Speaker 1: The Volume. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight here at
Speaker 1: the Volume. Happy Monday, everybody. I hope all if you
Speaker 1: guys are having a great week so far. We are
Speaker 1: live on AMP, so if you're watching on YouTube or
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Speaker 1: very first place that you guys can get these shows.
Speaker 1: Also coverage of the Eastern Conference Finals. Here. Hoops Tonight
Speaker 1: is brought to you by Chase Freedom Unlimited. How do
Speaker 1: you cash back? Well? The unbroken uh never before happened?
Speaker 1: Come back from three to zero series that we were
Speaker 1: all kind of expecting to a certain extent, tonight did
Speaker 1: not come to fruition as the Miami Heat punk the
Speaker 1: Boston Celtics on their home floor to advance to the
Speaker 1: NBA Finals. Got a bunch of stuff I want to
Speaker 1: dive into. I want to dive into the confidence dynamic
Speaker 1: that I think led to Miami's big night tonight, which
Speaker 1: I think is super interesting and is informative as we
Speaker 1: look forward into future seasons. I want to talk about
Speaker 1: the job that Eric Spolstra did to throw Boston off schematically.
Speaker 1: I want to look a little bit forward to the finals.
Speaker 1: We're not gonna do too deep of a dive because
Speaker 1: I will be doing a full finals preview tomorrow morning.
Speaker 1: And then at the end, we're gonna talk a little
Speaker 1: bit about the Boston Celtics and what went wrong for them,
Speaker 1: and if you're a Celtics fan, I have a much
Speaker 1: less gloom and doom type of approach to this situation.
Speaker 1: I actually am pretty optimistic about their future. So we'll
Speaker 1: talk a little bit about them as well. You guys
Speaker 1: know the job before we get started. Subscribe to the
Speaker 1: Volumes YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of
Speaker 1: our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason lt
Speaker 1: so you guys don't miss any show announcements. And last
Speaker 1: but not least, for whatever reason, you guys miss one
Speaker 1: of these videos and you can't get back over to
Speaker 1: YouTube to finish, don't forget. You can find them wherever
Speaker 1: you get your podcasts. Under Hoops tonight, So confidence in
Speaker 1: big games, you know, there's a there was almost like
Speaker 1: a we got nothing to lose type of dynamic taking
Speaker 1: place in the previous three games, right, like all of
Speaker 1: the damage so to speak, to the reputations of the
Speaker 1: players involved, to the reputation of the coach involved, and
Speaker 1: all of the negative Celtics sentiment was already there after
Speaker 1: Game three when you go down three to zero, right,
Speaker 1: so it's like, you know, Marcus Martin, Jalen Brown, like,
Speaker 1: don't let us win one? Okay, you got one? Okay,
Speaker 1: then you want a home game. And then even then
Speaker 1: in game six, it's still kind of enoughing to lose
Speaker 1: type of situation. The spread is closer, right, Like I think,
Speaker 1: I think at the tip off, Boston was only like
Speaker 1: a two and a half point favorite or a three
Speaker 1: point favorite. You end up barely winning that game. But
Speaker 1: in Game seven, suddenly that dynamic shifts. Suddenly you are
Speaker 1: the favorite. You're a eight point favorite. After Game five,
Speaker 1: Miami still favored to win the series at that point.
Speaker 1: It's a totally different dynamic going into this Game seven.
Speaker 1: And you guys all probably notice. And there's gonna be
Speaker 1: a lot of focus on the ankle injury for Jason Tatum,
Speaker 1: and I don't want to underplay it because it certainly
Speaker 1: had an impact on what happened to Boston tonight. But
Speaker 1: I think that even if Jason Tatum had not sprained
Speaker 1: his ankle, a relatively similar outcome would have taken place.
Speaker 1: Because regardless of what was going on with Jason Tatum,
Speaker 1: from the opening tip of this game, you could see
Speaker 1: a giant gap in how comfortable Miami felt under the
Speaker 1: weight of the moment compared to the way that Boston felt.
Speaker 1: And I think that that trickles down the roster. When
Speaker 1: Jimmy is playing as confidently as he was, even after
Speaker 1: a couple of bad games, he was carrying himself so
Speaker 1: confidently that everyone else on the roster seemed to feel
Speaker 1: that way. Kyle Lowry rising confidently into jump shots, you know,
Speaker 1: Caleb Martin rising confidently into jump shots. There are you know,
Speaker 1: even like difficult shots, like rescue possessions. There's a wild
Speaker 1: player at the beginning of the second half, I think
Speaker 1: where Max Strus on the left wing just takes and
Speaker 1: makes a smothered three, like twenty seven feet from the basket.
Speaker 1: But when he's rising into that shot, he's rising into
Speaker 1: it like, hey, we got nothing to lose, man, Like
Speaker 1: we're that they felt comfortable and confident in that setting.
Speaker 1: And I think it's informative from this standpoint of youth
Speaker 1: in basketball teams. And we're gonna talk a lot about
Speaker 1: Boston and how we look forward and there's gonna be
Speaker 1: a ton of conversations surrounding the Celtics in the coming
Speaker 1: days and like should we blow it up? And should
Speaker 1: Jaylen Brown get shipped off? And should we do this?
Speaker 1: And should we do that? And to me, it's like
Speaker 1: maybe the star that's in his thirties, that is the
Speaker 1: fully formed version of himself that has discovered how to
Speaker 1: impact winning on both ends of the floor over the
Speaker 1: course of a decade, is just better at this kind
Speaker 1: of thing than the other two stars who are, what
Speaker 1: a twenty four year old and a twenty six year
Speaker 1: old who have been in a lot of big games,
Speaker 1: but have glaring weaknesses like Jaylen Brown. For as good
Speaker 1: as he is, like he is an and I think
Speaker 1: a lot of people talk about him like he can't
Speaker 1: dribble at all whatsoever. I think that's overstated a little bit.
Speaker 1: He just really struggles with protecting the basketball. And then
Speaker 1: as he lost his confidence, he started to mess up
Speaker 1: even basic dribble moves, like he fumbled away just a
Speaker 1: basic crossover dribble in the fourth quarter of that game.
Speaker 1: But you know, he just really struggles to protect the basketball,
Speaker 1: and that puts you in an issue against the team
Speaker 1: like Miami that is extremely good at forcing turnovers. And
Speaker 1: I thought that was one of the many really smart
Speaker 1: game plan approaches from Eric Spolstra in this series was
Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler is your best defender. You could put him
Speaker 1: on Jason Tatum, you could put him on Jaylen Brown.
Speaker 1: He put him on Jaylen Brown with the sole purpose
Speaker 1: of shattering his confidence and j Brown. Jimmy Butler was
Speaker 1: consistently attacking the basketball every single time Jaylen Brown tried
Speaker 1: to put the ball on the floor to go around him,
Speaker 1: Jimmy's swiping at it from behind and knocking it away.
Speaker 1: And maybe Jimmy could do a better job on Jason Tatum,
Speaker 1: but he's able to complet lely and utterly shatter the
Speaker 1: confidence and ego of Jylen Brown and turn him into
Speaker 1: a shell of himself, which was kind of a better
Speaker 1: use of resources than just making things tougher on Jason Tatum,
Speaker 1: Who's gonna have a lot of success regardless. Right. That
Speaker 1: goes all the way down the mark the roster. Caleb
Speaker 1: Martin was unbelievable throughout this entire series. You see the
Speaker 1: difference between Eric Spolstra and identifying where Caleb Martin has
Speaker 1: success and kind of plugging him into those situations and
Speaker 1: giving him a defensive assignment that he can handle. Right.
Speaker 1: Spend a lot of time in this series on Jason
Speaker 1: Tatum kind of pressuring the basketball and getting up under
Speaker 1: underneath him. On offense, everything's on the move, a lot
Speaker 1: of close out attacking situations, a lot of stuff off
Speaker 1: of dribble handoffs, a lot of stuff in transition where
Speaker 1: his athleticism can come to the surface. And he was
Speaker 1: operating comfortably throughout and he played up to the absolute
Speaker 1: peak of his ability, while Jaylen Brown played to the
Speaker 1: absolute basement of his ability. That's the advantage of coaching
Speaker 1: and game plan and experience in a series. You know
Speaker 1: there's gonna be a version of Jaylen Brown when he's
Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler's age, where he's the guy that's super comfortable
Speaker 1: in every big game and has polished up all of
Speaker 1: his significant weaknesses and understands exactly how to attack in
Speaker 1: these types of settings. There are gonna be young guys
Speaker 1: who win in the NBA. Jannis won a championship at
Speaker 1: what twenty six years old, right, And like we saw
Speaker 1: Stephan Lebron do it at twenty seven years old. But
Speaker 1: there's just not a lot of examples of dudes that
Speaker 1: just thrive in huge basketball environments at twenty four years old.
Speaker 1: And you know we're gonna talk. We're gonna talk a
Speaker 1: little bit about I want to wait to talk about
Speaker 1: how Jason Tatum can get better at the in these
Speaker 1: particular settings later on, But as we talk about Miami,
Speaker 1: I do think that that's something to pay attention to. Here.
Speaker 1: Experience won this series. Jimmy Butler and him being the
Speaker 1: fully formed version of himself who knew how to consistently
Speaker 1: get to places where he felt comfortable, and eric'spo being
Speaker 1: in so many of these situations over the years that
Speaker 1: he knew all the right buttons to push, that was
Speaker 1: what ended up swinging this series. And like I said,
Speaker 1: with all the talk about Boston's talent, and you guys know,
Speaker 1: I'm the biggest proponent of Boston's talent, I think they've
Speaker 1: had the most talented roster in the league over the
Speaker 1: last two years. But as we said during that Golden
Speaker 1: State Warriors series, that's only one part of what makes
Speaker 1: a great basketball team. What makes a great basketball team
Speaker 1: is so many things that go beyond talent. And Boston
Speaker 1: leaves a lot to be desired in those areas. So
Speaker 1: as we're looking forward and projecting in the future, as
Speaker 1: we're talking about teams, I think experience going with the
Speaker 1: guys that are closer to the absolute, fully formed version
Speaker 1: of themselves, those are safer bets in these environments. And
Speaker 1: I don't think it's a coincidence that Jimmy was the
Speaker 1: best player in the Eastern Conference this year because he's
Speaker 1: just the fully formed version of himself and he ran
Speaker 1: into a Yiannis that has not figured out yet how
Speaker 1: to consistently score over the top of defenses. He ran
Speaker 1: into a Julius Randall that completely crumbled under that circumstance.
Speaker 1: Jalen Brunson availed himself valiantly, I want to say. And
Speaker 1: then that Boston series, you know, Jason Tatum never really
Speaker 1: grabbed controls of the offense to the ability that you
Speaker 1: would hope a player of his caliber can do. And
Speaker 1: Jaylen Brown was a complete shallow himself. And so it's
Speaker 1: just it's informative looking forward. I wanted to shout out
Speaker 1: Eric Spolsher because obviously with all of these series, as
Speaker 1: I've been talking about them, I keep saying at the beginning, like,
Speaker 1: I have too much respect for Eric Spolstra to not
Speaker 1: think that Miami has a chance to win these series.
Speaker 1: And I did think that two particular things. We talked
Speaker 1: about it earlier, but putting Jimmy Butler on Jaylen Brown
Speaker 1: and just utterly demolishing his confidence in all of their
Speaker 1: man demand situations, I think that played a big role.
Speaker 1: And then also the zone defense, and the zone defense
Speaker 1: didn't just give issues to Jaylen Brown, but it disrupted
Speaker 1: the entire team, the entire Boston Celtics team. You know,
Speaker 1: I talked about this a lot, but Boston to me,
Speaker 1: has a lot of guys that can shoot, but they
Speaker 1: don't have any real knockdown shooters. They don't have a
Speaker 1: guy that's like, oh my god, you cannot leave this
Speaker 1: dude open type of shooter. And the reason why that's
Speaker 1: important is like all of those guys that are basically
Speaker 1: league average to slightly above average shooters, all of those guys,
Speaker 1: they're gonna succumb more to that team wide rhythm type
Speaker 1: of stuff. Right when the entire team feels like they
Speaker 1: can't make a three, kind of like what we saw,
Speaker 1: especially in that first half, you're gonna see You're gonna
Speaker 1: see those types of shooters kind of fall into that mess,
Speaker 1: whereas like truly elite shooters, when they're missing, they know
Speaker 1: the makes are coming and they know that they're gonna
Speaker 1: keep confidently shooting because they know their results are eventually
Speaker 1: going to come. And what was great about what Spolsure
Speaker 1: was doing with that zone is it was really limiting
Speaker 1: Boston's ability to get dribble penetration, and so they were
Speaker 1: taking a lot of early clock contested threes or like
Speaker 1: just swinging the ball around the perimeter and taking a
Speaker 1: late clock three or turning it over as a Miami
Speaker 1: Heat player are in the passing lanes, and they're never
Speaker 1: going to break through when they're not getting higher quality
Speaker 1: shots because those are not elite shooters, and so they
Speaker 1: need to get really good catch and shoot looks to
Speaker 1: bust out of their slump. And so I thought that
Speaker 1: was really smart. And Spolstra's two three zone is very
Speaker 1: different than a lot of the zones you see around
Speaker 1: the league. It's very aggressive on the front, so the
Speaker 1: guards on the front part of the zone are picking
Speaker 1: up almost out at half court. The wings are coming
Speaker 1: out of the corners and trapping in a lot of
Speaker 1: cases and helping on ball screens and stuff, and BAM
Speaker 1: is super active, and Boston just never did a good
Speaker 1: enough job of getting the ball into the teeth of
Speaker 1: the zone, getting the ball to the high post where
Speaker 1: they could have a player there that can make reads.
Speaker 1: Part of that is they just didn't have a player
Speaker 1: that felt really comfortable operating down there, and then they
Speaker 1: never felt confident enough in their three point shooting and
Speaker 1: got in enough of a role there to make that work.
Speaker 1: And it's a lesson for Boston in general too. If
Speaker 1: you're going to be a super high volume three point
Speaker 1: shooting team, you better have some real makers on the team,
Speaker 1: like can't leave them open type of guys. If you're
Speaker 1: a team that has a bunch of average to slightly
Speaker 1: above average shooters, you need to be a team that
Speaker 1: only takes threes when they're you know, wide open drive
Speaker 1: and kick type of threes, or wide open threes in
Speaker 1: pick and roll situations where the guy dies on the screen. Right.
Speaker 1: So definitely thought Eric Spolstra pressed all the right buttons
Speaker 1: over the course of this series. I said at the
Speaker 1: beginning that their best chance to win was Eric Spolstra
Speaker 1: coaching or using a schematic approach that would force Boston
Speaker 1: into their ugliest offensive tendencies for longer stretches than usual.
Speaker 1: That was their best chance. In hell, you just got
Speaker 1: a four quarter masterpiece of ball pressure zone defense, forcing turnovers,
Speaker 1: making Boston feel uncomfortable, and just crumbling their confidence to
Speaker 1: the point where one of the league's best offenses looked
Speaker 1: completely inept against a team in Miami that was not
Speaker 1: an elite defensive team for the most part of this year.
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Speaker 1: a NGI dot com. Looking forward to the finals and
Speaker 1: again like I'm just gonna be you know, I'm a
Speaker 1: big believer in just being one hundred percent authentic on
Speaker 1: this show. I was. I hate that Boston Celtics team.
Speaker 1: I talk to you guys a lot about that. In
Speaker 1: Game six. They're arrogant, they play a brand of basketball
Speaker 1: that I don't particularly like. There's a lot of reasons
Speaker 1: why I don't like that team. In a vacuum, I
Speaker 1: would have been rooting for Miami, But I was rooting
Speaker 1: for Boston to win this series strictly because I do
Speaker 1: not think Miami is capable of beating Denver. Now, Miami fans,
Speaker 1: you should be thrilled about that, because I picked against
Speaker 1: them in all three series and they still won. So
Speaker 1: for you guys, if the reverse Jinks is real, then
Speaker 1: you're gonna be in good shape. But Denver is different
Speaker 1: than the other teams that they faced in that Eastern Conference.
Speaker 1: They present all of the same physical advantages that Boston
Speaker 1: presented in terms of interior size and perimeter size, but
Speaker 1: they do not have the weaknesses that Boston has. This
Speaker 1: is a much better offensive team that consistently gets quality
Speaker 1: shots rather than going through extended stretches of not doing so.
Speaker 1: This is a team that does not rely strictly on
Speaker 1: dribble penetration or just knocking down a bunch of ketch
Speaker 1: and shoot threes. No, this is a team that has
Speaker 1: a behemoth of an offensive engine in Nikola Jokic that
Speaker 1: will consistently generate high quality paint looks that are not
Speaker 1: you know, driving right at a rim protector, but are
Speaker 1: rather little pop shots and floaters in the lane that
Speaker 1: Jokic makes it seventy percent. Jamal Murray has the ability
Speaker 1: to operate out of the mid range at a much
Speaker 1: higher level than any of the players on that Boston
Speaker 1: Celtics roster. This is a team that is going to
Speaker 1: generate wide open ketch and shoot threes as a part
Speaker 1: of their offense, rather than Boston dribbling the ball at
Speaker 1: the floor and just jacking up a stupid ass shot
Speaker 1: like This team is much more more talented than anybody
Speaker 1: they faced in the Eastern Conference without any of the
Speaker 1: potential things that Spolstra and Jimmy can psychologically or schematically disrupt.
Speaker 1: Denver's a minus three hundred and sixty favorite to win
Speaker 1: the series. They're an eight and a half point favorite
Speaker 1: to win Game one. I haven't done my series preview yet,
Speaker 1: but I think I'm gonna pick Denver in five, for
Speaker 1: whatever that's worth, since I've been wrong in every single
Speaker 1: Miami series. But I was definitely rooting for Boston, even
Speaker 1: though I hate those guys, simply because of the fact
Speaker 1: that they would have presented a more like a talent
Speaker 1: dynamic with Denver that would have made it a more
Speaker 1: interesting series. This Denver team is really really good. I
Speaker 1: don't think people even realize how big they are with
Speaker 1: Nikola Jokic on the front line, but with Aaron Gordon
Speaker 1: being one of the bigger, stronger, most athletic wings in
Speaker 1: the league, and Michael Porter Junior, even with the injury
Speaker 1: history that he has, he's just tall and he has
Speaker 1: long arms, and he's done a really good job in
Speaker 1: this playoff run of helping the Nuggets and contested rebound
Speaker 1: situations and help defense with the length. He did a
Speaker 1: really nice job chasing over the top and applying back
Speaker 1: pressure on the Laker guards and getting block shots and
Speaker 1: things like that. They're huge on the front line. And
Speaker 1: then KCP is one of the best role player two
Speaker 1: guards in the league, and Jamal Murray has been playing
Speaker 1: at a bona fide superstar level for this entire postseason run.
Speaker 1: So like, this is an entirely different challenge. And again
Speaker 1: for you Heat fans, like I really like this Miami
Speaker 1: Heat team. I kind of like my core basketball personality
Speaker 1: is drawn to them and roots for them. But I
Speaker 1: just I'm worried that this NBA Finals series could get
Speaker 1: really ugly because this is just a whole other level
Speaker 1: than what Miami has dealt with in the Eastern Conference.
Speaker 1: We're gonna do a deep dive into the NBA Finals
Speaker 1: as a preview tomorrow, so keep an eye on the feeds.
Speaker 1: It should be up around noon Pacific Standard times, to
Speaker 1: keep an eye on the feeds Boston. So there were
Speaker 1: two things, in my opinion, that completely undid them in
Speaker 1: this series. First of all, the defensi event. And we
Speaker 1: talked a lot about this over the course of this series,
Speaker 1: because they did have some flashes of really high level
Speaker 1: defense in Game four and five and six. But you know,
Speaker 1: the biggest fundamental difference between this Celtics team and last
Speaker 1: year's Celtics team is last year's Celtics team. I left
Speaker 1: every game thinking, oh, my gosh, that's one of the
Speaker 1: best defensive teams I've ever seen. I literally said on
Speaker 1: my show last year that I think is the best
Speaker 1: defense in modern NBA history, especially in the half court.
Speaker 1: It was their transition defense that did them in last year.
Speaker 1: This year, they went from being a truly elite, generationally
Speaker 1: great defense to a pretty good defense. And when their
Speaker 1: offense is susceptible to the stretches of dysfunction that they
Speaker 1: are susceptible to, they don't have the margin for error
Speaker 1: to be a pretty good defensive team. They needed to
Speaker 1: be a great defensive team. Like Caleb Martin as great
Speaker 1: as he was in this series. Like, I'm watching that
Speaker 1: second half and I'm like, Okay, he just pump faked
Speaker 1: at Grant Williams, and Grant Williams left his feat and
Speaker 1: so he just sidestepped into a wide open three. Okay,
Speaker 1: He's dribbling along the baseline. Tatum's got him. Okay, Tatum
Speaker 1: calls for a switch. Marcus Smart is standing up out
Speaker 1: of a defensive stance and just lets Caleb Martin walk
Speaker 1: into a you know, pull up ten foot or on
Speaker 1: the baseline. Right at the third quarter buzzer, that's that's
Speaker 1: wide open look for an in rhythm shooter. Okay, now
Speaker 1: we're in the fourth quarter. Here's a transition possession. Caleb
Speaker 1: Martin's dribbling, here's the ball in his hands. He's got
Speaker 1: the ball in his hands on the right wing. No
Speaker 1: Celtic is guarding him, and he just walks into a
Speaker 1: wide open three at the top of the key. Like
Speaker 1: the Yeah, there's a reality to the fact that Miami
Speaker 1: shot really well and they got some timely contributions from
Speaker 1: players that aren't the same type of blue chip prospects
Speaker 1: that Boston has. But guess what, you also allowed them
Speaker 1: to get comfortable with a defensive identity that you had
Speaker 1: all season long, which was a clear level below which
Speaker 1: you were last year. And it's the latest example of
Speaker 1: listen to what the regular season teaches us as it
Speaker 1: pertains to the trends over the course of the regular season. Obviously,
Speaker 1: the regular season has a lot of fools gold in it.
Speaker 1: But what I always say is, watch defensive ratings. Why
Speaker 1: do we watch defensive ratings? We watched defensive ratings because
Speaker 1: they are the best indicator of the night in night
Speaker 1: out commitment to the defensive end of the floor. Like
Speaker 1: I said, it's not a big shock that the Lakers,
Speaker 1: as good as they were defensively after the deadline, that
Speaker 1: they were also good defensively during the playoff run. It's
Speaker 1: not a big shock that Boston, even though they were
Speaker 1: still one of the top ten defenses in the league.
Speaker 1: I think they finished what fourth or fifth or something
Speaker 1: like that, I can't remember exactly, but they were still
Speaker 1: top ten defense. But if you look at the defensive rating,
Speaker 1: it was eight points worse than it was last year.
Speaker 1: So is that not a significant indicator of the fact
Speaker 1: that they aren't as dialed in defensively as they were
Speaker 1: the previous year. So guess what when the Chips were
Speaker 1: down in a big Game seven, they were sloppy on
Speaker 1: their switches. They were sloppy in transition defense. They were
Speaker 1: sloppy locating shooters. Even in Game six when things were
Speaker 1: falling apart, they were sloppy handling those ghost screens with
Speaker 1: Duncan Robinson and Jimmy Butler and shooters all over the
Speaker 1: floor just in basic swing pass situations because guys aren't
Speaker 1: paying attention. They were not the same defensive team and
Speaker 1: that's why they weren't able to get to the same
Speaker 1: level as an NBA Finals team that was two wins
Speaker 1: away from the title as they did last year. Secondly,
Speaker 1: the lack of a spammable action. So I talked about
Speaker 1: this a lot in the court over the course of
Speaker 1: this series because it was part of how Boston got
Speaker 1: back into the series was Jason Tatum started to have
Speaker 1: some success with cleared side ISOs and attacking a little
Speaker 1: bit more from the mid range. But even then, it
Speaker 1: wasn't to the extent that it needs to be what
Speaker 1: does Jimmy Butler do at this phase of his career
Speaker 1: in his early thirties. I think he's actually in his
Speaker 1: mid thirties now, But you know, what does Jimmy Butler do.
Speaker 1: He's attacking with a live dribble until he gets the
Speaker 1: switch that he wants, and then Miami sends all their
Speaker 1: dudes over to the other end of the floor and
Speaker 1: he just works out of a live dribble ISO on
Speaker 1: the clear right side of the floor. That's what they do,
Speaker 1: and Miami in a big situation will just spam that.
Speaker 1: They'll just run it every time down the floor, and
Speaker 1: they know that they're going to get a pretty high
Speaker 1: quality shot in every single one of those situations, or
Speaker 1: at least a shot that Jimmy Butler's capable of making.
Speaker 1: Right with Boston, you know, you'd have a three four
Speaker 1: possession sequence like they did in that first half in
Speaker 1: Game six where Tatum's working. But then they get into
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter and then they just cease to do
Speaker 1: that for whatever reason. You know, Jason Tatum doesn't feel
Speaker 1: comfortable doing the same thing over and over and over
Speaker 1: again from a specific spot on the floor. And you know,
Speaker 1: as we look forward with Boston, there's gonna be a
Speaker 1: lot of talk about, oh, we need to get them
Speaker 1: a better guard. It's like, well, you got Malcolm Brogden
Speaker 1: last year, and yeah, obviously he got hurt in this series,
Speaker 1: but it didn't seem to solve that specific problem with
Speaker 1: their execution. You know, Derek White's another good guard. I mean,
Speaker 1: you don't have the resources to get a superstar point guard, right, So, like,
Speaker 1: at a certain point, the ceiling of the Celtics is
Speaker 1: directly tied to Jason Tatum's development. You know, at this point,
Speaker 1: he's one hundred percent a live dribble guy. He's a
Speaker 1: live dribble above the break, pick and roll iso try
Speaker 1: to create a pull up jump shot or get all
Speaker 1: the way to the rim for a layup. That's all
Speaker 1: he can do. And he's capable of going down to
Speaker 1: the post and making some plays there, but he needs
Speaker 1: to get to the point where he can ad like
Speaker 1: comfortably sit down on the left block against a smaller
Speaker 1: defender and go seven eight possessions in a row, just
Speaker 1: either drawn that second defender to get the defense into
Speaker 1: rotation or getting closer to the rim for a higher
Speaker 1: quality shot. That's the next step for him offensive versatility.
Speaker 1: He's turned himself into a very efficient offensive engine from
Speaker 1: the standpoint of spamming that high pick and roll stuff.
Speaker 1: But that is inherently one of the lower value plays
Speaker 1: in the NBA playoffs. Why long jump shots off the dribble,
Speaker 1: And I don't mean the short ones like Jimmy Butler's
Speaker 1: taking in the post. I mean long jump shots off
Speaker 1: the dribble in the NBA playoffs twenty four six footers.
Speaker 1: Those are extremely difficult to make when you are fatigued
Speaker 1: and you don't have the lift in your legs to
Speaker 1: get up into that shot, and when everything you're doing
Speaker 1: off the dribble is a or everything you're doing attacking
Speaker 1: to the basket is a live dribble from twenty six feet,
Speaker 1: there's so much time for help defense to come over.
Speaker 1: There's a repeated rotation that the defense can make to
Speaker 1: kind of to solve any compromising that takes place. It's
Speaker 1: too easy to guard. And that's why unless you're just
Speaker 1: the otherworldly best shooter, playmaker, ball handler in the league,
Speaker 1: like Steph Curry, you can't spam high pick and roll
Speaker 1: the way that Jason Tatum does in these settings, especially
Speaker 1: in these rock fight games. These bigger, stronger forwards, the
Speaker 1: ones that are really good, the Kawhi's, the Jimmy Butler's,
Speaker 1: the Lebron's. What do they do. They get a matchup
Speaker 1: they like and they take them close to the basket
Speaker 1: with their back to the basket so they can protect
Speaker 1: the basketball, and they go to short ten to twelve
Speaker 1: foot shots in the lane or in the short corner
Speaker 1: that they can make it an extremely high percentage. That's
Speaker 1: what Lebron did this entire playoff run. It's what Jimmy
Speaker 1: Butler did this entire playoff run. That's what the best
Speaker 1: big wings in the league do. And that's what Jason
Speaker 1: Tatum has to add over the course of the next
Speaker 1: few seasons. He needs to add a reliable back to
Speaker 1: the basket bully ball game because he's damn strong, and
Speaker 1: he's damn big, and he's an underrated playmaker and he's
Speaker 1: got great touch and if he polishes that stuff up,
Speaker 1: he's gonna start thriving in these types of games. We're like,
Speaker 1: as we look forward for Boston, that's their only hope,
Speaker 1: you know, with Jaylen Brown and look, they're in a
Speaker 1: tough position because with the way the CBA is structured.
Speaker 1: He's gonna make way too much money, you know. But
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, like yes, Jalen Brown
Speaker 1: completely crumbled in this series, completely lost confidence. His ball
Speaker 1: handling is a real problem. All of that is true,
Speaker 1: But he's a lot better than he looked. He was
Speaker 1: a hell of a lot better just last year in
Speaker 1: the playoff run when they were two wins away from
Speaker 1: the title. Jalen Brown is still a top fifteen to
Speaker 1: twenty player in this league, which means he deserves a
Speaker 1: max contract, and you certainly have no method to replace
Speaker 1: him with comparable players in the trade market. You're gonna
Speaker 1: get seventy five cents on the dollar if you do so, so,
Speaker 1: as unfortunate as it is, you have to resign him.
Speaker 1: That's the best path forward for Boston is pay everybody,
Speaker 1: go forward and hope that Jason Tatum over the coming
Speaker 1: years develops into that offensive engine that can thrive in
Speaker 1: these late playoff situations. It didn't really come back to
Speaker 1: bite them until the Golden State Warriors series last year.
Speaker 1: Bit them a little bit earlier this year, but that's
Speaker 1: the big problem, not ancillary ball handling, not aggregate ball handling,
Speaker 1: the top end ball handling. They need Jason Tatum to
Speaker 1: take that next step. We will talk a hell of
Speaker 1: a lot more about Boston over the course of this offseason.
Speaker 1: Like I said, We're gonna talk a lot about the
Speaker 1: NBA Finals over the course of the next few days.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be going our season preview tomorrow in the morning,
Speaker 1: Tomorrow afternoon doing an episode with live our resident Nuggets
Speaker 1: fan here at the Volume did a bunch of work
Speaker 1: with her last year, so you guys who have been
Speaker 1: following the show probably remember her. And then on Wednesday,
Speaker 1: we're gonna go with the Nerd Sash guys and do
Speaker 1: another deep dive into the finals. So we're gonna have
Speaker 1: a ton of stuff covering the NBA Finals over the
Speaker 1: course of the next two days, and then, like usually,
Speaker 1: be going live after Game one on Thursday. As always,
Speaker 1: I sincerely appreciate you guys supporting the show and I
Speaker 1: will see you tomorrow morning. The Volume