May 28, 2024 • 53 mins
It’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for. THE NBA FINALS ARE FINALLY HERE! In the episode we break down our finals matchup between the Celtics and the Mavericks and all of the early storylines to go along with it. From Kyrie’s return to Boston to Porzingis going up against his former team. Will Jayson Tatum step up for the first time in the post season or is this actually Jaylen Brown’s team? Can Luka cement himself as the face of the league or is he going to get thumped by the best roster in the NBA?
We also discuss how the Timberwolves fell apart and LeBron’s “free agency”. There is so much to discuss so join us for season 2 episode 22 of the Swishlist Podcast!!
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
All right, everybody.
(00:00):
Welcome in season two, episode22 of this wishlist podcast.
Before we get into it, please,if you're listening right now,
give us a follow, subscribeYouTube right here, we want to
hear your takes and what youwant us to talk about on these
episodes.
Now, Roman, let's dive rightinto it.
we already know the finalsmatchup.
it's Boston, it's Dallas.
I have been very vocalthroughout the playoffs.
(00:22):
And I think it's only right thatI give you the floor and let you
say whatever it is you want tosay, whatever you feel like you
need to say, whatever I need tohear.
Um, it's only right that you getto say it.
Moses ran into the bestbackcourt probably ever
assembled.
And he was very confident insaying that his team was going
(00:45):
to the finals.
Uh, he said that from thebeginning and it led him to the
Western Converse finals.
But now his team is down 3 0 tothe Mavericks.
Uh, just, uh, this is thebasketball gods telling Moses
that he got a little bit tooconfident in his team.
And, uh, Cat really.
(01:07):
Cat really sold it for him.
Cat really sold it for himtonight.
Cat was one of the worstperformances I've ever seen.
He might have had double digitpoints, but it felt like anytime
he had the ball, it was hurtinghis team.
Um, they're down 3 0.
It's the same thing for theEast.
We have our finals matchup.
We have it.
Yeah, at this point, uh, anybodythat's listened to this podcast
(01:29):
for an extended period of time,they know two things.
I love the Minnesota Terroirs.
And I hate Luka Doncic.
And so to lose to Luka is just,anybody that just loves to see
me lose is screaming sweetjustice right now because that's
what it is if you do not like tohear my takes.
(01:49):
Um, it's tough because I thinkthat there was an opportunity
for us to really dominate thismatchup and the Timberwolves at
times just play dumb basketball.
I don't know why cat shot thatthree late in the game to tie
it.
If you're that bad all game, youshould never shoot that shot.
And it goes back to somethingthat I said in the Dallas
(02:10):
series, when Dallas had us downthree, two, I said, it feels
like Minnesota is missing anoffensive guard.
We just need one more offensiveplayer.
That's a major hole when theKiel Alexander Walker is the
only guard that's coming off thebench when you're tightening the
rotation and he's just not ableto get his own shot, you have to
(02:31):
rely on Kyle Anderson to get hisown shot like that's really, we
get exposed against a team likeDallas, um, and we run bad
offense, we run really badoffense, um, We don't look like
a team that, that, that shouldbe here.
And, you know, at times you havethese types of teams that make
it to conference finals.
(02:52):
I'm thinking of, uh, an AtlantaHawks team has made it to a
conference finals in a similarfashion.
Um, a lot of these guys, theyneed this type of learning
experience.
Uh, we're going to talk a lotabout the games in particular,
both conferences, but, uh, theseries is over.
Um, This is not a team capableof coming back from down three.
Oh, our best bet is that we canextend the series, put some more
(03:16):
wear and tear on Luca andKyrie's bodies going into the
next one because that's all wehave.
But if you're Minnesota andyou're looking at what you're
seeing on the floor, what'shappening to you, what's
happening to your team, the onlylogical decision that you can
make is to trade Carl AnthonyTowns.
(03:39):
You trade Carl Anthony Towns,you start Nas Reid, and you try
and get a higher qualityoffensive player, maybe somebody
that can come off the bench, anda first round pick.
And to supplement the picks thatwe lost, we lost four first
round picks when we traded forRudy Gobert, so you fill one of
(04:02):
those first round picks, and youtry and get somebody that's not
offensively challenged because Ican't, you just, as soon as he
gets past his guy, there's threepeople there and we shot less
than 33 percent from the threepoint line in this game.
So why wouldn't you justcontinue to double, triple,
(04:23):
quadruple team Anthony Edwards?
No, you're not afraid of anybodyelse.
Nobody else is a threat.
And this is where it's badcoaching for me.
PJ Washington, Roman, tell thepeople how tall PJ Washington
is.
6 8, 6 9.
mm-Hmm.
uh, how tall is Carl AnthonyTowns 6 11 7 foot.
(04:46):
How about Nas Reed?
Six 10.
Six 11.
Now, I'm not gonna put thefinger at Nas Reed because he
has been incredible from justabout everywhere on the floor.
But Carl Anthony Towns, when youmiss the first two threes, get
your butt on the freaking block.
Post up, clear the floor.
(05:08):
Put Anthony Edwards on thebackside corner so his guy
can't.
Go for the double.
You can't go for the weak sidedouble.
Feed the ball to Carl AnthonyTowns.
Low post, mid post.
And Kat, do your thing.
Because you're being defended bya guy that's six foot nine and
you're seven feet tall.
But he wants to play at thethree point line.
(05:29):
And then when he drives past PJ,there's two people there because
it takes him too long to getfrom the three point line to the
hoop, which is normal becausehe's seven feet tall.
So it's just dumb offense.
It's dumb basketball.
And it's, it's hard to watch ontelevision because they put
forth all this effortdefensively and they just look
stupid on offense.
(05:52):
And then you turn around andit's Luka hitting a three
pointer over Jaden McDaniels,like it's just barbecue chicken.
Or it's any Maverick hunting theRudy Gobert matchup and
embarrassing him.
Embarrassing him.
Repeatedly.
I mean, Daniel Gafford issmacking the ball off the
backboard.
Lively, smacking the ball offthe backboard.
Rudy Gobert, it's like hedoesn't know how to block a
(06:14):
ball.
Rudy Gobert, the best off balldefender.
In the NBA, I need you to giveme on the ball.
It's bad.
Help me understand, like, whatare you?
I, I, I genuinely believe youhave a better basketball mind
than I do.
You are a better player than Iam when you're watching these
games.
Talk to me about what you'reseeing happening.
(06:36):
What?
Where is the gap between Dallasand Minnesota?
The individual matchups forDallas.
I think Jason kid is a playercoach.
Uh, this is, this was a tradethat was great for them to get
Kyrie because like I, like Isaid, Jason Kidd is a player
coach.
He knows how to manipulate aLuka, uh, Kyrie, how to work
(06:59):
them through an offense.
It seems like if it's not a ISOfrom the wing for those two,
it's coming off a pick and rolland it opens up the wings for
them that you see how many lobsthey get.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Right.
It really is just matchups forthem.
It's just matchups.
I mean, even when Jaden Hart,uh, Jaden Hardy was on the
court, Luca was giving him theball, telling him to attack
(07:22):
Rudy, Rudy can't defend the,this, this whole, these first
three games to me have just beenmatchups and matchups coming in
clutch time, especially withLuca Donchic and Kyrie Irving.
So when clutch time comes up.
You give it to Luca.
Luca's not working.
You give it to Kyrie Irving.
All these, these, uh, their roleplayers they have on the side,
they've just been standing thereplaying defense.
(07:43):
They're ready for a kick outthree.
They're, they're not exhausted.
They haven't been moving around.
They've been standing around onthe offensive end waiting for
their perfect pass from KyrieIrving or Luca Doncic.
So it's just match ups here.
And the the experience from Lucaand Kyrie is showing up and I
think the to to your point withJason kid, he did.
He he's a master at the smallthings.
(08:06):
For example, he subs out.
He calls a timeout subs out aplayer.
And then there's a so there'sthe TV timeout.
They intentionally, like, Letme, let me rephrase it.
So Minnesota calls a timeout.
They, they play one possession,and then he calls a timeout.
(08:30):
Which means that, even thoughone possession is passed, he
subs a star back into the game,that star got to sit on the
bench for four minutes.
And so it's these small thingswhere in the 24 seconds of
gameplay, he gave his playerfour minutes of rest.
And it's those small things thatare why Luca and Kyrie can have
such a high usage rate becauseJason Kidd is so much smarter
(08:52):
and intentional about the waythat he's subbing in and subbing
out his players.
Meanwhile, what we see tonightis Luca Doncic and Anthony
Edwards are both on the benchwho are, they're the best
players for their respectiveteams.
And normally you're matchingyour best players.
They're playing about the sametimes.
Luca comes in, Ant's still onthe bench, Dallas goes on a 5 0
(09:14):
run, then they try to subAnthony Edwards in, and Dallas
just keeps the pace of playgoing.
They keep it going and going andgoing, and so Ant is sitting,
trying to sub in, can't sub in,meanwhile Luca and Kyrie are
both playing.
And so it's just these, it's allthe small things, like, when
(09:34):
you're losing games, and I knowthey ended up losing this game
by what, double digit points,but the first two games they
lose the game by three, it's thesmall things, it's these little
things, over 48 minutes, thatmakes such a huge difference on
the outcome, and Dallas justdoes a better job, to your
point.
(09:55):
At setting up their best playerswith the correct matchups and
Minnesota, they don't, theyreally, really don't, um, gosh,
it's just rips me apart, man,because and gotten to his, they
were, they were talking about itand gotten to his little flow
state after that dunk.
And the third quarter, the endof the third quarter was
(10:17):
beautiful for them.
They evened it up, it was backand forth through the fourth,
but that was because of the endof the third quarter, because of
what they did.
But Ant had four points in thefourth quarter, and it's
partially his fault, butpartially the team's fault for
not getting him the ball.
Like there's too manypossessions where it's Mike
Conley coming off a dribblehandoff or the pick and roll
(10:39):
with Kyle Anderson.
Like, why is Ant not hunting forthe ball those last few minutes?
And again, it might be teamoriented.
Again, last game he's Off thecourt for an extra few minutes,
getting oxygen because he's sotired.
Yeah, but these are the moments,especially with him talking
before the game, uh, this game'sgoing to be different.
(11:00):
You guys are going to see metake a bunch of shots.
They said during the game that,uh, Finch wanted him to take 30
shots.
Uh, he ends up with 24 points.
It's, it's not that bad, but.
It's not that good, but it's notthat good.
It needs to shine.
This is his time.
And again, he's young, 22 yearsold.
I should say, what else can weexpect?
(11:21):
Which kind of hurts to say, buthe's young, and his team didn't
show up for him.
And they're overachieving.
They're overachieving based onhis age.
I just don't think that heknows.
So he, when he has the ball andhe's dribbling up the floor, he
wants to call for a pick androll in the same way that Luca
(11:43):
does, but they bring a double.
And he's trying to get himversus Luca and they're just
doubling him.
But the, the, the, and then hepasses the ball away and then
fades into no man's land.
Like he disappears for the restof the possession.
And then they end up gettingthis weird shot or a bad shot,
or he'll drive and try and likepivot, pivot, double pivot, jump
(12:05):
and throw it.
Whereas when Luca is in the pickand roll and he sees the double,
he keeps the double.
Long enough to put theTimberwolves in a bad rotation
so that they get a good shotWhere Ant, like, Luka can beat
the double where they can stillget a good look.
(12:26):
It doesn't mean it's gonna go inBut they can still get a good
look Alternatively when Ant seesthe double He passes it so
quickly.
Dallas is still able to rotate.
They're still in their defensiverotation.
And then he's, yes.
And he's just not aggressiveenough to go get the ball back.
(12:47):
It's hard to watch.
Yeah.
Those are the perfect times togo back and get the ball.
As soon as they're off of thedouble team, go back and get it.
But I mean, exactly what you'retalking about.
Just sounds like experiencebeing a superstar.
And yes, Ant has been the bestguy on his team, but we haven't
seen double teams like we'veseen on him because he hasn't
been in the playoffs.
And now he's in the playoffs andhe's getting those double teams,
(13:09):
which give him a few years andhe will navigate it beautifully.
But it showed up, the experienceshowed up tonight.
He's just not at that levelright now.
So, Roman, if you are, and, and,man, hopefully Lively is okay.
They're calling it a neckstrain.
A neck strain is probably a bestcase scenario for what happened
(13:29):
to that guy.
He could have He, he could havebeen in a much worse position
than he, if that knee hits himin the right spot in his head,
he might be, he might have abrain bleed.
Like it was hard, a hard shot tothe head really hope he's okay.
Um, I mean, Dallas is going tothe finals if, and, and we're
(13:54):
going to talk about Dallas.
We're going to talk about Bostonand what that matchup looks
like.
But when we're looking at.
The Timberwolves, because I feellike this is the, the only time
we're really gonna get to talkabout'em by the time we record
the next podcast.
There's no conversation reallyaround Minnesota.
So when you're heading into theoff season incredible run that
they've had right here.
(14:15):
Tell me the two moves thatyou're making to, to make sure
that this roster can get back toa position like this again for
the, for Minnesota?
Yeah.
Um, I like your move off of CarlAnthony Towns.
Uh, I think.
Going off of him, filling it outwith Nas read, he showed that,
uh, he can be their powerforward.
(14:37):
He, he's basically cat, but justperforming better in the
playoffs.
I mean, they wouldn't be herewithout without him.
So I think you move off of him.
And in terms of theacquisitions, you fill out your
reach a little bit more,obviously, but you go for that.
Because we talked about MikeConley talking about possibly
coming to an end.
But, uh, I think something likemoving off of him for a more
(14:59):
dominant guard would help too.
Oh, like dominant starter.
Yes.
Yes.
I think they've, they've gottenwhat they need out of Mike
Conley.
Uh, he's been a great role modelfor, for him, for, for Anthony
Edwards.
But I think he needs a littlebit more.
And I think getting rid of catcan open up the opportunity for
another guard.
So I think, a little bit more.
(15:21):
You keep your, your NikhilAlexander Walker, your, uh, I
don't, I don't even really know.
I've liked their bench them thatmuch.
Kyle Anderson's not really ashooter.
He's been great on defense forthem, but you fill out your
bench a little bit more.
Um, But I think going for a moredominant guard, it just may be
just not a short because MikeConley get gets attacked.
(15:43):
He gets attacked.
Yes.
Great experience guard.
But I think having a moredominant guard to pair with ant
is something that would helpthem to become What looks like
the Dallas Mavericks going tothe NBA Finals because of the
two guards?
Yeah, I think that we need athree point shooter off the
bench.
We just need a sharpshooter.
(16:04):
Uh, well, you got NikhilAlexander Walker launching left
handed threes from the corner.
He's been, he's been soliddefensively other than Kyrie
torching him, Luka torching him.
Through the playoffs, he's beensolid defensively, but he's not
consistent at all on offense.
Like we need, we, we, I, I don'tthink Tim Hardaway Jr.
(16:24):
has been good But his play stylewith the all star is the type of
player that we need.
I don't think we need him, butwe need someone with that play
style where they're just,they're ready to catch and
shoot.
When, when we're looking atguards that you're trying to
pair with Anthony Edwards, areyou thinking like a Dejounte
Murray type player?
Or are you looking for somebodythat is less attack the basket
(16:48):
and more outside shooter?
Like help me get an idea of the,maybe not like, give me a comp
for a player that you'd want tosee.
Well, I feel like we're lookingfor, again, more of a
facilitator, but not a balldominant facilitator.
Like a Darius Garland?
Well, he's still undersized.
(17:09):
Undersized, but see, that'swhere it gets tough.
There's no ideal guard for thissituation.
I mean, Mike Connelly's great,but it's just to name a player.
I don't, I really don't think Ican name a player right now.
Uh, I mean, I have to thinkabout it.
Um, I can get back to you onthat, but I just feel like Mike
(17:32):
Connelly's good for them.
Yeah, but he hurts them too.
He might be a vet that they needto move to the bench.
Yes.
Yes.
If he's coming off the bench, Ithink he can stay, but his time
as the starter is, is done, isdone.
Uh, Rudy go bear.
(17:52):
I don't know what you do withRudy.
This is just what happens in theplayoffs.
He gets exploited every year.
He can be defensive player ofthe year, but he just gets
exploited.
I, I messaged you this.
He came in for two possessionsand it basically ended the game.
He fouled Daniel Gafford on adunk and it just, it just ended
(18:13):
the game.
And I don't know what you dowith Rudy because.
His game converts to wins in theregular season, but you get into
a conference finals and it'sjust attack Rudy.
If I've, if I've said it once,I've said it a million times.
When you see Rudy Gobert on arandom Tuesday night, he, it's,
(18:36):
it's difficult to, it'sdifficult to play against him
because you're running the sameoffense every night, regardless
of who you're playing.
But in the post season, when youplan.
When you intentionally plan tolike to a higher degree than at
any other point in the regularseason, you can expose Rudy
Gobert and where it's difficultis he has no offense.
(18:59):
He has no offensive moves.
None.
He doesn't have a single postmove.
Not one post move.
You might catch him Euroingevery once in a while.
He, he cannot catch the ball anddo a drop step.
He cannot catch the ball andshoot a hook shot.
He cannot catch the ball and usehis pivot foot.
(19:21):
He on offensive rebounds, laysit up.
He doesn't even dunk it.
He.
There is not a player in my lifethat I have watched on national
television and been morefrustrated watching them on both
sides of the ball because onoffense, he has no bag
whatsoever, but then he'sdefensive player of the year and
(19:44):
consistently guards are shootingover him, shooting around him
and laying up the ball in frontof him.
The amount of layups that get byhim is really bad.
It just seems like he's notcoordinated.
Like it.
How is this guy a defensiveplayer of the year?
We saw the tape with Wemby whereplayers will not shoot the ball
(20:05):
like they won't, but no one isafraid to shoot the ball against
this guy.
It's, it's, it's embarrassing.
It's almost like the defensiveplayer of the year has become an
indictment on him.
Uh, I wish I could remember hisname.
He's an announcer for the newworld for the new Orleans
pelicans.
He played on one of thosechampionship teams in the
(20:26):
nineties for the Spurs.
Yeah.
And, uh, he was saying that thedefensive player of the year
overvalues rim protection,undervalues perimeter defense,
like being able to guard onethrough five.
The defensive player of the yearneeds to be somebody that can
guard one through five.
(20:47):
You're not the defensive playerof the year if you get exposed
the way that Rudy Gobert does,period.
Period.
It's, yeah, the defensive playerof the year is, it's not who's
the best interior defender.
No.
Or the best rim protector.
Yeah, who's the best help sidedefender.
It's, it, it, it was.
(21:07):
It used to be.
Dwight Howard, what he was doingwas different than this.
Now you could, you could putDwight Howard in a pick and roll
and he would have a difficulttime, but he was, he was right
there at the hoop.
As soon as you would try andshoot it, he was smacking the
ball off the backboard.
Regal Bear can't do that.
He's not coordinated enough.
(21:27):
He's not quick enough to dothat.
And granted, the NBA has shiftedsince Dwight played.
But at the time that would havethat that that style of player,
it made sense to give them thataward.
Today, it doesn't.
Definitely not.
It's it's not.
Who's the best help sidedefender?
No, That's what Rudy is for yourteam.
(21:47):
But we've been saying this for acouple of years.
Now you get him in a playoffseries and he gets exposed.
It's how long can you, can youlast that exposure?
It's starting to show up withsome game winners.
Rudy Gobert might be the guythat costs us Anthony Edwards
prime or costs you AnthonyEdwards period.
(22:10):
Yeah, no, it's true.
It's, it's really true.
Cause we're trapped.
We're stuck with this guy for along time.
Kate, let's, let's shift gearsto Dallas.
Uh, you, I don't think anybodyanticipated three Oh, and if
you're the Mavericks, Everythingyou could have hoped for from
(22:31):
Luka Doncic, he is delivering.
He gets put in the mostimpossible situations at times,
and when he shoots the ball, youjust know it's going in.
Everybody and their dog knowsit's going in.
Anybody who doesn't watchbasketball knows it's going in.
There's an inevitability.
To the way that the Mavericksare playing.
(22:52):
They are not afraid of themoment.
They are not afraid of thematchups.
They are hunting these playersdown and they are offing them at
every chance.
Uh, if you're Mark Cuban, ifyou're Dirk Nowitzki, if you're
Nicola Jokic, you're watchingthis Dallas Mavericks team, and
you are just so happy, um, that.
(23:16):
That they're delivering becausethe aptitude was there and now
the play is, is meeting thatlevel.
And so my goodness, man, thisis, it's an incredible team.
They had an incredible trade andthey are primed and ready to, to
go to the finals.
Roman, what, what impresses youmost about the Dallas Mavericks?
(23:40):
It's the, the fact that Luca andKyrie is working so well, I
think when he got traded fromthe Nets, it was just kind of
like, why would you do that?
They're both ball dominantguards.
Like, this isn't going to work.
But the way they interact witheach other.
Uh, I think Kyrie's energy justbounces off perfectly with Luca.
(24:03):
Luca is very intense, like, uh,offensive guy, like involved
with the refs and Kyrie's justtaking the role of leadership.
Let me elevate everybody's play.
I'm the veteran on this team.
Uh, let me motivate people.
I'll take the big shots when Ineed to.
Yeah, but the difference is Lucahas the opportunity to have
(24:24):
somebody else who's, who's greaton his team.
He has another superstar, whichis, he's been lacking, uh, he's
never had this before when theymade the Western commerce files.
He didn't have a superstar.
So, uh, it showed in this game,Luca's trying to fall bait.
Uh, Jaden McDaniels kind oflocks him up for a couple
possessions in a row, hand theball off to Luca, Luca go, I
(24:46):
trust this guy.
I trust this guy, which Iwouldn't expect from Luca.
I would never expect that fromhim, but I think the
relationship that Kyrie hasbuilt with them and their, their
connection has got them to thispoint.
And I find it unbelievable thatit's working this well.
Yeah.
Their chemistry is top notch.
And I saw a comment on socialmedia and it was why, like, If
(25:10):
Kyrie wanted out with LeBron,but it's working so like, why is
it working so well with Luka ifhe couldn't make it work with
LeBron?
Guys, Kyrie has been in theleague for how long?
Like he played with with when heplayed with LeBron, he was still
a new player to the NBA.
(25:31):
He was still making a name forhimself.
He made a name for himself whileplaying with LeBron.
Of course it would make sensefor him to want to try and do it
on his own.
Of course it would make sensethat he would want to try and
team up with other star players.
And of course it would makesense that when he finds Luka
Doncic, And he realizes thatthis is the team that's poised
to make a run, that he's goingto find the role that he excels
(25:53):
in, which is This guy's one ofthe best second options in the
history of basketball.
When he gets a ball dominant,number one guy, he is one of the
most lethal, one of the mostclutch, one of the most surefire
players that we have ever seen.
(26:15):
Play is a second option and he'sseen this before and he knows
what it takes to win.
And so it's so weird for peopleto be like, Oh, to, to, to, to
randomly point a finger atLeBron.
And I don't want this to becomea LeBron segment genuinely, but
we're seeing a Kyrie.
That's He's not bringing extraattention to the team.
(26:37):
He's locked in on basketball.
And I mean, they're going to goto the finals for it.
It's a absolutely incredible towatch.
Uh, let's let's pivot to theEastern conference, uh, filled
with games that no one wants towatch and teams running football
plays instead of basketballplays.
(26:57):
We saw a hail Mary, um, in gamethree, this was, this was what
we expected.
Uh, there's, there's really nosurprise if you're Boston, you
now have the benefit of, of nothaving to force Chris apps
porzingis to come back out andplay.
If it were me and he's playingfull contact practices, I would
(27:22):
get him 10 minutes.
In game four, I'd get him someminutes because to not play for
a full series and then to playin the finals is significant.
Not that he's going to be thebest, the number one option, the
number two option, but I'd gethim some minutes.
Um, Roman, what are we seeingfrom this Boston, Indiana
(27:43):
matchup?
We are seeing the moreexperienced teams show up.
My, my pacers are, they're,they're letting me down.
Yeah, they're cooked.
Like, not completely, but thisteam could have been up 2 1 on
the Celtics right now.
Yeah.
(28:04):
Game 1, they gave it to them.
Game 3, without Tyrese HowlandBurton, they gave it to them
again.
Up 8 with 2 minutes left, andthey lose by 3.
Um, the turnovers show up.
Uh, NemHart was playingbeautiful, but Yeah.
Again, it's just experience.
It's just experience at thispoint.
(28:25):
True Holiday is one of the bestperimeter defenders and he
showed that.
Um, but the Celtics have beenhere before.
That's, that's what it is.
Uh, the Pacers haven't, RickCarlisle has been here before,
but I guess just not with thisteam and they don't know how to
close out a game now and it, Imean, it doesn't help that they
don't have Tyrese, but, uh, Ithink this is just, this is good
(28:49):
for the Pacers that they wereable to make it this far.
A team to look out for in theEastern Conference now against
team.
Yeah, they made it here offinjuries, but, uh, they've got
some pieces and so did Boston.
So did Boston.
Yeah.
The entire East has just beenfull of injuries.
The only test for the Celtics isgoing to be the finals.
(29:09):
Um, but yeah, the, the, thewhole thing, the Chris stops,
it's.
It's just tough.
Cause it's been a month and ahalf since the guy last played.
Yeah.
So it's like, do you even riskputting him back in the lineup?
Uh, this guy hasn't been withthe Celtics for long.
So, yeah, but this is a guy thathas to want to beat Dallas, man.
I know playing this former team.
(29:31):
It's, it's there, but likethey're playing good without it.
That's not, that's all I got tosay.
If he comes in, does it mess upthe five that they, that they,
That they've been playing.
Yeah, but they, but they, theyfind themselves in these
compromising situations and haveto play their way out of it.
(29:52):
You can't play your way out ofthis against Dallas.
You can't go down 15.
You can't end up in these lategame situations.
Luca will make the right play.
Halliburton turned it over.
Luca is not going to do that.
So like you, you, you Bostonputs, they, they, they, they do
this to themselves.
(30:13):
And you just, you're not goingto be able to get away with it
anymore.
The East, the East was, it was,it's a house of cards, man.
We got to the end and we,somebody pulled the rug out and
it's just, yeah, the East was acrypto scam, dude.
Everybody came to watch and itwas just bad, bad, bad, bad to
(30:35):
worse.
Every single team.
Every single team had injuries.
Yeah.
No, it's been strange forgetting the one seat.
They got the one seat and hadthe easiest route, which is,
yeah.
And that's why you get it.
Yeah.
That's, that's why you get it,man.
Um, but the guard matchupthough, that's, this is what the
(30:57):
Celtics built this team for.
You go against Kyrie and Luca,but you have probably the two
best perimeter defenders in theNBA.
You have the best perimeterdefenders, Eric White and your
superstars.
And your superstars like youhave the, this is the, okay.
So, so, so let's, let's get intothis because I really, I think
(31:19):
that's all we have to say aboutBoston versus the Pacers.
The, the, the Achilles heel ofthe, for the Boston Celtics is
the center position.
It's Al Horford, and if youdon't have Porzingis, because we
(31:43):
know what Dallas is going to do.
They're going to run pick androll.
They're going to have Gaffordand Lively.
If you put them in the dropcoverage, they're going for
lobs, or it's going to be Lukaand Kyrie shooting contested
twos, threes, and kick outthrees.
And if you're only center.
is Al Horford.
The Boston Celtics willstruggle.
(32:05):
They will strugglesignificantly.
It doesn't matter if you havesolid perimeter defense because
Jaden McDaniels is a solidperimeter defender and when he
gets put in prison, when he'sbehind Luca, there's nothing he
can do.
And so that's why Porzingisback.
(32:26):
Even if he's not a greatoffensive player, you need
bodies.
It's that you can put in thatmatchup.
You have to have people you canplay there because when Al
Forford is your only option, youcan get by against Indiana.
But Miles Turner's beenfeasting.
You're not like that.
(32:46):
Is it that you can't you can'tgo into the finals and not have
coursing is hitting seven threesa game.
It's Roman.
Come on.
I mean, they have a cornet gothurt last game.
So now they got O'Shea Brissettcoming off the bench as their
backup center.
Yeah, it's not doesn't haveminutes.
(33:09):
So it's the yeah, the onlyposition that's going to hurt
them is the center position.
And that's the position thatthrives for the Mavericks
because they run their offense.
Through the pick and roll.
Yes.
The alley oops, how do we playinside out to get to our guards
by playing through lively, by,by playing through art, the
(33:30):
bigs.
So it's.
I just, who's going to be there?
Who's going to be hurt?
Who's not going to be hurt ishow long is lively out is
porzing is coming back.
Is Alan Warford role player AlHorford, or is he, is he Hawks
Al Horford and how healthy isLuca going to be going through
that finals run, right?
This guy is, he's got two hurtknees.
(33:53):
I mean, it doesn't look likehealth matters to him.
He looked great.
He looked great tonight.
Well, he doesn't rely on hisathleticism, right?
Like, but, but regardless,That's another series of games.
You know what I mean?
Like, I don't know.
I it's, it's.
They're torching theTimberwolves.
They are lighting up the numberone defense Boston's.
(34:15):
I think I want to say that thenumber they're the number two
defense Okay, so so they'retorching the number one defense
and they have three bigs Bostoncould go in with one and a half
bigs.
It's a tough spot to be weakIt's a really tough spot to be
weak.
(34:35):
You'd be okay.
If you were weak at the four,not the five.
No.
And the matchups like JalenBrown and, and, uh, Jason Tatum
are going to get switched a lot.
They're going to have to playdefense probably.
Oh, they for sure.
I'm going to have to take awayfrom their offense.
It's, it's not going to be aneasy series.
(34:56):
No, it's not.
And there's a reason both theseteams are in the five and the
Mavericks have played a young,okay.
See team, but the number oneseed.
Minnesota, a team that maybeshouldn't have been there, but
they're aggressive.
They still had to shut themdown.
They still had to shut themdown.
And the Clippers who had solid,like they had a, they had
(35:20):
legitimate teams that they hadto go through to get there where
Boston.
Has had an easy path, a cupcakepath to the finals.
Like, you, you gotta be carefulin these types of situations.
In the same way that Boston kindof ran into a buzzsaw with
Indiana.
And Indiana, they, they, theychoked.
But, you could come into gameone and get hit with a buzzsaw
(35:40):
pretty quickly.
Well, and that's the thing too,is it's not just which team
looks better on paper.
This is the playoffs.
It's Which team matchups matchup, which team matches up better
with another team, becausenobody predicted the Mavs to be
in the Western ConferenceFinals.
I mean, some people did, butthat's just Mavs.
(36:02):
You wouldn't expect this type ofteam to be here, but that's the
amazing thing about theplayoffs.
It's, it's purely Who performsbetter and these are just
they're they're people they'renot this isn't a simulation.
These are real guys This is notNBA.
Okay, and players are gonna overperform and It's it's going to
(36:23):
show up in the finals.
I think it's going to be anabsolute battle.
It's going to be interesting.
So all we can do now is justwait.
Well, we're on this side of thepod, which means people are
going to be looking for ananswer.
Unfortunately, we can't just sithere and wait.
We need to give the people sometype of prediction.
And so, so let's start by, bypredicting who wins this finals
(36:44):
matchup, Boston Celtics, DallasMavericks.
Who do you have winning Roman?
Celtics.
I'm going to go Celtics six.
I, uh, wow.
I'm gonna second that.
I'm also gonna go Boston in six.
The storylines are fantasticbecause it's pingus against his
former team with Kyrie againsthis former team.
(37:08):
Uh, it, there's not, it's gonnabe bad blood.
It's going to be bad blood.
And this is the series whereKyrie will be tested the most
because these fans hate him andhe hates them.
And so lied to him.
He lied to him.
Will he still be this calmingpresence?
(37:28):
That he's been up to this pointin the postseason.
We're going to have to find out.
Um, I do believe Dallas thoughis going to punch him in the
mouth early.
I wouldn't be surprised ifDallas wins game one and Boston
has to bounce back and recoverbecause I just don't think
they're going to be ready forthe level of intensity that
they're going to find in theMavericks in the first game of
this series.
(37:49):
Uh, I don't think they're goingto have an answer for how to
defend Luka Doncic in the firstgame of this series.
And how he attacks the pick androll, but I do believe that over
time, because Boston has so manyweapons and they have so many
guys that can give them a 30point performance or a 40 point
performance, that's going tooverwhelm the Dallas Mavericks
that there's an inevitability toBoston in just everywhere you
(38:14):
look, 30.
And that's just not somethingthat Dallas has.
And I think that amount offirepower with, uh, that a team
being willing to take thechallenge defensively ultimately
wins out what's it, what, whatdo you think about that?
What, uh, let me know yourthoughts.
I agree.
Um, also the problem with theMavericks is they give a lot of
(38:36):
opportunities for three pointersfor teams.
And I've been very successful atgetting a lot of shots from
teams who haven't been hittingand unfortunately, this is the
number 1 3 pointing shootingteam in the league.
Uh, Derek White has been amazingthrough the playoffs.
Drew Holiday hits his shots.
Jaylen Brown is going to giveyou a couple.
(38:57):
Jason Tatum hasn't been good,but, uh, regardless, I mean, Al
Horford too, if they havePorzingis, Peyton Pritchard, Sam
Houser.
They're the best three pointshooting team in the league.
And I think it's going to showup, but, uh, I would expect in
the majority of the games forthe Mavericks to be in foul
trouble, the way they playdefense, would expect PJ
(39:21):
Washington or Derek Jones jr.
To be in foul trouble early.
Uh, and possibly one of the bigsif lively's back.
Yeah.
But this team boughs and.
The Celtics, I wouldn't saythey're foul baiters, but they
get to the rim.
Yes.
They are the number one.
Yeah, yeah, they get to the rimat a high level.
Yeah.
And they have star players.
(39:42):
Uh, Jalen Brown's a star.
Jason Tatum's a star.
Drew Holliday has been a starfor teams that he's played for.
Yes.
They're, they're going to get tothe line.
So I would expect foul troublefrom.
From these guys, I think we'regoing to see it in a few of the
games.
So I would, I would expect a lotof three pointers and a lot of
fouls.
That's what I'm thinking happensthrough the, through the finals.
Yeah.
(40:02):
I, to me, for anybody thatdoesn't know what foul baiting
is, what we're talking about,just go watch Luca play, watch
Shea, Gilgis Alexander play thedifference, the difference
between Boston putting a team infoul trouble and Dallas.
It's really this Tatum andJalen.
They get to the rim.
(40:22):
They're attacking your bigs, orthey're pump fake in the paint.
They get you elevated, they goup and under, they score.
They're going through you to, toscore the ball.
Whereas, when you're watchingLuka play, his, his mindset
going into the possession is,I'm gonna get a foul on this
(40:43):
guy.
And so he's flailing, he'sthrowing his arms, he's stopping
in the middle of the play andlooking at the ref like he's
doing these things that it's notwithin the flow of basketball
set within the flow of the game.
And it's happening normallyoutside of the three point line
as he's getting closer to thepaint.
That's where it's happening,right?
The mid range to three pointextended.
(41:04):
That's where the foul baiting isfor Boston.
They're in the paint, they'reattacking you.
And it's.
As you're trying to contest theover and over and over again,
you're going to foul.
And so, yes, I don't believethat Boston foul baits.
Uh, I, I just believe that theyplay downhill.
(41:26):
They're not yet.
They're not focused on tryingto, they, they know you're going
to foul them.
Yeah.
Whereas looking for your arms ashe's going up to the hoop.
Yeah.
He's trying to go through yourarms and then he's going to
laugh at you after when he getsthe call.
Jalen Brown's he's been.
Amazing.
He's been using his left hand.
(41:48):
He's been good.
I know he's been using his lefthand.
This this playoff run is just anindictment on all of my takes
combined.
It's brutal.
The basketball gods hate youthis year.
They hate me.
Hey, just you just got to waittill next year, I guess.
But I guess so.
So in that case, that meanspolitic are gonna lose.
I did get a Minnesota WestWestern conference finals
(42:10):
appearance, so let's not, like Ididn't have, uh, a fantastic run
first time since first time in20 years.
I mean, I was seven years oldlast time they were here, like
almost turning eight.
That's great.
Um, I've had a great, a greatrun, uh, this postseason as
well, so, so at least there'sthat.
(42:31):
But this is, um.
Gosh, it's can't missbasketball, dude.
It really is.
We've talked about this with,uh, one through three seeds or
the only teams that really winchampionships.
So if the, if the averages workout, the Mavericks really should
(42:52):
not win.
They're not going to five seed.
The Celtics are a one seed.
Um, we took the safe pick.
That's, that's what it is rightnow.
We took the team that shouldwin.
We, we, yeah, we're, we, wedefinitely took the easy route.
Um, I, Luca has the potential tobe an all time great he's, he.
(43:21):
He just, he's at that level.
And oftentimes players at thatlevel, they run into these
situations and there may be ayear early, or maybe they're,
they're not ready for themoment.
Uh, it's, it's happened manytimes to a lot of great players
(43:43):
that the first finals appearancedoesn't go well.
It happened to Shaquille O'Neal.
Who's an all time great, but heran into a Hakeem Olajuwon.
That was just.
A better they had a better team.
They had a better team and itwas just him and penny Uh lebron
james when he ran into timduncan and the spurs And tim
(44:07):
said We guard lebron with fiveguys Like this is not uncommon
for A generational player to beput in a situation like this and
for it, uh, for, for them toplay against a, an all time
team.
Tatum's been here before he'sabout to, he's had the moment
(44:30):
that Luka Doncic is going tohave.
Uh, I just believe that, thatthey're ready for it.
Like the core, all of those guyshave been here.
All of them.
Drew's won it.
Jalen, Horford, Jason, they'veall been there.
The coaching staff's all beenthere.
Like everybody's been there.
(44:50):
And it just, the stars reallyhave aligned for the Boston
Celtics to win it all.
And.
Here we are, two brothers, thiswishlist podcast, telling you
right now, you, yes, youlistening, the Boston Celtics,
they're gonna win it all.
(45:12):
If the averages are right,there's no reason this team
should lose.
If history repeats itself, likeyou're saying, which we've seen
quite a bit, the numbers areoverwhelmingly in our favor.
The Celtics will win.
I have my doubts.
The Celtics will win.
I have my doubts.
This, the Celtics are gonna winthe finals.
(45:35):
I remember the same guy sayingthat another team was going to
win the finals.
Listen, man, here's, here's,here's the reality.
I do believe that the majorityof the time we come into this
podcast and we're very levelheaded about what we're seeing.
Like we, we pull the emotionsout of it and we are very
(45:57):
objective about what we'reseeing on television.
Unbiased, if you will.
I.
started the postseason that wayand after i saw what we did to
the phoenix suns very quicklyswung Uh the complete opposite I
(46:20):
operated out of fandom, which isa fallacy and it's something
that we shouldn't do on thispodcast.
And so America, I'd let youdown.
I do have to all on the formerchampions.
Kind of gives you an excuse.
Yeah.
I mean, when we wanted to belike, Hey, Moses, chill, but I
couldn't do it.
We won six straight postseasongames, six straight games in the
(46:43):
postseason.
I mean, we were, we were on topof the world.
But the finals, uh, we don'tgive the championship trophy to
the team that wins in April, wegive the championship trophy to
the team that wins in June.
And this year is just not ouryear to do that.
(47:04):
It's not the Timberwolves yearto do that.
And I was emotional.
I was very emotional and, um,that's why I was wrong.
But I'm looking at June and it'sgreen, very green, Boston,
Celtic green.
Does Jason Tatum or Jalen Brownget that MVP though?
(47:28):
You, yeah, it's going to beJason Tatum.
Hey, LeBron's been hoopingthough.
It doesn't even matter, dude.
I think that Adam Silver is notgoing to let Tatum not get the
award.
If you give it to Jalen Brown,it's, it's a, it's a disaster
for the NBA.
Yeah.
Like they're, they're not.
They're not gonna let thathappen.
(47:49):
That's Curry like.
Yes, yes, yes.
Yeah, it has to go.
It has to go to Tatum.
Um, it has to go to Tatum.
Players are going to get paidhere in the next few years?
Oh yeah.
Listen, man, we, in a couple ofyears, players are going to be
making 90 million in a couple ofyears.
Players can make it a hundredmillion.
The only employees that havebenefited from inflation are
(48:11):
professional athletes.
If I've said it once, I've saidit a million times, I'm telling
you, the only, the onlyemployees that benefit from
inflation are athletes.
Because the contracts just keepgoing up, man.
They keep going up.
Okay, here's this, uh, LeBron,free agent, is he signing with
the Lakers?
Yes or no?
Yeah, I think that's more justmedia bait.
(48:31):
So do I.
He's a Laker.
I think this is, this is whatLeBron does.
And I think this is also one ofthe reasons why people don't
like LeBron is because hedoesn't actually commit to a fan
base.
He doesn't commit to a team.
He he opts out, he waits, hewatches.
I'm not going to, I'm not goingto tell you who I want to be the
head coach because I don't wantto be wrong.
(48:55):
I don't want to tell you whatsuperstars you should get
because I don't want to bewrong.
I want to force you to makedecisions.
That will make me come back.
LeBron's really toxic.
Like that is, that is so toxic.
If you are dating someone likethis, break up with them
immediately.
(49:16):
It's like one of those that youtalk, it's like a relationship
that you talk about after thefact.
Like, why did I do that?
Like, why did I put myself inthat situation?
When LeBron retires, there'sgoing to be so many podcasts and
things like, I hated playingwith LeBron.
Like, yeah.
There was things that he made usdo or things that he said,
trying to be a coach, like, Ifeel like that's the type of
(49:37):
situation that's going tohappen.
And yeah, just also just draw somuch attention that you can't
relax when it's just thisunnecessary pressure that he
puts on the team.
I'm going to give you a greatexample of, of like this, this
LeBron James free agency thing.
I, I dated a girl once in highschool.
And, uh, we were talking,texting, went on a couple dates,
(49:58):
whatever.
And she was the type of personthat I would text first on
Monday, and she would text firston Tuesday.
And then I would text first onWednesday, and she would text
first on Thursday.
And, um, I remember this is,this gets really serious pretty
quick, but our parents ended upgetting divorced and I was just
(50:23):
going through it.
I was trying to figure thingsout while I was in high school.
It was a, it was a lot, it was,it was a lot emotionally to, to
navigate.
And I just didn't text first onmy day.
And it was an unwritten rule,right?
Nobody said anything.
And, and I just didn't, I didn'ttext.
And, uh, I'd never talked tothat person again.
(50:47):
It, as soon as I realized whathad happened, I just waited.
I was like, well, I just want tosee, like, are they ever going
to text me?
Ever?
They never did.
That's the type of pressure thatLeBron James puts on a team.
Where it's this unwritten rule,this unnecessary pressure.
(51:08):
Everything would be so mucheasier if he just came out and
said, Lakers, Lakers fans, Ilove being in LA.
I'm playing for the LA Lakers.
I know I'm a free agent.
I'm just working out somecontract negotiation with the
team.
I'm committed to you.
I'm committed to our future.
I'm committed to winning achampionship, but LeBron won't
(51:30):
do that.
And that's one of the reasonswhy fan bases like the Lakers
and NBA fans in general,oftentimes have such a hard time
wrapping their arms around theking.
Well, yeah.
And if he fails, like you said,it's not his fault.
If he succeeds, it's all becauseof him.
(51:50):
He had zero help.
Uh, they did, they didn't makethe pieces that he needed and he
still was able to win or get tothe finals like he did so many
times.
So it's.
You can't say it's a win win forLeBron because he has so many
haters, but it's, uh, it's veryeasy for him to just stay quiet.
(52:12):
Yeah, that's, uh And let hisagent say that he's a free
agent.
Yeah, yeah, he didn't even sayit.
He had his agent say it.
Rich Paul.
The most calculated, the mostcalculated Man in the history of
basketball.
Uh, that's going to do it for ustoday for this wishlist podcast,
please.
If you haven't already click thesubscribe button, uh, like
(52:35):
share, subscribe.
Uh, we really appreciate all ofthe feedback that we get.
The responses from you, the lovethat we receive on social media.
So please, if you know somebody.
That doesn't know the game ofbasketball.
Send them this episode.
Make sure that they are asinformed as possible going into
the finals because it's a coldworld.
But, but once again, we just,we, we appreciate the
(52:55):
opportunity to be here.
Roman, send us off.
It is finals time, baby.
Not yet completely, but we'rehere.
We know what it looks like.
If you're not subscribing, ifyou're not liking, if you're not
following, it's gettingridiculous.
It's really getting ridiculous.
We're wrapping up on the season.
We need y'all with us.
We need y'all interacting withus.
(53:16):
We need everybody.
Episode 22 Switchless podcast.
We are.
All right, everybody.
(00:00):
Welcome in season two, episode22 of this wishlist podcast.
Before we get into it, please,if you're listening right now,
give us a follow, subscribeYouTube right here, we want to
hear your takes and what youwant us to talk about on these
episodes.
Now, Roman, let's dive rightinto it.
we already know the finalsmatchup.
it's Boston, it's Dallas.
I have been very vocalthroughout the playoffs.
(00:22):
And I think it's only right thatI give you the floor and let you
say whatever it is you want tosay, whatever you feel like you
need to say, whatever I need tohear.
Um, it's only right that you getto say it.
Moses ran into the bestbackcourt probably ever
assembled.
And he was very confident insaying that his team was going
(00:45):
to the finals.
Uh, he said that from thebeginning and it led him to the
Western Converse finals.
But now his team is down 3 0 tothe Mavericks.
Uh, just, uh, this is thebasketball gods telling Moses
that he got a little bit tooconfident in his team.
And, uh, Cat really.
(01:07):
Cat really sold it for him.
Cat really sold it for himtonight.
Cat was one of the worstperformances I've ever seen.
He might have had double digitpoints, but it felt like anytime
he had the ball, it was hurtinghis team.
Um, they're down 3 0.
It's the same thing for theEast.
We have our finals matchup.
We have it.
Yeah, at this point, uh, anybodythat's listened to this podcast
(01:29):
for an extended period of time,they know two things.
I love the Minnesota Terroirs.
And I hate Luka Doncic.
And so to lose to Luka is just,anybody that just loves to see
me lose is screaming sweetjustice right now because that's
what it is if you do not like tohear my takes.
(01:49):
Um, it's tough because I thinkthat there was an opportunity
for us to really dominate thismatchup and the Timberwolves at
times just play dumb basketball.
I don't know why cat shot thatthree late in the game to tie
it.
If you're that bad all game, youshould never shoot that shot.
And it goes back to somethingthat I said in the Dallas
(02:10):
series, when Dallas had us downthree, two, I said, it feels
like Minnesota is missing anoffensive guard.
We just need one more offensiveplayer.
That's a major hole when theKiel Alexander Walker is the
only guard that's coming off thebench when you're tightening the
rotation and he's just not ableto get his own shot, you have to
(02:31):
rely on Kyle Anderson to get hisown shot like that's really, we
get exposed against a team likeDallas, um, and we run bad
offense, we run really badoffense, um, We don't look like
a team that, that, that shouldbe here.
And, you know, at times you havethese types of teams that make
it to conference finals.
(02:52):
I'm thinking of, uh, an AtlantaHawks team has made it to a
conference finals in a similarfashion.
Um, a lot of these guys, theyneed this type of learning
experience.
Uh, we're going to talk a lotabout the games in particular,
both conferences, but, uh, theseries is over.
Um, This is not a team capableof coming back from down three.
Oh, our best bet is that we canextend the series, put some more
(03:16):
wear and tear on Luca andKyrie's bodies going into the
next one because that's all wehave.
But if you're Minnesota andyou're looking at what you're
seeing on the floor, what'shappening to you, what's
happening to your team, the onlylogical decision that you can
make is to trade Carl AnthonyTowns.
(03:39):
You trade Carl Anthony Towns,you start Nas Reid, and you try
and get a higher qualityoffensive player, maybe somebody
that can come off the bench, anda first round pick.
And to supplement the picks thatwe lost, we lost four first
round picks when we traded forRudy Gobert, so you fill one of
(04:02):
those first round picks, and youtry and get somebody that's not
offensively challenged because Ican't, you just, as soon as he
gets past his guy, there's threepeople there and we shot less
than 33 percent from the threepoint line in this game.
So why wouldn't you justcontinue to double, triple,
(04:23):
quadruple team Anthony Edwards?
No, you're not afraid of anybodyelse.
Nobody else is a threat.
And this is where it's badcoaching for me.
PJ Washington, Roman, tell thepeople how tall PJ Washington
is.
6 8, 6 9.
mm-Hmm.
uh, how tall is Carl AnthonyTowns 6 11 7 foot.
(04:46):
How about Nas Reed?
Six 10.
Six 11.
Now, I'm not gonna put thefinger at Nas Reed because he
has been incredible from justabout everywhere on the floor.
But Carl Anthony Towns, when youmiss the first two threes, get
your butt on the freaking block.
Post up, clear the floor.
(05:08):
Put Anthony Edwards on thebackside corner so his guy
can't.
Go for the double.
You can't go for the weak sidedouble.
Feed the ball to Carl AnthonyTowns.
Low post, mid post.
And Kat, do your thing.
Because you're being defended bya guy that's six foot nine and
you're seven feet tall.
But he wants to play at thethree point line.
(05:29):
And then when he drives past PJ,there's two people there because
it takes him too long to getfrom the three point line to the
hoop, which is normal becausehe's seven feet tall.
So it's just dumb offense.
It's dumb basketball.
And it's, it's hard to watch ontelevision because they put
forth all this effortdefensively and they just look
stupid on offense.
(05:52):
And then you turn around andit's Luka hitting a three
pointer over Jaden McDaniels,like it's just barbecue chicken.
Or it's any Maverick hunting theRudy Gobert matchup and
embarrassing him.
Embarrassing him.
Repeatedly.
I mean, Daniel Gafford issmacking the ball off the
backboard.
Lively, smacking the ball offthe backboard.
Rudy Gobert, it's like hedoesn't know how to block a
(06:14):
ball.
Rudy Gobert, the best off balldefender.
In the NBA, I need you to giveme on the ball.
It's bad.
Help me understand, like, whatare you?
I, I, I genuinely believe youhave a better basketball mind
than I do.
You are a better player than Iam when you're watching these
games.
Talk to me about what you'reseeing happening.
(06:36):
What?
Where is the gap between Dallasand Minnesota?
The individual matchups forDallas.
I think Jason kid is a playercoach.
Uh, this is, this was a tradethat was great for them to get
Kyrie because like I, like Isaid, Jason Kidd is a player
coach.
He knows how to manipulate aLuka, uh, Kyrie, how to work
(06:59):
them through an offense.
It seems like if it's not a ISOfrom the wing for those two,
it's coming off a pick and rolland it opens up the wings for
them that you see how many lobsthey get.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Right.
It really is just matchups forthem.
It's just matchups.
I mean, even when Jaden Hart,uh, Jaden Hardy was on the
court, Luca was giving him theball, telling him to attack
(07:22):
Rudy, Rudy can't defend the,this, this whole, these first
three games to me have just beenmatchups and matchups coming in
clutch time, especially withLuca Donchic and Kyrie Irving.
So when clutch time comes up.
You give it to Luca.
Luca's not working.
You give it to Kyrie Irving.
All these, these, uh, their roleplayers they have on the side,
they've just been standing thereplaying defense.
(07:43):
They're ready for a kick outthree.
They're, they're not exhausted.
They haven't been moving around.
They've been standing around onthe offensive end waiting for
their perfect pass from KyrieIrving or Luca Doncic.
So it's just match ups here.
And the the experience from Lucaand Kyrie is showing up and I
think the to to your point withJason kid, he did.
He he's a master at the smallthings.
(08:06):
For example, he subs out.
He calls a timeout subs out aplayer.
And then there's a so there'sthe TV timeout.
They intentionally, like, Letme, let me rephrase it.
So Minnesota calls a timeout.
They, they play one possession,and then he calls a timeout.
(08:30):
Which means that, even thoughone possession is passed, he
subs a star back into the game,that star got to sit on the
bench for four minutes.
And so it's these small thingswhere in the 24 seconds of
gameplay, he gave his playerfour minutes of rest.
And it's those small things thatare why Luca and Kyrie can have
such a high usage rate becauseJason Kidd is so much smarter
(08:52):
and intentional about the waythat he's subbing in and subbing
out his players.
Meanwhile, what we see tonightis Luca Doncic and Anthony
Edwards are both on the benchwho are, they're the best
players for their respectiveteams.
And normally you're matchingyour best players.
They're playing about the sametimes.
Luca comes in, Ant's still onthe bench, Dallas goes on a 5 0
(09:14):
run, then they try to subAnthony Edwards in, and Dallas
just keeps the pace of playgoing.
They keep it going and going andgoing, and so Ant is sitting,
trying to sub in, can't sub in,meanwhile Luca and Kyrie are
both playing.
And so it's just these, it's allthe small things, like, when
(09:34):
you're losing games, and I knowthey ended up losing this game
by what, double digit points,but the first two games they
lose the game by three, it's thesmall things, it's these little
things, over 48 minutes, thatmakes such a huge difference on
the outcome, and Dallas justdoes a better job, to your
point.
(09:55):
At setting up their best playerswith the correct matchups and
Minnesota, they don't, theyreally, really don't, um, gosh,
it's just rips me apart, man,because and gotten to his, they
were, they were talking about itand gotten to his little flow
state after that dunk.
And the third quarter, the endof the third quarter was
(10:17):
beautiful for them.
They evened it up, it was backand forth through the fourth,
but that was because of the endof the third quarter, because of
what they did.
But Ant had four points in thefourth quarter, and it's
partially his fault, butpartially the team's fault for
not getting him the ball.
Like there's too manypossessions where it's Mike
Conley coming off a dribblehandoff or the pick and roll
(10:39):
with Kyle Anderson.
Like, why is Ant not hunting forthe ball those last few minutes?
And again, it might be teamoriented.
Again, last game he's Off thecourt for an extra few minutes,
getting oxygen because he's sotired.
Yeah, but these are the moments,especially with him talking
before the game, uh, this game'sgoing to be different.
(11:00):
You guys are going to see metake a bunch of shots.
They said during the game that,uh, Finch wanted him to take 30
shots.
Uh, he ends up with 24 points.
It's, it's not that bad, but.
It's not that good, but it's notthat good.
It needs to shine.
This is his time.
And again, he's young, 22 yearsold.
I should say, what else can weexpect?
(11:21):
Which kind of hurts to say, buthe's young, and his team didn't
show up for him.
And they're overachieving.
They're overachieving based onhis age.
I just don't think that heknows.
So he, when he has the ball andhe's dribbling up the floor, he
wants to call for a pick androll in the same way that Luca
(11:43):
does, but they bring a double.
And he's trying to get himversus Luca and they're just
doubling him.
But the, the, the, and then hepasses the ball away and then
fades into no man's land.
Like he disappears for the restof the possession.
And then they end up gettingthis weird shot or a bad shot,
or he'll drive and try and likepivot, pivot, double pivot, jump
(12:05):
and throw it.
Whereas when Luca is in the pickand roll and he sees the double,
he keeps the double.
Long enough to put theTimberwolves in a bad rotation
so that they get a good shotWhere Ant, like, Luka can beat
the double where they can stillget a good look.
(12:26):
It doesn't mean it's gonna go inBut they can still get a good
look Alternatively when Ant seesthe double He passes it so
quickly.
Dallas is still able to rotate.
They're still in their defensiverotation.
And then he's, yes.
And he's just not aggressiveenough to go get the ball back.
(12:47):
It's hard to watch.
Yeah.
Those are the perfect times togo back and get the ball.
As soon as they're off of thedouble team, go back and get it.
But I mean, exactly what you'retalking about.
Just sounds like experiencebeing a superstar.
And yes, Ant has been the bestguy on his team, but we haven't
seen double teams like we'veseen on him because he hasn't
been in the playoffs.
And now he's in the playoffs andhe's getting those double teams,
(13:09):
which give him a few years andhe will navigate it beautifully.
But it showed up, the experienceshowed up tonight.
He's just not at that levelright now.
So, Roman, if you are, and, and,man, hopefully Lively is okay.
They're calling it a neckstrain.
A neck strain is probably a bestcase scenario for what happened
(13:29):
to that guy.
He could have He, he could havebeen in a much worse position
than he, if that knee hits himin the right spot in his head,
he might be, he might have abrain bleed.
Like it was hard, a hard shot tothe head really hope he's okay.
Um, I mean, Dallas is going tothe finals if, and, and we're
(13:54):
going to talk about Dallas.
We're going to talk about Bostonand what that matchup looks
like.
But when we're looking at.
The Timberwolves, because I feellike this is the, the only time
we're really gonna get to talkabout'em by the time we record
the next podcast.
There's no conversation reallyaround Minnesota.
So when you're heading into theoff season incredible run that
they've had right here.
(14:15):
Tell me the two moves thatyou're making to, to make sure
that this roster can get back toa position like this again for
the, for Minnesota?
Yeah.
Um, I like your move off of CarlAnthony Towns.
Uh, I think.
Going off of him, filling it outwith Nas read, he showed that,
uh, he can be their powerforward.
(14:37):
He, he's basically cat, but justperforming better in the
playoffs.
I mean, they wouldn't be herewithout without him.
So I think you move off of him.
And in terms of theacquisitions, you fill out your
reach a little bit more,obviously, but you go for that.
Because we talked about MikeConley talking about possibly
coming to an end.
But, uh, I think something likemoving off of him for a more
(14:59):
dominant guard would help too.
Oh, like dominant starter.
Yes.
Yes.
I think they've, they've gottenwhat they need out of Mike
Conley.
Uh, he's been a great role modelfor, for him, for, for Anthony
Edwards.
But I think he needs a littlebit more.
And I think getting rid of catcan open up the opportunity for
another guard.
So I think, a little bit more.
(15:21):
You keep your, your NikhilAlexander Walker, your, uh, I
don't, I don't even really know.
I've liked their bench them thatmuch.
Kyle Anderson's not really ashooter.
He's been great on defense forthem, but you fill out your
bench a little bit more.
Um, But I think going for a moredominant guard, it just may be
just not a short because MikeConley get gets attacked.
(15:43):
He gets attacked.
Yes.
Great experience guard.
But I think having a moredominant guard to pair with ant
is something that would helpthem to become What looks like
the Dallas Mavericks going tothe NBA Finals because of the
two guards?
Yeah, I think that we need athree point shooter off the
bench.
We just need a sharpshooter.
(16:04):
Uh, well, you got NikhilAlexander Walker launching left
handed threes from the corner.
He's been, he's been soliddefensively other than Kyrie
torching him, Luka torching him.
Through the playoffs, he's beensolid defensively, but he's not
consistent at all on offense.
Like we need, we, we, I, I don'tthink Tim Hardaway Jr.
(16:24):
has been good But his play stylewith the all star is the type of
player that we need.
I don't think we need him, butwe need someone with that play
style where they're just,they're ready to catch and
shoot.
When, when we're looking atguards that you're trying to
pair with Anthony Edwards, areyou thinking like a Dejounte
Murray type player?
Or are you looking for somebodythat is less attack the basket
(16:48):
and more outside shooter?
Like help me get an idea of the,maybe not like, give me a comp
for a player that you'd want tosee.
Well, I feel like we're lookingfor, again, more of a
facilitator, but not a balldominant facilitator.
Like a Darius Garland?
Well, he's still undersized.
(17:09):
Undersized, but see, that'swhere it gets tough.
There's no ideal guard for thissituation.
I mean, Mike Connelly's great,but it's just to name a player.
I don't, I really don't think Ican name a player right now.
Uh, I mean, I have to thinkabout it.
Um, I can get back to you onthat, but I just feel like Mike
(17:32):
Connelly's good for them.
Yeah, but he hurts them too.
He might be a vet that they needto move to the bench.
Yes.
Yes.
If he's coming off the bench, Ithink he can stay, but his time
as the starter is, is done, isdone.
Uh, Rudy go bear.
(17:52):
I don't know what you do withRudy.
This is just what happens in theplayoffs.
He gets exploited every year.
He can be defensive player ofthe year, but he just gets
exploited.
I, I messaged you this.
He came in for two possessionsand it basically ended the game.
He fouled Daniel Gafford on adunk and it just, it just ended
(18:13):
the game.
And I don't know what you dowith Rudy because.
His game converts to wins in theregular season, but you get into
a conference finals and it'sjust attack Rudy.
If I've, if I've said it once,I've said it a million times.
When you see Rudy Gobert on arandom Tuesday night, he, it's,
(18:36):
it's difficult to, it'sdifficult to play against him
because you're running the sameoffense every night, regardless
of who you're playing.
But in the post season, when youplan.
When you intentionally plan tolike to a higher degree than at
any other point in the regularseason, you can expose Rudy
Gobert and where it's difficultis he has no offense.
(18:59):
He has no offensive moves.
None.
He doesn't have a single postmove.
Not one post move.
You might catch him Euroingevery once in a while.
He, he cannot catch the ball anddo a drop step.
He cannot catch the ball andshoot a hook shot.
He cannot catch the ball and usehis pivot foot.
(19:21):
He on offensive rebounds, laysit up.
He doesn't even dunk it.
He.
There is not a player in my lifethat I have watched on national
television and been morefrustrated watching them on both
sides of the ball because onoffense, he has no bag
whatsoever, but then he'sdefensive player of the year and
(19:44):
consistently guards are shootingover him, shooting around him
and laying up the ball in frontof him.
The amount of layups that get byhim is really bad.
It just seems like he's notcoordinated.
Like it.
How is this guy a defensiveplayer of the year?
We saw the tape with Wemby whereplayers will not shoot the ball
(20:05):
like they won't, but no one isafraid to shoot the ball against
this guy.
It's, it's, it's embarrassing.
It's almost like the defensiveplayer of the year has become an
indictment on him.
Uh, I wish I could remember hisname.
He's an announcer for the newworld for the new Orleans
pelicans.
He played on one of thosechampionship teams in the
(20:26):
nineties for the Spurs.
Yeah.
And, uh, he was saying that thedefensive player of the year
overvalues rim protection,undervalues perimeter defense,
like being able to guard onethrough five.
The defensive player of the yearneeds to be somebody that can
guard one through five.
(20:47):
You're not the defensive playerof the year if you get exposed
the way that Rudy Gobert does,period.
Period.
It's, yeah, the defensive playerof the year is, it's not who's
the best interior defender.
No.
Or the best rim protector.
Yeah, who's the best help sidedefender.
It's, it, it, it was.
(21:07):
It used to be.
Dwight Howard, what he was doingwas different than this.
Now you could, you could putDwight Howard in a pick and roll
and he would have a difficulttime, but he was, he was right
there at the hoop.
As soon as you would try andshoot it, he was smacking the
ball off the backboard.
Regal Bear can't do that.
He's not coordinated enough.
(21:27):
He's not quick enough to dothat.
And granted, the NBA has shiftedsince Dwight played.
But at the time that would havethat that that style of player,
it made sense to give them thataward.
Today, it doesn't.
Definitely not.
It's it's not.
Who's the best help sidedefender?
No, That's what Rudy is for yourteam.
(21:47):
But we've been saying this for acouple of years.
Now you get him in a playoffseries and he gets exposed.
It's how long can you, can youlast that exposure?
It's starting to show up withsome game winners.
Rudy Gobert might be the guythat costs us Anthony Edwards
prime or costs you AnthonyEdwards period.
(22:10):
Yeah, no, it's true.
It's, it's really true.
Cause we're trapped.
We're stuck with this guy for along time.
Kate, let's, let's shift gearsto Dallas.
Uh, you, I don't think anybodyanticipated three Oh, and if
you're the Mavericks, Everythingyou could have hoped for from
(22:31):
Luka Doncic, he is delivering.
He gets put in the mostimpossible situations at times,
and when he shoots the ball, youjust know it's going in.
Everybody and their dog knowsit's going in.
Anybody who doesn't watchbasketball knows it's going in.
There's an inevitability.
To the way that the Mavericksare playing.
(22:52):
They are not afraid of themoment.
They are not afraid of thematchups.
They are hunting these playersdown and they are offing them at
every chance.
Uh, if you're Mark Cuban, ifyou're Dirk Nowitzki, if you're
Nicola Jokic, you're watchingthis Dallas Mavericks team, and
you are just so happy, um, that.
(23:16):
That they're delivering becausethe aptitude was there and now
the play is, is meeting thatlevel.
And so my goodness, man, thisis, it's an incredible team.
They had an incredible trade andthey are primed and ready to, to
go to the finals.
Roman, what, what impresses youmost about the Dallas Mavericks?
(23:40):
It's the, the fact that Luca andKyrie is working so well, I
think when he got traded fromthe Nets, it was just kind of
like, why would you do that?
They're both ball dominantguards.
Like, this isn't going to work.
But the way they interact witheach other.
Uh, I think Kyrie's energy justbounces off perfectly with Luca.
(24:03):
Luca is very intense, like, uh,offensive guy, like involved
with the refs and Kyrie's justtaking the role of leadership.
Let me elevate everybody's play.
I'm the veteran on this team.
Uh, let me motivate people.
I'll take the big shots when Ineed to.
Yeah, but the difference is Lucahas the opportunity to have
(24:24):
somebody else who's, who's greaton his team.
He has another superstar, whichis, he's been lacking, uh, he's
never had this before when theymade the Western commerce files.
He didn't have a superstar.
So, uh, it showed in this game,Luca's trying to fall bait.
Uh, Jaden McDaniels kind oflocks him up for a couple
possessions in a row, hand theball off to Luca, Luca go, I
(24:46):
trust this guy.
I trust this guy, which Iwouldn't expect from Luca.
I would never expect that fromhim, but I think the
relationship that Kyrie hasbuilt with them and their, their
connection has got them to thispoint.
And I find it unbelievable thatit's working this well.
Yeah.
Their chemistry is top notch.
And I saw a comment on socialmedia and it was why, like, If
(25:10):
Kyrie wanted out with LeBron,but it's working so like, why is
it working so well with Luka ifhe couldn't make it work with
LeBron?
Guys, Kyrie has been in theleague for how long?
Like he played with with when heplayed with LeBron, he was still
a new player to the NBA.
(25:31):
He was still making a name forhimself.
He made a name for himself whileplaying with LeBron.
Of course it would make sensefor him to want to try and do it
on his own.
Of course it would make sensethat he would want to try and
team up with other star players.
And of course it would makesense that when he finds Luka
Doncic, And he realizes thatthis is the team that's poised
to make a run, that he's goingto find the role that he excels
(25:53):
in, which is This guy's one ofthe best second options in the
history of basketball.
When he gets a ball dominant,number one guy, he is one of the
most lethal, one of the mostclutch, one of the most surefire
players that we have ever seen.
(26:15):
Play is a second option and he'sseen this before and he knows
what it takes to win.
And so it's so weird for peopleto be like, Oh, to, to, to, to
randomly point a finger atLeBron.
And I don't want this to becomea LeBron segment genuinely, but
we're seeing a Kyrie.
That's He's not bringing extraattention to the team.
(26:37):
He's locked in on basketball.
And I mean, they're going to goto the finals for it.
It's a absolutely incredible towatch.
Uh, let's let's pivot to theEastern conference, uh, filled
with games that no one wants towatch and teams running football
plays instead of basketballplays.
(26:57):
We saw a hail Mary, um, in gamethree, this was, this was what
we expected.
Uh, there's, there's really nosurprise if you're Boston, you
now have the benefit of, of nothaving to force Chris apps
porzingis to come back out andplay.
If it were me and he's playingfull contact practices, I would
(27:22):
get him 10 minutes.
In game four, I'd get him someminutes because to not play for
a full series and then to playin the finals is significant.
Not that he's going to be thebest, the number one option, the
number two option, but I'd gethim some minutes.
Um, Roman, what are we seeingfrom this Boston, Indiana
(27:43):
matchup?
We are seeing the moreexperienced teams show up.
My, my pacers are, they're,they're letting me down.
Yeah, they're cooked.
Like, not completely, but thisteam could have been up 2 1 on
the Celtics right now.
Yeah.
(28:04):
Game 1, they gave it to them.
Game 3, without Tyrese HowlandBurton, they gave it to them
again.
Up 8 with 2 minutes left, andthey lose by 3.
Um, the turnovers show up.
Uh, NemHart was playingbeautiful, but Yeah.
Again, it's just experience.
It's just experience at thispoint.
(28:25):
True Holiday is one of the bestperimeter defenders and he
showed that.
Um, but the Celtics have beenhere before.
That's, that's what it is.
Uh, the Pacers haven't, RickCarlisle has been here before,
but I guess just not with thisteam and they don't know how to
close out a game now and it, Imean, it doesn't help that they
don't have Tyrese, but, uh, Ithink this is just, this is good
(28:49):
for the Pacers that they wereable to make it this far.
A team to look out for in theEastern Conference now against
team.
Yeah, they made it here offinjuries, but, uh, they've got
some pieces and so did Boston.
So did Boston.
Yeah.
The entire East has just beenfull of injuries.
The only test for the Celtics isgoing to be the finals.
(29:09):
Um, but yeah, the, the, thewhole thing, the Chris stops,
it's.
It's just tough.
Cause it's been a month and ahalf since the guy last played.
Yeah.
So it's like, do you even riskputting him back in the lineup?
Uh, this guy hasn't been withthe Celtics for long.
So, yeah, but this is a guy thathas to want to beat Dallas, man.
I know playing this former team.
(29:31):
It's, it's there, but likethey're playing good without it.
That's not, that's all I got tosay.
If he comes in, does it mess upthe five that they, that they,
That they've been playing.
Yeah, but they, but they, theyfind themselves in these
compromising situations and haveto play their way out of it.
(29:52):
You can't play your way out ofthis against Dallas.
You can't go down 15.
You can't end up in these lategame situations.
Luca will make the right play.
Halliburton turned it over.
Luca is not going to do that.
So like you, you, you Bostonputs, they, they, they, they do
this to themselves.
(30:13):
And you just, you're not goingto be able to get away with it
anymore.
The East, the East was, it was,it's a house of cards, man.
We got to the end and we,somebody pulled the rug out and
it's just, yeah, the East was acrypto scam, dude.
Everybody came to watch and itwas just bad, bad, bad, bad to
(30:35):
worse.
Every single team.
Every single team had injuries.
Yeah.
No, it's been strange forgetting the one seat.
They got the one seat and hadthe easiest route, which is,
yeah.
And that's why you get it.
Yeah.
That's, that's why you get it,man.
Um, but the guard matchupthough, that's, this is what the
(30:57):
Celtics built this team for.
You go against Kyrie and Luca,but you have probably the two
best perimeter defenders in theNBA.
You have the best perimeterdefenders, Eric White and your
superstars.
And your superstars like youhave the, this is the, okay.
So, so, so let's, let's get intothis because I really, I think
(31:19):
that's all we have to say aboutBoston versus the Pacers.
The, the, the Achilles heel ofthe, for the Boston Celtics is
the center position.
It's Al Horford, and if youdon't have Porzingis, because we
(31:43):
know what Dallas is going to do.
They're going to run pick androll.
They're going to have Gaffordand Lively.
If you put them in the dropcoverage, they're going for
lobs, or it's going to be Lukaand Kyrie shooting contested
twos, threes, and kick outthrees.
And if you're only center.
is Al Horford.
The Boston Celtics willstruggle.
(32:05):
They will strugglesignificantly.
It doesn't matter if you havesolid perimeter defense because
Jaden McDaniels is a solidperimeter defender and when he
gets put in prison, when he'sbehind Luca, there's nothing he
can do.
And so that's why Porzingisback.
(32:26):
Even if he's not a greatoffensive player, you need
bodies.
It's that you can put in thatmatchup.
You have to have people you canplay there because when Al
Forford is your only option, youcan get by against Indiana.
But Miles Turner's beenfeasting.
You're not like that.
(32:46):
Is it that you can't you can'tgo into the finals and not have
coursing is hitting seven threesa game.
It's Roman.
Come on.
I mean, they have a cornet gothurt last game.
So now they got O'Shea Brissettcoming off the bench as their
backup center.
Yeah, it's not doesn't haveminutes.
(33:09):
So it's the yeah, the onlyposition that's going to hurt
them is the center position.
And that's the position thatthrives for the Mavericks
because they run their offense.
Through the pick and roll.
Yes.
The alley oops, how do we playinside out to get to our guards
by playing through lively, by,by playing through art, the
(33:30):
bigs.
So it's.
I just, who's going to be there?
Who's going to be hurt?
Who's not going to be hurt ishow long is lively out is
porzing is coming back.
Is Alan Warford role player AlHorford, or is he, is he Hawks
Al Horford and how healthy isLuca going to be going through
that finals run, right?
This guy is, he's got two hurtknees.
(33:53):
I mean, it doesn't look likehealth matters to him.
He looked great.
He looked great tonight.
Well, he doesn't rely on hisathleticism, right?
Like, but, but regardless,That's another series of games.
You know what I mean?
Like, I don't know.
I it's, it's.
They're torching theTimberwolves.
They are lighting up the numberone defense Boston's.
(34:15):
I think I want to say that thenumber they're the number two
defense Okay, so so they'retorching the number one defense
and they have three bigs Bostoncould go in with one and a half
bigs.
It's a tough spot to be weakIt's a really tough spot to be
weak.
(34:35):
You'd be okay.
If you were weak at the four,not the five.
No.
And the matchups like JalenBrown and, and, uh, Jason Tatum
are going to get switched a lot.
They're going to have to playdefense probably.
Oh, they for sure.
I'm going to have to take awayfrom their offense.
It's, it's not going to be aneasy series.
(34:56):
No, it's not.
And there's a reason both theseteams are in the five and the
Mavericks have played a young,okay.
See team, but the number oneseed.
Minnesota, a team that maybeshouldn't have been there, but
they're aggressive.
They still had to shut themdown.
They still had to shut themdown.
And the Clippers who had solid,like they had a, they had
(35:20):
legitimate teams that they hadto go through to get there where
Boston.
Has had an easy path, a cupcakepath to the finals.
Like, you, you gotta be carefulin these types of situations.
In the same way that Boston kindof ran into a buzzsaw with
Indiana.
And Indiana, they, they, theychoked.
But, you could come into gameone and get hit with a buzzsaw
(35:40):
pretty quickly.
Well, and that's the thing too,is it's not just which team
looks better on paper.
This is the playoffs.
It's Which team matchups matchup, which team matches up better
with another team, becausenobody predicted the Mavs to be
in the Western ConferenceFinals.
I mean, some people did, butthat's just Mavs.
(36:02):
You wouldn't expect this type ofteam to be here, but that's the
amazing thing about theplayoffs.
It's, it's purely Who performsbetter and these are just
they're they're people they'renot this isn't a simulation.
These are real guys This is notNBA.
Okay, and players are gonna overperform and It's it's going to
(36:23):
show up in the finals.
I think it's going to be anabsolute battle.
It's going to be interesting.
So all we can do now is justwait.
Well, we're on this side of thepod, which means people are
going to be looking for ananswer.
Unfortunately, we can't just sithere and wait.
We need to give the people sometype of prediction.
And so, so let's start by, bypredicting who wins this finals
(36:44):
matchup, Boston Celtics, DallasMavericks.
Who do you have winning Roman?
Celtics.
I'm going to go Celtics six.
I, uh, wow.
I'm gonna second that.
I'm also gonna go Boston in six.
The storylines are fantasticbecause it's pingus against his
former team with Kyrie againsthis former team.
(37:08):
Uh, it, there's not, it's gonnabe bad blood.
It's going to be bad blood.
And this is the series whereKyrie will be tested the most
because these fans hate him andhe hates them.
And so lied to him.
He lied to him.
Will he still be this calmingpresence?
(37:28):
That he's been up to this pointin the postseason.
We're going to have to find out.
Um, I do believe Dallas thoughis going to punch him in the
mouth early.
I wouldn't be surprised ifDallas wins game one and Boston
has to bounce back and recoverbecause I just don't think
they're going to be ready forthe level of intensity that
they're going to find in theMavericks in the first game of
this series.
(37:49):
Uh, I don't think they're goingto have an answer for how to
defend Luka Doncic in the firstgame of this series.
And how he attacks the pick androll, but I do believe that over
time, because Boston has so manyweapons and they have so many
guys that can give them a 30point performance or a 40 point
performance, that's going tooverwhelm the Dallas Mavericks
that there's an inevitability toBoston in just everywhere you
(38:14):
look, 30.
And that's just not somethingthat Dallas has.
And I think that amount offirepower with, uh, that a team
being willing to take thechallenge defensively ultimately
wins out what's it, what, whatdo you think about that?
What, uh, let me know yourthoughts.
I agree.
Um, also the problem with theMavericks is they give a lot of
(38:36):
opportunities for three pointersfor teams.
And I've been very successful atgetting a lot of shots from
teams who haven't been hittingand unfortunately, this is the
number 1 3 pointing shootingteam in the league.
Uh, Derek White has been amazingthrough the playoffs.
Drew Holiday hits his shots.
Jaylen Brown is going to giveyou a couple.
(38:57):
Jason Tatum hasn't been good,but, uh, regardless, I mean, Al
Horford too, if they havePorzingis, Peyton Pritchard, Sam
Houser.
They're the best three pointshooting team in the league.
And I think it's going to showup, but, uh, I would expect in
the majority of the games forthe Mavericks to be in foul
trouble, the way they playdefense, would expect PJ
(39:21):
Washington or Derek Jones jr.
To be in foul trouble early.
Uh, and possibly one of the bigsif lively's back.
Yeah.
But this team boughs and.
The Celtics, I wouldn't saythey're foul baiters, but they
get to the rim.
Yes.
They are the number one.
Yeah, yeah, they get to the rimat a high level.
Yeah.
And they have star players.
(39:42):
Uh, Jalen Brown's a star.
Jason Tatum's a star.
Drew Holliday has been a starfor teams that he's played for.
Yes.
They're, they're going to get tothe line.
So I would expect foul troublefrom.
From these guys, I think we'regoing to see it in a few of the
games.
So I would, I would expect a lotof three pointers and a lot of
fouls.
That's what I'm thinking happensthrough the, through the finals.
Yeah.
(40:02):
I, to me, for anybody thatdoesn't know what foul baiting
is, what we're talking about,just go watch Luca play, watch
Shea, Gilgis Alexander play thedifference, the difference
between Boston putting a team infoul trouble and Dallas.
It's really this Tatum andJalen.
They get to the rim.
(40:22):
They're attacking your bigs, orthey're pump fake in the paint.
They get you elevated, they goup and under, they score.
They're going through you to, toscore the ball.
Whereas, when you're watchingLuka play, his, his mindset
going into the possession is,I'm gonna get a foul on this
(40:43):
guy.
And so he's flailing, he'sthrowing his arms, he's stopping
in the middle of the play andlooking at the ref like he's
doing these things that it's notwithin the flow of basketball
set within the flow of the game.
And it's happening normallyoutside of the three point line
as he's getting closer to thepaint.
That's where it's happening,right?
The mid range to three pointextended.
(41:04):
That's where the foul baiting isfor Boston.
They're in the paint, they'reattacking you.
And it's.
As you're trying to contest theover and over and over again,
you're going to foul.
And so, yes, I don't believethat Boston foul baits.
Uh, I, I just believe that theyplay downhill.
(41:26):
They're not yet.
They're not focused on tryingto, they, they know you're going
to foul them.
Yeah.
Whereas looking for your arms ashe's going up to the hoop.
Yeah.
He's trying to go through yourarms and then he's going to
laugh at you after when he getsthe call.
Jalen Brown's he's been.
Amazing.
He's been using his left hand.
(41:48):
He's been good.
I know he's been using his lefthand.
This this playoff run is just anindictment on all of my takes
combined.
It's brutal.
The basketball gods hate youthis year.
They hate me.
Hey, just you just got to waittill next year, I guess.
But I guess so.
So in that case, that meanspolitic are gonna lose.
I did get a Minnesota WestWestern conference finals
(42:10):
appearance, so let's not, like Ididn't have, uh, a fantastic run
first time since first time in20 years.
I mean, I was seven years oldlast time they were here, like
almost turning eight.
That's great.
Um, I've had a great, a greatrun, uh, this postseason as
well, so, so at least there'sthat.
(42:31):
But this is, um.
Gosh, it's can't missbasketball, dude.
It really is.
We've talked about this with,uh, one through three seeds or
the only teams that really winchampionships.
So if the, if the averages workout, the Mavericks really should
(42:52):
not win.
They're not going to five seed.
The Celtics are a one seed.
Um, we took the safe pick.
That's, that's what it is rightnow.
We took the team that shouldwin.
We, we, yeah, we're, we, wedefinitely took the easy route.
Um, I, Luca has the potential tobe an all time great he's, he.
(43:21):
He just, he's at that level.
And oftentimes players at thatlevel, they run into these
situations and there may be ayear early, or maybe they're,
they're not ready for themoment.
Uh, it's, it's happened manytimes to a lot of great players
(43:43):
that the first finals appearancedoesn't go well.
It happened to Shaquille O'Neal.
Who's an all time great, but heran into a Hakeem Olajuwon.
That was just.
A better they had a better team.
They had a better team and itwas just him and penny Uh lebron
james when he ran into timduncan and the spurs And tim
(44:07):
said We guard lebron with fiveguys Like this is not uncommon
for A generational player to beput in a situation like this and
for it, uh, for, for them toplay against a, an all time
team.
Tatum's been here before he'sabout to, he's had the moment
(44:30):
that Luka Doncic is going tohave.
Uh, I just believe that, thatthey're ready for it.
Like the core, all of those guyshave been here.
All of them.
Drew's won it.
Jalen, Horford, Jason, they'veall been there.
The coaching staff's all beenthere.
Like everybody's been there.
(44:50):
And it just, the stars reallyhave aligned for the Boston
Celtics to win it all.
And.
Here we are, two brothers, thiswishlist podcast, telling you
right now, you, yes, youlistening, the Boston Celtics,
they're gonna win it all.
(45:12):
If the averages are right,there's no reason this team
should lose.
If history repeats itself, likeyou're saying, which we've seen
quite a bit, the numbers areoverwhelmingly in our favor.
The Celtics will win.
I have my doubts.
The Celtics will win.
I have my doubts.
This, the Celtics are gonna winthe finals.
(45:35):
I remember the same guy sayingthat another team was going to
win the finals.
Listen, man, here's, here's,here's the reality.
I do believe that the majorityof the time we come into this
podcast and we're very levelheaded about what we're seeing.
Like we, we pull the emotionsout of it and we are very
(45:57):
objective about what we'reseeing on television.
Unbiased, if you will.
I.
started the postseason that wayand after i saw what we did to
the phoenix suns very quicklyswung Uh the complete opposite I
(46:20):
operated out of fandom, which isa fallacy and it's something
that we shouldn't do on thispodcast.
And so America, I'd let youdown.
I do have to all on the formerchampions.
Kind of gives you an excuse.
Yeah.
I mean, when we wanted to belike, Hey, Moses, chill, but I
couldn't do it.
We won six straight postseasongames, six straight games in the
(46:43):
postseason.
I mean, we were, we were on topof the world.
But the finals, uh, we don'tgive the championship trophy to
the team that wins in April, wegive the championship trophy to
the team that wins in June.
And this year is just not ouryear to do that.
(47:04):
It's not the Timberwolves yearto do that.
And I was emotional.
I was very emotional and, um,that's why I was wrong.
But I'm looking at June and it'sgreen, very green, Boston,
Celtic green.
Does Jason Tatum or Jalen Brownget that MVP though?
(47:28):
You, yeah, it's going to beJason Tatum.
Hey, LeBron's been hoopingthough.
It doesn't even matter, dude.
I think that Adam Silver is notgoing to let Tatum not get the
award.
If you give it to Jalen Brown,it's, it's a, it's a disaster
for the NBA.
Yeah.
Like they're, they're not.
They're not gonna let thathappen.
(47:49):
That's Curry like.
Yes, yes, yes.
Yeah, it has to go.
It has to go to Tatum.
Um, it has to go to Tatum.
Players are going to get paidhere in the next few years?
Oh yeah.
Listen, man, we, in a couple ofyears, players are going to be
making 90 million in a couple ofyears.
Players can make it a hundredmillion.
The only employees that havebenefited from inflation are
(48:11):
professional athletes.
If I've said it once, I've saidit a million times, I'm telling
you, the only, the onlyemployees that benefit from
inflation are athletes.
Because the contracts just keepgoing up, man.
They keep going up.
Okay, here's this, uh, LeBron,free agent, is he signing with
the Lakers?
Yes or no?
Yeah, I think that's more justmedia bait.
(48:31):
So do I.
He's a Laker.
I think this is, this is whatLeBron does.
And I think this is also one ofthe reasons why people don't
like LeBron is because hedoesn't actually commit to a fan
base.
He doesn't commit to a team.
He he opts out, he waits, hewatches.
I'm not going to, I'm not goingto tell you who I want to be the
head coach because I don't wantto be wrong.
(48:55):
I don't want to tell you whatsuperstars you should get
because I don't want to bewrong.
I want to force you to makedecisions.
That will make me come back.
LeBron's really toxic.
Like that is, that is so toxic.
If you are dating someone likethis, break up with them
immediately.
(49:16):
It's like one of those that youtalk, it's like a relationship
that you talk about after thefact.
Like, why did I do that?
Like, why did I put myself inthat situation?
When LeBron retires, there'sgoing to be so many podcasts and
things like, I hated playingwith LeBron.
Like, yeah.
There was things that he made usdo or things that he said,
trying to be a coach, like, Ifeel like that's the type of
(49:37):
situation that's going tohappen.
And yeah, just also just draw somuch attention that you can't
relax when it's just thisunnecessary pressure that he
puts on the team.
I'm going to give you a greatexample of, of like this, this
LeBron James free agency thing.
I, I dated a girl once in highschool.
And, uh, we were talking,texting, went on a couple dates,
(49:58):
whatever.
And she was the type of personthat I would text first on
Monday, and she would text firston Tuesday.
And then I would text first onWednesday, and she would text
first on Thursday.
And, um, I remember this is,this gets really serious pretty
quick, but our parents ended upgetting divorced and I was just
(50:23):
going through it.
I was trying to figure thingsout while I was in high school.
It was a, it was a lot, it was,it was a lot emotionally to, to
navigate.
And I just didn't text first onmy day.
And it was an unwritten rule,right?
Nobody said anything.
And, and I just didn't, I didn'ttext.
And, uh, I'd never talked tothat person again.
(50:47):
It, as soon as I realized whathad happened, I just waited.
I was like, well, I just want tosee, like, are they ever going
to text me?
Ever?
They never did.
That's the type of pressure thatLeBron James puts on a team.
Where it's this unwritten rule,this unnecessary pressure.
(51:08):
Everything would be so mucheasier if he just came out and
said, Lakers, Lakers fans, Ilove being in LA.
I'm playing for the LA Lakers.
I know I'm a free agent.
I'm just working out somecontract negotiation with the
team.
I'm committed to you.
I'm committed to our future.
I'm committed to winning achampionship, but LeBron won't
(51:30):
do that.
And that's one of the reasonswhy fan bases like the Lakers
and NBA fans in general,oftentimes have such a hard time
wrapping their arms around theking.
Well, yeah.
And if he fails, like you said,it's not his fault.
If he succeeds, it's all becauseof him.
(51:50):
He had zero help.
Uh, they did, they didn't makethe pieces that he needed and he
still was able to win or get tothe finals like he did so many
times.
So it's.
You can't say it's a win win forLeBron because he has so many
haters, but it's, uh, it's veryeasy for him to just stay quiet.
(52:12):
Yeah, that's, uh And let hisagent say that he's a free
agent.
Yeah, yeah, he didn't even sayit.
He had his agent say it.
Rich Paul.
The most calculated, the mostcalculated Man in the history of
basketball.
Uh, that's going to do it for ustoday for this wishlist podcast,
please.
If you haven't already click thesubscribe button, uh, like
(52:35):
share, subscribe.
Uh, we really appreciate all ofthe feedback that we get.
The responses from you, the lovethat we receive on social media.
So please, if you know somebody.
That doesn't know the game ofbasketball.
Send them this episode.
Make sure that they are asinformed as possible going into
the finals because it's a coldworld.
But, but once again, we just,we, we appreciate the
(52:55):
opportunity to be here.
Roman, send us off.
It is finals time, baby.
Not yet completely, but we'rehere.
We know what it looks like.
If you're not subscribing, ifyou're not liking, if you're not
following, it's gettingridiculous.
It's really getting ridiculous.
We're wrapping up on the season.
We need y'all with us.
We need y'all interacting withus.
(53:16):
We need everybody.
Episode 22 Switchless podcast.
We are.
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