On today’s episode, Jason is back from parts unknown to bring us wall-to-wall NBA Finals preview ahead of Game 1 between the Denver Nuggets and Miami Heat. Can Jimmy Butler and the Heat continue their cinderella run to the NBA championship? Do the Nuggets deserve to be the third biggest Finals favorites in the last 30 years? How might the impending return of Tyler Herro help (or hurt) Miami's mojo? Is this Nuggets-Heat matchup a win for the analytics crowd? Will Bam Adebayo be able to slow down Nikola Jokic whatsoever? Do the Heat have anyone to matchup with Jamal Murray? Will Erik Spoelstra be able to simply out-coach Michael Malone the way he did to Joe Mazzulla? J-Mac has the answer to all those questions, and he hits us with his official prediction for the series!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. This is Straight Fire with Jason McIntire. What
is up straight Fire, fam, It's me Jason McIntyre, Straight
Fire for Thursday, June First, I'm back. Took about a
(00:26):
week off for a rare vacation during the NBA playoffs.
I don't think I've done that in a long time.
Used to have a lot of fun Memorial Day weekends, However,
nothing like my first trip to Europe, official trip to Europe.
I meane. We had stopped over there before another on
another trip, but we went to Paris. Cowhard decided he
was going to take time off of the show. I said, well, shucks,
(00:49):
I might as well too, And it looked for a
moment like I was gonna miss nothing with the Miami
heat up three to one when I departed. And of
course I'm on the other side of the world world.
I believe the time difference between La and Paris is
nine hours. So needless to say, I watched zero of
(01:09):
Games five, six, and seven, and lo and behold I
come back. I mean, obviously I was over there, and
I had the Internet. I did swear to myself. No
social media, well Twitter at least Instagram's fine. I like
it did a lot of posts on it, but I
didn't go on Twitter. I did get texts obviously for
friends like holy cow, Derek White. You know, like I
(01:31):
think the Derek White thing happened when it was like
four in the morning, and so you know, my phone
was buzzing, but I didn't hear it. Obviously, late nights
in Paris. But outstanding trip. I highly recommend it if
you like cities. I am basically decided, and this is
not news to me that I am a beach guy
or I'm a city guy. I don't really love the
in between. I'm just not a huge suburban guy. We
(01:54):
lived in the suburbs kind of growing up. It was fine.
We lived in I lived in New York outside New
York York City for my first job, then in New
York City, then Brooklyn, then back out to the Birds
now to kind of city in LA but also beach
in the South Bay, and it's like we've got the
best of both worlds. Then you go to Paris and
it felt like a New York City vibe. I mean,
(02:14):
it's just awesome walking city. You could take ubers everywhere.
I'm not going to go too deep on the vacation
you could check out Instagram for that. But I would
say a couple things I noticed. Listen, I love the language.
French was my language in high school. I don't remember
a ton of it. French people, you know, obviously a
lot of the women walking around not wearing bras. That's
(02:34):
an interesting development. Maybe it was the weather. It was
like unseasonably warm there. But I will say the French
bodyodor kind of sort of is a thing. We did
a lot of the museums and they were crowded, and
I mean, these people are not all French people. Obviously
it's a cultural mecca there, but it was a thing.
The body odor was like rampant. You'd get in an
(02:55):
uber and you could just smell like holy cow. So
some people not wearing body odor were with massive body odor,
no deodor. We're just in here, and it was like,
you know, windows down instantly. But overall, the food was good,
the sites were great. The hotel, like, you know, I try,
if you make an attempt to speak some kind of French,
if you open with hey do you have, you know,
(03:18):
instantly they're like out on you. You know, you're not
making any effort to speak their language and their country.
So I would open with bojor and they are warm
to it and if you try, like you know, make
any effort, they're kind of happy. And it's fun because
you know people once you get you know, they know
that you're an outsider. It's great and you can have
(03:38):
a laugh about it. The bars are great. It was
just an awesome trip. Really recommend Paris if you can
get there. I will admit this was the second trip
I've booked through Costco. I know I've raved about Costco here, guys,
you got to get on these Costco vacations. If you're
not a member, you're missing out. We did the Hawaii
wan I think I told you guys. You got like
(04:00):
one thousand dollars back from the trip afterward in credits
to Costco and then credits at the resort. Incredible, Like
the discounts were awesome because just remember at Costco they
buy in bulk. When you could sell in bulk, you
can sell it a discount. Same deal with vacations, folks.
So every morning we had a full buffet free breakfast,
(04:24):
so we just go down, load up on breakfast, mostly
skip lunch, and then we would hammer out all the
you know, the daytime stuff, and then you sit down
a cafe at like two o'clock to have a drink
and a croissant and a little little bite, and then
you go through to until dinner. And the sun doesn't
set until in Paris until nine thirty at night. Crazy,
So next thing you know, you're like, oh, it's sunny
(04:45):
out at eight thirty, maybe we should get dinner. Next
thing you know, you had dinner. You stumble out of
a restaurant and you know, it look like eleven thirty
and you're like going to a bar and you're like, man,
this is It's just it was an awesome city. Obviously,
no kids on this when they home with the grandma's
and the dog, but I highly recommend Paris at any rate.
I should probably get into sports at some point. We
(05:06):
have the NBA Finals beginning tonight Denver and not Boston.
The Miami Heat have shocked the world again and again.
I was in France, so I missed Game six and seven,
but I was able to watch the highlights on YouTube.
They condensed the game in a nine minutes. Interestingly, the
two highlight packages I watched did not show the Jason
(05:28):
Tatum injury less than a minute into the game, and
I know he ended up playing like forty something minutes.
He did not have a great game. Listen, it's clear
Tatum was not one hundred percent, Like I mean, the
guy got picked clean by you know, Heywood whatever is
in his faces on Miami, and you could just tell
like that doesn't happen to Jason Tatum, like he was
not himself. I feel bad. I'm not gonna go. We'll
(05:51):
save the Boston stuff for an off day in this series.
But bottom line, I don't think it's pound the panic
button Defcon one in Boston. I just have absolutely do
not believe in that. But they're a story for another day.
We need to focus on the finals here Denver and Miami.
I've already bet game one. I bet them. I bet
Denver minus nine. I've got an amazing stat here for you,
(06:12):
as I was, you know, we got back and I've
just been digging into info as I will be hosting
the Herd today, I got tons of AMMO for you.
But the best gambling nugget that I've gotten. Right, So,
the Nuggets are on about a week's rest after dispatch
sweeping the Lakers a little more than a week's rest,
so teams that have a five or more day rest
(06:34):
advantage heading into game one, they're ten and six. Okay,
now teams that have that five day rest advantage heading
into game one, meaning the other team just wrapped their
series and they have home court advantage eight and one
in game one and eight and one in the series
(06:56):
all time, so rest advantage matters. And oh, by the way,
Miami is going going to altitude in Denver after an
exhaustive series, and not just an exhaustive series against Boston.
But let's be real, this is a series that there
was a lot of mind games being played, a lot
of I don't know the threats, but promises and guarantees
were being made on both ends. These teams pretty clearly
(07:17):
don't love each other. There was a massive coaching advantage
for Eric Spolstra, who I'll take some great things about Spolstra.
I was able to dig up here and shocking numbers
for him, Like cheez, that guy, He's done some awesome stuff.
But like, this is like a rivalry. They played in
the bubble. Okay, they played last year in the conference finals,
and now they played again in the conference finals and
the last two have gone seven. So these teams. I
(07:40):
don't want to say they don't like each other, but
did you see after Game seven the hat that Jimmy
Butler wore the podium. It was like a Saint Louis
throwback baseball hat. Now, Jimmy Butler, who is becoming something
of a master of the mind games, why would he
wear a Saint Louis baseball hat to post game press
(08:01):
conference in Game seven? Go look at some of the
other hats Jimmy Buckets has worn. If he wears a
hat very out of character. Oh wait a minute, you
mean Jason Tatum is from Saint Louis And this was
a subtle dig at Jason Tatum, who was First Team
All NBA for the second straight year, because that's what
it feels like to me. And listen, you know, Jimmy
Butler's my guy. I do love Tatum. I don't love
that dig, but it's kind of funny and a bit
(08:21):
of a flex. And listen, it's not like Butler was
amazing in this series. And you could even argue Caleb
Martin should have gotten the Eastern Conference Conference Finals MVP.
Caleb Martin was unbelievable sixty percent shooting from the field,
I mean sixty for Caleb Martin. Now, everybody's rushing to
(08:41):
say he's gonna make more money. Actually, he's under contract
with the Heat for one more year for basically penny pennies,
and you know, he's obviously gonna get paid by somebody.
The move is probably for the Heat to terrapists contract
now and sign him. But if they don't, he's probably
gonna be bouncing from Miami next summer, right, especially if
(09:04):
he doesn't match this year's production In the postseason. I
saw a wild stat Caleb Martin twenty five point games
during the regular season. Zero Game seven in Boston, he
had twenty six points. That is clutch, my friends. Now, Butler,
(09:24):
I think he had twenty seven points on twenty eight shots.
He was not amazing in Game seven, took a lot
of shots, but he was good. He carried them when
they needed to. That's what Jimmy Butler does. I mean, listen,
this guy is a killer man. He's an assassin. I
just think this is a real tall order for Jimmy Butler.
Caleb Martin, you know, he's making six point four million
(09:45):
this year, He's gonna make six point eight next year.
Then he has a player option for seven to one,
So he's probably gonna end up declining that and saying,
you know, Tyler Hero, who I'm replacing, is making twenty
seven million dollars, twenty nine million dollars. He doesn't play
a lick of defense. I'm a better player. I know
that's crazy to say. Tyler Hero was. Remember he was
(10:06):
like untouchable in trades after his NBA Finals maybe a
NBA playoff run in the bubble, he was very, very good.
He's like a fashion plate there. He's got the Instagram girlfriend.
I think he's still I don't know. I don't follow him, so,
but he's loving life in Miami. You know, he's making
a lot of money and he's not playing now. There
is talk that he could return for Game four. We
(10:28):
shall see. He's been ruled out for sure for Game one,
but he's expected to come back maybe for Game four.
In Miami. There's the argument that they're actually better without
him because he is a liability defensively, and you can
just I'll tell you right now, the second he takes
the floor, Yo, Kitchen Murray are gonna instantly hunt him
(10:49):
in the pick and roll. He's gonna get obliterated. Nobody's
stopping yo, Kitchen Murray. I know people are going crazy
and saying they're the best tandem, like the best Garden
big since Kobe Shaq in the playoffs, Sorry in the playoffs.
I'm not saying all around. It sounds a little out
of pocket to say that, and then you're like, well, okay,
(11:11):
we've seen a dearth of centers in the last twenty years.
Like who was Dwight Howard's best guard that he played
with that like won a title when they went to
the finals in Orlando, he had like Jamiir Nelson, who
who what other bigs since Shaq left Kobe have been
instrumental in getting the finals. I don't think you can
call the Shaq Wade duo in Miami, like Shaq was
(11:34):
not La Shack, Joel Embiiden, James Harden didn't get to
the conference finals, Jokichen Murray. I mean there's an argument
that maybe they are the best. I mean, Giannis is
not technically a center, so I don't know that you
could call Jannis and Holland they're not running I don't
(11:54):
think they're running a ton of pick and roll. But yeah,
maybe it is Murray and Yokich At any rate, they
will be hunting Tyler Hero and Duncan Robinson. By the way,
Duncan Robinson, what a turnaround for that guy. I mean again,
we could say all this stuff we want about the
Miami Heat, but like, the way some of these guys
performed against Boston was just unbelievable. Remember, Boston was I
(12:16):
think leading the league in three pointers for most of
the season. They definitely were one of the best three
point shooting team. Love the Three, live by it and
also died by it in the final two games in
that series. Hold on, I got the stats right here.
In the final two games of that series, Boston was
awful from three, even Game six, the one they won
(12:38):
with the Derek White prayer. They shot twenty six percent
in Game seven from three. That was the worst they
had shot all season from three. Like Brown and Tatum,
even in that Game six, they had a total of
fifty seven points, no three pointers made, Like they just
could not deliver from deep. Now, was it tired legs?
(12:59):
If you look at who played them most minutes in
the playoffs as of you know, obviously that'll change in
the finals. But I believe Tatum, Brown and Smart are
the top three and they play a lot in the
regular season. And again I don't want to make this
about Boston. Did they wear down Well, it takes a
lot to come back from down oh three. There are
only the second team ever, I believe, to force a
game seven. And now teams that are down oh three
(13:21):
are ozho in one hundred and fifty in the NBA playoffs.
Obviously not good. But Miami, this is my issue with
picking the Heat to really do much damage. They shot
twenty eight of fifty eight in the final two games
from d twenty eight to fifty eight. This is the
Miami Heat team that ran twenty seventh in the league
this year in three point shooting. And this is my big,
(13:43):
big takeaway from the finals, and I'll be talking about
this on the Herd. The way in the NFL of
how analytics has impacted the game. We know what moneyball's been,
how moneyball impacted MLB, and now it's changing and they
got to change rules. A lot's happening in Major League
Baseball due to analytics. Well, folks, the same thing is
(14:04):
happening in the NFL. We're seeing running backs being devalued.
Don't you don't give running backs to second contract, you
just don't do it. Look at Sake one Barkley and
the Giants. Now McCaffrey got his second contract and then
they traded him five minutes later. Look at Zeke Elliott
second contract disaster and of cutting Zeke so like, the
running back position is just one though. Linebackers remember when
(14:25):
middle linebacker was like the key and like so important
to the defense stopping the like middle linebackers like who cares?
Like no smart teams pay linebackers. We'll see what happens
with the Bears and Ravens who paid linebackers. It's just
a weird time in the NFL. We're seeing analytics change everything,
and now it's like, hey, get the quarterback on the
rookie deal. Everybody knows this load up around him and
(14:47):
let's give it a go. That's how you get to
this look a rock party. Mister irrelevant gets the Niners
to the NFC Championship game and he was facing Jalen
Hurt two. Oh, by the way, rookie deal, second round pick.
You know, it's very clear we're seeing Trevor Lawrence in Jacksonville.
Now he's you know, it was the number one overall pick.
(15:09):
But the Chargers kind of wasting justin Herbert Tua on
his rookie deal. We saw Kyler Murray had a moment
while on his rookie deal. They got to the playoffs,
they didn't get any far. But like it's very clear
that's what analytics and like hacking the salary cap in
the NFL has done. And you look at basketball and
(15:30):
now it's essentially you shoot threes, a lot of them,
corner threes if you can, and you take layups. You
don't want to take the mid range. It's an inefficient shot.
It gets you nowhere. And folks, the Boston Celtics were
basically all threes or layups all season. And what happens
(15:51):
when you get hit with his own and you can't
solve it. You can't make any threes. I mean, Caleb
Martin shot forty percent I think thirty nine point six
round up to forty from three in the series. When
that stuff's happening and you can't make any threes, and
Jalen Browns has as many turnovers as baskets as he
did in Game seven, and Tatum's hurt, well, yeah, you're
(16:12):
going down. The big question is can Miami continue this
unbelievable three point shooting against Denver, which, by the way,
Denver does not have some like amazing defense. We know this.
We saw the Spurs d book and Kevin Durant absolutely
light up light up Denver for two games in Phoenix,
(16:32):
and we saw Landry Shammett will have a moment. Remember
Phoenix had that series tied to two and then Denver
kind of smashed him in the final two. But it
was that Phoenix offense gave them some problems. So yeah,
the Heat theoretically should be able to have some success.
But what numbers do you trust? More? The season long
metrics were over eighty two games. It's in Miami Heat
(16:55):
where the twenty seventh ranked three point shooting team out
of thirty teams. That is very, very bad. Or do
you trust the small sample size of what is it
seven in the first round, six in the second so
it's thirteen games and I think the Bucks was five.
So you look at eighteen game sample where they're the
best three point shooting team in the league. Now it's
(17:17):
not obviously all the league, it's just the playoff teams.
But which one do you trust? Because all the numbers
say the heat should not be here. And I don't
know that a reckoning is coming to analytics, but it
begs the question does culture matter more than analytics? Can
culture overtake analytics? And what is Miami seeing in these guys?
(17:44):
And by these guys, I mean undrafted players. Fifty two
percent of their points against the Celtics in that seven
game series came from undrafted players. That's that's like never happened,
Nothing come close to that has ever happened. It's like
Duncan Robinson splashing, Caleb Martin struce Vincent, like it is inexplicable.
(18:06):
What's happening? We know playoff Jimmy Butler is a thing.
He's amazing and he's gonna he's gonna do his damage now.
He was incredible against the Bucks. He's looked like he
was wearing down a little against Boston, but he still
carried them. But do you think Miami can continue shooting
hot against the team that's not a great defensive team
in Denver? And I would say, well, I think anybody
(18:28):
would argue the heat matchup really well with Milwaukee. We've
seen that historically. They're just tough and a smart team,
and they're They're not afraid of Milwaukee in any way,
shape or form. They match up well with the Celtics.
They've they've got solid wings in Butler, and they got
a great big in baym although he didn't play great
in the Boston Series. And it's just wrapping my head
(18:49):
around this. I'm just like, none of it makes sense.
Miami shouldn't be here on paper? Did you guys see
that Denver is the third biggest favorite third biggest In
the last twenty years, the only bigger ones were the
Golden State Warriors with KD and Durant. I think they
were honestly minus one thousand against that bad Lebron team
(19:11):
that got swept no Kyrie, And then the other was
I have it here in my notes. The only other
huge favorite, Oh, it was the Spurs in two thousand
and seven against the young Calves Lebron and a terrible roster,
and that was obviously a sweep. So the only two
favorites of this size have been sweeps. So Vegas is
(19:33):
thinking this is probably going down at four. As such,
I think I'm confident here saying I think Miami's gonna
cobble their way to a couple victories and I'll go
ahead and pick Denver in seven. I don't really I
haven't seen what other people are picking. I just think
this is one of those scrappy Miami teams. Like again,
(19:56):
I don't have I don't have answers to the questions
Miami's gonna have, like who's gonna guard Yokic? Remember the
Lakers tried Anthony Davis. It didn't work. Then they went, oh,
we will put Ruey on Jokic, slow him down, and
Ad will come over with help defense. And remember Michael
Malone got all pissed off when the media was like, oh,
Lakers are in good shape. They found something. Malone's like,
(20:17):
you don't think we were aware of that, really, guys,
And it didn't matter. Well, okay, so let's say they
try that with Kevin Love. You think Kevin Love has
any chance against Jokic. I mean, if you want Love
to pull Yokic out to the perimeter and try to
splash threes, go for it. You know, five years ago
that might have worked with Love. But I just to me,
(20:42):
the path to victory from Miami is very slim. Like
Bam gets in any foul trouble. They're totally screwed. I
don't know where you get to any stopping of Jokic,
So maybe their their answer will be, you know what,
if Yokich is gonna have fifty as he had in
Phoenix when they lost Game four, I think he had
fifty three, will will We just won't let Jamal Murray cook.
(21:02):
We won't give Aaron Gordon anything, and we're just gonna
let let Yokichi. We're gonna man him up. If they
say we're gonna pound it to Yokic every time, we'll
let that happen. We're not gonna let Michael Porter hit
a bunch of threes and Jamal memour. That might be
the strategy. I saw some numbers where Miami has played
so much zone against Boston it was like record setting
(21:25):
zone in the playoffs. Again, not a lot of people
play zone. Miami tried zone this season in two meetings
against the Nuggets, and I believe the number is uh
something like they're scoring. They scored nineteen points in just
eleven possessions against the zone. That's fairly good if my
(21:47):
math checks out. Basically, they're getting what they want. Jokic
is a great passer. Uh, you surround a perimeter with
KCP is a good shooter. Jamal Murray obviously, Michael Porter
is a tough matchup, Like, do you what do you do?
Are you putting Butler on Michael Porter? Do you put
Butler on Murray? You can't put Butler on Murray? Do
you put Caleb Martin on Murray? Who do you start?
(22:10):
I don't even know who you're starting? Five? Are you
can't start Butler at the four like you could against
the Celtics because at that point you're like, oh, geez,
Aaron Gordon, I'm gonna have Jimmy Butler battling Aaron Gordon
for rebounds. That's not good. I mean, Denver's just huge.
You saw them push around the Lakers and get a
billion offensive rebounds with Michael Porter Junior, Aaron Gordon, Jogic.
(22:33):
I just this is not a great matchup for Miami.
Why so, Jason, why are you picking Denver in seven? Well,
I'm gonna here's the number. I teased it earlier. Eric Spolstra,
are you guys aware of how good of a coach
he is that I'm again me just saying he's a
good coach is one thing Spolstra has been to six
(22:56):
NBA finals. That's as many as Popovich. Yeah, and Kerr,
and we consider current Popovitch like great. I don't know
if Spolster's considered in that realm, but man, this guy
can coach six NBA finals for Spolstra. That's staggering. And
now I know everybody's gonna say, hey, you know, well,
(23:18):
so half of them are with Lebron. When he had
Lebron and Bosh and Wade, It's like, okay, fair enough,
but you know what, when Lebron leaves teams, those teams
usually are just mired in a wasteland for years, sometimes longer.
(23:38):
Cleveland post Lebron the first time disaster until Lebron came back.
Then Lebron leaves again and they needed to strike Golden
Lottery and then get Downovan Mitchell and then they couldn't
even a playoff series. So Lebron leaves the heat go
they finish under five hundred, and then they finished five
(24:01):
over five hundred but missed the playoffs. Oh no, wait,
didn't know they made the playoffs. I'm sorry, they did
make the playoffs. They made the second round, then they
missed the playoffs. Then they got buried in the first round,
then they missed the playoffs. So post Lebron, there was
one series playoff win in five years, and then all
(24:22):
of a sudden, Jimmy Butler, I Jimmy Butler goes to
Miami and now they're in the playoffs and a contender
every single year. That's pretty impressive. Spolstra, I think the
band needs some major, major props. At worst, you can
say he's the third worst. He's the third best coach
in the league at worst. Right if you want to
(24:43):
go curR Pop and then Spolstra, I mean could you
could probably make a case right now like Popovich hasn't
done Jack Squad in a few years. You know, hey, man,
let me see what you're worth without Tim Duncan. How
many playoff series wins does he have without Duncan? And
the counter to Spolstra would be, oh, well, he actually
has won a couple without all time Hall of Famer
(25:04):
like a Lebron or Tim Duncan. At Kurrs a little
tougher because Steph Curry hadn't really want anything before Kurr
got there. So I do think Spolstra needs to be
kind of put on that current Mount Rushmore. He's got
a really really tall. Order here. If he's got an
(25:26):
answer for this, you know Sposter's able to cook up
something interesting. I can't wait to see it. I just
don't know where they get the size from. I mean,
is do we see some Dare I say, Cody Zeller
against Jokich? I don't, are we Cody Zeller? Is he
gonna make it appearance? He did play all right against
(25:47):
Boston at times, but again we're talking about Nikole Jokic,
the best player in the league. Nicole j Okic, folks,
come on, this is silly. A couple other notes here.
I have the Heat with a negative point differential. They're
the third team with a negative point differential to make
(26:08):
the finals. And I was looking for an NBA comparison
and this one popped out to me. Do you remember
the Eli Manning New York Giants just pedestrian in the
regular season, nothing special, and Eli gets them to the
playoffs and has two magical runs. I mean, the stuff
dreams are made of. Eli Manning does it twice and
(26:31):
gets the Giants two Super Bowls. They go three to zero.
I believe five of the six were on the road,
maybe all six were, and they were not expected either time.
I don't think anybody expected Miami to make the finals
in the bubble. I don't think anybody expected Miami to
get here this year. I mean again, they were dogs
against the Bucks, they were dogs, They were dogs against
(26:55):
the Celtics, and you know, can they make Eli magic happen?
Eli Manning, by the way, in two thousand and seven
where they went four to oh in the postseason, six touchdowns,
one pick. Then in twenty eleven when they went four
and oh in the postseason nine touchdowns and one pick.
And again, just in case anybody thinks, oh, Eli Manning's amazing,
(27:18):
twenty eleven, they had a nine and seven record. Two
thousand and two thousand and seven they were ten and
six and Eli led the league in interceptions with twenty.
Then in the playoffs he was incredible. And then in
two thousand and eleven they were nine and seven. Eli
had sixteen picks, twenty nine touchdowns, and then he just
(27:41):
goes off in the playoffs, like Jimmy Butler is a
little bit of Eli Manning. And it's interesting. Eli Manning
has two titles, Jimmy Butler has none, and Butler probably
won't get one here. But you know, It's probably a
little premature, he's thirty three years old, but Jimmy Butler
is absolutely got to be a Hall of Fame guy. Right.
The Heat saw the talent that the Timberwolves didn't or
(28:03):
didn't want to pay, and that the Bulls didn't or
didn't want to pay, and that the Sixers didn't or
didn't want to pay. And he's done more than all
three of those teams since he left. It's just crazy.
How could Jimmy Butler. So I'll take the Nuggets in
Game one. Yeah, twenty to ninety nine. I think they'll
(28:23):
handle a win Game one. I'll take the Nuggets to
win in seven. Now, everybody's saying Yokich for MVP, Yokics
for MVP. It will know the Heat strategy early, whether
it's we just gotta shut down Yokic. We're gonna throw
doubles at him all the time, the doubles, doubles, doubles,
somebody's gonna eat. I can't see Michael Porter Junior winning MVP.
(28:44):
I'll tell you this, though, I do believe that there's
a world where Jamal Murray steals the MVP. Now, there
is also a world where Murray only averages like fifteen
a game because they decide they absolutely need to lock
him down because if he goes off, you're getting killed.
So do you think Spolster tries to shut down the
superstar Jokic or does he say that's impossible, we cannot
(29:05):
do it. The Heat, by the way two and ten
in their last twelve meetings with Denver. It's a tough one, guys.
This is a tough one for Heat fans. So I
will take the Nuggets to win. So say, lengthy preview,
We'll be back tomorrow, back on video tomorrow as well.
Talk to you then,
The volume. This is Straight Fire with Jason McIntire. What
is up straight Fire, fam, It's me Jason McIntyre, Straight
Fire for Thursday, June First, I'm back. Took about a
(00:26):
week off for a rare vacation during the NBA playoffs.
I don't think I've done that in a long time.
Used to have a lot of fun Memorial Day weekends, However,
nothing like my first trip to Europe, official trip to Europe.
I meane. We had stopped over there before another on
another trip, but we went to Paris. Cowhard decided he
was going to take time off of the show. I said, well, shucks,
(00:49):
I might as well too, And it looked for a
moment like I was gonna miss nothing with the Miami
heat up three to one when I departed. And of
course I'm on the other side of the world world.
I believe the time difference between La and Paris is
nine hours. So needless to say, I watched zero of
(01:09):
Games five, six, and seven, and lo and behold I
come back. I mean, obviously I was over there, and
I had the Internet. I did swear to myself. No
social media, well Twitter at least Instagram's fine. I like
it did a lot of posts on it, but I
didn't go on Twitter. I did get texts obviously for
friends like holy cow, Derek White. You know, like I
(01:31):
think the Derek White thing happened when it was like
four in the morning, and so you know, my phone
was buzzing, but I didn't hear it. Obviously, late nights
in Paris. But outstanding trip. I highly recommend it if
you like cities. I am basically decided, and this is
not news to me that I am a beach guy
or I'm a city guy. I don't really love the
in between. I'm just not a huge suburban guy. We
(01:54):
lived in the suburbs kind of growing up. It was fine.
We lived in I lived in New York outside New
York York City for my first job, then in New
York City, then Brooklyn, then back out to the Birds
now to kind of city in LA but also beach
in the South Bay, and it's like we've got the
best of both worlds. Then you go to Paris and
it felt like a New York City vibe. I mean,
(02:14):
it's just awesome walking city. You could take ubers everywhere.
I'm not going to go too deep on the vacation
you could check out Instagram for that. But I would
say a couple things I noticed. Listen, I love the language.
French was my language in high school. I don't remember
a ton of it. French people, you know, obviously a
lot of the women walking around not wearing bras. That's
(02:34):
an interesting development. Maybe it was the weather. It was
like unseasonably warm there. But I will say the French
bodyodor kind of sort of is a thing. We did
a lot of the museums and they were crowded, and
I mean, these people are not all French people. Obviously
it's a cultural mecca there, but it was a thing.
The body odor was like rampant. You'd get in an
(02:55):
uber and you could just smell like holy cow. So
some people not wearing body odor were with massive body odor,
no deodor. We're just in here, and it was like,
you know, windows down instantly. But overall, the food was good,
the sites were great. The hotel, like, you know, I try,
if you make an attempt to speak some kind of French,
if you open with hey do you have, you know,
(03:18):
instantly they're like out on you. You know, you're not
making any effort to speak their language and their country.
So I would open with bojor and they are warm
to it and if you try, like you know, make
any effort, they're kind of happy. And it's fun because
you know people once you get you know, they know
that you're an outsider. It's great and you can have
(03:38):
a laugh about it. The bars are great. It was
just an awesome trip. Really recommend Paris if you can
get there. I will admit this was the second trip
I've booked through Costco. I know I've raved about Costco here, guys,
you got to get on these Costco vacations. If you're
not a member, you're missing out. We did the Hawaii
wan I think I told you guys. You got like
(04:00):
one thousand dollars back from the trip afterward in credits
to Costco and then credits at the resort. Incredible, Like
the discounts were awesome because just remember at Costco they
buy in bulk. When you could sell in bulk, you
can sell it a discount. Same deal with vacations, folks.
So every morning we had a full buffet free breakfast,
(04:24):
so we just go down, load up on breakfast, mostly
skip lunch, and then we would hammer out all the
you know, the daytime stuff, and then you sit down
a cafe at like two o'clock to have a drink
and a croissant and a little little bite, and then
you go through to until dinner. And the sun doesn't
set until in Paris until nine thirty at night. Crazy,
So next thing you know, you're like, oh, it's sunny
(04:45):
out at eight thirty, maybe we should get dinner. Next
thing you know, you had dinner. You stumble out of
a restaurant and you know, it look like eleven thirty
and you're like going to a bar and you're like, man,
this is It's just it was an awesome city. Obviously,
no kids on this when they home with the grandma's
and the dog, but I highly recommend Paris at any rate.
I should probably get into sports at some point. We
(05:06):
have the NBA Finals beginning tonight Denver and not Boston.
The Miami Heat have shocked the world again and again.
I was in France, so I missed Game six and seven,
but I was able to watch the highlights on YouTube.
They condensed the game in a nine minutes. Interestingly, the
two highlight packages I watched did not show the Jason
(05:28):
Tatum injury less than a minute into the game, and
I know he ended up playing like forty something minutes.
He did not have a great game. Listen, it's clear
Tatum was not one hundred percent, Like I mean, the
guy got picked clean by you know, Heywood whatever is
in his faces on Miami, and you could just tell
like that doesn't happen to Jason Tatum, like he was
not himself. I feel bad. I'm not gonna go. We'll
(05:51):
save the Boston stuff for an off day in this series.
But bottom line, I don't think it's pound the panic
button Defcon one in Boston. I just have absolutely do
not believe in that. But they're a story for another day.
We need to focus on the finals here Denver and Miami.
I've already bet game one. I bet them. I bet
Denver minus nine. I've got an amazing stat here for you,
(06:12):
as I was, you know, we got back and I've
just been digging into info as I will be hosting
the Herd today, I got tons of AMMO for you.
But the best gambling nugget that I've gotten. Right, So,
the Nuggets are on about a week's rest after dispatch
sweeping the Lakers a little more than a week's rest,
so teams that have a five or more day rest
(06:34):
advantage heading into game one, they're ten and six. Okay,
now teams that have that five day rest advantage heading
into game one, meaning the other team just wrapped their
series and they have home court advantage eight and one
in game one and eight and one in the series
(06:56):
all time, so rest advantage matters. And oh, by the way,
Miami is going going to altitude in Denver after an
exhaustive series, and not just an exhaustive series against Boston.
But let's be real, this is a series that there
was a lot of mind games being played, a lot
of I don't know the threats, but promises and guarantees
were being made on both ends. These teams pretty clearly
(07:17):
don't love each other. There was a massive coaching advantage
for Eric Spolstra, who I'll take some great things about Spolstra.
I was able to dig up here and shocking numbers
for him, Like cheez, that guy, He's done some awesome stuff.
But like, this is like a rivalry. They played in
the bubble. Okay, they played last year in the conference finals,
and now they played again in the conference finals and
the last two have gone seven. So these teams. I
(07:40):
don't want to say they don't like each other, but
did you see after Game seven the hat that Jimmy
Butler wore the podium. It was like a Saint Louis
throwback baseball hat. Now, Jimmy Butler, who is becoming something
of a master of the mind games, why would he
wear a Saint Louis baseball hat to post game press
(08:01):
conference in Game seven? Go look at some of the
other hats Jimmy Buckets has worn. If he wears a
hat very out of character. Oh wait a minute, you
mean Jason Tatum is from Saint Louis And this was
a subtle dig at Jason Tatum, who was First Team
All NBA for the second straight year, because that's what
it feels like to me. And listen, you know, Jimmy
Butler's my guy. I do love Tatum. I don't love
that dig, but it's kind of funny and a bit
(08:21):
of a flex. And listen, it's not like Butler was
amazing in this series. And you could even argue Caleb
Martin should have gotten the Eastern Conference Conference Finals MVP.
Caleb Martin was unbelievable sixty percent shooting from the field,
I mean sixty for Caleb Martin. Now, everybody's rushing to
(08:41):
say he's gonna make more money. Actually, he's under contract
with the Heat for one more year for basically penny pennies,
and you know, he's obviously gonna get paid by somebody.
The move is probably for the Heat to terrapists contract
now and sign him. But if they don't, he's probably
gonna be bouncing from Miami next summer, right, especially if
(09:04):
he doesn't match this year's production In the postseason. I
saw a wild stat Caleb Martin twenty five point games
during the regular season. Zero Game seven in Boston, he
had twenty six points. That is clutch, my friends. Now, Butler,
(09:24):
I think he had twenty seven points on twenty eight shots.
He was not amazing in Game seven, took a lot
of shots, but he was good. He carried them when
they needed to. That's what Jimmy Butler does. I mean, listen,
this guy is a killer man. He's an assassin. I
just think this is a real tall order for Jimmy Butler.
Caleb Martin, you know, he's making six point four million
(09:45):
this year, He's gonna make six point eight next year.
Then he has a player option for seven to one,
So he's probably gonna end up declining that and saying,
you know, Tyler Hero, who I'm replacing, is making twenty
seven million dollars, twenty nine million dollars. He doesn't play
a lick of defense. I'm a better player. I know
that's crazy to say. Tyler Hero was. Remember he was
(10:06):
like untouchable in trades after his NBA Finals maybe a
NBA playoff run in the bubble, he was very, very good.
He's like a fashion plate there. He's got the Instagram girlfriend.
I think he's still I don't know. I don't follow him, so,
but he's loving life in Miami. You know, he's making
a lot of money and he's not playing now. There
is talk that he could return for Game four. We
(10:28):
shall see. He's been ruled out for sure for Game one,
but he's expected to come back maybe for Game four.
In Miami. There's the argument that they're actually better without
him because he is a liability defensively, and you can
just I'll tell you right now, the second he takes
the floor, Yo, Kitchen Murray are gonna instantly hunt him
(10:49):
in the pick and roll. He's gonna get obliterated. Nobody's
stopping yo, Kitchen Murray. I know people are going crazy
and saying they're the best tandem, like the best Garden
big since Kobe Shaq in the playoffs, Sorry in the playoffs.
I'm not saying all around. It sounds a little out
of pocket to say that, and then you're like, well, okay,
(11:11):
we've seen a dearth of centers in the last twenty years.
Like who was Dwight Howard's best guard that he played
with that like won a title when they went to
the finals in Orlando, he had like Jamiir Nelson, who
who what other bigs since Shaq left Kobe have been
instrumental in getting the finals. I don't think you can
call the Shaq Wade duo in Miami, like Shaq was
(11:34):
not La Shack, Joel Embiiden, James Harden didn't get to
the conference finals, Jokichen Murray. I mean there's an argument
that maybe they are the best. I mean, Giannis is
not technically a center, so I don't know that you
could call Jannis and Holland they're not running I don't
(11:54):
think they're running a ton of pick and roll. But yeah,
maybe it is Murray and Yokich At any rate, they
will be hunting Tyler Hero and Duncan Robinson. By the way,
Duncan Robinson, what a turnaround for that guy. I mean again,
we could say all this stuff we want about the
Miami Heat, but like, the way some of these guys
performed against Boston was just unbelievable. Remember, Boston was I
(12:16):
think leading the league in three pointers for most of
the season. They definitely were one of the best three
point shooting team. Love the Three, live by it and
also died by it in the final two games in
that series. Hold on, I got the stats right here.
In the final two games of that series, Boston was
awful from three, even Game six, the one they won
(12:38):
with the Derek White prayer. They shot twenty six percent
in Game seven from three. That was the worst they
had shot all season from three. Like Brown and Tatum,
even in that Game six, they had a total of
fifty seven points, no three pointers made, Like they just
could not deliver from deep. Now, was it tired legs?
(12:59):
If you look at who played them most minutes in
the playoffs as of you know, obviously that'll change in
the finals. But I believe Tatum, Brown and Smart are
the top three and they play a lot in the
regular season. And again I don't want to make this
about Boston. Did they wear down Well, it takes a
lot to come back from down oh three. There are
only the second team ever, I believe, to force a
game seven. And now teams that are down oh three
(13:21):
are ozho in one hundred and fifty in the NBA playoffs.
Obviously not good. But Miami, this is my issue with
picking the Heat to really do much damage. They shot
twenty eight of fifty eight in the final two games
from d twenty eight to fifty eight. This is the
Miami Heat team that ran twenty seventh in the league
this year in three point shooting. And this is my big,
(13:43):
big takeaway from the finals, and I'll be talking about
this on the Herd. The way in the NFL of
how analytics has impacted the game. We know what moneyball's been,
how moneyball impacted MLB, and now it's changing and they
got to change rules. A lot's happening in Major League
Baseball due to analytics. Well, folks, the same thing is
(14:04):
happening in the NFL. We're seeing running backs being devalued.
Don't you don't give running backs to second contract, you
just don't do it. Look at Sake one Barkley and
the Giants. Now McCaffrey got his second contract and then
they traded him five minutes later. Look at Zeke Elliott
second contract disaster and of cutting Zeke so like, the
running back position is just one though. Linebackers remember when
(14:25):
middle linebacker was like the key and like so important
to the defense stopping the like middle linebackers like who cares?
Like no smart teams pay linebackers. We'll see what happens
with the Bears and Ravens who paid linebackers. It's just
a weird time in the NFL. We're seeing analytics change everything,
and now it's like, hey, get the quarterback on the
rookie deal. Everybody knows this load up around him and
(14:47):
let's give it a go. That's how you get to
this look a rock party. Mister irrelevant gets the Niners
to the NFC Championship game and he was facing Jalen
Hurt two. Oh, by the way, rookie deal, second round pick.
You know, it's very clear we're seeing Trevor Lawrence in Jacksonville.
Now he's you know, it was the number one overall pick.
(15:09):
But the Chargers kind of wasting justin Herbert Tua on
his rookie deal. We saw Kyler Murray had a moment
while on his rookie deal. They got to the playoffs,
they didn't get any far. But like it's very clear
that's what analytics and like hacking the salary cap in
the NFL has done. And you look at basketball and
(15:30):
now it's essentially you shoot threes, a lot of them,
corner threes if you can, and you take layups. You
don't want to take the mid range. It's an inefficient shot.
It gets you nowhere. And folks, the Boston Celtics were
basically all threes or layups all season. And what happens
(15:51):
when you get hit with his own and you can't
solve it. You can't make any threes. I mean, Caleb
Martin shot forty percent I think thirty nine point six
round up to forty from three in the series. When
that stuff's happening and you can't make any threes, and
Jalen Browns has as many turnovers as baskets as he
did in Game seven, and Tatum's hurt, well, yeah, you're
(16:12):
going down. The big question is can Miami continue this
unbelievable three point shooting against Denver, which, by the way,
Denver does not have some like amazing defense. We know this.
We saw the Spurs d book and Kevin Durant absolutely
light up light up Denver for two games in Phoenix,
(16:32):
and we saw Landry Shammett will have a moment. Remember
Phoenix had that series tied to two and then Denver
kind of smashed him in the final two. But it
was that Phoenix offense gave them some problems. So yeah,
the Heat theoretically should be able to have some success.
But what numbers do you trust? More? The season long
metrics were over eighty two games. It's in Miami Heat
(16:55):
where the twenty seventh ranked three point shooting team out
of thirty teams. That is very, very bad. Or do
you trust the small sample size of what is it
seven in the first round, six in the second so
it's thirteen games and I think the Bucks was five.
So you look at eighteen game sample where they're the
best three point shooting team in the league. Now it's
(17:17):
not obviously all the league, it's just the playoff teams.
But which one do you trust? Because all the numbers
say the heat should not be here. And I don't
know that a reckoning is coming to analytics, but it
begs the question does culture matter more than analytics? Can
culture overtake analytics? And what is Miami seeing in these guys?
(17:44):
And by these guys, I mean undrafted players. Fifty two
percent of their points against the Celtics in that seven
game series came from undrafted players. That's that's like never happened,
Nothing come close to that has ever happened. It's like
Duncan Robinson splashing, Caleb Martin struce Vincent, like it is inexplicable.
(18:06):
What's happening? We know playoff Jimmy Butler is a thing.
He's amazing and he's gonna he's gonna do his damage now.
He was incredible against the Bucks. He's looked like he
was wearing down a little against Boston, but he still
carried them. But do you think Miami can continue shooting
hot against the team that's not a great defensive team
in Denver? And I would say, well, I think anybody
(18:28):
would argue the heat matchup really well with Milwaukee. We've
seen that historically. They're just tough and a smart team,
and they're They're not afraid of Milwaukee in any way,
shape or form. They match up well with the Celtics.
They've they've got solid wings in Butler, and they got
a great big in baym although he didn't play great
in the Boston Series. And it's just wrapping my head
(18:49):
around this. I'm just like, none of it makes sense.
Miami shouldn't be here on paper? Did you guys see
that Denver is the third biggest favorite third biggest In
the last twenty years, the only bigger ones were the
Golden State Warriors with KD and Durant. I think they
were honestly minus one thousand against that bad Lebron team
(19:11):
that got swept no Kyrie, And then the other was
I have it here in my notes. The only other
huge favorite, Oh, it was the Spurs in two thousand
and seven against the young Calves Lebron and a terrible roster,
and that was obviously a sweep. So the only two
favorites of this size have been sweeps. So Vegas is
(19:33):
thinking this is probably going down at four. As such,
I think I'm confident here saying I think Miami's gonna
cobble their way to a couple victories and I'll go
ahead and pick Denver in seven. I don't really I
haven't seen what other people are picking. I just think
this is one of those scrappy Miami teams. Like again,
(19:56):
I don't have I don't have answers to the questions
Miami's gonna have, like who's gonna guard Yokic? Remember the
Lakers tried Anthony Davis. It didn't work. Then they went, oh,
we will put Ruey on Jokic, slow him down, and
Ad will come over with help defense. And remember Michael
Malone got all pissed off when the media was like, oh,
Lakers are in good shape. They found something. Malone's like,
(20:17):
you don't think we were aware of that, really, guys,
And it didn't matter. Well, okay, so let's say they
try that with Kevin Love. You think Kevin Love has
any chance against Jokic. I mean, if you want Love
to pull Yokic out to the perimeter and try to
splash threes, go for it. You know, five years ago
that might have worked with Love. But I just to me,
(20:42):
the path to victory from Miami is very slim. Like
Bam gets in any foul trouble. They're totally screwed. I
don't know where you get to any stopping of Jokic,
So maybe their their answer will be, you know what,
if Yokich is gonna have fifty as he had in
Phoenix when they lost Game four, I think he had
fifty three, will will We just won't let Jamal Murray cook.
(21:02):
We won't give Aaron Gordon anything, and we're just gonna
let let Yokichi. We're gonna man him up. If they
say we're gonna pound it to Yokic every time, we'll
let that happen. We're not gonna let Michael Porter hit
a bunch of threes and Jamal memour. That might be
the strategy. I saw some numbers where Miami has played
so much zone against Boston it was like record setting
(21:25):
zone in the playoffs. Again, not a lot of people
play zone. Miami tried zone this season in two meetings
against the Nuggets, and I believe the number is uh
something like they're scoring. They scored nineteen points in just
eleven possessions against the zone. That's fairly good if my
(21:47):
math checks out. Basically, they're getting what they want. Jokic
is a great passer. Uh, you surround a perimeter with
KCP is a good shooter. Jamal Murray obviously, Michael Porter
is a tough matchup, Like, do you what do you do?
Are you putting Butler on Michael Porter? Do you put
Butler on Murray? You can't put Butler on Murray? Do
you put Caleb Martin on Murray? Who do you start?
(22:10):
I don't even know who you're starting? Five? Are you
can't start Butler at the four like you could against
the Celtics because at that point you're like, oh, geez,
Aaron Gordon, I'm gonna have Jimmy Butler battling Aaron Gordon
for rebounds. That's not good. I mean, Denver's just huge.
You saw them push around the Lakers and get a
billion offensive rebounds with Michael Porter Junior, Aaron Gordon, Jogic.
(22:33):
I just this is not a great matchup for Miami.
Why so, Jason, why are you picking Denver in seven? Well,
I'm gonna here's the number. I teased it earlier. Eric Spolstra,
are you guys aware of how good of a coach
he is that I'm again me just saying he's a
good coach is one thing Spolstra has been to six
(22:56):
NBA finals. That's as many as Popovich. Yeah, and Kerr,
and we consider current Popovitch like great. I don't know
if Spolster's considered in that realm, but man, this guy
can coach six NBA finals for Spolstra. That's staggering. And
now I know everybody's gonna say, hey, you know, well,
(23:18):
so half of them are with Lebron. When he had
Lebron and Bosh and Wade, It's like, okay, fair enough,
but you know what, when Lebron leaves teams, those teams
usually are just mired in a wasteland for years, sometimes longer.
(23:38):
Cleveland post Lebron the first time disaster until Lebron came back.
Then Lebron leaves again and they needed to strike Golden
Lottery and then get Downovan Mitchell and then they couldn't
even a playoff series. So Lebron leaves the heat go
they finish under five hundred, and then they finished five
(24:01):
over five hundred but missed the playoffs. Oh no, wait,
didn't know they made the playoffs. I'm sorry, they did
make the playoffs. They made the second round, then they
missed the playoffs. Then they got buried in the first round,
then they missed the playoffs. So post Lebron, there was
one series playoff win in five years, and then all
(24:22):
of a sudden, Jimmy Butler, I Jimmy Butler goes to
Miami and now they're in the playoffs and a contender
every single year. That's pretty impressive. Spolstra, I think the
band needs some major, major props. At worst, you can
say he's the third worst. He's the third best coach
in the league at worst. Right if you want to
(24:43):
go curR Pop and then Spolstra, I mean could you
could probably make a case right now like Popovich hasn't
done Jack Squad in a few years. You know, hey, man,
let me see what you're worth without Tim Duncan. How
many playoff series wins does he have without Duncan? And
the counter to Spolstra would be, oh, well, he actually
has won a couple without all time Hall of Famer
(25:04):
like a Lebron or Tim Duncan. At Kurrs a little
tougher because Steph Curry hadn't really want anything before Kurr
got there. So I do think Spolstra needs to be
kind of put on that current Mount Rushmore. He's got
a really really tall. Order here. If he's got an
(25:26):
answer for this, you know Sposter's able to cook up
something interesting. I can't wait to see it. I just
don't know where they get the size from. I mean,
is do we see some Dare I say, Cody Zeller
against Jokich? I don't, are we Cody Zeller? Is he
gonna make it appearance? He did play all right against
(25:47):
Boston at times, but again we're talking about Nikole Jokic,
the best player in the league. Nicole j Okic, folks,
come on, this is silly. A couple other notes here.
I have the Heat with a negative point differential. They're
the third team with a negative point differential to make
(26:08):
the finals. And I was looking for an NBA comparison
and this one popped out to me. Do you remember
the Eli Manning New York Giants just pedestrian in the
regular season, nothing special, and Eli gets them to the
playoffs and has two magical runs. I mean, the stuff
dreams are made of. Eli Manning does it twice and
(26:31):
gets the Giants two Super Bowls. They go three to zero.
I believe five of the six were on the road,
maybe all six were, and they were not expected either time.
I don't think anybody expected Miami to make the finals
in the bubble. I don't think anybody expected Miami to
get here this year. I mean again, they were dogs
against the Bucks, they were dogs, They were dogs against
(26:55):
the Celtics, and you know, can they make Eli magic happen?
Eli Manning, by the way, in two thousand and seven
where they went four to oh in the postseason, six touchdowns,
one pick. Then in twenty eleven when they went four
and oh in the postseason nine touchdowns and one pick.
And again, just in case anybody thinks, oh, Eli Manning's amazing,
(27:18):
twenty eleven, they had a nine and seven record. Two
thousand and two thousand and seven they were ten and
six and Eli led the league in interceptions with twenty.
Then in the playoffs he was incredible. And then in
two thousand and eleven they were nine and seven. Eli
had sixteen picks, twenty nine touchdowns, and then he just
(27:41):
goes off in the playoffs, like Jimmy Butler is a
little bit of Eli Manning. And it's interesting. Eli Manning
has two titles, Jimmy Butler has none, and Butler probably
won't get one here. But you know, It's probably a
little premature, he's thirty three years old, but Jimmy Butler
is absolutely got to be a Hall of Fame guy. Right.
The Heat saw the talent that the Timberwolves didn't or
(28:03):
didn't want to pay, and that the Bulls didn't or
didn't want to pay, and that the Sixers didn't or
didn't want to pay. And he's done more than all
three of those teams since he left. It's just crazy.
How could Jimmy Butler. So I'll take the Nuggets in
Game one. Yeah, twenty to ninety nine. I think they'll
(28:23):
handle a win Game one. I'll take the Nuggets to
win in seven. Now, everybody's saying Yokich for MVP, Yokics
for MVP. It will know the Heat strategy early, whether
it's we just gotta shut down Yokic. We're gonna throw
doubles at him all the time, the doubles, doubles, doubles,
somebody's gonna eat. I can't see Michael Porter Junior winning MVP.
(28:44):
I'll tell you this, though, I do believe that there's
a world where Jamal Murray steals the MVP. Now, there
is also a world where Murray only averages like fifteen
a game because they decide they absolutely need to lock
him down because if he goes off, you're getting killed.
So do you think Spolster tries to shut down the
superstar Jokic or does he say that's impossible, we cannot
(29:05):
do it. The Heat, by the way two and ten
in their last twelve meetings with Denver. It's a tough one, guys.
This is a tough one for Heat fans. So I
will take the Nuggets to win. So say, lengthy preview,
We'll be back tomorrow, back on video tomorrow as well.
Talk to you then,
Hosts And Creators
Colin Cowherd
Jason McIntyre
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