Gottlieb - All Ball - w/guests David Griffin and Ric Bucher

what has happened with UM with Condoleeza Rice. Here's my read on Conda Liza Rice deciding to do a one eighty or maybe not a complete one eighty, more of a ninety or a one twenty, saying after the night after the commission released their findings on college basketball. Only now she comes out and says, hey, I think I should be you know, able to be called and saying for their name and likeness. Two parts to it. One, she wasn't the entire committee. This is kind of Liza

rightist thoughts as opposed to the committee's findings. Was well, their findings as a whole. Secondly, I think we've gotten this place where no one wants to be unpopular. That's it. No one wants to be unpopular. It's an unpopular narrative to say guys should be compensated, should not be compensated for their name and likeness. It's unpopular narrative. Sorry, because our college basketball coaches have told me that, Hey, look, man, I don't really care if they do, but there's so

many We have a near perfect system. We have a really good system, and we're gonna try and find perfect out of it. It just doesn't exist. You're gonna open up a whole new can of worms. Last week, I was at University of Kansas and UM Kansas obviously somehow and broke a little bit in the FBI stuff, although they're not accused of any wrongdoing in the most recent FBI details. But what's fascinating to me is here's Kansas one of the top five programs in the country, Historic

fall Gallen Field House. They produced one and duns and sometimes two, three, four or five and duns. And I watched Davontae Graham, who's just what an amazing career he had from a guy who originally committed to app State getting out, sitting out next year, coming to KU, going from being a combo guard and a bench player to a star starter in a star in the point guard this year in the Final four team, Like what an incredible career. And you know what he was doing when

I was there. He had an autograph signing session in Lawrence and then he had one in Whichita and I would guess he was gonna bag grand or so and and so the idea is like look at the very very top the top of the heat because the only people who's who we think their name and likeness is really valuable is the guys at the very top of the heap. They're so well compensated, if you will, they don't really need the autograph session. They have MacArthur Hall

right next to the gym. MacArthur Hall is a basketball dorm. They do have regular students in it. It has a three quarter court basketball court, has a full time chef, has all this other stuff they have that. They have a brand new locker room, They play in the best are in the country. They have cost of attendance, they have a beautiful practic facility. They have everything you could ever want there. You never there's you want them for nothing,

nothing for nothing. And if you want to say and like look at what's fascinating me is guys like Jay Billis, who has had amazing career after his Duke career finished right, played professionally, some came back, was a grad student, got his law degree from Duke as a practicing lawyer partner firm, and is the lead analyst for ESPN. J Billis went to school for a Duke for seven years without ever opening a checkbook. And j BILLI is as good as he is an ANALYSTI is very very good. Those doors

would not have been opening. And I played at Duke, not um. Jalen Rose? Who who? Who offered up the completely nonsensical they should boycott the final four? Like, dude, Jalen Who's you know, he's on get up, He's on the NBA. He had a he had a good NBA career. Jayalen Rose is known to the world because he was one of the two great players in the on the Fab five, actually one of the three best players in the Fab five. Jowan Howard's great player too, but he's like,

I think, how many kids are named Jalen Now? Why it's not because of Jalen Rose. When he's playing with the pacers, you know, with the bulls, Jalen Rose with the Fab five dude. He was popular and we made him popular. But what's what's fascinating to me is this whole idea of well, it's not you're not allowing kids to choose, you know, one school above the other. Why can't you just do free market? It is it's one. It's not a free market. NBA is not a free market.

By the way, you can't just pick on a whim where you go. There's the collectively Barkin Agreement. Now, if you to say they don't have any collective parting rights in college basketball, that's fair. On the other hand, all of the rights they do have would be what they would be fighting for collectively limited work hours twenty hours in season, eight hours out of season. You know they have for now, they have four year scholarships and oh yeah,

by the way, postgraduate scholarships. If they leave their scholarship early to go play professionally, they can come back anytime beyond full scholarship and beyond the floor as a coach. Like that, the benefits are ridiculous. And if you say, well, it doesn't allow colleges to compete, why can't of course they compete. They compete with facilities, with academic help, with how they promote you, with who they play, the conference

they play in. You know, look, if you if you're good enough as a basketball player, you're Do you want to go play a duke play for Mike Szchewski, who has a litany of coaches in college basketball and in the NBA and all these other NBA players and the commissioner of the NBA is a duke all um. Or do you want to go play Kentucky? They have their own kind of setup. Here's why you would play Kentucky. Or do you wanna play at u c l A where you become a name in the city, the Evangels.

Do you want to play Arizona where you become a part of what they called a player's program. Do you want to go play at Indiana where you're part of history and wearing the candy stripe pants like they all have their It's no different than choosing between jobs. But the idea that well, they players don't get nothing, don't get anything. Anyone who's been through it knows that's not true. Anyone been through it knows that first of all, getting

into college is really hard. We never calculate the cost of just getting in and like for Wendell Carter's mom to say, well, this is like only like slaves, like, no, it's not gonna stop it. That's that's embarrassing, really is it's embarrassing. I mean to get into Duke. Going to Duke gives a choice when car didn't have to go to Duke. And all we did was promote Duke and therefore freshman and Grayson Allen as a senior U should

they end up getting they they gets. You gives you credibility that you played for Mike sa Chefski, that you played for Duke, did you play in the A SEC, get to play in in Cameren Indoor Stadium. All these are choices that you make. Slaves didn't have choices. They just didn't. They didn't go like, oh, hey, you know, I want to transfer from this slave owner to that slave owner and still be on scholarship at the time.

They didn't say like, oh hey, listen, um, the slave thing it was cool for a year, but I want to go play in the pro slave Like come on, dude,

what what are we talking about. You get an unbelievable opportunity to make a name for yourself while getting an education, and you might not value education, but that's on you and to all of these people in our business you are, you're embarrassing yourselves because you know, the reality of it is, college basketball doesn't make all that much money for universities, doesn't It makes money for the n c A, which

pays for all the other sports. And while you may that may be envy it, you may be envious of it's like whole the whole thing is a non not for profit, nonprofit deal where no one pays taxes on anything, and all of these things that you get in real life. You're like, well, it's like a job. Sure, I'll tell you it's a job limited the work hours. But here's a big thing. You don't pay taxes. And the people who say, well, that's not a big thing, bullshit. I

pay taxes. Have you ever moved for work and they pay for it? Do you know what happens you gotta pay taxes on. Have you ever gotten your health care taken care of by your employer? Because that's what happens in college basketball. You know what else you have to do pay taxes on? You get academic services, they're free, right, now your employee can't pay for it. So any of these things you get, you get gifts. Like if you win on the prices right and you get a gift

handed to you, you don't have to pay tax on. Right, The same thing would happen if you open it up and made pay for play, same thing pay tax on. So taxes are a big thing. The cost of admission is a good thing, um, And we don't charge anything for the cost of senseless and seamless promotion. We You know, ESPN made Trey Young and his unbelievable run to being the lead score and assist man in college basketball. He

was part of every headline. Did that help them boost their numbers some, but it also made Trey Young a household name in college basketball. If anything, he should owe money to them, not vice versa. So look, um, I know that you're raised in a generation of people that are are wanted and expecting for everyone to always give them something. But here's the deal with college. Just like any other student, if you achieve something great in college, you have a great chance at an awesome first job.

That's the same for athletics as it is for engineering. Colleges are hard to get into more expensive than ever. Um. By the way, that is the same with basketball, but not the same for basketball players in terms of they pay they pay nothing and actually get more back in return. Lastly, and maybe most importantly, you do realize that college students not only have to fight to get in, then once they get in, they gotta pay the freight and all

that paying the freight. Like if you say, well, you know, I know, they say, Duke is seventy five dollars a year, but I can get a scholar You can get scholarships for grand Okay, fine, fifty grand. That's fifty grand post tax. So a parent has to just to pay for their kid to go to Duke, you gotta make eight profit gross in order to net out the fifty grand that you're gonna pay out. Oh and the second you walk away from your school as an along, you know what

they're gonna do, hits you for more money. So I know that that that we we have, that we've we've raised a generation of people that expect others to just you're making money I'm supposed to make. But that ain't the way it works, dude. That way and the way it works. You know, you can think that you know.

Here's the here's the best example I used for me personally. People, guys in the radio, and many of you listen to this podcast, I want you to search your soul for how difficult it was for you to get your first job first on air? Show how Harvard is that? It wasn't hard for me. I never took a broadcasting class, never took a journalism class. I'm not journalists. I know the laws of journalism. I studied something that I learned kind of fake it till you make it sort of thing.

But I'm not journalists. Many of you going to went to j school and your first job was making twelve an hour. Your first job made grand year. You had to grind through that and then hopefully grow. My first job was I made sixty year before endorsements in Oklahoma City end up being about seventy five plus the money I made from ESPN, I was in the six figures without ever Why is that explaining college made a name for myself, used their promotion to benefit my brand. Period.

That's the opportunity that's in front of you and most of us as former athletes, and j Billis knows this, and Jalen Rose knows this, and j. Williams knows this. So all these people that walk around and act like well, you know, they're getting more out of the Anglo than not another not schools I've been around for a hundred years. Yes, football is the driving force, and the volume of college basketball games is the driving force. But the ratings are

not great. It's it's a more volume product. But the people who go, people who watch and go to college games are people who went to that school or live close to that school, and maybe they learn about a player along the way or while being recruited that they fall in love with. That's a very small number. Go into any college basketball arena and look around and say, why are these people at that game? Alums what they've always done. They go with their dad, they're from the area,

kids from in state or there. It's more regionally based or based upon the heartstrings of having gone there. It's

not based upon any one kid. It just isn't. Johnny Menzel's perfect example who will continue to benefit from being a high s and trophy winner and haven't when he graduates eventually from Texas and m A Texas and m lum And yeah it could, you could did they sell some jerseys in and make a little bit of money, a little bit, but they didn't make any money of the year he read shirted, not penny and Texas and M's stadiums have still been full there full before he

got there, full after he got there. Why because Aggies go to Aggie games. Period. So I'm not saying that we shouldn't do our best to give quality education to the guys when they finished going to college, can't uh, you know, provide for themselves. Sure, I think there are some sensible discussion about it. But this idea that like I can't, I can't capitalize off my name and likes, you absolutely can't for the rest of your life. You

can't your life. Everything you did in college, and thankfully things you didn't in the pros end up benefiting you when you wear the logo of your college going forward. All right, let's get to the NBA, shall we? As we get ready for the Western Conference finals. To me, the key element becomes Clint Capella. Can he stay on

the floor on defense when the Warriors go small? You know, the interesting thing about the Warriors is they get credit for having the death lineup and they do the difference in their death lineup is that their center becomes Draymond Green, but they still have a rim protector in Kevin Durant. Now, look, Durant hasn't started year playing great defense and then took

a good portion of the year off of playing defense. Reinvigorate, they need Draymond hit shots the mean, Andrea Goo Dolla to hit shots, and they need Kevin Durant not just make shots, but also defend the rim. I like the Golden State Warriors a little bit more, you know, like look in the individual matchups if you can, and they do a great job of forcing switches. But you know, I like the matchup of Clay versus h versus James

Harden Steph curious. I don't know how his way, but he's definitely dominated Chris Paul in one on one matchups. And then who's the who's the other guy? If you will. For the Houston Rockets, that's gonna match up with Kevin Durant. I don't love their matchups. Again, it's dependent upon Draymond and Andrea Guadala two um to make shots to keep that floor spread. But I do think that this matchup

favors the Golden State Warriors. As for the other matchup, I look, I think that the two elements that are going to allow the Boston Celtics to be closer than say the Toronto Raptors, is that they can throw multiple defenders at Lebron. The problem with those defenders are with the exception of their big guy. You know, look Morris and Al Horford, the can guard him some in the post um and so he can't play bullyball when they go small. Secondarily, you have Jalen Brown, you have Jayson Tatum,

but they're so young. I just I don't love matchup. Now here's the part, the other part that allows the Celtics. I think a Chance Rosier off the bounds, Jalen Brown off the bounds. Like those guys they have even a Marcus Smarty doesn't always hit shots. They have an extra

gear that Cleveland defensively doesn't really have. And if Brad, which I think he'll do, can expose Kyle Kover as a mismatch or Kevin Love as a mismatch and attack them, attack George Hill against some quicker, more athletic perimeter players like I think you've got a real chance of seeing at least a longer series. Still favorite the Calves. It's not just because of Lebron. It's because this team is a bunch of shooters around Lebron that have hybrid defensive

players that are just good enough. But they'll have a game or two in which they blow out the Celtics. I think the Celtics a winner game or two based on speed and athleticism. And then do you have Lebron who you feel I can carry a team, although you know, look he didn't shoot the vowel from three against Toronto and they were outscored on agg aggregate by the Indiana Pacers. I think the series is closer than people think, but I still think we'll have Calves and Warriors in the files.

David Griffin joins the show. He was famously the general manager of the of the Cleveland Cavaliers Last and Uh. He has his own show on Serious x M and NBA also on NBA TV. He joined us in the Doug Gottliev Show. I knew everybody has you on to talk Lebron and the Calves. I want to ask you about the Sixers. Uh. There are some in in your business, some in my business, and some in the basketball business. I think, hey, go out adda Paul George, go out and add stars. I kind of think they're on the

right path. I think this is good that they didn't use faults. He wasn't ready yet, but eventually he'll be good. I'm not saying that you don't add more pieces, but I think this should be your core for a decade. You don't want to screw that thing up. Do you try and win the short term or you try and win the long term? If you're the general manager of the Sixers, David Well, I guess, I guess it just depends on how you know what you think long and

short term is. So like, if you can say that Lebron is gonna play at an elite level for let's say five more years, I'd love to have the young kids learned from someone like that, you know, I'd love for him to raise the next generation of elite talent in your organization. So there's no downside to that. It's not like they need to jettison any of the other talent they have um relative to the Paul George piece,

I don't think that's terribly likely. It sounds like Paul if he leaves, okay, So he's pretty much got his heart set on l a Um. What I think is interesting is would you break up that nucleus to bring into somebody's because that's really the only way you're going to attract, you know, those elite guys as they tend to want to to be together. So would you break up that group to have Kauai and Lebron? I don't. I don't know if you would or wouldn't, but I

think that's what it requires. Now. It's not just we have the caps for one superstar. Those guys tend to want to be together, would you you know, I don't know, To be honest with you, I really don't. It's hard for me not holding the cards they're holding. I don't know exactly what they're thinking about the group they have.

The thing that I thought they ran into in the playoffs that was tough Doug was Ben can't shoot, and because he can't space the court, and because the paint is going to be occupied because Joel is an elite player himself and the defense is going to be pretty keenly aware of him and the paint, then the driving lanes that Ben would have to take advantage of, and it would allow for him to play to the full

bandwidth of his path. Thing don't exist. So I think it's just really really difficult to say that that nucleus is going to be elite until you know, if Ben's gotten to the point where he can shoot um, and that's that's always away and Mark l folks might be a ways away from being able to be elite. So I think you could make a pretty compelling argument if you could get Lebron, you should, But again, I don't know what they're looking at. That's that's that was actually

I said. The only the only guy I would probably move out and for would be Lebron James. The one caveat with Lebron is he's now at the state of his career where he doesn't practice. You know, he does work in his game and his body, but he it ain't practicing. And I do think that, you know, culture wise, those young guys, I mean, Ben sim has got there's a lot of work to do, a lot of work to put in, and I think and Bead has to

learn the game situations. You know what what winning shots look like, winning plays look like, and I think you only learned that over time and actually playing in big games. I hope he learned a lot from the series. I don't know. I just I think it's gonna be fasting to see what they do because they got a chance

to do something special. But there have been other teams that have been in this situation and they've screwed it up, whether even even if they didn't try to, they screwed and haven't been able to as opposed to what Boston has done, which feels like they've been building for the long term and the short term thing has just happened

in the meantime. Yeah, I agree with that, and I think it makes it even harder to be excited about your long term term nucleus when you're looking at the fact that Boston's as good as they are, they're as deep as they are in the playoff run. They've got the young assets on the roster, they have to have all the high variants assets in the in the stockpiles from the pick standpoint, and the guy that came into the year thinking was going to be their best player

didn't even play a minute. So you can also get in trouble just in their own division. If you think, you know what, let's let's take our time, we're we're going to be the cream of the cross because Boston is gonna be damn good for a long time. So if you take your time and Joe l n B gets hurt in the meantime, now what I mean, you're you're not really truly elite even in your own division

for the foreseeable future. So that's why I think you could make the most compelling case for Hey, we don't know how long Joel is going to be healthy, and we better be damn good. Now. It's interesting what you said about Lebron not practicing. That part's true, but he's the very first one in the practice facility every morning and he works like a freak. And there's nobody better to teach Ben Simmons what this is about professionally than him.

Whether he's actually taking part in the five on five that might take place, he's still going through all of the shell drill, he's still going through all of the defensive stuff, and he's far and away the earliest person into your practice facility getting a lift in doing the things he needs to do to take care of his body. When Kyrie was there, going through shooting games with Kyrie after practice, all of the things that then needs to

learn how to do. Bron does that, and then in the off season Bron works way harder than Ben has ever worked on his shooting, and that would help Ben as well. Do you think Ben should shoot right handed? This is awesome. I've seen a lot of this. The thing for us with Tristan Thompson when we had him changed his hand was it was just his handedness was sort of up in the air. He himself didn't know which handy should use. He wasn't married to one or

the other. And we got him to throw a football one day in the practice facility, and when he threw it left handed, which in theory would have been his natural hand, he threw it into the ground like I would throw with my off hand when I was eight years old, right, I mean it was he just sort of flailed it into the ground left handed and right handed. He's through like a sixty yard spiral. And you went, Tristan,

you're you're right handed. So if I could see Ben Simmons throw a football, I'd have a better chance to tell you Ben Simmons, he shoots everything right handed. Inside the paint. The only thing that is left handed his free throws and and primimeter shots and didnt shoot perimeter shots. You know, he finishes everything was right hand, so I you know out well. And Tristan was exactly the same. By the way. He was incredibly deft with his right hand around the rim. The only jump hook he could

make was right handed. But he was shooting his free throws left handed, and he would shoot like the you know, the short corner jump shot left handed and kind of like, what what are you doing? Whatever made you think you were left handed to begin with? In the case again, he can do all of those things right handed, and maybe that's because he's more naturally comfortable with it, but it could also be that that's just he's wired like that.

And it's easy to tell by the way. I'm I know this sounds crazy, but it's easy to tell when you have somebody throw football throw the football challenge. I

love that. Let's get to the Cavaliers, Um, have they figured something out or is this just who they are going to be right which is you know they're gonna space you with with Kevin Love at the five, and now that Kyl Kover is much more comfortable and he's making shots just create space for Lebron games, play through him and play with a bunch of shooters and then you know, switch everything defensively. Well, it's sort of who

they've always been. Um, you know, we we had Kyrie at one time, so when the shot clock would run down, he could go get a shot and he could create offense when Lebron sat down. They don't have the ability to do that now, but they've always been a team that if you're going to take advantage of Lebron's full talents, you've got to be able to space the court and let him pick people apart from the center of the lane by being a driver and then making the right read.

And fortunately in the last series, you know, the team had a three to one assist turnover ratio, which is a really really good situation. It's in part because of Lebron, but it's also because George Hill was present for a big part of that. And George Hill being healthy and being capable of playing significant minutes and starting makes it possible to keep orrid Or j R. Smith and Love altogether on the starting lineup. And those are the guys

Lebron's one with. Those are the guys he's comfortable with. So fortunate, at least for Cleveland, that first series with Indiana took them seven games, so they got as many different opportunities as they could to figure out lineups and and figure out where Lebron was going to be the most comfortable. And I think because of that, they landed back with what they know best, which is the guys they're starting. You get Tristan Thompson a lot more opportunity

to play. You know, this is one of the things I think from basketball analytics standpoint is is really a telling thing. And I don't know what the number is, and I would love for somebody significantly smarter than I am to tell me the right way to do this, but their effective field goal percentage on Tristan Thompson's offensive rebounds has got to be damn near. Well, it's just back there's just backbreakers, right. You're like your your your garden,

Lebron your garden shooters. You're paying all attention els and the shot goes up, you start leaking out defensively, there's Tristan Thompson with the ball and he kicks it out. Now either you have to do it all over again or they shoot a three, which is those are backbreakers. Yeah, and if you you know, if you if you look at Tristan when he plays significant minutes, that's five opportunities you have to make four more threes. That's twelve points. Link.

That's winning and losing basketball games. And he also is your best big in terms of his ability to match up on the wing and switch and defensively be at present. So it's not surprising to me they wound up with him. I think it's a good thing they were healthy and that he was healthy enough to actually get back into the rotation. But I think this is who Cleveland has

always been. They're going to have to outscore you. They're probably not going to get enough stops to be the team like Golden State four times, but I think they can get enough stops to to get past Boston. What's what's the deal with Brad and the rest of the league's coaches. I I I understand that there are a lot of good coaches that did Quinstider did magnificent things. Uh, look,

Toronto had the best record the East. Like I can make an argument for a bunch of these guys, but there is something in there that other coaches are like he he gets a little bit too much credit. I think we did it. Like from a media perspective, I think we did it. I think it's one of those things where other coaches have probably had enough of Brad getting nothing but love and never taking any of the blame um. And I don't mean that Brad personally doesn't

take any of the blame. I mean that the media never as signed him any blame um. And I think it's just made it so that there's I don't want to call it petty, but I think the petty is undefeated in some ways, and I think there's just a natural bias to feel, like, you know what, I'm not sure he's that good. And I think it makes you more critical of Brad as a coach because you're hearing from everywhere how good he is. And I think Dwayne Casey was a great selection as Coach of the Year

from the Coaches Association's standpoint. That's I totally get it, and I'm not even gonna argue with it. It's been Quinn Snyder. I wouldn't argue with it. Put for eight guys to get a vote and Brad not to get one, that was pretty crazy. Am I crazy to think that as that Capella is super important to Houston. Yet I don't think Capella can be Capella much of this series because they'll go small and now he kind of like val and Chun is what happened with him with the Calves.

Golden State stretches you out, goes small, and Capella becomes a lot less effective. Yeah. So I think he's so different from Jonah's because he defends in space so well. Um. I think Clint is actually if Houston is going to win the series, it's because not only does he hold his own when they go small, but his ability to roll and finish and be dynamic at the rim forces them to stay bigger. If if Golden has to play a traditional five to check Capella, that changes the whole series.

I tend to favor Golden State pretty heavily. I think just from the standpoint of them having been through the wars together and they're now at a where they realize the amount of focus they have to play with to be successful. I think they have appropriate fear of Houston. You know, Kur really hinges a lot of what he does from a preparation standpoint on that appropriate fear, and I think they get it and I think because they do. They're just too deep and too good offensively. There's too

many weapons that you can't take out of it. And in the Houston situation, they're so dependent upon you know, they played two guys defensively in Tucker and Areza Uh and Tucker and bomb Moute. When they're together, that defensive lineup is really predicated on Hardened and Paul either generating offense or Hardened getting you to the foul line quickly that he gets you into the bonus and you shoot

far more free shows than anybody else. Well, the deeper you go into the playoffs, the less likely you are to get those calls, which means it might be harder to keep your defenders on the court. And if that's true, you're never gonna guard Golden States. So I think it's a five or six game series of close games. But I think in the end, Golden States just got too much great stuff. I can't tell how much I appreciate. Look forward to hearing you some more on serious sex

and I'm watching on the NBA TV. Thanks for being our guests. We'll talk to us the playoffs for a long Thanks alright, pleasures mind David Griffin joining us. Former gentle manager of the Cleveland Cavaliers, Rick Bucker has a great podcast. It's called The Swirlds with NBA Vett Ryan Hollins. Rick also has his own national radio show on Sirius x M eighty Gosh, we're eighty three, he's eighty four. A two A two A two two. Rick Bucker joins us on the Doug Gottlieb Show. Just as we all thought,

Celtics and Calves Warriors and Rockets. Oh there's this, the one plot twist. The Celtics wouldn't have Kyrie and wouldn't have Gordon Hayward outside of that, exactly as we thought it would go. Right, Yeah, No, it's uh. And this is what it always gets me when people say that, you know, there's no suspense in the NBA season, and uh, we already know it's gonna be Calves Warriors at the end. First of all, we don't know that. I still don't know that as of right now. And too, it's not

so much the destination. It's the journey, isn't it, Doug. It's the journey, and it's a matter of how we got here, which was There's been plenty of unexpected twist and turns, and I wouldn't be surprised if we have a few more before all of a sudden done. Why don't other NBA coaches have the same affinity for Brad Stevens as the media has for Brad Stevens. Well, part of it is because he's still relatively new to the

club and NBA coaches are a very clubby sort. We just I I said something about mccronin uh, the u C coach during the tournament. I thought the way he handled uh some questions about his team, UH where he didn't do it well, and brought that up with Seth Greenberg had him as a host or a guest on my show, and it was immediately you don't, you don't, you don't know what? Like where have you coached? Like that?

They became that unless unless you're that's also Seth one on one right, well, but it's also he's not alone. I mean the the the number of coaches that I talked to, and look, there is a degree and probably a larger degree than not there's a larger degree of truth to people who armchair coach don't take into consideration all the things that they know because they can't possibly know them. So I get that, But I think there's a couple of things. One and I actually just had

a talk. I had a conversation with a head coach in the league today about this subject. It wasn't this was the main thing, but I said, hey, I said, so, what's up. You know, Brad Stephens not a single vote, And he said, the way he looked at it is is, you know, Brad came in and he was supposed to have a good season, and yes they lost Kyrie, yes they lost Gordon Hayward, but the team kind of ended up where everybody expected them to end up as far

as the regular season was concerned. Toronto made a change from last year and there was an uptick. So that was his explanation for me. And there's also there is that feeling like he's kind of been gifted a really

good situation and he's straight out of college. I think the other part is is that there's this clubby nature to the to the NBA coaches, and they're very well aware of guys who've been in the club for a long time and maybe in a little bit of trouble, and and they look at it and I think it's unfair that that guy is in trouble. Dwayne Casey fits that description to a t as far as other NBA

coaches are concerned. It's a great point. Well, what's also interesting is how many of the guys have gotten the Coach of the Year award and then been fired like a year later, which which which only proves that in their effort to help their buddy out, they actually end up, you know, well, creating something that they can't live up to. So the one thing, so the one that you're you're referencing, because this is a this is a relatively new award. This is only the second year. Last year it was

D'Antoni and Erik Spoelstra that the coaches selected. They were co co head coaches and they sort of fit the profile. Even though Spoilster has been a head coach, he's been relatively at nine ten years now, but he's been in the NBA fraternity for a long time, so he fits and obviously d and D'Antoni does too. Um, this is

a relatively new thing for them. But the one that's voted by the media, Yeah, we had a string of Mike Brown, Avery Johnson, George Carl and it seemed like there was about five or six guys in a row that one Coach of the year and a year later they were out. So yeah, it can be. It can be kiss of death. Be careful what exactly what they're they're touting their guys to be. Do the Celtics have a chance, I'm picking them to win? What are you

talking about? Do they have a camp? Because I look at the pace of play, and I look at the intensity of the series that they had with the Sixers. I think, but and I maybe I may be wrong on this and maybe undervaluing the sweet spot that Lebron James finds himself in. But I look at the Raptors series and I can't all of the improvement that we're

looking at with the Calves. I can't help but believe that the Toronto Raptors had a big hand in that they never really made Lebron James play in a crowd, and yet in spite of not putting additional attention toward him. Jeff Green and j R. Smith, this is going into Game four, We're both shooting seventies per sent plus in three point range. Jeff Green shot against the Pacers in the first round. He shot from three during the regular season. H J. R. Smith shot a little bit better during

the regular season, but he shot against the Pacers. I look at guys like Terry Rosier and Jason Tatum, Al Horford, Marcus Smart. Those guys, in my mind, are all gamers who are not afraid Lebron James or the Cleveland Cavaliers. In fact, they come into this series thinking they have revenge in mind for what happened last year. They don't care that Kyrie Irving's not there, Gordon Hayward's not there, and and that they're not supposed to be here based

on what everybody else thinks. They're looking at it going. We got back to the Eastern Conference Finals and are and and we still have unfinished business. So I just believe that they can push a tempo in a way that Toronto never did and that Indiana did that took that series to seven games. And if you're giving me Miles Turner or Al Horford at this point to make things difficult on Kevin Love, I'm taking Al Horford every day, all day, in spite of liking Miles Turner and his future.

So I just think that that that Boston is going to do a much better job of limiting what the other pieces do, and Lebron James is going to have to come through with some of the virtuoso performances that he did against against the Indiana Pacers. And I just I think that the Celtics are a little bit better than the Pacers were, and they have the same guys that have the eye of the tiger and aren't going to be afraid to take and make a big shot

when I needed. That's the voice of Rick Buker, of course, writes for Bleacher Report, has his own radio show on Sirious XM Channel two. Let's get out West Golden State Warriors. They back to where they should be. Uh, well, yeah, they're there. They are back to what they are capable of. My one question is can they sustain it. They've they've demonstrated that in periods they can play, they can get back to that level that that they can play at a level that nobody else can play at at both

ends of the floor. They still have and they still struggled even in these playoffs in sustaining that, you know, giving away a game, absolutely giving a game a game away against New Orleans was troubling. The way they closed out San Antonio was not convincing. They really there. They are measuring game in and game out how hard they have to play to win the game. And I don't think it's by overconfidence. I don't think it's by lack

of attention to detail. I really think it's just kind of the physical and mental grind of how having been to three consecutive NBA finals and now trying to get to a four uh and and and a bench that's not quite as deep, that they're just feeling they're they're

feeling that grind. So can the Rockets exploit the Warriors when they have those periods when they're not at their best, when the offense gets a little stagnant and they just lean on k D when the defense rotations work for fourteen fifteen seconds, but they get a little lax in the last four or five, Like, can the Rockets exploit that? And then on the other on the other end, can

they maintain their focus in intensity? That to me is what's going to determine that the Rockets have demonstrated that they can take their foot off the pedal too, and they have less reason to do that. But um, I'm not. I'm not completely out of the woods with the Warriors yet and saying that they have the requisitibility to play as well as they need to play as long as they need to play. Can they get back there and have they demonstrated that yet? Have played some of the

best basketball that I've seen them play in months. But the big question is going to be can they sustain it? How many minutes can they play at that level? Um? What do you think Lebron plays next year? You know, it's so funny. I just in talking to this coach today, he goes, I've heard he's gonna play in Philadelphia. I've heard he might stay in Cleveland. Obviously there's there, you know, there's talk about like Kauai wants to go play in

l A with Paul George and Lebron. Um, I'm I am going to stay with where I was at the beginning of the year and everybody was telling me, which is that he's gonna wind up in l A. But I'll be honest with you, as of right now, I don't I've never had a dog in the fight, but I really don't know. I still don't think he's going to stay in Cleveland. He remember the other day, I forget what game it was. He went to the locker room and he had the he had the the cramps

and and had to go to the locker room. And when he came back out and he walked out of the tunnel, he walked right right by Dan Gilbert and there was absolutely no acknowledgement, recognition, nothing from either one of them. It wasn't even Dan wouldn't even look at him,

and certainly Lebron wasn't looking at him. You can't have from everything I've heard, that's just the latest little piece of that relationship is far from great, and I think ultimately that's going to be the difference super supping the Paul George knee surgery thing. Did everybody know that was

going to happen? Uh No, they did not. But from everything I've heard, it's not something that people are, you know, taking a lot of concern with, or that it's gonna it's it's changing the dynamic as far as what people are expecting. Russell Westbrook look zek Low, and I want to be very careful because I like zach Low, and I do think that other people around the league will say We'll say that like, well, maybe maybe you gotta

think about trade in Westbrook. But thinking about doing it and actually doing it are two completely different things, right, And and it's always the guy who doesn't have a Russell Westbrook who talks about training Russell Westbrook. What do you think Olhoma City does? What? What do I uh, what do I think Oklahoma City does with Russell Westbrook? In general? UM, continue to thank they're they're stars that

he signed a five year extension there. Uh, look too to find pieces that are going to build around him and and and ultimately, UM hope that his maturity and his decision making continue to improve. That will Billy, will Billy be able to Like I think that bringing Billy back, the next thing to do is sit him down and go like, hey, Billy, you gotta coach him, like you have to get some of the stuff out of him, because he has so much talent, but you got to

get some of the one man possessions out of him. Yeah. And I don't you know, I will say having been around that team a little bit, uh and just recently during the playoffs, I was encouraged by the interaction that Billy had with Russ And it is a negotiation as opposed to you know, a directive when it comes to the conversation between those two. Um. Then again, I thought

that Billy showed great. I mean, it seems simple, but the fact that he sat, mellowed down and kept you know, and went back to him briefly and then didn't go back to him again, I think that says a lot about Billy's growing stature as a as an NBA head coach.

I think that what they in short, short of moving Billy on, and I don't think I don't know that there's a coach out there that's gonna change that dynamic, is that you go get a what Tom Thibodeau was for Doc Rivers or what Ron Adams is for Steve kerr Uh. You go get that guy who is a no nonsense xs and os. This is how it needs to be. Hard ask who is the first assistant, and he's the guy who is you know, let's russ, No, this is the way we've got to do it. Um.

Some people mentioned like a Steve Clifford. To me, it doesn't have to be like you know, I mean, obviously you've got a star of that nature. It's not you're just gonna tell him it's my way of the highway, that those days are long gone. But a guy who's xs and o's are strong enough that he can say, this is the way we need to do it. If you want to win, this is the way we need to do it. And ideally it's somebody who has you know, has had a certain degree of success that Russ is

going to to respect. But ultimately it's going to come down to this. Russ is going to have to be frustrated and set up enough with his own shortcomings and failures to say I'm willing to try to do it a different way, surreunding yourself to the process. Thanks so much, really appreciate you join us, Rick Buker. The podcast is the Swirl with longtime NBA vett Ryan Hollins. All Right, so that's gonna wrap it up for all ball. I want to thank all of our guests, David Griffin, Rick Buker.

Next week we'll start to prepare you for the NBA Draft. I'm currently concocting an article the ten most overrated, ten most underrated players in the upcoming NBA Draft. You have any questions or things that you want um in the next All Ball podcast. Tweet Abby at Gottlieb Show or hit me up on our Facebook page, which this will appear on. Make sure you're not only download it, rate it, and or subscribe, but you also tell a friend about it because we're over a hundred thousand and downloads. Who

want to get to that one fifth? You want to get to two hundred thousand, and you can help. It'll make show better. Frank's going to make the guests even best fellow. So it was great this week. I'm Doug Gottlieb and this has been All Ball. H