The Mismatch - NBA Finals: Nuggets Pummel Heat in Game 1, Jokic's Dominance, and Breaking Miami's Zone

Episode Date: June 2, 2023

The Nuggets take the early lead in the NBA Finals as Verno and KOC break down their Game 1 victory over the Heat behind stellar performances from Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, and Aaron Gordon (02:12). They discuss the Heat’s lack of size and Jimmy Butler’s slump, as well as the Nuggets completely carving up the Heat’s zone defense (19:14). Also, what they thought of Monty Williams’s record-breaking deal to coach the Pistons, Adam Silver’s comments about Ja Morant’s punishment, and some possible changes coming for future All-Star Games (37:37). Hosts: Chris Vernon and Kevin O’Connor Producer: Jessie Lopez Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You may find this hard to believe, but 60 songs that explain the 90s. America's favorite poorly named music podcast is back. With 30 more songs than 120 songs total. I'm your host, Rob Harvilla, here to bring you more shrewd musical analysis, poignant nostalgic reveries, crude personal anecdotes, and rad special guests, all with even less restraint than usual. Join us once more on 60 Saws that Explain the 90s every Wednesday on Spotify. Welcome to the mismatch. I'm Chris Vernon and joining me as he does every Thursday night.

From the ringer.com is Kevin O'Connor, A.K. Kevin O'Connor, A.K.K. Kevin O'Connor, Kevin O'Connor, A.K., Kevin O'Connor, Kevin O'Clymonds, Kevin O'Connor. I'm joining you here from the NBA Finals. I'm sitting in my media seat up in the nosebleeds, looking down at all these happy Nuggets fans celebrating. They're having a good time. They're feeling good. I'm feeling good, man. I'm here at the finals. It's a good time.

First time at 47 years that the team has gotten this opportunity and the fans have gotten this opportunity. Looked like a raucous crowd. There at the beginning of the game, for sure. It looked like I expected it to. Like a team and the fan base that was yearning for this opportunity. Obviously, it's been a long time since they had played basketball after sweeping the Lakers and then just having to wait around until the finals were going to begin.

But at least on TV, environment looked great. What was it like in the arena? Very loud. A lot of noise being pumped in for sure. Fans were loud. They had the cool wristbands lighten up. It was a great atmosphere, man. I was impressed.

It felt like right from the jump, fans were into the game. Didn't feel like any nervous crowd or anything like that. That was a very cool atmosphere here in Denver. And you probably did not expect that much like back in the day, Mike Tyson walking to the ring shirtless with some black shorts and then knocking somebody out, that that role was going to be Aaron Gordon in the first like five minutes of the game. It was like, hold on, hold on now. Is this going to happen? Because Aaron Gordon had 12 points before I think you could even get to a commercial break in that game. And it was so enlightening to see that right off the bat because it was like, man, they got a size problem here.

You saw immediately, I think 16 of the first 22 points the Nugget scored were in the paint. And it was like, here's a mismatch. Here's something we've identified. Here's a guy that's bigger and stronger. It's going to be able to slip to the basket. and I thought really set the tone right off the bat for the Nuggets tonight. Absolutely agree with you, Chris. I mean, Aaron Gordon, right from the opening possessions of the game,

he scored his first five baskets were on four different heat players. All of those buckets were in the restricted area. He had, you know, he overpowered Jimmy Butler on a drive. He had a screen set on Jamal Murray, you know, for Jamal Murray. He got switched in the game, Vincent, buried him under the, beneath the basket, but Yogish delivered the pass. He had a transition seal on Max Truce, and then at one point I thought it was,

it really was indicative of the game plan you're talking about using your size and your length and your power advantage over Miami. They cleared a side for him to post up Caleb Martin. That said it all to me. Some of the other plays, it was like within the flow, right? But then that one, it's like, ah, this is a point they're trying to make that we are going to beat you with our size 6'8, 235 pounds, not just Yokic,

not just Michael Porter, shooting over everybody, but Aaron Gordon with post-ups against your smaller players. Also a great way to not be the rusty team, because you're not relying on, you know, whipping it around, making a bunch of jump shots. I mean, hell, they're making dunks and layups to start the game, like over and over and over again. And it was just yokey.

point guard. As I said, we get to that like commercial break and they're like, and Aaron Gordon's already got 12. They come back from the break and I think Yokic already had six assists. We're like eight minutes into the game. The guy's got six assists. It was crazy. And he ended with 14, only two turnovers. Unbelievable. Just whipping the ball around the floor everywhere. He had more assistant shot attempts, Kevin. Yeah. Yeah. He's something else, dude. He's, Like, Yokic, there's a play. I think it was, I don't remember what it was. I think it was the second quarter.

It all blended together. It doesn't matter. It was like a three point shot, Yokic hit on the left wing. And it was like with two seconds left in the shot clock in which I thought the heat played awesome defense for the entire possession. They were switching screens, shut and off what Denver was trying to do. And then with like five or six seconds left, the nuggets were like,

okay, we'll just go to our Jamal, Murray, Nicola Yokich, two-man game. Murray drives to the left wing, kicks it out to Yokish for a wide open three-pointer. It's like, she's, you know, like you can only do so much sometimes. You can play 20 seconds of great defense, and Yokic hits you with the three. And oftentimes, you know, we're talking about the assists.

He's the guy delivering those passes and creating for others. But Jamal Murray as well, with his 10 assists tonight, only three turnovers. He was absolutely unbelievable in the game as well, creating for others. You know, you were talking about the heat defense. It clearly got better in that second half. They were able to shut some more down.

And I'm torn. Is that partly because the nuggets were up, you know, by 15 plus by half time, then they're still up big at the third quarter. You get this little run to make it a little interesting. Hey, would High Smith make it some shots there in the fourth quarter? Or, you know, did the heat start to figure some things? out as the game went on, you know, where, or the Nuggets just taking their foot off the gas, and then they had to put their foot back on the gas when it got to like 10 and they were able to do it?

I don't really know because, you know, I leave it and I'm like, Kev, if they give up 104, you'll take 104. Like, honestly, if you're going to give up 104 a game, you're going to have a really good chance in this finals. And is 104 a function of the heap playing really good defense and much better defense in the second half? Or is that a function of a team that took its foot off the gas because they were just so in control for three quarters? What do you think? I got to watch the game back. But the two free throws from Miami as well.

Just something else to add on to your point there, Chris. You know, I think the first thought that comes to mind is if you're a heat fan, you're like, okay, Well, Duncan Robinson goes one for five. You got Max Truce at 0 for 9. And Caleb Martin, he's three points on one of seven from the floor. So, like, you're thinking you're going to get better shooting performances. But Denver can say the same thing. Eight of 27 as a team.

Michael Porter, Jr., had a lot of good looks. You know, 2 for 11. Jamal Murray was 2 for 7 from behind the arc. So, I mean, I think the three-point stuff goes both ways. I want to watch the game back before I say. anything definitive with the free throw stuff, but from like watching up here, I didn't get the impression that like Miami was getting screwed necessarily with calls. Did you get that impression at all from watching the broadcast?

I don't think they did. I don't think they did either. I think the message is going to be more, you know, play with force. We have to call. We have to press this issue. We're doing what Boston did with us, which is not putting pressure on the rim. And so look, clearly they probably should have gone to the line more than two times. I mean, it's just a ridiculous amount.

It's never happened in the finals where a team took two. It's only happened in six games, either regular season or playoffs, in the history of the NBA. I mean, that's a billion games that have been played and it's happened six times. So, of course, it's the most extreme of out. but I think Miami is to blame in large part for their severely low total. You didn't get the sense that they were playing with that force, and a lot of that emits from Butler. He has these games, where it's like some games he just absolutely imposes his will on the

game, and other games he doesn't. and I do think that that team feeds so dramatically off of him. You know, he is the star. They are the role players. And sometimes the role players can't be, you know, the full-on role player that you need him to be if the star is not the star. And the star wasn't the star for Miami,

and the role players were like beyond abysmal offensively. You gave, you gave Struce an extra one. It's 0 for 9 from 3, Kevin. He's 0 of 10 overall. Yeah, that's what I meant from 3 for those numbers. Oh for 10. I mean, when you get two guys that are starting for you in Caleb Barton and Max Struz and they go 1 for 17 combined, good luck.

I mean, the one huge bright spot is that you got a star performance out of BAM. And if you can get really good BAM games, that goes on. a long way towards being able to help your cause as this series goes on. Was this was this a really, really good Bam game, a star Bam game? Oh, yes, he has 26 points. It came on 25 shots. He with some opportunities near the rim. Was this a star bam game?

Look, if I'm getting, I'll sign up for 26 and 13 and 5 out of him every night. But are you signing up for 26 points on 25 shots? I don't think so. I mean, look, if my other guys are one for 17. I agree. It's all relative, Kevin. I agree. I know, like,

you're going to take what you can get, but I'm just saying 26 points or 25 shots. It's like you'd hope he's up over 30 points with that amount of shot attempts. I mean, I think you could. Look, he's not going to the free throw line. No, and you can flip it at the other side, though, too. It's like someone like Michael Porter Jr., He takes 11 three-pointers, only hits two of them.

He has a great game. Like he was putting the ball on the floor, attacking off the dribble. He made the really nice interior bounce pass, 13 rebounds. He's playing competitive defense. But even somebody like him, yes, he'll take that game from Michael Porter Jr. If you're Denver, of course. But if you're Miami, the other side of it is like, whew, geez, like some of those three pointers that he's taken with space, those are going to fall at some point.

So this goes both ways here with both Miami and with Denver. Oh, I know. The heat got a bunch of good shots. They got a bunch of good looks, and they wouldn't go down. And, you know, you couldn't help but think as you're watching this. I mean, if you're a Celtics fed, you're just losing your freaking mind watching this. It's like, seriously? Like, they shot, look, they played seven games in that conference finals, Kev,

and they shot 43% from three. That's crazy. conference finals. They shot 43%. And it's like, where was this Caleb Barton? I know, right? Where was this Max Truce?

Where was this Miami Heat? Where it swing, swing, open three, like every time. It felt like they made them against the Celtics. Obviously, tonight, those were falling short. And then on the flip side, just, you know, I know you're talking about the Porter thing, but you got a really good one out of Eric Gordon,

outstanding and good defense on Butler for his part. He was awesome. And then you got the two stars being stars, you know, in conjunction. They had this stat on the broadcast at the end of the game, 25 points in 10 assists. They are the second duo to do that in the finals. And it went back to magic and worthy as the guys who had done it. And then they mentioned just having a duo that had 10 assists in the same game.

It was like Jordan and Pippin. I mean, so they were with the statistical game that they had tonight in terms of not only scoring but setting up their teammates, they put up, you know, historically comparable performances to all-time greats. And they've been great the whole playoffs, both of them in conjunction. I mean, they've been unbelievable. And like I mentioned that two-man game possession, you know, in the second or third quarter, whatever it was. And like Yokic ended that game.

Miami cuts it to nine at one point. And you're like, ooh, I'm sitting next to Matt Dollinger, my excellent editor with the ringer during the game. We're like, okay, it's not quite over yet. But then the Nuggets just have a way of just creating those shot opportunities because of Yokic. And he had that, what was, what was it, a minute left, two minutes left? hits the fade away from the left lock over band out of bio.

There's just nothing you can do about that guy. Like that's why this performance by Yokic and Murray, you're bringing up all these historic players, these Hall of Famers, because what those guys do together, particularly Yokic, it just feels like it's only a matter of time until he does something amazing in a game.

Because that play I'm talking about, I'm pretty sure from up here again, I thought band played really good. good defense with a strong contest, but Yokic just fades away and flips the ball up. Skies that way up high in the sky with that rainbow arc and falls right through the that's, that's what happens with this guy. There's just nothing you could do with Yokic. He's so special, man.

Hey, you know who you should go ask about what to do with Yokic? Poor Cody Zeller. My God. Why don't you just, I mean, just get sent into the 10th row. Just bullied. I mean, that was nothing. That was not safe for word.

I mean, that poor guy checked into the checked into the game. He's got this goopy-ass mask on. And next thing he knows, he's in the 10th row, like straight line drive, shoulder into you.

I mean, I'm just going to make a lay up. I mean, it was so, it was just an emasculating play. I mean, I'll tell you what, Chris,

there is a really strong chance that the heat could get better production from Eudanus Haslam. At least he's going to try to take out his knees or something. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. I mean, Zeller's not it, though, man. They can't go with Zeller anymore.

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18778. Hope N.Y or text Hope N. 467369 in New York, 1,800, 5224,4700 in Wyoming, or visit 1,800 gambler.net in West Virginia. Yeah, well, and this is what we talked about. The heat are small. And this is the team that's going to be able to punish you,

for it and it happened right off the bat they were punishing them for being small. That is one thing I would worry about it from Miami, that there's a bunch of things that I can convince myself that Miami's going to make this very competitive and even by game two will make some adjustments that I wouldn't be surprised if they're able to steal that game and then we've got a series on our hands. That being said, you know, Denver had something they could go to quite a bit with out making shots. And so that three point variance is going to be something to monitor for both of those teams.

But I do think that that size advantage can truly show up. And that's just, that's something that they're not going to be able to fix. Yeah. There's, there's nobody there to fix that. There's no secret weapon. I mean, at some point you're like, man, so they just try Kevin Love or something?

I mean, but that's kind of where you're at. Because there's nobody else. Like, you look up and down their bench, there's nobody else. I mean, straight up, though. I mean, we can talk all we want about, you know, backup center. What do you do there? Should Haywood Highsmiths play more? Yes, obviously, Struz and those guys have to shoot the ball better.

But more than anything else, Jimmy Butler has to be performing better. He has to be a star. I mean, that's what it comes down to. More than anything else, Jimmy Butler, for the heat to, win this series. Jimmy Butler is going to have to have games like he did against Boston, game one, game two, when he is absolutely dominant. Even if he has games like the 28 points on 28 shots, 12 of 28 and the game 7 win for the heat, I'm not even sure that's good enough. Jimmy Butler is going to have to have supremely efficient high volume games. And he hasn't had that

since game two. It's been a while since we saw that from Jimmy Butler. So I think that's the level of concern there. He said before the finals, he said he's not making excuses with his ankle or anything like that. However, I mean, he did say at the end of it, you know, I'm not going to blame a bum ankle. He is pretty much telling us he has a bum ankle. And I don't think that's necessarily an excuse there.

But, I mean, it's been since May 19th that we've seen him dominate on the floor. And now it's by the time they play again, it's going to be June 3rd. So it'll be two full weeks. Yep. Been a long time. And on the other side, literally every time we watch him play, their guy dominates the game. Yokic tonight, as you mentioned, hits that fadeaway against Bam.

And he already had the points. But then he went down to the other end, got a rebound. And they said, and there's the triple double. And they posted that he had his ninth. He had his ninth triple double of this postseason. Kevin, I submit to you, in this postseason, of all the 16 teams that have played in this postseason, there have been 12 triple doubles in the postseason.

He has nine of them. Wow. Curry had one, Yonis had one, and Bamanao had one. Wow. The other nine are all Yokic. Of the 12 triple doubles in this playoffs, he's got nine of them. I mean, his imprint is just on every game in this massive way. And if he's not doing one of them, we've seen him score 50 plus in that Phoenix series in a game.

And then tonight, it felt like he could have had 25 assists if he needed to. Yep. Yeah, I guess he ended up with 14. He, I guess he ended up with 14. He's that type of guy, man. I just think with Joker, there's no answer for him right now. And we'll have a lot of time to discuss, like, if the Nuggets win this series. But already, I mean, throughout this postseason, my mind has just been going to,

okay, he's the new guy that you're going to have to get through in the Western Conference. And he very well might be the new guy that you have to get through in the NBA finals. because this Nuggets team, man, it's like everything we're talking about, Chris. Like, it revolves around Nikola Yokic. Like, he's the center of it all. Of course. But Jamal Murray has his ways of destroying you.

Aaron Gordon, it's not like he's a no-skill player. Aaron Gordon has been a bucket getter since high school. He can score. He can handle. He can create. Michael Porter Jr. can catch fire. Bruce Brown coming off the bench. He can hit some shots.

for you, he can handle a little bit, never mind the scrappy defense up and down their roster. This Nuggets team has different ways of generating quality shot opportunities and all of them are quality defensive players. So I think for this Nuggets team right now, it's not like, it's not just one guy. And that's what I think everybody watching the finals needs to keep in mind for where they are today with their chances against the heat, but also where they'll be tomorrow and into the seasons to come. Like, this team is built to continue to be better and get better in the years to come

because of the way they all interact with each other and not just because of Yokic. It feels like a continuation of what we might have seen if you didn't have the devastating Murray injury. You do have to look back and wonder because they, well, we saw them ruin the Kauai and Paul George, really, probably that entire Clippers era of Kauai and Paul George. Like that was the best chance. That was when they were both healthy, both, you know, it was in the bubble, no less. But, you know, and the Nuggets, it was like, okay, and then they took their, they, they showed

their worthiness as someone that you really need to pay attention to as a playoff contender. and you had bubble Murray going, and then it was like maybe the next year, you know, they might have been able to be competing for the title the next year and the year after that, right? Like they've just, they lost the season because of the Murray injury. And when we did see them in the playoffs,

they were super impressive, and obviously they've added Gordon since then. But one of the things we've talked about throughout these playoffs is they know exactly who they are, and they know exactly who they play. It's eight guys. A lot of times it's seven if Brown's not getting minutes. It's not, hey, I'm trying to search for this.

I'm trying to search for that. Maybe I'll throw this guy in. Maybe we'll see if Cody Zeller can give us something. Maybe Heywood Highsmith can give us something. And look, and the heater is about as fine-tuned a team as you can have at this point, too. but they do no searching in Denver. It's their seven guys that they play and you know they're playing and if Brown plays eight and that's what they've got.

And they all know exactly what they're doing. They know their role. They know how to play together. They've gotten a lot of reps and minutes together. I mean, they're a real team, a team. And obviously they've got the best player going. I kind of wish more people knew this Nuggets team. I mean, like, the way the finals were talked about, it's like they weren't on national TV the most.

They're not even on TV locally because of the altitude thing that Adam Silver was asked about pregame. Like, this Nuggets team, it's, as you said, Chris, it's a real team. It's not highlights, though. That's the problem. The great basketball team. But Yowgish is a living, a walking highlight. I know. shots he hits, the passes he makes,

he is a walking highlight on a night, nine in, night out basis. It's just, it's not the traditional type of highlights, high flying, you know, that type of thing. But he, but he is. He is a highlight reel every single night. It's very Spurs-esque in the sense of, and I heard.

There's so much more exciting than the Spurs to me personally. I'm talking about how they're, everybody knew that Tim Duncan was amazing. And Yolk is more exciting than Duncan. I'll give him that, okay? Yes, yes. The centerpiece was this guy in Tim Duncan, who was the big fundamental.

He was an amazing basketball player that anybody that loved basketball could appreciate, yet you weren't going to see them. At the end of the year, when you're doing NBA top 10 plays, they're not going to be included. When you're doing top 10 donks, they're not going to be included.

When you do a top 10 anything, they're probably not going to be included. But they are a team that functions around this all-time great, one of the 10 best players of all time. And I do think, you know, Michael Malone was talking about that the other day, and I thought it was an interesting comp. He was like, I never coached Tim Duncan. I never was around him day to day.

But everything I hear about him, it's very similar to how selfless he, is and how much he, you know, wants to make his teammates better and his commitment, you know, to the greater good and to winning and all this stuff. Like, you know, all the things that you're supposed to value. Yeah, that's true. That's all true except for the fact that Yokic does create amazing highlights. He makes passes that nobody on earth can even envision or see that even think about doing

on the court. And some of those passes lead to spectacular dunks by an Aaron Gordon. or Michael Porter or Bruce Brown or whoever it might be. It can lead to magnificent three-pointers by Jamal Murray or Porter. They do create highlights. It's just different. They just don't get that. They just don't get that attention nationally that I hope they do to earn these finals.

And it's going to be interesting. It's just big guys too. I know. You're right. It is partially that. It's big guys just aren't as good of a highlight for social and all that. Well, the other thing is they also, they're not the guys that the NBA promotes and they're not the guys that have their own shoe and it's not you know like all that stuff

yeah that's fair and yokic doesn't do any interviews he's i mean he just doesn't this is true he doesn't he says no to everything right which is very tim duncanesque also you didn't know a lot about tim duncan he's a very private guy as well right and so yeah he doesn't care about promoting his brand he didn't even have a brand he's just an amazing basketball player. Little basketball thing that I do want to mention here is I don't want to beat up on, you know, Celtics fans were having a hard time watching that Caleb Barton, Max Drew, stuff already. But my God, another time, just because we just got used to watching them for seven games.

It's like, Miami dropped into that zone, and you may remember this segment of the game. This is in the second quarter. So they dropped into the zone finally. They were never going to play the zone against Yokic, obviously. But as soon as Yokich went out of the game, they dropped into that zone. And the first time down the court, the Nugget threw it down to Jeff Green. He goes straight down the middle and he hits a little like bunny, like right, like exactly what you're supposed to do. So they come down the next time and Bruce Brown drives to the basket.

He takes a little floater. He bricks it. But Porter comes flying. in from the weak side and jams it with two hands. Crowd goes crazy. And I'm watching, this is two possessions in a row against his own. They just absolutely carved it up. In a way, like, in two possessions, they looked more equipped to handle that than like anything to sell the truth. Anything that Joe Missoula tried to do, you could have convinced me that a blind man drew it up in the huddle for the first three games of that series.

It took them four frigging games to figure out how to not run a blind man's play against the zone. And then you watch this Denver team tonight and it's like, golly. Like, this is a team that was obviously prepared for this moment. As soon as Miami dropped into that zone, bang, bang, bang. They had to get out of it. They did to get out of the show like immediately. Whereas, you know, the Celtics are just throwing it around the perimeter and taking step-back threes and clanking them.

And then giving them a transition bucket the other way. It was crazy to watch. And, I mean, kudos to Mike Malone, but also that team. I mean, you just saw the radical difference. And it also, it made me think tonight as I was watching that play out in the second quarter, I was like, my God. Like maybe the Celtics were just abysmally coached because this is how this is supposed to look. You know, and instead it looked like, you know, Spolstra was throwing a trigonometry test out there to them, making them take it. For what it's worth, just to throw the numbers at you, Chris.

In the second quarter, the heat played seven possessions of zone according to Second Spectrum on those plays. the Nuggets posted an effective field goal percentage of 85.7. I told you. Absurd. And then in the fourth quarter, they played 10 possessions. The Nuggets had a effective field goal percentage of only 40. I mean, so it worked better statistically in the fourth quarter

when Yokin was on the floor. I mean, there's a lot of reasons why I think, you know, it worked a little bit better than end of a game. They got a big lead. A lot. Like, I just, I can't read into it too much on the fourth. But in the second quarter, you're right, the way they put it out as soon as Joker was out. As soon he was out, they said, go its own, yes.

And right away, the Nuggets were ready for it. Right away, without missing a beat. They're like, all right, let's go to our stuff that we've been scouting out and practicing this whole past week. Ready to go. Yeah. It was a Jeff Gordon. It was a Jeff Green two-footer. Do you want to say Jeff Gordon?

Jeff Gordon? Jeff Green. Jeff Green, two-footer. And then it was this Bruce Brown drive that was followed up by this, you know, just Herculean dunk by Porter. That was so cool. And then Porter had the three in the corner too shortly after that, I believe, or maybe before it, whatever. It was just so quick and decisive. And I'm just sitting there watching it going, Boston never did this.

Like, they never looked good like this against it. Yeah. They looked better in two plays than Boston did the entire series against that zone. It was bananas to watch it. Like, okay. It's going to be tough for Miami, man. They just don't have a lot of answers. This Nuggets team is bigger, longer, longer than anybody that Miami's face.

They have a better player than anybody Miami's faced. It's just a lot. It's a lot to solve for Miami. And as much as I love that team, I picked the Nuggets in six. I feel, I mean, it's just one game here, but I'd move towards five. Oh, I wouldn't be, I wouldn't be surprised if the heat can respond in the next game. I wouldn't. I know.

You can't. You can't. You can't. You can't. And look, as I said, I am torn on the 104. Did they give up 104 because the nuggets took their foot off the gas? But in the end, that is what they scored. and if they score 104, you can win those games.

You're not going to the free throw. I mean, you can do a lot of, I can, a lot of talking myself into the heat that this was like an utter disaster and it still wasn't a runout on them. They shot two free throws. They were one of 19, one of 17 from Martin and Struce. Jimmy didn't impose his will at all

and they shot a okay percentage from three, not good enough, and actually got good shots. I actually think the shot quality stuff will be favorable to them when it comes out. It was about equal. It's about equal on second spectrum. Interesting.

Yeah. That's interesting. Yeah. I mean, look, those shots they missed the night they made against Boston. then it was an 11 point game, right? I think at the end. Yep.

So I do think it's going to be competitive, though. I do. And I think there's a lot of things that you can talk yourself into Miami doing better. That's not to say that Denver won't do things better. And I do think that there's always a psychology of, dude, we're up by 20. Like, yeah, we're not going all out of 20. So that's why they were able to make it a little better looking on the scoreboard. A couple other things before we get out of here, because I know you're still at the arena.

When you saw that Monty Williams contract, what did you think? I mean, this is... I think the Ryan Rusillo tweet sums it up for me. He said, he tweeted this morning, Thursday morning. I slept on it. Still don't get it. I mean, look, Monty Williams, he's a... good culture builder, but tactically, he's playing non-shooters in games one and two.

He took forever to start feeding touches to McKell Bridges while Booker and Paul were out, despite the nagging of the Sun's front office at that time. To make him the highest paid coach in NBA history, it just feels like a massive overpay. To me, I guess the pistons don't mind, you know, because they get their guy and they don't care about the money aspect. but boy, oh boy, this like changes the game for what coaches are going to get paid in the same way we talked about the Rudy Goubert trade last summer changing the price for superstars. Now with a coach, you're like, I'm better than Monty Williams.

You're going to give me a huge contract, man, over 12 million annually. Yeah, I can't imagine. I mean, yeah, is that going to be a cautionary, tail, you know, like how, where for maybe like a month when people were getting on trade calls, they're like, hey, look, I can't go back to my owner and tell him that's what I got for my guy when they got that for Rudy Gobert. And obviously, you know, if you're the GM on the other end, you're trying to convince him. Yeah, but that was frigging stupid.

You know, there's going to come that moment where the guy walks into the office and like, Hey, here's my record in the playoffs and here's Monty Williams record in the playoffs. And so why am I getting paid whatever? Maybe a coach getting paid $5 or $6 or $7 million is a great salary. Why is he getting paid $12 and I'm getting paid $7 or whatever? And, you know, there's somebody that's going to have to be like, look, that's not the going rate. That's what these loony bins did there because they got told no by everybody.

Yeah. And they didn't want, you know, there's all these coaches that are out there, all these coaches. There's all these title coaches. There's Booneholt and there's Vogel and there's nurse and there's on and on and on, right? Even Imaudoka was out there, you know, prior to. And it's like all these coaches were out there. we didn't get any of them yet we fired dwayne casey forever ago but nobody is taking it and monie williams told us no 50 times and then finally we were just like all right fine like that's what that feels like it feels like they

probably started off at a reasonable number and then he said no and then they got more unreasonable and more unreasonable and like then they probably got to like 11 he's like yep still no And they're like, fine, $12 million. He's like, fine, I'll coach the pistons. Yep. You know what I mean? That's what I would understand. He's probably like, look, this guy's about to, he's got to pay off my contract.

I've got this mansion in Arizona. I can play golf all the time. I could probably do some analysts work if I want to. I can travel around, do what I want to do. and oh yeah, I live in Arizona, so it ain't so bad. But at some point they gave you the godfather offer, and you just couldn't say no. But I can't imagine that that will be standard or commonplace.

That's an extreme amount. For any coach, for any coach. Seriously. We shall see. You know, I mean, geez, I guess there are some agents that are super, happy right now. That's for sure. I know you are at the game. Um, so you weren't, um, you didn't see the broadcast, but beforehand, I don't know. Did you go to Adam Silver's thing? Was he there? I guess he talked there. I was there. Yeah, I was there. Yeah, did not sound good for my guy John Morant.

No, it didn't. I mean, he wouldn't tell us. He pretty much says, we know what we're going to do. We just don't want to announce during the finals. Yeah. To take it. We'll find out shortly after the finals. And it sounded a lot to me like they're going to drop the hammer. But how much are they going to drop the hammer? What does that mean? Does that mean 41 games? Does that mean 25 games?

That's what we don't know. Well, let me just say. When Adam Silver in his comment about Morant, he said that they uncovered a fair amount of additional information, I'm going to guess said additional information does not help John Morant. Like, I don't think you mentioned that you found additional information that makes you feel better about the situation. And I've got to believe that they are going to, you know, people want Iron Fist Adam to come down on the Morant thing. They're all calling for it.

And I kind of believe that the suspension will be severe with just the way he talked about it tonight. And I think that whole additional information thing and the fact that they don't want it to take away from the finals. I mean, Morant's a big enough star in the league now and a young star that that would be a huge headline. And then if you do announce it, it's going to take it. take up talk show time. You're not going to be talking about how amazing Yokic is. You're not going to be talking about all the good stuff going on in the NBA and the finals. And so I think it's probably wise to save that until after the finals, especially if they're about to come down really hard on one of their young stars. Yep. Absolutely. I think if it were a light punishment, maybe they'd want to

hide it during the finals. Right. But I think it's going to be heavy. It's just a matter of how heavy. Does that mean 20? Does it mean 40? I don't know. I have no idea.

So that was the thing that made all the headlines from what he talked about. Did he say anything else interesting to you while you were in there? Um, I mean, he mentioned the in season tournament a couple times in passing, but didn't really get asked directly about that. Obviously, the play ends a thing because Miami's there.

Yeah. Yeah, that's one thing he said. He said, uh, He wants to give the plan some more years before they make any potential tweaks. He didn't talk about it, but I've heard the All-Star game. Like, there's someone reported that they could move away from the draft. A couple weeks back, I forget who reported that. But I heard tonight that it's possible they could move towards USA versus World

for the All-Star game, which is something they've done with the Rising Stars game in recent years. So he didn't talk about that. I didn't bother asking about it. It's just not that important right now. I thought they were going to go to East versus West again, which I like. Well, that's what I'm saying. That's what I said. They might go towards east or east towards west, but I've heard USA versus World is also in consideration.

We don't want that. We get our ass kicked. Yeah, no kidding. Yeah, USA would. Well, that's the thing. I think the first year, USA gets their ass kicked. And then the next year they have to come back. I'd be like, okay, let's take this seriously now.

And then you hope it becomes an annual event where it's actually a legitimately good game. because the world is always going to take that seriously. There's pride there, which was what Silver talked about. Someone asked about players playing in Feeba or the Olympics every two years, and he's kind of like, well, I mean, part of that is like nationalism. Part of that is like the expectation of wanting to play. But there's like pride that players take and doing that. And I mean, I don't really think he had much to say other than like,

yeah, guys are going to do that. That's part of it. So I think Adam Silver appreciates the international game and what they've brought to the NBA, which is why the USA versus World thing would be especially interesting. No, Kevin, I don't want it. They also, by the way, they would have Joel Abed, Luca Donchich, Shegildjus Alexander's from Canada, so he would be on the world team. I know.

Janus Antecumpo, Wemba, Wemba, Yama. I'm well aware. But the USA is plenty of talent, too. Just not like the six best players. I know. I would love to see it, though, personally. At least for one year. Just give it one year.

One year. One year, and then if it goes well, then do it another year. Why can't the All-Story game be something different every year? Why can't it be East versus West one year, world versus USA another year, draft another year? The All-Star game's an exhibition. Make it fun. You can still have like the voting process be the same, but then divvy up the teams differently each year. I don't know.

It's an exhibition. I always like the conference thing. I did. I always liked the conference thing. That's bland, especially when they make the fake jerseys. I want them to wear. I like when they wear the team jersey with the emblem and the logo. You're trying to get American basketball embarrassed.

Look at you. Yeah, I am. Kevin O'Communist. Kevin O'Communist. To get embarrassed one year, you come back and you want to fight the battle the next year. Yeah. Make it a real battle. Well, we've got a couple days until game two.

Obviously, these teams will make their adjustments. I'll let you sign out from the arena, Kev. Thank you to our executive producer, Jesse Lopez. And stay safe in Denver. Are you feeling the altitude up there in the nosebleeds? I am higher than most other people in the arena right now. I do not feel the altitude. I'm not noticed, to be honest with you,

maybe I would notice it if I did physical activity, but I haven't noticed the altitude ever. Even walking up the steps? No. You just feel for it. It's all that peloton. Well, I do do cardio every single day. That's true.

So I might be equipped for it. Yep. Yep. Some of those guys, you see those heavy breathing. NBA players and you're like, look at them. Couldn't spend one class on my Peloton. What a bunch of wimps. These professional athletes

with 1% body fat. Thank you, our producer, Jesse Lopez, as always. And Kevin, I will talk to you next Monday night. Everybody enjoy the NBA finals.