The Ringer NBA Show - Raptors Snatch Last-Half-Second Victory From Celtics, Bucks Still Can’t Take the Heat, and Steve Nash Named New Nets Head Coach | The Mismatch

Episode Date: September 4, 2020

Chris Vernon and Kevin O’Connor dive into the Raptors’ huge one-point victory over the Boston Celtics to stay in their second-round series (1:51), beg Mike Budenholzer to play Giannis and Middleton for 40 minutes (19:40), mourn the exhausted Denver Nuggets after their blowout loss against the Clippers (40:23), debate what could constitute a “small” Lakers lineup against the Rockets in their Round 2 matchup (45:40), and finally discuss the hiring of Steve Nash as the new Brooklyn Nets head coach (1:02:26). Hosts: Chris Vernon and Kevin O'Connor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Or in West Virginia, visit www.8,800 gambler.net. call 1-800-9 with it or in Colorado call 1-800-5-22-470-7-00. Welcome to The Ringer NBA show. I'm Chris Vernon. Join him as he does every Friday on the Ringer.com is Kevin O'Connor, aka Kevin O'Bomber, Kevin O'Connor, Kevin O'Connor, Kevin O'Conflict, Kevin O'Clyland, Kevin O'Brien, Kevin O'Brien. Burnow! Playoff basketball, baby. Oh, my goodness, we have had so much go on, even since we last spoke on Tuesday morning.

Tonight, notwithstanding, as we record this, on Thursday evening, which is this dreadful Clippers Nuggets game, which is still going on at time we're recording. We went ahead and started recording. 10278 as we start recording in the fourth quarter. It's over. Yeah, tonight, notwithstanding, just an insane run of games. Since we last spoke, we've had two game sevens that went down to a last shot. We had a game two between Milwaukee and Miami that ends at a free throw line with zero's up the clock. And then we have tonight, the early game that ended with two of the best plays to end a game that you could ever see. So let's start with that, which was the reigning

champs, the Toronto Raptors. Really, you can't be more on the ropes than they are at the end of that game. And it was looking good for them for a while. They certainly started finally, for the first time in the series hitting three-pointers in the second half of the game. Kyle Lowry was going big and then Boston has this real surge

late in the game and it looks like it's a reality. They could really go down 3-0 in this series but instead, as we know, you have the Kimball Walker

one of the, I mean, the best passes you could ever see in a clutch moment only to be outdone by a ridiculous inbound play with Ananoi hitting a three. So let's start with that.

You know, so much happening at the end of that game, but then as you take a second, and now we've had a little while to think about what we witnessed, what are you left thinking about the most from Toronto, Boston? I mean, that inbound play saved the series,

obviously. It goes without saying, but after the game, Lowry said that pass was nothing. It was all about a shot. I mean, that's just goofy, to take your word right there.

It was one of the best in bounds passes that I've ever seen in my entire life over Taco Fall, who as Laurie said, is 7 foot 12. And it was just right where it needed to be for OG and Anobi to go straight into a shot. If that was a couple inches lower, a couple inches higher, OG's out of his shot. It's out of his shot pocket. He's uncomfortable. He maybe has to dip the ball to get into his usual mechanics, but he just had to go straight up with it, released it with 0.1 left on the clock with Jalen Brown closing in. It was a remarkable pass.

And obviously, I mean, the guts for Oji and Innova, just to stay focused in that moment with so little time left. It was remarkable. And Boston blew the coverage. Brown said it after the game. He blew it. It was miscommunication on the switch between Tatum and Brown at the end of that play. OG cut from the right baseline to the left baseline. Tatum passed him along to Brown, but the switch didn't happen. partially because of the timing of the hard Van Bleak cut that happened across the court. It's just a flummoxed Boston's offense in the worst possible way. But more than anything else, which is just sticking in my mind is Kyle Lari put an exclamation point at the end of a tremendous game for him, 31 points on 13 of 23 with eight assists, six rebounds, with really good defense as well.

With that pass that I'll remember for a long time, it was incredible. Yeah. A shout out to our buddy Jared Weiss, who called. covers the Celtics for the athletic, he chronicled everything that the Celtics are saying after the game from the locker room as he normally does. And he says to confirm about where that play was supposed to go at the end, the first option is Van Vleet in the corner. And Boston totally shut that down. And then the second is this zipper cut that Siakum takes towards a basket. it and they shut that down too, and then they blew the backside switch.

But they had shut down the whole play and forced him to make a pass over Taco Fall. I mean, that's one of those where honestly, they can be mad at themselves, harp on a blown coverage, but they did exactly what you want to do, which is make somebody go to their third option and make an incredible play. And the Raptors just did it. Like, you just tip your cap at that point, honestly. Like, you can't do everything perfect. You know what I mean? You can't do everything unless you're the rocket.

And you're going up against a ridiculous in-bounds play. The juxtaposition between those, the back-to-back nights is crazy. And like, it's not just that. Like, Houston played that out-of-bounds play perfectly at the end of the OKC and Houston, but also the difference between Nick Nurse and Billy Donovan. Nick Nurse puts in Kyle Lari, his most reliable passer, to make the most difficult pass of the game. Donovan puts in his second year guard,

Shea Gildes Alexander, who is not Chris Paul, who is not even Dennis Schroeder for that matter, in terms of having experience in big game moments. And I felt like SGA in that moment did panic a little bit. It was an inaccurate pass. It just was. Whereas Kyle Lowry just put it right on the money.

That was a bullseye. Like I said, that literally could not. I say literally to mean literally here. it literally could not have been more accurate. It could not have been. It was perfect. I don't know if you've seen the screen caps of it. It is over the backboard.

The shot clock. Yeah, over the shot clock. It's higher than the shot clock. When somebody like grafted out, he has to throw that thing so high. And as you as you mentioned earlier, he goofed about Taco Fall being 7 foot 12. Have you ever been around him? I've been around them a couple times. Yeah.

The past year is hazy in my mind, but I think I was. So he played for Central Florida, and he was there every year, and they play Memphis every year. So I was around him then. And then I went and watched him play in person in the G League this year and was right up next to him after the game. It is unfathomable that a human being could be that big. It is like, you see, it's one of those things where you see it on paper.

And you're like, oh, he's seven, what is he, seven, five or something like that. But then when you are in person and you are looking up, you're like, how do you even, how do you even live like day to day life? Like, I mean, like getting in a car, getting in a car or, you know, ducking under every doorway that you ever walk through. So to get the pass over a guy like that and his outstretched arms took you honestly throwing it over the shot clock. as you said, total bullseye. And one thing that helped there is no fans in the arena, no baseline seats. He's able to step back a couple more inches, couple more feet, and able to get that angle for the necessary trajectory to get the pass over him into the corner.

If you have fans right behind you, there's just not enough space on the out of bounds area. And like that's one minor difference that we're seeing maybe with corner three shooters, not having people right on their backs, breathing down their neck, or seeing it with inbound passes as well, Lowry had space. And that's like one of the X factors that every team, you know, is dealing with for better or for worse, for better for Toronto in that case,

for much worse for Boston. But ultimately, man, like Toronto does seem to have figured some things out. In this game, they effectively bothered what Boston wants to do on offense by playing zone. We saw different looks from them in the defensive end of the court, which is what Nurse and the Raptors have done throughout the season. And for the Celtics, for the most part, they had very few possessions where they got easy shots against the zone. And I would expect to see a lot more of that from Toronto moving forward.

Of course, Brad Stevens and the Celtics coaching staff is going to try to find some adjustments to really pick that apart. But it's been good for Toronto all year long. And they just throw it out randomly sometimes. Those come out for a possession or two and go back to man. And that's what makes it so hard is when you don't know what's coming as the offense. And then like one possession, they're dropping pick and roll, one possession, they're blitzing, next possession, they're in zone. You don't know what to do and your mind's always working. And then that's what screws up.

Maybe you're a focus on making the accurate pass or looking for a cutter, whatever it may be. If you're making someone think and they're not acting naturally, that's when mistakes happen. And Toronto has done a great job of that all year long. And even though they won game three just by one point on a crazy moment, I feel like there was some good things that they had in that game to take moving forward. I mean, they are 100% right back in this series down to 1. I mean, this is anything but over. Well, and such a great chess mess between those two coaches because you know,

Nickner, through, I mean, that's what you ask. You ask for your coach to be able to switch things up for you and make this more difficult for your opponent and make things easier for you. And they did, you know, they were going to lose that game outside of the miracle play and shot at the end. But I don't think it could take away from the fact that they certainly looked more like themselves in the second half of that again. Down the stretch, they really kept getting back behind Gassal and it was a real problem.

Because the Celtics, again, this is the chess. They started to figure it out. Jalen Brown starts sneaking behind. starts making mince me to that zone, as did Kemmel Walker, man. You mentioned Gasol, he's not himself. Right. He's either old or dealing with something, you know, with his body. He just doesn't look right. It looked like, to me, it looked like

something's wrong with one of his legs. That's what I thought when I was watching it. But I might be wrong about that. But I would not be surprised if we find out that something is bothering me. It could be a, I mean, he's had foot issues I don't know if it's a foot, if it's a knee, you never know. And he's playing a lot of minutes, more minutes, right? And he's old. Yeah, and that team was working people throughout the season, you know?

You're seeing it with Milwaukee too. It's like, oh, God, now our best players, like, we're not used to our guys having to be there late in the fourth quarter. We're usually up by 10, you know, when it comes to that point. The other thing I'll say on the Nick Nurse thing is, I don't know if you saw after the game, but I was laughing. He said they asked him about the play, and he said he got it from an old Hubey Brown DVD that he has. And Mark Spears reported that that's where the play came from. And shout out to Hubey Brown.

He was the first coach that I covered day in, day out. And I learned the immense amount of basketball just listening to him day in and day out. and he always talks like a clinician. So it was nice to see him get some just desserts on that. That being said, the first response when I clicked on the tweet was Billy Donovan needs Hughie Brown DVDs. I was like, damn, man.

Damn. But it just goes to show that these coaches. To Billy Donovan might not be the head coach of O.K.C. for a long. His contract is up. Well, they go. These coaches find stuff everywhere. everywhere. That's what you find. And I love stories like that, right? Where it's, you know, where did that play come from? Yeah, yeah. Some old Hubey Brown DVD. And he pulls it out in the biggest

moment of their entire season, right? Crazy. Hebrew rounds watching somewhere, you know, half asleep from the coach. Does he do radio? I don't know. He does do radio sometimes. I'm not sure if he is during the postseason, but he does do radio sometimes, but he's watching the game somewhere and he's like, that's my play. But you know what? Hubey Brown's like, where'd I get that from? You know, from this high school coach or this college game that I was watching.

You know, everything's passed on from someone to somewhere. And it's pretty cool though that Nick Ness did a shout out Hubey for that. I am glad. I am glad that this series is going you know, I mean, look, I guess it could still possibly go

five games, but you know, your inclination is that it goes longer. I think it goes longer. And I would have been, honestly, I'm sorry to Boston fans, I'm glad Toronto won that game competition-wise, because I don't think it would have, if you go down 30, you know, you're probably winning that one because it's hard to eliminate a team, especially with got a lot of pride.

But you've got to dig the whole way back and winning four in a row is, you know, that's going to be too hard of a task. But I'm just glad. You can never say never, though. You can never say never. I mean, this is coming from somebody who, like, one of the greatest moments in my sports fandom history is when the Red Sox came back from three against the Yankees.

Yeah. And, you know, I'm 14 years old when that happens. And, you know, it's happened a couple of times since I remember the Flyers came back against the Bruins and the NHL playoffs. It's very rare, though, obviously. Yeah, yeah. It's about tremendously difficult that it is to do. But I'm glad, like, the.

these leagues don't have something where a series ends if a team goes out 3-0. I'm glad that there's an opportunity for that team to make a comeback in a seven-game series because it's not impossible. And a team like the Toronto Raptors, they do have the mental toughness and the mental fortitude and the focus and the experience, the big game experience, to take it one game in a time. And that's what Kyle Lowry said for the game. I mean, like, it's really coaches cliches here. But that is the mindset you have to have as one game in a time,

one play at a time and just keep digging, digging, digging, digging, so I had that even happen, you still can't rule it out. I mean, the probability is so low, but a team like Toronto could. I just wanted this to be competitive. And it is, man. I think these teams are pretty evenly matched, and they make for great basketball games. That was a great basketball game, like the whole way through. A lot of fun players, too, on both sides.

I mean, Seacum has not gotten going offensively. He's not been himself, the guy that we saw early in the season, January when he came back from injury. He's shooting 32% from three since he got back in mid-January. He's not getting to the rim nearly as much as he was early in the year or last year. And when I say last year, I don't mean just with Kauai playing off him. I mean when Kauai was off the floor too. When Kauai was off the floor last year, Seacum showed flashes of what we saw early in the season. He has not been himself. And yet, you know, the way Kyle Lauerie's performing, the way Fred Van Bland is performing, the way, you know, you got guys like

Norman Powell coming off and hitting a huge three-pointer making some big plays. You get O.G. and Obey hitting the big shot playing really tough defense, forcing Tatum and others into hard shots. But then on the other side, you do have Tatum against this great defense against him, and he's turning into a really nice playmaker for Boston. Kemble Walker, you mentioned that pass he had for the go-ahead shot, which didn't lead to the winner. It's so rare in the closing moments of a game, a guy who's a score for his player passes. They usually look for their shot and he found a great pass there. What a look. And look

in the past is to Tice, who's been good too? That's what I like about the series. When you think about the guys outside of Siakum and Gasol can look like he's dragging it sometimes, you're not sitting around going, that guy ain't playing well, that guy ain't playing well.

Like typically you think these guys are playing pretty well, like virtually all, and obviously the Seacum is a blot because it's just like this guy's an all star. Like where are you? Like Kyle Lowry just had to put him on his back tonight. You don't mean, really? By the way, even Robert Williams and Grant Williams, the both of them,

Time Lord had that huge dunk after he came in the game for NS Cantor, which, by the way, that was one of the biggest mistakes of the game for Brad Stevens. How about the- Cantor in? Canter scored twice, but I don't care. He was getting shredded on defense. They attacked him every time because you can't play Cantor. You just can't, as to quote Billy Donovan.

That's one thing Billy Donovan, no. you can't play canter. Well, the funniest was they said that he was, you know, successful against that zone and that's why they put him in earlier in the year. Well, he scored that one bucket. They brought it up. And, I mean, it was immediate. Fridavit went right head if he got fouled.

Yeah. Like, went straight to the basket, like really straight for a layup. And I was like, oh, my gosh, he's not going to, this isn't going to last very long, right? I mean, that's what good teams do. They target you. They do. exactly you make adjustments depending on what the other team's doing you try to make the other team adjust to you and nurse and stevens are two of the best at that and i predicted the series who go seven before

i picked boston to win it um but like it's really a coin flip series man these are two great teams and either of them are going to be a significant challenger next round for miami maybe or milwaukee um which we'll say about are the bucks dead i mean they're in big big trouble they're They're not dead, but they're in big trouble. They are in big trouble. I mean, we talked about this on Tuesday. We're talking about it again now. We've talked about it for months really.

Miami is built to beat the bugs. I don't know how many times we're going to say it, but we're seeing it here. And for Bootintholzer, can you please play Janus for 40 minutes? Please. Can you please play in Middleton for 40 minutes? He was a plus 18 in game two, and he played only 33 minutes. can we please play these guys more and these must-win games against an incredibly difficult opponent in the Miami? He, what are you waiting for if you're bud? What's the weight here?

Well, usually with Janus, it's foul trouble, honestly. Like, I mean, in these big games. He does get in the foul trouble because he's always trying to. Middleton at five. I get it. But like, you still get a pump up the minutes here. You have to. And if he falls out, it falls out. Yeah. What do you saving him for? I have no idea. I don't know. It bothers me. And by the way, just to go to that game real quick with Miami, the jumpers, Bam out of Bios hitting. Surprising.

I mean, he's hit a handful of them over his career so far, but hit two big ones in that game. And I remember when I did the video on Bam, I forget who said it. It might have been Bam himself. But, you know, that's like something he wants to develop. It's his jumper.

And it looks pretty good. I mean, right? It looks good. I wonder if he'll be another big who's shooting corner threes in a couple of years. Well, I'll tell you this, Dragetch did me a solid because I called him the most underrated player going. And then you have another huge game

from him. And he is now averaging 23 and a half points per game, five rebounds per game, five assists per game, shooting 49% from the field, and 43% from three. 23% from three. 23. and a half, five points, five rebounds, 49% from the field, 43% from three.

This is Gorin Dragich, who, I mean, this is, those are like big star numbers that he is accumulating in a series against the number one seed. And it just feels like they've got a bunch of guys. They come in there and scratch and fight and clock. Crowders make and play after play in yesterday's game,

switching on to everybody. all so active defensively. Yeah. Tyler Hero. Tyler Hero, what kind of stones does he have? I mean, he's like, this is up. They're in crunch time. This dude just walks the ball up and pulls up in somebody's face from 30 feet away. And I'm like, my God.

With Dragich, his role cannot be understated here. Because when you looked at Miami's roster entering the seating games, if you're projecting ahead and you're like, yeah, they need that guy who's going to be that third player for them with Bam and Jimmy being the primary two. They need that guy who can help create. They got it. Dragage is playing at the all-star level that we had previously seen from him. He's made one all-star team in his career. He was that level of player to be deserving of being in that conversation. That's the level he's at right now for the heat. It's like they suddenly added an all-star player mid-season. And we're seeing what that does to that team with their ability just to

beat you with that one other guy. He is so skilled in ball screens with his ability to create at any angle, create with the pass, create weird off-balance shots for himself, pull up from three if need be. This team's legit, dude. Well,

and it's just, it's like, it's like a third guy that you can depend on. And this is, I mean, we argued about this earlier in the year when, when we got into the Brooke Lopez stuff, where I kept saying,

who is their third best player? If we're counting Middleton, you know, is their consistent second best player? Who are you counting on? And the answer is they don't have anybody. They just don't. I mean, it can be Bledsoe. It can be Pat Conantan.

It can be Brooke Lopez. It can be, but it's just not somebody that every night, when you're in a big series like this, like I've got to, obviously, Janus has to deliver. Middleton has to deliver. I at least need one. one other guy that I feel like I'm counting on going into tonight.

And they don't have that right now. You know, it's just kind of by committee. And it's like, geez, is tonight going to be the night, West Matthews gives me 16 or is he giving me two? I mean, we're seeing the importance of perimeter shot creation. You know, you're seeing that with Dragich, with what he's bringing. We kind of glossed over Kembo Walker earlier. We mentioned the past, but he was fantastic, 29 points. How fun is it to see Kenbo Walker and.

competitive games to the first time since he was at Yukon. Yes. I mean, it's been almost 10 years since we've seen this. I mean, like, he made the playoffs twice with Charlotte, but with all due respect, they were an easy out. We haven't seen him in games like this for a long, long time, and it is fun to watch. But,

you know, Kempas value to Boston as a shot creator who can create for himself or for others. Kyle Larry and Fred Van Vleet with Toronto, Dragich, with Miami. Who does Milwaukee have in that role? George Hill and Eric Bledso?

I mean, that's who they have. That's what they have. And if Milwaukee loses this series, which they very well could, that has to be the number one priority for them in the offseatism, is finding a guy who's better than Bledso or Hill who can help with shot creation. Because Middleton can do a little bit of that for you. I mean, he had eight assists in that game. It's not like he can't do that a bit, but he's not that shot creator.

He's not an orchestrator when he needs to be. He's a scorer who sometimes passes. And if Milwaukee can find that guy, they're not going to find him on their roster right now, but if they can find that guy, that's the missing piece to me. And let me say this because I know that coaches always get beat to hell and especially if a team underachieves. I want to say this of what I believe about Budenhalser because he's getting shredded and there's certainly he should be playing these guys more minutes. I think it is my belief that he makes these guys, he puts these guys in the best position to succeed over and over again

throughout a regular season. And then he gets blamed for not making postseason adjustments, not doing this, not doing that. And what I would tell you is that what the postseason does is doesn't expose Mike Budenholzer every time. It exposes their rosters that he has, every time. I'm sorry, Kevin, but Kyle Corver and Jeff Teague and Damare Carroll were frigging all-stars playing for this guy. It's not like they went anywhere else and had this success. And I think

that it is a, it's almost, I don't want to say smoke and mirrors, but what I'm saying is throughout the regular season, he gets these guys to play at an incredibly high level. He gets these, they all get their numbers. They usually have these great years. And then it gets to the playoffs and you're playing against a bunch of real rugged guys, veteran players that can, like, they can scheme against it now. And again, that should be the thing. You shouldn't be able to scheme against it. What I would tell you is, and so people could say the scheme gets exposed.

I think it's more that we're looking around and we're going, okay, who are you expecting to be awesome right now besides Janus and Middleton? And they're going up. If I'm drafting, maybe you take Middleton second. maybe if I'm lining every player in this series up on a wall, maybe I'm taking Middleton second. I mean, not taking him over Butler. I'm not taking him over Butler.

Okay, fine. So he's at least third. And then what? The next five guys are heat guys? Like, I'm talking about if I'm going into the game and like I'm going to lie my, because I'm taking bam, I'm taking druggage.

Hell, I'd rather have Crowder than half those bucks. I just, I don't know, man. I don't think he gets beat up a lot, but I think it's almost a, he almost curses himself by being so good with what he's got during the regular season and that when it comes playoff time and things start to slow down, all of a sudden you start looking around.

And I don't think that they, that his playoff foils are necessarily because he is not a good coach. or because, you know, he is deserving of all criticism or a place. I'm not saying he is without fault. He's not. What I'm saying is I think the track record shows he's done this with a lot of guys, both in Atlanta and now in Milwaukee that aren't exactly going to other teams and becoming world beaters, you know, and they won't if they end up leaving Milwaukee outside of Brogden.

Brockton was great. And they let him go. And obviously, it'd be a nice. to have him right now. Sure. It absolutely would be instead of Bletso. That's for sure. I mean, granted, Blutzo had a great defensive season, like all due respect there.

He was a fantastic defensive player, arguably should be or could be on the all defensive team. But Brogden's impact on the offensive end of the floor is pretty much exactly to a T what we're describing that they need. It's that secondary shot creation presence and a very reliable spot-up shooter who can be a threat off ball when Janus or Middleton or who, whatever it might be, has the ball in their hands. And like, this series also isn't, isn't over.

It's not over. But, but we are seeing the challenge that Miami presents. They are doing everything you need to do to make life hard on Janus. Building a wall, building a wall in transition, pressuring him in the half court, rotating over, switching up defenders, giving him different looks like we talked about with Toronto having variety with what they do on defense. So does Miami with what they're doing to the bucks. Weirdly, though, Kev, even if you told me tomorrow.

night that the Bucks win game three, I would still give the Rapp, there's a better chance of beating Boston from coming from behind than I would, then I would the Bucks, yes. Interesting. You don't believe that? No, I'm just curious why. I do not. Is it largely due to Miami and what they've done, or is it more so you don't trust those secondary players we're talking about with the Bucks?

I don't think they can beat Miami three out of four games. then that's what it would take. And now they've got to beat them four out of five games. No way. I mean, look, people could come back and cut this. They will. Lord knows they will. If I'm wrong, I just,

they're not beating that team four out of five times. Hell, they, you know, Miami gave them problems during the regular season. Miami's got their number. And so they, I'm not saying they're going to get swept.

I'm not saying that they're not going to win games. I'm saying you've got to take it into that context. Once they went down to Zip, they got to win four out of the next five games they play against that team. I do not think they can do that. I just don't. It's challenging. It's challenging.

Like we said, when a team falls down three, oh, there's still a sliver of a chance, highly unlikely, but even down to the odds are not good for the bucks. I'll tell you this, boy,

it has become open season on Janus. Oh, my God. Open season. I mean, look, when you get the accolades, this is what comes to, right? So first it was, is he really defensive player there? You know what it feels? It feels like hate an ass Richard Jefferson leads the charge on all of this.

It's like first it was his defense. And now what was the one today? He's Robin. He's Robin. He needs a Batman next to him. I'm like. Was Shaq a Robin? No.

Shaq, Shaq had his own role as a Batman. and he had another Batman and Kobe. Janus is the shack, and he doesn't have that second guy. He just doesn't. I mean, but Janus is so great. He was able to lead a historic, you know,

historically good regular season team. And he's got, he's one of a few players, three players in league history, Jordan and Hakeem, who's going to win defensive player an MVP in the same freaking season. One of a few back-to-back MVP's,

he is a Batman. He's not a Robin. He just needs that. secondary support as a ball handler late in games because look we're seeing the challenge with having a best player who doesn't have a reliable jumper or a reliable free throw shot missing the two jumpers down the stretch was massive for the bucks that is not a detriment to him necessarily being a robin it's just one of the weaknesses he has as an elite player in the league he needs some help too to complement his weaknesses and you know what else is happening kevin is

we lose sight of who wins this stuff every year. It's not guys that have been in the league for five and six and seven years sometimes, especially with them coming in the league so young. I mean, usually your best guy is 27 years old, 28 years old. There's a reason that's when guys win. Think about everybody and when they won as the man. They're not winning young. You know what I mean?

Like, if you want to say that, you know, Magic came in the league and played in that game, seven, that's friggin 40 years ago did that happen now. You know what I'm saying? Like, guys typically aren't coming in the league and are leading teams to titles, you know, before they're age 25, 26, 27. They're usually, you know, in their upper 20s when this stuff happens. That's the history of the NBA. And it's going to-

Not to mention Magichead, Kareem. Abdul Jar and on his roster. Oh, yeah. Well, look, I'm referencing the famous Kareem was out and so Magic played center and had 40 points and 20, you know what I mean? For them to be in position

in that game, to get there, they had an all-timer. Correct. A lot of all-timers, in fact. But I mean, the truth is guys usually don't, our expectations, we talk about this a lot with rookies and they come in the league and it's like, yo, sometimes you got to get

these guys' time and you've got to let them blossom into what they're going to become, right? Because you might look up and guess what? Damian Lillard's considered one of the best guys in the league. But if you evaluated him in his fifth year, people aren't saying that. The guy that made that pass tonight when it mattered most, Kev, Kyle Lowry, look, he got traded from the Grizzlies for nothing, nothing. And then he was discarded by one day, the wrong. And then he was discarded by another team.

I mean, and then he finally ends up in a home. But he's, you know, he's seven years into his career before he makes his first All-Star team, eight years into his career, whatever it is, right? Like, guys don't win big until they've been around a long time. And this, the idea, the implication when you say the guy is a Robin is that he can't be the best player on the title team. And that is such bullshit. This guy is so awesome.

I get it's he's losing. It's open season on him right now. If you wanted to tell me that Janus Anta Coupo can't be the best team, a best player on a championship team one day, maybe not right now. Maybe not right now. It would be beneficial. But like, come on, man.

Like there's, go around and ask the NBA GMs if they'd want him. I will say this. He does need to be better as a shooter. Of course he does. It includes at the free throw line, missing the two down the stretch. was horrible for the boss. He was a disaster early in the series.

The game won. I mean, he missed over half his free throws in that game one. Frigant D' Andre Jordan shooting him. And his jumper has not gotten significantly better. I mean, he shot over 30%, 30.4% this year. But that's still near his career average of 28.4%. The numbers from the perimeter get better.

To me, more than anything else, it shows it's like we just talked about a little bit earlier, the importance of perimeter shooting, Dragich, Kemba, Lowry, and the East. And then obviously in the West, you have a long list of guys who can do that. We start with Murray versus Mitchell in the first round. We're seeing it tonight with Kauai, George, all the guys that the Clippers have. Never mind the amount of guys that the Lakers have.

It's critical to have perimeter shooting ability off the dribble and perimeter shot creation ability in the playoffs. You got to have that. And Janus is somebody who when he's facing. superior defenders and defenses that are game planning, it can neutralize a little bit of what makes him so brilliant over the full duration of the season. He is still a brilliant player. He is still commanding that must have defensive attention. But without the shot to combat that, because the shot is something that can be not defended at all, no matter how much you try, no matter how much of a hand in the guy's face, a jumper that is reliable, that is pure,

can defeat defense. Yannis doesn't have that weapon. And that might mean that he's not the best player in the league. It might prevent him from being the best guy in the league. But he can still be the best player on a championship team as like the third or fourth best guy in the league if that's where you want to put him. Like let's say Lucas someday better than him. If LeBron's still better, you can still win a championship with Yannis as your best player

because of what he is. It would also be nice if when he starts to drive to the basket, there was some that was honored so greatly on that team that they don't triple team him. I mean, this guy sees three guys every time. Every time. Watch it. I mean,

you watch the way they defend him. I mean, the attention that he gets from them. And it's like, this is where you need those other guys to just be able to lace up and, you know, knock down everything. It's a lot like people did.

Look, man, obviously you know I've been talking about the NBA doing shows like this for a long long time and now Twitter's been around and everybody did this

as LeBron too until he can make a shot he's not gonna be you know like come on you're still leaving him open they did it with Alex Rodriguez they did it with Peyton Manning they do it with all the legendary

level players until they win a championship that's when you know you made it right exactly it's just the truth hey Chris before we move on let's hear from today's sponsors. Today's episode is brought to you by Heineken, figuring out how to beat the heat for Labor Day weekend this year, try an ice-cold Heineken. It's a big weekend, folks, we get the playoffs,

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That's Fandul.com slash megacontest. And now back to the mismatch. All right. So I don't think we need to comment much on the Clippers in Denver. that is going to be a crappy series and I don't think it's going to be representative of what Denver is. I think this is absolutely. I understand they all want to get out of the bubble. When I, I think I read today that this is seven games in 10 days. Like when it was, they used to, and they've eliminated this a lot in the NBA, but there used to be, who was it, Baxter Holmes

used to write this article every month. Oh, yeah. And it was about four in five days, you know, and they would mark them. He would mark the game and he would say, here's the game. And he would do it every month. And you would go back and look. And these teams were getting their ass kick. Like even when, like there were so many times where you would see like a score. And it would be like Denver beat Houston by 40 points.

And you'd be like, what the hell? And then you'd go look back and you'd look at this Baxter Holmes article. And it was like, oh, that was like their fourth to five nights. they had played the night before. They went to Denver, which is, you know, a Hornet's nest to deal with. And he can't breathe anyway. And they got their ass kicked there. And this was over and over again.

If you're talking seven in 10 nights, like this was all set up for them to get their ass kicked tonight after they had just finished that game seven. But it doesn't let up. Like, and I think that, like, whatever would have been a good representation of Denver, I don't think we're going to get it because I don't. I don't think they're beating the clippers anyway, but I also think they're a shell of themselves. And how are they even going to regenerate

by the next time they have to turn around and play? There's no break in this. It's pretty simple. They have nobody to stop Kauai Leonard. It's pretty simple. They don't have the defensive players. Michael Porter Jr. can't defend Charles Barkley right now. Nicola Yokic, you know,

Dremont Green, who was great on TNT. He's been awesome as a commentator. He really has. picked apart Yokch's defense, really just the poor effort that we're seeing from Yokch on that end of the floor. Yokich was pretty good on defense during the regular season. I was impressed with his development from last year to this year. He's good positionally. He communicated. He rebounds at a high level. He altered shots. You know, again, with good positioning, the effort's not there. And that he's not in the right position oftentimes. Maybe that's by choice because he's

resting. Maybe it's just, you know, he's not reading the floor well. But the fact is, is he has let guys blow by him to get to the rim. Multiple times we saw them in the first half, as Draymond outlined, you know, doing the Kenny Smith thing on the big screen at halftime. They're not going to win the series. They may not win a game in the series because they don't have any wing defensive players who can stop Kauai Leonard. Yokic is a shell of the guy that we saw earlier in the season. And frankly, unless you're getting more 40 bombs or 50 bombs from Jamal Murray, I find very few reasons to have any belief in the nuggets. And that's coming from somebody that picked them to go six games with the Clippers

before the playoffs began. I picked them to lose in six. I thought it would be competitive. I don't think it's going to be competitive. And that's even before, even before tonight's game, which makes you feel even less confident in what the nuggets are. They're a bad matchup anyway. The Clippers are just way.

better than the Nuggets. And they have better players than the Nuckets. Okay. If we're going to get to the easiest thing. But I will, I am going to make a bit of an excuse. That team is dead, Kev.

They are exhausted. And you could say it doesn't matter. And they should just be like, I do think, and I think that's part of the, I think it's part of the Yokic thing too. Like, I mean,

they just played seven games, hard fought games. And you saw them that fourth quarter against Utah, that team was dead hell. Even game six. Jamal Murray's like falling down before he could even get to the locker room. They're so dead. And it's like with no rest for the weary, there's usually long breaks, you know, before

another series or even in the middle of a series that I think this is way too many basketball games in a short amount of time, especially when you're counting on your best guy to be, you know, this big lumbering center. I mean, I forgot who said it tonight. I think it might have been Sammy and Gundy. He said I typically give the advantage to the team who just played a game seven heading into a game one. And I'm thinking to myself, like, I mean, maybe historically, I don't know what the numbers are, but I'm thinking, you know, you're really going to pick a team that played, you know, all these games in a seven game series when they look tired.

When Jamal Murray after that game seven's like, we're going to play Thursday? Yeah, like he was so shocked in that SVP interview. Whereas the clipper is a team, Kauai Leonard. he loves to be load managed. He needs the rest. Patrick Beverly coming back from injury, still getting back in rhythm. They have even Paul George for that matter,

some time to get corrected after time away. I mean, this is a team, the clippers that would benefit from rest. Same with the Lakers in this upcoming rocket series. You want LeBron rested. You want AD rested. You want them ready for this weird rocket team too.

And I give, look, if the rockets look like crap tomorrow night, I'd give them a pass. I'd say, would you? I mean, would you really? Yes. Kevin, I believe you.

I believe you. I don't believe that 48 hours after a game seven turning around and playing, especially when these teams are playing like seven games in 10 days. I've seen all those numbers about teams and how they've performed four in five days. Seven and ten? I mean, that's extreme, extreme. And yes, I would tell you, if Houston was able to perform at an extremely high level, tomorrow night, I would be insanely impressed.

I mean, I would, look, I told anybody, listen, Denver's going to get slaughtered tonight. I don't even care about the matchup. They're not going to be able to turn around and play that game. And you just had this hard fog game that way. that went in a game seven all the emotion of it and it goes down to the last shot with Houston and now you got to turn around in 48 hours and run up against the Lakers who have been you know sitting around resting for a week like that is that that is very very very difficult task to take on and it could end up being a better series later down the road and maybe

they'll dig deep and they'll have some kind of big effort tomorrow night but a team that shoots that many threes. Typically, you'd need your legs. So I would, I would tell you, they're in a great spot for Chris Vernon criticism because if Houston plays like crap tomorrow night, I would say, of course they played like crap. This is ridiculous that they're, you know, they don't even get a couple of two days to just regenerate before they have to play again. And if they play great, I'll give them all the credit in the world because I will be crazy impressed. It's just not easy to turn around like that and play well. I'm so excited for this Rockets, Lakers series. Oh, I know you are.

I mean, just from a, you know, a scheme point of view, you have bigs, bigs versus smalls. And, you know, there's been so much talk about what are the Lakers going to do? Are they going to continue with two bigs? Or they're going to go with 80 at the five? I will be very surprised if the Lakers go small. They're going to go big. They're going to stay big. Of course they are.

And they're going to do everything in their power to stay big because of the fact is, is that the number one thing that you got to do to make life hard on the Rockets. is stop penetration to the rim. That's where the rockets get their easiest buckets with layups, drawn files, and kickouts to spot up shooters for three. Or you start a rotation where then you have an attack, attack a closeout for another layup or another kickout for that matter. With two bigs on the floor, the Lakers assure that they're likely going to have

a big inner rim protection position to help and rotate over to stop hard inner Westbrook. If you just have AD on the floor, he very well may end up on a switch on a guy who's spotting up from the wing or he'll be on ball. And that's where the Lakers could get in trouble against Houston. So I would be shocked if they're not staying big for that reason on the defensive end of the floor to stop the rockets. Never mind for what it brings to them on the offensive end of the floor when it comes to potential second chances. On that end, cleaning up mislayups, you know, being available for dump off passes, being available for, you know, drive and dishes to McGee in the Dunker spot for LeBron posting up.

Sometimes they like to throw a lob to McGee or AD, whoever's in the Dunker's spot. I'll be shocked if the Lakers go small at all in game one. And if they do go small, it probably means Houston's shooting the hell out of it. And they feel a need to switch every screen in order to stick like glue to shooters. But I would expect the Lakers to stay big throughout the entire series. And this is just going to be a bad. of completely contradictory philosophies with how to build a team

and how to play a team on the court. I think they can make them go small because you're never going to be that small with AD and LeBron out there anyway. I'm just talking about make them make... Paul McGee, Paul Howard. McGee or Howard make them unplayable. I could see that.

So in other words, like you're saying, possibly there's a scenario where the Lakers are going to J.R. Smith, Dionne Waiters, instead of Howard McGee. What does Houston need do to make that happen. You obviously, they've got, P.J. Tucker has to be honored.

Like he's got to be making shots, right? Like when he gets pulled, when he can pull the big all the way out, has to pull the big all the way out in order to get that lane open, right? Because otherwise, I do think, and look, there was, I think there was a pretty good case to be made that Stephen Adams played too much against that Houston team because it's like, bro, if you ain't going to dominate, if you're not going to just punish them for being small, and I'm not sure, I think AD could give them, you could punish them for being small. I don't know if Dwight and Javall are going to punish them for being small.

They can with those lobs though. They can with, you know, grabbing offensive boards and going right back up with. that there were situations in their prior games in which you do see, you know, in the short amount of minutes McGee plays a short stint or Howard out there for a limited amount of time that they bring so much energy that their sheer size does make a difference for the Lakers over the rocket size. And look, Houston's not going to start playing Tyson Chandler for 25 minutes a game. It's just not going to happen.

No, but I just think when you've got, when you got LeBron and you got AD, there's a limit to how small you can be anyway. Like, you're not really small. Like they're naturally big, of course. Both huge. Just from like a basics, you know, position point of view, having two bigs on the floor. Even AD is not a traditional big. Right.

He can handle from the perimeter. He can switch on defense. He can do so much for you. But I guess the way to put it is AD plus McGee or Howard. Well, and he's the problem because what do you do with him? Covington? Covington was unbelievable. I mean, go on AD.

I mean, you're probably going to have PJ Tucker for the most part. Tucker was the primary defender on Anthony Davis during their prior matchups, and he did really well against them, at least statistically. But a playoff situation is a whole different conversation. We'll see over the full duration of the year. But like I said, man, I'm just straight up excited for this game tomorrow night or tonight for the listeners. I'm going to be able to knock you over with a feather with this one. Number one, there's no doubt that a Houston versus the Lakers series is an infinitely more intriguing matchup. than Oklahoma City versus the Lakers.

Not even I could deny that. It just is. Number two, I, as someone who loves competitive basketball, and I, like most of the country, will get to hate watch this. I don't really care who wins. It's not like I'm going to have some great joy if either of them, you know, move on.

I resent the fact that I do think it is, they're really up against it. fatigue wise by playing tomorrow because I think the Rockets could present real problems. And I might not have said that a couple of weeks ago, but watching them and watching those seven games that were just played and then watching the Lakers and their games and the way they put. Kevin, look, you got, if Hardin shows up for this thing, there is no doubt he's the leading score in the NBA and he is a redoubt.

ridiculously amazing offensive talent. Westbrook is an absolute bitch to deal with, and their guards suck. The Laker guards aren't good. They do. Caruso's a really good defensive player. No, he is. I mean, these guys are not good.

They're not starting for anybody else. Cruz is a really good defensive player. Tell me the team out. I don't care who starts. I'm saying he's a good defensive player. That's all I'm saying. He's a good defensive player. He's fine.

He's very good defensive player. That's all I'm saying. All right. Start or finisher. I don't care. Let's see how well he does against where us or Westbrook. Let me let me say this to your point. The Lakers don't have a Lou Doord on their team.

They don't have a guy that you're going to say you're getting Hardin. Period. Stick to him. Stay with him. Stay in front of him. Put all your energy into defense and to stop in that guy. They don't have that guy on their team. They're probably going to be switching screens and having different guys defending James Hardin.

You're not going to stick Caruso on him. He will defend. him in certain situations. They're saying Kuzma. Kuzma could be the guy too. Kuzma has been really, really good in the postseason. He's playing some of the best defense

ever since the seating games that I've ever seen him play ever since he was in college. He's always been inconsistent, always been somebody who looks like, you know, physically, a guy who should be a great defender, super versatile. He's finally performing like that. He really is. So for the Lakers, they do have a number of

different guys that can throw it hard in, but it's more than anything else for them to stop Hardin, it's about scheme and preventing him from getting to the basket. I'm okay with Hardin taking some heavily contested step back three-pointers late in the shot clock. What I'm not okay with is him getting into the paint where he has options to kick it out to open shooters or he's hitting a floater or he's getting a layup or he's drawing files. I'm not okay with that. And that's bad news to the Lakers if he's able to consistently get penetration. But if you're able to contain that, you're in really good shape and you're feeling good if you're the LA Lakers.

He's also a guy that has, he, he's fatigued out in playoffs that were less daunting than this, right? And I'll be very interested to see what, what Hardin does because I do think that this pushes you to the limit, right? If you got a fatigue issue, he does not look to be in great shape right now. For all these guys in these deep series, they're probably all getting tired. This is a lot on their play right now, especially Hardin with how much. he has to handle on the offensive floor

and the effort he's putting in on defense. In that game seven, dude, those two big blocks that he had, in addition to either scoring or assisting on 13 of the 14 final points scored by Houston. I'm just laying out the facts here about what part of it did in that game seven. Please go through the play by play.

Hey, hey, no, please, hey, show me those easy shots that James Hardin set up for everybody. That is the most phony. I saw that post last night. And I just, I was like, I'm going to bed. The whole, he, he assisted on the last 13 heave. Like, this dude played horrible. He was horrible.

All night. He was. He had the one great block. He was trashed. No, he had a block on Schroeder. Hey, he said he played like shit. So I don't even have to. He did.

He did. Until the final eight minutes when he was pretty solid. But anyway, he helped win the game for him with two great defensive plays. And he contributed. 13 and 14 of their final points except for the Covington He did not contribute to 13 of 14 points. I don't understand how is there something wrong with what I'm saying?

What did he set up? Remind me. Oh, he whipped it over across. Hey, no, he whipped it across to Robert Covington who hit a three. Because he's drawing so much defensive attention that Covington has a wide open three pointer. I don't understand what we're saying here.

So Covington hit three, Cuffing hit two threes and Tucker hit a corner three because of the defensive attention that Hardin draws. We're just talking just about that with Yannas. We're talking about that with all these other guys and yet with Hardin and it's laughable. Seems like you're a problem. It is a laughable. He's a problem. You know he sucked.

Right. You know he's not. They lose the game. Do they lose the game without him the final eight minutes? Bro. He sucked. Kevin. What was he?

Four for a thousand? Yes. Yes or no. Tell me what he was. What was he for the field? Yes or no question. Does Houston lose the game without James Hardin down the stretch? They're not in the game.

They're not even in the game seven. Unless it's for Russell Westbrook. Do they lose the game now? You told me on Tuesday wasn't good. Answer the question. Yes or no. Hardin sits out to final eight minutes because he's fouled out. Do they lose that game?

I have no idea. Yeah, they do for damn sure because he's the only guy he could do anything on that roster. And that's why for that's why against the lake. here for them. Was this plus minus amazing? I didn't look at it. He was a plus nine actually. If we want to be honest here, if we want to spit more, facts about what he did in the

stretch down the stretch of that game. He won them the game down the stretch, even though he played like trash. His block was amazing. It was. I totally copped to that. The block on Shruder, the block on Dort. And he created the only guy who was creating on the offensive end of the floor because he's the only guy that they have on that team.

Westbrook, you know, does his own thing. but Hardin is the solar, he's the center of that solar system with the Houston Rockets. And for the Lakers, every decision that they make needs to be about stopping him. And to me, that means staying big. Because by staying big, you can limit penetration to the basket and therefore take away the number one thing that leads to the most efficient shots for this machine on the other end of the floor. That's what you need to do. Stop penetration by Hardin and you're in good shape if you're the Lakers. Well, and, you know, they got huge efforts out of Gordon.

They got huge efforts out of Covington. They got a huge effort out of Westbrook. I mean, it was unfortunate that Hardin didn't show up for the game. But those three guys, if you're telling me the last eight minutes, they would have had the ball in their hands, the ones that were making the plays. It would have been interesting. I think I read where Covington, there are only in game sevens, the guys that have hit the most threes in a game.

seven. Steph Curry in 08 hit seven in a game seven and then he hit seven in a game seven in 16 and Robert

Covington who hit six the other night. That's the list. Steph Curry and Robert Covington and then Lou Dork had 30 points

for the friggin Oklahoma City Thunder who now move on. And I do wonder, let's just put a cap on their season because they're

the gone fishing team of the week. What happens? You think they run it back? I mean, everybody was tweeting about, they got 15 first round picks in the next seven drafts. I have no idea.

I would, I would, if I'm the bucks, I'm trading for Chris Paul and the story. I've said that since January before the trade deadline. I'm trading for Chris Paul. I want Chris Paul if I'm the box. What do you have to give up? Well, you have Eric Bletso you have other contracts. You add up together with some picks. You go all in on one year for

Yannis's free agency. You put together a big three of Yannis, Chris Middleton, and Chris Paul and you go for a championship. I thought you put him on the Knicks. I thought you had Chris Paul on the Knicks. I mean, I'm not so sure he's the best guy for the Knicks with the place they're in, but for the bucks, I'm going 100% all in. And to me, Chris Paul, can you imagine Chris Paul running a pick and roll with Yonis

onto the cumbo? Yonis setting a screen could be the most devastating play in sports. It could be. It could be because of what he can do is a lob threat because of what he can do off the dribble. because what he could do on the short roll as a passer, he can pop and attack closeouts if he needs to, he can pop and hit an occasional three. Can you imagine Janus with a point guard like Chris Paul

who can make every single pass on the court? That's hard to stop. And by the way, you can't switch that screen either because Chris Paul is so small and he'll just abuse anybody that is so biger, so much bigger and smaller, which is a guy that you need to defend Janus. And vice versa.

If you're switching a guy who needs a different, friend Chris Paul smaller, quicker laterally and put him on Janus, he's going to pummel him. How do you stop that? To me, that's the type of move that I'm looking to make. If I'm the bucks and I lose to the heat where it's very clear what you need is a shot creating point guard who can also play off ball. Chris Paul checks every single box. The problem is the salary and putting the necessary pieces together. It would be very challenging to do, but not impossible, but not impossible. Other big stories that we do need to touch on before we get out of here was I was absolutely stunned when I saw Mark

Klein tweet this morning that Steve Nash had gotten the Brooklyn net's job. I was shocked. I mean, shocked. Honestly, out of nowhere. And yet when the news came out, I'm like, oh, yeah, wait a minute. Katie loves Steve Nash. They've worked together for years. Wait a minute.

Kyrie worked with Steve Nash a handful of times in the past. Wait a minute. Sean Marks and Steve Nash were teammates before. and they maintain a friendship. Wait a minute. Steve Nash is one of the most accomplished point cards ever and who has done consulting in recent years, who ran the Canadian national team.

It's like, it actually makes sense. It makes sense. It just never saw it coming, though. Well, and it was odd because we haven't been through this in a long time, because as soon as that announcement came out, and a lot of this obviously is, Stephen A. Smith is on a very popular television show, and he went on and brought up the matter of race in terms of him getting a job.

This clearly, race relations have been right on the top of everybody's minds, not the least of which within the NBA. You watch games and you are reminded of this with messages that are on these jerseys and Black Lives Matter on the court. And I think that with Steve Nash being hired, that that becoming a race, issue, I thought was a little disappointing just on this level. Because in the NBA, we have a very long history of guys being hired without experience. That is not exclusive to white guys. That is not exclusive to black guys. It has happened over the years going back all the way to,

I think the first one was Paul Silas in 1980. And there's all kinds of names. that everybody knows, okay, that are guys that have been hired that do not have head coaching experience. But it was almost as if the original, I guess, discussion point or things that, the thing that people were going to get outraged of of the day was this guy, Steve Nash, former white NBA player, has no experience. There are all types of African-American candidates that, and then he just gets this job. This is ridiculous.

And I would just tell everybody that when I say that there is a long history of this, there is Derek Fisher and there is Larry Bird. And there is Doc Rivers and there is Isaiah Thomas. And there's Kevin McHale and there is Magic Johnson. And there is Mark Jackson and there is Jason Kidd. And there's Paul Silas and there's Steve Kerr. And there's Vinny Del Negrow. And there is Quinn Buckner. And there is ML Carr.

It's on and on and on through the history of the game. For 40 years, there have been all kinds of guys that have not been a head coach that got jobs. So that's not wildly uncommon. And it was almost like when Nash got this job that it was presented as such. Like this is some kind of uncommon thing that the former player with no experience gets jobs. Because I just named off. And half of those guys I just named off are African American coaches. This happens.

It's not like other sports. It's certainly, it would be crazy in the end. NFL, if just somebody named a former player who would never coach the coach. But this happens in the NBA all the time. Now, that being said, two different tracks here, Kevin. Number one, it is absolutely a subject that deserves a lot of attention that there are not more African-American coaches in the NBA. In a league that has Black Lives Matter on the court, in a league that is overwhelmingly African-American to only have five is ludicrous and the number did used to be bigger to me that is we can run on two tracks

here and we can say yes this is a subject this needs to be dealt with and on the other say this is a circumstance that is not wildly out of the norm and the truth is and you and i talked about this blame kerry irving and k d on this if you want to because if you don't think they handpicked their coach you're nuts because of course they did. Now, of course, Sean Marks has a relationship, but they were going to hire who those guys wanted them to hire.

White, black, whoever, they were going to hire who they thought could deal with Katie and Kyrie and coached them. And that's the way this went. I don't think that they looked and they said, oh, Steve Nash, former white point guard. So he gets this job.

in the same manner that I told you, there's all kinds of guys that have gotten jobs without any head coaching experience prior to. And so it just, it was disappointing because everything's so tense right now anyway and everybody's so on edge that this almost became like, oh, Steve Nash got a job. You know, this wouldn't happen to other guys. Bro, it's happened to a ton of guys, a ton, a ton of former players have gotten jobs. regardless of their race with no experience. Including one of the best coaches of the last 20 years, Doc Rivers. And Steve Kerr. And Steve Kerr as well.

And with Doc, I was reading a news story today from the late 90s when he got hired by the magic and it was interesting. There was a quote in there like his only real experience was as a consultant for a Chinese basketball association team the year prior. When someone gave him a call and said, hey, Doc, you want to come help out here. And that's sort of where the itch developed for him, a little similar to Nash doing it for the Warriors and recent years on a part-time basis. And Rajabelle said on the podcast on Thursday, and he played with Steve Nash. So I really valued his feedback here.

He said something that I thought was really interesting to me. He brought up, there are so many players in the league who can see the game at an elite level like Steve Nash does, knowing what's happening and anticipating what's happening. Raja said that Nash, more than anybody he's ever played with, has a way of articulating what he sees better than anybody that he's been around. Like Raja said he would go to Steve Nash after a game or after a film session and said, can you explain to me, walk me through what you're seeing here in this situation? And he would have a way of breaking it down for a way that's understandable.

Raja's overall point there was that he's been around guys who can't explain that. There are good teachers and there are bad teachers. I've been around people like that when it comes to, you know, teaching guitar. I've met people who are brilliant musicians who can't translate the way they see the fretboard on the guitar, the way they see the keyboard. And he's saying Steve Nash is a teacher and he always has been. And that made me think earlier today, so many of these coaches that have been hired with years of experience as an assistant or zero experience as an assistant, it is such a crapshoot oftentimes. And I question how much does experience matter there? I'm sure it does in technical ways, how to manage travel, you know, rotations and stuff like that.

But the number one quality for a coach to me is the ability to teach to lead. And that's where Steve Nash checks boxes. And adjust. And Steve Nash has always done that at a high level as a two-time MVP as a leader as he began getting older and was still helping guys out. as a guy post career. And to me, those are some of the most important qualities is your leadership ability and your basketball intellect and the ability to translate that. Doc Rivers has been somebody who's been highly successful doing that.

Jason Kidd and his first two stints was not to elite point guard or high IQ point cards. I should say Doc wasn't elite. He's a good player, not an elite player like J. Kidd. Being great does not guarantee success as a coach. We saw that with Magic Johnson. being an average player does not guarantee you'll just be an average coach. You can be a great coach like Steve Kerr has been. It's the ability to articulate information.

And Steve Nash seems like from the feedback we've gotten from the guys that have worked with him, from the fact that guys have loved to play with him or have him coach them, all the young Warriors players, as Logan Murdoch mentioned yesterday, raved about him. It seems like the Nets made a smart choice here, largely driven by the relationship Kevin Durant has with Nash and Sean Marks has with Nash. And like we said with other coaching hires in the past, having that organizational alignment, GM and coach and ownership all on the same page

and to an extension, the players as well, is critical to success, especially a team that has Kyrie Irving on it as well. And that point guard connection to cannot be understated. Steve Nash being able to connect with Kyrie Irving because he can see the game like him. Well, let's make no mistake.

We know, and we are seeing this now, even in the NBA in the bubble. The players run the show here. They do. They just do. If Kevin Durant would have gone to them and said, I want Mark Jackson to be the next coach. He'd be the coach.

Right? There's not some big bad overlord that is making these decisions. And they're saying, trust me. And if they come back and they say, you know, if they come back and guess what? Let's say Nash ain't cutting it. And they don't like him. Guess what?

Guess who won't be there? Steve Nash, he won't be there. Like, the players run the show. Like, that's the deal here. And you better know when they got Kevin Durant in free agency to come over there. And now he's going to be back healthy with Kyrie Irving next year. They were going to get a coach that those guys wanted because then you can't say, hey, we just put this guy with you and we're going to try it out.

You know what I mean? Like, I've been sitting here telling you, Darvindham, right? Darwin Ham, I think, who's been a very good assistant for the Milwaukee Bucks, that's a guy that I would absolutely think about hiring if I had an opening right now. He would be on my short list no matter what, given the success of other Budenholzer assistants. That being said, I wouldn't throw Darwin Ham on the freaking net sideline and say, hey, welcome to head coaching. Now deal with these guys with no prior relationship, I'm saying,

unless he had been with those guys before. and Kevin Durant stumped for him and said, this is the guy I want. That's the different. Nash, I mean, it doesn't matter if you've got head coaching experience if the best player is saying, I want him to be my coach.

And you know Kevin Durant's probably been recruiting him. They said it started in May. They've known since May. Durant's been on and recruiting him since then. Amazing how quiet they all kept it. I forget who mentioned this earlier, but someone said they talked to Steve Nash recently. I believe it was Nick Nurse, actually.

Yeah. But someone mentioned that, Nash had a conversation with them and he never mentioned that he was near, you know, getting a new contract as I had coached in the NBA for a championship contender next year. It's amazing how close to the best everybody in the Brooklyn organization kept this for months. And he'll also be, what's it called? He'll also be right across town from his godson. Isn't he RJ Bear's godfather?

Oh, yeah, that's right. Yeah, yes. So he'll be right there by his. Godson in New York and Brooklyn, right? And RJ's father, Rowan Barrett, took over for Steve Nash as the guy who runs the Canadian national team. I believe that happened two years ago. So Rowan Barrett runs the Canadian national team now who took over for Steve Nash a couple

years back. So there's close family, close families there to Nash and the Barrett's. Who knows, maybe they'll coach him someday. You never know. Are you saying RJ is going to force a trade out of you? I'm not sure where the leverage is but I'm just saying you never know Nash could coach a lot of years

you never know where this is going to go Not the perfect segue But R.J. Barrett, not many votes in the rookie of the year voting Which was announced tonight John Morant 99 of 100 votes Kevin, it is my mission

We have to find out You was not you? It was not me. I can show you my ballot. They said, did he do it? Did he do it? just to make you mad. And I said, surely, surely, you told me you weren't going to do it.

No. Who the hell voted for Zion? I don't know. It's pretty ridiculous. You know what? It's not a huge deal. John Morant said in his press conference tonight after he won the award that he wanted to know who it was.

He wanted to direct message. He said, I want to DM them and thank them for the motivation. Oh, yeah. Like, because he's the chip on your shoulder guy. He could privately thank him for the motivation. Everybody else will publicly shame them. I'm going to tell you what. If I were him, that was for real piss me off.

Like, bro, one dude. There's one hater out there. One guy. Like, why? Like, you really thought I wasn't the rookie of the year. You really thought that a dude that played, what, 19 games? I mean, that is so ridiculous. We have to find out who that was.

It is. Not as ridiculous as having Andre Drummond. on your defensive player of the year ballot, but that's a whole different conversation. Did you see that? No, I did not. Yeah, someone had Andre Drummond on their defensive player of the year ballot. Well, so it went, Morant, Dunn, Williamson,

Brandon Clark, I believe, were the top four. Clark was fourth. Yeah, Clark got fourth. Clark got fourth in the voting. Yes, Clark had fourth. It was four 98 points for Jha, 204 for none, 140 for Zion, and then 50 for Brennan Clark.

So my order was Jha, Zion, Brennan Clark. That was my top three. You know what's crazy, Kiv, is you look up and down that list. It's not like last year. It was like, you know, the top of the draft, right? Like, I mean, it really was. I think it was 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

And not in the order, but it was like those guys all in the rookie of the year voting. The rookie of the year voting was actually the top five picks. This year, I mean, it is all over the board. Obviously, John was the second pick. Zion was the first pick. But look at those other names and where they were drafted.

Hell, even Eric Pascal's on that list. So it was Kobe White got three third place votes. Eric Pascal got two. Terrence Davis got two. RJ Barrick got one. So the RJ Barrett, the third pick in the draft got fewer votes than Kobe White, Eric Pascal and Terrence Davis. Well, in Pascal's second round that Davis is undrafted, right?

Yep, exactly. Wow. And what was none? None had 204 points. He had 56 second place votes, 36 third place votes. Yeah, he was G league, yes, G league. Undrafted? Yes, I believe so. Right? I don't think he got drafted by the by the heat. I think he's just kind of, he wasn't drafted. He was G-leager. He graduated college like three, four years ago. I mean, so you got undrafted and second round guys on that list this year. Yeah, two years ago. He was at Oakland. undrafted in 2018, one year with the Santa Cruz Warriors, then with Miami. It's a very interesting rookie class. No doubt about it, man. No doubt about that. And there's still guys performing in it, right? Like we had mentioned, Hero earlier, none and Hero, both getting minutes still now playing in this thing, the Heat Milwaukee series.

When are they announcing MVP? Better do it soon. I think they will do it soon, right? They better do it soon. We'll see with Milwaukee. I'm just saying. They've got to do it soon. What are we waiting for?

Get to it, NBA. They have been doing it after the season, right? They've been doing that stupid awards show. Yeah, well, not anymore, though. They're doing it with, like, T&T, having the people at home or in the bubble. This is how it used to be where they announced it during the season. I like it, bet. I don't like the show personally.

What? I don't like when they do the award show. Everything leaks ahead of time and all that. I always liked when they announced it during the playoffs because that gave us all these storylines. And you had these guys, you had these guys that were like pissed off. They didn't get defensive player of the year or they didn't get MVP or whatever. And so you get these moments of Michael Jordan really wanting to kill Car Malone, you know, because he's so mad. Or Charles Barkley for that matter, right? He wants to go right at Charles Barkley because he didn't get the MVP.

And so it's kind of the same deal. I miss that. I like when they announce it in the middle as for the guys that don't get the award get this extra motivation, the guys that do get the award now have a big target on their back. I hope the NBA goes back to this in the future. You know, post-pandemic, you can still have a show. You can still have a show to celebrate the greatness of the entire year.

You can still have speeches then, but you can also have speeches during the whole playoff run too. You can do it both ways. Nothing stopping you from having a great basketball show and celebrate this amazing game that we're watching. You just don't have to wait till then to have the awards because of the the drama that sets out and not not just that but the emotional aspect we saw off the court like kd and his mom and all that there's so many great genuine

moments where you see just the players are people you know you see them as humans you know in those moments where they're being rewarded with all the work they put in throughout their entire life i want to see that come back and then you can still have the party where shack and the jabba walkies dance or yep. You can still do it. You can still award the players, whoever's there.

Maybe they do a pre-recorded message, but plenty of guys would still love to make a trip to Los Angeles for the show. They'll happily go. So the NBA should think about that moving forward in my opinion. Kevin, it has been an unbelievable run that we have had this week. It's going to be very hard to top. In fact,

going into that Clipper game tonight, six, the last six games that we watch. were decided by a combined 14 points. We'll never have a run like that. So good, man. That was crazy. So good.

And then the frigging clippers and don't get to blow out. So good. I'm pumped, man. By the time we talk next, we'll have all kinds of thoughts on Lakers, Houston, and we'll see what becomes of Milwaukee. We'll see what becomes of Miami,

as they are now kind of in pole position. And if the raptors can claw back and make it a series against Boston. This playoffs have been great. They really have. Been fantastic. Been absolutely fantastic. Monday night,

Monday night before we record is we're recording Tuesday morning, but game five of Boston, Toronto, game three of Clippers Nuggets. And then Tuesday night is game five of Miami Bucks tentative. Game three of Lakers Rocket. So by the time we talk next, so much is going to change.

Dude, can you imagine if they, get swept. Oh my goodness. Talk about the media turning on Janus. It's going to happen. It's already happening, but it's really going to happen if they get swept. I say that like we're not media, but. The only, look, the only thing that I have super turned on is, and I'm going to, I'm going to keep cracking jokes about this every night, is frigid Steve Javvy. Bro, get this guy

off my TV. It is the biggest waste of time. Like Mike Pereira said a stand. for sure in the NFL. He's brilliant because what Mike Pereira does is watches the play and then says what the call should be while they're under the hood figuring this thing out. What Steve Javvy does is he rides the fence so he doesn't tell you what he thinks should be the call. He rides the fence and this is what they could be looking at and whoa, then they make the call and then he says, I agree.

Yes. It's pro. It's propaganda. It's unbelievable. propaganda. It's really a joke. It makes me bad. It really does. It makes me bad. I would have loved to seen him defend the replay of

Kyle Ari getting, you know, kneading the nuts tonight by Brad Wanamaker on the layup attempt. What are we wasting our time for with some of this? I mean, I saw your tweet about that. I swear to God, these games take forever. In real time, the final minute of the Wednesday night

games, in real time, according to impredictable.com was 16, minutes. 16 minutes for the final minute. If I'm trying to get my friend in the basketball, they would watch this great game and be like, what's going on?

This is boring. This isn't fun because it wasn't fun. It was not fun. The final minute wasn't fun. It was just weird the way those games ended. Bucks, heat, and then Thunder Rockets. It was weird, but it wasn't fun.

Everything else was fun leading up to it. There's got to be better ways to end. games and we saw that on an all-star weekend with the Ilam ending just saying just saying there might be a better way this has been like friggin' march madness it really has yeah it's been great all these games are coming down to like the last shot of the game I love it um it's so freaking fun man even despite the refereeing despite some of the weirdness like that it's been extraordinary dude I love it every single moment of it it's great even when I don't love it I love it we will get to watch all these games this weekend,

then we will reconvene on Tuesday. Thanks to our listeners, as always. Kev, I'll talk to you on Tuesday. I can't wait, man.