with the Warriors.” Um, so you see this now and then. We’re seeing it with OKC. Now, I don’t want to sit here and say, “No, I remember one big upset you guys were born then where you know the the Washington Bullets were supposed to take down Golden State and Rick Barry and oops, it happened the other way around. big betting favorite goes down. That doesn’t happen very often in the NBA finals. And I tell you the truth, I I don’t see it. I see Indiana. I don’t see Knicks having a a chance. I think that probability is probably lower. Uh I would give maybe 30% 25% for Indiana. They would have to make the game very frantic in their style of the play. The problem is OKC has the personnel that is adaptive to that frantic pace and defensively applies pressure that I think for the guy that initiates the offense in Tyresese Hallebert and they can hinder that very differently than a lot of other teams could. But because it’s Rick Carile because they have some of the pieces I would give them a legitimate chance. I’m not sure the depth to me if the Knicks are able to somehow come back being down 3-1 after having Detroit Boston and then this series I think would be detrimental to them in the NBA finals for as much of that load would be on Jaylen Brunson and Lou Dort Alex Caruso the bodies they would throw at him and the style of play they would have woo that would be a whole lot a whole lot to get Tyson Spinx situation Goodness gracious. Uh I agree if the Knicks manage to get out of this series, I I it is going to be taxing. I think they would be spent and it would not smell good news should they win if they were to run into the Oklahoma City Thunder. But I got to say y’all from like just a basketball in general point, the idea of the Pacers Thunder is actually really intriguing. It’s exciting as ever on a number of levels. Now I will say this and I was literally talking to my husband last night. I think the Pacers have not gotten their due. But when I actually think about if the topic is defense because OKC is historic defensively for the Pacers tell agree disagree I go Nmith Nhard Seakum then I probably go Mathan before I would go Miles Turner or granted terrific shot blocker but if stretch big Chat home similar to Cat is maybe not as but after those four defenders I’m kind of like okay now y’all got prolific scorers but that’s sort of where their defender high level defender cap runs out to me and obviously for OKC you’re talking about eight easy solid defenders if not more. So that to me the Carile call by UJ is actually really really interesting but I just think the idea of the depth and the waves that can come at you with the speed versus the depth and the waves that the Thunder come at you defensively is really like really really intriguing. Now the only way to beat a great defense is to not let it get set right. I mean, so it’s we talk about that adaptability play to not be answering the field, right? But how do you take the how do you take pace away from a team, you take quality shots, long rebounds, like you make them defend. And by the way, like thank God for SGA. I just want to say that. I It’s like, welcome back to the mid-range game in basketball. Somebody who has mastered it. You talk about slowing down the pace of a game and getting in operational zones and taking high efficient shots. That’s what OKC does. One of the ways in which you see teams upset is that they become full of themselves either overnight or all of a sudden they get too presumptuous there. There’s no hint of that with OKC. We saw that at times or sometimes they just overrate themselves or we do Houston Rockets of the of the Harden vintage. They they they were talented. They had a lot of stuff. They they weren’t ready. They were they were flawed in a way. I don’t see OKC being flawed either strategically or emotionally. I mean I they just seem like they are such a bedrock. Um the behaviors all of them everything we see about them says we’re about business and we’re pursuing this. They’re almost stalking it and this is hard to see anybody knocking them off course right now. Who’s guarding Ali? Oh, sorry. No, go ahead. Oh, Lou Dort. Dor. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Oh, Lou Dort. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. But then they can still pass him off. I know. I think they still got bigger players. You still got Caruso. You still got I mean they got so many. You got Kayson Walls. Well, people don’t even know. Walls. Exactly. Who is going to be an all league defender as soon as somebody leaves that team and he gets promoted or he leaves and goes somewhere else and he’s the guy defensive. You know what the problem is with OKC? because of the way SGA plays and he creates so much offense as well. And it’s something that I don’t feel like Indiana has because it would be beneficial in how they play or New York has is they have such a a a depth of guys like yo your job him tonight him like I don’t need you to worry about shooting shots from the outside like that’s what we talk about the Knicks right against Hie it’s like well we going to put Muel Bridges on him but then we need Muel later in the game to give us offensive production or we going to put you know Landry Fields Landry Sham Landry Fields Landry Shaman on him but Then somewhat you have a little bit of a liability if he’s off the ball offensively. You know he can shoot. OKC don’t got that problem. No. Like yo that’s your main accepting of it. Yes. They own it from night to night or series to series whatever that is. We’re going to be talking about them like the Spurs. They stay on the trajectory like the Spurs. Put it in historical perspective for us. Is this an all-time great team, this OKC team, or do you have to have a championship to be No, you got to have a championship. And maybe you have to have two. I mean, I I I look back on teams that and, you know, I go back to conversations I was fortunate enough to have with Kobe Bryant about getting over the hump and remember early in his career, he and Shaq, they had some rough times. You had to finish. Were they great already? Yeah. But greatness as a team is validated only by winning a championship. I I remember the Bulls of of Jordan and Pippen and Horus Grant before Robin got there. They had to win that second one and then it was like uh oh uh oh they’re they’re now going to take off and you can’t beat them. That is the case I think OKC’s got to win this one and let’s see where they go with health. You can have Jay Will we we talked about this get up this morning. You can have one contract dispute blow up your team. Boom. Sure could. In a heartbeat or an injury. Or an injury. Yes, Monica. So either one of those things. So you need you got to finish this off and then let’s see how they run. Oh my goodness. The Portland Trailblazers, they were like 50 and4 one year and Bill Walton got hurt and it was never the same. The history of the franchise. So before we start talking about alltime great, you got to win at least one. At least Let me push back. Can I push back on one thing really quick? I’m sorry to interrupt. What about 2016 Warriors team though? 73 wins. No, they didn’t win. Yeah, but they and I think that will always be sort of an asterisk in the Warrior conversation, but you can’t deny the four, right? The four the four makes them that. What you talking about? Are you talking about one season? No. Yeah. The 2016 team didn’t But I’m I’m with I’m with Molly though. Okay. I got I got to follow up. No, I was going to say I I think they are an all-time great regular season team. I’m not sure if that has transitioned. You’re talking about OKC. Yes. I mean, there’s only seven teams in history of the league that have won 68 regular season games or more. So, that puts you in a pretty That puts you in a pretty, you know, rarified air. Absolutely. But we value championship. Did all seven of those Did all six of those teams win? The two Bulls teams won. The Lakers won. The Warriors didn’t. The Warriors did. So maybe the Warriors are the only team that didn’t win. The Sixers back in Wilt, they did win when they won 60. So you to me, but it’s like it gets held against you though, Mike, if you win this many games and you don’t get and these guys have to know that. Yes, they’ve they’ve heard enough about this now. SGA such an awareness, right, beyond his years. Mature for his age. really does. Mhm. I agree. That conversation only, it made me think of last year’s Boston team, right? And we just talked about what’s the opposite of fortuitous? Is unfertous a word? Anyway, unlucky for unfortunate unfortunate bounces because of that iteration of that crew. The expectation was, by the way, I just have to say I’m sad to see that. I know everyone’s like predicting that Boston could potentially get blown up. That’s what I’m saying. Sad we’re done seeing that roster. I’m with you, too. It was fun. You know, it was supposed to be dynastic. The way it ended though, like so like nobody knew what the hell was going on with him depressing. That’s to Monica’s point, you know, you you can you can have that. How do you guard you can’t even you can’t guard against it really? You have to have some luck. Yeah.

On First Take, Michael Wilbon, Jay Williams and Brian Windhorst discuss which team should try to trade for Giannis Antetokounmpo before debating whether the New York Knicks or Indiana Pacers can take down the Oklahoma City Thunder in the NBA Finals.

0:00 Which team and star should we keep an eye on this offseason?
3:40 Which team should try to trade for Giannis?
8:40 Can either the Knicks or Pacers take down OKC?
14:40 Are the Thunder already an all-time great team?
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