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Speaker 1: Hoops Tonight, presented by Fandel here at the volume. I
Speaker 1: am Jason Timp Happy Thursday, everybody. Hope all of you
Speaker 1: are having a good week. So far. We had two
Speaker 1: amazing Game six is that we are going to get
Speaker 1: into tonight. The Sun's behind a fourteen for fourteen from
Speaker 1: the field performance from Chris Paul, go into the go
Speaker 1: into New Orleans and close out the Pelicans, and then
Speaker 1: the Sixers shut everybody up by going up into Toronto
Speaker 1: and killing them on their home floor to close out
Speaker 1: the Raptors. We're gonna get into both of those games
Speaker 1: as well. As looking forward for all four of those teams,
Speaker 1: the Raptors and the Pelicans going into this off season
Speaker 1: and what they should be addressing, as well as the
Speaker 1: Sons and the Sixers going into the second round and
Speaker 1: what they're gonna be facing looking forward in this playoff run.
Speaker 1: But let's start with the Raptors Sixers games. So I
Speaker 1: picked the Raptors in six and I was very wrong
Speaker 1: about that. Um, I think you know, the specific things
Speaker 1: that I was looking at as reasons why Toronto would
Speaker 1: have a chance to win, We're not incorrect in a vacuum, like,
Speaker 1: for instance, like I do believe Nick Nurse is a
Speaker 1: better coach than Doc Rivers. I do think that Toronto
Speaker 1: is the were athletic team, and had the series taken
Speaker 1: a certain tone, that they could have had more success
Speaker 1: there where I was very wrong. And the reason why
Speaker 1: I think my prediction went so hot the Rails was
Speaker 1: Toronto's inability to score in the half court ended up
Speaker 1: directly affecting their defensive end of the floor and their
Speaker 1: ability to disrupt Harden and their ability to disrupt Joel
Speaker 1: and beat. Obviously, Toronto over the course of the last
Speaker 1: you know, half decade has loaded up on wings and
Speaker 1: they have a ton of athleticism, a ton of size,
Speaker 1: and there's a great deal of value in that. But
Speaker 1: one of the downsides there is almost all of those
Speaker 1: wings as they came into Toronto weren't very polished offensively.
Speaker 1: Now their player development has been excellent and they've turned
Speaker 1: all of those wings into good enough offensive players to
Speaker 1: be a very good team. But there's another level to
Speaker 1: them being able to create on offense that is missing,
Speaker 1: and that ended up being what was the killing blow
Speaker 1: for Toronto in this series. That couldn't score when they
Speaker 1: were in the half court, and as a result, more
Speaker 1: often than not, Philly was attacking their defense when it
Speaker 1: wasn't set, and so as a result, they weren't as
Speaker 1: polished and you know, tight with their rotations, and Philly
Speaker 1: was getting great shots. The shot quality throughout the whole
Speaker 1: series for Philly was better. You know. I had a
Speaker 1: I have a coach here in Tucson high school coach
Speaker 1: that I coached with, and he played a Division one
Speaker 1: basketball here in the US and then he went overseas
Speaker 1: I believed to Italy for like seven or eight years
Speaker 1: to play professionally. Very very smart basketball mind, very good
Speaker 1: guard is six three kind of power guard. And you know,
Speaker 1: he used to say to me when we were talking
Speaker 1: about our players on our team, you'd say, there are
Speaker 1: shooters and there are makers, and it's a It was
Speaker 1: an interesting concept that I had never really heard before
Speaker 1: in all my years playing basketball. But it's it's it's
Speaker 1: you know, it's just semantics, it's just a phrase. But
Speaker 1: to me, it captures the difference between a person who
Speaker 1: is like unbelievably confident in their ability to shoot versus
Speaker 1: a person who can shoot. And when you start looking
Speaker 1: at the Toronto roster, you have Gary Trent Jr. And
Speaker 1: Fred VanVleet, or what I would call makers. They are
Speaker 1: guys that like, if you consistently leave them open, even
Speaker 1: if they miss a handful of shots over the course
Speaker 1: of any sort of significant volume, they're gonna make you
Speaker 1: pay for leaving their them open. They are capable of
Speaker 1: knocking down shots, but they're also unbelievably confident in their shot.
Speaker 1: Whereas you'll see everyone else in the roster, all those
Speaker 1: guys like Pascal Siakim and Scottie Barnes and O. G.
Speaker 1: N Nobi, they are capable shooters, like if you leave
Speaker 1: them open. They've worked hard enough to where they're gonna
Speaker 1: knock down a decent percentage of them, but as soon
Speaker 1: as they miss a few, the confidence goes out the window,
Speaker 1: and there you can catch them. On the right night,
Speaker 1: they'll be making everything because confidence is more attached to
Speaker 1: result for them than it is to the work and
Speaker 1: their actual ability to shoot the basketball. I thought the
Speaker 1: turning point of this game, especially in the third quarter,
Speaker 1: Philly basically just sagged off of everybody and let all
Speaker 1: those guys shoot. But the problem was as simultaneously, I
Speaker 1: think Gary Trent Jr. Was actually on the bench during
Speaker 1: that third quarter run. All five players on the floor
Speaker 1: were being left open on the perimeter, but none of
Speaker 1: them were truly confident in their ability to raise up
Speaker 1: and shoot. So the psychology of them laying off ended
Speaker 1: up really really hurting them, and suddenly there was a
Speaker 1: lid on the basket. Then they started driving into guys
Speaker 1: that were already waiting for them in the paint and
Speaker 1: shooting really low percentage like floaters and push shots and
Speaker 1: contested you know, scooping layups and stuff around the rim,
Speaker 1: and they were missing everything, and next thing you know,
Speaker 1: Philly's making everything on the other end and the game
Speaker 1: is over. Now, I'll give you an example, guys like
Speaker 1: Danny Green, Georges Kneeang, Tobias Harris. I would even argue
Speaker 1: Tyrese Maxie falls into this group as well. Those guys
Speaker 1: are makers, like they are confident in their shot. If
Speaker 1: you leave them open consistently, they might miss a couple,
Speaker 1: but they're eventually going to get it going. It's kind
Speaker 1: of like the difference between playing in a pickup game
Speaker 1: versus playing in a full length game. Like when you
Speaker 1: go play pick up with your friends in a game
Speaker 1: to ten or a game to fifteen or whatever you
Speaker 1: play too, you might not have enough reps to get
Speaker 1: your rhythm, and if you happen to shoot poorly, you
Speaker 1: might get beat. But when you go playing your men's
Speaker 1: league and you've got you know, to twenty minute halves
Speaker 1: of running clock in that forty minutes, you have time
Speaker 1: if you're getting good shot quality, to get your rhythm.
Speaker 1: It's kind of like a way that you guys can
Speaker 1: relate it to when you guys play in your in
Speaker 1: your local runs. But for for guys like Tobias Harris,
Speaker 1: for guys like Danny Green, for for guys like George's
Speaker 1: kneeing like if they miss a shot and they're running
Speaker 1: back on defense and their head they're thinking, Oh, I
Speaker 1: can't wait to get another look like that, because the
Speaker 1: next one's going in and look. In this game, Tyrese, Maxie,
Speaker 1: Tobias Harris, Danny Green, and George's nan went eleven for
Speaker 1: twenty three from three damn near. A lot of attention
Speaker 1: was being dedicated to James Harden, a lot of attention
Speaker 1: was being dedicated to all and beat. They were getting
Speaker 1: great looks and they were knocking them down because not
Speaker 1: only are they capable of making shots, but they are
Speaker 1: confident when they get those quality shots and they're gonna
Speaker 1: knock them down. Conversely, Pascal siakam O, Gianna Nobi, Scottie Barnes,
Speaker 1: that young Chris Bouche, Pressius Seshia, all guys that are
Speaker 1: capable of knocking down shots. Those guys went five for
Speaker 1: twenty five from three, and they were all great looks.
Speaker 1: They were all dare dare you to shoot type of
Speaker 1: shots and they just couldn't knock them down. And so
Speaker 1: one of the things that's gonna be really interesting for
Speaker 1: Toronto looking forward. They've got enough wings now they might
Speaker 1: need to look into getting more offense. When you've got
Speaker 1: what I just name off six guys that they were
Speaker 1: playing in their rotation tonight that were unbelievably good athletes
Speaker 1: and wings, it might be worth looking into moving a
Speaker 1: couple of them to try to get in more offensive firepower.
Speaker 1: Got a type of guy that I'd be looking at
Speaker 1: in terms of shot creation, another guy who his shooting
Speaker 1: can be inconsistent. But what I'd be looking for is
Speaker 1: maybe see if you can poach Donovan Mitchell away from
Speaker 1: the Jazz this summer. We're gonna do a video on
Speaker 1: the YouTube on the Utah Jazz here in the next
Speaker 1: couple of days as soon as their series is over,
Speaker 1: and when that happens, will dive in a little bit
Speaker 1: further into what the matching machinations of that would actually
Speaker 1: look like. But you need to get a very very
Speaker 1: confident athletic shot creator in this lineup to help make
Speaker 1: some of these shots easier for some of these Raptors players.
Speaker 1: And then you need to target one or two wings
Speaker 1: that maybe not that aren't as athletic, that aren't as
Speaker 1: you know, capable of getting up and down the floor
Speaker 1: in Toronto's you know, helter skelter system, but that are
Speaker 1: confident shooters that are makers rather than shooters, Guys that
Speaker 1: even if they miss a couple of open shots, they
Speaker 1: will consistently and confidently feel like they're going to knock
Speaker 1: them down over the course of any sort of large
Speaker 1: sample size. That's gonna be the big ask for Toronto
Speaker 1: this summer. You've you've shown that you can build, you know,
Speaker 1: a brick house of wings that is a royal pain
Speaker 1: in the ask to play against. But all of the
Speaker 1: best teams in the league have some combination of that
Speaker 1: in real confident, offensive polish. So you need to bring
Speaker 1: some of that in that needs to be there the
Speaker 1: next direction that that franchise heads in. Let's move on
Speaker 1: to James Harden because James Harden and CP three. Harden
Speaker 1: definitely more so than CP three, but both of those
Speaker 1: guys have some ugly spots on their playoff resume, and
Speaker 1: both of them tonight in hostile environments in very important
Speaker 1: playoff games against teams that actually absolutely were threats to
Speaker 1: beat them. They were massive and did exactly what was
Speaker 1: necessary to lead their team to victory. So we have
Speaker 1: to give them some credit. Early in the game, James
Speaker 1: Harden was aggressive to the basket. Now some of that
Speaker 1: was Toronto, I thought came out really sloppy defensively to
Speaker 1: start the game. They were weirdly over aggressive to Harden
Speaker 1: on the perimeter. Instead of making him make a couple
Speaker 1: of step back jump shots to take Philly out of
Speaker 1: their offensive rhythm. They were kind of over aggressive and
Speaker 1: James was getting easy driving lines. They weren't even really
Speaker 1: making him earn his trips into the paint. But as
Speaker 1: a result, it set a tone, and throughout the whole game,
Speaker 1: I thought James Harden did an amazing job of not
Speaker 1: forcing things. If you had the right matchup and he
Speaker 1: had the right space, he was aggressive to the rim.
Speaker 1: He was magnificent passing the basketball. I think he had
Speaker 1: fourteen or fifteen assists during that stretch. We were talking
Speaker 1: about shooting earlier. During that stretch in the third quarter,
Speaker 1: when all of Toronto's shooters simultaneously got in their own
Speaker 1: heads and suddenly all those shooters, not makers, were being
Speaker 1: dared to shoot, and none of them felt confident, and
Speaker 1: it appeared there was a lid on the rim. Rim. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: on the other end, James Harden was orchestrating fantastic basketball,
Speaker 1: getting fantastic looks for really really good shooters as well
Speaker 1: as himself. It was just a really impressive performance. Now
Speaker 1: again with James Harden, this your favorite. This is a
Speaker 1: first round series. The stakes will only get higher as
Speaker 1: we go further along this deal. We're gonna run into
Speaker 1: a Miami team in the next round that's definitely gonna
Speaker 1: be a little bit more confident going against you and
Speaker 1: is gonna probably pay attention to this particular series and
Speaker 1: do some things that Nick Nurse didn't. Maybe dare you
Speaker 1: a little bit more to be more aggressive as a
Speaker 1: score and as a you know, pull up jump shooter
Speaker 1: and things along those lines. But to credit James Harden,
Speaker 1: because I don't think again we were We're gonna, you know,
Speaker 1: at some point in the next couple of days, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna talk a little bit about Kyrie Irving and his
Speaker 1: little rant on on Twitter about the media, and I
Speaker 1: don't I don't want to get into that because I'm
Speaker 1: gonna save it for a later date. But you know,
Speaker 1: one of the things that I think is very important
Speaker 1: in the media is criticism has to happen because it's authentic.
Speaker 1: And if I sit up here and only say nice
Speaker 1: things about people, now I'm a liar and none of
Speaker 1: you guys are gonna want to listen if I'm just
Speaker 1: up here, you know, telling you things that I don't
Speaker 1: even believe. But the flip side is is you have
Speaker 1: to be fair. My thing is be critical, but be fair.
Speaker 1: And so in this situation, like for James Harden, a
Speaker 1: guy that has a nightmare of a playoff resume, he
Speaker 1: was a mon to tonight and played incredibly well in
Speaker 1: a game that I had some money on fandel on
Speaker 1: the Raptors. I was actively rooting on the Raptors throughout
Speaker 1: the entire series. So like, you gotta give it to
Speaker 1: James Harden. He went up to Toronto with his own
Speaker 1: physical limitations, as he's aging and he's losing a little
Speaker 1: bit of athleticism. He went in Toronto and and just
Speaker 1: orchestrated an amazing offensive game and led his team to
Speaker 1: a dominant victory. We gotta give him some credit. Joel Embid,
Speaker 1: you know, I obviously he's incredible. He was monstrous again tonight.
Speaker 1: I get so frustrated watching him. There was a play
Speaker 1: and I think it was in the second quarter where
Speaker 1: he was posting up on Pascal Siakam and he took
Speaker 1: a hard dribble into the middle and did this like massive,
Speaker 1: like drop step with a hard elbow right into Pascal
Speaker 1: Siakam's chest. Pascal Siakam like buckles, but then kind of
Speaker 1: recovers and just goes with verticality. And Joel Embide like
Speaker 1: throws up a lefty hook, And what have I been
Speaker 1: telling you guys? He flops like a jump shooter when
Speaker 1: he's trying to take layups. He takes like a lefty hook,
Speaker 1: kicks his legs up in the ground. It just sprawls
Speaker 1: out on the floor, and then Toronto's running the other
Speaker 1: way and he gets up and he's complaining at the reft.
Speaker 1: Literally nobody touched him on the play. It's just I
Speaker 1: want so badly to like Joel Embiid because he does
Speaker 1: so many things that I personally respect, you know, as
Speaker 1: a basketball fan, and I just it's he's making it
Speaker 1: so hard for me to do that because of the
Speaker 1: fact that he just consistently does things that are objectively
Speaker 1: unlikable on the basketball court. That type of behavior is
Speaker 1: just unlikable, And like I know, Philly fans get very
Speaker 1: sensitive about that very particular topic. I know Joel and
Speaker 1: beat himself is very sensitive about that about that particular topic,
Speaker 1: but I I just can't stand it. So looking forward
Speaker 1: to this Miami Heat series, it's gonna be a little
Speaker 1: bit different on a couple of different fronts. I think
Speaker 1: Bamata Bio presents somebody and it'll be really interesting in
Speaker 1: the opening minutes of the series. Uh, can bamat a
Speaker 1: Bio handle Joel embat in single coverage, because if he can,
Speaker 1: that changes so much about the dynamic offensively for the Sixers.
Speaker 1: Talked earlier about guys capitalizing on attention to Joel Embiid
Speaker 1: and James Harden in tonight's game, Maxi, Harris Green and
Speaker 1: E eleven from three. A lot of that is because
Speaker 1: they were getting fantastic looks. Well, if bamade Bio can
Speaker 1: handle Joel Embiad in single coverage, at least well enough
Speaker 1: that they don't have to massively compromise their defense to
Speaker 1: get attention to Joel Embiid, then it could change the
Speaker 1: overall shot quality for what guys like Tyris s Maxie
Speaker 1: and Tobias Harris are getting. It could change the amount
Speaker 1: of free space that James Harden has to work with
Speaker 1: and make his life even more difficult. So that'll be interesting.
Speaker 1: Other side of the floor is where I really really
Speaker 1: worry about Miami, and it's why I think Philly has
Speaker 1: a good chance to win this series. Not making a
Speaker 1: pick yet, will probably do so in our live show
Speaker 1: on Sunday. But what worries me is Toronto did a
Speaker 1: really nice job of taking Joel Embiid outside at least
Speaker 1: in games four in game five and driving the ball
Speaker 1: on him and taking advantage of his lack of foot speed.
Speaker 1: What worries me is Miami in particular. There they don't
Speaker 1: have a ton of guys that drive to the basket heart.
Speaker 1: P J. Tucker is not a slasher. Tyler Harrow and
Speaker 1: Duncan Robinson are more movement shooters, although Tyler Harrow has
Speaker 1: a little bit of a basket attacking game, you know,
Speaker 1: Kyle Lowry is more methodical and he's kind of dealing
Speaker 1: with some injuries right now. Jimmy Butlers are only real
Speaker 1: like kind of like take you out to the perimeter
Speaker 1: and use my foot speed to beat you to the
Speaker 1: basket type of guy. Victor Oladipo a little bit as well,
Speaker 1: but like they definitely don't have the same type of
Speaker 1: you know, slashing foot speed that Toronto does. In addition
Speaker 1: to that, Bama A Bio, I know he's capable as
Speaker 1: a jump shooter, but he definitely falls into that shooter
Speaker 1: not maker category. He's definitely the kind of guy that
Speaker 1: if you dare him to shoot and he misses a couple,
Speaker 1: he'll get in his head and then suddenly he won't
Speaker 1: even want to take them anymore. And so Joel Embiat
Speaker 1: in that role on Bama A Bio, if he is
Speaker 1: able to drop all series, drop coverage and pick and
Speaker 1: rolls and drop into the basket and help when bam
Speaker 1: is not involved in pick and roll actions and doesn't
Speaker 1: have the basketball, that could change the dynamic of the
Speaker 1: shot quality for Miami. It buys potential for guys like
Speaker 1: Maxie and Tobias Harris and George Kneeing and James Harden
Speaker 1: and all of the role players Danny Green, all the
Speaker 1: role players for Philly to be more aggressive on the
Speaker 1: perimeter and push up on shooters because they don't have
Speaker 1: to worry as much about getting beat to the basket
Speaker 1: because Joel Embid has their back. It's gonna be a
Speaker 1: super interesting dynamic. I want to dive into a bunch
Speaker 1: more film and then after I get into the film,
Speaker 1: make a pick, probably on Sunday. Like I said, but
Speaker 1: that's going to be a very very interesting series. All right,
Speaker 1: Let's move on to the Sun's so again. Chris Paul
Speaker 1: another another guy that has a little bit more of
Speaker 1: a spotty playoff resume. His his resume is very hot
Speaker 1: and cold, like unbelievably massive performances on a bunch of
Speaker 1: different stages, but then some you know, pretty amazing collapses
Speaker 1: too along the way. Another guy that has an iffy
Speaker 1: playoff resume, but he you know, I have a lot
Speaker 1: more confidence in him in big moments that I do
Speaker 1: and James Harden and it's a big reason why I
Speaker 1: picked Phoenix to win this series despite the Devin Booker injury.
Speaker 1: And you know, I think it was game two right
Speaker 1: when Devin Booker went down, and when he went down,
Speaker 1: you know, I knew it would be difficult, but I
Speaker 1: was thinking, if Chris Paul could just float the ship
Speaker 1: long enough for Devin Booker to get back, that could
Speaker 1: be the difference in this Son's team going on a
Speaker 1: run and not going on a run because obviously without
Speaker 1: their best player, there's all this potential for them to
Speaker 1: get beat if they run into the wrong matchup. Well,
Speaker 1: it turns out that the Pelicans are a pretty difficult
Speaker 1: matchup for the Sons on a bunch of different levels.
Speaker 1: Their length and athleticism really bothered Chris Paul at certain
Speaker 1: points in the series. In pick and Roll, you know,
Speaker 1: Devin Booker had a lot of success early in the
Speaker 1: series before he got hurt. It's really hard to tell
Speaker 1: how that would have gone over the course of the series.
Speaker 1: Made a lot of big shots tonight. But again, I'm
Speaker 1: really curious to see how his hamstring holds up in
Speaker 1: the long run. But I want to give Chris Paul
Speaker 1: a ton of credit because here's the deal. You know,
Speaker 1: not everything goes your way, and sometimes you have a
Speaker 1: disastrous outcome and then you work incredibly hard to get
Speaker 1: back to the mountaintop and bad luck hits you along
Speaker 1: the way. It's kind of like lebron in two thousand twelve.
Speaker 1: You're losing two thousand eleven and this disastrous collapse in
Speaker 1: the NBA Finals. In the summer, you start working with
Speaker 1: the Chemolage one. You clearly take a definitive leap as
Speaker 1: a basketball player. You're the m v P of the league.
Speaker 1: The next season, everything looks great, and then Chris Bosh
Speaker 1: pulls his abdominal muscle in the series against the Pacers,
Speaker 1: and simultaneously Dwyane Wade's knee starts to give you issues,
Speaker 1: and now you're in some trouble, and now you're I
Speaker 1: think they were down two games to one in the
Speaker 1: Indiana series and things were looking really, really rough and
Speaker 1: at multiple points. Game four obviously got a big game
Speaker 1: from d Wade in that game as well, but Lebron
Speaker 1: was a monster in Game four. And then you guys
Speaker 1: remember the Boston Celtics series, which bo Bosch missed most of.
Speaker 1: They were down three two in that series as well,
Speaker 1: and Lebron had to overcome that. Lebron on had to
Speaker 1: float the team essentially for long enough for d Way
Speaker 1: to have his little moments of significant impact and for
Speaker 1: Chris Bosh to get healthy, and as a result he
Speaker 1: was rewarded with the trophy. Well, a similar thing basically
Speaker 1: happened to Chris Paul here. Imagine, you know, getting within
Speaker 1: two wins of a of a championship, the championship you've
Speaker 1: wanted your entire life. And then you come back into
Speaker 1: the next season and have a monstrous season where you're
Speaker 1: play incredibly well and your team is the definitive number
Speaker 1: one seed. You seem to have, you know, you seem
Speaker 1: to be poised to undo the damage of last year's
Speaker 1: NBA Finals, and then your compatriot, your your teammate, Devin
Speaker 1: Booker goes down with a hamstring strain in the first
Speaker 1: round series. That's incredibly discouraging. And to Chris Paul's credit,
Speaker 1: he just put the team on his back and he
Speaker 1: and he carried them through this stretch long enough for
Speaker 1: Devin Booker to get back on the court fourteen for
Speaker 1: fourteen in a game that the Pelicans. In the game
Speaker 1: that the Sons won by four points, they needed every
Speaker 1: last one of those baskets from Chris Paul continued to
Speaker 1: be aggressive in that fourth quarter, making decisions and getting
Speaker 1: to his midrange jump shot. Just I'll tell you, like,
Speaker 1: if he ends up getting a title this year, that's
Speaker 1: the game you need to look back at Game six
Speaker 1: against the Pelicans, fourteen for fourteen, avoiding that Game seven.
Speaker 1: Who knows what happens in a game seven, especially if
Speaker 1: Devin Booker with with his hamstring, which obviously there's a
Speaker 1: bunch of risk of re injury there as well. Just
Speaker 1: salute to Chris Paul another magnificent performance to add to
Speaker 1: his playoff resume. Looking forward for the let's start with
Speaker 1: the Sun's What concerns me is the matchup. So the
Speaker 1: Pelicans unquestionably caused issues for the Sons and a couple
Speaker 1: of different areas of the game. Their length and athleticism
Speaker 1: on defense bothered them in a lot of ways. Their
Speaker 1: ability to make tough shots bothered them in a lot
Speaker 1: of ways, their offensive rebounding bothered them in a lot
Speaker 1: of ways. There was a bunch of like little elements
Speaker 1: to this matchup that caused Phoenix problems. And what concerns
Speaker 1: me is we talked a little bit last night about
Speaker 1: a potential match up with the Boston Celtics, and Carson
Speaker 1: was asking me, you know, are you still picking the Celtics.
Speaker 1: If so, who do you think is most likely to
Speaker 1: beat them? And one of the big reasons why I
Speaker 1: think I've I've kind of flip flopped coming into this
Speaker 1: playoff run. I had Phoenix as a tier on the
Speaker 1: tier one by themselves and then Boston and a couple
Speaker 1: other teams on Tier two. Well, now I'm flipping that
Speaker 1: and I'm putting Boston in a tier up by themselves
Speaker 1: in excuse me, and Phoenix in a tier right below them.
Speaker 1: And a huge part of that is Boston does a
Speaker 1: lot of what New Orleans does a lot better and
Speaker 1: I think their defense is going to cause the Sun's
Speaker 1: a lot of problems in the same way that the
Speaker 1: Pelicans did. And I think they're just a better version
Speaker 1: of New Orleans, and I think it's gonna be really,
Speaker 1: really difficult for Phoenix to overcome that. Now there's a
Speaker 1: bunch of different things that can swing that matchup. Devin
Speaker 1: Booker getting back to can make a big difference. Like
Speaker 1: if Devin Booker is on No holds bar forty two
Speaker 1: minutes tonight, maybe it's not as close they're in New Orleans, right,
Speaker 1: So there's other details there that are up in the air,
Speaker 1: but so much can change over the course of the
Speaker 1: next you know month that it's hard to say what
Speaker 1: things are gonna look like in the NBA Finals, But
Speaker 1: just strictly from a matchup standpoint, Phoenix struggled with length
Speaker 1: and athleticism in the series. Boston is a longer and
Speaker 1: more athletic version of the New Orleans Pelicans, So that's
Speaker 1: a that's gonna be an interesting element to look at.
Speaker 1: I would still pick the Celtics as of right now
Speaker 1: as my championship favorite. Now looking at the Pelicans, this
Speaker 1: gets This is a really interesting question in my opinion,
Speaker 1: because you know, as Pelicans fan, these kinds of runs
Speaker 1: are what you live for. It's that that it feels
Speaker 1: like you're at the beginning of something great, right, And
Speaker 1: I think we have to give some credit to David Griffin,
Speaker 1: just like I was talking about criticism and being fair.
Speaker 1: You know, we've all been super critical of David Griffin
Speaker 1: for good reason. He made some moves that were genuinely
Speaker 1: confounding on a bunch of different levels over the course
Speaker 1: of the last couple of years. But you hit on
Speaker 1: a handful of inex pensive players and it could change
Speaker 1: the course of your franchise. This is the advantage of
Speaker 1: having really, really smart people in your front office and
Speaker 1: in your scouting department. You find a Herb Jones, you
Speaker 1: find a Trey Murphy, you find a Jose Alvariedo, you
Speaker 1: find guys like that inexpensive on the fringes of the
Speaker 1: scouting sphere of basketball players. All of a sudden you
Speaker 1: find two really good three and D wings that are
Speaker 1: freakishly athletic and cause a lot of problems for a
Speaker 1: bunch of players, and a bulldog of a guard and
Speaker 1: Jose Alvariedo that brings up. But I mean, it's it's
Speaker 1: it's difficult to even put together all the different ways
Speaker 1: that Jose Alvarido impacts the game of basketball. But you
Speaker 1: find you hit three guys there on the fringes, and
Speaker 1: it can make up for two or three years of
Speaker 1: mistakes in general management. So the curious thing to me
Speaker 1: with the Pelicans is what do you do? Is I
Speaker 1: on Williamson. I love the CJ. McCollum fit with Brandon Ingram.
Speaker 1: I love the two of them as your primary perimeter initiators.
Speaker 1: Ideally you have the two of them and two freaky
Speaker 1: athletic wings, and then you have Zion at the five.
Speaker 1: The trouble is Zion struggles as a traditional back line defender.
Speaker 1: What I would do now, A lot of NBA teams
Speaker 1: are obsessed with traditions, So my guesses is that they'll
Speaker 1: continue to try to fit Zion in as a four.
Speaker 1: But what I would do is ditch some of these
Speaker 1: traditional ideas of how to construct a defense. Don't think
Speaker 1: of it as Zion playing the five. Think of it
Speaker 1: rather as doing kind of a Boston Celtics esque. We
Speaker 1: are switching everything and we just have four wings and
Speaker 1: c J. McCollum you can get away with playing, you know,
Speaker 1: brandon Ingram alongside guys like Trey Murphy and Herb Jones
Speaker 1: and and Zion Williamson. You get four freak athletes that
Speaker 1: can cover a ton of ground. C J. Mcollum is
Speaker 1: not a freak athlete, but the aggregate size and speed
Speaker 1: and athleticism of that lineup would be really, really good.
Speaker 1: That would be what the direction that I would go.
Speaker 1: Just continue to load up on wings and prioritize trying
Speaker 1: to play a more modern style rather than and then
Speaker 1: then you have a guy like Jonas Valanciunas for a
Speaker 1: different look, for a more traditional look. Jonas valancunists in
Speaker 1: this series. Even though he was dominant on the offensive
Speaker 1: glass and had some battles against DeAndre and that he won.
Speaker 1: I was throughout the entire series telling you guys, that
Speaker 1: in the aggregate. I didn't love the fit. I thought
Speaker 1: he hurt their footspeed and transition. I thought he was
Speaker 1: clogging the plant at the paint. A lot of the time,
Speaker 1: I think there are you know, there's everyone's always terrified
Speaker 1: to go small because of all the things that you lose,
Speaker 1: but they never properly factor in all the things that
Speaker 1: you gain, and in this case, you gain spacing, you
Speaker 1: gain Can you imagine Zion Williamson attacking the rim with
Speaker 1: Trey Murphy in one corner and and and Herb Jones
Speaker 1: in the other corner and C. J. McCollum and Brandon
Speaker 1: Brandon ingram up on the wings. That guy is going
Speaker 1: to destroy NBA defenses in that type of setting. Now,
Speaker 1: do you give ground on the defensive end that you
Speaker 1: might have to learn in the long run. Yes, it
Speaker 1: took the Celtics half the season to figure out there
Speaker 1: switching and get that dialed in enough to be truly effective.
Speaker 1: So you have to buy into that long term vision,
Speaker 1: be willing to take some bumps and bruises along the way.
Speaker 1: Try to fit Zion Williamson into this mix and see
Speaker 1: if because he kind of has a very complimentary skill
Speaker 1: set to what Brandon Ingram and c Jim McCollum to
Speaker 1: do together. Plus a huge part of like compensating for
Speaker 1: a lack of size is gang rebounding right crashing from
Speaker 1: the perimeter. We talked about this last night. If you
Speaker 1: got Draymond Green inside boxing people out, you have to
Speaker 1: have a size and athleticism on the wing to come
Speaker 1: flying in to grab rebounds. There's so much athleticism in
Speaker 1: that lineup that you might be able to compensate for that,
Speaker 1: even more so than you could with a guy like
Speaker 1: Jonas Valancunis on the floor. So that'll be an interesting
Speaker 1: dynamic as they as they go into this summer. What
Speaker 1: are they what's the idea of this existing construct adding
Speaker 1: Zion Williamson or there's even a case to be made
Speaker 1: that he should be traded, which I'm not gonna get
Speaker 1: into right now. Maybe we can get into that this offseason.
Speaker 1: But very very exciting future for the Pelicans. They have
Speaker 1: a ton of talent. I'm really really interested to see
Speaker 1: what they can accomplish here over the course of the
Speaker 1: next couple of years. All right, that is all I
Speaker 1: have for tonight. As always, I sincerely appreciate your guys support.
Speaker 1: We may or may not have something on Jazz MAVs
Speaker 1: tomorrow morning. I will let you guys know either way.
Speaker 1: We have Friday night and Saturday Night off. Sunday we
Speaker 1: will be back. The second round begins that day, an
Speaker 1: incredible matchup between the Bucks and the Celtics. We will
Speaker 1: get into all those details in Sunday night's show. Again,
Speaker 1: as always, I sincerely appreciate you guys supporting the show
Speaker 1: and I will see you in a couple of days.
Speaker 1: Volume