NBA Mailbag: Will Luka Doncic & Mavericks pull off MIRACLE comeback vs. Celtics? | Hoops Tonight

NBA Mailbag: Will Luka Doncic & Mavericks pull off MIRACLE comeback vs. Celtics? | Hoops Tonight

what’s up everybody thanks as always for supporting the show it would mean a lot to me if you would take a second to scroll down and hit that subscribe button to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel and then follow me on social media on Tik Tok Instagram and Twitter so you guys don’t miss any of our content over the course of this season all right let’s talk some basketball all right first question is Derek white the best role player in the NBA if not who is this is a tough one I’d have to I’d have to take some time to like really think about um uh to really think about who the other candidates for that type of uh uh of kind of title is that said I do think drick white is kind of like the perfect NBA role player and the main reason why is there’s like a positional versatility with him like he’s a guard but he’s pretty big and he’s pretty athletic and like can do things with his length in athleticism on the backline as a rebounder and as a shot blocker you know there was a a a comment I I can’t remember oh it was a tweet it was a tweet that came out it was like a report somebody I’m I’m going to blank on who it was but somebody reported that Derek white could be considered for the Olympic team spot should um should kawhai Leonard be unable to participate and when I saw that I thought that was interesting because like there’s these other names that you’re going to see thrown around right like what about Kyrie what about Jaylen Brown and like both of those guys would certainly be more deserving right like if you’re just going on who has the better basketball reputation that player should get the spot I agree but strictly’s thinking about the game of basketball Derek white to me is an incredible spot-up player who can run inverted ball screen actions and has a ton of experience running inverted ball screen actions meaning he can set screens for LeBron set screens for KD set screens for Jason Tatum who will be on that team as well and pop and create uh uh U advantages there a second piece of it like Derek white is a professional off-ball player he is a professional off of superstars player right he is a guy that has made his living learning how to be next to a supreme talent and fit his talent alongside what he does and to accentuate what the team does and so I actually tweeted when I saw that I was like Derek white would be perfect he’d be willing to take an on ball defensive role like it was the most important thing that he’s doing right I think Derek white is the consummate NBA role player that you could plug into any team team anywhere around the league he’s great above the break he’s great in the corners he can run action he can run inverted action he’s an athlete that can impact the game on both ends I absolutely um think that Derek White’s in the conversation for best role player in the NBA let’s see should Joe Missoula play christops porzingis in game five uh there’s there’s two things that you have to factor in here when it comes to porzingis one like Boston has a chance to repeat like they’re not in the Western Conference where it’s like 10 bloodbath teams every single year like the East is going to be better next year but I think Boston’s going to be favored to win the East next year right and so what you can’t do with christops is risk potentially him having some sort of bigger injury that extends into next year or affects his ability to stay in shape over the summer right like we don’t even know what the fall out of this injury is going to be like in the short term so there’s that piece of it there’s like a risk reward Factor if you think you can win the series Without porzingis You got to try to win the series Without porzingis second piece of it is how is his Mobility like part of what happened with Christos porzingis is he was playing awesome in the first two games and a lot of that had to do with his Mobility after he kind of tweaked it he wasn’t playing as well right so like it it doesn’t matter if he’s out there if he’s not christops porzingis so like it really depends on the coaching staff to know how much risk there is for severe additional injury and two and I guess that’s up to the medical staff and then two from the coaching staff how well is he actually moving is he actually moving in a way where he can impact things because if he’s not then it’s not worth it all right next question is there an argument that Tatum is the most switchable defender in the league so uh yeah absolutely at this point in time because like we’ve seen like there are guys that are in that conversation for like best perimeter Defender guys that are like Jaden McDaniels who are like too thin to guard the bigger stronger players in the league but like to be clear like Lucas’s had a lot of success against Jason Tatum in this series too so like I I wouldn’t go as far as to say like some of that’s just Luca being unguardable right but yeah Tatum with his size and strength should in theory be able to do a better job on him than a guy like Jen McDaniels a Jaylen Suggs is another guy who’s regarded as one of the best perimeter defenders in the league he’s a touch on the small side right like Lou Dort is a guy that I think can cause a lot of problems to some Power Players but like you know uh he can be a little bit on the undersiz side in terms of length so what about pull-up Shooters when it comes to against a guy like him Tatum has that unique capability of like real size and strength and perimeter Mobility now I don’t think Tatum has been the same level of Defender that he was in 2022 this year I think Jaylen Brown has made improvements since then I think Tatum has gone down a little bit of a level since then but that like Tatum hasn’t done as good a job on the perimeter in this series but he’s been really good at The Rim he’s been really good on the defensive glass he’s done a good job holding up under any sort of physicality that Gafford brings to the table but like in terms of switchability meaning actual ability to guard one through five Tatum is certainly in that conversation again I’d have to think more about it to give you guys an actual list let’s see how do the Warriors become contenders next season so anytime I see a team get written off and we just saw this last year with Dallas and we’re seeing it this year with golden state when you’re writing a team off usually if they’ve got a couple of real key foundational pieces in this case Kyrie and Luca or in the Warriors case like Steph Curry some draft compensation Jonathan kaminga Draymond Green is still one of the best defensive players in the league right you got foundational pieces so it’s really about smart tweaks now there’s it’s a little bit more complicated for Golden State because Steph wasn’t playing well to end the season he was like a he was like 75% of himself for basically the last half of the year so like Steph is Steph is going to have to one get back to being Steph and then just smart tweaks I think they absolutely have to get a Bonafide secondary shot Creator there’s been a lot of Buzz surrounding like Zack LaVine with Golden State in recent weeks uh I’ve talked about like Deonte Murray we’ve talked about you know um uh like like more on the margins moves guys like male Bridges there are a bunch of different directions they could go but whoever that guy is he needs to be somebody that can legitimately take the Reigns from Steph for large doses of basketball games one of the underrated pieces of the Warriors decline over the last couple of years is Jordan P kind of fell off and Andrew Wiggins kind of fell off and those two guys kind of like combined for that legitimate secondary star in terms of offense of Firepower I don’t know that Wiggins ever is g to get back to that and Jordan P’s gone I don’t I don’t think Chris Paul is gonna be that I’m not even sure if he’s going to be on the roster next year so like you got to find a Bonafide secondary shot Creator a little bit more inter interior size I think is the second piece I actually like their wing athleticism they just need to have a big look where they can be more physically imposing maybe a Draymond Green at the four type of look but again don’t underestimate small tweaks on the margins and how they can improve a team like uh Dallas literally just got a like a a couple of Rim Runners and a a legitimate forward in PJ Washington and they nailed one veteran minimum signing and then boom NBA Finals so like that that that that’s again this stuff is I always talk about uh that quote that I got from Mark Titus that basketball is more art than science that’s the kind of thing I’m talking about like you can’t just add up the pieces on paper there’s like a Synergy to the way basketball players fit together and slight tweaks that accentuate each other’s strengths can kind of lock into place and allow you to become a basketball team that is greater than the sum of its parts with the passing the great Jerry West I’ve always wondered your favorite players from the older generations and who do you think would play well in today’s NBA um I’m not going to go that far back mainly just because for me like as a basketball fan I especially when you go out past the 80s I just I I have not watched enough of those guys to give an educated opinion and how opinion about how I believe they would fit into today’s game all I will say is like for me the guys that I ended up watching a ton of even though I didn’t watch them when I was actually a kid but more as an adult is like the uh uh the kind of players that kind of had my same build so like I’m 66 I have long arms and I play on the wing so like I watched a lot of Kobe Bryant growing up I watched a lot of Michael Jordan growing up I watched a lot of Grant Hill Penny Hardway those kind of guys because those guys just kind of like played a uh uh were had similar like frame to me so like I would try to play like they played because I wanted to do the kind of things that they could do and so those were the guys that like I watched a lot of like film on and things along those lines and I’ve watched a lot of like NBA classic games and stuff like that but when it comes to like Jerry West’s generation I’m just so underexposed to them and one of the things that I try to do on this show is like not talk about things unless I unless I’ve done the appropriate amount of research and so it’s why I don’t talk about the draft until we get out of the finals I’m not going to sit here and pontificate about draft picks when I haven’t done the requisite research but interesting question to me Jerry West like I said this on the show with Colin to me he’s just one of the great basketball Geniuses of all time and I look at things like him putting Kobe and sha together him stopping the Kevin Love for Klay Thompson trade him kind of like being one of the guys one of the in the Brain Trust that assembled the Clippers and they’re the Clippers were supposed to be like Boston in so many different ways right and we’re seeing that come to fruition in a championship right now so like to me Jerry West was just kind of in touch with where the game of basketball was going and was one of the great Geniuses of our time hey Jason fan from India enjoyed the content I’ve been learning a lot about uh about basketball keep up the good work oh by the way thank you for the kind words I sincerely appreciate it uh the one professional basketball contract I signed before I hung up the shoes was in India I was going to play in this league called the uba uh they paid me for like two weeks and then the league uh and then the league folded and then at that point I like looked at my wife and I was like I can’t keep doing this I just got to go to work uh but uh I got to meet the when when that League was being put to it was in like the third or fourth season they were doing like a major showcase here in the US and they like flew all these people out and I uh um I got to meet a ton of people that actually live in India and uh it it was just like a really cool part of that experience and uh big what if for me in my life is I always wonder what would happened if that season would have come to fruition and I would have gone over there work ethic and psycho competitiveness is Paramount to the greats as a GM how do you evaluate players in the draft for that intangible so here’s the thing like I’m a big believer in kind of stay in your wheelhouse uh it’s impossible for me to really get into touch with the intangibles of draft prospects uh because the people that do it year round and watch every single interview they do watch every single one of their games and really keep an eye on their motor and and the different their their competitiveness within games and things along those lines for me I I have to do kind of a very abbreviated version of that like the NBA Finals let’s say they end on Monday that’s what the 17th so like I’m going to have less than two weeks to prepare for the draft and so for me I’m going to be primarily focusing on skills like like skills and tape like just as much as I can digest in a short period of time that’s it if I was working in the draft that would be a major element to my uh focus on player develop or like uh uh player evaluations I should say to me like it goes into the the competitiveness or your uh like your like being a psycho your work ethic those sorts of things those to me are they don’t just manifest in skill development they manifest in the games right like in order to be the kind of player that buys into a defensive scheme and is willing to do the dirty work you’ve got to be nasty you’ve got to be competitive there aren’t no there are no lazy guys that do that type of job right but in addition to that it’s about the the competitiveness the pettiness the the wanting to be better than the guy next to you that’s what drives you on a daily basis to put in the work and one of the things I talk about a lot on this show and I know this just from my own personal experience because I uh like went through skill development in my 20s because I was so late to pick up the game of basketball like it’s incremental guys like you shoot 10,000 jump shots over the course of two months over the summer and you might get this much better like it is a year-over-year like just painstaking effort to to improve your game on the margins the same thing goes with ball handling ball handling and shooting like you might experience some initial Improvement but it plate pretty quickly and then it’s like incremental Improvement and so like you got to be the psycho to be the guy that improves in those areas and it requ like if you’re just going into the gym three four times a week over the summer with the trainer and shooting a couple hundred shots like that’s literally not going to do it there is a there is a psycho level of work you have to achieve on a day-to-day basis to make those sorts of improvements 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bucks only on DraftKings the crown is yours how much of Brown having having better production than Jason Tatum in this playoffs has been based on how they’re being defended for example being guarded by nard versus n Smith it’s a huge Factor right like uh Tatum’s always getting the primary defensive player in terms of the the actions it’s the same like both guys are getting the same help both guys are getting um like aggressive coverages and ball screens and things along those lines but there’s no doubt in terms of the individual matchup Tatum has a tougher Shake one of the bigger pieces of it is just the jump shooting though Jason Tatum’s just having a nightmare jump shooting postseason Jaylen Brown is shooting better that’s the give and take of basketball right like if I I always talk about like Defenders being on their toes or being on their heels if they are terrified of you shooting a jumper they’re going to be up on their toes which will make it easier for you to go around them if they’re terrified of you getting downhill they’re going to be on their heels but if they only have to worry about one of those things they can really sit on whatever that is and so Jason Tatum it’s like offer a late contest and he’s missing it right now so like these guys are it makes containing him easier in in in uh in dribble Drive situation so again I think it’s part of it the matchups part of it is Jason Tatum just is having a bad jump shooting stretch and by the way that that can happen that’s part of the game of basketball right like LeBron James last year had the worst jump shooting season he’s had in in 10 years and then this year he had the best jump shooting season he’s had in 10 years I’m sure he worked hard last summer I’m sure that was part of it but it’s not like LeBron made some gigantic Improvement year-over-year in terms of his actual Core Shooting capability he had a rough season he had a hot season Jason Tatum has been in a shooting slump that’s been lasting for a few months now who would you favor in a potential game six in Dallas so Boston deserves to be heavy favored in game five right as they should be uh if Dallas were to steal that game my guess is the line will be very slightly in Dallas is favor something like Dallas minus5 I also wouldn’t be surprised if Boston was a very slight favorite in that game like a a minus one and a half a minus5 something like that for me going into game six in Dallas it’d be a coin flip for me main reason why is Boston’s been really good on the road I do believe Boston is the better team I think that Boston has more advantages in this series and so even if Dallas were to get some sort of crazy Kyrie Luca effort to steal game five I’d still make it basically a coin flip in game six but Dallas absolutely could uh win that game what do you think of Jordan P to the Nuggets wow that’s a really interesting type of deal I went on Washington Sports Radio a few days ago and I was talking a lot about how I wouldn’t give up on Jordan pool and so I imagine they’ll keep him uh I think that young guards in in particular have very volatile uh you know kind of life cycles and so I I think that you know Jordan pool at age 27 is going to be a pretty steady Pro and I think who whatever team bets on that is going to have some success the reason why is simple Jordan P can beat people off Tribble and he knock down jump shots he’s like that’s a really good combination like he’s quick as hell and he can knock down jump shots now he hasn’t shot the ball well in a couple of years but that capability is certainly there we’ve seen it in the past as far as the Nuggets fit though my one of the things I talked about a lot with the Nuggets I love everything about that team except for they don’t have anybody that can just generate dribble penetration since Bruce Brown has has left right like everything with joic is size Rel Jamal Murray is screen related right so like having a guy like Jordan Pooh can beat people off the dribble would be a would be a huge asset to that team it’d be tricky to figure out how to do the uh uh to work out that type of deal though especially at his salary is Luc a younger James Harden an excellent scorer who doesn’t know what defense is no Luca’s a way better version of James Harden in my opinion James Harden was James Harden was what happens when analytics takes too much of a role in in constructing an NBA offense for instance like James Harden the step back three the left-handed Drive off of the uh uh off of the between the legs dribble in the occasional crossover back to the right everything with James Harden in his prime was at The Rim step back three at The Rim step back three added a little bit of a floater in 2019 right but like there was a a predictability with James Harden that made him easier to defend as playoff series series progressed one of the reasons why I think Luca has been a better player in the postseason than James Harden is he never uh it seems like every attack from him looks different like he’s willing to attack from the post he’s willing to attack straight ISO uh uh but he’s also willing to attack in ball screens he’s not just taking step back threes he’s also getting into the mid-range he’s taking step Backs from the mid-range he’s taking turnaround jumpers from the mid-range he can put you in jail and kind of like manipulate things from the middle of the floor James Harden never would stop in the middle of the floor in his prime in the 2018 2019 stretch the uh that little like kind of right-handed push shot where he kind of powers his way along the right lane line and kind of fights for position and shoots that little pop shot like there’s just so much more variety in Luca’s game that makes him a much more you uh a much more resilient offensive player especially against Elite defenses down the line as far as the defensive end of the floor like I think Luca is going to learn his lesson I think he’s just young I think he’s arrogant I think he needs to have humiliation to to uh to kind of like have that slam slapped in his face right like I’ve talked about it with LeBron all the time like 2011 LeBron got embarrassed dude your jump shots too inconsistent you don’t have much of a back to the basket game you uh just you uh in general just aren’t good enough in these details to get to where you want to go and like a huge part of what uh turned around his career in 2012 and 2013 was his ability to turn his back to the basket against Kawhi Leonard his ability to knock down over the top jumpers like his jumpers saved him literally in 2012 on the road in game six in Boston when they were down 3-2 like it like LeBron reached a level as a player as a result of humiliation he like remember he like disappeared that entire summer like didn’t talk to anybody uh when he came back the following season he like reading books and like like he’s just like LeBron like got straight up humbled in 2011 and it made him a better version of himself I think luuka needed to I think Luka needed to get punched in the mouth and and like hey dude you’re really good but you’re not good enough and there’s these clear areas where you can improve and I think this series is amounting to that for Luca what are your thoughts on the Luca Carmello comp as players I don’t really see how they’re that similar even if I point out the uh Point even if I get the point about the poor defense so uh don’t look at it so much as the the the player comp because obviously they’re very very different types of players right Luca is a playmaking forward Carmelo is a scoring forward uh but Luca is also an elite scorer right like to me Luca is just a much better player with a much better standing in the league I never thought Carmelo was like a true Apex Superstar like he was just always in that second tier for me um like even when he was on those really good Denver Nuggets teams in the late 2000s like I never thought he was like at the Kobe level at the LeBron level I always thought he was just like a tier below that I think Luca’s been an apex star for you know the better part of a half decade now so like to me I I don’t see the uh that specific side of the comp where I do agree and the point that I think Colin was trying to point out is like it’s about unachieved potential like Luca is insanely good and he can be so much better like if he actually became psycho competitive about how he cares for his body and he became like a leaner more muscular better conditioned version of himself that’s just a way better basketball player and when you combine that with the mentality to be engaged on the defensive end he can achieve anything he could be the goat that like that’s he could absolutely go on a run and be remembered as in the conversation with LeBron James and Michael Jordan that that is a an absolute potential for Luca but it is nonnegotiable that he addresses those things I don’t think Carmelo ever had that potential but but if you talked about what held him back it’s the same things it’s a lack of attention to a health and fitness and a lack of commitment to the details especially on the defensive end of the floor so I think that’s the point he was trying to make again like it’s not a perfect comp but there are some similarities there somehow someway somebody has to break the streak and win from down3 could it be this Mavs team of course it could it’s just not likely what I always talk about with this is any team that has the ability to go up 3 has advantages that allowed them to go up 3 0 you don’t go three Up 3 as a fluke you do it with advantages right so like in order for you to turn around and do the same thing and win four in a row you better have all the advantages and that would require roster Dynamics flipping so like I think the team that eventually breaks the O3 streak and it’ll happen eventually but the team that eventually breaks the 03 streak it’s going to be injury related it’s going to be some team that goes up 3 0 and then some sort of pivotally pivotally important member of the team gets hurt and then suddenly it just flips all those advantages and then the team with the advantages which is the down3 team is able to Rack together some wins just for fun who do you think would win a seven game series between the 2020 Lakers and the 2024 Celtics I just think it’s an interesting matchup When comparing Champions so I I I think the 2020 Lakers are the best teams since the uh 2009 since the 2018 Warriors main reason why is it’s the only team in that span that had two Bonafide top five players in the league the Raptors had kawhai your second best player is Pascal sakam right the 2021 bucks it’s like Giannis and then it’s Chris Middleton and Drew uh Drew holiday right 2022 Warriors it’s Steph Curry and then it’s like Andrew Wiggins is probably second best player on the team Denver Nuggets it’s Nicole yic and Jamaal Murray who’s really good I I I have the nuggets I think if I remember correctly I have him second in that list but like that team had uh like Jamal Murray is like somewhere around the 15th to 16th best player in the league right and then you have the Celtics team where I think they have two guys that are in that like six to 10 range right so like the the Lakers had the unbelievable top end star power as far as the matchup goes the Lakers actually match up pretty well with the Celtics cuz they were an excellent team on the perimeter defensively they had they had they started game six of the NBA finals against the Miami Heat with LeBron James Anthony Davis Alex Caruso cavius Cowell Pope and Danny Green that’s kyp dominant perimeter Defender Alex cruso dominant perimeter Defender 2020 was the last great defensive season of LeBron’s career Anthony Davis was the best defensive player in the world Danny Green was the worst defensive player in that lineup the Lakers would have had the best player in the series they would had the best two players in the series now as we all know the Anthony Davis post 2020 by virtue of injuries and a lack of commitment to the details has declined as a jump shooter and has become a player that’s actually down in that tier with Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown now but in 2020 he was better than both of those guys and uh than these versions of both of these guys like you guys remember ad in the bubble he was like he like Kevin Durant mixed with the best defensive player in the world right like he was there was a case to make that he was at the same level as LeBron and it was certainly close although I still think LeBron was the best player in the world at that point do you think Jaylen Brown can reach top tier Superstar status I don’t know um I I never want to say never especially to a top tier athlete the one thing with Jaylen Brown that I think would hold him back is even as he’s made improvements as a playmaker most of the top tier Superstars are at least above average Playmakers and I don’t think Jaylen Brown has ever been able to reach that level but I would never say never with a guy like Jaylen Brown hypothetical who would you have picked in the 2022 Western Conference Finals had the Suns beat the Mavs in game seven and played the Warriors that’s interesting but give me the give me the Warriors I think Steph Curry would have been the best player in the series by a mile um that Suns team in particular too like they I was never as high on that Suns team as everybody else they uh in 2021 I thought the Lakers would have beat him if Anthony Davis didn’t get hurt the reason why they made it to the finals had a lot to do with injuries they up facing that injured uh um Clippers team in the Conference Finals their best player was Devon Booker and I really like Devon Booker but I don’t think Devin Booker is an apex star they they would have been I I I would have picked the Warriors against them for sure saw a summer trade rumor of marking into the Knicks what do you think of that that’d be awesome that’s like a now I think one of the things with the Knicks is I think they similarly to what we talked about the Warriors I think they need a legitimate secondary shot Creator and and unfortunately Markin is more of a play finisher than a shot Creator but he would certainly make them better as like kind of a slot into that Julius Randall position and putting ogan and Obi at the three but if I was if I was the Knicks I’d be targeting someone who’s more capable of creating things off the bounce should Liv League be considered the third best rookie behind chett and wemi that’s tough uh certainly cons certainly if you’re factoring in postseason contributions right I’d have to go back and look at all the rookies but certainly considering postseason uh postseason contributions did Joe Missoula leak the formula to playing against Luca so I uh I talked about this after game was it one or two I can’t remember but like I immediately thought back to the Minnesota series and I was like man shouldn’t should they have just put Jaden McDaniels on Daniel Gafford and put Rudy goar on Derrick Jones Jr and done the exact same thing essentially meaning put your biggest forward on Dallas’s lob threats put your rim protector on their bat above the break Shooters which are Derrick Jones and PJ Washington uh I don’t know if it would have been enough to turn around the Minnesota series because Minnesota had issues on the other end with their inability to penetrate Dallas’s load up the strong side type of Defense but like this I do think that Joe Missoula has put together probably the best game plan and again like if when people talk about the Mavericks it’s like their build is fine they have Rim protection they have perimeter Defenders they have the superstars the one weakness is they do not have a guy who can both guard on the perimeter and hit above the break threes consistently so if you look at their situation there’s not really a ton of opportunity to improve the roster this summer especially because they’ve gone all in in so many different ways but what I would do is I’d go to PJ Washington and I’d be like and Derrick Jones I’d be like and who knows Derrick Jones might end up being poached this summer because he had such a good season uh and we’ll see maybe the I think the Mavericks will probably try to keep him with their mid-level exception but if D if Dallas can keep Derek Jones in PJ Washington you basically Point uh point to those guys in their postseason kind of like wrap-up meeting and you say above the break threes All Summer Long above the break 3es and Corner threes above the break 3es and Corner threes again it’s there’s there’s a it’s not about winning one Series against a really good team you have to beat four teams and every team is going to defend you in different ways Boston did put together a nice formula with Joe Missoula for how to slow down Dallas’s offense and the only counter for that is to be able to either have Derrick Lively turn into a three-point shooter so that he can pick and pop in those situations or to have Derrick Jones PJ Washington that group of guys Josh Green you know that group of guys become effective above the break Shooters uh because again if you if we look at the geometry of the floor if the dunker spot is occupied because Tatum or the other team’s best forward is there and guys are glued up on the corners because they don’t need to help because the biggest forward is under the rim then you’re setting ball screens to attack their center with your forward the if Luca is trying to get down hill in that ball screen just imagine the geometry of the Floor Center in the dunker spot driving Shooters in the corners that’s four players where is the opening the entire above the break line is open if you have that guy the guy setting the screen in this case Derk Jones or PJ Washington if you have them roll they’re rolling into all that show underneath the rim if you have them pop there’s just a ton of opening above the break and those guys are going to be wide open every single time so like that is the ultimate counter to what Boston is doing is you’ve got to have you’ve got to for whoever it is that that they they’ll stop at that point because they won’t want their rim protector being pulled out above the break you can literally cancel out that adjustment and force them to go back to putting their Center on your Center as long as that guy is capable of hitting above the break threes and so that I think is going to be a big kind of like skill development piece that PJ and uh uh and derck Jones or whoever it is that they end up filling that spot with we’ll have to work on over the summer all right guys that is all I have for tonight I sincerely appreciate you guys’ participation in the mailbag and as always for supporting the show uh we’re going to run this mailbag as breakout Clips uh probably on Saturday and Sunday and then uh we’ll be back with Colin on Monday night to break down game five after the final buzzer Live on YouTube I will see you guys then [Music]

Jason Timpf answers listener questions during an NBA Mailbag segment. Jason discusses what he expects ahead of Game 5 as Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving, and the Dallas Mavericks look to pull off the miracle 0-3 comeback against Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and the Boston Celtics in the NBA Playoffs. What are the chances Dallas pulls off the miracle comeback?

Watch the full episode here: https://youtube.com/live/UGTOW78MCOs

Timeline:
00:00 – Is Derrick White best role player in NBA?
02:48 – Should Boston play Porzingis in Game 5?
04:15 – Is Tatum most switchable defender in NBA?
05:46 – How do Warriors become contenders?
08:26 – Jason’s favorite “older” players
10:30 – The professional league Jason nearly played in
11:21 – How to evaluate work ethic
14:57 – Tatum & Brown playoff impact
16:45 – Who would be favorite in Game 6?
17:30 – Jordan Poole to Nuggets?
18:43 – Is Luka a younger James Harden?
21:40 – Luka-Carmelo comp
23:46 – Will Mavs come back from 0-3?
24:44 – 2020 Lakers vs. 2024 Celtics
26:58 – Will Jaylen Brown reach top tier superstar status?
27:25 – Suns vs. Warriors in 2022 WCF
28:13 – Lauri Markkanen to Knicks?
28:44 – Is Lively 3rd best rookie?
29:00 – Did Mazzulla break code to beating Luka?

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