The low post is presented by Amazon music. Did you know you could be listening to this episode of the low post ad free on Amazon music? And now the low post. Welcome to the low post podcast on sweeps week in the NBA where Bobby Marks, a wise man who has been in the NBA for a long time now, whose team has made a lot of deep play off runs in that time.
Years ago told me a lesson that always stuck with me. And you said to me, when you guys start talking about the off season and all the machinations and all the player movement that's gonna happen and who might trade for who and who might go where and you start doing that in February, March, April, just hit the brakes for a second and wait for the playoffs because the playoffs change everything for teams that fail, for teams that succeed depending of course on the manner of that failure and success. They can change everything because they reveal any issues, any fishers, any doubt, any self doubt, anything like that. It will be revealed because the competition is too good, the lights are too bright, the pressure is too high, the stakes are too high.
And that I think applies mostly to the Boston Celtics who were absolutely obliterated by the Miami Heat in game three in Miami last night to give the Heat a three O lead in the series. The Heat are on the verge of completing one of the greatest single season, single season like in almost in like weather terms like spring turnarounds in the history of the NBA. They would be the second eighth seed ever to make the finals. They would be tied with the 1978 bullets for I think the seventh lowest winning percentage of any team to ever make the finals.
Several of those teams are from the 50s. This team showed no signs that this was coming. I mean, I don't care who you talk to. I'm talking about people within the team.
They were in New York here and there down the stretch. All they wanted to do was catch Brooklyn for the sixth seed and get out of the play in and they could not do it. They couldn't do it. And I don't think people around that team saw anything like this coming.
There's no stats that indicated something like this might be coming. Their net rating with Jimmy and Bam on the floor was like plus four, a totally unremarkable plus four per 100 possessions. And they have obliterated Boston in this series. I don't know like it's funny Bobby on paper.
And here's a piece of paper. You know how much this is worth in the NBA playoffs? Zero, by the way, you know, who's won the shot quality battle in this series according to Second Spectrum, who's had the better quality, the higher effective, expected effective field goal percentage based on who's shooting and how open the shots are. You know who's won that battle by a little bit?
Who's that? Boston, congratulations to the Boston Celtics for winning the Utsumaker, Moose League conference finals. You know what that gets you? Nothing.
You're down 3-0, you get nothing. On paper, they would be probably, I would imagine, the best candidate in the history of basketball to come back from a 3-0 deficit. They have home court advantage, best net rating in the league, playing an AC that had a negative point to French. And you saw that game last night.
They let go of the rope in a way that is alarming, in a way that I think if they let it go again in game four, and even if they somehow win game four and let it go again in game, they have to stretch this to like six to change I think the internal dynamics of their team. And nothing they showed last night in game three indicates to me that they have a lot of life left. And we'll see, you saw the game losing like that. And if this series plays out like that again tomorrow in game four, that's not just something you wipe.
But you live through this, that's not something you wipe away. So you know what, we're good. Like the Brown Tatum thing has been successful for so long. We made the finals, we made the conference as we win every year.
Missoula, he's young, he's growing into the job. We can forgive all the mistakes in the team rotation, identity, confusion that has caused some clear issues within the team. Like we're good, we're fine. You don't come out of a series like this with that mindset.
You come out of a series like this questioning, if this is how it ends, whoa, what's wrong with our team? So Bobby, what do you see? And I guess take us through the questions that Boston will face in the offseason, either the new lead apron and all the new CBA and all that stuff. But start wherever you like.
Well, I mean, what I saw was I actually thought there was a point in Game 3 where I thought Boston, when they cut it to 6149, I said, okay, here they come. Here comes another run here. But you did? I did.
I did. Hey, I'm just kind of, hey, when you have Brown and Tatum on the court, I'm thinking like, you know, here it comes, right? Here comes a run. I just never, like when Tatum and Brown around the court, there was always some sense of fear.
I always feel, and I just didn't feel that last night. They were like almost humanized. I mean, everything from Jalen was short. You know, there was no flow, certainly from the offensive.
And I think certainly, as you said, you hit it on head. I mean, you let go of the rope in the middle of that second quarter when they went on that big run. And you let go of the rope on the end, you know, basically, I guess once Jimmy hit that corner, Schumper got fouled. And then that just kind of snowballed it here.
And you know, I mean, for me, it's like, when I wrote the Celtics offseason article going into Game 7, or I actually had a written before Game 6 in the ball, and I filled out the series here. I really didn't talk about the head coach. I didn't really, I didn't think it needed to be kind of to talk about Joe Mazzoule as far as whether from a job security or if we should question him. But I actually, I had to add it in there this morning's act and they're off season here.
And I know there's a lot of blame that be at fault here. And it certainly starts with the players here. But my question for the Celtics here is that with a wealth of veteran coaches on the open market, okay? We've probably never seen this before with Nick Nurse and Boone Holzer and Monie Williams.
And I even put Doc Rivers in here. I just because he's been let go of here. Like, and I know Joe has signed an extension in mid February, got the interim tag, 57 wins all that here. But is this the opportunity of Boston willing to go in a different direction?
Is this where they're going to look? It's not in the DNA Brad Stevens here. But when you lose how you did in game three and we'll see what happens in game four. I mean, if you have another one of these game fours or even if it's not a competitive game, I think it starts there.
Like I wasn't willing to go there a week ago or two weeks ago, but I think that's where I'm willing to go. Besides all the different roster stuffs that we're going to talk about. Well, you have one person who's ultimately going to make that decision and that's Wick Rouspek, who's court side for all these games, who's watching this up close, who oversaw, frankly, not that it was his fault, but he oversaw an organizational coaching disaster a year ago with Emil Doca being suspended and then like, go with Will Hardy taking the Utah job, Damon Stottemeyer goes and takes a college job. And all of a sudden, and Joe Missoula is like a net loss of an assistant coach.
He becomes a head coach in the youngest head coach in the league. And I think that has shown itself in the series. And I don't think it's out of bounds to ask that question. I can tell you the moment where I knew the game and likely the season was over for Boston.
It was four, four 50 was left in the second quarter last night. I don't know what to score. It was like Miami by some teenage amount. And Jalen Brown on an out of bounds play got the ball in the right wing with his feet on the S in Cassia center, whatever the hell the new thing is, that's not a cryptocurrency.
That's how far away from the rim, he was hold the ball, hold the ball, Jason Tatum's curling around a pin down from, I think Grant Williams, 15 on the Shot Clock Mind you. We're not in an emergency situation. And Caleb Martin, who has been the second best player in the whole series, maybe the third best player, I guess BAM is probably the second best player, fights through the screen, Jason Tatum's not open. Everything stops.
Duncan Robinson's over on Derek White in the right corner. They don't care. They went through the whole second quarter, Duncan Robinson could have sat in a beach chair in the right corner, just chilling out on Derek White. They didn't use him just like they didn't use Kevin Love in the first six minutes of game two.
And that's not to say that Boston was always aimless, always ignoring the mismatches. I thought last night they actually picked at the right places for half the game, half their possessions. Guess what? Half ain't good enough when the other half is just frittering.
Just frittering. So here's the frittering at 450 of the second quarter. Jalen Brown's got the ball. Caleb Martin fights through the pin down.
Jason Tatum stops. Nothing happens. Nobody does anything. Jalen Brown looks around and says, 12 on the shot clock.
I'm firing this 30 footer from the S on whatever that company is. Rick. And right then I wrote in my notes, they're dead. The game's over.
Their offense is dead. They've stopped trying. They've let go of the rope. Can I tell you my theory of what's happened to the team?
Yeah, let's go. If you look back and read the comments, particularly from Tatum about Robert Williams, when Robert Williams came back from injury, and I think him, I played 35 games this season, I think that was a huge deal. If you read Tatum's comments that every time he comes back from injury, Tatum is like on record, super strong. I want to play with Robert Williams.
I start. I want to rob Williams to start. I love playing with Rob Williams. Our whole team's different with Rob Williams.
And the big lineup that got them two within two games of the title last year and all that. And Joe Missoula just wouldn't play that group, wouldn't play it. And that until game six against Philly, a series again, before the series, dumb old me on this podcast was like, this is a great Rob Williams out work for two. You put Rob Williams on P.J.
Tucker, you have him, Rob. We didn't see it hardly at all until game six, almost too late. And it worked and it saved their season. And I got the impression, as I said after that game, that let's just say there was considerable internal debate leading toward the head coach, finally pulling the trigger on that move.
And you combine that with what I have said many times is the inexplicable mothballing of Grant Williams. To the point that I've joked that I think he must be the guy in the office who steals people's lunches out of the company refrigerator and like eats three bites out of sandwich and returns it. And they've discovered it and security cameras and just benched him. And now you come back and all of a sudden they're playing Grant Williams at center, a lineup they hate because they have no idea who to play anymore.
I think the strength of Boston was its ability to play multiple identities, five out with Orford at the five. And that was where their offense, the only time their offense was good in the series was in the first half in game one when they had a six or seven minute stretch in that look and they were driving with purpose, attacking the right match ups with purpose, hunting mismatches and hunting them with the idea of getting to the basket. And they just can't hold onto that mentality for any length of time. And it's been their marker now for two or three seasons.
We can talk about why. That was supposed to be a strength, their malleability, their ability to metamorphize from one identity to another. I think ultimately that turned into something that undid them from the inside, surrounding their big man and their big man rotation. And when you see the post game interviews, and I'm not gonna point fingers, Yellen Brown says, I think if there's a coaching thing to pick at, you can talk about the timeout usage we want.
You can talk about the failure to get a shot off at the end of regulation and game for against Philadelphia. You can talk about their bizarre defensive alignment on that play that led to James Harden's game winning for. You can talk about the offensive meltdowns late in the game, how to state them, not get the ball. That's not everyone.
All that stuff is not everyone, including the coach. I think, I think, it's just my theory, my somewhat educated theory. I think they're cold between different styles, just kind of wore them out from the inside. There was a point last night too, where Grant Williams was in the game and they took him out of the game.
And I felt like he was saying to himself, and he actually had some pretty decent minutes, like are you effing kidding me when you walk by Joe Missoula? Like, you know, like he's just like looking like why am I the guy being taken out? And I think you look at the minutes last night, Robert Williams. And I know this is, you know, certainly the down big.
13 minutes. 13 minutes. 13 minutes, eight points, eight rebounds. Six offensive.
Now, and in coachman's lose defense, I don't think Robert Williams has been the same level of defense of player at all this year. He's been, last year he was A, A plus this year. I think he's been B, B plus this series. I think he's been B minus C plus.
And that maybe is injury-related, chemistry-related, whatever. He hasn't been the same defender. No, I mean, the same defender is what we saw in a little bit of game one, the home game here, where he had a great stretch. Both on both sides of the court here.
And as you said, like, no, when this ends, whenever it is, and you're right, I mean, like, you could always say like, hey, Boston could get game four. Now you go home, right? You're almost in that same, you know, all I gotta do is worry about stealing a game on the road again. But I mean, the reality is that this is likely going to end.
And then it now brings into the big off season questions. Let's remove the coach, right? Like the coach part of it there. You're not saying let's remove the coach like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
I'm just saying, we already talked about it. We already talked about it. We already talked about the coach. That brings into the big off season the questions here.
I feel like I'm going to do books on tape here. But of course, the short term, right? You got what is Grant Williams value to you, right? That's the short term approach as far as restricted free agent.
The reality is you sign him, you go deep into tax, okay? You go over, you go over the first apron, correct? Oh, yeah. You go over it, maybe.
You go over it, maybe. Yeah, way over the first apron here. And go through next year, what restrictions that means for a team. That's over the first apron.
But let's say they ducked the second one. What does that actually mean for Boston next year? Well, I mean, the first and second apron, really, for this upcoming off season, 23, 24. Yeah, so they're basically almost combined a little bit here, where really, if you're a, for trade purposes, first and second apron, same, 110% salary you can take back and trade.
If you're over the second apron, okay? You can't use your tax-men level exception, which is at $5 million. You can't sign a player that is bought out of his contract, whose previous contract was more than $12.2 million. So like that would have been like, for example, the heat this year would not have been able to sign Kevin Love, okay, that's kind of an example there.
The teeth of the second apron starts in 2024, right? Like that is like, that is the pain. That is when you can't put salaries together. That's when you can't aggregate salaries.
That's when your draft pick gets frozen seven years out from trading. That's where, you know, putting cash in a deal, there's all different, that's where like the clock starts, as far as when your draft pick potentially could move back from into late first round, basically it has to be like three out of five years. But that's when the teeth of it is. So basically Boston can go into the tax this year.
They can go into the first apron. They can even go into over the second apron here, okay? The financial ramifications are big, right? I mean, they already paid $74 million this past year, franchise high.
That is going to be the number because remember, although Brown and Tatum are extension eligible, Brown can sign this off season, that's super max 295. That doesn't start until the 2024-25 season. Tatum can sign next year, and that doesn't start to the 2025-26. So they're staggered here, right?
So basically you have this one year window right now, either you can get your finances in order, or you're basically going to say, this is who we are, or of course you can start moving your pieces around. Of course, the first short-term decision is Grant Williams, as far as how does he fit into your line up? Because let's just say you don't qualify him, and I think you will send him a qualifying offer. You figure, you know what the cost is too high.
We're going to rely on Danil Gownari as our backup forward, right? Looks great, by the way. He does. He looks absolutely impeccable.
The suits I love, I need a lot of suits. And I'm not even being faceted. I got distracted for like a minute of every boss can be like, man, what's Danil O'Rin tonight? Oh, he's fantastically unbelievable.
So you have him who's got a player option, and the likelihood is that he's going to opt in because he's been out all year. So if you figured out that that's your guy, then you basically, you know, you still would have that $5 million tax middle level, and you got the veteran minimum to bring back to that roster. So priority one is figuring out as far as Grant Williams, right? Like that's the reality of it.
Now the second one, and I wrote about it here, is that they have to decide with two players earning more than $600 million when you look at Brown and Tatum, is the roster sustainable to compete for a championship long-term? Like that is under these current rules. That is the $1 million question here when you look at the future of Brown and Tatum. I think it is.
Like I think it is because how your books are aligned, where you basically have Horford, Robert Williams, Malcolm Brogdon, Marcus Smart, you have players who are earning less than $22 million, right? Like your good contracts here. Now the question comes into when Tatum's number hits, because then that's like, you know, that's a big number. That's 2025, 26 year when you got Tatum Brown, and then all of a sudden guys start coming off your books here.
Like the CBA, how it's written, Zach, is that it forces you to basically kind of retain, if you have good players, your role players here, you can have these two main max guys here. The problem is towards the later of their years, as far as when these extension kicks, and when Smark gets older, when Brogdon gets older, when Al Horford eventually comes off the book, what is left to add around these two players? So they're track records being sort of itself, right? There is part of you that's like, don't panic.
We were two wins away from a title last year. Back in the conference finals this year, is Jimmy Butler just prancing and dancing and taunting and sneering all over us and breaking any defense that we throw at him? Yeah, it's not going great, but we got pretty deep again. Not in the most convincing fashion against Philadelphia, and really the bigger story for Boston, since Game Two of the Hawk series, they came out the first two games like a team with purpose, a team that worthy of wearing the unfinished business t-shirts that they've been wearing on the sideline, a team that we've been waiting for this.
Since then, their defense has been bad. They have allowed 115.4 points per 100 possession since Game Two of the Hawk series. That would have ranked like 23rd in the regular season. Some of that is hot shooting, and really a lot of this series is that the heat are 44 of 92 on threes and the Celtics are 31 of 106.
Due to percentages, it's like high 40s, 29. Hate them in Browner, seven of 40 combined on threes. But their defense just hasn't been good. It hasn't been good.
It's been dotted with weird mistakes to varying degrees in every game when they play a pretty clean game on defense. They usually when they haven't played one in this series, Game Two as they fall out of that game, what turns out to be the real pivotal game of that series, they lose Kayla Martin on a back cut. They lose Duncan Robinson, Tatum lost them once, and I can't remember who lost Derek White got smashed by a pick the other time, Rob Williams was too low. They lose them on threes.
They can't figure out the Butler thing at all. They're just giving the Derek White switch every single time, just giving it. They don't hedge, they don't recover, then they don't know whether they should double or not. We'll talk about that later because I think the heat spulser has been like on super genius level in this series, a step ahead.
But their defense just hasn't been, which just hasn't been good enough. But the jailing thing, you know, if I'm looking at a stat that's interesting to me, and I'm making this decision for Boston, and I think this series, if it goes out this way, and like I said, on paper, they're the best candidate ever to come back from three, oh, paper doesn't get you anything, but you know, whatever, it's not totally out of bounds. I think it's mostly out of bounds. I think this series has turned that into, from an easy decision into one that you have to think about.
And the stat that I look at is Tatum in this series, 11 assists in 12 turnovers, jail and Brown in this series, 10 assists in 11 turnovers, many of which are puzzling, pin it on his hand injury, whatever. His assist to turnover ratio for his career, regular season and play-offs is about one to one. And I think facing a staunch, dialed in, super smart and super versatile defensive team in the heat who can throw different styles that you and you don't expect it, who has one of the five best defensive players in the NBA and Bam out of Bio anchoring it. And just a roster that is so locked in and so high IQ.
And by the way, I think one of the interesting subplots of what happens if they win this series is, I think Tyler Hero's injury might have actually helped them because they all day play lineups with a maximum of one guy you can really hunt on defense and a minimum of zero. And not only that, I think if your best offense is give the ball to Jimmy Butler all the time, Tyler Hero's added value on offense, the end where he's a positive is just not as high as it is if you're playing a more egalitarian style and maybe they'll need that here and there against the best teams they haven't needed though. If your offense is all Jimmy, I don't think it's crazy to say that they've been better without Hero. But back to the playmaking, I think facing that kind of defense has just laid bare again.
Tatum's a four, four and a half assist guy. Jalen and I just gave you the assist to turnover. Smart is their best playmaker and they don't want the ball in his hands all that much because he's not as good as the other two guys. And even like, you see like they're blitzing with Cody Zeller, they're blitzing with Cody Zeller.
And they're just, you just don't see these artful like, okay, the blitz is coming. Let me whip it to the shooter on the wing and he'll whip it to Rob Williams rolling into the paint. And you just don't see those. What you see is they dribble backwards and Tatum lobs these little lollipops into Robert Williams who has to catch the ball at the foul line.
He's an okay passer, mostly from the elbows in a standstill situation and has to like make a play against the defense that's nailing all the rotations. And that's just not good enough. And I think the playmaking deficit that has reared its head in this series is why, just my gut Bobby, I don't think it's automatic that they're just giving Jalen Brown the Super Max. And if it's not automatic, you know the next step from there, like there's not gonna be, I still don't think there's gonna be like a friendly negotiation where it's like, well, you take a little less of that.
That's just my gut. They're still in shock. They're still dealing with the series. I don't think that's an automatic decision anymore.
And if it's not, and that brings to the other thing that we haven't mentioned yet, I think that the rant thing that came out last summer with Jalen being reportedly, according to the athletic and an article that the Celtics really push back hard on put into Durant talks, maybe that's just not a thing you ever get past. I don't know. I'd said a lot of stuff about it. You say something.
I mean, I think, listen, five for whatever the number comes out to base on the cap, let's say 295, like if that's offered to Jalen Brown, I think he signs it now. The question is, do they take an approach like Utah did with where do you go bare? Right? Like just because you're Super Max eligible, doesn't mean you have to get the whole 35%.
The only mandate is that has to be a total of six years, including what's left on your contract. So for Brown, he'll enter with one year left on his contract. It has to be another five years as far as the extension. If it's over, if it's over 30% of the cap.
Exactly. They didn't give him the whole 35%. Right? I don't know the exact number, but it was far less than what Joel Embiets or I think was honest that he signed for as far as the Super Max.
So that's my question. Let's say if they offer him five for 260, does he sign it? Right? That's going to be the interesting debate here.
And as you said, like if they're not sure, if they're not comfortable, now what's the alternative? Right? You can't have a player on an expirate. You know what the deadline is.
You know what the deadline is. October 23rd as far as before, where he can sign it. So it's not like this is going to linger a little season here. Like so I think where what's happened is that the rules, the Super Max goes out the window if he's ever traded.
He won't be able to sign out with a new contract, but still, the number is pretty high. I think it's like five for 250 as a free agent. I think it's a $40 million loss compared to what he can sign with Boston compared to what his new team, if he was traded to that team. So that's going to be, you know, that sets in that sets in, you know, motion a lot of different things here because, as I said, I think it's five or two 95s on the table.
He signs it, but if anything less, then I think it's going to, then there's going to be a there's going to be some type of negotiation here. And it may not go well. Yeah, it might not go well. Let me tell you this, despite the fact that Jalen Brown's warts have been on display in this series, leveraging 16.7 points a game is two of 23.
Four of Miami starters are averaging more points for a game than he is four of just the heat starts not great. There would be robust demand for Jalen Brown from a lot of teams, if Boston ever actually started making or listening or picking up the phone or whatever you do with your phone when you want to maybe investigate trade, you pick it up, you send text, I don't know what the hell they're doing. No one ever makes outgoing calls, but it's always incoming called listening. By the way, another thing about the heat is it's like, they're shooting 39% on threes in the playoffs, which is like, hi, but it's not great.
It's not insanity, right? It's not insanity. It's not 43%. I don't know what deal Pat Riley made with the basketball gods.
The reason it's 39% and it doesn't look in the aggregate, like some outrageous hot shooting streak is because they slumped against the one team they could afford to slump against. And that's the Knicks against the box in the Celtics. They've shot lights up and it's like, what kind of deal has Riles made with the basketball gods? Any other thoughts on the jail and Brown thing?
No, I mean, it's like, you know, Tatum is certainly the following year, but I think Brown basically, you know, as I said, I mentioned, I mentioned, but Brown dictates your off season, right? Like that kind of that makes it as far as there's a lot of different directions that that you go with. If he's resigns to extension and certainly that opens up. Yeah, I don't agree with you.
Even on an expiring contract, his value would be off the roof because I think that team out there would be willing is going to know that they're going to have to commit five for whatever 250 as a free agent here. I mean, he's certainly extension eligible, but that's at a lower number here. But just going back to the heat. I know you talked about them.
Like the amazing part is, and I always said, I've said this since I've written, I wrote their art off season going into that Chicago game, which wasn't a positive one, you know. I was at a party. What in the, I was at my son at a party and then Chicago games going on. I'm thinking they're done, right?
I'm going to go home to a video. We're going to put out the heat article and it's basically the theme was, does the cost of the roster justify the product? Right? Like that's the thing.
I mean, you look at, right? 25th and all, this is regular season, 25th and offensive efficiency, 27th and 3.0 percentage. And they lost Atlanta lethargically in that playing game. Okay.
But to be fair, 26 different starting lineups that Eric used during the year and 289 games missed by Heat Player, second most in the NBA. So to be fair here, what are they? Top three and offensive efficiency and top four and three points. You didn't go into college.
I mean, like it's just, it's, it's unbelievable. And I agree with you on a Tyler hero point here. Like it's basically, you get to a finals. It's almost going to be like break glass in case of emergency based on different settings here.
But whenever we do put out this heat article here, like for them, like for always, I know we're talking about my, about Boston, but for me, it was always about like, oh my God, you're going to have to find your home for Kyle Lowry and you've got the new Duncan Robinson for the bring back Vincent and Max and stuff. And now it's like, well, no, you really don't, because as we said, in the Boston talking points, the basically the teeth of it doesn't start to 2024. You can wait till Kyle's expiring contract comes off the book and you'll be okay financially with that group. Like I haven't even gotten over the buck series yet.
And the conference finals just started. Like we had this marathon second round full of incredible matchups and incredible storylines. You breathe. Okay, let's dig into this conference.
I took their over. What happened? We're gonna have 10 days off before the, what am I gonna do? Well, I'm gonna do a lot of work and I'll travel and I'll get to the finals at a time.
But like I'm behind on succession. I, my daughter's got soccer practice. I'm gonna go to some soccer, kick around a soccer ball. I almost injured myself playing soccer with her in the front.
I tripped over a root. There's a root sticking up in our yard. It could end it. It's only a matter of time, Bobby, before I snap the Achilles.
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Let us come now in praise of them. I am the Heat. Their defense against Boston. If you just watch some of these possessions, they are so good at Tatum gets the ball against the match up that he wants or Brown gets the ball against the match up that he wants.
Everyone's bouncing on their toes, flashing like, full flash toward the nail. Oh, just a little flash toward the nail and flashback down the low man in the paint, one foot in the paint, one foot out, arms spread wide. You know, you fake this way. He goes this way, balls out, they're rotating with the flight of the ball and like they're on time.
They foist uncertainty onto you when they are locked in like this because you just see these flashes of bodies. Like that little driving light appears. Oh, no, it's not that little driving light appears open over here. No, it's not.
What about that? Pass it. That's not open. They are so locked in that they just make you hesitate and think and as soon as you think something's there, it's not and it's not it's not groundbreaking, you know, secret sauce defense.
It's just really good defense that has made Boston indecisive and confused. And on offense, the level of speed and urgency, which they do every with which they do everything stands in such contrast to the Celtics every screen, every cut, every hand off, Taylor Martin is the poster guy for this. Everything is full speed catch and drive. No hesitation.
Just the ball is in his hands. It's meeting his fingertips and he's already in motion on the way to the basket to make the next play. They do not stop ever and they know that they have the Jimmy offense and then they have the everything else moving around stuff offense and when they go into that route, they got to do it with urgency to make it work. Can I give you my favorite example from last night's game?
Yes. Nine minutes left in the second quarter. Derek White, Jason Tatum, pick and roll on the left side of the floor. Get to switch.
Hurray! Duncan Robinson's on Jason Tatum 15 on the shot clock. Jason Tatum says screw it. I'm just taking the three over.
Duncan Robinson, could I attack the paint? Could I see something else maybe? But I'm taking the three. You live with it and Jason Tatum.
But the thing with the Celtics is Bobby, can you give me a second or third action a little bit more often? Can you get me into multiple actions and they just let go of the rope on that? Miss Kyle Lowry rebound. You know what Kyle Lowry's doing on a rebound?
I am sprinting the ball up. Boom. Hit ahead to Caleb Martin on the right wing. Kyle Lowry do after throwing that pass.
He sprints at Caleb Martin. Caleb Martin pitches him the ball right back. It becomes a pick and roll. Boston is like, we just missed a shot.
What the hell is going on? Two guys swarm Lowry. Caleb Martin slips to the rim. There's like 18 or 19 or 20 on the shot clock.
Boston doesn't know what's hit them. Caleb Martin slips to the rim. Lowry passes at him. He's in the paint.
He's open. Here comes the help. One dribble. Pass out to Gabe Vincent.
What does Gabe Vincent do? Does he pause for one second? No. Does he do the thing you expect him to do which is either shoot or dribble?
No. Pass fake. Pass fake. Pass fake.
And McCain goes in and is just like bam, bam bam, bam, bam. That's the offense. The other thing on the offense is I mentioned this. They are getting the direct white switch, right.
Jamie Butler. And in Game 2, he just cl syrup everybody. Grant Williams whoever. Same play over and over again.
GiveIZ them the ball and the right side of the floor. Clear everyone else out to the left side. And I'm watching Game 2. And watching him just embarrass everybody.
Give people the too small. Aim 1 after A& 1. No help comes. None.
No doubles. No help. None of these flashes we're dealing with Miami. Not even a big.
Not even a wave. Not even a hand face. No one just give me one of these like taunting something nothing and I'm watching that again I'm like man all four of those heat guys are like right next to each other on the left side of the floor You could pretty easily send one guy toward Jimmy one defender toward Jimmy and the three other guys can zone up between those Four guys because they're right next to each other guess who else had that same thought Eric Spolstra and he knew in game three Help is gonna come so there's one possession I can't remember what second quarter first quarter same thing they get Derek white on Jimmy byler right side of the floor I so for other heat players on to the left side of the floor here comes the help BAM out of bio cuts across the entire baseline toward the ball toward Jimmy Butler and sucks Al Horford and another defender with him because they're like Well, they didn't do this last game and all of a sudden the zone ups don't work anymore in Caleb Martin's wide open for three And they pulled that same thing two or three times someone cutting all the way across the court toward the ball to confuse Boston's defense Clearly intentionally clearly they anticipated exactly what Boston was gonna do and what their adjustment was gonna be pre-planned an adjustment to confuse them and it worked and when people say things like Eric Spolstra's coaching circles around Joe Missoula, they often don't really have any thing that they can point to that's one you can point to they were ready for that And they have just been on it man on both ends of the floor They are winning this series We talked about Boston a lot because the implications for them are huge because it looks like we're gonna have another two or three weeks to talk About Miami That's why Boston led this podcast and we'll lead all these other podcasts because this is a disaster They heat are snatching this series on both ends of the floor with brilliant locked in They can you think of one heat defensive mistake in the last two games off the top here? Do you think of one?
No, I mean and there's one play last on Sunday night that stood out basically I think it was Tatum on a fast break He basically had three heat players on him He had gave Vincent on his hip basically in the ball one of going out of bounds But that that showed you I mean like they're not giving up anything and I think for all offensive If you watch Eric Spolstra on the sideline, he's like a third base coach like he's winding the arm, right? Like let's go like get like let's go Let's let's move and I think the only time they kind of fall into a little bit of a trap And it happened at the end of the second second quarter was they went Jimmy ISO 3 like basically I think two or three times in the corner there You know certainly the one at the end of the quarter here and like that maybe sometimes when you know But that's kind of they basically have to do it as you said they're basically two different offenses right like when you're gonna go right we're gonna Miss match post them up or we're gonna spread it out. We're gonna put shooters around we're gonna move the ball pick and roll We'll do anything we get them involved pick and roll right? So yeah, they basically have beaten you and they just suck the life out of you That's like they make you tap out.
I mean and that's what you're seeing in this Boston series They give you nothing easy nothing the resurrection of Kyle Lowry the resurrection of Duncan Robinson But most of all Jimmy Butler Jimmy Butler sat on that podium last year and said we're gonna be back here And we're gonna get the job done and 82 games 84 games into this season It was like man. That was kind of funny that he said that and he repeatedly said we're trying to win the championship We're here to win the championship and I believe like a week or two ago He said I'm the best player in the world. I'm the best player in the world something to that nature Regular season stats. They don't show is the best player in the world.
They show is a top-10 player for sure He is that I wrote in November of this year. He's the most under appreciated superstar in the NBA No negative place. No fouls no turnovers. No bad defensive possessions all positivity all the time in the playoffs at the highest level Has he been the very best player in the league?
It's him or it's yokich or I guess you go back to Devin Booker for a bit like he is backing up every Every bit of those words and it's just relentless. It never stops and you got injured you got injured against the nicks And he's like just shook it right off No, I mean like you know when Jimmy signed that that max I guess it was two years ago like we always thought like man This thing's not gonna look good at the end right just based on where you know He's making his body hold up and everything and for him and it's basically like maintenance Like I always go back and look watch that video of him and Spogo and at it Which is one of the great videos of all time right like this season was it was last year I think it was last year I don't know there's probably which is one of the great videos of all time, but basically it's like Virginia it's like maintenance right like maintenance during the regular season 60 65 games get him through here kind of pick your spots And I always said like it's almost like we saw with kawai back in 2019. It's like a marathon sprinter right you kind of last season But yeah, you're basically he's kind of like a pace runner here and he knows like this is you know This is his time here and he has the ability the beauty is he has the ability to take over And with this heat team if he doesn't take over similar We saw a little bit of dent with Denver certainly the other night when we've seen it throughout the series Where there's not to be always yokich could be Murray could be Porter could be Gordon Brown KCP that's kind of the same That's the same thing with this heat team Just an unbelievable an unbelievable playoffs. I still I still like to heat our one win away from the NBA finals Unbelievable Kevin Pelton just sent me a note.
They were whatever whatever odds he's using I don't know exactly which sports book it is at the beginning of the playoffs They were a hundred and twenty five to one to make the finals the longest shot in recorded odds history to make the finals Was a hundred to one at the stage at the beginning of the playoffs It's the 81 rockets who were under 500 made the finals in loss of the Celtics just like Miami Miami Miami Miami Miami Miami LeBron left in free agency by the way, but just just remember this Do you know what you know what Eric you know what Eric's most for said really that stood out and basically why this is you know Sustaining he talked about it last week when all these coaches are getting let go and he's like basically like we haven't had to reset the culture And I know the word culture gets thrown around a little a lot But they haven't had to reset it in 15 years or 14 years from whenever he became coach You know, it's not like one of these places where you go and you hire coach and then four years later You're turning it over again Basically most teams have gone through three coaches and he's been there the length of it like they know who they are I mean, that's kind of the reality of it. Well, the one time they really had to do it and I wrote this ahead of the 2020 finals in the bubble It's the greatest it might be the greatest organizational turnaround that I've ever seen in the modern NBA When they went through that post LeBron and post Wade and post post Bosch with the What do you call it the emblisms? I can't remember what the the blood clotting issue. Yeah, um And they they kind of were stuck with like the waiters white side contracts Justice Winslow wasn't really popping Josh Richardson was topping out and it just looked like they had picks out the door from the Dragot trade and dragot was in decline and it just looked like my god the heat are stuck in the mud and decision by decision Bams the 13th pick or whatever he is heroes the 14th pick or whatever he is they somehow trick everybody into trading Jimmy for Jimmy Butler Um, and they lift and they have all these undrafted guys who all hit somehow and they went in a blink from where is this team going to?
Oh, they're in the finals and now they're gonna be maybe in the finals again probably in the finals again after being one shot from the finals last year It's just an incredible incredible thing and you just have to remind yourself every day and I wrote about it at the time One of the legacies of the super max is going to be that the Chicago Bulls with Jimmy Butler like age 26 decided voluntarily of their own volition Yeah, Jimmy was a hothead and he didn't get along with Fred Holyberg and he was calling everybody out left and right The Bulls voluntarily said we don't want to be in the Jimmy Butler business anymore. This is stupid of a contract for us I remember when he wrote about it. I remember mr. Minnesota.
It doesn't work out. They have to trade him because he's leaving He hates everybody there the story of the practice is just becoming a legend Goes to Philadelphia. They semi voluntarily get out of the Jimmy Butler business Joellen Bead has an emo moment about it like once a week in public And they choose ben simmons in brett brown over jimmy butler Essentially, right? Like jimmy had a role in that too.
He wanted to get to Miami Got to Miami but there was a way to reconcile that the best six or steam that they've had probably in this whole run neck and neck with This year's team got about got to literally the exact same game lost in much different fashion By the way for everyone bearing Jason tatum. He did have 51 points in a game seven a week ago. It's like a week ago. It's just I just my brain is firing in 19 Different directions.
I just I can't believe it's three oh heat It's also three oh denver. Do you want to talk about denver? Let's go In communities across canada hourly amazon employees earn an average of over $24.50 an hour Employees also have the opportunity to grow their skills and their paycheck by enrolling in free skills training programs for in-demand fields like software development and information technology Learn more at about amazon.ca Denver the only team I have not written zack out of the 29 out of the 30 teams I have not touched the denver nuggets off season I haven't had to I said last Friday that game to win heard the nuggets at home and game one was close to LeBron had that time three that just Rimmed out that game to win felt like a capital and moment and I said this last week because They came the Lakers had that game at their pace at their style up 10 up 12 Even the series to split their comeback to la and the nuggets roar back and Jamal marigos berserk And then it gets tight and they don't score I think they score two points in like four and a half minutes late in the game And michael porter has the bizarro turnover where he steps over the baseline and the Lakers are creeping back into it Every team when they get to this stage when they realize we're about to get somewhere Before has that moment where they get tight and they either lose that game and the whole series flips or they gut it out And they feel better about themselves and they gutted it out and then they went to la And with yolkach and foul trouble in the third quarter survive the yolkach minutes on the bench And obliterate the Lakers in the fourth quarter with yolkach dominating the game in every possible way post-ups cuts inverted pick and rolls with jumal Murray is the screener and win by you know 11 or whatever they ended up winning by in their up 3-0 And they've just been better. There's been better than the Lakers and you know what they played tonight in nine hours We'll see if tonight's a denver nuggets a coordination I think lebron has tried his best to summon what he has as a pick and roll ball handler as a bully ball guy is And the nuggets have gotten better and better and better as a series is going on about Getting jumal Murray out of that mismatch avoiding that jumal Murray mismatch Anthony Davis has had two good games in one-man game Supporting cast with the Lakers has been up and down as it tends to be the nuggets have just won these games I mean it's what it stood out to you about about their play in this series in general I mean, you know, of course the Murray play is going to stand out But I mean I think it's just for me it's the role players.
I mean it's and I look back on You know, it's so hard to add to the back end when you have yolkach and you have Murray and you have porter three max guys Bruce Brown I mean, he's been a pain the butt to the Lakers. He's been a thorn to them I think kcp what he's been able to do. I think jeff green certainly here. I think like the role players have played a Well, they closed game three with well, they're on in jeff green over kcp and ergort 94 93 Lakers up one Right, that's what it was for three's in a row.
I think denver hit one brown one kcp two in the corners here I mean that just basically opened it all up here and so for me like that's like this denver team is not Beyond one-dimensional. It's beyond two-dimensional here is that there's just so many different ways that they can That they can beat you and from for their coach, you know, michael mollone like He's not willing to let their guard down at one bit here That's why i'm expecting them when they come out on for game four You know to try to not put this have this game go back to game five and denver here But man, they are a fun team to watch and it's you know, the beauty of is you know, we watch it all year Like we've seen like this team has been I know there was a little bit of you know, some slumps here during the regular season But I mean his team has been good here and it's basically the team and I know some of the players are different before Murray got hurt and I think it was a golden state where he heard his knee And they had gone to gordon trade because the trade deadline was in march that year and he had arron I think for eight games and they were good I mean this team was good with when they post arron gordon trade and it's it's for me It's similar to that group back then, you know without you know, kcp and without you know, Bruce Brown here But what's what's also stood out is that this team's not going anywhere right like starting vibes on the contract for You know for next year now you've got to figure out like, you know, some of your kind of key role players And that's a story for another day here But the bill the roster is built you know, the roster is built for a long it's expensive Like you can justify that cost when when those you know, your core guys are playing at that high level It just they've just I picked the nuggets and six in this series I've been a nuggets true believer for a long time I waivered I admit that I waivered and I picked the sons over them in the second round four Two or four three I care remember I think sons in seven Um was wrong. I overreacted to their to Denver's month long swoon then the season Um, obviously didn't anticipate chris paul getting hurt But it is what it is a pick that series wrong, but I've been a nuggets guy For a long time picked him to win this series as most people did and you wouldn't know it from Michael Malone's public comments But most people did none of this is surprising to me none of what's happened in this series is surprising to me It's too late now probably because I don't you know It would be pretty hard for the Lakers don't have home court and the nuggets have not lost at home this entire playoffs I just thought and I said this on Friday. I was gonna ride or die with shrewder reaves hocha morrell LeBron Davis I was gonna start it that'd be my lineup And i'm gonna overplay it if I have to because delo isn't good enough defensively and isn't bringing enough offensively If I see him screw up and transition defense again, I'm gonna throw my laptop out my office window By the way 71 71 game three must win for the Lakers.
They come back. They tied at 71 with the old kitchen on the bench I if you want to freeze a moment of that game you picked one when it was 94 93 71 71 all the momentum Lakers yokech foul trouble Bruce brown gets too straight transition layups a sink a Bruce brown solo 4o run to kind of write the ship Give him back to lead that they held for a long time one of them the second one DeAngelo Russell runs a pick and roll with Bruce Brown on him Throw I believe Bruce Brown was on i'm not 100 sure I rewatch it this morning already forgot throws across court pass terrible pass kcp picks it off Here come the nuggets Bruce Brown just like DeAngelo Russell is ahead of Bruce Brown Bruce Brown just runs right by him You know why because DeAngelo Russell for like the 19th time in this series is like well I'm not supposed to be Gordon Bruce Brown Bruce Brown belongs to somebody else I'm gonna look for my matchup Bruce Brown goes in gets a layup It's like man. What are you doing? You know, it's like you know, it's like when I like when I'm teaching seventh and eighth grade basketball And we when I say you know what we're gonna play man to man and then all of a sudden like Johnny's man goes down the middle and like he Like like like all of a sudden the guy who's playing center like let's I'm like, why didn't you pick up him?
Oh, no, no, no my man is over here. No, no, you gotta like you know, you gotta pick up your man there And the Vanderbilt thing I would start hatching over him and I start shooting over Russell and it's not a great shooting lineup But it's better than anything with Vanderbilt in it because the nuggets of the longer this series is going on the more conservative They got non-defense We're just gonna drop yolkach back in the pick and roll and we're gonna do that because it Vanderbilt's on the floor Maybe Anthony Davis rolls hard into the lane and gets some gets gets a little bit behind yolkach And he rolled much harder in game three than he had in the first games and it worked And there were a couple plays where yolkach was like a little worried about that lob and the brown got a layup because yolkach Wasn't wasn't pulled over to help on the brown but if Vanderbilt's on the floor They just don't have enough spacing to do much of anything They don't trust him to guard yolkach the way they'll put hachimura on yolkach and allow Anthony Davis to roam That lineup that I mentioned is plus 34 in 46 minutes in the playoffs It's plus 21 in 26 minutes in this series It's actually their most used lineup in this series It was plus six in 11 minutes in game three and 11 minutes just isn't enough just start it It's your best lineup They didn't get to it until like four minutes left in the second quarter and then eight minutes left in the third quarter It's just it's their best lineup They got to ride it more and You know, but the nuggets have problem solved every look that they've given them You know, Anthony Davis on yolkach, Rui on yolkach, Lebron on yolkach They've gradually problem solved most of it They used Aaron Gordon more as a facilitator in game three to sort of make Anthony Davis pay for roaming off Hammer put the ball in his hands and you found yolkach on some cuts and Murray on some cuz it's been a really it's been a really well played series and You know some teams somewhere will come back from 3-0 down in the NBA will happen I don't really get the vibe that it's this Lakers team against this nuggets team I don't I mean, I think it's it's almost easier for I won't say easy But like for Boston to come back from 3-0 than for for Denver Based on you know, if you lose this, you know, you got game five at home and at worst You got game seven at home, right? You know, and yeah, I think if it's either Monday or if it's Wednesday I just think Denver at the reality of is the better team and I think if you're the Lakers like you know You're basically going to have to either you're gonna have to shorten this and I think you got an endarments at a point where you know You got a fan people you got hurt feelings here and if the angel Russell who shot 29% in the field and 14% from 3 and has been average seven points is not part of this group Then or Jared Vanderbilt is not part of this group then you can shrink the rotation down and you put your seven seven best players out there Let's talk about the Lakers off season, buddy. Yep.
The cap I think next year is about 133 134. Yeah 134 Yep, all right. So 134. Let's do some Matthew and me.
Yep LeBron 46.9 Anthony Davis 40.6 that gets us to like 87 five right off the bat. What are we down to whatever 47 46? Yeah, we got that cap. Oh, sorry.
Oh, sorry. Sorry. We got there 87. Yeah 87.5 4.7 for bando What are we up to now?
92. Yep 1.7 for max christie. Let's say we're up to 93 94 What's Austin Reeves cap old? 2.2 96 let's say Um They have their first round pick, I believe right they do 36 So let's just call it an even 100 at this point.
Yeah, and then I've got like seven empty roster spots to fill probably Yep, you know And those count as minimum holds so that counts as let's say one million Right million each that gets us to 107 So I and I and I have to have reefs I have to have Yeah, you're fine And you can and how it works if you keep the cap hold if you want to go out and use room Your room you recycle back is unreaved you can exceed the cap So so the most cap space I can realistically have Let's say we even dump the underbuilt somehow and that gets me to 34ish right? Yeah, summer runner 30 30 30 30 30 40 That involves me renouncing russel, which I'm okay with depending on what the opportunity is And renouncing hachimura, which hurts me no matter what the opportunity is But that's what I have to do to get up to not max space But like maybe this is palatable to someone who thinks of themselves as a max player But really wants to come to los angeles space of 34 million The target is kairi Irving in theory now I know it's been reported elsewhere over the year that the Lakers have washed their hands at the kairi Irving dream I actually don't think that's true. I don't think they think it's likely I don't think they'd be like psyched at the idea But if it really comes down to a choice of hachimura or kairi because I don't I've lost interest in d'Angelo Long term if i'm the Lakers, maybe whatever I think that's a choice you can you can feel okay about if it nets kairi Irving Now I've heard that the mass the buzz in chicago the mass are really optimistic about retaining kairi Irving But I don't think the Lakers have like totally thrown that idea in the trash Am I missing anything in this scenario? I mean, maybe there are other free agents they can go and get but that's the one that I think if you're gonna if you're gonna Renounce all this stuff including hachimura.
I think that's the one maybe No, I agree I mean, I think if you're if you're late if you're a laker fan if you're looking at it from the big picture and you're watching this series You're thinking okay, it hurts losing hachimura, but van der Beel hasn't played a much of a role and diana Ralas saw hasn't played much of a role so we're basically bringing kairi in You know, we're basically going you know top heavy with those three players. We still have austin rees We still have our we have a first and a second. We've got our room in level and we'll just build out there now the hard part Room in levels of yes seven six. Well, that's right.
It's bigger than it used to be. Yeah, so maybe you get liney walker back at then I don't know. I'll just throw it out there. Um, the hard part now comes is as far as kairi LeBron and ad have not played more than 65 games in the last three years, right?
So we're going back to the we're going back to the veteran minimum game So like there's almost two different teams like I would love kairi in the playoffs for this group I'd take hairi in a playoff now. Can you get there? Can you get through an 82 game regular season with these three players? Veteran minimums austin rees your draft picks and just basically filling it out there, right like that's going That's the for me the big thing is that what is this roster look like when the playoffs start next season, right?
Like are you still in the same predicament where you're a 43 and 39 and you're a playing team Or can you if everything breaks and you're healthy or you were in the top four and the top five like that's that's you know Like regular season depth with playoff debt, right? Kairi is playoff debt now. What else is left of your roster here is for his during regular season That's the hard part. I mean like you can always and this would exact this would take dialysis cooperation, right?
You could always say you know what? Signing trade sign and trade Um, kairi certainly starts to come out of discount like that's like 30 30 million around there We can keep really hot you more now. Here comes the hard part. What's outgoing?
What is outgoing is it d'Angelo Russell outgoing the contracts of um beasley and um mobamba like that Yeah, i'd let mobamba beasley. We'll give you the 17th pick and a draft those are guaranteed before like in june 28 right around there Right so that's before even free agency starts. So what is outgoing in salary? Does d'Angelo Russell and jared van de beau and the 17th pick and a drink you know like so that's that is the complicated mess When it comes to a sign and trade here if you're if the goal is to keep rui on your roster here Like where austin reves can be is part of this no matter what right like we're not removing him because his cap hold us So low but if your goal is to try to sign rui it's basically a sign and trade So let me just get let me just make clear what exactly you're pitching here So I traded all this stuff for porzingis Then I traded porzingis for two guys who are not my team anymore Well, no one guy still on the heavages and play for tans Then I let giallen brenson walk in free agency totally disaster situation Who just the last time we saw him was putting up 40 something against the heat Then I traded what I have left for kairi Irving who's an expiring country Then we fail and don't even make the playoffs in part because we lose our last two games on purpose Then we clench our butt cheeks and keep our pick in the draft lottery and now We're signing and trading kairi Irving from mau mamba jared van de beau d'Angelo Russell and the 17th pick in the draft I just maybe we'll get maybe we'll get picked 20 alcohol 29 also is included And we're trading him to a we're not trading him to the east We're actually going to trade him to the west to a team that's in our Remember what I said earlier match fans at the buzz in chicago was that the mass are confident they're going to retain kairi Irving Obviously they can all from the most years and the most money good luck with that Let's finish with carmelo antony by the way up to go.
Yeah, carmelo antony in a beautiful announcement today Um, formerly told the world that he is retiring from a professional basketball He is the ninth all-time leading scorer in the nba 11th if you include the aba And I remember back when people were like I see all the famer and I was like yeah He's the first bow and all famer You know he may not have been everything that you wanted as a player Defensively playmaking although I thought when particularly when the nix put the ball in his hands and let him run pick and roll He was pretty goddamn good at it But man could that dude cook and man could that dude score points? And there's a reason that every time he was a free agent and he missed time this free agency with his buddies Who then joined up to go to miami? Every team wanted to get him Because scoring one-on-one remains the most valuable skill in the mba provided you can create for others too and he could do enough of that Um, congratulations to carmelo on an incredible career. You have some carmelo Memories you would like to share from your days with the next oh man Yeah, I mean we we spent uh five months trying to go after him started in september of 2010 remember This is when a young executive named misa yu jiri took over in denver Many of us didn't knew of him but didn't really know anything about him and um, I mean we started the dialogue trying to get carmelo We knew that um he wasn't um he wasn't you know happy in denver there and um, I had a There's a journal or basically a notebook of trades.
I still have that here like where myself and p del sanjo basically Who was the assistant gm in denver basically shared maybe 60 70 different um different trade proposals during the whole process here And as I said, it took life um it took many years off our life I always go back to the um, the and I tweeted it the I found it on youtube the mikel progroff video Um when he did the impromptu press conference I believe at the Prudential Center in um in nor because we had um at the time the nuggets had given us permission to meet with carmelo in dc Um and things got haywire and progroff came out and said the meeting goes off No, the meeting with car. I think he might have caught him carmelo Um as in carmelo soprano um go carmelo is off and I remember leaving that um press conference walking with billy king It was our gm and I said it really off and he's like, no, it's not like it's not it's still gonna happen And the funny part of this whole thing is that carmelo was eventually traded to the nix gotten to this huge bidding war Um and we want to get in darren williams, but five months later Um, we're at the uh korea chris humphory's on our team and we had gotten invited to their car dashing wedding Right and so me and my wife went to the car dashing wedding and I figured I wanted to wear this nice white tuxedo jacket Right stand out and carmelo rolls in and he's got the same white tuxedo jacket on And I went up to him and I said you took six months off my life and now you show up wearing the same Like can you just let me enjoy the white tuxedo and we had a good lap about it there But um, I mean we were willing to give up basically everything Um, we had so many draft picks back then that we acquired for him because he we thought that and I think he you know Certainly his time in new york was uneven a little bit but man he what a great score What a great player and he'll you know he'll be in the hall fame one day as soon as he's as soon as he's eligible and to put a bow on it One of the draft picks that the nix traded or one of the draft pick rights to swap right that the nix traded to the nuggets in that deal Do you know who it became? Who did it become? Jomor-Marie.
Oh, that's right They swapped from I think I don't remember how high they so they swapped up to seven Which was the nix make to get Jomor-Marie if my if my transaction live on pro sports transactions is correct Bobby march you gotta go Thank you for going through the conference finals in all the implications with me. Whoo. What a what a what a short What a short week of conference finals action. Hopefully one of these teams can extend it give us some hoops Give us some hoops give us some drama give us a little tension because all it takes is two wins Remember Philly over Toronto 3-0 just last year Toronto won two games and all of a sudden was like Defcon one for Philly Skit maybe we can get maybe we can speak that into it just I don't care which one I don't care Who I have no rooting interest just like if it gets it 3-2 all of a sudden it's like whoa whoa Bobby marks.
Thanks. Thanks. I appreciate it