Speaker 1: You're tuned into Heat Check with Trystal Quick.
Speaker 2: On this episode of the Heat Check, our friend Brendan
Speaker 2: Glasheen returns to break down what's happening in his corner
Speaker 2: of the NBA world. For those who don't know, Brendan
Speaker 2: is the play by play man for the Main Celtics
Speaker 2: of the G League and the WNBA's Connecticut Sun, as
Speaker 2: well as contributor on ESPN DraftKings Action Network as well.
Speaker 2: Brennan joined me and my co host PJ. Glasser from
Speaker 2: BEDMGM Tonight on a recent episode and gave his unfiltered
Speaker 2: thoughts on Cleveland, Utah and Golden State. It's a fun conversation,
Speaker 2: so Nick, give me a favor and drop that beat.
Speaker 2: What's your thoughts about sort of what you're seeing from
Speaker 2: the calves down the stretch? Latent games because a few
Speaker 2: games in a row on the West Coast, they let
Speaker 2: these leads evaporate into losses.
Speaker 1: Yeah, four straight losses. That's a tough trip.
Speaker 3: Golden State Sacramento Clippers, and that's a Clippers team that's
Speaker 3: had guys in and out of the lineup.
Speaker 1: As we know.
Speaker 3: Golden State, like we last talked about when I was
Speaker 3: on the show. We were wondering are they going to
Speaker 3: get their act together, and it feels like we're still
Speaker 3: getting Jeckyll and Hyde Golden State.
Speaker 1: I think it's a mixture. Now.
Speaker 3: It's funny you bring that up, Trista, because I thought
Speaker 3: Cleveland down the stretch and that win against Boston, both
Speaker 3: of their wins against Boston overtime, give the ball to
Speaker 3: Donovan Mitchell and get out of the way. And that's
Speaker 3: a credit to Darius Garland for being willing, knowing he's
Speaker 3: been in Cleveland longer than Mitchell to sort of hand
Speaker 3: it off to the star player that they acquired via trade.
Speaker 3: And Mitchell made big shots down the stretch. And I
Speaker 3: think now opponents have looked at Cleveland. They're going to
Speaker 3: give the ball to Mitchell. Everyone else is going to
Speaker 3: get out of the way, and he's going to do
Speaker 3: his thing. Now they've looked great at home Cleveland. Even
Speaker 3: in the Lebron era, Cleveland has always had great fans.
Speaker 3: They've had a great home court advantage with Lebron James,
Speaker 3: and even when they drafted Kyrie Irving, they sort of
Speaker 3: still had a star at the end of games. Now,
Speaker 3: I think for Cleveland, they've got to find different ways
Speaker 3: other than giving it to Mitchell and everyone else getting
Speaker 3: out of the way. They've got enough shooters, and Garland
Speaker 3: has been an All Star player the way the numbers
Speaker 3: he's put up, So I think it's just they've become
Speaker 3: a little predictable how they want.
Speaker 1: To finish these games.
Speaker 3: And it's more so now of Mitchell trusting what he
Speaker 3: has around him. And I would like to think based
Speaker 3: on what this roster has done. It feels weird to
Speaker 3: say because how good Utah was their consistency at the
Speaker 3: end with players, I think Cleveland has just as good
Speaker 3: surrounding cast players that find the open man and make
Speaker 3: the right play. So I think that's what that is.
Speaker 3: It's a learning curve down the stretch. It's a new
Speaker 3: team when you have a superstar being your best player.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and maybe even better than what Utah had, honestly
Speaker 2: in terms of the year. Agree you mentioned Utah. Obviously,
Speaker 2: the new head coach, Will Hardy has some roots in Boston.
Speaker 2: I'm curious if you had any sort of interactions with
Speaker 2: him and what you think, just either from what you
Speaker 2: know from talking to him or talking to people around him,
Speaker 2: what is his special sauce in why he's been able
Speaker 2: to be so successful immediately on a team that many
Speaker 2: thought was not only going to be rebuilding, but actively tanking,
Speaker 2: and they've looked awesome.
Speaker 1: I don't know Will personally.
Speaker 3: I know the Celtics were very interested in Will Hardy.
Speaker 3: He was one of their top candidates before they decided
Speaker 3: to move forward with em Udoka. But Hardy was someone
Speaker 3: that the Celtics were in discussions with to be the
Speaker 3: next coach, and Brad Stevens has spoken very highly of him.
Speaker 3: Folks in Milwaukee have spoke very highly of him. Look
Speaker 3: it's I made this comparison a couple weeks ago when
Speaker 3: I last joined. They remind me of the JV Celtics,
Speaker 3: like a bunch of cast of characters who people don't
Speaker 3: really believe in that there may be slightly overpaid because
Speaker 3: previous teams gave them big contracts, and they've put guys
Speaker 3: like Lori Markenen in great positions to not only put
Speaker 3: up good numbers but play winning basketball. Jordan Clarkson, to me,
Speaker 3: is a phenomenal player who who gets overlooked. He might
Speaker 3: have been like Option three with Mitchell and Gobert when
Speaker 3: those two were there. Now Jordan Clarkson has unlocked other
Speaker 3: skills and other abilities that we may not have seen
Speaker 3: at this level.
Speaker 1: He's been fantastic for them.
Speaker 3: So I think it's just guys playing with a chip
Speaker 3: on their shoulder, and Will has always had I think
Speaker 3: a lot of times in the NBA, when assistant coaches
Speaker 3: are promoted or get that first opportunity to be a
Speaker 3: head coach, a lot of times they think that the
Speaker 3: relationship they have with individual players goes a long way.
Speaker 3: And of course the next step in like any sport,
Speaker 3: when you go from the assistant or the coordinator role
Speaker 3: to head coach, you've got to oversee the whole operation.
Speaker 3: You're the sound piece for the organization. And Will has
Speaker 3: been able to filter whatever those individual relationships were with
Speaker 3: previous jobs into the overall team concept. And they've they've
Speaker 3: played team basketball, and they've been great. If you've been
Speaker 3: if you're a better and you like Utah, they've been
Speaker 3: good against the spread, and they've been good overall, and
Speaker 3: then they continue to respond. So a lot of folks
Speaker 3: around the NBA had nothing but great things to say
Speaker 3: about Will Hardy. So it's a bit surprising because you
Speaker 3: wonder when Danny Ainge was appointed as someone who was
Speaker 3: going to oversee the operation. I wondered, Well, knowing Danny Ainge,
Speaker 3: he loves to accumulate draft picks and the Wembin Yama sweepstakes,
Speaker 3: they were one team that popped up in conversations because
Speaker 3: Danny Ainge would either be in conversations here in Boston.
Speaker 3: He was always connected to all right, we're gonna move
Speaker 3: up and get Jason Tatum. We're gonna draft Jalen Brown
Speaker 3: instead of Chris Dunn, for example back in twenty sixteen,
Speaker 3: or we flipped those picks and go get Anthony Davis
Speaker 3: or Paul George or Kawhi Leonard. So Danny Ainge attracted
Speaker 3: the draft picks and right now, this collection of talent,
Speaker 3: they have certainly exceeded expectations.
Speaker 1: And that's a credit to Hardy.
Speaker 2: A major think piece actually just came out on Klay Thompson,
Speaker 2: Steve Kerr basically said that the Warriors dynasty as we
Speaker 2: know it is in its last year. Do you like
Speaker 2: their younger core to move forward with this dynasty or
Speaker 2: do you think that he's right that the dynasty after
Speaker 2: this year, especially with all the contract stuff, is truly
Speaker 2: over it.
Speaker 3: Feels very last Dance ish, and they know that's it's
Speaker 3: like really dangerous territory to step into. Because it sounds
Speaker 3: like I'm comparing the Jordan Bulls to this team, but
Speaker 3: the comparisons are fair.
Speaker 1: They've dominated the league.
Speaker 3: They've been in the finals, and that's of course without Durant,
Speaker 3: then with Durant, and then without Durant again. But as
Speaker 3: I mentioned, they had a nice win against San Antonio
Speaker 3: the other night and blow out fashion, and that's the
Speaker 3: Warriors at home, of course, so they're a different squad
Speaker 3: when they're at home. That home court advantage is real.
Speaker 3: They had a great third quarter. The Warriors are the
Speaker 3: best third quarter team in basketball. They outscored the Spurs
Speaker 3: thirty eight twenty three. But they're star players. And by
Speaker 3: the way, I left out Andrew Wiggins, who was arguably
Speaker 3: the NBA Finals MVP had it not been for Steph
Speaker 3: and what he means to this run that they've been
Speaker 3: on over the previous years. But they got great knights
Speaker 3: out of their bench. Kamenga, Anthony Lamb go UVM Vermont Catamounts.
Speaker 3: Anthony Lamb, great player there, Moody was. It was phenomenal
Speaker 3: in that game. So they're still looking to get more
Speaker 3: on a Wiseman, which is a work in progress because
Speaker 3: he didn't play at the end of last year. So
Speaker 3: that their top pick Wiseman, who by the way, they
Speaker 3: took him because the year they were without Thompson and
Speaker 3: he was hurt.
Speaker 1: They had a high draft pick that year.
Speaker 3: Of course, I don't want to, you know, I'm not
Speaker 3: trying to get on freezing cold takes and say they're done,
Speaker 3: they're out of it. If they get in in that
Speaker 3: top if they can get in.
Speaker 1: The play in minimum, do you want to play them?
Speaker 1: I don't think so. I don't think you want to
Speaker 1: run into this team.
Speaker 3: It feels to me that they're playing like, let's just
Speaker 3: get in or by Christmas, get our rotation figured out,
Speaker 3: give Steph Clay, Draymond Wiggins if needed, give these guys
Speaker 3: their appropriate rest, solve all their internal issues, and then
Speaker 3: by Christmas we'll take off and start taking game seriously.
Speaker 1: It's truly. It's not like in the super Bowl.
Speaker 3: We always talk about the team that loses the Super
Speaker 3: Bowl that they're in danger. Well, I think in the NBA,
Speaker 3: when you win the whole thing and you've won as
Speaker 3: much as this team has. It's hard to get up
Speaker 3: every night in the regular season and take big games,
Speaker 3: and that's why I think tonight's a great spot for them. Like, Oh,
Speaker 3: this is the team that won the most games in
Speaker 3: the West last year. They got humiliated on their home
Speaker 3: court in Game seven by Dallas. They're going to be
Speaker 3: fired up for this one more than we will. Oh,
Speaker 3: you think we won't be ready to go? So they've
Speaker 3: been consistent, their bench has been inconsistent. They need more
Speaker 3: consistency to give guys like Curry and Thompson nights where
Speaker 3: they don't have to play thirty five to thirty eight
Speaker 3: minutes and be dominant.
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