Speaker 1: The volume. All right, welcome to hoops tonight. You're at
Speaker 1: the volume. Happy Tuesday, everybody. Oh love you guys are
Speaker 1: having a great start to your week. Well, the twenty
Speaker 1: twenty three to twenty four NBA season is officially in
Speaker 1: the books. The Boston Celtics are our NBA champion. We
Speaker 1: are going to eventually turn our attention to next season,
Speaker 1: but I want to spend the rest of this week
Speaker 1: kind of just tying a bow on this NBA season.
Speaker 1: And so here's the way the schedule is going to
Speaker 1: work for the next couple of days. Today, we're focusing
Speaker 1: on the NBA Finals and some of the bigger picture storylines.
Speaker 1: We're going to talk about the Celtics team a little
Speaker 1: bit more, how they rank compared to other champions, what
Speaker 1: their chances to repeat look like. We're gonna talk a
Speaker 1: little bit about Finals MVP. I want to talk about
Speaker 1: Jason Tatum and his struggles and how that actually is
Speaker 1: a good thing in terms of where this Boston Celtics
Speaker 1: team can get to in the future. Then we'll turn
Speaker 1: our attention to Dallas, talk a little bit about how
Speaker 1: close they actually were and what they need to improve
Speaker 1: and to give themselves a better chance to hoist the
Speaker 1: trophy next year. So today, focus in on the finals
Speaker 1: on We're gonna take tomorrow off. On Thursday, we're gonna
Speaker 1: do what we do every year, which is we're gonna
Speaker 1: give our five biggest takeaways from this playoff run. That's
Speaker 1: going to focus more on basketball tactics and the different
Speaker 1: things that we learned from this two months to basketball
Speaker 1: to try to give us a better chance to predict
Speaker 1: things in the future. Then we're gonna do a mail
Speaker 1: bag over the weekend. So in the five Takeaways video
Speaker 1: on Thursday and in today's finals video, drop mail bag
Speaker 1: questions over the weekend. We're gonna hit all of them.
Speaker 1: Everything is fair game. We'll split it into two. We'll
Speaker 1: have like an NBA Finals oriented mail bag and then
Speaker 1: we'll have like a rest of the league oriented mail bag.
Speaker 1: But drop those questions in the YouTube videos today and Thursday,
Speaker 1: and we'll hit those mail bag questions over the weekend.
Speaker 1: Then when we come back from the weekend next week,
Speaker 1: we're gonna start to turn our attention towards next season,
Speaker 1: starting with the NBA Draft. But I'm excited to kind
Speaker 1: of tie off the season today by getting into some
Speaker 1: NBA Finals storylines. You guys know the joke. Before we
Speaker 1: get started, Subscribe to the Hoops Tonight Hoops to Night
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Speaker 1: so we can keep hitting them throughout the rest of
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Speaker 1: let's talk some basketball. So before we get into any
Speaker 1: of the big storylines from this NBA season. I just
Speaker 1: wanted to give a quick message to Boston Celtics fans.
Speaker 1: Congratulations not only for being champions, but this was a
Speaker 1: really fun team and they won me over in a
Speaker 1: lot of ways towards the end of the year. I
Speaker 1: know that I grew frustrated with them during this regular
Speaker 1: season for a lot of reasons. Obviously, like anytime I
Speaker 1: see talent that can kind of like play down to
Speaker 1: the competition, that sometimes can get frustrating. Missoula Ball, too,
Speaker 1: had a lot of highs and lows. There were these
Speaker 1: highs where they're getting these paint touches and these awesome
Speaker 1: driving kick looks or awesome driving layup lay stuff at
Speaker 1: the rim when their spacing was really good and they
Speaker 1: had multiple attacks on the same possession. But then they'd
Speaker 1: also have stretches where they'd be kind of like just
Speaker 1: drible up the floor and take pull up jumpers or
Speaker 1: not get dribble penetration. And Missola Ball looked ugly sometimes,
Speaker 1: And to Joe Miszula's credit, he just continued to ride
Speaker 1: those guys throughout the season and try to get them
Speaker 1: to be more deliberate about their spacing and about their execution,
Speaker 1: and I thought that they reached their ceiling in this
Speaker 1: playoff run on both ends of the floor. And like, like,
Speaker 1: the biggest compliment that I can pay to the Celtics
Speaker 1: is I enjoyed watching them down the tail end of
Speaker 1: the season. They became a fun team for me to watch,
Speaker 1: which again, like that's not always the case. The Dallas
Speaker 1: Mavericks team, for instance, is a team that I don't
Speaker 1: particularly they enjoy watching. They don't play a brand of
Speaker 1: basketball that I enjoy watching, right, And so like that,
Speaker 1: just Celtics fans, congratulations, and you've got yourself a really,
Speaker 1: really fun basketball team. The second piece of it, there's
Speaker 1: gonna be a lot of discourse surrounding the team moving forward, right.
Speaker 1: Some of that is just the reality of the profession, right,
Speaker 1: it's our job. My job today was to wake up
Speaker 1: and talk about the major storylines of the NBA Finals.
Speaker 1: That's gonna be happening all over the place around NBA media.
Speaker 1: There's gonna be a lot of ranking, There's gonna be
Speaker 1: a lot of like, well they don't have this, or
Speaker 1: they didn't play these guys or blah blah blah blah.
Speaker 1: And you're gonna hear some of that stuff from me too, right,
Speaker 1: But here's the reality. No one can ever take away
Speaker 1: the fact that the twenty twenty four Boston Celtics won
Speaker 1: the Larry O'Brien Trophy, that the Larry O'Brien Trophy resides
Speaker 1: in Boston for the twenty twenty four NBA season. There
Speaker 1: is a lot of discourse, but nobody can take it away.
Speaker 1: It lasts forever. This is the beautiful thing about the
Speaker 1: game of basketball. You cannot argue with the winner. The
Speaker 1: trophy is the trophy. You guys know, I talk about
Speaker 1: this all the time. I'm a loyalist of the banner,
Speaker 1: right like I care about the championship more than anything else,
Speaker 1: and that I think can never be touched in terms
Speaker 1: of the legitimacy of the accomplishment. So just when you
Speaker 1: hear all that discourse over the next couple of days,
Speaker 1: just remember, if you hear something you don't like, they
Speaker 1: can never take it away from you. You guys know,
Speaker 1: I root for the Los Angeles Lakers right as a
Speaker 1: Lakers fan. Trust me, After that twenty twenty season, it
Speaker 1: was a lot of the same stuff. They dominated the
Speaker 1: entire regular season. They started twenty four and three, they
Speaker 1: were the best team in the Western Conference. There's that
Speaker 1: Bucks team out east that beat up on a weak
Speaker 1: Eastern Conference schedule and got a bunch of attention. But
Speaker 1: the Lakers were the best team throughout the regular season.
Speaker 1: Then they kicked everyone's ass in the postseason and it was,
Speaker 1: you know, mickey mouse ring. It was the Disney Championship.
Speaker 1: It was all everyone wanted to just undercut the success
Speaker 1: of that championship. Right, that's the discourse, that's the narrative
Speaker 1: piece of it. But remember, the twenty twenty Larry O'Brien
Speaker 1: Trophy resides with the Los Angeles Lakers. That can never
Speaker 1: be taken away. And so just Boston fans, congratulations, And
Speaker 1: no matter what anybody says, including myself, over the course
Speaker 1: of the next week, the trophy is the trophy. It
Speaker 1: can never be taken away. And it's just a really
Speaker 1: really cool thing to be a part of. And I'm
Speaker 1: really really happy for you guys, and I'm happy that
Speaker 1: you have such a fun basketball team to root for.
Speaker 1: On that note, let's get into some of the narrative stuff, right, So,
Speaker 1: first of all, before we go any further, not all
Speaker 1: championships are the same. That just goes without saying, right,
Speaker 1: some carry a certain level of cultural resonance, And a
Speaker 1: big part of that is just I think there's a
Speaker 1: relatability to struggle. So I think all fans are more
Speaker 1: drawn to like adversity versus dominance, you know, like, even
Speaker 1: though dominance means better Basketball city just seems to resonate
Speaker 1: with people, right, So, like, for instance, the twenty twenty
Speaker 1: Lakers were the best championship team that Lebron ever played on.
Speaker 1: I'm using that as an example because that's a team
Speaker 1: I rooted for. Right that that twenty twenty Lakers team
Speaker 1: kicked everyone's ass. They lost what five playoff games, the
Speaker 1: entire playoff run. They just ran through everybody right, started
Speaker 1: the season twenty four and three. But when you look
Speaker 1: back at all of Lebron's championships, that's probably the least resonant, right,
Speaker 1: It's the one that people care about the least. If
Speaker 1: you think about Lebron's key championship moments, what do you
Speaker 1: think about you think about twenty sixteen coming down from
Speaker 1: three to one, Lebron bawling his eyes out on the
Speaker 1: floor because he brought a Championship to Cleveland. You think
Speaker 1: about coming back from down three to two to beat
Speaker 1: the Spurs. You think about coming back from down three
Speaker 1: to two to beat the Celtics in twenty twelve before
Speaker 1: they beat the Thunder in the finals, right, So like
Speaker 1: that's the reality, right, So, like you're not going to
Speaker 1: get the same level of like just nationwide, worldwide, like
Speaker 1: oh my god, that was incredible because dominance just doesn't
Speaker 1: resonate with people the same way that adversity does. The
Speaker 1: twenty twenty Lakers were a better basketball team than any
Speaker 1: Lebron team that he played on, except for maybe the
Speaker 1: twenty thirteen Heat, Like they're on a similar level. But
Speaker 1: like it's dominance just doesn't resonate with people. It just doesn't.
Speaker 1: And that's the unfortunate thing. It's kind of like a
Speaker 1: shitty side effect. It's kind of like Lebron fans do
Speaker 1: this with Michael Jordan too. It's like he won six
Speaker 1: championships and eight tries in the nineties. How is it portrayed.
Speaker 1: It's portrayed as like, oh, it's just a bunch of bums.
Speaker 1: The league was diluted, Michael Jordan kicked everyone's ass, and
Speaker 1: it's like, yeah, there's some truth to that, but just
Speaker 1: dominance just doesn't resonate with people the same way that
Speaker 1: adversity does. So like that's that's gonna be why you're
Speaker 1: not gonna see as much like just overwhelming awe and
Speaker 1: and credit being thrown Boston's way. It's just kind of
Speaker 1: like a natural human behavior. That said, the opportunity will
Speaker 1: be there for this Boston team to make a more
Speaker 1: profound imprint on NBA history because we turn around and
Speaker 1: we play again next year. And as we saw this year,
Speaker 1: I thought there were five good teams in the East,
Speaker 1: and four of them ended up on the other end
Speaker 1: of the bracket. And the one that came out of
Speaker 1: it was probably the worst team in that bunch, the
Speaker 1: Indiana Pacers, But they were the team that was healthy
Speaker 1: the longest, and then they got hurt when they got there. Right,
Speaker 1: So next year the East will be stronger. Milwaukee's probably
Speaker 1: gonna pivot and become more athletic on the perimeter, Damon
Speaker 1: Giannis will probably be healthy. The Knicks have the ability
Speaker 1: to make a trade this year. In addition to being
Speaker 1: kind of an interesting physical matchup for Boston on the
Speaker 1: front line, right Philly is going to completely rebuild this
Speaker 1: summer around Tyre's, Max and Joel Embiid. They could be interesting.
Speaker 1: Orlando will be better, Indiana will be better. Miami could
Speaker 1: make a trade this year and re enter into the mix. Right, so,
Speaker 1: the East will be stronger and there will be a
Speaker 1: tougher playoff path next year. The West will probably send
Speaker 1: a better representative. I did not think the best team
Speaker 1: in the Western Conference made it out this year. I
Speaker 1: thought there was one team all year long, there was
Speaker 1: one team that I said could actually hang with Boston
Speaker 1: in a playoff series. I said it was Denver, and
Speaker 1: that team didn't make it out. There was a brief
Speaker 1: moment there where I started to buy into the Minnesota
Speaker 1: Timberwolves hype, but that ended up being smoking mirrors, which
Speaker 1: we'll get more into on Thursday when we talk about
Speaker 1: some of the basketball tactics stuff. But Boston Denver was
Speaker 1: the best team, right, they didn't get out. Next year,
Speaker 1: there will probably be a better representative from the West.
Speaker 1: The Thunder will. I'm they won me over in a
Speaker 1: big way this year. They will be a legit threat
Speaker 1: next year, especially if they can make a trade this
Speaker 1: year to upgrade that. Josh gidty position right Minnesota, with
Speaker 1: another year of growth for Anthony Edwards, Memphis is going
Speaker 1: to have Gigi Jackson added to the core of the
Speaker 1: team that made it to the second round two years ago. Right.
Speaker 1: We all saw what John Moran could do in his
Speaker 1: brief stretch where he played this season. I think one
Speaker 1: of that trio of Lakers Warrior sons will get their
Speaker 1: shit together next year. Maybe the Lakers make a big
Speaker 1: star trade, maybe the Warriors make a big star trade.
Speaker 1: Maybe the Suns just play better basketball under Mike Budenholzer.
Speaker 1: The West will probably send a better representative. So you
Speaker 1: will have your opportunity to make a bigger imprint on
Speaker 1: NBA history. If next year you go in, you beat
Speaker 1: Joannison Dame, and you beat and beat Paul George and
Speaker 1: Tyrese Maxi, and then you get to the finals and
Speaker 1: you have beat the Denver Nuggets, then people will have
Speaker 1: no choice but to acknowledge the reality of how dominant
Speaker 1: this team is. If you're expecting for all of the
Speaker 1: average NBA fans to look at you beating the Miami
Speaker 1: Heat without Jimmy Butler, the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Indiana
Speaker 1: Pacers and that Dallas Mavericks team. You're just not gonna
Speaker 1: get as much buy in from the court of public opinion, right,
Speaker 1: But the opportunity will be there next year. These guys
Speaker 1: are young, They're gonna have the quarterback. Just like like
Speaker 1: Jason Tatum said, just go do it again. And if
Speaker 1: you go do it again, you will win more of
Speaker 1: that resonance in NBA history, some of that you like,
Speaker 1: you probably will end up in a series that's two
Speaker 1: to two next year. You probably there might be even
Speaker 1: a series where you trail late. Right Like though, Like
Speaker 1: even when I look back at Jason Tatum and some
Speaker 1: of his greatest moments as a player, what do I
Speaker 1: think about. I think about like Game six against Milwaukee
Speaker 1: when he had forty something and hit that huge midrange,
Speaker 1: mid range jumper to ice the game late, right, Like,
Speaker 1: you think about what he was able to achieve in
Speaker 1: real adversity. And I do believe the NBA will produce
Speaker 1: some more adverse situations for the for the Celtics looking forward,
Speaker 1: so again kind of to put a bow on all
Speaker 1: of that, there will be a lot of noise, but
Speaker 1: they can never take the trophy away from you. No,
Speaker 1: This championship doesn't resonate the way other championships do in
Speaker 1: NBA history, But that is typical. That is the reality
Speaker 1: of the personality dynamic of humans and the fact that
Speaker 1: we resonate more, or that adversity resonates more with us
Speaker 1: than dominant does. In three, you will have your chance.
Speaker 1: You will have your chance next season in all likelihood,
Speaker 1: but certainly in the next couple of seasons to kind
Speaker 1: of make a bigger imprint on that NBA history in
Speaker 1: the way that this team is remembered like that, that
Speaker 1: will all get revealed in time. The trophy always ends
Speaker 1: up revealing those things, ranking them. Where does this championship
Speaker 1: team rank compared with recent NBA champions So I look
Speaker 1: at there was this kind of weird phase, right, There's
Speaker 1: this phase that went from twenty fourteen to eight twenty fifteen,
Speaker 1: excuse me to twenty eighteen where it was Cavs Warriors
Speaker 1: every year. Right, it was Calves out of the East,
Speaker 1: Warriors out of the West, every single year, four years
Speaker 1: in a row. Right. That was the era of like
Speaker 1: not much parody, right, and like we had the Warriors
Speaker 1: in twenty seventeen. In twenty eighteen were so damn talented.
Speaker 1: This is this is a crazy stat They were so
Speaker 1: damn talented that they had negative odds to win the
Speaker 1: title before training camp. Like, if you bet one hundred
Speaker 1: dollars on the Warriors to win the title in twenty
Speaker 1: seventeen or twenty eighteen before the season tipped off, you
Speaker 1: would get less than one hundred dollars if they actually
Speaker 1: won the trophy. That is how talented that Warriors team was.
Speaker 1: After that, we experienced the time of parody. Right. Since then,
Speaker 1: there have been six NBA champions, the Raptors, the Lakers,
Speaker 1: the Bucks, the Warriors, the Nuggets, the Celtics. Right, how
Speaker 1: do those teams rank number six? I have the Milwaukee Bucks.
Speaker 1: That to me was kind of a funky season post
Speaker 1: COVID year, right where we had all the weird lineups
Speaker 1: throughout the year. All of the teams that made it
Speaker 1: to the conference finals in the previous year, the Lakers,
Speaker 1: the Nuggets, the Heat, and the Celtics all fell apart
Speaker 1: that year and had bad, underachieving seasons, in most part
Speaker 1: because of injuries. Jamal Murray got hurt, Anthony Davis got hurt,
Speaker 1: the Heat were banged up all year. So like we
Speaker 1: saw like that was kind of like a funky season.
Speaker 1: Our conference finals finalists were a Clippers team led by
Speaker 1: Paul George, a Hawks team led by Trey Young, a
Speaker 1: Suns team led by Devin Booker, and then that twenty
Speaker 1: twenty one Bucks team. And so again they're a desserve
Speaker 1: irving champion. No one can ever take the trophy away.
Speaker 1: But if I was ranking them among those six teams,
Speaker 1: I have them at last place. Number five, I have
Speaker 1: the Toronto Raptors. I thought that was an incredible defensive team.
Speaker 1: Pascal Siakam was their second best player, had a really
Speaker 1: good series, especially attacking Draymond Green in space, which I
Speaker 1: thought was super fascinating. Kawhi Leonard kind of had his
Speaker 1: biggest moment as the best player on the championship team,
Speaker 1: but I didn't think they were as good as some
Speaker 1: of the teams ahead of them. Number four, I have
Speaker 1: that Golden State Warriors team in twenty twenty two. Steph Curry.
Speaker 1: I thought that was the peak of his MBA of
Speaker 1: his entire career. I thought that in twenty twenty one
Speaker 1: he was playing at the best, like regular season level
Speaker 1: of his career. Now a lot of people are going
Speaker 1: to point to his MVP seasons. But what I always
Speaker 1: say is those MVP seasons took place before the league
Speaker 1: had any idea schematically how to even guard Steph Curry.
Speaker 1: What was so fascinating to me about his run there
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty one and twenty twenty two was the
Speaker 1: league knew how to deal with him. They were being
Speaker 1: physical with him off ball, trying to deny him off
Speaker 1: ball actions, trying to force him to back cut into
Speaker 1: the lane, chasing him over the top of ball screens,
Speaker 1: physicality to try to wear him out, all that stuff.
Speaker 1: The book on how on the best way to guard
Speaker 1: Steph Curry was out and it just didn't matter. He
Speaker 1: kicked everyone's ass anyway. And there was an injury that
Speaker 1: he suffered in that twenty twenty two season that kind
Speaker 1: of disrupted him going into the postseason. But I thought
Speaker 1: that that Game four on the road in Boston was
Speaker 1: the best individual game of his career given the stakes
Speaker 1: in the situation in terms of them trailing to one
Speaker 1: in the series. The one thing that kind of holds
Speaker 1: them back from the teams ahead of them is once
Speaker 1: again just overall talent on the roster. The second best
Speaker 1: player on that team was some version of either Andrew Wiggins,
Speaker 1: Jordan Poole, or Draymond Green. They just didn't have like
Speaker 1: a ton of like top tier talent. At number three,
Speaker 1: I have this Boston Celtics team. I think that they
Speaker 1: were an incredibly dominant defensive team. I think that on
Speaker 1: the offensive end, they had moments where they looked completely
Speaker 1: and utterly unguardable. The one thing that holds them back
Speaker 1: from the teams above them on this tier for me
Speaker 1: was the lack of just like a true alpha dog star.
Speaker 1: The two teams that are above them for me on
Speaker 1: this list are teams that were both dominant on both
Speaker 1: ends of the floor and had a true apex superstar.
Speaker 1: Number two I have the twenty twenty three Denver Nuggets.
Speaker 1: I thought that that was the most well fitting five
Speaker 1: man starting lineup that I've seen since this Boston Celtics team.
Speaker 1: I think this Boston Celtics team has actually done a
Speaker 1: better job. That said, I thought nicolea. Jokic maybe still
Speaker 1: is the undisputed best player in the world. It was
Speaker 1: like a real alpha dog element that this Boston Celtics
Speaker 1: team didn't have. And the number one I have the
Speaker 1: twenty twenty Los Angeles Lakers. Admittedly I'm biased, but my
Speaker 1: case is very simple. They had two of the top
Speaker 1: five players in the world. The second best player on
Speaker 1: that Nuggets team was Jamal Murray. Obviously the Celtics didn't
Speaker 1: have a top five player on the roster that Los
Speaker 1: Angeles Lakers team. Lebron was the best player in the world.
Speaker 1: I that he deserved to win MVP that year. Had
Speaker 1: a dominant NBA Finals and a dominant playoff run, and
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis was right there with him. We can say
Speaker 1: whatever we want about Anthony Davis in his career as
Speaker 1: a totality, but in that twenty twenty season, there were
Speaker 1: very few players that were playing better basketball than Anthony Davis.
Speaker 1: I had him ranked as the fourth best player in
Speaker 1: the world after that playoff run. So they had the
Speaker 1: best and fourth best player in the world on the
Speaker 1: same team. They were the best defense in the league.
Speaker 1: They had a dominant playoff run. They ran through Damian
Speaker 1: Lillard and CJ. McCollum in round one. They ran through
Speaker 1: James Harden and Russell Westbrook in round two, Jokich and
Speaker 1: Murray in round three, Jimmy and Bam in round four,
Speaker 1: it was a dominant playoff run. That's how I have
Speaker 1: the six championship, the six champions ranked since the twenty
Speaker 1: eighteen Warriors Finals MVP. So, as I talked about last night,
Speaker 1: I would not have had a problem if Jason Tatum
Speaker 1: won it. And the main reason why is when I
Speaker 1: look at NBA history, I want the history books to
Speaker 1: read like a like what that team actually was. So like,
Speaker 1: for instance, when we look back at twenty fifteen and
Speaker 1: it's like twenty fifteen NBA Champion Golden State Warriors Finals
Speaker 1: MVP Andre Godala, You're like, that just doesn't tell the
Speaker 1: story of that team. It was one of the biggest
Speaker 1: travesty's in NBA history. They gave it to a role
Speaker 1: player made no damn sense. He was a beneficiary of
Speaker 1: attention that was being thrown at Steph Curry and defensively
Speaker 1: the beneficiary of injuries to Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving.
Speaker 1: It just didn't make any sense. I would have been
Speaker 1: okay with looking back at this season and seeing twenty
Speaker 1: twenty four NBA Champion Boston Celtics Finals MVP Jason Tatum
Speaker 1: because from training camp to the hoisting of the trophy,
Speaker 1: Tatum was their best and most important player. That said,
Speaker 1: in this series, I did think Jaylen Brown was the
Speaker 1: best player more frequently. To put it simply, I thought
Speaker 1: Jason Tatum was the best player on the floor in
Speaker 1: Game five, but that was the only player the only
Speaker 1: game in the series where I thought he was the
Speaker 1: best player on the floor, So like it would have
Speaker 1: been weird for him to have the Finals MVP Trophy
Speaker 1: having not been the best player on the floor in
Speaker 1: four of the five games of the series. I thought
Speaker 1: Jalen Brown had a similarly important defensive job to Jason Tatum,
Speaker 1: being the guy that was picking up Luka Doncic full
Speaker 1: court and trying to wear him out. I thought he
Speaker 1: had the most iconic highlights of the series and his
Speaker 1: two gigantic one handed hammers that he had. I think
Speaker 1: it was in Game two and in Game three if
Speaker 1: I remember correctly. And I also thought he hit the
Speaker 1: biggest shots of the series. In Game two down the
Speaker 1: stretch when they needed a bucket, he was the guy
Speaker 1: that drove by Maxic Kleba and had the left handed
Speaker 1: layup that kind of iced that game. And then in
Speaker 1: Game three when the Mavericks got it down to one
Speaker 1: he hit two massive mid range jump shots to rescue
Speaker 1: possessions that put that game away. I thought he had
Speaker 1: the biggest imprint. Like if you were to kind of
Speaker 1: like weigh the overall contributions of players in this series
Speaker 1: among any Celtic, I thought Jalen Brown did have the
Speaker 1: biggest impact. It's not like a role player. This is
Speaker 1: not like giving it to Andre Gudala. In my opinion,
Speaker 1: Jalen Brown has improved and entered into the compsation with
Speaker 1: Jason Tatum in that second tier of stars, behind the
Speaker 1: guys right at the very top, and so to me,
Speaker 1: it's just a credit to Jalen Brown and his improvement.
Speaker 1: I remember, you know, one of the things I'm not
Speaker 1: trying to take a victory lap here, because God knows,
Speaker 1: I've been wrong about lots of shit, But one of
Speaker 1: the things I've been right about is this specific issue.
Speaker 1: There's always been calls after each loss from the Celtics
Speaker 1: to break up Tatum and Brown, and what I've consistently
Speaker 1: said is you have a better chance of getting where
Speaker 1: you need to go by Jalen Brown just getting better
Speaker 1: than you do by trying to flip Jalen Brown into
Speaker 1: something better like in chances are you'll flip Jalen Brown
Speaker 1: and get something worse in return, whereas Jalen Brown might
Speaker 1: be able to improve and get where he needs to go.
Speaker 1: And Jalen Brown went from a very embarrassing performance last
Speaker 1: year against Miami and the conference finals to the best
Speaker 1: playoff front of his career and he won the Eastern
Speaker 1: Conference Finals MVP and the Finals MVP. So tip of
Speaker 1: the cap to Jalen Brown. He improved, He addressed the
Speaker 1: things that he needed to address to make a bigger
Speaker 1: impact on this particular Celtics team, and I thought he
Speaker 1: was deserving of the trophy. But that said, I wouldn't
Speaker 1: have had any problem with Jason Tatum getting it. The
Speaker 1: Celtics has a chance to repeat. So obviously, every time
Speaker 1: that a team wins an NBA championship, the next conversation
Speaker 1: is does this team have what it takes to do
Speaker 1: it again? Right? There's a statement from Michael Malone before
Speaker 1: this season, if I remember correctly, where he said I'm
Speaker 1: gonna butcher this, but he said something along the lines
Speaker 1: of like, to win, you need talent, but to repeat
Speaker 1: you need character. Right, And so that's the main thing.
Speaker 1: Do the Celtics have the talent to repeat. You bet
Speaker 1: your ass that absolutely have the talent to repeat. Will
Speaker 1: they have the character? That's the next piece. Will the
Speaker 1: disease of more infiltrate, Well, guys start to co opt
Speaker 1: possessions and get out of their roles because now they
Speaker 1: already have the trophy. Right, those are the kinds of
Speaker 1: speed bumps that they'll encounter along the way. As we
Speaker 1: mentioned earlier, I do think the face tougher teams in
Speaker 1: the following season, right like this will be a more
Speaker 1: difficult title run, But they have the talent there. Another
Speaker 1: big piece that's if that's fascinating to me is Jason
Speaker 1: Tatum's jump shooting. So Jason Tatum, I checked the stats
Speaker 1: on Synergy this morning in this playoff run shot twenty
Speaker 1: nine point eight percent on jump shots. To give you
Speaker 1: guys some perspective, Jana Santana Kumpo in this regular season
Speaker 1: shot twenty nine point nine percent on jump shots. So Tatum,
Speaker 1: as I mentioned multiple times in this playoff run, was
Speaker 1: just in a miserable shooting slump this year. I don't
Speaker 1: I don't have an explanation for it other than that
Speaker 1: it can just happen. Like shooting slumps, Like there's there's
Speaker 1: this kind of feeling that people have for some reason
Speaker 1: that like, oh, you work on your jumper and it's
Speaker 1: just kind of like a perpetual rise. It's like, No,
Speaker 1: it's more of like a a staggered line, just like
Speaker 1: anything else. Right, you zoom out from it, and it
Speaker 1: looks like an increase if you've been working hard. But
Speaker 1: if you zoom in, you're gonna see some peaks and valleys.
Speaker 1: And there's no doubt that Tatum entered into a massive
Speaker 1: shooting slump in this postseason run. Do I think that
Speaker 1: Jason Tatum is a bad jump shooter? No? Do I
Speaker 1: think he settles for too many pull up jumpers and
Speaker 1: that he should structure his game more like he did
Speaker 1: in Game five, or he's using his physical gifts to
Speaker 1: get to the rim. Yeah, that's what I think he
Speaker 1: should focus on. But he is a better jump shooter
Speaker 1: than he demonstrated, and I would be stunned if he
Speaker 1: didn't shoot a lot better on jump shots in next
Speaker 1: year's postseason. So that's another thing that's scary as it
Speaker 1: pertains to the Boston's repeat chances. Porzingis won't healthy for
Speaker 1: the majority of this playoff run and Jayson Tatum played
Speaker 1: like shit by his standards. And so if those two
Speaker 1: things rectify themselves and you get a healthy Christops Porzingis
Speaker 1: and you get a just a more Jason Tatum like
Speaker 1: playoff run, it's gonna be that much harder to beat
Speaker 1: the Celtics team four times out of seven. It will
Speaker 1: be challenging. My guess right now is that I'll probably
Speaker 1: end up having Boston as my title favorite going into
Speaker 1: next season. It extends beyond the beyond my like kind
Speaker 1: of loyalty to the banter stuff. As you guys know,
Speaker 1: I always kind of defer to champions just out of respect.
Speaker 1: But another part of it is this season revealed the
Speaker 1: Western Conference is just such a blood bath that even
Speaker 1: a team like Denver, and like, one of the things
Speaker 1: with Denver, like I had a lot of I had
Speaker 1: Celtics fans today, like, oh, Denver wasn't on Boston's level,
Speaker 1: Like we'll see, we don't know. We didn't play each other,
Speaker 1: so we don't know. But one of the things with
Speaker 1: Denver you got to remember is Jamal Murray missed a
Speaker 1: significant chunk of the season. When Jamal Murray was healthy,
Speaker 1: they were forty four and fifteen. That's a sixty one
Speaker 1: win pace in that blood bath of a Western conference.
Speaker 1: So I from the beginning of the season I had
Speaker 1: Milwaukee in that tier, but I bumped him off after
Speaker 1: the first month. But for the majority of the season
Speaker 1: I had Denver and Boston. Those were the two teams.
Speaker 1: Had Denver Boston gap everyone else, right, And that's that
Speaker 1: to me, I thought kind of manifested in the season
Speaker 1: where when Denver got knocked out, Boston was just clearly
Speaker 1: better than whoever else would have come out of that
Speaker 1: conference as far as Denver goes. One of the things
Speaker 1: that because a lot of people would be like, oh, well,
Speaker 1: how did they lose to Minnesota? That was literally one
Speaker 1: of the most bizarre NBA playoff series I have ever watched.
Speaker 1: Here are a couple crazy stats. Denver led by at
Speaker 1: least eighteen in all three of their wins, and in
Speaker 1: the Game seven that they lost, they led by twenty
Speaker 1: in the fourth quarter or not in the fourth quarter.
Speaker 1: They led by twenty in the second half. So they
Speaker 1: played well enough to win that series, they just somehow
Speaker 1: lost in this crazy second half run. Right. And then
Speaker 1: in addition to that, just digging themselves in the hole
Speaker 1: they did in the first two games of the series
Speaker 1: by dropping the first two games in Denver. Like, I
Speaker 1: believe if Denver played Minnesota in a playoff series again,
Speaker 1: they would beat them. But Minnesota is a weird team.
Speaker 1: They were specifically constructed to beat Denver with all their
Speaker 1: size on the perimeter and on the interior. It was
Speaker 1: a bad matchup. They got upset. They got upset in
Speaker 1: a series they led by eighteen and three wins and
Speaker 1: led by twenty in one of the losses. It was
Speaker 1: a weird thing that happened. As a result, we had
Speaker 1: one of those second tier teams make it into the
Speaker 1: championship round to face Boston. Boston beat the living shit
Speaker 1: out of them, right, So like again, like as it
Speaker 1: pertains to Denver, I do think it's worth mentioning that
Speaker 1: they looked like a Boston level team most of the year,
Speaker 1: with exception of when Jamal Murray got hurt and that
Speaker 1: bizarre Minnesota Timberwolve series. So like I again, like there,
Speaker 1: I think that Boston will get challenged at another level
Speaker 1: next year, but it'll just be another opportunity for Boston
Speaker 1: to demonstrate if they are this all time great team
Speaker 1: that so many Celtics fans seem to think that they are.
Speaker 1: They will have the opportunity to prove that next season.
Speaker 1: All right, let's move it to Dallas real quick, and
Speaker 1: then we'll talk a little bit about just a little
Speaker 1: season wrap up and then we'll get out of here.
Speaker 1: Is Dallas close this more? Or? Last night with Coln Koward,
Speaker 1: I pointed out that I did not think that this
Speaker 1: Dallas Mavericks team was close to winning the championship, and
Speaker 1: I have been getting ShredIt on Twitter all day long
Speaker 1: for that. Specific Mavericks fans are pissed we made the finals.
Speaker 1: How how is it that we made the finals and
Speaker 1: you're gonna say we're not close? Well, you trailed by
Speaker 1: twenty nine, and one of the losses, you trailed by
Speaker 1: twenty six in one of the losses, you trailed by
Speaker 1: twenty one in one of the losses, and you trailed
Speaker 1: by fourteen in one of the losses. You trailed three
Speaker 1: to zero in the series, and you beat the shit
Speaker 1: out of Boston in that desperation game for but you
Speaker 1: were not close. I mean, I'm curious if you're if
Speaker 1: you're a Mavericks fan, if you do you believe you
Speaker 1: were close to winning that series. I don't think you were.
Speaker 1: And there were two teams at the top of the league,
Speaker 1: Denver and Boston. As we mentioned earlier, just in the
Speaker 1: previous segment, like that Denver team was a lot better
Speaker 1: than what their results this year showed. That Denver team,
Speaker 1: if they would have made it in the conference finals,
Speaker 1: I would have picked them against Dallas. I think they
Speaker 1: would have won somewhat convincingly. I don't think they match
Speaker 1: up as well with Denver as Minnesota did in terms
Speaker 1: of their physicality on the front line, right and so like,
Speaker 1: I don't think that Dallas was particularly close. To take
Speaker 1: it a step further, Boston did not shoot over the
Speaker 1: their season average for jump shooting a single time in
Speaker 1: this series. Boston got one point one to two points
Speaker 1: per jump shot in the regular season. They were below
Speaker 1: that in all five games. Jason Tatum we discussed earlier,
Speaker 1: was in a massive slump. There will be a better
Speaker 1: version of this Boston team in all likelihood waiting whoever
Speaker 1: comes out of the Western Conference next year. So this
Speaker 1: is where it's about being honest with yourself. So, for instance, guys,
Speaker 1: I'm a Lakers fan, the Lakers made it to the
Speaker 1: Western Conference Finals last year, I never, not even for
Speaker 1: a single second this year, put them in my top
Speaker 1: tier of contenders. I consistently had them in that second tier.
Speaker 1: And I said right after the series, they clearly have
Speaker 1: to get better at XYZ going into the season. I'm like,
Speaker 1: they clearly need to make an aggressive deal this deadline
Speaker 1: to try to put themselves into this conversation. They never did,
Speaker 1: and so for me, the Lakers never entered into that tier.
Speaker 1: I am a fan of the Lakers who made a
Speaker 1: deep playoff run, and I had to admit they are
Speaker 1: not close. The Miami Heat made the NBA Finals last year.
Speaker 1: They did not trail three to zero. They stole a
Speaker 1: game in Denver in Game two. Did anybody think after
Speaker 1: that series that the Miami Heat were close to winning
Speaker 1: an NBA championship. I didn't. I thought it was abundantly
Speaker 1: clear that they did not have enough firepower. What ends
Speaker 1: up happening in the NBA every year. One of the
Speaker 1: things I'm learning, and we're going to talk about this
Speaker 1: more when we get to our Tactics Pod on Thursday,
Speaker 1: But there's a top tier of teams, the real championship contenders,
Speaker 1: and every year there's usually two three four teams in
Speaker 1: that tier, right this year there were two, But it
Speaker 1: doesn't really matter what you do against everyone else, everyone
Speaker 1: else's matchups. You happen to catch a Minnesota team in
Speaker 1: the Western Conference Finals that specifically struggles with rim protection,
Speaker 1: which was evidenced by the fact that they were seventeenth
Speaker 1: in offense in the regular season. It was a terrible matchup.
Speaker 1: Even their perimeter defenders were too skinny for Luca. They
Speaker 1: didn't have a loudor to an Aaron Gordon, like a
Speaker 1: big physical specimen to put on to Luca. They got barbecued.
Speaker 1: They got their ass kicked, right, But that was a
Speaker 1: matchup thing. That group, all that group, all the teams
Speaker 1: below the Denver Boston Tier, any of them could have
Speaker 1: beat any of them based on matchups. In my opinion,
Speaker 1: Dallas kind of weaved their way through there. And one
Speaker 1: how did the Lakers make it to the Western Conference
Speaker 1: Finals Last year? They faced a Memphis Grizzlies team in
Speaker 1: the first round that had a dribble drive guard in
Speaker 1: John morant In not great perimeter shooting, so the Lakers
Speaker 1: could pack the paint. They had Anthony Davis. It was
Speaker 1: a terrible matchup for Memphis. The book has been out
Speaker 1: for how to beat the Golden State Warriors for two
Speaker 1: years now. You got to have athletic size and you
Speaker 1: need to funnel them into your size in the paint.
Speaker 1: The Lakers kind of put that together with their top
Speaker 1: locking and forcing the Guards to backcut into Anthony Davis.
Speaker 1: That was a bad matchup for the Warriors. Right, So
Speaker 1: the Lakers, good matchup against Memphis, win the series, good
Speaker 1: matchup against Golden State, win the series, run into a
Speaker 1: real championship contender. Get their ass kicked. They weren't close. Now,
Speaker 1: Dallas beat better teams. For the record, like I had
Speaker 1: a lot of Dallas fans like, we beat some of
Speaker 1: the best seeds in the conference. You're absolutely right, but
Speaker 1: let's go through them individually. You beat the Los Angeles Clippers,
Speaker 1: who were missing their best player. That's a favorable matchup.
Speaker 1: The Oklahoma City Thunder were a one seed. And by
Speaker 1: the way, the Thunder won me over in a big way.
Speaker 1: And I'm sure they won over MAVs fans because guess what,
Speaker 1: that series could have gone either way if they don't
Speaker 1: get that last bucket or that last foul on PJ.
Speaker 1: Washington in the corner. The Thunder took the lead on
Speaker 1: the previous possession. You were about to go back to
Speaker 1: Oklahoma City to play a Game seven. So okay See
Speaker 1: won me over in a big way in this postseason run.
Speaker 1: But what was I What did I consistently say all
Speaker 1: season the Thunder are too young and too small to
Speaker 1: make a deep playoff run. Dallas exposed them for that right.
Speaker 1: A really good team, a quality series win for Dallas,
Speaker 1: but that was not a top tier championship contender that
Speaker 1: they beat. Then they faced Minnesota, and admittedly that was
Speaker 1: the one time I picked wrong against Dallas. I picked
Speaker 1: Dallas to beat the Clippers. I picked Dallas to beat
Speaker 1: Oklahoma City. I picked Boston to beat Dallas. But I
Speaker 1: was wrong about the Minnesota series. I kind of drank
Speaker 1: too much of the Minnesota kool aid after they beat Denver,
Speaker 1: just because I respected that Denver team so much. But
Speaker 1: we're gonna talk about that more on Thursday in the
Speaker 1: tactic spot. That to me was a major revealing factor
Speaker 1: for me, just in terms of matchups and like how
Speaker 1: we can't overreact to any series win. The only thing
Speaker 1: that matters is how you match up against your next opponent,
Speaker 1: at which Dallas fans just found out as they ran
Speaker 1: into Boston. Right, but Minnesota was a team that could
Speaker 1: not deal with rim protection. I used to quote those
Speaker 1: stats during the series, like Anthony Edwards was getting to
Speaker 1: the paint like less than a half as often as
Speaker 1: he was against Denver. Dallas loaded up the strong side,
Speaker 1: they played off their shooters the non shooters obviously on
Speaker 1: the other end of the floor. They didn't have anybody
Speaker 1: big enough to guard Luca. It was a bad matchup.
Speaker 1: So then they run into a real championship contender in
Speaker 1: the NBA Finals. They trail by twenty nine, trail by
Speaker 1: twenty six, trail by twenty one, trail by fourteen. You're
Speaker 1: not close. That is the literal definition of not close.
Speaker 1: And what I mean by that that's not intended to
Speaker 1: undercut the accomplishment. It is a bona fide NBA Finals run.
Speaker 1: As a Mavericks fan, I'm sure you guys had so
Speaker 1: much fun watching that playoff run. What I'm saying that
Speaker 1: for is it means they need to improve. What that
Speaker 1: means is they can't just run it back. What did
Speaker 1: the Lakers do? I said right after the Denvers loss.
Speaker 1: The Dever loss, they are not close. They have to
Speaker 1: improve with guard athleticism, a legitimate backup center, and Lebron
Speaker 1: and ad had to improve as over the top shooters.
Speaker 1: Laid that all out immediately after that series. They didn't
Speaker 1: do any of that. They signed Torreon Prints in the offseason,
Speaker 1: they got a couple of backup centers in Jackson Hayes
Speaker 1: and Christian wood that couldn't play in the playoffs, and
Speaker 1: then at the deadline they did nothing, and then they
Speaker 1: signed Spencer Dinwoodie is a buyout guy. Right, they ran
Speaker 1: it back, and what happened. They ran into the same
Speaker 1: fucking team and they lost the same fucking way. So,
Speaker 1: like that's what I'm saying. I'm not trying to say
Speaker 1: you're not close to be a dickhead. I'm saying you're
Speaker 1: not close, because it means you need to improve. If
Speaker 1: you run it back, if you do what the Lakers
Speaker 1: did and just say let's go give this thing another shot.
Speaker 1: If you do what the Miami Heat do it did
Speaker 1: and you just say let's just give this thing another shot,
Speaker 1: you're gonna lose in disappointing fashion the way the Miami
Speaker 1: heat the Los Angeles Lakers did. So that's the next question.
Speaker 1: What do the Dallas Mavericks need to improve them? Well,
Speaker 1: there were several things that stood out to me. I
Speaker 1: want to start on the offense. Event. They had just
Speaker 1: a one oh one offensive rating in the NBA Finals.
Speaker 1: That is bad bad. They had an offensive rating, I
Speaker 1: want to say, over one to eighteen against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Speaker 1: A lot of it has to do with matchups, but
Speaker 1: a big part of it was game plan. So one
Speaker 1: of the things that Minnesota did is they kept Rudy
Speaker 1: Gobert on the lob threats on Gafford and Lively. That
Speaker 1: allowed Dallas to operate with traditional four out spacing, meaning
Speaker 1: they had shooters in the corners they're preferably their corner
Speaker 1: three point shooters, Derek Jones and PJ. Washington, and then
Speaker 1: they had Kyrie Irving on the opposite wing. Then Luca
Speaker 1: would get the ball screen and he would go downhill
Speaker 1: as the lob threat was going and they'd both be
Speaker 1: going into open space underneath the basket. That allowed Luca
Speaker 1: to manipulate Rudy Gobert into that no man's land between
Speaker 1: the two so that he could unlock the lob game.
Speaker 1: Boston put together a game plan that caused a ton
Speaker 1: of issues for Dallas's offense. They put their four, Jason
Speaker 1: Tatum onto the lob threat. They put their center onto
Speaker 1: pour above the break three point shooters. What that did
Speaker 1: is it fucked up the spacing because then you had
Speaker 1: in order to put two shooters in the corners, you
Speaker 1: had to tug Kyrie in one of the corners. You
Speaker 1: had Lively and Gafford standing in the dunker spot, which
Speaker 1: allowed Jason Tatum to help on everything underneath the basket.
Speaker 1: And then when Luca wanted to bring the center into
Speaker 1: the action to attack Porzingis or Horford, it was Derek
Speaker 1: Jones or PJ. Washington set in the screen. If those
Speaker 1: guys tried to roll, they were rolling into all that traffic.
Speaker 1: Now that the dunker spot is occupied. If they popped
Speaker 1: where the opening was, it was above the break threes,
Speaker 1: and above the break three point shooting ended up being
Speaker 1: the Achilles heel of this Dallas offense. Derek Jones Junior
Speaker 1: shot twenty six percent on above the break threes in
Speaker 1: the playoffs. Maxi Kleba shot twenty six percent on above
Speaker 1: the break threees in the playoffs. PJ Washington shot thirty
Speaker 1: one percent on above the break threees during the playoffs.
Speaker 1: Those three guys combined to go seven for twenty eight.
Speaker 1: That's twenty five percent on above the break threes during
Speaker 1: the NBA Finals. What does that mean? Why does that matter?
Speaker 1: Because this is a copycat league. Every NBA coach watched
Speaker 1: the NBA Finals. When they watch the NBA Finals, they're
Speaker 1: all making a little note like, Oh, when we're guarding Dallas,
Speaker 1: let's just put our biggest forward on their lob threat,
Speaker 1: have them switch ball screens, and then let's put our center,
Speaker 1: our rim protector on their above the break three point
Speaker 1: shooters that can't make above the breakthrees. You will see
Speaker 1: that same coverage a lot moving forward. That is exactly
Speaker 1: what happened to the Golden State Warriors. The Lakers put
Speaker 1: together a game plan which was top block their shooters,
Speaker 1: don't allow them to use their screens, force them to backcut,
Speaker 1: and help off of Draymond Green and Jonathan Kaminga or
Speaker 1: whoever they're limited. Three point shooters are with your rim protectors,
Speaker 1: your size, keep those guys underneath the rim. Be super
Speaker 1: physical on the perimeter. That will slow down Golden State's
Speaker 1: motion offense and force them to play and pick and roll.
Speaker 1: Every team does that. Now it's a copycat league. When
Speaker 1: a game plan starts to take shape that has an
Speaker 1: effect on you, it resonates among the other twenty eight
Speaker 1: teams in the league. And so there are several things
Speaker 1: that could they could do to address this. If you're
Speaker 1: gonna stay with four out, those guys have to improve
Speaker 1: as above the break three point shooters. They either have
Speaker 1: to improve or you've got to find them a different players.
Speaker 1: I mean, because inevitably you will run into this exact
Speaker 1: same situation. And that is something that didn't just slow
Speaker 1: down Dallas's offense, rendered it borderline useless over the course
Speaker 1: of that NBA Final series. A one oh one offensive rating.
Speaker 1: That's not just bad, that is atrociously bad. I want
Speaker 1: to say they didn't cross over one hundred points a
Speaker 1: single time in the series, maybe except for Game five, right,
Speaker 1: I think they did it just once in Game five.
Speaker 1: Actually no, I heard the stat last night from our
Speaker 1: producer with Colin. I think he said Dallas failed to
Speaker 1: score one hundred points seven times during the entire regular
Speaker 1: season and did it four times in this series, so like,
Speaker 1: it was a major issue. So obviously, finding role players
Speaker 1: that are comfortable taking and making above the break three
Speaker 1: is because that is a vital part of your spacing. Right. Secondly,
Speaker 1: it might be worthwhile to explore more five out concepts
Speaker 1: on offense. One of the big advantages here is Derek Lively.
Speaker 1: Derek Lively was wildly impressive in this playoff run as
Speaker 1: a screener and as a decision maker. Right. He even
Speaker 1: fucking he knocked out a three pointer in game four, right,
Speaker 1: so like, and I'm not even in five out. Five
Speaker 1: out does not mean five shooters. Now for Boston it does.
Speaker 1: But all five out means is that all of the
Speaker 1: action is taking place on the perimeter, in the paint
Speaker 1: is not occupied unless it is for a post up
Speaker 1: as part of the play or on a roll. What
Speaker 1: that means is the Bigs operate out at the three
Speaker 1: point line as dribble handoff guys, and they roll and
Speaker 1: then they come back up and run another another dribble handoff,
Speaker 1: and they roll, and they come back up and run
Speaker 1: another dribble handoff. They primarily operate from the perimeter. They
Speaker 1: roll into empty space and then they come back. So
Speaker 1: the paint is vacant except when someone's rolling or driving
Speaker 1: or cutting or posting right. So basically what that means
Speaker 1: is instead of dribbling the ball out the floor and
Speaker 1: having this guy stay in the corner and this guy's
Speaker 1: staying in the corner and come set a ball screen
Speaker 1: and we're just going to spread an attack, have it
Speaker 1: actually function more with everybody involved, the more ball in
Speaker 1: player movement. One of the things I like is I
Speaker 1: think that because of Lively's development there, because PJ. Washington
Speaker 1: can put the ball on the floor a little bit,
Speaker 1: because you have Kyrie Irving and Luca, as long as
Speaker 1: you get basically a better version of Derek Jones, a
Speaker 1: player like Derek Jones that can actually make more plays
Speaker 1: off the bounce, and honestly, he might be able to
Speaker 1: do it if you just open training camp with it
Speaker 1: and run that as your base offense. But I just
Speaker 1: want to see. I think five out concepts are more
Speaker 1: resilient to playoff matchup issues. The four out offense, it
Speaker 1: took one switch the center and Tatum switching to completely
Speaker 1: bog down the spacing on everything, whereas if it was
Speaker 1: five out and there was tons of ball in player
Speaker 1: movement as you're cycling from side decide and everyone's involved.
Speaker 1: It lessens Luca's usage. It has a better chance of
Speaker 1: keeping guys like PJ. Washington, Derek Jones, Josh Green, Dante Exen,
Speaker 1: whoever it is, in rhythm throughout the game. It opens
Speaker 1: up more space on the back line. Like again, if
Speaker 1: Tatum is up at getting engaged in a switch on
Speaker 1: a dribble handoff, and then all of a sudden, it's
Speaker 1: back on the other side of the foor, and then
Speaker 1: it's coming back this way, and there's three dribble handoffs
Speaker 1: on the same possession. It don't really matter what Boston's
Speaker 1: base game plan is. All of a sudden, the entire
Speaker 1: team is being asked to do more on every possession defensively,
Speaker 1: and so I'd like to see them kind of explore
Speaker 1: that a little bit, just to make them more resilient
Speaker 1: as an offensive team. In the playoffs, they ran some
Speaker 1: five out concepts, they ran some stack, pick and roll,
Speaker 1: they ran some double stagger stuffy. It's not like they
Speaker 1: don't do any of that, but more often than that,
Speaker 1: more often than not, they dribble the ball off the floor.
Speaker 1: They set a guard screen for a switch, they go
Speaker 1: to their four out spacing and they call for a
Speaker 1: ball screen. It's just a little too rude to entry.
Speaker 1: It's a little too predictable, and it's one of those
Speaker 1: things that I think puts a ceiling on their offense
Speaker 1: in the playoffs. Remember I wrong. I had to learn
Speaker 1: the hard way about this. And we're gonna get into
Speaker 1: more detail with this when we get to our tactics
Speaker 1: spot on Thursday. But like, the Lakers were a four
Speaker 1: out team last year and then they adopted five out.
Speaker 1: It was ugly as all hell for half the season,
Speaker 1: but it like clicked in January and suddenly they were
Speaker 1: one of the best offenses in the league. And they
Speaker 1: had a much better offensive showing against Denver in that
Speaker 1: first round series than they did the last year. Right, So, like,
Speaker 1: I'm a big believer and they've won me over. This
Speaker 1: is about This is a modern basketball concept that I
Speaker 1: was too late to buy into, and I do think
Speaker 1: that Dallas would be would be served well by trying
Speaker 1: to tilt their offense a little bit more in that direction.
Speaker 1: The last piece, Luca needs to be able to function
Speaker 1: as just a part of a championship level defense. So again,
Speaker 1: this is something we talked about a lot after Game three.
Speaker 1: But I would love to see Luca come in next
Speaker 1: season at at just an entirely different level of physical conditioning.
Speaker 1: By virtue of that, he can handle higher usage, he
Speaker 1: can handle those defensive responsibilities. He can handle more physical
Speaker 1: defensive matchups in the postseason without fatiguing and without losing
Speaker 1: some of his efficiency. Just to put it simply, every
Speaker 1: NBA player has to have some sort of humiliating moment
Speaker 1: in order to reach their ultimate ceiling. Jalen Brown last
Speaker 1: year gets embarrassed in the conference finals, wins Finals MVP.
Speaker 1: The next year, Lebron James in twenty eleven gets embarrassed
Speaker 1: in the NBA Finals wins back to back MVPs and
Speaker 1: Finals MVPs. Luka Doncic got embarrassed in a lot of ways,
Speaker 1: especially on the defensive end of the floor in this series.
Speaker 1: I thought it was the worst defensive performance by a
Speaker 1: superstar I've ever seen in the NBA Finals. So like
Speaker 1: I'm hoping that he just takes that to heart, takes
Speaker 1: it personally, makes the necessary improvements, and brings that next
Speaker 1: level when he comes into next season. Again, as I
Speaker 1: mentioned before, the West will be better. Memphis is going
Speaker 1: to join this picture next year. Houston could very well
Speaker 1: join this picture. Like I said, one of the Lakers,
Speaker 1: Warriors or Suns. They're gonna get their shit together. There's
Speaker 1: going to be something that makes this more complicated next year.
Speaker 1: And I think Step one is self awareness. Admit you're
Speaker 1: not good enough. Step two, address your needs. Step three
Speaker 1: go out and execute, give yourself a chance to win.
Speaker 1: All right, before we get out of here, I want
Speaker 1: to talk a little bit, just wrap up the season.
Speaker 1: You know, we almost exactly eight months ago we launched
Speaker 1: our new YouTube channel, and it was kind of a
Speaker 1: scary moment because the Volumes YouTube channel has like over
Speaker 1: seven hundred thousand subscribers and that was kind of like
Speaker 1: a really nice supporting foundation for what we were trying
Speaker 1: to do. Right, Like just obviously people still need to
Speaker 1: click on the link to watch the show, but like
Speaker 1: just so many more eyeballs were on the show in
Speaker 1: terms of like door swings that we could convert by
Speaker 1: virtue of being on the Volumes channel. And so I
Speaker 1: was really nervous as we as we launched the new
Speaker 1: channel last year at the start of this season, and
Speaker 1: just that it would just kind of lead to some
Speaker 1: sort of downturn or that we would have some just
Speaker 1: disappointing performance. And it's been eight months. We've done over
Speaker 1: eleven point six million views. In that eight months, We've
Speaker 1: added over seventy thousand subscribers. Just during the playoff run,
Speaker 1: we had over a million unique viewers. We had over
Speaker 1: four hundred thousand returning viewers, people who made multiple visits
Speaker 1: to the channel. I just have been completely blown away
Speaker 1: by how you guys have supported me and supported this
Speaker 1: channel and supported this show over the course of the
Speaker 1: last few years. I just can't put into words how
Speaker 1: incredibly thankful I am for all of you. There's obviously
Speaker 1: a certain amount of negativity that comes with the comes
Speaker 1: with the job, right, That's just kind of the virtue
Speaker 1: of sports. Like I have to say I like this
Speaker 1: team or dislike this team, which is automatically going to
Speaker 1: piss some people off, and like the overwhelming positivity that
Speaker 1: I get from you guys in the comments and direct
Speaker 1: messages and Twitter mentions and all of that stuff. You
Speaker 1: guys just support me in such an incredible way, and
Speaker 1: I'm just incredibly thankful for you. I'm so excited to
Speaker 1: see what we can turn this thing into I mean,
Speaker 1: we've been going for what two years and four months
Speaker 1: or something like that since we started with the volume
Speaker 1: back in the twenty twenty two season, and it's just
Speaker 1: been it's been such a blast. I'm getting to experience
Speaker 1: things I never in a million years thought i'd get
Speaker 1: to experience. I'm interviewing an NBA player for the first
Speaker 1: time at Summer League. I'm super excited about that we've had.
Speaker 1: I've get getting to go see the Team USA scrimmage
Speaker 1: against a Canada on July tenth there at the Thomas
Speaker 1: and Max Center. I just I wouldn't be able to
Speaker 1: do the things that I get to do or experience
Speaker 1: when I get to experience without your guys' support. And
Speaker 1: I just hope you guys know that I'm eternally thankful
Speaker 1: to you, and I'm super super excited to see what
Speaker 1: we can build as we look into the future. I'm
Speaker 1: really excited to get started on the next season. One
Speaker 1: last thing before we go to Don't Forget about my
Speaker 1: Two Sons podcast. You can see a little logo down here.
Speaker 1: That's a podcast that I do with my buddy Luke
Speaker 1: where we talk more about like film and TV show stuff.
Speaker 1: Last night, we just uploaded a reaction to the first
Speaker 1: episode of House of the Dragon, so you guys can
Speaker 1: go check that out. We're gonna be recording Acolyte episode
Speaker 1: four later tonight as well, and there's just a lot
Speaker 1: of really fun content and stuff coming out over the
Speaker 1: course of the rest of this summer, So make sure
Speaker 1: you guys head over there hit that subscribe button, and
Speaker 1: i'd appreciate your support there as well. But again, I'm
Speaker 1: just really thankful for you guys, and I'm looking forward
Speaker 1: to getting into another fun offseason and then another fun
Speaker 1: season from there. All right, that's all I have for tonight.
Speaker 1: Congratulations Celtics fans. Congratulations Mavericks fans too. That was a
Speaker 1: fun season for you guys. We'll be back. We're gonna
Speaker 1: take tomorrow off. We'll be back on Thursday to get
Speaker 1: into some basketball tactics and the five biggest things that
Speaker 1: I learned from this playoff run, and I will see
Speaker 1: you guys. Then the volume