Should the Mavericks be more concerned about their defense? | The Lowe Post

Should the Mavericks be more concerned about their defense? | The Lowe Post

and now the low post welcome to the low post podcast in a lovely Saturday morning in Boston Massachusetts we have another day off and another long day tomorrow before game two of the NBA Finals thought it would be a great time to check in with the best in the business the Maestro of the iPad Mr Tim legler how are you I’m great man I’m great I’m uh I’m I’m disappointed I got to admit I was so excited for this series to start and all I really care about Zach like most people I just want drama give me some drama in the fourth quarter I want to see guys Under Pressure I want to see big shot making and the way Boston Blitz them uh in that first quarter the end of that first quarter we didn’t get any of that late in the game so I’m a little disappointed by that but other than that I’m good I think we’re still gon to end up with a really good series I hope so um I’m just gonna open-ended question to you B Boston obviously blew them out game one won the math battle they took more catch and shoot threes than Dallas took three total that is a bad formula for the Dallas Mavericks Boston took 30 catch and shoot threes the Mavs only took 13 catch and shoot threes 27 total and they did enough to confuse the pick and roll machine the Luca pick and roll machine mixed up coverages mixed up assignments and Dallas just couldn’t get in a rhythm so I will put this to you it was a blowout both ends of the floor tilted toward Boston if you’re Jason kid if you’re the mads going into game two and you’ve watched the film from game one are you more concerned about your offense or your defense I’m much more concerned about my defense uh they they had an total inability to keep the ball in front of them and it didn’t matter who it was really even their top perimeter Defenders had a hard time keeping the ball in front Boston is just going to come down repeatedly run one ball screen and then attack whoever’s in front of them too many times Zach they were in the paint which led to a lot of you know the kickouts were now Dallas is chasing the ball but it was a physical dominance at the point of attack that would be my biggest concern if I were Jason kid and I watched the film I think offensively there’s always going to be things you can do schematically to adjust to create better situations for yourself I also think you know Luca is going to process this game game two a little bit differently than game one I mean he doesn’t want to come out necessarily and have to go for you know 15 18 in the first quarter I think that might be what it’s going to take from him to loose them up a little bit on the perimeter and some of the lob stuff that he wasn’t getting you know he came in to the paint early I think he was kind of feeling it out expecting some of these passes to be there that weren’t they can adjust to that you know Kyrie’s going to be a lot better offensively I think that offensively think they’re going to be okay I was very concerned about what I saw defensively from the Dallas Mavericks and is that just going to be a mismatch Personnel wise the entire time and Dallas was a defense that I really came to ad admire as a championship like caliber defense good enough with what they have offensively and they certainly didn’t look good enough in the first game um they were they were overwhelmed and so that that for me is something that’s more than scheme that’s personnel and that’s why why I’d be more concerned about that end of the floor if I were Jason kid so I was very curious what you were gonna say and I 1,000% agree with you I having rewatched the game yesterday morning I think there’s reason to be concerned on both ends I think a lot of the focus of the of the analysis of game on has been on Lucas one assist the Mavs bogging down on offense I came out of that game in real time right after the game with Brian windhorse we talked about it and and doubles doubly so yesterday really concerned about the Mavs defense and what kind of answers they could possibly have um and it would Boston’s offense was very simple they attacked the centers Lively and Gafford like part of the bonus of Tatum guarding their centers on defense which is obviously to switch the Luca Lively Luca Gafford pick and roll that matchup carries over on offense for Boston a lot that Cross Match carries over and when it does they’re just going right to it like they don’t even need a screen necessarily if they do get a screen to get that switch they’re I I was surprised how easily Tatum and Brown beat Lively off the dribble awesome game for both Tatum and Browns statistically doesn’t look spectacular I thought they made smart decisions I thought they did not dance with the ball they just got it and got a matchup and went head down like no fancy stuff just go make the simple play and then if they didn’t Target the centers they targeted Luca Luca is going to get blown by that’s the reality and you could see particularly in that third quarter run when it went from 7264 to 8664 like in a blink every possession was essentially some variant of what I just described Tatum and brown get a matchup they like kill it off the dribble and you see Dallas coming in to help and if you freeze some of those possessions it’s like Luca’s 30 feet away from Derek white in the right corner like to help if you freeze it when Tatum’s in the lane it’s just too many easy options I got this guy wide open in that corner that guy wide open that corner Drew holiday in the dunker spot was really effective it was just too easy and you nailed it in your answer like I’m sitting there well what can they do they they can move Luca’s assignment around maybe they have Luca guard Horford and and porzingis and put put their their centers on holiday but that doesn’t change the fact that you just okay let’s go find those guys wherever they are you can say maybe we shouldn’t switch As Much is That feasible not switching just put you in rotation you’re going to put two on the ball Boston’s passing is g to is is going to get unlocked and like I’m interested to hear sort of what your ideas would be because I agree with you on offense there’s a bunch of little concrete things we could try and sets we can run and things we can do more diligently on defense I left looking at the film like like I’m not I’m kind of not sure what I would do and the one thing they did do was play kba at the five and try to get into a more switchy lineup and that didn’t work either kba got roasted off the dribble all right a few things here first I thought Derek Lively was unbelievably undisciplined in this game he he looked almost like he was too amped maybe he was out beyond the three-point line you know Head and Shoulders leaning forward flailing at at guys using his arms trying to like he had a play when porzingis caught the ball in the first half and drove by him and dunked from like 28 feet Derek Lively was so overextended and swinging at the ball as as porzingis was holding it I’m just going what are you doing what why are you why are you chess to chest with him at 28 feet you’re seven feet too he’s not just going to turn a shoot over you from that distance first of all it’s hard to shoot over that that distance like after you’ve caught the ball and you’re in a jab step position even over a guard that’s a hard shot without one dribble to take but Lively was so overextended and it wasn’t just then it was in the second half too and he’s fouling people for no reason I I don’t know if that was just an adrenaline thing with him but at some point look it’s one thing to be active and and long and you’re getting a lot of credit for your defense that’s great but you got to be smart and I didn’t think their Closeouts were very good when when they did uh Boston did get into the paint and kick it out I thought the the Closeouts were like terrible angles they were giving up Baseline like wide openen Baseline drives on Closeouts because they weren’t you know didn’t have their body in front of the guy that caught the ball so I think there are things that Dallas did that were a little bit atypical of what I’ve seen out of them defensively that’s that’s the good news I guess for them the Personnel stuff that’s going to be tough what you’re gonna hope is porzingis doesn’t have this kind of shooting night okay that that was a big part of this and you think about it that six-minute run at the end of the first quarter is when this game was decided and I know Dallas made a run later they got it to eight kind of looked a little interesting Luca was was rolling a little bit you know he had the nod going going to time he making some faces he was making some Luca faces making faces like and there’s nothing better like in the finals you know you get that super high de slowmo head nod and the little wink and you’re going okay here we go they came out of that timeout it went from eight to 20 like in a blink of an eye so I I’m look the Personnel thing is a real thing like the matchups were not great this they were winning switch I think Dallas contributed to it I don’t think they were very smart defensively at all I think they’ve got to be they’ve got to be better in that way and they also have to uh expect that porzingis and some other guys maybe won’t have as good a shooting night as they had I don’t think Jason kid and that staff were remotely prepared for the impact that Christos porzingis had in this game how could you be and and I think that’s where it really got away from them and that that obviously got the crowd into it the emotion of the building and then Dallas is kind of got swallowed up one other point about this defense thing one thing that’s going to help your defense Zach be better offensively they were terrible offensively in the first half that’s going to help you not and some really bad Luca had four turnovers and they were all live ball Steals and three of them were pick sixes like really what Hower picked him one time like really the most damaging kinds of turnovers Jaylen Brown got him twice and and he I don’t know who the other one was but you’re right and these were like not those aren’t Luca plays you might see that every now and again you’re going to see that three four times in the same game very surprising their offense has to be better early look if if if they’re in a game like they they felt overwhelmed by the end of the first quarter and then it got really out of hand early in the second if they’re if they’re in a 35 35 game a 40 40 game middle of the second quarter I think they’re going to feel like okay we’re we’re now in a game we’re more stabilized now and that’s what this is all about in this series it people that like Dallas and I like Dallas you want this to just get into those one possession moments in the fourth quarter because that’s when Dallas has an advantage and they did they never got there so I think their offense can help their defense as well by Boston taking the ball out of the net a little bit more and and not turning the ball over giving them the you know easy ones I thought they were slow to get back after a couple of makes too where like the ball got Advanced behind them now they’re scrambling back to the paint all all because they were in a jog mode the state of Readiness wasn’t good enough so there’s so many ways Dallas can be better that I guess would be the good news for Jason kid you know the one thing that he’s probably still concerned about as we get ready to uh have another walk through today and get ready for the game tomorrow night is this Personnel thing where what can we keep the ball in front of us because we did a horrible job of that no matter who it was or who the defender was or who the ball handler was it didn’t matter they were by us in the paint that’s probably the one thing that he’s still bothered by but I know that he’s feeling like my goodness that is so far from our best that I know there’s a lot more there for us to grab in game two and that’s where the contrast in the overall level of shooting especially with porzingis back for Boston at the five really really sings because on on one end when Dallas has the ball they the one thing Boston will not do until they absolutely have to is Blitz LCA they’re just not going to Blitz Luca and give him the easy reads and get and I think part of that is psychological like we don’t want the other guys to get touches and get in Rhythm we want to make you play one-on-one even when it looks like it’s a it’s a bad matchup for us so they switch Horford on him quite a bit and if you I rewatched all his pick and rolls this morning he gets by Horford at least a little bit a decent number of times he gets Horford on his back and like normally that’s that’s that’s a version of what Boston is doing to Dallas on the other end of the floor the difference is you got a big guy rolling to the the rim on a switch too and that guy’s Defender will be Jaylen brown or somebody will step up just a little bit to kind of show Luca like hey I’m gonna cut you off if you get any further and behind him is Derek white off of Josh green or Derek Jones Jr clogging up that blob pass to the roller and Boston just has more options to sort of shade and help when it looks like uh oh Luca is goingon to beat Al Horford off the dribble and just every part of the big man Universe Boston W in game one so we mentioned porzingis in his run in the first quarter Dallas wants to SW Dallas is switching like the tum porzingis white porzingis brown porzingis because they don’t want porzingis to shoot picking pop threes so Boston wins both ends of that porzingis goes crazy on post-ups against smaller guys on switches I don’t think he can make those same level of shots again I mean like those were crazy hard shot they were fouling him it was like they were like 18 Footers and then Tatum on the other end of those switches is destroying Lively and Gafford off the dribble Brown awesome game for jayen brown all around every part of it destroying those centers off the dribble on the other end of the floor Boston puts its wings Tatum mostly on Dallas’s centers Dallas doesn’t get offensive rebounds they can’t kind of figure out a great way to poke at that in the pick and roll and just every part of that equation kind of tilted kind of tilted to Dallas and just the shooting Boston shooting I think was almost a shock to their system like we can’t play the same level of help against this team that we did against the Thunder and the Wolves cuz there’s just it’s just 40% three-point Shooters everywhere you look yeah and look you know you one thing I said I did the I did a the pregame radio show the very last question they asked wasi one thing if you had to focus one thing tonight that’s definitely something you’re gonna you have to focus on and look at the disparity for one team or the other I said I said Dallas has to be with an Arms Reach from the three-point line like you’re they might not make as many threes as Boston in any game in this series but you can’t be minus 27 like that that to me is is just you can’t overcome that 27 attempts is an anemic number seven makes and two of those were late when the game was over you know five really five made threes on the night can’t happen now how do we get those how so how do you get more threes and this is what I said about Luca here’s what I think if I’m Luca I first of I don’t think that any of these guys really individually if they’re not going to Blitz him I don’t care who he I he can cook any of these guys any of them it doesn’t matter who it is Tatum Brown white Drew doesn’t matter he can get it to his spots he missed 14 shots in the game uh of those 14 shots there were only a few where he was bottled up and like just could not get off a clean look he’s getting his shots I don’t think he came into it thinking I have to go be this raw scorer at the start of the game I think that might be a way to loosen Boston up or to make them think if Luca comes out similar to what he did you know when he kind of ended things against Minnesota it come out and and look if don’t get me wrong if he does that and he goes one for seven at the start of the game they might be down 15 again but I think that might be one way take advantage of the fact that you’re getting single coverage and not be looking with your eyes around at other places until you start scoring and force them to commit something differently or they come earlier when you get into the middle are the mid-range area of the floor that backline guy comes up higher because now you’ve hit two or three shots now maybe you have a lob maybe you have a crosscourt kickout three it just felt like none of it was available and it was too late by the time Lucas sort of got into that mindset because I think that’s going to be their strongest weapon is Luca as a scorer in this series and maybe then he’ll have more passing options open to him once he starts getting on a roll and Boston’s forced to commit something different to him because they’re not going to let him get you know 45 50 if that’s what it looks like he’s going to do that might be what it takes and then look I think Kyrie Irving I just felt like he got back a remember the game one against Minnesota after you know Anthony Edwards had said his name at the end of game seven right and game one Kyrie played so fast early off the ball sprinting coming off down screens catching the ball and then going right into it uh I don’t think he did that any of that in this game he just felt like he was kind of feeling his way again and I think you’re going to see a totally different mindset out of Kyrie Irving as well look you don’t expect Kyrie Irving to have backto back bad offensive games at this level he’s too good of a player I think he’s going to have a response and I think it’s going to be again aggressiveness early in the clock quicker more decisive because that’s a tough matchup for those guys against Kyrie Irving so I think there’s I think that’s the way you loosing them up your two best players have to win some matchups early and have the ball go in early and I think that’s going to force Boston to to now react a little bit more to you which could create some opportunities for other guys but it Boston got such a big lead early Zach that then you can just go say go ahead you’re down 20 shoot as much as you want to where you’re not going to allow these these kickout threes we’re not going to allow easy lobs we’re not going to allow it if you guys want to make tough contested shots now down 20 go ahead the start of the game if you can G get get into a mode like that I think it’s it makes it a little bit more difficult on Boston in terms of making some decisions that are different to what they normally do on a given night against other teams so for sure Dallas underperformed from three like they missed Kyrie missed three wideopen threes you want to say okay like he’s not gonna make all three of them probably but he might make one maybe two on a normal game PJ Washington’s two threes were wide wide open you want to say okay he’s not a great shooter maybe he makes one the next game Luca missed a couple good but like a that’s nine points that in a normal game they probably get doesn’t make up for nearly the whole deficit and so that’s what I was going to ask you I thought Dallas in game one got a little obsessed with Luca finding where the Boston centers were and having that guy come screen for him and so when Boston can’t get the matchups it wants hor zingis and Horford are on lively and Gafford and they go into that two man game which normally produces lobs but did not produce any lobs in game one because of how a how and Boston got out of that matchup to begin with and put Tatum on the centers and B just how good their defense was or uh if the centers are on PJ Washington and Derrick Jones Jr which is what Boston wants okay we’ll bring that guy up as a screener and then your problem is as I’ve said over and over again if that guy rolls to the rim he’s rolling into Lively he’s rolling into Tatum and it’s a three Onre game instead of a two on two game and it’s crowded but I thought Dallas in game one kind of came in like I we kind of don’t know else to go against this defense we’re just going to find that big guy over and over again and kind of see what happens and Boston by switching up its tactics and its matchups just didn’t give them much traction in that particular subset of offense and I didn’t think they looked elsewhere enough outside of that and that’s what I wanted to ask you like when you’re talking about variety and counters and sure that Twan game is going to produce more fruit in some games but I think you got to have other stuff in the back part of that is just Speed playing with I think that D Dallas actually it sounds kind of intuitive I think they might have to play a little faster definitely even though it looks like Boston is the better transition team but it’s also speed and creativity in the half court so if you’re kind of tinkering in the lab and you say okay we have that part of our offense we’re going to use it it’s going to be a tent pole Luca hunting their bigs maybe we overdid it in game one it didn’t produce enough what are some other things you think they can go to well one thing I I’m I’m curious to see and I know know that he hasn’t played much lately Tim Hardway Jr was your third leading scorer okay I know that he missed a lot of times an injury but I’m just if you need shot making and he can he’s pretty good also at up faking a closeout Defender and that one he likes to take that one Escape dribble toward the rim and pull up from 18 he loves that shot If You’re Gonna Play Josh green and Moxy kleba 39 minutes and get virtually nothing out of those guys offensively you might have to think about hey Tim Harley Jun maybe they think he gets picked on a little bit more than green defensively but the guy’s more of a threat to score now it might that might I don’t know I don’t know what they’re thinking is they see him every day are they thinking they’re past that point this season to do that he played eight minutes in the game he was 0 for two okay he’s been Rusty he is capable of stringing together some shots and he’s much more of a threat than Josh green and CBA looked incredibly uncomfortable to me I I don’t know I saw people like in like Dallas fans thinking like oh you know we got to go more with kba next game I’m like what what what did you see in game one that makes you think that he played 19 minutes he took one shot he had no rebounds in 19 minutes none I mean he had no I had the same number of rebounds as Moxy kleba did in that game nice job good good effort out there and I actually got my fingertips on a couple Zack I but I didn’t just couldn’t quite Corral them control tips couple control exactly right he’s a minus 15 19 minutes and I’m not trying to beat up Moxy CLE I like his game but he’s been out too and he hasn’t been the same since he came back and it’s 19 minutes that you’re using there Josh Green got 20 minutes he made one shot in 20 minutes and he’s not H didn’t have a dramatic effect defensively that’s another thing maybe to look at do they maybe try to get a little bit more offense out there playing fast through absolutely I was saying it during the game they’re playing too slowly Boston’s Boston’s individual Defenders you’re playing into their hands if you’re going to allow them that much time to see every screen that’s coming every guy that you’re calling out there to screen and now we have all the time in the world to make the adjustment in terms of where our help guys are lined up it’s got to be faster quicker hitting more decisive I completely agree and it may s counter intuitive because Boston’s such a good offensive team but you’re it doesn’t matter you have to play to your strengths too and even if another team you say well we play Fast they’re better fast doesn’t matter you can’t change up who you are and I thought Dallas was too slow in the game now a lot of this Zach has to do with the fact the game got away in the first quarter that can’t happen obviously because it changes everything it changes the whole dynamic about how you’re thinking on both ends of the floor you have a game plan coming in it’s gone just like you know was it Mike Tyson that said Everybody’s Got A Plan until you get punched in the face that’s what happened to Dallas in this game it was O they were overwhelmed with shooting on the part of Boston with the energy in the building with with with their defensive pressure on the perimeter and it just completely took them out of the game from the first quarter on and now we get to see their best punch their best response their best effort game plan everything against Boston in game two and if they come with that and they get beat by 1520 I think it’s going be pretty clear to everybody they have no shot of winning this series they’ve got even if they lose the game and it’s tight late and for some reason they don’t win I think people would still have hope they can go to Dallas and win two games and get back in it absolutely you can’t you can’t lose this game handily you know it cannot be there’s got to be meaningful possessions in the last five minutes of the game and and that’s what if they don’t get there then Boston’s just too much for them they’re too much for everybody this year but I have a lot I still have a lot of faith in Luca I have a lot of in what I’ve seen out of Dallas defensively the last few months PR be better just don’t get blitzed so bad early that you’re literally off your rails and everything that you talked about is out the window now because that’s what it kind of felt like to me for the Mavericks so the kba thing is really interesting and before the series I went on JJ’s podcast and we answered a mailbag question and the question was okay we know Boston’s Panic adjustment will be starting to Blitz we know they don’t want to Blitz and if if they Blitz it’s a sign of uhoh what’s the equivalent for the Mavs and I couldn’t really think of a good one cu the Mavs are are just sort of a steady team they don’t do anything crazy there’s not anything they won’t do like oh my god when they do that it’s a sign and the only thing I thought of was you know I know kba at the five in the past has been a very strong way to play for them they got to the Conference Finals two years ago that way with Lively and Gafford they they’ve clearly telegraphed like we don’t want to play that way too much like we want to have Rim Runners we want to have shop lockers who want to have size and I thought maybe that’s the maybe that’s the worry side is more kba at the five and we saw that right away in game one part of it was Lively’s foul trouble part of it I think was they wanted to see if they could get a switchable lineup out there like someone who is more capable of switching one to five and kba has been that in the past maybe they wanted to try what life looks like with five Shooters on offense give LCA a little more space and it just didn’t it didn’t work and I’m not saying it can’t work going forward but I’m saying for this particular Dallas team against this particular Boston team who’s is going to have more shooting than you and more speed than you no matter what lineup you play I just think the tradeoffs in that are a loss for Dallas the rebounding you lose on both ends the shot blocking and rim protection you lose I don’t think you’re gaining enough the other way to really make really make that the Ace Ace in the Hole as for Dallas’s offense like I don’t know I I just like they just got to run run two things in the same possession like have have a counter ready I I think I think getting Luca in the post is something I would look at and I think Derek white just because of the size advantage that’s the only place Luca can really go other than the Boston bigs in the starting five and I’d like to see some Luca Kyrie two-man game on the ball off the ball like when they’re at their best they run some split actions between them get some switches see if you can get Luca with Derek white on them go to the block like they didn’t run their double drag action really at all in game one like just kind of put Boston through some more stuff some more Paces um because that one subset of your offense wasn’t working well enough I think I think Luca can operate pretty well against all those guys except Jaylen Brown probably jayen was Jaylen was awesome by the way not at the point of attack and when he was on Gafford it was like Rudy gobear was on the backline he was like up there blocking shots Above the Rim I mean because he’s got he’s got all three components he’s got the lateral quickness the strength and then he’s also got the bounce that you need to elevate and like even if you’re you’re you know you’re a half count behind when when the shooter gets off the ground he can he reacts so quickly he gets up so high he can still bother guys but the most important thing against Luca is strength and Jaylen Brown could hold his ground because luuka likes to he likes to get those Rhythm dribbles right where he’s bouncing and you’re hitting him he’s hitting you in the chest and you’re giving ground and that was a exactly what he did to the guys in Minnesota all those guys they just were not strong enough to hold their ground Lou Dort was those guys weren’t Jaylen Brown is Drew holiday is strong enough but Drew holiday is also shorter like Luca can get to the lean back over him comfortably Jason Tatum is not like a heavy guy so I think Luca can bounce him backwards same with Derek white Jaylen Brown I said it going in Jaylen Brown is the best physical profile to guard him the thing you worry about with that is just foul trouble because Luca is clever with the up with the up fakes and then stepping in he gets those little bump calls it’s a great Point Boston was very disciplined in game one not committed a lot of cheap foul I think Dallas had like 19 free throw attempts like that that’s a very good point cuz he can get you into foul trouble by himself yeah and that’s something that he’s probably thinking about that’s another way to control the game and it helps your defense you’ve talked about counters like what can they do defensively like we we you and I kind of flushed out the Clea thing I just I’m not I’m not in favor of that right now at this point he doesn’t look it’s one thing if he looked like a really confident offensive player he does not at all and he had a play I don’t remember his play it was in the first half they Advanced the ball Boston was sort of pressuring in the back court they Advanced the ball to kba he caught the ball he dribbled up toward the three-point line there was nobody within literally 25 or 30 feet of him there was one defender back they were under the rim I don’t remember who was maybe porzingis and like for CBA I’m like go what that’s what you’re on the floor to do shoot the ball he didn’t even look at the rim and it told me a lot I’m just like he’s just not feeling it he’s not going to impact the game defensively against this team uh to to the extent Gafford and Lively will and he’s not GNA right now he’s not in the mindset to make threes look I’m not saying guys can’t snap out of that quickly maybe you know he has a he has a practice today where he lights it up and he feels really good and he comes in tomorrow night feeling differently we’ll see I don’t think that’s the solution what about more what about a little bit more Zone they didn’t play much of it I don’t think they I don’t think they played a ton of it in a regular season is it something that if I had a week off to prepare for B for Boston and everything you have to cover with this team and all the versatility offensively I’m telling you right now I would have definitely I’m not saying you’re going to play predominantly Zone but you should be able to go to that for a two to three or four minute stretch in each half with against certain lineups that Boston has out there to be really effective to slow you down it also helps with your foul trouble that if you’re not if you don’t practice it a lot and you’re not confident in it and those guys aren’t bought in then no scrap it don’t do it but I would have maybe thought about with this Buzz saw your having to guard because that’s what Boston can be and they were the other night they turn into a buz saw when they get rolling like that everybody feeds off of each other even you know at one point they they they go up 3420 the very next trip one pass to the corner and Hower makes a ridiculously tough three right in front of their bench now yeah like everybody is feeling it if that’s the case I think you need more clubs in your bag and and and if it’s just hey let’s just see what this looks like here for a couple of minutes and see what Boston does even if you’re able to get three misses in a row out of that and then they then they score a couple times you get out of it but that might be something else that they would consider doing um because of the amount of times that they got beat in oneon-one situations off the dribble yeah it’s funny I just think Boston’s got too much shooting and I think you know they have struggled against the Zone in the past against Miami particularly in the bubble but the bubble’s a long time ago and this is a different team and I just I think be ready for it I but I don’t again I it’s worth trying um and about kba I mean if you play kba at the four Boston got six minutes of Horford porzingis together in game one that’s six minutes they don’t have to play cornette that’s six minutes they can cut the Hower Pritchard minutes if it’s not going well and those guys can both shoot threes like that’s a big deal okay let’s change Court you have any thoughts on game two before we move I got one more topic to ask you about um no I just look this this to me is just going to be a Luca Kyrie game they’re they’re gonna have they’re going to have to be special and spectacular to get them through this moment um again the key is you can feel okay about yourself if this ends up being a really tight game and you lose and you go home for two I think you can feel like we’re very much in this this is going to have to be the Tone’s got to be set by those two players and obviously you can’t get Blitz that way with three-point shooting early like you just can’t get shot out of the gym in the first quarter but your offense is going to have a lot to do with that so I just think the response out of Luca early the aggressiveness as a scorer and Kyrie I think it’s going to be a lot different than it was in game one and that’s gonna that’s to me I’ll know so much more about this entire series by halftime of game two than I do right now I mean I saw a lot of the things I expected in game one particularly out of Boston I thought Dallas was so far below what I’ve seen them at their best it’s still hard for me to draw a conclusion because I some a lot of it had to do with Bon but some of that was Dallas they just didn’t play very well and there’s going to be there’s going to be some things they’re going to do differently the mindsets going to be different and let’s see what their best punch looks like find out if we have a series and I’ll know at halftime I think how this series is going to go at least in terms of competitiveness I’m expecting and hoping for one of those hot house frenzied like a little bit grimy it’s 9898 with six minutes left in the game the crowd is like screeching there it’s like a combination of elation and tension with every play that’s what I want okay I love the finals so much that on our postgame podcast me and Brian wior we forgot to talk about the Lakers trying to hire Danny Hurley away from Yukon wo broke the basketball world with this news uh ahead of game one of the finals all the focus had been on JJ reck and and then James Breo and all of a sudden uh W reported yesterday Danny Hurley’s in Los Angeles word of a gigantic offer I mean I’m even going to say the the Money numbers that are floating around the league because I don’t know if they’re accurate um and the most successful coach in college basketball right now uh being recruited by the glitziest franchise in the NBA with the biggest star in basketball on their team it’s almost too much to bear for for the NBA media sphere um it’s obviously very interesting on a million different levels what it means for college basketball what it means for the Lakers can this fiery High School coach turn College Co coach who goes at fans who goes at opposing fans who’s yelling all the time who by his own admission is a little bit a little bit a little bit uh little bit good kind of crazy Danny Hurley can that translate to the NBA what’s your general reaction to this I don’t know how much Yukon you’ve seen over the years um but what’s your what was your first reaction what’s your general reaction now it’s been a couple days first reaction for me Zach I I’ve always been of the belief that you are either wired if you’re if you’re coaching aspirations uh and you’re in the profession you’re either wired for college or you’re wired for the pros that’s the way I’ve always looked at it to me Danny Hurley’s wired for college now if you are gonna fly him out there and and like you make a great point about these these these rumors about the money you know you automatically assume right without it even being said the Lakers are going to offer a lot of money when you started hearing words like you know ginormous and humongous and like you’re going wait a second we already knew it was going to be big what are we talking here for a team that has generally not paid its coaches these crazy salaries no doubt about it like because I know when uh when the first job first opened and thinking about who could it be I thought you know buen holer might be a good answer like ah they’re not going to pay boen holder like oh the Lakers don’t pay their coaches like okay well I don’t know what this money is gonna be it listen you’re go you’re going out there it’s Lakers it’s all the banners it’s the franchise it’s La it’s all that stuff right and all money and if you’re Danny Hurley in the back of your mind the one thing you know if if I don’t like this or it turns out I’m not that good at it at this level if those things happen I’m not saying they were were to happen he’s unfulfilled in some way guess what it’s all guaranteed and you can go right back and who knows maybe by that time kuy’s tired of Mark Pope and now he’s got the Kentucky job waiting on him who knows what’s what it will be a $10 million a year job that he’s going to take to go back to college if he ever wanted to do that so it’s almost like from a family perspective like how do you say no but having said that is it as fulfilling as a guy like Danny Hurley wants it to be Danny Hurley you know these guys that that are successful at that level Zach they’re all like have really big egos right and they that’s just part of the territory for guys that win at that level he’s so intense he he likes getting the the player into his program whether it’s a recruit or a transfer and molding them into what he wants them to be and he does that with some tough love and he’s also a supportive guy he’ll Pat you on the back and hug you but he’s also gonna have his foot up your rear end most of those 40 minutes we we see it he wear it’s overt he wears it on his sleeve how he’s going to coach and it seems to me that’s part of the enjoyment of the coaching for him to be able to do that and he won’t be able to do it to that extent at that level he just won’t is it as fulfilling and that’s why I talk about being wired one way or the other some guys they don’t want to deal with all that other stuff they don’t deal with molding anybody they want to show up and Coach let the Personnel people draft these guys make the trades I’m GNA coach you have to have a certain calm demeanor it’s it’s 82 so you’re not with your foot on the gas every night can Danny herly do that can he do that can he make that transition to that level I he just did a podcast earlier this week with Mike franessa where he basically said they asked him you want to coach in the NBA this is before the rumors came out and he said yeah one day certainly I think maybe testing myself at the ultimate level with a young team and guys that’ll let me coach him the way I want to coach him like this was out of it this was four days before this surface and I’m going well that’s not the Lakers job that’s not what this is going to be so there’s going to be this conflict and I’m sure he’s going to struggle with the conflict like what he’s doing now is what he was meant to do and be at that level he has other aspirations to go do it at the NBA level hey do you got to go figure that out and sort it out but you’re certainly going have to make some changes to the way that you carry yourself the way your what your demeanor is towards your players the amount of time you’re putting in a Player Development the stuff he loves and that’s going to be very difficult to do at that level so he’s got to ask himself that ultimately but look if it’s that kind of money man it’s how could anybody really say no to that an opportunity to coach Lakers and Coach LeBron James for a couple of years I don’t know how you say no to something like that but will it be Ally fulfilling and rewarding at a place where he is really happy with all of it that’s my biggest question about it for Danny Hurley so the reaction around the league for the last 48 hours and particularly the day it came out and this includes like coaching agents I talked to who have been at least on the periphery of this process with their clients was what like people did not hear a whisper of this I didn’t hear a whisper these people didn’t hear a whisper of it rea ction number two was there’s no doubt about Danny Hurley’s tactical Acumen on any on any level ex totally agree in-game adjustments big picture creativity philosophical creativity the only question is what you and I have said about his intensity scaling it down to fit the NBA rhythms and pace of an 82 game schedule and and like I don’t I don’t know Danny Hurley I’ve talked to him a few times here and there interviewed him few times how he’s wired whatever like I can just imagine you’re sitting there like all right I’m the king of college basketball I got a chance to three Pat no one’s done that since John Wooden this is I have this job for my entire life I could live here and have this job and then over and and I guess they have a top five team coming back next year um over here I can go to the Lakers Mr Lakers it’s not the it’s not I’m not going to disrespect another average NBA team but it’s not an average NBA team it’s the Lakers and it’s LeBron James and it’s a ton of money and it’s Los Angeles and it’s beautiful there every single day love Los Angeles um but like you can go there and it’s a it’s the Western Conference you’re not winning a title well not only that you could go there and remember we’re five days removed from the Pelicans kicking the Lakers draft pick a year because they’re shorting the Lakers in the Western Conference they’re shorting 40-year-old LeBron James they’re shorting Anthony Davis’s reliability even though he’s been quite reliable the last couple years in terms of his availability like you could go there not only not win a title if one thing goes bad you could be like 42 wins 38 wins 44 wins and then LeBron’s gone because he’s old and he retires and it’s like there could be it could it could go just Purgatory for a while and you want to say well some Superstar will go there yeah probably at some point we’re not that far removed from the Lakers being bad like five or six years in a row until it right like I’m just saying that’s I’m not saying that’s going to happen right I’m I’m saying that’s the downside the other interesting thing about this is I was I was sitting next to WJ for a lot of Friday or whatever not whatever day game one was Thursday is we did like four hours of TV and as those four hours went on he got more and more um he talked more and more about the Lakers potentially draft bronny James at 55 yeah and kind of linked Hurley’s potential hiring to that like we think this coach is good for that player and my brain has just not allowed me to dive into the bronny James thing the Father and Son thing it just seemed far-fetched and a pipe dream and not because Bron’s not good just because like so many things have to flip right for that scenario to take place and like I’m not a bronnie James expert I’ve seen him play a couple times I’m not going to like weigh in on his game but that that listening to W was the first time my brain flipped and was like this could this could really happen and I felt both like shocked like okay I guess this is going to be a real thing and I do have to say a little part of my cold Grinch heart was a little bit warmed by like okay it would be kind of cool like I’m willing to concede it would be kind of nice it’ be kind of cool well listen here’s what I said I said this two weeks ago about this pick they’ve got the 50 pick and I’m saying to myself what are the odds I started looking up past 55th picks okay just just just to have some fun not great it’s not great well and not not there are some guys you can find some guys um that are picked I think Wiggins for Oklahoma City was a 55th pick he’s solid player rotational player for them you can get that but more likely than not you’re not and that guy’s not going to have a long NBA career he not going to have a huge impact in the NBA the most likely scenario is he never plays in the NBA for the 55th pick you’re right and so that my point with that is this Zach if that’s the case draft Brony James if that makes LeBron James happier and at a better place mentally do it why wouldn’t you do it what’s why not and it’s so funny because I I was doing um I was doing a oh I was doing First Take and Molly was setting up a segment on this question and she was saying in the latest mock draft and I don’t know what mock draft she was quoting but she had Ronnie James going 54th to the Boston Celtics and I said wait a second did you just say that the Boston Celtics would take bronnie James one pick before LeBron James team had a chance to draft Brony James and said there’s no way in the world that would happen unless you want to revive the Cold War all over again and we’re going to start it up like this is Boston just digging at the Lakers I’m like if you’re the Lakers and he’s there and I think he’s a very good chance he’s going to be there draft him if that’s what makes LeBron James happy but the concept accept that Danny Hurley would be hired in some way and that’s linked with that to develop bronnie James look I’m not saying Brony James I I don’t know definitively that Brony James can’t stick in the league and won’t have an NBA career you’re not bringing in a coach okay with that in mind at all for a guy picked in that spot in the draft this isn’t a 611 foreign born player that like Yoko has picked in the 30s okay would you go hey nobody really knows about this guy he’s 73 and we’re going to draft him and just let him sit and try to develop maybe Hurley can help with that right that’s not what this is man this is an undersized guard he does he’s not necessarily a point guard in terms of his ball handling and distribution capabilities he doesn’t shoot it well enough or big enough to be like a big- time two guard at best he’s going to end up being a three and D type of guy on a roster fighting for minutes you don’t that’s not what Danny Hurley is going to be developing that spot so I think that notion is silly that that would be any have anything to do with why you’d want Danny Hurley you’d want Danny Hurley because Danny hurly has proven this is one of the smartest basketball coaches you’re ever going to see the stuff they run is great at Connecticut his ability to connect those guys defensively his ability to take you know Patchwork quilt type guys from other programs and turn it in to something that look like that um and by the way Zack do you say they’re top five next year they’re going to be top five every year that Danny Hurley’s there because of how difficult it is now with with other programs to maintain that greatness year in year out he can do it because he’s that good at what he does so there all he might end up being the next John Wooden of college basketball if he stays in college basketball long enough who knows I think he’s that good the pro level’s different the impact is less it’s just is it’s less at the head coaching position in the NBA to your point he might go there they might not be very good not win a title and guess what what’s the next iteration after LeBron what do the Lakers look like post LeBron it might look like Mad Max fosa all right it might look like that that might be I still haven’t seen it yet I’m trying to organize a guys right out to see but I’m going to right I’ve seen all the other ones it might look like that okay Baron man where you’re fighting for your life every day for scraps who knows what who the next star is for the Lakers and how long that will take and and to your point to that point it could look it could look great like like they could get lucky and SAR X Y and Z could go there you just don’t know that’s the point you don’t know well I so I’m I’m as curious as you I guess he went out there yesterday um I don’t know you know what the what the results of that are going to be I think wo reported yesterday that they expect something to happen over the weekend or by Monday um so I guess we’ll all sit back and know but I mean here’s the thing if Danny Hurley got on that plane Zach to fly from Connecticut to La if you even get on the plane like with your wife and you fly I had a feeling he’s going to end up there because you already know what it’s going to look like like what would you possibly think you’re going to see or hear that would turn you off of that situation so to me if you’re having like any internal conflict you don’t go at all because you know what that’s going to look like it’s going to be almost impossible to say no with what they’re going to put on him in the full court press he’s going to get and then just look at the money H so if the fact that he got on the plane at all I think and leans in the direction of Danny Hurley being the next Lakers coach well we maybe we’ll find out soon enough Tim Lego you got to go spend some time with your family thank you for rolling with us today I may go check you know there’s afternoon practices today the mads and the Celtics practice I may check if there’s a little matina of Mad Max furiosa just little solo mat I’ve been I’ve been I’ve been so busy lately I got a couple of days now I got an afternoon off in DC when I’m down there for SVP and I will probably be checking out a mat a furiosa for sure yeah if you see a guy in the back solo eating some popcorn in Boston today it might be me Tim legler thank you sir you got it Zach anytime

Zach Lowe and Tim Legler discuss why the Mavericks should be more worried about their defense after Game 1, how the Celtics won the math, ways Dallas can spark their offense in Game 2 and the Los Angeles Lakers’ head coaching search.

0:00 Welcome to The Lowe Post Podcast!
0:30 Celtics take Game 1 at home
1:37 Should Dallas be more concerned about their defense?
13:58 Dallas needs to take and make more 3s
18:01 Ways to get the Mavs’ offense going
33:00 Lakers’ pursuit of Dan Hurley

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