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Speaker 1: interesting basketball to talk about today. I know two of

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Speaker 1: the games are blowouts, but I found both of them

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Speaker 1: to be interesting blowouts. And then we had the back

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Speaker 1: Burner game, the NBA TV game, the Utah Jazz at

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Speaker 1: the Dallas Mavericks, an unbelievable, exciting performance. Lots of interesting

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Speaker 1: stuff to get into there. We're gonna get into all

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Speaker 1: of it. We're also gonna do hold or bail. I'm

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Speaker 1: gonna tell you guys whether or not I'm sticking with

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Speaker 1: my series picks from the matchups from yesterday. We are

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Speaker 1: going to bring Carson on as well. It's gonna be

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Speaker 1: a great show, but let's start with Golden State in Denver.

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Speaker 1: So Denver obviously has a boatload of issues. We're gonna

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Speaker 1: get to that later. Um, the game wasn't even close,

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Speaker 1: like that's there, wasn't remotely competitive. The series is over.

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Speaker 1: You can go ahead and uh start making the tombstone

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Speaker 1: for the Denver Nuggets. And yet I found this game

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Speaker 1: remarkably interesting. Why because it felt like stepping into a

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Speaker 1: time machine and coming out in two thousand fifteen in

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Speaker 1: Oracle Arena during the Rise of the Warriors. And I

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Speaker 1: picked specifically two thousand fifteen because it was kind of

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Speaker 1: before it became a more Steph centric show. Obviously, Steph

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Speaker 1: was the m v P in two thousand fifteen. He

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Speaker 1: damn sure should have one Finals MVP that year, and

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Speaker 1: he was clearly a top three four player in the league.

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Speaker 1: But there was another leap that he took as an

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Speaker 1: aggressive scorer the following year, bumped up from twenty three

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Speaker 1: points per game to thirty points per game. The two

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Speaker 1: thousand fifteen season was much more of like this new

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Speaker 1: brand of basketball we were seeing, and it was catching

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Speaker 1: everybody off guard. Teams didn't know how to guard it.

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Speaker 1: It was super likable basketball. It drew in all these

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Speaker 1: fans for good reason. Like I've said many times on

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Speaker 1: the show, good Basketball, I'm always going to support because

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Speaker 1: that's the kind of thing that helps with the health

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Speaker 1: of the league. But there was a very unique nature

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Speaker 1: to the way that group played basketball, and they accepted

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Speaker 1: this concept of the death lineup, which was kind of

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Speaker 1: a modern iteration of small ball, right. And if you

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Speaker 1: guys remember that lineup, it was Harrison Barnes and andreke

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Speaker 1: Guadala with Draymond Gray and Clay Thompson and Steph Curry,

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Speaker 1: and teams didn't really have any idea how to handle

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Speaker 1: that group. So many teams around the league were still

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Speaker 1: playing two bigs. They were too slow to keep up

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Speaker 1: with that line up. There was a ton of speed,

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Speaker 1: but there were some very unique reasons why that lineup worked.

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Speaker 1: And you saw that again in this game. In this series,

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Speaker 1: the same lineup that pulled away in Game one, the

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Speaker 1: same lineup that came back in Game two and then

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Speaker 1: put the game away was a similar construct. Steph Clay

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Speaker 1: and Draymond with a three and d wing in Andrew

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Speaker 1: Wiggins kind of filling in for that Harrison Barnes role.

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Speaker 1: The only differences you're going with Jordan Pool instead of

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Speaker 1: Andrea Godala, and once again, the Denver Nuggets couldn't do

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Speaker 1: anything with them. And the reason why is because on

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Speaker 1: the offensive end of the floor, there is a a

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Speaker 1: very special brand of basketball that the Warriors play. It's selfless.

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Speaker 1: Everyone is hunting for shots for each other there and

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Speaker 1: this has been a this has been a persistent theme

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Speaker 1: throughout the Golden State era. If you guys remember, there

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Speaker 1: was a famous play in the towards the end of

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Speaker 1: the Kevin Durant run where one of the young players

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Speaker 1: on the Warriors drove into the lane and Clay Thompson

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Speaker 1: was on on the wing, Kevin Durant was on the wing,

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Speaker 1: and Steph Curry was on the wing and all three

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Speaker 1: of them were wide open, and if you guys remember,

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Speaker 1: there's a famous photo, all of them were pointing at

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Speaker 1: each other trying to get them to pass to the

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Speaker 1: other guy. Because there was this contagious culture in the team.

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Speaker 1: It was make that extra drive and kick, make sure

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Speaker 1: extra make that extra pass, make that extra play for

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Speaker 1: your teammate, and as a result, it led to this

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Speaker 1: infectious style of basketball that caused major problems for everyone

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Speaker 1: around the league, not just in their skill on the perimeter,

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Speaker 1: but also the overall speed of the line up. Draymond

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Speaker 1: Green is such a mobile big and when you put

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Speaker 1: four really fast, really skilled players alongside him, they leave

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Speaker 1: these slower, traditional teams in the dust and there's nothing

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Speaker 1: they can do about it. The style plays not for everybody.

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Speaker 1: There are certain guys that go into that program and

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Speaker 1: it doesn't work out super well. I remember Kelly Ubre.

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Speaker 1: This is a big issue. I've talked about this a

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Speaker 1: lot on the show. For for whatever reason, in Golden

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Speaker 1: State it didn't work out for him. But before that

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Speaker 1: and then this year when he was in Charlotte, he

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Speaker 1: kind of recaptured that solid role player, you know, archetype

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Speaker 1: that he had in the rest of his career. But

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Speaker 1: for whatever reason, in Golden State it didn't work because

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Speaker 1: it requires that high basketball like you. Everyone's very very smart.

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Speaker 1: Kelly Bray is a good basketball player. Basketball like que

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Speaker 1: is not a strong point. It requires unselfishness and a

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Speaker 1: willingness to make plays for your teammates. There are players

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Speaker 1: that have not had not done well in that particular environment.

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Speaker 1: But for whatever reason, the guys that go in there

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Speaker 1: and fit it makes the whole thing work. And Jordan

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Speaker 1: Pool just adds this whole other element to it. It

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Speaker 1: makes it less heliocentric, not in the traditional way like

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Speaker 1: guy up at the top of the key dribbling the ball,

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Speaker 1: but they're less reliant on Steph. Now, and the most

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Speaker 1: important thing, and the only reason this lineup functions at

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Speaker 1: all whatsoever, is they defend. And I want to give

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Speaker 1: Obviously a lot of people deserve credit for that. Steve

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Speaker 1: Kurt deserves credit for that. Each individual player deserves credit

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Speaker 1: for that. But there are two guys that I want

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Speaker 1: to specifically shout out about that, and that's Steph Curry

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Speaker 1: and Draymond Green. Steph Curry is six ft three, it's

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Speaker 1: pretty strong, but he's a below average athlete and doesn't

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Speaker 1: have the physical tools, the length, and athleticism to be

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Speaker 1: a dominant defensive player. And he could have very well

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Speaker 1: turned into the next name Lillard if he wanted to,

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Speaker 1: if he didn't care, if he wanted to save his

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Speaker 1: legs for offense. But he was like, screw that, I'm

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Speaker 1: gonna be the best possible defender that I can possibly

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Speaker 1: be given the tools that I have, and as a result,

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Speaker 1: it has led to this culture that has trickled down

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Speaker 1: the roster. If you're a perimeter player, you're not off

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Speaker 1: the hook on defense, and that's why it works with

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Speaker 1: Jordan Poole in that group. Obviously, Jordan Pool has some

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Speaker 1: limitations and so does Steph, and you can't have too

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Speaker 1: many of those guys on the floor. And there are

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Speaker 1: obviously good defensive players in Clay Thompson and Andrew Wiggins

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Speaker 1: and Draymond Green that help make the whole thing work.

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Speaker 1: But it's a huge credit to to Steph Curry in

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Speaker 1: the tone that he sets and the way that that

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Speaker 1: trickles down the roster. It's something I've been critical about

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Speaker 1: with Lebron at some points in his career. And Lebron

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Speaker 1: has been my favorite player in the league for a

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Speaker 1: long time. I think he's a better basketball player than Steph,

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Speaker 1: and I think he always has been. But one of

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Speaker 1: the things I've been critical about him with is, for

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Speaker 1: whatever reason, he kind of seems like on a lot

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Speaker 1: of nights, it's like, it's not my job to play defense.

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Speaker 1: You guys figure that out. I have all this other

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Speaker 1: work to do, and I'll defend when I absolutely have to.

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Speaker 1: And it's not a big surprise that there are guys

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Speaker 1: that have come onto Lebron teams and have not defended

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Speaker 1: well because they kind of just get wrapped up into

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Speaker 1: his mentor like his old approach to the game. Steph's

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Speaker 1: not like that. Steph sets a tone and everyone else

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Speaker 1: follows suits. It's it's one of my favorite things about him,

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Speaker 1: and it's I think he's the best leader in this

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Speaker 1: era of NBA basketball. But the lynchpin of it all

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Speaker 1: is Draymond Green. He is the quarterback of that defense. Now,

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Speaker 1: I don't want to got dive too much into the

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Speaker 1: details specifically surrounding quarterbacking a defense, because we're going to

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Speaker 1: talk about that in more detail later on in the

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Speaker 1: show when we talk about Marcus Smart being the defensive

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Speaker 1: player of the Year, But he does that for this

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Speaker 1: specific defense. And then the most important thing that he

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Speaker 1: does as a back line defender is he is a

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Speaker 1: master of understanding position and disrupting a player's base. How

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Speaker 1: is it that at six ft six that he can

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Speaker 1: be so disruptive to these massive post players. I have

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Speaker 1: seen him in the last couple of years completely and

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Speaker 1: utterly fluster Anthony Davis in a single game playoff situation

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Speaker 1: last year in the playing game, and then you saw

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Speaker 1: what he did to Nicola Yokich tonight, literally frustrating him

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Speaker 1: to the point where he lost his school and got

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Speaker 1: himself ejected from the damn game in The reason why

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Speaker 1: is because Draymond Green is the kryptonite to position post players.

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Speaker 1: We talked a little bit about last night. We talked

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Speaker 1: about Jayson Tatum and the pivotal play that he made

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Speaker 1: rotating around Kyrie Irving. Because in when you're in back

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Speaker 1: to the basket situations, it's all about feeling where you're

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Speaker 1: defender is. Is Is he on my left shoulder? Is here

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Speaker 1: on my right shoulder. I'm gonna spend the other way

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Speaker 1: because that's where my advantage is with physicality. Guys like

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Speaker 1: Nicola Yokits who aren't super fast, Guys like Anthony Davis

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Speaker 1: that don't have a super quick first step, they rely

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Speaker 1: a lot on body positioning in the post. Yokis way

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Speaker 1: more than Anthony Davis even and so he's trying to

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Speaker 1: figure out where Draymond green On is on his back.

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Speaker 1: But Draymond green is always one step ahead of Yokich on.

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Speaker 1: All those little pivots and turns, and he's pushing Yokich

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Speaker 1: off of his bass and making every shot that he

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Speaker 1: takes around the baskets so incredibly difficult. Draymond is what

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Speaker 1: makes that entire defense work. There are very specific details

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Speaker 1: that I want to get further into with Draymond, but

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Speaker 1: I am gonna save that for later in the show.

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Speaker 1: I wanted to move on to Jordan's pool because his rise,

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Speaker 1: in my opinion, unquestionably changes the way that we have

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Speaker 1: to evaluate this Golden State Warriors team. Ceiling he I've

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Speaker 1: always wondered, you know, when you've got guys like Lebron

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Speaker 1: and Stephane the League, guys like Kevin Durant, the impact

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Speaker 1: they have on young players that come into contact with them.

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Speaker 1: You know, why is it that you know, you'll see

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Speaker 1: a guy play with Lebron for so long and for

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Speaker 1: whatever reason, he doesn't adopt the same work ethic that

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Speaker 1: he does, or the same thing goes with Steph And

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Speaker 1: I was wondering why that doesn't happen more often, Why

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Speaker 1: a player wouldn't get around a star and kind of

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Speaker 1: absorb in and and take on the same approach to

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Speaker 1: the game that he does, and I'm not saying Jordan

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Speaker 1: Pool necessarily did this because of Steph, but for whatever

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Speaker 1: reason Steph has there's a there is a Steph like

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Speaker 1: nature to the way Jordan's Pool plays that has allowed

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Speaker 1: him to become a player that fits so perfectly in

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Speaker 1: this system. You know, Stephans struggled a little bit this

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Speaker 1: year as the as the year has progressed. We've talked

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Speaker 1: about it a lot on this show. His shooting percentages

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Speaker 1: towards the last half of the season, we're about half

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Speaker 1: what they were at the same time last season. He

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Speaker 1: wasn't getting the same separation on his dribble moves, wasn't

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Speaker 1: able to make those crazy Steph Curry shots the way

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Speaker 1: he used to, And there's a lot of reasons for that.

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Speaker 1: A lot of it was Draymond Green being out of

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Speaker 1: the game, but a huge part of it is not

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Speaker 1: having other guys on the floor that dictate defensive attention

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Speaker 1: and the way that that frees things up for You

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Speaker 1: talked about this a lot with the Mavericks and how

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Speaker 1: Luca don Chech being out has been a nightmare for

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Speaker 1: guys like Spencer din what he Jalen Brunson had a

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Speaker 1: big game tonight, but Spencer didn't what He's having a

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Speaker 1: nightmare series in the bigger role with more defensive attention

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Speaker 1: devoted to him. Obviously, Clay Thompson coming back helps a

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Speaker 1: lot with Steph Curry, but Jordan's Pool brings that same

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Speaker 1: type of defensive attention. When Jordan Pool is flying around

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Speaker 1: off the ball, guy's panic chase him. You know who

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Speaker 1: else they do that with Steph. When Jordan Pool comes

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Speaker 1: off of a high screen and roll with Draymond Green,

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Speaker 1: two guys go with Jordan Pool. You know who else

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Speaker 1: they do that with Steph, And as a result, it's

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Speaker 1: freeing up both guys for easier opportunities. This is the

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Speaker 1: best step has looked in this last half of the season.

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Speaker 1: Obviously in small dosage, obviously in a minute's restriction, but

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Speaker 1: Steph looks great and that's a huge part of what

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Speaker 1: Jordan Pool is bringing to this table. Now. The one

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Speaker 1: thing that gets tricky with Jordan Pool is his his

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Speaker 1: defensive the defensive potential of these key lineups because of

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Speaker 1: his lack of size. I had a lot of people

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Speaker 1: ask me today do you think the Warriors can beat

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Speaker 1: the huge team? And there will be issues in those matchups.

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Speaker 1: Think about a team like Phoenix. Okay, it's not just

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Speaker 1: about DeAndre Ayton. I have no worries about Draymond Green

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Speaker 1: being able to handle DeAndre Ayton. But what if your

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Speaker 1: lineup has you know, Andrew Wiggins and Clay Thompson and

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Speaker 1: Steph Curry and and uh George and Pool. But the

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Speaker 1: lineup you're going up against is Mikhail Bridges at six

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Speaker 1: ft nine or six ft eight and Cam Cam Johnson

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Speaker 1: at six ft eight and Jay Crowder at six ft

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Speaker 1: six and super strong, you know, and and when when

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Speaker 1: when the Suns go with more wings, are there gonna

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Speaker 1: be issues in those lineups? And that will be the

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Speaker 1: interesting conundrum because Jordan Pool plugged into that Andrea Guadala

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Speaker 1: roule role. While it makes them infinitely better offensively, it

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Speaker 1: also takes away a lot of what they did defensively

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Speaker 1: at the peak of the death lineup in the two

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Speaker 1: thousand fifteen sixteen season. Now they're still defending really well

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Speaker 1: with that group, but it's kind of dependent on matchups.

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Speaker 1: The Denver Nuggets this we're gonna talk about them a

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Speaker 1: little bit more just a second. The Denver Nuggets have

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Speaker 1: master ross of massive roster shortcomings. They don't have the

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Speaker 1: personnel to keep up with a team like Golden States,

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Speaker 1: so there are gonna be matchups further further down the

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Speaker 1: line that can cause them problems, particularly with size. However,

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Speaker 1: the size battle goes both ways, and a lot of

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Speaker 1: it has to do with trolling the pace and flow

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Speaker 1: of the game, which is something I talked about. A lot.

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Speaker 1: Styles make fights, but each style has advantages and more

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Speaker 1: often than not, it's not about which style is better,

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Speaker 1: it's about which style plays better. And so the advantages

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Speaker 1: of the smaller Golden State lineup with Steph Clay, Jordan Pool,

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Speaker 1: Wiggins and Draymond is they are incredibly fast, They can

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Speaker 1: thrive in transition, they can do a ton of switching.

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Speaker 1: They have unbelievable dribble drive creation. So when they get

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Speaker 1: you on a string in a five out scenario, pass past, past, drive, drive, drive, kick,

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Speaker 1: kick kick, they get great shots every time. But if

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Speaker 1: they get stuck in the half court a lot and

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Speaker 1: a team is able to inflict their size upon them,

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Speaker 1: they could have some issues. And so when people ask me,

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Speaker 1: can this Golden State Warriors team beat a team that

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Speaker 1: has significant interior presence, it's not a question of can they.

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Speaker 1: It's a question of will they. Will that group play

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Speaker 1: well enough in the details and control the pay so

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Speaker 1: the game so that the big team is caught and

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Speaker 1: to track me, because if they do, they're gonna win.

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Speaker 1: But if they struggle in those details and they get

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Speaker 1: stuck in the half court and it's Chris Paul slowly

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Speaker 1: and methodically executing on offense and the half court, that's

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Speaker 1: when Golden State could have some issues. But it felt

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Speaker 1: like stepping in the time machine. As a basketball fan,

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Speaker 1: you had to have loved that. There had to have

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Speaker 1: been some moments for you tonight watching that game where

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Speaker 1: it just felt vintage, felt like vintage Warriors basketball. I

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Speaker 1: love their brand of basketball. They're They've got some of

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Speaker 1: my favorite players in the league, and I love rooting

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Speaker 1: for them. They're the team that I will be rooting

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Speaker 1: for in the West, even though I don't I still

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Speaker 1: think Phoenix is gonna be the team that ends up winning.

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Speaker 1: But it's good to have them back. And and Jordan's

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Speaker 1: pool changes everything about the franchise changes, their current ceiling, changes,

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Speaker 1: their trajectory, changes your five year plan. It's a bridge

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Speaker 1: to hopefully Jonathan cominga and James Wiseman becoming better players.

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Speaker 1: If you're a Warriors fan, you've got to be on

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Speaker 1: cloud nine right now, even if you don't think you

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Speaker 1: can win the title this year. I don't want to

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Speaker 1: spend too much on Denver. They're dealing with a lot

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Speaker 1: of injuries right now. Uh, there's some internal among the

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Speaker 1: fan base. They're kind of sick of Mike Malone. I've

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Speaker 1: got to do some research on that. I don't know

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Speaker 1: well enough what kind of issues they've had with him

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Speaker 1: over the course of the year. But I would say,

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Speaker 1: don't overreact to personnel shortcomings. This wasn't like a Lakers

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Speaker 1: team where they had personnel shortcomings and the basketball was

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Speaker 1: just hot garbage. This is a team that is vastly

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Speaker 1: outperformed their talent all season long. So I wouldn't overreact.

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Speaker 1: But there's one specific thing I want to talk about

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Speaker 1: with this group, and it's your ki. We have a

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Speaker 1: habit as basketball fans of wanting to jump ahead of

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Speaker 1: player development, and I kind of go the exact opposite

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Speaker 1: direction on that kind of thing. You guys know me,

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Speaker 1: I'm a huge Lebron fan. I don't think Lebron was

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Speaker 1: the best player of the league until two thousand and twelve,

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Speaker 1: because even though he had this, his ceiling was as

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Speaker 1: high as all the best players in the league at

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Speaker 1: various points from two thousand seven to two thousand twelve,

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Speaker 1: he wasn't a savant in in the dregs of postseason basketball.

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Speaker 1: The way he became as his career progressed progressed. I

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Speaker 1: thought Kobe was better than him from two thousand and

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Speaker 1: eight to two thousand eleven, And for that's just my

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Speaker 1: approach to it. I when everyone's saying steps better than

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Speaker 1: Lebron back in two thousand fifteen and two thousand and sixteen,

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Speaker 1: I'm like, hey, cool it, guys, He's doing great. There's

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Speaker 1: a lot of basketball left to be played in his

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Speaker 1: career and just within these seasons, and we're doing it.

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Speaker 1: We did it with the honest when he won his

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Speaker 1: first two m vps, this is the best player in

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Speaker 1: the league. And then you saw him in half court

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Speaker 1: sets against Miami like basically neutered in his ability to

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Speaker 1: impact the game offensively. And he's made leaps since then

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Speaker 1: and now he's very much in the conversation for best

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Speaker 1: player in the league. But now we're doing it again

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Speaker 1: with Yokich. There were a lot of really smart people

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Speaker 1: that said Yoki was the best player in the league

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Speaker 1: this year, the best player in the league, the best

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Speaker 1: player in the league, that has Kevin Durant in it,

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Speaker 1: that has Stephen Curry in it, that has Janis Antenna

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Speaker 1: Coupo in it, that has Lebron James in it. It's

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Speaker 1: a ridiculous take in my opinion. And the main reason

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Speaker 1: why is I look, and I know people get we

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Speaker 1: love to, you know, praise people for succeeding in spite

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Speaker 1: of a limitation. Right, It's like we do it with

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Speaker 1: Steph and the fact that he's smaller. We you know,

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Speaker 1: do it with Luca even though he's kind of like

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Speaker 1: an out of shape, you know, white guy, and Yokich

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Speaker 1: is the same thing. He's very slow, right, very methodical,

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Speaker 1: and so we we kind of romanticize that like it's

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Speaker 1: a good thing. And don't get me wrong, like I

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Speaker 1: too am incredibly impressed by his ability to impact basketball

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Speaker 1: games as a slow man. But it is a real

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Speaker 1: limitation on both ends of the floor. Really, Let's start

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Speaker 1: on offense, where where is his strength. Really really fast

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Speaker 1: teams that rotate really really well can disrupt him. You've

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Speaker 1: seen the Warriors do that several times this year. I

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Speaker 1: this entire last half of the season, when he would

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Speaker 1: go up against really long athletic teams YO kids would

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Speaker 1: struggle compared to his nor moal effectiveness. He relies a

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Speaker 1: ton on defensive or post positioning, and so defenders like Draymond,

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Speaker 1: who are masters of post position defense, throw him off

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Speaker 1: of his game. That's that's a limitation on his size.

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Speaker 1: He what Anthony Davis when he has success against Draymond,

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Speaker 1: what do you see him? Do you see him do

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Speaker 1: these like really quick moves through the lane and big

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Speaker 1: high hooks, and he's kind of tries to use his

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Speaker 1: speed because that's the one single advantage he has against

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Speaker 1: Draymond in that environment. But Yoki doesn't have that speed advantage.

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Speaker 1: Then we go over to the defensive end of the floor.

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Speaker 1: I've praised him all year long. He's turned himself into

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Speaker 1: a decent drop coverage big. That's great. It makes him

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Speaker 1: a much more functional regular season defensive player. But the

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Speaker 1: reality of the situation is when you run him off

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Speaker 1: the floor in transition, he can't keep up. The Warriors

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Speaker 1: did it again tonight. They've done a bunch of teams

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Speaker 1: have done that took over the course of the season.

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Speaker 1: And then, as we've seen so many times, just like

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Speaker 1: would you Go Bear, which we're gonna talk about later,

404
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Speaker 1: in five out basketball, when teams really get to driving

405
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Speaker 1: and kicking you to cover a lot of ground, and

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Speaker 1: maybe you're not the maybe you're maybe you don't get

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Speaker 1: to be the guy that helps at the basket every time.

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Speaker 1: Maybe you get rotated out to the perimeter now you're

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Speaker 1: guarding a dribble drive, or maybe one of your smaller

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Speaker 1: guards is suddenly in the backside help position. In five

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Speaker 1: out basketball, that's slow foot speed that Yokich has becomes

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Speaker 1: a huge problem. And so, yes, Yokich is incredible. Yoki's

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Speaker 1: best is every bit as good as the best players

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Speaker 1: in the league, but he doesn't get to his best

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Speaker 1: as often because of his weakness to specific matchups, because

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Speaker 1: he has very specific weaknesses in his game. And for

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Speaker 1: the love of God, can we please stop racing to

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Speaker 1: be the first guy to say so and so is

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Speaker 1: the best player in the league? Like I like I, I

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Speaker 1: I don't know what that desire is, but for whatever reason,

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Speaker 1: we're in a rush to crown the next guy. When

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Speaker 1: there's like Kevin Freakin Durant at the top of the league,

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Speaker 1: and Lebron James and Janis Antenna Kompo and Steph Curry.

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Speaker 1: Even the climbed versions of Lebron and Steph I think

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Speaker 1: are better than Yokis right now. So we need to

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Speaker 1: We just need to cool it on that stuff. That's

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Speaker 1: all I had for that game. I want to move

428
00:22:08,480 --> 00:22:12,400
Speaker 1: on to Toronto and Philly. So I talked a lot

429
00:22:12,800 --> 00:22:17,800
Speaker 1: in the in last night's show about how you don't

430
00:22:19,200 --> 00:22:22,240
Speaker 1: Nick Nurse had a very specific game plan, and I

431
00:22:22,280 --> 00:22:24,800
Speaker 1: disagreed with some elements of the game plan, but they

432
00:22:24,840 --> 00:22:28,840
Speaker 1: also just didn't play hard. For whatever reason, the Sixers

433
00:22:28,880 --> 00:22:31,320
Speaker 1: played like the underdog, and a lot of that has

434
00:22:31,359 --> 00:22:33,119
Speaker 1: to do with guys like me and everyone else out

435
00:22:33,160 --> 00:22:35,399
Speaker 1: there who picked the Raptors. I think they drank a

436
00:22:35,440 --> 00:22:36,959
Speaker 1: little too much of their own kool aid, and they

437
00:22:36,960 --> 00:22:38,879
Speaker 1: went into Game one with a lack of daisical effort

438
00:22:38,920 --> 00:22:42,920
Speaker 1: and it was a problem. And you know, I had

439
00:22:42,960 --> 00:22:46,800
Speaker 1: a similar thought often this year with Frank Vogel. You

440
00:22:46,960 --> 00:22:52,800
Speaker 1: can't evaluate a scheme fairly or a game plan fairly

441
00:22:53,560 --> 00:22:58,520
Speaker 1: if the guys don't play hard, because no scheme functionally

442
00:22:58,560 --> 00:23:02,600
Speaker 1: works if guys don't a hard and so we got

443
00:23:02,600 --> 00:23:06,280
Speaker 1: a better look at the Toronto scheme tonight with their

444
00:23:06,320 --> 00:23:08,359
Speaker 1: first quarter effort that came out guns blazing. I think

445
00:23:08,359 --> 00:23:10,439
Speaker 1: they held the six or the seven points in the

446
00:23:10,480 --> 00:23:12,400
Speaker 1: first five and a half minutes of the game, much

447
00:23:12,480 --> 00:23:16,120
Speaker 1: much better defensive effort. But then everything fell apart as

448
00:23:16,160 --> 00:23:19,200
Speaker 1: well as the game went along, and a huge part

449
00:23:19,240 --> 00:23:21,840
Speaker 1: of that is because of that same coverage that I

450
00:23:21,920 --> 00:23:25,520
Speaker 1: criticized in game one. This needs to be a series

451
00:23:25,560 --> 00:23:28,199
Speaker 1: for the Raptors where they throw the kitchen sink at

452
00:23:28,240 --> 00:23:31,520
Speaker 1: Joel Embide every time he catches the ball, but when

453
00:23:31,600 --> 00:23:33,960
Speaker 1: James Harden has the ball, they need to try to

454
00:23:34,040 --> 00:23:36,040
Speaker 1: keep him in one on one situations as much as

455
00:23:36,080 --> 00:23:38,200
Speaker 1: possible because he's not the same player he was in

456
00:23:38,280 --> 00:23:40,800
Speaker 1: two thousand eighteen. Won't get into the numbers again, but

457
00:23:40,840 --> 00:23:42,880
Speaker 1: all you have to do is look at the basic

458
00:23:43,000 --> 00:23:47,440
Speaker 1: tracking metrics. He's a significantly declined offensive player in isolation

459
00:23:47,480 --> 00:23:49,919
Speaker 1: situations compared to the way he was in two thousand eighteen.

460
00:23:50,359 --> 00:23:53,280
Speaker 1: He is most comfortable being a facilitator. He's wanted to

461
00:23:53,320 --> 00:23:55,720
Speaker 1: do that the last two years. He's always been at

462
00:23:55,720 --> 00:23:57,760
Speaker 1: his best when he doesn't have to do the scoring,

463
00:23:57,760 --> 00:23:58,960
Speaker 1: and he can just kind of sit around on the

464
00:23:59,000 --> 00:24:02,320
Speaker 1: perimeter and get defenses to lean one way or the

465
00:24:02,320 --> 00:24:04,240
Speaker 1: other so that he can make a pass and compromise

466
00:24:04,320 --> 00:24:08,720
Speaker 1: you and Nick Nurses walking headlong into that problem, and

467
00:24:08,720 --> 00:24:12,600
Speaker 1: they're just getting fantastic stuff on all of these overhelp scenarios.

468
00:24:13,560 --> 00:24:16,560
Speaker 1: I'm really curious to see if Nurse makes an adjustment

469
00:24:16,560 --> 00:24:18,960
Speaker 1: as the series goes along. I've been very critical this

470
00:24:19,040 --> 00:24:22,119
Speaker 1: year of Frank Vogel in his stubbornness. I tell you

471
00:24:22,160 --> 00:24:24,879
Speaker 1: guys all the time, like a coach can't come into

472
00:24:24,880 --> 00:24:29,919
Speaker 1: a situation with a philosophy. He can have some core philosophies, right,

473
00:24:30,000 --> 00:24:33,720
Speaker 1: Like we try hard on defense. You know, we are

474
00:24:33,760 --> 00:24:36,679
Speaker 1: on time every day, We work really hard. You know

475
00:24:36,760 --> 00:24:40,000
Speaker 1: we box out every time. You know we Those are

476
00:24:40,240 --> 00:24:44,560
Speaker 1: core philosophies. But you can't come into a situation with

477
00:24:44,920 --> 00:24:50,359
Speaker 1: a a scheme that you employed no matter what, regardless

478
00:24:50,400 --> 00:24:54,640
Speaker 1: of personnel or regardless of situation, because not all situations

479
00:24:54,680 --> 00:24:58,280
Speaker 1: call for the same scheme, and not all personnel call

480
00:24:58,400 --> 00:25:02,800
Speaker 1: for the same scheme. Nurse is a super aggressive defensive coach,

481
00:25:03,280 --> 00:25:06,639
Speaker 1: like outrageously aggressive. And there are things that I like

482
00:25:06,760 --> 00:25:09,800
Speaker 1: about that, you know, his willingness to try crazy things

483
00:25:09,840 --> 00:25:12,160
Speaker 1: like the boxing one that he used on Steph Currying

484
00:25:12,160 --> 00:25:14,800
Speaker 1: the two thousand nineteen finals. I'm a fan of his,

485
00:25:15,280 --> 00:25:19,800
Speaker 1: you know, innovative approach to defense, but this is one

486
00:25:19,840 --> 00:25:23,120
Speaker 1: situation where his aggressiveness is hurting him and hurting the raptors.

487
00:25:24,040 --> 00:25:27,600
Speaker 1: This series needs to become a James Harden isolation contest

488
00:25:27,640 --> 00:25:31,920
Speaker 1: at all costs because Tyrese Maxie is killing you right now.

489
00:25:32,440 --> 00:25:35,400
Speaker 1: Joel Embid is killing you right now. And a lot

490
00:25:35,440 --> 00:25:37,359
Speaker 1: of it doesn't have to do with Joel Embid and

491
00:25:37,400 --> 00:25:39,919
Speaker 1: isolation situations, not a not a lot of it has

492
00:25:39,960 --> 00:25:43,160
Speaker 1: to do with tyres Maxi and isolation situations. It's all

493
00:25:43,680 --> 00:25:47,119
Speaker 1: working out of initial compromising of the defense. Because of

494
00:25:47,200 --> 00:25:49,680
Speaker 1: James Harden, They're starting to get easy stuff just out

495
00:25:49,680 --> 00:25:52,440
Speaker 1: of having tires Maxie set the screen when that should

496
00:25:52,480 --> 00:25:54,879
Speaker 1: just be a really, really quick and easy switch. But

497
00:25:54,960 --> 00:25:57,399
Speaker 1: way too often they're sending two guys with James Harden

498
00:25:57,600 --> 00:25:59,640
Speaker 1: and they're getting amazing stuff on the back end. I'm

499
00:25:59,680 --> 00:26:02,080
Speaker 1: really really curious to see if Nick Nurse is gonna adjust.

500
00:26:02,160 --> 00:26:04,080
Speaker 1: We're gonna learn a lot, like I said, Like I said,

501
00:26:04,080 --> 00:26:06,159
Speaker 1: a very critical of Frank Vogel for being stubborn. I

502
00:26:06,160 --> 00:26:08,119
Speaker 1: thought it was the reason he got beat or the

503
00:26:08,160 --> 00:26:11,480
Speaker 1: reason why he got fired. So now we're gonna find

504
00:26:11,520 --> 00:26:14,480
Speaker 1: out if Nick Nurse is willing to make that type

505
00:26:14,480 --> 00:26:17,359
Speaker 1: of adjustment. I thought the game really got out of

506
00:26:17,400 --> 00:26:20,439
Speaker 1: hand for the Raptors in that second quarter, and a

507
00:26:20,520 --> 00:26:22,840
Speaker 1: huge part of it was the way that Fred van

508
00:26:22,920 --> 00:26:28,280
Speaker 1: Vleet and Pascal Siakam just completely fell apart offensively. You know,

509
00:26:28,600 --> 00:26:31,440
Speaker 1: the Raptors need this game to be in transition. They

510
00:26:31,480 --> 00:26:34,480
Speaker 1: absolutely need the game to be in transition. And the

511
00:26:34,520 --> 00:26:37,000
Speaker 1: only way that we're and I mean for them, they

512
00:26:37,040 --> 00:26:39,280
Speaker 1: need to be out in transition. They need to be

513
00:26:39,320 --> 00:26:41,800
Speaker 1: playing with their set defense. And too often it's been

514
00:26:41,800 --> 00:26:44,919
Speaker 1: the exact reverse of that. It's been fully running up

515
00:26:44,920 --> 00:26:47,560
Speaker 1: and down the floor in Toronto, trapped in the half court.

516
00:26:48,000 --> 00:26:50,160
Speaker 1: And a huge part of that is they have to score,

517
00:26:50,720 --> 00:26:53,520
Speaker 1: because when they score, they can set their defense. When

518
00:26:53,560 --> 00:26:55,399
Speaker 1: they set their defense, they have a better chance of

519
00:26:55,480 --> 00:26:58,320
Speaker 1: getting stops. When they get stops, they can run. When

520
00:26:58,320 --> 00:27:01,000
Speaker 1: they run, they get better scoring up tratunities, which allows

521
00:27:01,040 --> 00:27:03,640
Speaker 1: them to then set their defense. It's a very it's

522
00:27:03,680 --> 00:27:07,680
Speaker 1: a very like cascading effect and if one of those things,

523
00:27:07,760 --> 00:27:10,920
Speaker 1: one of those links in that chain breaks, suddenly you're

524
00:27:10,960 --> 00:27:15,680
Speaker 1: not scoring. Suddenly they're running, Suddenly they're getting better shots.

525
00:27:16,080 --> 00:27:18,439
Speaker 1: Now they're setting their defense, and now you're having an

526
00:27:18,480 --> 00:27:21,919
Speaker 1: even harder time scoring. And so when Fred van Vleet

527
00:27:21,960 --> 00:27:25,280
Speaker 1: in Pascal Seacom cooled off to such a dramatic extent

528
00:27:25,359 --> 00:27:28,320
Speaker 1: there in that second quarter, the wheels came off and

529
00:27:28,359 --> 00:27:32,200
Speaker 1: suddenly Philly got going in transition, you know, Fred van Vleet,

530
00:27:32,240 --> 00:27:33,639
Speaker 1: it was weird. There was a sequence there in the

531
00:27:33,680 --> 00:27:37,480
Speaker 1: second quarter where he got like five or six wide

532
00:27:37,520 --> 00:27:40,680
Speaker 1: open jump shots in a row, and he didn't even

533
00:27:40,720 --> 00:27:42,640
Speaker 1: hit the rim on his first like four or five

534
00:27:42,720 --> 00:27:45,399
Speaker 1: jump shots in the first quarter. Something happened there. I

535
00:27:45,400 --> 00:27:47,800
Speaker 1: have no idea, completely lost. His rhythm is really weird,

536
00:27:47,960 --> 00:27:50,280
Speaker 1: Like he had this weird hitching his shot. It looked

537
00:27:50,280 --> 00:27:52,560
Speaker 1: like he wasn't following through all the way. He had

538
00:27:52,600 --> 00:27:55,960
Speaker 1: like back to back completely wide open threes on the

539
00:27:56,040 --> 00:27:58,919
Speaker 1: right wing, one that he shot to the ceiling like

540
00:27:59,040 --> 00:28:01,640
Speaker 1: just unknown surely shot it really high in the air

541
00:28:01,880 --> 00:28:04,040
Speaker 1: and then got offensive rebound ended back in his hand

542
00:28:04,040 --> 00:28:05,760
Speaker 1: and he shot it like wide left, like a kick

543
00:28:05,840 --> 00:28:07,960
Speaker 1: or shanking a field goal. And like you could just

544
00:28:08,000 --> 00:28:10,280
Speaker 1: tell like he got the yips all of a sudden

545
00:28:10,560 --> 00:28:12,119
Speaker 1: in the same shots that he had been making all

546
00:28:12,160 --> 00:28:15,359
Speaker 1: first quarter in all season just completely left his repertoire

547
00:28:15,680 --> 00:28:19,639
Speaker 1: and it was disastrous for Toronto's offense. Pascal Ziaka missed

548
00:28:19,840 --> 00:28:24,520
Speaker 1: three easy layups right around the rim to start the

549
00:28:24,560 --> 00:28:27,800
Speaker 1: second quarter. He completely lost confidence in his jump shot.

550
00:28:27,840 --> 00:28:29,480
Speaker 1: There was a play where he did a pick and

551
00:28:29,520 --> 00:28:32,080
Speaker 1: pop with Fred van Vleet and popped to the three

552
00:28:32,080 --> 00:28:34,720
Speaker 1: point line, caught the ball at the top of the key.

553
00:28:34,880 --> 00:28:39,040
Speaker 1: Joel Embiide was sitting at the charge circle just completely

554
00:28:39,400 --> 00:28:42,960
Speaker 1: ignoring him, and he didn't even take the shot because

555
00:28:42,960 --> 00:28:45,320
Speaker 1: he completely lost confidence in his jump shot. Those two

556
00:28:45,320 --> 00:28:50,160
Speaker 1: guys falling apart offensively completely disrupted the Toronto offense, made

557
00:28:50,160 --> 00:28:52,280
Speaker 1: it so that they couldn't score, made it so that

558
00:28:52,680 --> 00:28:55,680
Speaker 1: Philly was attacking and transition and it was disastrous for them.

559
00:28:55,680 --> 00:28:58,720
Speaker 1: A huge part of that was Tyres Maxie had another quick,

560
00:28:58,800 --> 00:29:01,640
Speaker 1: really quick shout out to him. He's kind of like

561
00:29:01,640 --> 00:29:04,280
Speaker 1: a one man transition attack. He's one of the fastest

562
00:29:04,280 --> 00:29:06,440
Speaker 1: guards that we have in this league, and every time

563
00:29:06,480 --> 00:29:08,960
Speaker 1: Toronto missed, he was just pushing the pace and was

564
00:29:09,000 --> 00:29:11,840
Speaker 1: getting amazing stuff on that front. Before we move on

565
00:29:11,880 --> 00:29:15,000
Speaker 1: from this series, I do want to complain. I do

566
00:29:15,040 --> 00:29:18,040
Speaker 1: want to complain for just a minute about Joel Embiid

567
00:29:18,800 --> 00:29:22,120
Speaker 1: and the way that he's officiated and but before we

568
00:29:22,160 --> 00:29:25,440
Speaker 1: get into that specifically, I wanted to show you guys

569
00:29:25,600 --> 00:29:28,080
Speaker 1: a clip from Joel Embiad's postgame presser because he kind

570
00:29:28,080 --> 00:29:29,760
Speaker 1: of got into it a little bit with Nick Nurse

571
00:29:30,280 --> 00:29:33,000
Speaker 1: on the sideline, and this was what Joel Embiad had

572
00:29:33,000 --> 00:29:35,560
Speaker 1: to say after the game. Oh man, he's he's a

573
00:29:35,560 --> 00:29:38,560
Speaker 1: great coach obviously. Uh I got a you know what

574
00:29:38,680 --> 00:29:41,040
Speaker 1: he's been able to accomplish. And you know, I always

575
00:29:41,040 --> 00:29:45,320
Speaker 1: been a big fan. But you know, I told him,

576
00:29:45,360 --> 00:29:50,120
Speaker 1: you know, respectfully and told him to stop bitching about

577
00:29:50,120 --> 00:29:56,479
Speaker 1: calls because I saw what he said. And Joel Embiad

578
00:29:56,480 --> 00:29:59,720
Speaker 1: has been so like, I don't even know what the

579
00:29:59,720 --> 00:30:02,240
Speaker 1: will word is for this. I'd I'd say insecure. You

580
00:30:02,240 --> 00:30:04,240
Speaker 1: can tell he's been a little bit insecure about this

581
00:30:04,280 --> 00:30:06,280
Speaker 1: because he went on the JJ Reddick podcast the other

582
00:30:06,400 --> 00:30:10,240
Speaker 1: day and was talking about how it was his intelligence

583
00:30:10,280 --> 00:30:12,680
Speaker 1: and how smart he was that allowed him to be

584
00:30:12,760 --> 00:30:16,200
Speaker 1: able to do these things to generate free throws and

585
00:30:16,360 --> 00:30:18,920
Speaker 1: I think it's just a massive problem with the way

586
00:30:18,920 --> 00:30:21,440
Speaker 1: that he's officiated. And for the record, I don't necessarily

587
00:30:21,560 --> 00:30:24,959
Speaker 1: blame him. I don't like his attitude about it, his

588
00:30:25,000 --> 00:30:27,920
Speaker 1: whole obstinate like, you know, this isn't my problem, this

589
00:30:28,000 --> 00:30:29,800
Speaker 1: is your problem. You guys are hacking me. This is

590
00:30:29,840 --> 00:30:33,800
Speaker 1: all your fault. That thing is something that I vehemently dislike,

591
00:30:34,040 --> 00:30:35,520
Speaker 1: and I'm sure most of you guys do as well,

592
00:30:35,600 --> 00:30:38,479
Speaker 1: unless you're Philadelphia seventy six er fan. But it's not

593
00:30:38,600 --> 00:30:42,960
Speaker 1: his fault. It's the league's fault. There is like it

594
00:30:43,040 --> 00:30:48,720
Speaker 1: or not. Officiating is about making judgment calls. Nothing is

595
00:30:48,720 --> 00:30:53,280
Speaker 1: cut and dry. There's contact on every single play. One

596
00:30:53,320 --> 00:30:55,120
Speaker 1: of the biggest things that pisces me off when people

597
00:30:55,120 --> 00:30:57,840
Speaker 1: start talking about NBA history is when they say things like, oh,

598
00:30:57,960 --> 00:31:01,600
Speaker 1: there was no hand checking before. You wouldn't get fouled

599
00:31:01,680 --> 00:31:03,880
Speaker 1: called for a foul for hand checking before two thousand four,

600
00:31:04,240 --> 00:31:08,320
Speaker 1: Yes you would. Hand checking was put into the NBA

601
00:31:08,400 --> 00:31:10,360
Speaker 1: rule book in the seventies. There was a rule in

602
00:31:10,400 --> 00:31:12,240
Speaker 1: like nineteen seventy eight that said you weren't allowed to

603
00:31:12,280 --> 00:31:16,160
Speaker 1: impede progress with your hands. But throughout NBA history from

604
00:31:16,680 --> 00:31:19,240
Speaker 1: seventy eight or whatever all the way to now. There's

605
00:31:19,280 --> 00:31:22,800
Speaker 1: always been an ebb and flow with that judgment call.

606
00:31:23,640 --> 00:31:25,280
Speaker 1: When a guy puts his hand on you, the ref

607
00:31:25,400 --> 00:31:28,440
Speaker 1: decides whether or not he's gonna call it. It's not

608
00:31:28,520 --> 00:31:30,920
Speaker 1: called every single time. At various points in NBA history,

609
00:31:30,960 --> 00:31:34,480
Speaker 1: the game gets more physical or it gets less physical.

610
00:31:34,760 --> 00:31:37,120
Speaker 1: It's never been one specific era where it was crazy.

611
00:31:37,160 --> 00:31:40,560
Speaker 1: Everyone talks about the Michael Jordan's era and how crazy

612
00:31:40,600 --> 00:31:44,920
Speaker 1: physical the game was. It was from like to you know,

613
00:31:45,000 --> 00:31:48,520
Speaker 1: two thousand three, But for the first eleven twelve years

614
00:31:48,560 --> 00:31:51,040
Speaker 1: of MJ's career is pretty wide open. Not a lot

615
00:31:51,040 --> 00:31:54,560
Speaker 1: of defense was being played. That that I've officiating has

616
00:31:54,560 --> 00:31:57,560
Speaker 1: always been about the judgment call. And what bothers me

617
00:31:58,480 --> 00:32:01,600
Speaker 1: is Joel Embiid and Nie She ates a lot of

618
00:32:01,720 --> 00:32:05,600
Speaker 1: contact on every single possession, and if we're going by

619
00:32:05,760 --> 00:32:09,480
Speaker 1: the book, those are offensive fouls, and I don't want

620
00:32:09,560 --> 00:32:13,280
Speaker 1: them to be called offensive fouls. All I'm asking is

621
00:32:13,400 --> 00:32:18,280
Speaker 1: for the contact that comes in return the aggression matching

622
00:32:18,360 --> 00:32:22,360
Speaker 1: the aggression. I don't want that to be called. You know,

623
00:32:22,520 --> 00:32:26,600
Speaker 1: Lebron fans incessantly complained about him not getting foul calls.

624
00:32:26,840 --> 00:32:30,600
Speaker 1: I have always thought Lebron was officiated fairly. Why because

625
00:32:30,600 --> 00:32:33,720
Speaker 1: the dudes a bull in a china shop. Lebron James

626
00:32:33,800 --> 00:32:35,320
Speaker 1: is beating the hell out of you on his way

627
00:32:35,360 --> 00:32:37,760
Speaker 1: to the rim. He's whipping you with his with his

628
00:32:37,880 --> 00:32:40,480
Speaker 1: off arm, he's caving in your chest with his shoulder,

629
00:32:40,840 --> 00:32:43,120
Speaker 1: and I don't want that stuff called offensive foul, But

630
00:32:43,240 --> 00:32:45,840
Speaker 1: I just don't care that people hit him back. To me,

631
00:32:46,000 --> 00:32:49,560
Speaker 1: that's the given the take, that's the judgment call. And

632
00:32:49,880 --> 00:32:53,520
Speaker 1: to to Lebron's credit, he doesn't flop nearly as much

633
00:32:53,600 --> 00:32:55,720
Speaker 1: as those guys. I know, he has a reputation for

634
00:32:55,960 --> 00:32:58,920
Speaker 1: some super dramatic flops in his past, plenty of them

635
00:32:58,960 --> 00:33:01,160
Speaker 1: have made viral videos. But for the most part, when

636
00:33:01,240 --> 00:33:04,600
Speaker 1: Lebron drives into the lane, he's not as you know,

637
00:33:04,960 --> 00:33:08,440
Speaker 1: you know, uh, you know, he's not crazy with the histrionics.

638
00:33:08,920 --> 00:33:12,640
Speaker 1: Joel Embiide literally on every layup around the rim, kicks

639
00:33:12,760 --> 00:33:15,800
Speaker 1: both of his legs up like his heels almost touches.

640
00:33:15,840 --> 00:33:18,240
Speaker 1: But when he's shooting a layup underneath the rim, because

641
00:33:18,280 --> 00:33:21,680
Speaker 1: he's flailing and screaming and trying to draw fouls. There

642
00:33:21,760 --> 00:33:24,960
Speaker 1: was a play in that game where uh, Joel Embieve

643
00:33:25,000 --> 00:33:28,760
Speaker 1: was posting up precious a Chua literally caves in his

644
00:33:28,920 --> 00:33:31,240
Speaker 1: chest with a hard elbow right to the rib cage

645
00:33:31,280 --> 00:33:33,440
Speaker 1: and goes up with a hook shot, misses it, but

646
00:33:33,560 --> 00:33:35,080
Speaker 1: it's off the short part of the rim and lands

647
00:33:35,200 --> 00:33:37,800
Speaker 1: right back in his hands and presses. Chua gets turned

648
00:33:37,840 --> 00:33:39,920
Speaker 1: around and press She was just standing there with his

649
00:33:40,040 --> 00:33:42,360
Speaker 1: arms up, and Joel Lemie goes up and lightly bumps

650
00:33:42,400 --> 00:33:45,560
Speaker 1: into Precious his arm and gets an hand one. No

651
00:33:45,760 --> 00:33:48,760
Speaker 1: call at all for the massive elbow to the chest,

652
00:33:49,280 --> 00:33:51,520
Speaker 1: But we're gonna call Precious for the slight little bump

653
00:33:51,600 --> 00:33:54,840
Speaker 1: under the basket. And again I'm not saying call the

654
00:33:54,920 --> 00:33:58,000
Speaker 1: foul and the chicken wing. I'm not saying that. I'm saying,

655
00:33:58,400 --> 00:34:01,000
Speaker 1: let some give a little take a lip. If you're

656
00:34:01,000 --> 00:34:03,440
Speaker 1: gonna let Joel Embiad initiate a ton of contact around

657
00:34:03,440 --> 00:34:05,360
Speaker 1: the basket, you have to let people hit him back.

658
00:34:05,840 --> 00:34:07,920
Speaker 1: If you're gonna start calling Tiki tach fouls on every

659
00:34:07,960 --> 00:34:10,279
Speaker 1: single time a player touches him around the basket, then

660
00:34:10,320 --> 00:34:12,200
Speaker 1: you have to start calling Joel Embiad every time he

661
00:34:12,239 --> 00:34:14,279
Speaker 1: does a drop step. And I know you don't want

662
00:34:14,320 --> 00:34:16,640
Speaker 1: to do that, And most importantly, it's bad for the

663
00:34:16,680 --> 00:34:19,359
Speaker 1: flow of the game of basketball. This is a take

664
00:34:19,440 --> 00:34:21,080
Speaker 1: I've had for a long time, and Philly fans get

665
00:34:21,080 --> 00:34:23,080
Speaker 1: super upset about it, But this is the reality. It

666
00:34:23,200 --> 00:34:25,520
Speaker 1: is important for the health of the game of basketball

667
00:34:25,560 --> 00:34:27,480
Speaker 1: for Philly to lose if it's not in this round

668
00:34:27,480 --> 00:34:30,720
Speaker 1: and needs to happen in the next round. Why. Because

669
00:34:30,840 --> 00:34:34,360
Speaker 1: this kind of basketball is a terrible television product. The

670
00:34:34,440 --> 00:34:37,279
Speaker 1: pace of the game gets strangled. You're constantly watching Joel

671
00:34:37,320 --> 00:34:39,279
Speaker 1: Embiad and and James Harden go to the free throw line.

672
00:34:39,600 --> 00:34:42,640
Speaker 1: No fan of any basketball in the entire world likes

673
00:34:42,680 --> 00:34:46,279
Speaker 1: watching Joel Embiid, the biggest most athletic freak at the

674
00:34:46,320 --> 00:34:49,800
Speaker 1: center position we've had in ages, kick his legs literally

675
00:34:49,880 --> 00:34:52,240
Speaker 1: like he's a flailing jump shooter when he's shooting layups

676
00:34:52,280 --> 00:34:55,920
Speaker 1: underneath the basket. It's bad for the game. I love

677
00:34:56,040 --> 00:34:59,520
Speaker 1: Joel Embiad's game. I just want to see him play basketball.

678
00:35:00,280 --> 00:35:02,879
Speaker 1: I love James Harden's game. I just want to see

679
00:35:02,960 --> 00:35:05,720
Speaker 1: him play basketball. I don't want to see this foul drifting.

680
00:35:06,080 --> 00:35:10,080
Speaker 1: It's It is absolutely bad for the game of basketball.

681
00:35:10,480 --> 00:35:12,120
Speaker 1: All Right, I'm off my soapbox. We're gonna bring my

682
00:35:12,160 --> 00:35:16,160
Speaker 1: guy Carson on and we're gonna play some games. How

683
00:35:16,160 --> 00:35:18,840
Speaker 1: are you doing, Jason. I'm good, buddy, how are you?

684
00:35:20,040 --> 00:35:23,320
Speaker 1: I'm fantastic love to hear you on your soapbox. I

685
00:35:23,400 --> 00:35:25,440
Speaker 1: think you know, I think you're in the right there.

686
00:35:25,880 --> 00:35:27,399
Speaker 1: All right, So we are going to play a game.

687
00:35:27,600 --> 00:35:30,359
Speaker 1: It's a pretty simple one called good call, bad call.

688
00:35:30,640 --> 00:35:32,560
Speaker 1: I'm gonna present a decision to you. You tell me

689
00:35:32,640 --> 00:35:35,239
Speaker 1: if it's a good call or a bad call. We're

690
00:35:35,280 --> 00:35:37,920
Speaker 1: gonna get right into it with the heavy stuff here,

691
00:35:38,000 --> 00:35:41,279
Speaker 1: the hard hitting question good call or bad call? To

692
00:35:41,520 --> 00:35:45,240
Speaker 1: name your dog after yourself, as the great Anthony Edwards

693
00:35:45,360 --> 00:35:49,440
Speaker 1: did with his dog Anthony Edwards Jr. He named his

694
00:35:49,520 --> 00:35:53,760
Speaker 1: dog Anthony Edwards Jr. Oh yeah, he did. Twitter sensation

695
00:35:53,800 --> 00:35:58,600
Speaker 1: Anthony Edwards Jr. Okay, I I I only have one

696
00:35:58,760 --> 00:36:01,880
Speaker 1: rule with dog nay names, and it's it can't be

697
00:36:02,040 --> 00:36:06,920
Speaker 1: a person name. Like it has to be at all,

698
00:36:07,080 --> 00:36:09,319
Speaker 1: Like it has to be like at the very least

699
00:36:09,400 --> 00:36:13,000
Speaker 1: in the gray area of what might be considered a

700
00:36:13,120 --> 00:36:15,480
Speaker 1: person name. But like when you're getting into it, like

701
00:36:15,520 --> 00:36:17,840
Speaker 1: you can't name a dog Anthony, Okay, Like come on,

702
00:36:17,960 --> 00:36:20,759
Speaker 1: that's that's completely ridiculous, all right, Anthony Everards just lost

703
00:36:20,840 --> 00:36:23,880
Speaker 1: some points in my book. I gotta say, really, I

704
00:36:23,960 --> 00:36:26,680
Speaker 1: feel like there are human names that could be dog names.

705
00:36:26,719 --> 00:36:29,239
Speaker 1: I can name my dog Bruce. You know, I named

706
00:36:29,280 --> 00:36:32,000
Speaker 1: one of my dog Hudson. But I have to disagree

707
00:36:32,000 --> 00:36:33,960
Speaker 1: with you here. I support everything that Ann Edwards does.

708
00:36:34,000 --> 00:36:36,799
Speaker 1: He's my favorite NBA personality. He's got it all. He's

709
00:36:36,800 --> 00:36:39,960
Speaker 1: a dog, he's hilarious, he's honest. So all right, I

710
00:36:40,000 --> 00:36:42,759
Speaker 1: think it's a good call. All right. I'm gonna admit

711
00:36:42,800 --> 00:36:44,359
Speaker 1: that I'm a hypocrite here because I've got a I've

712
00:36:44,400 --> 00:36:46,160
Speaker 1: got a female dog in her name is Casey, so

713
00:36:46,280 --> 00:36:49,120
Speaker 1: I think that's uh. I have now been caught with

714
00:36:49,200 --> 00:36:51,640
Speaker 1: my foot in my metal. I'm a hypocrite. People names

715
00:36:51,680 --> 00:36:55,399
Speaker 1: are okay. I'm just not okay with Anthony. Okay, fair

716
00:36:55,760 --> 00:36:58,640
Speaker 1: at least showed up to it there, all right, good

717
00:36:58,680 --> 00:37:01,640
Speaker 1: call or bad called Jason for the Nets to bring

718
00:37:01,760 --> 00:37:05,000
Speaker 1: back Ben Simmons as early as Monday, which is now

719
00:37:05,120 --> 00:37:10,960
Speaker 1: a possibility. I'm gonna go with good call. I watched

720
00:37:10,960 --> 00:37:13,760
Speaker 1: a lot of film on the Celtics and the Nets

721
00:37:13,960 --> 00:37:19,160
Speaker 1: today and there was a considerable amount of defensive breakdowns

722
00:37:19,520 --> 00:37:22,279
Speaker 1: on the back end. Huge problem that the Nets had,

723
00:37:22,320 --> 00:37:24,000
Speaker 1: and we'll get into this a little bit deeper later

724
00:37:24,080 --> 00:37:27,200
Speaker 1: in the show, is Kevin Durant wants to guard Jason Tatum,

725
00:37:27,600 --> 00:37:30,360
Speaker 1: and I disagree with that from a strategy standpoint, But

726
00:37:30,960 --> 00:37:33,520
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant is a very important part of their defense

727
00:37:33,560 --> 00:37:36,800
Speaker 1: with his ability to disrupt shots around the rim. And

728
00:37:36,880 --> 00:37:39,120
Speaker 1: if he keeps getting dragged out to the perimeter on

729
00:37:39,200 --> 00:37:41,000
Speaker 1: these double teams of Tatum and on these you know,

730
00:37:41,160 --> 00:37:42,759
Speaker 1: Tatum bringing the ball up the floor as a point

731
00:37:42,800 --> 00:37:45,000
Speaker 1: guard while guys like Jalen Brown are driving to the

732
00:37:45,080 --> 00:37:46,720
Speaker 1: rim with no help, it's going to be a problem.

733
00:37:46,800 --> 00:37:48,279
Speaker 1: So you have one of two things that you can do.

734
00:37:48,960 --> 00:37:51,279
Speaker 1: You you can put Kevin Durant on someone else so

735
00:37:51,400 --> 00:37:53,440
Speaker 1: that he can be more of a helper around the basket,

736
00:37:53,719 --> 00:37:56,160
Speaker 1: But then you need someone on Tatum. And so getting

737
00:37:56,280 --> 00:37:59,160
Speaker 1: Ben Simmons is just a guy who can do what

738
00:37:59,320 --> 00:38:02,520
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant does defensively on the perimeter. So that Kevin

739
00:38:02,600 --> 00:38:05,360
Speaker 1: Durant can do what Kevin Durant does defensively around the basket,

740
00:38:05,800 --> 00:38:08,080
Speaker 1: it would change the dynamic of the Nets defense in

741
00:38:08,160 --> 00:38:10,840
Speaker 1: this series. And so I think if if Ben Simmons

742
00:38:10,920 --> 00:38:13,920
Speaker 1: is ready to go and the medical staff doesn't think

743
00:38:14,000 --> 00:38:16,919
Speaker 1: that him playing, could further compromise his ability to play

744
00:38:17,040 --> 00:38:22,040
Speaker 1: next year. You gotta bring him back. How much does

745
00:38:22,200 --> 00:38:26,120
Speaker 1: that raise the nets defensive ceiling and just make their

746
00:38:26,200 --> 00:38:29,120
Speaker 1: job easier winning the series because obviously stopping you know,

747
00:38:29,160 --> 00:38:31,319
Speaker 1: those high level scoring wings is so important. And then

748
00:38:31,719 --> 00:38:34,440
Speaker 1: you got a pretty darn good defensive wing Tanem with

749
00:38:34,520 --> 00:38:38,920
Speaker 1: Simmons and Katie out there. Absolutely it It is a huge,

750
00:38:39,040 --> 00:38:43,720
Speaker 1: huge ceiling razor. You know, Brooklyn had no trouble scoring

751
00:38:43,760 --> 00:38:46,440
Speaker 1: against Boston in the half court. I've heard a lot

752
00:38:46,480 --> 00:38:48,440
Speaker 1: of people say things like, oh, they wasted a good

753
00:38:48,520 --> 00:38:51,200
Speaker 1: Kyrie game, And my thing is, like, have you watched

754
00:38:51,280 --> 00:38:54,279
Speaker 1: Kyrie's playoff career? Are you expecting him to go out

755
00:38:54,320 --> 00:38:56,000
Speaker 1: and lay an egg in Game two? I mean, he might,

756
00:38:56,040 --> 00:38:57,600
Speaker 1: It's not like it's it's not like it's out of

757
00:38:57,640 --> 00:39:00,760
Speaker 1: the realm of possibility. But like Kyrie has like multiple

758
00:39:01,280 --> 00:39:03,800
Speaker 1: three four game stretches in his playoff career where he

759
00:39:03,920 --> 00:39:08,120
Speaker 1: just doesn't miss shots. So like, there's the Kyrie absolutely

760
00:39:08,200 --> 00:39:09,560
Speaker 1: is still going to be a factor in the series

761
00:39:09,600 --> 00:39:12,120
Speaker 1: as it goes along. And Kevin Durant again, We're gonna

762
00:39:12,120 --> 00:39:13,880
Speaker 1: talk about this a little more later. Kevin Durant had

763
00:39:13,880 --> 00:39:18,279
Speaker 1: a disastrous game, like utterly disastrous. He was fumbling the

764
00:39:18,320 --> 00:39:20,759
Speaker 1: ball all over the court, making so many mistakes. He

765
00:39:20,840 --> 00:39:23,480
Speaker 1: had a bad defensive game as well. Kevin Durant is

766
00:39:23,480 --> 00:39:25,319
Speaker 1: gonna be so much better. But I talked a lot

767
00:39:25,320 --> 00:39:27,320
Speaker 1: about four of the series. I said that the Brooklyn

768
00:39:27,400 --> 00:39:29,280
Speaker 1: offense was one of the best offenses in the league,

769
00:39:29,480 --> 00:39:31,440
Speaker 1: and the Boston defense was one of the best defenses

770
00:39:31,440 --> 00:39:32,640
Speaker 1: in the league. And then on the other end of

771
00:39:32,680 --> 00:39:36,839
Speaker 1: the floor, Boston is a slightly above average half court

772
00:39:36,880 --> 00:39:40,600
Speaker 1: offense and the Brooklyn Nets are slightly above average half

773
00:39:40,640 --> 00:39:44,080
Speaker 1: court defense. So if I could turn Brooklyn's half court

774
00:39:44,160 --> 00:39:48,000
Speaker 1: defense into a good the half court defense, that could

775
00:39:48,000 --> 00:39:50,160
Speaker 1: be a huge swing in this series. So I think

776
00:39:50,239 --> 00:39:52,719
Speaker 1: the Ben's I've I think the Ben Simmons thing would

777
00:39:52,719 --> 00:39:56,879
Speaker 1: be a massive change for this series. Alright, So as

778
00:39:56,960 --> 00:39:59,560
Speaker 1: we talk about this series and specifically some of the

779
00:39:59,640 --> 00:40:04,400
Speaker 1: defense of Dynamics, Marcus Smart was given deploy today. They

780
00:40:04,440 --> 00:40:06,239
Speaker 1: had a whole thing with Kerry Payton coming and did

781
00:40:06,280 --> 00:40:08,960
Speaker 1: it on the TNT broadcast. So, Jason, is that a

782
00:40:09,120 --> 00:40:14,080
Speaker 1: good call or bad call? I feel bad saying bad

783
00:40:14,160 --> 00:40:22,000
Speaker 1: call because Marcus Smart played the best possible defensive season

784
00:40:22,120 --> 00:40:25,880
Speaker 1: that a guard could play. Yeah, so I hope let

785
00:40:25,960 --> 00:40:27,960
Speaker 1: me just I'll just I'll just say it, Marcus Smart,

786
00:40:28,280 --> 00:40:30,920
Speaker 1: unbelievable season. One of the best guard defensive seasons I've

787
00:40:30,960 --> 00:40:36,560
Speaker 1: ever seen. Kudos, man, you deserve an award. But the

788
00:40:37,280 --> 00:40:39,960
Speaker 1: you know who really put me onto this was Joel Embiid.

789
00:40:40,080 --> 00:40:41,960
Speaker 1: And this is what frustrates me so much about his

790
00:40:42,480 --> 00:40:45,040
Speaker 1: foul drifting because I like so much about him as

791
00:40:45,040 --> 00:40:48,239
Speaker 1: a basketball player. And he was talking with J. J.

792
00:40:48,360 --> 00:40:51,239
Speaker 1: Reddick about how big man should win Defensive Player of

793
00:40:51,280 --> 00:40:53,360
Speaker 1: the Year, and he made a case that swayed me

794
00:40:53,680 --> 00:40:57,879
Speaker 1: and I agree with him, and his case was our

795
00:40:58,080 --> 00:41:00,880
Speaker 1: job as the big man on the back line of

796
00:41:00,920 --> 00:41:05,440
Speaker 1: the defense is two quarterback the defense to call out coverages.

797
00:41:05,920 --> 00:41:08,480
Speaker 1: We're supposed to memorize the plays that the other team

798
00:41:08,560 --> 00:41:11,120
Speaker 1: runs so that we can call them out so that

799
00:41:11,239 --> 00:41:13,680
Speaker 1: the other guys on the floor know what's coming. The

800
00:41:13,800 --> 00:41:16,840
Speaker 1: defensive role of the big man under the basket is

801
00:41:16,960 --> 00:41:21,520
Speaker 1: so remarkably important and carries additional responsibilities over what the

802
00:41:21,560 --> 00:41:25,640
Speaker 1: guards do. You know, It's like football, like you could

803
00:41:25,680 --> 00:41:28,800
Speaker 1: have Oh, b J come out and just have the

804
00:41:28,920 --> 00:41:32,720
Speaker 1: best season of receiver could possibly have, but I wouldn't

805
00:41:32,760 --> 00:41:36,080
Speaker 1: give him offensive m V P because the the the

806
00:41:36,360 --> 00:41:39,680
Speaker 1: role of the quarterback in navigating the game, the flow

807
00:41:39,760 --> 00:41:43,279
Speaker 1: of the game, his role making pre snap decisions and

808
00:41:43,360 --> 00:41:45,719
Speaker 1: trying to determine where the blitz is coming from, and

809
00:41:45,760 --> 00:41:47,879
Speaker 1: trying to just determine whether or not they're going zone

810
00:41:47,920 --> 00:41:49,640
Speaker 1: coverage or man coverage, or whether or not they're trying

811
00:41:49,640 --> 00:41:53,520
Speaker 1: to disguise that coverage. There's so many important responsibilities that

812
00:41:53,640 --> 00:41:57,080
Speaker 1: fall on the lap of the quarterback that it's to me,

813
00:41:57,200 --> 00:41:59,759
Speaker 1: it's kind of impossible for a quarterback not to be

814
00:42:00,280 --> 00:42:01,640
Speaker 1: the m v P of the league. They have to

815
00:42:01,719 --> 00:42:04,600
Speaker 1: be in my opinion. And so it's the same concept here.

816
00:42:04,920 --> 00:42:08,600
Speaker 1: And you know, I'll give you an example. So like,

817
00:42:08,680 --> 00:42:10,560
Speaker 1: for instance, when I was in college, we would run

818
00:42:11,120 --> 00:42:14,000
Speaker 1: a specific uh a pick and roll coverage on the

819
00:42:14,080 --> 00:42:15,640
Speaker 1: left side of the floor and on the right side

820
00:42:15,680 --> 00:42:17,200
Speaker 1: of the floor, and then when we were in the

821
00:42:17,239 --> 00:42:19,360
Speaker 1: middle of the floor, we'd run a completely different coverage.

822
00:42:19,840 --> 00:42:23,319
Speaker 1: We had to. We literally would spend the entire week

823
00:42:23,400 --> 00:42:26,799
Speaker 1: before the game memorizing the other team's plays because when

824
00:42:26,840 --> 00:42:29,080
Speaker 1: you don't know where screens are coming from, they catch

825
00:42:29,160 --> 00:42:32,520
Speaker 1: you off guard. It is extremely difficult to navigate screens

826
00:42:32,560 --> 00:42:34,640
Speaker 1: when you do know where they're coming from. Especially for

827
00:42:34,719 --> 00:42:36,440
Speaker 1: a guy like me it was six ft six, I

828
00:42:36,520 --> 00:42:39,560
Speaker 1: had a hard time navigating over screens. It's really hard

829
00:42:39,640 --> 00:42:41,799
Speaker 1: for bigger guys. So you it helps to know where

830
00:42:41,840 --> 00:42:44,279
Speaker 1: they're coming from, and the job of the big man

831
00:42:44,320 --> 00:42:46,400
Speaker 1: behind the play, because when you're picking up the point guards,

832
00:42:46,440 --> 00:42:48,720
Speaker 1: the point guards coming up the floor. So Marcus Smart's

833
00:42:48,719 --> 00:42:51,520
Speaker 1: guarding Kyrie Irving tomorrow, Kyrie Irving's bringing the ball to

834
00:42:51,560 --> 00:42:54,520
Speaker 1: the floor, He's picking him up a half court. It's

835
00:42:54,680 --> 00:42:57,400
Speaker 1: he doesn't know what's happening behind him. He doesn't know

836
00:42:57,560 --> 00:43:00,399
Speaker 1: what kind of coverage or what kind of screen action

837
00:43:00,480 --> 00:43:02,560
Speaker 1: Kevin Durants using to get open on the week side.

838
00:43:02,600 --> 00:43:04,680
Speaker 1: He doesn't know if they're setting up some kind of

839
00:43:04,719 --> 00:43:08,080
Speaker 1: backdoor lob. It is the job of Al Horford, whoever

840
00:43:08,200 --> 00:43:10,160
Speaker 1: it is in that position for the Celtics on any

841
00:43:10,239 --> 00:43:13,759
Speaker 1: given possession, to call out what coverages are being used,

842
00:43:13,800 --> 00:43:15,759
Speaker 1: to call out the play that's being used. So I

843
00:43:16,000 --> 00:43:18,239
Speaker 1: I tend to agree with Joel Embi that it has

844
00:43:18,320 --> 00:43:19,960
Speaker 1: to be a big man, and so because of that,

845
00:43:20,480 --> 00:43:23,120
Speaker 1: I would have gone with somebody like a a like

846
00:43:23,239 --> 00:43:25,840
Speaker 1: a Rudy Gobert, or or like a bam At a

847
00:43:25,880 --> 00:43:29,239
Speaker 1: Bio or even Jaren Jackson before I go to someone

848
00:43:29,280 --> 00:43:31,080
Speaker 1: like Marcus Smart. And the last thing I'll say about

849
00:43:31,120 --> 00:43:33,839
Speaker 1: it is like, I know, as the league moves into

850
00:43:33,920 --> 00:43:39,120
Speaker 1: this five out era, perimeter defense becomes remarkably important. But

851
00:43:39,960 --> 00:43:42,120
Speaker 1: it's not like the old days where you'd put Bruce

852
00:43:42,200 --> 00:43:45,240
Speaker 1: Brown or Bruce Bowen excuse me, on the other team's

853
00:43:45,280 --> 00:43:47,680
Speaker 1: best player and have him guard him the entire game,

854
00:43:47,800 --> 00:43:50,239
Speaker 1: or put you know, metal world piece ron our Test

855
00:43:50,320 --> 00:43:52,000
Speaker 1: on the other team's best player he guards him the

856
00:43:52,000 --> 00:43:55,399
Speaker 1: whole game. Teams are so smart now that like it's

857
00:43:55,440 --> 00:43:57,560
Speaker 1: pretty rare for you to attack the other team's best

858
00:43:57,560 --> 00:43:59,480
Speaker 1: player with your best player. They're gonna find some way

859
00:43:59,520 --> 00:44:02,160
Speaker 1: to get him off of you. And so unfortunately that

860
00:44:02,280 --> 00:44:06,000
Speaker 1: perimeter defense player, even though they are still extremely valuable,

861
00:44:06,400 --> 00:44:08,480
Speaker 1: they're just not as valuable as that back line guy.

862
00:44:08,480 --> 00:44:09,920
Speaker 1: And I'm always going to go that way. So I

863
00:44:09,920 --> 00:44:11,440
Speaker 1: would have given the Defense Player of the Year to

864
00:44:11,520 --> 00:44:15,479
Speaker 1: Rudy Gobert this year. So you're not just talking about

865
00:44:15,560 --> 00:44:19,000
Speaker 1: pure guards. They're like if there's a wing like Pete Kauai,

866
00:44:19,080 --> 00:44:29,000
Speaker 1: who obviously won back to back depois same So you know,

867
00:44:29,560 --> 00:44:33,040
Speaker 1: I used to advocate all the time for Lebron to

868
00:44:33,160 --> 00:44:35,960
Speaker 1: get Defensive Player of the Year. And I was wrong

869
00:44:36,040 --> 00:44:39,319
Speaker 1: about that, like just to just to come straight out

870
00:44:39,480 --> 00:44:42,560
Speaker 1: because I didn't understand that yet. And two kudos to

871
00:44:42,680 --> 00:44:44,520
Speaker 1: Joe l Embiid for breaking it down in a way

872
00:44:44,560 --> 00:44:46,640
Speaker 1: that I thought was so important. And it's funny because

873
00:44:46,640 --> 00:44:49,320
Speaker 1: I had all those pieces of information. I had access

874
00:44:49,760 --> 00:44:52,400
Speaker 1: to those pieces of information the whole time, but I

875
00:44:52,520 --> 00:44:54,480
Speaker 1: just didn't put two and two together. Like I literally

876
00:44:54,520 --> 00:44:57,040
Speaker 1: played college basketball in that setting. My center was a

877
00:44:57,040 --> 00:44:59,640
Speaker 1: guy named a Tais Olivierira. He called out every coverage

878
00:44:59,680 --> 00:45:01,840
Speaker 1: and I just didn't put that together. And and and

879
00:45:02,080 --> 00:45:05,000
Speaker 1: so I was wrong to advocate for Lebron in those years.

880
00:45:05,360 --> 00:45:07,880
Speaker 1: Kauai should not have won it in those years. The

881
00:45:08,000 --> 00:45:11,040
Speaker 1: quarter and you know, unless, and this is the difference,

882
00:45:11,120 --> 00:45:14,400
Speaker 1: unless within the Spurs system, Kauai's job was to be

883
00:45:14,480 --> 00:45:16,560
Speaker 1: the quarterback of the defense. I just don't think that

884
00:45:16,840 --> 00:45:19,279
Speaker 1: was the case because it's very difficult for a wing

885
00:45:19,960 --> 00:45:22,680
Speaker 1: to be in the correct spots on the floor to

886
00:45:22,760 --> 00:45:25,959
Speaker 1: be able to call out coverages and so and just listen,

887
00:45:26,080 --> 00:45:28,279
Speaker 1: like you listen to the big guys on the floor,

888
00:45:28,440 --> 00:45:30,560
Speaker 1: even even when they're not miked up. You can hear

889
00:45:30,600 --> 00:45:32,920
Speaker 1: them yell ice, ice ice, So you can hear them

890
00:45:33,000 --> 00:45:34,879
Speaker 1: yell drop drop drop, you can hear them yell their

891
00:45:34,920 --> 00:45:37,839
Speaker 1: coverage out. I loved how they miked up Joe LMB tonight.

892
00:45:37,880 --> 00:45:40,200
Speaker 1: It's kind of a perfect little uh set up for

893
00:45:40,280 --> 00:45:42,359
Speaker 1: this conversation. So you can kind of see the way

894
00:45:42,440 --> 00:45:44,600
Speaker 1: Joe l m B navigates that over the course of

895
00:45:44,640 --> 00:45:46,960
Speaker 1: the game screaming out you did there were there was

896
00:45:47,000 --> 00:45:49,479
Speaker 1: a sequence where he was like yelling out double double double.

897
00:45:49,480 --> 00:45:52,239
Speaker 1: He's literally telling where the screens are coming from, where

898
00:45:52,600 --> 00:45:55,320
Speaker 1: you know how many screens there are. His job is

899
00:45:55,400 --> 00:45:58,839
Speaker 1: so incredibly important, and and that that that just has

900
00:45:58,920 --> 00:46:02,080
Speaker 1: to be factored in in this kind thing. I think. So,

901
00:46:02,200 --> 00:46:04,120
Speaker 1: who would you have given deepoint to you this year?

902
00:46:05,280 --> 00:46:09,560
Speaker 1: Rudy Gobert? Bam, bam. You know we're gonna we're gonna

903
00:46:09,640 --> 00:46:11,920
Speaker 1: talk more about Rudy Gobert in the Utah Jazz here

904
00:46:11,920 --> 00:46:14,279
Speaker 1: in just a minute, because I know when everybody when

905
00:46:14,320 --> 00:46:16,040
Speaker 1: I say that, I know all of you are immediately

906
00:46:16,080 --> 00:46:18,680
Speaker 1: going to, hey, this is horseshit, The the jazz suck.

907
00:46:18,960 --> 00:46:21,399
Speaker 1: How can you give it to Rudy Gobert. But Rudy

908
00:46:21,440 --> 00:46:23,959
Speaker 1: Gobert is not the reason why the Utah Jazz defense sucks.

909
00:46:24,320 --> 00:46:25,960
Speaker 1: Will get into that in a minute. The only reason

910
00:46:26,000 --> 00:46:28,600
Speaker 1: I'm not getting into guys like bam at a bios

911
00:46:28,640 --> 00:46:32,920
Speaker 1: he didn't play enough games. Jaren Jackson Jr. Was amazing

912
00:46:33,000 --> 00:46:36,879
Speaker 1: defensively for parts of the season, but also he played

913
00:46:36,920 --> 00:46:38,480
Speaker 1: a lot of his minutes with Steven Adams, and I

914
00:46:38,520 --> 00:46:40,799
Speaker 1: think Steven Adams was more of the quarterback for them.

915
00:46:41,040 --> 00:46:43,719
Speaker 1: I think Jaren Jackson Jr. Could be a Defense Player

916
00:46:43,719 --> 00:46:45,719
Speaker 1: of the Year in the future. To me, like it's

917
00:46:45,760 --> 00:46:48,280
Speaker 1: kind of an imperfect field of candidates, kind of similar

918
00:46:48,320 --> 00:46:51,040
Speaker 1: to the m VP debate. You're picking a flawed candidate.

919
00:46:51,520 --> 00:46:53,279
Speaker 1: But I'm gonna pick the flawed candidate that I know

920
00:46:53,600 --> 00:46:55,319
Speaker 1: is one of the best defense players in the league,

921
00:46:55,320 --> 00:46:57,399
Speaker 1: and it's gonna be Rudy Gobert. How do you stay healthy?

922
00:46:57,400 --> 00:47:02,120
Speaker 1: Would have gone to dreamlond H. So what we're sort

923
00:47:02,160 --> 00:47:04,920
Speaker 1: of your thoughts on that MAVs Jazz game today then,

924
00:47:06,680 --> 00:47:13,600
Speaker 1: so you know, there there's a persistent need among basketball

925
00:47:13,640 --> 00:47:17,839
Speaker 1: fans around the world, especially on Twitter, to make fun

926
00:47:18,239 --> 00:47:22,279
Speaker 1: of the Jazz at Rudy Gobert's expense. He's he's the

927
00:47:22,400 --> 00:47:26,080
Speaker 1: punching bag and I fell into this too a little

928
00:47:26,120 --> 00:47:29,480
Speaker 1: bit before I started covering the league more closely, back

929
00:47:29,520 --> 00:47:32,320
Speaker 1: when I would only see Rudy Gobert and small doses

930
00:47:32,520 --> 00:47:35,480
Speaker 1: and special credit to a guy named Ben Dao said,

931
00:47:35,480 --> 00:47:37,239
Speaker 1: who covers the Jazz and you guys got to check

932
00:47:37,320 --> 00:47:39,920
Speaker 1: him out if you're not already following him. But he

933
00:47:40,480 --> 00:47:42,200
Speaker 1: sent me a ton of film and broke it down

934
00:47:42,239 --> 00:47:44,520
Speaker 1: for me in detail, the specific flaws that the Utah

935
00:47:44,640 --> 00:47:48,200
Speaker 1: Jazz defense has. But the gist of it is they

936
00:47:48,280 --> 00:47:52,960
Speaker 1: are a terrible defensive team around Rudy Gobert, and as

937
00:47:53,040 --> 00:47:59,320
Speaker 1: a result, very simple actions utterly compromise the Jazz defense.

938
00:48:00,040 --> 00:48:03,120
Speaker 1: And as a result, you see these guys scoring at will,

939
00:48:03,920 --> 00:48:10,799
Speaker 1: and you see Rudy Gobert kind of seeming hapless and ineffective,

940
00:48:11,239 --> 00:48:13,759
Speaker 1: and it's easy to just immediately go that route, like, oh,

941
00:48:13,800 --> 00:48:16,239
Speaker 1: look at Rudy Gobert, his man scoring every single time.

942
00:48:16,920 --> 00:48:19,160
Speaker 1: But like at the end of that game, they just

943
00:48:19,239 --> 00:48:22,280
Speaker 1: took Dwight Powell off the floor. They put Maxine Cleber

944
00:48:22,320 --> 00:48:24,680
Speaker 1: in the corner, and they had four guys that could

945
00:48:24,680 --> 00:48:27,880
Speaker 1: shoot around him, Spencer Dinwoodie, Jalen Bronson, Reggie Bullock and

946
00:48:28,000 --> 00:48:30,640
Speaker 1: Dorry and Phinney Smith, and then what they would do

947
00:48:30,840 --> 00:48:32,800
Speaker 1: is have the ball on one of the wings, usually

948
00:48:32,880 --> 00:48:35,560
Speaker 1: the left wing, and they put Maxine Cleber in the

949
00:48:35,760 --> 00:48:40,640
Speaker 1: right corner. So at that point, Rudy Gobert is in

950
00:48:40,680 --> 00:48:44,600
Speaker 1: a tough position because he's the help side defender, so

951
00:48:44,760 --> 00:48:46,680
Speaker 1: he's got to be there to cover for the drives.

952
00:48:47,480 --> 00:48:49,400
Speaker 1: But Maxine Cleiber is in the corner and he's made

953
00:48:49,440 --> 00:48:53,120
Speaker 1: a bunch of threes already tonight. But Spencer Dinwood, he's

954
00:48:53,160 --> 00:48:56,320
Speaker 1: going right around his man to the basket. Jalen Brunson's

955
00:48:56,360 --> 00:48:59,400
Speaker 1: going right around his man to the basket. So if

956
00:48:59,480 --> 00:49:02,239
Speaker 1: Rudy gober Are guards Maxine Cleber in the corner and

957
00:49:02,360 --> 00:49:05,080
Speaker 1: Spencer din what he gets six wide open layups? Are

958
00:49:05,120 --> 00:49:07,800
Speaker 1: you guys gonna suddenly decide to not slander Rudy Gobert.

959
00:49:09,080 --> 00:49:12,440
Speaker 1: Rudy's doing his job. There's no defense in the league

960
00:49:13,040 --> 00:49:16,520
Speaker 1: that should allow one drive and kick to get wide

961
00:49:16,560 --> 00:49:19,840
Speaker 1: open three after wide open three. In the NBA playoffs,

962
00:49:20,080 --> 00:49:23,040
Speaker 1: no defense worth their salt should do that. There were

963
00:49:23,040 --> 00:49:27,359
Speaker 1: a bunch of plays where Boyan Bogdanovich is literally ten

964
00:49:27,440 --> 00:49:31,000
Speaker 1: ft away from Maxine Cleiber in that corner and doesn't

965
00:49:31,160 --> 00:49:34,920
Speaker 1: bother to rotate over and guard the shooter. They're like,

966
00:49:35,440 --> 00:49:40,800
Speaker 1: that's just embarrassing effort defensively around Rudy Gobert, their tissue

967
00:49:40,840 --> 00:49:43,640
Speaker 1: paper at the point of attack, giving up straight line

968
00:49:43,719 --> 00:49:46,480
Speaker 1: drive after straight line drive. To you know, Jalen Brunson

969
00:49:46,600 --> 00:49:48,080
Speaker 1: is a great player. We're gonna talk about him here

970
00:49:48,120 --> 00:49:50,240
Speaker 1: in a minute. Spencer Dinwood, he's having a rough series,

971
00:49:50,600 --> 00:49:53,359
Speaker 1: but he's you know, he's he's Those two guys are

972
00:49:53,400 --> 00:49:58,680
Speaker 1: not high level perimeter guys. They're not Kyrie Irving, they're

973
00:49:58,680 --> 00:50:02,800
Speaker 1: not Donovan Mitchell, they're not Morand and they're just getting

974
00:50:02,840 --> 00:50:05,960
Speaker 1: to the paint every time they want, and Rudy Gobert

975
00:50:06,000 --> 00:50:08,279
Speaker 1: has to step over and help. And it's an easy

976
00:50:08,360 --> 00:50:11,680
Speaker 1: kickout for a three point shot every single time. And

977
00:50:11,800 --> 00:50:14,680
Speaker 1: like I talked about all the time, your defense should

978
00:50:14,760 --> 00:50:17,600
Speaker 1: be able to give up a straight line drive, but

979
00:50:17,800 --> 00:50:20,480
Speaker 1: you have to rotate on the back end at the

980
00:50:20,640 --> 00:50:23,239
Speaker 1: very least make them pass it around three or four

981
00:50:23,320 --> 00:50:26,160
Speaker 1: times before they get a wide open three. It's like,

982
00:50:27,320 --> 00:50:31,239
Speaker 1: you know, Luca, Luca dont needs to go buy all

983
00:50:31,320 --> 00:50:34,440
Speaker 1: these guys a steak dinner. Because I said on the

984
00:50:34,480 --> 00:50:36,360
Speaker 1: show the other day that I didn't know that they

985
00:50:36,400 --> 00:50:38,799
Speaker 1: could win a game without Luca, and I thought their

986
00:50:38,880 --> 00:50:41,000
Speaker 1: only chance was Luca coming back in Game three and

987
00:50:41,080 --> 00:50:43,880
Speaker 1: pulling this series out in seven games. And the Jazz

988
00:50:43,960 --> 00:50:46,800
Speaker 1: might have just nuked even that because they had no

989
00:50:46,920 --> 00:50:50,640
Speaker 1: business losing this basketball game. But this is it, you know.

990
00:50:50,760 --> 00:50:53,160
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's Quinn Snyder's fault that their

991
00:50:53,160 --> 00:50:55,759
Speaker 1: weak side rotations are so bad, or if it's just

992
00:50:55,880 --> 00:50:58,360
Speaker 1: a lack of commitment, or if it's a personnel issue.

993
00:50:58,400 --> 00:51:00,319
Speaker 1: I mean, it could very well be a personnel to shoo.

994
00:51:00,400 --> 00:51:02,200
Speaker 1: Mike Connolly is a small guard that doesn't cover a

995
00:51:02,280 --> 00:51:05,520
Speaker 1: lot of ground. Jordan Clarkson is a good scoring guard.

996
00:51:05,640 --> 00:51:07,680
Speaker 1: He was killing them tonight with that little short step

997
00:51:07,760 --> 00:51:09,799
Speaker 1: back in the lane, a little eight foot step back,

998
00:51:10,000 --> 00:51:12,759
Speaker 1: but he's not a great defensive player. Boyan Bogdanovitch is

999
00:51:12,800 --> 00:51:16,000
Speaker 1: actually okay in isolation defense against bigger wings, but he's

1000
00:51:16,040 --> 00:51:18,000
Speaker 1: not good covering a lot of ground on the back end.

1001
00:51:18,320 --> 00:51:21,560
Speaker 1: It's really Rudy Gobert covering for his teammates, and in

1002
00:51:21,680 --> 00:51:23,879
Speaker 1: the dregs of the regular season, when they can run

1003
00:51:23,960 --> 00:51:26,680
Speaker 1: drop coverage all night long, and when Rudy Gobert because

1004
00:51:26,680 --> 00:51:29,560
Speaker 1: teams aren't scheming appropriately for it. He can sit around

1005
00:51:29,600 --> 00:51:32,759
Speaker 1: in the paint, they're gonna have success. Guys like Dwight

1006
00:51:32,840 --> 00:51:36,520
Speaker 1: Powell played the vast majority of of minutes at the

1007
00:51:36,600 --> 00:51:38,760
Speaker 1: five for this team over the course of the season.

1008
00:51:39,320 --> 00:51:41,560
Speaker 1: So for a lot of like the day in, day

1009
00:51:41,600 --> 00:51:44,960
Speaker 1: out regular season stuff, that's Dwight Powell, that's Rudy Gobert

1010
00:51:45,040 --> 00:51:47,279
Speaker 1: sitting under the basket and they're shutting him down. Game

1011
00:51:47,320 --> 00:51:50,920
Speaker 1: one of the series, they played, uh two shifts of

1012
00:51:51,520 --> 00:51:53,200
Speaker 1: Dwight powet at the start of the quarter. Then they

1013
00:51:53,239 --> 00:51:55,400
Speaker 1: tried to bring him in for offensive defensive swaps. But

1014
00:51:55,760 --> 00:51:57,400
Speaker 1: Dwight Powell was on the floor for a lot of

1015
00:51:57,480 --> 00:51:59,960
Speaker 1: offensive possessions in that fourth quarter and it caused him problems.

1016
00:52:00,000 --> 00:52:01,120
Speaker 1: But you know what you do in the playoffs, You

1017
00:52:01,160 --> 00:52:03,640
Speaker 1: make adjustments. They made a simple adjustment. They went away

1018
00:52:03,680 --> 00:52:06,759
Speaker 1: from Dwight Powell. They went smaller with four scoring of

1019
00:52:06,800 --> 00:52:08,480
Speaker 1: guys that can shoot in max and clear but big

1020
00:52:08,480 --> 00:52:10,719
Speaker 1: who can shoot. And that was all it took to

1021
00:52:10,960 --> 00:52:15,400
Speaker 1: completely and utterly compromise Utah Jazz defense with a pretty

1022
00:52:15,520 --> 00:52:19,080
Speaker 1: average group of offensive players. And so I I have

1023
00:52:19,280 --> 00:52:21,720
Speaker 1: to I have to come to the defense of Rudy

1024
00:52:21,760 --> 00:52:24,840
Speaker 1: Gobert here. He is still, in my opinion, in that

1025
00:52:25,000 --> 00:52:26,879
Speaker 1: top tier of defensive players in the league. I think

1026
00:52:26,880 --> 00:52:29,320
Speaker 1: it's him and Draymond, two very different guys in a

1027
00:52:29,360 --> 00:52:32,279
Speaker 1: lot of different ways. I think Rudy obviously has the

1028
00:52:32,320 --> 00:52:34,600
Speaker 1: better set of tools. Draymond I think has the bigger

1029
00:52:34,680 --> 00:52:37,480
Speaker 1: defensive basketball brain. But those two guys are the best

1030
00:52:37,520 --> 00:52:40,160
Speaker 1: defensive players in league. Rudy Gobert is still every bit

1031
00:52:40,239 --> 00:52:43,799
Speaker 1: in that conversation. He just has a garbage defensive team,

1032
00:52:44,239 --> 00:52:46,400
Speaker 1: and every time they stuck on defense, he's the one

1033
00:52:46,440 --> 00:52:49,640
Speaker 1: who gets blamed. Last shot that I wanted to to

1034
00:52:49,719 --> 00:52:52,840
Speaker 1: have on this particular game was Jalen Brunson. Jalen Brunson

1035
00:52:52,960 --> 00:52:55,560
Speaker 1: average eight points a game in the Clippers series last year.

1036
00:52:56,560 --> 00:52:59,560
Speaker 1: He was utterly shut down by Nick Patum. Could not

1037
00:52:59,680 --> 00:53:03,439
Speaker 1: create his own shot, and you know it'd be easy

1038
00:53:03,520 --> 00:53:06,080
Speaker 1: to get discouraged there, and he had a pretty rough

1039
00:53:06,160 --> 00:53:08,600
Speaker 1: game one. I talked a lot after that game about

1040
00:53:08,640 --> 00:53:12,080
Speaker 1: how much more difficult it is to be a primary

1041
00:53:12,200 --> 00:53:15,840
Speaker 1: offensive option than a secondary offensive option, or a secondary

1042
00:53:15,920 --> 00:53:18,640
Speaker 1: offensive option then the third defense or offensive option. Look

1043
00:53:18,640 --> 00:53:20,880
Speaker 1: at how bet Spencer didn't what he is it has

1044
00:53:20,960 --> 00:53:22,800
Speaker 1: been in this series and he's just stepping into a

1045
00:53:22,920 --> 00:53:26,120
Speaker 1: secondary role. But Jalen Brunson was awesome tonight. And this

1046
00:53:26,200 --> 00:53:28,719
Speaker 1: is the other part of the Utah Jazz defensive scheme

1047
00:53:28,880 --> 00:53:32,560
Speaker 1: to drop coverage. A lot of what Jalen Brunson was

1048
00:53:32,600 --> 00:53:35,279
Speaker 1: getting was just here comes Max and clear, but to

1049
00:53:35,320 --> 00:53:38,480
Speaker 1: set a screen and you know, or Dwight Powell to

1050
00:53:38,480 --> 00:53:41,120
Speaker 1: set a screen. And there's Rudy Gobert dropping into the

1051
00:53:41,120 --> 00:53:43,399
Speaker 1: paint and here's Jalen Brunson shooting a wide open jump

1052
00:53:43,440 --> 00:53:44,800
Speaker 1: shot at top of the key and he's knocking it

1053
00:53:44,880 --> 00:53:48,000
Speaker 1: down and it was just unbelievable from him. You know.

1054
00:53:48,760 --> 00:53:52,800
Speaker 1: I was things were getting bleak for for Dallas and

1055
00:53:52,960 --> 00:53:56,360
Speaker 1: they needed something to just inject a little bit of

1056
00:53:56,440 --> 00:53:59,239
Speaker 1: life into them to get them to the light at

1057
00:53:59,280 --> 00:54:01,560
Speaker 1: the end of the tunnel that is Luca don coming back.

1058
00:54:02,320 --> 00:54:05,480
Speaker 1: And they came out again tonight with just an unbelievable

1059
00:54:05,880 --> 00:54:10,080
Speaker 1: defensive performance and then maxin Kliba and and and Jalen

1060
00:54:10,120 --> 00:54:12,800
Speaker 1: Bronson just took the game home and Spencer didn't what

1061
00:54:12,840 --> 00:54:15,399
Speaker 1: He also had a huge spinning hook shot in the lane.

1062
00:54:15,440 --> 00:54:17,560
Speaker 1: For having a rough night, he made a huge play

1063
00:54:17,640 --> 00:54:20,160
Speaker 1: at the end of that game. One last really really

1064
00:54:20,239 --> 00:54:22,840
Speaker 1: quick note on that game. You guys always hear me

1065
00:54:22,920 --> 00:54:26,200
Speaker 1: talk about the value of rim pressuring forwards. You know,

1066
00:54:26,239 --> 00:54:28,400
Speaker 1: when little guards struggled to create their own shot in

1067
00:54:28,440 --> 00:54:31,160
Speaker 1: playoff series, it's always these six eight, six nine guys

1068
00:54:31,200 --> 00:54:32,799
Speaker 1: that could turn their back to the basket that end

1069
00:54:32,880 --> 00:54:34,320
Speaker 1: up having success. And I didn't think it was a

1070
00:54:34,360 --> 00:54:37,680
Speaker 1: coincidence that when the Utah Jazz offense was faltering late,

1071
00:54:38,000 --> 00:54:40,680
Speaker 1: they were able to throw it to Bogdanovich and he

1072
00:54:40,840 --> 00:54:43,440
Speaker 1: was just taking turnaround jump shots over smaller defenders and

1073
00:54:43,520 --> 00:54:46,560
Speaker 1: he was making them. That's a huge value piece in

1074
00:54:46,640 --> 00:54:48,879
Speaker 1: these types of matchups. It's a it's actually a huge

1075
00:54:48,920 --> 00:54:51,440
Speaker 1: thing that's missing from the Warriors offense. They don't have

1076
00:54:51,960 --> 00:54:54,799
Speaker 1: that big wing that they can dump the ball too

1077
00:54:54,920 --> 00:54:57,080
Speaker 1: in the post and he can create shots for himself.

1078
00:54:57,160 --> 00:54:59,120
Speaker 1: That's a a weakness on a lot of teams around

1079
00:54:59,120 --> 00:55:01,680
Speaker 1: the league, but it is a strength of this particular

1080
00:55:01,800 --> 00:55:04,399
Speaker 1: Utah Jazz team. It's not gonna be enough, but he's

1081
00:55:04,440 --> 00:55:06,319
Speaker 1: a guy that if you could poach him from Utah,

1082
00:55:06,400 --> 00:55:07,880
Speaker 1: he's a guy that I'd love to have on a

1083
00:55:08,000 --> 00:55:11,879
Speaker 1: roster as just an option to attack mismatches in these

1084
00:55:12,000 --> 00:55:14,200
Speaker 1: late playoff series. Alright, guys, before we head out of

1085
00:55:14,200 --> 00:55:15,719
Speaker 1: here for the night, we're gonna bring my guy Carson

1086
00:55:15,800 --> 00:55:20,520
Speaker 1: back on for holder bail. Yeah. So, like you said, Jason,

1087
00:55:20,520 --> 00:55:23,800
Speaker 1: we're playing holder bail. We played this yesterday. We're checking

1088
00:55:23,880 --> 00:55:27,239
Speaker 1: in on your pre series predictions and seeing if you

1089
00:55:27,320 --> 00:55:30,120
Speaker 1: want to hold or bail on any of these. We're

1090
00:55:30,120 --> 00:55:33,400
Speaker 1: gonna start with Heat Hawks. You took the heat and

1091
00:55:33,520 --> 00:55:37,000
Speaker 1: five before the series started. They dominated Game one. Are

1092
00:55:37,080 --> 00:55:42,359
Speaker 1: you holding or bailing on that? Absolutely? Holding? Um. They

1093
00:55:42,440 --> 00:55:45,160
Speaker 1: might even sweep him. We'll see. Atlanta seems to be coming.

1094
00:55:45,200 --> 00:55:47,319
Speaker 1: A part of it seems a little bit a little

1095
00:55:47,320 --> 00:55:50,799
Speaker 1: shout out to p J. Tucker. Watching the film from

1096
00:55:50,840 --> 00:55:54,920
Speaker 1: that game, I couldn't help but be reminded of the

1097
00:55:55,000 --> 00:55:59,000
Speaker 1: way he physically caused problems for Kevin Durant in last

1098
00:55:59,040 --> 00:56:01,439
Speaker 1: year's playoff run. I think one of the most common

1099
00:56:01,520 --> 00:56:03,400
Speaker 1: things that happens with championship teams. We see this with

1100
00:56:03,440 --> 00:56:05,000
Speaker 1: the Lakers in the last couple of years, and you've

1101
00:56:05,000 --> 00:56:06,480
Speaker 1: seen it a little bit with the Bucks this year,

1102
00:56:06,800 --> 00:56:08,239
Speaker 1: and you saw it with the Dallas Mavericks in two

1103
00:56:08,239 --> 00:56:10,800
Speaker 1: thousand eleven after they won with Dirk. They undervalue what

1104
00:56:10,880 --> 00:56:12,480
Speaker 1: their role players bring to the table and how it

1105
00:56:12,520 --> 00:56:14,880
Speaker 1: helps them win, and you know, I think it was.

1106
00:56:15,000 --> 00:56:18,000
Speaker 1: P J. Tucker was a great get for Miami. He's

1107
00:56:18,000 --> 00:56:20,359
Speaker 1: a very very effective playoff player and it's been cool

1108
00:56:20,400 --> 00:56:25,120
Speaker 1: seeing him have success again in another environment. Yeah, all right,

1109
00:56:25,880 --> 00:56:27,920
Speaker 1: speaking of p J. Tucker and obviously what he meant

1110
00:56:27,960 --> 00:56:31,040
Speaker 1: to the Bucks last year, you took the Bucks in

1111
00:56:31,280 --> 00:56:36,200
Speaker 1: four to sweep the Bulls. They did squeak out Game one,

1112
00:56:36,280 --> 00:56:39,200
Speaker 1: probably a little too close for comfort. Are you holding

1113
00:56:39,320 --> 00:56:44,080
Speaker 1: or bailing with that prediction? So I'm holding with the

1114
00:56:44,120 --> 00:56:46,960
Speaker 1: Bucks winning the series, but I am bailing in the

1115
00:56:47,040 --> 00:56:48,960
Speaker 1: sense that I do think Chicago is going to get

1116
00:56:49,000 --> 00:56:51,960
Speaker 1: a game. I think they figured out some stuff defensively

1117
00:56:52,040 --> 00:56:54,800
Speaker 1: in Game one that they can that they can ride forward.

1118
00:56:55,560 --> 00:56:58,600
Speaker 1: And you could not have gotten a more disastrous offensive

1119
00:56:58,640 --> 00:57:01,400
Speaker 1: game from all three of their stars. We talked a

1120
00:57:01,400 --> 00:57:04,279
Speaker 1: lot about the zach Lavine and and and uh um

1121
00:57:04,560 --> 00:57:07,440
Speaker 1: and to Maarda Rose enforcing shots off the dribble rather

1122
00:57:07,480 --> 00:57:10,080
Speaker 1: than making reads to their teammates. And then Vivussovitch was

1123
00:57:10,120 --> 00:57:11,719
Speaker 1: getting wide open threes all night long and he went

1124
00:57:11,760 --> 00:57:14,839
Speaker 1: to for ten. So there, there's there's some issues there

1125
00:57:14,880 --> 00:57:16,640
Speaker 1: that I think they've they'll be able to overcome one

1126
00:57:16,720 --> 00:57:19,320
Speaker 1: last note on this series. You know, Chris Middleton had

1127
00:57:19,320 --> 00:57:22,520
Speaker 1: a rough Game one, and Drew Holiday was really inconsistent

1128
00:57:22,680 --> 00:57:24,800
Speaker 1: last year's playoff run. If you guys remember, he was

1129
00:57:24,880 --> 00:57:27,640
Speaker 1: pretty bad offensively throughout the entire series there throughout the

1130
00:57:27,760 --> 00:57:30,680
Speaker 1: entire run, and then he had some good defensive moments

1131
00:57:30,720 --> 00:57:33,959
Speaker 1: in the finals. You know, I talked a lot about

1132
00:57:33,960 --> 00:57:36,000
Speaker 1: how the Bucks run this year was gonna be harder,

1133
00:57:36,400 --> 00:57:38,760
Speaker 1: and it will. They're gonna they're they have an easy

1134
00:57:38,800 --> 00:57:40,760
Speaker 1: first round series, but they're gonna have to go through

1135
00:57:40,800 --> 00:57:43,240
Speaker 1: Boston after this, and then after that they're gonna have

1136
00:57:43,280 --> 00:57:45,760
Speaker 1: to go through either Philly or Miami, and then after

1137
00:57:45,800 --> 00:57:47,439
Speaker 1: that they're gonna have to go through a much better

1138
00:57:47,600 --> 00:57:50,200
Speaker 1: version of the Phoenix team that they that almost beat

1139
00:57:50,280 --> 00:57:54,000
Speaker 1: them last year. And so the inconsistency from Chris Middleton

1140
00:57:54,080 --> 00:57:56,600
Speaker 1: and Drew Holiday is not gonna fly. Those guys are

1141
00:57:56,640 --> 00:57:59,080
Speaker 1: gonna have to figure out a way to bring their

1142
00:57:59,120 --> 00:58:01,040
Speaker 1: best more freak only or I think this Bucks team

1143
00:58:01,080 --> 00:58:04,520
Speaker 1: is gonna get beat at some point down the line. Yeah,

1144
00:58:04,560 --> 00:58:06,360
Speaker 1: And it did feel like that was a huge question

1145
00:58:06,560 --> 00:58:09,280
Speaker 1: kind of throughout the early goings of the playoff run.

1146
00:58:09,400 --> 00:58:11,800
Speaker 1: Is last year was what the Bucks get that consistent

1147
00:58:11,840 --> 00:58:13,960
Speaker 1: production those two and obviously they got it when they

1148
00:58:14,000 --> 00:58:16,760
Speaker 1: needed it most. But definitely agree with you there. All right,

1149
00:58:17,080 --> 00:58:19,760
Speaker 1: Well you mentioned the Suns. You took them to sweep

1150
00:58:19,800 --> 00:58:23,520
Speaker 1: the Pelicans before the series. They were pretty convincing throughout

1151
00:58:23,600 --> 00:58:25,960
Speaker 1: Game one and a win. Are you holding or bailing

1152
00:58:26,000 --> 00:58:31,040
Speaker 1: with that prediction they're gonna sweep him? Um. I wanted

1153
00:58:31,040 --> 00:58:33,000
Speaker 1: to give a special shout out to CP three here

1154
00:58:33,840 --> 00:58:35,800
Speaker 1: while we were recording the show, because we came on

1155
00:58:36,000 --> 00:58:39,200
Speaker 1: last night before that game ended. I don't know if

1156
00:58:39,200 --> 00:58:42,280
Speaker 1: you saw that video, Carson, but CP three one on

1157
00:58:42,320 --> 00:58:45,640
Speaker 1: a run. We're like about six or seven possessions in

1158
00:58:45,680 --> 00:58:47,120
Speaker 1: a row. He just ran high pick and roll with

1159
00:58:47,400 --> 00:58:50,440
Speaker 1: JaVale McGee and DeAndre and it scored every single time,

1160
00:58:51,280 --> 00:58:54,840
Speaker 1: like every single time against the against the good uh

1161
00:58:55,720 --> 00:58:58,840
Speaker 1: Pelicans defense. And you know, I can say all the

1162
00:58:58,920 --> 00:59:01,400
Speaker 1: usual stuff like I can't believe he's thirty seven years

1163
00:59:01,440 --> 00:59:02,960
Speaker 1: old and he's still doing this. Oh you know, he's

1164
00:59:03,000 --> 00:59:05,080
Speaker 1: the point god, all the blah blah blah. The thing

1165
00:59:05,160 --> 00:59:08,680
Speaker 1: that I want to say is like, you know, basketball

1166
00:59:09,960 --> 00:59:13,600
Speaker 1: in so many ways gets over complicated, but there are

1167
00:59:14,000 --> 00:59:16,160
Speaker 1: in and it is a very complex game on a

1168
00:59:16,160 --> 00:59:18,480
Speaker 1: bunch of different levels, but there are simple things to it,

1169
00:59:19,280 --> 00:59:23,480
Speaker 1: and like Chris Paul is such a savant at understanding

1170
00:59:24,280 --> 00:59:27,160
Speaker 1: what works and what doesn't in the high pick and

1171
00:59:27,280 --> 00:59:30,320
Speaker 1: roll is such a simple action, and teams have a

1172
00:59:30,360 --> 00:59:32,600
Speaker 1: certain number of options that they can go to guarding it.

1173
00:59:33,440 --> 00:59:35,959
Speaker 1: It usually involves either overplaying the roleman or over playing

1174
00:59:35,960 --> 00:59:37,840
Speaker 1: the ball handler. And when you're playing the ball handler,

1175
00:59:37,960 --> 00:59:40,560
Speaker 1: either either involves taking away the drive or taking away

1176
00:59:40,560 --> 00:59:43,360
Speaker 1: the dump shot. And that in that sequence, it was

1177
00:59:43,440 --> 00:59:45,240
Speaker 1: like every time they went under the screen, he just

1178
00:59:45,320 --> 00:59:48,000
Speaker 1: pulled a three and he made him every time they

1179
00:59:48,040 --> 00:59:49,800
Speaker 1: went over the screen, he just kind of methodically worked

1180
00:59:49,840 --> 00:59:52,520
Speaker 1: his way through the lane, and uh, he made a

1181
00:59:52,520 --> 00:59:54,520
Speaker 1: couple of layups. He had like a crazy little fade

1182
00:59:54,560 --> 00:59:57,320
Speaker 1: away along the right along the right block, and then

1183
00:59:57,360 --> 00:59:59,200
Speaker 1: there was a play where like he kind of stunted

1184
00:59:59,240 --> 01:00:01,400
Speaker 1: at the screen and then old back and both guys

1185
01:00:01,480 --> 01:00:03,160
Speaker 1: came to him and just easy little bounce pass to

1186
01:00:03,240 --> 01:00:06,120
Speaker 1: JaVale McGhee. Now he's dunking, and like it's just he

1187
01:00:06,280 --> 01:00:09,640
Speaker 1: made it look so easy, and it's because like even

1188
01:00:09,680 --> 01:00:11,160
Speaker 1: though he's not the fastest guy, even though he's not

1189
01:00:11,160 --> 01:00:12,520
Speaker 1: the biggest guy in the world, even though he's not

1190
01:00:12,520 --> 01:00:14,880
Speaker 1: even necessarily like like his three point shot can be

1191
01:00:14,960 --> 01:00:18,320
Speaker 1: inconsistent from time to time. The dude is just a is.

1192
01:00:18,400 --> 01:00:20,600
Speaker 1: He's one of the smartest guys in the league. You know,

1193
01:00:20,640 --> 01:00:22,240
Speaker 1: the guy that I compare in the most to his Lebron.

1194
01:00:22,400 --> 01:00:25,040
Speaker 1: He's point guard Lebron, you know what I mean. So, yeah,

1195
01:00:25,040 --> 01:00:28,720
Speaker 1: I shout a special shout out to Chris Paul. Yeah,

1196
01:00:28,880 --> 01:00:31,479
Speaker 1: I mean you said, it's just like the making it easy.

1197
01:00:31,520 --> 01:00:33,360
Speaker 1: It's to control the poise out of the pick and

1198
01:00:33,480 --> 01:00:35,400
Speaker 1: roll and just the fact that you know, like, yeah,

1199
01:00:35,400 --> 01:00:37,840
Speaker 1: I'll average thirteen a game in the regular season or whatever,

1200
01:00:37,920 --> 01:00:41,000
Speaker 1: but he can easily kick that up to twenty at will,

1201
01:00:41,080 --> 01:00:43,240
Speaker 1: because it's just he gets a good look out of

1202
01:00:43,240 --> 01:00:45,240
Speaker 1: the pick and roll every single time, and you trust

1203
01:00:45,320 --> 01:00:49,080
Speaker 1: his shot making so much. All right, now we've arrived

1204
01:00:49,120 --> 01:00:53,000
Speaker 1: at the grand daddy of them all, Nets Celtics. You

1205
01:00:53,080 --> 01:00:55,800
Speaker 1: took the nets and seven before the series, Jason, are

1206
01:00:55,840 --> 01:00:59,919
Speaker 1: you holding or bailing on that? I'm holding. I'm gonna

1207
01:01:00,080 --> 01:01:02,960
Speaker 1: still go with Nets and seven. Um. I have a

1208
01:01:03,000 --> 01:01:05,280
Speaker 1: bunch of thoughts on this this particular series, but we're

1209
01:01:05,320 --> 01:01:07,440
Speaker 1: gonna get into this in more detail after Game two,

1210
01:01:07,880 --> 01:01:09,560
Speaker 1: I wanna I want to just hit on one thing

1211
01:01:09,640 --> 01:01:13,360
Speaker 1: with with Kevin Durant, because he has to find a

1212
01:01:13,440 --> 01:01:16,800
Speaker 1: way to be better defensively, and some of that was

1213
01:01:16,920 --> 01:01:19,480
Speaker 1: his effort and focus. He was just I think he

1214
01:01:19,600 --> 01:01:22,520
Speaker 1: was a little shell shocked in Game one, not in like, oh,

1215
01:01:22,560 --> 01:01:25,200
Speaker 1: I'm nervous kind of way. I think he just I

1216
01:01:25,240 --> 01:01:27,040
Speaker 1: think he just kind of tried to ease his way

1217
01:01:27,080 --> 01:01:28,760
Speaker 1: into the series and got kind of punched in the

1218
01:01:28,840 --> 01:01:31,280
Speaker 1: mouth a little bit. But he has to find a

1219
01:01:31,280 --> 01:01:34,600
Speaker 1: way to be more impactful defensively, and with how often

1220
01:01:34,840 --> 01:01:38,000
Speaker 1: the Nets are double teaming Tatum, which is on almost

1221
01:01:38,080 --> 01:01:40,880
Speaker 1: every possession, I don't see the point of putting Kevin

1222
01:01:40,960 --> 01:01:44,360
Speaker 1: duran on Tatum because it's hurting them in the sense

1223
01:01:44,440 --> 01:01:46,480
Speaker 1: that he's not available to help on the back line.

1224
01:01:46,800 --> 01:01:49,200
Speaker 1: And you can't even though Tatums, even though Durant's your

1225
01:01:49,240 --> 01:01:52,240
Speaker 1: best option to throw at Tatum, if you're gonna double

1226
01:01:52,240 --> 01:01:53,640
Speaker 1: team in any way, you can get away with a

1227
01:01:53,720 --> 01:01:56,160
Speaker 1: lesser option on the I talked a lot about how

1228
01:01:56,200 --> 01:01:58,120
Speaker 1: they made a handful of really big mistakes at the

1229
01:01:58,200 --> 01:01:59,720
Speaker 1: end of that game, and I looked back at the

1230
01:01:59,720 --> 01:02:04,880
Speaker 1: film again. Boston's offense utterly fell apart in that fourth quarter,

1231
01:02:04,960 --> 01:02:06,280
Speaker 1: and a lot of that was on Tatum and I'll

1232
01:02:06,320 --> 01:02:09,360
Speaker 1: get into that more tomorrow, but you know, but because

1233
01:02:09,440 --> 01:02:13,000
Speaker 1: of tatum struggles, they were struggling to score, and there

1234
01:02:13,040 --> 01:02:15,640
Speaker 1: were a handful of plays where Jalen Brown killed them

1235
01:02:16,040 --> 01:02:19,320
Speaker 1: and it was just sloppy defensive mistakes. There was a

1236
01:02:19,680 --> 01:02:21,680
Speaker 1: Bruce Brown had a bad clothes out on Jalen Brown

1237
01:02:21,720 --> 01:02:23,400
Speaker 1: where he drove by for a dunk. There was a

1238
01:02:23,520 --> 01:02:27,840
Speaker 1: play they literally missed a free throw. Nick Claxton was

1239
01:02:27,840 --> 01:02:30,720
Speaker 1: shooting a free throw, so your defense should be set

1240
01:02:31,320 --> 01:02:34,000
Speaker 1: and on the play, Kevin Durant and Nick and Kevin

1241
01:02:34,080 --> 01:02:36,560
Speaker 1: Durant his job is to get back to the paint.

1242
01:02:36,800 --> 01:02:38,960
Speaker 1: He was above the key, Claxton was above the key,

1243
01:02:39,040 --> 01:02:42,480
Speaker 1: and on a free throw, Jalen Brown drove right by

1244
01:02:42,600 --> 01:02:44,360
Speaker 1: everybody and went to the basket and got an easy

1245
01:02:44,480 --> 01:02:46,720
Speaker 1: layup with no nets on the back line. That's like

1246
01:02:46,800 --> 01:02:49,840
Speaker 1: just stupid, sloppy laziness. But it's also that bad scheme

1247
01:02:49,920 --> 01:02:52,480
Speaker 1: of having Kevin Durant away from the basket for too long.

1248
01:02:52,800 --> 01:02:56,000
Speaker 1: And then on the second to last play when it

1249
01:02:56,040 --> 01:02:58,880
Speaker 1: was one one eleven, right after Kyrie makes the step

1250
01:02:58,920 --> 01:03:02,760
Speaker 1: back literally really, Jaylen Brown is facing up on Bruce

1251
01:03:02,800 --> 01:03:05,840
Speaker 1: Brown on the right wing and Kevin Durants guarding Jayson

1252
01:03:05,880 --> 01:03:07,600
Speaker 1: Tatum all the way on the right side of the basket.

1253
01:03:07,720 --> 01:03:12,080
Speaker 1: They have al Horford run up off the ball instead

1254
01:03:12,120 --> 01:03:16,400
Speaker 1: a screen four Tatum away from the play literally on

1255
01:03:16,440 --> 01:03:20,080
Speaker 1: the left wing, thirty five ft from the basket, and

1256
01:03:20,160 --> 01:03:23,720
Speaker 1: it's a Horford Tatum little off ball screen. Kevin Durant

1257
01:03:23,800 --> 01:03:26,520
Speaker 1: Nick Claxton both run all the way out thirty five

1258
01:03:26,560 --> 01:03:30,040
Speaker 1: ft away and there now we're playing three on three

1259
01:03:30,720 --> 01:03:33,800
Speaker 1: and there's tons of space, there's nobody at the basket,

1260
01:03:34,040 --> 01:03:36,440
Speaker 1: and Jalen Brown just literally takes an easy move to

1261
01:03:36,480 --> 01:03:37,960
Speaker 1: the basket. I think it ended up being Gore on

1262
01:03:38,040 --> 01:03:40,600
Speaker 1: Drag who was in help and he stood no chance

1263
01:03:40,880 --> 01:03:43,680
Speaker 1: at stopping Jalen Brown. So there was there were some

1264
01:03:44,000 --> 01:03:46,360
Speaker 1: huge defensive breakdowns at the end of that game that

1265
01:03:46,400 --> 01:03:49,200
Speaker 1: I thought were just a product of really poor strategy

1266
01:03:49,320 --> 01:03:51,280
Speaker 1: on the part of the Nets. I think they're gonna

1267
01:03:51,280 --> 01:03:53,200
Speaker 1: be able to clean that stuff up, So I still

1268
01:03:53,320 --> 01:03:55,760
Speaker 1: I still lean the Nets, even though they tricked off

1269
01:03:55,800 --> 01:03:57,800
Speaker 1: game one. I still think the Nets are gonna come

1270
01:03:57,800 --> 01:04:00,200
Speaker 1: back and win this series in seven games. All right, guys.

1271
01:04:00,280 --> 01:04:02,800
Speaker 1: That is all we have for tonight. As always, I

1272
01:04:02,880 --> 01:04:05,960
Speaker 1: appreciate your guys support. We will be back right after

1273
01:04:06,040 --> 01:04:08,680
Speaker 1: the final game tomorrow night. I will see you guys.

1274
01:04:08,760 --> 01:04:25,040
Speaker 1: Then the volume