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Can the Denver Nuggets have completed the sweep. They got their brooms out and swept the way the dusty old Lakers.
And meanwhile the Celtics, I'm sorry, I felt like we were exposed a little bit. Okay, I'm not gonna lie here.
Meanwhile, the Celtics, they managed to avoid getting swept and forced the game five, which, by the time you're hearing this will be happening later today and we'll discuss the utter dominance of Yokich along with the healthy Jamal Murray, as well as the heat in Celtics and War with ESPN NBA reporter is He Gutierrez on today's episode, I'm.
Miles Great and I'm Jack O'Brien and this is Miles Inties perfectly in sync as always for days Good.
There's your indeed driving spinning.
Curry, a three punter.
Stop Curry from downtown again to.
Be honest with ter, Look, shut time you go, y.
Isy.
What's going on? Man?
How's it going guys? Oh or great?
I'm whatever, like it's going great, It's fine.
I mean you're so you're dropping a podcast called four years of Heat podcast at a time, like just perfectly in line, How did you get the NBA to script this so perfectly, like turning the Eastern Conference Finals into a piece of sponsored content for your podcast.
I would say, whatever, whatever script writer is working here, like South Florida, you must have just visited.
He or she must have just been.
Florida, because like, we got a lot of good stuff going on down here, Like University of Miami made it to the final FA You, I mean, number one game away from playing each other for a national championship, which is crazy because you guys had no idea what FAU was before this year, right, and then you got the Panthers, of course, And so I don't know what kind of
luck we got, because I never get this lucky. But yeah, just I started working on this podcast basically at the beginning of the year, thanks to iHeartRadio sort of reaching out and thinking of me for this possibility. And when I started working on it, the heat were wildly frustrating, this year's heat. What As I continued working on it,
the heat were wildly frustrating. And as they got to even the player I got to the last couple of days of the regular season, we were actually wondering, if you know it might be a disaster, like the Heat might not even make the playoffs, and they'll be like, why.
Are they releasing this thing in the middle of this postseason.
But I mean, the reason we're releasing these because it's ten years from since that reyaln shot and that back to back championship, so it's an anniversary thing. It just so happens. The heater are making it really fortunate. But yeah, I don't know what kind of whatever juju, whatever mojo that Jimmy Butler's been carrying around. He didn't have it last but whatever he's been carrying around, But I thank him for it because this is just quite the perfect synergy for me.
Yeah, I mean, yeah, it feels like even when they win, like in the the Milwaukee series, everyone made that series about Milwaukee collapsing. Now everyone wants to make it about Boston collapsing, and it's just like, no, we're witnessing the Heat do something we've never really seen before, which is I keep thinking of this of this moment in the trailer for the New Fast and the Furious movie when Jen Diesel manages.
To like drive his car so hard that it like jumps.
And like it's just like through sheer effort and tyranny of will, he's able to like drive a car harder and like.
Sounds like it could be the trailer for any of them.
Right.
Let you know that I haven't seen a single one of them, yeah sorright, but.
Like that's what it just feels like.
Jimmy Butler was like, all right, I'm gonna be like extra good at I'm just gonna like concentrate real hard and like make threes now instead of missing them.
And well, I.
Mean that's people just when people don't understand what they're looking at, they just kind of go play the hits and if you if you know more about the other team and just talk about the other team. And I think the fact that Miami is doing this without people being able to explain it is a testament to I think Spolstra primarily because you know, I don't think this
team doesn't take the regular season seriously. I just think Eric Spolstra, I mean, he certainly does, but I think he also is working through a lot of things during the regular season. He's working out what the best like any team, any good coach would be. You know, you're not going to see what works in week one and stick with that the entire season, right, So he is,
you know, working through some stuff. And when he says in the postseason like we were pretty close all season long, I don't think he's lying, even though the results say differently, and you know, watching them play say different says differently. But I don't think he's lying because I don't think this is a team that just keeps banging its head against the wall if it knows for a fact that
it's not going to work. And so they were close, and you know, when you get to the postseason, when you're preparing for the same team over and over again and not you know, three teams and four nights, then you can really focus on a lot more things. And that's where this team becomes great. It's those small details. That just did an ESPN Daily podcast with Kirk Goldsberry who wrote a story about like what those finer details of like heat culture or whatever, what they actually translate
to on the court. And it's like in the postseasons, you know, taking charges, it's deflections, it's loose balls recovered, it's screen assists, and you know, the heat lead the league and all of those by far in the postseason and so they just they make everything so much more difficult for another team that maybe thinks, especially this year because they're an eight seed, maybe thinks, eh, we're going to get the regular season version of this team, and they can get anything close to it.
Now, Jimmy Butler, that one's different.
That one's crazy because this dude doesn't not only not make these shots in the regular season, he doesn't take them right, take those twenty foot step backs. He doesn't take the threes even if they leave them open, unless Dayne Wade's in the building, then he'll do anything do it'll go crazy.
But he doesn't even.
Take in fact, like I get so annoyed watching him a lot of times during the regular season because he passes up shots and I'm not talking like deep shots. I'm talking like by the rim, Like he'll fly by the rim, his head'll be by the rim and he's just looking the other way for a pass, and I'm like.
Dude, what are you doing.
I guess the same guy who you know does the reverse jams, you know, on a dead ball just to show off his athleticism, probably doesn't realize sometimes that he could actually that he's actually at the rim and isn't going to get blocked.
But I don't even think that's the case.
I think he's just kind of again consuming the game and just learning everything around him and recognizing that every possession in the regular season is not the end of the world. And if I don't score this bucket, if I don't see that bucket or that available shot, then no big deal.
I'll see it in the postseason.
And so I think that is a guy who just knows himself and is super confident in his abilities and then have to show it off all the time or talk about it, right unless it's the postseason.
Yeah, I mean that's what I identified in him as similar, just like supremely confident person who doesn't have to show it off or talk about it, like I just identified to you.
So I saw it coming a mile away. But do you want to just brag last episode? Yeah we were for Game one.
Yeah, I picked the Heat in the series. I said that, like just based on what we've watched up to this point in the playoffs, like both from the Heat and from the Celtics kind of just being confusing and like at having some of the highest highs when the shot is falling and as we saw it in you know, Game four.
They can still turn it on, but just.
A lot of variability and a lot of like just weird kind of lapses. But I don't know, as somebody who really follows the Heat is here, you were you surprised, like by what you've seen in this series.
Well, first of all, it's funny you mentioned the prediction in the preseason. I said to myself, you know what, stop being a coward. Pick the team that you want to win versus the team that you'll think who's gonna get there? And I said, the Heat's going to beat the Denver Nuggets, and it's on ESPN dot com if
you go through the arc pat. But in the postseason, having not even remembered that I picked a preseason champion because it's kind of a weird deal to pick up both like a finalist from each conference in the preseason and whatever, you're never gonna be right. So I totally forgot that I made that prediction and went on to pick against.
The Heat twice in.
This postseason, first against the Bucks and then against Celtics. I picked Celtics in seven, i think, and then I picked Lakers over the Nuggets because I let Bill Plashki talk me into Lebron and Nadi aren't gonna lose to anybody this postseason. So I switched that from Denver and seven to Lakers and seven. So I've been all wrong, but you know, I'm gonna hang on to that preseason prediction if that's your ends up happening.
Well.
The Celtics stuff is confusing to me because like it always felt like this team was being held together, like by scotch tape. Like they didn't seem to get along. They didn't seem to have a great relationship, even back with Brad Stevens. Necessarily, it just felt very much like principal and student relationships.
You know.
It wasn't really like a tight bond. I didn't feel like, you know, Jason or Jalen, they're both quiet, they don't really not really vocal leaders. And then when you hear things kind of spill out, like hey, we got to pass the ball, or you know, people not being very happy with the way other people are playing without naming names, it feels like that has to be really bad for it to get out from this team.
And so I felt like maybe things were really bad back then.
But Emay just kind of fixed things in the middle of the season, and all of a sudden, the winning, you know, cured all of that stuff.
Yeah, this season, you get pretty much the same thing.
They start off with the one seed for for a good amount of time, kind of trickled down at the end and dropped to the two, but not really any issues.
To say that they have to address.
They're all kind of like huddling up and making sure Missoula is going to be good all year. But they're good enough to where they don't have to face their little their major issues all season long. So you get to the postseason and those cracks start to show, Now, what do you do like they haven't?
Who do you turn to? Like, what is the rallying point?
Like May I think was very effective last year when things went south. Who knows, We didn't know how Joe was going to handle that. And Joe being thirty four, I don't think helps him. You know, it's nothing against him, he can't do I think about his age, but I don't think that helps him. And all those other warts and all those things about those guys maybe not really
loving each other. And I think there was a story of Source saying that this team has been fake liking each other for for a long time now, sure that that kind of show when you're around them even further short period of time. And I even think a guy like Grant Williams is a great example, because I think he's what they all want to be like in terms of toughness and vocal and you know, versatile. Just do whatever you need me to do, I'll do it, and regardless of my playing time, I'm going to do it
really hard. Yeah, but they're not and so and what he does it it's not necessarily contagious. Maybe Marcus Smart does it as well, but it's not necessarily contagious. So it just felt like this team was sort of working under like the possibility, like almost like a timer, like at any second it could just implode. And it felt like it almost imploded or exploded, whichever one you want. After Game three, they just happened to hit enough shots in that third quarter to remind themselves of who they
were and now they don't feel so terrible. But if they lose this series, there's going to be I think a significant fallout from this team. I think if they lose this series, their peak as a core will have been last year's finals.
In game four, like just looking at kind of you know, their fortunes changing a bit. Do you think that it's more like, you know, adjustments on Miszula's part, or more that they like they found.
Their ability to shoot the three?
And you know, how are you seeing just sort of that game for because I think for most people, I was just like, okay, so we're everybody's getting swept down.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I honestly if you look at NHL too, it looked like it was gonna be four sweeps all in the conference finals. But you know, Boston came through. I just think it was a couple of things, Like I think it's a little bit of human nature with the heat. They haven't had this level of sustained success all season. They hadn't won five games in a row all season, and so you know, not that they sort of got comfortable, but a some of those shots were just not going
to fall. B You know, the Celtic's gonna play a little bit harder, defense, would get a little bit more aggressive, and if you're not getting the sort of other worldly game from Jimmy Butler, you can't make up for all that other stuff. And it's just going to look like another regular season game from them, and you know this is Celtics chuse that third quarter and just kind of went off. I think what you're afraid of if you're Miami is I mean, I hate to say this because
it sounds insulting. He's humbly one of the best basketball players in the world, but Jason Tatum kind of a front runner of a score, like he needs sort of somebody else to sort of tip the scales for him, or maybe just one or two shots to go in and then he can sort of get comfortable and really take over.
Right after that, you know, second.
Half that he had that game that he had in what he feels like was you know, a probably a bounce back. I think he's probably going to, potentially, especially at home, get into a rhythm, like you do not want to let him hit his first three. If you let him hit one or two of his first shots,
he might be going for fifty against you. And so if I'm Miami, like, I've got to change my game plan a little bit more aggressively towards stopping Jason Tatum, especially when you saw like I don't know if Jaalen Brown's fingers.
Are busted, but it doesn't seem like you can shoot right now. Right.
Yeah, we talk about the myth of having figured it out, and then the thing that happened in the last like game that you saw is how things are going to keep happening. And I think I was a little bit susceptible to that after that game four, I was like, you know, if any team's coming back from three to zero down, that it would be it would be a one or a two seed versus an eight seed that is has high like three point shooting variability and like
suddenly just gets hot like that. That makes sense to me. But I also think that with somebody who is a streaky shooter, like when that is your best player, the person that you least want them going against in a series would probably be Jimmy Butler because I feel like he will find a way to get inside your head and you know, would win that battle.
Well, Jimmy'll just get inside his own head. And that's what, like, I'm pretty sure on his phone probably just a loop of Grant Williams blocking him, yeah, right, or you know, it wasn't his game, But he doesn't seem in the slightest concern that he's got to go to Boston, like and when it he's done it. He's done it twice
this postseason. He did it in the regular season after coming off of an injury and telling everybody I'm coming Boston, and so I don't doubt that that's going to be there at least one more time in these three games. I'm pretty much predicting it's going to happen in this game five. But you're still going to get at least one more like Gabe Vincent explosion. You know, you're probably gonna get a five to three point game from Max Streuce.
It's just too many, like you mentioned the variables, like there are too many heat variables now in this postseason where there you just can't predict another three Boston Celtics wins, Like yeah, it could have Kevin Love hit four threes in a quarter all of a sudden, You're just like, geez, what am I gonna do? Like that just happens to be if they're playing well, especially a guy like Cody Martin, who now looks like the third best player you know in the series.
He could, you know, go either way.
And so I'm with you, like you just don't can't really predict, but I think based on this postseason, one of those is going to happen. And what we have seen is that Boston not good at home in the postseason and probably a little shaky in some post contests.
So it's just shot well.
Luckily for the heat, Game five is in Boston, so that that'll hold everybody.
Man, I think Lebron broke that place because in twenty twelve when he went in, because I remember, man.
That place used to be tough to play.
Now, like look at the numbers, like these people are just going in and just saying, hey, it's just another place and we can go in and win, even in the playoffs.
Right, Yeah, I feel like there's something with how talented this team is and the expectations they go into every season in playoffs with, like when they start performing poorly and it's not entirely clear why. You can just like kind of hear the pain, collective pain in the crowd, and then that has to be sensed by the players, Like that has to hurt a little bit.
You remember in like in that game six and twenty twelve, like the crowd after the game was over, they knew it was over, like they just started chanting for the Celtics to, you know, trying to give them that momentum going into Game seven. Now they don't even try that. They're just like, ah, whatever, you see this movie a million times?
Right, right? All right, let's.
Take a break real quick, and then we'll come back to talk a little bit about the Western Conference before talking about a potential finals matchup right after this, and we're back.
I got to talk about the Western Conference finals, Miles.
I will not let you make the same mistake I was just talking about. And look at the Lakers loss as a Lakers loss as much as it was a buzz saw running into a team that I think again, like, let's focus on who's winning and like what they're doing and how incredible it is.
I feel like the Nuggets are playing.
This might be recency biased, but I feel like they're playing as well as we've seen a team play in the last five years.
Like they are Wow.
I mean, the shot making is incredible, Like I don't know, the passing. I'm kind of blown away by the Nuggets.
So is your five years in your head? Does that include the last Kevin Durant year in Golden State?
I think it.
Since then.
Yeah, I was thinking it was like since the KD in Golden State, this is the best, the highest level we've seen a team play at and the Heat might go in and win in five.
But uh, well we're gonna get to that later.
Preview there, because I mean we already talked about how there's no chance for Boston, right, I'm just gonna keep saying that, so that well, historically I mean been being able to have enough options to make fun of me with. But man, I haven't really thought about that because like hmm, I mean it's.
Really well, they got to win the chip first.
They do, and then so I wonder, like I think of like the Bucks when when Giannie is rolling through the playoffs, like, yeah, I guess it wasn't the team playing that well, it was more Yannis kind of carrying them.
No, it has been. It has been pretty darn good.
Like it's funny how much better just keeps getting Like, yeah, you think he's been the same player, but he just every single year.
And I'm like for for all, Like you know, you see fans like take shots like his physical appearance or whatever, and like this guy, really the Lakers gonna do that I'm like, are you watching him play like?
He and I say, we say this all the time about Joker.
He plays uncle ball like it feels like you're playing with your uncle in the driveway, who doesn't have to try to embarrass you. He's like, oh you thought, oh behind my head, aha, dish it off over here. Oh you're trying to guard this. Watch me throw it over my head from like fifty feet away. It's just there's like an inevitability about it too, that even as a Laker fan, I was resigned to the fact that I'm like, up Jamal and I'm like, that's a three.
Yeah, then there it is. Uh.
It just felt like I could even as much as confident or as much positivity or optimism I held as a fan, even as a Laker fan, there was just something that was so objectively clear to me watching it was like, oh, no, we we don't play like this.
This is like, this is championship material.
And I'm as much as I felt good about, you know, taking down the previous champion, it just it's just night and day. There's just such a golf and quality at this point.
Let me ask you, because I'm not that weird talking about the Lakers. We're still technically talking about the winning team, but I wanted to ask you what how you thought Anthony Davis defended Jokis Because I mean, obviously they went to t Hachimura there for a long time and had Anthony Davis helping some. But I think in terms of one on one, it's never gonna matter who's actually defending him, right.
If you don't actually give help. Yeah, it did feel like that.
Uh, And I there are times where I felt it was definitely lacking, But again, I think it was just beyond all that because prior to that, Ad has been one of the most dominant defensive players. Like watching this playoff front, I was like wow. In my mind, I was like, oh, okay, I like this going like now we have something, But the reality smacked me right in my face and it was like, it turns out it was not enough.
It would have worked well if he wasn't one of the best passers we've seen in the history of the game, and with a bunch of shooters on his team, then it right.
I was just say, Aaron Gordon's your worst shooter, and I don't know's you're not going to give the Draymond treatment, like you're not gonna leave him in the corner because he's going to hit one added tude of those.
Yeah, yeah, And we learned the.
Two times when yo Kic, like he didn't win the the series by hitting threes, but the side arm three he hit over a d where he just like kind of cranked it from the side and it was nothing but net. And then like that running backwards one foot three. That was was that game three or four?
I forget.
Absolute dagger And then he pulled a coin out from behind.
A d's ear.
Yeah, exactly that was.
He made him animal, Yeah, made animal, like what birthday son shot clock at four?
Yoka has to put it up, pulling away, puts it up, knocks downs.
Was on the line of water shut.
So the answer is essentially, you've got to outscore them, right like it. If you're not going to have if they're going to be surrounded, surrounding Yokic with shooters and just playmakers like Bruce Brown's a good playmaker obviously Murray, then you're going to have to outscore them. And in doing that, you're probably gonna have to try to tire Jokic or the whole team right and to make sloppy mistakes.
And this is where I see potential. And I don't know if we want to get into a potential matchup with Miami. So if we want to keep talking about these these Nuggets, because.
I mean, I think we've made our point. The Nuggets are the team to talk. Although again, I know many people love to they love to see the vanquished Lakers, which I get that's just the the culture of the NBA fandom and stuff like that. But yeah, we can all agree that they were fantastic and that's they They deserve their flowers.
And you don't want to talk about the possibility of Lebron retiring right Like, you're just we're just going to skip right past that.
I mean, to me personally, I look, I like, I like the takes I've seen on Twitter.
Why don't you go to usc Man he'll play with Ron either for a year?
Four years of eligibility.
I mean's what is he made?
Like two three hundred million in image, image and likeness so far right right right?
But no, I mean I think when I saw that, I was like, no way, Like, surely that can't be. But at times, I like I've said to Jack and like Jabari, like on our tech starts watching the game, I'm like, he's looking hurt. He's looking like human, which is, you know, something we're not used to seeing. So that's definitely jarring. And maybe I'm avoiding it because like I just didn't want to accept seeing that. But I mean,
he's he's he's come this far. But yeah, however he wants to end it, He's gonna end it.
Yeah.
I mean he says in one breath that he's like still ninety five or top ninety fifth percentile or whatever. That phrasing is better than ninety five percent of the players in the league. And then you know, says, maybe I want to retire to that guard. He's gonna have the most elaborate farewell tour ever.
Yeah. Oh, he's gonna have everything announced ever. He will the way. Yeah, he will not go quiet into that good night of retirement. We definitely know that.
The one thing I will say about the Nuggets though, in terms of I don't think they can really beat themselves, but do you think Jamal Murray can still have one or two of those like shooting them out of a game type of situations, because he does seem to always want to shoot his way out of a slum rather.
Than just you know, let somebody else get a couple of looks.
Yeah, I mean yeah, they are to a lesser degree than the Celtics.
They are pretty three point dependent.
At least he is as a as a scorer, so I mean if he if he's off, and he is a streaky player, but it just yeah, all right, first crack of doubt in the Nuggets.
I'm starting to see it.
The only issue is that you're playing half the games in Denver, and so the idea of gassing them like no, right, and you're gonna be guessed.
I would say, like, I maybe I didn't watch as closely as I thought I was watching, but like I feel like you can work yo Kicchen the pick and rolls a lot more like I think you can force a lot of him defending, and like, look, Jimmy Butler, and I've been wondering why he does this because it drives me nuts, Like thinking back even to last season or whenever they play the Sixers, he'll be, you know, switched on to Joel and Beatle switch on to him, and that's the dude.
He decides to attack him like why why are.
Yeah, I think the biggest Robert Williams yesterday, But he's been.
Doing that to Robert Williams the whole series, and I'm wondering why.
And I don't think that he's looking ahead clearly.
But if I look ahead, I'm like, if that dude's taking Robert Williams whenever he wants, not whenever he wants, but on occasion, he's gonna hunt Yokic down every time and make it. Now if if that's the nugget, if the Nuggets want to just you know, hedge and recover do whatever else, then that might be a nightmare for them too, because Jokic doesn't really have great foot speed. I think they can be gotten with execution, like offensive execution.
And that's why I thought Lebron, because he had a d as that weapon, would be able to out execute them. It's just, you know, they just Nuggets had too much firepower. I do think that Miami, with a lot of these things that they do, the deflections, it's not going to make all these passes is simple, you know, the charges that you know, these driving kicks, you know, you might just run into Kyle Lowry and there goes that possession.
So I think they can be bothered enough because again, looking at that Lakers.
Team, what was that roster? By the end?
Was it all the like the defensive was it? Vanderbilt wasn't playing right, I mean, unless you're saying Hachi Mura is like that crazy defensive difference maker. Like I mean, by the end, you're playing D'Angelo Russell, Lonnie Walker, and Tristan Thompson off your bench. So I don't know if that was the same caliber of defensive team that the Heat's giving you right now in the playoffs.
So and that's even with Anthony Davis.
So I mean, I think I think there's a lot to be sort of gained from a coaching advantage. No offense to Michael Malone, but a coaching advantage and a sort of toughness and effort advantage because like, no offense, but MPG isn't you know, giving you all the feisty defensive effort, like unless he's hitting eight threes in a row.
So I think the.
Heat would still have something that Denver hasn't really seen yet.
Yeah, I think there's got something that everybody hasn't really seen. Is what we're learning. Man, somebody is getting rich off of betting on the heat. Somebody saw this coming into the playoffs and if I was, it.
Better, like I would just do that to all my preseason predictions.
I'll imagine where I'd be. Yeah, yeah, big swings. Yeah I was praying, but still right right.
I mean, both teams kind of feel like teams of inevitability at this point, which is what makes for a good finals, like Miami just being able to turn it up when they want. Denver has just looked like the best team all season, and then the playoffs came around and they looked better with each round. I feel like, so that makes for an amazing finals. I'm super excited to see. I don't have a feel about the one I didn't have a feel about.
I might just have.
Denver blindness because I didn't have a feel about Denver Lakers. I had a feel about Miami Celtics. I don't really have a feel about Miami Denver at this point.
I've seen it.
I've seen Miami Denver in the regular season and it was.
Pretty much Denver.
It's ugly for Miami, and but you know, after these three rounds, it's like you throw all that out the window. Anyway, because you know, how seriously did they really take preparation for that one game?
Yeah right, Yeah, it's unstoppable for us versus immovable object, which is always always a good, good battle for any sports.
Yeah.
Also, it does feel like playoff experience and having been there has been advantageous recently. So I feel like that that gives Miami a bit of an advantage.
Well, guy that never really gets talked about but means so much is Bam out of bioh like him going from you know Deepoi what second place Brook Lopez second or third and having to figure out a way and then you know Mitchell Robinson who dominated the calves big men, he'd had to find a way to make sure that he didn't you know, do too much while again still doing everything on the defensive end of the floor, switching
on the perimeter, rebounding, et cetera. He picked up the rebounding game, I think the Clint Capella game in the play and embarrassed him a little bit. And he just is rebounding has gotten significantly better. And I wish I was saying this before Game four because he kind of, you know, didn't perform as well in Game four but he seemed to have figured out, you know, let me put the all in effort and I'm not going to concern myself too much with everybody telling me I need
to score. Of course I'm gonna try, but it's not going to be my primary focus. And it seems to have working well for him. And then you just got to picture him and you think, all right, he's doing it way better than he was last year against the Celtics, and and you know those two guys are still there, Horford and Williams.
And then he doesn't get a break.
He's gonna get yo kids in the next round and be completely helpless when he's one on one in the post. And it's not even gonna be an option. Really, it's for him to stay one on one. And so I don't it's it's a nightmare for him. Like, I have no idea how he is going to last through, you know, however many games playing heavy minutes, because I think he's just going to be exhausted.
Yeah, gas, And I mean that's well.
Announced this right there. He's going to be tired.
I mean when I'm watching these guys, I'm like they're running up and down the floor, so much.
They're not tired.
They're not tired. That's my that's my take. I mean the other like the Heat have really used the zone.
Well uh, and I feel like the Nuggets feel zone proof. But then again, I mean the Celtics seemed like they should have been zone proof a little bit.
I didn't go back and watch those games, and I'm pretty sure I remember the Heat working. They're trying that zone against Jokic and it not.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, it's hard because he's like algorithmically always making the right decision with the ball.
And everybody around him already naturally cuts and plays off of him because they've been doing it since, you know, since they played with him, and so doing it against his own is easier. You've got stationary people there, so for the most part. Yeah, oh, it's like practice cones.
Cool.
All right, thanks, all right, let's take a quick break. We'll come back and is he's going to be in the hot seat for the rapid fire round of questions after this.
And we're back busy.
I know you've been on TV, you've done so many podcasts, so much media. This what you're about to experience is actually the fastest segment in media.
History, any format.
Even ones that have not been created yet.
Yes, yeah, yeah, but here toofore and so forth. If you had a hat on your head, it would be spinning around.
Uh that's how fast this is.
So Miles and I are going to be throwing questions at you.
Your job is to just give us your answer.
Quep us on track, because we're not as fast as the segment is sometimes.
So if we start dragging on with our answers like you got the media professionalism, be like, hey, guys, come on, keep this going.
This this is the rapid fire round of question.
You're wildly unprofessional, both participant and the referee.
Yeah, exactly, That's what makes this so unique. So again, hit you with the question, chest, pass it right back. Quick responses, no thinking you ready?
Oh wait, I thought too much. Yes, I'm ready. There we go, Bryan start the clock. Okay, Jack, are you gonna go first?
Or oh I'd love for you to go first? Miles?
Okay, here we go.
Is he what is your favorite NBA city to visit? And what is your must have meal in that city?
Oh?
Man?
Uh, probably San Francisco?
And must you know what restaurant.
The best?
What's your favorite?
What's off to San Francisco, go to go to Proger and forget.
I forget the name of the rest.
I think it's something simple as like Mama's or or something kitchen or bakery or something.
But it's like this breakfast place that people.
Stand outside and line for and so I just love breakfast and I like, you know, yeah, yeah.
What's the way? What's the what? What what makes it?
Like?
What are you getting at the really well made breakfast food? Okay, okay, I love breakfast food.
I love Birds bagels in l A Miles.
If you had that, I've got Courage bagels.
Yeah, yeah, I just had that for the first time this weekend. I ate like five bagels at birthday party. I was like boxing the kids out.
I was like no, They're like, oh.
No, all right?
Is he?
First of all? You got to keep us more on track than that.
Don't not the best with these the speed of these quest like I try to think about it and maybe not have something on top.
Of my head, but I'll try harder.
All right, We're talking teams that we want to cover in the off season. You know that that people might not be paying attention to, but just like previewing them I think so far we've discussed the Spurs, shoe in.
Okay, see shoe in.
What's a team that you're expecting is going to be interesting to watch next season that you know, people.
Might not have their eye on Orlando Magic.
Orlando Magic be passing the ball to you.
I don't know. Wow, what is it about Orlando? Man? This is the lowest game ever.
No.
Well, first of all, I really hope they drafted Sar Thompson because I think he's going to be really good, as will his twin brother Amen Thompson. But in today's NBA front court, maybe two through four combo of Halo, Bang Caro, Franz, Wagner and Sar Thompson would be absolutely like it's It would be great for somebody like er exposed to, for example, so many options, so many things to do with that trio. They have everything except Ben Caro probably not as great as shooter Thompson going to
be a good enough shooter. He's actually really good shooting the ball right now, and everything else that they can do, and their approach to the game, Like, I think that's going to be a really fun group. And even somebody like Markel Foltz who's not really required to do as much. He's having a lot of fun over there, and if you give him more talent around him, he's going to be, you know, even better.
He's fun to watch.
And so I think Orlando, And it's not just a Florida bias because I'm not a huge fan of Florida right now, Okay, yeah.
As a Sixers fan, I've never heard of this Mark hell Foltz a little bit you're talking about, but he sounds like.
I know not of this man. By the way, the restaurant or his shooting is on Washington Square. That's there, It is there, it is. That's what I love that.
Sorry, we got to keep this second. I'm it's all good, It's all good. I gotta ask you this question.
Now.
You can go back and tend any single playoff game in NBA history, any game.
Which game are you choosing? Do I know what's gonna happen?
Like?
Do I know the result?
It's a great philosophical question. Do we my memory? What?
Wow?
Oh yes, you don't know.
Super producer Jabari's coming through saying, yes, you are a Biff Tanner in this scenario.
You got you know, the Sports.
Almanac I'm gonna go ahead and say Kobe's eighty one, especially now, Uh you know, I remember where I was, and I do not do that very often because man, my memory is terrible long term. But I was at hard Rock Hotel and casino when I got a text.
I forget who the text was from.
See, somebody sent me a message and said Kobe has seventy and.
I said it was a fact, and I just stopped.
Everything I was doing and just went to the middle bar and yeah, TBS that had the NBA TV on, and it wasn't the most entered taining of finishes, but I know if I was there, I think I would have had just a lot of fun watching that, because I mean, you know, it's that, and it's it's will and so.
Yeah, I think that's probably my answer.
There are very few like flashbulb moments of like any any pop culture in my lifetime, but Kobe getting eighty one, Like, I remember where I was when I found out that game was happening, and like running to the TV and Lebron going off against Detroit for that first time when it was like, oh, okay, so he is right. I know that kids like to say that now that he
really is him all right? Is there a single NBA player you would take right now over the chance of taking Wembayama with the first pick this summer?
I would say, I don't know how many people you've asked this question, but I would say most people would lean toward taking.
The short thing right. So if I could switch that for.
I mean, who is the youngest stuff and coming star, I probably don't want to get Jason Tatum right If I could trade it right now for da Kola Jokic, is that an option?
Yeah, Jokic is an option. And I feel like we haven't had anybody heading home the playoffs. We hadn't had anybody, say Jokic, and I feel like he has played his way into that seems like the right answer, or at least a completely valid answer.
At this point. It's like, oh, yeah, that's yeah, probably makes sense right.
Because I mean, every for everybody that thinks though he's definitely gonna get hurt if his.
Body type, like you don't think the people.
Around him wo have been like nurturing him and taking care of him and wanting him to be this next great thing have not considered that possibility that maybe they should train him properly so that he doesn't get hurt, or it's theirs technology to sort of predict these types of things and knowing what to train, Like I think more than ever now you can't really make that argument, Like you can't really make that prediction anymore, because even if he does have some sort of like nobody thinks
chet Homegrid's done right, He's just oh, all right, early first year, got a bad, unlucky injury, whatever, he'll be fine. I don't think you can predict injury with him. And you know, in the NBA, with the way it protects its offensive players, now, like what are you going to do against him if he rises up from distance, Like you have to get entirely out of his way unless you can block that shot. Yeah, And so I think he just provides too many possibilities and we've seen too
much of an evolution of the game, like Yannest. You know, obviously, if I think if we redraft, he's number one in that season in twenty thirteen.
But I think even if we don't know how good he.
Can be, I think just his body type and his personality probably from an interview, gets him drafted in the top fifteen this year, you know, right, Yeah, I don't think anybody's passing up that possibility just because it's it's so unique, and you know, even with a guy like Jokic, you just don't know.
He could get hurt anytime too.
Yeah.
People talk about like his size and health and they're like, you know, look what happened to like Ralph Sampson and Samboui and like guys who are over seven foot seven foot two. I think, but those guys played in penny loafers like that that few people realize that's what you played in back then. It was penny loafers or tap shoes. That's where the technology was at the time. So there's not there's not much.
You can do. It's a different, different game. That's a very good point.
Is he your South Florida native? I got to ask you rank these three Miami musicians from number one to number three. DJ Khaled, Gloria Stefon.
Pitbull, oh man, okay, just by my taste.
Yeah, I'm going to see Gloria Stephan third, and you know she's been I've spoken to Gloria and her husband.
Very nice. People love them.
Fixtures in the city made amazing music I've just heard.
It my entire life.
Sokay, second has to be pitfull.
Now.
Uh, he is such a great story. But I just like DJ Kaled's music better. And Dj Kaled also was in my podcast four Years of Heat.
Yeah there you go.
Uh, no connection, why I'm picking him right right right?
I mean, come on, like the banger is that he's made, whether producing or even wrapping on him, just you can listen to him anytimes.
Okay.
Also, I think we have to add a cool wrench pizza dia to the DJ Khaled the Papa John's Pizza diaol.
My bad. But yeah, that that's another hit from another one.
All right.
And finally the question we ask all our guests, Jack or Miles a refresher memory.
I'm Jack.
I was trying to think of who I like better Mile Good.
Usually people are like, oh, I can't pick, but I like that you're telling us so you like better? Cool.
Yeah, I'm gonna say, Miles, I feel like you need love right now because his Lakers just got swell.
That's cool. I should have mentioned I'm a Sixers fan, but you did already.
You did already, you did already.
Let me have that.
That makes my big way more solid.
All right, all right, we're fine.
We're fine in Philly. We're fine. Thank you so much. Is what a pleasure having you up until? Yes, Yeah, tell us about the podcast real quick.
Yeah, four years of here that takes you through, uh, the four years that Lebron came here and blessed this town and turned them into a legitimate sports town and won a couple of championships. There's a lot of good stuff in there. It does not even just for Heat fans like Maverick stuff spurs stuff full right, pacers. It's all great. It's been so much fun going through it all and thinking back, like on how just pure of a competition that was, and how much people love that era.
It's been a tough fun and it's going to be a fun listen, So check it out. We're dropping an episode every week. This Tuesday was our first episode. The next one will be next Tuesday. There'll be a couple of weeks where there's two episodes dropped. But it comes out at the same time as the ten year anniversary of Ray Allen's shot where you know he saved the Heat season in twenty thirteen, and.
You've got new interviews right with Ray and.
With a bunch of guys Shane Battier, Mario Chalmers, Joe Kim, Noah, Brendan Haywood, Matt Bonner, Boris Dia joined me from France. It's been a lot of Rachel Nichols, Dan Levittard, a lot of great J.
Khalid is in there every episode. So yeah, if you liked.
The last dance, but we're like, where's DJ Khaled during this?
You liked the last dance, you didn't like all the moving pictures on your team?
This is this is the mission?
Where else can people find you and follow you and all that kind of stuff?
And so the social is Gutierra's on Twitter, mister is Gutierras on Instagram, And yeah, you've seen me on ESPN, Around the Horn, Debatable, all those shows.
Catch my work on.
ESPN dot com, CJ mcollum podcast whenever that comes back around ESPN daily at the moment, who knows how long I'm going to be doing that for maybe a long time.
So yeah, you coun probably find me anywhere.
Cool we go, all right, well you can find us at mad Boosti's on Twitter, b sdi ees and man, we got to give a shout out to our Boosties listeners of the week once again, Aaron McCarthy wanted to make sure to thank me for acknowledging the lebron aging talk being disturbing as a thirty eight year old person who graduated high school in the year two thousand and three, tired of hearing people like he's thirty eight.
Yeah, that's about the forty five year old that I am in complete agreement with you.
Yeah, come on with baby, let that like, what are you talking about? Let him live?
And also shout out to Zeitgeist listener the Real Mad Max for giving the show listen for the first time due to the Webbin Yama conversation. So we always appreciate the love from the other listeners as well.
Uh.
Until next time, I'll be Miles, that will be Jack.
Oh here, but you did alright o.
This We'll nail it this time. Until next time, I'll be no, I'm not hold on, let me do it, Okay, I'll.
Be Miles and I'll be Jack. Yes, and this is ma boot booties.
All right, thank you, I'll see next week later. Nailed it. M