The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - NBA Mailbag: What Adjustments Do The Mavs Need To Make?

Episode Date: June 9, 2024

Jason Timpf answers listener questions during an NBA Mailbag segment. He dives into adjustments the Mavericks need to make in Game 2 against the Celtics, how Dan Hurley would fit with the Lakers, offseason needs for the Nuggets and more! 3:00 - Celtics owning the lower 1/3rd of the court 6:00 - LeBron not involved in coaching search, could he leave? 11:00 - Best 3rd, 4th 5th option: 2024 Celtics or 2017 Warriors? 13:00 - The sith grand plan 19:00 - Celtics the 2025 favorites if they win Finals? 23:00 - Could Celtics become a dynasty 25:00 - How will Hurley’s scheme translate to Lakers 26:30 - Why leave real estate? 29:00 - Jason’s 2nd favorite player after LeBron? 34:00 - Will there be more Celtics blow outs? 35:30 - What moves should Denver make? 37:00 - What guitars does Jason have? (Timestamps may vary based on advertisements.) #Volume #HerdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Another podcast from some SNL, late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter.

Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On The Look Back at it podcast. From 1979, that was a big moment for me. 84 was big to me.

I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick a year, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. With our friends, fellow comedians, and favorite authors. Like Mark Lamont Hill on the 80s. 84 was a wild year. It was a wild year. I don't think there's a more important year for black people.

Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me, Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, my basketball and college football journey, or my career in sports media. Well, now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifers Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard,

but celebrated. So let's get to it. Listen to the Clifford show on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. The Volume. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight here at The Volume.

I hope all you guys are having a great weekend. Our cadence during the NBA Finals is going to be, obviously, the live shows on the night of film session, the second day. That third day, we're either going to do an interview or we're going to do a mailbag. So like we've got Sam Vassini coming on on Monday next week.

That'll actually air on Tuesday, but it'll be our kind of like interview-based reaction to the first two games of the series. For game one, though, we're doing a mailbag. So I've got a mailbag. I sent out a tweet earlier today. We had 70-something questions. I appreciate all of you guys for participating. Obviously, we can't get to all of them.

We're going to get to as many as we can. We're going to be bouncing all throughout the NBA finals around the league and some off-court stuff in this mailbag. You guys know the drill before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel. so you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason LT. So you guys don't miss show announcements. Don't forget about our podcast feed

wherever you get your podcast under Hoops Tonight. And then keep dropping mailbag questions in the YouTube comments so we can keep hitting them throughout the rest of the summer. All right, let's talk some basketball. There's no. Oops tonight. Mailbag. First question.

What's the concern level? If you're Dallas, that Boston completely owned the lower third court of, lower third of the court defensively. 23 for 47, 49% in the paint, took away their lobs by nullifying the 1-5 pick-and-roll, only got three-corner three-point attempts, went one-for-three by staying home and trusting defenders in space. So yeah, that was my major concern coming into this series, just how different Dallas's pick-and-roll attack was going to look in this series.

By virtue of an adjustment that, honestly, I was surprised Minnesota didn't try. I'm surprised Minnesota didn't try putting Jaden McDaniels onto Gafford or lively and just have Gobert Guard at Derek Jones or PJ Washington to try to disrupt the spacing of Dallas in pick and roll. Put it simply, if you allow Dallas to screen with their center, then they have traditional four-out spacing. Shooter in the corner, shooter in the corner, shooter on the opposite wing, screen.

Both guys are rolling hard to the bad, or one's driving, one's rolling to the basket, right? So the paint is effectively empty with two guys kind of attacking the rim, right? As soon as you switch that matchup to where they have to bring the center into the ball screen, they have to use a wing instead of their center. Now the spacing gets all janked up, right? Because now it's corner, corner. But instead of this wing being occupied by a shooter, it's vacant.

That guy's setting the screen. And then the center is sitting in the dunker spot with Tatum on him with his ass parked right underneath the rim. And so it just screws up the spacing of everything. And then PJ Washington or Derek Jones Jr. has the, predicament of like either rolling into all that traffic, even though they're not great vertical spacers, or popping into that vacancy above the break where they're not very good above the break, three-point shooters. And so that problem is not going away. We talked about some specific things in our film session yesterday, one trying to set more RAM screens. So basically having Derek Jones or

PJ Washington, instead of screening for Luca, just sprint down and screen Tatum as hard as you can. and then maybe Tatum will forfeit a switch there so that when lively or Gafford runs up, you just have to have lively sprint up into the screen, which will probably bring poor Zingis with them if Tatum switches. Then you have to have whoever screen Tatum quickly relocate back out to the wing so that they have the space necessary to operate. That's one thing they can do, looking to attack less out of ball screens and more out of the post or an ISO,

but not targeting Horford, who switched incredibly well in game one, but maybe attacking the smaller guards instead. That's an angle that they can look to go through. Just in general, they've got to move with a lot more pace. I thought the ball pressure from Jalen Brown got them into a lot of late clock situations as well. But here's the thing. None of those are clean, easy solutions, right? Like it's going to be hard to set a pin down on Tatum.

He might just fight through it and then follow lively or Gafford up into the screen, right? Like it's not going to be easy. There's not an easy solution here. This is kind of a tough matchup. because of Tatum's size, it's a tough matchup for Dallas in this sense. So I don't see that problem going away entirely, but Dallas certainly can do a better job. But Boston dominating the lower third of the court defensively is a big part of just what their advantages are in this series, and it may not go away entirely.

Does LeBron not being involved in the Lakers coaching decision and them looking to go with a development coach in Hurley, more so point to LeBron being open to leaving L.A. this offseason or retiring soon in your office? I don't see that as what's happening here. I think LeBron's going to stay, and I think he'll play at least two more seasons. I think the Dan Hurley piece actually represents the best of both worlds here. Because in the post-Lebron phase, you've got a coach that's excellent with development and scouting in development.

You've got a coach that will instill a culture that will last for years after LeBron James has gone. But also, I actually think he's a great tactician for this particular roster. He, with Yukon, had a lot of success generating space with a team that had multiple non-shooters on the floor specifically through off-ball action. So think of it like this. When you're running ball screens like Dallas does, where you have Luca having a center set of pick and you got shooters in the corners and a shooter on the opposite wing, let's think more in the Minnesota framework where the floor is more spaced.

When that's the case, help defense is pretty standard, right? like the guy in the opposite corner is going to kind of try to find a sweet spot in between the like the block in the corner where you can help but also rotate the guy on the opposite wing is going to come pretty close to the nail same thing on the strong side corner like the drop coverage big is going to run a drop like the spacing is pretty standard and you could really load up on the ball right like that's one of the downsides of four out one in offenses there's not a lot of ball and player movement right but when you run action off the ball so let's imagine let's imagine the for instance. If you have LeBron James and Anthony Davis running a ball screen on the right side of the floor and you have guys just standing like wing, wing, a little bit further on the wing corner, those guys

all can sink into the lane and they can have their kind of attention geared up on the ball screen where they can help. One of the things that Dan Hurley's great at is keeping help defenders occupied with action. So if you have those three guys on the weak side running like a double wide pin down

where the first guy curls around the first screen and then the second guy curls around the second screen and they're just like doing shit on the opposite side of the court. Those three help defenders, now they're mental, their focus is geared towards that action. And so they have a decision to make. They can either gear up on the action and then not help on the ball screen. Now LeBron and AD are cooking or they can favor the ball screen and you could leave an opening for a shooter on the weak side because you're not, or a cutter on the weak side because you're not paying attention to the action. Dan Hurley is big on ball and player movement and making sure that, especially when you've got a team like the Lakers

that's going to have Anthony Davis who can't shoot and Jared Vanderbilt who can't shoot, because Jared Vanderbilt, if he's healthy next year, is probably going to start at small forward. So, like, with that type of configuration, like, you're going to need ball and player movement to maintain space, to maintain your threats offensively. And I think Dan Hurley is a perfect fit for that. So, like, I like his schematic approach to maximize this Laker Ross. while also being the future of the franchise in the sense that he can scout and develop young players and also establish a culture that lingers long after LeBron has gone.

I think it's a perfect fit, and I'm very hopeful that they can get a deal done. What can Dallas do defensively to mitigate being in so many help rotation situations leading to open Boston threes? Based on my observations, I think it's worth considering not pressuring the ball handler so far out. This was a really good take. When I watched the film, it was something I noticed, but I didn't actually put in my film session last night. but there were several possessions where Dallas players were picking up ball pressure close to half court and then they get beat and then they're in rotation before they even get a chance to set their defense. And so that's a good adjustment like playing a more passive defense where you're just working on containing the ball, right?

Like in general, with Boston, if you play off of them, they have a tendency to settle on some pull-up threes. Now you've got to be careful because guys like Tatum and Brown are good at seeing a defender on their heels, giving space and driving at them at one angle and then crossing over or getting into their body and spinning off. So sometimes being on your heels can work to your detriment if you're not good at actually absorbing contact and staying in front. But in general, there's not really a lot in terms of scheme that you can do differently. You just have to do a better job. Guys just like when it comes to Boston driving, kicking from a spaced out floor, the job is simple. You have to contain the basketball.

If you contain the basketball, you prevent help defense from being engaged. If you prevent help defense from being engaged, you prevent spot-up opportunities on the weak side, which are going to be more efficient than a loaded-up ISO. You need to basically take it so that the spot-up attempts go down and the ISO attempts go up. And the more you do that, the better chance you give yourself to get stops against the Boston Celtics. This is an interesting one. What is a better set of third, fourth, and fifth options? The 2024 Celtics with Drew Holiday, Derek White, and Christops Porzingis, or the 2017

Warriors with Clay Thompson, Draymond Green, and Andre Agueda. Really interesting question, but I think it's the 2017 Warriors. Clay Thompson was at this point. The second best shooter in the league is the second best shooter of all time, and he also was an elite perimeter defender. Unfortunately, he hasn't gotten the recognition he deserves for it over the course of his career, but he's an elite perimeter defender. Draymond Green is the second best defensive player of this era, in my opinion,

obviously, and then he's a guy that keeps their offense flowing with his ability to function as like a dribble handoff fulcrum in their five-out offense. And then Andre Godala is probably the second best perimeter defender of the era behind Kauai Leonard. Drew Holliday, Derek White, and Christop Sporzingos are really good players. I don't think they're on that level, though. And again, there's no shame in that the 2017 Warriors, in my opinion, are the greatest basketball team ever assembled in the history of the NBA. Here we go. Non-N-NBA related, but can you explain? the Sith grand plan again from Star Wars. For some reason, I started to get so interested in

Star Wars lore. You know me, a geeky jason, Star Wars. I'm like, yes, let's do this. First of all, the Ackleite premiere came out, the first two episodes. It was awesome. My buddy Luke and I did a full reaction to it. That's on my other podcast fee. That's the Two Suns podcast. You can find that on YouTube just under their Two Suns podcast, have a full reaction to the first two episodes of the Acolyte will also have a reaction, we'll also have a reaction to episode three coming out about, pretty late on two, is it Tuesday? Yeah, I think it's Tuesday night. So keep an eye on the feeds on Tuesday night as well. I have another one. But hop over to that feed, subscribe. I'd really appreciate it. Check out some of the Star Wars content. Sith grand plant, pretty simple. So the Sith for

thousands of years were many. They were numerous, right? And they are, the, the Sith are very inwardly focused and selfish, so they would just betray each other. Like, anytime a powerful Sith would rise, multiple lesser Sith would team up and they would overthrow him. Whereas with the Jedi, they always worked in concert with each other. They were selfless. They were all in on the larger goal. And so anytime there'd be a major galactic conflict, the Sith would try to attack and they would fail. Sometimes they get close, but they would fail, and they'd fail the same way every time. They'd splinter and they'd fall apart, whereas the Jedi would come together.

And so Darth Bain, a thousand years before the Phantom Menace, identified this problem and realized that that was a weakness in the Sith order. So he actually manipulated and killed all of the Sith. And so it was just him and his apprentice. He instituted what's called the Rule of Two, where there'd be one Sith who would embody the power, and then a second Sith who would crave the power and then eventually take it from him.

From there, he understood they'll never beat the Jedi through force of arms because the Jedi will always come together. So they had to find a different way to beat the Jedi and overthrow the Republic, right? And so the person who first referred to it as the grand plan was Darth Plagueis, but it actually initiated with Darth Bain and the idea was you're going to work underneath the surface.

You're going to work with Sutterfuge and cunning and you're going to try to sabotage from the shadows the Republic, right? And so there was a plan. that took shape over the course of a thousand years through accumulation of resources and political influence and all these different things. And basically, Plagueis and Palpatine executed the final phase of the grand plan. But essentially from the way, if you've ever read the book, Darth Plagueis, I highly recommend it. But in the book, Darth Plague is he actually breaks down how essentially the thought process was he wanted to foster division between the inner core worlds

and the outer rim worlds and basically make it so that the inner the the core worlds were prospering while the outer core worlds were suffering through uh through a lot of hardship right and from there he wanted to basically force the galaxy to turn on itself so that it would go to war and then he used the clones as the vehicle in the war to kill all of the Jedi through order 66 right like Plague is actually hatched to that entire plan. Palpatine just executed it. And like, it's really, like, in my opinion, it's just like really good world building and lore.

And I'm obviously a huge Star Wars nerd. So like I apologize for the people in this, uh, who are listening to this episode who aren't big Star Wars nerds. But that's like a little short, uh, quick synopsis of what the Sith grand plan is. Uh, but again, I do talk a ton of that shit on my, uh, two sons podcast with my buddy Luke. So hop over there and check that out. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged.

It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard Radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what I'm saying. Yep, that's me, Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media.

Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated.

One week I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment, and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast, it's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So, if you've ever supported me or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need to be. Listen to the Clifford Show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok.

Podcast Network on TikTok. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tapped Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to do with Little Kim? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast. I'm Sam Jek. And I'm Alex English.

Each episode, we pick it here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. Including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill, waxing all about crack in the 80s. 84 is big to me, not just because of crack. I'm down to talk about crack on day, but just so y'all know. I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed crack. So I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now. Thank you for finishing that sentence.

I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Really? Yeah. For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast. or wherever you get your podcasts. Assuming Boston can finally get over the hump, do they go into next season as the favorites?

Or does a team out west like Minnesota or Denver get the nod because of the matchup? So I actually only viewed two teams on the top tier going into the postseason, Boston and Denver. Denver was the only team that I, like, Minnesota was an interesting one matchup-wise because of their, a couple things with Minnesota that I really liked

for a matchup for Boston. Really good defense. that I thought could cause some issues for Boston. And also, Boston can struggle to protect the rim sometimes. Now, with Porzingis and Gobert, that might have been an issue. And I don't know who I would have picked between Minnesota and Boston. I would have needed to prep. I don't know.

But the only team I would have actually, like, certainly picked over Boston was Denver. And they lost to a tough matchup in the Western Conference. So the next question is, what will the top tier look like next season? Because I don't necessarily view Dallas on that tier. What will that tier look like next season? I think Boston is in that tier again. I think Denver's in that tier again. Maybe Dallas, maybe Minnesota.

Oklahoma City, I think, is a team you look at getting back into that tier. Memphis could be really interesting. We'll see when we get into next season how all the teams shape up. But to me, Boston is going to be on that top tier again until that starting lineup gets broken up. I just, I don't think they're like head and shoulders above everybody. I think they are beatable. They're just a really bad. matchup for Dallas, which is something that I've been talking about over the course of all of our

prep. And there are teams out west that do match up more favorably with Boston. So as is always the case, what did I say to Denver fans at the beginning of the season? You guys, I'm picking you as the favorite, right? But it's more likely than not that you lose because that's just what NBA history tells us, right? And then I got to a point where I was more optimistic with Denver, right? Remember I said, I expect them to win unless they get an injury to their starting five. Well, Jamal Murray got injured and played like shit, and that ended up being something that brought their ceiling down enough, just enough for them to blow a 20-point lead in game seven against Minnesota, right?

So, like, again, I tend to think this is pretty even at the top among a handful of teams. I don't know who that handful of teams is going to be at the start of next season, but Boston will definitely be there. Denver will definitely be there. Out of Trey, Dezante, Cade, Lamello, and Simons, who would be the best fit on the Spurs? I actually want them to go up to Darius Garland.

I think he'd be a perfect fit alongside Victor Wembenyama in terms of timeline, in terms of a pick and roll threat that can both score and pass kind of an opportunity. I think you can get him at a discount too. I think the spurs can afford to overpay him for a few years. I think Darius Garland is the guy that I would go after. What's the reason you had for that poll between Jason Tatum and AD? So I put a poll, I said, who's a better basketball player, Jason Tatum or AD? And it went crazy viral. and like there were thousands and thousands of votes,

and it was really close. I think Tatum finished at like 5248 as the better player. And all it was is like whenever I have an opportunity to present a poll that I think will be close to 50-50, I'll send it out just because I think that's fun. But like the reasoning is pretty simple. I think Jason Tatum and AD are very close to each other. I think they're on a similar tier as players.

Now they're very different, right? Like Tatum's a better offensive player, AD is a better defensive player. Tatum is a little more consistent. AD is a little more volatile, but AD's ceiling is higher, Tatum's ceiling is lower, right? So, like, there's all these, like, differences between them, but I view them as more or less on the same tier in the sense that they're clearly not as good as the guys at the top of the league, but I think both of them could be the best player on a championship team if they're surrounded with enough talent. And so that was kind of my thought process behind putting them

on the same level. But to be clear, like, I don't think either of them are at the top of the league. I just wanted to kind of give an opportunity to compare the two of them. Early in the season, and to start the playoffs, you had the opinion that Denver could be the next dynasty in the NBA. With a possible Celtics title and the team staying together for at least next year, how do you feel about the Celtics dynasty or Boston, Denver in the coming years? Great show. I absolutely think if the Celtics win this year, they could, a dynasty is a loaded word because like how many teams have really been dynasties in NBA history. Like we're talking about the Warriors, the Spurs, you know, the, the, the, the, the

Lakers in the early 2000s, the Bulls, like there's just not in a lot of examples of them, right? I do think a lot of people writing off Denver, and I think that's stupid. I think Denver's going to be right back in the mix at the top of the league next season. I think Boston will be right in the mix at the top of the league next season. So like, it's very possible that over this four or five year span, we get two Denver titles, two Boston titles. Like, that's all on the table. I just don't think with how talented the league is. I don't think anybody's going to be running like three, four in a row. Are we going to see teams lean more towards five out offense in the future. I think so. I think you're seeing some of the limitations of four-out with Dallas

in this series, just in the sense that one simple personnel adjustment has, like, rendered their offense as severely limited. So, like, I think ball and player movement is a great counter to any defensive approach. And in general, like, it just, it opens the door for better matchups. Like, if you want to prevent Tatum ending up in one place or Porzingis ending up in another, a great way to do that is just lots of reversing the side of the floor that the ball's on, multiple actions in the same possession, that sort of thing is a great way to counter that. And so I do think more and more teams will see the value of that in the long run. Not really a question, but the Celtics going from playing the Pacers' crazy uptempo fast-paced offense,

especially the game's Halliburton played, to this slow non-offball movement offense has to feel so much easier. easier is the wrong word, I think. It's just different. This puts a lot more pressure on your individual defenders to hold up against the best player in the world, potentially, in Luca Donchish, and one of the best ISO players in Kyrie Irving. And so even though it's different, it's still very hard.

It's just different. Assuming they get him, how do you see Dan Hurley's offensive defensive schemes translating to LA and how will his playbook help generate easier looks for Braun and AD? Great show is always keep it up. I went over the offensive part earlier. It's just like off ball action to occupy help defenders using Vanderbilt and Anthony Davis more as screeners than spot-up players,

different things like that to manufacture spacing without shooting on the floor. But I'm not going to go any more into that because you saw that earlier in the show. I have not looked into Dan Hurley's defensive approach yet. If he gets hired, I will and we will cover it in the film session. If the Mavs lose this series, would Lucas still have the bragging rights title with no MVP's and championships, or can he play well enough in a loss and still have the title going into that? the summer. Here's the thing. I think Luca to this, he played like shit in game one.

Don't let the box score fooled you. He played like shit. He was so bad on the defensive end and he wasn't good enough offensively when it mattered. But I think he's been the most impressive player in this postseason run so far. So like, we'll see how that all dust settles at the end of the series. I do think Luca will play better. But like if Luca plays poorly for the entire series, like that's going to be something we're going to have to look at.

But again, at the end of the postseason run, I'm going to do two separate lists. And one of them will be who had the best season, right? Like, who gets the bragging rights for this season? And right now, I do think Lucas still maintains a spot at number one. Hey, Jason, in the video with Colin, you said you were in real estate. How and why did you make the switch? In a similar situation, and I'm questioning, should I pursue a passion in basketball

and media? I love the vids and analysis. So I got into real estate simply because that was, to me, the most flexible career for me to be able to pursue something in basketball media. Now, real estate's tricky. there's a bunch of different jobs in real estate. There are salary jobs. There are transaction coordination, like administration jobs.

And then there's like the investment side where I worked for a while. And then there's residential real estate like just being an agent, which I did that as well. And when you on the, the salary side, the, excuse me, the investment side I was on salary. So it was a little easier to manage in terms of like the month to month budgeting. But like when I was in the residential side, like it's super volatile. Like I had months where I made a lot of money and I had months where I made zero money, right? And like one of the big things I learned when I did that for a living, it's 100% commission. So it's like you got to be really, really self-motivated and you have to put in the work.

It's all about lead generation. So like for me, I was just holding a ton of open houses to meet new clients. And that was what floated my business. But again, like that's a great job that's super flexible, the residential real estate side, if you want to pursue a passion, but you won't make money unless you put in the work. So it's a delicate balance. Like you, it's not like you just get your real estate license and money. starts coming and you have to sell houses. And so it's a difficult job, but if you can figure out

how to do it, then that is a very flexible job to allow you to pursue jobs, to pursue something like sports media on the side. As far as the sports media side, just start making content. Get a camera, get a mic, put it out on a podcast feed, put it on YouTube, put it on social media, and just see where it goes. And lastly, I would just say, be yourself. Don't try to pretend to be someone else. Just authentically talk about whatever it is your topic is, the way you want to talk about it and see where it goes from there. People can see through it when you're not being authentic. What was Boston doing better than the wolves in the last round in terms of triple penetration? Why was Ants Drive not nearly as effective as Jalen Brown and Tatum's yesterday? Is it because of KP spacing or lack of

effort from Luca and Kyrie? It's simply because the spacing that Boston provides in general. It's not just Porzingis. It's Boston always has five shooters on the floor. They did not play a single non-shooter while the game was in question yesterday. The guys out the bench, Porzingis, Pritchard and Houser, all great shooters. And so Minnesota was Colbert and Jada McDaniels and Kyle Anderson and Nikola Alexander Walker. It's just that the Mavs could pack the paint. And most importantly, Gafford and Lively were just parked under the rim the entire time. And so even though Ants a better driver than anybody in a Boston Celtics jersey, it just doesn't

matter because the spacing isn't there. Who's your second favorite player of all time after LeBron? Steph Curry. and the main reason why is because I actually watched him. I've always been a big Kobe and MJ fan, but I didn't start watching basketball until the mid-2000s or the late 2000s,

and at that point, Kobe was kind of already starting to fade. Obviously, I'm a huge Kobe fan, huge Michael Jordan fan, but in terms of like the majority of my basketball fanhood, Steph Curry was the guy that I enjoyed watching the most other than LeBron, super unique, savage competitive. really good leader, genuinely just an awesome television watch.

Just Steph to me was my second favorite player to watch. If the Rockets had beaten the Warriors in the 2018 Western Conference Finals, who do you think would have won the finals between them and the Cavs with Chris Paul coming off a hamstring injury? I've had this take before, but like I think LeBron was so much better than James Hardin at that point as a playoff player. I know Hardin won the MVP, but like Hardin just did a bunch of damage in the regular season. I think if Chris Paul was injured, that the Cavs would have won.

But if Chris Paul had somehow been able to come back and play in that series, then I think Houston would have won. Why do you think Jalen Brown is so underrated? To me, he was obviously one of the 15 best players in the league this year and didn't even make all NBA. Also, it makes no sense that only one Boston player made it. Actually, it makes a lot of sense. They have $5.30 million players in an open market, and there aren't just $15, $30 million players in the league.

There's a hell of a lot more than that, right? Like I want to say there's, I'll have to look, but I'm sure there's 40, 50 players that make at least 25 million a year, right? Like, there's just a lot of players that make a lot of money. I think that where I rank him will see after the season, but I think, I don't think it's just like a sure thing that he's one of the top 15 players in the league. I think that's debatable. I think I don't even want to have a take on it because I haven't thought enough about it. as far as whether or not he's underrated, like, let's be real about what's happening here.

The top 15 players in the league generally have major offensive responsibilities for their team. We know what it looks like when Jalen Brown has major offensive responsibilities. He's not consistent enough as a guy who breaks down the defense to be in that role. He is a part of why he's looked so good with this team is it's allowed him to operate with an advantage a lot

and two, focus his energies on the defensive end of the floor where he's a top-tier athlete. So like a lot of this is Boston, by virtue of Brad Stevens, has surrounded Jalen Brown with so much talent that like his weaknesses are just not exploitable the way that they are in other systems. So I don't think it's fair when you look at, like let's take another guy who's in that same range,

like Damien Lillard, I think I had him at 13, or 14 coming into this season. Dame's job on Milwaukee is way, way, way, way, way harder than Jalen Brown's on the offensive end of the floor. Like, they live and die based on what he can do and what Yonnes can do, right? Whereas with Jalen Brown, it's like Derek White runs the action a lot of the game. You know, Drew Holiday will co-op possessions. Like Tatum, obviously is the number one.

Like, there's just so much talent in Boston that it allows Jalen Brown's strengths to rise to the surface and his weaknesses to sink. Even just last year, without Porzingis and without Drew Holiday, you saw how much more Boston needed from Jalen Brown and how much damaging it was, how much more damaging it was when he couldn't actually fulfill his end of the bargain in that sense.

So like, I'm not trying to undercut, undercut what Jalen Brown's doing, but all I'm saying is, is like, there's context here. This team is really good and it makes the job really easily. It's like when Kevin Durant went to Golden State, there were so many people around the team were like, holy shit, he's the best part

in the league, he's better than LeBron. And it's like, he's literally playing in a system where the game is so easy for him. That doesn't mean Kevin Durant's not awesome. It's just context. We literally saw him on Oklahoma City look significantly less efficient the previous season, right?

So like, again, the context is important here. Jalen Brown's awesome. He may be top 15. We'll see when I do my list after the season, but he's in a system right now that accentuates his strength. and minimizes his weaknesses because of how much talent is on the roster. And lastly, like, again, like,

the only definitive top 15 player on the roster was Tatum. So that's why he's the only guy who made all NBA. It's really that simple. I've seen a lot of people trying to dismiss last night's Celtics performance by saying how we just got hot and how we won't repeat it again. But with this Celtics team, I feel like these types of nights are built into their identity and their style of play allows them to have multiple.

So I do think they'll do it again, at least once. like I said before the series, I think they'll have two blowout wins in this series. Also, like, the shot quality is replicable. Like, the problems that Boston presented aren't going away. But they also shot really well in that first half. To put it simply, they went up 29. Like, we all think, most of us pick Boston to beat Dallas, right? But we pick Boston to beat Dallas in a competitive-ish series, right?

Like, we don't think that they're just going to beat the shit out of them every single time they play. When Boston shoots like that, they'll beat the shit out of them. But let's just take that exact same first half, but five of those threes don't go in. Now instead of being up 29, you're up 14. You're still up 14 in the NBA finals in the first half. That's still a dominant performance, right? So, like, yeah, the Celtics shot really well, but they got really good high-quality shots,

and they were so much better that even if they hadn't shot as well, they still would have won. So, like, again, over the course of the series, they will have performances. I think Boston will win a game in this series where they don't shoot well. Like, I think that's something that'll happen. So, like, again, what happened last night is replicable in terms of shot quality. And when you get that type of shot quality consistently, you will have nights where you shoot it well. When they shoot it well, they'll blow them out. That was kind of why I had that take that they'll have multiple blowouts.

What moves, if any, does Denver need to make in order to get back to the 2023 postseason levels of dominance? All I think they need to do is retain KC. and make one addition to the bench, preferably an athletic guard, like a guy that can beat people off the dribble, someone, an athletic guard with the ball in his hands, right? If they can do that, I think they're going to be right back in the mix. I think a lot of people writing off Denver for losing in the second round when they were up 20 in game seven in the second half. And if they won that series, I would have picked them over Dallas. And if they would have won that series, I would have picked them over Boston. So it really is a game of inches that caught a bad matchup. They got tired. They blew a big lead in the

second half. But Denver's going to be right back in the mix next year. What counters do you expect the Mavs will employ against the Celtics tendency to switch on screens? I went over a bunch of counters in the film session, so I'm not going to go in too much more detail, but one, avoiding attacking Horford and targeting the smaller guards. Instead, we talked about RAM screens to try to bring Porzingis into the action against a lob threat like Gafford and lively. That would allow, potentially unlock some stuff in their pick and roll game, but mostly Luke and Kyrie just have to do a better job. 0.54 points per ISO is not going to cut it. Last question. What guitars do you have? Okay, I'm going to move the microphone a little bit here so I can show you. So I have this one.

This is a, this was my first PRS. This is a CE 24 semi-hollow. Really fun guitar. 24 frets, really easy to play. And the main thing with the CE 24 is it's a bolt on. So you can see how it's got the neck actually bolted on instead of glued. And then it's got steel trim. So it's a steel bridge. and then steel trim up top. And so it kind of has like a resonance to it that's kind of unique to a steel. This one right here is a Fender Stratocaster. Pretty standard.

I love the vintage colors on this one, but just a Fender Stratocaster. We have, let's see here, this is my pride and joy. This is the most expensive guitar that I own and one of the two that I play most frequently. This is a hollow body piece. Piazzo. So the main thing with it is it's completely hollow. So there's two maple pieces, one on the

back and one on the front. And then it's mahogany around the side and a mahogany neck that's glued in. And then the main thing is, is it's got their vintage style humbuckers. These are the, what they call the 5815s. They're like a kind of like a vintage sounding tone, super warm, think similar to like what you'd see in like a Les Paul. But these are, these are beautiful sounding. I'm obsessed with these. And then this bridge has what's called a Piazzo pickup in it, which makes. it sound like an acoustic guitar, which I really like. This one is my second favorite to play, and I think is the prettiest guitar that I own.

I like this one a lot. And then lastly, this is my favorite guitar to play. This is the Silver Sky. This is John Mayer's signature guitar. It's basically like a Fender Stratocaster, but PRS's version. I won't go into too much detail geeking out about it, but like love the maple neck.

I think it's the prettiest maple neck that I've seen on a guitar. I love this kind of like rust, kind of like, it's just kind of reminds me. reminds me of Arizona, which I really like. And then it's just got a really classic Stratocaster sound that I really like. And then it's just so well built. It's got a really rounded radius.

This one's a seven-inch radius. So it's rounded. Easy to get your fingers around. This is like the, anybody who listens to the show is Play to Silver Sky knows. It's like literally one of the best guitars to, funnest guitars to play. It's also like relatively affordable compared to some of the core models that PRS makes.

Like the purple guitar is more than twice as much for that one. And then I've got a couple of cheapies. couple epiphones like entry level ones and then I've got an acoustic guitar over there as well. All right, guys. That is all I have for today. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting the show. We will be back on Sunday night with a live reaction with Colin Coward after game two. I will see you guys there.

The volume. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumored me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, S&L's Mikey Day and headwriter, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes.

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You might have seen the skits, my basketball and college football journey, or my career in sports media. Well, now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfilled conversations with athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated.

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I'm Sam Jay and I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick a year, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it with our friends, fellow comedians, and favorite authors. Like Mark Lamont Hill on the 80s. 84 was a wild year. It was a wild year. I don't think there's a more important year for black people.

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