Stephen A: Joel Embiid is right about Bucks giving Celtics Championship
TD Garden and they’re doing it in dominating Fashion After winning 4-1 against both the Heat and the Cavs Boston swept the Pacers and they’re on their way to sweeping the maps if the Celtics win the title they may want to send a thank you card to the Bucks who traded away Drew holiday in the Damen Lillard trade last offseason holidays the first player to average 15 points while committing zero turnovers over a three game Span in the final since 1990 joah beid inquired on social media last night asking simply did the Bucks give them the championship Brian wior back here with us uh Wendy I’ll ask you this is embid right no the the the Celtics had a lot going for them but I will say it’s it’s a bit of a journey to evaluate the Dame Lillard trade that I’ve been on and others have been as well at the outside of the trade you looked at it and said man the the Bucks just raised their ceiling and increased their chances because of the offense that they added but as soon as Drew holiday ended up with the Celtics which was just a few days I thought that their net positive was really narrowed they were ahead but I really thought that they contributed to helping their primary opponent get better but then a couple of weeks later Giannis signed a contract extension and you can’t disregard that when you evaluate that trade he signed that contract extension because he was so excited about teaming up with Dame Lillard and so I have to calculate that in but now I look at how great the Celtics look and I see that they’ve extended Drew holiday and I would expect them to extend Derek white and I do think they’ll be able to bring almost this exact team back next year and see that this team will be definitely the favorites to repeat is my is my guess I have to even go back another step and reevaluate it again St a so that series of transactions which was not just the D milder trade but the one that brought Drew holiday to Boston ends up being one of the most consequential we’ve had in years in the NBA it’s consequential and you’re right about everything you’re saying the flip side to that however though Wendy is that you know the impetus for this question was Joel embiid’s comments and so just simply dissecting where he’s coming from well you could say he’s wrong or you can challenge Joel embiid in this regard what the hell are you chopped liver you’re the reigning League MVP coming into this season right if you were healthy with the ele of Tyrese Maxi what are you saying you could not have beaten Boston is that what you’re telling the basketball world because Boston and their moves and Milwaukee and their moves had nothing to do with Philly joeel and be you still there if you healthy what you trying to say if you’re healthy with Tyrese Maxi what you trying to say what are you trying to say about Tobias Harris what are you trying to say about Nick nurse and Daryl mury what are you trying to say about the roster that you have in Philadelphia so one could ask that question to Joel embiid secondly when you look at Milwaukee okay are you saying they did it intentionally I don’t think they did I’m not sure you knew they were G Boston was going to get Drew holiday but even if you did you certainly felt higher about Damen Lillard um Giannis Anan TMO was the one that supported Adrien Griffin being the head coach he obviously had supported him being gone and Doc Rivers is De now so what are you trying to say about the Milwaukee Bucks in terms of what their intent was and last but not least when we look at Boston even though we had them as the prohibitive favorites obviously them being stacked and loaded in the same breath Denver wasn’t supposed to have what happened to them happened to them we didn’t see Minnesota coming okay and obviously we didn’t see the Dallas Mavericks coming so there are an abundance of layers to this with with with Joel embiid’s marks to dissect but the only thing we can really really point to or really really ask ourselves invasively what are you trying to say Joel and B that Milwaukee did something intentionally in the end what are you saying about yourself because if Joel embiid is healthy with a healthy Tyrese Maxi we can’t sarily dismiss what Philadelphia would bring to the table and whether or not Philly could have given Boston a run for their money because we know there’s no answer for a healthy Joel embiid he’s Unstoppable I will say this Molly I will say this last year the Celtics were close but not good enough to win the championship they went out and made two major Acquisitions with porzingis and Drew holiday Philadelphia has two Allstars in embiid and Tyrese Maxi a whole bunch of salary cap space and tradable first round picks this is the summer that the 76ers could make a couple of Acquisitions that could change the Paradigm in the Eastern Conference absolutely don’t forget I mean Miami didn’t have Jimmy Butler and a bunch of guys either they could have knocked somebody else off or put in some work as well uh we’ll leave it there when we come back Luca took out his frustration on the refs last night and now his career that matters too so I go back again to what Jaylen Brown said in that huddle about graduating graduate level degree coming for Brad Stevens graduate level degree coming for Joe Missoula with an absolute perfect game plan for her Personnel unrelenting with totally believes in the style of play that is you know heavy three-point shooting heavy perimeter defense works like a charm graduate level degrees coming in the form of rings for jayen Brown and Jason Tatum another ring coming for Drew holiday everybody across the board on the Celtics should be celebrated it’s been a long journey but they have absolutely earned it you know what speaks to the maturation and the maturity ultimately of the Boston Celtics is that throughout the course of the year it’s like well just Boston’s just really good they ran away with the East the East is really weak it’s not as strong as the West okay fine that doesn’t deter them they’re still doing what they have to do we get into the playoffs Well everybody’s been hurt you know this player has been hurt that player has been hurt that doesn’t deter them they’re still doing what they have to do and now you get to the NBA finals whether that’s Jason kid saying I think Jaylen Brown is their best player no none of this stuff distracts them they don’t care what anybody has to say all that matters is that they’re finishing job after job after job and that is going to equate to their 18th championship shout out to them for the way they’ve handled it I want to go back to Jaylen Brown because I remember when we were talking about the all NBA snubs he felt like he got snubbed and he said I watch guys get praised and celebrated that are half as talented as me on either side of the ball and the way he is playing in this final series really the way he’s played the entire playoffs it’s like that is what he is trying to prove that he is more talented than everyone on the court on either side of the ball offensively defensively he has the answer he has the skill he has the ath iism to be the best player on the floor and that’s what we’ve seen yeah for what it’s worth I voted for him all NBA I’m still not sure how he didn’t make it but that’s a whole other conversation CJ I’ll get to your tape in a minute there’s something I think needs to be said because so much of the conversation it’s hard not to talk about the Celtics like they’ve won this right in in theory there’s still a win away in the Mavericks the series is not over but it’s kind of hard not to sit back and look at the big picture of this Celtics Journey which is not just this year in which they are 79 and 20 but the journey they’ve been on for the last several years I’m old enough Wendy to have watched a time when this was the normal path like the Celtics dominated the Eastern Conference for years and those young bad boy Pistons they were knocking on the door knocking on the door couldn’t quite get there couldn’t quite get finally beat him finally won a championship the Michael Jordan Bulls knocking on the door knocking on the door couldn’t get through it finally beat him and went on to um to to their dynastic era it feels like that could be what the beginning of what we’re seeing right now Wendy in Boston that these two guys for all the momentary criticism that they have heard now they’re arriving they’re graduating as you said they are the best combination one-w punch in the NBA however you want to line them up next to each other and this may just be the beginning of it yeah I mean this is going to be the sixth different champion in a row here that we haven’t had a back-to-back Champion since the Warriors and
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