Transcript of What Should The Cleveland Cavaliers Do With James Harden? | Postgame Show New

That's right, it's Thursday Thunder and it's brought to you by DraftKings. DraftKings, the crown is yours.

Juju, what are we cooking with, man? I just got a big call right now, man. The biggest call I ever had in my life, and it says that Victor Wembanyama is upset with how the last game went. So we're going over 25 points for my boy. Victor tonight.

Get him.

What'd you say?

Get him. Okay.

Next leg, Jared McCain. He is unafraid to shoot. He's shooting more shots than SGA right now.

Loves to shoot.

The TikToker. My boy will get 12 points tonight.

A what?

Lock that in. Kim's leg. Elmer Fudd. Excuse me, pardon me. Alex Caruso for 8 big points tonight. You got to lock that in. Elmer Fudd. That's disgraceful.

For a professional athlete.

No. I'm talking about Elmer in Space Jam, though. That's a whole different guy. That's a C. Last leg, Keldo, the man, I go through your chest if your name is Chet Johnson. I think my boy will have 6 points tonight in an elimination game. Lock in those 4. Salute to DraftKings. We love ya.

Get 'em.

I urge all of you to check out what it is that Amin and Zach Harper do on everywhere, actually, but also on Sirius NBA Radio, because what they do is excellent. And Chris Haynes told you, Amin, this morning on Sirius NBA Show, quote, I haven't heard Boston linked to Giannis. I haven't. And I'm not talking from the Boston Celtics standpoint. I'm talking from Giannis's camp. I have not heard Boston yet. Windhorst said the same thing. But Simmons and Marc Stein are saying something different. What's happening there?

Yeah, I think there's a lot of different people talking in essence, right? There's Giannis's people, there's the Milwaukee Bucks's people, there's the Boston Celtics people, there's Jaylen Brown's people, right? All of these things are conspiring and we don't really have any clarity. You know, we've kind of leapt to the assumption that Jaylen Brown wants his own team. It may not be the case, right? But we want it to be the case because that in and, you know, infuses a level of energy to the conversation. So there's a lot of people who are interested in a lot of different things, but probably not yet there. And you got to remember, with the Milwaukee Bucks and with Giannis, we're talking about a process going back months now. So there are other suitors in other places, other destinations have kind of taken precedent. And maybe Boston is just a little too early, a little too soon, and hasn't really chimed in the way that would be a sales pitch to Giannis or to the Bucks.

I mean, is there any reason to believe that Milwaukee is going to care about where Giannis prefers to go?

I think so. Yeah. Well, okay, it's tough because on the one hand I would say yes, because he won them a championship. He's the best player in franchise history. And like, they gave him 13 great years. There's nothing much more you could ask for from a player. The other hand is, I don't know, man, you know, like the having the Haslams in there bring the sort of a wild card element to this. Bucks are already always going to be a weird situation because they have two owners basically, and they trade off as far as who's in control. But that doesn't mean that everyone's always unanimous. To me, I would imagine that they would send him where he wants to go, but I could see them being kind of a little bit sticklers, you know.

Yeah. Before I ask this question, I'd like to remind the audience to go listen to the Greg Cody Podcast featuring Greg Cody today. But I mean, am I tripping to think that, like, outside of your fandom, I really do think the Knicks, what they've put on paper, what they've shown us, how they're running through opponents, they do have a legitimate shot to win this championship. I'm not saying I agree with Reggie that he's— they should be favored. How do you feel about this, these Knicks' actual chance to win the championship this year?

So first of all, I'm not a fan of the Knicks. I, I stopped being a fan of the Knicks roughly 2000 and '04, which coincides with me going to work for the Knicks. Well, if you see some things, you're like, oh yeah, I could never be a fan of this. So I haven't had basketball fandom for a team in like over 20 years now. But they are a complete team. As I said in February, they defend, they have perimeter defenders, they have versatile defenders, they shoot threes, they have a clutch performer, uh, at the end of the game that they can give it to. They've got bigs, uh, who both defend inside and out. They've got a big who's one of the best shooters in the league. They have all the pieces. And by the way, they got a coach in Mike Brown who I think is severely underrated. Again, I'd remind everyone that you guys were all questioning this dude at the beginning of the year because he tried to install an offense that is exactly what they're running right now, right? Their decision to go away from a heavy pick-and-roll, heavy iso, give the ball to Jalen Brunson offense and make it more kind of a Golden State style with a lot more ball movement and body movement and KAT being the Draymond Green role of kind of making plays, except he can shoot and Draymond can't.

Like, all those things, that's Mike Brown, and he deserves a lot of credit. Having said that, dude, I— if it's the Thunder, I don't think there's a chance. I, I think, again, they are just so good and so deep. They're missing two guys right now, two starters, and AJ Mitchell and Jalen Williams. And anyone else in the league, that happens. Like, man, we got to go to our bench, we got to get, you know, some guy who's unproven or some guy who hasn't played in quite a while, or, or he's an older guy and he's probably past his prime. They're going to Kenrich Williams and Aaron Wiggins, two guys that were staples in a championship run last year. No one else can claim to do that, can dust off the mothballs and go get guys who played extensively in the playoffs last year and in the Finals toward the championship and just haven't played as much because they have so many people. So I would say Thunder, no. Spurs. I'll still keep going back. If they somehow miraculously beat the Thunder, I still go back to, man, the lack of experience is going to show its ass at some point.

I think it already has in this Thunder series. If they do win against the Thunder, it'll be a pretty remarkable, remarkable, miraculous comeback by them. Greg, you know about so deep, we'll put her ass to sleep. Damn right.

I mean, what do you think the Claveliers, also known as the Cavaliers, What do you think that they should wind up doing next year? Because all signs are pointing— don't laugh at me, all right?

I could feel your—

he just put you in the chair in the corner and that's how we're leaving the show today. Like, he has sliced you to death today and you are his mortal enemy. And objectively, you're better at this than he is, but you have taken it.

No evidence of that. Yeah, really?

No, I mean, he has a professional giant victory for Greg Cody. Well, but after you got off a rocket, like, you got off a rocket and then he couldn't pronounce Cavaliers.

Yeah. All right, back to the important stuff. It feels like the Cavaliers are, are going run it back. Kenny Atkinson's going to return. Harden, it looks like they're going to offer him a multi-year deal. What should they do?

Yeah, it's tough. Look, I've been a— I don't want to call it defender of Harden, but I think a lot of his past mistakes have been like overdramatized and taken out of context. He sucked. Like, there's no two ways about it. He was the best player in the Eastern Conference Finals, except he was the best player for the other team. I think he had more assists than the Knicks than Jalen Brunson did, and he's only getting older. So like, I don't think this thing gets better from here. And so he could— he has a player option, he can opt out. They've got an ability to extend him and give him 3 years. I, I just don't know. Their luxury tax situation is awful. They have the second highest payroll in the league next season on the books. And when you have that, it makes it very difficult to make changes. And for me, I, I just don't know. I think You've got to be a little bit more radical. Every other time they've lost, you say, well, they were injured, well, this or that. Like, they had the full squad, this, that, everything they want.

They had a big lead in Game 1, and instead of closing the deal, they got worse every game on. Like, they quit. They quit. I don't care what anyone says. Hey, you don't— can't say that about those guys. After Game 3, I remember turning to my, to my buddy and saying, they look like they've got a back-to-back in Portland tomorrow. And so they're just trying to get through this game. Your life is on the line, your career, your game, your legacy is on the line. And they were jogging up and down the court. And Game 4 was no better. So for me, if I'm Kobe Altman, who I think is a really great general manager, I think I look at some drastic changes. And whether that's, uh, maybe Evan Mobley's the guy that goes, maybe, uh, Donovan Mitchell's the guy that goes. If I'm not getting Harden back at a sweetheart deal, I don't know if I want him back. But I mean, they're not going to do any of those things. They've already said we're gonna run it back, everything's fine analytically. I don't know if you follow the analytics, we're up 2-1.

Game 5's tonight.

Yeah, Harden said we're the better team. I said not even on paper. That's the crazy part. Like, usually when that happens, it's like if the Thunder lose to the Spurs, first of all, we still think it's sour grapes or whatever to say that, but we'd like, okay, okay, I could see how you think you're still the better team. It was like, you're not even the better team on paper, dude. Remember, was like, how the hell do you guys get here, right? And then you proved to us, yeah, we should have been here. This is, this is way above our heads.

You're pretty reasonable though. I mean, when it comes to your analysis, and for you to be so strong on Atkinson was the best Knick— when the Knicks just—

they've got Harden.

I mean, I'm sorry. Yeah, Harden was the best Knick. Uh, when we're talking about, uh, this is not hyperbole to say they've played the best 11 games of basketball that have been played, correct? The last 11 games of Knicks basketball have been the best 11 games that a basketball team has ever played in professional basketball. Yes or no?

Uh, I, I would just verge on no because I, I haven't looked at the individual games around, but I remember like 2017, the Warriors sweeping everybody.

No, but they've scored more points against 3 playoff teams and won by more points than, and any team regular season or postseason has ever scored over 11 points over 11 games.

Like empirically, then I would, I would phrase it as statistically they've had the largest margin. I wouldn't say this is the best Levington game. I, I wouldn't say that, but I would say, yeah, you're right, if it's— it's the numbers say what the numbers say. You can't deny that. And I don't think it's a fluke. I think, again, I give a lot of credit to Mike Brown for making the adjustment that, again, he wanted to do at the start of the season, and it didn't work out immediately, and the players are kind of grumbling, well, under Tibbs, he did this, under Tibbs— and you know what, that's a sign of a great coach. It's like, hey, uh, whatever makes everyone comfortable and makes us successful. But knowing all along this is the card he had in his back pocket, that hey, when it, when it stalls— and it will stall because it is an entirely too predictable style of offense to be successful at a high level in the postseason— he says, I have this uno card. And he played it and it worked. And somehow some people still aren't giving him credit for it.

What are you laughing about, Greg? What's so funny? Well, this is what's happened the entirety that you were talking. He's checked out.

He had a great show and he's used Okay, let me explain to people.

I mean, I'm going to also let you look behind the curtain for a second. His son gave him 14 killer catchphrases to say at various points while you were talking.

Doesn't make it right.

14 of them they gave him, and he shook them off every time like a catcher with a pitcher that's throwing a no-hitter. He shook all of them off because he's like, I'm not saying anything the rest of the show. I crushed Zazz. I made him publicly a cuck. I'm not saying anything. Anything else I've won today. And his son eventually just threw his hands up in the air on the 12th one they gave him that would have been a killer.

Another crisis solved.

That's right. Your brain beating me.

Your brain beating me.

Wanted to say, where's my Nick-Nick? Ooh, that's pretty good.

Your what?

Hard K.