Are the Thunder in Trouble? Plus, a Look Back at the Brandon Miller-Scoot Henderson Debate.

The Zach Lowe Show

The Ringer

Basketball, Sports

4.8 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 17 February 2026

⏱️ 110 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Zach is joined by Rob Mahoney to answer the NBA’s biggest questions, including which teams are real title contenders and the coaches and players who are most intriguing. Then, J. Kyle Mann comes on to reopen the Brandon Miller-Scoot Henderson debate. (0:00) Welcome to The Zach Lowe Show! (2:13) Big Questions with Rob Mahoney (6:07) Are the Thunder more vulnerable now than earlier in the season? (12:44) There are only four teams who could seriously win the West (21:33) Is Detroit a real title contender? (28:29) The four teams who could realistically win the East (31:19) What to make of the Celtics? (36:59) Are the Knicks the most confusing team in the league? (46:31) Which team most wants to avoid the play-in? (52:36) Jamahl Mosley will be the most scrutinized coach (56:05) Who is the most intriguing player for the rest of the year? (1:01:25) Tanking still needs more reform (1:12:29) The NBA version of the papal conclave (1:14:39) J. Kyle Mann revisiting the Scoot Henderson-Brandon Miller draft debate (1:24:12) Brandon Miller is unquestionably the better asset right now (1:35:15) Scoot has been injured, but people are forgetting about him (1:43:45) What would a redraft look like? Host: Zach Lowe Guests: Rob Mahoney and J. Kyle Mann Producers: Mike Wargon, Jonathan Frias, and Billy Gil Social: Keith Fujimoto This episode is presented by State Farm®️. Dishing the assists you need off the court. State Farm®️ with the Assist. #ULTRAinstructor could get you closer to the action! https://michelobultra.com/instructor MICHELOB ULTRA®️ ULTRA Instructor. No Purchase Necessary. Open to US residents 21 plus. Begins on January 30, 2026 and ends on February 22, 2026. See Official Rules at https://michelobultra.com/rules for free entry, entry deadlines, prizes, and details. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Coming up on the Zach Lowe show, All-Star is over.
0:10.4	It was pretty good.
0:11.7	Not bad.
0:13.1	We talked about it with Bill the other day.
0:14.6	I'm not going to talk much about it anymore.
0:16.1	All-Stars, All-Stars fun.
0:17.1	I love All-Stars still, despite all the obvious flaws.
0:21.3	Second half of the season or last third of the season, a lot of big questions. Now we gear up. Yeah, tanking has been the topic to Jure. Got to talk about tanking. A lot of teams are tanking. There's going to be some bad games when the tankers play each other. It's a tank off of epic proportions. but now we gear up for playoff basketball, teams chasing the prize that we all
0:39.4	do this to talk about, the NBA championship. We're going to talk about big questions for the
0:44.8	rest of the season with the great Rob Mahoney. We're going to talk mostly about the best teams,
0:49.7	the championship race, the playoff race, for whom would missing the top six be the biggest disaster?
0:55.8	What coach is maybe on the hot seat? Is Oklahoma City more vulnerable than we might have
1:00.4	thought when they were 24 and 1? If so, who should they be afraid of? The Pistons, are they
1:05.5	ready for prime time? All the numbers suggest that indeed they are. All of that and more with Rob Mahoney. And then Jay Kyle Mann joins. Why? Because Brandon Miller, I think his contributions to the Hornets Rise have been going a little bit underappreciated. And his draft sort of, what is the word I'm looking for? I don't know. His draft counterpart, Scoot Henderson, Scoot's back. Did you guys
1:28.4	all forget about Scoot Henderson? Four games of Scoot? I think it's time to talk a little bit about
1:33.2	those two and that draft. And so Jay Kyle and I are going to do that. That's all coming up on the
1:38.0	Zach Lowe Show. This episode of the Zach Lowe Show is brought to you by State Farm.
1:44.9	Life's better when you've got the right help.
1:46.9	Think of that perfect pass that sets everything up, smooth, effortless, just what your team needed.
1:51.9	That's the kind of assist state farm offers.
1:54.7	Whether it's online or in person, State Farm's your teammate when you need help making your next play.
1:59.5	State Farm with the assist. Coverage options are
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Ringer, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Ringer and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.