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Speaker 1: gambler dot net in West Virginia. Started with Phoenix and Dallas.
Speaker 1: This is shaping up like a textbook playoff series where
Speaker 1: the teams don't seem to be willing to bring their
Speaker 1: effort and focus on the road. Both of these teams
Speaker 1: are extremely difficult to guard when you look at the
Speaker 1: way that they're set up. I feel like Phoenix is
Speaker 1: more of an of a multifaceted offensive threat in the
Speaker 1: sense that Chris Paul and Devin Booker are primarily responsible
Speaker 1: for just that initial compromising of the defense. Once they
Speaker 1: get that initial you know, defensive help rotation and they
Speaker 1: kick out the rest of the guys can take it
Speaker 1: from there, there's so much talent surrounding them on the floor.
Speaker 1: Cam Johnson is fantastic get attacking closeouts and can shoot.
Speaker 1: Michail Bridges had a rough night tonight, but he can
Speaker 1: attack closeouts and shoot. DeAndre Ayton obviously, you know, he's
Speaker 1: one of the most capable young big that we have
Speaker 1: in the league. They have a different type of attack.
Speaker 1: It's more kind of like backloaded, but at the same time,
Speaker 1: Dallas is also extremely difficult to guard. The differences is
Speaker 1: that Dinwoodie and Bronson and Luca all have more of
Speaker 1: a responsibility to try to score and when they when
Speaker 1: they make that initial move, and the guys off the
Speaker 1: ball are more shooters, spot up shooters, traditional spot up threats,
Speaker 1: rather than you know, close out attacking kind of guys.
Speaker 1: You're not expecting Reggie Bullock to put the ball on
Speaker 1: the floor and hit a bunch of one dribble pull ups,
Speaker 1: or Dorian Phinney Smith or Maxie Cleiber any of those guys.
Speaker 1: It's kind of more of a you know, we're it's different.
Speaker 1: It's more frontloaded in that sense. Both teams, though, are
Speaker 1: extremely difficult to guard, and both teams have shown and
Speaker 1: when they're at home that they're willing to do so,
Speaker 1: that they're willing to do the work to do so.
Speaker 1: But it goes both ways because those offenses, you know,
Speaker 1: for Phoenix in particular, they depend on guys like Michail
Speaker 1: Bridges having big games. They depend on dere and really
Speaker 1: struggled finishing in the paint tonight. They that's an important
Speaker 1: part of their offense. You know, Cam Johnson the same thing.
Speaker 1: They've kind of removed Campaign not entirely from the rotation,
Speaker 1: but they're using him a lot less. But they've depend
Speaker 1: on those guys to play well. So when they go
Speaker 1: on the road and those guys don't play well, their
Speaker 1: offense ceases to function. And for Dallas, that's shooting. They
Speaker 1: go on the road and they depend on Reggie Bullock
Speaker 1: to make shots, and they depend on Dorian Phinney Smith
Speaker 1: to make shots. He makes eight threes in game four
Speaker 1: and then struggles in game five, And that's the difference.
Speaker 1: When they go on the road, those guys can't make shots,
Speaker 1: and then their offense ceases to function, their defense starts
Speaker 1: to fall apart, and you know, that's just kind of
Speaker 1: how this goes. But that's exactly why it's so important
Speaker 1: during the regular season to fight for things like home court.
Speaker 1: You know, as much as we criticize the NBA regular
Speaker 1: season for lacking urgency, and it does, and there's a
Speaker 1: lot of things that I would do to fix that,
Speaker 1: but there is the ever present need for home court.
Speaker 1: There are teams, uniquely equipped teams. It's usually up here.
Speaker 1: They are uniquely equipped teams that are immune to that
Speaker 1: sort of thing. You know, Like you don't doubt that
Speaker 1: Miami was gonna go into Game six tonight and play
Speaker 1: with a certain amount of focus and effort. You don't
Speaker 1: doubt Milwaukee, for instance, like mill We're gonna talk more
Speaker 1: about Milwaukee Boston later tonight, like that game. Milwaukee being
Speaker 1: at home for Game six means nothing because both of
Speaker 1: those teams travel so well, And if Milwaukee loses Game six,
Speaker 1: Boston doesn't instantly become a shoe in favorite because they've
Speaker 1: shown a propensity to be able to lose at home.
Speaker 1: They've done it twice, you know. But there are two
Speaker 1: those two different kinds of teams in the league. I'm
Speaker 1: not mistaken. Phoenix is now two and four on the
Speaker 1: road in this playoff run. There's been some really ugly
Speaker 1: stretches in there. It's something that they're gonna have to
Speaker 1: figure out. The biggest thing that staying it out to
Speaker 1: me right now that concerns me about Phoenix is Chris
Speaker 1: Paul and particularly his ability to score the basketball. Now,
Speaker 1: Dallas mixes up coverages a lot. They do drop with
Speaker 1: Dwight Powell. They do a little bit more switching with
Speaker 1: Maxi Cleveland, but they do some drop with him as well. Uh.
Speaker 1: Most importantly, the guards are doing an amazing job for
Speaker 1: Dallas of fighting over the top of the screen and
Speaker 1: making things tough on Chris, and he's his aggressiveness has
Speaker 1: toned way back. Through his first eight playoff games, he
Speaker 1: was incredibly dominant as a score and it just hasn't
Speaker 1: been the same in the last four games. What specifically
Speaker 1: concerns me about that because I do think Phoenix is
Speaker 1: gonna win Game seven, and we'll talk. I'm gonna preview
Speaker 1: Game seven a little bit tonight because I think that's
Speaker 1: a little bit more interesting than diving into this particular game.
Speaker 1: What concerns me with Chris paul scoring struggles is future matchups.
Speaker 1: So Golden State does a ton of switching if they
Speaker 1: get into the to the finals. Boston switches everything, especially
Speaker 1: against the team like Phoenix and Miami if they happen
Speaker 1: to be if the Miami happens to get out, they're
Speaker 1: gonna switch everything. And Milwaukee we've literally seen them against Phoenix.
Speaker 1: They did drop the to start the series, but towards
Speaker 1: the end of the series they went to Jannis at
Speaker 1: the five and switched everything against switching defenses, Chris Paul
Speaker 1: is going to have to score. We've talked a lot
Speaker 1: on this show about the way you attack switching defenses.
Speaker 1: We're gonna get further into it when we can start
Speaker 1: talking about Boston. But you attack switching defenses by beating
Speaker 1: people off the dribble and getting into the lane, enforcing
Speaker 1: help so that you can get teams in rotation. And
Speaker 1: you know, Chris Paul, it's gonna be there's gonna be
Speaker 1: a ton on his plate specifically to do that. Now.
Speaker 1: I haven't heard anything about an injury for Chris. I
Speaker 1: haven't heard anything. I don't know what's going on there.
Speaker 1: I don't know if he's banged up. I don't know
Speaker 1: if there's some residual mental stuff from the incident with
Speaker 1: his family and the crowd. I don't know what's going
Speaker 1: on with Chris. He just doesn't seem to be the same,
Speaker 1: and that if I'm a Phoenix Suns fan, that would
Speaker 1: concern me, because specifically, if you get out of this
Speaker 1: round facing Golden State, facing in Miami or a Boston,
Speaker 1: those three teams are gonna do a ton of switching,
Speaker 1: and you can just about guarantee that towards the end
Speaker 1: of the series, Milwaukee will do a bunch of switching
Speaker 1: as well, just like they're doing to Boston right now.
Speaker 1: And that specifically changes Chris Paul's role against Dwight Powell
Speaker 1: and Mexic Clipan. When he's going into drops all night,
Speaker 1: he can get over the top of that screen and
Speaker 1: play Maestro all night long and just throw the ball
Speaker 1: around to shooters and he can still have impact despite
Speaker 1: not being a great score. But once he gets into
Speaker 1: the switching, defense heavy system, he's going to have to
Speaker 1: create shots, and so that that's the one thing that
Speaker 1: concerns me. Devin Booker finally had a rough night tonight,
Speaker 1: but coming into to NIGHTI was averaging point four points
Speaker 1: per game on an astounding sixty true shooting. So my
Speaker 1: whole thing with Devin Booker is that he's been consistent,
Speaker 1: so I'm not gonna overthank him having one specific bad game.
Speaker 1: I wanted to look four to game seven because there's
Speaker 1: one specific move that I think Dallas has on the table,
Speaker 1: and there's one specific move that I think Phoenix has
Speaker 1: on the table to try to improve their chances. So
Speaker 1: for Dallas in particular, their offense hasn't traveled in this series.
Speaker 1: They're averaging better than ten points better at home than
Speaker 1: they are on the road in Phoenix. The only averaging
Speaker 1: hundred and five points six points per Hunter possessions in Phoenix.
Speaker 1: When you zoom in on it, specifically, when they've played
Speaker 1: after tonight, when they've played with White Powell on the floor,
Speaker 1: in seventy four minutes their minus nineteen, but in two
Speaker 1: hundred and fourteen minutes without him their plus eight. The
Speaker 1: problem is is Dwight Powell is not guarded when he's
Speaker 1: when he pops anywhere to the perimeter, he's not guarded,
Speaker 1: and then he does present that lob threat for Luca.
Speaker 1: So if you know, if the guards, so for instance,
Speaker 1: Michael Bridge is doing an amazing job fighting over the
Speaker 1: top of screens and shutting off some of Lucas stuff
Speaker 1: and pick and roll. If anybody else is in that action,
Speaker 1: they're dying on the screen. Chris got caught on a
Speaker 1: ton of screens tonight. A bunch of the guys are
Speaker 1: struggling with that. Once they get caught on the screen.
Speaker 1: It's a lot dunk every time with Dwight Pale. So
Speaker 1: there's it's not that Dwight Pal's that giving you anything.
Speaker 1: He's also been very good defensively. He's big important rebounder.
Speaker 1: He brings a lot to the table. But the problem
Speaker 1: is is the overall amount of space that Luca and
Speaker 1: And and Spencer Dinwoodie and Jalen Brunson have to operate
Speaker 1: when Powell is out there, it's just not great. And
Speaker 1: as a result, it's more of like a four out,
Speaker 1: one end concept as opposed to a five out concept.
Speaker 1: It's just allows DeAndre eighton to hawk the paint, and
Speaker 1: if DeAndre and can haalk the paint, that turns all
Speaker 1: of those guys into mid range jump shooters and it
Speaker 1: just makes the game a lot harder. And so you know,
Speaker 1: Dwight pal has been playing, you know, right around I
Speaker 1: can't remember off the top of my head, but it's
Speaker 1: a right around fifteen minutes per game, right, So in
Speaker 1: a game seven environment, you might have to go up
Speaker 1: to Maxi and be like, look, man, i'm gonna need
Speaker 1: forty two minutes out of you tonight, and we'll give
Speaker 1: you two three minute breaks to start the second and
Speaker 1: fourth quarters or to end the first and second at
Speaker 1: first and third quarters where you can take a little
Speaker 1: bit of a breather, but I'm gonna need forty two
Speaker 1: out of you in game seven because with Maxi Cleiband
Speaker 1: on the floor, there's two very important reasons why he
Speaker 1: has to be out there. One, in any sort of
Speaker 1: off ball situation, it's just like the Al Horford thing
Speaker 1: with Brook Lopez. You park him in the week side
Speaker 1: corner and all of a sudden, DeAndre and can't help.
Speaker 1: So that's obviously important. The second part of it is
Speaker 1: it takes Phoenix out of their drop coverage because when
Speaker 1: you pick and pop, so when they set, when they
Speaker 1: have Cleber set the screen, Cliba set the screen of Pop,
Speaker 1: the Mikhail bridges or wherever it is that's chasing, Luca
Speaker 1: has to switch now because if he chases over the top,
Speaker 1: Maxi's wide open every single time, and so it's just
Speaker 1: for me. If I'm Dallas and I'm rolling up into
Speaker 1: Phoenix for one game to potentially advance to the Conference finals,
Speaker 1: I'm going up to Maxi Cleiban and I'm saying, hey man,
Speaker 1: I need forty two minutes out of you, And the
Speaker 1: same thing goes for Phoenix. So you know, it's it's
Speaker 1: the general concept because for Phoenix, this guy is Jake
Speaker 1: Crowder and they basically took him out of the rotation
Speaker 1: in the second half tonight. We saw him briefly in
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter when the game was already over. But
Speaker 1: there's a difference between you know, when we're looking at
Speaker 1: shooting percentages, specifically three point shooting percentages, like oh, you
Speaker 1: know Jay Crowder shoots whatever this percentage is from three,
Speaker 1: or you know Desmond Bain shoots this percentage from three. Well,
Speaker 1: there's a huge difference between the way the two players
Speaker 1: are guarded. Desmond ban is a great example, but I'll
Speaker 1: keep it in this series. Let's talk about Reggie Bullock
Speaker 1: instead of Desmond band So if I'm comparing Desmond Bain
Speaker 1: or excuse me, Reggie Bullock to Jay Crowder, there three
Speaker 1: point percentages aren't one and the same because every shot
Speaker 1: that Jake Crowder gets is completely wide open because Dallas
Speaker 1: is ignoring him, whereas Reggie Bullock, if he catches the ball,
Speaker 1: Phoenix is panic chasing him and accounting for him everywhere
Speaker 1: on the floor. Although they lost him a lot tonight,
Speaker 1: the point is is, like, it's not so much about
Speaker 1: what you're shooting percentage is it's about whether or not
Speaker 1: you're guarded or unguarded. Because if I let Reggie Bullock
Speaker 1: sit wide open the way that Jake Crowder was all season,
Speaker 1: Keith shoots six from three his his percentagees did because
Speaker 1: he's guarded differently, and you see that impact Phoenix's offense.
Speaker 1: So they've done some interesting things to try to counter
Speaker 1: this by putting tucking him further away because you know,
Speaker 1: Nikki has Duncan did an awesome job laying this out
Speaker 1: with some video today on his Twitter feed. But when
Speaker 1: you know when you have a non shooter one pass away.
Speaker 1: We talked about this a lot with Janice when they're
Speaker 1: with their post ups, like Milwaukee does a really nice
Speaker 1: job of tucking a good shooter one pass away because
Speaker 1: that first defender that's one passed away has the best
Speaker 1: potential to disrupt whatever your star is trying to do.
Speaker 1: And so when Phoenix tries to run a pick and
Speaker 1: roll with DeAndre and Chris Paul, but Jake Crowder is
Speaker 1: at the top of the key, which is where he's
Speaker 1: been spotting up for the most part in this series,
Speaker 1: things just get janked up because whoever's guarding Jake Crowder
Speaker 1: is now basedly tripled. The becoming that third defender in
Speaker 1: the pick and roll just makes it way harder. But
Speaker 1: here's the thing. You can tuck him in the week
Speaker 1: side corner, but now his guy who's guarding him in
Speaker 1: the week side corners sitting under the basket. It's effectively
Speaker 1: the same predicament. So that's another situation. I don't have
Speaker 1: the numbers off top of my head here, but I
Speaker 1: looked earlier today Phoenix is playing a lot better without
Speaker 1: Jake Crowder, and so that might be the move that
Speaker 1: they have to go to at game in game seven
Speaker 1: at home, Hey mchaeal Bridges, I need forty out of you.
Speaker 1: Hey Cam Johnson, I need forty out of you. You know,
Speaker 1: maybe less Tory Craig, less less Jake Crowder give themselves
Speaker 1: the best chance. But I mean, at the end of
Speaker 1: the day. We have seen both teams best punches in
Speaker 1: this series, and Phoenix's best punch is better. They're far
Speaker 1: likely They're far likely to throw their best punch in
Speaker 1: Game seven, So I'm still leaning with Phoenix. Bummed that
Speaker 1: I lost some money on Phoenix tonight, but I still
Speaker 1: believe they're going to win this series. Before we move on,
Speaker 1: all of you guys who are listening, I sincerely appreciate
Speaker 1: you guys join us tonight. Please like this video. I
Speaker 1: would really really appreciate that. Before we move on, here's
Speaker 1: the word from our responds. The playoffs are heating up
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Speaker 1: My favorite same game parlay this week is Boston to
Speaker 1: win Game five by at least five and a half
Speaker 1: points and for Drew Holiday to go under twenty one
Speaker 1: and a half He's been great in the two wins,
Speaker 1: but in both Boston wins, Drew Holiday has scored less
Speaker 1: than twenty points. I think Boston is gonna put on
Speaker 1: a defensive clinic in Game five. That's how I think
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Speaker 1: the NBA. All right, let's move on to the Sixers
Speaker 1: finally being put out of their misery tonight by the
Speaker 1: Miami Heat. I made two bets tonight, both money line bets,
Speaker 1: both on the road team in a Game six. But
Speaker 1: I made those bets for very different reasons. I bet
Speaker 1: on Phoenix because I think they have a lot more
Speaker 1: talent than Dallas. I bet on Miami because they don't
Speaker 1: have as much talent, but because I could count on
Speaker 1: them to bring their very best punch in a closeout
Speaker 1: game on the road. You know, there's a lot of
Speaker 1: attention thrown towards heat culture. It's kind of like a buzzword.
Speaker 1: There's you know, I think it gets overplayed as it
Speaker 1: pertains to comparing that to the rest of the better
Speaker 1: teams in the league. Right, Like, I don't think Miami
Speaker 1: has some massive culture advantage over a Golden State or
Speaker 1: a massive culture advantage over like the l A Clippers
Speaker 1: or the Milwaukee Bucks or many of the other teams
Speaker 1: around the league. However, they do absolutely have a culture
Speaker 1: advantage over the middling teams in the league and the
Speaker 1: teams at the bottom. You know, especially when you see
Speaker 1: in environments like this, there's a toughness that goes that
Speaker 1: goes into the way that they play. Erik Spoelstre has
Speaker 1: said before that the types of players that Miami targets
Speaker 1: are edgy, and they're usually guys that have had, you know,
Speaker 1: a different path to their position in the NBA at currently.
Speaker 1: They usually have a chip on their shoulder. They usually
Speaker 1: weren't you know, high level draft picks, guys that you know,
Speaker 1: we're used to success. They're usually guys that have kind
Speaker 1: of been down in the dumps a little bit at
Speaker 1: various points in their basketball careers, and that breeds a
Speaker 1: certain level of toughness. They're an extremely you know, when
Speaker 1: it comes to when it comes to the the talent
Speaker 1: that's on the roster, you can always count on a
Speaker 1: handful of things. You can count on them being in
Speaker 1: their peak physical condition, you can count on them being
Speaker 1: mentally tough, you can count on them being well coached.
Speaker 1: We've talked a lot about Miami over the course of
Speaker 1: this playoff run and the way that they have. You know,
Speaker 1: I I compared them in a in a recent show
Speaker 1: to that those viral clips that go around in the
Speaker 1: n B a of like three or four NBA players
Speaker 1: all doing the same thing at the same time, whether
Speaker 1: it's all complaining at the rep at the same time
Speaker 1: or all running down in transition at the same time,
Speaker 1: and they go viral because it looks bizarre, because it
Speaker 1: looks like almost like video game characters. That's what Miami
Speaker 1: looks like on defense and on offense. Everything they do
Speaker 1: is is so disciplined, and it's you can count on
Speaker 1: a certain level of attention to detail from that team
Speaker 1: every single night. And it's their biggest advantage in a
Speaker 1: lot of these situations. You know, specifically when it comes
Speaker 1: to coaching, and in like a night like tonight. One
Speaker 1: of the things that they've been doing consistently throughout this
Speaker 1: entire playoff run, but it you know, it's obviously was
Speaker 1: deeply impactful tonight, is they do things like switch coverages.
Speaker 1: Like one possession, you come down there in his zone,
Speaker 1: the next position, you come down there in a man.
Speaker 1: One time you run a pick and roll, they trap it.
Speaker 1: The next time that you run a pick and roll,
Speaker 1: they're in a traditional drop. Then they randomly switch. Do
Speaker 1: you guys understand how hard that is to do in
Speaker 1: the flow of a basketball game. Do you understand how
Speaker 1: much time and effort when it comes to coaching, when
Speaker 1: how much time and effort it takes to instill those things.
Speaker 1: You know, It's funny because I coach high school basketball
Speaker 1: and I can't tell you how many times my coaching
Speaker 1: staff and I we will ask our players to run
Speaker 1: a play and they won't do it, but their kids,
Speaker 1: you know, so you expect that to a certain extent.
Speaker 1: But even when I was in college, it was the
Speaker 1: same thing. I can't tell you how many times the
Speaker 1: coach on the sideline would make a call with grown men.
Speaker 1: When I was playing an ai A ball like, it's
Speaker 1: like we had a twenty nine year old point guard
Speaker 1: in a thirty one year old shooting guard. I was
Speaker 1: one of the young guys at age twenty two, and
Speaker 1: it was you know, and for the record, and for
Speaker 1: all you kids out there trying to play one day
Speaker 1: or are playing right now in high school or in college,
Speaker 1: is one of the easiest ways to solidify your spot
Speaker 1: in the rotation is to be dependable when it comes
Speaker 1: to running plays right or being in the right spots
Speaker 1: and your defensive scheme and always being where the coach
Speaker 1: needs you to be in whatever his system is. But
Speaker 1: Miami has that down to a t. That's why I
Speaker 1: bet on them tonight. Let me look at the other
Speaker 1: side with Philly and could I tweeted this out earlier.
Speaker 1: Is there a four man grouping in this playoff field
Speaker 1: that is more talented than Joel Embiide, James hard Entiree
Speaker 1: Smaxie and Tobias Harris. Yeah, there probably is. If we
Speaker 1: really looked hard, you could probably say like a Janice
Speaker 1: Chris Middleton, Drew Holiday Brook Lopez is above them. Right,
Speaker 1: You could say like a Steph Clay, Jordan Pool, Draymond Green.
Speaker 1: But that that's probably the end of that list. Maybe
Speaker 1: Chris Paul Booker eighton and Bridges right, But like that
Speaker 1: Philly quartet is right there with them. But they just
Speaker 1: I mean three games in the series, four games Games one, two,
Speaker 1: and games five and six, they gave a piss poor effort,
Speaker 1: which is astounding under the circumstances. And those first two
Speaker 1: games in Miami, yeah and beads out, I get it,
Speaker 1: but they punted those games. They quit in the first
Speaker 1: quarter of Game five. The big reason why I bet
Speaker 1: on Miami tonight was because my because Philly quit in
Speaker 1: the first quarter of Game five of a pivotal to
Speaker 1: two playoff series. And then after the game, Joel Embide
Speaker 1: came out and basically implied that he doesn't want to
Speaker 1: be playing. You had this long drawn out quote about
Speaker 1: how you know if he's in a lose lose situation
Speaker 1: because if he plays, he won't play well. But if
Speaker 1: he doesn't play, everyone will call him saw offt. Well,
Speaker 1: here's the thing, dude, You're on National TV in game three.
Speaker 1: In Game four on National TV, you had a broken
Speaker 1: face and you were recovering from a concussion in those
Speaker 1: two games, and we saw you sell your soul on
Speaker 1: the court on on defense, and then at Game five
Speaker 1: and six you just stopped. You just didn't do it. Now, Okay, Like,
Speaker 1: maybe is it possible that there is stuff going on
Speaker 1: that puts you in a position where you know, as
Speaker 1: the series was progressing, things got worse. I don't know.
Speaker 1: It's hard to jump to that conclusion. All I know
Speaker 1: is that you had those same injuries in Game three
Speaker 1: in Game four and you didn't play hard. Anybody on
Speaker 1: the roster. James Harden took two shots in that second
Speaker 1: half tonight. How bizarre is that there's a bunch of
Speaker 1: stuff going on in the in the in the area
Speaker 1: of toughness and just metal and in all of those
Speaker 1: little intangible basketball qualities. There were so many things for
Speaker 1: Philly in this series that went south. And guess what,
Speaker 1: That's what happened last year. Philly had more talent than Atlanta,
Speaker 1: Philly had more talent than Miami. They lost both of
Speaker 1: those series. You know, that's one of those things, like
Speaker 1: when we're getting into the top of the league, when
Speaker 1: we're comparing you to Kevin Durant and Lebron James and
Speaker 1: Janice Antenna Kombo and Steph Curry. We're talking about guys
Speaker 1: that bring it every single night, especially at least in
Speaker 1: the postseason, and set a certain tone that trickles down
Speaker 1: the roster for whatever for whatever reason, that just doesn't
Speaker 1: happen with Philthy and it's bizarre. But before we move on,
Speaker 1: I want to give some credit to Miami because, like
Speaker 1: again there I described them in our last show that
Speaker 1: talked about Miami. I described them as a sponge in
Speaker 1: the desert that they squeeze every last drop out of.
Speaker 1: There's no chance in the world that that Miami is
Speaker 1: gonna leave points on the table, that Miami is gonna
Speaker 1: leave an opportunity on the table. They will get the
Speaker 1: absolute most out of their talent. You know, it's funny
Speaker 1: because I put in my notes Philly's big mistake, and
Speaker 1: I put that during the game because all I could
Speaker 1: think of is, like, you know, who would be a
Speaker 1: guy to have in your foxhold for a game like
Speaker 1: this is Jimmy Butler. And then, as fate would have it,
Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler after the game quote he's talking about him beat.
Speaker 1: I love him, I'm proud of him. I still wish
Speaker 1: I was on his team. I definitely love the Miami Heat,
Speaker 1: though I got so much respect and love for Joel Embiid.
Speaker 1: That was their big mistake. They chose Tobias Harris instead
Speaker 1: of Jimmy Butler in that summer, and I mean there's
Speaker 1: some conflicting intel there. Apparently Philly might have offered him
Speaker 1: four years instead of five years or whatever it was,
Speaker 1: and there's you know, obviously Jimmy had an affinity for
Speaker 1: Miami and he fits in perfect to that system. So
Speaker 1: I get it, but we far too often in these
Speaker 1: situations we underestimate the way that that toughness and metal
Speaker 1: factors in to these playoffs series. Just like Eric Spoelser
Speaker 1: said after Game five, you know, you work so hard
Speaker 1: on a scheme, you work hard on strategy, you come
Speaker 1: up with a plan, but really all of that goes
Speaker 1: out the window, and it comes down to who goes
Speaker 1: out and makes the extra efforts, who goes out and
Speaker 1: is willing to do the things that other people are
Speaker 1: not willing to do on the floor. So where do
Speaker 1: we go from here? If you're filling, well, let's start
Speaker 1: with Harden. What do you do with James Harden? Really
Speaker 1: weird game tonight, wasn't attacking the rim, wasn't put it,
Speaker 1: not even putting the refs in a position where they
Speaker 1: had to try to make a decision about whether or
Speaker 1: not he was fouled. Two shot attempts in the second half.
Speaker 1: Really weird night. But I've said this before and and
Speaker 1: and it's it's what I truly believe. You keep hard
Speaker 1: in despite the fact that he will be overpaid the
Speaker 1: minute you put pen to paper, for two reasons. First
Speaker 1: of all, he's an asset. At some point down the line,
Speaker 1: you'll be able to trade him and you'll be able
Speaker 1: to get something back in return, whereas if you don't
Speaker 1: sign him, you get nothing. But two aside from tonight,
Speaker 1: tonight was weird. You know, like I think I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna be I'm not gonna be as hard on, hardened
Speaker 1: for tonight as I would be if he was the
Speaker 1: true leader of the team the way he was when
Speaker 1: he was in Houston. This is Joel embiads team. He
Speaker 1: came out flat, everyone else followed. James Harden because of
Speaker 1: his physical decline, is not capable right now. If hitting
Speaker 1: the Jets, he could have taken ten shots in that
Speaker 1: second half and they still would have lost. To be clear,
Speaker 1: he's just with his physical decline, he's not capable of
Speaker 1: it at this point in time. Remains to be seen
Speaker 1: if you'll be able to do it in the future,
Speaker 1: So I'm not gonna be as hard on him. But
Speaker 1: for the most part in this postseason, I thought Harden
Speaker 1: did pretty well given his physical limitations. I thought in
Speaker 1: games two through three through five of this series, particularly
Speaker 1: in Game five, I thought he was the only sixer
Speaker 1: that showed up, and obviously he was a monster in
Speaker 1: Game four. Did it would knock him down this His
Speaker 1: whole impact in this postseason was mainly knocking down threes
Speaker 1: and playmaking. But that's all he's capable of right now.
Speaker 1: So to his credit, I actually, you know the way
Speaker 1: I look at it. If you're Philly and you're looking
Speaker 1: at you, if you're if, if you're Darryl Morrin, you're
Speaker 1: looking at this roster. I actually like a lot of
Speaker 1: things about this roster. Tyrese Maxie is really good. Guys.
Speaker 1: He's in his second season and he had monster playoff games.
Speaker 1: In this playoff run, he was a huge part of
Speaker 1: why they beat Toronto. His ability to get out and transition.
Speaker 1: He reminds me he's not as good as Jordan Pool.
Speaker 1: Um doesn't have that did that kind of side to
Speaker 1: side shift nous and the off the dribble jump shooting.
Speaker 1: But he's a very good shooter already, and he has
Speaker 1: that Jordan Pool straight line drive threat that can be
Speaker 1: so devastating in the NBA, especially in the spread floor.
Speaker 1: I love Tyrese Maxi's game. Tobias Harris is overpaid, sure,
Speaker 1: but he's a very good basketball player. And for him
Speaker 1: to be your third or fourth best player as a
Speaker 1: guy who can guard the other team's best wing, exploit mismatches,
Speaker 1: spot up, off the ball, attack, close out, score and
Speaker 1: transition all the things that he can do, that's a
Speaker 1: huge weapon to have on your roster. Joel Embiide you,
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk about him in a minute. He's Joon
Speaker 1: Beads great, you know. And then James Harden is that
Speaker 1: adult in the room on the perimeter. I talked a
Speaker 1: lot about this in the Boston series after last night.
Speaker 1: Right Boston's biggest weakness right now is they don't have
Speaker 1: a player that understands the flow of a basketball game,
Speaker 1: that understands when things are getting off the rails offensively
Speaker 1: and when to rain them in just an adult with
Speaker 1: the basketball. They don't they like a traditional point guard
Speaker 1: type of concept. They don't have that guy in Boston.
Speaker 1: That's a value there. And one last thing on the
Speaker 1: heart and thing like he's thirty two. I is it
Speaker 1: gonna happen? I don't know. Probably not, but there is
Speaker 1: a chance to. And this is another reason why you
Speaker 1: extend him. There's a chance that this was the season
Speaker 1: where hard and got humbled in some ways. He probably
Speaker 1: realized in this playoff run that he tried to tap
Speaker 1: into some things that weren't there anymore. And he may
Speaker 1: go into this offseason with the renewed motivation to try
Speaker 1: to improve his physical condition. Me we're gonna learn a
Speaker 1: lot about James Harden with the way he comes into
Speaker 1: training camp next season. Last note on Philly, I think
Speaker 1: they have to fire Doc Rivers. He had some moments
Speaker 1: in this postseason. To be clear, I thought he outcoached
Speaker 1: Nick Nurse in the first round. But here's the thing.
Speaker 1: The toughness element, if it's not gonna come from a player,
Speaker 1: it has to come from your coach. Look at the Celtics.
Speaker 1: The Celtics had issues with toughness consistently over the previous
Speaker 1: few years. Email Udoka came in and completely changed that.
Speaker 1: Younger more recently in the league, a guy who brings
Speaker 1: a ton of toughness when he was a player, and
Speaker 1: he inflicted that on his players in his locker room.
Speaker 1: What I would do is I'd fire Doc Rivers and
Speaker 1: I'd find a guy like email Udoka. I have to
Speaker 1: do some research to find some specific examples, but I
Speaker 1: look for someone that has a toughness type of identity
Speaker 1: that can inflict that on this group, because that's what
Speaker 1: this group needs and forward to move on entirely. I
Speaker 1: have one last note. I on the Danny Green injury.
Speaker 1: I have no idea of Joel and Bead flopped into
Speaker 1: his life. I have my suspicions, but I'm not going
Speaker 1: to jump to that conclusion. I'm really really bummed out
Speaker 1: for Danny Green. He's not on a guaranteed contract next year.
Speaker 1: Didn't look good. We don't see. We don't know the
Speaker 1: m r I results yet, but we can all be
Speaker 1: pretty sure that's bad. And he probably wouldn't be able
Speaker 1: to finish rehab until he's thirty six years old, So
Speaker 1: I don't know if we're gonna see him play NBA
Speaker 1: basketball again, and that really bums me out. I'm not
Speaker 1: going to comment on that play, but what I am
Speaker 1: gonna do is take this opportunity to once again tell
Speaker 1: you guys that this flopping ship has to be taken
Speaker 1: out of the league. It is terrible for the league
Speaker 1: in terms of the health of the game of basketball.
Speaker 1: It's terrible for the television product. Joel Embiid became a
Speaker 1: He became a freaking caricature or of himself. Tonight, he
Speaker 1: was falling on almost every single play. There was a
Speaker 1: play where he was running back on defense and transition
Speaker 1: and tripped over himself and fell. It's It's like I've
Speaker 1: never seen anything like it. It's bad. It's bad for
Speaker 1: the health of the game, it's bad for the television product,
Speaker 1: and most importantly, it's not safe. Again, I'm not referencing
Speaker 1: that play. I'm just saying, especially as a big human being,
Speaker 1: every time you willingly and purposefully fall on the floor
Speaker 1: in traffic, you put everyone else around you at risk.
Speaker 1: You put their legs at risks, you put their ankles
Speaker 1: at risk, you put their knees at risk, and you
Speaker 1: willingly make that decision. And this is where I have
Speaker 1: to go at the NBA because this has been a
Speaker 1: problem for the better part of a decade now and
Speaker 1: they let this happen. Go turn on a game from
Speaker 1: like two thousand two. Go turn on a game from
Speaker 1: Tell me how much flopping you see? This is a
Speaker 1: new ish problem in the last decade or so, and
Speaker 1: it's one thousand percent because it gets rewarded. I shared
Speaker 1: out of tweet today. You can see it on my feed.
Speaker 1: Joel embiide get drawing a foul on PJ Tucker on
Speaker 1: a pull up jump shot at the free throw line
Speaker 1: where he literally does not get touched and kicks both
Speaker 1: of his legs in the air like he does on
Speaker 1: every single shot attempt and flails and screams and gets
Speaker 1: a foul call. It worked. Why would he stop? What?
Speaker 1: What incentive is there for Joel embid to stop flopping
Speaker 1: when it works and it's a significant chunk of his offense.
Speaker 1: The irony is average twelve free throw attempts in the
Speaker 1: regular seasons down to nine in the postseason. Dropped from
Speaker 1: twenty eight points a game or thirty points a game
Speaker 1: in the in the one points a game in the
Speaker 1: regular season down to twenty four points per game in
Speaker 1: the postseason when you rely on getting to the foul
Speaker 1: line and they and it still works to a certain extent,
Speaker 1: but it works less. It's no surprised that it stops
Speaker 1: functioning for you. Look at the guys at the top
Speaker 1: of the league. Lebron James is not depending on getting
Speaker 1: to the foul line. Steph Curry is not dependent on
Speaker 1: getting to the foul line. Yokich is not depending on
Speaker 1: getting in the foul line. Neither is the honest None
Speaker 1: of those guys are sereal floppers. They rely on putting
Speaker 1: the ball in the damn basket. And I just it's
Speaker 1: it's bad for him beat in his own development, it's
Speaker 1: bad for the health of the league. And if he didn't,
Speaker 1: if he's not responsible for hurting Danny Green today, he's
Speaker 1: gonna be responsible for hurting someone in the future. Because
Speaker 1: a giant tuitor to seventy pound human falling all over
Speaker 1: the place in traffic like he did a dozen times tonight,
Speaker 1: everyone's planted, everyone's standing around him. It's dangerous and it's embarrassing,
Speaker 1: objectively unlikable, and it's terrible for the game of basketball.
Speaker 1: And I'm just ready for it to be over. I'm
Speaker 1: sick of it, and I feel really bad for Danny Green.
Speaker 1: I hope, I hope that he'll be okay. We have
Speaker 1: a pretty shocking Lakers related quote today. This comes from
Speaker 1: Doug Gottlieb's radio show. It's Bill Plashky talking. He says, quote,
Speaker 1: I've heard that Phil would like Lebron traded. I've just
Speaker 1: heard that. I do know that Phil would like to
Speaker 1: keep Westbrook and try to make it work with him. Jason,
Speaker 1: can you even believe what you're hearing? Oh my gosh, man, Well,
Speaker 1: I mean, so, it's been well documented. We've talked about
Speaker 1: this a million times on the show. Genie Buss has
Speaker 1: surrounded herself, her experts, the people that she relies on
Speaker 1: her advisors are all personal connections and not professional. You know,
Speaker 1: people that are in the weeds are in the work,
Speaker 1: in the grind of things right now, and even you know,
Speaker 1: even like like arguably the most competent person in the
Speaker 1: front office right now is Rob Polinka, and I would
Speaker 1: argue he's a bottom ten GM in the NBA at least,
Speaker 1: if not even lower than that. But it's like, this
Speaker 1: is what happened, Like what happens if you surround yourself
Speaker 1: with advisors who consistently have a track record of giving
Speaker 1: bad advice, Well, you get a guy like Magic Johnson
Speaker 1: saying that we need to get the basketball out of
Speaker 1: Lebron's hands. You get a guy like Magic Johnson saying
Speaker 1: that we need to surround Lebron with playmakers instead of shooters.
Speaker 1: And then you get Magic Johnson suddenly halfway through the
Speaker 1: season being like, oh, ship, we need shooters. Let's trade
Speaker 1: our only good starting center. And if each a zooboch
Speaker 1: and to bring back a defender, a shooter that couldn't
Speaker 1: defend and then essentially couldn't even play in their rotation,
Speaker 1: you get a ridiculous asset management, like like they literally
Speaker 1: had to sign Tyson Chandler in the middle of the
Speaker 1: season and as a result as a result of them
Speaker 1: letting brook Lopez walk. They love brook Lopez was on
Speaker 1: the record saying he wanted to be in l A
Speaker 1: but I think it was because he was a big
Speaker 1: man who liked to shoot threes. That Magic Johnson was like, no,
Speaker 1: no thanks. You know you have Kurt Rambas walking. Kurt
Speaker 1: Rambis thinks more DeAndre Jordan's is the answer that's what's
Speaker 1: gonna happen when your advisers don't know what they're talking about.
Speaker 1: Phil Phil Jackson destroy a the New York Knicks as
Speaker 1: an executive, traded Tyson Chandler for nothing. He's the guy
Speaker 1: who signed Joe him Noah to four years seventy two
Speaker 1: million dollars two years after he was any good and
Speaker 1: the year after he was injured all season, the year
Speaker 1: before he started two games. Like it just it's ridiculous.
Speaker 1: So what's the natural progression of bad advice from bad advisors. Well,
Speaker 1: let's keep Russ over Lebron, which the hilarious thing is
Speaker 1: that there's not even one single angle there that makes
Speaker 1: any sense. They're both free agents after this coming season.
Speaker 1: They're both are on huge contract numbers, so it's not
Speaker 1: like there's any contract flexibility you gain in the process.
Speaker 1: And Lebron is at least one thousand times better at basketball.
Speaker 1: At this point, I thought Russell Westbrook was one of
Speaker 1: the worst rotation players in the league this year, and
Speaker 1: and Lebron James I thought was one of the top
Speaker 1: four or five players in the league this year. So
Speaker 1: it's just it's completely ridiculous. But it's just it's it's
Speaker 1: what you expect at this point. You know, that was
Speaker 1: the most hilarious thing about gene He's interview that she
Speaker 1: went and did is it's just the latest example of
Speaker 1: self awareness. Like if think about it, think about it
Speaker 1: like this, all of the news we've seen, all of
Speaker 1: the disaster, all of the ship show, the entire public,
Speaker 1: the entire Laker fan base is painfully aware of how
Speaker 1: poorly run this team is. And Genie Buss's response was
Speaker 1: to sit down with Bill Plashki, the same guy who's
Speaker 1: been talking NonStop about trading Lebron, and literally sit down
Speaker 1: with him and come to the defense of Linda Rambis
Speaker 1: and come to the defense of Kurt Rambis, and come
Speaker 1: to the defense of everybody that's on her side, and
Speaker 1: deflect any blame away from herself. But then be like, oh,
Speaker 1: it's my job to fix this, Jenny. You put everybody
Speaker 1: in this position like this is your cake that you made.
Speaker 1: Now you have to deal with it, and it's it's
Speaker 1: just ridiculous. This is the you know, the last thing
Speaker 1: I'll say is, Laker fans, there's a very there's a
Speaker 1: very clear defined linear path to restoring your status as
Speaker 1: a contender this offseason, and chances are you don't. It
Speaker 1: doesn't happen because the people in charge are simply incompetent
Speaker 1: and incapable of executing all of the necessary steps on
Speaker 1: that path. You're it is like me asking you to
Speaker 1: go win a fight, but I'm tying your left hand
Speaker 1: behind your back. You're competing against very good NBA teams
Speaker 1: that are full of talent, that have high level It's
Speaker 1: like hard working, ambitious and executives in the front office
Speaker 1: that are in the weeds watching games in Europe, watching
Speaker 1: games on League Past every night, that know exactly what
Speaker 1: succeeds in the modern NBA, that know exactly they know
Speaker 1: exactly what their team's identity is and how to build
Speaker 1: around it. And then you've got the clown show running
Speaker 1: the Lakers. It's like, if Lebron manages somehow to lead
Speaker 1: this team back to a championship, it's gonna be one
Speaker 1: of the it's already him winning one. We have to
Speaker 1: reevaluate that and and the and the way that he
Speaker 1: circums basic we navigated around the ship storm that is
Speaker 1: the Laker ownership in front office, it's it's just completely ridiculous,
Speaker 1: But I mean at this point, you have to be
Speaker 1: pessimistic if you're a Liker fan, because there it's just
Speaker 1: unlikely that they do the things necessary to fix this.
Speaker 1: I think ridiculous, clown show, those are appropriate words like
Speaker 1: this genuinely seems satire level. I think Phil is either
Speaker 1: far too deep into some sort of spiritual cleans in
Speaker 1: which his mind is no longer normally operational or actively
Speaker 1: doing a bit because it is like unfathomable then a
Speaker 1: human being could come to the conclusions that we're hearing
Speaker 1: in these reports. All right, let's go from one wacky
Speaker 1: character to another, because we've got a quote about Kyrie Irving.
Speaker 1: This is from nets GM Shawn Marks. He says, quote,
Speaker 1: we need people here that want to be here, that
Speaker 1: are selfless, that want to be part of something bigger
Speaker 1: than themselves. There's an objective and there's a goal at
Speaker 1: Steak Year. In order to do that, we're gonna need
Speaker 1: availability from everybody. Jason, what do you think about that?
Speaker 1: Self awareness is one of the most important traits as
Speaker 1: an adult, Like, there's a reason why when you go
Speaker 1: in for a job interview, one of the questions they
Speaker 1: ask you about is like, what are your weaknesses? And
Speaker 1: if you if your answer is I don't have any weaknesses,
Speaker 1: then then you're then you have no self awareness and
Speaker 1: the like it's Kyrie Irving came out of that game
Speaker 1: game four after the sweep and was like, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be collaborating with Seawan and me and Kevin
Speaker 1: were and Josi, We're gonna we're gonna get this thing
Speaker 1: back on the I'm committed to this, We're this is collaborative,
Speaker 1: all this stuff. And it's like, dude, they don't believe you.
Speaker 1: They they're not on your side. They view you as
Speaker 1: part of the problem. That's the reality of this situation.
Speaker 1: It's kind of like Russell Westbrook after that that horrible
Speaker 1: loss against the Pelicans when Lebron and a d are
Speaker 1: like sitting on the bench incensed and and Russ is
Speaker 1: coming up to them like patting them in the back
Speaker 1: like it's okay, guys, it's because Frank didn't play me.
Speaker 1: I'll be bad. I'll be back next time. And everyone's like, no, man, like,
Speaker 1: that's that's not what's happening. It's just Kyrie has a
Speaker 1: complete and total lack of self awareness. I think Kevin
Speaker 1: Durant is completely under the under his under that spell
Speaker 1: as well because of the friendship, which has clouded his judgment,
Speaker 1: because the reality of the situation is that it was
Speaker 1: readily apparent to anybody that had been following Kyrie in
Speaker 1: the previous years that he was not the right guy
Speaker 1: to partner with. There's heavy intel that in the two
Speaker 1: thousand seventeen playoff run, while the Calves were streaking towards
Speaker 1: a NBA trip to the NBA Finals, literally only lost
Speaker 1: one game in the Eastern Conference playoffs. There's plenty of
Speaker 1: reports that he was distancing himself from the locker room.
Speaker 1: That's ridiculous, like when times are good, he was pulling away.
Speaker 1: Then he threatened to get knee surgery to get himself
Speaker 1: traded out of town. Everything that he did with Boston,
Speaker 1: we don't have to get into it. It's well documented.
Speaker 1: This guy is a vagabond. He's a flake. He's not dependable.
Speaker 1: He on any given day, his mood changes with like
Speaker 1: the weather. It literally he is. Doesn't say anything about
Speaker 1: him as a quality of a human being. I'm sure
Speaker 1: he's He's done amazing things to give back to the community.
Speaker 1: By all accounts, he's a great person, but he's meant
Speaker 1: to be a solo act. He's meant to go, he's
Speaker 1: meant to do things on his own because in a
Speaker 1: team setting, he lacks the awareness of how important it
Speaker 1: is for him to be there and to be reliable
Speaker 1: and to be you know, what the team needs him
Speaker 1: to be and like and and like for him. Right
Speaker 1: after that game, he was talking about continuity being an issue.
Speaker 1: It's like, dude, you were the reason there was no continuity.
Speaker 1: And that's the thing. He's the guy that in the
Speaker 1: job interview and they say what are your weaknesses, he
Speaker 1: goes like, my weaknesses is that I show up too
Speaker 1: early and then I worked too hard. Like that. That's
Speaker 1: that's literally the type of guy that he is. And
Speaker 1: it's just, you know, doesn't mean anything about him as
Speaker 1: a human being, just means bad teammate and and it
Speaker 1: means that it's probably worthwhile to try to find someone
Speaker 1: else's partner with. First of all, I think it's amazing
Speaker 1: that you've now referred to Kyrie as a vagabond twice.
Speaker 1: It's two of my favorite moments in really the history
Speaker 1: of sports content, because that word is so underappreciated and
Speaker 1: you're bringing it back and it's a huge public service.
Speaker 1: I also think you make an interesting point about, you know,
Speaker 1: Kyrie not operating within a team setting. I think that's intuitive,
Speaker 1: but it reminds me of Big boss Man Colin Coward
Speaker 1: said maybe a month or so ago, that Kyrie was
Speaker 1: built to be a musician or a tennis player or
Speaker 1: some sort of brilliant individual performer, but just you know,
Speaker 1: somebody you could never understand that team construct. Who do
Speaker 1: you think is the least self aware basketball player on
Speaker 1: the planet right now? Because I think there's a few
Speaker 1: good candidates, So I'm interested in your thoughts. Oh, it's
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook, hands down, And it's not even close, like
Speaker 1: at least with Kyrie Irving, Like he's good like like
Speaker 1: at least Kyrie Irving. There's like this little bit of
Speaker 1: evidence that supports him being not self aware. And it's
Speaker 1: that he like nobody can go at him in the NBA,
Speaker 1: you know, like that that that's like his little like
Speaker 1: that that's the thing that that's the driving force behind
Speaker 1: his ego, outsizing his own self awareness. Right, Russell Westbrook
Speaker 1: was not a very good basketball player this year, and
Speaker 1: yet if you injected him with truth syreum, right, now
Speaker 1: we don't even have to do so. Just go on
Speaker 1: YouTube and look up Russell Westbrook's exit interview and watch
Speaker 1: how often he directly references his own unwillingness to adapt,
Speaker 1: his own poor player, or his own his own responsibility
Speaker 1: for what happened on the court that year. And like
Speaker 1: you know, like specifically with the Lakers, guys, I covered
Speaker 1: them this year. I watched every single game they played twice.
Speaker 1: He was awful, Like it's the he's the poster boy
Speaker 1: for why counting stats in the box score do not
Speaker 1: reveal what a player's impact on the basketball court is
Speaker 1: because he was horrible off the ball, he was horrible
Speaker 1: on defense. He like his lapses and judgment and his
Speaker 1: lapses and awareness were like every single game, especially and
Speaker 1: pivotal moments. And then he's just convinced that it was
Speaker 1: everyone else's fault. So I think it's Russ in a landslide.
Speaker 1: I completely agree, and I love teaing you up on
Speaker 1: any Russ stuff. But my take, for a while, like
Speaker 1: for several years, has been I think Russ might be
Speaker 1: the least to wear athlete. I would say of all time,
Speaker 1: it feels like of my lifetime because it's in every respect.
Speaker 1: It's in terms of talking to the media and not
Speaker 1: acknowledging his own shortcomings, but more obviously than that, every
Speaker 1: single game it's, like you said, not understanding his skill
Speaker 1: set being this otherworldly athlete. You know, he's lost a
Speaker 1: little bit of that. But who doesn't want to operate
Speaker 1: off the ball and actively cut and this horrible shooter
Speaker 1: who takes five six threes a game and a million,
Speaker 1: you know, terrible midrange pull ups. It's just everything he
Speaker 1: does screams, I don't actually know what I'm good at.
Speaker 1: I think I'm great at everything. Nothing can ever be
Speaker 1: my fault. So I agree with you, But I don't know, Kyrie.
Speaker 1: I could see some people arguing for him. The man
Speaker 1: is definitely off on his own plane a little bit.
Speaker 1: But I agree with you on the right choice. It's
Speaker 1: just it's it's just a classic case of it's a
Speaker 1: classic case of like, if there was anything that would
Speaker 1: have humbled him into admitting these things, it was this
Speaker 1: year and he and it didn't work. Like if if
Speaker 1: this Lakers season couldn't convince Russell Westbrook that there were
Speaker 1: some things that he had to get better at than
Speaker 1: nothing will And I'm not sure that he'll ever have
Speaker 1: We just talked about James Harden's potentially James Harden in
Speaker 1: his potential like redemption story, I don't know that Russ
Speaker 1: could ever achieve that without having some self awareness, and
Speaker 1: he just doesn't. Yeah, well, he's a lot more focused
Speaker 1: on people calling him Westbrook and how that negatively affects
Speaker 1: his family because he is not at fault. He had
Speaker 1: a great season this year. All right, let's pivot to
Speaker 1: a quote about the Celtics here. This is from head
Speaker 1: coach email Udoka talking about their feelings after going down
Speaker 1: three two. He says, quote, of course we're gonna be down.
Speaker 1: Guys are gonna be upset about the outcome. We outplayed
Speaker 1: them for three and a half quarters. We talked about
Speaker 1: showing our resolve and we made it tougher on ourselves now.
Speaker 1: It will make it sweeter when we bounce back. But
Speaker 1: we gave up a golden opportunity tonight. Jason, what are
Speaker 1: your thoughts on that? Well, first of all, I love
Speaker 1: imay Udoka. I think he I think he represents what
Speaker 1: a modern NBA coach needs to be. You know, um,
Speaker 1: I've talked a lot on this show about how you know,
Speaker 1: there's a certain level of offensive organization that's important, a
Speaker 1: certain amount of like you know, detailed sets and getting
Speaker 1: guys in the right spots and mainly spacing concepts I
Speaker 1: think are most important at this point, and Emay obviously
Speaker 1: understands those things. But one of the most important things
Speaker 1: is managing personalities. In the way that Emay Yudoka resonates
Speaker 1: with his players and can convince them to do the
Speaker 1: things that need to be done to win games is
Speaker 1: so important, like and you it'll be interesting. The interesting
Speaker 1: thing to track with him will be burnout because for instance,
Speaker 1: like there are guys like Frank Vogel or Tom Thibodeau
Speaker 1: who in a short sample size seemed to be able
Speaker 1: to captivate his players into a certain level of work
Speaker 1: ethic intensity, but it seems to wear on them and
Speaker 1: then you'll see like seasons after or the same group
Speaker 1: of guys just don't get the same level of intensity
Speaker 1: under those coaches. So that will be the next step
Speaker 1: for Emay is his ability to stay fresh in and
Speaker 1: to keep that level of commitment. You know, this series,
Speaker 1: I I agree with him though, like they made it
Speaker 1: harder on themselves, but this series is not over. You know,
Speaker 1: once again, Milwaukee's half court offense in Game five zero
Speaker 1: point eight eight points per play. Boston's half court offense
Speaker 1: in Game five zero point nine seven points per play.
Speaker 1: So in every single one of the five games in
Speaker 1: this series, both teams have struggled in the half court,
Speaker 1: but Boston has been definitively better about ten points per
Speaker 1: every one d possessions. So it's consistently been Boston's own
Speaker 1: self sabotage that has hurt them. Milwaukee scored two point
Speaker 1: one four points per transition play. How insane is that?
Speaker 1: Literally they're scoring more than a layup on every transition play.
Speaker 1: That's where that's consistently been where this series is turned.
Speaker 1: The difference is is Boston was also great in transition
Speaker 1: in Game five, they average one point seven points per
Speaker 1: transition play. Where Milwaukee dominated this game was the offensive
Speaker 1: glass we've talked about on the show. They had seventeen
Speaker 1: offensive rebounds. Bobby Porter has had seven. Milwaukee scored. This
Speaker 1: is a wild stack, Carson. Milwaukee scored an additional zero
Speaker 1: point three five points per miss in putbacks. So if
Speaker 1: it just literally every time they so think of it
Speaker 1: like this, to simplify it, every time they missed three shots,
Speaker 1: they got a point in offensive rebound putbacks, which is
Speaker 1: just a wild way to steal a basketball game, and
Speaker 1: that's how they did it. So Boston was better in
Speaker 1: the half court. They actually won the fast breakpoint battle,
Speaker 1: and they lost the game specifically on the offensive glass.
Speaker 1: But that's something they can not Marcus Smart said after
Speaker 1: the game, all we have to do is box out.
Speaker 1: But it all comes down to those details in their
Speaker 1: offensive organization. I thought the stat as wild as all
Speaker 1: those stats are, I thought the stat of last night's
Speaker 1: game was Boston attempted zero three's in the fourth quarter.
Speaker 1: Now think of it like this. Milwaukee's defense is specifically
Speaker 1: set up to give up threes because they overhelp in
Speaker 1: the paint. Now, they did drop out Brook Lopez. They
Speaker 1: went with Bobby Portis and Janice at the four five,
Speaker 1: and they switched everything. But as I've said, the only
Speaker 1: way to attack a switching defense, because the switching defense
Speaker 1: is designed to bait you into stupid pull up jump shots.
Speaker 1: Even if you make them, they stagnate your team. They're
Speaker 1: not great looks. The only way to be the switching
Speaker 1: defense is to beat individual matchups to the rim. Because
Speaker 1: if you can beat individual matchups to the rim, you
Speaker 1: will force help, and if you force help, you can
Speaker 1: get quality three point shots or quality opportunities to attack
Speaker 1: close outs. They attempted zero threes, which tells you that
Speaker 1: in that in Brooke up Has didn't play in that
Speaker 1: fourth quarter, so they switched everything the entire quarter in
Speaker 1: Boston just neglected to apply any rim pressure. They fell
Speaker 1: directly into Milwaukee's trap and it costs him the game.
Speaker 1: Now I'm off of Boston in terms of like predicting
Speaker 1: anything with them, because I was off of them before
Speaker 1: they even won the game in Game five, because they're
Speaker 1: their their lack of discipline, and they're they're they're a
Speaker 1: guy who They're a team that would be killing for
Speaker 1: a guy like James Harden on the roster, and that
Speaker 1: might be something they have to look into. They need
Speaker 1: an adult on the perimeter that can orient them and
Speaker 1: put them in positions that they need to be. But
Speaker 1: I I think I wouldn't count Boston out in Game
Speaker 1: six at all, and I wouldn't count Milwaukee out if
Speaker 1: Boston won because both teams. Both teams have shown the
Speaker 1: the ability to win on the on the road, so
Speaker 1: it's just you know, it's it's a really really interesting series.
Speaker 1: I think I think these are two of probably the
Speaker 1: best teams in the league. They're easily the two best
Speaker 1: teams in the West or in the East, excuse me.
Speaker 1: And this series kind of feels like a conference finals
Speaker 1: type of series. And Milwaukee stole three games in this
Speaker 1: series simply by by winning on all the details. We
Speaker 1: talked about swing factors. That's a phrase I use all
Speaker 1: the time on the show as swing factor. If the
Speaker 1: entire game played out in the half court, Boston would
Speaker 1: have won this series in a suite. But it doesn't.
Speaker 1: There are swings. It's like special teams in football or turnovers.
Speaker 1: You can you can be the team that runs the
Speaker 1: ball all night long with no issue that is picking
Speaker 1: them apart with your passing game. But if you have
Speaker 1: a couple of sloppy turnovers and you get dominated in
Speaker 1: special teams, you can cost yourself a game. And that's
Speaker 1: what's been happening to Boston is they're just getting destroyed
Speaker 1: on the margins and all of the details. And that's
Speaker 1: specifically why like like I I, even if Boston wins
Speaker 1: this series, I would feel a lot less confident about
Speaker 1: them winning the title because they just don't pay enough
Speaker 1: attention to those things. It has been fascinating to watch
Speaker 1: that play out. There's throughout this series it's been the
Speaker 1: same thematic issues that you've touched on over and over again.
Speaker 1: And obviously incredible accomplishment for Janice particularly, but the Bucks overall,
Speaker 1: if they're able to pull this off with Middleton out.
Speaker 1: But it does feel in a lot of ways like
Speaker 1: a failing of the Celtics, just given the level that
Speaker 1: we saw them reach down the stretch of the season
Speaker 1: and the expectations that they drummed up in the opportunity
Speaker 1: that they had with how things have shaken out Middleton
Speaker 1: not being there, and obviously Miami a very good team
Speaker 1: in the conference finals, but I think certainly Boston has
Speaker 1: a higher ceiling. So it'll be interesting to see sort
Speaker 1: of what their responses if they fall short here, because
Speaker 1: this definitely ended up being a pretty golden opportunity. It
Speaker 1: feels like, alright, yes, I think it would be adult,
Speaker 1: adult playmaker, just somebody who's a grown up on the
Speaker 1: perimeter that's there, that's gonna be their their go to need.
Speaker 1: I don't know who that is. I don't know if
Speaker 1: you target like a or someone like a Ricky Rubio
Speaker 1: or someone along those lines. Just I don't think you
Speaker 1: need another primary ball handler, but you just need somebody
Speaker 1: that can get Tatum and Brown off the ball in
Speaker 1: terms of bringing the ball up the floor and making
Speaker 1: that initial decision. You need someone to throw the ball
Speaker 1: to Tatum here and be like here, dude, all you
Speaker 1: have to think about is scoring in this post up here, dude,
Speaker 1: all you need to think about is like drawing this
Speaker 1: double team out of this spot. But like them, them
Speaker 1: bringing the ball up the floor and making that initial
Speaker 1: decision is too often resulting in things going off the rails.
Speaker 1: That's always been my thought with them, and it was
Speaker 1: interesting because I sort of felt like, and obviously there
Speaker 1: are differences, but their vision of Okay, we have our
Speaker 1: two score first wings and they're gonna be our offensive
Speaker 1: initiators very consistently out of isolation and pick and roll.
Speaker 1: The model that I looked at and thought, Okay, that's
Speaker 1: probably most similar was what the Clippers had with Kawai
Speaker 1: and PG last year. But I thought to make that work,
Speaker 1: you needed, first of all, Kawai and PG, you who
Speaker 1: are just a better tandem to begin with a more
Speaker 1: developed playmaking tandem as well, and like one of the
Speaker 1: greatest shooting teams ever around them. And still obviously Kawai
Speaker 1: gets hurt, but it was a second round exit. So
Speaker 1: it's always seemed to me like a lofty goal, and
Speaker 1: I think you touched on it. I mean, so many
Speaker 1: great teams that they have just straight up that dynamic star,
Speaker 1: scoring and playmaking guard. But if you don't have that guy,
Speaker 1: if you do just have the lead wing, you need
Speaker 1: a table setter, you need somebody to control the flow,
Speaker 1: because it's just too much to ask those guys I think,
Speaker 1: to consistently be great decision makers and facilitators and everything
Speaker 1: that they need to be right now if Boston wants
Speaker 1: to achieve its ultimate ceiling. Yeah, in one last super
Speaker 1: quick note, like this is quickly becoming one of the
Speaker 1: most it's impossible to quantify. It doesn't show up in
Speaker 1: a box score. I have no way, I don't have
Speaker 1: any idea how to measure it. But game management is
Speaker 1: like one of the most valuable basketball skills that we're
Speaker 1: learning in this postseason run. And again it's you just
Speaker 1: know it when you see it. It's just It's just it,
Speaker 1: guys that can It's almost like a manifest and pace
Speaker 1: in a lot of ways, Like you just can tell,
Speaker 1: Like when you watch Luca, there's just a control that
Speaker 1: he has over the flow of the game. And Chris
Speaker 1: Paul has that same control. Steph Curry has that same control.
Speaker 1: Janice has that same control. You just either have it
Speaker 1: or you don't. I don't know how to quantify it,
Speaker 1: but it's just Boston doesn't have it. And it's the
Speaker 1: biggest reason. You know, Milwaukee has no business being in
Speaker 1: a close out game tomorrow. They have no business being
Speaker 1: in a closeout game and they are in one because
Speaker 1: of Janice's greatness and because Boston soiling themselves. Like that's
Speaker 1: literally what it is. Yeah, I I agree completely. All right.
Speaker 1: We've got a quote from our guy Draymond here about
Speaker 1: the Warriors having to obviously make this adjustment from playing
Speaker 1: one version of the Grizzlies to playing another, and obviously
Speaker 1: we saw them get blown out in historic fashion in
Speaker 1: Game five. He said, you almost have to make the
Speaker 1: adjustment in this series as if we're starting an entirely
Speaker 1: different series. You kind of have to rethink the whole
Speaker 1: game plan because our game plan was built around John Morant. Jason,
Speaker 1: you've talked a lot about the trade offs that you
Speaker 1: have losing Jaw obviously losing his lead scoring, but gaining
Speaker 1: some of that size athleticism defense. So what are your
Speaker 1: thoughts on that. What are some of the key adjustments
Speaker 1: to Warriors need to make there to actually go out
Speaker 1: and close out this series. So I agree with him
Speaker 1: in respect to the fact that, yes, like all your
Speaker 1: coverage is changed because there's a certain amount of like
Speaker 1: a overloading that you do for Jaw, you know, right,
Speaker 1: especially on your defensive scheme, your pick and roll coverage,
Speaker 1: all those kinds of things. There are absolutely some massive
Speaker 1: differences without Jaw right and obviously without Jaw it's harder
Speaker 1: to get dribble penetration because there's just better perimeter defenders
Speaker 1: on the floor for Memphis. But to me, this game
Speaker 1: tomorrow is so simple. There is a clear, like easily
Speaker 1: defined path to winning tomorrow for Golden State, and it's
Speaker 1: do the physical job. So that means, you know, they
Speaker 1: went The reason why it was a buzz saw in
Speaker 1: Game five or get yeah, game five, the reason why
Speaker 1: that was a buzz saw was because no, uh, Memphis
Speaker 1: had a relentless physical attack on that game in every facet, offensive, glass, transition,
Speaker 1: defensive intensity, all of those things, and they manifested in
Speaker 1: all the stats. They forced a million turnovers, they dominated
Speaker 1: the game in transition, and they had a million second
Speaker 1: chance points. Right. Those are all what I would call controllables.
Speaker 1: Those are all things that they can control. They just
Speaker 1: didn't want to do it in game five. It too simply,
Speaker 1: to put it simply, and we talked about on the show.
Speaker 1: I don't judge them for that. It's a very common phenomena.
Speaker 1: It's why I bet on that game, It's why we
Speaker 1: sent that out as a betting opportunity before the game.
Speaker 1: Simply put older veteran teams going into a bigger, more athletic,
Speaker 1: younger team in an elimination game scenario on the road.
Speaker 1: It's just the buzz saw. And it's very rare that
Speaker 1: you'll see the veteran team match that physicality, especially when
Speaker 1: they have a home opportunity to close out on the horizon. Right.
Speaker 1: I Mean, you could argue that's what happened to Phoenix
Speaker 1: tonight on a different type of level. You could argue
Speaker 1: that they could have brought an their level, but they
Speaker 1: didn't because they knew they had a home game on
Speaker 1: the horizon, right. So my thing is, like, if they
Speaker 1: go into Game six and Golden State relentlessly boxes out,
Speaker 1: works on their like sits in a defensive stance, and
Speaker 1: contains their ball handlers, which, by the way, Memphis without
Speaker 1: John Morant is a guardable team, a very guardable team
Speaker 1: if you do the work and then get back in
Speaker 1: transition take care of the basketball. All of those things
Speaker 1: right there automatically put you in a position to win. Now,
Speaker 1: the reason why it was close in Game four, and
Speaker 1: the other thing they'll have to watch out for is
Speaker 1: early in the series they got a ton of dribble penetration.
Speaker 1: We did a whole thing on this in Game three,
Speaker 1: surrounding Jordan pools our opening segments. So the other important detail,
Speaker 1: all those physical details. But they also and I would
Speaker 1: argue this is a physical detail as well. They need
Speaker 1: to put their head down and get by people. They
Speaker 1: need to get some rim pressure. They need to compromise
Speaker 1: Memphis defense with dribble drive, which they just simply didn't
Speaker 1: do nearly enough in the last two games. But the
Speaker 1: reason why I'm picking Golden State is all those things
Speaker 1: I just said, they know that Draymond knows that Steph
Speaker 1: knows that they have the appropriate fear, and they will.
Speaker 1: I expect them to go home tomorrow night, to sit
Speaker 1: in a defensive stance and to contain memphis lack of
Speaker 1: ball handling. I expect them to sit down and box
Speaker 1: out and push guys out of the lane and crash
Speaker 1: the glass. I expect them to split back. In transition.
Speaker 1: I expect them to take care of the basketball. I
Speaker 1: expect them to do all those things that the grown
Speaker 1: up team usually does when they know they have to,
Speaker 1: and I think they'll get a win tomorrow. Alright, enough basketball, Jason,
Speaker 1: let's get to the good stuff here. Because it's officially
Speaker 1: Star Wars season. We've got Obi Wan Kenobi coming out
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks. So let's give you a couple
Speaker 1: of appropriate quotes for a very important question about the
Speaker 1: Star Wars world. Here are some quotes from you and
Speaker 1: McGregor and Hayden Christensen on Revenge of the Sith. McGregor
Speaker 1: said episode three was a really good movie. Hayden says
Speaker 1: it's a phenomenal film. So Jason, let me ask you,
Speaker 1: are the prequels good? I'm pro prequel. I there are
Speaker 1: things that I dislike about them, you know. So here's
Speaker 1: the thing. The sequel trilogy, it's an entire giant pile
Speaker 1: of garbage. Okay, the entire thing. It's an insulting it's
Speaker 1: insulting to George Lucas, it's insulting to all Star Wars fans,
Speaker 1: it's insulting to all of us, right, so it just
Speaker 1: it it. They knew they were robbing us, they knew
Speaker 1: they were going after our wallets at the expense of
Speaker 1: our Star Wars fanhood and everything that we stand for,
Speaker 1: and they didn't care. Okay, what the prequels were was
Speaker 1: George Lucas achieving something that was very difficult to do,
Speaker 1: but also that had an element of like some cheesiness,
Speaker 1: some diving a little bit too far into the weeds,
Speaker 1: some bad acting, some directorial mistakes, things like that, some
Speaker 1: things that didn't flow, some things that were slow. So
Speaker 1: those are just nitpicky things. And of course, like you know,
Speaker 1: not every movie is going to be great, so that
Speaker 1: that goes that that's just part of the deal. Thought.
Speaker 1: Revenge of the Sith was a phenomenal move movie and
Speaker 1: to to this day, and this is why. I hope
Speaker 1: that Star Wars will attempt to leave this timeline and
Speaker 1: do this again. But the concept of that fallen Jedi,
Speaker 1: you know, good turning evil, but that good turning evil
Speaker 1: and becoming way more powerful and becoming this entity that
Speaker 1: has to be dealt with, that to me is like
Speaker 1: a home run every single time, and it's the easiest.
Speaker 1: It's the easiest way to to build an organic news story.
Speaker 1: So I hope they eventually do something like that. But
Speaker 1: I'm I'm with I'm with both of those guys. I
Speaker 1: thought the prequel trilogy was good and Revenge of the
Speaker 1: Sith was an awesome movie. Yeah, I think there's some
Speaker 1: serious prequel flaws. I rewatched all of them pretty recently.
Speaker 1: Attack of the Clones was my favorite as a kid,
Speaker 1: watching a million times not not good with hindsight, But
Speaker 1: Revenge of the Sith is my favorite Star Wars movie.
Speaker 1: So I will stand with you and the esteem gentleman
Speaker 1: on this one. I'm very very pro Revenge of the Sith. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I may, I may or may not have something coming
Speaker 1: down the pipeline that is Star Wars related as a
Speaker 1: separate sure, but I'm not going to get into that tonight.
Speaker 1: All right, guys, a couple of quick notes before we
Speaker 1: get out of here. Remember to like this video. I
Speaker 1: sincerely appreciate you guys supporting the show. It would mean
Speaker 1: the world to me if you took the time to
Speaker 1: hit that like button. Also follow me on Twitter at
Speaker 1: underscore Jason LT. That's where I released all the video
Speaker 1: content that backs up some of the concepts that I
Speaker 1: talked about on the show. I sincerely appreciate you guys
Speaker 1: support We will be back tomorrow night after a couple
Speaker 1: more games sixes and I will see you guys then.
Speaker 1: Volume