The volume. Hi, everybody, welcome in Jason timp Hoops tonight. We're going to give you a forty minute rundown of the Lakers Nuggets, and also some thoughts on Joe Missoula, head coach of the Celtics, who's probably presumably out of work here pretty quick after they get vanquished, probably a sweet by the Miami Heat. You know, my take is, I thought the MVP vote became about thirty percent about
Embiid and seventy percent about Anti Jokic. If you watch yokch in this series, he rendered Anthony Davis invisible at times. Jokic is so engaged offensively, rebounding, taking the ball up the floor, screen setting, passing, and unlike Embiid, he's not plotting when he gets the ball. He makes quick decisions to attack, constantly waving at his players. He makes sure the pacing of that offense everybody's involved, and he's such a deft passer that he forces you to be alert.
You look at the scoring for the Nuggets in this game, I mean it's Caseps involved, Gordon Porter Murray, and then of course Jokich, a facilitator a score, an offensive and defensive rebounder, a catalyst, a screen setter. He's not a great defensive player, and Denver is not a great defensive team. But you know, I felt bad for Jokic because there was this sense is you can't give him a third straight MVP because we didn't do that for some notable stars.
Can we be honest? Jokis right now today is the best player in the league. Embiid is not as consistent and doesn't do as many things well offensively, and he gets hurt a lot. Jannis is terrible, fight to go to the free throw line late, Anthony Davis disappears offensively every other game. This is the best player in the National Basketball Association Jokic, and he should have won a third straight MVP. But you know, years ago, if you go to the previous five MVPs, not the last five.
The last five include you know, Jokic a couple of times. You know Westbrook Harden. These are stat guys. They're not most valuable players on their own teams. I mean, Chris Paul was more valuable on that Rockets team than Harden. Harden was just more dynamic offensively. But the leadership, the defense, the guidance kind of the stewardship was Chris Paul on that Rockets team. That's why they led in the series. Chris Paul got hurt and they lost. Remember they had
a three to one lead. Chris Paul got hurt and they lost. Harden didn't get hurt, Chris Paul did. So we turned the MVP into stats and flash and flamboyance, which is just he is a basketball clinic. I mean he is. There is nothing offensively he can't do. I trust him taking a three mid range, driving ball on the floor, rebound, take it up the tile screen setter. He's just a remarkable basketball player. And right now, because he's so willing to go to the free throw line late,
I think he's the best basketball player in the world. Oops. Tonight podcaster Jason Timph let's talk how great have the NBA Playoffs been so far? If you live in one of those cities and wanted to go to the games, there is only one place to get tickets. The game Time app, the fastest growing ticketing app in the US for last minute, amazing deals. They don't stop with the NBA.
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Colin. The Denver Nuggets I believe are going to win in the NBA Finals, even if the Celtics miraculously come back. I think they're better by a significant margin than both teams coming out of the East, and they catch some pretty specific markers that we don't typically see in NBA champions They are a middle of the pack defense, and more importantly, they are a team that lacks rim protection.
As you go back throughout NBA history, almost every single team that has won an NBA Championship has not just good rim protection, but great rim protection. So what do you think is the key to this Nuggets team to kick the trend and make it to the finals this year?
All right, So let's look at a team in the East that's struggling. Boston. Jason Tatum, their top player, does not have a field goal in the fourth quarter of the series. Let's look at another team that just got swept. The Lakers ad mostly invisible offensively tonight. What is Denver? Jokic thirty, Murray twenty five, Porter fifteen, Gordon twenty two, KCP thirteen. They got shot makers, even guys that only
like Brown hit a couple of key baskets tonight. Boston can't count on their number one score, the Lakers offensive league can't count on their best player in his prime. What Miami and Denver are doing is they've just got shot makers, and you know, role players are stepping up. Listen, the games never had more players that can hit a jumper. I mean we romanticize nick teams that had no pure shooters, that would have three guys on the floor that you
wouldn't even allow to shoot an eighteen footer. Everybody for Denver, I mean Gordon to me hit two three pointers. I think Gordon to me is just a long athlete, feels more around the bucket, mid range. You can put him on Lebron, just a classic long vertical athlete. He's cranking up threes. So Denver's just got more guys that can hit shots. Now, those are real players. Michael Porter was the Gatorade Player of the Year in Washington State, goes
to Missouri. He's now finally post injuries. He grew up, He's now coming into his own. He's their fourth offensive option on many nights. I mean, he's an elite long athlete who can hit jumpers. You can put him on anybody. He can do a little rim protection against a forward. I just think if you look at all of Denver's players, Gordon, Murray, Jokic, and Porter, they're all in their physical prime, all of them. The lakers most amendable player in this series still in
his prime as Austin Reeves. I think Ad tends to be an old thirty. A lot of bigs EMBIID they get old fast, So I don't think it's excuses. The better team, with more shot makers and more of their elite players in their prime, swept and aging. I mean, Lebron was so tired in the second half. I mean, he gave us the greatest old man half in league history, and he just ran out of gas. He was exhausted in the end.
Yeah, I was driving me crazy listening to Mark Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy like backseat drive. His entire second half in every decision he's making as he's got forty nine to nine and one turnoverlease and he's the only Laker that actually gives a shit about winning that game, like it was driving me crazy. But I mean, here's the thing. If you're not going to be an elite defense, if you're not gonna have elite rim protection, you have
to be truly unguardable. And what makes Denver's starting lineup so interesting to me is if you remove any one of the pieces, I think they suddenly fall below the level of offense you would need in order to win a championship. It's not just Jokic, it's the perfectly complimentary star in Jamal Murray that in the actions that you run with him makes the action unguardable. But at the same time, he's great at the one thing Jokich is only good at, which is that tough off the dribble
shot making right, And so they're perfectly complimentary. Add any third defender to the mix. It's not just good shooters on the weak side. It is dead eye cannot leave them open shooters on the weak side. And then Aaron Gordon if you just swap him with Jared Vanderbilt, it all falls apart. It's him being that perfect guy that gets every offensive rebound, every interior seal. He's like a legit lob threat. Jared Vanderbilt has no vertical pop. Aaron
Gordon's just thrown. There was a play in the second half where Jokic or first half where Yokic like airball to jumper short and Gordon just went up and just grabbed, don't it with two hands? Like He's just the whole thing functions because every single one of those five guys is so perfectly complimentary and they are so truly unguardable that they only have to be okay on the defensive
end of the floor. And so yeah, the Lakers didn't really seem to have much trouble driving closeouts and finishing at the rim, you know, past Aaron Gordon throughout the series. But they they One of the things that I thought Denver did a really nice job of in this series is making sure the ball ended up in the hands of the wrong guy for the Lakers, a lot just
whip away. Their team was set up, and like Austin, there was a really interesting adjustment that Mike Malone made in Game two where he moved KCP onto Austin Reeves instead of Jamal Murray on Austin Reeves, and that's their
best perimeter defender. He kind of started to make things tougher on Austin Reeves, and suddenly the ball just kept ending up in Dennis's hands with four seconds on the shot clock, or in Ruy's hands with four seconds on the shot clock, and those possessions just typically aren't going to end super well. I thought it was a brilliant game plan from Deniver.
Yeah, there's something you mentioned at the end, and I almost tweeted it tonight in the second half. In the first half, Lebron basically took over the key possessions. But in the second half I could count. I bet you if you went back, the Lakers had a dozen useless possessions. And when you have limited shot makers in eighties invisible, those are bad possessions. Denver is good enough where if they get late in the shot clock, they had a couple of those. Murray had one at the end of
the game where they just got trapped. Lebron came out and guarded Murray and he got I think the shot clock went off. They maybe have two bad possessions a half for a game, you know, and that stuff adds up. You know, we had talked about this that the Lakers were a pretty low ceiling offense. Well think about tonight. D low, one shot, AD mostly invisible Lebron in the second half. Guest, the fact that it was that close is staggering. This is a really good Denver team. I mean,
Dilo gave you nothing. AD in the first half, give you absolutely nothing Lebron in the second half. He was tired. How is it that close? So you know, I look at the Lakers and I think I wouldn't run this back. You can't make Lebron younger. Austin Reeves, as good as he is, should be a four starter on a championship team, right, not a one, two or three. He should be a four. He's kind of consistently capable of hitting threes and creating,
so I like him. He reminds me they're totally different players. But like KCP, it's not afraid to take a big shot, likes contact, you know, even if it's a bad matchup, He'll play it with pride. Like I like both guys the way they play. They're just like they're talented, scrappy guys unafraid to take a big shot. I mean, Jason Tatum's brilliant and looks reluctant. Austin Reeves and KCP are never reluctant players, like it's my kind of guy, right,
and those should be your fours or your fives. But I look at this Laker team and their issues are not really correctable with time. Like Denver, for instance, with a championship, should be a more confident version of Denver. Golden State will reboot something. You figure the Clippers eventually, well maybe they're a year away. Try to find a true point guard so they can get into their offense. Quicker.
Okc's just getting better. Memphis will have their bigs back, like the West was Wonky should add a piece on the bench or two. They'll move eight and bring in more help, so you're like the West won't be as weird as it was, and many of the other team's issues. Bench for bigs returning for Memphis, some maturity, Dylan Brook's gone bench for Phoenix size. For the Warriors, they're correctable. What Laker issue is correctable? Eight's inconsistency, Austin Reeves ceiling
Dlo's gone flakiness Lebron's age. So to me, you got to take a swing on this that these are not one year correctible. You've got to go find some personnel you keep ruey. But I mean, let's be honest, Vanderbilt, Beasley, d Lo, these are not trustable players in a big spot.
They desperately need over the top shot making. It's one of the things in basketball that sometimes when it's your main thing, that's a bad idea. Like that's kind of what I didn't like about the Phoenix Suns this year is like their main thing was we have to make shots over the top of the defense. But making shots over the top of the defense, especially in late clock situations, is a great way to kind of boost your offensive numbers, and it can be the difference in games. Let's think
about Game one of this series. The Lakers had a Lebron James three at the end of the game that could have tied it. Do you remember a Nikola Jokic kieve at the third quarter buzzer that went in. There was a Jamal Murray keieve on the first possession of the fourth quarter that went in. Like shot making over the top from Denver stole Game one when the Lakers were in position to be able to get it. Look at Game two, it's an eleven point Laker lead in
the second half. There were a half dozen possessions in that fourth quarter where it got to a late clock situation and Jamal Murray just stuck a tough step back jumper in someone's face. Look at tonight, how many possessions did the Lakers play fantastic defense? But Jokicic just made some thing out of nothing at the end. And that's the hard part is, like you look at that for the Lakers this summer, everything else, I think they checked
pretty well. I think they're an outstanding defensive team. I think that they've got a lot of downhill rim pressure. They've got some really smart playmakers on the team, Lebron James, Austin Reeves, two really high IQ guys. They just don't have that reliable over the top shooting. And so when you look at the offseason, it's like, okay, let's go
get Kyrie. Okay, great, but because of the new rules, like you're gonna have to let go of at least one of Austin Reeves and Ruyja Chamura you're gonna severely handicap your ability to make moves on the margins. Not to mention, I'm not even sure logistically how you pull that off, because you've got to get both sides on board in a side and trade, so that doesn't really
seem realistic. So and if you go like Colin, we're gonna talk about Boston here in a little bit and talk a little bit about their issues with finding that alpha dog offensive player. If you go around the league, there's not really a great option. And so the best chance that the Lakers have, kind of like for Boston, their best chance in my opinion, is just Tatum getting
better better. They need Anthony Davis to get in the damn gym this summer and figure out how to make some of those shots that he couldn't make all season long. Lebron James I think is going to be fine. He is, like he shot thirty seven percent on six attempts per game from three in his previous five postseason runs. The dude is one of the more reliable jump shooters in the postseason that you'll see from a star. He's just having a slump offseason, just like he did in twenty
fifteen or postseason. I should say I think he'll bounce back. But really the only answer to the Lakers problems is Anthony Davis gets better. Colin I said for the series, the only chance for the Lakers to win was Anthony Davis and Lebron James had to play like superstars and they had to kind of like compete with what Jokic was doing. I thought there was a gigantic chasm between the level of play of Jokich and Anthony Davis and all that really was the difference of the series.
Listen it. First of all, even when he's not scoring, Jokich is so engaged. You know, like multiple times grab the rebound. I'm just going to take the ball up the floor and lead the break. Eighty is not going to do that. He's a brilliant passer. Eighties not really active hands. When Ady disappears offensively and he's not scoring, he's not helping anybody. You know, Jokic when he gets gassed and he does, he just becomes a facilidator. You're
looking at the world's best big man. He is. I mean, Yannis is terrified late in games to get to the free throw line. We're talking about the greatest big in the game right now, and it's Jokic. There's no question he you know, embiid can be plotting as a player right First of all, he's not available, But we talked about this. Sometimes you're like, dude, I'm gonna give you the ball. Turn shoot between him and Hard and it's like, guys, he just kill the movement. This is painful to watch.
I'm not a basketball expert, but just everybody just stops k Jokic makes decisions very quickly. He gets the ball off very quickly. He's he's screening. In fact, sometimes he gets impatient, Murray, come off the screen, let's go. You can see he is facilitating everything. He's pressing. You know, a lot of bigs don't do that. They kind of feel like it's a rest time. Like tonight. Ad sometimes felt like he was resting on offense.
Eighty mailed at in tonight Colin, I thought, I thought that was an embarrassing performance from him. I thought watching Lebron James leave it all out on the floor while Ad just kind of floated through the game was kind of embarrassing.
To be honest, you know, I suggest this all the time. Adis got a year left and then I think a player option, isn't it something like that. This is the longest stretch of not being hurt. I think you have to at least take phone calls. I always say this. In the NFL, there's only five quarterbacks. I would not take a phone call on, you know, Mahomes, Josh Allen Burrow, Trevor Lawrence Herbert. I'm taking and probably Jalen Hurts. Now I'm taking a phone call on everybody else. I'm not
saying I trade him, I'm taking the call. I think you got to take a call on a d You gotta listen to people. And I've said this before with Lebron, his greatness is in halfs and spurs, and you're gonna get about fifty eight games. That's fine, But then the one of the two you got to give me. Gotta give me seventy games. You gotta give me Tatum, you gotta give me Jayleen Brown. At this point, if you're going to keep Lebron and they will, you gotta give
me a seventy game guy. It can't be another guy who plays fifty eight or another guy, as you just pointed out, who disappears. I'll take flaws, but you got to give me seventy games and energy. You gotta give me. You gotta give me a two way player. And I think you have to take a call in a D. And I think this is the stretch. He has tremendous value.
You know.
I look at a team like the New York Knicks and they and they don't have much to give. But could you get a could you get a RJ. Barrett Julius Randall a D. Now that sounds horrible, but RJ is going to give me a lot of games. Randall's gonna give me a lot of games. Between the two, I'm gonna get fairly consistent points. Now, again, it's on the surface, it sounds like an absolutely horrible move, and
I'm just I'm just throwing it out there. But he would serve with Brunson giving you seventy games, sixty five games, he would serve. A D would be a great player in New York. And I think maybe you have to go get in a couple of guys, a couple of guys to give you a real consistent, solid B plus play. I don't know, maybe I'm maybe this, you know, again,
this is just vomiting here. But when when Lebron is giving you great halfs or moments, or one great game in a road trip, a four game Roady, or maybe you know, a great game and a half on a four game Roady, you gotta give me. You got to give me a more consistent guy, even if I give me a couple of B plus guys. But the Ad Lebron thing, I think we feel because they get along and one's a room protector and one can drive and score. I think we feel like, you know, gosh, they really
work together. Well, I think their personalities do, but their minutes don't right, their energy doesn't. Ad feels old and he's thirty's.
It's tough because the prospect of trading Anthony Davis gets really scary when you accept the reality that you're probably not going to get nearly as much back as you think. And then two, I legitimately think this roster is pretty close to a championship level roster. I mean, they were one of the final four teams standing after starting to and ten. That's not nothing, you know what I mean? And I know that you can explain away everything that happens over the course of a playoff run. Every team
has certain circumstances going on. I mean, even Denver didn't play well over the last half, like last third of the season, So had they lost a series somewhere along the way, people could have been like, oh, well, Denver mailed it in down there, you know what I mean. It's like you can explain things away. They were one of the final four teams standing. But everything you're hinting at at the problem is absolutely true with Lebron James
at this phase in their career. They need a superstar that is dependable both in availability and in his competitiveness and his motor because Lebron James is going to ebb and flow in those areas as a guy who's been in the league over twenty years and so again, and everything for me comes back to this, Anthony Davis just simply has to get better, and he's got to take better care of his body, and he just has to be available and more impactful. That solves so many problems.
And again, this is such an interesting example of the difference between defensive impact and offensive impact. I've been preaching about how amazing Anthony Davis is Defensively, I think he's the best defender in the world. Over the course of the Golden State Series, they found a way to pull them away from the rim, and they figured some stuff out. Denver based neutralized Anthony Davis defensively. They were giving up one hundred and twenty one points per one hundred possessions
in the first three games. That's the best what I think was the best defense in the sixteen team field. Denver was lighting them on fire. And so it goes to the larger kind of basketball philosophy, which is that defensive players can be schemed around. You can find a way to attack a weaker defender, you can find a way to get him out of the action. But on the other end of the floor, if you've got a truly unguardable offensive player, there's nothing you can do about it.
You're It's kind of like in that Warrior series. You're at the mercy of Steph Macon and missing shots. And so at the end of the day, like Anthony Davis absolutely has to improve. It's the only way that makes this work. I don't I think any other trade is going to drop them below a championship ceiling. Ad has to get better. That to me, that, to me is the end of the story. Like everything lies in him
and his competitiveness. Like, dude, Nikola Jokic hit a bunch of shots in your face while he swept you on your home floor. Take that personally, go in the gym. You know you were a liability on offense. I tweeted out these numbers, but Colin, when you threw the ball to Anthony Davis in the post or in an isolation situation in the bubble, it was good for one point one points per possession, which is outstanding for a stagnant offensive situation. This year, he's good for about two thirds
of a point. He's not even in the same stratosphere as an offensive player as he used to be. And I see Laker fans going like, why aren't they throwing the ball to Ad more? Why aren't they because he can't score anymore. He's not the same guy. He's just not Yeah, and so at a certain point he's the one light at the end of the tunnel is Anthony Davis has to get better with his offensive polish. It's the only thing that'll save this team.
I don't think I would take a run on Kyrie Irving, but Dallas would that Dallas would love AD. He solves all their issues. He gives them a second score. He's not at all ball dependent. Luca gives you the seventy games and the consistent energy. Anthony scores twenty three without really setting up plays for him. He gives them a rim protector. I heard at the trading deadline Dallas has their eye on Anthony Davis and they think the Lakers. They think Lebron still has a soft spot for Kyrie Irving.
By the way, that would be a shot maker. And you know, again you can roll your eyes at that. You'd have to give me more than Kyrie Irving. And I don't think Dallas has it. Maybe I don't know. Maybe you go Luca ad and you go Tim Hardaway. Is it Tim Hardaway Kyrie Irving? I don't know if the salary's match. You know a couple of guys that can hit shots for the Lakers with Lebron, Austin Reeves and Lebron running the offense, and guys that can store
on the outside. Again, just vomiting, I'm throwing it out there, but I know Dallas will absolutely call on Ad. He solves the Luca issue by the way. Also, unlike a Porzingis or a Kyrie, a very chill doesn't want the attention, really a low profile star with Luke. So it's like, I'm just going to go back to this, Dallas is calling on a d I think the Lakers and the
Mavericks you will hear in the next month something. I really believe that, And I think you have to take the phone call and listen again.
You take the phone call no matter what, to see what kind of things are being offered. The problem is is like going back to our conversation in the first topic, which is you lose Anthony Davis, you lose your rent protection, you lose your elite defense, which then automatically end of discussion. You can't win a championship unless you're just otherworldly good offensively, which Lebron and Kyrie. Even with Kyrie and Lebron at
this phase in his career, you're not there. That said, Kyrie's is actually perfect and Lakers fans, when we discuss this, they are way too dismissed of Kyrie's talent and the fact that playing in Los Angeles with a real chance to win a championship with Lebron, James as someone that can kind of manage his This is some of the personality dynamics that play. I actually think it's not to
put it clearly. If I thought you could get Kyrie by only losing Ruie and still fielding a roster of six to seven legit rotation players with a couple guys who can work on the periphery, if I could roll out Kyrie Irving with Austin Reeves, with Jared Vanderbilt, with Lebron James and Anthony Davis, I think that solves all their problems in overnight. They become a much better team. The problem is is it's just such a long shot for so many of those things to break right. And again,
like you just start to look around the league. It's like like I was listening to you this morning when you were talking with Jason McIntyre about different things that could fix the Celtics, and one of our guys here at the volume, mister Rory, he's a big Celtics fan, text me last night and he's like, dude, who can we trade Jalen for? Like what are we getting back? And you start to look around and it's like, well KD was that guy, But he's not available anymore. None
of these other guys are really moving the needle. You know, It's funny you look at the It's like, Oh, Jimmy Butler's killing us, How do we get a guy who can go to totte with Jimmy Butler? Oh, Nikola Joki is killing us? How do we get a guy that can go toe to toete with Nikolajokic. There's like eight of those dudes in the entire league, and nobody wants to give them up. So it's like at a certain point, like sometimes you have a ceiling. It's kind of like
the Embeid hardened pairing. There's a ceiling to that. They're just is They're not going to They're not going to go tote. Those guys crumbled under Tatum, the same guy who's currently crumbling under Jimmy Butler. Like, there's levels to this, and those top guys they're impossible to replace. You cannot go toe to toe with them unless you've got another guy at their level. Lebron is rapidly declining. I don't know what the answer is. Again, I keep coming back to eighty. Just has to get better.
Well Tomorrow night, Miami with a huge coaching edge probably finishes off Boston. You know, Brad Stevens highly wanted, recommended Joe Missoula for the job. So that's that's a much more difficult firing than most like he was Brad's sort of his mentor. So that's going to be an awkward situation.
But I will tell you that it happens a lot more than we think, And it happens all the time in college sports, where a really good coach leaves or is forced to leave, or takes a better job, and you give it to the coordinator and he's just not ready. I mean, it happens six times a year in college football. And in fact, when I grew up in the Pacific Northwest, all four schools did it. So Washington in the seventies was a dominant college football program. Seventies and eighties, legend leaves,
they give it to the defensive coordinator. Jim Lambright fails, Ralph Miller. Oregon State, at one point in the seventies had a top ten basketball program left. They give it to his assistant, Jimmy Anderson. They never recovered Oregon Chip Kelly, Mark Helfrich didn't work, Mike Price, and I think it was Bill Doba at Washington State football didn't work. So you see this all the time. Joe Mozula is just not ready. He could be ready in four years. But
it's like it's the Celtics. It's not like he got a bad team and he could play invisible midweek games. It's like, oh no, it's Eric Spolstra, the world's best coach, and they'll play again on national TV. And Boston's such an outrageously outspoken, in your face media market and I'm watching it and I'm like, oh, this poor guy. I mean again, if you're a college coach that's over their skis, you play on Raycon TV in the South, nobody sees it.
There's seven games on Saturday in your region. Joe Mizzoula just you can't hide in Boston. It's just it's too intense a market. You just can't hide. And so I think they're gonna I don't think they have to make wholesale changes. I do wish they had somebody that was a little more aggressive offense, because I think they have really good defensive players. I think they could find a point guard that's not gifted off defensively. But somebody who
get you into the offense. They remind me of a more talented version of the Clippers, Jason, when Paul George and Kawhi are kind of running it and you're like, Okay, this is odd. This is not there. This is not what it's like the wildcat offense in football when you hiked it to a running back. You were getting yards, but you're like, this doesn't look right, this is not right. I've watched the Clippers for three years, and I'm like,
could we get a point guard? I mean, that's why Westbrook kind of worked for them, like he got them into their their offense. I feel like Boston a lot of times Tatum looks at Brown, Brown looks at Smart Smart. It's more of a defensive player. I think if Boston needs anything your opinion, I'm interested in somebody to get him into their offense.
Quicker. So it's interesting, Colin, because we were having a similar conversation after the Warriors series last year. And you know, it's funny. Every time I've been watching basketball forever, not as long as you have, but for a long time, and every season when it finishes, I always like to have like a couple of things that I learned. I actually do a little video at the end of each season, like of what I learned about the NBA this year and last year it was like, oh, you know, the
Celtics needed ball handling, they needed ball handling. But one of the things that I think this season has taught me is like, there's a difference between aggregate ball handling and top end ball handling. And we thought that the Celtics could fix their issues by bringing in another ball
handler right in the form of Malcolm Brogden. But then you find yourself at the end of the game and it's like, what are we going to do run our clutch offense through Malcolm Brogden when Jason Tatum's on the floor, and it's like, oh, actually, the real problem here is is Tatum's not as good as Jimmy. That's the real problem here, and he doesn't have someone that can help kind of navigate those alpha dog scenarios. And that's where
I think the Missoula thing becomes a problem. I think that the answer to the Celtics this year and moving forward is, yes, Jalen Brown's going to be way too expensive, Maxim. I'm sorry, he's too good to let go you're not going to get anything worth as nearly as good as him. In return, I think you've got to run it back
basically with an alpha dog coach. I think we underestimated emy Udoka's impact last year in the way he helped Tatum and Brown navigate those scenarios because you can say one thing, you yes, Boston last year had a lot of the similar tendencies when it came to sloppiness and decision making, but those dudes fought every minute when they were out there. They were one of the most impressive defenses I had ever seen. Their defensive identity is gone.
They're giving up like ten additional points per hunter possessions in the half court compared to last year. Defensively, they are not the same type of psychological entity that they were last year. And so again, kind of like we were talking about with Anthony Davis, I was looking down the list and I'm like, man, and we don't know
the deals. Maybe Brooklyn was like, we don't want Jalen Brown, but if Kevin Durant was available, like last summer, that was the move, because then you're bringing in an alpha dog that can be in a series with Jimmy Butler and not be scared and command the offense down the stretch slot Jason Tatum into a supporting role of the way that he's supposed to, but go down the list of guys this summer, Like, is Bradley Beal going to
solve their problems? I don't think so. So the reality is their best bet is Jason Tatum developing as a ball handler, and I think that can be accelerated by the right coach, and it needs to be like a real alpha dog personality. And this is why I keep coming back to Nick Nurse, and I know he's a finalist for the Bucks job, and so hopefully Boston becomes
aware of that and jumps in a little sooner. I'm not the biggest Nick Nurse fan because sometimes I think he can be a little over aggressive with this scheming and he's a big, gimmicky, overhelp defense guy, which sometimes can hurt you in certain situations. But you know, he's the guy that wrote a book right after he won a championship and in the book was like criticizing his own players, and he like he actually is a presence
in the room that will get buy in. Like Missoula straight up admitted in the postgame presser that he lost the locker room. He said it, Yeah, I've lost a connection with these guys, Like it's just not there. You need somebody that can drive that alpha dog mentality the same way that Email Yudoka did. I think I think the move is a coach. And again, like just like you field calls, someone calls and says, hey, we'll give
you so and so and so and so. For Jaylen Brown, you field the call and if the right ball handler is there, Yeah, I like the move, but I just don't know who that is. And so in that scenario, you have to go with the most talented roster in basketball and hope a better coach fixes the problem. Yeah.
I mean it's also been in the are you This example on TV is that when Nick Saban first got the SEC job, the SEC had some really Tomato can coaches. Now, Lane Kiffen Kirby Smart, there's like real guys there. This was a year in which the coaching in the East was weak. So Tibbs is a culture guy, energy guy, limitations offensively. Missoula is a kid. Doc Rivers is a
culture guy, not really an adapter a scheme guy. Budenholzer, the team got old, and I you know, he got kind of unveiled in some coaching situational late game stuff. Quinn Snyder great, but got the job in late February. It was a it was kind of a bad Eastern Conference here for coaching, and here's Spolstra, and I think he just took the hatchet out to these guys. He got a defensive coach, he got a couple culture coaches.
You know, he hit the matchups worked out well, and I think I think what happened is Milwaukee got really old, really fast. You saw at the end of the year. I thought they I thought, like an old team like Jay Crowder, Joe Ingles, like, oh wow, they can't play fast. Chris Middleton, Oh he's like the fourth best player and a good team like it happened like in thirty games. You're like, oh, these guys aren't getting better. Ingles had surgery.
You're like, he's seven a game. He can't play. And so I do think I think Miami's I don't think they're going to return next year. I think they're going to go after like Damian Lillard. I think they're very attractive now because some of their young guys. They're undrafted guys. They're not you can't resign these guys. They're playing completely over their skis. So I think they'll they'll go out
and get a dame. But I think I think there are sometimes circumstances, Like I don't think Denver's a circumstantial team, they're just really good. I think there's some circumstances that have really worked. Iman Adulka's back with Boston. This is
a very even series. I mean this it's so I think, like Saban early in the SEC, I think, I think Spolstra, I kind of know this is like I got, I got culture coach, sixty one year old coach, rookie coach, and it all and Lebron's over in the West that it all sort of worked out well.
You and I've been on this the entire tail end of the season. Like Spulshre is the best coach in the NBA. He is the best, yeah, protecting his players from their own weaknesses. Schematically, he's always several levels above his opponent in these series, you know, ironically, like he's pulling rabbits out of hats here man, like he's he's making something out of nothing. And again, our guy Draymond's like, hey, don't call them undrafted. Their pros just like everyone else.
I agree, and I agree with. I appreciate the sentiment of what he's saying, but I'm sorry, but if Caleb Martin out played Jalen Brown in this series, there's not a single there's not a single general manager in the entire NBA that would take Caleb Martin over Jalen Brown. And that's the that's the exciting part from Miami fan is like they're going to have more talented rosters in the next ten years. Spulture's going to be coaching those teams. The Heat are just going to be around, like they're
just going to be in these fights non stop. But there's no doubt that that coaching element plays a huge role, especially when you get deeper into the postseason. I mean, Mike Budenholzer was unwilling to adjust, completely unwilling to adjust as m as Jimmy Butler was smoking them. Joe Missoula was way too late to make any sort of aggressive adjustment in this particular series. It's given them an advantage.
You know, it's funny with the NBA. To me, it's so many times, it's about a war of attrition and like who's kind of left standing at the end of the day. Jimmy Butler, after losing in the Eastern Conference finals last year, was being interviewed and he goes, yeah, we had enough this year. We'll have enough next year. Except for next year, we're going to get it done. And at the time he sounded crazy. And here they are with less talent than last year, and they're going
to go to the NBA Finals. They're going to be Boston tomorrow because Boston is going to quit. And it's like, like that's they just happened to stick around while everything else crumbled around own them, and now they now they're four wins away from an NBA championship. It's there Miami. Miami's one of those teams that we can never rule
out in any situation. I don't care if they're in the back end of the playing tournament that they were, they were losing in the final three minutes against Chicago in the second playing game. They were under five hundred over the last twenty five games of the season. There's no scenario where we can write Miami off moving forward.
Yeah, and I think you know, going into this series, I thought Boston would win. But I said, I think Spolstro was gonna win two games. And I also said, if I have a better coach and the best player, and then BAM's got to be a top three or four player, they're going to be. I thought the games would be competitive. I didn't know Spoe would win all four games. You know, I'll tell you this, BAM's really served himself well, he's been. He is so active, jeezu
he is. He's on the floor, he's you know, he's a little bit like Loke Jokic. He's just around the ball. He's batting it around, he's volleyballing it around. So they get Tyler Hero back next year. I think I think they're they need one more. You know, it sounds crazy at Jordan Poole thing like they need another. You know, Damien's better, but you know Damien's small. Damien is going to give you about sixty five games. You know, Damien's played high school, college and pro all out West. It'll
be a little different. I feel like, I think I feel like Boston could be a championship team. You bring Tyler Hero back, Bam. Jimmy Butler You'll probably keep one of the younger guys. They just need they need one more, one more lethal shooter. And I know I people just keep rolling their eyes at Jordan Pool. I heard it was on the Ring or I heard a clip from Doc Rivers son Austin Rivers. He was saying, you know, I know how you guys. He was talking about Austin Reeves.
He goes. I like him. He does a lot well, he said, but skill set, he's like Jordan Poole's like crazy, like crazy talented. And the last couple of games of that series against the Lakers, he played way more under control. He took a mid range. I'm they're going to take calls on him. I am so interested to see where he goes, because I really do look at Miami and I think to myself, I've got a star, I've got length hero coming back. Give me, give me a really
good two. I mean, wouldn't you want to play on that team? I mean, one of the great things is you can get your points and your looks in the regular season. Butler's Butler's got no interest giving you thirty six points in the regular season, right like Jimmy is going to compete but he'll in the regular season. You're going to get some looks. Miami's going to be really interesting next year.
Yeah, they absolutely need to get him a dependable number two at some point because here's the thing. I think Denver is going to win in the finals for two reasons. Denver's better and two. I'm sorry, but as much as I appreciate and respect Jimmy Butler, he can't alpha dog Nikola Jokic like that. That's just not going to happen.
I mean, heck, you might not even be able to do that to Jamal Murray, who's one of the biggest irrational confidence guys that we have in the league, although he's backing it up.
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