Speaker 1: For Texas Steel Holiday, Kadam Kass It down too Stool,
Speaker 1: yer Go Seal Wow, and the strength continuous.
Speaker 2: It is wild.
Speaker 3: Welcome into NBA poster production of iHeartRadio in the NBA.
Speaker 3: I'm Sarahustak, NBA analysts for the Yes Network, and today
Speaker 3: is Thursday, January eleventh. From our fantastic core group of
Speaker 3: NBA journalists. We're joined now by NBA dot Com senior
Speaker 3: writer Michael c Ryde.
Speaker 1: And Michael, we had a.
Speaker 3: Good one last night between the top team and the
Speaker 3: Eastern Conference, top team in the Western Conference. Boston Celtics
Speaker 3: end up outlasting the Timberwolves one twenty seven, one twenty
Speaker 3: in overtime. And we begin with this Celtics team that
Speaker 3: has been rolling. UH starting lineup has been just tremendously
Speaker 3: dominant about the course of the year. And it was
Speaker 3: another big night for the two Jays. Jason Tatum forty
Speaker 3: five points. I went six of eleven from the three
Speaker 3: point line, thirteen of fourteen from the free throw line.
Speaker 3: Jalen Brown perfect from the line. They were on the attack.
Speaker 3: He was thirteen to thirteen. He had thirty five points,
Speaker 3: eleven rebounds. He was four or seven from the three
Speaker 3: point line. This is obviously a high volume shooting Boston
Speaker 3: Celtics team. Jam Anthony Edwards with a big one, but
Speaker 3: we'll get to him, Karl Anthony Towns and the timber
Speaker 3: Wolves in just a second. But I want to talk
Speaker 3: about the Celtics how well they've been playing, in more
Speaker 3: specifically with Jason Tatum. In the conversation of the MVP
Speaker 3: Derek White making a case to be an All Star.
Speaker 3: Kristapsporzingis has been healthy and he has been such an
Speaker 3: important part of how this team functions. Where do you
Speaker 3: frame Tatum's place in the discussion and how it's impacted
Speaker 3: with just the overall performance of his teammates and in
Speaker 3: the combination of having that amount of support on the floor.
Speaker 2: Well, Sarah, let's first give the man props. Last night
Speaker 2: it was a gym. He had a great game, forty
Speaker 2: five points, fourteen points in the fourth quarter, and then
Speaker 2: he had twelve more in that overtime period. So he
Speaker 2: did what he needed to do when he needed to
Speaker 2: do it. So, you know, I think that's sort of
Speaker 2: the mark of an MVP type player. But as you mentioned,
Speaker 2: you look at his team, they are loaded. I mean,
Speaker 2: they are absolutely loaded, you've probably got the best. Like
Speaker 2: I would argue with anybody that Derek White and Drew
Speaker 2: Holliday are the best two defensive guards in the NBA.
Speaker 2: So you've got that. Those guys can get you steals,
Speaker 2: you can get out in transition and cook. Then you've
Speaker 2: got Christaph Porzingis. I mean, he's missed ten games this season,
Speaker 2: but for the most part, he's been pretty healthy and
Speaker 2: he's been a regular, consistent contributor. And you know, I
Speaker 2: was having this conversation with somebody the other day and
Speaker 2: we were talking about like two MVP candidates being on
Speaker 2: the same team, and their argument to me was, well,
Speaker 2: if you got two MVP candidates on the same team,
Speaker 2: then you don't have any And I was like, well, yeah,
Speaker 2: I guess you're right, you know what I mean, there
Speaker 2: is something to that, because you've got a guy like
Speaker 2: Jalen Brown that can I mean, he's had thirty points
Speaker 2: in his last four games. So when you've got that
Speaker 2: kind of support, I mean, it does make it really hard.
Speaker 2: And I think that's why I've got him a little lower.
Speaker 2: He's kind of like on that second tier of MVP candidates.
Speaker 2: You know, if he didn't have the support and he
Speaker 2: had to do more, I think he'd probably be up
Speaker 2: there in the top five. But that's just what it
Speaker 2: is right now with him. And you know, I mean
Speaker 2: great team eighteen to know at home. I mean, you
Speaker 2: can't there's nothing bad you can say about the Boston
Speaker 2: Celtics at this point. I think they are the best
Speaker 2: team in the NBA right now.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I agree with you. And that's when you
Speaker 3: say nothing bad to say. That's that's the tough part
Speaker 3: of looking. Okay, what what are their potential weaknesses? I
Speaker 3: know I've seen Boston quite a bit throughout the course
Speaker 3: of the season, and in many cases you talk to
Speaker 3: folks that are around the team all the time, covering
Speaker 3: the team, and they always talk about having more of
Speaker 3: a backup big or what do they do when they're
Speaker 3: facing some of those really hefty, strong frames on the inside.
Speaker 3: Joel Embiid being one of those who will get to
Speaker 3: a little bit later in the show. But Jason Tatum
Speaker 3: did the fluidity, the smoothness his reads on the offensive side.
Speaker 3: Obviously the length and presidency brings defensively, but it's it's
Speaker 3: been fun to watch how every year he seems to
Speaker 3: improve add more to his game, kind of take.
Speaker 1: More of a.
Speaker 3: Just really mature approach to how he's able to pick
Speaker 3: apart some defenses. But I do think that certainly helps
Speaker 3: when you have the compliments of so many others around you.
Speaker 3: I do think just the fact he's shooting over thirty
Speaker 3: seven percent from three. Obviously we know the player works
Speaker 3: the mid range, takes a lot of you know, long
Speaker 3: two point shots, has been working on that, but his
Speaker 3: efficiency from three has helped. As I mentioned with the
Speaker 3: Boston team that wants to put up a lot of
Speaker 3: three point shots. On the other side of things, mentioned Minnesota.
Speaker 3: Tough loss for them, but they have been fantastic this year,
Speaker 3: obviously tops in the Western Conference. Their defense has been
Speaker 3: at the forefront of all of that. In Anthony Edwards
Speaker 3: a big part last night Karl Anthony Towns with twenty
Speaker 3: five points, thirteen rebound, six assists.
Speaker 1: For Edwards it was twenty nine, six and three defecting
Speaker 1: kicked off the two and out of by Anderson. He
Speaker 1: gets you've hit to Edwards night moves two.
Speaker 2: As the league.
Speaker 1: Where do you see Anthony Edwards?
Speaker 3: And again we're looking at your second tier of those
Speaker 3: MVP candidates We've had a lot of the same ones
Speaker 3: towards the time in that top five, But where do
Speaker 3: you see Anthony Edwards in his progression to potentially get
Speaker 3: to that point, considering the fact that Minnesota is a
Speaker 3: team that has been at the top or towards the
Speaker 3: top of the West throughout pretty much the duration of
Speaker 3: this whole season.
Speaker 2: Well, Sarah, it is Thursday. It's Thursday, and he's coming
Speaker 2: off a good game, and.
Speaker 1: So did a little influence no, no influence here before tomorrow.
Speaker 2: What I'm saying is with him, it just depends on
Speaker 2: the days. It's really weird. I mean, he is, he
Speaker 2: is this rising superstar, and you know, throughout FEBA and
Speaker 2: stuff over the summer, it was sort of okay, we
Speaker 2: knew that this was the year that Anthony Edwards was
Speaker 2: going to take that next step, and he has like
Speaker 2: let's not, you know, get it twisted for a second.
Speaker 2: But I mean, okay, So, like I said, okay, we're
Speaker 2: talking about it's Thursday, and we're looking at what he
Speaker 2: did on Wednesday. But on Monday he was two of
Speaker 2: seven for six points. And that's sort of what you
Speaker 2: get from him, or what we've gotten from him all season.
Speaker 2: I mean he's been he shot shot the ball fifty
Speaker 2: percent from the field. I think he shot he shot
Speaker 2: it below fifty percent in three of the last five games,
Speaker 2: and so he's been really inconsistent as a shooter. But
Speaker 2: I love what he does as an own ball defender,
Speaker 2: his decision making. I think that that's gonna get better
Speaker 2: as he gets a little more mature. But you know,
Speaker 2: I think that without him, they're not number one in
Speaker 2: the West, that's for sure.
Speaker 3: So I like what he does.
Speaker 2: I'm a fan, but too inconsistent to really get him
Speaker 2: up in the higher tiers. So he'll fluctuate anywhere between
Speaker 2: six ten and then sometimes he ends up in the
Speaker 2: honorable mention stack, and so you know, we need more
Speaker 2: of him, you know, at one place instead of just
Speaker 2: kind of going all over the board.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and totally agree with that.
Speaker 3: I think you look at him and a reminder despite
Speaker 3: the facts he's in his fourth year, twenty two years old.
Speaker 1: Yeah, all Star last year, so still yeah, I think
Speaker 1: that's a part of it.
Speaker 3: And just figuring out I mean, he jumped right in
Speaker 3: the scene and you look at where Minnesota was at
Speaker 3: the last few seasons being the guy, but the uptick.
Speaker 3: As you have mentioned, field goal percentage uptacking three point percentage,
Speaker 3: the fact that he's you know, almost thirty nine percent
Speaker 3: from three and that fluctuates as well. But I think
Speaker 3: his decision making on when he's taking threes to me
Speaker 3: through the eye test has improved, and also assists have
Speaker 3: gone up, you know, best in his career a nearly
Speaker 3: five assists per game.
Speaker 1: Those type of things I think even too.
Speaker 3: Defensively, of course, helps to have a guy like Rudy
Speaker 3: Gobert back there and those that are around him and
Speaker 3: just what this defense is comprised of, so it allows
Speaker 3: him to gamble a little bit more, take risks, you know,
Speaker 3: some of his off ball play that that helps fourtify.
Speaker 3: My question to you is, do you think, I said,
Speaker 3: twenty two years old, fourth year in the league, but
Speaker 3: projecting out, do you think before his career is over
Speaker 3: he will be an MVP in this league?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I do think he'll be an MVP. And you know,
Speaker 2: you mentioned like just some of the health he has
Speaker 2: on the defensive end, but some of the same people
Speaker 2: you mentioned are also I think gonna be key for
Speaker 2: him in his maturation throughout this league because you've got
Speaker 2: a Rudy Gobert, You've got Karl Anthony Towns who's been
Speaker 2: in the league for a while. You've got slow Mo
Speaker 2: Kyle Anderson. People don't give that man his credit, but
Speaker 2: he is a leader. He's the type of guy that
Speaker 2: when you get him on the floor, he makes everybody
Speaker 2: around him better. That's just the way Kyle Anderson has
Speaker 2: been since he's been out here in San Antonio. And
Speaker 2: so when you've got some veterans, like they have a
Speaker 2: nice mix of young talent and sort of veteran guys
Speaker 2: that they're all gonna help Anthony Edwards moving forward. And
Speaker 2: I think Anthony is gonna be a star. I mean
Speaker 2: a star. I think like one of the two or
Speaker 2: three people you talk about when you talk about the NBA,
Speaker 2: like his name is gonna be the one, you know
Speaker 2: how like we talk about the NBA and we say
Speaker 2: Steph Curry. I think Anthony is gonna be one of
Speaker 2: those guys.
Speaker 1: Fact I am with you on that.
Speaker 3: I also think he has the disposition, character, you know,
Speaker 3: just all of those things to go into it. Minnesota, though,
Speaker 3: looking where they're at with the salary caps, some contracts,
Speaker 3: they will have some decisions to make though in what
Speaker 3: they continue to do with this roster.
Speaker 1: We are going to take a quick break and we
Speaker 1: are going to get back.
Speaker 3: To one of your candidates that has been in that
Speaker 3: top tier, towards the top the entirety of this year,
Speaker 3: Joel Embiid. Right after the break, welcome back to m
Speaker 3: me a Polster a Kustaik joined by Michael C. Wright
Speaker 3: and all right, where we're going, we're taking the elevator
Speaker 3: up to the top.
Speaker 1: Joel Embiid.
Speaker 3: He's been fantastic this year, Michael, and you can see
Speaker 3: it in the numbers, you can see it how he's played.
Speaker 1: He's the reigning MVP.
Speaker 3: However, he has missed six of the last eight games,
Speaker 3: so now you know, getting to that point for those
Speaker 3: awards need to play in sixty five of eighty two games.
Speaker 3: And for the most part, it's felt like he's been healthy,
Speaker 3: it's felt like he's been available. But when you look
Speaker 3: at what Embid's done throughout the course of the season,
Speaker 3: and I had mentioned the numbers, thirty five points a game,
Speaker 3: nearly almost twelve rebounds, six assists, his playmaking and the
Speaker 3: improvement of his playmaking has been that one big factor
Speaker 3: that you've seen the elevation. How do you kind of
Speaker 3: frame where your head is starting to be at at
Speaker 3: this point of the season with some of the games
Speaker 3: being missed, and how that factors in given the other
Speaker 3: candidates here in this top five.
Speaker 2: Well, with the elevator being stuck right now, apparently apparently
Speaker 2: you know, it's to the point now where we're starting
Speaker 2: to count games, and you know that's never a good thing.
Speaker 2: You know, Like in December, the guy average forty points,
Speaker 2: twelve and a half rebounds, but he missed five games,
Speaker 2: and you know, you start to look at that, and
Speaker 2: I think a big part of the reason why he's
Speaker 2: he's so banged up all the time is his usage rate.
Speaker 2: He said that like forty one point six percent. That
Speaker 2: is okay. If you compare that to a guy like
Speaker 2: Nikola Jokic, he's somewhere in the high twenties. And so,
Speaker 2: you know, I think when you when you have such
Speaker 2: a high usage rate, you have to do so much
Speaker 2: for your team, that's going to lend itself to injury.
Speaker 2: And so, yeah, he's missed nine games. Yeah that's cool.
Speaker 2: But at the same time, I see what he does
Speaker 2: on a night to night basis, and I see in
Speaker 2: some of those games he's struggling physically, but he's just
Speaker 2: cutting it out. And so like I really Joe Ellenbiid
Speaker 2: is one of those guys that where say he missed
Speaker 2: too many games to be eligible to win the award.
Speaker 2: That's one of those guys I might make an exception for.
Speaker 2: And we can't, you know, because of the rules or whatever.
Speaker 2: But that's something you know. I'm not criticizing the league here,
Speaker 2: but I think they need to make exceptions. Start thinking about,
Speaker 2: like some of the other metrics that might come into
Speaker 2: play for a guy like MB Like I just mentioned
Speaker 2: his usage rate, but look at minutes things like that
Speaker 2: when you're making a determination. I mean, a guy can't
Speaker 2: help it if he's hurt. And sometimes a guy needs
Speaker 2: to rest.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And as you mentioned just that, like the judgment calls,
Speaker 3: I think for all of you as voters, there there's
Speaker 3: a trust and a respect for why you have earned
Speaker 3: and have those votes, and I think all of you
Speaker 3: have decisions to make in term of judgment. And so
Speaker 3: for a player like Joel Embiid, one sometimes it's injury,
Speaker 3: but two it's it's injury management.
Speaker 1: It truly is.
Speaker 3: It's injury management. It's not playing, you know, potentially a
Speaker 3: second of a back to back. You look at the
Speaker 3: fact that he's played over thirty four minutes per game,
Speaker 3: and as you mentioned, the usage and how much that
Speaker 3: goes through him and what he's dealt with. It's also
Speaker 3: a you know, the frame of his body is very
Speaker 3: different and some others. So the type of the type
Speaker 3: of usage that that goes along with that. When you
Speaker 3: look at Philadelphia sitting third now in the Eastern Conference, Boston,
Speaker 3: We've already talked about Milwaukee despite sitting in that second seed. Uh,
Speaker 3: it's kind of a two sidedness to the perspective on
Speaker 3: the Bucks given the fact they just don't look good
Speaker 3: and the wins that they have, it still feels like
Speaker 3: there's a lot of issues. It's Philadelphia contender for you
Speaker 3: in the event that you look at this framework and
Speaker 3: Joel Embiid healthy playing in what he's done in certain
Speaker 3: cases throughout the course of the postseason.
Speaker 2: Absolutely a contender with Joel and Beid healthy. But they've
Speaker 2: lost three in a row and Joel has missed some time.
Speaker 2: I don't know the exact exact number, was it something
Speaker 2: like six the last Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, sure, So
Speaker 2: they're definitely a contender with him on the floor. But
Speaker 2: you know there's the question of okay, how often do
Speaker 2: you get him on the floor. But at the same time,
Speaker 2: I think Joel Embiid is the type of guy, just
Speaker 2: based off what I've seen over these last few years,
Speaker 2: if they need him, even if he's hurt, he's gonna
Speaker 2: try to play if he's hurt. And so you know,
Speaker 2: I think, like, right now, these are the games you're
Speaker 2: supposed to miss. We haven't even gotten an All Star
Speaker 2: break yet. You know, you can miss some games. You
Speaker 2: can rest here here and there, and then once you
Speaker 2: get past All Star Break and everybody starts this all
Speaker 2: out spread, you know, to the finish line, that's when
Speaker 2: you need him available for games. And I think he's
Speaker 2: going to be there when his number is called, He's
Speaker 2: going to be there.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 3: Well, we will see near and as you mentioned, all
Speaker 3: Star break, nearing trade deadline. A lot of things to
Speaker 3: keep eyes on here as we continue on throughout the
Speaker 3: course of your season, including you on NBA TV, NBA
Speaker 3: dot Com. You're MVP Ladder that will be out once
Speaker 3: again on Friday. So it's always Michael. We appreciate your
Speaker 3: Time You Got It Sarah. NBA Pulse was Sara Acoustack
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