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a little bit of a dud tonight. As a tale of two very different New York Knicks, teams and a tale of two very different Boston Celtics teams from Game five to Game six, and the Knicks are gonna blow them out. We're actually starting a little bit early here. There's still four minutes left over there at MSG. But tonight we're gonna break down very briefly the dynamic that took place in this game, but I want to focus a little bit looking forward towards the Pacers matchup for
the Knicks. We won't have our series preview until probably Sunday morning. I'm gonna be working on that tomorrow, but we'll talk a little bit about my initial impressions going into that series. Then after that, we'll talk about the
Celtics and what they're looking at heading into this offseason. Jackson, who produces this show, is a Celtics fan, and he has put some thought into some specific targets for the Celtics this summer, and I have not seen the list yet, so we're gonna work through that together and just kind of have some fun, just kind of game planning a
potential Celtics offseason. Then at the tail end of the show, we'll take five ten minutes of mailbag questions from the chat so make sure you guys get your questions into the chat. When we finish here on YouTube, we're gonna migrate over to playback again. That's playback dot tv slash Hoops Tonight. We take callers there every night. It is so much fun. We've been really enjoying building out that part of the show because it's just informal and we
talk shit, we have fun, we watch film. It's just a bunch of basketball fans hanging out and having a good time. So meet us over at playback dot tv slash Hoops Tonight. When we finish up here on YouTube, you guys are the jop before we get started. Subscribe to Hoops Tonight YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore JCNLTS you guys don't miss you announcements. Don't forget about a podcast feet where you get your podcast on O Hoops Tonight.
So also super helpful if we leave a rating in a review on that front. Jackson's doing great work on our social media feeds Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Make sure you guys follow us there, and then, like I mentioned earlier, keep dropping mail back questions into the chat so that we can get to them at the tail end of the show and then again when we finish here playback dot TV slash Oops tonight. All right, let's talk some basketball.
So I thought the abundantly clear thing that happened right out the gates in this game just a level of defensive intensity from the Knicks. We have another gentleman named Shane who's been working with us on the show over the course of this offseason, big Knicks fan, and he was talking before we got on the stream about how it's just you'd never know what you're gonna get with
the Knicks. And it's funny because another former person who's worked on this show, Josh Rodriguez, a big Knicks fan himself.
He messaged me we were talking about it on Twitter actually after the after they got rid of the Pistons, and he was just talking about how Knicks fans have just been like kind of sick of this team for that type of inconsistent personality that they have, and it's just very simple like watching Game five and there's very little in the way of intense physical pressure on the perimeter.
There's a whole lot of just like not paying attention or communicating in transition as they repeatedly left Derek White wide open over and over and over again. And Josh Hart is talking in the postgame presser about like this kind of multiple personality type of issue that the Knicks have, and he's just like, I don't know what causes it, but it's just kind of who they are at this point.
And that is something that will have to keep an eye on when it comes to the Pacers series, because the Pacers are certainly a team that does not have multiple personalities. They play the same way all the damn time, and the second you let go of the rope, they can take control of the situation, and that's going to be a theme as we head into that series. But tonight, I thought the Knicks brought the necessary energy on the
defensive end of the floor. Oh Jannonobey, I thought set the tone right from the start with his ball pressure and physicality on Jalen Brown. Jalen Man had a very rough game relative to what he looked like in Game five. He just we talked about how he didn't settle for a single pull up jump shot in Game five until
halfway through the second quarter. He was taking some really tough, contested ones early and often in this game, there was a way less of an intentional effort to attack Jalen Brunson, although there to Jalen Brunson's credit, they started to go at him a lot in the early third quarter stretch and he just did a great job. He just held
his ground and battled. And as we zoom out from the series, I thought Brunson in particular was pretty great defensively outside of Game five, and there were a lot of opportunities for Boston to try to attack Brunson, especially in Game one in Game two, and he just held up really well. But Og got right up in Jalen
Brown's grill right away and made him uncomfortable. The Celtics did get some easy ones in the first half that didn't go in, and if the few easy ones you get don't go in, and there's a lot of pressure and good defense on these other possessions, it's just really difficult to counter that. And then the Knicks were playing with a type of desperation. You tell the Knicks new They're like, we have to go back to the TD garden.
This could get ugly for us, and so the Knicks kind of treated it like a must win, and they brought the necessary energy and they threw a hell of a punch and the Celtics just didn't really have much of a chance, not with the way that they were shooting the ball tonight. Did not score over twenty points in any quarter until the fourth quarter tonight. So impressive win for the Knicks. Now let's split this up here.
We're going to talk about looking forward to the Pacer matchup first, and then we'll talk about the Celtics moving forward with their future, so specifically with the Pacers matchup. I'm gonna say this the same way that I've been saying it with some other series around when we've discussed the reality of going matchup to matchup, as we've now seen two of the three sixty win teams in the NBA this year lose, and as Oklahoma City is at
risk of potentially losing on Sunday. Although we did get a report today that Aaron Gordon there was that weird play where Jadubb dove into his legs and I thought he was just kind of playing up the injury to try to get a flagrant foul or something like that or a review. But looks like Aaron Gordon might have some sort of hamstring issue, which is very scary for a Nuggets team that I would argue Aaron Gordon's been their second best player in this postseason run, and so
that obviously is a devastating loss there. But there's a chance that we could end up losing all sixty win teams before we even get out of the second round. And part of the reason for that is because more and more, as the game has changed, there are just so many different ways to play, and so many different types of teams and so many different types of stars.
Even if you just look at the remaining four stars that will be leading these groups, Let's say if Jokic advances or Shay advances, right, I've got Tyrese Haliburton, who's like some weird like Steve Nash mixed with a better athlete type of hybrid modern spread pick and roll, like keep the ball moving type of ball handler. Then I've got Jalen Brunson, who's like this small, shifty, like incredibly
gifted half court surgical scorer slash shot maker. Then I go out to the West and it's like I get Anthony Edwards, who's like the modern version of Michael Jordan, just this huge apex athlete two guard that can shoot the shit out of the basketball and then out of the other series. We're either going to get like the modern day James Harden, this high volume score that is incredibly gifted at getting to the foul line, but has another layer of versatility in terms of his mid range
shot making that even James Harden didn't have. Or the best player in the world, Nikola Jokic, who's like this big Doe center who inverts yours facing and makes just about every damn shot he takes and is probably the best passer in the game. And as you kind of zoom out look at that, that's just these four or
five remaining teams. If I went down the list for all sixteen teams, or all twenty if you included the playing teams, there's just so many different kinds of stars and so many different kinds of role players and schemes
on defense and on offense. We've seen more zone, I feel like in this postseason than in any postseason that I can remember, as so many teams have been working on mixing up coverages and different kinds of zone and entire halves where a team will Run twenty twenty five Possessions of zone like this is a modern MBA where every series is different, and arguably within the game, within the actual series themselves, every game is different, and so it is no longer about which team won more games
or who had the best net rating, strictly about what do you have in your toolbox to manage the shifting
flow of each series. So, for instance, the Celtics, they moved the ball, especially when they get into their matchup attacking, and you either leave an opening in your coverage or if you, like in Game five, just concede a lot of like size mismatches that they can bully right to the front of the rim, but they don't come close to the pace and ball in player movement that Indiana brings to the table, So similarly to what we saw with Minnesota, where that like legitimately took them a lot
longer than you would have expected to put away a Golden State Warriors team without Steph. And I mean, obviously they won the series in five games, but within those games, it's like they lose game one, Game two they blow them out, but game three they're like trailing in the
fourth quarter. Game four, it's the Warriors that think kind of lead in the mid third quarter like it took that they didn't dominate that team despite the massive talent advantage because of the fact that there was some reality to the way that Golden State just played a very different kind of basketball than the Lakers did and it just took them a while to adjust to it. And so with the Pacers, there are these obvious differences switching
like you did against Boston. That's stagnated Boston, especially in Game four and especially down the stretch of Game one in Game two. No matter what you do to Indiana, they are not going to stagnate. They are going to attack with ball and player movement, and if you do everything right, then yeah, they'll go hunting a mismatch. But one, they're going to try to get something easy by getting you to make a mistake botching a switch or leaving
it opening otherwise not there. And two, unlike Boston, Boston will hunt mismatches, but they can get away from it. That's been the story with Boston for years, even going back to before they won the title. They have had a tendency to have extended stretches where they play a certain way and have a great deal of success, and then they go brain dead for like twelve minutes of real time where they just take a bunch of bad shots and fail to go back to the thing that worked.
Indiana's pretty relentless about hunting those mismatches. If you switch appropriately and avoid the openings that naturally occur in their offense, they will throw it to Siakam or Miles Turner against the size mismatch over and over and over again. If you end up switching, if you end up containing the ball. They have a process offensively that is relentless from the start. They pick you up full court, they try to rush you into a poor offense. They push in transition like crazy.
Tyrese is one of the best kick ahead passers in the NBA. Right now, They're going to get you in the blender, and if you survive the blender, they're going to hunt a mismatch. It's just a very very different type of series than what this Celtics series is, and it's a much better version of Tyrese Haliburt. Tyres Haliburton is playing at a substantially higher level than he was playing for the Knick series last year. Is his matchup
specifically with Karl Anthony Towns in space. Whether it be in pick and roll coverages like a high drop or a hedge, or it be in a switch, that's gonna be a key factor in this series. Tyrese Haliburton attacking Karl Anthony Towns in space. It's going to be a challenge. I expect to see a lot of Pascal Siakam and Miles Turner in post up mismatches against Jalen Brunson as they work through you know, maybe a Nemhard a ball screen with Nemhard or Nie Smith and they get a
switch and they're just gonna throw it down there. There's a great deal of like trusting of simple closeout reads like the Celtics when they have Tatum dancing at the top of the key and two guys are digging down into the driving lanes. The Celtics are less willing to just take that like simple swing pass. The Pacers make that shit relentlessly. They make it like every time you sink off of a man for whatever reason, Tyres will
hit you every single time. And so it's just gonna be a very different type of challenge, and I think that bodes well for Indiana, especially early in this series, and so with the Knicks having home court advantage, I think it's going to be really interesting to see if they can hold up in those first two games, because when you play a very different team and they roll up into your arena and they're playing great basketball and they throw you in the blender, you'd make a few
too many mistakes in Game one. Suddenly, even though you can solve that problem, you end up losing home court advantage in the process. And so I think that's going to be the first thing I'm watching early in the series is just how quickly the Knicks adjusts defensively to what will be a very different challenge. Against the Celtics, it was about switching and containing and the individual defense in Game one, in Game two of Brunson on Tatum and Brown, and in Game four of Karl Anthony Towns
on Jason Tatum in space. This series is going to be less of that and more of the attentiveness. We saw the job that the Knicks didn't transition defense in Game five against Boston. If they bring that type of effort, the Pacers will beat the shit out of them. And so again, like we talked earlier. This is going to be much more of a mental challenge for the Knicks than it is a physical challenge. I'm very, very excit
for it. On the other end of the floor, we saw some stuff last year, right, Brunson had a great deal of success against Nemhard, not so much against Niesmith. We'll see if for Carlile ends up making that kind
of move. But here's the thing. You end up putting in Nemhard on a Michale Bridges, You're now conceding a lot of size in that matchup, where McHale Bridges has been a very gifted over the top shooter in the mid range, and so it's a very different type of team for the Pacers to match up with this time around. I've already started watching film on this series. Weirdly enough, the one game where everybody kind of played was in that early phase of the season when the Pacers weren't
playing very good basketball. But we do have three games worth of data. The next we're two and one in the regular season. I mean to be watching a lot of that film tomorrow and working on that series preview. It'll be up on our feeds most likely Sunday morning. Potentially Saturday afternoon. We'll let you guys know when it comes out. I'll text you or I'll put it out on Twitter and you guys can see it there. But we'll have an in depth series preview at some point in the next day or two.
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Channel three, twenty four, twenty five. But the sixth consecutive year that a champion failed to get out of the second round the following year, and this has been kind of something that I've been pushing back on in terms of, like every single time there's been any sort of success in this era, every from anybody, including myself as a Lakers fan, there's this feeling like we've reached the mountain top.
We figured it out, and now we're here. And it's like the Lakers have some injuries that following year and their roster is completely blown up. Two years after that, you know, the Raptors, they lose Kawhi Leonard. They're completely different team after that. The Bucks in twenty twenty one, Chris Middleton quickly declines physically. Giannis ends up getting injured. A couple of years after that. Next thing, you know, the roster's too old for them to contend Golden State.
They catch this flash in a pan with Jordan Poole and Andrew Wiggins, which allows what was a limited roster to reach a level that could compete for a championship. And you get an all time great type of performance out of Steph Curry that allows you to hoist the trophy. But then pretty quickly Andrew Wiggins and Jordan Poole kind of regrets to the mean and suddenly it doesn't look
like a championship roster anymore. Twenty twenty three with the Nuggets, they end up losing Bruce Brown, Justin Holliday, just a little bit of that depth that they used to have. Cacp's out of the picture, they're not as good at the point of attack. They have looked like a second tier contender ever since then, although they do have a puncher's chance to win the title this year. You go to the following year with Boston. Now, same sort of thing. This is an all time great Team's gonna be the
team that runs the league. And it's like, even if Jason Tatum didn't get hurt, they were probably about fifty five to sixty percent likely to lose this series anyway. Why a couple of guys got a little older, a little more banged up. Porzingis wasn't very good. Drew Holliday couldn't shoot the three as well as he used to, Jaylen Brown couldn't shoot the three as well as he used to. A couple guys just went cold at wrong times, and suddenly you're out of here in the second round.
And it's just a reminder that in this era, sustaining success is extremely difficult. So you can never get too high, you can never get too low. Those big picture roster decisions. You've got to be keyed in on the fact that if you if you think you're good enough, you're probably not, and you probably need more firepower than it appears on the surface, and this has just been the latest example
of that. And I don't know, like, when we look back in NBA history, it's kind of crazy right on the heels of an era where we saw Lebron James win the Eastern Conference eight times in a row, we saw Steph Curry win the Western Conference four times in a row, we saw the Spurs win the Western Conference two times in a row, and it just there's so much more parody, There's so much more talent in the league.
It is so much harder to sustain success. There are realities with the second Apron and with the new CBA that makes it very difficult to accumulate talent and sustain
talent in this league. I guarantee you that like the next team that everyone's going to be focused on in terms of like, this team's gonna win every year, It's going to be the thunder until guess what they have to pay everybody, And all of a sudden, there's a certain amount of their talent that they're unable to retain and they end up dipping a little bit in talent, and suddenly there's more pressure on Shay to be better in every facet of the game, and it's just really
really difficult to sustain success in the NBA these days, and I thought that what happened to Boston this year was a really interesting example of that. Jalen Brown kind of an interesting example of the tale of two games, and it's just something to keep an eye as we
head into next season with him. He was so good in terms of his floor game in Game five, the decision making, the deliberate and intentional attack king of Jalen Brunson, the refusal to settle for bad jump shots, and just like all of that went out the window today and what was a much more uneven game from him outside
of a few shots that he made early. And so just with that next year, that's gonna be the key for him if he's going to have any sort of sustained success as the leader of the Celtics next year, it's got to be that game to game floor presence of decision making, ruthless precision in terms of the types of advantages you're hunting in the half court. That's going
to be the challenge for him next year. But it is going to be more or less a gap year in the sense that, like what happened with Golden State after Klay Thompson and Kevin Durank got hurt, they used a year to accumulate assets to try to pivot and make a run in the future. And that's going to be the challenge for next season is how do you weigh the reality of the talent you have on the roster and the fact that you probably could bring everybody
back and be a three or four seat. You probably could, But is it worth it to do that and continue to see Porzingis age and continue to see Horford a and continue to see Drew Holiday age and then have Tatum come back the following year, and you're not good enough? And that's where they got. The Celtics got to make some tough decisions about what they're going to do with the roster this summer and all throughout next season as they prepare for Tatum's inevitable return in the following year.
On that note, let's bring Jackson up. Where you're going to Jackson put together a list of potential offseason targets. Jackson, I want you to just kind of like put everybody in your frame of mind my time before you start going.
Through the list, I think I was thinking about the Celtic summer even you know, before this game, I wasn't really expecting to win the series at this point, and I have been trying to think about players to target, and you don't. You can't pick players that are about to exit their prime because you like, to your point, your next year is a gap year. Next you're you're two years away from Jason Tatum being back to anything close to what he's he was this year, Right, So
you can't go too young. But you also have to find mostly contenders that are willing to ship players out because most of the players that you're in less than a three team deal are only good, only valuable for contenders, right, It's not like you're trade Why would you trade a
young guy in the first place. So I was trying to find teams that are fringe contenders that definitely feel like they need to make a move if they're going to go to be actual contenders, but aren't you know, but aren't too good where they're not going to make big changes to their core. So I have three different categories worth of players, some like realistic possible options, some like are these these teams are quite good. But are they going to trade these guys? And some these teams
are incomplete limbo. I can't imagine they trade the players this good, but they're in limbo, so maybe they do. To start with, my number one target is Derek Lively. I feel like Drew Holiday for Derek Lively and some you know, with whatever ancillary pieces that requires, is close
to perfect considering the Mavericks have. I mean, they have Klay Thompson, I guess, but they have some needs at the guard position and they let they want two way players per Nico Harrison's vision, and they have three centers now.
So let me just for to be Devil's advocate. I'm Nico, and I say I view ad as a short term option for US. I viewed Derek as the big picture center for our team. Would you be interested in Gafford instead?
How old is Daniel Gafford?
Let me pull up the payroll real quick.
Gafford is twenty six. Yes, I would be interested in Daniel Gafford.
I think Daniel Gafford. You know, even when I look back last year like that, there's a little bit of a switch defense element with Derek Lively that's more impressive. Yeah, but I think Daniel Gafford is actually a little bit more physically imposing underneath the basket.
Definitely, And so it's tricky.
I think Derek Lively within a couple of years will be substantially better than Daniel. Yeah, but it is, it is like it is complicated. There's also like the salary matching piece. I wonder because Dallas is not a team that has cap space that you'll be trading into. It would have to be a situation where you match salaries. So Withdrew, let me pull up the Celtic payroll real quick. So Drew makes thirty or thirty two if you trade from this summer. Gafford is at thirteen. So what about
what about Clay Thompson? Would you what about a deal with like Gafford and Clay.
I got no problem taking back the shallow Clay Thompson if you know, if that's what's required from a salary matching standpoint, let next year as a wash, let the guy come and just put up a bunch of shots. Get Let the guy become a meme for the weirdest possible jersey, you know, Dwayne Wayne and a Cavaliers jersey type of thing like, that's no issue in mind. I'm found completely fine with that.
Let me take it a step further. So they've got Cooper flag too, they do. So where the hell is PJ Washington fitting into all of this?
Oh? True?
I like, what if it's more of like a Drew Holiday for PJ Washington and Daniel Gafford kind of deal.
Love, what about I went throw in a first round pick.
That that would be an interesting move that would almost immediately make you more useful, and both of those guys, both PJ and Daniel would be bird right free agents this summer before Tatum returns. Okay, So what's interesting about that then is you would have the ability to retain both of them at basically whatever number you wanted, not
north of fourteen. But I don't think either player PJ could encroach on that territory potentially, Yeah, but yeah, like you, it's a flexibility move too, in the sense that Drew Holliday has all those years left on his contract, but you're getting back to players that would actually come off of the books the year that Tatum comes back from his injury right then. From Dallas' perspective. From Dallas' perspective, Drew Holliday. You could not pay a better guard with Anthony Davis, couldn't.
I mean they've played before, they've played before. You get a complete defensive specialist next to Kay who's not a slash defensively actually, but he's going to be coming back from a serious injury. You want someone who is going from Klay Tom's defensively to Drew Holliday, even as thirty four year old Drew Holiday is about as big of a gap as you could go defensively.
To your point, though, I'd prefer Derek. But if I countered in that PJ. Washington, Daniel Gafford Range, I think I think that is a deal that substantially kind of like fits the Celtics new timeline. Also worth mentioning. Both those guys are twenty six right now exactly.
Yes, okay, I got four more in this realistic slash possible category. I'm gonna throw all of them at you and you tell me which ones you like the most. All of these are guys, well, they're on varying different levels of teams from in terms of win now versus not win now. I got two guards and two bigs. Two guards, Jalen Suggs from the Orlando Magic also injured. You know, timeline wise, what are they gonna do with
Jalen Sugs right now? Trey Murphy of the New Orleans Pelicans, New Orleans Pelicans, that would probably require a third team because the Pelicans, what do they need Drew Holiday Chris has porzingis for. But if the third team potentially and then two bigs being Nick Claxton and Yakam Pernle.
Okay, I'm the Magic's GM. You've pitched to me Drew Holliday for Jalen Suggs. Point of the Magic's payroll real quick. If I'm the Magic's GM, I'm thinking I need shooting. Yeah, Andrew Holliday doesn't shoot the ball well enough. So what if I said I want Derek White for Jalen Suggs. Now the construction that that deal Derek White, if you made the if you made the trade before the league year turned over, he only makes twenty turns into twenty
eight the following year. But if you did it before the league year, you could get it done with Jalen Suggs and Mo Wagner. So you get a big back. So now let's so, let's pitch it this way because if I'm Orlando, I'm saying like Drew doesn't help me in the short term or the long term because of his age and because of his inconsistent shooting. I like Derek White. We talked about this the other day when we were talking The Celtics love Derek White, but for
the right deal, I would move him. Yeah, I would move Derek White for Jalen Suggs and Mo Wagner in a heartbeat. Yeah.
I think I would too. I think I would too. I mean Jalen Suggs, if everything goes right from an injury recovery standpoint and from a talent, you know, development standpoint, he could basically become just a better version. Not maybe not better because Derek White's very good, but I think he can become a better defensive version. I think he's a He's an amazing defender. Even though Derek White is also very awesome.
Jalen Suggs is arguably the best guard defender in the league. He's now dignatic what I'm missing here, and this is an important detail. It's actually like a poison pill kind of trade because Jalen Suggs is new extension kicks in next year at thirty five million, so you actually wouldn't
get MO back. You'd have to wait for the league year to turn over, and then you would trade Drew excuse me, Derek directly for Jalen and you would have to include a little bit more salary, I think, although Orlando, yeah, You're gonna have to include a little bit more salary. So it would be like it would be like Derek White and and man, the only other guy who really fits in that slot is Pritchard, and you don't want
to give him a down. You got to keep Prichard at his number, and he's like, he's arguably like the best contract value in the league right now. Yeah, a guy who won't make over ten million at any point in his contract. But that is a that's an interesting idea. And if I'm Orlando, I'm sitting there thinking like Derek White with Pallo and in Franz, like.
That is a fit exactly.
And Jalen Suggs to me is like a quintessential Celtic type of target mate, a dribble, shoot, pass, defend kind of guy.
Yeah, one hundred percent. Yeah. The other ones on that that I had in this sort of you know, category with Trey Murphy, Nick Claxton, yaka Perl. I don't think any of those are quite as good Trey Murphy is. I mean, I love Trey Murphy. I don't know what
that would definitely require a third team. I'm wondering if there's a third team situation with the Mavericks there, even where you're sending Drew Holliday to the Mavericks, they send a first round pick or something to New Orleans some salary matching we get Trey Murphy, but.
That would be a hard one to sell to the fans getting rid of Trey Murphy. Nick Claxton is a very one.
Yeah.
The reason why Nick Claxton would be perfect with the Celtics is he's a switching big who also is a vertical spacer, so he could basically be kind of like a younger, more athletic version of what Robert Williams was for you guys. He makes twenty eight million, so you could seamlessly flip Drew for him. And the Nets have cap space, so I could pitch it as an opportunity to shed salary.
So let's talk about it.
Like this, What if you call up the Nets and you try to put together a big salary dumping type of deal where you get rid of Drew and Christops. So you're sending out sixty two, you probably have to include all like, you probably have to include multiple first round picks for them to do I think so yeah, So would you give up multiple first round picks? You got to think financially now too, because in this scenario,
Boston's trying to shed salary. So would you give up multiple first round picks to bring back Nick Claxtun is like the center of the future for you, twenty six years old. He matches right up with Tatum's timeline. Yeah, twenty six years old, switching center, vertical spacer. But you got to give up your draft compensation to get off that salary.
It's tough. I think it depends what the other if there's other options on the table. If from a deal standpoint, I would not prioritize salary dumping, I think, I mean, I think you might have to salary dumb Kristaps just straight up regardless. It looks awful. But I think Drew Holliday can get you something valuable from.
A winner from a winner, So maybe you views view poor Zingis. To your point, maybe you you view poor Zingis as the Nick Claxton piece, and then you look at Drew as a piece where you can actually get something positive, right.
Right, That's kind of how I look at it, all right. The the are they the fourth name? Who's the fourth name? Yakam Perdle. It's a little old.
Yeah, I don't like that one quite as much, but yeah, ya, and Yakub's good. Yakub's good. But uh but yeah, I don't like that one as much either. Anyway, go ahead, my.
Are they open to trading this these guys? Because are they going to make a huge shake up this summer? Are is Jared Allen as well as as well as Darius Garland, But Jared Allen primarily because I do feel like big is a more of a priority than a guard.
But so this is a really interesting one. Well, let me put you on the spot about this first, after how Jared Allen sucked least, I mean, I think.
You got to just hope that you can make it, make it work. The Celtics Biggs at this point are in dire straits. Alan Horford is if he's not gonna retire this summer, he's not. He's not gonna be anywhere impactful next time the Celtics are making a playoff run. I love it.
He's not.
He's not gonna be an impactful player in twenty twenty seven playoffs. I'm sorry.
Also, part of the issue with Jared Allen two is like everybody on the team fell apart and he was just like part of that kind of like mess. So you kind of hope too that you just get him next to Jayalen Brown and Jason Tatum and he just kind of takes on more of their toughness and personality.
So he makes twenty million. So the calves, if I'm not mistaking our second apron teams, like it's a little as of next summer, as of the league calendar turning over because Evan Mobley's extension kicks in at forty six million experience, isn't that fucking crazy? So so okay, so we need to match more in the twenty million range. They wouldn't be able to aggregate salaries either, so that gets tough. Cleveland's tough to trade with. Yeah, but Jared Allen's an interesting idea, right.
I think that one's kind of interesting. And then I got two pipe drinking candidates from teams that certainly should not have interest in trading these players, but are complete dumpster fire organizationally right now. So maybe they make a huge shakeup this summer. Bam At a Baio and John Morant. This is the Heat are not trading bam Ata Bio
to the Boston Celtics specifically. I do want to be clear that I'm not stupid, but bam Adebio and John Morant are two teams that are, if not going to make huge changes this summer, probably should make huge changes this summer. And I'm wondering if either of those guys might be on the move.
In their driving kick system. And we've discussed this. The Celtics just don't pressure the room enough, yeah, to get the types of quality threes when things really bogged down because Tatum's first step was never quite good enough to beat elite defenders off the dribble.
And Jalen Brown's handle isn't good enough to beat every elite defender off the dribble.
So let's think, if I'm getting rid of Jaw, if I'm Memphis, what do I want in return?
Yeah, I don't know what Memphis wants to do is the thing because they are sort of locked into a multiple more years of Desmond Band and Jaron Jackson. They are paying those guys a lot of them. Okay, that's why are they trying to stay relevant? If they're trying to stay relevant, y'all Wandrew Holliday and a bunch of first round picks. I would give up a lot of first round picks obviously for John Moran.
Would you give up Jalen Brown for John Moran?
I would consider it.
So I want to three. I'd want to three. So what what if you were like, but you could flip Drew for a three? So yeah, Like what about a yeah? Jalen Brown for John Moran is super interesting on a couple of different level. It's for starters. The weakness of Memphis' roster is the three.
Yeah.
That's literally this spot on their roster where their weakest. It allows them to pivot off of Jaw. Joe gets a fresh start with a team that's actually like kind of built as a drive and kick structure that kind of fits his game super well. He'd be a beautiful two man game partner with Jason Tatum. You wouldn't have to do any sort of weird things with salary because Memphis is way under the cap in the new year,
So you could straight up trade Jalen Brown for John Morant. Okay, so let me put you on the spot about this. Brad Stevens calls Memphis offers straight up Jalen Brown for John Moran. Who's more likely to say no, Boston?
I think Boston. I think Memphis wants to trade Drammer. I think they just I think they just can't stomach it without getting a like an all star in return. And dude, it's pretty easy to sell Jalen Brown. I'm not gonna lie. He's got its deficiencies, but it's a pretty easy sell.
And in addition to that, I immediately shed fourteen million dollars in salary. Yeah, that's a really interesting trade.
You change Jalen Brown for John Morant, you turn Drew and Kris STAPs into some version of what we talked about earlier. You're looking at a weird brand nude roster basically, but a very fun Southeast basketball team.
And John Moran always has like injury related issues, where would be so easy to just like be like, hey, you're sitting down for the next two weeks or we can get a great draft.
Oh for sure next season, yeah, one hundred percent. Like if you trade Jalen Brown for John Morant, you can turn you turn Drew Holliday into into Derek Lively or Daniel Gafford. Dude, all of a sudden, you got in twenty whatever, twenty six, twenty seven season, John Morant, Sam Houser, Jason Tatum, someone else and Dark Lively is a pretty fun grouping of players.
Is there? So in this theoretical scenario, if I'm getting rid of Drew and Jalen, I'm getting rid of my two best point of attack defenders by far. Do you think Derek White is up to the task of being the primary point of attack guy for a championship team.
I don't know, not really.
I feel like he.
Is strange for being a really good defender, a really good defensive player. He's strangely not like the most just guard guy one on one good. He's very smart, and he gets a lot of weak side rotation blocks and a lot of transition blocks. He's a great at closeouts. He's an awesome defender, but he is not the type of just throw him at an other team's best guard and like hope for stops type of guy in my opinion.
Yeah, and so then basically what you have to do is essentially view the future as meaning like next year in the following year, as like you just got to try to find the next guy who will be your primary point of attack guy. And that could literally be in these trades that we've pitched in this particular scenario. So let's call it. Uh, let's say you flip Drew because Drew has immediate value to Dallas, and you flip Brown,
who has immediate value to Memphis. In this situation, you would still have your draft compensation, and so then you could try to look to move one of these guys for a primary point of attack guard. That's where it's like, maybe you look at Orlando and you go, like, now, let's talk Derek White for Jalen Sugs.
That's what I'm saying. That's that's what I'm saying. A Ja Morant, a Jamarant, Jalen Suggs, Sam Howser, Jason Tatum, Daniel Gafford. A starting lineup is so weird that it's kind of breaking my brain. But of all the pivots you could make, you know, I think we designed a pretty good one for the Celtics.
I like it. I like there's I was listening to Pete Zais earlier today, was talking with Anthony Iron about some Lakers stuff, and he's like, I think we need to take a hatchet to the roster this summer. So you're Jackson's here saying we need to take a hat I'm taking a hash.
I'm definitely taking a hatchet with these brands. It's not this is not minor tweaks. You know, I expect him more to do just do a minor tweaks around the type of summer than this. But you know, if they're gonna make changes anybody else on your list, Uh No, that's pretty much it. I mean BAM was the other pipe dream one.
But BAM, Yeah, and yeah, the BAM is an interesting one, but he definitely would have to go to a different team first, before the before you could even potentially pull something like that off. That's super interesting though. That was
the the Jalen Brown for Jahn Morant thing. Is a very very interesting trade to consider because the specific dynamic that Boston has been missing over the years is a singular trait that no team can fuck with everything with them has been aggregate talent, even like Tatum's game in and of itself is an aggregation of a bunch of different pieces that he's very good at but not elite at, and Jahn Morant brings the singular trait, which is no one can keep him in front off the dribble, and
that could be a foundational piece that Tatum could be basically a force multiplier for because his versatility becomes very valuable in the context of a team that like, like, there's no way you lose Game one and two of this series if you have John Morant, because he's just going to be able to get you two or three more buckets down the stretch of a game, because he has been one of the most dynamic clutch players in the league, because no one can stop him from popping
up off the ground seven feet from the basket and shooting a little floater that no one can guard and you just have to sit there and go, please miss it, Jah, or hopefully we're up by fifteen before he gets there. Like, as frustrating as a player as he's been, he does have that upside. But this is a really fun exercise. Jackson I think we're gonna save the mailbag for playback? What do you think?
Yeah?
So all right, everybody head over to playback dot tv Slash shoots tonight. We'll do another forty five minutes of hanging out, we'll take callers, we'll get into the chat. As always, we sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting us in supporting the show. We'll be back on YouTube tomorrow. We have tomorrow off. Oh my goodness, today is the twenty eighth consecutive night that we have done this, but we are taking tomorrow night off because there are no games.
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