Let’s Talk About The NBA Finals

Let’s Talk About The NBA Finals

for [Music] yo what’s going on Miles Johnson appreciate appreciate the love man what’s up icy goat how you doing that’s an insane profile picture by the way I’m just tweeting out that I’m live real quick [Music] what’s going on what’s going on what’s up Dre 2K what’s up Jay what’s up Rasheed John plasma face reveal I’ve I’ve I’ve uh done a couple of these live streams um I think I’ve had my face in like five videos and then this is my third live stream so it’s not a reveal but yeah I’m not on I’m not on the camera much question I know it’s always a hang on there’s like a weird emoji on my screen that I can’t read all the comments question I know it’s always a massive if but I genuinely think the Clippers would have beaten the Mavs been the Mavs best opponent if healthy I think because Luca was injured at the time it would have been an interesting uh challenge because Luca clearly wasn’t moving right with the knee injury and the Clippers were able to slow down the MAV offense quite a bit it was just they didn’t have any scoring they had no nobody to pressure the rim they had no type of like just the offense was an absolute disaster um and in that sense I do think healthy kawhai could have been the difference do I think they would have beaten them I I don’t know especially with the way Kyrie was playing but I don’t necessarily disagree that they would have been the best opponent that probably would have been a seven game series um had Kawai been fully healthy which is a big if of course haven’t watched the NBA recently you got Hornets in six ah I don’t know about that one Boston and five unfortunately they’re beyond stacked five is five is is a little bit strong um I see it though and it’s it’s it would just be they get hot you know what I mean they get hot on their shot and that’s pretty much it um if they’re hitting CU I remember in their most recent regular season matchup against the Mavs I actually made a video on that game specifically when it happened I think they outscored the Mavs on three-pointers by like 40 they shot like almost 550 threes and made like 45% I mean if that happens for five games yeah or four games whatever thoughts on Zach Edie going to Boston uh I mean I like Zack Edy I don’t know if Boston’s the right fit though um yo bro your voice is fire appreciate it daily uploads where do you rank Tatum I’m going to be doing my top 25 uh top 25 players I do this series after every season it’s a five-part video series where I do 25 through 21 then 20 through 16 uh then 15 through 11 and I have five different episodes where I basically do like a big breakdown of um my top 25 players I think last year I can’t remember how long the videos ended up being but it was very indepth like uh let me see top 25 NBA players 2023 let’s see my top five was 30 minutes long so 5 20 to 30 minute videos um breaking down my top 25 players right now as I think about it because I’ve pretty much already finished the evaluations cuz I do player evaluations after each season and that’s how I determine my rankings um and for the the most part I have all the evaluations done of course there’s like subject to change with how players look in the finals like we could always get new information but for the most part the order is pretty set in stone I just got to make the videos once the season’s over is ludor a better Defender than white or holiday in terms of guarding Luca arguably definitely better than Derek white in terms of guarding Luca not overall but just specifically with Luca with holiday that’s pretty interesting um I feel like they both kind of have the same sort of defensive strengths uh and and kind of similar frames lud D’s probably more physical which puts him in foul trouble but I do think that takes Luca out of his comfort zone a little bit more in terms of like while he’s actually on him thoughts on Aaron Wiggins being the Bro Aaron Wiggins is the most underrated player in the league he’s so good what’s up Jaden how you doing what do you think about giddy plus five picks for low that’d be awesome for the Thunder Lowry would probably push them over the edge um but I don’t know if the Jazz would like I I don’t think the Jazz would do that unless the picks are really good you think Luca should have won this year’s MVP I would have still picked yic um but it was very much a small difference it wasn’t um it wasn’t like yic is the MVP and it’s not close it’s just my personal pick I wouldn’t be mad if anyone picked Luca or even Shay or Giannis Celtics and five we’ll see what’s up double Dorth how you doing man is Lou door better you already asked that or I already answered that been here since the white you can’t defend Joel embiid video yeah man that was a wild that was a while back road to 100K facts man I want to hit 100K um I want to hit 100K before the end of the season I don’t know if I’ll be able to do it I might be able to hit 92 today or tomorrow but uh we’ll see we’ll see game one is tomorrow you see your analysis was completely valid but here’s my Counterpoint Mavs in six hey so it’s really interesting because in my Mavs versus wolves video like I did a preview of the Mavs and Wolves series I feel like I got all of the tactics right like I got all of the coverages right I pretty much got it’s like I don’t want to like boost my ego but like I kind of hit the nail in the head with all of what was going to happen in the series I just got the result wrong I thought the Wolves would be able to win in six or seven and the Mavs just Blitz them in late game situations um I forgot to account for that honestly and so if that happens again I won’t be mad about it like I picked the Celtics and six but if if I get all of the coverages right and then the Mavs just outplay them like I feel I feel good about what what I said you know what I mean I’m interested in the Shay placement game one is tomorrow Luca will hunt Horford white and Pritchard yeah Pritchard I I was worried about the Pritchard minutes too how does the Mavs defensive scheme look they probably start off in their base defense that got them there but Celtic Shooters yeah it’s tough because they’ve been relying on shrinking the floor sending one of their bigs to the paint early like loading up almost kind of a Zone style of Defense you can’t really do that against the Celtics they’re going to play a lot of Zone in this series I think but uh that’ll be interesting to see what porzingis looks like because porzingis is probably one of like the top five to 10 players in the league when it comes to busting a Zone um just because he’s so tall and so effective in the short mid-range so like that would be kind of tough to see um but yeah I agree they’re going to start off in their base defense probably normal matchups no nothing crazy um and it’s because I don’t really know there’s so much pressure on Derrick Jones and PJ Washington to prevent dribble penetration that’s what makes it so tough Derek white is the most overrated on ball Defender I wouldn’t say overrated but I don’t think that’s his biggest strength how do you think Dallas is going to counter Gafford and Lively constantly being yeah that’s kind of what I was alluding to there I feel like this is a series where Maxi kba’s going to have to probably play more minutes at the five um than in any other series because they’re going to need more speed to come over all that ground cuz the problem is if you double or help say you help on the five out um then you’re forced into a scramble and you have to cover a lot of ground Gafford and Lively are both mobile for Bigs but compared to Wings they just can’t close that space it’s kind of like the goar problem right like if you want to play certain styles of Defense goar isn’t going to be your best option even though he might be the best defender in the NBA right now it’s like you would much rather have a wing that’s kind of the the situation that Dallas might find themselves in with Gafford and Lively because there’s so much ground to cover and porzingis specifically shoots like 30 foot threes he’s not just some Corner Spot up like a lot of other bigs the guy shoots 30 foot pick and Pops like that’s going to be tough to cover SPID is most underrated he’s definitely up there SPID so underrated braon the goat I don’t really talk about the goat de Bay much cuz I think it’s tired but uh I personally prefer LeBron because I place a lot of value on longevity um I think Jordan at his Peak was the best player ever but I think LeBron’s got the longevity what’s up Rodney um an honorable mention types video maybe uh I do like covering I do think it’s more interesting to cover like the lower tiers of stars than the superstars like we already have so much content on Superstars let me think I’m trying to think of a good example like I would much rather like for example I just made a Jaylen Brown video I think it’s more interesting to make a Jaylen Brown video than than a Jason Tatum video because so many more people already talk about Jason Tatum I love talking about like lower tier Stars how much of Tatum at the five do you think we see that’s interesting because it was actually something I was thinking about earlier because in my in my finals preview video I alluded to how I think Horford probably isn’t as big of a factor in the series because of how he gets hunted so Tatum at the five feels like a decent workaround but then who do you slide into the lineup because the whole idea of Tatum at the five is to protect Horford right um You don’t want to put Hower or Pritchard because they’re even more vulnerable than Horford so I think maybe not as much as you would like because they don’t have another extra Wing if they had just one more versatile Wing like say they had Aaron neith we’d probably see Tatum at the five a lot but they just don’t they just don’t have the Personnel to do that as much if Horford is the long big I think theyd live with him shooting yeah but he dude he shot 46% on wide open threes this season if Horford is hitting bro like he’s deadly Jaylen Brown is going to be the best defender on Luca I agree watch your finals preview breakdown very insightful um appreciate it and you said Drew being the main Luca Defender with Jaylen and a soft help my problem with Drew as the main Luca Defender is uh in the second regular season matchup they just kept doing open side post-ups and um Luca’s just too big for Drew and Drew is like one of the strongest guards ever and Luca is just huge and uh when Drew was the primary Luca Defender they just spammed open side post-ups over and over again it’s like double and now we have an advantage on the other side don’t double and he’s going to score 40 efficiently I feel like Jaylen mitigates that not just because he’s a little bit bigger A Little Bit Stronger um he’s got a 7 foot wingspan as opposed to Drew’s 6′ s so that’s a pretty big difference this feels like a moment in Luca’s future documentary hey man we’ll see ant was guarding Luca the best I feel like Kyle Anderson had the the best defense on Luca in the Wolves series I likeed your analysis on that no one really could have predicted predicted how poorly the Wolves dealt with exact that’s exactly what I was thinking Jesse um cat shooting how are you supposed to predict cat shooting five of 20 over the first three games of the series um and like the screen defense I guess we could have been ready for but uh yeah that’s tough I’m so behind on comments by the way so I’m I apologize the stream is not delayed I’m just really slow what do you think about JJ reck being the Lakers new head coach it’ll be interesting we don’t really I mean the guy has zero coaching experience so we don’t really know what to expect but I think it’ll be fun I think it would be a fun look is Derrick White the most underrated uh funny funny that you said that he asked if ER if Derek White’s the most underrated role player in the league I’m actually in in the middle of working on a Derek White video that I’m going to upload tomorrow and it’s about how he’s not a role player and I’ll get more into that in the video but uh if you classify Derek white as a role player yes because he’s really freaking good yeah if porzingis is healthy that’s scary Peak Lowry or Pete Kyrie Pete Kyrie and I I I’m a guy who’s really high on Raptors Kyle Lowry but I think Kyrie’s definitely better I agree John the Celtics hunt for matchups literally every single possession they hunt for a mismatch yeah Jaylen Brown could get Gass out her in foul trouble that’s true not lively nah bro goar just sucks Gafford yes where do you have magic on my alltime list I don’t know I haven’t done an alltime list since like 2021 Tatum at the five would be nuts oh you cooking Tatum rebounding doesn’t get talked about enough 100% agreed it’s the most underrated it’s why you can do the lineups that you do they don’t play a traditional four they don’t play a rebounding five in any minutes porzingis and Horford both aren’t big rebounders Tatum unlocks so much versatility for the team um definitely underrated in that regard what’s up musty garbage how you doing who’s the backline help for which team O’Shea Tilman I mean Tillman but tman would just be the five no why is AD not a better Defender than goar I think he is but I see the argument for goar and I think it’s comes down to a couple things I think goar is a marginally better rim protector ad is probably the number two or number three rim protector with wemi but goar is such such a ridiculously historic rim protector that it’s like at that that level the margins mean a lot more um and I also think he has a higher motor than 0 I think 80 takes more plays off or like fails to get back in transition sometimes whereas goar is kind of always there so I think he gets a little Edge there but personally I think ad’s versatility uh does give him an edge whereas like you compare it to Bam Bam doesn’t the thing with ad is he has the switch ability the versatility but he also is very close to go bear as a rim protector you can’t really make that argument for bam because bam has he’s definitely more switchable than ad probably the most versatile defender in the NBA if not Draymond but he’s a he improved as a rim protector this season but he’s not like a tier one tier 2 rim protector do you think Drew is going to be used more as point of attack or a help Defender I think it’ll be a little bit of both I think he’ll spend more time on Kyrie than Luca he’ll probably spend time on both but also probably be used as like the Gap Guy where like Luca or Kyrie starts to isolate and he’s like roaming off of Derek Jones or PJ Washington whoever it is to sit in the middle and just like make plays with his hands all right what else we got I’m like 70 comments behind I think por I don’t know what the latest on porzingis is but I’m pretty sure he’s healthy for game one thoughts on Tilman I do like Tillman’s defense a lot but his offense is really bad um um his offense is really bad so I don’t think he’ll get any minutes in the finals unless it’s like garbage time of course how do you feel about Job guarding Luca did J job didn’t really guard Luca much um I think JB’s an underrated Defender uh what else we got what else we got what else we got besides the Celtics are used to Zone from playing the Heat yeah the the heat Zone used to cook the Celtics but I think they’ve seen enough yeah if the Mavs pull this off it’s 100% legendary because the uh the Celtics were one of the historically one of the best teams ever this season uh they just kind of don’t have anyone’s respect until they get it done if Kyrie wins the championship how will it affect his career Well he kind of already had his Redemption Arc no um I think Kyrie deserves all the respect appreciate it John Smith all right Eli I’m not reading that comment bro that just cooked I think cat looking like an idiot okay bro he said I think cat looking like an idiot was predictable all right JJ reck has experience coaching his young his son’s youth team I don’t really know much about JJ reic besides like the stuff he’s doing with the podcast um I do think the MAV should start Lively maybe I don’t know maybe I I almost feel like Lively would be more valuable if he’s coming coming off the bench without porzingis you know what I mean cuz like porzingis kind of nullifies the the effect of the rim protection a little bit and I think Lively is better than Gafford so I almost wonder if there’s like some reverse psychology and you’d rather have your better big on the floor when porzingis checks out yeah exactly Double D I don’t think anyone expected Jaden to uh be like I expected I knew it was a bad match up I said that in my video like Luca’s too strong but that was ridiculous like he was a complete non-factor Derek white is basically Manu janobi I wouldn’t go that far but in a sense that’s kind of the same like parallel outside of who is the best team of all time who’s your personal favorite team of all time oo personal favorite team of all time H I think the Kobe and pow Lakers the Kobe and pow Lakers are definitely up there I love that team the 7 seconds or less Suns 2014 Spurs those are all good I I feel like that is my favorite era personally like from 2007 to 2015 is like my favorite like the 2015 Warriors are definitely up there too and terms of my favorite teams of all time nart yeah nard is amazing Denver I don’t think JM was like that was that I imch on D he just kept him on his hip yeah some of it was Jaden couldn’t do anything but also the fact that Jaden couldn’t do anything is kind of the point because um as one of the best defenders in the NBA you would expect him to be able to do something I think that’s the point the Celtics I think the Celtics are a hybrid between the Thunder and the Clippers just better I meant backline help in the Tatum at the five lineups yeah that would just it would be very risky and I don’t think you really would want to do that with Lively on the floor the Mavs do a great job of Peel switching yeah but the Celtics create so much more space to cover than any other team ad or Giannis in 2020 I’d say Giannis um bam should be switchable and versatile he’s not even bigger than LeBron it’s also a decent point I agree Eli no nobody’s close to Bam at switching allba luckily but the positionist voting yeah positionist voting um was interesting because I do agree that are the most valuable most valuable uh Defenders but then defensive guards don’t get any credit um so it’s it kind of is annoying hey appreciate the $2 uh MW model how’s it going all right we’re still going we’re still going I’m almost caught up guys what would be the primary counter in action for Dallas when Boston blitzes if Boston blitzes it depends on who the screener is and who the roller or that’s the same thing who the screener is um if Boston’s blitzing I don’t expect them to Blitz much but if they do Blitz uh it just comes down to executing those four on threes because Luc is going to hit the four on going to create the four on three every single time he’s never going to miss that pass and so that puts pressure on lively and Gafford um maybe we’ll see some blitzing with Gafford on the floor because I feel like he struggles more the thing that’s interesting is that if porzingis is on the Baseline and Gafford is going four on three that’s scary because porzingis is really effective as a RoR and Gafford obviously lacks as a decision maker I wouldn’t expect to see too much blitzing though uh great point on the peel screen why not Mister how do you think the Celtics okay bro I wasn’t reading your second part of your comment because you asked me who has the biggest meat in the series bro that’s why I’m not reading your comment the Celtics guard double drag I just think they switch I just think they switch I literally just think it’s a soft switch and I think they’re going to try and pre- switch porzingis to keep him on the Baseline kind of like if you remember the 2022 finals that’s exactly what the Warriors did against the Celtics they um would bring Ro Robert Williams would start plays on Looney or Wiggins they would bring that guy up the screen Robert Williams would pre- switch Horford onto the screen and then they would also use Draymond to double drag it and then um Robert Williams would either be forced into the action or they would pre preswitch it again I would expect them to try and pre-switch everything keep porzingis under the basket and then just switch all of the screening actions to not let Luca Luca get a numbers Advantage you might end up with Luca um getting a favorable match up one-on-one but I would much rather live with the results of a Luca isolation over and over and over again even if he’s cooking you than Luca getting a numbers Advantage because like we just saw what happened in Minnesota Luca with a numbers Advantage is literally a death sentence it’s there’s nothing you can do I do ant king I do think the Celtics it’s crazy because the Celtics right now should be viewed as one of the best teams of all time but because they haven’t proven it yet they aren’t and if they just prove it like say they just dominate the finals everyone will look back and like revise history and be like yeah we should have known the Celtics were going to win they’re one of the best teams ever but uh yeah no I definitely think the Celtics will get that credit if they win Jared vanderbel or herb I think herb Jones is a better Defender U pretty much across the board herb Jones is amazing um where uh where we at what’s up MSY MSY Hoops how you doing man I meant how well do you think JB would do if he were to guard Luca I mean there’s there’s so much there’s only so much you can expect against Luca I think JB’s an underrated Defender but I don’t really think he would do much um how’s the back pain bro I forgot about that oh my gosh you you have no idea how bad it is you guys have no idea how bad it is to have lower back issues unless you have them then you know how bad it is it’s ridiculous I tried to play basketball for the first time in months I played like two possessions and didn’t even do anything to tweak it just moving in that way and I couldn’t get up the next day it’s actually ridiculous do you think the Celtics will be conservative with their tags no no um because Minnesota was and look how that look where that got them it was a lob every single possession so uh no I don’t think they’ll be conservative with their tags unless maybe they start out that way but by the end of the series they won’t what team do you support I don’t support a team um at the moment well for the for the future I used to I grew up a Lakers fan but once I started doing the analysis I didn’t enjoy being a fan of a team because it made me feel like I had to like be biased or or I couldn’t enjoy the team I want wanted to it’s hard to explain but basically I enjoy basketball more analyzing it when I don’t have a dog in the fight so I don’t have a favorite team bro do you think do you think the Mavs will install High wattage lights to throw the Celtics off Heat 2012 do you think Jaylen Brown has hit his ceiling I don’t think he I don’t think he’s hit his ceiling he’s still how old is he how old is he I don’t I don’t know I don’t know how old he is but I don’t think he’s hit his ceiling he I feel like he improves marginally year like this year he definitely had a better handle definitely improved his decision making this was his best defensive season so uh yeah I think I think uh I don’t think Jaylen Browns hit his ceiling

Let’s talk all things 2024 NBA Finals, from predictions and expectations to hot takes.