The volume. Hi everybody, and welcome in. It is great to be back. I had a long siesta. I went with my son to Iceland. It was his dream trip. I asked him, I said, where do you want to go? Dad'll take you as you get ready for college. And he's picked Iceland and it was. It was absolutely wonderful, and we got about forty five minutes. Tonight, we're going to do thirty to thirty five minutes with Jason Timpf of hoops tonight. We're going to have a breakdown. He's fantastic.
By the way.
I will say this about because I don't take a lot of weak vacations. But I found as I've gotten older, I sort of prune my trees, my sports tree. You know. I have five things I love. I love the NFL. I love major college football. I love the NBA playoffs, I love the World Cup. And I love a great UFC fight. I'm going to go to early July. I'm going to go to a UFC card with friends. I
love those five things. I like March Madness. I don't love it because I don't think the quality of college basketball is nearly as good as it was fifteen to twenty years ago, when the great players stayed for two, three and four years. I really like March madness. I really like a great baseball playoff game in October. But I'm not as invested in baseball or college basketball as I was ten fifteen years ago. And I've said this in my private life. In my personal life, I'm the
same way I've pruned my tree. I love my family, I love my job, and I love international travel. And I've kind of made a commitment. My wife and I have made a commitment over the next last couple of years and going forward for the next ten that we want to do more international travel. And I'm just really into it. I've gone a mile deep in it. I've already booked my next two trips, one of them next year, one at the end of the summer. So it was
just nice. This is if you have a chance. I ran into a lot of Americans, a lot of Europeans, and it's I always love how efficient Europe is. When you don't have a lot of money in Iceland, doesn't right, you don't think of it as a rich country. It's amazing how smart they are with their money. You know. I live in Los Angeles where we have a subway system, and I'm sure it was a high minded idea, but I've never met anybody in Los Angeles that has used
the subway system. Conversely, I've never met anybody that lives in New York or Chicago that hasn't used the subway system, because lots of people live in downtown Chicago. In downtown New York, not a lot of people. It's not as vibrant in downtown Los Angeles. It's a huge county, it's spread out. It just doesn't feel like a subway town. So when I even in the city, I live in lax Are, airport is going through. Who has put billions of dollars into this new tram and I think billions
of dollars a lot of money. And I was dropping my wife off at the airport yesterday and I said, you know, I have this feeling. I've never gone to the airport once in my life and thought, you know what I want to do is park further away. I'm like, Uber, just drop me off. I'm fine, I said, I have this feeling that this is going to be a billion dollar boondoggle that people just do not want to park
further away and take a tram to the airport. I'm sure I could be wrong, but I appreciate when I go to Europe and I see these countries and these towns and how efficient they are and how thoughtful and smart they are with their funds, and Iceland qualified Rykovic is just a fantastic place. I highly recommend going. You know, I was as I was watching the Miami Heat even up the series. The NBA has always been a sport that and I've noted this before the NFL, it all
kind of feels the same. There's intensity in the regular season, intensity in the playoffs. There's more of a sudden death feel, obviously, but you have to be when it comes to hockey or football and you have a regulated level of violence a UFC, You've got to take every minute seriously. You're going to get hurt. Basketball is different. There's playoff Jimmy Butler. In regular season Jimmy Butler. There's load management all through the regular season. There's no load management in the playoffs.
They're just different. So, like to me, you define your career in the postseason. It's why I always keep a Carmelo Anthony or a Carl Malone they get dropped. They weren't as dominant. To me, they weren't as special in the postseason. I didn't think they I know Utah got to a couple of finals, but I feel like playoff basketball is where legacies are built, and I think we're seeing it right now. I wrote a list down who I think are the ten best players in the NBA,
and I think there's like two groups. I think the four best players in the league right now are Jokic, Jannis, Luca, and Steph just And again, Luca hasn't had a ton of playoff success, but I think they're just different. I
don't have any questions about their talent. Then there's six guys in the next group, and I have a question about all of them, somewhere Ad his health, Tatum his ability to close in big games, lebron Age, KD Brittle, embiid health, and then Jimmy Butler tends to play great in big spots but can be sometimes just a good regular season player. So I think there's I think and now I think, by the way, A Devin Booker, Jamal Murray,
Deer and Fox are really really special players. But I kind of after watching these playoffs I think there's there's just ten guys that feel to me different in the league and Jokic, Giannis, Steph and Luca. Even though this was not a great ending to the season for Luca, He's going to end up being a top five score on league history.
He's he is the best get a bucket guy currently in the NBA.
I think Jokic is a fascinating player because there's a Bill Russell quality to him. If you really think about Bill Russell got to eleven finals, Magic got to nine, Lebron ten. That's thirty between those three. Michael Jordan got to six.
Is that is that?
I feel like with Russell, Lebron and Magic, what was really special about them and it's something I see with Jokic is the ability to not only be great, but to elevate others. And that's how you consistently get to the finals. Doesn't mean you're going to win a ball like Michael, but Michael didn't necessarily make other players better. Never forget when Michael left the Bulls, they went from
fifty seven regular season wins to fifty five. If you took Jokic off, this Denver team, they're a borderline playoff team borderline. So I think Russell, Lebron magic, and Jokic feels like that a little. That his ability to take B guys and make them B plus guys and take a C plus guy and make him a B guy. It's a really special, special gift. And I didn't watch Bill Russell play, but you know, you watch the old highlights, you read about him, you go look at his defense
and his scoring and his rebounding. He was worth so much more than just points. In fact, I thought Miami reduced Jokich basically tonight to just a score and he's not the same player. They're not the same team when he's just a score.
And you know we.
Reward that and credit that and give MVPs to great scorers James Harden, Russell Westbrook. I think it's the elevation of others. Magic, Lebron, Russell is really the difference maker. You will consistently get to more finals that way. So I know Denver feels like the world is disrespecting them. They've never won, they just lost home court advantage in the finals. They're not being disrespected. We're waiting to see if the Denver are very good or are they great?
And right now.
They're very good. Getting to the finals does not make you great. Miami got to the finals in the bubble. Wasn't a great team, It's very good. Boston got to the finals last year, very good team, not great. So I don't think there's any disrespect for Denver. But we have a precedent of young surging teams that they get close. Steve Nash's Sons, the early Sacramento Kings, early two thousand Sacramento Kings, the KD Westbrook, Oklahoma City Thunder got to
a final. Very good teams. Great is winning that championship. I still like Denver, but you know, I have so much respect for how Miami does business that I know a lot of people are saying this is going to be a boring finals. I thought the game tonight was great. I thought it was fantastic. I don't know what you want. I thought it gave you everything you want. A close finish rallies. One team was doing twos, team was doing threes.
I thought there was clever coaching on both ends. So I years and years ago, people thought the Chicago Utah Jazz Series would get low ratings, and the truth was it's the highest rated NBA Finals. I think ever, it was a great story. So Denver and Jokic going for their first title versus Miami's culture and precedence of history. I think it's a fascinating final. Let's bring on Jason Timpf at the Volume Hoops tonight podcaster does a marvelous
job for us. Let's bring them on. Do you have some home projects you need to get done, whether you own the house or you rent it in your apartment, your condo, or your town home. Angie's List is now the Angi app for all your projects at home, whether you're moving, installing something, or cleaning something. They have a network of pros that you can rely on. They've been rated and reviewed by others in your area. Hundreds of projects, big projects or smaller, more specific projects. It could be
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Colin, what is going on with the Miami Heat right now?
Well, if you're a believer in analytics, this was great analytic basketball. They hit forty nine percent on threes, and despite Denver dominating points in the paint, where they had a fifty four to thirty two advantage, they dominated twos. The threes won the game. In fact, I would argue in Miami was down about eight to nine late, I thought, I thought Denver waited way too long to shoot threes.
It's like, guys, we got a minute forty here threes only, and I mean they they Denver can give you threes, and certainly wasn't bad from beyond the arc. But this is this is the way to win. You can see in terms of length, Denver's gonna get points in the paint, Denver's gonna Denver's just long Gordon and Porter. But again, if Tyler Hero comes back and Duncan, you have elite three point shooters. So this is Miami's way to do it. They're built for analytics. They're Center Bama to Bay. You
runs the floor. They're a classic analytic team. They're the Warriors East. They're not real big, a lot of grit, a lot of culture, can play really good defense, especially situationally, and when they hit threes, they're hard to beat. They really remind me I was watching them. Is that for years and years when I lived in Connecticut, I would watch New England and I rarely thought they had top two or three talent, but I was always like, they're
so much smarter than everybody. Well, we found out that they had the rare combination of a brilliant defensive mind and the great offensive mind in Brady. When Brady left, they don't look nearly as smart. But Miami I always feel that, like, why can't anybody else find Caleb Martin and Max Struce and Duncan Robinson, Like why aren't these other teams doing that? The difference is when they're Tom
Brady Dwayne Wade left, they're still great. So it's more truly about the coach and the culture, whereas you know, and that goes against the grain. We think basketball is the player sport. Football is the coaching sport. But New England really was more about the player Brady, than it was the coach. And I think Miami is more about the coach than the players. Is that they one would Wade there winning with Butler seven undrafted guys for playing
so tonight. This was classic culture, This was classic analytics. We're not as big, we're going to surrender a lot of twos, We're gonna shoot a lot of threes. And on this night, Miami looked like they had much better energy for a team that plays at sea level. That extra day off, they looked energized late I had that extra day off really helped Miami.
I'm glad you brought up New England because that's exactly where my brain went. There's the the belichickism, which is do your job. That to me is the embodiment of the way the Miami Heat played basketball. It's funny because a lot of times we talked about coverages and oh, they should do this coverage, they should do this one instead, And like every coverage in and of itself doesn't fail
under its own tactical approach, it fails under execution. So, for instance, one of the most criticized coverages in the NBA's drop coverage, because a lot of dribble pull up shooters will get good looks as they're coming over the top. But if you do it right, like if the dude who's guarding the ball does his job and chases over the top, he'll funnel him to the big man, which allows the big man to stay in a position where he can guard the role man and the ball handler.
If it's done properly, it does work. The problem is is ninety percent of the time it falls apart in execution the guard dies on the screen, or the big man can't dissuade the lob pass or whatever it is. Miami, And what's so fascinating to me is we saw the Lakers completely incapable of even making Denver work hard for baskets,
which is wild considering how good they are defensively. They had a one twenty two offensive rating against Lakers, which means they scored one hundred and twenty two points per a hunt of possessions. They had extended stretches. The Mimi Heat did of good defense against Denver tonight. They have found two different schematic approaches that allow them to get stops.
One moving Kevin Love into the lineup allowing him to guard Aaron Gordon so that Jimmy Butler can guard Jamal Murray and Jimmy Butler and bam at a Baio guarding the Jokic Murray action two on two so they don't have to send Hell, which is making it so Michael Porter Junior is not getting those wide open threes that he's used to getting, so that kcp's not getting those wide open threes, so they're their rhythms getting disrupted. And then the zone, which once again the exact same sort
of thing. Zone requires such fantastic execution to work, which is why most NBA teams don't use it, and Miami's zone works against the team that it has no business working against with that kind of shooting, and with Jokic scoring from the high post, and you pointed out the two versus three thing, and that's a really interesting dynamic that took place down the stretch of this game. Jokic was scoring every damn time he caught it by the rim,
but that was two. And on the other end of the floor, Denver's guarding Miami's actions three on two, so there's constant open looks on the backside that are worth three. And the math was working very heavily in Miami's favorite It just they're doing the impossible. I watched what I thought that Laker team I thought was the best defense in this playoff field. Miami's doing a much better job guard Denver than LA did. It's amazing to me. I'm blown away.
Well, and they also what Miami did is Denver's only three and seven this year in the ten games, where Jokic had fewer than seven assists.
So what they made Jokic.
Was was a score, all right. And and by the way, he's a very good score. He's not a great score. He's not Jordan, you know, he's not Kareem, He's not even Karl Malone. On a good Jokic night, you get about twenty three points and then you get eleven assists, twelve assists. Well, tonight he only had I think like four or five assists, So they made him just into a score. So by the way he was and they were really trailing late, it felt like it was an eight to a night. I mean it closed at the end.
It felt like Miami was in total control the last five minutes of the game and he's dropping forty. So you know, I was watching Yokic and I really like watching him play. Such a pain in the butt to guard. If you'd never watched Larry if you were born, you know, at the end of Larry Bird's reign you'd never really seen him play, you would say he's like a forward. If Jokic was a forward. That's what he played like
because his passing is brilliant. But a big part of what made Larry Bird was Larry Bird is one of those Bill Russell Lebron magic stars. Jokic is too that they elevate others. So magic could give you forty two. But the secret sauce with Magic and Lebron is they make j R. Smith viable as hell in an NBA finals. Matthew della Vdova can play like like there was a time Tristan Thompson became valuable, you know in the finals. That's the secret sauce to Jokich. It's not the points,
it's the elevation. He turns C plus guys into B players, B guys into B plus players. You know, there were people that were just out on Jamal Murray, like after the the ACL injury, and like he looks like one of the best players in the world. So I thought they reduced it's a weird way to say it. They reduced Jokics to just a great score tonight and Denver's not as effective. They're really not. He's going to dominate twos. They'll take their chances on that. And I will say
this though, what you're seeing is really good coaches. I saw so many people because I watched Game one. I watched the full game YouTube highlights because I was overseas, and you know the idea. People were saying, Oh, this series is over and I'm time out. Miami just got out of a highly emotional seven game series. They're going as a sea level team to the mountains. They got no chance in Game one, they got no shot. It's like, everybody, take a deep breath. This is a six or seven
game series. I think Denver's better. They'll now adjust. But tonight, in that fourth quarter, it was analytic basketball threes versus twos and Miami spoe you know, chess match edge Miami tonight.
Yeah, it's interesting because I fell for the same gambit that you're referring to, the oh the series is overgambit. And you know it's funny because I was. It was just as much about Denver as it was about Miami. Like, I don't think people realize how dominant Denver has been to this point.
They swept the Lakers, the.
Phoenix series went to six, but did you know their average margin of victory and the wins was over seventeen points in that series, like they kicked Phoenix's ass like it was one and't close.
So they they killed.
Devin Booker and Kevin Durant and then they killed Lebron James and Anthony Davis like that. That's why I'm so high on what Denver does. And then specifically the what was happening in the Eastern Conference was a lot of capitalizing on weaknesses like Boston's weaknesses and offensive decision making New York's like literally, Julius Randall kind of crumbled, Jalen Brunson was the only guy who looked comfortable all their spot up shooters when cold Milwaukee obviously has a bunch
of half court offense issues. So it felt kind of like Spolstro was like just capitalizing on major weaknesses. And then you look at this Denver team and you don't kind of see them as a team that has a weakness. But this is where the genius of leaving Yokic on an island comes into play, and you broke it down perfectly. The ideal Yokic game is twenty three points per game, bunch of assists. That's when everyone's flowing rhythm is a real thing in basketball. If you leave a guy on
an island, and you stay home off the ball. Then guys that are used to touching the basketball a certain number of times over the course of the game suddenly go extended stretches where they don't touch the basketball. And so then when KCP gets a wide open look off of a Jamal Murray handoff at the end of the game from the top of the key, he bricks it long because he hasn't been getting shots. He hasn't even
been he's barely been touching the basketball. And so that's the genius in it is Yokic is so damn good. He's going to get forty on efficient shooting because that's how good he is. But if you make them play that style, it just puts everybody else out of rhythm. And there's one last thing I wanted to shout out, and actually, Colin, I think this is a really interesting kind of way to look at team building in the NBA. Jimmy Butler and bam Adebayo are the two stars of
this Miami Heat team. They have taken on all of the dirty work. Like it's crazy to me. They are completely and utterly bought into doing all of the hard things that so many stars around the league don't do like Jimmy Butler and bam Adebayo are what kind of shut down Denver's offense tonight? Like that's crazy for your star, for Jimmy Butler, the guy who's been the guy who's been helio centric doing all the work offensively to then just be like I'm gonna guard Jamal Murray and chase
them over screens all night long. And I think it's a really good indicator when we look at team building moving forward, like you gotta if your foundational players. And Eric Spolzer said something to this effect after Game one, I think, or before the finals. He's like, if your two best players don't want to defend, I don't know how you can build a good defense. And that's the truth, Like you've got they are built. It's not just the execution from the coaching staff. It's the stars and them
being utterly bought into the dirty work. And then all those role players are naturally bought in because everybody above them in it is and it just leads to that well oiled machine.
Yeah. I mean, this has been something I've been on for years, is that Carmelo Anthony never wanted to defend. You can't build your franchise around a guy that won't defend. Just not a knock on Carmelo, but it's like Kevin Durant's a willing defender, so Steph Curry he's just not a great defender. So they protect him with Draymond and Andrea Gudall in his prime off the bench, and Klay Thompson, you know, pre injuries, you protect him and that there's a handful of players.
We do this in the NBA.
We fall for the dynamic offensive player. And it's interesting. Years ago, when I was a kid, I always used the example of World B Free or George Gerbin. They weren't classified as great players. World B Free was this guy who averaged like twenty ninety game, twenty eighty game for like that. I think it was the Sixers.
He was. He was an oddity. He had you know, the crazy name, unique name, unique game. He was a gunner. It wasn't an All star.
It was okay, just saying he's just a really fun offensive player. What's happened in basketball? We now give MVPs to guys like James Harden, who gives you no effort on the defensive end. James Harden's a great score. That's what we would have called him in the seventies and eighties. He's a great score. You don't really classify him as
an MVP level player. And to your point is, it's hard to find to me an all time great player Kobe MJ that either was a great defensive player in his prime Kareem, or it was at least a willing defender, Steph KD willing defenders, John Stockton, Isaiah they're willing defenders. This is where I don't know if Isaiah was Stockton was a willing defender. So to your point is, you know, I always think about it if I was Miami. There's a lot of things you could sell players on because
they do practice. You know, they work you, They really demand a lot of you. But it's such an easy sell. You can say, listen, guys, it's the best weather in the entire Eastern Conference. Yeah, the bluest water, no state tax, no chaos in the building. This is a great organization. What we're going to ask of you is to play your ass off on both ends. That's the ask, and I think Golden State's been able to do that, Like we will outspend the salary cap. We don't care. New
arena coming. We'll pay everybody. But you got to play on the defensive end. It's not about you. It's got to be Greg Popovich once said, you got to get over yourself. If you want to be part of a dynasty, at some point, you have to get over yourself. And this is not just a shot at mellow, but this idea that we just worship these and I love the NBA, but we worship these players who just don't give you an effort on the defensive end. It just doesn't work.
Those are non championship players. They're fun. I loved World Be Free. I love George Gervin. You got to give me something. And when I watch Miami play, I'm like, it's if you told me somebody just dived on the floor for the heat. I'd be like, why Jimmy Butler. Larry Bird, by the way, I would guess, oh, Larry Bird. I love that style of basketball, I really do.
I was literally thinking about that when I was watching bam ade Bio in that fourth quarter, and and how I want to work on with my coverage of the league, doing a better job of crediting players who.
Do that, because I like bam at a Bio.
Is nowhere near his gifted as Anthony Davis, and he's through two games done such a better job on both ends of the floor. And a huge part of that is he's just fighting with more physicality of in position battles and he's sprinting his ass off up and down the floor every single possession. One of the biggest ways that Joki killed Anthony Davis was just in transition, just running and and it's again, it gives you the ability
to demand perfection from the rest of the roster. I think about this a lot with the with the Last Dance and some of the stuff from Michael Jordan and and like, and there's a huge movement, especially from Lebron fans, to try to paint Michael as this prick who just was just treat everybody off, and it's like, I look at it completely differently. Michael demanded perfection from his teammates because he was in pursuit of that same thing on both ends of the floor, and so it carries more
weight down the roster. You can ask a bunch of undrafted guys and guys that are that don't have the necessary level of athleticism and skill that your top players have. You can ask them to do a little job perfectly when Jimmy and Bam are not taking any possessions off and they're fighting through all that stuff. Again, like fundamentally, the two of them guarding Murray and yok It's changed
the way that Denver was able to generate shots. And so I think I just think it's a super interesting thing to look at when when we're looking at team development is you've got to have guys at the top that are willing to embrace the dirty work because that's the only thing that's going to allow you to demand
from the rest of the roster. And you're like you you mentioned Miami bringing in players, Like that's the next thing out of all this, because I still believe Denver will win this series, although I've seen enough from tonight to know that Miami has a real chance, which I
didn't think before tonight. However, like one of the big things to take away from this series if Denver does win is what if Miami got some players, Like what if they got some players, Because if they get some players in there, with what Jimmy and Bam can do,
and with what Eric Spolser can do. That's where it gets really scary, because they have all of the other odds and ends tied off so perfectly that they maximize talent so well that it could it could it could really be devastating for the rest of the leader.
Yeah, and I think, I think there's this natural Let's get Dame down to Miami. But Dame doesn't. So I mean because Bam is a willing defender, Jimmy Butler's excellent defender. Lowry's got limitations due to aid Duncan, Robbinson, Tyler Harroll are not going to defend. Adding another player that doesn't defend is not necessarily it. That's why, you know, That's why when I threw the name out with the Celtics, but I'll throw it out with Miami. Andrew Wiggins is
a very interesting piece. A twitchy, willing defender doesn't need to be the leader, could be the second or third best player in your team. Super smart, gets gets the intelligence of the Miami culture. That's the kind of guy, A willing wing defender. So you can have Tyler Harrow on the floor and it's not and I and I and then I look at at the Warriors and I think, oh, what could you get?
Well, they they they love to shoot. Uh.
And so Miami to your point, I think they could add a piece, but they don't need a flashy piece, right, they don't. The culture fit is somebody who is willing, doesn't need headlines, experienced, smart, and and a guy that on the on the wing is a willing defender. So it's like, I'm not saying Andrew Wiggins is the piece, but we tend to go, oh, let's put this guy who jacks up. That's not really what Miami is. That's not their thing.
Man.
Miami has done a really good job through the years of assessing what they are and also assessing what they're not. And I think I've always been told this in the broadcasting biz when you're building a network, like you have to know your own talent before you can go out
and find talent, Like who are our best pieces? And it's sometimes I think ESPN went through a stretch where they didn't recognize some of their own pieces as they were trying to assemble, you know, kind of as George Bodenheimer left, John Skipper came in, there was a c change at the company. And I didn't think they assessed their own talent very well as they were trying to pursue other talent. And I think when I look at Miami, I think Miami totally understands what they are get sort
of right now, what they're not, what they need. I mean, Tyler Hero is not exactly a perfect fit for Miami. Little flaky, little immature, not a defender, doesn't really fit.
I could see them. I could see them moving him.
I mean they're winning, They're in the finals without him, I could see them moving him and adding a little toughness and better wing defense. Then how good would Miami be You had a seventeen point game wing guy that defends.
But then what are they?
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Yeah, it's interesting because with Tyler Harrow in particular, I think Spolstra and I'm not sure if he was actually ruled as available to tonight or not, or if it was just like a DNP coach's decision, but like it is, our colleague Draymond Green actually did a really good job
of breaking this down on his show. Just the general idea that like there's a rhythm in a flow to what Miami is doing right now, and to throw a new guy into that who has a lot of usage, meaning like he's going to control a lot of possessions.
It just has a lot We just have a lot of.
Opportunity for that to bump the train off the track, so to speak. I do think that in the long run, like they will have to come up with some sort of secondary shot creator, and I think that's why they've been so hesitant to give up Tyler Harra over the years.
But like you're right.
I mean, regardless of whether it's Wiggins or it's a bigger fish, whoever that guy is has to be someone who's bought in. And for the record, this is something that I think Spolsture has done a really good job of, and I should say pat Riley too. They've been very picky about who they bring in. Have you noticed that, Like they know they can identify pretty like, no, you're not about what we're about, you.
Know, a great example of what they're about.
Yeah, exactly, And so when you get the you get the right guys. Like the Heat culture thing has been said so many times, it's kind of lost some of its meaning, but there is a reality to it in the sense that it's like it's kind of like that epic rant from MJ at the at the Last Dance. It's like, if this is not the way you want to play, go somewhere else, but this is the way we're going to play here. And that's kind of the
Miami Heat ideologies. It's like, if you come here, you're going to defend every possession like it's your last, because that's.
How we play.
And guess what, it helps you beat better teams in the NBA Playoffs, and that's why we do it. We're about winning trophies here and I love that whole idea. So as we go into Miami, Miami's a two point underdog by the way at home.
I think they'll split. I think they'll will come back to too. Yeah, I think they're I think these teams. I think it's going to be a coaching chess match. I think Denver's better, but not significantly better. And they've never won this thing and this is new territory. I thought tonight Spoe chess match. I thought Spoe was worth three games in the Boston series. I thought he won tonight. I thought he did the tweaking late as Denver's offense
dried up. So I don't think Spoe is going to be worth two or three wins in this series because I think Malone's more than capable. I thought Missoula was a little over his head. Maybe I think Joe Missoula. It's a learning experiences. It just happened to be on national TV. It's the worst place for one, but it is what it is. But I think Spo stole one tonight, and I think I think, I think they'll go to Miami split and they'll come back. And that's exactly what
this series is. I think Denver's gonna eventually win close. Wouldn't be surprised if Miami won. I don't buy into the Miami. It's gonna get overwhelmed. I think Denver's longer, they're going to get more free, cheap baskets. And by the way, when you live on that three like Miami did tonight, they're going to have longer droughts like Denver's fourth quarter was rare. I wrote some notes down tonight. You know, their droughts are a six nothing run. They
had two droughts. They started the game in a drought and they ended the game in a drought. Like Denver really struggled early and really struggled late. So that's that's chess match. That's that's spose opening adjustments and closing adjustments in the in the in the eighty percent of the game. Inside of that, Denver was the better team, but early and late. And that's coaching, right. Like if you go to NFL games, the opening drive you score first in
the NFL, you win seventy percent of your games. That was Bill Walsh, take the lead opening drive, in the NFL, and how do you close with two minutes left? That's coaching. That's the great coaches. Poorly coach teams never finished strong like over the course of an NFL season. Poorly coached teams unravel late. It's like a golden rule. They just unravel late. So I thought Spoe stole one tonight.
Yeah, as we move towards Miami, I kind of see it the same way. I could see a split there. There's going to be a couple of specific adjustments that I expect from Denver One. They just have to defend better. Mike Malone's going to be all over them about their defensive effort in this particular game because it wasn't great. Jamal Murray in particular was just biting at every single pump fake and giving up a ton of driving lanes.
That was leading them to be in rotation a lot. Offensively, I think they need to do a lot more Yokic stuff with casep and Michael Porter Junior to keep them in rhythm during the game while they're leaving Yokic on
an island a lot. Sometimes they run too much two man game with just Jamal Murray and Jokic and then it'll be Yokics post up, Yokis post up, Yokis post up, and then it'll be Murray Jokic Burry Jokic, and like, one of the ways to keep KCP and Michael Porter Junior in rhythm is just to give them more touches
throughout the game in dribblehndoff situations. Before we get out of here, I did want to ask you one thing, though, So I thought Jokicic was unbelievable tonight, like just absolutely unbelievable. Where do you are our guy Carson from nerd Sash tweeted this out and it got me thinking. He said it's a Tier one playoff run of all time, meaning he views it on the same level as all the all time great playoff runs from the all time great players.
I tend to agree, and I wanted to ask you, just because you have so much more experience watching the NBA over the years, does this feel like all time great pantheon level stuff that we're seeing from Nikola Jokic to you?
Well, I think his consistency, I mean, people forget, you know, it's like Michael Jordan, you never see the bad games Michael had Michael had some really tough shooting matchups against the Utah Jazz in those finals. More than one Michael had bad games. He had a bad one against I think Phoenix. He had a couple bad ones against. He had a bad one against I think Seattle in a closeout game. Michael wasn't perfect. I think with Jokic, it's the consistency. I feel like you can just write down,
like tonight he had very few assists. You can just write down twenty four to eleven twelve.
Like that's really that's rare. The consistency.
I think, what were you know? It's very like like you could probably don't have Bill Russell's numbers obviously in front of me, But I feel like with Bill Russell, you would get the same defense every night when they were playing and winning the championships, it was Bill could run the floor. Bill give you defense. Bill, I gave you eighteen to twenty points. Had I watched Bill Russell, I feel like that would be Jokics, Like I knew
exactly what I was getting. Magic Johnson would have great nights and then then Kareem would score and Magic would be back. So Lebron to me feels like even different than Michael. Lebron went a decade. I didn't think he had a bad playoff game. I remember when Dan Gilbert I think I told you this once when he left Cleveland, and they said Dan Gilbert claimed that Lebron quit in a playoff game against like Boston and the numbers were like thirty to eleven.
I'm like, oh, that's his quit game, Okay, I get it.
Like Lebron to me, is even greater than Michael in terms of it's hard to find in his prime an off night in the playoffs. I mean, like a they're all good. So I don't think it. I don't think it rises to that. But I do think there's a consistency to his game, and I think a lot of it is because he's such an elevator of others. Because of his size almost seven feet, he's going to get rebounds, because of his girth and his body, he's going to give you twenty four a night. Even if he doesn't
play brilliantly. He just gets points. Tonight they reduced him to justice score. He generally gives you ten to eleven assists. You can almost just bank it, like you kind of know what you're getting and that's kind of a Bill Russell Lebroun thing. Now again, I'm not knocking Michael. Michael mostly gave you that, but Michael had Michael was never a great long distant shooter. You know, Michael had two great ears shooting the three. That's when they moved it in.
Then they moved it out and Michael went back to not being able to hit threes. Like, so I don't consider all time stuff.
You know.
It's funny listening to Denver complain about their media coverage and I'm like, would you guys win a title first?
And all this whole thing.
They're like, they're so upset without it being treated. It's like, do you guys have a ring? Like you have one win in the finals. Like it's a really good team. Let's wait before we call them great. Let's wait before we call Jokic great. It's a very very impressive playoff run. They're tied. They just lost at home, right, Miami now has home court advantage. Nobody's disrespecting you. There's nothing. I don't have any trophies to talk about. The Bucks have a trophy, Dirk got a trophy.
You don't have anything yet.
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