It is the JR Sportbree show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. The NBA draft lottery the results are in.
What a crazy world. The Dallas Mavericks, yeah, conspiracy theorists rejoice, I guess. The Dallas Mavericks have the number one overall pick in this year's draft. Yeah, the NBA team that a lot of people looked upon as being a joke. The NBA team that got rid of a transcendent star, a guy who just took them to an NBA finals. The Dallas Mavericks send Luka Doncic out to Los Angeles, but they are able to import in and draft a Cooper flag next month. You cannot make this up. The Dallas Mavericks had a 2% chance here at ending up with the number one overall pick.
Hey, I guess you got to believe in miracles. Joining us right now to talk about the draft lottery, the Mavericks, this news with Giannis. There's a lot going on. Joining us right now is national basketball writer for the athletic.
It is Joe Vardin. Joe, how are you, man? I'm doing well. It's good to be back. How are you? All the time.
Always a pleasure to have a chat with you. I didn't expect the Mavs. I don't think anybody did.
But is this the biggest gift? What would you say to the conspiracy theorists out there? Well, I have never been in the room.
I haven't got a chance to do that, but I know enough people who have to say that that really this this isn't rigged or if it is, they do the best job to hide it. But yeah, I mean, you know, the whole thing with Luca went down in my hometown in Cleveland. And so I was around the Mavericks when it happened.
And then I was there in Dallas for Luca's return with the Lakers. And it was it's a shaken franchise. And I mean, you know, I'm not saying that the players are like shocked out of their normal routine or, you know, Jason Kidd or whatever, but just collectively there was like a cloud or a pall over them. Yeah. And you just wonder.
And then like to get this, I mean, such an immediate injection of new life and a new direction. And they still have, you know, they have some pretty good players too already. So, yeah, it's a I mean, you shake your head. I mean, how these things work out, you know, and then, you know, you think about Washington and Utah, the two worst teams in the league and they're drafting five and six. So I don't know if the lesson there is tanking is overrated. But but yeah, I mean, what an exciting night in Dallas.
Absolutely. You think about all the fans out there have to be breathing some type of sigh of relief. Joe Vardner is joining us from the athletic. We know about Anthony Davis and his injury history. We know Kyrie Irving with the knee injury.
What do we expect? I guess this might be best case scenario for Cooper flag. He gets to, I guess, handle the ball a little bit more in his rookie year.
Maybe. I just love I love this for for Dallas because they I mean, they sort of prioritize size. And so now you've got Cooper flag alongside Anthony Davis, lively. You know, PJ Washington, you know, on down the Gafford is there. You know, Klay Thompson's there. You know, Kyrie is going to be out a while for sure. So you don't know like how the offense is going to look.
But you just love the size right away. And you know that Cooper isn't going to really be exposed on the wing like some rookies can be just because of who he's going to be on the floor with. So, you know, I don't know if this is the best case scenario for him. Like, I'm not saying it's a bad case.
I'm just I don't know. I hadn't spent enough time really thinking about the Mavericks getting the flag. But I will say right away, like, I mean, I've seen a number of rookies hire, you know, pick rookies who get exposed for one reason or another because they're drafted onto bad teams. And the Mavericks are not a bad team. They're not a great team anymore.
Or at least they weren't. But they're not a bad team. Joe Vardin joining us from the athletic. There's no happier person, I guess, in the United States of America right now than Nico. Nico Harrison.
We'll see how this works out for Cooper flag. We already got a star. This guy's a future Hall of Famer.
Top 75 MVPs. This MVP is that we learned earlier today that Giannis Atteracumpo was open to leaving Milwaukee. When you heard that, of course, this was all a possibility, given how their season ended and the team's current construction. Where do you think the best place for him to go is and do you think you really end up leaving Milwaukee?
I mean, the second part first, I'm still just not sure. I think he is entirely comfortable in the city, in greater Milwaukee, entrenched in the community. Obviously, you know, unmatched or certainly like, I mean, no one has more power in their organization than he has in his. And he's, I think Giannis values like sort of loyalty and long standing relationships. So those would all be reasons to stay. But he has stated that he wants to win another title and the Bucks need to reset.
And so it's hard to imagine, you know, how to make those those things align. You know, my colleague, Eric name, who covers the Bucks for the athletic wrote something today just sort of laying out the Bucks make a pitch for him to stay. Just sort of explaining that that he can build his personal legacy this year, while they work to sort of let some contracts expire and reset some of their assets to be really good again in maybe a year or two. That might be appealing to him.
I'm not sure. But you know, to your point about like, where is is the best fit? I mean, you know, what, what if I mean, the Oklahoma, the Oklahoma City Thunder, I was gonna say, Well, what if what if the Thunder like fall short this year, and they just decide, you know, the heck with it, we're gonna trade our assets and go get him. They could they could do that, even if they win, they can pull they can, you know, or get to the finals, they could be a warriors and and wind up with a Durant level player after having been to two consecutive finals. So you know, I mean, you can see Janus and Shay, together, you could see, you know, what about Janus in Houston, you know, as a leader of that team, that already has like some really good young pieces. You know, there's there are four cap space teams and the team that you keep hearing about, because it is a big market is Brooklyn.
You know, I just it went so poorly. The last time that they did this as far as going after stars and putting them together and then what happened after that Janus is a totally different player than those three guys. But I just I'll believe that when I see it as far as who the next star is that goes there and how that it works. But yeah, you know, I mean, there's always like a team that might surprise you like to jump up there and get into it. But, you know, as far when you look at the landscape, I mean, if the Thunder decides that now's the time, whoa. Oh, my God, listen, it looks like we're in for a crazy offseason and we're still in season. We haven't even crowned a champion.
Joe Vardon is joining us from the athletic. We got one team that one game that just got underway between the Boston Celtics and the New York Knicks. The Knicks don't know how to play a game without going into a 20 point hole.
They weren't able to overcome that on Saturday. What do you think is going to happen here with the rest of the series of the Celtics now just going to bludgeon them out the door? You know, I mean, I said that at the top, at the beginning of the playoffs, I was doing something and like sort of prioritizing like what the best series will be.
And I had that one is the worst one. And of course, like at minimum, it's going to be a four to series at minimum. So, you know, I I'm still like not enamored with the Knicks at all, like in terms of like their ability to win the series. If you look at it, the Celtics have dominated, dominated what like there's been there's been three games.
So that's 12 quarters. And I think they've dominated like 10 of them. So, you know, I am in the boat that I expect that to continue. But if the Celtics clown around, you know, if they're turning it over, if they leave it in Jason Tatum's hands with the game getting tighter and he turns it over and Jalen Brown, same thing, you know, Jalen Brunson is is not someone you can mess around with. And he has proven that. So so the Celtics, I guess, like to turn it a little bit from your question, I would say the Celtics need to bludgeon them, because if not, the Knicks are going to have that confidence already off to a fast start.
Thirteen to four. The Celtics lead the New York game is just underway here in the first. This is going to as per plan as the past couple of games. I know you're based in Cleveland, Joe. We see that Donovan Mitchell is now dealing with that ankle and now they getting blown out. What is the ultimate feeling in Cleveland right now, given how great they were in the regular season and what looks like might be an end right now? Well, I you know, I can't I I've been around this team a lot since the All-Star break and I've been covering them in the playoffs. And I don't think I could tell you what the feeling is as far as like the bigger picture.
Their bigger picture is this. They are about to go into the second to the second apron, which is NBA language for basically handcuffed by by the salary, the salaries that they're already paying. And they're about to be a second apron team like to put it in a little bit, you know, maybe better English. They're about to have the third most expensive roster in the NBA when Evan Mobley's extensions kick in as defensive player of the year. The third highest payroll in a small market when you don't get out of the second round two years in a row.
That's that's bad. If Donovan can't play tomorrow night, which I think he will play, but if he doesn't play tomorrow night and they lose, then that's two years in a row that their season ends in the second round with Donovan and street clothes. And I I have just been blown away by how good Donovan has been this year and really all three of his years in Cleveland.
I think he is a superstar. So I'm not saying that was a mistake, but it's a problem for the franchise if he's not healthy when they need him most. Nate, they couldn't have managed him better this year. You know, they had I mean, you know, Darius Garland has just had repeated injuries.
And you also have to talk about effective. Can you be with two small guards? You know, Darius is listed at six one. He's closer to my height. I'm five. I'm five ten. And Donovan is listed at six three.
He's closer to six one. There's only a couple of teams in NBA history that have won that way. And the Cavs looked like they were going to be another one all year. You know that all of a sudden they get to this round and they've got three or four players that are unplayable in the series. And they won sixty four games with those guys.
So there's a lot going on. You know, when you when you have the same result with the same players two years in a row. You probably ask some harder questions of your roster.
And if there's a move that is palatable for you, maybe you move on from a guy, but they're not going to do it just to do it. And in the current NBA salary structure, you know, if you decide to go all in on a roster like they did, then you kind of have to live with it. So, you know, the answer is frustrating as this may be for Clevelanders. You might have to run it back with these guys and just hope that the lessons over the last two years are taken to heart. That's it. Joe Vartney here with us from the Athletic.
Joe, as we're up against the break, I want to ask you this question in finality. And we got the Oklahoma City Thunder. We see what they're doing with the Thunder right now. You want to talk about a team with a big old, you know, budget, a big old salary, a lot to pay out the Boston Celtics.
Who do you think is ultimately going to win? It's pretty wide open right now, I think. And I really think we need to just think about the Pacers for a minute. They they were 40 and 15 to close the regular season. They're a really tough matchup for the Cavs. They are a five out team. They have a competent bench and they have a bunch of different ways they can hurt you in a year where the Celtics appear vulnerable, where the Thunder are struggling with their experience issues, where the Nuggets fired their coach five days before the season was over. And then you've got the Timberwolves who struggle to score and the Warriors who are hurt and old. So this is a year for that where, you know, maybe a team like the Pacers could really surprise you. OK, well, listen, I'm here for all of this. I mean, we were surprised this evening with Cooper Flagg basically going to Dallas.
You can never expect these things. Hey, Joe, tell everybody where we can follow all of you and your work with the Athletic. Yeah, I mean, I have the social medias, it's just my name, but, you know, I'm really I'm just excited about the product, the athletic, the athletic dot com, and a lot of our stuff you can find on The New York Times homepage, which is really exciting. That's been a couple years now. So just go there. You know, I mean, read me, read all my colleagues and we just appreciate the support. Hey, that Joe Vard and it's the J.R. sport reshow, the Infinity Sports Network.
