The Ringer NBA Show - Derrick White’s Miracle Putback Saves the Celtics’ Season | Group Chat

Episode Date: May 28, 2023

Justin, Rob, and Wos react to the Celtics forcing a Game 7 after Derrick White’s miraculous last-second putback (01:38). They discuss the thrilling fourth quarter, the highs and lows of Jimmy Butler’s performance, and Joe Mazzulla’s adjustments through the course of the series. Then, they discuss the Bucks hiring Raptors assistant coach Adrian Griffin as their head coach and where they think Nick Nurse will end up (37:04). Hosts: Justin Verrier, Rob Mahoney, and Wosny Lambre Producer: Eduardo Ocampo Additional Production Support: Ben Cruz Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey there, Humanoids. This is David Chewaker here with a very exciting announcement. Your favorite wrestling podcast feed, The Ring of Wrestling Show, is now going daily. And you can hang out with me and Kaz on Mondays and Thursdays for the Masked Man Show. And you can join me, Peter Rosenberg, alongside Stack Guy Greg and Dip every Tuesday with cheap heat. And on Fridays, I'll welcome a friend or special guest from the world of wrestling. And on Wednesdays, we have a very special new show called Wednesday Worldwide that you're going to want to check out. Paperview reaction, one-of-a-kind interviews, fantasy booking, talking about bagels. That's what we do here on the Ring of Wrestling show.

Follow the show now on Spotify. And do us a favor. Give us five stars. And do us another favor and stay major. Hello and welcome to group chat. I am Justin Barrier and joining me. It's the bus one boys. It's Rob Mahoney.

Big Was. What's up, boys? What just happened? What in the ghost of Red Arbock just happened? With my joke or in the game? game that we just witnessed. I just ignore your jokes at this point. Either me or Waz is not going to understand it. We're just gliding on through. I was hoping Rob knew what the hell was going on with that, but, you know,

we roll with the punches. Google it, because we have much more pressing matters to attend to. Let's just dive right into this. When Jimmy Butler was on the line shooting three free throws with three seconds left in this game six in Miami, I thought, holy, shit, this is a Nike commercial happening in real time. I was so nervous that I thought he would miss just based on my own anxiety. All of those

and somehow on the other end Derek White makes an even more improbable play. The putback that I'm sure the Boston media is putting headlines and names to right now. Waz, what are you thinking just after that game?

I mean, I was trying to think the last time in NBA result just shook me to my core like this. And only two sort of examples come to mind. Ray Allen, in that same building in 2013, game six of the NBA finals against the Spurs. That shot sent it to overtime. And the heat ended up taking care of business in overtime. And the other one, which is like hyper-local, Larry Johnson's four-point play against the

Pacers. in the 99 finals where I was just like Easter conference finals where I just couldn't believe that it happened like four point plays happened in the NBA

all the time now it's sort of like layups but back then it was so shocking that somebody could make that shot and he did in the garden where like it's never been louder ever in the history of Madison Square Garden

so yeah those are the only two games that bring this to mind especially the Ray Allen shot because the heat were done they were going home without the championship disappointed. And that shot kept the series alive.

Of course, they ended up taking it in game seven for LeBron's second ring. But yeah, this is up there with anything I've ever seen in the playoffs as far as a finish. We're recording mere moments after this game ended. And the whiplash in my brain, I just have not fully processed yet. So I want to give you guys a choose-your-own-adventure situation here. these are thoughts I had in the final minutes of this game. One, I can't believe we ever doubted Jimmy Butler. Two, I think we just saw what might have been, or at least was almost the worst challenge

in the existence of the challenge rule in the NBA. Sure. Three, acquiring Derek White could go down as one of the most momentous traits in Boston Celtics history. Four, Duncan Robinson's two missed threes in the first. final minutes of this game might have been the series. Where do you want to go? Oh my goodness. I mean, for me, the Derek White part of it, because he just kept making big plays after

big play. He felt his way to the rim at times, of course. He's just the fact that he's no hesitation taking these jump shots opens it up so much for Tatum and Brown to have some actual breathing room and driving lanes because they know this guy is going to fire. Derek White was just a crazy and just man he really let go of that ball

at the exact moment right before the buzzer went off I knew it was I actually did see it in real time I was like no that's good I was like this guy saved the season somehow Marcus Smart almost made that damn shot by the way

as in and out as it gets fading away falling to the ground and yeah the Jimmy part man I'm the I first of all Al Horford swiping down

just a horrible file like you're terrible in the dude just put your hands up and give a great contest there's no reason to do that

um and I'm just like what a horrific way to go out you win two straight games you're up 10 in the third while you're down 03 uh

and you have this game in hand and you lose on free throws. All of us remember when we were young playing basketball, your coach told you that's the worst thing you could do on defense is foul and jump shooter. And for Alhor for the foul this dude and Jimmy just make ice cold free throws. Just the pressure. I was watching the game with my girlfriend and she asked me, she barely watches who.

But she was like, does he get a bonus for that? Because that seems really hard. He damn well should. I was like, he's not going to. to me yes, he deserves a freaking bonus for that just incredible stuff, man. This is what we watch the NBA for, man. Honestly, it makes all of those nights watching Jalen Green take terrible shots for the Houston Rockheads.

And, you know, some of the drek that we go through during the regular season, this moment tonight, this game, the last three minutes of this game, make all of that worth it. It was just incredible. Well, think about the whiplash just within the first. fourth quarter. So Horford makes the mistake there, but previously he had the stuff of BAM at the rim where everyone's like, this guy just like flashed back 10 years in his career in order to get up there in order to block BAM. You have Derek White, who what, three games ago, the Boston fan base was ready to ship his ass back to San Antonio and were wondering why Joe Mazzula kept going to him, kept

switching him on to BIM. Duncan Robinson, who is flashed between Go and Hero pretty much every game, it seems like, who was the hero in the bubble. In this game, he was incredible at moments, Justin. Like, there were moments where the Celtics just couldn't figure out

what to do on Duncan Robinson actions. That he just started running offense for Duncan Robinson. He's getting layups. He's getting three points shots. Like, there was a couple of times on offensive rebounds he got a three-up. Like, in this game, He was the catalyst to the comeback.

He was the reason why the game didn't snowball and get out of hand. Because Jimmy and Bam just didn't have it tonight. I mean, I know we're going to get to that. Obviously, Jimmy has these big moments in the last two minutes where he's just driving to the basket, sheer force of will, getting to the line. But throughout the game, he just could not get a bucket. To me, it seemed like he just didn't have any lift. He just couldn't get up, honestly.

on his shots and his finishes. And I think the proof of that was sometimes he would see Rob Williams down in the paint and not even try to score a lap. He would just back it back out and run something else. And so he didn't have it. And then, you know, to come up the way that he did at the end, just incredible stuff.

He almost had his, like, Jason Tatum against the Sixers moment, like kind of stink all game and then pull it through in the end and just got it stolen away from him by Derek White. honestly. And really, you could certainly focus on the stars of this game what they did or didn't do. And Boston just got more out of Tatum and Brown than the heat did out of Butler and out of bio. But overall, this was a role players game. This is Marcus Martin, Derek White. This is Caleb Martin. This is Duncan Robinson. All those guys came up so big in what was ultimately just like an ugly, hard-fought game where both teams' offenses completely devolved at various points. and Boston just got, again,

one play in the fraction of a second required more from one role player, and that was it. We were going to a game seven. In the second quarter, both teams shot about 20% from the floor. It felt like it. It was that type of night. The heat,

16 for 52 in the paint tonight. Jimmy just seemed like there was like a moat he could not even go into. It was almost like he was running scared from from like some boogeyman that just happened to be in the pain. And he couldn't actually, there was one point where he was on a transition run. And he kind of like dumped it off to Kyle Lowry and Lowry's like, what am I going to do with this?

But to the earlier point about Duncan, it seemed like the threes were booing everything for the heat. They ended up shooting 14 for 30 from three in this night. They doubled up the Celtics, the team that we've talked so much about this postseason, how much they live and die by the three. But at the end there, it just be.

came just a scramble. And as we've seen before in this postseason, that he thrive in that situation, the Celtics,

not so much, but the Celtics just made the right plays at the right times. Dude, so, Marcus Smart, I want to say,

had a dope game as well. Just, I like some of the stuff he was doing with the Duckins on the block. Oh,

yeah. You know, like, that stuff from just like, see, that's found money. It's rare that Boston has possessions

where it's just, like a simple sort of easy basket. I like what he was doing. The three ball was working, but he misses that big free throw. Coach Spoh asked Jimmy on the line. Do you want us to call it Tom Mar? Do you got it?

Jimmy Butler's like, nah, I got this. And proceeds to get found on a three-point shot. To get put up by one point, it was it was a crazy. Another thing I want to talk about is Tatum's first half. That was the first half. That was the first half out of my dreams, y'all, for Jason Tatum.

Because it wasn't, you know, when he dropped that 50 that game, a lot of it was the step back was working and he's swishing his threes and all of that. This was him putting his head down, getting downhill. I think he had about 11 free throws in the first half alone, 25 points in the first half. I'm like, man, this is the Tatum that we dream of, that we hope this guy can be on a more. more consistent basis. And they needed all of that from Tatum in the first half. I want to give them props for that first half because it was as good as I've ever seen Jason Tatum play.

And he would have gotten a lot of blowback if the Celtics had lost this game for the way he played in the second half, like went scoreless for long stretches in ways that people get frustrated by. I'm with you, though, was where to me, he bought himself so much goodwill and bought the Celtics so much margin for error with the way he played in that first half. Yes, he could have maybe made this game a little bit less dramatic if he had scored

a bit more in the second half, but ultimately he embarrassed the heat. With his play in transition, with his straight line drives, blowing past people, he did to Butler in a lot of cases what Jimmy's been doing to other guys all throughout these playoffs, like baiting him into fouls, getting angles on him.

Honestly, like there were so many cases where the heat just looked like they were totally scrambling whenever Tateham would push. And that ultimately ended up being a really important factor in this game. No matter what happened for him in the second half, his first half was that good that it swung it. How much do we think what happened before this game just evolved into just like the mess that it was at the end there was just the showing up of the heat finally running out of gas? Now being in game six, riding Jimmy and Bam so hard. As we referenced earlier, combined Bam and Jimmy were nine for 37 from the floor.

And it just seemed like there wasn't the same umph that this team had in the past. Obviously, they've been dealing with some injuries, gave Vincent spacked in. They basically relegated love to just left bench at this point. So they're playing so many more minutes with fewer guys, older guys. And for a while, it seemed like a slog. And this seemed like destined to go seven just because of that. Obviously, they fought back. But I do wonder if this is the worst possible scenario for the heat where not only

going back home to Boston's home, but you're doing so after this game when you're already showing signs of fatigue, Rob. I think where it's hard to read that as far as, like, are the heat just exhausted or are they kind of like pushed past their limit? It's hard to make that argument when they still play so hard.

And like even Jimmy and Bam in this game, they're going after every rebound. They're digging in. Like, they're working. But like, like, while I said, like Jimmy just didn't really have the same lift, and what makes him in particular hard to read is there are series

and there are games like we saw in Milwaukee where he just is making everything. And then there are games where honestly it's not just that he's missing jumpers, but there's this strange thing that happens to him where it gets like a little streaky inside. And all of a sudden it's like he has yips on the layups. And he some of that is like he plays for fouls

a lot of the time. So he's baiting contact more than he's trying to convert on some of those attempts. He finally got some of those calls over the course of this game, especially in the late fourth. But is that Jimmy Butler being Jimmy Butler? Or is that Jimmy Butler being tired? Yeah, it's hard to say, honestly,

because listening to the broadcast, they were really killing Jimmy Butler in the entire game. Like, Jimmy's got to get going. He's the biggest guy on the team. He's got to get going. Jimmy, Jimmy, what's going on with Jimmy? Jimmy, Jimmy. How many possessions did he start that went nowhere

and then he passed out to Caleb Martin with six seconds left on the shot clock? Right. But that's another thing. He had about nine assists. So he had a good first. floor game. It's not like he wasn't doing other things for the team, but the reason

why I think, I don't know if his fatigue on the broadcast, they did mention that he might have a slight knee issue. They just said it in passing. But to me, it's about the blowbyes. He just wasn't blowing by guys the way he was earlier in this series.

Right. But he was still trying, I mean, he still got the shots up. He took a nice amount of attempts. He was trying to will his team to victory. Just, he just didn't have it tonight. And, you know, we'll see what happens in game seven. But yeah, tonight just wasn't Jimmy's night in that way, especially in the ways that we've seen them do throughout the course of these playoffs. So the Celtics are the fourth team ever to be down 30 to

force a game seven, 51 Knicks, 94 Nuggets, the 03 Trailblazers, which I'm sure, Rob, you remember that series against the Mavericks. Absolutely. They are the only team that is going to be playing game seven at home because, as you might figure, all these other teams were the underdogs. They weren't the top seed in the matchups. And obviously, no team in NBA history has ever come back from down 3-0. These are the stakes, Rob, going into game seven. I, for one, did not expect us to be here. I think every game after the heat would win, I'd be like, oh, this, or the Celtics would win. I assume things would reset. But here we are, like, what do you think is the biggest reason why

the Celtics have been able to come back here. Do you think this is as much like the heat running out of gas or the Celtics finally doing what they typically do to a bonus that they've done all season? I think as much as anything, like we mentioned, okay, Miami's missing all these shots in the paint.

The other way to say it is that Boston's forcing a lot of misses in the paint. They are contesting shots just at a totally different level than they were over the first couple games in this series. That to me is the difference. the Celtics do not win this game if they are not playing incredibly

high level playoff defense and that's the evolution right some of that is like the way the rotation has evolved and getting guys like Grant Williams more and more involved some of and in some cases getting Rob Williams a little less involved right like this is not necessarily always

the best matchup for him Derek White again another not only a guy who's hitting a game winning tip but a really crucial defender for them played 42 minutes in this game right got it got an on ball block on Jimmy Butler forced to jump jump ball on Jimmy Butler came up with huge plays against the guy who was trying to make all of

them for the heat. So the fact that you're getting this cohesive defensive effort, that's the change. And that ultimately is like what has shifted the course of this series. To echo what Rob said, there was the last, the final possession of the third quarter, I think Boston was up about seven points. And they, uh, the heat grab a rebound and they're in transition. They're taking it all. the way to the basket and Boston sprints back and they block a guy at the rim. I'm like, see,

now this is a group that is focused and is playing with some toughness now. And by toughness, I mean, mastering the will to get all the way back on defense on transition, give an incredible contest to the point where you're blocking a guy, you're meeting a guy at the rim. Like, that's what it takes. That's toughness. It's not about giving flagrant files and, you know, getting in guys faces and all of that. Toughness is literally, you know, miss, that's like the hardest thing to do.

You miss one at the cup where it's like, oh my God, I can't believe I missed the layup. And the other team is flying down and they get all the way back and get the stop. You know, the first three games of the series,

that play is not happening. You know, the fact that they did that in the third quarter shows me, they're just playing with a different level of mental toughness right now. And if they continue it, I mean, you got to think they have a great chance to beat Miami on their home floor. I'm almost loathe to mention this because I feel like I'm feeding the worst parts of Boston sports fandom.

But this was a big game for like force of will, heart of a champion kind of shit, right? Like the number of huge plays that the Celtics got from all corners, these are the kind of moments that when you look back at a finals run or a championship run, these come up in the real. These are in the montage, the Derek White tip to win this game. Yeah, this is going to be on the Boston Celtics version of Come Fly With Me video on VHS. For sure.

I just dated myself, kids. How is it that the Celtics are the same team that could go down 03 despite what seemed to be an obvious talent, like just disparity between the two teams? Even like factoring in all the heats

like culture stuff that pushed them to this point. in the playoffs. Clearly the better team in the regular season can also be the team that's just throwing games away. Basically, just turning it over left and right is so goddamn

sloppy that you wonder how they even made it out of the first round, let alone into the Eastern Conference finals. And yet is also the team that has now won what? Five straight elimination games in the biggest stakes to

basically tell their opponent, don't give us one and then to back that up. Yeah. We all made fun of them and then here they are just making good on that. Even forcing this game seven is kind of a miracle. Well, speaking of backing it up,

how do we feel about, so the Celtics said don't let us get one, they backed it up. Jimmy Butler said, we will win game six. He kind of backed it up. He did step to the line and hit the free throws, but they lost. Does he get partial credit for that? Hmm. An incomplete? I think it's an incomplete.

Incomplete. Didn't finish the job. I was just going to give him an S for satisfactory. Oh, okay. It's fine. You showed up. You played hard. You tried.

It's cool. But no, like, the craziest thing in, you know, oftentimes in media, we like to, well, by we, I mean, me, I like to pat ourselves on the back when we get something right. And, you know, before the series started, we gave our predictions. And I was like, I think Boston is just. is way better. They're going to throw up all over themselves in the process of doing it, but they're going to win the series in six or seven games. I mean, come on.

Actually winning this series in this fashion would be the most extreme version. This is like projectile vomiting on yourself and like crapping your pants too at the same time. Like this is the most extreme version of showing your ass and then ultimately pulling the thing. Like, this is craziness. But then landing like the prom queen while covered in feces and vomit.

I'm trying to figure out what the proxy is here. I'm a little lost on the metaphor. I gotta be honest with you. I don't, shit is flying somewhere, but I'm not sure who's responsible or why. Just think of a baby. Just think of a toddler. That's it. So do we have any strong

feelings for one team or another going into seven? Do we have any like any X's and O's things to point out about like what can happen or is this all at this point just force of will like just pulling from within yourself type shit. Well here's one X and O thing that I thought was interesting is the heat basically saved their zone for that final home stretch. They basically didn't run at all game which you'll see this sometimes when it's like you put the zone enough on tape. Opponents start looking at it and shoot around it and film and then you just like don't let them go to their designed zone.

counters for basically the entire game. And then at an opportune moment, you bust it out and see if they have the mental acuity and focus to go to exactly what they plan to do. And it really worked, right? It was really a crucial part of what allowed Miami to close this game. And so I do wonder, what is the deployment of that in a potential game seven? Do you want it more because it worked well? Do you want it exactly this much because you don't want to overexpose it?

It's such a valuable tool for Miami in some of these games, but you can see it's limitations for sure. And they even just gave up some offensive rebounds to Boston that were painful for them too. Yeah, I think this is just classic,

I don't know. Once you get to the seventh game, there's no more defensive or offensive adjustments. Like, I think back to game seven in the finals of 2016, where it's not like,

there was no great stuff being ran by the end of that game, man. It was just a matter of Steph not making the show. against Kevin Love and Kyrie making a really tough shot over Steph, right? I'm sorry, Ben Cruz. Well, I'm just saying, like, once you get to the game seven,

these teams know exactly what each other are doing. And it's just going to come down to, like, bam out of bio. Don't go three for 18. We'll settle for seven of 18. You know, like, Jimmy, same thing. Like, just play better. But, man, I don't know how you could have watched the first. first six games of this series and think you have

an actual handle and think you know what these guys are going to do in game seven. Obviously you guys didn't watch the two minutes for Sam Hauser. There's still a lot left to figure out there. What did that reveal to you? What did it open in terms of possibilities?

Yeah, I mean, certainly. Indisputably. Why would they raise that on the road though? Well, that's what they're doing. Celtics fans would have ate that up. They're giving you a taste now. So when he comes back and drops 30 in the next game, it'll be like coming back for vengeance.

Yeah. What are we going to say, Rob? We probably need to talk about Bam a little more. Yeah. Okay. Extremely tough game for him. I thought as a rebounder was exceptional. Defensively played pretty well.

Yeah. But man, those misses were really, really painful just in terms of, you know, some of it's like tougher, mid-range type stuff, but had lots of really good looks

on hooks and around the basket, on putbacks. Those are contested, you know, they are. Like, he's being bodied a little bit. He's being pushed here and there and held and challenged in terms of guys swiping down at him. But you just have to convert some of those if you're in this circumstance. It's that, you know, Jimmy had his moment of redemption in the end.

I'm not sure Bam ever really had anything equivalent to that in this game. Yeah, and for me, I understand sometimes you can't attack Rob Williams in the paint as if he's, he's, you know, some turnstile. But, I mean, when Creaky Al Horford is guarding you, you've got the age, the athleticism advantage. I feel like he should be able to generate better looks going downhill, especially when he's doing his off-the-dribble,

semi-transition stuff. He should be able to eat against Al Horford in those situations. And Grant Hill, Grant Williams. Definitely Grand Hill. Especially. But, yeah. man, bam, that was tough tonight. And again, it's not as if

he's playing timid or passive. He's just not making shots. And, you know, that just is what it is. He's one where I definitely started to wonder if the fatigue was starting to weigh in there. And I know it's tough to just project this stuff from afar, but a lot of his shots just seem

to be short or flat. Yep. And that push shot, especially from right in front of the basket, is really where he's going to do most of his eating. And if he's not doing that, like, then it becomes a really tough proposition for him. I do want to... Go ahead.

In his defense and Jimmy's defense, 46 minutes for Bam, 47 minutes for Jimmy, and hard-ass minutes. You know, like these... One would certainly understand at this point in their run if they were exhausted.

I'm not sure if that's the reason they lost, but could you really blame them? Yeah. Can we do a quick Joe Missoula check-in? Because we did one the other day, and now things have changed pretty significantly. I do wonder at this point

if the Celtics are saying to themselves, well, maybe we actually have to bring this guy back now. Like before, if they had just been swept out of the playoffs, he was such an easy, the fall guy for all of their many situations. Like maybe it makes the Jalen Brown situation

a little easier to handle if you just say, hey, we'll get you a more established coach like you had in Adoka. I think it would be tough now after they've come back and made this miraculous comeback, even if they lose seven to get rid of our guy, Joe, and making the fog, especially wise, as you pointed out,

our guy is taking timeouts left and right. He likes timeouts now. He's like grease and palms at like the MGM casino out here with these timeouts. He sprinted down the sidelines to get a timeout because he thought the ref wouldn't hear him. Incredible. Oh, just like, yeah, this guy is Black Popovich now, obviously.

But no, the thing is, look, I led to charge in just absolutely killing this freaking guy during the first three games in the series. I was just like, this is pathetic. Boston fans should be pissed that their ownership and management sent them into battle with a complete novice of a coach. So, you know, as extreme as I was with the criticism, I got to. got to give it up to them for the praise. These guys have won three straight games with their back against the wall. Like, a lot of times we say that in sports, but it's not really true. Like, it was actually true.

We're talking about jobs on the line. We're hearing about, well, Jalen wasn't really feeling the flirtation with KD and blah, blah, blah, blah. We're talking about huge ramifications, you know, like the core might be cooked. That's what's on the line here. But we're talking about going down 03. and to come back and do this, and it feels like, yes, the group is more connected defensively.

He's actually taking timeouts and to stop runs. And, like, you know, you take, again, I say this whole of time, like, you take a timeout to stop the bleeding. You run one of your best, you know, out of timeout plays and get a basket. Look, it's a sunnier outlook.

Like, coaches have been doing this since 10 buck two. Do you know what I'm saying? So I don't want to say he's completely off the hook for some of the stuff that's happened this postseason, he does need to stop watching the town, but I got to give him his props for presiding over this.

I'm expecting that one. No. I'll never letting that one go. It's just an incredible story. But I think the important thing is look, there are lots of reasons coaches get fired. Optics is often one of them. And if you lose a series in distressing

and disappointing fashion, as Boston would have if they got swept out or even just say they lost in five but they got blown out again in game five that definitely could have cost him his job but there's also the fact of like okay did they win three straight

games and that saved them enough face for him not to get fired and then there's like what does it mean for them to win these three straight games? I think the most important thing is that there is a responsive quality here like they are clearly responding to something he is doing some of the tactics some of the motivational stuff

whether it's the Red Sox tie-ins, whether it is the town bullshit, whatever it is, it's working. And so a lot of the reasons why, I'm obviously with why, it's like, yes, there are lots of things you can point to with Joe Mazul and with lots of playoff coaches over the course of their runs and say, like, you probably shouldn't have done this, you probably shouldn't have done that. Maybe you shouldn't have challenged that foul on Jimmy Butler that kind of accidentally turned a two-shot foul into a three-shot foul. That's right. That was extremely tough. that's crazy that's fucking crazy that maybe that would have gotten

him fired could you imagine if they lost on that look in fairness maybe they would have checked it out anyway and changed it to a three but there was something

just so serendipitous about it coming as a result of the challenge that felt like challenging an obvious foul dude an obvious foul all of which is to say

zoom out on Joe he has cleared his name enough to not be the fall guy for a disaster series. That's really important in this situation. And he's done it by actually getting his team to play well and not just like putting up a token fight at the end to like make the margin look a little bit better. By the way, and it's worth noting that Coach Spow, who pretty much everybody thinks is the

best coach in the NBA right now, he was a really young guy when he took over for the heat. He was like, like Missoula. He was the pet project of the president. president of basketball operations. He was sort of like the golden boy in that situation. Coach Spoh was not this good when he first started. No. He made some huge mistakes Spoh did in 2011 during that run.

And really it took him, like he always had that quality where he could take. Damn, Rob, let Dexter Pittman go already. Jesus. As the University of Texas grad, I will never let Dexter Pittman go. That's true. But the thing smoke could always do is take undermanned

less talented rosters and win with them. He did that before LeBron and Chris Bosch ever showed up. But learning the mechanics of how to manage a super team was something that took him time and took him time to grow into what that responsibility is

and how tactically you do it and you sell it to the guys involved. And so of course there's a learning curve for anyone, Joe Missoula included. How much of coaching is just people management? If you talk to people in the league, they would say it's more than perhaps ever,

especially as players gain more and more power in certain situations. And at the very least from this, you wonder if this provides, if they lose game seven, even the Celtics, this might galvanize them to want to bring Joe back to complete what they started, right? They're wearing unfinished business and that stupid with the 18 somehow baked into

unfinished across their chest. This is now at least a rallying cry that you could bring, you could all come together around, right? That unfinished business shirt is a typeface disaster. It's awful. The Kearning? Just awful. Disaster.

I want to read this one stat, from ESPN stats and info. Derek White is the second player in NBA history to make a game-winning buzzer-beater when facing elimination and his team trailed prior to the shot. The other player, Michael Jordan, 1989 versus the Cleveland Cavalier. also known as the shop. Wow. It's pretty good. Shouts to Craig Elo.

For game seven, can we just get like a picture and picture with what Nicola Yokic is doing amidst all of these guys just like killing themselves? Like I just want to see him like eating an ice cream sandwich watching the yellow jacket season finale. A picture and picture of Bill

because I text him after the game. I was like, wow, what a game. He just texted me back two words, heart attack. He was actually asking you to call the ambulance because he was actually having a heart attack. That was my life alert message to you. You were supposed to relay, Was. Oh, my goodness. Yeah, no, just crazy.

And yeah, if you're Denver, you got to be rooting for Miami, right? Like, that seems like her. I think they probably already got what they wanted that this is going seven and there's going to be nothing less. of either team by the time they make it to the finals next week. Oh yeah, even in this game, we had Rob Williams suffer would look like a wrist injury or hand injury of some kind. Had to leave the game temporarily. Bam fell on Jimmy Butler's right knee in a way that

I kind of, I was like, is Jimmy going to continue to play in this game? I honestly don't know. Malcolm Brogden's already out of it. Gabe Vincent was playing on like a mummified foot wrapped to death so he could roll out there. Either team that makes it through is going to be pretty beat up. Yeah. I just want the Yokic like Manning cast and it's just him hanging out with his family like playing botchy ball or something. Man, he would be a mean bachi ball player. I don't want any part of that guy. Did you guys see like I guess they're holding interviews in the interim in Denver with the finals background already up on some of these? There was one where it was like a Greek reporter who clearly had booked his tickets way in advance and now has to make something out of the Denver Nuggets who ostensibly do not have.

have a group player that I know. He's going to be in the finals. He's like, so he's asking Bruce Brown, like what he could take away from Janus or something? And Bruce Brown's like, uh, nothing. He asked Bruce Brown, what he could learn from Janice's greatness? I think it was more like takeaway from like his past finals or something. He was clearly trying to build a connection in order to write something out of this because his readers aren't going to find much in the heat nuggets NBA finals.

unfortunately. Hey, I respect the hustle. I respect the grind. Do what you got to do? Totally. Totally. Why don't we take a quick break? I do want to talk about some recent coaching news. All right. Earlier in the day, we did get the first domino of what should be a pretty chaotic and eventful coaching carousel here. The Bucks hired Adrian Griffin, who had been a Raptor's assistant under Nick Nairz for the past couple seasons. He's going to take over for Mike Boonhulzer, who is also trolling through the ranks of what seems to be a couple prime job opening, sons, Sixers, we'll see whom else. Rob, what do we think about the hire overall?

On the one hand, Griffin has been in the league for 15 years now as an assistant paid his dues, seemed like he was a hot assistant coach for a while. On the other hand, first time head coach coming into a situation that's going to be highly pressurized. Yeah, he's been one of the most interviewed assistants in the league over time. I mean, this is a guy who's been connected. I'm just trying to even think of all the teams, the jazz, the magic for sure. the Sixers, the Lakers before Darvinham, the Bulls,

he just pops up in all those conversations. A lot of them had slowed recently because there was this very notable, very concerning, accusation from his ex-wife, Audrey Sterling, who accused him of committing just like a number of awful violent acts back in 2020, back during the bubble, was when it kind of really came to a head. That situation evolved in the sense that Griffin denied them outright.

He sued his ex-wife for liable. That case was settled. you can make of all that what you will, but I think it absolutely had a chilling effect on exactly this kind of situation. Would a team be willing to put him in this position again? Clearly the bucks are fine with whatever kind of resolution was reached there.

Players in the league vouched for Adrian Griffin all the time. Clearly there's something about him that people like working with, but it's complicated, right? I don't know how to parse all that stuff. I don't know how to make sense of it. other than to say it's clearly changed the trajectory of his coaching career. It led him to this point.

Now he ends up, weirdly enough, with a prime opportunity to coach one of the best players in the world. Yeah, and for me, I think all of the controversy that sort of slowed his rise to the side, I think the model of former league guy who paid his dues as an assistant feels like a winning one. because they have the credibility of having been there. So they can talk to these guys for real, right? Hold these guys accountable with the Darwin Ham's. E. Mayor Docken, his recklessness off the court notwithstanding. Like, Darvinham, like, these guys seem to do great jobs with star groups, right?

They seem to come with a certain level of credibility and cachet. And again, like, that's not to say that Jay Kidd or Chauncey Billups, can't be good at the job. I think there's just something about a role guy now doing it and his ability to communicate with the people. Steve Kerr, for example, talks about his experience as being a role guy and forming his coaching style.

I like this hire in that sense. It's like it's a guy who played, a guy who paid his dues actually coaching, okay, and learning from people. and now he finally gets his shot. I think this is the way it's supposed to work, honestly. Yeah, you saw this happen around the time that Willie Green, for instance, took over for Stan Van Gundy.

I think there is a surge in teams wanting to target head coaches that could speak to players first and foremost. That interpersonal relationship stuff I was talking about with Joe Mizzula, especially as staffs grow to like what? Are they even putting in third rows of benches at this point, considering how big some of these assistant coaching staffs are? I think the question is, what does Griffin really believe in? Because you saw his two predecessors in Kid and then Budenholzer, having very specific style of coaches,

kid for all of his many flaws, was a bit experimental. He was the first person to really empower Janus as something of a point-orget-top. And then you had Bud who went almost the opposite way. He did keep feeding into Janus's unique skill set, but he built in a structure to the point where his firm belief in the structure ultimately probably led to his exit. I do wonder, like, what does Griffin want to do on top of what buds put in there? And so, Rob, if you were Griffin, like, what's, like, number one on your priority? Is it getting buy-in or is it something structurally that you have noticed that they need to fix? Like, what are you doing as, like,

your first point of, like, X's and O's, like, style just on your hit list here? Well, you don't go anywhere without the buy-in. And it's certainly meaningful that it's been reported that Yannis signed off on this deal and vouched for Adrian Griffin as a guy he would like to work with.

That's certainly meaningful in the construction of your team. But look, it's about diversification. It's about getting the bucks a wider variety of ways to play. So it's not just blunt force offense all the time

that the defense can evolve over the course of series and over the course of playoff runs. It's the same old stuff that we've always been talking about with Mike Boone Holzer that if everything lines up right, that approach won you a championship.

But we saw a lot of, in a lot of ways, with the limitations of it was. And when you have Janus, one of the most versatile defensive players in existence, one of the most impactful two-way players that we've ever seen in the history of the game, there's just no reason or room to be as dogmatic as the bucks were. And so we have to see them continue to evolve.

We have to see Adrian Griffin come into this post as someone who has a little Nick Nurse in him, has a little bit of, like, let's throw some things at the wall and see what sticks. And if it doesn't work, we're going to scrap it and we're going to change our approach, even if it's in the middle of a game.

Yeah, I got nothing to add to Griff as far as what he's going to do with the team. Once they report that Janus is on board, I mean, that's kind of job number one, right? If you got buying from the superstar, it kind of allows you and gives you the room to go out and be a damn coach, right? And do that other stuff.

Just some of the minutia of our business I want to bring to you guys. Because the first tweet that Shams put out, it says, sources, after Nick Nurse pulled out of the process. Yes. The Bucks are deciding between a Toronto Raptors assistant, Aegean and Griffin, and Golden State assistant, Kenny Ackinson, to be the next coach. Griffin is gaining traction. Then when Shams and Corrine and Eric Nem of the Athletic put out the, you know, when he gets hired, it says, Adrian Griffin's hire comes with the endorsement from Janice. Griffin beat out fellow finalist Kenny Atkinson and Nick Nurse.

So which one is it? Did he pull out or did he get beat? out. I find that stuff fascinating. Well, especially because it changes a lot of what is an ongoing Nick Nurse story

of where he's going to end up. If he pulls out of this race of this candidacy, probably speaks to him being pretty confident about getting, I would say, in particular,

the Sixers job or the son's job. But if he's beat out, he's just in line. He's just in line like everyone else. One bit of context here is, that that Shams report happened, and then within seconds, I believe,

Woge then reported that it is, in fact, Griffin. So this could have been the case, which often happens, where one newsbreaker knows that the news is going to break or one's going to say something before the other, and Shams just put out what he knew, that it was looking like it was Griffin, but this is what I have now, but then by the time they wrote the story,

that might either be the fully fleshed out version, or as we've also seen maybe the more PR-sanctioned version. I think that the only thing that we could probably discuss here is that Nick Nurse is not going to be the Bucks coach, which makes him now a candidate in Phoenix and also in Philly. And I, for one, would love to see him in Philly just work with a different type of roster than he's had before just to see if his like mad genius can perhaps put a new spin on what they have. A lot of it depends on if Hardin comes back. But there's a lot to work with there. and I do wonder if someone who's a little bit more intonuitive or is a little bit more

crafty with like how they're deploying some of those guys that the Sixers can practically roll this back and have better results than they have with Doc this postseason. Can I put a little asterisk on the Nick Nurse resume? Sure.

Regarding craftiness. Yeah. I'll just say he gets a lot of credit for the Box and one. Well, I mean, for the triangle in two. Box and one is a monumental decision. That is a final swinging decision potentially.

But he has this reputation. I was just speaking to it in terms of being able to throw things at the wall. To me, that applies much more defensively than offensively. And we have this tendency to say, like, oh, he's such a creative coach about all the things he draws up, about putting these guys in particular positions.

Man, the Raptor's offense certainly hasn't looked good for a little while now. And they haven't had everything they need to succeed. And they've had injuries. Like, look, we can go down the list of caveats, but I mean, he's not making magic happen offensively just yet. You're saying defensive Mike Dantony.

I don't even know what that means. I don't think I know what it means either. And maybe all that gets wiped away when you have Joel Embed or Kevin Durant or whoever to work with. I'm sure that's going to help a lot. But to this point, I don't know that we've seen Nick Ners be some kind of masterful offensive coach. I think we've seen him be a very creative defensive coach

and one who's clearly willing to hold players accountable in a way that could be interesting with some of these super teams. From that point, we'll have to see. Yeah, I just continue to be amazed that Nurse, Vogel, and Budenhouser don't have jobs in the NBA. They won championships like just the other day.

It's just crazy how the coaching thing works. Yeah. I, for one, would like to see Nick Nurse with more than one three-point shooter and then we can probably get a better feel for what he is, but I think it's a good point to bring up. All right, why don't we wrap it there? Thank you to Eduardo Ocampo on production.

Thank you to Ben Cruz for filling in here. We'll be back on Wednesday. We'll see what is left to talk about there. Hopefully there will be at least one team in the Eastern Conference still going. We'll see you next time.