Speaker 1: On this mini episode of the Heat Check, we have
Speaker 1: a special interview with Jared Greenberg, NBA TNT reporter, here
Speaker 1: to help us break down the second round of the playoffs.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, it was a good one. Let's not waste
Speaker 1: any more time, Anthony drop that motherfucking beat that should
Speaker 1: be Rihanna. All right, Jared Greenberg is here from GMG
Speaker 1: give us a perspective to the NBA play Jared enjoyed
Speaker 1: my other show, that m Jena Knight, where I was
Speaker 1: joined by michaelos Ryan horvat Beam Jam the Night. As
Speaker 1: I have said many times before, airs Monday through Friday,
Speaker 1: seven to eleven Eastern on the radio in most national
Speaker 1: markets and also live on YouTube and on Twitch. Great
Speaker 1: conversation with Jared. He actually gave us some time right
Speaker 1: after jumping off the plane into OKC before the OKC
Speaker 1: MAVs game, so he was live and on the ground.
Speaker 1: His perspective was very valuable. So let's get into it.
Speaker 2: We welcome out now Jared Greenberg, NBA on TNT reporter,
Speaker 2: NBA TV host and reporter as well. Jared, thanks so
Speaker 2: much for giving us some time. Busy time for you.
Speaker 2: I'm guessing obviously what do you think about this series?
Speaker 1: Man?
Speaker 2: I mean, I think once we got midway point of
Speaker 2: the regular season, a lot of people did expect the
Speaker 2: Knicks to be here, to be able to win a
Speaker 2: playoff series, maybe to be a threat even to Boston
Speaker 2: if we get to the Eastern Conference finals, Pacers a
Speaker 2: little bit of a surprise because Milwaukee was dealing with
Speaker 2: so many injuries. Your thoughts just initially on what we're
Speaker 2: going to see in this series and who you like?
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, I think that this is going to
Speaker 3: be I think it has a chance to be a
Speaker 3: competitive series, but I do see the Knicks winning this one,
Speaker 3: probably five maybe six games. I just think that the
Speaker 3: Knicks approach throughout the course of the regular season has
Speaker 3: led to them being where they are now, and I'm
Speaker 3: really happy to see it. It's really weird for me
Speaker 3: to talk glowingly about the Knicks the way I have
Speaker 3: over the last couple of weeks, because that's not usually
Speaker 3: in my nature, as most New York Knick fans will
Speaker 3: tell you. But I just think that they have taken
Speaker 3: this anti load management approach and that's the reason why
Speaker 3: they beat the Sixers, and ultimately, I think while they
Speaker 3: will probably have to go deeper into their bench against
Speaker 3: the Pacers just because of some matchups that will favor them.
Speaker 3: I think that they're more prepared for these moments than
Speaker 3: Indiana is.
Speaker 2: You know, it's funny because the knock on TIBs, especially
Speaker 2: when he was in Chicago's that he runs his players
Speaker 2: into the ground. Do you think any other head coach
Speaker 2: would have this Knicks team here in the second round
Speaker 2: playing like this this season?
Speaker 3: And listen, I do think he runs his players into
Speaker 3: the ground. And I do think long term, we may
Speaker 3: ultimately in five years or so, look back and say,
Speaker 3: guys like Josh Harden Jalen Brunson maybe don't have the longevity.
Speaker 3: Maybe that is the case. I'm not sure we certainly
Speaker 3: he saw it with plenty of guys over the course
Speaker 3: of his years in Chicago and briefly in Minnesota. But
Speaker 3: I just think for this team it makes sense, and
Speaker 3: I think oftentimes it's cliche. We use it in college
Speaker 3: a lot, like oh, these guys take on the approach
Speaker 3: or the charisma of their coach, and usually it's not true.
Speaker 3: This time that it really is true.
Speaker 1: Who do you think is going to be able to
Speaker 1: stop Jalen Brunson because he's the king of rejecting the screen.
Speaker 1: He's the king of his fast twitch muscles, getting him
Speaker 1: to spots that you don't even know he's at before
Speaker 1: he's already there. I think I saw that aaron Ne
Speaker 1: Smith has been getting cooked, Andrew Nemhart has some more success.
Speaker 1: But if you're the Pacers, obviously it starts at the
Speaker 1: head of the snake. What do you think Rick Carlisle does,
Speaker 1: who's obviously very familiar with Jalen Brunson as his form
Speaker 1: erer coach, to slow him down.
Speaker 3: And by the way, I think that's going to be
Speaker 3: a fantastic secondary subplot to this series is how much
Speaker 3: Jalen Brunson wants to take it out on Rick Carlisle,
Speaker 3: who didn't give him as much run. And maybe listen,
Speaker 3: I'm not here to say that Ricardli was wrong. I
Speaker 3: just think at that point of his career, Brunson wasn't
Speaker 3: ready for the type of role he has now. And
Speaker 3: I think too many times we don't realize how it
Speaker 3: takes years of development to get guys to where they are.
Speaker 3: Not everybody is Victor Webbinyama, but I think that they're
Speaker 3: going to probably try and go small with guys like
Speaker 3: TJ McConnell, which Brunson's a big dude, like he could
Speaker 3: be physical with you. So I'm not so sure McConnell
Speaker 3: will work. But maybe they go bigger, right, and maybe
Speaker 3: maybe they try and be more physical with them, and maybe,
Speaker 3: you know, we see some switching where Siakam gets them,
Speaker 3: and I'm not so sure that's going to be advantageous
Speaker 3: for Indiana either.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's interesting. I watched this Cavaliers magic game yesterday, Jared,
Speaker 1: and it looked like it was going to be night
Speaker 1: Night sleep mask for the Cavs. They come back after
Speaker 1: being down twenty, and the Donovan Mitchell saga continues. Do
Speaker 1: you think that you give Cleveland any chance against Boston
Speaker 1: to even get a game or two? And if so,
Speaker 1: how are they going to do it?
Speaker 3: No, I don't, And listen, as much as that sounds
Speaker 3: like that's a knock on Cleveland, I just think I'm
Speaker 3: all in on Boston. It is the Celtics Invitational right
Speaker 3: now in the Eastern Conference, and I think it behooves
Speaker 3: them to make easy work of Cleveland here in the
Speaker 3: second round, and I think they will in particular, you know,
Speaker 3: they Cleveland had a healthy Jared Allen this year, and
Speaker 3: I think what he did, particularly in the defensive side
Speaker 3: of the ball, got underappreciated. I was this close to
Speaker 3: putting Jared Allen on All Defense second team this year
Speaker 3: in the NBA. I stayed away from it just because
Speaker 3: I thought better of it. But him not being completely
Speaker 3: healthy is going to be an issue for Cleveland.
Speaker 1: So what do you think they do really quickly? Just
Speaker 1: to follow up, I wasn't gonna ask this, but now
Speaker 1: Evan Mobley Jared Allen, like, do you think they should
Speaker 1: stay together as a tandem because it feels like Evan
Speaker 1: Mobley's better without Jared Allen in some ways, in some
Speaker 1: ways actually worse.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean we've seen this throughout the course of
Speaker 3: the years. You know, we saw withus and Miles Turner.
Speaker 3: I remember several years ago we had the issue in
Speaker 3: Utah with having Derek Favors and Enis Canter. There's just
Speaker 3: some bigs that don't play well together on the same team.
Speaker 3: I think Cleveland is a team that could be patient
Speaker 3: and could be really competitive for a really long time
Speaker 3: to come, but I think ultimately they need to change
Speaker 3: some of their foundational pieces in order to raise their ceiling,
Speaker 3: and I think that's what we're going to see this summer.
Speaker 2: How worried should the Nuggets be, especially the way that
Speaker 2: Ant's playing right now. They have a one to zero
Speaker 2: series lead, They're six and a half point underdogs tonight.
Speaker 2: We're still waiting to see if Rudy Gobert is going
Speaker 2: to be able to show up to the game or not.
Speaker 2: But how worried should Nuggets be, especially with Jamal Murray
Speaker 2: kind of beat up right now?
Speaker 3: I wouldn't be. And this is one of those things.
Speaker 3: I was so impressed by what I saw from Minnesota
Speaker 3: the other night. I'm with everybody, I understand it. But
Speaker 3: if we learned anything from the playoffs over the last
Speaker 3: however many years we've all been watching basketball, it's not
Speaker 3: to overreact in one game, particularly when we're talking about
Speaker 3: the team that is head and shoulders the favorite in
Speaker 3: the Western Conference. Now, listen, if Denver loses tonight, particularly
Speaker 3: if Minnesota doesn't have Gobert, then we can have that conversation.
Speaker 3: But I would be stunned if Denver loses this game.
Speaker 3: I would be stunned if they win it by any
Speaker 3: less than double figures.
Speaker 1: Wow, that's a good point. It's been tough though to
Speaker 1: watch because you watch Jamal Murray, who is kind of
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter king, the two man game that he
Speaker 1: runs with Jokic, but Minnesota is making things super tough
Speaker 1: on him. How much do you think that that's his
Speaker 1: injury in that calf that he's been dealing with the
Speaker 1: last couple of months, And how much of that would
Speaker 1: you put on what Chris Finch and then boys are
Speaker 1: doing defensively?
Speaker 3: You know, I'm not sure. I only had the pleasure
Speaker 3: of doing one of Denver's games against LA and at
Speaker 3: that point he wasn't dealing with it as much. I
Speaker 3: would just say this, like, as good as Jamal Murray
Speaker 3: is at times, obviously he hit two iconic buzzure beats.
Speaker 3: Understand that, right, That's what we're drawing from. But what
Speaker 3: made Denver so dangerous this year compared to last year
Speaker 3: has their ability to get big time performances from guys
Speaker 3: like Michael Porter Junior and Aaron Gordon. This absolutely they
Speaker 3: could win games without Jamal Murray being a playoff superhero.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I want to get your feedback on this MAVs
Speaker 1: OKC series because Luca he also is dealing with an injury,
Speaker 1: he averaged twenty nine. Even though he was injured against
Speaker 1: the Clippers before the ankle injury, he got thirty five.
Speaker 1: Do you think that Okac lays it on the MAVs
Speaker 1: And how competitive do you think this series is?
Speaker 3: Well, that's where I am. I just got to Oklahoma
Speaker 3: City today. We're all awaiting all these tornadoes that can
Speaker 3: touch down here any minute, so I'm letting them still
Speaker 3: on the air with you guys, But you know, I
Speaker 3: haven't gotten a sense. I'm gonna go talk to the
Speaker 3: Mavericks tomorrow. I spoke to everybody at okay See camp
Speaker 3: today going to practice. I gotta say, like, I'm really
Speaker 3: torn on this series. I don't think we may have
Speaker 3: some lopsided games, but I think this series goes to
Speaker 3: distance and I think ultimately it's one of the more
Speaker 3: competitive series that we have all playoffs long. I can't
Speaker 3: pick a winner right now, and it feels like Luca
Speaker 3: has the ability to overcome anything at this point in
Speaker 3: his career.
Speaker 2: Do you think either of those teams is a better
Speaker 2: match up against Denver than the other just because the
Speaker 2: style of play, Like, do you think like if Dallas
Speaker 2: gets through they're a better match up against Denver. You know,
Speaker 2: okay SE's just so young, Like I've tried to make
Speaker 2: the case against them all year, but they're also really
Speaker 2: good defensively. Nobody talks about that.
Speaker 3: No, I agree with you in all the traits that
Speaker 3: you would poke holes in a young team that doesn't
Speaker 3: seem to fit Ryan with with Okac, like their maturity,
Speaker 3: their composure, their play in the clutch this past year
Speaker 3: has been unbelievable. I would say Dallas is a better
Speaker 3: matchup from the standpoint that they have more bodies to
Speaker 3: throw at Jokic. Now that took a bit of a
Speaker 3: hit with the fact that Maxi Claba is going to
Speaker 3: be out for at least this series. I would find
Speaker 3: it hard to believe that he's back for next series.
Speaker 3: But maybe in a miracle world he can be. But still,
Speaker 3: Dallas has an inordinate amount of bodies to throw at
Speaker 3: yokch and Aaron Gordon and Michael Porter Junior with a
Speaker 3: ton of length that would make life very very difficult,
Speaker 3: and in particular two without guys like Bruce Brown who
Speaker 3: they had last year to guard the perimeter, it would
Speaker 3: be tough. It will be tough for Denver to guard Murray,
Speaker 3: to guard Kyrie and Lucas.
Speaker 1: Pat Riley Jared decided, Yeah, he did his best. Tom
Speaker 1: Brady Rose. Everybody was getting thrown under the bus. It
Speaker 1: didn't matter if they were role players, star players, current players,
Speaker 1: former players, or Eric Spostra, who it felt like pat
Speaker 1: Riley said, needs to up his game, offensive scheme and
Speaker 1: defensive scheme. He said that there were only two or
Speaker 1: three players in the league that made sense for him
Speaker 1: to go all in on, or just anyone to go
Speaker 1: all in on. What the hell is happening? And what
Speaker 1: do we gather from his comments today?
Speaker 3: Listen, I have been at the front of the line
Speaker 3: criticizing this whole nonsense of Heat culture over the last
Speaker 3: couple of years now. Prior to that, I got it,
Speaker 3: but I loved every second of what pat Riley did today. Today,
Speaker 3: what he did was throw the gauntlet down and say
Speaker 3: enough is enough. We are getting back to the core
Speaker 3: of who the Miami Heat are, and to me, the
Speaker 3: biggest shots he threw obviously Tyler Hero, but also to
Speaker 3: Jimmy Butler, like the fact that Jimmy Butler chooses picks
Speaker 3: and chooses when he plays regular season games and for
Speaker 3: two straight years put the Heat in such a hole where, yes,
Speaker 3: they dug out of it and got to the NBA
Speaker 3: Finals last year, but the amount of work and effort
Speaker 3: they had to do to get there left them with
Speaker 3: nothing in the tank for the NBA Finals. If Jimmy
Speaker 3: Butler doesn't start to take the regular season more seriously
Speaker 3: and start to put the Heat in a more advantagious
Speaker 3: position going into the playoffs, I don't really understand how
Speaker 3: it benefits Heat culture to have a guy whose only
Speaker 3: playoff Jimmy when when he got there this year, who
Speaker 3: wasn't even available.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a good point, because sometimes I wonder, Jared,
Speaker 1: and I'd love to get your thoughts on this. Is
Speaker 1: it Jimmy picking and choosing, or is Jimmy's body no
Speaker 1: longer able to sustain the eighty two games and he's
Speaker 1: trying to figure out a way to get his rickety
Speaker 1: old body to get to the playoffs?
Speaker 3: Maybe? I mean this kind of brings the conversation full circle, right,
Speaker 3: Tim certainly did play him a whole bunch of minutes
Speaker 3: earlier in his career. I don't know, but it's not
Speaker 3: a good look when you show up to a tennis
Speaker 3: event one day and then you're not available to play
Speaker 3: the next day. Right, Like, there's just too many suspect things.
Speaker 3: And I'm not doubting whether Jimmy Butler is injured or not.
Speaker 3: I'm doubting his approach with the communication with the team
Speaker 3: and saying, listen, you got to take the you can't
Speaker 3: just take the second half of the NBA regular season
Speaker 3: and then the playoffs. Seriously, You've got to do some
Speaker 3: things as a leader to not put your team. If
Speaker 3: you say you care about your team, you can't put
Speaker 3: your teammates in position in a regular baby to have
Speaker 3: to pick up the slack for you because you're not available.
Speaker 2: Jared, we got about sixty seconds. I'm a big Jason
Speaker 2: Tatum fan, trist that usually gives me a hard time.
Speaker 1: Because don't showing up in the moments.
Speaker 2: Yeah, sometimes he doesn't show up in the clutch. How
Speaker 2: important like for his I hate to be like legacy guy,
Speaker 2: but how important is it for Boston to at least
Speaker 2: get back to the finals and for actually just for him,
Speaker 2: for Boston to win the finals this year?
Speaker 3: It's massive. And that's not to say it's the end
Speaker 3: all be all right. He's got a really long career
Speaker 3: ahead of him. I think we tend to forget because
Speaker 3: of how good he has been or how good the
Speaker 3: Celtics teams have been, that he is still very relatively
Speaker 3: young in his career. But as I mentioned, this is
Speaker 3: the Celtics Invitational in the Eastern Conference. They have to
Speaker 3: come out of the East. There is no excuse for
Speaker 3: them not to come out of the East unless like
Speaker 3: three of their guys are not available. I think that
Speaker 3: they absolutely have to get to the NBA Finals and
Speaker 3: they have to have a good showing. Maybe they don't
Speaker 3: have to win it, but they can't get run out
Speaker 3: of the gym in the NBA Finals.
Speaker 2: Jared, thanks so much for giving us some time man
Speaker 2: enjoy the game tonight.
Speaker 3: Guys.
Speaker 1: Thanks, that's all the time. When we after this mini
Speaker 1: episode of the Heat Check, come back Friday for an
Speaker 1: all new episode, and check out the feed for past
Speaker 1: episodes of many episodes like this one which drop unexpectedly
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