Colin’s joined by Jason Timpf, host of “Hoops Tonight” to break down a crazy weekend of NBA playoff action!
They start with a wild game seven between the Timberwolves and the Nuggets in which defense won the day (4:00). Colin praises the Wolves construction for having any holes (7:00) and explains why the series came down to just 8 minutes (11:30). Then, they preview the western conference finals between the Wolves and Mavericks (14:00) and Colin compares the Wolves series win for Ant to Jordan getting past the Pistons (16:00)
They react to the Knicks falling apart in game seven (21:30) and examine the upcoming free agent market for the missing piece that won’t disrupt the Knicks chemistry (24:00) They make their predictions for a high scoring series between the Pacers and Celtics (35:00) and take stock of a successful season for a young OKC team (38:00).
They break down Bronny after his showing at the combine and lay out the truth of what he is… and what he isn’t (47:00), and Colin explains why the NBA is at its absolute best in the playoffs (53:00)
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (01:55):
All right, what a weekend? What a crazy game? Denver
minute Soda the champs this breaking news. They will not
be back to back champs. Jason Timpf hoops Tonight. Not
only was this a tale of two series, I mean,
the first two games look like it was gonna be
a sweep. The next two you're like, Okay, they've got it.
(02:17):
This game was nuts. I thought Denver came out with
a perfect tempo, it was offensive more than defensive, and
then the t Wolves just shut them down. Jamal Murray
played well, Jokic did what he did, but Porter and
Gordon didn't give you anything, really, Gordon nothing offensively. I mean,
I'm sitting watching it. The Western Conference is so good,
(02:40):
Like I feel bad if there was if you could
only if you lived in the East watch Eastern Conference
basketball and you couldn't watch the West, you could only
watch East, that would be like, Oh, you'd buy whatever
package it cost you to buy the superior basketball. I
guess my takeaway is a really good basketball team, Minnesota
(03:00):
being another really good basketball team, and in the end,
at the beginning and end of the series, defense prevail.
That's kind of my take.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Yeah, this whole series had two different faces to it,
and either side had the other team dominating, Like and
whenever Minnesota was locked in defensively, it felt like Denver
couldn't score. It felt like they were just underneath this
oppressive wave of size. And then you have Game three,
four and five where Denver puts up a one twenty
seven offensive rating, which is off the charts. Boston had
(03:32):
the best offense in the league this year, and I
think they were at like one twenty two. So to
give you an idea, Denver had this unbelievable offensive stretch
in the middle of the series, and honestly, I thought
they had a really good stretch in this game. In particular,
this game actually felt like a little microcosm of the
entire series. That's in a sense that Denver out executed
them for the first two and a half quarters and
then Minnesota really locked in and they just couldn't score.
(03:54):
Anthony Edwards just did his interview live with the TNT
guys and he just mentioned and something I'm surprised at
how forthright he was about it. He's like, yeah, I
can do other things than score. I can guard the
other team's best guard, and I can lock up Jamal Murray.
I felt like that's what I did in the second half,
and he's right, like, and I cannot remember a time
where a guy had a more disastrous first half and
(04:17):
then just found a way to turn it around and
be impactful. Like the numbers won't show it, but him
drawing double teams consistently was a huge asset to the
Minnesota offense. He generated a ton of rim pressure in
that second half by just saying screw it, I'm putting
my head down and I'm going to the rim. He
made a lot of really smart kickout passes to shooters,
and he's right. He put Jamal Murray in jail, and
(04:39):
that served a real issue for Denver's offense. And that's
another layer of this that like, Denver was up twenty
at home in the second half with a chance to
go to the Western Conference finals. So I don't want
to act like they need to make some sort of
dramatic change, but if you were to point to a
specific issue, this is a team that generates rim pressure
through overwhelming size in minutes. Soda negated that, and as
(05:01):
soon as they negated that, it revealed this other issue,
which is their perimeter players can't beat people off the dribble,
and so all of a sudden, they couldn't get the
defense in rotation and get some of the higher quality
Nuggets shots that were accustomed to seeing. Meanwhile, for Minnesota,
it's like nos Reed is slashing, Karl Anthony Towns is slashing,
Anthony Edwards is slashing. It was an athletic mismatch and
(05:22):
they were able to take advantage of that.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Yeah, we saw that in the first two games of
the series. I also think we just have to give
Chris Finch a lot of credit. This is a not
only smartly constructed team, it's a really well coached team
for him to get aunt Ant could score forty a
night in most nights when you get great players to
buy into a team concept, I mean they were looking
(05:44):
they were going to go bare in the second half.
Naz Reid doesn't do much for three quarters. Then it's sensational. Late,
everybody takes their turn. It's a patient team. And I
think a lot of that is Finch, a lot of
it's Mike Conley. You know, you've got guys that have
been around the lead league all these It's a great
combination of size, athleticism, coaching, construct, dynamic young star, older
(06:09):
veteran IQ player. Not to say Ant it's not a
bright kid, very self aware it's I said this earlier
in the series. The construct of both teams is sensational. Yeah.
I mean usually you can look at a team like
like you can look at Indiana and go, they have
some defensive holes. They need better wing defenders. Or you
can look at the next and go they need another
pure score. Even Boston sometimes I'm like God, and when
(06:31):
Porzingis is out, it's like it gets They need threes,
they need something beyond that. Boy, I look at Minnesota
and I'm like, as I've always been kind of hot
and cold on Carl Anthony Towns, but he hit some
big baskets in his game. He hit big baskets in
the series. Don't we talk about this in the NFL
and we don't talk about it in the NBA A
(06:52):
lot a lot of times in the NFL will just
go why that team's smartly constructed. Minnesota's front office they're
coaching this. They have everything, the hustlers, the wings, the
dynamic star, the size, the IQ distributor colleagues like a quarterback.
It's like they're unselfish but can then go heavy into
(07:13):
ant I. It's just it's really well done. They're like
a smartly constructed pro football team. I don't see the
holes really.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Yeah, you know, one of the biggest issues that had
me off of the Minnesota timber Wolves all year was
their offense. Yes, and like they were a bad offense
all season, Like the Calves were a better offense, and
then the Pelicans were a better offense than them. The
Warriors had just had Steph Curry were a better offense
than them. Like they were a bad offense all season.
And it was a lot of inconsistency and honestly, what
kind of turned this series around after Denver had taken
(07:46):
the like complete control over it. Denver had complete control
after Game five. They weren't even competitive in those middle
three games, Like Minnesota got killed at all three of
those games. And what was so impressive was Karl Anthony Towns,
guy who's kind of known as being an consistent offensive player,
showed up in a big way here in game seven. Yes,
Jaden McDaniels, a guy who's known as being a bad
(08:07):
offensive player, showed up in a big way in Game seventeen.
I hit multiple massive corner threes, little push shots in
the lane. Obviously, is this incredible defensive player. The story
for Minnesota is their defense is unbelievably good, but their
offense can come and go. And when Karl Anthony Towns
is actually well, when Jada McDaniels is playing well, you
(08:27):
can't beat them because they're are, because they're they're their
defense is so oppressively good.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Yeah, and that's that's why they wouldn't win. You know,
when you have a team that you have kind of
an inconsistent offensive player, you're not gonna win March Madness,
but you can win an NBA Championship because carlintink for
three games. And and by the way, Minnesota defensively is consistent.
Offensively they're not, but they can. Like this game, they
(08:52):
just sort of hung around and the ant wasn't delivering
much and then here comes go Baar and then nas
Reid and then and adds defense in Karl Anthony Towns.
When you have a seven game series, it allows you
to figure stuff out. It allows horrible games, terrible halfs,
and also in a seven game series, and I think
(09:14):
Malone and Chris Finch are both great coaches. This really
came down this old series came down to like eight minutes,
and in that eight minutes, Minnesota was better defensively, and
a couple of their inconsistent offensive guys. Hit. I mean,
I don't want to over be overly cynical with Denver.
(09:36):
I'm like, hey, it's hard to win back to backs.
It's just hard. It's you know, there's no Jordan right
now in the league. And even for I mean Magic
Johnson got to nine finals, won five, lost four. That
was Kareem Magic, I mean worthy. I mean this stuff
is hard. I mean, I love Jamal Maray, it's never
been an All it's never been a first team All
(09:57):
NBA guy. So it's like you to good teams and
Ant's just better today than he was last year.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
It's part of what it is.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
Yeah, here's an absolutely insane stat for you, Colin so
twenty fifteen Calves Warriors, twenty sixteen Calves Warriors, twenty seventeen
Calves Warriors, twenty eighteen Caves Warriors. Not only that, Like
it just kind of felt like the Warriors and Calves
were head and shoulders above their conferences. Yeah, Like it
one particularly competitive. Right from twenty nineteen on, we've had
(10:26):
six consecutive seasons where we haven't even had a repeat
conference champion, let alone to repeat NBA champion, and like
a big part of that is, like the league is
just super good now, you know. It's like it's like
it's like even if you happen to get through Minnesota,
it's like you've got to get through Dallas, and that
Dallas team really defends their rimp protection is insane. Luca
and Kyrie haven't even been playing that well and they're
(10:46):
still winning. And then you go out East and obviously
Boston is this incredible team and so like, and Boston
hasn't even been able to win repeat conference championships with
all the talent that they have, so like, it really
is just a testament to how deep the league is
with talent. And I think if there's one thing to
point to in terms of Minnesota, it's they their defense
is reliable on a night to night basis. You mentioned
(11:08):
that earlier, and the important detail there is there is
no variance with a defense. There's variance with offense in
the sense that like sometimes a role player is hot,
sometimes he's not. Sometimes a ball handler misses his pull
up jumpers, sometimes he makes him jokis for instance, like
last year made all of his threes. This year can't
make a three to save his life. Like there's variance
to offense. With defense, it's like if you bring the effort,
(11:31):
you're going to impact the game.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
Like it.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
It is the most reliable thing. And that's why so
many NBA teams, so many we look at defensive rating
as like the number one indicator of whether or not
you can contend for a championship. Denver last year was
the outlier as a team that was not a defending champion,
that was not a top ten defense that won the title.
That was highly unusual. It had been like forty years
(11:54):
since that had happened. Like generally speaking, it is defense
that is the most reliable trait a basketball team can
have at this phase. And for the record, Denver last
year was a really good defense in the playoffs, and
so to me, it's it's timely contributions from role players
like Cat Tonight, Nasriy Tonight, Anthony Edwards coming into tonight
was averaging thirty six and six on over fifty percent
(12:15):
from the field, over forty percent from three, over eighty
percent from the line. He's been playing at a bona fide,
top tier, super duper star level, and then you have
this all world defense. It's a really, really good basketball team,
really difficult to beat four times out of seven.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
So Minnesota will face Dallas. I was in a restaurant.
I wanted to watch the game. So I have this
restaurant I go to with a TV and I was
called a reserve this final cord or bar seat. It's
only gonna watch Dallas. Okay, see people, it was that
was That was one of the best games of the
year in the NBA, the OKAC Dallas game. And we'll
(12:49):
get to Dallas in a bit. But but Minnesota Dallas,
as we wrap up here, Minnesota Dallas, your first thoughts
on what we'll get.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
So obviously it's going to be very much about the
perimeter defense element in terms of Kyrie and Luca, because
as we note that that's very much a spread iso
pick and roll attack. We play your turn, my turn
between Kyrie and Luca and just kind of have a
lot of play like Dallas is. Dallas has a lot
of play finishers, whereas Minnesota, whereas Denver is much more
(13:17):
of like a five out motion and player ball and
player movement type of offense. Right, So, like it's going
to come down to Jada McDaniel's on Luca and a
lot of Anthony Edwards on Kyrie and how well they
can hold up in those matchups, and how well they
can protect guys like like Mike Conley and Karl Anthony
Towns because we know Luca likes to pick on matchups.
The bottom line is, though, is I think I think
(13:38):
Ant right now, because of especially underneath the injury that
Luca's dealing with with his knee, and it's probably going
to be the best player in that series going in,
and they have the size, they have the ability to
really drag Dallas's offense down into the mud. I think
I'll probably end up picking picking Minnesota. I'm gonna need
to look into some film, but they feel like the
safe bet right now.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Well else, First of all, I think they're healthier. Second,
I think they're deeper in terms of it. I like
the construction of it. I think sometimes Dallas can be
a bit lopsided. Ant. I really do think to your point,
I think Ant will be the player of the series.
There are so many advantages to having Minnesota size on
(14:20):
the front line. You can be more aggressive on a
Kyrie and Aluca you can just you can take more chances.
Ant's aggressive anyway, and my feeling is Minnesota the construct
of the I mean, I think Minnesota physically size aggressiveness
an Ant. I also think we have to remember Ant.
(14:40):
This was such a great series for Aunt. Even though
he wasn't great every game, this was the first series
he was in that felt like a final like this.
This felt like Jordan getting past Detroit, Jordan getting past Boston.
Forget the championship, getting through these just Western Conference heavyweight
all Fraser fights. You move, I mean you you it's
(15:04):
it's you beat you know. It's like you you beat
a Brady or a Mahomes in the playoffs. It is
as big as the super Bowl. It feel it's the
same thing, the same arc. And I feel like this
is a really memorable moment in Ant's career. We'll go
back and go, God, remember the Nuggets series, remember that fight.
I kind of feel like Ant will put the cape on,
(15:27):
He'll he'll sleep on. This gonna be a great flight
home to Minnesota. You celebrate, you get off night's sleep,
then you start gearing in. But I do feel like
and we saw when you see this with great players,
they take steps, and I think this is the first
step of Ant, Like that's the first round of his career,
the first big heavyweight fight. Uh and I think Minnesota
(15:50):
and Ant will prevail. Now for a segment called making
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Morgan and Morgan, it's easy, let's go to the Knicks Pacers.
(17:02):
So obviously New York fell apart. I don't think Indiana
matches up with Boston terribly well if Porzingis is back
at any point in the series. It's just too much
offense against the poor defensive team. Halliburton played so well today,
But I was thinking about New York because there is
sort of a history with Tibbs in Chicago. People fall
in love with Tibbs, his team's grind. American sports fans
(17:26):
pay so much money to go to games. They love
teams to play hard. Those Bulls teams played so hard
and so many minutes, and then they break down and
they don't win the title, and eventually everybody turns on TIBs.
Get him out of town. And you watch this New
York team, Jason, and you're like, too many guys got hurt.
It wasn't an injury. Like four of their best players
(17:48):
are hurt at the end. And my takeaway is there's
gonna be some perspective. How do you get fewer minutes?
How does this not happen again? You don't get much
immediate help in the This is not football, and So
I look at the Knicks and I'm like, God, I
hope they don't give up de Vincenzo. He's such a
good catch and shoot guy. Now he's so New York Brunson.
(18:12):
I mean, I look at him and I think, Okay,
I know you got to make a move, but don't
f this up, Like, don't screw up. I mean, you
just posted something today. You play with your guys, You
have your guys. All it takes is one wrong guy
in basketball, and the whole chemistry is off and it's
hard to and I feel like, God, you can't bring
(18:32):
it back because they do need another score. But God,
I want you to bring back everything else. And I
think it's harder than you just think of just plug in,
Paul George. I think it's harder than that. What do
the Knicks do?
Speaker 3 (18:49):
So I one hundred percent agree with you that you
don't want to tweak the chemistry. And I specifically think
of things like like the Nova guys, Like you want
to keep those guys, Yes, right, you want to. I
think o Jan Andobi A in a big way represents
part of the kind of identity of the Knicks. And
you know, I want to cut Tom Thibodeau some slack
in the sense that this particular team everything you said
(19:11):
about Chicago so true. This particular team only could win
by playing their dude's huge minutes, like that was their
only shot. Like so I kind of understood the angle
in the sense that like he leaned into that because
that was their one shot at it. But like the
Mitchell Robinson thing, it's like embiid kind of grabs his
ankle and twists right. Jalen Brunson's hand that was bad luck.
(19:33):
But everything else was like a wear and tear injury.
Like OG's hammy that was like in a barn burner
of a Game two. At the end, you could tell
he was tired and he went into transition situation and
pulled up like that's a wear and tear injury. The
Josh Hart abdominal injury, that's a were and tear injury.
The Jalen Brunson foot injury that was aware and tear injury.
(19:55):
So I do think that the workload did end up
breaking them down at the end of the day. So
what you you really need to do is find a
way to bring in firepower without messing up. Yes, the
chemistry way it can be rotational guys.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Somebody gives Brunson eight minutes off a night, you know,
I mean you could get that in the draft, or
can you Like I almost wonder now, Jason, not to
interrupt you, but do you go in the draft and
do you find older guys without high expectations who can
just give Josh Hart deefndenzo Og Brunson Just you go
(20:28):
from forty four minutes to thirty seven. Like, this team's
too mature to bring in a bunch of kids. It's
too mature, it's too smart. Tibbs asks too much of you.
You can't bring in kids on this roster. You have
to bring in guys almost like veterans, who are like
I like this. I'm a grinder, I'm a rotational player
because I think what Tibbs asks of you. I'm just
(20:51):
it's so precious. It doesn't even look like any other
NBA team.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
Yeah. So that's like the Christian Brown type of draft pick,
which is like the kid who was like a guy
stuck around in college for a while, won a lot,
you know, a guy who doesn't have a ton of upside,
but that has a lot of like winning characteristics, you know,
because Christian around won in high school, he won in college.
Like it just is just been around winning situations his
whole life. As far as like this is where we
(21:17):
got to give Leon Rose from credit because like they
they they actually have a lot of salaries that they
can package in a trade without having to worry about
messing with their depth. Julius Randall's on the books for
thirty million next year. Yeah, that's a contract you can trade.
Boy in Bogdanovich. He's on the books for nineteen million.
It's not guaranteed, but they could guarantee the contract and
then trade him. Like you have depth a at certain
(21:39):
position groups, like you've proven that you're still pretty good.
I Mitchell Robinson was very important to this team, especially
in the Sixers series. But my guess is you can
look on the margins like a guy like Duce McBride
is a guy that somebody around the league's gonna want.
He can he can defend shoot threes and run second
side action when your guy passes the ball to him
late in the shot clock. That's a guy you could
put in a deal. Mitchell Robbinson. And if you committed
(22:00):
to a guy like Isaiah Hartenstein, you could get a
lower level, cheaper backup center, and I think they can
make this type of pivot without having to disrupt the chemistry.
To your point, I think another thing that would help
is if you have another shot creator and you are
a better offensive team in the half court, that alleviates
(22:21):
some of the I don't need to play every single
possession like it's the final possession of Game seven of
the NBA Finals, you know what I mean. Like it
allows you to kind of ease through the season a
little bit, take it easier on your bodies, cut minutes down.
But yeah, that's the big one for me, is like
they need to find a secondary shot creator without tweaking
the actual core of the team, and if they do so,
they will have the depth to be able to kind
(22:43):
of like ease their way through the season. But the
huge I think silver lining in all of this, I
personally think Jalen Brunson proved this year that he can
be the best player on a championship team as long
as his number two is really good. I think his
number two needs to be really good. But Jalen Brunson,
you can make a case he's the best small guard
in the league right now. He's been incredible in like
(23:04):
a big part. He wore down in this series. Yeah,
but like I thought he was incredible for the most
part in this playoff.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
And I also think shot creation. He for a small player,
gets such great looks. He's so clever, he's so quick. Hell,
he gets he gets good looks within eight feet. I
mean he's in he's in the lane open a lot,
and it's like, that's that's that's the Redwoods. So I
look at him, and it doesn't happen very often in
(23:32):
the NBA where somebody develops into a star. It really doesn't.
I remember Michael Red came into the league and all
of a sudden you looked up and you're like, who's
Michael Red. He's an All Stars And then it didn't
last very long. But generally, if you're like a Chris Middleton,
you develop into a good two, you know what I mean,
and that's kind of what you are, and then it's
(23:52):
quick and then you move back to being maybe a three. No,
Jalen's a one. I think it's also when you find
your one, like you find a staff, you know, you
find a Kobe or whoever it is that you have
to have players that compliment them. And so like Devindenzo
is a catch and shoot guy. He doesn't need the
ball in his hands. It's great. You can't let him go.
(24:14):
He's he's really become classic Villanova guy. You know, he's
between Villanova and the NBA's bounced around. But he's really
valuable to that team, I thought. And he's by the way,
chip on his shoulder. You know, he's a tough guy,
like he really fits the culture. That's the guy I
would really cling to. But you gotta find somebody that's
(24:35):
a good wing defender we'll put in the minutes, doesn't
need the ball a ton you know, you're not going
to get KD. But KD you know if he wasn't,
he didn't bring other stuff kind of a get the
ball late in the shot clock score. I do think
Paul George is fascinating. I just don't know going into
(24:55):
a new building if Steve Balmer, I mean, I just
where do you thin? What do you think they do?
What do you think the Clippers do with with with Paul,
Because Paul's going to have options.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
I think that they I think the Clippers end up
keeping him. But I think I think here's the thing.
There's a lot of stars available this summer. This is
setting up to be like an absolutely wild summer because
one of Darius Garland, Donovan Mitchell is going to get traded,
Trey Young and de Jontay Murray, I would venture to
guess one of them is going to get traded. I
wouldn't be surprised if Brain and Ingram gets traded from
the Pelicans. Paul George is going to be a guy
(25:27):
that people are targeting. Michale Bridges from the Nets is
going to be a guy people are targeting. There will
be teams that call Phoenix and try to poach one
of their stars and be like, hey, there's a disappointing season.
How does all this stuff sound? You know what I mean.
Lauri Markinen is another guy like if you were looking
for a guy who could give you twenty five points
a night and some rebounding support while also being primarily
a play finisher off the ball, that's a guy like
(25:48):
if you if you went og and Andobi Lori Markin
and Isaiah Hartenstein, that's an awesome front.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
Market is a very productive player. I don't know why
Chicago moved off him. I think he's very productive.
Speaker 3 (25:58):
I know it, so like, yeah, it's one of those
things where there's just a plethora of options. And so
one of the things that that does is it's kind
of different than what we talked about last summer where
or this last deadline. Remember this last deadline, you and
I had conversations about how it was kind of like
a seller's market, like there was very few people looking
to sell and all these people looking to buy, and
so it just didn't look like much materialized. This summer
(26:21):
is going to be the opposite. There's gonna be a
lot of people looking to sell, and so you might
be able to get a player of higher quality without
having to throw a ton of value into it. And
so I think that there's gonna be options out there.
It really depends. The problem with the Lori marketing type
is again, I do think it would be advantageous to
make it so that Brunson didn't have to initiate every
single possession. Yes, it'd be great if there was a
(26:43):
kde or a Paul George, because with that guy you
could be like, hey, Brunson can play thirty four minutes
a night, and we're going to get great offense in
the other fourteen minutes because we can run it through
this other guy, or Brunson has a bad matchup in
this series, so we can go through another angle. Or
you know, Brunson just took three possessions on in a row.
Now he's tired. He can go stand in the corner
and be a spot up shooter while this guy goes
(27:04):
to work. Like, I do think they'll probably prioritize a
shot creator. I wonder you know, Brandon Ingram is kind
of an interesting type of player. The one problem with
him is like he's had a lot of injury stuff,
but he's probably going to be the discount option. I mean,
I'm really curious to see you ends up getting him
because he's going to be a discount option. But I
do think they'll go after some kind of upgrade.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
And I think the deficiencies with Ingram are okay because
he's covered by the next You don't think of him
as a tough guy or a play through injury guy.
What you think of him as a skinny jeans can
give you thirty four and any night can be a
little moody, sometimes kind of disengaged, but the team is
the most engaged team in the league, so it's like,
(27:47):
you know, like they always say, if you have a
strong locker room, you know in any sport you can overcome.
And the Patriots had Randy Moss is fine, Randy King
with stuff Ingram can be disengaged. When I when I
my whole career, even in l when I watched him
his whole career, I've always felt like I'm not exactly
sure what's showing up tonight. A little Rashid Wallace. On
the good nights, you're like, why isn't he Why isn't
(28:09):
he first team on NBA in our standas, But those
he has nights where he just doesn't feel like he
even wants the ball. But the Knicks are so smartly,
they're so clearly built. It's such a defined culture you
can handle. A guy who sometimes is a bit disengaged,
has to be prodded because what they've proven is they
(28:30):
don't need I feel with Zion's weight and injuries, like
a lot of times the Pelicans are like, we need
Brandon tonight, and sometimes he doesn't show. The Knicks won't
need him every night. Like the culture is set. New
Orleans was trying to figure their culture out. New York's
is set and Ingram's it's not going to be built
a rounding room. That's what I always said with Kad
(28:51):
and Golden State was perfect. They didn't need him for
culture and leadership. Hit shots like Brandon could be like
hitch shots. They could use a finesse player. They've got
pro wrestlers, you know, they got like fullbacks everywhere. They
need a wide receiver on the sideline.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
That's kind of what he is.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
Yeah, So with the brandon Ingram thing, to be clear,
like I think New York will hunt a bigger fish.
I think they'll look for a KD. They'll look for
Paul George. But there is a scenario this summer where
Matt Spiez like, no, I'm not trading him. Sorry, And
there's a there's a scenario where Seve Falmer's like, I'm
opening up a new arena. We're not training Paul George.
That's what I think he'll do exactly. And so if
that's the case, then brandon Ingram becomes like a fallback option.
(29:31):
Now here's the thing with Brandon Ingram, which I think
is super fascinating. I think this shine in a big
way in two recent instance instances. One when Zion Williamson
kind of took the keys in two when he played
on Team USA, it became pretty apparent that Brandon Ingram
was a guy that kind of needed to have the
ball in his hands, right, but so specifically with New
York though, they're looking for that. They need someone so
(29:53):
that Brunson doesn't have to do everything because de Vincenzo
can play off the ball, because ogn and O, we
can play off the ball, because Josh Heart plays off
the ball. Like everybody on their roster is an off
ball threat primarily except for Brunson. And so having a
guy like that, like and you can imagine next to
Og and Andobi, it's like OG's going to take the
primary point of attack assignment for wing players, so he
can primarily focus on being, you know, kind of a
(30:15):
help defender, which, by the way, Brandon Ingram had an
awesome season as a help defender for New Orleans this
year because he's got super long arms and he can
read plays and stuff like that. So he'd be an
example of a guy that could go with that. I
think raises their physical profile without messing with the chemistry
of the team while giving them a secondary ball handler
while being relatively affordable. I don't think they're going to
have to pay much. Brandon Ingram's stock is at an
(30:36):
all time low right now because of the Olympics and
because he just went into a series fresh off of
an injury and got his butt kicked by the thunder,
so he would be an interesting kind of fallback option
for them.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
Indiana against Boston, they're so poor defensively. I'll give him credit.
They showed no signs of mental toughness in the series
until Game seven. I thought, you know, once Og got
hurt early and then Brunton, You're like, okay, whatever. They
don't exhibit a lot of toughness. I really do believe
if the Knicks were completely healthy, even without Randall, I
(31:09):
think they could give the Celtics trouble. Like I think
they would just make them uncomfortable. Like you, they're not
the most skilled team, but Boston I think can be
pushed around a little bit and intimidated. I think Indiana
is it's again. The games will be fun. Offensively, I
think the games will look like two really talented offensive teams.
(31:31):
Boston's the better. I think there'll be a lot of points.
That's kind of my take on what You'll have five
games series Boston and there'll be some one twenty six
is one thirteens. It'll be fun basketball. I just don't think.
I don't think Philip. I don't think Indiana can make
stops if they have to in the series.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
That's my take, Yeah, Indiana.
Speaker 3 (31:50):
If I'm not mistaken, I believe Indiana is undefeated at
home in this postseason run. So, like that's one of
their big angles is they're this super young, energetic, fast,
playing in trainsition type of team, and that can be
a buzzsaw when you go on the road. And uh,
but like and by the way, we saw Indiana beat
Boston in the nd season tournament. Now one of the
couple things there that was before Halliburton heard his hamstring
(32:12):
and what you saw for the handful of games in
this series where when you saw Haliburton's upside, that was
kind of what he was like every night before his
hamstring injury. Like he was the Steve Nash two point zero.
He's super fast, he could shoot, he could get into
the peyton and generate all these high quality shots. So
like the way I look at it, it's like Indiana
(32:33):
is a team full of specialists. It's like two great
play initiators and TJ. McConnell and Tyrese Haliburton, and then
a bunch of play finishers, guys like Miles Turner, Pascal Siakam,
all these guys, right, Pascal Siakam can play on an
island a little bit, but like they're they've They're just
this specialist team, whereas Boston is a team that's got
like a bunch of stars basically, or fringe stars that
are like learning how to play together. And so the
(32:55):
case for Indiana is like Indiana's optimized Boston's note Indiana
lives in transition. Maybe they just make the whole series
attract meet, maybe they make a bunch of shots, maybe
they win. But Boston is like so much better defensively,
and they do have more talent overall offensively as well,
Like they're just better on both ends of the floor.
So it's hard to find a pathway to victory. I
(33:16):
just think with Indiana's home court advantage, they'll probably push
the series to five or six. But I have a
really hard time believe in Indiana gets a win in
this one.
Speaker 1 (33:23):
So Dallas beats Okase and probably one of the top
two or three games of the year in the NBA.
It was just an insane matchup with tremendous offensive players,
and I kind of feel like this is when it
was over. I'm like, yeah, this is the way it
should have ended. Is that the young team took a
baby step. And whereas Minnesota has some veterans, some Godbert
(33:47):
and Karl Anthony Towns. You know, okac ready doesn't They're
all kind of you know, it's kind of kids. They
could have used probably a thirty three year old guy
in big moments, you know, they could depend on, and
it's sort of this is what they were. So I
think Lahoma City flyes home and thinks this was a
great season. I think Dallas needed to win it. You know,
(34:07):
I've said this before. I know Lucas great. I've been
watching the NBA since seventy two. He's one of the
more gifted, unstoppable offensive players. And it's surprising how many
great offensive players are unorthodox. They're different, they're weird. You know.
I grew up with George Gervin, you know, you know,
finger rolls from twelve feet, Moses Malone, a lot of
these prodigious scores, the skyhook, it ain't jumpers. You know,
(34:30):
Alex English led the eighties in scoring and couldn't jump
right like some guys are just they're just scores. Luca
is so different. He always looks heavy and it's like
Dirk Novitsky fall away but not as pretty. I will
give him credit though, to bring in at times a
(34:52):
ball centric guy with a unique personality Kyrie, and to
sort of step back on ball usage, play better defense,
like he's not stubborn like Mellow. To me almost felt stubborn,
like Luca's got some self awareness Luca's I mean, that's
my takeaway, is that the most if I was a
Maverick fan, I'm like our guy kind of looked at
(35:14):
himself and when I got to be a better defender,
I'm never gonna look great, but I'm gonna put the
effort in and I'm gonna get the ball out of
my hands. And it's like that's something. The self awareness
is something.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
That's what I see. First of all.
Speaker 3 (35:28):
That bit about the scorers being weird is so interesting,
and I've never thought about that before because as you
go back, a lot of them are like that, Like
Jokich is this weird, wide bodied refrigerator. Of a player
that just shoots all these like kind of funky shots,
like James Harden is a lefty that is like two
dimensional and either just will drive left or take a
(35:49):
step back jump er going right. That's like the only
two things he does. But no one could guard him
for like a four year period. I think he was
completely unstoppable. There's so many of these like kind of
weird players out there. I wonder if that has to
do with just the unorthodox nature of guarding those players
versus the traditional matchups that players see elsewhere around the league.
But like one of the things that I think k
Kyrie I think is one of those players that is,
(36:12):
when he has slotted in the right role, impacts winning
like a top fifteen player in the league. But when
he's outside of that right role, you start to kind
of see some of his warts. And you know, we
saw that in Boston when it's like, Okay, he can't
be the number one, Like he just clearly is incapable
of doing that. Even in Brooklyn, you know, I by
(36:33):
the way, that Brooklyn team was pretty good. I think
that was a turned ankle in a strained hamstring away
from probably winning the title in twenty twenty one, but again,
he wasn't playing alongside to do everything forward. That's what's
unique about the Luca in Lebron experience, because I don't
think it's a coincidence. Kyrie is playing this incredible defense
that he's playing this season. This is his best defensive
(36:53):
season since twenty sixteen, when he hit the game winner
in Game seven of the NBA Finals and guarded Steph
the majority of the series. The reason why is on
that team, because Lebron could take sixty percent of the
offensive possessions and just eat up all that usage. Kyrie
was an excellent off ball player. He could spot up
(37:14):
and space the floor, but then it was like here's
here's a third of the game, go cook, But this
rest of the time I got you. Then that allowed
him to kind of handle all of his energy distribution
in all of these useful ways. And like Kyrie's had
some kind of iffy statistical games in this playoff run
where I thought he was awesome. He had a game
earlier this series where he took like eight shots, but
(37:35):
he had like eleven assists and was unbelievable defensively. Like Kyrie,
I think when he plays alongside a Swiss Army knife
forward that can really run an offense for the majority
of a game. He can focus his energy into his
his elite traits, and he's got some real elite traits.
And then I think, and this is the one last
thing I want to say about Dallas, and it's a
really interesting factor coming into the Minnesota series. Denver can't
(38:00):
protect the rim. It is their biggest weakness and that
ended up being an issue. You see Nasried and Carrolltown
slashing to the rim, Anthony Edward slashing to the rim.
Look at what the Lakers did to them. They eviscerated
their front line defensively. Minnesota is going into Dallas. Dallas
is an excellent rim protection team. Derek Lively and Daniel
(38:21):
Gafford have transformed that defense into like are you talk
about redwoods? Those dudes underneath the basket can really protect
the right.
Speaker 1 (38:28):
Was a trade deadline move, like, I mean, it's amazing, Yeah,
it's amazing what you can do with the trade Deavl.
That was one of the great trade deadline that didn't
get a ton of press. It didn't get a lot
of attention.
Speaker 3 (38:39):
To your point, because you had talked about how Oklahoma's
You said Dallas or Denver Dallas. Excuse me, you said
Dallas needed that series. You're right, it's an absolute catastrophe
if they lose that serious it's like a complete in
total catastrophe because they gave up first round draft compensation
for PJ. Washington and Daniel Gafford. So like, now looking
back at it, it looks it looks genius, But there
was a lot of state for Dallas in that series.
(39:01):
For the record, I thought Dallas deserved to win. I
thought they were the better team. Yeah, but again, like
they have some real rim protection, and that's going to
be an interesting angle on the Minnesota series because Minnesota
likes to attack the rim. There's slashing, dribble, penetration, attack
the rim type of offense, and Dallas is kind of
built to withstand that. So that'll be a really really
interesting element in the next round.
Speaker 1 (39:28):
Okay, I gotta talk about this. You know, Jason hoops tonight,
he watches more film than probably anybody on the internet.
So I watched Bronnie. I watched Bronnie, and first of all,
there's the revelation that he's like three inches smaller. So
now he's going to be a backup point guard. That's
kind of what he's got to be. So I always
feel like you got to be about six ' four
(39:49):
in the NBA to be a two, and then at
six ' four you got to be pretty tenacious because
you're gonna face six six guys a lot. But somebody
pointed out in the Internet. I apologize for not remembering
who it was, but they said, Wow, that jumper starts
really low, really low. You can get away with that
(40:09):
in high school, AU and probably college, but man, that
that's a half second. That's a third of a second.
And I watched Bronni and he's athletic enough, he runs
the floor. Well, you know he's going to be a
smart kid. I don't wantry to buy any of the
intangible stuff, but I looked at that jumper and I thought,
I don't I'm not a scout. I'm not going to
pretend I know. But you've seen it. Is that have
(40:33):
to be corrected for Bronnie?
Speaker 2 (40:35):
I think it probably does.
Speaker 3 (40:36):
That was actually the video that went around where you
did the star drill at the draft and the combine
and he hit nineteen for twenty five. The first thing
that stood out to me is like that releases a
little slow, like he was running to the spot and
then taking his time to load up and knock down
the shot. And like just compare that for compared, just
as a juxtaposition, watch a Dante DiVincenzo three as he
comes flying off a screen like it's a it is
(40:59):
lightning quick, really says, he gets it into his pocket
and elevates right. So like here's the thing, though, let's
not fool ourselves. None of us saw Brownie as a
lottery pick. He's a project. But he's a project who
with basketball shoes on, is going to be the better
part of six to three. He's two hundred and ten
pounds of solid muscle with strong like yeah, like I
(41:19):
was considered a strong forward in college and I was
two twenty five, So like to give you an idea,
he's like big and strong. You know, he's got super
long arms. He's got like six eight wingspan. He's what
had the third best vertical leap at the combine, Like
he is an elite athlete at his position who's got
good strength and length. So, like, what does he project
(41:40):
to be in the NBA? Probably, like you said, either
a backup guard kind of like a ducemicc bride. Duce
McBride is like kind of the low end, and then
the high end is like the guy like a Jalen Suggs,
where maybe he could start and be kind of like
the point guard or two guard on the team that
uses forwards to initiate offense, you know, because there's a
lot of teams out there, kind of like the twenty
twenty Lakers they started Casey and Danny Green, Like, you
(42:00):
don't need a point guard if your forwards are stars.
So like, there are teams out there that could use
a player like that. My thing is is like he's
clearly a project, So you're right, he's gonna have to
get a shot blocked fifteen times in practice until he
listens to the coach that says like, hey man, we
got to tweak your release. Let's get in, let's work
on this. It's gonna be a process. But like, I
have no problem with him getting his chance. I think
(42:21):
I don't know about you, Colin, but I think it's
absolutely hilarious everyone's focusing on the nepotism angle because it's
literally as if it hasn't been. Every level of basketball
is like that. I remember when I when I was
at the U of A. It'd be like they'd sign
some five star recruit and they'd bring two of his friends,
one to be a manager and one would get a
spot on the team. You know, of course that the
nassis on antenne Koumpo plays for the Bucks that he
(42:42):
like barely looks like an NBA player. Sometimes like at
the end of the day, like this is such an
ordinary thing in life, and like he's going to get
his opportunity because of his dad, no doubt. But no
real coach is going to put him on the floor
and give him minutes in a meaningful game unless he
earns it right, and he will have his opportunity to
earn it. He does have legitimate NBA tools, And that's
(43:04):
the part that I think it's gloss over too much.
He has NBA tools. Let him have his opportunity. Let's
see what he makes of it.
Speaker 1 (43:09):
Yeah, I watched them a couple of times at USC.
He's got hops, he'll defend, he's powerful, a quick jumper,
runs the floor really well. By the way, the same
guy who would complain about Bronnie doesn't watch the NBA
and probably got a job or went to a school
because his dad got him into college, and his dad
(43:30):
got into college because his grandpa got him into college.
It's like, people take a deep breath on this shit.
It's like politics, the Clintons, the Bushes, the I mean,
this is the way the world works, like corporate America,
political America. I mean, how many NFL coaches try to
squeeze their kid on the staff? You know, Pete Carroll
was well known squeezed. You know, he wants his kid
on the staff, and Belichick, by the way, put his
(43:52):
kid on the staff. I just don't have a problem again,
Brownie is when you when I watch him talk, when
I watch the soundbites, he's very grateful for it. This
isn't some arrogant kid who feels like he's like, yeah,
I get it, like everybody gets it in the room.
So it doesn't bother me at all. I want to
(44:15):
point on this too. So you know, I've said this
before that the thing that worries me a little bit
about the NBA, and I saw this. Hockey's always been
international and has never landed for the TV audience in America.
Baseball is increasingly over the last twenty international, and it's
lost its currency it's social currency in America, still very
popular in person, not on TV. The NBA will have
(44:37):
some challenges as it moves to some streaming services and
as it becomes international, but it did get its money. Baseball.
Major League Baseball signed a recent deal with Roku. It
made thirty million dollars, I mean a million dollars a team.
It's an nothing against Roku. It's absolutely an embarrassing contract.
(44:57):
The NBA is going to get like four billion a
year or something like that billion a year, five whatever
it is. And one of the things, the two things
why the NBA will never become baseball a they know
how to market. It's a star driven league. Even the
international guys they're all one word. It's like, you know,
I mean, just think of how many guys in the NBA.
(45:18):
It's like Luca, Yannis Jokic. You know, it's like Pele Messe, Ronaldo,
like that matters, Share Madonna sting music, right, like you know,
you go if you become a nickname sport. When I
was a kid growing up, it was that baseball players
often had like nicknames, and so the international players go
(45:40):
by one name or a nickname. There's a star ingredient
that the NBA has. The second thing is the juice
and energy I am watching these playoff games. These crowds
are I mean it is. The fans are just you know,
like they're giving their heart signs in New York. What
(46:00):
the NBA provides, and we all kind of know this
is it. A regular season doesn't matter as much. It
just doesn't. It's okay, the NFL is different scarcity of games,
But these playoffs, man, I'm telling you, I'm watching these things.
I can't turn away so like on Friday nights sometimes
in Saturday, because I know I'm not on the next day.
(46:22):
I won't sit home and take notes. I won't. I'll
go to a restaurant. I'll get park next to it.
I'm in a restaurant in LA and Okac and Dallas
are playing and people are gasping. La Beach people are going,
oh my god. I'm like, you don't do that for baseball.
You just don't do it for baseball. The quality of
energy and juice in these games. I mean, you're like
(46:45):
a savant of this stuff, But I tend to view
stuff almost as a generalist. Does it play to the masses,
Like I stopped talking baseball fifteen years ago. I didn't
see the juice. I didn't see the stars. One of
the reasons I talk to NBA. Just watch these crowds,
watch the energy. Jesus. Every possession Denver and Minnesota, OKC
(47:05):
Dallas for an hour, every possession matter.
Speaker 2 (47:10):
Like your late third quarter.
Speaker 1 (47:11):
You're like, oh my god, that's a huge three. So
the NBA gets And I don't know if it's the
sport that talks more politics or takes more cultural stands.
I don't know. Some people have a problem with it.
I don't, but I think these playoffs have been remarkable.
I mean even teams that are lower and skilled, like
New York can't turn them off.
Speaker 3 (47:32):
First of all, that Roku stat you gave his insane
because like, didn't the Liberty Fever game get over a
million dollars just in the in ticket sales from that
one game? Yes, in Major League Baseball teams are getting
a million for a contract with Roku. That's that's that
is flat out embarrassing. There's no other way to look
at it. Yeah, you know, I was listening to the
Bill Simmons podcast last week and he had Ethan Strauss
(47:54):
on and they were talking a little bit about the
difference between Ethan was trying to make a point. Basically,
what he was saying is is like, even though NHL
and baseball and basketball all are like these inventory sports,
he was saying, the NBA just feels like it's worth more.
Speaker 1 (48:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (48:11):
And one of the big things that I see with
the NBA that these other leagues don't have is the
moments Like so, for instance, both of those Boston Denver
games this year, those were moments like every NBA fan
was like, this is an NBA Finals preview, We're gonna
sit down, We're gonna watch this in both games were incredible.
Some of those Lebron's death battles were insane. Some of
(48:32):
those lebron kd battles were insane. To your point. Remember
the Kyrie lefty hook shot to beat Denver at the
buzzer towards the tail end of season. I was at
a restaurant watching that game. The restaurant went crazy. No
one's doing that for a d Backs Yankees game on
a Tuesday, Like, it's just it's it is. There is
an energy in like a the the NBA has the
ability to be it can be boring for five straight days,
(48:55):
but then it can have like a random Friday night
that is like an instant classic, and that I think
is something unique.
Speaker 1 (49:00):
Well, also, never forget this in baseball, like if Otani
or Bryce Harper or Dhing in a two hour and
fifty five minute game, you may see five minutes Atani
or Bryce Harper. In hockey, you know, if a forward
places twenty minutes because you're lying, you're only on the
ice for fifty seconds. In the NBA, Lucas on the
(49:23):
court for forty three minutes and has the ball every possession,
and quarterbacks and NBA Stars they're on the field, they
touched the ball. I mean, this is one of the
things with baseball. They've shortened the game smartly, but what
they've also done is they've reduced the time for it. Bats.
(49:44):
You want Bryce Harper like you don't want Bryce Harper ever, Dhing,
you want Bryce Harper. I mean Bryce Harper going from
right field to first base. I see more of Bryce Harper.
I want his face. This was taught to me years
ago by Glenn Jacobs at ESPN when and I sort
of moved off baseball as a topic. He said, and
he taught me this. He said, how much is your
(50:05):
star on TV. I want to see Shack in his
prime on TV, close up ISO cameras all the time,
and that's Brady, Brady Gronk, Brady Mahomes, Kelsey, Andy Reid.
Your stars are constantly on hockey baseball. They're not. So
the NBA has that advantage is that like the quarterback
(50:27):
I get, I mean Sga, Luka, Kyrie, Sga, Holme, Luca,
like four guys just back and forth, back and forth,
the occasional lou Dort, you know. I mean, you can
have occasional guys that don't stick out. But like I'm
watching that thing today and it's just I mean, Jokic,
Murray and even Quirky Gobaar, we know him. He's been around.
So the NBA's it's it's just I wouldn't talk it.
(50:51):
I mean, when you're a generalist, I have to talk
in headlines on FS one. I wouldn't talk it if
it didn't work. I talk NFL, NBA College for well
and an occasional moment. So NBA is fine. That's why
that's why there's a bidding war right now between NBC
and TNT and ESPN, and you know they'll probably all
get it all right. Oops tonight, Jason, timph this was
(51:15):
just good. What a great day, what a great weekend.
I love doing this so much with you and keep
crushing it season.
Speaker 3 (51:23):
To see you next time calling. Hopefully our conference finals
live up to the billing.
Speaker 1 (51:25):
Yep, I think they will the volume. Thanks so much
for listening. If you've enjoyed the podcast, take a moment,
rate and review
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Speaker 1 (01:55):
All right, what a weekend? What a crazy game? Denver
minute Soda the champs this breaking news. They will not
be back to back champs. Jason Timpf hoops Tonight. Not
only was this a tale of two series, I mean,
the first two games look like it was gonna be
a sweep. The next two you're like, Okay, they've got it.
(02:17):
This game was nuts. I thought Denver came out with
a perfect tempo, it was offensive more than defensive, and
then the t Wolves just shut them down. Jamal Murray
played well, Jokic did what he did, but Porter and
Gordon didn't give you anything, really, Gordon nothing offensively. I mean,
I'm sitting watching it. The Western Conference is so good,
(02:40):
Like I feel bad if there was if you could
only if you lived in the East watch Eastern Conference
basketball and you couldn't watch the West, you could only
watch East, that would be like, Oh, you'd buy whatever
package it cost you to buy the superior basketball. I
guess my takeaway is a really good basketball team, Minnesota
(03:00):
being another really good basketball team, and in the end,
at the beginning and end of the series, defense prevail.
That's kind of my take.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Yeah, this whole series had two different faces to it,
and either side had the other team dominating, Like and
whenever Minnesota was locked in defensively, it felt like Denver
couldn't score. It felt like they were just underneath this
oppressive wave of size. And then you have Game three,
four and five where Denver puts up a one twenty
seven offensive rating, which is off the charts. Boston had
(03:32):
the best offense in the league this year, and I
think they were at like one twenty two. So to
give you an idea, Denver had this unbelievable offensive stretch
in the middle of the series, and honestly, I thought
they had a really good stretch in this game. In particular,
this game actually felt like a little microcosm of the
entire series. That's in a sense that Denver out executed
them for the first two and a half quarters and
then Minnesota really locked in and they just couldn't score.
(03:54):
Anthony Edwards just did his interview live with the TNT
guys and he just mentioned and something I'm surprised at
how forthright he was about it. He's like, yeah, I
can do other things than score. I can guard the
other team's best guard, and I can lock up Jamal Murray.
I felt like that's what I did in the second half,
and he's right, like, and I cannot remember a time
where a guy had a more disastrous first half and
(04:17):
then just found a way to turn it around and
be impactful. Like the numbers won't show it, but him
drawing double teams consistently was a huge asset to the
Minnesota offense. He generated a ton of rim pressure in
that second half by just saying screw it, I'm putting
my head down and I'm going to the rim. He
made a lot of really smart kickout passes to shooters,
and he's right. He put Jamal Murray in jail, and
(04:39):
that served a real issue for Denver's offense. And that's
another layer of this that like, Denver was up twenty
at home in the second half with a chance to
go to the Western Conference finals. So I don't want
to act like they need to make some sort of
dramatic change, but if you were to point to a
specific issue, this is a team that generates rim pressure
through overwhelming size in minutes. Soda negated that, and as
(05:01):
soon as they negated that, it revealed this other issue,
which is their perimeter players can't beat people off the dribble,
and so all of a sudden, they couldn't get the
defense in rotation and get some of the higher quality
Nuggets shots that were accustomed to seeing. Meanwhile, for Minnesota,
it's like nos Reed is slashing, Karl Anthony Towns is slashing,
Anthony Edwards is slashing. It was an athletic mismatch and
(05:22):
they were able to take advantage of that.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Yeah, we saw that in the first two games of
the series. I also think we just have to give
Chris Finch a lot of credit. This is a not
only smartly constructed team, it's a really well coached team
for him to get aunt Ant could score forty a
night in most nights when you get great players to
buy into a team concept, I mean they were looking
(05:44):
they were going to go bare in the second half.
Naz Reid doesn't do much for three quarters. Then it's sensational. Late,
everybody takes their turn. It's a patient team. And I
think a lot of that is Finch, a lot of
it's Mike Conley. You know, you've got guys that have
been around the lead league all these It's a great
combination of size, athleticism, coaching, construct, dynamic young star, older
(06:09):
veteran IQ player. Not to say Ant it's not a
bright kid, very self aware it's I said this earlier
in the series. The construct of both teams is sensational. Yeah.
I mean usually you can look at a team like
like you can look at Indiana and go, they have
some defensive holes. They need better wing defenders. Or you
can look at the next and go they need another
pure score. Even Boston sometimes I'm like God, and when
(06:31):
Porzingis is out, it's like it gets They need threes,
they need something beyond that. Boy, I look at Minnesota
and I'm like, as I've always been kind of hot
and cold on Carl Anthony Towns, but he hit some
big baskets in his game. He hit big baskets in
the series. Don't we talk about this in the NFL
and we don't talk about it in the NBA A
(06:52):
lot a lot of times in the NFL will just
go why that team's smartly constructed. Minnesota's front office they're
coaching this. They have everything, the hustlers, the wings, the
dynamic star, the size, the IQ distributor colleagues like a quarterback.
It's like they're unselfish but can then go heavy into
(07:13):
ant I. It's just it's really well done. They're like
a smartly constructed pro football team. I don't see the
holes really.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Yeah, you know, one of the biggest issues that had
me off of the Minnesota timber Wolves all year was
their offense. Yes, and like they were a bad offense
all season, Like the Calves were a better offense, and
then the Pelicans were a better offense than them. The
Warriors had just had Steph Curry were a better offense
than them. Like they were a bad offense all season.
And it was a lot of inconsistency and honestly, what
kind of turned this series around after Denver had taken
(07:46):
the like complete control over it. Denver had complete control
after Game five. They weren't even competitive in those middle
three games, Like Minnesota got killed at all three of
those games. And what was so impressive was Karl Anthony Towns,
guy who's kind of known as being an consistent offensive player,
showed up in a big way here in game seven. Yes,
Jaden McDaniels, a guy who's known as being a bad
(08:07):
offensive player, showed up in a big way in Game seventeen.
I hit multiple massive corner threes, little push shots in
the lane. Obviously, is this incredible defensive player. The story
for Minnesota is their defense is unbelievably good, but their
offense can come and go. And when Karl Anthony Towns
is actually well, when Jada McDaniels is playing well, you
(08:27):
can't beat them because they're are, because they're they're their
defense is so oppressively good.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Yeah, and that's that's why they wouldn't win. You know,
when you have a team that you have kind of
an inconsistent offensive player, you're not gonna win March Madness,
but you can win an NBA Championship because carlintink for
three games. And and by the way, Minnesota defensively is consistent.
Offensively they're not, but they can. Like this game, they
(08:52):
just sort of hung around and the ant wasn't delivering
much and then here comes go Baar and then nas
Reid and then and adds defense in Karl Anthony Towns.
When you have a seven game series, it allows you
to figure stuff out. It allows horrible games, terrible halfs,
and also in a seven game series, and I think
(09:14):
Malone and Chris Finch are both great coaches. This really
came down this old series came down to like eight minutes,
and in that eight minutes, Minnesota was better defensively, and
a couple of their inconsistent offensive guys. Hit. I mean,
I don't want to over be overly cynical with Denver.
(09:36):
I'm like, hey, it's hard to win back to backs.
It's just hard. It's you know, there's no Jordan right
now in the league. And even for I mean Magic
Johnson got to nine finals, won five, lost four. That
was Kareem Magic, I mean worthy. I mean this stuff
is hard. I mean, I love Jamal Maray, it's never
been an All it's never been a first team All
(09:57):
NBA guy. So it's like you to good teams and
Ant's just better today than he was last year.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
It's part of what it is.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
Yeah, here's an absolutely insane stat for you, Colin so
twenty fifteen Calves Warriors, twenty sixteen Calves Warriors, twenty seventeen
Calves Warriors, twenty eighteen Caves Warriors. Not only that, Like
it just kind of felt like the Warriors and Calves
were head and shoulders above their conferences. Yeah, Like it
one particularly competitive. Right from twenty nineteen on, we've had
(10:26):
six consecutive seasons where we haven't even had a repeat
conference champion, let alone to repeat NBA champion, and like
a big part of that is, like the league is
just super good now, you know. It's like it's like
it's like even if you happen to get through Minnesota,
it's like you've got to get through Dallas, and that
Dallas team really defends their rimp protection is insane. Luca
and Kyrie haven't even been playing that well and they're
(10:46):
still winning. And then you go out East and obviously
Boston is this incredible team and so like, and Boston
hasn't even been able to win repeat conference championships with
all the talent that they have, so like, it really
is just a testament to how deep the league is
with talent. And I think if there's one thing to
point to in terms of Minnesota, it's they their defense
is reliable on a night to night basis. You mentioned
(11:08):
that earlier, and the important detail there is there is
no variance with a defense. There's variance with offense in
the sense that like sometimes a role player is hot,
sometimes he's not. Sometimes a ball handler misses his pull
up jumpers, sometimes he makes him jokis for instance, like
last year made all of his threes. This year can't
make a three to save his life. Like there's variance
to offense. With defense, it's like if you bring the effort,
(11:31):
you're going to impact the game.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
Like it.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
It is the most reliable thing. And that's why so
many NBA teams, so many we look at defensive rating
as like the number one indicator of whether or not
you can contend for a championship. Denver last year was
the outlier as a team that was not a defending champion,
that was not a top ten defense that won the title.
That was highly unusual. It had been like forty years
(11:54):
since that had happened. Like generally speaking, it is defense
that is the most reliable trait a basketball team can
have at this phase. And for the record, Denver last
year was a really good defense in the playoffs, and
so to me, it's it's timely contributions from role players
like Cat Tonight, Nasriy Tonight, Anthony Edwards coming into tonight
was averaging thirty six and six on over fifty percent
(12:15):
from the field, over forty percent from three, over eighty
percent from the line. He's been playing at a bona fide,
top tier, super duper star level, and then you have
this all world defense. It's a really, really good basketball team,
really difficult to beat four times out of seven.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
So Minnesota will face Dallas. I was in a restaurant.
I wanted to watch the game. So I have this
restaurant I go to with a TV and I was
called a reserve this final cord or bar seat. It's
only gonna watch Dallas. Okay, see people, it was that
was That was one of the best games of the
year in the NBA, the OKAC Dallas game. And we'll
(12:49):
get to Dallas in a bit. But but Minnesota Dallas,
as we wrap up here, Minnesota Dallas, your first thoughts
on what we'll get.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
So obviously it's going to be very much about the
perimeter defense element in terms of Kyrie and Luca, because
as we note that that's very much a spread iso
pick and roll attack. We play your turn, my turn
between Kyrie and Luca and just kind of have a
lot of play like Dallas is. Dallas has a lot
of play finishers, whereas Minnesota, whereas Denver is much more
(13:17):
of like a five out motion and player ball and
player movement type of offense. Right, So, like it's going
to come down to Jada McDaniel's on Luca and a
lot of Anthony Edwards on Kyrie and how well they
can hold up in those matchups, and how well they
can protect guys like like Mike Conley and Karl Anthony
Towns because we know Luca likes to pick on matchups.
The bottom line is, though, is I think I think
(13:38):
Ant right now, because of especially underneath the injury that
Luca's dealing with with his knee, and it's probably going
to be the best player in that series going in,
and they have the size, they have the ability to
really drag Dallas's offense down into the mud. I think
I'll probably end up picking picking Minnesota. I'm gonna need
to look into some film, but they feel like the
safe bet right now.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Well else, First of all, I think they're healthier. Second,
I think they're deeper in terms of it. I like
the construction of it. I think sometimes Dallas can be
a bit lopsided. Ant. I really do think to your point,
I think Ant will be the player of the series.
There are so many advantages to having Minnesota size on
(14:20):
the front line. You can be more aggressive on a
Kyrie and Aluca you can just you can take more chances.
Ant's aggressive anyway, and my feeling is Minnesota the construct
of the I mean, I think Minnesota physically size aggressiveness
an Ant. I also think we have to remember Ant.
(14:40):
This was such a great series for Aunt. Even though
he wasn't great every game, this was the first series
he was in that felt like a final like this.
This felt like Jordan getting past Detroit, Jordan getting past Boston.
Forget the championship, getting through these just Western Conference heavyweight
all Fraser fights. You move, I mean you you it's
(15:04):
it's you beat you know. It's like you you beat
a Brady or a Mahomes in the playoffs. It is
as big as the super Bowl. It feel it's the
same thing, the same arc. And I feel like this
is a really memorable moment in Ant's career. We'll go
back and go, God, remember the Nuggets series, remember that fight.
I kind of feel like Ant will put the cape on,
(15:27):
He'll he'll sleep on. This gonna be a great flight
home to Minnesota. You celebrate, you get off night's sleep,
then you start gearing in. But I do feel like
and we saw when you see this with great players,
they take steps, and I think this is the first
step of Ant, Like that's the first round of his career,
the first big heavyweight fight. Uh and I think Minnesota
(15:50):
and Ant will prevail. Now for a segment called making
it look easy, the Indiana Pacers made it look easy,
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percent for the game as they beat the New York Knicks.
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Morgan and Morgan, it's easy, let's go to the Knicks Pacers.
(17:02):
So obviously New York fell apart. I don't think Indiana
matches up with Boston terribly well if Porzingis is back
at any point in the series. It's just too much
offense against the poor defensive team. Halliburton played so well today,
But I was thinking about New York because there is
sort of a history with Tibbs in Chicago. People fall
in love with Tibbs, his team's grind. American sports fans
(17:26):
pay so much money to go to games. They love
teams to play hard. Those Bulls teams played so hard
and so many minutes, and then they break down and
they don't win the title, and eventually everybody turns on TIBs.
Get him out of town. And you watch this New
York team, Jason, and you're like, too many guys got hurt.
It wasn't an injury. Like four of their best players
(17:48):
are hurt at the end. And my takeaway is there's
gonna be some perspective. How do you get fewer minutes?
How does this not happen again? You don't get much
immediate help in the This is not football, and So
I look at the Knicks and I'm like, God, I
hope they don't give up de Vincenzo. He's such a
good catch and shoot guy. Now he's so New York Brunson.
(18:12):
I mean, I look at him and I think, Okay,
I know you got to make a move, but don't
f this up, Like, don't screw up. I mean, you
just posted something today. You play with your guys, You
have your guys. All it takes is one wrong guy
in basketball, and the whole chemistry is off and it's
hard to and I feel like, God, you can't bring
(18:32):
it back because they do need another score. But God,
I want you to bring back everything else. And I
think it's harder than you just think of just plug in,
Paul George. I think it's harder than that. What do
the Knicks do?
Speaker 3 (18:49):
So I one hundred percent agree with you that you
don't want to tweak the chemistry. And I specifically think
of things like like the Nova guys, Like you want
to keep those guys, Yes, right, you want to. I
think o Jan Andobi A in a big way represents
part of the kind of identity of the Knicks. And
you know, I want to cut Tom Thibodeau some slack
in the sense that this particular team everything you said
(19:11):
about Chicago so true. This particular team only could win
by playing their dude's huge minutes, like that was their
only shot. Like so I kind of understood the angle
in the sense that like he leaned into that because
that was their one shot at it. But like the
Mitchell Robinson thing, it's like embiid kind of grabs his
ankle and twists right. Jalen Brunson's hand that was bad luck.
(19:33):
But everything else was like a wear and tear injury.
Like OG's hammy that was like in a barn burner
of a Game two. At the end, you could tell
he was tired and he went into transition situation and
pulled up like that's a wear and tear injury. The
Josh Hart abdominal injury, that's a were and tear injury.
The Jalen Brunson foot injury that was aware and tear injury.
(19:55):
So I do think that the workload did end up
breaking them down at the end of the day. So
what you you really need to do is find a
way to bring in firepower without messing up. Yes, the
chemistry way it can be rotational guys.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Somebody gives Brunson eight minutes off a night, you know,
I mean you could get that in the draft, or
can you Like I almost wonder now, Jason, not to
interrupt you, but do you go in the draft and
do you find older guys without high expectations who can
just give Josh Hart deefndenzo Og Brunson Just you go
(20:28):
from forty four minutes to thirty seven. Like, this team's
too mature to bring in a bunch of kids. It's
too mature, it's too smart. Tibbs asks too much of you.
You can't bring in kids on this roster. You have
to bring in guys almost like veterans, who are like
I like this. I'm a grinder, I'm a rotational player
because I think what Tibbs asks of you. I'm just
(20:51):
it's so precious. It doesn't even look like any other
NBA team.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
Yeah. So that's like the Christian Brown type of draft pick,
which is like the kid who was like a guy
stuck around in college for a while, won a lot,
you know, a guy who doesn't have a ton of upside,
but that has a lot of like winning characteristics, you know,
because Christian around won in high school, he won in college.
Like it just is just been around winning situations his
whole life. As far as like this is where we
(21:17):
got to give Leon Rose from credit because like they
they they actually have a lot of salaries that they
can package in a trade without having to worry about
messing with their depth. Julius Randall's on the books for
thirty million next year. Yeah, that's a contract you can trade.
Boy in Bogdanovich. He's on the books for nineteen million.
It's not guaranteed, but they could guarantee the contract and
then trade him. Like you have depth a at certain
(21:39):
position groups, like you've proven that you're still pretty good.
I Mitchell Robinson was very important to this team, especially
in the Sixers series. But my guess is you can
look on the margins like a guy like Duce McBride
is a guy that somebody around the league's gonna want.
He can he can defend shoot threes and run second
side action when your guy passes the ball to him
late in the shot clock. That's a guy you could
put in a deal. Mitchell Robbinson. And if you committed
(22:00):
to a guy like Isaiah Hartenstein, you could get a
lower level, cheaper backup center, and I think they can
make this type of pivot without having to disrupt the chemistry.
To your point, I think another thing that would help
is if you have another shot creator and you are
a better offensive team in the half court, that alleviates
(22:21):
some of the I don't need to play every single
possession like it's the final possession of Game seven of
the NBA Finals, you know what I mean. Like it
allows you to kind of ease through the season a
little bit, take it easier on your bodies, cut minutes down.
But yeah, that's the big one for me, is like
they need to find a secondary shot creator without tweaking
the actual core of the team, and if they do so,
they will have the depth to be able to kind
(22:43):
of like ease their way through the season. But the
huge I think silver lining in all of this, I
personally think Jalen Brunson proved this year that he can
be the best player on a championship team as long
as his number two is really good. I think his
number two needs to be really good. But Jalen Brunson,
you can make a case he's the best small guard
in the league right now. He's been incredible in like
(23:04):
a big part. He wore down in this series. Yeah,
but like I thought he was incredible for the most
part in this playoff.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
And I also think shot creation. He for a small player,
gets such great looks. He's so clever, he's so quick. Hell,
he gets he gets good looks within eight feet. I
mean he's in he's in the lane open a lot,
and it's like, that's that's that's the Redwoods. So I
look at him, and it doesn't happen very often in
(23:32):
the NBA where somebody develops into a star. It really doesn't.
I remember Michael Red came into the league and all
of a sudden you looked up and you're like, who's
Michael Red. He's an All Stars And then it didn't
last very long. But generally, if you're like a Chris Middleton,
you develop into a good two, you know what I mean,
and that's kind of what you are, and then it's
(23:52):
quick and then you move back to being maybe a three. No,
Jalen's a one. I think it's also when you find
your one, like you find a staff, you know, you
find a Kobe or whoever it is that you have
to have players that compliment them. And so like Devindenzo
is a catch and shoot guy. He doesn't need the
ball in his hands. It's great. You can't let him go.
(24:14):
He's he's really become classic Villanova guy. You know, he's
between Villanova and the NBA's bounced around. But he's really
valuable to that team, I thought. And he's by the way,
chip on his shoulder. You know, he's a tough guy,
like he really fits the culture. That's the guy I
would really cling to. But you gotta find somebody that's
(24:35):
a good wing defender we'll put in the minutes, doesn't
need the ball a ton you know, you're not going
to get KD. But KD you know if he wasn't,
he didn't bring other stuff kind of a get the
ball late in the shot clock score. I do think
Paul George is fascinating. I just don't know going into
(24:55):
a new building if Steve Balmer, I mean, I just
where do you thin? What do you think they do?
What do you think the Clippers do with with with Paul,
Because Paul's going to have options.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
I think that they I think the Clippers end up
keeping him. But I think I think here's the thing.
There's a lot of stars available this summer. This is
setting up to be like an absolutely wild summer because
one of Darius Garland, Donovan Mitchell is going to get traded,
Trey Young and de Jontay Murray, I would venture to
guess one of them is going to get traded. I
wouldn't be surprised if Brain and Ingram gets traded from
the Pelicans. Paul George is going to be a guy
(25:27):
that people are targeting. Michale Bridges from the Nets is
going to be a guy people are targeting. There will
be teams that call Phoenix and try to poach one
of their stars and be like, hey, there's a disappointing season.
How does all this stuff sound? You know what I mean.
Lauri Markinen is another guy like if you were looking
for a guy who could give you twenty five points
a night and some rebounding support while also being primarily
a play finisher off the ball, that's a guy like
(25:48):
if you if you went og and Andobi Lori Markin
and Isaiah Hartenstein, that's an awesome front.
Speaker 1 (25:52):
Market is a very productive player. I don't know why
Chicago moved off him. I think he's very productive.
Speaker 3 (25:58):
I know it, so like, yeah, it's one of those
things where there's just a plethora of options. And so
one of the things that that does is it's kind
of different than what we talked about last summer where
or this last deadline. Remember this last deadline, you and
I had conversations about how it was kind of like
a seller's market, like there was very few people looking
to sell and all these people looking to buy, and
so it just didn't look like much materialized. This summer
(26:21):
is going to be the opposite. There's gonna be a
lot of people looking to sell, and so you might
be able to get a player of higher quality without
having to throw a ton of value into it. And
so I think that there's gonna be options out there.
It really depends. The problem with the Lori marketing type
is again, I do think it would be advantageous to
make it so that Brunson didn't have to initiate every
single possession. Yes, it'd be great if there was a
(26:43):
kde or a Paul George, because with that guy you
could be like, hey, Brunson can play thirty four minutes
a night, and we're going to get great offense in
the other fourteen minutes because we can run it through
this other guy, or Brunson has a bad matchup in
this series, so we can go through another angle. Or
you know, Brunson just took three possessions on in a row.
Now he's tired. He can go stand in the corner
and be a spot up shooter while this guy goes
(27:04):
to work. Like, I do think they'll probably prioritize a
shot creator. I wonder you know, Brandon Ingram is kind
of an interesting type of player. The one problem with
him is like he's had a lot of injury stuff,
but he's probably going to be the discount option. I mean,
I'm really curious to see you ends up getting him
because he's going to be a discount option. But I
do think they'll go after some kind of upgrade.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
And I think the deficiencies with Ingram are okay because
he's covered by the next You don't think of him
as a tough guy or a play through injury guy.
What you think of him as a skinny jeans can
give you thirty four and any night can be a
little moody, sometimes kind of disengaged, but the team is
the most engaged team in the league, so it's like,
(27:47):
you know, like they always say, if you have a
strong locker room, you know in any sport you can overcome.
And the Patriots had Randy Moss is fine, Randy King
with stuff Ingram can be disengaged. When I when I
my whole career, even in l when I watched him
his whole career, I've always felt like I'm not exactly
sure what's showing up tonight. A little Rashid Wallace. On
the good nights, you're like, why isn't he Why isn't
(28:09):
he first team on NBA in our standas, But those
he has nights where he just doesn't feel like he
even wants the ball. But the Knicks are so smartly,
they're so clearly built. It's such a defined culture you
can handle. A guy who sometimes is a bit disengaged,
has to be prodded because what they've proven is they
(28:30):
don't need I feel with Zion's weight and injuries, like
a lot of times the Pelicans are like, we need
Brandon tonight, and sometimes he doesn't show. The Knicks won't
need him every night. Like the culture is set. New
Orleans was trying to figure their culture out. New York's
is set and Ingram's it's not going to be built
a rounding room. That's what I always said with Kad
(28:51):
and Golden State was perfect. They didn't need him for
culture and leadership. Hit shots like Brandon could be like
hitch shots. They could use a finesse player. They've got
pro wrestlers, you know, they got like fullbacks everywhere. They
need a wide receiver on the sideline.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
That's kind of what he is.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
Yeah, So with the brandon Ingram thing, to be clear,
like I think New York will hunt a bigger fish.
I think they'll look for a KD. They'll look for
Paul George. But there is a scenario this summer where
Matt Spiez like, no, I'm not trading him. Sorry, And
there's a there's a scenario where Seve Falmer's like, I'm
opening up a new arena. We're not training Paul George.
That's what I think he'll do exactly. And so if
that's the case, then brandon Ingram becomes like a fallback option.
(29:31):
Now here's the thing with Brandon Ingram, which I think
is super fascinating. I think this shine in a big
way in two recent instance instances. One when Zion Williamson
kind of took the keys in two when he played
on Team USA, it became pretty apparent that Brandon Ingram
was a guy that kind of needed to have the
ball in his hands, right, but so specifically with New
York though, they're looking for that. They need someone so
(29:53):
that Brunson doesn't have to do everything because de Vincenzo
can play off the ball, because ogn and O, we
can play off the ball, because Josh Heart plays off
the ball. Like everybody on their roster is an off
ball threat primarily except for Brunson. And so having a
guy like that, like and you can imagine next to
Og and Andobi, it's like OG's going to take the
primary point of attack assignment for wing players, so he
can primarily focus on being, you know, kind of a
(30:15):
help defender, which, by the way, Brandon Ingram had an
awesome season as a help defender for New Orleans this
year because he's got super long arms and he can
read plays and stuff like that. So he'd be an
example of a guy that could go with that. I
think raises their physical profile without messing with the chemistry
of the team while giving them a secondary ball handler
while being relatively affordable. I don't think they're going to
have to pay much. Brandon Ingram's stock is at an
(30:36):
all time low right now because of the Olympics and
because he just went into a series fresh off of
an injury and got his butt kicked by the thunder,
so he would be an interesting kind of fallback option
for them.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
Indiana against Boston, they're so poor defensively. I'll give him credit.
They showed no signs of mental toughness in the series
until Game seven. I thought, you know, once Og got
hurt early and then Brunton, You're like, okay, whatever. They
don't exhibit a lot of toughness. I really do believe
if the Knicks were completely healthy, even without Randall, I
(31:09):
think they could give the Celtics trouble. Like I think
they would just make them uncomfortable. Like you, they're not
the most skilled team, but Boston I think can be
pushed around a little bit and intimidated. I think Indiana
is it's again. The games will be fun. Offensively, I
think the games will look like two really talented offensive teams.
(31:31):
Boston's the better. I think there'll be a lot of points.
That's kind of my take on what You'll have five
games series Boston and there'll be some one twenty six
is one thirteens. It'll be fun basketball. I just don't think.
I don't think Philip. I don't think Indiana can make
stops if they have to in the series.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
That's my take, Yeah, Indiana.
Speaker 3 (31:50):
If I'm not mistaken, I believe Indiana is undefeated at
home in this postseason run. So, like that's one of
their big angles is they're this super young, energetic, fast,
playing in trainsition type of team, and that can be
a buzzsaw when you go on the road. And uh,
but like and by the way, we saw Indiana beat
Boston in the nd season tournament. Now one of the
couple things there that was before Halliburton heard his hamstring
(32:12):
and what you saw for the handful of games in
this series where when you saw Haliburton's upside, that was
kind of what he was like every night before his
hamstring injury. Like he was the Steve Nash two point zero.
He's super fast, he could shoot, he could get into
the peyton and generate all these high quality shots. So
like the way I look at it, it's like Indiana
(32:33):
is a team full of specialists. It's like two great
play initiators and TJ. McConnell and Tyrese Haliburton, and then
a bunch of play finishers, guys like Miles Turner, Pascal Siakam,
all these guys, right, Pascal Siakam can play on an
island a little bit, but like they're they've They're just
this specialist team, whereas Boston is a team that's got
like a bunch of stars basically, or fringe stars that
are like learning how to play together. And so the
(32:55):
case for Indiana is like Indiana's optimized Boston's note Indiana
lives in transition. Maybe they just make the whole series
attract meet, maybe they make a bunch of shots, maybe
they win. But Boston is like so much better defensively,
and they do have more talent overall offensively as well,
Like they're just better on both ends of the floor.
So it's hard to find a pathway to victory. I
(33:16):
just think with Indiana's home court advantage, they'll probably push
the series to five or six. But I have a
really hard time believe in Indiana gets a win in
this one.
Speaker 1 (33:23):
So Dallas beats Okase and probably one of the top
two or three games of the year in the NBA.
It was just an insane matchup with tremendous offensive players,
and I kind of feel like this is when it
was over. I'm like, yeah, this is the way it
should have ended. Is that the young team took a
baby step. And whereas Minnesota has some veterans, some Godbert
(33:47):
and Karl Anthony Towns. You know, okac ready doesn't They're
all kind of you know, it's kind of kids. They
could have used probably a thirty three year old guy
in big moments, you know, they could depend on, and
it's sort of this is what they were. So I
think Lahoma City flyes home and thinks this was a
great season. I think Dallas needed to win it. You know,
(34:07):
I've said this before. I know Lucas great. I've been
watching the NBA since seventy two. He's one of the
more gifted, unstoppable offensive players. And it's surprising how many
great offensive players are unorthodox. They're different, they're weird. You know.
I grew up with George Gervin, you know, you know,
finger rolls from twelve feet, Moses Malone, a lot of
these prodigious scores, the skyhook, it ain't jumpers. You know,
(34:30):
Alex English led the eighties in scoring and couldn't jump
right like some guys are just they're just scores. Luca
is so different. He always looks heavy and it's like
Dirk Novitsky fall away but not as pretty. I will
give him credit though, to bring in at times a
(34:52):
ball centric guy with a unique personality Kyrie, and to
sort of step back on ball usage, play better defense,
like he's not stubborn like Mellow. To me almost felt stubborn,
like Luca's got some self awareness Luca's I mean, that's
my takeaway, is that the most if I was a
Maverick fan, I'm like our guy kind of looked at
(35:14):
himself and when I got to be a better defender,
I'm never gonna look great, but I'm gonna put the
effort in and I'm gonna get the ball out of
my hands. And it's like that's something. The self awareness
is something.
Speaker 2 (35:26):
That's what I see. First of all.
Speaker 3 (35:28):
That bit about the scorers being weird is so interesting,
and I've never thought about that before because as you
go back, a lot of them are like that, Like
Jokich is this weird, wide bodied refrigerator. Of a player
that just shoots all these like kind of funky shots,
like James Harden is a lefty that is like two
dimensional and either just will drive left or take a
(35:49):
step back jump er going right. That's like the only
two things he does. But no one could guard him
for like a four year period. I think he was
completely unstoppable. There's so many of these like kind of
weird players out there. I wonder if that has to
do with just the unorthodox nature of guarding those players
versus the traditional matchups that players see elsewhere around the league.
But like one of the things that I think k
Kyrie I think is one of those players that is,
(36:12):
when he has slotted in the right role, impacts winning
like a top fifteen player in the league. But when
he's outside of that right role, you start to kind
of see some of his warts. And you know, we
saw that in Boston when it's like, Okay, he can't
be the number one, Like he just clearly is incapable
of doing that. Even in Brooklyn, you know, I by
(36:33):
the way, that Brooklyn team was pretty good. I think
that was a turned ankle in a strained hamstring away
from probably winning the title in twenty twenty one, but again,
he wasn't playing alongside to do everything forward. That's what's
unique about the Luca in Lebron experience, because I don't
think it's a coincidence. Kyrie is playing this incredible defense
that he's playing this season. This is his best defensive
(36:53):
season since twenty sixteen, when he hit the game winner
in Game seven of the NBA Finals and guarded Steph
the majority of the series. The reason why is on
that team, because Lebron could take sixty percent of the
offensive possessions and just eat up all that usage. Kyrie
was an excellent off ball player. He could spot up
(37:14):
and space the floor, but then it was like here's
here's a third of the game, go cook, But this
rest of the time I got you. Then that allowed
him to kind of handle all of his energy distribution
in all of these useful ways. And like Kyrie's had
some kind of iffy statistical games in this playoff run
where I thought he was awesome. He had a game
earlier this series where he took like eight shots, but
(37:35):
he had like eleven assists and was unbelievable defensively. Like Kyrie,
I think when he plays alongside a Swiss Army knife
forward that can really run an offense for the majority
of a game. He can focus his energy into his
his elite traits, and he's got some real elite traits.
And then I think, and this is the one last
thing I want to say about Dallas, and it's a
really interesting factor coming into the Minnesota series. Denver can't
(38:00):
protect the rim. It is their biggest weakness and that
ended up being an issue. You see Nasried and Carrolltown
slashing to the rim, Anthony Edward slashing to the rim.
Look at what the Lakers did to them. They eviscerated
their front line defensively. Minnesota is going into Dallas. Dallas
is an excellent rim protection team. Derek Lively and Daniel
(38:21):
Gafford have transformed that defense into like are you talk
about redwoods? Those dudes underneath the basket can really protect
the right.
Speaker 1 (38:28):
Was a trade deadline move, like, I mean, it's amazing, Yeah,
it's amazing what you can do with the trade Deavl.
That was one of the great trade deadline that didn't
get a ton of press. It didn't get a lot
of attention.
Speaker 3 (38:39):
To your point, because you had talked about how Oklahoma's
You said Dallas or Denver Dallas. Excuse me, you said
Dallas needed that series. You're right, it's an absolute catastrophe
if they lose that serious it's like a complete in
total catastrophe because they gave up first round draft compensation
for PJ. Washington and Daniel Gafford. So like, now looking
back at it, it looks it looks genius, But there
was a lot of state for Dallas in that series.
(39:01):
For the record, I thought Dallas deserved to win. I
thought they were the better team. Yeah, but again, like
they have some real rim protection, and that's going to
be an interesting angle on the Minnesota series because Minnesota
likes to attack the rim. There's slashing, dribble, penetration, attack
the rim type of offense, and Dallas is kind of
built to withstand that. So that'll be a really really
interesting element in the next round.
Speaker 1 (39:28):
Okay, I gotta talk about this. You know, Jason hoops tonight,
he watches more film than probably anybody on the internet.
So I watched Bronnie. I watched Bronnie, and first of all,
there's the revelation that he's like three inches smaller. So
now he's going to be a backup point guard. That's
kind of what he's got to be. So I always
feel like you got to be about six ' four
(39:49):
in the NBA to be a two, and then at
six ' four you got to be pretty tenacious because
you're gonna face six six guys a lot. But somebody
pointed out in the Internet. I apologize for not remembering
who it was, but they said, Wow, that jumper starts
really low, really low. You can get away with that
(40:09):
in high school, AU and probably college, but man, that
that's a half second. That's a third of a second.
And I watched Bronni and he's athletic enough, he runs
the floor. Well, you know he's going to be a
smart kid. I don't wantry to buy any of the
intangible stuff, but I looked at that jumper and I thought,
I don't I'm not a scout. I'm not going to
pretend I know. But you've seen it. Is that have
(40:33):
to be corrected for Bronnie?
Speaker 2 (40:35):
I think it probably does.
Speaker 3 (40:36):
That was actually the video that went around where you
did the star drill at the draft and the combine
and he hit nineteen for twenty five. The first thing
that stood out to me is like that releases a
little slow, like he was running to the spot and
then taking his time to load up and knock down
the shot. And like just compare that for compared, just
as a juxtaposition, watch a Dante DiVincenzo three as he
comes flying off a screen like it's a it is
(40:59):
lightning quick, really says, he gets it into his pocket
and elevates right. So like here's the thing, though, let's
not fool ourselves. None of us saw Brownie as a
lottery pick. He's a project. But he's a project who
with basketball shoes on, is going to be the better
part of six to three. He's two hundred and ten
pounds of solid muscle with strong like yeah, like I
(41:19):
was considered a strong forward in college and I was
two twenty five, So like to give you an idea,
he's like big and strong. You know, he's got super
long arms. He's got like six eight wingspan. He's what
had the third best vertical leap at the combine, Like
he is an elite athlete at his position who's got
good strength and length. So, like, what does he project
(41:40):
to be in the NBA? Probably, like you said, either
a backup guard kind of like a ducemicc bride. Duce
McBride is like kind of the low end, and then
the high end is like the guy like a Jalen Suggs,
where maybe he could start and be kind of like
the point guard or two guard on the team that
uses forwards to initiate offense, you know, because there's a
lot of teams out there, kind of like the twenty
twenty Lakers they started Casey and Danny Green, Like, you
(42:00):
don't need a point guard if your forwards are stars.
So like, there are teams out there that could use
a player like that. My thing is is like he's
clearly a project, So you're right, he's gonna have to
get a shot blocked fifteen times in practice until he
listens to the coach that says like, hey man, we
got to tweak your release. Let's get in, let's work
on this. It's gonna be a process. But like, I
have no problem with him getting his chance. I think
(42:21):
I don't know about you, Colin, but I think it's
absolutely hilarious everyone's focusing on the nepotism angle because it's
literally as if it hasn't been. Every level of basketball
is like that. I remember when I when I was
at the U of A. It'd be like they'd sign
some five star recruit and they'd bring two of his friends,
one to be a manager and one would get a
spot on the team. You know, of course that the
nassis on antenne Koumpo plays for the Bucks that he
(42:42):
like barely looks like an NBA player. Sometimes like at
the end of the day, like this is such an
ordinary thing in life, and like he's going to get
his opportunity because of his dad, no doubt. But no
real coach is going to put him on the floor
and give him minutes in a meaningful game unless he
earns it right, and he will have his opportunity to
earn it. He does have legitimate NBA tools, And that's
(43:04):
the part that I think it's gloss over too much.
He has NBA tools. Let him have his opportunity. Let's
see what he makes of it.
Speaker 1 (43:09):
Yeah, I watched them a couple of times at USC.
He's got hops, he'll defend, he's powerful, a quick jumper,
runs the floor really well. By the way, the same
guy who would complain about Bronnie doesn't watch the NBA
and probably got a job or went to a school
because his dad got him into college, and his dad
(43:30):
got into college because his grandpa got him into college.
It's like, people take a deep breath on this shit.
It's like politics, the Clintons, the Bushes, the I mean,
this is the way the world works, like corporate America,
political America. I mean, how many NFL coaches try to
squeeze their kid on the staff? You know, Pete Carroll
was well known squeezed. You know, he wants his kid
on the staff, and Belichick, by the way, put his
(43:52):
kid on the staff. I just don't have a problem again,
Brownie is when you when I watch him talk, when
I watch the soundbites, he's very grateful for it. This
isn't some arrogant kid who feels like he's like, yeah,
I get it, like everybody gets it in the room.
So it doesn't bother me at all. I want to
(44:15):
point on this too. So you know, I've said this
before that the thing that worries me a little bit
about the NBA, and I saw this. Hockey's always been
international and has never landed for the TV audience in America.
Baseball is increasingly over the last twenty international, and it's
lost its currency it's social currency in America, still very
popular in person, not on TV. The NBA will have
(44:37):
some challenges as it moves to some streaming services and
as it becomes international, but it did get its money. Baseball.
Major League Baseball signed a recent deal with Roku. It
made thirty million dollars, I mean a million dollars a team.
It's an nothing against Roku. It's absolutely an embarrassing contract.
(44:57):
The NBA is going to get like four billion a
year or something like that billion a year, five whatever
it is. And one of the things, the two things
why the NBA will never become baseball a they know
how to market. It's a star driven league. Even the
international guys they're all one word. It's like, you know,
I mean, just think of how many guys in the NBA.
(45:18):
It's like Luca, Yannis Jokic. You know, it's like Pele Messe, Ronaldo,
like that matters, Share Madonna sting music, right, like you know,
you go if you become a nickname sport. When I
was a kid growing up, it was that baseball players
often had like nicknames, and so the international players go
(45:40):
by one name or a nickname. There's a star ingredient
that the NBA has. The second thing is the juice
and energy I am watching these playoff games. These crowds
are I mean it is. The fans are just you know,
like they're giving their heart signs in New York. What
(46:00):
the NBA provides, and we all kind of know this
is it. A regular season doesn't matter as much. It
just doesn't. It's okay, the NFL is different scarcity of games,
But these playoffs, man, I'm telling you, I'm watching these things.
I can't turn away so like on Friday nights sometimes
in Saturday, because I know I'm not on the next day.
(46:22):
I won't sit home and take notes. I won't. I'll
go to a restaurant. I'll get park next to it.
I'm in a restaurant in LA and Okac and Dallas
are playing and people are gasping. La Beach people are going,
oh my god. I'm like, you don't do that for baseball.
You just don't do it for baseball. The quality of
energy and juice in these games. I mean, you're like
(46:45):
a savant of this stuff, But I tend to view
stuff almost as a generalist. Does it play to the masses,
Like I stopped talking baseball fifteen years ago. I didn't
see the juice. I didn't see the stars. One of
the reasons I talk to NBA. Just watch these crowds,
watch the energy. Jesus. Every possession Denver and Minnesota, OKC
(47:05):
Dallas for an hour, every possession matter.
Speaker 2 (47:10):
Like your late third quarter.
Speaker 1 (47:11):
You're like, oh my god, that's a huge three. So
the NBA gets And I don't know if it's the
sport that talks more politics or takes more cultural stands.
I don't know. Some people have a problem with it.
I don't, but I think these playoffs have been remarkable.
I mean even teams that are lower and skilled, like
New York can't turn them off.
Speaker 3 (47:32):
First of all, that Roku stat you gave his insane
because like, didn't the Liberty Fever game get over a
million dollars just in the in ticket sales from that
one game? Yes, in Major League Baseball teams are getting
a million for a contract with Roku. That's that's that
is flat out embarrassing. There's no other way to look
at it. Yeah, you know, I was listening to the
Bill Simmons podcast last week and he had Ethan Strauss
(47:54):
on and they were talking a little bit about the
difference between Ethan was trying to make a point. Basically,
what he was saying is is like, even though NHL
and baseball and basketball all are like these inventory sports,
he was saying, the NBA just feels like it's worth more.
Speaker 1 (48:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (48:11):
And one of the big things that I see with
the NBA that these other leagues don't have is the
moments Like so, for instance, both of those Boston Denver
games this year, those were moments like every NBA fan
was like, this is an NBA Finals preview, We're gonna
sit down, We're gonna watch this in both games were incredible.
Some of those Lebron's death battles were insane. Some of
(48:32):
those lebron kd battles were insane. To your point. Remember
the Kyrie lefty hook shot to beat Denver at the
buzzer towards the tail end of season. I was at
a restaurant watching that game. The restaurant went crazy. No
one's doing that for a d Backs Yankees game on
a Tuesday, Like, it's just it's it is. There is
an energy in like a the the NBA has the
ability to be it can be boring for five straight days,
(48:55):
but then it can have like a random Friday night
that is like an instant classic, and that I think
is something unique.
Speaker 1 (49:00):
Well, also, never forget this in baseball, like if Otani
or Bryce Harper or Dhing in a two hour and
fifty five minute game, you may see five minutes Atani
or Bryce Harper. In hockey, you know, if a forward
places twenty minutes because you're lying, you're only on the
ice for fifty seconds. In the NBA, Lucas on the
(49:23):
court for forty three minutes and has the ball every possession,
and quarterbacks and NBA Stars they're on the field, they
touched the ball. I mean, this is one of the
things with baseball. They've shortened the game smartly, but what
they've also done is they've reduced the time for it. Bats.
(49:44):
You want Bryce Harper like you don't want Bryce Harper ever, Dhing,
you want Bryce Harper. I mean Bryce Harper going from
right field to first base. I see more of Bryce Harper.
I want his face. This was taught to me years
ago by Glenn Jacobs at ESPN when and I sort
of moved off baseball as a topic. He said, and
he taught me this. He said, how much is your
(50:05):
star on TV. I want to see Shack in his
prime on TV, close up ISO cameras all the time,
and that's Brady, Brady Gronk, Brady Mahomes, Kelsey, Andy Reid.
Your stars are constantly on hockey baseball. They're not. So
the NBA has that advantage is that like the quarterback
(50:27):
I get, I mean Sga, Luka, Kyrie, Sga, Holme, Luca,
like four guys just back and forth, back and forth,
the occasional lou Dort, you know. I mean, you can
have occasional guys that don't stick out. But like I'm
watching that thing today and it's just I mean, Jokic,
Murray and even Quirky Gobaar, we know him. He's been around.
So the NBA's it's it's just I wouldn't talk it.
(50:51):
I mean, when you're a generalist, I have to talk
in headlines on FS one. I wouldn't talk it if
it didn't work. I talk NFL, NBA College for well
and an occasional moment. So NBA is fine. That's why
that's why there's a bidding war right now between NBC
and TNT and ESPN, and you know they'll probably all
get it all right. Oops tonight, Jason, timph this was
(51:15):
just good. What a great day, what a great weekend.
I love doing this so much with you and keep
crushing it season.
Speaker 3 (51:23):
To see you next time calling. Hopefully our conference finals
live up to the billing.
Speaker 1 (51:25):
Yep, I think they will the volume. Thanks so much
for listening. If you've enjoyed the podcast, take a moment,
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The Nikki Glaser Podcast
Every week comedian and infamous roaster Nikki Glaser provides a fun, fast-paced, and brutally honest look into current pop-culture and her own personal life.