In a candid, back‑and‑forth interview, former NBA star Draymond Green and analyst Baron Davis break down the upcoming Game 7 of the NBA Finals between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Indiana Pacers. Green argues that the Thunder carry the bulk of the pressure after a dominant regular season and a recent loss that may have shaken their confidence, while the Pacers enter the decisive game with confidence and a “nothing to lose” mindset. The conversation shifts to the Thunder’s salary‑cap window, highlighting the looming contracts of Shai Gilgeous‑Alexander, Jalen Dub, and Chet Holmgren, and how losing the title could force costly roster tweaks and media scrutiny. Green draws parallels to past championship attempts by the Cavaliers, Celtics, and Warriors, noting how a single play can flip a series and how teams that miss a title often undergo disruptive changes. Both guests stress the importance of home‑court advantage, the upcoming league‑wide parity, and the strategic need for OKC to win now or face a tougher path in future seasons. The dialogue blends strategic analysis, financial considerations, and historical anecdotes to outline the high‑stakes scenario for both franchises.
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What do each team have to take away for their chance to win? Like, what is— what are the Pacers feeling now that they blew them out? What is OKC feeling like now that they got blown out and it looked like, oh, the Pacers may have figured them out?
You know, I think the Pacers, you going in confident like, yo, we know what we got. I think if you're OKC you may be shook, especially again, they've never been here. It's one thing if you've been there before, but if you OKC, you going, you a little shaken by it. And if I'm the Pacers, I'm coming out like, yo, I know they a little shaken by what just happened. We gotta come out fire, we gotta come out pounce. We need one of those Pascal Siakam 14-point first quarters. We need Halle to come out firing. Like, we gotta come out and pounce. If you the Pacers now and saying all of that, as much as that could be the case, game 7, all that other stuff go out the window.
And— Right.
It goes out the window from a standpoint of like, they beat us here, we beat them there. Y'all both tied at 3-3. The record go out the window. This is a 1-game series. What you could face though is, Game 7, guys get a little tight. I've seen it. You know what I'm saying? I played Houston. They saw them miss 27 threes in a row. They didn't miss 27 threes in a row. Like our defense was great and our game plan was working. Some of them threes was open, but they had tightened up. You know what I'm saying?
Yeah.
And we knew they was gonna tighten up and we, you know, we planned on them tighten up. We couldn't foresee them missing 27 threes in a row, but we knew that they was gonna tighten up. And so going into this game, I think all the pressure, I mean, this is game 7 of the NBA Finals. Everybody got pressure, everybody wanna win, but all the pressure in this game is on OKC.
You at home. Big time.
You've had the best record all year and it all comes down to one game. What can you do to win this one game? But y'all supposed to win the game. You see what I'm saying? Like Indiana not supposed to win.
They have to win that game.
Game 7 on the road against the team that won 68 games, was the number one team. They not supposed to win. But the problem with going to game 7 is the Cleveland Cavaliers was down 3-1 and not supposed to win facing a team that won 60, 73 games. It's a coin flip. All it takes is one Kyrie Irving shot to flip the game. One LeBron James chase-down block, which still haunt me to this day.
To change the whole shit.
To change the whole game. And so that's what OKC is up against. It's like, all it take is a couple plays to change this whole thing, but they are supposed to win. So pressure is all on them. And OKC, I mean, Indiana coming out with a free swing and they coming out playing loose. Like we ain't got nothing to lose. We were never supposed to be here in the first place. We ain't got nothing to lose. It's game 7. Let's go out swinging. And so I think this, like, I wanna see what OKC gonna do.
Yeah, that's a toss-up.
Because I'll tell you this, BD, if OKC don't win this championship, Sunday.
Mm-hmm.
They may never win a championship.
All right, so look, I was having a conversation and I won't say his name, but a good buddy, team exec, he was like, if OKC don't win this, they'll get one over the next 3 years. Do you believe that? At the rate the league is going. Like, it's a new champion, it's gonna be a new champion every year for the last, what, 5, 7 years?
I don't think so, and here's why. I think they get in a tough position if they don't win a championship. And because when you get the opportunity to win a championship, if you win it, you give yourself the opportunity to win more. But if you lose it, Now you start tweaking stuff to like, ah, we need to do this, we need to do that. And those tweaks could put you further away from where you were. And now let's talk the money. The money, Shai 'bout to sign for $80 a year. J Dub 'bout to get paid. He ain't gonna be on no rookie contract no more. Chet 'bout to get paid. He ain't gonna be on no rookie contract no more. So the way the CBA works, just off sheer numbers, you lose the likes of the Lou Dortz, you lose the likes of the, uh, uh, Alice Caruso's, you lose the likes of the Isaiah Hardensteins because right now you can have those guys making the money they make because you got two guys on, on, on rookie contracts. That's, yeah, two, one of, um, two of your top three players. It's the same thing that happened with us in Golden State. Wow. Steph signed for $11 million a year because he's coming off the ankle injuries, allows us to pay Andre Iguodala and Bogut and D. Lee. Meanwhile, me and Clay on rookie deals. On rookie deals. Clay making $3 million, I'm making $800,000. You know what I'm saying? So it's fine.
That's how you feel your team, man. And guess what? That's how you feel your team, man.
We won in that window, which then extended it. Because we won in that window. And so I think this is their chance.
And the tweaks were not major, they were minor to upgrade and sustain the run. I got it. OKC, I say the same thing. You have so much talent over there. And you're gonna run outta money, right? Because you have to pay, you know, top 3 dogs. How do you sus— like, and if they— obviously Shai is dominant. We see what J Dub is doing. You know, the other one was, okay, how dominant is Chet and how much of a unicorn is Chet gonna be to be that third person taking up the, you know, the third lion's share of that capital to make it hard to fill out the pieces that you need that are ultimate complimentary stars. I would say I call all these young dudes stars that round out your 10, right? So how do you, how do you, if you don't win, how do you move forward?
You start looking at—
Without tweaking.
You start looking at those pieces like, ah, wasn't quite good enough. Tax bills start to creep up. Oh man, we,— and went in, we got a tax bill. You know what I'm saying? And then you also, here's another part of it though, BD. You also then get the likes of the media questioning, can y'all three do it together? You get the likes of the media saying, "Shay need to get a ball to J-Dub more." You get the likes of the media like, "Mark Didenot was the coach that can get them there, but he ain't the coach to get them over the hump." Now you fighting all of that stuff. You know what I'm saying?
You gotta fight narratives.
Absolutely.
You gotta fight those narratives. And they've been a,— a great team, right? I know we talked about them earlier in the year about, man, we ain't never seen nothing like that. It kind of didn't feel right. But that's how they operate, right? They still doing the interviews together. They still doing the postgame. They are a unified team. So when you start tweaking that camaraderie and you start tweaking them pieces, some of those are emotional pieces, right? Some of those are needs. Superstars need certain people, and they look at certain people on the bench, right? Uh, like there's connective tissue that maybe a GM may not see, that thinks that a better player is an upgrade from someone that's probably equally as talented but is willing to sit, right? So that's a fact. It's do or die for— what you're saying is just do or die for OKC. Their best chances right now. Think about Boston, BD.
Boston had a chance to win a championship. It didn't work out. They got rid of Marcus Smart.
Yep.
Right? They kind of had to wave the white flag. Like, it ain't working. We gotta keep our two guys, but we ain't about to win a championship. And then what happens? Milwaukee trades for Dame Lillard, sends Jrue Holiday to Portland. If you remember, Boston ain't have a point guard going into the season. I mean, going, you know, in that offseason. And, but they trade Jrue Holiday to a place that he don't wanna be, that's just trying to get picks. And boom, they fall into Jrue Holiday and they rejuvenated them. They retweet and then they get Porzingis and they work out, right? And so, but they had kind of, they knew like, Oh, we ain't do it. That's it. And then they kind of lucked up into this situation and it's like, oh, now we can, you know what I'm saying? And so that's where OKC at. Like they gotta win it right now. If not—
They gotta win it right now.
It's way tougher to win next year.
Way tougher.
Because also check this out, B. That's what I'm saying. People are healthy.
Yes.
People are healthy.
It's a different story. It's a way different story. People are healthy. You know, everybody got a fresh start and you don't know Who been putting that work in that's gonna take somebody over the hump?
Let's take it a step further, bro. Check this. They won 68 games this year, right? They were the unbeatable team in the league, right? Teams gonna start building to beat y'all next year.
Yeah.
You know what I'm saying? So even if they don't win it, teams gonna be building to beat them because they were so dominant during the regular season.
Now what are you, yeah. So what are you chasing now? 'Cause you can't go into the regular season I used to say that about Milwaukee, man. People, when Milwaukee was always in first place beating the shit outta people, I was like, man, Milwaukee is not gonna win the title 'cause they don't, they're never in any close games. I said, in order for Milwaukee to win a championship, they gotta be in 4th, 5th place. So they struggle. They need to know what struggle look like. And then lo and behold, what are they, the 4th, 5th seed? They win the NBA Finals.— it's gonna be hard for OKC. 'Cause now what are you, what you ain't, what are you chasing, a record? Are you, now you fighting and fighting for first place 'cause you know I need home court advantage. I need home court advantage. So the whole season is gonna be different than it was this year.
Yep.
Because every team is going to get better. Every team is gonna get better for you and Other people want that number 1 spot. The Warriors want it. Memphis think they deserve it. Denver want it back. Now you got people like, they know the value of home court advantage. Houston, they gonna be back. Everybody gunning, everybody is gunning for home. The Lakers, you know, maybe.
Yeah.
Clippers. People know that this playoffs has proven that home court advantage is key and clutch. And in order to be a championship team, which both of the teams are, you gotta be able to win on the road, but you gotta be, that home gotta be, hey, we not losing at home. Mm-hmm.
