On this episode of the Eat Check, did we just come to realize that we are witnessing the most skilled offensive backcourt in NBA history. We get into that, the controversy surrounding, well, I don't even know if it's controversy. It's a scuttle butt. It's a scuttle butt about Jalen Brown.
And Steven A. Smith. Oh, stephen A, You in trouble, You in trouble.
We also talk a little bit about nas Reed, one player in this playoffs who has broken out the most, and I think this man has going is going to make absolute cheddar Anthony, let's jump into it.
Let's drop that motherfucker beat.
The shitty un.
All right, it's nine nights, these.
Masks for these mines, it's moves. Unfortunately, hate to say it.
The Timberwolves really should be up two to one.
The MAVs absolutely deserve to win Game three, and yet the MAVs are up three zero in the Western Conference Finals, which has been as good of a series as we've seen this entire playoff run. Let's talk about something though, that Stan Van Gundy said towards the end of their win the game where Luca had thirty three seven and five, where Kyrie Irving had thirty three, three and four, and they just bawled out once again in fourth quarter performances
that you've never just seen. The clutch shot making, off balance jumpers, the step back threes, just the like try to make me go to rehab, and I said, no, oh, no, no. It was like you cannot guard me. No, no, no, this is we are bad men right now.
And it is winning time.
Van Gundy, by the way, he had a heartbreaking and touching and inspirational and moving an interview with Dan LeBatard the other day. I think yesterday about his wife and his wife's passing almost he said as an afterthought at the end end of the game, though, he said, this is the best offensive backcourt in the history of the NBA,
And I think he's right. Here's why Luca and Kyrie are the first backcourt to score thirty plus three times in a playoff run in the last fifty years, in the last half century, folks, that is how great Luca and Kyrie have been. It is kind of like I know that Kyrie, we didn't know what was gonna go on with them, and like he was unhappy in Brooklyn, and like some people thought maybe he wouldn't even be playing basketball in the next three years because who knows,
like he likes to burn stage. But like when we watched this version of Kyrie Irving and the version that we've seen when he played with Lebron James and the Caps that version, or even before he sprayed his ankle with the Brooklyn Nets when they were dismantling the Milwaukee Bucks, Like, there's no reason that the NBA.
Should have allowed Luke and Kyrie to be on the same team.
Like, these two dudes are top five in the NBA and they play with one another. I know that we've seen this before with Harden and Kad and Kyrie, it just feels different to me, Doug, this is a are a problem. I told a friend recently that the problem for the Wolves was that they are facing two of the five best players in the NBA right now, and both of those guys happened to be two of the most also clutch players in the.
NBA, the closer closers.
They can hit some of the most difficult shots that you've ever seen while they're being double teamed, while they're being blitzed, and somehow they find a way to split that double team, to find a way to kick to the open role player in the corner, who just happens to turn into Prime Ray Allen before our very eyes. How the fuck did PJ.
Washington turn into Ray Allen? How did Josh Green become this good?
How did Derek Lively turn into Tyson Chandler his rookie year in the league. Anyway, back to the backcourt offensive duos, Stephen Clay top the list, right, They're probably one of the best that we've ever seen. The MAVs, by the way, really quick before I go back to this, the MAVs have outscored the Wolves twenty four to eleven, despite all three games being within one possession in the last like.
Two minutes of the game.
Anyway, back to the other backcourt offensive duos that are really good. Stephen Clay, They're like on top of the mountain. Chris Paul, Devin Book are really good. Chris Paul and James Harden really good, Magic and Byron Scott really good, Tony Parker, Monogenobli really good, Isaiah Thomas, Joe Dumar is really good, Harden and Kyrie really good. But I don't think any of those folks are as good as Luca
and Kyrie. Now we look at a Celtics MAVs finals because both teams are up three zero, one hundred and fifty four to zero in the history of the NBA, so it feels like it's kind of a rap. But holy shit, two series that could have gone seven, which would have been awesome, all look like they're gonna be a sweep. And the major reason is somehow, somehow we blocked Chris Paul to the Lakers and we did not
block Kyrie to the MAVs. With Luka Doncic made, that's your reason is the best backcourt that we have seen in the history of the NBA. And oh my god, remember all those people who said that they could not play together. How dumb do those people look right fucking now with all the egg on their face. Cannot wait to talk to those people. Go call a.
Friend, Go call a friend.
All right, let's move on. Yeah, we got little Jalen Brown's scuttle, but woooo multiple Jalen Brown rhetorics going on. You hear that, and I assume your first question is what did Jalen Brown do? What kind of things did Jalen Brown do that would cause this level of controversial conversation.
I don't know nothing. He did nothing. All he did was his.
Job, and he did it at an extremely a high level. Bawled out averaging twenty five six and three with one and a half stocks per game and an incredible plus seventeen point two net rating per game in the playoffs. So it is certainly not his game that's causing controversy. What it is is other people, and by other people, I mean ESPN and what they've been saying about him.
Let's start with Kendrick Perkins. Kendrick Perkins went on ESPN and he had the goal to say that it was not Jason Tatum, it was Jalen Brown, who is the best player on the Boston Celtics. Let's listen.
What statement did Jalen Brown make? What statement he's been trying to make all postseason long that he's the best player on the Boston Celtics. He's the best player on the Boston Celtics, and he's willing to stand on business. Last night was a prime example of a guy taking it personal and responding in great fashion. He may try to downplay it, but we could see it in his face that he was pissed off he didn't make an
All NBA team and how he handled it. All Right, y'all take this forty piece you look at when before the Calves series, before that that series started, Jaylen Brown was on record talking about how much the last time they played the Calves, how much it haunted them because the Calves and Lebron James sent them home. Had nothing to do with Donovan Mitchell. What are you doing?
YadA YadA, YadA. You know what. Anyway, Perk basically said Jalen Brown standing on business.
And it's true, he's been great.
He shot fifty five percent from the field, although he is struggling a little bit from the line.
But is our man Jalen Brown actually better than Tatum? I do not think so.
In the twenty two twenty twenty three season, we had to go to the lab here, folks, Tatum faced the third most double teams in the entire NBA, behind only Luka Doncic and Trey Young.
Jalen Brown was not even in the top fifteen. And to me, that's that's the significant.
Factor, because who's gonna go off when your star player gets doubled? It very much to me, feels like when Juju Smith Schuster went crazy because Antonio Brown. I know it's a football analogy, because Antonio Brown was always being double covered. Brown benefits from playing with someone who attracts so much attention from opposing defenses and he does his job.
Does that mean that he's not as valuable?
No? Should we look at Brown differently? No? Should we say that he's not very good? No, But what he is not is better than Jason Tatum. Otherwise he would get more double teams than Jason Tatum. And when teams are scheming and thinking and using all of our attention on one player AKAA Jason Tatum, that other player, that secondary player who's very good, goes crazy and they may look better than the one A because one.
A is being game planned for. Get it.
You may look at his stats and by contrast JT's truble in the clutch and say that he's playing better. But the truth is other teams do not perceive Jalen Brown to be better AKA. Otherwise, if so facto, he would get more double teams. Get it anyway, that's not the end of the controversy at all at all.
So Stephen A.
Smith has been it's been an electric twenty twenty four for Steven A.
Smith, he's been on a tear.
He's been saying crazy shit, and so the crazy shit does not stop with Jalen Brown. Let's go there, because it's out of hocket.
It's not so much that he's underrated, it's that he's just not liked because of his quote I am better than you attitude. He knows it. It's the same reason he is not as marketable as he should be. That's what an NBA source just sent me. I don't know that to be there.
Oohe oh boy.
So Steven a Recap says that an NBA source he was reading it from his phone like you got a text message, which I'm not saying that he didn't, is telling him that Jalen Brown has an off putting attitude. And then he is quote not liked because he has a I am better than you attitude, and he knows it. It's the same reason that he's not as marketable as he should be. To this, Jalen Brown decided to get into the mansions and quote tweeted that video and said,
state your source. First off of all, if I'm Jalen Brown, I'd be thinking the same thing. Who the fuck is talking about me like that? Who is saying I'm all high cindity because I went to cow and I'm like active.
In the community. Who's that? Who's doing that? To stephen A's point, I don't state sources. That's not how journalism works.
Otherwise I'm not gonna be able to get that information if I have to call out names every time I do so. Hence the reason that his sources are allowed.
To be anonymous.
It is kind of bullshit, though, to bring up something about a guy who has done literally nothing but ball out. Why is something good the jump off to something bad? That's really the fucked up thing. Let's only let's bring up bad things when bad things happen, not bring up bad things when good things happen.
I as someone who has had that done to them.
That feels like shit. All I'm doing is outperforming expectations, and what do I get for that?
Nothing but a load of garbage shit.
Anyway, my question about this isn't just about timing. It's about why are you doing this? Why? What's the purpose of bringing this up? It kind of seems mean spirited, and it's not like you can make a defense against this kind of innuendo. It's very damaging to someone's brand on a national platform coming from a quote anonymous source in the NBA, I think, I think NBA's the NBA's coverage on ESPN is what is quote off putting.
I think, uh, the NBA.
Coverage on ESPN seems like they have a better than you attitude. I think they know it, and I think it's also the same reason that ESPN is not as markable as they should be. How about that? And I have a lot of sources telling me that it's on these internet streets and people are putting their good names with blue badges attached to that. ESPN's NBA coverage for a very long time has been a.
Miss for me, an absolute miss.
And this is now another example of why there is an absolute reason the NBA's coverage on ESPN has been getting ravaged and savaged. ESPN told Tim Legler, who told Ryan Riscilla the following I wish I had video of all of the meetings I've been in this year at ESPN when I wanted to talk more about the Indiana Pacers, particularly after they got Pascal Siaka, and they said the Pacers are not sexy enough. Fuck that.
By the way, the Pacers are a very sexy team.
And they happen to be in the mecca of basketball, Indiana, and if ESPN and they're like East Coast bias can't figure that out. I don't know what to say. It does feel a little like bad and sad and unfair that we're gonna lose TNT and we're not gonna lose ESPN. That is what it is. There is a reason there was so much backlash to a huge segment in an ESPN pregame to a pivotal playoff game between the Wolves and the Nuggets about whether Stephen A could score a
bucket against Lebron James. Does it feel like NBA on ESPN or does it feel like stephen A on ESPN?
You know what I'm saying.
I get it. It's a hot take merchant society world. I get that. I understand that it drives clicks, drives eyeballs. People get all up in arms. But I don't give a fuck.
A flying fuck if Stephen A can.
Score one bucket on Lebron James. When it's I don't know, June, it's fucking June. Talk about June hoops. Not talk about a guy who cannot hoop. As for Jalen Brown, I'm sorry, Bro, I am I don't care if you're the best Celtic or the worst Celtic. I don't care if anybody finds you off putting or unmarketable. I think besides the fact that you cannot go left, you are an absolute electric
basketball player and you are balling. I hope you keep absolutely doing good things, standing on business and becoming a major reason that Boston is about to reach the NBA Finals and hopefully lose to the Dallas Mavericks because I hate the Celtics. But keep doing you, JB, keep doing you all right, Moving on, I think it is time. I think it is time that we talk about nos Reed. We all know that nas Reed has been a cult favorite in Minnesota. We know that he has a little
following on Reddit. We know that he's the guy who Wolves fans now greet each other by saying his name with a slight heead nod, nas Reid, nas Reed. This is what happens when you're an undrafted kid out of LSU who worked his ass off to make a roster and then blossomed into a genuine star and maybe to me the second best player on the Minnesota Timberwolves right now. But outside of Minnesota, there's nobody really that knew that.
Much about him.
Even after he won six Man of the Year, A lot of people were very mad than nas Reid won six Man of the Year. So this is why no one has opened more eyes in the playoffs than nas Reed. He is averaging. The numbers don't even look that good, but there, I promise you they're really good. Twelve four and one one and a half stocks in twenty two minutes in this playoff run as a whole. Solid numbers, especially since he's a seven footer who's shooting forty one
percent behind the arc. But here's what's opening up everyone else's eyes. He's been pretty much the only Timberwolf to show up at all in the series against the Mavericks's averaging nineteen four and one with two and a half stocks, shooting sixty seven percent from three against a Dallas defense
that's one of the best in the league. They've thrown Lively at him, They've thrown gafferd at him, they throw Luke at him, PJ Derek Jones Junior at him, They've tried to double him, and guess what, none of it has worked. He is cooking all these guys on the green egg. Hibachi style could be the matchup. He was a plus net fifty against Dallas in all four regular season games. Some people might think that this is just like something you can see coming, but I don't think so.
I think he's just that good right now. I would be lying if I didn't say NBA execs everywhere we're not paying attention because they are now. I think every other team in the league is like, we need that guy. And the bad news for Minnesota is this contract at
Nasried signed in twenty twenty three. He signed a three year, forty two million dollar deal, and everybody's like, wow, there's a lot of money for Nosried considering Minnesota had just mortgage to the farm for Rudy Gobert and they had three bigs under contract, meaning next season twenty four to twenty five, Cat, Gobert and Reed are gonna be making like one hundred million by themselves, considering the cap is one hundred and forty one million dollars. We were a
first year of truly punishing cap aprons. Feels like a concerning thing. But you know what's more concerning is the contract structure, which is that my man nas Reed has a player option on the third year of that deal,
meaning he's done after next year. Meaning he could be a free agent at a time where he's the peak of his powers when my man Karl Anthony Towns is making sixty million a year and I don't think nas Reed is gonna opt in to fourteen million dollars a year when he could be getting twenty five twenty eight million a year. I could see him getting up to thirty million a year on the right team. Can you imagine.
Nas Reed for the Orlando Magic oo oi?
They're about twenty five teams would love to have him. My Portland Trailblazers would love to have him. But I think he's a starter. This is not a low Williams situation. He's not a bench player. I think he might be better right now than Karl Anthony Towns. And Karl Anthony Towns is making like six times when Osried is making. I for one, would love him in Portland next to eight. And in fact, I'd much rather give them Jeremy Grant money, who I also like, maybe Jeremy Grant for Osried wouldn't
that Jeremy Grant without the Wolves. I think his defense makes the team more flexible. Roster flexibility is the new currency of the NBA. And if you're the Wolves, just trade Karl Anthony Towns.
Now.
I know his value is not high, but like Nasred is only twenty four years old, and he's improved every year, and he's cheap and now he's proven that he can do this in the playoffs in the Western Conference finals. And guess who hasn't done that, Karl Anthony Towns. And if you can't get him to agree to an extension, you gotta trade him. You can't let him walk for free. And that means that Minnesota is literally tick tick tick
freezing cold. Takes. Got nothing, by the way, on Nate Duncan, because to think this this year, Nate Duncan said the Wolves should swap him for Tias Jones.
Oh my god, he said that, But.
The Wizards wouldn't take the deal because I think there's a risk he's not gonna play that well in the playoffs. I don't think he's a good enough player on both ends of the floor.
Oh my god, Nate Duncan.
You did not say that. The truth is Nate Duncan might be out of a job if it mattered whether he was right or wrong, because like nas Reed, is one of the best players in the NBA right now, playing playing basketball right the second, he's grossly underpaid, and that's going to fix itself sooner than later, maybe just not in Minnesota. I am sorry. That is all the time that we have for this episode of The Heat Check.
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