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Well, we have another NBA season in the books as the Boston Celtics are hoisting the Lario b. We got Colin Coward here to break it all down. We will also react to the Finals MVP news when the report comes down. Obviously, we're waiting on that still, But Colin, I want to kick it to you, like this NBA champion has this like indelible mark on the history of the NBA. How will you remember the twenty twenty four Boston Celtics.
I think the deepest team, easily the most equipped with shooters, passers, ball handlers. You know, you've got six players Horford, Porzingis, Derek White, Brown, Tatum, Holiday, all really high end NBA players that would be either a one or a two on a lot of different teams in this league. Dallas is like the Lebron James Cleveland team that got to the finals against the Spurs. I don't really think they're close. Lebron eventually left that team. They're just ill equipped. Listen,
they got a break. Is that Minnesota knocked out Denver, perfectly built to beat Denver. Denver led by twenty in the fourth, twenty points in that game and lost. Denver matches up with Boston, maybe doesn't beat him up, matches up well, Minnesota doesn't necessarily match up. Dallas absolutely doesn't match up. They just don't have They just don't have the wherewithal. They don't have enough players. You know, Boston's doing this five out spread the floor. There's nothing they
can do. They can beat Mavericks off the dribble, set up easy jumpers. I mean, it wasn't you know it just throw out game four. Okay, So a team comes out Boston comes out flat. All these games, I felt like I was watching a championship team and a team that could have lost in the second round of the Western Playoffs. I think, and it's not a shot at Dallas, but they didn't look close. This was not I mean, there was no drama tonight. Eight minutes into the game,
it's over everybody for the Celtics. They were playing like it was you know, it had sort of a regular season feel. Everybody was loose, everybody was confident. It's not a knock, it's just this game did not feel like a finals game. It felt like a first round game. Celtics were a heavy favorite, took an early lead like it. It didn't feel like a finals game. So I thought, you know, Tatum's in these kind of moments. He's such
a beautiful player. You know, he's playing with confidence, like he's playing the Orlando Magic on a Friday night.
He was playing at a different level.
Yeah, I think this Celtics team is the rightful champion this year. I think they have a great claim to be remembered as the best team. Like we can talk about Denver and do I think Denver would have matched up better with Boston, of course, But the reality is is I don't think any team had a clear cut case like, oh, if Boston faced these guys, they were gonna lose. Even with Denver. You know, they won in
the two regular season matchups. But one of the specific things that this Boston team does extremely well is spread you out and attack your weak points. And Denver did have some slow footed guys, guys like Jamal Urry, nicolea jokicch and Michael Porter Junior. Boston did not shoot well in either regular season game against the Nuggets, and so I even think that series was a lot more up in the air than people realized.
That those were pressure pat games. There was a lot of talk this was a finals preview and Boston didn't shoot particularly well. So that's a classic. That's the kind of game that we have criticized Tatum for a big game. Everybody knows it going in and Boston doesn't shoot particularly well. So it's this series I felt by the second quarter of Game two, I'm like, uh, it's a problem.
Like this isn't a good matchup, This series is over, didn't you.
No, I totally agree, Like I thought that Dallas was in really in some deep shit, and on both ends of the floor in the sense that like they could not contain the basketball. They were in rotation constantly, and on the other end of the floor they could not get Boston in rotation. There was nothing they could do that made Boston overreact to anything that they were doing.
And again, like that, that's kind of like when I look back at this Boston team, I think, you know, you and I came into this season viewing it kind of like a three team top tier is basically Denver, Boston, Milwaukee, and then we found out pretty quickly off the top, like, actually, Milwaukee's not very good for all the reasons we've discussed, and it just it kind of felt like a two team race for most of the season, and Boston survived
Denver didn't. I thought, like, you know, one of the things I want to give Boston credit for, because talent does not always win in the NBA. It does a lot of the time, but it does not always win. In the NBA, it's about the team that can play
the best basketball on both ends of the floor. And so one of the things I want to give this Boston team credit for is even though they had an overwhelming talent advantage in every matchup, it felt like they played to their capability a lot in this playoff run. That was what was infuriating about them at times in the in the regular season, all the criticism of Missoula Ball, Missoula Ball, it wasn't like it was the way the Celtics.
Were playing it.
They were taking a lot of bad shots, they weren't being delivered about their spacing and driving and kicking for great looks. They were playing some sloppy basketball from time to time, and they dropped some games they shouldn't have won or the shouldn't have lost. I think they were I want to I want to say they were like two to four against the the top four seeds in the Western Conference.
It was actually it was. It was pretty bad.
They were pretty bad against the good teams at the top of the West during the regular season, and a big part of that was they were just kind of playing beneath their potential. To their credit in this postseason run. I thought they achieved a level of defensive intensity I did not see from them in the last two seasons. I thought that they guarded Dallas extremely well. I know that you've got a stat you're going to tell us about Dallas as scoring later, But like I thought, they
defended extremely well. And on the other end of the floor, Tatum and Brown embraced their roles as driving kick guys to get the defense in rotation. They played a great team brand of basketball. It was fun to watch. I'll tell you this, Colin. There were times during the regular season where I hated watching Boston because they would just drible up the floor and shoot a three without even like getting a paint touch, And they played a fun brand of basketball in this finals.
I enjoyed watching them.
Yeah, so let's just let's just attack the Jason Tatum things. So you know, the Boston fans have amnesia, so Tatum's probably gonna win. I think Jalen Brown was the more consistent player in the series. Tatum had sixteen points in Game one, couldn't shoot eighteen points in Game two, played well in Game three, but Jalen Brown in Game three had thirty points more rebounds and more assist than Tatum and was just three games through this series, Brown was
the alpha. That's not disputable. Game four celticsploone out. Tatum plays better tonight, but tonight was no pressure like the game was over late first, early second quarter. The series is over. I've never questioned Tatum in games like tonight. I've never questioned Tatum's talent. But in the first three games of this series, especially the first two when you're establishing the series, Jalen Brown was clearly the best player
Boston had. That is indisputable. Those are pressure games. Tonight's you know, Tonight's the route. Tonight's one of those games we all played in high school. Maybe maybe you didn't where you're like in halftime, you're like, I don't really need to play. We're down by twenty eight. I don't really need to play. Like it was a blowout. I mean, I'm looking at my notes here. First quarter, MAVs implode late in the quarter, down ten second quarter. This isn't close.
Celtics throwing bodies at Luca. Five guys in the floor, all can shoot sixty forty two Duncan Derek White three ugly Pritchard three, like this thing was over midway through the second quarter. And Rory McElroy missed a putt on Sunday at the US Open late. He didn't miss putts on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday early. Even in the US Open, putt's late or not not puts early. Tonight's game is a pressureless game. Once you're up by twenty, I mean the game's over at halftime. And Tatum played
very loose. He's a beautiful player. If he wins MVP, I'm totally happy for Jason Tatum. But let's let's be hones in the first two games, first three, you know the tone setters. Jalen Brown was the guy for the Celtics and he also won Eastern Conference MVP. He was the better player in that series. It's not a knock on Tatum, but he is a player that in really tone setting games, he leaves you wanting a little bit. Tonight was Lucy Goosey rolling downhill. That's all I'm saying.
It's not a knock if he wins it. I had the Celtics since six I've said it. He's somewhere between the fifth and eighth best player I'm good with. I'm not a hater, but like it's amnesia to say, oh, MVP of the series, Like, let's go back to the first three games. It wasn't close, That's all I said.
I'll actually take it to put it a little bit more aggressively, like there wasn't a single moment in this entire playoff run where Boston was under any sort of pressure at all whatsoever. They played three bad teams in the Eastern Conference and then they played probably the best matchup for them out of the West, and so that that specifically just avoids any of like the real drama that you think of when you when you think about
historical finals MVPs, you think of drama. You think of pivotal games and Jason.
When we have questions about Tatum, it's never talent, it's moments, it's intensity, it's the Kobe MJ shits, tied eighty six all.
So this series just didn't have any of that stuff.
No, I agree, And like, as far as the finals MVP thing goes, like I I think I personally would be okay with either of them getting it, and the case the case for Tatum is like I like it when the history books tell the story of that team. And to me, even though Jalen Brown played better than Jason Tatum over the course of this playoff run, I thought Tatum was the best player on the team for
the entirety of the season. Like I thought, yes, Tatum was the three like And so if I look back, and if I look back at the Wikipedia page and it's his twenty twenty four NBA Champion, the Celtics, Jason Tatum Finals MVP, I'm cool with that. But he was the best player in the series one game out of five tries. In addition to that. In addition to that, I thought Jalen Brown had the biggest pivotal shots of
the series in that late game run from Dallas. In Game two, he had the driving left handed layup over Maxi Kleeba. In Game three when it was in crunch time there late he hit those two massive fadeaway mid range jump shots that kind of ic the game. I thought he had the most iconic plays of the series. I thought those two dunks, those two driving one handed monster slams he had were like the iconic dunks of the series. And so for me, like I'm cool with
Jason Tatum winning the award. Yeah, I believe Jalen Brown observes it and I just deserves it. And I just got the text message from our guy, Josh, Jalen Brown has won Finals MVP.
What do you have to say about that?
Well, I think he was the better player consistently. I think your point's the best one all the big shots you on. I do think the first two games of the series those are tone setters, Like like you mean, if Dallas wins one of those games, you lose home court advantage. And we said, both of us said coming into the series the pressure was all on Boston. So winning those first two games at home was not just hey we protected home. It kind of made a statement.
And in both games, if not for a brief Dallas run, they had a really good fourth quarter. If I recall in Game two, Boston was clearly the better team. So that the tone setting games here were games one and two, and Jalen Brown was clearly the best player, And so I think they got it right. It's nothing, you know, I can love a player but not love a series. I mean, remember when the meta hit the game winner in Game seven for the Lakers over the Celtics. Kobe
was awful in Game seven. He was just just couldn't hit anything. Kobe's so remarkable, he just had a horrible night. We got to be honest about that stuff. And so I credit the people who voted on this because I thought Jatam Jalen Brown Eastern Conference Finals and Finals was the better player. Tatum, to your point, on a macro level, was the best Celtic all year. I think that's absolutely true. And two things can be simultaneously true.
Yeah, exactly, And like as far as the Jalen Brown piece goes, I really only have a problem with the non Superstar Finals MVP when we get into box score watching and we start giving it to like a role player, like that was the Travis d Yeah of the twenty fifteen Warriors, Like Steph Curry's getting blitzed all game and Andre Goudala is getting wide open dunks and corner threes
because Steph's getting blitzed. A and a Cavs team with one star Andre Gudala held for shooting percentage and then the voters end up suddenly giving the award to Andrea Goadala, and I'm like, what are we doing here?
But this is not what happened here.
Like we've discussed multiple times throughout the series, Jalen Brown is playing at a level that is similar to Jason Tatum's, Like he is ascending. And you know, one of the things that I think is fascinating about that is you and I talked in the after the Eastern Conference Finals
last year. We talked about should they look into trading Jalen Brown, And one of the things I said, if you remember, was I said, they have a better chance of Jalen Brown improving into what they need than they do to try to flip a player of his caliber into a better player, which was obviously a long shot or risky shot. And so to Boston's credit, they just kind of like, let these guys play through their lumps.
And here comes Jalen Brown going from flat out embarrassing against Miami last year he was bad against Miami last year to being the Eastern Conference Finals MVP and the NBA Finals MVP. And one other thing I wanted to say before I kick it back to you, this is what scares me about the Tatum piece moving forward. He's not as bad offensively as he showed in this playoff run. There's this thing. There's this thing that can happen in basketball.
I don't have an explanation for it. This is all part of that whole basketball is more art than science thing. But Tatum's been in one hell of a shooting slump in this postseason. He's been getting like eight tenths of a point per jump shot when he's typically a solid twenty percent.
Better than that. And one of the things, one of the things to keep in mind.
There is like, Boston's gonna be back next year and Tatum's probably not gonna shoot this poorly, and so like, even though Tatum's are a Jalen Brown's a deserving MVP, like, Tatum's not going anywhere, and he's gonna be here leading this charge next year. And like, one of the nice things, too, is his demeanor is the kind of guy that doesn't take this sort of thing personally, and so I'm kind of happy for him both in that regard.
Yeah, I want to pivot a little bit though, to Kyrie Irving, and I thought about this, so you know again, basketball is the artist sport. It's international soccer. It does matter how you play, not just that you score. And Messi's Pele just their artists and that there's absolute value in that. And same in basketball. Doctor j stylistically magic was cooler than bird. Michael Jordan was great, looking, well dressed, super fun. You know everything about.
MJ just just felt big. Duncan was boring.
And there's a reason, you know, history has been kind of cruel to Tim Duncan, who's better than anybody wants to acknowledge, and nobody except people in San Antonio will acknowledge how dominating he was. He didn't have a lot of style. But Kyrie Irving played eight games at Duke, no impact. Was kind of a bust. Pre Lebron in Cleveland, like, couldn't stay healthy, nobody liked him. Goes to Boston, doesn't work Brooklyn uh first, early early in Dallas, you kind
of weren't sure. And then he has this playoff run and we're all like, this is great. So take out a couple of years with Lebron in his prime, Lebron made everybody look great, everybody, and Kyrie bailed on that in this great run. A no show in the finals and all over the map. Offensively, he had bad, bad shooting nights, and I'm not giving you much in rebounding, assists and defense, like he needs to shoot. Well, SE's
not Jalen Brown where he could. You could tell me he's four for fourteen and he'd have eight rebound, seven assistant. You know, play the hell out of the defensive end. That's not what Kyrie is. You need him to shoot. So you know, I look at Kyrie and I understand the finishing package. It's artistry. It's beautiful, no dispute. But even this playoff run, like you know, Anthony Davis gets
criticized sometimes for being inconsistent, not defensively. I get a star and offensively three out of four nights.
I know what I get.
Like I know Lebron loves Kyrie. Ad is a more consistent star player. Jalen Brown's a better basketball player. I thought Kyrie in these playoffs, his highs are so high, Jason, you can't take your eyes off it. It's a firework show. It's awe inspiring. It's the singer hitting the highest note. But man, he throws out some stinkers he had. He was invisible for portions of this game. He didn't score in the first quarter, like the most important quarter.
Of the season for the MAVs.
He didn't do anything. There's my there's my Kyrie take that. His his aesthetic beauty overshadows a lot of nights where he gives you if he's not shooting, well, he doesn't give you anything else at all.
Yeah.
Pretty consistently in my player rankings have had him right around that twenty spot when I'm when I'm ranking players, I'm generally higher on Kyrie.
Than some people.
There's a there's a pretty substantial anti Kyrie coalition out there for obvious reasons because of his off court stuff.
And like, one of the things.
With with with this particular team that I look at is like I remember going into the series, there were people saying like, oh what if, what if Luke and Kyrie are the two best players in the series, And I'm.
Like, whoaa, hold on, Like let's let's chill out. Like I like Kyrie.
He's got this incredible upside, which is what you're referring to, which is the fireworks show. But what he is is he is an average too slightly above average kind of guard defender when he's playing hard, but he had a pretty bad defensive series. He is a guy that is a pull up jump shooter. And so guess what happens with pull up jump shooters. Sometimes they go in, sometimes
they don't. And and and that's that to me, is like there's like one pull up jump shooter in NBA history who's just been like reliably great in the postseason. That's Steph Curry, you know what I mean. All the other guys, they're the freaky athletes that can get to the rim consistently and dominate the game physically in some way, shape or form. Right, And so honestly, like, because this is one of my big takeaways from from Dallas, and like I've been kind of feeling this way since the
beginning of the series. But I don't think this Dallas Mavericks team is close. And you kind of mentioned this in your opening He's.
Like, I don't either.
I don't either.
Yeah, I don't think they're close. I think that they caught some really favorable matchups out in the Western I think they're good. I think I think there was a tier of teams beneath Denver where all the West was, and they managed to kind of weave their way through that with some favorable matchups. Right, But like, I think Denver would have beaten them pretty soundly in the Western Conference Finals. I think they would have gotten them.
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from your cell phone. Pretty easy. That's for the people dot com slash Colin or pound law, pound five two nine from your cell Morgan and Morgan has a proven track record of fighting for you to get a full and fair compensation if there's an unexpected accident in your life. This is a paid advertisement. The other thing we have to admit Jason is because of Luca's ball usage. I felt like he wasn't healthy for the last two series.
He looked, He looked fatigued, he looked beat up. So again, when when Kyrie is not delivering, it becomes very Luca dominant. I thought he looked. I thought you were getting about eighty percent of Luca in this finals. And some of that's just when you're the guy and it's little Jalen Brunson. It's like Jalen's great, but there are limitations to you know, when Jalen went on that forty point run, You're like, this isn't gonna end well, Like he's just you can't.
You can't be that dominant. You have to be able to, you know. And that's why the Celtics work is that Tatum wasn't good in the first two games. He and Brown were both good. In Game three tonight, Tatum was superior. I mean there were Knights that Derek White, I mean presser before the half, like it's symphonic watching Boston. They're just handing the baton off man Luca. He had that baton out multiple times and nobody grabbed it, and I thought he looked and that's I agree with you. Okay,
sees only getting better. Denver's already favored, Boston's not getting significantly worse.
Sixth or sec.
And by the way.
Keep your eye on what Houston's doing. They had a strikes this year. You're like, oh, you know, they're probably a vat in a way. So listen, we've seen this before. It's like in the NFL, the loser of the Super Bowl, like most of the time, doesn't farewell like this. This felt like a magical moment in time for Dallas, but there's some real flaws here. We would both acknowledge that
it is too Luca dependent. That's what it feels. It does feel like that Cavs team that was really very Lebron dependent, played with great energy if you remember Zill Goscas. I mean, they played with tremendous energy. Lebron was captivating, they had streaky shooters on the wing. But then you watch them against San Antonio and you're like, all right, they you know, five of the best six players are all Spurs. And that's how I felt in this series.
Yeah.
One of the things that I find fascinating, and I'm actually curious to get your take on this. Like one of the things that is hard to do in a situation like this after you have a successful postseason run is to be realistic about how far you are away. And so, for instance, Lakers fans last year, it's like, we made the Western Conference finals and I'm like, okay, Well, like Golden State has always struggled against big athletic teams,
that was a pretty favorable matchup for you. And then also that Memphis team, young John Morant driving into Anthony Davis all series was obviously not going to work. So it's like you got a couple of favorable matchups, then you ran into a real championship level team in Denver and you got your ass kicked.
So you're not.
Close, right, right, So when I look at that, when I look at the Dallas piece, this is what I think about, Like when the circumstances are favorable, meaning like when Luca has obvious mismatches, he can pick at the entire series, and then on the other end of the floor, when they can really load up the strong side and keep their rim protectors at the rim and hide Luca on the opposite end of the floor, they can get stops.
But where I get concerned is how many times in NBA history have we seen a team led by two stars that are both at least combining for two bad defensive players that go win the title. It's exceedingly rare. And so yeah, one of the things that I wonder
I shouldn't say exceedingly rat can't think of one. It's never happened like I would say, I would even say, like the case would be, oh, what about Jamal Murray, Nicola Jokicic, which I understand, But the flip side there is like even the two of them were not this type of like like Jokis was a dominant defensive rebounder who could actually do some stuff in pick and roll coverages defensively, and Jamal Murray did his job, and he's bigger.
Jamal Murray's bigger than Kyrie.
They also had an elite defender right off that in Gordon, So they had Yeah, I mean they they accentuated, like you know, it's like the Mavericks or like the Warriors. They hid steph Igwoodola Clay. So you can get away with your star not being an elite defender. But you have to have elements. You have to have size, Jokic, athleticism, Gordon like that. That's not what this Dallas team is. It's it's their two stars are Luca is disengaged a lot defensively.
Yeah, he was terrible in four of the five games of the series defensive I thought he was bad again tonight. They were just bringing him up into the ball screen. He would just kind of stand around in no man's lander, holiday slip out of it.
He'd get a layup, they get him.
On a they're the at the end of the first half, just like Game two, they just attacked him and switched his time and time and time again and scored every single time. Like it's a real issue, and so let me just pitch it back to you, like, this is the version of a Luka Doncic led team that wins the title one day? Is that version of that team constructed around Luca and then a secondary star that is an elite athlete that can impact the game more with his physical tools rather than with his skill.
Because I wonder if this Dallas.
Team is always going to be the kind of team that can beat certain matchups but will always struggle against teams that can spread them out just simply because that's just two way, two weak points in their defense. Do you think that that's what the direction they're gonna have to go eventually?
I think literally a perfect player for Lucas Paul George probably privately doesn't want the final shot.
Luca does.
Excellent defender, long willing, can give you thirty in non pressure situations. Could really have nights where Luca can almost take a back seat. But in the big moments, you know, Paul sometimes takes weird shots or bad shots. Luca doesn't like. This is one of these things. It's a better story than a team. Kyrie's not the fit. A poor defensive player who's hot and cold and needs the ball.
That's not the fit.
The fit is a long wing defender who can score thirty, but like a Pippin, has no problem letting the guy, letting the man shoot. Paul's always been a you know, Paul can hit the big shot, but it's like he can also back away from it. He's not a selfish player, so it's it's Paul George is one of those guys. He kind of works with everybody. I think, you know, Paul's gotten a bad rap, I mean, and he kind of fits everywhere. You go back to those Miami Heat series.
Paul was working with Roy Hibbert, a non score, George Hill, you know, Frank Vogel who loved Bigs not you now gut guards they give Miami Wade and Bosh and Battie and Lebron. They gave him troubles. Those were really good series. So I just think it's one of those. You know, Kyrie Luca, the movie poster is better than the movie. I think they need a different star. And this is something I was told years ago by a GM like twenty years ago. He said, it's not about the star.
Having a star in the league. There's a lot of them. It's the right star. And then once you get that star. The Warriors were brilliant. Here's Steph's deficiencies. Let's just layer it and protect him. It's like hockey. Our great score is a finesse player, Let's protect him. You have to protect You don't have to protect Tatum. You have to augment some offensive you know, production porzingis more scores. You don't have to protect Tatum. You have to protect Luca defensively.
Like I've said this he's a much better Carmelo Anthony. He's much better, but disengaged defensively. Not sure he's in great shape. You know, it's kind of he's the sun. Everything revolves around it sort of. So I'm not anti Luca, but I don't see him being part of a dynasty. I just think he's a He's a meteor. He just don't see stuff like this in the history of basketball.
But all stars are not equal, like Duncan is exactly what you want your star to be, kind of boring, does everything well, doesn't have to take the final shot in the end, sacrifice salary, like Duncan's never gotten the respect. Like he literally did everything well except handle the ball. And what did they put around him, Parker Manu, you know ball handlers. So I just think spectacular, But there is you have to protect him more than anybody wants to acknowledge.
I guess that's my take again.
Yeah, again, it's about acknowledging that you're not close and so I think there's a bunch of different things that they have to address. The first piece is Lucas specifically, and we talked about this a lot after Game three, has to get in better shape, has to make a commitment to the defensive end, Like I want to see Luca come in next year and look different physically, because this is year after year that this has been an issue and that he's not made any sort of attempt to address.
So that's the first piece of it.
The second piece of it is we've seen this consistently with Dallas. They've kept trying to build the same team around him, because we saw this with Brunson, with Brunson and Dorian Phinney Smith and that team that went to the Western Conference finals two years ago, Like they've built a team around two shot creators and then play finishers and like what just like what happened against the Warriors
in twenty twenty two. Eventually they're like, actually, we're just kind of fine with Luca taking these you know, tough content to two point jump shots. Is his step back three just isn't reliable enough, Like it once again this entire postseason run, he just could knock it down at
a high enough rate. Like there's a lot of like games where he has thirty points on twenty seven shots, and you're like, this isn't actually something that's causing problems for the for the for the opposing team, and so like I look at it too, like one of the things I like about doing something like going after a Paul George or more of like a skilled like a
multi talented forward is it makes for less redundancy. It makes it so that you can, like like it makes you a different type of team to deal with on a possession by possession basis, because what happens is when you lean on the Kyrie thing, it's like Kyrie has a rough series, Suddenly he doesn't bring anything else to the table, and now you look severely limited. And so I think I think in general, they've just got to have kind of like this self awareness to acknowledge that
they're not close and to make these structural changes. But one of the problems, Colin is I don't think they're going to I think they're gonna run it right back and be like, Oh, Derek Lively's gonna lead us to the Promised Land next year. He's gonna wait better. And you know what, I think they're gonna lose in like the first or second round next year in a jam packed Western Conference when they catch an unfortunate matchup.
Let's go back to the Celtics very deserving. Don't forget they had a dominant record. They lost to Denver, but they had a dominant record against the West, even more dominating against the East. Flushed through the Eastern Conference playoffs and the finals. So you know, there are these teams too that you know, we're so used to dynasties in the NBA. I was talking to Chris bruce Hard today. We were talking about teams that won a championship that
weren't a dynasty, but they were great teams. And one of the first ones was the Jerry West, Gail Goodrich Wilt Chamberlain. Remember that thirty three game winning Shriek Laker team that I think beat the Knicks and won a championship. Now, they didn't reel off a lot of them, but in a singular season that was an older Wilt. That's one
of the greatest teams of all time. There was a seventy six ers team that had Moses Malone joined Julius Irving and they were kind of missing a dominating interior scoring presence and for a year or two, Jesus, I remember those Sixers well, like Malone was, It's just hard to exp Moses Malone. If you ever saw him play, nobody discusses him. He was as dominating a rebounder as I've ever seen in the history of basketball, with Doctor J and good guard play, and I think Boston falls
into that group. So right now, like we thought Denver was gonna run off two or three Boston in a single season like that West good Rich Wilt team or the Moses Malone Doctor J t for a season lightning in a bottle health spectacular. You know, just just flush through the playoffs. The question will become they will play with a champion swagger next year. They probably won't be as relentless in the regular season. This is, you know,
kind of predictable. They'll they'll be you know, they'll have their little swoons and won't be But I do think there's a chance it's a back to back championship because cross your fingers on Porzingis's health. You know they're bringing the guys back. You'll play with more confidence. Tatum comes into a season like, Okay, I got it, I got my money, I got my title. I think it does
take pressure. I think it was building you and I said this this was Celtics had to win this after that Warriors Final where they came home and kind of laid an egg emotionally. They had to play well in this series. I thought by second quarter game too, it was like this is a mismatch. But I think next year you'll see this goes down to me is a in moment in time, a great team in a great moment, too good not to win a championship, but at times too weird to be a dynasty. I mean, Jalen Brown
wins the MVP and they averaged twenty a game. He didn't everge thirty, You didn't neverge twenty eight. He averaged twenty twenty one a game and was the MVP for the second straight series. So historically, can we acknowledge they're a little bit of an odd great team?
Like, yeah, yeah, no, they're They're absolutely weird.
I mean like when we think about the when we list the all time great teams in NBA history, we think like twenty seventeen Warriors, twenty thirteen he you know, teams like the the two thousand and one Lakers, the nineteen ninety six Bowls, right, the nineteen eighty six Celtics, like the nineteen eighty seven Lakers. We think of these teams, and every single one of them is led by one of the five best team players in NBA history. In my opinion, Steph Curry is the fifth best perimeter player
that's played since nineteen eighty. Like, I think he's right up there with Bird and Magic in that tier. So like these it's just funky to see a team that is as dominant as the Celtics have been. But I think one of the things too, is this kind of stuff bears out in time. Like you know what Celtics fans, they're going to want a certain amount of, like the credit for being dominant, and like here's the thing, like you beat you beat the Calves, the Heat without Jimmy Butler,
the Pacers and the Maps. So like like I'm not trying to like, but one of the things with NBA history because like people said this about the Nuggets last year, and I thought the Nuggets run was a little underrated because they went through Lebron and Ad, and they went through Kad and Devin Booker, and they went through Jimmy Butler and bam at a bio. Like I actually thought that Nuggets team, Yeah, played some tough opponents, but like everyone was like, oh, Denver had an easier path. Well,
guess what happened this year? They had to play a really tough team in the second round. They lost, So yeah, NBA history has a chance has a kind of like
a habit of working these sorts of things out. Like next year, they're probably going to have to play a Milwaukee in a playoff series, or a healthy Knicks team, or a team like Denver out of the Western Conference, or maybe what if Oklahoma City makes some big trade this summer and they end up going to the finals and it ends up like NBA history is a kind of a habit of working these things out, Everything about how this team is is gonna be about the big picture.
So for instance, if they lose, if they lose next year, you're gonna zoom out on a three year window here, and you're gonna be like embarrassing loss against the Heat in the conference finals, beat four mediocre teams, then lost the following year. People will write the story of that Celtics team as an underachieving, overly talented team. But if they go out next year and they beat better teams on their way to the Larry O'Brien, people will zoom out and be like this is an all time great team.
So like that's the thing, Like you're gonna get another crack at the table next year. It's like Jason Tatum said, gotta do it again next year. Go ahead, do it and it'll shut everybody up. Like these things get worked out with wins.
I think a team that keep your eye on is the Knicks. I think one of the great things if you're a Knicks fan, because they don't match up from an offensive perspective. They just don't have They don't have that many guys that can catch it and shoot it and ball pass. One of the things that's great about the Celtics winning if you're a Knicks fan, it does force you some urgency, like, guys, we can't make us a tweak. We're not a tweak away from beating Boston, Like we got to go out and get guys like
Michale Bridges and another score. Boston really puts pressure on Eastern teams. It's one thing if you if you're a Western team and you lose to Boston in the finals. You got to the finals, but you're you're not getting past Boston in New York with a tweak you're just not you know, even Miami Bam and Butler. You know, Butler will probably be banged up by the time, you know, if he if he, if he's a Miami Heat, they need another not Tyler hero, they need another player.
So it's this is the good thing.
If you're a Miami fan or a Knicks fan or a Sixers fan, this is like, guys, this wasn't competitive like this. They just I mean, how how many blowouts they had, like thirteen blowout wins. It's like, tweaking is not beating. Nobody in the East has Yokich. Okay, you don't have Yokich. So Tweaking's not gonna do it. And I think that's sort of the advantages. I say this in sports all the time. The great thing about harbaught Michigan. For a Buckeye fan, it puts pressure on going and
getting Chip Kelly as an offensive coordinator. It's like they're throwing they're pushing us around three years in a row. You want your rival to be viable because it puts pressure on your owner and your front office. And so I'm watching this game tonight and I'm thinking, if I'm a Knicks fan, you may hate Boston, but your front office, these are smart people now in New York running that franchise.
You got to bring a Michale Bridges on and another guy that can drop twenty Devivincenzo's become a great catch and shoot guy Brunston's gonna give you twenty eight. McHale Bridges could give you twenty four. And I've got to get somebody better than Mitchell Robinson in the post that can give me offense. So it's that's the upside for the Eastern Conference teams is I think Darryl Moury, the Knicks, uh, you know Indian if they can get somebody, the pressure's on.
You got to add multiple pieces over the next couple of years to beat these guys.
And aggression is gonna be the key, because again, like, how did Boston do this? They did this by trading for Drew Holliday and chrisps Porzinkis, Like Brad Stevens just hit two massive home runs. I went back and looked at that trade and saw that they ended up like netting two first round picks in the Porzingis trade, and I'm like, ah, man, like anybody could have had him. And then Boston went and got him, and then you know, like even looking at Denver, it's like they went and
got KCP. They went and got Aaron Gordon. Like those are two like slam dunk moves to surround Jamal Murray, Michael Porter Junior and NICOLEA Jokic. They just there. That aggression is the big piece there. Even going back to twenty twenty one, they won after they traded for Drew Holliday, the Bucks did, they traded for Drew Holliday, They went and they won the title. And so like, keep an eye on those aggressive teams this summer, the teams that add talent.
There are a lot of young.
Teams in the NBA right now that are like this close to becoming great. That Thunder team, that Orlando Magic team is probably like two years away, but they're gonna be really, really good. You mentioned the Pacers. If they if they make maybe one more edition this offseason, they could be in the mix. The Knicks are obviously gonna be aggressive. I mentioned Memphis earlier. Like Memphis, this kid Gigi Jackson that they have on the wing is awesome
that they discovered this year. He like slots perfectly between Jamrant Desmond Bain. They're gonna have Jaron Jackson coming back. They're gonna have a big look. They're gonna go get a center, and they're gonna have a massive frontline that could contend with Denver. As long as Jamran can like stay healthy and available for his team, I think they could be really good.
Like the league is just.
Like this Celtics team is kind of settling right in this nice little opening here where all the older teams are kind of falling apart and all the younger teams are not quite there yet, and they're having a lot of success as a result.
Jason timp hoops tonight been a blast NBA Finals. It's in the books. The Celtics too good, as we said, to not win a finals it was this year. Really, it's got a Lebron Calves Duncan Spurs feel to it where you kind of knew early on, you know, four or five of the top six players felt like they were all in Boston. They also, you know, I wrote this down in my notes, when Boston in the third quarter,
when they're playing collaborative basketball, it's beautiful they are. I mean, it is like a it's almost like they're playing and when they're playing comfortably, and in this series they were it's loose. I mean they are really like those Warrior teams, even with KD and Clay and Steph, you know guys that shoot a lot. They were pretty That was really beautiful basketball. The Celtics had moments tonight and in this series you're like, that's how to play basketball. That's just drive,
pitch high, IQ. Everybody fits, no animosity. All starts with Tatum, who's sort of you know, he's the ultimate guy. But Boston a confident Boston looks like a champion and they were never put in a position to question themselves in this series or in the playoffs. A confident Celtic team like tonight this series, that looks like what an NBA champion does.
Yeah, they played a fun brand of basketball. I enjoyed watching him, Colin. This has been another fun postseason in the books. I'm sure we'll touch base at some point during free agency, but I always enjoy talking basketball with you during the Finals. We're gonna call it a night, guys. This NBA Finals Game five 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 at Chase Travel, and one point five percent on everything else. How do you cash back? All right, everybody, We will be back tomorrow to get a little bit deeper into some of the NBA Finals stories lie storylines, and then we're turning our attention to the draft and
free agency, because the NBA calendar never ends. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and Colin in the volume, as well as our channels that we've been trying to grow. We appreciate you, guys, and we will see you tomorrow.
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