Dave McMenamin on the Dan Patrick Show Full Interview | 6/7/24

[Music] [Applause] today's Mercedes-Benz interview of the day brought to you by mercedesbenz luxury SUVs now come with a luxury of choice learn more about the E-class SUVs at your local dealer or at mbusa.com specialoffers we'll settle on our poll question coming up more phone calls as well as we welcome in Dave McManaman the ESP an NBA reporter who joins us from Boston give me the proper reaction to last night's game I think you should be impressed with the Celtics and it was a reminder that despite not being battle tested through the first three rounds because they faced opponents that were missing their stars that they were the number one team throughout the regular season for a reason and if Dallas is going to be in this series is going to have to look like it did in the third quarter which was for defensive effort and Luca Don being otherworldly uh but they got to be able to extrapolate that over 48 minutes can they I think they can I don't think we're g to see every game being uh you know just a passing clinet from the Celtics on one end and them forwarding everything Dallas tries to do on the other as we saw for most of the first half and certainly in that 140 run that the Celtics responded with in the third after Dallas cut it to eight but I I I think there was a statement type of win for them uh in game one and I talked to some of the guys on the team leading up to game one and it was a really competent group uh you know I I I ran into Sam Cassell the night before game one out in the North End and he was saying like we're rested we're ready uh we don't necessarily have to have any guy be great to win this series whereas they kind of need Luca and Kyrie to be great to have a chance against us um it's a group that feels like this is their moment what did you make of Kyrie's performance or lack thereof last night I was surprised to see it quite frankly I mean obviously he was the storyline coming in because of his history with the Celtics and he was great in the Western Conference Finals but uh it was mostly ineffective uh even when he got into the paint they seemed to find ways to siphon him off and I was interested in his post game comments where you know he was kind of taking a 30,000 foot view in terms of well we're good to get this finals experience under our belt um for maybe showing his hand a little bit um where he thinks this could be you know kind of a tough learning series for his team that they may have to build on in in the future yeah I'm watching last night and I Marvel at Boston's offense I think it is I mean it's been historically great and then you throw in the defense you know they're not going to be beaten uh Dallas can win this series I don't want to overreact to it I have Boston winning this I just think that offense is really really difficult to try to stop and now you bring porzingis Off the Bench is he going to come off the bench is that his role going to be in the in the finals you know well Joe said there would be no minutes restriction on him obviously it worked um the rotations that he was getting against Dallas Personnel uh and so I would imagine at least for game two that would be the plan um but you know it quite frankly it didn't necessarily matter as great as porzingis was me 20 points eight for 13 shooting six rebounds three blocks he was just one part of the Cog now I will say his initial energy got the crowd to a tizzy it was a sight to behold like I think when we talk about the animals of NBA history and in the future we talk about a guy coming back from an injury uh and not skipping a beat this will be the example a that we point to of Chris Kristof string performance 38 days missing because that calf strain and um you know was as confident as any player on the court talking to to Dave McManaman the espnnba reporter I know you primarily cover the Lakers Danny Hurley is reportedly headed out to Los Angeles to meet with the front office here you know we're what 26 hours into this at least publicly into this what do you expect is going to happen when Danny Hurley gets to LA and meets with Jeanie bus and Rob pinka I think he's going to wow them and validate the reason why they've been so interested in him uh for I can say it's been longer than 26 hours but Adrien wowski has you know he has all the the details in in the reporting um he's he's a guy that is intense but also has uh you know a sense of humor and a relatability and but does he have to sell himself Dave to the Lakers or the Lakers selling the Lakers to Danny Hurley it's a great question Dan you're trying to pry a guy from maybe one of the most stable positions in a wildly unstable NCAA right now you know he can write his ticket as the mayor of stores Connecticut uh for years to come because of the back-to-back title so yeah the Lakers I think financially will have to come with a a real package um and also longevity wise come with a real package uh but Danny Hurley as W has reported is interested in the challenge of the NBA and you know as a tree of the um Hurley family coaching or excuse me branch of the Hurley family coaching tree um that has been such a vital part of of the game of basketball for 40 50 years now um they want to Branch out into the NBA uh it's not just for him but it's for Bobby and it's for his father as well and uh what better you know franchise other than maybe the team that's up one0 in in the finals than to coach the Lakers so you know the sense I get is Danny is already very intrigued here um and you know obviously the Lakers aren't here to waste time so uh I think it's kind of a mutual do we both have the the same feeling and when we sit in the same room does it still feel the same as when we dreamt it up uh over the last few days in our minds and I I think if that feeling's there um the Lakers are certainly as W has reported prepared to come with with a massive offer okay but what's he walking into here is this a desirable job I know it's the Lakers you get to coach LeBron but you're coaching LeBron at the end of his career you have to factor in the bronny situation ad's future there the role players there the West is stacked Danny Hurley is walking into what I mean you could look at it that way you could also look at it as a team that was number seven in the west that finished the second half of the season 12 games over 500 a team that played the defending Champion Denver Nuggets uh to a close battle in all five games in the first round and a team that is playing in in NBA uh that doesn't in all due respect to the Celtics but there's not like an unbeatable Juggernaut out there right now and so with buying from a roster and you know some assets that the team has in the cupboard in terms of those three first round trft piics that they could attach to some of the salaries they have right now to retool a bit I I think there's opportunity that he should be seeing and certainly I if what we've seen from LeBron James publicly on social media in terms of phrasing Dan Hurley's basketball Acumen if he's going to be there with Bayan I I don't think there's to me that sounds like a good basketball situation to step into not not a bad one I'll leave you with this the commissioner talked about expansion yesterday with his State of the Union Address to the media what cities do you believe are in play and what do you think the time frame is going to be for expansion I I believe this for a long time that the cities at the top of the list would be Seattle and Las Vegas Adam threw us for a loop just slightly uh bringing up the idea of international expansion mentioning Canada again obviously Vancouver once had a market before and the league has played exhibition games in Mexico City um obviously proximity wise you're not really thinking about International expansion to Europe um you know or Asia right now unless they were to open up an entirely different division uh but I you're talking about probably a year into the TV deal you know maybe the 26 27 season we could be looking at at a team and that certainly would give a new franchise well obviously there's already an arena in Las Vegas but it would give a a new franchise time enough uh to kind of build up all their infrastructure from the ground up uh thanks for joining us as always Dave we appreciate your time great to see you Dan that's Dave McManaman espnnba reporter once again Danny Hurley is uh reportedly in route to Los Angeles to meet with uh the front office there with the Lakers couple of phone calls in here