Boston Dominates, Can Wolves Respond? + Cavs Fire Bickerstaff 👀 | The Hoop Collective

Boston Dominates, Can Wolves Respond? + Cavs Fire Bickerstaff 👀 | The Hoop Collective

hello welcome to the hoop Collective podcast we talk about the NBA which we’re doing on Friday morning after midnight joining us from TD Garden where we had a sad trombone for the Indiana Pacers Boston Celtics series uh Tim BPS hello everybody got a spare hamstring ly around might be use oh you could probably get some good prices for those uh at various times a anobi tried to buy a secondhand hamstring it didn’t work out so well joining us from uh a couple of floors I wonder if you’re above or below me I’ll bet I’m on a higher floor than you here in Minneapolis is Ban McMahon how the partners really don’t need the symbolism here and the hotel room assignments we can leave your snobbishness for another well I didn’t get upgraded so uh I’m in a very very basic room and you’re in a suite how does that make you feel it makes me feel very perturbed because it’s the second time it’s come up on the pod in three days makes me feel under six foot there’s you know I no the last pod I didn’t even know what room I had BM so don’t don’t say that the group chat there was some whining though yeah it was the group chat not whining I knew I knew it came up I was just saying um all right so this was the you know what once promising night I thought um and then the Celtics go on a 170 run in the second quarter which sort of establishes the game and then BM Tyrese halberton um leaves the game in the third quarter and I’ll let you take it from there yeah I mean he’s out with a sore hamstring same hamstring you heard against the Celtics three four and a half months ago back in January when he fell on the court in Indie and I mean look I think the series is over like I hope I’m wrong I hope Alberton plays the guy left a Conference Finals game with a muscle injury find it hard to believe he’s going to come back in the next few days I thought it was incredibly odd that Rick Carlile threw in the towel in this game with 10 minutes to go thank you uh we’re in the era where double- digit comebacks in the fourth quarter are common even long shot comebacks and what was the score at the beginning was 13 I mean I it was it was between a 10 and 15o game for virtually the entire fourth quarter and Carlile just essentially decided not to finish the game his answer was I wanted to look at some guys that I thought needed to look McDermot went in there and played well Isaiah Jackson bought brought a lot of fight to the game Jaylen Smith hasn’t had the best opportunity to play in the playoffs we weren’t giving up but it was an opportunity to get some energetic fresh guys in there to fight guys who had played to that point Pascal was very tired Aaron had four Aaron neith had four fouls and he was tired so that was it I don’t really buy that answer I mean so like the the fourth quarter of game two of the Eastern Conference Finals is like a nice little preseason type of opportunity I this is how I take it okay Tyrese Alber was ruled out basically at the start of the fourth quarter for the game I think the Pacers basically said this just a guess I was I didn’t ask him but the only way I can read this is we’re we’re not winning this game Tyrese isn’t playing we’re going to have to play everybody 45 minutes or more in game three that’s our whole season We’re Gonna Save everybody’s legs as much as possible and we’re going to throw everything at game three if we win game three this the series at least gets to game five maybe we can get halberton back at some point we lose game three the series is over anyway that’s the only reason that’s the only thing I can look at from it because otherwise it doesn’t make any sense yeah it it’s strange but like how can you have any level of optimism on this halberton situation can’t it’s it’s a it’s an H it’s an aggravation of a hamstring injury that bothered him for months caused him to miss 10 games he had not been the same player since then until you know recently there were certainly some some flashes of that even if he plays like you can’t expect him to be anywhere near peak level and if halton’s not awesome the Pacers ain’t winning against the Boston Celtics yeah that’s the thing they have one of the best backup point guards in the league in TJ McConnell but he is not they got a nice backup point guard but the only reason they were going to have any chance to win any games in this series if tyres Albert was the best player on the court or right there with whoever was the best player on the court he was awesome in game one they had a chance to win we talked obviously a ton about that on Wednesday’s po they didn’t get it done without him on the court this should be a sweep the Celtics should go to Indiana they should win two games they should get this series over by Monday assuming he doesn’t play now if he I hope he is able to play I hope I’m wrong hope he’s out there but you just don’t see guys with muscle injuries come back right away especially recurring muscle injuries recurring muscle injuries and if you’re ruled out of a Conference Finals game when you haven’t been in the especially a guy like who hasn’t been there before loves being on this kind of stage you know it’s a serious injury you know he’s not feeling good like you guys aren’t just casually saying oh yeah I’m gonna save it for later like was a 10-point game it wasn’t like they were losing by 35 so yeah I mean look it’s been the story of the Celtics playoffs they didn’t see Jimmy Butler in the first round they didn’t see Jared Allen in the second round Donovan Mitchell missed the final two games of that series now halberton played a game in at three quarters and now he could be out for the series like but it doesn’t matter in the end what their path looks like the Celtics have to take advantage of this they got to get this series over with as fast as possible and watch this slugfest that we’re going to talk plenty about that you guys are at and put their feet up for 10 days like they gotta get this thing done by Monday but and and the other look there’s two muscle injury questions that are going to dominate this the the story lines of this series one is halberton going to be back on the floor that’s probably not the other it will christs porzingis come back and honestly at this point it’s it’s not will he come back to help them win this series it’s will he come back to you know maybe get a little bit of of the rust chipped off during this series so he’s not coming back off of a whatever uh however many week layoff it would be freshen in the finals well listen our our colleague Adent rinowski reported for game one that he was looking at good possibility of coming back in game four and tonight it was sort of Lost in what happened but Luke cornette hurt his wrist in the first quarter left the game the Celtics claimed he was questionable with the wrist brain never came back to the bench never was around at all now I think that could be a pretty important injury even though people don’t talk a lot about Luke cornette in the he’s one of their eight players they’ve got eight players he’s he’s been consistently in the rotation all year especially whenever porzingis has been out like he has been and look whoever comes out of the West you’re talking about 48 minutes of centers for both teams and good centers so you’re going to need as much size as possible so we’ll see what happens with him but the Celtics went very small the rest of this game they played o Bret to former Pacer or Jason Tatum at Center the rest of the game and that was one thing the the the the Celtics did not take their starters out when the Pacers did played 42 minutes the Celtics have messed up a lot at home the past couple years and they were not gonna lose a game at home but to to the point about porzingis the the dream scenario for the Celtics in my opinion you go to Phil Indiana Saturday you win this game Saturday assuming how again we’re operating the suion halbert’s done for the series you win the game Saturday Le for Saturday he’s done for Saturday well I’m just saying for the next three you win the game Saturday game four you have porzingis play the Luke cornette minutes off the bench play 15 minutes you win you win Monday you get him some minutes and then you get 10 days to get ready for the finals that is in my opinion if they can get porzingis back for game four how this will go and whether halbert’s healthy or not the Celtics just they got to get this over with you can’t mess around and have a game where you you play an extra game or an extra two games you have Jason T spray his ankle or somebody bang their knee or whatever like the series this was already a heavy Underdog in the first place now halbert’s out like they have to get this taken care of and then they hope that this m wo series goes seven they’ll have you know a significant rest Advantage uh yeah that that’s the perfect path uh looking at the way the Celtics actually played on the court tonight Jaylen brown with a brilliant game 40 points ties his playoff career high very efficient um then Bon Temps comes into the postgame and beats his chest a little bit yeah I mean with some cajoling uh there was a lot of people here were very upset that Jaylen Brown did not make all NBA and he got asked about it several times what do they give a crap he already got his money just telling you what just telling you how it went uh had a greaters he had a great answer the first time it came up he said honestly we’re two wins away from the NBA Finals so I don’t have time to give a bleed which I thoroughly enjoy it as an answer and then our pal Gary wasburn asked him uh essentially do you take any motivation from seemingly being overlooked at people talking about the things you don’t do and he said I mean I watch guys get praised and anointed who I feel like are half as talented as me on either side of the ball at this point in my life I just embrace it comes with being who I am and what I stand for and I ain’t into change in that so I just come out and I’m grateful to step out onto the floor each and every night put my best foot forward you get better and every year whether people appreciate or not it is whether people appreciate the got all NBA last year and got the biggest contract in NBA history because of all out jown I think it worked out all fine for Jaylen Brown sidebar many many people complain about the media getting this voting power okay and I agree that on individual basis you can find media members whose votes don’t look so good and I admit I’ve made mistakes in the past I will make mistakes in the future however you regret your bonus votes my ballot is public you can go look at it you can go find it okay AIO um nice last year Jaylen Brown was borderline all-nba pick I did vote for Jaylen Brown last year he made all I think he made second team last year I don’t know if I would call that borderline well okay borderline is the wrong word but he wasn’t a guy that was like absolutely for sure a lot like ant Edwards this year was a lock you know uh also a second team pick we have more to say on a ler he gets I believe it was like 65 or 70 million bonus oh B Bond’s been around4 million4 million bonus no no no this was for the supermax uh he’s talking about Jaylen Brown not jown I’m sorry I’m sorry Jaylen Brown gets 60 70 million I don’t remember the exact number this year Jaylen Brown and Tyree salbert in are Borderland I voted for Jaylen Brown I did not vote for Tyrese Alberton um Tyrese Alberton makes it okay Jaylen Brown probably was the guy you know I had to squeeze and I picked Brown I don’t think I don’t think it came down to Hal Burton or brown for me but Hal Burton or brown was obviously a very big Tyrese gets it he gets the $41 million okay that’s like1 to $10 million players get media put them on the list the media definitely and it wasn’t me in this case I I didn’t put Hal Burton on but the media’s votes got the got the bonuses and and I have let the bonus influence my vote in the past and I’m sure people let their bonus the the the bonus influencer votes this time is is anybody going to complain about that is Jaylen gonna complain about Tyrese getting his money or complain about him getting his money like I think everybody turned out just fine I mean he didn’t I wouldn’t say he complained about that no it sounds like there was a little uh a little Boston Homer prodding is that what you’re accus I know maybe you say that but like he’s like there’s people half as good as me I mean I mean the question was not about it was less about all NBA and it was it was more about him being criticized and overlooked did you follow up with who are the overlooked in what he’s overlooked listen I listen I I enjoyed the first answer which was directly did you take any motivation from missing out on all NBA and the answer was honestly we’re two wins away from the NBA Finals so I don’t have time to give a bleep that to me was the answer about all NBA which I enjoyed and Jaylen Brown was the the others receiving votes who got the most votes this year and by the way did you ask any good questions tonight or did you just let everybody else do it listen man I wasn’t asking questions about lmba it is fun by the way it is fun to watch watch um McMahon command the uh the I mean I’ve heard it he heard it for years on this podcast he never he always wants the mic and never wants to be quiet situation listen what I will say this there’s there’s a thing in these playoff press conferences where there are people who are asking questions just so they can get on NBA TV that’s a thing don’t don’t say I’m one of those just because you were you just like to you just like to play extra noises while you’re in the press conferences while you’re oh oh oh oh oh oh oh no I don’t yeah all right moving on McMahon’s Brilliance is not recognized enough um I’m just gonna say that age um anyway obviously I know how Department even agrees with that let alone anybody else not not that I’m aware of how McMahon operates in press conferences but I’m just saying being on site here and watching McMahon work in the press conferences is enjoyable he Luka actually had a sense of humor press conferences lately which is is fun like the guy got a sense of humor he’s got a he just rarely wants to share it with the media he’s actually had a sense of like what did Mark Davis say about the uh the foul the other night the subtle but effective foul that is how McMahon operates in these press conf subtle talk he’s got a light touch he’s got a light touch by the way he can he can sometimes use the the BL Hammer we bring can we bring this back to the Western Conference Finals we we’re talking about the Western Conference Finals uh speaking of subtle but effective Chris Finch today there were uh he he had a Humdinger of a little post practice between game one and two media availability where he he he said uh the Western Conference Finals have started not sure my guys got the memo but they got it during the film session today basically and did some ripping to them but then he talked about like I asked him about and we’ll talk about this in detail later about you know how much of an’s Two Shots attempted in the restricted area were about him and how much was it about the Maverick’s defense and he said you know they’re they’re packing that restricted area they’ve got Five Guys in there then he goes many of them illegally and and but we got to get down hill more of then he had another thing where he’s talking about uh the defense on Luca and he’s talking about you know there there’s you know McDaniels got a fight over screens many of them said illegally he had one more I forgot what it was I think said Luca committed a foul later whatever anyway he had a few of those and uh and old uh John K from the athletic beat me too when when Finch was done he said he said subtle but effective it was subtle sort of I don’t we’ll see if it was effective well you know Finch is known for uh being pretty blunt about his team in this era of making sure everyone’s kind and gentle um Finch has no problem he coaches hard well yeah he coaches hard he suffered the worst coaching injury of one of the in the NBA history by the way from what I understand he the NBA basically is saying he’s not allowed to stand on the sideline he’s got to stay behind the bench because they’re afraid that he can’t get out of the way of a player yeah um and that’s you don’t want a player like crashing into one of his cres I agree I’m not saying it’s controversial I’m just saying it’s it’s a league decision from what I understand but anyway after after game one Finch was not really hard on his team you know it was pretty clear to me that the Maverick’s game plan was to really pack it in and and encourage those three pointers Luca really adopted that game plan when he just simply didn’t move in the first quarter Jak kid without naming his name called Luke out for a lack of effort getting out to basically said we got to do a better job in the three-point line and a lot of that’s effort but yes Priority One is pack the paint I will say in the unofficially just with my eye luk gave up about 16 points on lazy defense in the first quarter his defense in the first quarter stunk his defense in crunch time was as good as it’s ever been in his huge plays what game was it McMahon in the last round where there was that key jump ball at the end of the game in the oh the one that uh the ball squirted out and uh it was with L Dort I don’t remember honestly it was Game well it was in Dallas I want to say it was game three three so Hub Brown game three Hub Brown was calling that game Luca won that jump ball and huie goes you know what when he wants to be Luca is quick as a cat yeah and that is that is absolutely true that was a thing he did not he did not want to be in the first quarter last night no but in the fourth quarter and it was a little cat and mouse actually he did a great job he was a low man he cut off the roll to to go bear initially right and then the ball gets swung over to Conley Conley’s driving and Luca did that thing where he kind of bluffed the contest got Conley you know knew Conley won the lob you know was a good job of understanding the the scatter report and then Conley’s lob was a little bit low but Luca got up he was Above the Rim and Def deflect the lob to go Bears end up being a huge steal you know I’m asking Luka about that Luka loves when he makes a defense play like he loves being asked about his defense he has the same joke every time second Team all defense next year is what he always says and I said something like I think that’s the might have been the first time in your life you ever broke up a lob and it’s like you you didn’t see me when I was young and then I said well okay the first time on a 10- foot hoop and he said okay probably again subtle but effective with that jab but again it was a case of when it came when it came time to to win the game Luca locked in defensely he had that and then he had another one where he denied a McDaniel’s drive and kind of got him where he was basically falling out of bounds and had to make a desperation pass and LCA picked that off um but yeah first quarter for Luca not great fourth quarter on both ends he he turned it on and he came through his the closer so what the MAV game yeah what the Mavericks did was they packed the paint they played elbow in boxes um basically we’re almost playing essentially a Zone and the the uh the Wolves took 53 49 threes it was nine more than they takeen in any playoff game the most of the season and yeah they made some in the first half but they missed him in the second half and Finch really didn’t have a problem with it no he actually said today you know what they’re probably about 10 more threes we should have taken if we’ have made the right plays right but they’re not built and I understand the coach wants an open three wants you to take it but they’re not constructed to be a high volume three-point shooting team and and the Mavericks are going to play that percentage and so they need ant getting downhill he’s the maybe the best downhill player in the NBA which is why I was surprised that Finch basically didn’t do didn’t say much about his team’s performance after the game other then we had no composure oh after he slept on and watched the film he did I know slept on it but he after he watched the fil that’s my point that’s my grand point he went after him in the film session today and you know there was something else uh you know and look McMahon you’re the Mavericks expert I’m a carpet bagger at this point um I’ve been to two Maverick playoff games so far this year yeah but you got good hair um some days uh so the uh there was a there was a shift in in Jason kid mentioned this in the postgame um they were a little they thought that Luca ran out of energy a little bit or I should he didn’t say that he implied he thought Luca ran out of energy a little bit at the end of some of the games in that Thunder series and he’s still dealing with that right knee injury um and so he cut Luca’s minutes in the first half he gave him an extra did he take him out an extra time or did he just sort of cut two minutes off his uh I think he took him out a little bit earlier and he I’d have to double check exactly how the rotation worked if he took him out a second time he definitely cut his minutes and look luk had been playing well into the 40s like 43 45 he he he averaged 42 in the last round but that may have been he may have it may have been the blowout the one blowout might have padded that but uh or you know took it down a little bit but think what the Mavericks want is to keep Luca under 20 minutes in the first half and yeah Jak kid mentioned under 40 for the game and they they they missed that but he he was at 40 and change and Kyrie was at 40 so to get those guys out of the mid 40s you know into the high 30s low low 40s right but the way the and please correct me if I’m wrong here but the way the M’s typically been playing is Luca really is more aggressive early and then you sort of see Kyrie sort of be the secondary player when Luca is resting yeah Luca is the guy who gets him going and Kyrie’s the closer and those roles reversed yes um and I I mean I’m not saying that they were like okay Luca now score go score 15 in the fourth which is what he did he had that 70 burst that really changed the tener of the game but um that strategy is definitely something that they came into the series with I mean I would say they’re two strategy points pack the paint dare the three make uh make adjustments so that Luca is more fresh in the fourth quarter and that included letting Kyrie attack in the first quarter so I think those are two things the wolves have to address we’ll see if the Mavs can stick with that but I think those are the two things that you’ll see them try to deal with in game two well look talked about it going into going into the series I picked Dallas to win the series because I believe that Kyrie and Luca would outplay ant and Cat and some completely insane things have been said about Anthony Edwards over the past few weeks that’s just the facts for his great including you the other day when you just flatly declared he’s better than Jason Tatum when he’s not listen an ant has had a tremendous playoffs he had a great year he’s not as good a player as Jason Tatum he’s not on that level yet he’s certainly not as good as Luka donic and you saw the issues he has in particular in this game he’s not a good creator for other players he is sometimes he makes some read sometimes but he really struggles with that he’s okay he he can he’s not luk I’ll give you that he’s not L he’s he’s okay that’s where he’s got to give okay give me a what he has like seven or eight assists I mean he okay and there were a lot of time listen he he when he figures this part of the game out is when he’s really GNA Ascend a level it’s the last thing he’s got to do obviously he’s a great player not saying he’s Ascend but what Dallas clearly was he okay well he hasn’t the last four games he’s shooting 34% from the field he’s been 20 points three of the last four games he was six for 24 in game seven he took he scored one basket inside the two-point line or inside the three-point line in game one but he was the reason they lost the game he just wasn’t good enough I agree with game one I agree with game one well and he wasn’t he wasn’t good he wasn’t good in game five he didn’t shoot the ball well in game seven like again he’s a 22y old player he’s going to be awesome he is awesome but there’s still areas that he has to grow in and I think the bet that Dallas to me the bet that Dallas made in this game one in particular was by packing the paint they were saying hey a as you both pointed out this is not a good three-point shooting team we’re going to DARE them to shoot a lot of Threes And maybe they’ll make some but they’re probably not going to make enough that was the one bet and the other bet was you repeatedly saw whether it was jadeen McDaniels or Carl towns or ant what whenever those guys got in the paint and there were a lot of bodies around them they had to make plays they didn’t do a good job of handling that and the Mavs had a lot of Leng a lot of length and a lot of blms in the way and they made the passing Lanes hard for them to do stuff and that to me is going to be the hard thing for them to try to adjust to going forward in the series because last round you got sh Alexander who’s one of the best pick and roll players in the league never turns the ball over usually makes great decisions and he was able to manipulate that some and it still wasn’t good enough to win he was able to he was able to get cooking from the mid-range which is where he you know that’s where he lives but the you know Jay du had a uh jayen Williams had a tough series he couldn’t get to the paint he couldn’t get to the rim um especially when Lively’s in the game and you know we’ll hit on that Lively y gaford mix in in a little bit but like the Mavericks are long and athletic having said all that couple things one the ant Tatum thing I had some angry little leprechauns reach out to me boy there were some you know folks who probably had Shamrock tattoos on their forehead got the blood pressure boiling those Shamrocks are spinning around spinning around who pointed out I did mention that a had 38 and took Tatum’s cookies down a stretch when he switched on to him defensively in a Wolves win I did not recall immediately the time because we are doing these podcasts in the we hours in the morning plus I do tend to just flap my gum sometimes so I did not recall that uh Tatum had 45 the next time they met and like 14 in overtime and the Celtics won I don’t know B you’re so damn good at interrup you could have chimed in with that like that would have may be helped out Bozo so now that I got that little mini Mia out of the way I still stand it was your fault it was your fault just to make fault my fault sometime with some good information um but having said all that ant did stink it up in game one he had no gas in the tank a couple days off of that game seven 20 point comeback on the road against the defending champs he got cooked by Kyrie Irving after declaring for the world I got Kyrie yeah you got Kyrie buddy oh your hands are full on that one can we also briefly talk about the fact that they all weirdly talked about how tired they were after the game that was very strange they they were they they talked about it and they and they looked they looked like it yeah it was like I agree they had two days off dude there was also like there was the play working on this this story about these Luca like 40 50 60 foot bombs there’s one of those off a made bucket and Luca catches the inbounds pass he’s free the line extended on the left side of the floor looks across Kyrie even with him on that opposite side of the floor they make eye contact and basically that the eye contact the non-verbal communication is ants gas he ain’t going to Sprint back go and Luca you know just flicks his wrist and next thing you know 60 ft down the floor Kyrie catches it in stride lays it in and a brought up that play without prompting and said you that can’t happen I was exhausted man but dude the other that can happen the most dynamic finisher in the NBA cannot have two attempts in the restricted area in an entire playoff game I don’t give a crap how much they’re packing the paint he has to attack he has to get in there even if he’s not finishing if he is challenging the rim protector whether it’s Gafford or Lively give goar a chance to clean it up if it a lot of times a Miss layup is not a bad play because it’s a it’s a putback opportunity if ant’s not attacking then you know this ain’t gonna be a long series In fairness ant did also throw a 60-foot pass in this game he was throwing it at a teammate who was 30 feet away but he did throw it yes yes that thing that thing hit about the 14th row that was have to first off I have to admit that fan he was I I counted he was in the fifth row he caught it it is not something that you’re normally preparing for as a basketball coming at your chest in the fifth row I’m gonna say this though if you catch it you gotta shoot it let it go let it fly it should have been a 50th three-point attempt for the Wolves but that fan that fan choked well listen ant over the last four games again going back to game five of the Conference Finals his 13 for 362 like that’s just not it’s not going to get it done and again you mentioned you mentioned him before mentioned him before the the the play I mean Daniel Gafford played well Derek Lively’s play in the playoff great well I mean he was he was still deterring shots at the rim and was a presence I’m not but the story The the real Point here the way Derrik Lively has played in these playoffs both being a rookie and obviously with the personal stuff he’s going through has been absolutely unbelievable and he was the dominant force in this game in the fourth quarter was Luka donic making ridiculous plays on offense and it was Derrick Lively either cleaning up at The Rim whenever Luca rarely missed or completely changing the trajectory of all sorts of plays at the other end defensively it was amazing to watch to see him go out there in the fourth quarter of a Conference Finals game as a rookie on top of all the other stuff play the way he did it was unbelievable stuff and it’s just it’s the game changer for Dallas you look at Lively when you look at Lively McMahon you see length energy athleticism no fear that’s pretty good smarts that that too I’m sure that I don’t know you know but all of those things help when you’re playing with with uh Luca and Kyrie yeah that’s all lots of check marks reminds me of a young Tyson Chandler you know I was think awesome been working with them all year long and that’s like you know when he worked out for the Mavericks Tyson came to the the gym the next day and you know Nico Harrison Michael Finley Jay kid man you should have been here yesterday but no those guys they have like Tyson’s not officially part of the Maverick staff but he shows up a lot to practices he had he’s like a sounding board a mentor for uh Lively um know that’s who he reminds me of though he’s because young Tyson especially super athletic could fly around like and he’s my life is a monster he runs the floor and the thing about Lively I don’t think he’s going to be I don’t think he’s going to have Dwight Howard disease where he decides oh I’ve got to get post-ups I’ve gotta I’ve got to get touches you know they are he they do think he has a chance to become a spot up three-point shooter which would just be like icing on on the cake can you imagine like a a bouncy version of Brook Lopez I mean are you kidding me yeah but even if he never makes a three-pointer in his career his ability to run put pressure on the rim offensively and finish protect the rim defensively and rebound like he is a massive massive impact player that they tank to get the pick to protect the pick to get him they paid a $750,000 fine you could add a couple of zeros to that fine it would have been worth it for the Mavericks oh my God yeah like if they I mean you say they just got Tyson Chandler for the next 10 years like that I mean that’s that be worth couple hundred million dollars in contracts by the time he’s done and they need to bump his minutes up he has the Math’s best plus minus I think it’s plus 106 now um in the playoff can I ask you can I ask you just a direct question about that why have they not gone back to him starting so honestly look they switched the starting lineup they remember they lost five out of six coming out of the All-Star break they switch the starting lineup and that’s when they put Gafford in the starting lineup and more importantly they put Derrik Jones in for Josh Green they they won 16 of their next 18 before taking the last two games of the regular season off you know obviously they they finished the first round series the second round series and six I don’t just from you I think changing the starting lineup sends a message to the team that we’re not good enough doing what we’ve been doing we have to make a drastic change I just think from a psychological standpoint that’s dicey I think you risk I I I I don’t think Gafford is a powder but I think you risk losing him in that situation I just don’t think you make that kind of change when things are going as well as they’ve been going now I do think that tag team the minutes need to be tilted heavily toward Lively but it’s hard to do that it’s hard to do that when you don’t start no it’s not play Gafford three minutes to start the game Lively you’re not you’re not gonna take a guy out three minutes into a game they do sometimes they do they’ve done that play Gafford 18 minutes play Lively 30 here’s a simple fact best plus minus in the playoffs for the Mavs Lively worst Gafford play more minutes well that yeah that’s the that’s the thing though like you could say like in a video game have them come out and playing three minute increments here and there but like that’s not that it it would just make a lot more sense if Lively played in a couple longer stints around Gafford playing and you got to the 30 and8 we agree completely that they need to get to the 318 and look maybe they wait till they lose a game maybe you lose game two and then you do it but like I I just it’s hard to really wrap your head around okay we’re going to repeatedly play this guy for 16 minutes in a row 18 minutes in a row GNA have play 12 minutes come out for two then come back in like just do what you want to do which is start just the minutes are still have been pretty close to even like uh the one time we played third I I have double check I think it’s the one time he played 30 in the playoffs was game six in OKC where he subbed in early in the second half and just didn’t come out and I I’ve asked like I was asking at practice today just talking to people off to the side you know hey do you feel like there might be diminishing returns if you bump his minutes up into the 30s and I I didn’t get any affirmatives on that um so I but it is like it’s a high high high energy position you know h honestly the other thing on the flip side uh how many minutes can goar play can he play 40 I know he feels he can can he play 42 I think they need to the plus minus was Stark plus 10 goar in 37 minutes 36 and change minus 13 and the 11 plus that he was I don’t have the stat in front of me but they’re shooting in the paint 14 of 14 in dunks on dunks and layups in the 11 plus minutes goar was off the floor it was it’s a layup line when Go’s not in there I they obviously can do better than I’m I’m go I’m go around the corner I gotta I gotta go see if Draymond agrees with me I’m not sure he will but I think we know the answer on that how many of those minutes were with Luca out there and and goar on the bench in that in that game one what do I look like guy does prep I thought you might know I I I I honestly don’t know but I do think I think the Wolves got to figure out how much they can bump go minutes up and again it’s tough because you’re talking about seven foot guys anchoring defenses setting a ton of screens and like their job is to do a lot of grueling physical work and then Sprint the floor both ways yeah um all right well I would expect the Wolves to maybe the MAV still win and go up 20 but I would expect the Wolves to have a different disposition to use a a word that you hear from coaches oh that’s a car favorite I think I’ve told you the story before Carla was doing that disposition thing and this was uh right after the year they won the championship and they you know going through like the very obvious we’re gonna uh strip this team down thing jet Terry knew it it was his last year so I go in the locker room and I say you know Rick’s talking about disposition what do you think jet said disposition that position I don’t know what any that means J jet was at game one of uh the other night uh sitting with uh one of the all time one of the alltime moves and I’ve been in the NBA the dude gets a Larry O’Brien tattoo and then wins the Larry O’Brien trophy you know the other thing they were down two1 in that Series this has taught me a lot about the value of of irational confidence for an NBA player they’re down 2-1 in that series the 11 finals and if you remember LeBron had shut him down in crunch time LeBron remember this shut him down vividly and so we’re talking to Jet I think it was game four shoot around and he and I’m paraphrasing but he said something like I want to see him do that for seven games he can’t you know he can’t do that for seven seven games I’m like what this guy is Crazy Jet hit about a 28 foot game winner that night or dagger and obviously the M win the series you know it’s a fine line between kind of knowing who you are and having irrational confidence but well you know what I remember one of my memories about that series was Dirk was remember Durk was so sick he had like that summer cold and and he’s you know is it was 135 degrees in Texas which I think that’s what I’m headed for this weekend uh McMahon and uh and uh Dirk was up on the podium you know Dirk always took the uh the mic in his hand you know he didn’t and he was he had like a hood on he he was like shivering up there on the podium and you know he’s like getting through this with coughs and everything like that postco we would never have allowed it we would have been stand back um and then the next day at practice LeBron and dwade were like walking in front of the cameras and like pretending to cough I mean first off yeah as if Dirk is known as someone who would pretend he was sick you know secondly he cooked him yeah well that’s what when when we when we asked Durk about that in Miami before the next game that’s basically what he said I he said I’ve never been one to fake an illness or an injury and I think he might have been hitting at something there any that was a fun that was a fun fun series it sure was well listen the one thing we didn’t we sort of touched on and we didn’t hit on completely is the Wolves won the three-point line by 36 points in game one and they lost that is a huge red flag going forward because they’re not it’s it’s hard to see why the paint’s gonna get more open for I agree I don’t think the paint’s getting more open I do think an I’m sure he’s gonna take more than needs to do you know what a needs to do he needs to bring his ass he did not in game one bring ass all right that couldn’t say it better uh before we go time for Cavs Corner presented by JB bicker guaranteed cont turn key Enterprises brought to you by TurnKey Enterprises looking for a new coach man I feel bad for J business bicker staff this is bull I’m sorry dude the man did a damn good job in Cleveland and because somebody doesn’t like him he gets the boot it was a little bit more complicated than that but um I can certainly see why a lot of people feel that way I mean if you look at the last four years they were you know Lottery uh playin playoffs second round coach fired see wait progress progress progress peace out yep and uh you know I I I they you could tell by the release in Kobe alman’s the president’s gonna have a press conference on Friday um I expect him to show um you know Express in certain ways that he this was a very tough decision but I guess it doesn’t matter they still fired him they’re taking some criticism for it um they will completely protect Donovan um and Donovan himself you you won’t find anything on the record and you won’t eventually see anything on the record I doubt I mean Donovan might not even know about it yet has he checked his phone today uh I think thought of knew about it before he left uh Cleveland but um how could that be um let me just be clear I don’t think they decided or told them before I think just it was the writing was on the wall and Donovan was certainly aware Donan writing was on the wall when the Celtic series ended whose handwriting was the writing in look here’s the thing at the end of the day the Cavs Donovan didn’t ask for him to be fired I I know I see this all the time I hear this from fans and I mean it’s never that cut and dry you you know how a star player feels about the coach by the way they interact over six months not over a six minute exit interview okay listen after game five not JB Baker staffs on the podium talking about how hard the year was Max stru is in the locker room talking about how hard the year was like this was not a locker room that was celebrating winning a playoff series Without LeBron for the first time in 30 years like it just wasn’t it wasn’t a year like that it it was not it was not the easiest year to get through on a lot of fronts they had a lot of injuries they dealt with there was obviously some guys who didn’t you know darus Garland certainly did not play to the level that he would like to play to they tanked to get this Orlando match up to get out of the first round then did everything they could to lose that series like this was not like this was just not like all lollipops and they want a series and everything’s great right but this is more about moving forward moving forward the Cavs whether they will articulate this or not the Cals believed that their chances of resigning uh Donovan Mitchell are increased by a coaching change I don’t know if they’re goingon to say that but that’s just a truth and I don’t expect them to say it and I don’t expect Donovan to ever say that um but that there’s just no way around it that’s just a truth yeah did Donovan Mitchell go in and say I want this guy gone I don’t I I know that didn’t happen but the same time if he had said I want JB bicker staff to be the coach of the team then JB wouldd be the coach actions over words okay the same like Rick car wasn’t fired in Dallas that’s right but he asked for an extension was told it ain’t coming so like he knew he was the end H and why because Luca didn’t ask for him to leave but they knew Luca didn’t want to play for him anymore I think the Rick carile situation in Dallas is a very good analog for the JB bicker staff situation in Cleveland I think that is the perfect way to look at it that from a personality standpoint it just ultimately wasn’t the right mix for everybody involved so they move on I also think that JB while he instilled an identity for that team to defend and that was what powered their Improvement they had a lot of other things that happened and some roster moves and obviously the Donovan trade changed a lot of things their defensive identity is why they improved and offensively the Cavs suffered from not having their best players play well together um going forward yeah I mean no well look there’s two there’s two obvious things to look at here Darius Garland regressed and Evan Mobley stagnated yes like that’s that if you want to look at one thing as to why the Cavs are gonna have a new coach it’s because of those that specific things the two young Cornerstone guys of their team were struggling or I shouldn’t say Moy was struggling but Mobley has not taken the steps forward that look he showed we talked about it during that series with Jared Allen out he showed he’s got the capability to do some more stuff but there was no bringing that out of him and whoever as a power forward because it’s not his position well listen he has not developed really overall as an offensive player over the last three years he’s more or less the doing the same stuff he was doing as a rookie and a lot of that’s because there wasn’t really a lot of to me there wasn’t a lot of emphasis on having him do more stuff or having him expand his game at all he wasn’t he wasn’t running any po pick and rolls he wasn’t doing any of that kind of stuff I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the first name that W brought up was Kenny ainson who coach under Mike dantony coach under Mike buer now coaches under Steve Kerr and if he is hired as the coach would be obviously a guy who would be tasked to come in and upgrade this offense and in particular impr Darius Garland and get Evan Mo’s play up right and the second name was James bgo who when he was uh in Charlotte as the head coach had one of the best offenses in the league he did not have a good defense which is one of the reasons why he was fired although he had bad defensive Personnel uh I will say this in three weeks the Cavs are going to meet with Donovan Mitchell sometime is at the end of the finals and in that meeting there’s going to probably be three things that are on the agenda one they’re GNA offer him uh $200 million extension very kindly with a lot of smiles and Hope two you would like to think that the new head coach would be hired by that time and would have for him an idea of how he wants to play uh how it would affect him and how it would affect other players and three a concept of what they’re going to do for the roster for this offseason the big focus on that will be Darius Garland because while Darius Garland has not asked for a trade uh the darus Garland Donovan Mitchell tandem while I don’t think there’s any personal issues there I don’t think that there’s any personal animous I don’t think Darius has played his best I don’t think Donovan gets as much support from that as he could and I don’t think that either of them necessarily are feel like that that should be un unbreakable I mean that’s the same fit we’ve talked about all year the the two non-shooting bigs and the two small ball dominant guard awward fit you want to hear mean maybe the new head coach will have an idea like look this is how we’re gonna play you know Mike Danton made James Harden and Chris Paul work not that I think those are comparable players but I say James Harden’s not small guard that’s true um so anyway I I think two like two ball dominant players but yes right so I think you know the Cavs have this is step one step two is get some clarity from Don well step two is hire the coach step three is get some clarity from Donovan and then they could make some major transactions uh over the summer including Evan Moy they gota get him extended and you know that’s you know not a small consideration um but they’re going to take some fire for firing a coach and they know that and they’re going to have to just deal with it and that’s life in the NBA and JB will probably get another chance to be a head coach maybe even soon I think uh I do think Brian O’Keefe has a very good chance of keeping that job in Brian Keef sorry Brian Keef what’s his middle name it might start with an o well that’s uh Oliver like that’s like that was like the uh the uh what’s Sarah Palin she always should called him o Biden she accidentally called Joe Biden o Biden for some reason anyway Brian Keefe has a very good chance to keep that jobin reference on the Pod I understand but just putting in the extraneous o that was why I was making fun of myself uh I do but I think JB there a lot of exano in that one Luke oppressor in OKC long too they were long and drawn out uh all right on that note mcm’s time to get some rest gotta game two tomorrow bontemps it’s off to Indie for uh Indie 500 weekend I’m sure you’re going to love it it’s going to be great see if tyes Alberton can find a new hamstring all right thank you to Jackson our producer thank you to mcmah and bontemps thank you for listening and watching The Hoop Collective we’ll talk to you next week adios Mingos

Brian Windhorst is joined by ESPN’s Tim Bontemps and Tim MacMahon to react to the Celtics dominating the Pacers, the concern surrounding Tyrese Haliburton’s injury, what the Mavs are doing so well if the Wolves can respond, why Minnesota was so tired in Game 1 and what the future of the Cavs looks like after the team fired coach J. B. Bickerstaff.

0:00 Welcome back to the Hoop Collective
1:30 Celtics Dominate Pacers In Game 2
15:00 Can The Wolves Bounce Back?
40:30 Reaction To Cavs Firing J. B. Bickerstaff
48:42 Thanks For Watching!

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