Celtics-Knicks Reaction: Jayson Tatum Injured; Mavs win Cooper Flagg Lottery | Colin Cowherd NBA

Celtics-Knicks Reaction: Jayson Tatum Injured; Mavs win Cooper Flagg Lottery | Colin Cowherd NBA

All right, we’re going to have 30 40 minutes. Uh Jason Tim hoops tonight. Um that is one of the best most intense NBA games I have seen in years. The crowd first of all the Knicks shot making I cannot remember a game when I everybody cat in the first half. Brunson, Male Bridges, OG. Listen, I this this is a cliche, but you always hear, “Oh, that team wanted it more.” And I’m always like, “Oh, give me a break.” I’m sorry. That crowd fed that team. I didn’t think the Knicks offensively, Jason, had that half, that second half in them. That was an incredible display of shotmaking. Yeah, it was unbelievable. My wife, my wife was kind of just piddling around walking through the room and she goes, “Jay, that Jaylen Brunson, he really has been putting the Celtics away in this series and I was like, he’s been doing this to everybody this entire playoff run.” It’s like you get into a game with him where it’s close late and he just he’s one of the most gifted shot makers I’ve ever watched. Colin, it it’s it’s like a it’s almost like an alpha like number one version of what Jamal Murray does where it’s just a steady diet of like right shoulder fades, left shoulder fades, stepping back to the left, stepping back to the right, off of movement in a offball situation, off of movement in a high ball screen. he can just hit so many different types of jump shots from so many different spots on the floor that it gives him like a lot of, you know, counter moves so that he can always get a shot off and then he’s just worked so well towards polishing up his shot making in those situations. It’s just remarkable. And I thought also Tom Tibido giving Brunson that quick rest kind of an interesting subplot in this game was Jaylen Brown being in some foul trouble and not starting the fourth quarter. And what was weird about that is typically that’s Jaylen Brown’s unit, but because Tatum had to lead that early fourth quarter unit, Tatum just kept hunting switches. And so it was a lot of one-on-one from Tatum. And Tatum was hitting shots, but no other Celtic was in any rhythm. And what was really a smart move from Tibs, I was joking uh with a couple of my Lakers buddies, I was like, is Tom Tibido about to pull a JJ Reick and just play everybody for the whole 24 minutes? But no, he brings in Deuce McBride in the early fourth quarter. And so then they start running action for Male Bridges and Male catches a heater and starts hitting those little mid-range 15-footers and the ball’s moving around and OG’s hitting shots and Cat’s getting a bucket and Mitchell Robinson’s getting a dunk and the Knicks had a bunch of guys in rhythm in that fourth quarter and so even when Tatum was hitting shots, it kind of felt like it was over because the Knicks just had so many more things going and I mean even even at the time of the Tatum injury, they were up by nine at that point. But I’d be remiss if I didn’t say, Colin, I agree with you. That was an unbelievable game. And that Tatum injury is just a huge buzzkill. Just a huge buzzkill at the end of that. Yeah, we we’ll Yeah, we’ll circle back to the Tatum injury, which is absolutely awful. Uh but that the game felt like it was over before that. Um you know, I was thinking about Brunson and we, you know, we talk about this in football all the time where where you land matters. I mean, Mahomes would be great anywhere. He may be the best quarterback ever because he lands with Andy Reid. Like it does matter. So Brunson’s got a little Steve Nash, you know, Steve Nash, Canada, Santa Clara, goes to the Mavericks. Good player, good player. Plays with another star, international star, Durk, and he, you know, he goes to Phoenix and just blossoms. Always talented. You’re like, “Oh my god, he’s he’s the most valuable player in the league. This is the best offense.” That was before the three ball era. Phoenix was scoring 128 regularly, like before the three ball. And you’re like, well, I knew he was good. I didn’t think he was the most valuable player. Brunson, similarly, plays in Dallas, has an international cohort, is very good player. Nobody disputes it. Very good player. Goes to New York. They give him like Nash the keys to the offense. And I always like Brunson like Nash. I never saw this. I never saw honestly he right now for and I’m talking the whole league. He’s as good of a late game shot maker as the league has. And that you know you’d watch Nash when he would never touch it with his right hand and he do that leftander off the glass like three times a game and you’re like okay that doesn’t make any sense. You’re 6-1. How are you throwing that over trees? And I’m not saying their games are similar, but it just goes to show, Jason, when you empower a player who’s got a little chip, who’s overlooked, you give him the keys to the offense, he gets the right coach, it’s a magical thing. He’s the first guard that I can think of in well, over a decade because that’s how long Steph’s been doing it. He’s the first guard to legitimately make it a debate who’s the best small guard in the league. Like, it used to be Steph forever and it wasn’t close. It’s like every time someone would bring up Dame, you’re like nowhere near the defender, nowhere near the offball player. Jaylen Brunson in this surgical walking teams down over and over and over again in the fourth quarter thing. It’s remarkable. He’s turning losses into wins. It’s amazing stuff that he’s doing. He’s doing it in this series against elite on ball defenders over and over again. Shedding Derek White with nasty post spin moves as he fakes him out one way or the other. Hunting the Celtics bigs in space. He is producing offensively at the level of the greatest players in the league. And it’s no longer a conversation to me as to whether or not Jaylen Brunson could be the best player on a championship team. He absolutely can be. And Colin, I I have to bring this up because I think this is important in the context of the storyline heading into the series. One of the themes coming into the series is Boston killed the Knicks in the regular season by hunting Brunson and by hunting Cat. And Cat has been a nightmare defensively in the series, although he did do a couple of uh better possessions against Tatum down the stretch of this game. But Jaylen Brunson has been very good defensively in this series. And repeatedly in crunch time in the wins they had in Boston, he got stops on Tatum on an island. He got stops on Jaylen Brown in an island. He survived postup mismatches against Al Horford. Like he’s playing two-way basketball, too. like this is a this is one of our better competitors in the league who is demonstrating for the world that he belongs in the conversation with the best players in the league. Like he he legitimately has a a case to be the best small guard in the league right now. And it’s crazy. BMW didn’t just design an this, I always I felt like Euing was the best Nick ever. And I always felt, you know, Melo was a little overstated because I thought he was a profound offensive talent, but not necessarily a guy, not a great leader. And I said this a couple years ago. I said, I would take, you know, Walt Frasier, Yuing, Bernard King. Brunson feels like he’s in that class. I mean, for as bad as the football teams are, he’s like the best quarterback in New York. like he is what New York teams should be. New York teams should be tough. They should be resilient. They should be fighters. They shouldn’t be, you know, they shouldn’t be slick. That’s for LA teams or Miami teams. It’s like New York teams, New York basketball from Syracuse, the Pearl Washingtons, you know, like Syracuse, the zone, the matchup zone defense, the great Nick teams with Pat Riley, Walt Frasier was a great defensive guard, Willis Reed, like that the culture of basketball in New York is tough and physical. And I just watched them tonight and I thought to myself, listen, if the NBA, and I think it’s a really smart plan, is going to allow for more physical play. I do think there is a cat issue defensively on this team. That’s why Mitchell Robinson is in that game in the second half. Like, we’ll take Cat scoring early. We’ll go with Robinson even though he can’t hit a free throw. I do think they have to kind of clean up the pick and roll defense with Cat at some point in personnel, but the league is allowing this kind of physical play and their ball movement, their defense. I don’t know. I I I I look at it and I’m like, I don’t think I’d screw it up. The chemistry is just remarkable. Like, I think Cat is a really nice offensive piece, but god, the well coached teams are going to attack him. If you had to if you had to and I know it’s not the night, but I I came out of that thinking they don’t need KD. They don’t need another shot maker. That was my take, do they? I don’t. Yeah. The I think a more reliable version of Mitchell Robinson at the center position would be a really interesting piece. Like you you you mentioned the pick and roll defense. Let’s say let’s say the results hold, which I believe they will. If Tatum’s injured, I think the Knicks are going to win the series. And I believe the Pacers will close out the Cavs, although that’s not necessarily over. The Pacers are a very very difficult team to guard and they specifically capitalize on dudes who are slow footed in space. That’s that is how they take advantage of you. And the Cavs are fast and they’re cutting them to pieces. They hung eight they hung 80 points on them yesterday in the first half. The Cavs or the the Pacers are playing some special basketball. So, a lot of it depends on how next round goes. If they hold up well and they beat the Pacers, I think it’s a much more complicated conversation about the type of move they need to make. But if they get beat by if they just get flatout beat by the Pacers, I think what you have to look at is Male Bridges kind of makes sense as a secondary player next to Jaylen Brunson, he can run that action when he’s off the floor. Ojanobi to me is like the quintessential weak side scoring forward. Like he just scores off of skip passes. the ball gets skipped to him and he shoots a three or he drives the close out. Jaylen Brunson is proving that he can be that on ball guard that can lead a championship team. Get a kick-ass center. Get somebody get somebody that can really guard, that can really defend in space, that can really do the things that they need to kind of tie all of that together. And I’m not sure like there’s like maybe they can turn around and try to flip Cat towards like, you know, maybe they call Dallas and they go, “Hey, maybe you want to pair Cat with Anthony Davis and we’ll take uh Derek Lively and PJ Washington for more forward depth or something like that.” I could see them making a move centered around Cat if he gets exposed in the Pacers series, but so much of it just depends on what happens in that series. yourself. Let’s talk Boston. One of the things that really jumped out to me first, credit to Tatum, who played one of his best playoff games as a Celtic. He was aggressive. He was hunting it. He was great. Um, but one of the things I really noticed is the reason, as you noted earlier, the Knicks had such a great rhythm is they were just Brunson, they move the ball. Um, I think the Celtics get into this. It’s not just the threes. They’re a math equation. When they shoot threes poorly, they don’t move the ball and it just becomes, you know, pricker off a screen. And I and I feel like some of that’s on Missoula. It’s there’s a difference. I mean, again, they shoot a lot of threes, but I go back to earlier this season when I they were flying through good teams on the road and I would watch them and I’d be like, “God, their ball movement’s exceptional.” When I watched in the second half and I’m like, “Oh, this is just this is like Tatum or Pritchard off a screen.” I mean, a couple and I thought Tatum played well, but a couple of his shots before the injury are like, “Bro, that is deep by your standards.” And I I think part of this series I think m Missoula did not do a great job. I I don’t think we can just blame it on missing threes. Why did they have two games where they were atrocious and why in the second half did they struggle? I didn’t like their lack of ball. The shots they took in game three were the same shots they took in game two. It’s they just went in. And you know, I I I was actually talking about this in my show today cuz I was trying to like think about what I’ve learned from this Knicks Celtics series to this point. And I think we can all agree that the Celtics when things are humming are the best team in the league cuz they have just unbelievable shot making mixed in with like highle read and react stuff for wide openen threes and they’re they can be great defensively. Like they were so good defensively in the first half of this game. They kind they had the nicks and handcuffs, but then there’s also this lower floor than we all imagined. And the reason why is they just have never had an audible. Like when they don’t hit shots, they don’t have like a like the the Nuggets who can be like, “Okay, the, you know, Jamal Murray doesn’t really have it going. We’re going to spam low post stuff with Jokic.” Or Joic doesn’t really have it going. We’re going to go to the twoman game with Jamal Murray. Or Aaron Gordon has the size mismatch down low. we can just dump it down to him. They’ve won a finals game doing that a couple years ago. There’s a certain amount of variety that you see in the best offenses in the league. And with Boston, it’s kind of right now like Tatum or Brown hunting mismatches and they’re driving kick attack and that’s basically all they have in their offensive game. And there is a there is a susceptibility they have to what happened tonight and what happened in the first two games, which is all the other guys are out of rhythm because it’s turning into one-on-one ball at the top of the key. the the shot picking from Tatum was remarkable in that third quarter. I mean, he hit three or four really tough turn fadeways, but there’s a little bit of a fool’s gold element there if the other teammates are not involved. Drew Holidayiday wide open three in the left corner, misses it in the fourth quarter cuz it’s the only catch and shoot three he got for like a 20 minute span of real time. Derek White misses a corner three even though he had been hot all night because in the late third quarter the ball wasn’t moving around. He wasn’t getting touches. He ends up missing that shot. And this is where it’s the smart game plan. The Knicks had been using traditional coverages with Cat throughout the series. And there in that second half, they were like, “Just switch and just try to score on Cat.” And guess what? Cat got scored on. He got scored on something. But it turned into a one-on-one contest. And the other guys all got froze out. No other Celtics in rhythm. I bet you if you pull the numbers from the tail end of that game, Tatum probably outscored the entire rest of his team over the final 17 18 minutes of that game. Yeah, I it was I isoss at the top. Wasn’t ball movement. People got cold while the Knicks everybody was getting touches. Josh Hart didn’t have a big offensive game, but that didn’t mean he didn’t touch the ball. And that’s the difference. Um Porzingis was disappointing. It’s I I will tell you over the course of the season, Pton Pritchard’s emergence, I don’t know exactly what Porzingis is. I thought tonight he was in bad position. He had multiple opportunities where he had the best position off a rebound and jumped too early or got pushed out of the way. I don’t know. I think that’s a movable piece. Like I think they’ll come out of this series. My opinion is they’ll move Porzingis. Well, let’s dig into this a little bit, Colin, because I mean fingers crossed that it’s good news for Tatum, but I have a feeling that it’s what it looked like and he’s probably going to be out for all of next season. And and if that is the case, Chris Hops Porzingis is about to turn 30 years old and he’s made of tissue paper. Drew Holiday is 34. Al Horford’s 38. Derek White is 30. And Jaylen Brown’s really good, but he’s 28 and he kind of is what he is at this point. I I think it’s possible if the Tatum injury is confirmed to be what it looks like that Boston ends up essentially fires sailing a bunch of these guys this summer because what’s the point? You’re going to run back with Jaylen Brown and 39year-old Al Horford and Chris Porzingis and like they’d be fine but they’re not they’re they’re all of a sudden like the fourth or fifth best team in the West. They have, if they sign their first round pick, they have $500 million on the payroll, new owners who have a new bank note. That’s not going to work. Exactly. They need to be if it’s again, if it’s confirmed, and I believe it will be. I mean, the the body language, it’s just brutal. You could just tell Tatum’s heart was broken. But I think you almost have to look at it like the 2020 season for the Warriors after the Kevin Durant injury and after the Klay Thompson injury where it’s like this is the year to be bad and to get off of money and to bring in the means with which to rebuild around Tatum and Brown because Tatum is 27 and he probably will make a full recovery and still be an allNBA level player when he gets back. And so there’s an opportunity to kind of like use this year as a gap year to kind of get off of some of this old money. Drew Holiday is going to be useful to somebody. There’s going to be somebody out there who will look at Drew Holiday and be like, “He’ll help us win a championship.” Orford might even be that guy for somebody. There’s, you know, Derek White, I think, would fetch a super high price right now, although I wouldn’t get rid of him unless he fetched a super high price because he’s at the age where he can still help Tatum and Brown. But yeah, their their entire outlook fundamentally changes by this because this was already calling kind of a sneaky old roster and it kind of felt like a two to threeyear window where you had an opportunity to win and if Tatum’s down, there’s no opportunity to win. electrified. For the record, nice job, Goldie. Celtics only had 15 assists, second fewest all season. So, my eyes and your eyes did not deceive us. ISO ball isolation top didn’t pass the ball. We were right. They’re averaging 19 assists in the playoffs, down from 26 in the regular season. So, this is Joe Missoula. They’re not moving the ball. Nice job, Goldie. Yeah. And here’s the other thing I thought about. I’ll throw this at you. Oklahoma City is only getting better. Okay. Um, if you look at San Antonio, who has the number two pick and two young stars, actually three, only getting better. Yeah. Um, Houston may be in the KD or Jana sweep stakes only getting better. What’s interesting is that this may be the Knicks year. Circling back to the Knicks, it’s like guys, the West Cooper flags going west. Uh Dallas now is with that front line is going to be something. Dallas, OKC, Houston, San Antonio, the argument you can make today, they will all be better. Golden State won’t. Lakers may not. Those four will be. So, it really creates urgency. Like we we know this. Remember the Seahawks? We thought in the NFL were going to have a dynasty. They win one, they get to the second. Weird play call at the goal line, never get back. That that play call did something to the locker room in the culture. They never recovered. I mean, you say, “Oh, Boston will be fine.” What if Tatum’s out next year? It’s one thing when he misses two games. It’s another when he misses 82. Porzingis, you can’t trust. They may be Denver. The Celtics may very well be Denver. The Knicks may end up, if they can get to the finals and snag one with all the money and all the greatness of Boston, what if New York’s like steals a championship? I mean, that’s what’s so crazy about this sport is that we’re we’re in a run now where there are no great teams, but it looks like over the next two to three years, the West could have more than one. So, I want to talk about that for a second. I do feel like Boston’s going to be out. Cleveland’s out. Well, New York matches up with everybody else. I mean, OKC would go into that final as one of the youngest finals teams ever. Are we looking at everything falling for the Knicks? Watch out for the Pacers, Colin. I they they are they are reaching a level on both ends of the floor now that is really impressive. Like I know the Cavs are banged up. Darius Garland with his toe injury and Moley’s got an ankle. Donovan Mitchell’s got an ankle now. But that team won 64 games and let’s just This is the best way I could describe it, Colin. the the the Cavs beat the Pacers in the second half 70 to 49 yesterday and still lost by 20. Okay, like that’s how bad the Pacers beat them yesterday. So like this Pacers team is I I’m I’m nervous about Carl Anthony Towns guarding in that matchup. That said, as we’ve seen with Denver in the OKC matchup, if you are facing a team that has some iffy shooters that you can help off of, it’s an easier matchup for the Knicks. So, like in a weird way, I give them a puncher chance against an OKC because they’d be able to load up the strong side and all that kind of stuff, but it’s like that that Pacers matchup is just such a an interesting one with Cat because it’s just a disaster for him having to guard in space and Miles Turner’s hitting every three he takes right now, which is causing problems for opposing bigs and they the Pacers are just playing at a really high level. So, I would like I would look at that Knicks Pacers series. My my initial gut feeling is to favor Indiana to be clear. So, I that that’s not a insult to the Knicks. It’s just kind of a matchup thing and I just am seeing stuff with Indiana that I think is pretty special. Um they just they’re kind of like the quintessential team basketball. Like everyone is playing super well on that team. They’re defending. They’re picking up full court. Rick Carile has them playing super hard for 48 minutes every single night. But this has opened up in the sense that I I’ll just put it this way, Colin. Even if the Knicks won tonight, which I mean, we we agree they would have even if Tatum didn’t get hurt, I still wouldn’t have been surprised if Boston came back and won the series. Like, but now it looks like they’re almost certainly going to advance. And if they advance, they certainly have a great chance. Once you’re in the conference finals, it’s like anything can happen at that point. Yeah, it was really funny. Tonight was the first night watching the Knicks and it was late. It was pre-Tatum injury. Probably seven minutes left and I thought I’ll go back to the beginning. I just think New York’s built for this series. I think it means more. I think the officials were letting them play. I think they’re winning the coaching matchup. Um and they’re underdogs. That’s a powerful That’s a powerful thing. Well, this has been great. So, folks, we just broke down Celtics and Knicks. So, what we’re going to play next, we did these in inverse order. Right after the NBA lottery, Jason and I came on. Uh, surprised to say the least. So, this was great. You and I now will go watch the Warriors, but we take you back, folks, to uh minutes after today’s fascinating and shocking NBA lottery. bonkers. It I’ve said this before. Take games away. This is one of my favorite nights of the year. I just love it. And first of all, I you know, once they, you know, I didn’t want to see Toronto win it. I’m sorry. I want I want Cooper Flag to be here. I didn’t want to see New Orleans, Washington, Charlotte. I you know after watching Shooting Guards uh that documentary, I can’t root for the Wizards ever again. I was I know it’s a different group. I was so disgusted by it. But but I said earlier today on FS1, I said if San Antonio wins, Stefan Castle, WBY, Cooper Flag, I said, “Oh, poor Oklahoma City. They’ve done everything right. They had Westbrook Durant Harden couldn’t win. Now they’re going to have this SGA homegrid roster and they got this train for the next decade. But it’s the Dallas Mavericks. You know, it makes me think of this. Listen, I thought the trade Luca to Lakers was terrible. But I said before the new CBA, he qualified Luca for 70 large 70 million a year. And I was talking to one of my only friends that ever deals with billionaires. He’s in he’s in, you know, venture capital. And he said, “Listen, man.” He said, “People are so rich now. 30 million a rounding air, but even for a billionaire, $75 million for a basketball player, he better play defense. He better be in shape. He better be healthy. He said they’re not paying that to Luca. He goes, and that was his whole theory. He goes, the pressure on Nico, some of it was like, okay, 75 million. He’s he’s missed the last two camps. So whether you liked it or not, I did think it was worthy of discussion. They just didn’t get enough out of it. three firsts, AD, Austin Reeves, and another pick. It’s like, okay, now we can sleep on it. But here’s what’s funny. Jason Tim essentially instead of 300 million, you get the best domestic prospect maybe since in 10 years since AD resigns. I mean, is it not? No, go ahead. Did Did the basketball gods not grant them the greatest gift ever? You know, I’m not Mr. The NBA is rigged. I’m not that guy. But if you were that guy, this would be the day to make the case because in addition to the Dallas piece, which we’ll get to in just a second, I think that the league has now just teed up San Antonio for the easiest Giannis trade that you could possibly imagine. And we can get into that in a second, but the Dallas The Dallas front is super fascinating because Cooper Flag in many ways is everything that Luca isn’t in the sense that he’s got this like incredible work ethic, proven like detailsoriented freakish competitor, but he what he doesn’t have is like just whatever you want to call that magic quality Luca has, which just brings that top side offensively that very few players in NBA history have reached by his age. And Cooper Flag has a little bit of that sort of uh weakness in the sense that he doesn’t have a singular point of his game that you can point to where it’s like, oh, he is like an A++ athlete or he is a A++ shooter or anything like that, but he’s just so uh versatile down the line that he brings an element that Luca Donuch didn’t bring. He’s such a natural fit next to Anthony Davis, which I really like. There are some big picture questions with Dallas’s roster now with PJ Washington, like how does he fit into this mix? I think on one hand, I’m just so thrilled that Cooper didn’t go to a team that was trying to be bad. I think that that’s one of the nice kind of upsides of this is it it it prevents that sort of mediocrity being rewarded. And then on the Giannis front, uh, with with San Antonio, what I find super fascinating is there are these three teams that are obviously teed up to be able to go get Giannis. And that’s Oklahoma City, San Antonio, and Houston. And Giannis going to Oklahoma City would be no fun. Like that’s no fun. They’re just going to kill everybody. Like that that’s literally no fun. And then Houston, it’s kind of an interesting fit, but Houston is like athletic and can’t shoot. So they seem to make the perfect sense for a KD team. You know what I mean? And so like ideally Giannis going to San Antonio makes the most sense. They have the clear pieces to be able to offer in terms of like they can give Milwaukee both picks and like a really intriguing young prospect like Stfan Castle and a specific pick in this upcoming draft, the number two overall pick where they could hope to get a super highle guard to help in the future. And so with that being the case, like I think this is broken out just about perfectly for what the league would probably like to see. Yeah. I mean, I I I think also I don’t think I’d mess. The only thing I thought I thought if San Antonio won the lottery was Stfan Castle WBY and Cooper flag. I thought Oklahoma City would be like, “Okay, right. We’re going to move Homegrren and seven picks and Lou Dort for Giannis.” Like, like, “I’m sorry, but this is going to be a freight train for eight years in San Antonio.” So, I was saying if you’re Oklahoma City, you were rooting against San Antonio. They may not beat you next year, but that was scary. Um, you I wouldn’t have minded Philadelphia winning, but I feel like it would have been almost unfair cuz they’ve really I mean, let’s be honest, they held on to MB too long. They blamed everybody except MB for all their problems. It’s like that’s not fair. But I I also think as a sports cer when I look at this move for Dallas is that I said this to a friend the other day. I said, you know, the best trade partner for Dallas, they need a play initiator. They need Austin Reeves and the Lakers need size and Dallas has a really deep front line. I said, they’re not going to make that move. Now I think to myself, well, you know, I think what Dallas needs is somebody like Cooper Flag, who, let’s just say he’s Jason Tatum. I still think I don’t think Kyrie’s going to play next year. Not until at least the trading deadline. So I it’s Dallas has some extra size to play with, but good god, look at this, Jason. The West is already better. Dallas now gets Cooper flag. San Antonio gets the second best players. The Rutgers kid everybody loves. I mean, I keep looking at this thing. I I I was talking to Rachel Nichols today. The West is just going to get better. And Giannis Milwaukee is not trading him in the East. They’re trading him west. I mean, it it’s that’s that’s what I said about Milwaukee today and the Yiannis trade. Take out Boston. If you go and get a a Cadet Homegrren and multiple picks or or go to Houston and get Shenon, Jaylen Green, six picks, and Jabari Smith, I’m throwing names out. Outside of Boston, you’re not that far away from being the number two team in the East. In the West, you could not give up a Giannis. It would be decimating Portland. You know, they move off Dame, they have all this talent. It’s they’re irrelevant. If you had to guess Giannis, who’s the best fit? And I agree with you, Houston needs a shooter. Giannis probably isn’t the perfect fit. Yeah, the the thing that would be really nice with Giannis as a frontline partner with Victor Webbyama is their games complement each other on a bunch of specific levels. So, for instance, Victor Webbyama is blossoming as this like three-point ccentric center, and he very clearly likes to take that shot. It’s something he hunts when he’s out there. So there’s kind of like a spacing dynamic to where you don’t want to have two centers basically playing with each other that both want to work right by the basket. And so there’s kind of a natural fit there. But the second piece of it is Webby has some vulnerability to size and strength and Giannis does not. And so anchoring anchoring Wemi with a 611 forward that is one of the most physically dominant forwards of his era is kind of a perfect natural fit there. And yeah, they already have with the De’Arren Fox piece the ball handling piece. So, you can actually see this like this like rim protection center. Giannis has always played better next to a center when they when the Bucks used to play him at center, they used to have issues because he’s not as good at defending pick and roll as he is as like kind of a traditional helpside defender. And so, WMBBY can defend pick and roll. Giannis can be their lowman helpside defender. De’Arren Fox is your point of attack guard. It just has such a natural fit there. And one of the things that was going to get tricky with San Antonio, and this is this is where that second pick is super interesting. You get to the question where you’re like, man, are we going to have to give up Stfan Castle and Devin Vel to make this happen. This the number two pick is probably going to be Dylan Harper and he’s very interesting guard out of Ruters that has size and has some athleticism and can and really get to the basket. Dylan Harper gives you another piece to include in a deal like that to maybe keep a castle or to maybe keep a Devin Vel. Deon Vel is kind of an offball shooter archetype, so he might be the perfect guy to keep. He’s also older and a little bit closer to being ready to contribute in a serious context. And so it kind of just feels like the stars are aligning in that way. If I’m Houston, I want to bargain serious for Giannis, but KD is just such a nice backup plan for them to go to that just fits so nicely there. And I’m so glad you mentioned the Austin Reeves uh Dallas piece because that deal will never happen after what happened. If the Dallas if if the Mavs do another deal with the Lakers, their fans might revolt. But there’s such like an obvious like Gaffford, Austin Reeves, like maybe something like I think the Lakers would need to get more cuz I think Austin’s a better player than Gaffford, but there is like a there’s a version of that deal they could put together where they where they get some athleticism back and it makes some sense and and it’s just a question of whether or not that type of partnership would ever work out. The other the other group that I’d look at if I was the Lakers with Austin is look at Brooklyn and see if they can’t get like a Nick Claxton or something like that in that type of deal. Yeah. Sorry to interrupt this great video. Yeah, it’s um Oh, I loved it so much the night. It just cracked me up. Dallas, San Antonio, 76ers get the third choice and Charlotte. Um, I will say there’s there’s one thing I do think that really works in the NBA’s favor. When you see a lot of these G-League guys like Jaylen Green, and you kind of put your arms up in the air as an NBA commissioner and go, “Wow, a lot of these guys who are flourishing, these young guys went to college or they’re international, which their academy system’s better than our current kind of G-League system.” And it’s not that people will push back on the G-League, but with NIL money at the top 10 programs now comparable, you know, relative to the NIL or to the G-League money, I do think the domestic product, the draft is going to become less international at the top and more domestic or at least it won’t look like last year. I mean, this year is a great example. It’s very domestic product and and so I think that’s I think that really matters. I’ I’ve said this for years. I understood the GLeague preNIL, but I’ve said this about Jaylen Green. He has no defined offensive game. Even if you spend a year in college with a with a Dan Hurley or a Bill Self or a Tom Isizo, just a year of hard coaching, college campus fundamentals maturing, I think it really matters. also playing in March, playing on television, playing in a Big 10 or SEC environment where there’s real pressure. Bad game, the students give you the side eye. Like that’s real pressure for 18, 19 year old. I mean, Cooper Flag, you play at Duke, you have 15 games on Natty TV and then you have March. So, I do think college basketball’s been a bit marginalized by the league. I got it pre-NIL, but now if I was a dad, I would take a little less and go with a marketing advantage of Kansas, Syracuse, Yukon, would you not? I think you’re dead on with this, Colin. There is there is a thing that happens in the G- League where they prepare you for the pro game in a certain way in the sense that they’ll put you in some NBAesque roles where you’re either running high ball screens or you’re behaving as the rollman screener or you’re attacking closeouts on the weak side. different NBA defensive concepts. All that’s great, but you’re not going to capture the intensity, the stakes, the overall just like passion and vibe that you get in college basketball. It’s the closest thing that you’re going to find that replicates NBA playoff basketball. I also think the coaching matters. like you’re just going to give your kid the best access to, you know, real uh like intentional detail oriented coaching because at that level it makes such a huge difference when you’re working with those types of athletes. And like I think to your point having NIL incentivizing kids to stay in the college game in addition to just being great for just basketball culture because to be honest NCAA basketball is such a huge part of what I grew up rooting for. When I was a kid, Colin, I I barely watched the NBA. I watched a lot of Arizona the University of Arizona basketball when I was like 16 17 when I was going to play high school ball. Those were the kids we idolized. We idolized the kids playing at the UVA. It’s just it’s part of the culture. I think it just needed this and I’m so glad the NCA was willing to just kind of adapt into this era because we needed this for this sport to survive. I think it’s better for the basketball players in our country. Yeah. And I and I’ve said this. I understand the NBA struggling with regular season ratings because regular season playoff basketball is about veteran teams and recognizable players. So, the numbers go up plus the intensity. Regular season, there’s a lot of guys you don’t know. There’s a lot of bad teams and those are international players you didn’t watch or G-League guys you didn’t watch. And I I I’ve said this, you know, Aman Thompson is obviously GLeague and a great player, but you watch Jaylen Green and you’re like, man, he could have used college. He he could have really used college. He feels lost. Jonathan Kaminga, I mean, we’re on what year? Year four. I’m still trying to quite figure out what he is. He can’t play with the veterans. I mean, San Antonio, Golden State’s culture is classic. Every young guy struggles. Every young guy struggles. It could be Wiseman. It can be Kaminga, Jordan Pool, wore out veteran players. So, I and I love college basketball. And I I was always more NBA than college because I for a lot of reasons. I grew up with Bill Walton and the Blazers and the Sonics when they won championships in the 70s. I’m showing my age, but I will say those those Christian Lener Duke teams, the Fab Five teams, the five slamama jama, it is impossible to describe to a 20-year-old what college basketball was like 35 years ago. You would literally you could pick up Street and Smith and you could name the first, second, and third team all-Americans off the top of your head because it was you Duncan’s coming back and Euing. I can remember going in Las Vegas. There’s a grocery store chain called Smiths and this is like 20 years ago and I I got this because I always get a street and Smith like before the college basketball season and I looked on the cover they had the all-American team and it was four high schoolers and I was like okay I can’t I’m sorry I can’t do it. So I just thought it I I just God this is fun. How about the Dallas Mavericks?

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Colin Cowherd is joined by Jason Timpf to react to the New York Knicks beating the Boston Celtics in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference semi-finals. They discuss Jalen Brunson’s clutch performance, Jayson Tatum’s injury and whether the Knicks can win the NBA Finals. Will the Celtics blow up their team this offseason if Tatum is out for the year with an Achilles injury? The Dallas Mavericks won the 2025 NBA Lottery and the rights to draft Cooper Flagg. Colin & Jason react to the results and explain why trading for Giannis just became very realistic for one team.

TIMELINE
0:00 Celtics-Knicks Reaction
26:22 NBA Draft Lottery

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