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For the first time since 1986, the NBA Finals is taking place in May. I know, oh, technically it's the Western Conference Finals, but there's no doubt at all that these are the two best teams in the NBA playing right now between the San Antonio Spurs and the OKC Thunder. Everyone's already dubbed it the real NBA Finals. I think these teams are going to steamroll whoever they face out of the East. Um, but it's the first playoff meeting between two teams with at least 62 wins since the Jazz-Bulls Finals in '98. Pretty iconic one if you ask me. On one side you have the defending champs with the back-to-back MVP who have pretty much steamrolled everything that's gotten in their way
over the last 2 years. Then on the other side, you have a player who is already kind of entered himself into goat conversations in Victor Wembanyama. 41 points, 24 boards in that first game. And he's just surrounded by an influx of an insane amount of young talent. This is the best NBA playoff series since Warriors-Cavs 2016, I think. I am very confident in saying that, and we're only two games into this series, which is the craziest part. Uh, there's no doubt these are the two best teams. My first question for you, Cash, if you can touch on the series as well, but how long is this going to be the case? Is this going to be a Warriors-Cavs instance where we see them battling it
out for the next 5-6 years? What's your pulse on this series so far? Yeah, every basketball fan is a fortune teller right now because if you're watching this series, you are looking at through a window into the future of the NBA. This is the present and future of the league, this matchup. Like, you know, you think of some of those legendary playoff matchups like you touched on, like first 62-win meeting since the '98 Finals, right? Those Bulls and Jazz teams were very veteran teams at the end of their runs. Cavs-Warriors, established legendary teams going at it every year in the Finals.
These are two of the youngest teams in the league we're talking about, okay? The Thunder last year were the youngest champions since the '77 Blazers and the second youngest champions of all time. If the Spurs beat and win the title this year, they will usurp the Thunder as the second youngest champions ever. The Spurs would be the least experienced champions since the '77 Blazers when you look at like playoff rotation average age. The fact that these two teams are this good are clearly head and shoulders above the rest of the league as the two best teams in the league already should terrify the rest of the NBA because on top of the fact that they're that young, I'll also remind people
these two teams have a combined 50 draft picks in the next eight years. ESPN recently had both ranked in the top five when it came to uh current draft equity when you consider all their draft assets. So, we are talking about the two best teams in the league by a country mile who also happen to be two of the youngest teams in the league who also happen to have some of the best draft assets in the entire league. Insane. These are both freight trains that can only be stopped by crashing into each other. Yeah. This is the future of the NBA.
You consider even just the star matchup, right? Like even when you're describing it, it's like the defending champions and the reigning MVP, reigning two-time MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the young guy coming up in Victor Wembanyama. Guess what? Shai is still young. He's still like smack-dab in his prime. And then you look at the supporting casts for those guys, right? In Shai's case, you've got Jalen Williams who I know is hurt right now and Chet Holmgren. Those three guys, Shai, Jay Dub and Chet are locked up through 2031. Yeah. Okay? And yeah, there're going to be some cap complications coming from the Thunder. Like they could be a second apron team as soon as next season, but
there are ways around that. Like they can um decline team options on Hartenstein and Dort, Kenrich Williams. And I know that would like take away from the team a little bit, but the point is there are ways for them to avoid the second even for at least another year or two. And a big part of them having all those draft picks, I know everyone's always like teased well like what if they turn those picks into a Giannis and now they're just super loaded. Those draft picks for the Thunder are more about continuing to surround the big three who are all expensive going forward with good rotation players on cost controlled rookie scale contracts.
Yes. And if they can continue to do that, use those draft picks wisely, develop as they have, replenish the roster as they have, this will continue to be a juggernaut for years to come with that big three staying intact for the most part barring J-Dub or Chet randomly wanting their own team, but I think this team is here to stay and is built to last. And then you look at the Spurs and you've got Victor Wembanyama who in his year three age 22 season was already a top three player at worst all regular season and has been the best player by far during the playoffs. Is doing things we haven't seen since like Wilt. Yeah.
This guy's only going to get better. I think he'll be the MVP as soon as next season, you know, assuming he stays healthy knock on wood. Um and then you think of his supporting cast and what Stephon Castle already is still on his rookie scale contract. Dylan Harper, people don't realize how good Dylan Harper's going to be because he came off the bench this year on a 62 win damn team. Yeah. Dylan Harper is still in my opinion going to emerge as the second best player from this past draft after Flag. And yeah, that's ahead of Edgecombe and ahead of Knippl. I think they'll be great players, but not as good as Harper. I think Harper's going
to be that good. Um Carter Bryant is a young player they have who I think is going to be like a good three-and-D player. All these guys on their rookie scale contracts. Wemby still has a year of his rookie scale contract left. We talk about cap complications with the Thunder. The Spurs have flexibility for the next couple years. They also have all those picks. I just don't see how either of these teams can be derailed again barring catastrophic injury which no one wants to see. These two teams are so good right now and they're both built to last. And then just thinking about Wemby if this is the beginning of his rise, like there is no player or team that can stop him. But if there's going to be an impediment to him
like winning a bunch of title, he's coming for every individual award and team trophy over the next few years. The team he's playing right now trying to stop him this year is the team that's going to be trying to stop him for like the next half decade. Yeah. I think I we'll touch on Wemby a little bit, but I really want to touch on first the point that you made about like people look at the cons like the way these teams are constructed, they look at kind of the makeup of the players, there's some flashy guys and stuff, but I don't think people really realize these teams are so good and will be so good because of the stars, but because of the surrounding pieces. You look at for example, Dylan Harper's a great example,
obviously he's a rookie and you look at the Thunder. Oh, do they have a Dylan Harper in AJ Mitchell, a guy who's been playing almost a the similar role for that Thunder team and he's been incredible. That's what makes the Thunder so good and such a well-oiled machine is all of these guys that they have are Cason Wallace another great example. Alex Caruso, dude, he's one of the best players in the playoffs, like these guys are all so good and on such great deals where it's like as long as they keep hitting on these draft picks and bringing up more Cason Wallaces and AJ Mitchells, they're unstoppable
because they've put themselves in such a perfect predicament where they have all their money tied up with their really good players and then they have guys playing way under what their actual or over what their value is. Yeah. Um and the Spurs are the same case with Cason. I mean all these guys are still on their rookie deals. So that's I think that's a huge piece of all of this that people can't you know, that can't be an oversight to anybody watching this and as to why this could be another matchup for legitimately 10 years. 10 years of Western Conference Finals between the Thunder and the Spurs.
Touching on Wemby, obviously you mentioned him and we mentioned that game one that he had. Is this the beginning of his rise, you know, given the game one performance that we saw, are there any [snorts] doubts at all about the conversations about him all like I said, In go conversations might have been a little bit extreme, but there's real merit to these conversations happening where it's like if you deconstructed every single player that's ever played and started a fantasy draft right from there, is he the one? Is this a future top 10 NBA player that we're watching before our eyes come to his own. If he stays healthy and continues on this trajectory, it's hard to say no. Like again, he's he's in his third year. He's
22 years old and he's probably the best player alive right now. That's that transformation has happened over the last couple months. So, it's like try to think of a guy that ever touched it. Now, people could say, "Well, Derrick Rose was the youngest MVP." With all due respect to Derrick Rose, even when he won MVP, no one would have said he is unquestionably the best player or like a top two player on the planet right now. LeBron was still better at the time. Like they were Dwight Howard maybe. Wembanyama right now, if he's not the best, then he's maybe the second best to Shay, and I don't think you can even make that argument right now. But, he'll be the best by next year. And he's still
on his rookie scale contract, and you think about the way the Spurs have surrounded him. Like he's going to have a chance to stack individual awards and team trophies, like I said, over the next coming years. And when you start putting it together, you understand why, if you remember all those years back, Adrian Wojnarowski said someone had told him Yes. [snorts] or people were could talking about Wembanyama as arguably the greatest prospect in the history of team sports, and we're seeing why now. Yeah, it's uh oh, that's the best way to put it, and it's crazy to see someone live up to the hype. I think my parting words for everybody um when we're watching this series, when we're watching a Victor Wembanyama, I know
people like to get caught up in the moment, and they, you know, look back at things down the road. Take it from me right now, watching this series and watching Victor Wembanyama play basketball right now, those two things do not take either of this for granted. Understand that in 5 10 years, you'll look back at this series and be like, "Oh, that's that's the first series where we really got to witness this historic match-up, and when Victor Wembanyama was yet to be named MVP with what he's about to do, I don't think that can be like overstated. I truly think that's the truth. This is basketball nirvana right now watching this series. Like this match has been so good. It's lived up to the billing.
Wemby's lived up to the billing. SGA the bounce-back game. Like this is so good. Whatever happens the rest of the way, this series has already been unbelievable and I'm sure it will continue to be. And just one more thing and just like projecting forward to Yeah. I think this match-up is so fascinating. You've all In addition to the SGA versus Wemby, which is obviously like the star appeal, there's the Wemby versus Holmgren kind of thing where like Wembanyama seems to have this like just unbelievable disdain for Chet Holmgren. And I personally think it just goes back to the fact that when those guys were coming into the league, they were seen as like similar type players coming up as prospects. I think it was
like the 1A 1B thing where it's like Chet is Wemby-like. They're similar. And I genuinely think Wemby hates that. Like I think he is looking at it like Yeah, this guy might have a similar build to me, slightly shorter, but I His the style of game might be the same, but this guy can't hold a candle to me. And I think that is genuinely why Wembanyama hates him so much. So there's that, but there's also the fact that like when you consider all the Spurs guards, even De'Aaron Fox, who I think his contract's going to age horribly. Yeah. But the Spurs are young enough and have enough picks where like I they're the one team that can afford one bad veteran contract. Between Fox and Castle and Harper, when you think about like the rim pressure of their
guards, but the defensive ability of their guards in front of Wembanyama, I think they're the perfect team defensively to contain Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and all the things he does well as a three-level scorer. So there's also that. I think the Spurs, whether they beat the Thunder or not this year, I think they're emerging and they're going to continue to emerge as like SGA and the Thunder's kryptonite. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, that's perfectly put. It's the same way that the Warriors had LeBron's number for all those years. Yeah, it's it's incredible to get to watch in real time, take a step back, understand you know what you're seeing
right now between the Spurs and the Thunder um and yeah, we're going to continue to enjoy it as basketball fans as sports fans. Again, one of the best series that we're seeing in a very, very long time and we'll continue to see it down the road. So, enjoy it while you can. Let us know in the comments who you actually think is going to win this series aka the eventual NBA champions as we've said already. Um but yeah, we'll catch you in the next episode.
