Those Guys Talk NBA Finals Predictions and NFL Wide Receiver Market

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We are those guys.

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We hope to be your guys bringing you the latest from the National Football League.

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And to switch things up, we're going to talk a little hardwood because Nick Ferguson, my boss in Celtics, are in the NBA Finals taking over for your Denver Nuggets who held the torch just one year, one year.

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Uh, we're going to dive into that, uh, along with You know, some of our usual antics, um, you know, I, I think it's worth mentioning because people do come to us for football.

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Jalen Waddell signed an extension.

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The Cowboys aren't going to sign CeeDee Lambeau an extension anytime soon.

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Neither are the Cincinnati Bengals with Tee Higgins, uh, Justin Jefferson for the Vikings.

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About 30 seconds on this updated wide receiver mark, now costing about 28 million a year annually for a wide receiver too, but a special one in Jalen Waddell.

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Well, if you put a lot of stock in the value of quarterbacks, which they do in the NFL, then you have to put a lot of stock in a guy who's catching the ball, who's helping them escalate those particular numbers.

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Just look no further than what the Miami Dolphins were able to do with Jalen Waddell.

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And the Dolphins still have to figure out what they're doing with Tua Tonga Valoa.

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But if you're some of the wide receivers who have expiring deals, you're looking at Jalen Waddell and say, Yes, We want the price to continue to go up.

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And I don't even know why Alex, a lot of players don't get together from a position of standpoint and say, Hey, listen, when's your contract contract? Let's help everyone get paid.

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Help me help you.

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Jared McGuire, uh, a little talk right there, but show me the money.

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Yeah.

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Show me the money.

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This is great for Jane and Waddle in the numbers.

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And the money's only going to go up from here, and it's not going to go down.

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The important number is 72 million guaranteed, and that number goes up.

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We see certain teams, we've talked about the Philadelphia Eagles and Howie Roseman and Jeff Lurie, uh, making it a priority to lock their guys up first.

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Devontae Smith and A.

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J.

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Brown getting extensions this offseason.

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And, listen, who's going to be, You know, more upset.

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They didn't get the deal done for us.

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Is it Dallas? Is it Minnesota? Uh, Cincinnati with their star wide receivers still playing on their final years, uh, T Higgins on the franchise tag.

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Well, yeah, man, the whole idea is trying to get ahead of the situation.

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Usually this happens and people take this, uh, frame of mind when something has gone wrong, but it's the same philosophy that they have to take.

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In the NFL.

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Like when you think about Dak Prescott's contract, I don't know what's taking the Dallas Cowboys so long.

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That should have been done maybe a year ago.

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Then you look at Justin Jefferson.

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Once again, like I said, the numbers are not going to go down for a lot of these teams.

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They have a salary cap that they have to, I guess, contend with and knowing as though the salary cap is going to go up, but still at the same time.

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So, with the players demands, as far as looking at maybe their contemporaries around the league and said, well, this guy got 50 million a year.

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I'm a perennial pro bowl, right? I'm the best guy on your team.

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Fantasy, dream and a nightmare at the same time.

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So you have to pay me.

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So hopefully Kwesi Adolfo, the GM out in Minnesota is looking at what's happening with the escalating salaries for wide receivers inside.

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You know what, let's go ahead and get Justin Jefferson done because you still have Jordan Addison.

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Who's still on that roster in a couple of years.

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You don't want to be in a situation where you're going like.

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Which, which guy am I going to take, you know, this or that? Yep.

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Addison.

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And then of course, JJ McCarthy, you want to be able to strike while the iron's hot and that quarterback is on the rookie deal.

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Uh, we're going to talk about the NBA, but we're going to do it framed around the national football league, just to sort of dip our toes in Nick, you know, for our audience, see how we can do.

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Uh, switching things up just a little bit because the NBA finals begin, uh, uh, June, uh, June.

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What's the map? The Thursday, first Thursday of June.

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Um, June 6th.

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June 6th.

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Beautiful.

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So, the Kansas City Chiefs.

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Just went back to back winning Super Bowls.

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However, your Denver Nuggets failed to get to the conference finals.

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That's now been, you know, nearly, uh, nearly a decade, about seven years since a team that has.

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Then the defending champions have actually made it to the final four in the NBA.

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Of course, we have plenty more examples in the NBA.

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You know, my Celtics had won 10 of 11 championships going back to the sixties.

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Uh, you've had the bulls three peat twice.

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You've had the Lakers three peat, you've had the bad boy Pistons and LeBron repeated in Miami, but.

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In this present day of the National Basketball Association compared to what the Kansas City Chiefs have been able to accomplish, do you think it's harder now to repeat as champions in, in the NBA compared to, um, you know, the National Football League? Yeah, it's very, uh, difficult because, I mean, in, in the NFL, you have free agency.

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You have guys Uh, with you on the winning Super Bowl team, they're going to raid your coaching staff, they're going to raid your roster, guys are going to want higher paydays, because I just helped you do something you haven't done, and that's win a title, and guys want to be compensated for that.

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But in, as far as the NBA is concerned, there's a couple of things you factor in.

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You factor in whether you're in the Eastern Conference or the Western Conference.

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The teams are going to get better every single year.

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And in the Western Conference, it is loaded.

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So if you are a guy hoping to win a title and you've never won one before, your best chance may be going to the Eastern Conference opposed to staying in the Western Conference, but also too, and the Nuggets found this out.

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I mean, you win a title, you celebrate it, you have the parade, but that's a long season, which means we're short off season.

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And this is where injuries can actually happen.

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And we saw that happen with Jamal Murray and a couple of other players.

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Fortunately for the Nuggets, it didn't happen with Nikola Jokic, who is by far one of the better players in the league, but that's now being challenged by Luka Doncic, who is playing out of his mind right now.

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But these are some of the challenges you run into when you have an already longer NBA season that you throw into seven game series because Back in the day.

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It wasn't like that before.

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It was best of five, but the nf, the NBA is taking the page at the NFL book.

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Let's try to squeeze as much juice Yeah.

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To that orange as possible.

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Now, do you think that the, we always, we always say we've, we've, we've on this program and you hear it everywhere else at the quarterback is the most important position for a professional sports team, right? Because they touch the ball, every play on offense, at least at some point, whether they throw or handoff, but I sort of wonder for a superstar, like a Jamal Murray, or we'll go to the Eastern conference, right? Jimmy Butler was injured.

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Giannis and Dame Lillard were injured.

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Um, you know, the Knicks had their slew of injuries and then, you know, I mean, they were down 20 at the time, but lost Jalen Brunson in the third quarter against the Pacers.

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Um, uh, Donovan Mitchell for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

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You know, we could just keep going on.

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Is a superstar NBA player more impactful for their team's success than a quarterback is for the National Football League? Yeah, man, because it's all about star power and markability.

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That's just one aspect of it.

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But then the other part, which is the most important part, the level of production that you provide.

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Just, I mentioned Luka Danji.

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Just look at what both he and Kairi Are definitely doing.

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And you have a lot of teams who want to form these big threes, but they never worked because you have too many alpha dogs in the room and everyone wants the ball, but in certain situations, if you have the right chemistry, each guy understanding the pecking order and my success is built on your success and someone can take a backseat, that's where you see a lot of success actually come.

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So you need some of those, uh, marquee players, because if you don't, you're going to struggle.

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Right.

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I mean, think about it this way, that if you didn't have a guy like a Jalen Bronson, how far would the Knicks have actually gone? Let's be totally honest.

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I mean, they have some shooters and some talented players on that roster, but once again, Jalen Bronson was the oil that greased the engines and when he got injured, that changed the trajectory for the New York Knicks.

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Well, they were, they were toast in that game seven already.

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Uh, I'll stand by it.

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I know they got within 12, but you know, we've seen obviously, you know, your Denver Nuggets blowing a 20 point lead, but I still think that that mixed team was kind of, uh, you know, the, the engine had sputtered despite how much You know, oil was, was greasing the engine there.

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Uh, so I, I'm curious now because you focused, of course, on the Western Conference and you started speaking to the greatness of Luca Donsic and, and Kyrie Irving, you know, I, I love how we're painting this as a redemption story.

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He just acted like an ass for the last five years, forcing his way out of Boston to Brooklyn and then forcing his way out of Brooklyn.

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Um, so I don't want to frame it as a redemption story, but certainly after not Being able to play ball in a big three in Brooklyn.

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He's now not taking a back seat, but has done an effective job sharing the spotlight where Luka Doncic is going off game five the other night, 20 points in the first quarter, Kyrie's a facilitator.

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And then Luca is not sputtering, but deferring to Kyrie and he becomes the closer in the fourth quarter.

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When you watch this Dallas Mavericks team, either against your nuggets in the regular season or after, you know, the, the Timberwolves took it to your nuggets.

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I know it was a seven game series, but they were the more physical team.

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They, they showed the weaknesses and missing Jamal Murray and maybe Nicola Jokic at less than a hundred percent, but the Mavericks just absolutely dismantled and clobbered the wolves for all but one game, essentially that game four.

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So what do you see in this Dallas Mavericks team that are they the hottest and therefore the best, uh, coming into this NBA finals? And then we'll get to the Boston side of things.

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Well, let me address the one thing you saw, say, when you were talking about Kyrie Irving.

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Well, once again.

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You have a kid, so it's all about the sandbox, right? Who gets in the sandbox first? I get in first, all the toys are mine and everyone else, you just stay outside.

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That's kind of what it was like for Kyrie Irving.

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And once again, every player wants to be seen.

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They want to be validated.

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When Kyrie was in Cleveland, he didn't get the right validation because everyone was talking about LeBron because LeBron was from Cleveland, but I remind people That title that LeBron had in Cleveland, you don't win that without Kyrie Irving.

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Right.

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You really don't.

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And Kyrie and being in Boston and being with the Brooklyn Nets, he realized that those were not perfect places for him.

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And Kyrie has since grown up.

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We all have grown up.

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Just think about You know, Alex Hardy, when you were 16, opposed to now.

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I mean, you probably weren't making the best decisions then as you would do now as a father and as a husband.

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So that's where life has changed for Kyrie.

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And it's strange how when you have certain people in your life, you have kids, it just calms everything about you down.

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And we're seeing a different Kyrie than we've seen before.

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And I like this Kyrie because He's saying, okay, well, Donchick is the younger player, right? He could be the face of the NBA if they wanted to be, but I am the veteran.

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I've been in before.

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I know how to close, right? And this is just kind of, uh, you know, when I think about other sports and other players, you have to have guys who are closing.

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Those Yankees back in the day when they were winning titers, they had guys who were coming out of the bullpen to be closers for the Yankees to come at.

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Submit that win and right next, right, except in 2004, right? and 2001 Yes.

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The Boston fan had to bring that out.

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So yes, you, you, you understand what I'm saying? No.

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Shout out to our DBAs fans listening to us as well.

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Uh, I, I will bask in 2001 as long, as long as I possibly can.

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Um, and.

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We'll switch over to Boston because Kyrie, obviously, with his history in Boston, and Kristaps Porzingis, his history in Dallas as well, uh, it's fascinating to see Kind of the changing parts and seeing how the better pieces, or the teams found the better fits, I should say, with each of these critical pieces to their success.

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And so of course it's going to be emotional with Kyrie coming back to the Boston Garden for game one.

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And, uh, Porzingis stay in Dallas was about just as long, but there are frustrations in New York and in Dallas with Porzingis unable to stay healthy.

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And that looms large for Boston now with his personal health right now, uh, comparing the calf strain to what Kevin Durant sustained, and then he ultimately tore his Achilles.

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But I, I just, you know, With those two stars being integral parts of well oiled machines, with Boston having the best regular season record and Dallas arguably having the best playoff run, I'm wondering, Nick, where you think the rubber meets the road when these two teams square off? Well, it, it's gonna come down to two things for me.

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It's, uh, defense as always, and the supporting cast.

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I mean, both sides have like, you know, all star players, right? And we know what those players, brown and Jalen, uh, Jalen Brown and Jason, uh, uh oh man.

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Jason Tatum.

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J Jason Tatum.

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And you're trying to say, you're trying to say t some Hill.

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I hear.

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I hear you.

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I hear you.

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Sean.

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Peyton, I hear you.

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Yes, yes.

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Well, they have great players on both sides.

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And ideas, okay, well Those second units and who's going to be able to make those defensive stops because we've seen both the Dallas Mavericks and the Boston Celtics and games where they have large leads and then they have that large lead and then we'll lose that lead.

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So both teams have been in that situation.

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So it's going to come down to having a closer, which group can close every single game that that's what it's going to be.

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And then when you look at Boston, They play more of a team concept and you say, okay, well, uh, when you think about their roster and the guys that they have, well, who's going to be tasked with guarding Kyrie night in and night out.

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And if you look at what the Dallas Mavericks did against, you know, Timberwolves, they forced to switch.

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They picked to get the matchups that they want to.

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And both of those guys, when you think about Luka Doncic, They can get to any spot on the floor and they can score from anywhere.

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But I was, I was hoping that this would be the match because how are the Boston fans going to respond to Kyrie now? And how is Kyrie going to respond to the Boston fans now that they have already seen that chapter? Has he grown up enough where he's going to be able to block out that Boston noise? And I can tell you, man, Boston fans can be a pain in your ass.

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In a pair of regular season matchups, Boston beat Dallas twice, 119 110 in January, Jalen Brown took the primary defensive responsibilities on Luka Doncic, who took 30 shots and scored 33 points, and their second meeting in March, following the trade deadline, so, uh, P.

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J.

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Washington and Daniel Gafford were, were, uh, um, We're there for Dallas, but they hadn't quite gelled yet.

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The Celtics had seven double digit scorers.

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This was the lone game Porzingis played.

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He missed the first matchup in January.

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24 6 2, including four of eight from three.

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When I look at Boston, I see four.

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Premier defenders and Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum.

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Uh, plus you have the two all defense guys in Drew Holliday and Derek White.

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Uh, just as an aside, I'm incredibly frustrated that all defense went positionless because first team had four centers, like straight, like true centers.

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Uh, Rudy and Victor Wembenyama and Bam Adebayo and Joel Embiid.

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And then second team was like all guards.

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It's nonsense to me, frankly, I thought drew holiday was the best on ball backcourt player.

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He should have been first team, all defense.

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So if drew holiday is up for the matchup against Kyrie, uh, you know, it's all about limiting these guys firepower and Jalen Brown, you know, I circled back to your comments about the Denver nuggets and that fatigue only magic.

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Johnson has had more conference finals appearances.

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Before the age of 28 and Jalen Brown, six of his first eight years in the league, the Celtics played deep into a conference finals and in 2022.

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And now in 24, they're in the NBA finals.

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So that fatigue is wearing on him.

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He plays team USA basketball as well.

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Like you're just hoping this is the national football league all over.

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You're just hoping guys are 60, 70 percent going into these games.

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So I'm hoping the time off is beneficial.

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I hope Joe Missoula has been able to watch the town twice a day, instead of as usual, once every other day or on the week or on the flight for road trips.

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Uh, the, the man is.

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Obsessed.

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So I, I think you're absolutely right.

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This is the best matchup we could have hoped for out of the final four.

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Um, and I'm sorry to your Denver Nuggets, uh, including them as well.

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Dallas, Boston is where it is.

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And before I get to Nick, before we split, I just think it's worth mentioning.

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We, we talked about the Patriots dynasty and all the things to sort of skirt certain rules and, uh, get by and everything in the name of winning.

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Um, Remember, the Dallas Mavericks were fined 750, 000 to begin this year because they tanked at the end of last year in their final week of the regular season, most notably against the San Antonio Spurs team that was looking to draft Victor Wembenyama.

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And because of that, they missed the play in, they end up drafting in the lottery, and they move up for Derek Lively.

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And look at the impact that he has had for this team getting to the NBA finals.

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So I'm just saying, Nick, like, if it only costs you 750, 000 to get the kind of player that puts you over the top, I think that's something that Mark Cuban and the governor's there for the Dallas Mavericks would do time and time again.

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And I'm a Patriots homer.

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So I'm just going to point out when everybody else does it.

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Okay.

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Got it, Nick, before we split, you sent this to me earlier today.

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Uh, Michael Finley.

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Who's got a prominent role within the Mavericks organization after being an all star for them for numerous years.

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Uh, he spots Luka Doncic.

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Again, kudos to the Mavericks.

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I didn't see too much popping bottles and goggles and going nuts because they're going to the finals.

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It's all business.

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There's still work to be done.

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And Luka's got his dad there with him.

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Flew, flew in from overseas.

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They're chatting.

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Luka's enjoying a beer.

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Michael Finley gives him the pat on the shoulder, kind of takes the beer.

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Luca doesn't even know what's happening at the time.

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Nick, before we split, pro veteran move for Michael Finley to keep Luca on task or is he helicopter parenting the Mavericks superstar? Now, this is a great OG type of move, even though Michael Finley is catching a lot of strays on social media as people saying, well, that was very disrespectful because they said, wait, two things that you don't take away or don't touch.

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You don't touch a man's hat and you don't take away a man's beer.

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Yeah, I mean, look, the whole idea is that Finley realized the job isn't done.

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Yes, you did a great job and that's what you were expected to do.

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And you just look at how Finley did it.

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It was, it wasn't aggressive.

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It was cordial to let him know and hand on his shoulder.

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I'll go ahead and take that.

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And you finish go ahead and talking, but the biggest thing was, remember, this wasn't in the locker room setting because there's a lot of things that happened in the locker room behind closed doors that most media fans are not privy to, not to say that it's just kind of like animal house or anything, but he realized there was a camera of some sort on Luca.

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Everything is about protecting the team, protecting the image, and some may look at it as being a helicopter parent, but you can tell by Luca's reaction, one, he was like, wait a minute, what's happening? And then two, he was just like, whatever, man, and just kind of let it go and just went about his business.

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But for me, that was a big OG move and showed a lot of love to Luca because you know how the media works.

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Anything that you see that you try to find to manipulate, that's what you do.

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What if, let's just say, the first two games against Boston, they lose and they lose big.

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Could you imagine that photo coming up where Luka was celebrating all too early, right? Maybe he was a little too hung over.

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So Philly said, you know what, I'm gonna step in, I'm gonna help you out, and we're just gonna squash this.

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Shout out social media, uh, for giving him the nickname Hooka Luka.

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We've seen him and Yo kitchen, enjoying some, uh, some pipe tobacco, but he's my OG.

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He's Nick Ferguson.

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He's your OG as well.

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We are, I'm Alex Hardy and we're those guys bringing you the latest from the national football league and the NBA as well.

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I'm sure there's plenty more for us to discuss.

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I'm going to be wearing green all the next few weeks.

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Nick will be green with envy that his team isn't going for back to back championships.

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Uh, Nick, before we get out of here, what do you have to say for the people? Well, as they would say, if you're not cheating, you're not trying.

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Like, rate, subscribe, find us on, uh, Apple podcasts and YouTube.

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Peace, everyone.