The volume. All right, we are really really close to crowning an NBA champ. I like the Celtics, by the way, especially in Game one. How about you sign up for DraftKings Sportsbook, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. They'll cover it every step of the way. Takes in ninety seconds to download the thing. They got same game parlays live betting odds boosts. I like doing my parlays two and three team parlays. We've actually had a really
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I picked Boston in six. I thought they would win. That was my draft Kings pick. I thought Jalen Brown would play well and the Boston Celtics would win, although Kyrie didn't offer much of anything, and I thought he'd have a decent assist night. You know, my takeaway is the small ball revolution in the NBA was really a bunch of nonsense. It was Steph Curry and Draymond Green who could play big. Everybody tried to duplicate it for about four years, and then everybody's like Houston got kind
of close. Size matters, and Porzingis on both ends, altering shots. On the defensive end, he was the initial Unicorn seven to four dribble shoot. There's nothing you can do. It's why Wemby will take over the league next year at the All Star break. Is that this is a big
man's game. You know, in the NFL, you know Bill parce Sells and the late great George Young was a general manager for the Giants, and his whole theory was went in doubt, just draft big guys like big beat small, and in the NBA, length and size is so important. And my takeaway, if that's the poor Zingis I get in the series, Dallas is in trouble. You know. One of the things I said, they have such a mature
offensive team, and they're all a little different. I mean, Tatum tonight was more assist guy than he was score guy. And I said, you know, Tatum can have a bad night in this series and they could win by fifteen. Kyriees an off tonight they get shelled, and that to me is the difference in the series. And I said that before I knew what I was getting with Porzingis, but I thought, you know, the size of Porzingis the
matchup problem. You know, Dallas came into this thing, let's feel it out, and very quickly it's like, yeah, we've got We're gonna have to go back to the drawing board on this, and then Porzingis sits for a while. But I would start with that is that, you know, if I got six guys who could all drop twenty man, that's in a with the Apron. Now it's hard to get a third star. The league doesn't want it anymore. They want you to draft and develop. That's what the
whole thing. Legal pay a lot of money. They don't want you going to cherry picking stars. Boston. This is an absurdly deep offensive roster. I mean, you go look at Porzingis last year. He was the guy for Washington. You're like that for a terrible team. That's an All Star level player. Derek k Wwhite's a five, Derek White's a two on probably thirty percent of the teams in the league. So I thought tonight was a little bit of what I thought is that Dallas cannot withstand a
bad luker Kyrie Knight Boston, Boston. If you told me a Tatum and Derek White didn't play well, Boston could still win. And so I just start with that, is that Porzingis' size, He was the initial unicorn. It's it's a problem. There's not a lot you can do. It's a big problem.
Yeah.
I thought this game was a brilliant showcase of what makes chrisps Porzingis awesome and how he elevates the ceiling of this Boston team. First of all, he's their only legitimate rim protector. Like Al Horford's a really interesting player and does a lot to help this team on both ends of the floor. But chrisops Porzingis is just a mountain of a man that is really difficult to finish over at the rim. In addition to that, he brings this there. There are a lot of guys that can
shoot in the NBA at the center position. There are very very few guys at the center position that are like lasers, like you just can't leave them open. And one of my biggest reasons why I picked Boston is Dallas's defense is very much geared up at the rim as like a rim protection team with Gafford and Lively.
That's why they were good against Minnesota.
Exactly you know they're big exactly, and they have some good perimeter defenders, but they don't have a bunch of good perimeter defenders, and so when you can really spread them out and Lively and Gafford can't solve problems at the rim as rim protectors. It just challenges the weak points of Dallas's offense. And then the second piece of it with porzingis that goes beyond the three point shooting.
One of the easiest ways to counter a ball screen is to switch it, because the whole point of the ball screen is you can get downhill because the guy has to chase over the top of a screen. But if you switch it, it shuts it down. But what makes Porzingis such a valuable weapon is if you switch it, you're putting your smaller player onto Porzingis and he can just walk them down to fifteen feet from the basket and they can toss it back to him and he can go to work. He showed it all in that
game one. He was protecting the rim. He was hitting trailing threes. In transition, he was hitting spot up threes and helped defense situations. He was hitting picking pop threes, he was beating switches, by posting up around the elbow. It was everything that makes Porzingis great. And I'm glad you pointed this out because everyone just accounted for Porzingis
as like available and healthy. But like, it's really hard to go thirty something days without playing NBA basketball and then to walk in the NBA Finals, Like, I don't think, I don't think, we're like. It just was so impressive the way he immediately looked comfortable and immediately started thriving. But a big part of that is he is the guy. He's the key that solves all of the issues that Boston could have had against this Dallas defense. He unlocks
it all. Was I was just completely blown away by him.
Yeah. The other thing that jumped out the big winner tonight too is Joe Mizzoula. So last year he looked a little over his skis, a little bit over his skis. You know, the Spolstra matchup, You're like, oh boy, this is a mismatch. So they strengthen his staff, Brad Stevens, you know, enhances the staff. Not only did he really target Dallas's liabilities defensively, like he went right after him. That's that's game prep. But when Dallas made a surge in the third quarter, he calls a time out and
Boston goes on like a fourteen to nothing run. That's coaching, that's Steve Kerr stuff.
You know.
The Warriors come out of halftime and there was going these crazy runs. That's that's where coaching matters. Spolstra late curer out side of halftime, and so I thought from the opening game plan to that time out, re energizing his team, making a couple of changes, and just putting it away because you start watching Luca hit a couple Boston had several really ugly, sloppy possessions. What you do when you get ahead by twenty five, you just mail
in stuff. You know, you just don't. You can't stay engaged for two hours and forty five minut You just naturally get sloppy. Boston did. Luca gets them back in it, and then all of a sudden, the timeout, and I thought, okay, that's the difference this year. I don't think Missoula calls a timeout. Last year they go on a fourteen to nothing run. First of all, that did n Ab Porzingis
and Drew Holly. They're a better offensive team. Everybody feels just Jalen Brown just gets a little better every year. But that's a thing like that was one of the things I worried about this with Boston. I said, I don't know if Missoula is a good coach. I think he's confident in the East. Is he a good coach tonight? I was like, that's good coaching. That's noticeably good coaching because Jason Kid's a much better coach than four years ago.
So that jumped out to me. You can respond to that if you want.
Yeah, So I thought the time out, like, that's an important part of coaching that doesn't really get talked about much. We talked so much about personality management and tactical approach and all these different things, but like, actually managing basketball games is one of the most important parts of the coach's responsibility. You have to feel when things are teetering and time when you're going to kind of step in
and try to right the ship, so to speak. And Boston just had a really ugly offensive stretch there that looked very similar to a lot of the nasty offensive stretches we've seen from Boston over the course of the season. They were settling for quick shots, quick threes, isolation threes.
Immediately out of that time out, it was abundantly clear that Missoula was harping on the fact that they needed to get back to driving and kicking, because when they beat someone off the dribble and they passed two or three times and it's a wide open catch and shoot three, it's a really good shot with really high value. When they run up the floor in transition, and now Horford just throws a transition wing three off the side of the rim, like without running any sort of offense, that's
when they can get carried away. And then I'm glad you mentioned the game plan because I thought Missoula's game plan was brilliant to start this game. One of the specific things he did was instead of putting Horford and Porzingis on to Gafford and Lively their centers, he put him on to PJ. Washington and Derek Jones Junior. So
what that does, which is really fascinating it. By the way, this is a shout out to Jason Tatum, because Tatum's defensive versatility is what gives him the ability to guard centers. He's big enough to guard a center underneath the basket. But because of that, Derek Jones Junior and PJ Washington when they're setting screens for Luca and rolling to the basket, they're not the same type of vertical spacers that can catch lobs like Daniel Gafford and Derek Lively when they
pop to the three point line. They aren't very good above the break three point shooters, and so I thought it really threw Dallas for a loop offensively that they didn't know how to attack, and then to add another layer to it, the spacing gets all janky because even when Luca and PJ are when Pj's rolling or Derek Jones is rolling or popping when Luca's getting downhill, now Tatum and Lively and Gafford and all those guys, they're
just like congregated around the basket, just messing up the spacing. I thought it was a really smart defensive game plan from Mizula. I thought he managed the game really well. I thought that was a really good call out. What'd you think of Jalen Brown tonight? I thought he did an amazing job.
I picked him to be m VP of the series. So I feel like Jalen Brown more than any Celtic. I know exactly what I get. I get tremendous athleticism, defensive pressure. He's always engaged, plays with a little chip like like he finished at the rim. He gives you about one of those a game, and I feel like every year his offensive game gets a little more refined.
I don't think he's you know, maybe aesthetically as naturally as fluid as a Tatum uh, maybe not as dynamic as aunt uh doesn't have just the offensive uh skill level of a Luca. But what he is is he's just a really high IQ, intense, increasingly refined, energized player. He's strong, He's got like a d Wade body. He's strong, He'll he'll lean on you on the defensive end. I think Jalen's a classic sort of kind of quiet you know, he doesn't get he doesn't get chatty. He'll always be
underappreciated because he doesn't. He doesn't ask to be stared at. He does a lot of little stuff. He's really good with his body, really good at constantly like he knows he's in great shape. He knows he can wear you down, like Jalen in a seven game series is the kind of player that could get stronger. He like d Wade was like that. D Wade liked it. D Wade would be on the floor constantly and You're like, just didn't
affect him. It's almost like a football player in basketball, like he liked the physicality a pitcher that's better sixth thenning on. And when I watch Jalen Brown, I just feel like I get the exact same guy, maybe in the best shape of the top three percent of the league in shape, physicality, and you know something, that's what I didn't get from because I want to pivot it to this. So I write notes during games, a handful of notes, and one of the notes I put in
the first half is where are the assists? So when Kyrie's not hitting, okay, I need assists. Who gotta give. I felt like tonight was like Lucas Turn Kyrie's turn Lucas Turn. I thought there were I thought the crowd affected Kyrie. He got a little into his head. I didn't feel if he wasn't hitting his shots, he wasn't doing anything else Whereas when Jalen Brown's not hitting his shots, I still feel like get a complete player, a completely engaged,
energized player. When you're a great offensive player and you're not hitting shots. I helped us feel like offensive players can get a little moody, you know, they can just kind of get out into their feels. I never feel that with Jalen, so I thought Kyrie and I just didn't get forget the shooting he was off. I didn't feel like got enough energy from Kyrie. That was my take.
No, one hundred percent agree. I thought in the second half he was missing shots, but in the first half, like he was taking bad shots, like he was kind of forcing the issue. He had some bad misses in that first half. He shot one off the side of the backboard, like he got blocked, Like, yeah, he got blocked in at ball screen, Like it was just he was just kind of forcing the issue. I agree with you. I think some of the situation with the booze and just the intensity of the moment got to him a
little bit. Yeah, And you're right, like that's the thing, like one of the to bring it back to Jalen Brown like that, to me is what's fascinating about Boston's roster build. You don't have Derek White, but before the halfway point of twenty twenty two, you don't have Drew Holliday before this year, you don't have Porzingis. Suddenly you need him to be like an offensive engine next to Tatum, and that'll shine a light on some of his shortcomings
as as an offensive initiator. But because there's so much offensive talent on this team, he can be kind of like pointed and shot in a very specific area where he's great, and like I thought, he he ripped Luca in the back court twice at in the first half just with ball pressure. I thought in general, just him being a pest on Luca was just a huge pain.
He was in help side, making blocks at the rim. Defensively, he's just he's the one guy on the roster that's actually like a true top tier athlete, like Tatum's really big, yes, and he's also like a good athlete, but like Jylen Brown is like an actual top tier NBA athlete. So when he's allowed to focus on just being a wrecking ball, it allows him to kind of channel his strengths in
his best areas and he can have success. Whereas with Kyrie, they desperately need him to be great offensively in order for him to bring the level of impact that they need from him. And as far as the Assisco that you brought up, I do think a big part of that was Boston's defensive game plan. You could tell the fact that they were not allowed to they were not able to bring Lively and Gafford into ball screens as easily. You can tell that kind of through them for a loop.
And I'm gonna dig into the film and try to find some answers, but I'm really curious to see how Dallas tries to counter that over the course of the series, because You're right, it did turn into kind of your turn, my turn type of basketball with Luca and Kyrie, and they're gonna have to find a way to loosen that up.
Yeah. I remember seeing Jalen Brown at Cal when the PAC twelve was a conference, and my takeaway was cut he you know PAC twelve, he's like an athlete. You're like, this guy is he playing the football team? Like this guy is just cut?
And he was.
It was he felt a little stiff, and then Brad Stevens, you know, the college coach, gets him and he just gets more fluid and more fluid, And same thing with Missoula. I just feel like there's certain guys in the NBA that have made themselves into great players. I don't think coming out of col I would have thought he would be this good offensively. He just makes himself like I
don't know the numbers in front of me. I feel like the first several years he was just like two and a half three points better every year, and he just you can see the work he put into it. You can see it from his you know, his cardio, his his build. Yeah, and you know a little bit like d Wade. He's not a naturally brilliant shooter, but he ends up with twenty five a lot and he's playing on you know what I mean. Some guys just they just end up they the points, like Jalen's points
are memorable. If he has twenty seven, you remember the points. They're big points, they're points at the rim, they're steals and dunks. Something else that jumped out to me that I wrote down is that, you know, over the course of a series, obviously Dallas will come out and have huge energy in the first quarter of Game two. They're going to come out with their hair on fire, and Dallas is going to have to match that. But there
are some things like where does Lively fit in this series? Like, I think Boston players will all take turns fitting wonderfully in this series. They'll all get their shots. Tatum will score more points in Game two. But there are a couple of Dallas players that I think. You don't want to play a series and you're reacting to Boston. You want to make Boston try to react to you. And I watched a couple of times to night. I scribbled down like Dallas is just reacting, but Boston's setting the tempo,
Boston's doing what they want. Boston is dictating all the terms. Dallas is just kind of reacting counter punching. And if Kyrie's not hitting shots when you're counterpunching, you're gonna get blown out. So there are some matchups in this series. I'm like, Okay, Luca and Kyrie both have to play well. I don't know what is Lively gonna be an offensive player? Like,
you know Lively can be a great rim defender. Well, if Porzingis is gonna go to the perimeter and Horford's on the bench much of the series, what is Lively's role, Like, what is he gonna do? So I in my notes, I just kept feeling like Dallas just reacted all night. Only in that brief third quarter run when the when the Salticus got sloppy, did I feel like Dallas sees control and it was just sort of Luca.
Well, to put it simply, the reason why they're in that reacting position is because Boston's like core set game plan is clearly better than Dallas's kind of core set game plan. Like they're the natural way they wanted to come into this series playing heavily favors Boston, and so Dallas is gonna have to figure out a way to adjust now. I actually think Lively is a super valuable piece for them on the defensive end because of his ability to switch out onto the perimeter and guard a
little bit. He picked up some fouls in the second half where he's just basic fundamental stuff. He didn't keep his hands vertical, he kept like kind of coming down on the player that was attacking him. But on the offensive end, you're right, one of the things that gets tricky is if he can come set a ball screen and then roll hard to the rim and catch lobs,
then he's a real threat. But if you can't bring him into a ball screen, because he's got Tatum on him and they're switching, then suddenly he's just standing in the dunker spot, and they're gonna have to find some ways to counter that. I think an easy one is
to just incorporate him in the action. There's a way, There are ways to run ball screens with three players, So I would have Lively set the screen, and then as soon as they switch, I would just backscreen for Lively and try to see if you can get him
cutting downhill. That way, they're gonna have to find ways to get those bigs moving towards the rim, because if they're just standing there in the dunker spot, they're not getting enough offensive rebounds, they're not cleaning up enough lobs underneath the basket, they're not getting enough offensively out of that position. You saw a little bit in this game too, where they just went to Kliba because Kleiba can shoot, and so they go to kleebet the five, so at
least they can space the floor a little bit. Maybe that's the direction this goes. If they can't figure out, if they can't figure out how to use Lively in Gafford, then they go to and they have to lean into Cleba and play small. That would be a really big issue because now you're taking one of the foundational parts of Dallas's offense, which is their rim running bigs and their lob game, and you're just sidelining it, right, So it's tricky, But again, this is what Boston does to you.
This is why it's such a tough matchup, and like it it's super fascinating to me because this has been kind of the theme of this playoff run, is like how different teams match up with each other, and Boston is uniquely equipped because of Tatum to neutralize the lob game, and then on the other end of the floor, they're uniquely equipped to attack the weak points in Dallas's offense.
How many a defense? How many times tonight did you see Tata or like Luca end up on a switch on one of the guys and then the boss player would just drive right around Luca and then bring another guy in and pass pass wide open three. Like, yeah, that's an issue. Like in the last round, when Luca would get switched on to Anthony Edwards, he'd have an easy job, like just play up on him because if
he beats you off the dribble. No one's scared to go bear, so Lively and Gafford are just waiting underneath the basket to help you on the backside. That's not how it's gonna be in this series. Luca's gonna have to contain the basketball. It's gonna be a challenge for him. And so I'm really really fascinated to see how the matchups kind of shake out. I will say this and I want to kick it to you just kind of moving forward in the series. I there were a lot
of things that went Boston's way tonight. They came out hair on fire and shot extremely well. A Dallas shot very poortally. Luca and Kyrie both really struggled for the most part. I thought Luca put up his points, but he always does, but like he I thought, in the key portions of the game, he struggled. And so there is a very good chance that in Game two Boston doesn't shoot as well and that Dallas shoots better. Kyrie
Luca played better. So I think Game two is gonna be a really close game, and I think it's gonna come down to crunch time, and I think it's gonna be one of the first pivot points of this series.
M I think this is gonna be an offensive series. I just you know, again, the NBA would prefer you don't have four or five veteran offensive pieces. Like think about this, Tatum's a one, Porzingis on bad teams is a one or a one. A Jalen Brown on lesser teams is a one or one. A Derek White's a two on lesser teams. And if you look at Drew Holliday when Chris Middleton was hurt, he was a two last year for Milwaukee. Okay, that's like five guys that
could be a two or a one. We may not see a lot of that, even even if on a Denver Gordon's really any defensive guy who can score, but you don't view him in that role. I like KCP, He's not a two on any team in the league, even the bad teams. So you get to a point with Boston where I'm like the league is trying to avoid that. They like the OKC model, get draft picks, bill develop, you know, just that's what the NBA wants. They want. They don't want you to go and cherry
pick people. I think the NBA loves the Knicks. You know, if you have to move a Randall to get a Paul George whatever, that's fine, but they don't want this accumulation of like five guys. Like I watched tonight and I thought, you know, Dallas played old Clippers, figured it out quickly young OKC. I didn't pick them to win good series. But Oklahoma City's got a little Boston in it. They can spread you out. You know. They're difficult young,
not as refined Boston. And I start watching this tonight and I'm like, you gotta kind of pick your poison with Boston. You're really like, you know, I kept saying Indiana is so terrible defensively, Yeah, but Boston's really good offensively, and you're just like, come on, you got five guys that could be a two. I mean, I don't think most if you're a casual people don't understand how good Derek White is. He's like all NBA defense. He's long, he's smart, he can shoot, you know, his plus minus
his net rating. It's like I think Boston, I think Dallas is gonna have their hands full. I just think you gotta just a little bit when you play Boston, you gotta cross your fingers a little. I mean tonight Tatum wasn't scoring a lot, Porzingis was unstoppable. I just I don't want to overreact, but god, when's the last I mean, Boston has just rolled through the league since October? I mean, at some point, how many times have I
seen them win by like twenty two this year? I just I don't overreact, but it's like when they're Poorzingis is hitting, Okay, I'm kind of screwed a little bit. There's matchup issues everywhere.
No, You're you're absolutely hanging on and hoping that one they miss shots and two they play stupid basketball, Like you're you're actively hoping that they do that, because I think we always they.
Did for about three minutes in the third court they did.
To start the third quarter, and then we got to the time out, and like to that point, like that's what's what's what's kind of fascinating, Like I don't think anybody disagrees that Boston's ceiling is higher than everybody's. It was always just about their kind of like maturity and their ability to consistently reach that ceiling. What you brought up, I think is really fascinating and I've been thinking about this a lot over the course of the last week.
Anybody could have traded for Porzingis anybody could have traded for Drew Holliday, Boston Kyrie or Kyrie. Boston already had the most talented roster in the league last year. That was something I said consistently. Now they didn't live up to that potential, but like they were all well, Derek White, Jason Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Al Horford and Marcus Smart that was already, in my opinion, an incredible top five. And Brad Stevens looked at this and was like, Nope, not enough.
And what's crazy here is like if they end up hoisting the trophy, which you and I both believe they will, like I think a good portion of the credit has to go to Brad Stevens for basically being like, I've got a couple of flawed stars. These guys need a ton of support. Obviously, we're about to head into the CBA,
We're gonna have all these new restrictions. Let's put it all in this year and let's see if we can make a little bit of a run and like that, like that's the thing, Like Boston outbid everybody for Christops. They outbid everybody for Drew Holliday. And I can't help but think about your kind of overarching philosophy, which is like teams that take risks, you know, they're the ones that usually end up at the end of the day with the trophy.
Yeah. I mean, if you can go to the trade deadline, the Kyrie move, those are big swings. Those are big swings by Dallas. And you know poor zing Is. You know, basketball is really interesting because it's are the players come into the league much younger and generally much less mature, and so if you get into the wrong team or the wrong spot, you can get kind of a bad reputation.
Porzingiss reputation. I mean, his game's different now, he's much more perimeter than early when he would pound the ball, and so Porzingi's got a reputation like bad guy, bad locker room guy.
All right.
Then he goes to Washington and he gets a fresh start. He moves outside, shoots more or less pounding the ball. The league becomes more analytic. People can show him real data and you're like, oh, okay, that's a little bit. That's a little bit of the unicorn and then Boston Brad Stevens seizes on it and says, you know what, with our really good room, he didn't have to be
a one or two here he can on nights. And so I think sometimes in the NFL, if if you come into the league at twenty three and by twenty six you're kind of an idiot, like you just can't figure stuff out, I'm kind of done with you. You gotta be careful. In the NBA, basketball is a very individual culture AAU. It's sort of about getting yours, showing off, letting the world see how much talent you have. If you get a bad opening locker room Washington for twenty years,
you get labeled. You know, bad guy doesn't compete, you know, because an NBA locker room is so small, a really talented guy that's distracted can really ruin a locker room. Hell, in baseball, if you're a schmuck and you go to the bullpen, you don't even said that dugout Like in football, you splinter off at halftime or at practice with your unit. So I think, like Kyrie's reputation earned Dallas took a shot ad when he was in New Orleans. It was
like Dad bod Lazy doesn't want to play hurt. I thought he was sensational the last year and a half. So these NBA guys, if you just make a judgment based on their first like three years, you can leave a lot of stuff on the editing room floor. Like you can't watch Porzingis tonight. It's almost a revelation. It's like, Oh, this is exactly what he was. This is what people thought he would be. He was the pre wemb pre home groun. This is what people said. You can't stop him.
So you know, and I guess back to your initial point is that these two gms took big swings on guys, and Porzingis was thought of as a bad locker room guy that was his rep four years in the league. Well, he has an effected this locker room at all. I mean, you can see the way the players, the Celtic players treat him. They like him, you know what I mean, And it's just part of their kind of unified effort.
So basketball football cultures are very different. There's a a lot of things about the football culture I like, but you have to be very you can't be as judgmental in basketball. You're getting nineteen year old kids. Jesus. The difference between nineteen and twenty four is a human being. You know, once you get into your forty one to forty seven, is the same guy nineteen to twenty three. I got a lot of kids. It's a different human And Porzingis now is like team guy, I mean, engaged
defensively guy cheering on teammate guy. So I you know, Brad Stevens saw that, and Brad knows it because he was a college coach. He sees these guys mature. He knows they change my take.
Yeah, there's quite literally been zero complaint about Porzingis and
the entire exerience in Boston. You know, it's funny. I went out with Grant and Paulsen in DC on radio earlier today and he asked me just some questions about the Wizards going into the offseason, and one of the big things I kind of feel passionately about is this specific thing you're bringing up, which is I feel like a lot of people are out on Jordan Pool right now and it's like he's young, and then he won a championship when he was really young, so of course
it went to his head. He got a little bit off the rails over the following couple of seasons, I have a feeling that Jordan Poole when he's twenty seven is going to be a really good basketball player, you know what I mean? And to your point, like it's like it's like before I did this for a living, I worked in real estate and I was on the investment side, and you just completely change the way you look at homes more towards what they could be rather
than what they are. And I think that's a really interesting kind of like approach for gms, especially in these big market teams that are typically operating above the cap, because from there you're not going to get a top seven draft pick, right, So, like how do you find
talent beyond that? And like a big one is look for guys who were in the lottery that failed at previous destinations because they were in the lottery because they were viewed to have exceptional base line talent, right, but they failed in those original destinations because of any number of factors, immaturity, circumstance, leadership, you know, anything, right, even an injury potentially right. And that's the thing is like those are the guys that you can that you can
kind of find real opportunity. I feel like Ruy Hachamurro is that for the Lakers. A guy kind of in a bad organization in Washington, and then they find a role for him in LA and suddenly it works. Like these PJ Washington playing for a terrible Charlotte Hornets team. It's like, let's bring you into this winning circumstance and give you a job that is more suited to your talents,
and let's see what you can do. And so in general, I think it's really fascinating how these above the cap teams have to kind of look for the investment type of NBA players that kind of more fit within their specific scheme.
Well, think about a lot of the guys that come in and they're mature. A lot of them have stayed in Villanova guys okay, because they're three star guys, so they stay in college there, hard coached. They come in more mature. But a lot of the AAU stars and the G League guys that their NBA coach is their first real grown up Like, so like the kid that Houston got, is it Jalen Green? Like when you first watched him, you're like, he got a lot of talent, but he's all over the place. He didn't want to
play basketball. And then in year two you're like, oh he's being coached. Yeah, like he may he's off ball, he can actually help the team. Well, what would he know? You know, It's like you just you don't know what you don't know. So I think a lot of when you watch these teams that do the little things, well, the Knicks, they have a lot of guys that played a lot of college basketball, so they're just like they're
twenty seven going on thirty four. And then you get these guys that are super talented, lottery picks one and done at twenty seven, they're twenty three, Like they just they just haven't been coached. They haven't had an Izzo, they haven't had a Jay Wright. And that I always said that's the value of college coaching is, and now there's nil. There's value in saying I want to stay for a sophomore year of college in a really good program. Somebody is really on my ass and I can make
decent money here. I can make it at the G League and you're part of something. If you're part of Villanova or Kansas, you're really part of a community, You're part of a campus, and that's that's a real that's I mean, that's different people, different races, religions, different classes. It's it's it's hard, it's challenging, and so I think I just think the NBA is different. You have to be careful about labeling and judging. Now there are players
like D'Angelo Russell. This is what he is, right like it's been established. Okay, I'm done trying to figure out the Rubik's cube, like this is what he is. But I think porzingis is God. You know, it was almost tonight watching him play like he had that kind of that devilish Grinnich smile. You guys aren't stopping me. I'm good. Yeah, and it's uh, you know, that's basketball. You could do it.
There are times when when when you get at hot and you just and you have size advantages and matchup advantages. I think Game two will be really close and really really competitive. I think it will be uh. I think Dallas will come out and play much better. I mean, if I'm Dallas, my takeaway is we got to get physical. We got to put bodies on people. We have got to and I think the officials tend to I don't think they favor teams. I think they they favor even
They're gonna give Dallas some physicality in Game two. They're going to allow Dallas to be physical. The officials will do that. Now, by the way, Boston will be allowed to be physical too, will they take advantage of it, But I think Boston. I think my take is if I was a coach of Dallas, I'd be like, guys, we've got to win possessions on the defensive end. We may not match up offensively. We have to win the defensive end. We have to we have to move the
ball better. We had very few assists early. We've got to win the defensive end. I think Game two will be a different It looks like a different basketball game. That's my guess.
No, I one hundred percent agree that. And you bring that physicality, you take an early lead, You add fresh sure to Boston, which changes the free feeling that you have when you shoot the basketball. Maybe they have a lesser shooting night, and you give yourself a chance to win. Before we get out of here, I wanted to ask you about Dan Hurly, so I obviously, as someone who roots for the Lakers. I actually was very excited about
this today. But what was your kind of takeaway from that that big reveal this morning?
Well, I saw it like four thirty five, a Woje palm starting my day. And my take was, I said, you know, because I founded the volume, so I tend
to look at things from a managerial position. And so I said, if I was Rob Polinka and Genie Buss, and Minnesota's got Ant and Okac's got Chet and Sga, and then there's Lucas twenty five, and you start looking up and down, and you know, Jokic is still nice prime, Boston's two guys in their prime, and you start looking around and San Antonio and Houston this year I think will pop, like it'll be different teams, and you start looking around and thinking, listen, man, we got to start
drafting and developing here, like this is what the league. If you start looking at the second apron, what the CBA is in the NBA, We're not going to get a third huge star here with Lebron and Ad. We're just this is not gonna work. So we have got to draft and develop. And so you can't watch these playoffs and not come to this conclusion the NBA has pivoted to young stars Katie Lebron's staff. It's over like that. They're not running the league anymore. Like Tatum now is
one of the veterans. And I think my takeaway is, Okay, who does that, Who drafts, who builds culture, who's tough? It wasn't a pivot away from Lebron. It was a pivot toward the league. The league now is a draft and developed league. That's these players are going to get rich. But the league watched what Golden State did with KD and they didn't like it, and the owners didn't like it, and the league didn't like it. I can remember talking to fans of the NBA being like, I hate this.
This is just not fair. And I think the league heard that Adam Silver did not like that move at all. And so I think the Lakers, Rob and Jeanie look at this and think there's a change. We don't want to be the Clippers old, dysfunctional. You know one guy, Terrence Man that feels like he's young. You know, it's a lot of names and great on the marque. It's a great movie poster. It's not really a championship team. And I think the Lakers don't feel like it, and
you know, I just I that's my takeaways. They are looking at this and stepping back and going we like JJ Reddick, but he has no history in drafting and developing. This is not what he does. By the way, there's Connecticut players in this draft, you know, there's just and also early the last three years he's recruited almost probably every good domestic player in the first round he's recruited or seen them. So I think they're gonna be active. And that was my take is that you can't watch
these playoffs and not see this gigantic pivot. You know, It's like when Manning, Brady and big Ben got old and you're watching Mahomes and Lamar and Allen. It's like, oh shit, we got ourselves a new league. As soon as soon as Tom leaves, we got a new league. It's a brand new league. And that that was my take on it.
Yours, Yeah, So I I there were three reasons that I was excited about it. The first one is exactly what you said, the draft and development piece. I think a big part of it too, like you mentioned, with the cat rules changing, it's gonna be really difficult to have more than two stars.
And it's almost impossible, Yeah.
Exactly, And I think he specifically is gonna excel at finding role players that are great connective pieces next to stars, because the Laker brand is gonna continue to bring in star talent in one way or another, whether it's to
the trademarket, whether it's through free agency. They're gonna get stars, but because of the new rules, you're not going to get three of them, so you're probably gonna have to and it's going to be about working on the margins and finding discounted valuable players, which I think is something that he's going to excel with the second two piece. Two pieces of it. One, he's an offensive genius, like
literally an offensive genius. And specifically, what I find fascinating is he was capable of generating space for his offense with multiple non shooters on the floor, which I think is super fascinating on a Laker team that has an Anthony Davis that can struggle to shoot the basketball, that is going to probably play a Jared Vanderbilt that struggles to shoot the basketball. And he's he has all these interesting concepts, like he's really good at disguising his sets.
He's a big believer in weak side action, which basically occupies help defenders by making them think about what they're doing on the weak side while your stars are running ball screens on the other side. He's super creative as a tactician, especially on the offense the end of the floor, which I think is going to be work wonders for a Laker offense that can get stagnant sometimes. And then the third piece of it is he's just a psycho.
He's a psycho, he's competitive, and then I think he's gonna bring enough cachet because that's the fear, right, Like, if you're gonna play Devil's advocate, you're like David Blatt comes over championship coach from Europe, Lebron scoffs at him and says, I want the assistant instead, right, So like that's what you're scared of. But I actually think Lebron
has a lot more respect for Dan Hurley. I mean, especially seeing as he's been kind of like watching as a fan as he's had his success over the last couple of years. I think he'll have some success there. And then I complained that you NonStop this season about Darvin Ham not holding players accountable and then becoming and then becoming a team that was really sloppy for stretches because they didn't value individual possessions. They weren't good at
attention to detail. That will not fly under Dan Hurley. He will be on those guys and I think it'll help a lot well.
I try to defend Darvin Ham, but he is a defensive minded coach. And you see this in the NFL. Offense comes easier. The attention to detail from offensive coaches is better. So like when you watch offensive like Steve Kerr, like his he if you ever when they Mike Steve Kerr, he picks on stuff, stuff up so quickly, like like I'm not seeing it, I'm watching the game. He is a possession to possession coach. Steve Kerr, he watches every little mistake. Mark Jackson defensive coach. I always viewed him
as more of a defensive coach. The offense could never quite get in sync. Now, Mark did a good job on the defensive end, but I thought with Darvin Ham is he could get players. I thought Anthony Davis was absolutely sensational defensively this year. I thought he was the defensive player of the Year, but his offense was inconsistent. Darvin's not going to help you a lot there. Darvin was a very limited offensive player. And so I think, just like in football, I think coaches have a vote
goals good with Bigs, Dan Tony's doesn't like Biggs. Coaches all have strengths and weaknesses, and Darvin, I thought, was not as detailed. Offensively allowed sloppy possessions. What didn't hold players offensively accountable. They'll make it up on the defensive end. That's not the league. That's just not the league. You you're gonna you're gonna shoot your way. I mean, you start looking at teams. Dallas was a better offensive team
than Minnesota. They won the series. You know it's it's you know, it is as as hard as New York played. You start look Indiana. It was more consistently a higher tempo, healthier, better offensive team with them offense is winning these series. Like effort's great, but like that's that's why Boston's favored in this series. They got five six guys that can
score twenty. And so I think Darvin doesn't necessarily fit what's happening to the league, which is increasingly skilled, increasingly unstoppable for players of size, And I think Hurley's good with that. He understands what the what the sport is becoming. That you play hard, play with urgency, get the details down offensively, don't give up sloppy possessions. Lakers would have bad quarters offensively, like just I mean, there are times if you didn't have Lebron on the floor and Austin
Reeves was in foul trouble, you were done. They just were a bad offensive unit. So yeah, I think to your point is I tried to defend Darvin Ham, but I'm seeing some of the same stuff in the NFL where the skill now in the NBA is just too damn good. It's just too good. There's just if you're not equipped offensively, possession after possession, you'll just get run out of this sport really quickly.
Oh for sure. Like look at this particular matchup here for Dallas versus Boston, Like a big part you mentioned it at the start of the show, like the stagnation, the lack of the ball in player movement, the Luca Kyrie kind of your turn, my turns bad. That is, it works for Dallas because Lucas so damn good, and he might be the best player in the world. But like I do believe there's a reason why the league
has shifted towards more ball in player movement. That's why we're seeing teams like Denver succeed in Golden State succeed Golden State kind of really revolutionized five out offense and brought it to where it is today. And like, I just think, I think Dan Hurley is in touch with what works in modern basketball, which I think is going to help a ton. I think he's I think he understands the complications of the transition to the NBA, which
I think will be his probably his biggest challenge. But he knows he's gonna have to talk differently to professional athletes than to college players. He knows that there's going to be more, you know, media pressure with that LA job on a day to day basis. Like we talked about Darvin Ham all the time this season because it's like that's if you were ranking high like high high pressure coaching jobs in America, Lakers head coach is pretty high up on that list, especially when Lebron James is
on the roster. And so I think he's up for it. I think he can do it. Go ahead.
Yeah. One of the things I've talked about today kind of ad nauseum on my show, as I said, the Lakers had twenty years in the second biggest city in the country with no NFL teams in the NFL eventually gobbles up every city. And now you've got Harbaugh, Herbert and McVeigh and Stafford and the second richest owner in Stan Cronk, and the Dodgers look like they're one hundred and ten win team. Here comes usc to the big ten. Balmer's got a new arena. The key in this is
are you okay now? Being the third biggest story in La fourth on some weekends like because this city has got star coaches and star teams and star players, and it could be a you know, Wagner Rhode Island, Yukon. He had a losing record each year. He's a culture guy.
He's an oven guy. He's not a microwave guy. It's none of this fake bullshit like this is a this is gonna be a slow roast, okay, and Lebron and Anthony Davis if he signs a five year, sixty million dollar deal, the Laker Genie Buss doesn't have the financial wherewithal, she's not Balmer. That's not a rounding air for her. So this is a real commitment. So I think everybody's just got to take a deep breath. The Lakers had this la. They were winning titles with no NFL team.
The Dodgers were good but not winning World Series. They owned this city for twenty years, and they got real use to leaking stuff to the media on a slop and just stealing thunder. Well, if you're thirty eight and forty four in this city next year and Herbert and Harbaugh and here come the Clippers in their new arena, you're going to be the fourth story really quickly. So
I think that's the key to me. It's not Hurley, it's is the organization ready to take a deep breath, make tough decisions, get a little younger, give up some players, get some draft picks. I think they'll be I think they'll be fine. Dan Dan's intents, you know, Spolster's way more. I mean, Steve Kerrz intense, Tyleruson, but goods are I mean Dan, Tony's not, you know, right Malone in Denver, He's like a fistfight waiting to happen. I'm I'm okay
with intense. I think players respect it. I think you can get run over very quickly in this league. I think this is a moment in time where Lebron's probably got two years left, maybe three. Lebron knows, like this is no longer like running through him. I think he knows it. I think he understands his value merchandising, tickets, production, He sees his value. But Lebron knows, you know, this is this is. This isn't Mahomes and his prime. This is not what this is anymore. This is not this
is not the bubble year. This is not Cleveland or Miami. This is a different time. So I'm excited for it. Plus it just let's be honest, it's interesting. That's a bigger one.
That's interesting to your point, if they have another stretch like they did post the late Jerry Buss passing away where they suck for a decade, like that could cost them their they.
Had no they didn't have a direction, then exactly, Curly will guarantee you a direction exactly.
That's my point is like I like that type of aggression because He's the kind of guy that can establish a culture that lasts. And you know, one of the other things too, as far as like the money goes, I think it's crazy all the hand ringing about the amount of money these coaches are making. Like if you had to pay Dan fifteen million a year, Like, what is that in the grand scheme of the salary cap? What is that in the grand scheme of this new media rights deal? What is that in the grand scheme of.
All the league's making seven and a half billion a year? Like? Who cares? Another thing is you have to empower a coach. You can't pay your coach five and your seventh guy is making twenty eight million a year. You just can't. You can't do that. You have to empower these guys. So I've said it. I would pay him twelve million a year, twelve twelve and a half. His wife's a Jersey girl, He runs the best program in college. You just you know it's I like the new NBA. I
like the European players. I like the mobility is one of those like small ball. Small ball is a lot of nonsense. It was the Warriors mobility. It worked with Lebron and KD for three years. Like the truth is most of this league, most of the stories. You know, Boston figured it out with KG, but Pierce was a Celtic and by and large mobility. It hasn't worked for Kdie. It worked for three years. It Lebron made it work everywhere. So this is the league. Embrace it. Go get the
guy who does it better than anybody in college. And by the way, he does it with big personalities. It's the Northeast. He takes five star guys, he takes three star guys like Yukon's a big program, high expectations, you know, they get they get high profile players, high profile transfers. They're going to be favored to win another national championship. So it's not like he's dealing with a bunch of two star guys the runs over. These are great players.
These are guys with egos. Yeah, we we just need to get you on the on a zoom call with the Hurley family so you can sell them on how great Los Angeles is and then then we can get you to close the deal. All right, Colin, this was fun. I'm looking forward to Game two this NBA Finals. Game one instant reaction was brought to you by Chase Freedom Unlimited. Unlimited one point five percent cash back is just the beginning.
Cash back three percent on dining including takeout, three percent at drug stores, five percent on Chase Travel, and one point five percent on everything else. How do you cash back? All right, guys, that is all we have for tonight. I will have a film session at some point up on the YouTube channel tomorrow. As always, I appreciate you guys, and we will see you again live after Game two on Sunday night.
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