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Speaker 1: hoops tonight. You're at the volume. Happy Saturday. Everybody'll love you.
Speaker 1: Guys are having a great start. To your weekend. As promised,
Speaker 1: yesterday we did the Western Conference Finals kind of fallout
Speaker 1: mail bag. This episode is going to be all the
Speaker 1: mail bag questions centered around the NBA Finals, so everything
Speaker 1: having to do with Boston and Dallas against each other.
Speaker 1: And then tomorrow morning we'll have one final mail bag
Speaker 1: that's going over everything else that's around the league. Anything
Speaker 1: that any question that I received that didn't have anything
Speaker 1: to do with Dallas, Minnesota or Boston is going to
Speaker 1: be in tomorrow's show. You guys know the joke before
Speaker 1: we get started. Subscribe to our to the Hoops and
Speaker 1: I YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos.
Speaker 1: Follow me on Twitter at underscore JSNLTS. You guys o't
Speaker 1: show announcements, don't forget about our podcast feed wherever you
Speaker 1: get your podcast on our Hoops tonight, and then keep
Speaker 1: dropping mail bag questions in those YouTube comments so we
Speaker 1: can keep hitting them throughout the rest of the postseason.
Speaker 1: All right, let's talk so basketball. So question number one,
Speaker 1: why are you picking Boston in the finals. The MAVs
Speaker 1: are better at playmaking shot making. They have the best
Speaker 1: player in the series and the best duo call coaching.
Speaker 1: Bbe basketball IQ, athleticism, size and length, chemistry and fit
Speaker 1: a tie. Celtics are better defensively and have more talent
Speaker 1: across the roster, but Dallas has more depth. Are you
Speaker 1: expecting Boston to slow down don Jachenrving and their collective
Speaker 1: offense to match the MAVs superstar duo? How would that work?
Speaker 1: So I put this question at the beginning for a
Speaker 1: specific reason, because we're going to get to a bunch
Speaker 1: of specific topics in the finals today. But I haven't
Speaker 1: done all my prep yet. So a couple things I
Speaker 1: mentioned on the Cowhord podcast on Monday when he asked
Speaker 1: me where are you leaning? And I am leaning Boston
Speaker 1: before I go into my prep. But I haven't done
Speaker 1: all my prep yet, and so I'm taking the weekend
Speaker 1: off with my wife. I recorded this show on Friday,
Speaker 1: taking the weekend off with my wife, decompressing for a
Speaker 1: little bit. Monday morning, I'm hitting the film and we're
Speaker 1: gonna do an entire episode centered around Boston on Offense
Speaker 1: on Monday. We're gonna do an entire episode around Dallas
Speaker 1: on Offense on Tuesday, and then I have two interview
Speaker 1: style ones with the nerd sessh guys and Sam Vassini
Speaker 1: for next week. That is gonna run on Wednesday morning
Speaker 1: and Wednesday evening, flowing into the game one day, which
Speaker 1: is on Thursday. Right, So we're gonna have a lot
Speaker 1: of film in those two sessions. I'm going to give
Speaker 1: you my actual pick, but yeah, I'm leaning Boston going in,
Speaker 1: but I don't know what I'm gonna think after I
Speaker 1: go watch the film. It's very possible that I flip
Speaker 1: to Dallas. We'll see when we get to that point.
Speaker 1: I'm not actually making my official pick until we get
Speaker 1: into probably the Tuesday show next week. That also factors
Speaker 1: in for some of the way I'm answering these questions
Speaker 1: right now, Like I'm gonna reference some concepts that we're
Speaker 1: gonna get into in more detail when we get into
Speaker 1: the film next week. As far as all of the
Speaker 1: specific details that he mentioned, we'll get into them in
Speaker 1: some of this mail bag and some of them in
Speaker 1: the film sessions next week. But I just wanted to
Speaker 1: reference I haven't picked anybody yet. Yes, I'm leaning Boston,
Speaker 1: but we'll see how that kind of shapes out after
Speaker 1: we go into all of our prep. Next question, Hey, Jason,
Speaker 1: love the show. I've been learning a lot from you
Speaker 1: for over a year now. You're the best analyst I've
Speaker 1: found by far. Greetings from Brazil. Thank you for the
Speaker 1: kind words. Is porzingis the key for Boston to reduce
Speaker 1: Dallas's bigs impact by pulling them out of the paint,
Speaker 1: and we'll in giving Tatum and Brown clear lanes to
Speaker 1: the basket. I'm a Dallas fan and I'm worried about
Speaker 1: this dynamic. So what was the biggest lesson we learned
Speaker 1: from the Minnesota Dallas series. It was a perfect example
Speaker 1: of the fact that matchups dictate a lot when it
Speaker 1: comes to playoff series. This is a I had a
Speaker 1: big rant about this in the mail bag yesterday. As
Speaker 1: it pertains the Dallas fans. Dallas fans are the latest
Speaker 1: and a long line of fans Denver last year, the
Speaker 1: year before that, Golden State, Milwaukee, the Lakers, even where
Speaker 1: there's this feeling that, oh, we're winning now, that means
Speaker 1: we're invincible, and that were you know, this awesome team
Speaker 1: that no one's ever gonna stop. And there is not
Speaker 1: a team like that in the league right now. The
Speaker 1: last team that we had that was like that was
Speaker 1: the Golden State Warriors in twenty seventeen twenty eighteen, I
Speaker 1: think out of all of the teams that I've seen
Speaker 1: in this last kind of five year window, I think
Speaker 1: Denver is the most capable of sustaining success a year
Speaker 1: in and year out. They've got this perfectly constructed starting five,
Speaker 1: a really deep group of starters, and then obviously Nicole
Speaker 1: Jokich is with Luca right there at the top of
Speaker 1: the league, if not at the very top of the league. Right.
Speaker 1: But like, no one's invincible, and matchups do play a
Speaker 1: big role in who wins. And we just saw a
Speaker 1: Minnesota team beat my championship favorite going into the postseason, Denver,
Speaker 1: the same Denver team that beat Boston twice, that won
Speaker 1: the championship last year in convincing fashion, right, that team
Speaker 1: had a lot of problems with Minnesota. Right. And then
Speaker 1: that same Minnesota team walked into Dallas and it felt
Speaker 1: to me like, six halves into this, or excuse me,
Speaker 1: six quarters into the series, right around halfway through Game two,
Speaker 1: I'm like, Oh, they can't beat these guys because of
Speaker 1: the matchup, because of the perimeter athleticism, the interior defense piece. Right.
Speaker 1: And we had a YouTube comment during one of those
Speaker 1: shows where someone said, and I thought this was kind
Speaker 1: of profound at the time. He's like, this is a
Speaker 1: great example of how we can't look at playoff matchups
Speaker 1: through the lens of who the best team is in
Speaker 1: a vacuum. We have to look at it in individual
Speaker 1: matchups and how these basketball teams face up against each other. Right,
Speaker 1: Because I personally would have picked Denver to beat Dallas
Speaker 1: had they faced in the conference finals, but they didn't
Speaker 1: play each other because Minnesota was a bad matchup for Denver.
Speaker 1: They were able to dispatch of Denver. Now we have
Speaker 1: Dallas first Minnesota in the conference finals and Dallas wins.
Speaker 1: By the way, I think Dallas would have had a
Speaker 1: chance to beat Denver. I would have given them a
Speaker 1: good chance. I just would have leaned slightly towards Denver
Speaker 1: in that matchup. The point is matchups matter. So what's
Speaker 1: different about this matchup compared to the Minnesota matchup? Right now,
Speaker 1: there's in terms of defensive personnel, the Boston has more
Speaker 1: good perimeter defenders. In terms of like, I think they've
Speaker 1: four in their starting lineup that are all awesome, like
Speaker 1: Drew Holliday's awesome Jalen Brown's awesome, Tatum's awesome, Derek White
Speaker 1: is awesome. Right. Minnesota has really good perimeter defenders, especially
Speaker 1: in Anthony Edwards and Jade McDaniel's right, But like the
Speaker 1: other guys that they have that are good perimeter defenders
Speaker 1: come off the bench, they have some offensive limitations, right. So,
Speaker 1: like I think Boston's perimeter defensive personnel is at a
Speaker 1: similar level to Minnesota, if not a little deeper. Right.
Speaker 1: But the reality is is none of them are big
Speaker 1: enough really to hang with with Luca, except for Jason Tatum, Right,
Speaker 1: So that's an interesting matchup piece we're gonna look at.
Speaker 1: We're gonna go into a bunch of different matchup pieces
Speaker 1: over the course of this this mail bag, but I
Speaker 1: want to zero in on one specific matchup, and that's
Speaker 1: the Porzingis and Horford matchup. Right. So if we look
Speaker 1: at Minnesota, they are they played Rudy Gobert the majority
Speaker 1: of the minutes, so they had shooting big lineups, or
Speaker 1: they'd have a shooting big at the center. But this
Speaker 1: is gonna be very different in the in the sense
Speaker 1: that you're gonna face forty eight minutes of a sh
Speaker 1: shooting center the entire series, it's gonna be Porzingis for
Speaker 1: probably right around you know, twenty seven to twenty eight minutes,
Speaker 1: and it's gonna be Horford the remaining minutes. Right, So
Speaker 1: you're gonna face shooting bigs the entire series, and they
Speaker 1: are going to pick and pop. That's what they do.
Speaker 1: They are a pick and pop, keep the floor spaced
Speaker 1: type of team. And so if you run a deep
Speaker 1: drop coverage or even a high drop coverage like Dallas
Speaker 1: did for the most part against Minnesota, you're gonna leave
Speaker 1: some guys open. Schematically, we've talked to this through before.
Speaker 1: If in a drop coverage, the guard is chasing over
Speaker 1: the top, so the offensive player's going downhill, the guard's
Speaker 1: chasing over the top, trying to apply back pressure. Right,
Speaker 1: you're trying to funnel them into your screen defender that's waiting.
Speaker 1: He's either up at the level or he's a little
Speaker 1: bit further back, but he's waiting on the other side
Speaker 1: of that screen. What if the guy who sets the
Speaker 1: screen instead of rolling into that same vicinity, pops to
Speaker 1: the three point line. If he pops to the three
Speaker 1: point line, he's gonna be open. He's gonna be open
Speaker 1: unless you rotate from the weak side, which is gonna
Speaker 1: cause other problems on the weak side of your defense. Right,
Speaker 1: So that is a very unique piece in this series
Speaker 1: from a matchup standpoint, that's very different than what we
Speaker 1: saw from Minnesota. Again, Minnesota had shooting bigs, but they
Speaker 1: did not lean into that for large portions of the series. Right.
Speaker 1: This is where I think Maxi Kliba and him being
Speaker 1: back in the lineup is an interesting kind of matchup
Speaker 1: piece for Dallas. I think that we could end up
Speaker 1: seeing more of the Kleiba Lively duo than we see
Speaker 1: of the Lively Gafford duo in this series because Gafford,
Speaker 1: while he's an awesome while he's an awesome rim protector,
Speaker 1: and his rim protection was very valuable against Minnesota, Lively
Speaker 1: is better on the perimeter and Kleiba's better on the perimeter.
Speaker 1: And so I think what will end up happening a
Speaker 1: lot in this series is Dallas is gonna have to
Speaker 1: do some switching. They're gonna have to have lineups out
Speaker 1: there with Kleiba PJ. Washington or Lively PJ Washington, with
Speaker 1: Derek Jones Junior obviously Kyrie King guard on the perimeter
Speaker 1: as well, and they're gonna have to do more switching
Speaker 1: in those ball screens. My guess is that's not how
Speaker 1: it will start. They'll start in their drop and they'll
Speaker 1: leave Porzingis open to start the series, and basically they're
Speaker 1: gonna be like, let's see if he hits them. In
Speaker 1: my experience watching the NBA, every single team basically concedes
Speaker 1: the pick and pop three until it becomes a problem.
Speaker 1: Doesn't matter if it's Myles Turner, doesn't matter. If it
Speaker 1: was Anthony Davis back in twenty twenty when he could shoot,
Speaker 1: doesn't matter if it's Nicole Jokic. Nicole Jokic got left
Speaker 1: open on pick and pops in the Minnesota series, right, Like,
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter who it is. Most teams will favor
Speaker 1: the ball handler in a pick and pop and leave
Speaker 1: the popping big open until he starts making shots. Once
Speaker 1: he starts making shots, that's when you'll see kind of
Speaker 1: like what Boston did in the last round. Will they'll
Speaker 1: switch Tatum onto Myles Turner, Right, That's that's what I
Speaker 1: expect Dallas to do. I think they'll start in a
Speaker 1: drop coverage and concede shots to Porzingis, but eventually Porzingis
Speaker 1: if he starts hitting, and I mean like over forty percent.
Speaker 1: If Porzingi starts hitting, that's when they'll start switching. And
Speaker 1: that's when I think we'll see a lot more Lively,
Speaker 1: a lot more Kleiba because Kliba can guard on the perimeter.
Speaker 1: Lively can guard on the perimeter. And whoever, the primary
Speaker 1: round ball guy is Derek Jones Junior, they're gonna have
Speaker 1: him sprint back out to Christops Porzingis sprint back out
Speaker 1: to Al Horford. Now Porzingis presents another issue in the
Speaker 1: sense that he's a switch beater. He will take you
Speaker 1: down to the post and try to attack your guard
Speaker 1: in an isolation situation there. However, that is something that
Speaker 1: is easier to handle as a team than a wide
Speaker 1: open three. So, for instance, I Porzingis is hitting forty
Speaker 1: percent of his pick and pop threes. That comes out
Speaker 1: to one point two points per possession. So if you're
Speaker 1: giving up five of those a game, you can safely
Speaker 1: assume you're gonna you're gonna give up one point two
Speaker 1: points per possession for those five possessions. Right, what does
Speaker 1: that come out to like seven points or something like that? Right, So,
Speaker 1: like you that's that's what you can count on for
Speaker 1: those five possessions. But if he goes down to the post,
Speaker 1: it's more possible if you can offer backside help rotate
Speaker 1: out of it, maybe you can hold him below a
Speaker 1: point point of one point two points per possession. Right, So, like,
Speaker 1: those are the types of decisions that the staff has
Speaker 1: to make. What are we willing to concede? And again,
Speaker 1: I believe they'll start by conceding the pick and pop,
Speaker 1: But if Porzinga starts hitting half of them, that's when
Speaker 1: they'll probably start switching and try to make Porzingis beat
Speaker 1: post mismatches. Download. Now, we're going to get into more
Speaker 1: of the other matchup examples, both in this mail bag
Speaker 1: and when we get into the film session next week.
Speaker 1: But throw everything out. Everything you saw about Boston in
Speaker 1: the first three rounds, everything you saw about Dallas in
Speaker 1: the first three rounds, throw it all out. It's all
Speaker 1: about this matchup and how these guys line up. And yes,
Speaker 1: this is a fundamentally very different offensive attack from Boston
Speaker 1: than Minnesota, and it will challenge Dallas's defense in a
Speaker 1: different way, in the same way that Minnesota's defense was
Speaker 1: constructed to deal with Denver's interior size and passing, and
Speaker 1: they locked up Denver, but they had very little success
Speaker 1: slowing down Dallas. Dallas had a one to eighteen and
Speaker 1: change offensive rating against Minnesota because they were a bad
Speaker 1: matchup for Dallas's offense. Right, we have to throw all
Speaker 1: that out and zoom in on just this particular series.
Speaker 1: Better duo Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown or Luca and
Speaker 1: Kyrie Irving. This is a tough one to me, and
Speaker 1: I think it's very close to make it. On a
Speaker 1: very simple level, I believe Jalen Brown is a bit
Speaker 1: better than Kyrie Irving. Jalen Brown is a much better
Speaker 1: defensive player, but Kyrie is a good defensive player. I
Speaker 1: think Kyrie is a better offensive player, but Jalen Brown
Speaker 1: is a very good offensive player. Right, So I think
Speaker 1: Jalen Brown Jalen Brown. We'll see when we get into
Speaker 1: the player rankings, but I think Jalen Brown's right around
Speaker 1: the fifteenth best player in the world right now, and
Speaker 1: Kyrie Irving is somewhere in that like seventeen to twenty
Speaker 1: two type of range, right, probably a little high. I
Speaker 1: think Kyrie's gained some ground in my book, so like
Speaker 1: I would argue that, like we'll see when we get
Speaker 1: into the offseason, but I'd put Kyrie closer to the
Speaker 1: seventeen side of that. You know, he's having an amazing
Speaker 1: offensive postseason run. Don't look at the box score numbers either.
Speaker 1: It's about timely scoring. Like Kyrie has been passive in
Speaker 1: a a lot of games as Luca's run the show
Speaker 1: and then taken over late, that's obviously gonna manifest in
Speaker 1: lower box score numbers. It's kind of like Jaylen Brown
Speaker 1: he averaged what twenty three points a game this regular season,
Speaker 1: He's capable of averaging twenty seven to twenty eight on
Speaker 1: a good team if he's the number one option, right, So,
Speaker 1: like everything is in context of their team situations. But
Speaker 1: I do think Jaylen Brown's a little better than Kyrie Irving.
Speaker 1: But I think Luka Doncic is a little better than
Speaker 1: Jason Tatum. I think Luka Doncic is a bona fide
Speaker 1: top tier superstar. I think Tatum is like near the
Speaker 1: top of the next tier of players. And so from there,
Speaker 1: why I lean towards Luca and Kyrie as a duo
Speaker 1: is the fact that I think having the best player
Speaker 1: in the series is a real advantage. And I do
Speaker 1: think Luca is a better basketball player than Jason Tatum,
Speaker 1: and so I do think Dallas is a better duo.
Speaker 1: But that doesn't matter because the next three guys that
Speaker 1: you're gonna name are all gonna be Celtics. It's gonna
Speaker 1: be Derek White, Porzingis, and Andrew Holliday if you're ranking
Speaker 1: players in the series. And so I don't think it
Speaker 1: really matters much in this series. But I do think
Speaker 1: Luca and Kyrie are the better duo. I'd argue it's
Speaker 1: actual more important just to focus on Luca and Tatum.
Speaker 1: Luca being better than Tatum is a more point, is
Speaker 1: a bigger point of optimism for Dallas. What do you
Speaker 1: think the pressure points will be for both teams? Defensively,
Speaker 1: Let's start with Dallas on defense. The one of the
Speaker 1: biggest difference between Boston and Minnesota is Boston is equipped
Speaker 1: to attack you from every angle, whereas Minnesota has a
Speaker 1: bunch of play finishers on the floor. Right like Ant
Speaker 1: can run action, Cat can renaction. Conly can run action,
Speaker 1: but ideally you don't want to run a ton through him.
Speaker 1: But it's like Gobart is strictly a play finisher and
Speaker 1: a bad one at that, And Jaden McDaniels is mostly
Speaker 1: just a play finisher and he's not that great at it. Right,
Speaker 1: this Boston team everyone is both a play finisher and
Speaker 1: a offensive initiator in their own way, and so they
Speaker 1: can target entry points easier than Minnesota could. So like
Speaker 1: Minnesota had a hard time attacking Luca because even when
Speaker 1: Luca would get on a switch, they just load up
Speaker 1: behind him by ignoring Rudy Gobert and it would just
Speaker 1: be gaffered or lively waiting under the if Ant did
Speaker 1: manage to beat Luke off the dribble, which allowed Luca
Speaker 1: to press up on Ant and take away the pull
Speaker 1: up jumper. Right, this series is gonna be different in
Speaker 1: the sense that Luca's gonna have to guard one of
Speaker 1: those guys. We'll talk about the matchups later, but like
Speaker 1: it's it's very possible that he ends up on a
Speaker 1: Jlen Brown or on a Drew Holiday, and like you
Speaker 1: will see, Boston will just give the let's say he's
Speaker 1: on Drew Holiday, They'll just give the ball to Drew
Speaker 1: and they'll start running action and they'll start looking to attack,
Speaker 1: and like Let's say they bring Tatum into the action
Speaker 1: and Luca just switches and allows you know, Derrek Jones
Speaker 1: Junior or PJ. Washington to guard Drew Holliday. They're throwing
Speaker 1: the ball right to Tatum on Luca, and it's not
Speaker 1: gonna be Gafford or Lively parked in the paint on
Speaker 1: the back line. It's gonna be Porzinga's spacing to the
Speaker 1: le to the opposite wing, or to the opposite corner.
Speaker 1: And so, like I do think and by the way
Speaker 1: we saw this, like one of the things I thought
Speaker 1: was really interesting about the Pacers series. Boston was relentless
Speaker 1: attacking Halliburn. It was like every time down the floor,
Speaker 1: and so that I think is a big matchup difference
Speaker 1: in this series, especially from a fatigue standpoint. Luca got
Speaker 1: to do a lot of standing around against Minnesota on
Speaker 1: the defensive end of the floor. He obviously did his
Speaker 1: job in that position, but he didn't have to engage
Speaker 1: himself as much defensively. Boston is going to make Luca work.
Speaker 1: He's an entry point. Kyrie irving for all of his
Speaker 1: gifts as a size issue, so I think that teams
Speaker 1: will look to attack him. I say, teams Boston. I
Speaker 1: think Boston will look to attack him as well. But
Speaker 1: Luca and Kyrie being forced to guard the ball against
Speaker 1: Boston is going to be a very different type of
Speaker 1: dynamic than the last series. On the opposite end of
Speaker 1: the floor, I think that Luca is going to like
Speaker 1: they might put Tatum, Boston will inevitably at some point
Speaker 1: in the series put Tatum on the ballscreen big to
Speaker 1: try to shut down ball screen actions. But it's just
Speaker 1: gonna be the and I actually think we'll see less
Speaker 1: of that because they're not a pick and pop team.
Speaker 1: You might see that a little bit with Kliba, but
Speaker 1: I doubt we'll see too much of it because they're
Speaker 1: a pick and roll team more than a pick and
Speaker 1: pop team. Right But even if Tatum, even if they
Speaker 1: move guys around, Luca will find who never Porzingis is guarding,
Speaker 1: even if it ends up being Derek Jones Junior. If
Speaker 1: Boston puts Porzingis on Derek Jones Jr. Luca will bring
Speaker 1: him up into the ball screen and he will look
Speaker 1: to attack the exact same way that he attacks in
Speaker 1: these other ball screen actions. Specifically, one of the things
Speaker 1: I've noticed on film the size is an issue for Boston.
Speaker 1: Lucas too big for most of their guys, but I
Speaker 1: do think that they have a unique weapon in Jason
Speaker 1: Tatum to unleash on Luca that most teams in the
Speaker 1: league don't have, which is a really big, strong forward
Speaker 1: that it can actually match Luca's physicality. That said, Boston's
Speaker 1: entry points are gonna be Derek White and Drew Holliday.
Speaker 1: Boston does a lot of switching, especially on guard guard actions.
Speaker 1: My guess is Luca's gonna do a lot of dribbling
Speaker 1: them off the floor, calling for a guard guard screen
Speaker 1: to get either Derek White or Drew Holliday switched on
Speaker 1: to him, and then put them in jail, trap them
Speaker 1: on his backside, methodically work down the lane, try to
Speaker 1: bait the rim protector one way or another, and either
Speaker 1: shoot or pass out of there. So like again, I
Speaker 1: think the pressure points or entry points for both defenses
Speaker 1: will be For Dallas, it's gonna be Luca and Kyrie
Speaker 1: just getting attacked on the ball by Boston, and on
Speaker 1: the other end of the floor, it's gonna be the
Speaker 1: smaller perimeter players I think struggling to handle Luca's size
Speaker 1: and strength Hey, Jason, As you've spoken about on the show,
Speaker 1: one of the MAVs key attributes that has led to
Speaker 1: their Finals performances is rim protection. One thing we haven't
Speaker 1: talked much about, however, is their perimeter defense, which ranks
Speaker 1: among the bottom in the league this season. Although this
Speaker 1: wasn't a factor in the Minnesota series due to Minnesota
Speaker 1: not being a very good perimeter offense or jump shooting
Speaker 1: team in general, do you expect this to be a
Speaker 1: factor in how the Finals goes when considering Boston's elite
Speaker 1: perimeter players and Derek White, Jason Tatum, etc. Love the
Speaker 1: VIDs a couple things. First of all, I do think
Speaker 1: Dallas has a good perimeter defense. I think that they
Speaker 1: did demonstrate that over the tail end of the season,
Speaker 1: this Dallas team. Do you remember how all year long
Speaker 1: I kept talking about the mediocre teams, and that was
Speaker 1: like Dallas, the Lakers, the Bucks, you know, the Warriors,
Speaker 1: the like, all those teams that were like kind of
Speaker 1: beneath the top tier. I said consistently the same thing.
Speaker 1: They need like a fifteen to twenty game stretch sometime
Speaker 1: before the end of the season where they build the
Speaker 1: habits they need for the postseason. I kept referring to
Speaker 1: that constantly with all of those teams. Dallas did that.
Speaker 1: Dallas over the tail end of the season sharpened up
Speaker 1: their defense. That's what they did. It was like almost
Speaker 1: like a little mini training camp post trade deadline where
Speaker 1: they got all that shit together and they're carrying that
Speaker 1: into the postseason. I think Derek Jones Junior has been
Speaker 1: one of the best perimeter defenders in this postseason run. PJ.
Speaker 1: Washington has had his moments. He's better on pull up
Speaker 1: shooters than he is on drivers. Is a little bit
Speaker 1: slow foot laterally sometimes, but PJ. Washington can get defend
Speaker 1: on the perimeter. Josh Green can defend on the perimeter,
Speaker 1: and Kyrie Irving when he's locked in is an above
Speaker 1: average perimeter defender in my opinion. I thought he had
Speaker 1: some good reps on Anthony Edwards last night, so like,
Speaker 1: I actually think they're a good perimeter defense team. However,
Speaker 1: you're right about Boston's elite perimeter players in the sense
Speaker 1: that it stretches your perimeter defense. So if you use
Speaker 1: Derek Jones Junior. Let's say you use Derek Jones Junior
Speaker 1: on Jalen Brown or Derek White, let's just say I
Speaker 1: think I'll probably use him on Derek White. We'll see
Speaker 1: if they use Derek Jones Junior on Derek White, and
Speaker 1: they use PJ. Washington on Jason Tatum and they use
Speaker 1: Kyrie Irving on Jalen Brown, that means that Drew Holliday
Speaker 1: is gonna be guarded by Luka Doncic. And again, Jalen
Speaker 1: Brown's gonna have a massive size advantage against Kyrie, and
Speaker 1: we know how he likes to attack in the post,
Speaker 1: which may cause them to switch that and Kyrie will
Speaker 1: be on Derek White. But like, regardless of that those
Speaker 1: matchups work out, Boston just stretches your perimeter defense just
Speaker 1: because you need four good perimeter defenders to handle their
Speaker 1: perimeter threats. Even with Lively going down and coming back,
Speaker 1: do you think bringing in Maxi Kleiba into an obviously
Speaker 1: working Dallas starting rotation in the Celtics series could be
Speaker 1: a mistake as he's also a defense and rebounding liability
Speaker 1: in comparison in coming back from an injury. First of all,
Speaker 1: I think Maxic Cleeb was a good defender. I think
Speaker 1: he's proven that over the last three years or so.
Speaker 1: I think that he also because of his ability to
Speaker 1: switch on too perimeter players makes him uniquely valuable in
Speaker 1: a series like this against Boston. I think they have
Speaker 1: to play him. I think they have to play lot.
Speaker 1: I think is actually more likely that you see a
Speaker 1: guy like gafferd get his minutes cut in a series
Speaker 1: like this. Next question. Looking at this mav Celtics Finals,
Speaker 1: one interesting dynamic is the personal motivators of the Dallas Stars.
Speaker 1: Boston fans hate Kyrie and I'm sure he will be
Speaker 1: extra motivated to beat this opponent more than any other.
Speaker 1: Luca and Chrisops Porzingis didn't work out together, and I
Speaker 1: think Luca could go into this psychopath tendencies to try
Speaker 1: to torch him whenever he gets the chance. Do you
Speaker 1: take these dynamics into account when previewing a series? I look,
Speaker 1: Do I think Luca's indomitable personality and his ability to
Speaker 1: dominate a game as a factor. Yeah, but I don't
Speaker 1: think it has anything to do with Porzingis. Like Luca
Speaker 1: got mad at a fan last night. Like the competitors
Speaker 1: like him, they don't need motivation, They find motivation. It's
Speaker 1: not hard for them. At this point. You're playing in
Speaker 1: the NBA Finals with a chance to win the title,
Speaker 1: and both teams are legitimately very good. I don't think
Speaker 1: motivation plays a role at all in this series. I
Speaker 1: think everybody's motivated by the Larry O'Brien Trophy. Jason. Question
Speaker 1: for the mailbag, what's your take on the national media
Speaker 1: being seemingly overly critical and negative on Jason Tatum. He
Speaker 1: has always put up numbers and been the best player
Speaker 1: on the league's best team. Would appreciate your insight, love
Speaker 1: the work you do. So I've seen a lot of
Speaker 1: this from Boston fans, and I really don't think it's
Speaker 1: that complicated. I think there's a basic disconnect between where
Speaker 1: Boston fans view Jason Tatum and want him to be respected,
Speaker 1: and where most of the fans in the around the
Speaker 1: league view him. So, for instance, Jason Tatum's team success
Speaker 1: has been undeniably impressive. I mean, the guys this, He's
Speaker 1: about to make his second NBA Finals appearance. He's been
Speaker 1: to the conference finals a bunch of times. The dude's
Speaker 1: played over one hundred playoff games already. He's had a
Speaker 1: lot of big playoff moments. So there's like a lot
Speaker 1: that like Tatum's already putting together a pretty long resume
Speaker 1: of playoff success, right. But I don't think he's one
Speaker 1: of the top players in the league. I think that
Speaker 1: if you were ranking players, you're putting Jokic, you're putting Luca,
Speaker 1: you're putting Young honest, and there's there's like a gap
Speaker 1: before you get to the next tier. Now, when you
Speaker 1: get to that next tier, the guys like you know,
Speaker 1: Shag Gildas Alexander, the guys like Joel Embi, Jason Tatum.
Speaker 1: You could argue Tatum's at the top of that list,
Speaker 1: and we'll see how I end up ranking everybody when
Speaker 1: we get into the offseason. But I don't think Tatum
Speaker 1: is capable of doing what Luka Doncic did last night.
Speaker 1: I don't think Tatum can completely mentally and physically dominate
Speaker 1: an opponent and get them to lose their confidence. I
Speaker 1: don't think Tatum has the ability to reach the heights
Speaker 1: that the top players in the league can reach, Right,
Speaker 1: And so the problem there is that that's where the
Speaker 1: disconnect is. Boston fans desperately want Tatum to be regarded
Speaker 1: as one of those guys, and what they point to
Speaker 1: are his accomplishments but the rest of the fans in
Speaker 1: the league are like, he's not one of those guys,
Speaker 1: and we don't care about those accomplishments because one, the
Speaker 1: Eastern Conference is super damn weak and two in the
Speaker 1: time where the Boston like in the time since the
Speaker 1: Eastern Conference has gotten stronger, and I do think in
Speaker 1: the last few years the Eastern Conference is stronger at
Speaker 1: the top, But in that stretch, Tatum has also had
Speaker 1: by far the most talented roster in the conference. And
Speaker 1: so what that's done is it's minimized some of those accomplishments. Right,
Speaker 1: It's no different than the Lebron MJ thing. Lebron fans
Speaker 1: are like eight straight finals, eight straight finals, He's been
Speaker 1: to the finals ten times, and like, while that is
Speaker 1: an accomplishment that when you factor in the weakness of
Speaker 1: the Eastern Conference, is not going to sway an MJ supporter,
Speaker 1: a Michael Jordan fan is not going to look at
Speaker 1: Lebron's eight straight conference finals and be like, that's the differentiator.
Speaker 1: They want to see titles, and that's kind of because
Speaker 1: the title is undebatable, right, and even within the scope
Speaker 1: of titles, every title is weighed differently, Like Lebron's title
Speaker 1: in twenty sixteen with the Cavs is weigh differently than
Speaker 1: his title in twenty twenty, when he had the best
Speaker 1: team in the league all season long, when Anthony Davis
Speaker 1: was also playing at a top five level, and when
Speaker 1: they dominated everybody and did it look threatened at any
Speaker 1: single point over the course of four rounds of the playoffs.
Speaker 1: So guess what in the court of public opinion, the
Speaker 1: time that he came back from down three to one
Speaker 1: and had to achieve unbelievable level of play to steal
Speaker 1: a series against a seventy three win team is going
Speaker 1: to be weighed differently, right. That's the thing. Jason Tatum
Speaker 1: winning the Eastern Conference this year, winning sixty whatever games
Speaker 1: in that weak ass East against the terrible fucking opponents
Speaker 1: they played in their three playoff rounds is not going
Speaker 1: to sway the court of public opinion to raise Tatum
Speaker 1: up to the level with those guys. The only thing
Speaker 1: that is going to raise Tatum up to the level
Speaker 1: of what Luka and Jokic and Jannis are regarded at
Speaker 1: around the league is if he goes toe to toe
Speaker 1: with one of those guys and badly outplays them in
Speaker 1: a series. The last time he had a chance was
Speaker 1: the last year against Jimmy Butler, and he lost the
Speaker 1: year before against Steph Curry, and he lost in the
Speaker 1: same season against Giannis. It was like they were heavily
Speaker 1: favored going into that series because of the Chris Middleton
Speaker 1: injury and Yannis out, Like Tatum had big moments in
Speaker 1: that series, but Yannis dragged that series to seven games,
Speaker 1: and Jannis was the best player in that series, and
Speaker 1: so like that, that's the thing, is like what they want,
Speaker 1: what everyone outside of Boston wants to see is Tatum
Speaker 1: go into this Dallas series and just badly out play
Speaker 1: Luca and be the reason why his team wins the title.
Speaker 1: And by the way, if he does, I think he
Speaker 1: will get recognition from that group. But that's the disconnect there.
Speaker 1: Celtics fans are like, look at the resume, and everyone
Speaker 1: else is like, that conference is weak as hell, and
Speaker 1: ever since the conference got a little tougher. Now you
Speaker 1: have the most talent in the league. You have five
Speaker 1: thirty million dollars plus players. You have four of them
Speaker 1: actually on those contracts, and Derek White is worth Derek
Speaker 1: White's worth like thirty five million a year and will
Speaker 1: get that the next time he's a free agent. So like,
Speaker 1: that's just the reality of the way this stuff works.
Speaker 1: Go ask any Kevin Durant fan, They're going to be like,
Speaker 1: why isn't he regarded? Is this, this and this? And
Speaker 1: everyone says the same thing. Why would we put Kevin
Speaker 1: Durant on the level of Stephen Lebron when he won
Speaker 1: two titles? When he jumped on to that Golden State Warriors,
Speaker 1: seen that won seventy three seventy three games, and he's
Speaker 1: lost everywhere else, Like, obviously those aren't going to be
Speaker 1: regarded the same way. Like, it's just the reality of
Speaker 1: the court of public opinion. How do I feel about Tatum?
Speaker 1: I think he's somewhere in that, you know, fourth to
Speaker 1: seventh best player in the world. I think that he's
Speaker 1: perfect for that Celtics roster. I think his defensive versatility
Speaker 1: is one of the most underrated things that we hear
Speaker 1: about a superstar in the league. The dude is just
Speaker 1: a dominant defensive player that flies completely underneath the radar.
Speaker 1: He's a great, connective star, the perfect guy unselfishly to
Speaker 1: tie all of that talent together. He's perfect for that
Speaker 1: Celtics team. But he's not doing, especially not in terms
Speaker 1: of degree of difficulty, what Lucas had to do in
Speaker 1: the West, Jokic had to do last year in the West,
Speaker 1: what Yannis has had to do in years past as well.
Speaker 1: Jannis is playing like Giannis was doing one a title
Speaker 1: with Drew Holliday, with Chris Middleton, right Like it's it's
Speaker 1: just a different level of difficulty. It's a different level
Speaker 1: of challenge for those stars. It's regarded differently in the
Speaker 1: court of public opinion. And again, like I don't see
Speaker 1: that gap closing. Celtics fans are going to continue to
Speaker 1: want Tatum to get that regard and everyone else is
Speaker 1: not going to give it to him until he finally
Speaker 1: climbs the mountain top. And again like I'll be I
Speaker 1: just need to prepare you, Celtics fans. If Boston wins
Speaker 1: this series and Tatum averages you know, twenty six, ten
Speaker 1: and five, and he shoots forty two percent from the
Speaker 1: field and thirty two percent from three, it settles for
Speaker 1: a bunch of bad jump shots and impacts the game
Speaker 1: still and is a great defender and does all those things.
Speaker 1: But Jalen Brown plays awesome, and Drew Holliday plays awesome,
Speaker 1: and chrisops Porzingis plays awesome, and Derek White plays awesome,
Speaker 1: and Al Horford plays awesome, and Pritchard and Howser hit
Speaker 1: a bunch of threes and Dallas just looks overwhelmed by talent,
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden, Tatum's hoisting the Bill Russell
Speaker 1: Finals MVP Trophy. You guys need to be prepared for
Speaker 1: the rest of the league to be like, yeah, it
Speaker 1: kind of reminds me of when KD won in twenty
Speaker 1: seventeen or twenty eighteen, right, and KD was like actually
Speaker 1: considered one of the top guys, and like he didn't
Speaker 1: get credit. So like, again, that's just the way this
Speaker 1: all this, that's just the way this all works. But
Speaker 1: if Tatum goes into the series and he guards Luca
Speaker 1: and shuts him down and averages thirty and shoots forty
Speaker 1: eight percent from the field in thirty seven percent from
Speaker 1: three and is deeply and profoundly impactful and all these
Speaker 1: other facets of the game, and the series goes six
Speaker 1: and Tatum makes a bunch of big plays and then
Speaker 1: he's hoisting the Bill Russell Trophy. Everybody in that other
Speaker 1: camp is going to be like, damn, that might be
Speaker 1: the best player in the world, And don't be surprised
Speaker 1: if you actually see that group elevate Tatum to that level.
Speaker 1: But that's what they want to see. They want to
Speaker 1: see difficulty, They want to see rising against adversity. They
Speaker 1: want to see you going toe to toe with the
Speaker 1: best players in the world and beaten those dudes the
Speaker 1: same way that Luca did in the last round to
Speaker 1: get Aunt, the same way that he did in the
Speaker 1: previous round against Shake Gildas Alexander, and the same way
Speaker 1: he did in the round before that against Paul George
Speaker 1: and James Harden. That's what people want to see. That
Speaker 1: is what gets regarded in terms of the actual full
Speaker 1: blown NBA wide fan base. Local fan bases all have
Speaker 1: their different opinions about it, right, I'm a Lakers fan.
Speaker 1: Lakers fans are a lot higher on Anthony Davis than
Speaker 1: I am. Like that's kind of the way this stuff works, right,
Speaker 1: Like it is totally normal. Like Warriors fans still think
Speaker 1: Steph Curry is the best player in the world. Every
Speaker 1: Denver fan has been in my mentions and YouTube comments
Speaker 1: non stop complaining about how I have elevated Luca above
Speaker 1: Jokic because of what he's doing in this postseason run,
Speaker 1: because they're convinced their guy is still the best. This
Speaker 1: is totally normal, but if you're gonna win the court
Speaker 1: of public opinion, there has to be this undeniable evidence
Speaker 1: to win that battle. One last note on that front, though,
Speaker 1: like I do you feel bad for Celtics fans in
Speaker 1: the sense that I do think Tatum has become a
Speaker 1: bit underrated, in the sense that people I think don't
Speaker 1: pay enough attention to the good things he does do
Speaker 1: for that team. If Kyrie wins another ring, does he
Speaker 1: s pass guards like Dame Westbrook and Harden, not in
Speaker 1: a vacuum, but as a player who contributes to winning basketball.
Speaker 1: So when I look at like number two options who
Speaker 1: primarily focus on scoring the basketball, who helped lead their
Speaker 1: team to a championship, I think in recent NBA history,
Speaker 1: I think guys like Paul Pierce in two thousand and
Speaker 1: eight behind Kevin Garnett, who I thought was the best
Speaker 1: player on that team. Jamal Murray for the Denver Nuggets
Speaker 1: was a good example of that. Chris Middleton for the Bucks,
Speaker 1: like he was the one who hit basically the game
Speaker 1: winner in that NET series in Game seven when they
Speaker 1: went into overtime. Like, those are guys that kind of
Speaker 1: focused on shot making to complement their stars and they
Speaker 1: led their teams. Now if he helped help their teams
Speaker 1: win titles, Now if he does it twice, if Kyrie
Speaker 1: does it twice, the next kind of peer that I'd
Speaker 1: be looking at there for Kyrie is a guy like
Speaker 1: Tony Parker, where it's like, clearly not the best player
Speaker 1: on his team, but like a scoring ceiling Razer who
Speaker 1: works at the guard position and is probably closer to
Speaker 1: the top of the league than people realize. And by
Speaker 1: the way, before you think Tony Parker is an insult
Speaker 1: for Kyrie Irving, Tony Parker has made second Team All
Speaker 1: NBA three times, Kyrie's made it once. Tony Parker has
Speaker 1: a Finals MVP, so like, that's not an insult, that
Speaker 1: is a compliment. I think Kyrie Irving enters into that
Speaker 1: Tony Parker layer of like secondary scoring guard that just
Speaker 1: helps lift a championship team to that level. Respect for work. Jason,
Speaker 1: My question is do you see the Celtics mixing in
Speaker 1: different coverages to throw Luca off like a box and
Speaker 1: one or zones, or do you see them staying home
Speaker 1: and trying to make and making him try to beat
Speaker 1: single coverage and eliminating the other players. I think we'll
Speaker 1: see a bunch of different coverages. I think we'll see
Speaker 1: some blitzing, especially on Knights when Luca's got a going.
Speaker 1: I think we'll see a lot of drop coverage. And
Speaker 1: I think we'll see a lot of switching too. I
Speaker 1: think we'll see a lot of like trying to force
Speaker 1: Luca to score on an island. I think we're gonna
Speaker 1: see everything and again, when it comes to to these
Speaker 1: types of situations trying to slow down a superstar, it's
Speaker 1: all about that variety and mixing up coverages and trying
Speaker 1: to keep the offensive player off balance. Jason, are we
Speaker 1: underestimating the Boston defense a bit? I think Holliday is
Speaker 1: as strong as Dort will give Luca an issue. Derek
Speaker 1: White is going to absolutely swallow up each of Kyrie's shots.
Speaker 1: First of all, I do think we under a Boston's defense.
Speaker 1: I think that they've demonstrated, especially in clutch time this
Speaker 1: postseason run that when those four guys Brown, Tatum, White
Speaker 1: in Holiday, when they all really lock in on defense.
Speaker 1: I think that they can be frightening on the perimeter.
Speaker 1: Right that said, I do not think Drew Holliday is
Speaker 1: as big and strong as Lou Dort. I think that
Speaker 1: like Lou Dort brings like another level of physicality that
Speaker 1: Drew can't match. And just in terms of his size,
Speaker 1: I don't think he's going to give Luca as many
Speaker 1: issues as Lou Dort did. And Derek White is an
Speaker 1: awesome guard defender, but no one's swallowing up each of
Speaker 1: Kyrie's shots, Like, have some respect for your opponent here,
Speaker 1: Like Luca and Kyrie are really really good. That said,
Speaker 1: I do believe that Boston is capable of being a
Speaker 1: better defensive team than Dallas, and I think that we'll
Speaker 1: see some crazy defensive punches from Boston in this series.
Speaker 1: Hello Jason, I have a question about Dallas defending Boston
Speaker 1: with Porzingis Lively had some problems with him in the
Speaker 1: one time porzingis played in this matchup. I just feel
Speaker 1: like this is a potentially bad matchup for Dallas. How
Speaker 1: does Dallas try to counter it if it proves to
Speaker 1: be problem early in the series. If it proves to
Speaker 1: be a problem early in the series. Thanks love the
Speaker 1: show a couple of things. We talked a little bit
Speaker 1: more about that pick and pop piece earlier in the show,
Speaker 1: so I won't get into that again. I am excited
Speaker 1: to look at the film and see what you're referencing
Speaker 1: in terms of Porzingis and Lively's individual matchup. But like again,
Speaker 1: I think it comes down to them running drop until
Speaker 1: Porzingis starts making shots, and then switching if Porzingis starts hitting.
Speaker 1: At that point, Jason said, Luca is going to be
Speaker 1: the best player in the mav Celtics series. Is Kyrie
Speaker 1: the second best player? Is Kyrie the second best player
Speaker 1: in that series? No, Jayson Tatum is Again, like I think,
Speaker 1: I think we're I think the NBA fan base at
Speaker 1: large under rats Tatum a little bit. I think he's
Speaker 1: a lot closer to Luca's level than people think. What
Speaker 1: will it take for you to admit that Jason Tatum
Speaker 1: is a better player than Luka Doncic. I understand that
Speaker 1: Luca has better stats and is a better passer than Tatum,
Speaker 1: but Tatum is a much lower usage rate due to
Speaker 1: boston stacked roster. Tatum is bigger, faster, longer, stronger, and
Speaker 1: a better athlete and a much better defensive player, a
Speaker 1: better jump shot in my opinion, a very underrated passer,
Speaker 1: no holes in his game, et cetera. He also tends
Speaker 1: to outplay Luca whenever they play head to head, and
Speaker 1: Boston has won the last four meetings. If Jayson Tatum
Speaker 1: outplays Luca and Boston wins comfortably in five or six games,
Speaker 1: will you finally admit that you've had Tatum too low
Speaker 1: in your player rankings and that he's a better player
Speaker 1: than Luka Doncic. This male back question is a perfect
Speaker 1: example of what I was talking about earlier. That's how
Speaker 1: most Boston fans viewed Tatum, and so that's the disconnect.
Speaker 1: They view him as better than Luca and better than
Speaker 1: the guys at the top of the league, and outside
Speaker 1: of Boston people don't feel that way. They view him
Speaker 1: in the tier below that right, couple things, I do
Speaker 1: agree that Luca has the ability. I'm gonna take it
Speaker 1: to the front portion of this question. What will it
Speaker 1: take for you to admit that Jason Tatum is a
Speaker 1: better player than Luka Doncic guard him in the series.
Speaker 1: You're gonna need to guard him in the series. Lock
Speaker 1: him up and do everything you can to help your
Speaker 1: offense score on the other end of the floor, be
Speaker 1: the better two way player, and lift your team to
Speaker 1: win the title. It's literally that simple. But if he
Speaker 1: doesn't take the Luca assignment and Luca shreds them, but
Speaker 1: Boston just wins because they're more talented. Like that question
Speaker 1: that Boston's won the last four meetings, Boston's best team.
Speaker 1: Boston has the most talent in the league by far,
Speaker 1: so like they should win most of the time, they
Speaker 1: should win the title this year. They're minus two twenty
Speaker 1: favorite in the series. Tatum is not viewed as a
Speaker 1: minus two to twenty better player than Luka Doncic. That's
Speaker 1: the roster. The roster is what's dictating that. As far
Speaker 1: as the specifics, is Tatum bigger in terms of like
Speaker 1: overall physicality, It's closer than you think. I'd probably give
Speaker 1: the slight edge to Luca. Is Tatum faster, yes, Tatum longer, Yes,
Speaker 1: tatums stronger. Tatum's leaner, but like more like defined muscle.
Speaker 1: But Luca's a big, strong motherfucker, a better athlete. Definitely,
Speaker 1: Tatum much better defensive player. Definitely tatum better jump shot,
Speaker 1: Absolutely not. Tatum's jumper is very inconsistent. Lucas is more
Speaker 1: like Luca hasn't shot particularly well in this postseason run
Speaker 1: up until the last round, but from October to now,
Speaker 1: Luca's been a better shooter. Very underrated passer. You're right,
Speaker 1: Tatum is an underrated passer. I think he's one of
Speaker 1: the best passers of all the forwards in the league.
Speaker 1: Luca might be the best passer in the league. That's
Speaker 1: just it's a different level. No holes in his game.
Speaker 1: Totally disagree. I think Tatum in slow down half court
Speaker 1: environments can struggle. Sometimes. He's better at it than he
Speaker 1: used to be. He's better at it than a lot
Speaker 1: of people think he is, but he is not the
Speaker 1: same level of half court initiator as Luka Doncic. So again,
Speaker 1: in terms of it has to be Tatum badly out
Speaker 1: playing Luca and his team winning. It can't just be
Speaker 1: the team wins, but Tatum and Luca just kind of
Speaker 1: play each other to a draw at that point. I
Speaker 1: think Lucas just accomplished more in this playoff run in
Speaker 1: terms of degree of difficulty in what his team has
Speaker 1: needed him to do to win. But I'm not going
Speaker 1: to write that off like it's very possible that two
Speaker 1: weeks from now we're talking about Tatum is the best
Speaker 1: player in the world. I'm not saying he can't do it.
Speaker 1: I'm saying I just don't think he's going to do it.
Speaker 1: I think it's more I think the most likely scenario
Speaker 1: in this series is that Boston wins and Tatum looks
Speaker 1: more or less like he's looked through the other three
Speaker 1: rounds of the postseason, like just another really good player
Speaker 1: in the NBA. Do you think that Tatum has the
Speaker 1: ability to lock up or at least make life difficult
Speaker 1: for Luca to play well in this series. I personally
Speaker 1: think that he can and will sacrifice his offensive production
Speaker 1: to do so, leaving the rest of the Celtics to
Speaker 1: pick up the slack offensively. Do you think that Dallas
Speaker 1: has the personnel to guard the rest of the Celtics
Speaker 1: starters effectively. So this would be the worst case scenario
Speaker 1: for Tatum and whatever sort of public opinion sort of thing,
Speaker 1: because the public is so focused on box score numbers,
Speaker 1: But that is Boston's best pathway to victory. If Tatum
Speaker 1: goes into the series from this jump and says I
Speaker 1: am guarding Luka Doncic the entirety of the series. Everyone
Speaker 1: else I will spot up in the corner and run
Speaker 1: second side action whenever I have the legs for it.
Speaker 1: But you guys are on the offense, I'm gonna focus
Speaker 1: on Tatum. If Boston did that, I'd feel pretty strongly
Speaker 1: that Boston's gonna win this series. It's just unlikely to
Speaker 1: me that they do that. I hope. I think that
Speaker 1: if they find themselves in some trouble, like if Dallas
Speaker 1: is up to one in the series, I think we'll
Speaker 1: see a lot more Tatum on Luca, especially if they're
Speaker 1: struggling to guard him. But like that to me is
Speaker 1: like then it's not the super exciting way to win
Speaker 1: the series. But I think that that's an interesting direction
Speaker 1: that Boston could go. That would be really difficult for
Speaker 1: Dallas to deal with. Who needs this championship more. It's
Speaker 1: a tough one. Boston's bringing everybody back next year. I
Speaker 1: said this with Colin the other day, but the only
Speaker 1: thing that would really freak me out if I was
Speaker 1: Boston is if Tatum sucks. If Tatum goes into the
Speaker 1: series like he did in the Warriors series and plays
Speaker 1: abhorrently bad and Luca dominates the series and Dallas wins
Speaker 1: in six games. That's a catastrophe because now it's like,
Speaker 1: holy shit, Jason Tatum at age twenty six just cannot
Speaker 1: go toe to toe with the best guys. And it
Speaker 1: doesn't matter how talented of a roster we put around him,
Speaker 1: They're just not good enough. Like that would be a catastrophe,
Speaker 1: But any other outcome is great, Like if Tatum plays
Speaker 1: great and you lose, you're bringing everybody back next year
Speaker 1: and you'll probably and you have a much better chance
Speaker 1: to get it done with another year of experience for Tatum,
Speaker 1: right like, or if you win, right, Dallas has it's
Speaker 1: just if they lose, it's just bad, no matter how
Speaker 1: you slice it, because they've poured everything. The worst case
Speaker 1: scenario for Dallas is if you get killed. If Boston
Speaker 1: wins this series four games to one, that's rough because
Speaker 1: now you've invested so heavily in this roster, which does
Speaker 1: not have enough firepower to beat Boston, and that becomes
Speaker 1: an issue. Right, And then you also didn't have to
Speaker 1: play Denver in the Western Conference playoffs, which there's a
Speaker 1: decent chance you have to the following year, right, So,
Speaker 1: like it's kind of both teams will live to fight
Speaker 1: again regardless of what happens. I'm gonna say Dallas needs
Speaker 1: this championship more though, just simply because the West is
Speaker 1: much harder to get through, and because they've invested so
Speaker 1: much more in terms of draft capital into this particular
Speaker 1: season and they have less ability to pivot than Boston does.
Speaker 1: Boston has all these really good players, they can trade
Speaker 1: really good players, you know, like Dallas has a lot
Speaker 1: of play finishers that are valuable for them but maybe
Speaker 1: less valuable elsewhere around the league. All right, guys, that
Speaker 1: is all I have for this particular mail bag. We'll
Speaker 1: be back tomorrow with another mail bag on the rest
Speaker 1: of the league. I'll see you guys. Then the volume