Oklahoma City puts Golden State on the brink of elimination after their 73-win season.  Why was the Thunder small lineup so effective, what is wrong with Stephen Curry and Draymond Green, and can the Warriors do anything differently to salvage the series.  We also look at the Dallas Mavericks' offseason (33:00). Will they bring back free agents Chandler Parsons and Dirk Nowitzki, and for how much?  How can they use their projected $38.8 million in cap space to lure a center and point guard, and whom should they target?

With host Nate Duncan (@NateDuncanNBA) and Danny Leroux of RealGM, The Athletic and the Sporting News    (@DannyLeroux). 

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Mark Cuban would consider running for vice president of the United States if he's asked by Hillary Clinton.

Cuban's hypothetical interest in being the country's next vice president comes a week after Cuban told The Washington Post that a group of conservative politicians had asked him to run as a third-party candidate in this year's presidential election.

"Absolutely," Cuban responded while adding that he would seek to alter some of Clinton's platform were he to become her running mate.

"If she's willing to listen, if she's willing to, you know, hear other sides of things, then I'm wide open to discussing it," Cuban said.

Mark Cuban received interest from some members of the Republican party to run for president as an independent to stop Donald Trump.

Cuban, like Trump, is a businessman turned reality television star.

“I don’t see it happening,” ­Cuban wrote in an email.

Cuban said he was told his “bluster and volume, combined with substance and the ability to connect with voters on a more personal basis,” could make him a winning candidate.

“He could come after me all he wanted, and he knows I would put him in his place,” Cuban said of Trump. “All that said, again, I don’t see it happening. There isn’t enough time.”

Dirk Nowitzki was asked about the recent struggles of the Dallas Mavericks in free agency and whether he's happy with the team.

Nowitzki will opt for free agency but is expected to re-sign on an even more cap friendly deal.

"Yeah, well, you know, I always said I wanted to compete," said Nowitzki. "Once we felt the championship, the excitement in the city, what happened here - it was incredible. As a competitor, you'd love to climb the mountain again, and have that feeling and excitement again. We just haven't been as close. We made a couple business decisions as a franchise as I always have said after the lockout and, you know, basically hoping that free agency will help us and cap space. But it just hasn't. It hasn't taken over the way we wanted to. It was a lesson learned probably the past few years that we maybe would have done different. But afterwards, you're always smarter.

"But listen, I see, obviously, reports on Twitter all the time, guys hitting me up 'I feel bad for Dirk.' Don't feel bad for me. I love what I do and we get paid a lot of money to do what we do. I love competing and I love the sport still. I've been lucky to do it for a long, long time. Came here, whatever, 18 years ago not knowing what to expect and it's been an incredible journey. I don't want anybody to feel sorry for me. I'm going to compete like I always have and then one day it'll be all over."

San Antonio and Oklahoma City go down to the wire again.  How can Oklahoma City improve their offense to tie the series? Cleveland dominates Atlanta late with a doomsday offensive lineup (28:30).  Blake Griffin undergoes a bone marrow procedure on his injured quad, Jeremy Lin to opt out, and reviewing the awards already handed out (39:30).

With host Nate Duncan (@NateDuncanNBA) and Danny Leroux of RealGM, The Athletic and the Sporting News (@DannyLeroux). 

Click to subscribe using any podcast player to the RSS Feed or via iTunes.

Deron Williams will decline his $5.6 million player option for next season with the Dallas Mavericks to test free agency but he has interest in re-signing.

“This has been a great year for me, as far as just being happy and enjoying playing basketball again,” Williams said last week during his exit interview. “You know, with all the guys on the team and the coaching staff, it’s been a great situation for myself. Aside from the injuries, everything was great this season.”

Williams signed with the Mavericks after a buyout ended his frustrating tenure with the Brooklyn Nets.

“I thought his year was extremely productive, you know, other than some of the health issues he had to work through,” Rick Carlisle said while speaking highly of Williams. “We most likely wouldn’t have won a game in the playoff series had he not played in Game 2 and come out and gotten 11 points in the first four minutes, or whatever it was. I mean, that was the only time we had a lead in the entire series, and his game in Utah was the one that got us in the playoffs. You know, he was a 20-plus point scorer that night, and it was his second game back from being out two weeks. So, I want to see him healthy. You know, when players get healthy, they’re happy, they compete better and they’re going to play better. But I thoroughly enjoyed working with him. He’s a pro and his family are terrific people. And of course, we’d like to see him back.”

Williams hasn't yet spent much time thinking about his free agency options.

“I haven’t even thought about it,” Williams said when asked about his potential free agency. “I just was worried about finishing the season on a strong note. Once I got hurt, the focus was just trying to get back and be able to play, so I haven’t even thought about it. That’s something I will discuss with my agent and my wife, and we’ll figure it out.

“I would love to be back. Like I said, this was a great year for me, and I’m definitely happy here. My family is settled and happy here, so it’d definitely be great to be back. It was good. You know, it was a great situation, and I definitely would love to be back.”

Dirk Nowitzki will opt out of his contract to become a free agent.

Nowitzki reiterates, however, he'll remain with the Dallas Mavericks.

Nowitzki has an option for the 16-17 season worth $8.69 million. Opting out will give the Mavericks for flexibility to pursue free agents this offseason.

"We had one more year on the contract, but I think this is the right thing to do," Nowitzki said on 1310 The Ticket in Dallas. "We're going to sit with Mark and Donnie obviously over the next few weeks and figure out how to improve this franchise again. Ever since after the championship, we've been basically a first-round exit. We've been a seven, eight seed. We've only won a few playoff games, and obviously the goal was to compete at the highest level in my last couple of years, so there is some moving to do, some thinking, some putting our heads together the next few weeks heading into free agency, heading into the draft. So this is just one move that hopefully starts a chain reaction for us to get better again, to compete really at a high level. We'll see how it goes."

The Dallas Mavericks have Dwight Howard at the top of their wish list heading into the offseason.

Howard is expected to opt out of his contract with the Houston Rockets.

Howard remains good friends with Chandler Parsons, who played a big role in recruiting DeAndre Jordan last offseason.