The Crossover NBA ShowChris Mannix, Rohan Nadkarni, and Chris Herring break down what went wrong for Boston in their game one loss to the Heat, the latest developments after Ja Morant was seen with a gun again on IG live, and what the Sixers dismissal of Doc Rivers could mean for the team and James Harden
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Chris and we are back in Crossover NBA Podcast. I am Chris Mannix from Miami, eagerly awaiting the arrival of his Miami Heat. We have Rynchrony and from New York Chris Harry. Uh, guys, we've got to get into what we saw in the game last night. I was at the TD Garden and let me tell you, through two quarters, I was sitting there with a couple of my media brethren and not the name names, but we were kind of scoffing at the Heat's chances of winning the series because you tell me.
The Boston media mafia was This was.
Not this was Boston media mafia. This was not Boston media maffia. This was National media mafia.
And okay, okay, look.
You watched the first two quarters and you see Jason Tatum getting to the basket, You see Robert Williams having an impact on the glass and defensively, and you see Miami, which, outside of Jimmy Butler and a great second quarter from Kyle Lowry, just not looking like it had the offensive firepower to keep up with the Celtics, and then the third quarter comes around and Miami puts up forty six points and blows the door off and Heat take Game one, won nothing series lead, and now I don't know what to think about this series. Rohan, you have been riding that Miami bandwagon for some time. Now your reaction to Game one.
I'm not gonna lie even I was not expecting the Heat to win this game, particularly after that second quarter where I thought Boston in that Philly game in Game seven was the first time they really looked like the Boston team I expected to see in the postseason, and in the second quarter we were seeing shades of that. This is a team that can get a good shot offensively whenever they want, tons of switchable defenders. But I think what's made Miami so effective during this playoff run is there's no one way they've been winning games. They keep winning games, whether it's in the Milwaukee series, it was Jimmy Butler having career scoring nights in crazy shooting. In the second round, they kind of won that series in a slugfest with the Knicks, low possession games, grinded out on defense, and then I think you saw in Game three or Game one rather, but the third quarter a lot of just individual brilliance from the Miami gags Jimmy Butler and Bam out of Bayo Bam I think was nine to thirteen last night, really effective against whichever big man Boston threw his way. They It sounds rope, but it really came down to Miami making a ton of shots. Jimmy Butler I think the most mid range makes in a game for himself this season. I mentioned Bam aggressive got up to twenty points without taking a lot of field goals. The three point shooting for them in the third quarter was really, really good. I thought Miami also did a good job in the defensively in the second half, getting Boston from getting to the rim. I think Boston had forty paint points in the first half. Miami was sort of cleaned that up in the second half. But I just think overall, like I don't I feel like Miami during the playoffs has played its best in almost every single game, and I just haven't seen that kind of consistency from Boston. And then that's what worries me about the Celtics. I think they're definitely a more talented team. Top to bottom than Miami, There's no question about it, but just the lapses that they have. I mean, think about some of the turnovers they had last night, Jason Tatum with some travels late, Rob Williams throwing the ball to Kevin Love at one point for an easy layup at one point. Are they going to take the playoff? Seriously, It's kind of been my feeling about the Celtics now.
Joe Mizzoola said after the game the Celtics won three out of the four quarters, that that doesn't really it's not really how it works in the NBA, especially when one of those quarters you get beat forty six to twenty five. Herring. I made a comparison on Twitter that got some blowback comparing Jimmy Butler to Kobe Bryant, and look, I'm not comparing Jimmy to Kobe in terms of style of play. I'm more saying Jimmy, like Kobe, is just looking for his spot and is going to get to his spot. And once he gets to his spot, he's just not going to be denied, whether it's making an acrobatic tough shot or getting to the free throw. And he went to the free throw line ten times last night, made nine of them. You know, this is he has become, you know, a singular force in this postseason. And I look at Boston. I'm coming into that game like, all right, Well, if there's a team equipped to play against Jimmy Butler, it's probably the Celtics. They can switch everything and not be at a disadvantage on most of those switches. But whether it was Derek White, Malcolm Brogden, Jason Tatum, Jalen Brown, Marcus Smart, we're talking about, for the most part, all NBA level defenders. I mean, Smart is just a year removed from being Defensive Player of the Year. Derek White just made the second team All Defensive Team. I think Jalen Brown is probably best equipped to defend Jimmy Butler because of his combination of size and strength. And none of them had any idea what to do with Jimmy in this Game one. It was a continuation of how flummoxed Drew Holliday was throughout that Milwaukee series and how New York whether it was Quentin Grimes or Josh Hart or any of the wing defenders with the Knicks, they just couldn't do anything with him. This guy is having himself a postseason, and he's doing it in a way frankly that reminds me of how Kobe played in his day.
He's really tough to stay and I think that's what's interesting about watching him is that he I don't think he leaves much on the table. I'm not saying that, but he's he's patient. From how he does it. There's so many times where he kind of snakes around the basket and kind of goes baseline and dribbles around, kind of the way Steve Nash has done before, you know, and has become known for. And there's so many times I'm like, shoot it, shoot it, like you're within three or four feet of the basket. He just he's patient. He sometimes uses a way to pass the ball to Bam if he sneaks behind Robert Williams. But I think he's really intentional about getting off to good starts in these games because he doesn't play on a team that has a ton of creation, certainly without Tyler Hero Duncan Robinson. You know, it was not the Duncan Robinson from a couple of years ago when they signed him that big deal initially, So he realizes that if he gets it going early. Even a team like the Celtics has to or it's going to feel like it's necessary to extend more defensive attable to him. And if they do that, guess what, it opens up everybody else. And that's when we, you know, to some extent, we start to see this, the other players opening up a little bit, even though they fell behind in the second and for a minute it looks like they're gonna get knocked out of the game. Kyle Lowry starts to open up a little bit. Caleb Martin Rohan knows I was sending text messages about him all night last night, just so impressed with his game. And that doesn't even get to the third quarter, which I'm sure we'll talk about over the course of this podcast. But there's something to be said for given that we watched Milwaukee get knocked out to all of our surprise. I imagine even Rohan was willing to say he didn't expect Miami to.
To I picked the Bucks to sweep.
Yeah, man.
I mean also, we all watched Miami struggle to even make it out of the plan into the playoffs, so like it wasn't out of the realm of possibility that they could have just been swept in that series. Obviously, honest, it's hurt. But after watching that and after watching the way that it happened, we have to be open to the fact that Miami, which by the way, last year had the highest three point shooting percentage in the league during the regular season, that they're capable of making maybe not as many threes or as high a percentage of threes as they made in the last game, but they very well could be and probably are better than what they showed during the regular season from a shooting standpoint, and Jimmy is aware of that. By the way, Jimmy, when you talk about Kobe and the comparisons there, the other thing that Jimmy does is that like he's way less shy about shooting threes in the postseason than he is in the regular season. So I mean, he knows he can make the shot. Doesn't mean he's looking forward to taking it all the time, but he's he realizes one of the things that kills offense is in a time of year like this, and we saw it a little bit in the first round with Phoenix. First two rounds or so, Phoenix, we saw Cleveland a little bit. You have to shoot shots open and it's a good look. And frankly, I never thought i'd say this. Even Tatum last night in the fourth quarter at the end of the game, had a moment where he didn't look like he wanted to take one, or at least not when he was open, and he he hitched and then he turned it open for the second or third straight time. So Miami, more than anything else, they know who they are. They know exactly who they are. They've been here enough times, they've had the same coach. They have a bunch of guys that know their roles to a tee, even guys that are new to their roles, with Lowry being off the bench really for the first time in his career essentially at least since he's been the caliber player he is now, they know their roles. And I think Boston to some extent, even though they've been here enough times to know what they should be doing, they look a little spooked at times, which is a weird thing to say. After coming off a huge Game seven victory and showing the guts that Tatum did to lead them through a Game six that they could have lost.
I mean to Roland's point. This has been a problem for the Solics all season and certainly all postseason. You know Game one, well, even go back even further Game five against Atlanta, they had a chance to close off the Hawks. They have a complete meltdown and have to go down to Atlanta win that series on the road. No Joel Embiid in Game one of the Philadelphia series. If they let James Harden, Tyrese maxi And and Anthony Melton get eighty eight points in that game and beat them. Game five in Boston not competitive. They didn't play well in that game, and this was kind of a continuation of all that. The Celtics have to find a way to defend one on one and this shouldn't be the challenge that it was in Game one. They have the guys, as I mentioned, to defend Jimmy Butler. You shouldn't be sending double teams when bam Adebayo is posting up against Rob Williams or Al Horford. You just spent you know, the second round defending Joel Embiid at a pretty high level. Rob Williams should not need help when bam Adebayo is posting him up. Al Horford should not need help. I at of Bio was posting him up. Miami does know who it is and it knows where it needs to be on the floor when those double teams come and look, I don't think they shoot what fifty one fifty from three in Game two, but if they get those looks, they're gonna shoot a pretty high percentage in this game. So to me, that's the biggest adjustment the Celtics have to make. Find a way to be able to defend Jimmy one on one. But ro ahead, let me ask you this.
Uh. One of the.
Edges that Miami had coming into the series was Eric Poster versus Joe Mizzula. Eric Bolster has been a wizard throughout the course of these playoffs, and he once again was excellent in Game one. In the third quarter, when Miami was putting up forty six points, Joe Mizzoula did not call a single timeout. This has been a season long talking point when it comes to Joe Mizzoula. He has this Phil Jackson like instinct to let his players play through it, and it's cost them some games in the regular season. And you go back to Game four against Philadelphia when they had the ball down one with a chance to take the lead or win the game, Joe doesn't call a time out. They wind up not getting a shot off at the end of the quarter. Look, I understand letting guys play through some stuff, but forty six points, that's a lot of points, man, that is a lot of play through right there. I just think Joe Mizula, he doesn't have to out coach Eric Spolstra, but he can't be wiped out in this particular matchup.
Yeah, and building off of that, you know, I actually wanted to ask you about this, Chris. I rewatched the third quarter this morning, by the way, just because I was like, how did Miami do this exactly? And it was just baffling to see the heat get bucket after bucket, And you know, I think there was one of the kind of the automatic TV timeouts in there, because remember they had the clip of Missoula throwing the clipboard on the floor. I don't know how effective that maneuver was either.
Necessarily, like fans were calling for a time out after the first few minutes of the third quarter. I think that when Miami cut it quickly from nine to three, players were kind of looking over at Missoula, expecting him to call the time out, but he just let them play through it.
They were like three or four plays like that that you just kind of assumed that there was one coming and then it just I mean, Robert Williams threw the ball back end bounds trying to save it and through it directly to Kevin Love. I was like, this is a perfect spot to call timeout because it felt like the momentum had just shifted so so massively.
His explanation after the game, too, was weird.
Where I called two timeouts in the first quarter.
It was which is fine, but like he also had extra timeouts at the end of the game, Like he called one time out with three nineteen remaining in the fourth and when he called it, the Celtics were kind of rolling at that moment. They had cut the heat lead down to above and Miami and Smart kind of looked at him at one point when he called that time out, was like, what are you doing? What are we calling a timeout there for? So look, it's not sexy, but timeout management is a real thing and has an impact on games.
Absolutely. I wanted to ask you, Chris, your opinion on something because you talked about the defenders. First of all, you you listened to the defenders that Jimmy Butler is going after. Inexplicably, to me, one of those guys was Peyton Pritchard. I'm not saying Peyton Prichard has has no place on the floor in the playoff game, like I think he's he He would be in the rotation on most NBA teams. He just hasn't to be stuck behind three guards that are very, very good. But that's what made it baffling to me that why is he even playing when you have Brogden, White and Smart. Also when two guys in Smart and Brogden that can guard up and spell Tatum and Brown. It made no sense to me that he was even part of the rotation. But beyond that I thought he made I thought the weirder mistake he made was like normally, I don't think it's a big deal, like coaches protect their starting lineups like it's you know, a CIA level secret and is being passed around and on mark envelopes. You know, he said yesterday Robert Williams is gonna start. I understand not wanting to change your starting lineup after having success with it. Towards the end of that Philly series. But I think that gave Miami an opportunity to keep Kevin Love on the floor, and it just allowed Miami to get comfortable in a way that I didn't think was a great move, because when you have Rob on the floor, it gives the heat a place to kind of cheat off of. Defensively, he's obviously a lob threat, and he was good on the offensive glass and on catching lobs, but he makes things, I think a little bit more simple for your defense. And then offensively, we saw BAM have success going one on one against Robert Williams. You know, Pritchard plays Grant Williams, who was a huge factor in this series last year.
That's the name I was going to bring up, Grant Williams. Yea, And I want.
To ask about that in general, because I just don't understand what's happened to Grant Williams the season. I know he hasn't shot as well, but it feels like, I don't know if there's tension with him in Missoula. It's baffling to me the degree to which he's been left out of rotation.
Well, if you were a look back Grant Williams started the season off great, like he was shooting like high thirties, low forties from three point range through December, and then for whatever reason, not only did the stop the shots stopped falling, but he stopped taking them quite as much, and that was the biggest source of frustration for the coaching staff. This is a coaching staff that believes there's no limit to the number of threes you should shoot, like they are a three point shooting team in every possible way, and for whatever reason, you know, Grant started to hesitate and wasn't letting him fly as frequently as he did early on. Now I don't know what the reasons were for that. Part of me has wondered at times. You know, Grant Williams is going to be a free agent after the season. He couldn't come to terms on the contract with the Celtics this past offseason. So he's also a thinking man's player, right, a very intelligent guy, vice president of the Players Union, Like just you know, I wonder if it gets in his own head. Sometimes that's overthinking stuff and that led to some problems. But there's no doubt in this series he's more valuable than Robert Williams. He just is he's more versatile. He is a perimeter shooter. There are stretches. I'm sure that you could put Grant Williams on Jimmy Butler. He's defended the player in the past. He's strong enough not to get muscled when Jimmy goes into the paint, which is what happened to Derek White a lot in Game one. That to me is the biggest adjustment. I mean, I know Grant was out of the rotation in game six and seven against Philadelphia. I'd start him in game two. I'd say, Al Horford, you're the five. Grant Williams, you're the four.
Grant.
You can take your first turn on Jimmy Butler. Let's see what happens there. I think that's that's a big adjustment for Joe Mizoula coming into game two.
I mean, they've put Al Horford on Jimmy to start game one, which it's not like Jimmy was going after him relentlessly, but it shows that they already kind of like it's just a bizarre way to start a game, like they'd kind of twisted themselves into a Prets already, and you saw that heat. As you know, a big difference between this year's Heat team and last year's Heat team is as much as PJ. Tucker brought to the Miami defensively, Robert Williams was ignoring him in the corner all of last year. Whenever those guys shared the floor, it allowed Robert Williams to roam freely and kind of destruct defensively in a way that he can't against the current Heat roster. If Love is out there, if Caleb Martin's out there, and I think you saw it, Jimmy Butler and Bam, we're not afraid to attack Rob one on one, and Rob's giving them way more space than Grant Williams would. He's not as he doesn't have that kind of same footwork switchability that Grant Williams has. So I thought it was baffling to me, and I thought that was a bigger deal. I know people will get on Missoula for the timeouts and it's frustrating to watch as a fan, But to me, the rotation the Pritchard minutes, that to me was more confusing than anything Missoula did.
Yeah, the Pritchard minutes were so confusing. There was a part of me that I would say Miami was confused about it too, except Jimmy Butler. Literally the first possession with Pritchard there on defense, Butler went at him, scored on him. You know, there was another possession where I think the Celtics may be wondering, like, what the hell is this. Pritchard's out there, so they're like, Okay, let me go give Pritchard a little bit of help. But then in doubling him, doubling Butler, Butler then finds a pass that results in a three. And keep in mind, these are important minutes that he's getting too. To me, it's a little bit different if it's like he comes in for spot duty for like two minutes, and you know, that's a little different than like the last minute of the first quarter, where it's like you're trying to finish a quarter strong and start quarter strong. And not only did they kind of not have the strongest ending to the first quarter because Pritchard was there, he then I think was there. It was at the beginning of the fourth quarter, and and that even Lowry you know, got a basket on him at one point too. Just important moments in the game. I mean, it just there there were too many mistakes here. The timeout thing is baffling. Like, like you said, it's it's part of what's been his MO. But I also think that, like, Okay, if you want to do that in the regular season, that's fine. You you mess this series up and your season's over against a team where you theoretically should be better. Okay, your your your players are looking at you to call time out at that point.
There's a rhythm. There's a natural rhythm to it.
I know me as someone watching the game on TV, I'm like, I'm just planning on getting up to go get a glass of water or something.
There's natural rhythms.
Certainly when a team is running off points like Miami was Miami.
This is not a high powered offense.
When they're getting forty six on even a quarter on the road to start a series, there's something wrong. But you know, there were too many mistakes, whether it's the timeouts, whether it's Pritchard, whether it's small things that are massive at the same time. If it's Robert Williams saving a ball that's going out of bounds and throwing it directly to Kevin Love, if it's Malcolm Brogden, misidentifying which shooter he should be paying attention to in the last seconds of a quarter and going to cover Cody Zeller from three instead of guarding Max Strus in the corner. That costs you three points. There were just way too many mistakes like that. There were too many plays where Robert Williams is watching Jimmy Butler operate kind of underneath the basket and he loses sight of bam Adebayo, who just kind of floats free and hits that little push.
Jumper that he takes. There were too many mistakes.
Miami knows coming into this series they can't make too many mistakes. There's a talent disadvantage that they're at. Boston doesn't play that way, and you know they make mistakes. Between Tatum and Brown, they had almost as many turnovers between the two of them as Miami did as a team. And that's not gonna work, certainly when you factor in the Tatum's mistakes three turnovers essentially and ninety seconds that he made, that's not going to cut it here, especially when Spolstra is not going to coach his team. I'm not going to say Misila's coach is team out of a series, but Spolstra is very, very very unlikely to do that. It's more of an open question with Joe Miszoula certainly off what we just saw in Game one.
Yeah, Miami has two huge advantages in this series. One is Jimmy Butler and he dominated. The other is Joe Mizzoula and he dominated, and that can't happen for Boston going into game two. All right, I want to talk about the job Morant story. I know it's been a few days since the incident, but we haven't had a chance as a group to kind of weigh in on it, and there have been some developments over the last couple of days. Over the weekend Saturday into Sunday, John Morant was caught on an Instagram live with a gun in his hand. Last time it was at a Denver nightclub. This time it was in the car of one of his close friends. As always, this clip was quickly cut and dissemined. It was everywhere within ours. The Grizzlies immediately suspended Jahn Morant from all team activities whatever that beans in this moment, and the NBA announced they were going to investigate. Adam Silver was at the draft Lottery and Silver seemed pretty baffled by all of it, and even though there is an investigation ongoing, he did say he's assuming the worst, which means he's assuming that Yes, John Morant was once again in a car, or once again somewhere with a gun in his hand. So look, I think all three of us can agree this was insane, just a completely idiotic move by John Morant. So, but I think the question I want to ask, and we'll start with you, Ron, what's the league respet's going to be? What should it be for a situation like this, because look, you've seen, you know, the Fox News type say well, he wasn't breaking any laws, so there shouldn't be that significant a penalty. You had JJ Reddick on TV saying, why is everyone looking to bring the wrath of God down on Joam Rant? JJ knows better. JJ knows exactly why the NBA has to come down on Jam Rant. So, Rohan, what what do you think the NBA punishment should be is going to be? How does the NBA respond to all this?
Yeah, that's obviously the big question. And before I dive into it, let is at least acknowledge that there is like a variety of factors at play here. Yes, it is frustrating to think that. You know, we can see literal like Christmas cards from politicians holding assault rifles. You know, we can agree that there is just the optics of a a black player holding a gun versus a white player holding a gun, like we there there is a there is a difference there, Like we can agree that there are a lot of factors at play to an extent, But having said all that, at the end of the day, John Morant is the reason he's being held to such a high standard. You know. Charles Barkley said this on TNT and I'm I don't like fully agree with Charles, but it's like Charles was like, you know, you're getting paid one hundred million dollars, there's a certain things you can't do, Like yeah, to an extent, it's like John Morant is held to certain standards because he's he's part of the NBA. He has this big shoe deal with Nike. Like it sounds silly because again we see like, you know, people all the time like posting photos of themselves with their guns being like come take my guns away, and you're like this is crazy, Like but It's not about breaking laws or not breaking laws. It's kind of just are you being a good representative of this league? Like you're expect to sell a product, sell things, and people don't want to see this, and especially after what happened in Denver, for him to just do this again is is baffling. It's it's like you said, I was shocked. I was like, this guy can't be serious about doing this again? And even just going beyond like there's this commercial aspect of it, right, like, oh, is he, you know, hurting the money? Beyond that, it's like like are you making yourself a target? Like? Is this the you know, I understand I'm not even against the idea of NBA players owning guns like I. Players have come out and spoken about why, you know, they might feel it's necessary. I saw Paul Pierce tweeting about a Paul Pierce remember, was stabbed before a season. He's like, I carried a gun after that. Like, you know, these guys are occupying a different reality than us in many ways. But for me with John, it's just as Listen, this is the standard that's expected of someone of your stature, of your importance, of your visibility and even if he's not breaking any laws, that doesn't make this like this was just a baffling. I could not believe it when I saw it. I was like, there's is this an old video? Like why would he even do this again? And I think I do think the league. I don't think it needs to be a full season, but I'm sure Adam Silver regrets the way he handled it last time because he didn't bring the hammer down. He's tried to be the compassionate commissioner. I think you have to give him twenty games or something like that, like but more important.
It's gonna be more yeah, yeah, exactly.
He can't. What what can't happen is him being like I was in Florida for two days. Now, I'm doing a sit down with Jalen Rose.
Like the NBA already gave John Morant his mulligan. You know, I wrote this in the immediate aftermath. I feel like from the league's perspective, they showed Jahn Morant compassion. Last time. John Morant talked about his anxiety issues. John Morant talked about his depression issues, He talked about mental health issues, and I think the NBA took all that into account. When they issued the eight game suspension, which really, you know, the money aside was only like a two game suspension. The Grizzlies had sent him away for about six games of it, and then he was allowed to come back after two more. I think the NBA felt like they dangled the proverbial carrot for John Morant, and now I think the stick is coming for him. You know, I had people within the league talking to me about, Look if what happened didn't change John Morant, if losing forty million dollars, which John Morant effectively did, because he didn't make one of the All NBA teams as a result. And I think he didn't make it All NBA team almost exclusively because of this, Like he had the numbers to be an All NBA player, didn't make an All NBA team because of what happened in this incident. If he didn't learn his lesson after the distractions that he caused had something to do with Memphis losing in the first round of the playoffs, If they didn't learn from any of that, it's gonna take a lot more for Job Morant to learn a lesson. Harry, I'm with you. My guess is it's at least thirty games, and it could be as much as forty to forty five. I think we could be talking about half a season for John Morant. There may be an appeal and it may be knocked down. But you know, Adam Silver, in addition to being probably pissed off about John Morant less than two months after sitting in his office doing the exact same thing, Adam Silver also doesn't have to worry about a nice making nice with the union right now. The collective bargain agreement's done, that's wrapped. You know, he's got seven years, but we have to deal with any substantive issues with the union, and he might not even be commissioner in seven years. So I think this is a moment for Adam Silver. I don't want to see an opportunity, because that's too that's the wrong word. But a moment for Adam Silver to send a message, which I can tell you is something that a lot of people, a lot of executives on other teams are urging him to do, to send a message for something like this.
Yeah, I mean, look, we've I think each one of us, at one point or another has been critical of Adam Silver.
That we, you know, to some extent.
He got to enjoy, if you want to call it a ride or what have you. In the wake of the Donald Sterling stuff, it's been a while since he's really come down, since the League as a whole has really come down decisively about something. We watched the Kyrie Irving episode earlier this year, which, by the way, as ugly as it was, and it was ugly, and I denounced it as such. It was not criminal, and it was it did not involve guns. It was not It was not this specifically, it was not the idea of someone waving around guns. It was not someone that was in the news constantly for having threatened or suggesting threatening people or holding onto a gun or anything like that. This is ugly in a different sort of way. It's also someone that is like ascending at the time, who just took Kyrie's shoe deal. Essentially, there's a lot of so that. To me, the Kyrie stuff was ugly in a certain way. The League did not come down on him about that until the Nets had an opportunity to handle it first.
It seems like the league.
Prefers to let teams handle this stuff first, Even with John Morant's first episode. The fact that this is not even is it even two months after jaw was was punished the first time, less than two months after Crazy. I thought it was a bad look optically that the day that John Morant met with Adam Silver, he had a sit down schedule with Jalen Rose. I remember thinking like, this can't be real, like that Jayleen Rose, that he's he's tweeting out images and video from his sit down with Jahn Morant when I think it was earlier that week that we'd even heard that he was in counseling, and even for that, we don't even know what it was for.
Uh, it was not a long stay.
A lot of people at the time were quietly saying like, if he had real issues, there's no possibility that they could have been resolved within the short amount of time he was there dealing with them. And I wrote in my column as compassionately as I could, essentially shame on Jah Morant's folks, if not Jah himself, for trying to frame this as solely a mental health thing. The second you get in trouble, when there have been four or five other things that you've essentially skated on, whether they happened or not, there was enough smoke there to potentially be fire. So you know, don't give other people that are also dealing or are dealing with mental health issues a bad rap from the standpoint that like only when it involves guns, like oh, you know, like I've got to get my mental health straight. That's not fair to those people. It particularly looks bad now that even after using that, even after serving yourself mentioned, even after missing out, as you said, I put him on my All NBA team because I set a threshold of sixty games that I felt like guys needed to play to make them eligible for the team that I wanted to put together. I think he played sixty one or sixty two, he barely made it. If he played sixty nine or sixty seven or sixty eight, with his numbers on the second seed in the West, he's a lock. He would have made it. But what are we even talking about here that not to mention that the person that he was with in this video is someone that had been banned from games by the league. So it's just such a bad look all the way around. I think the league is absolutely going to drop the hammer here to send a message in part because we've all been getting on the league about not having sent messages with some of this other stuff. I would not be surprised if he got fifty games. I think he'll get at least fortant. And I think it's sad. I think, for once I agree with the old heads on this, like, if you want to do all that stuff, that's fine, it won't be in the NBA, and it's it's sad. I really hope it's straightened, that he straightens it out. I thought one of the best suggestions Mark Spears had Mark's that I saw was something Mark Spears said about the idea of Carmelo had a lot of early career missteps, a dui, a weed charge, he had been in the stop Snitching video. He had gotten a fight and sucker punched someone at Madison Square Garden, and that was when David Stern dropped a proverbial hammer on him, because this was in the wake of Mouths of the Palace. Everybody else involved in it got five or six games. Carmelo got fifteen, and he was like, I'm absolutely making an example of you because you mean more to the league than these other guys do, and you've had multiple missteps here. So I'm making an example of you till you figure it out, basically, and I would be surprised if Adam Silver doesn't do that. Not to be lighthearted punny about it. John Morant has given him the ammunition to do that here. And I don't even like, I don't even understand people that are like, oh, like, yes, the tone of guns in this country and everything is silly and ridiculous and far beyond what it should be. But the morality clause in the NBA existed far earlier than where we're at now with some of this gun stuff. Uh, you're not going to force Nike and Power Aid and the NBA at large to have to deal with this guy if they don't feel like he can refrain from putting guns up on an ig Live or his friends doing it.
It just looks like a total lack of care. It's not even with regards to any of.
This, right, It's not even it's not even like John Moran can't own a gun. It's like, why do you have to wave him a roust on Instagram? Man? Like?
What is going on?
These new friends? That's that's one of the very but friends might need.
Because that was what I agreed, And this is where I'm saying, like, I don't I've never felt like as much of an old head as I have in the last week with regards to how this punishment should be handled. Kitty Smith said that on inside the NBA last night, where he was like, John Moran is the friend that you need to be concerned about, because at a certain point, I'm sure people told joh to stop hanging out with this one dude, Joe clearly doesn't want to. And also, if that wasn't Jaw's Instagram live, it was the friends. So it's like, well, but why are you If you said that, you also took ownership of the fact that part of the reason your season came up short was because you were a distraction. This was a couple of weeks ago, not even months ago. They got knocked out in the first round, albeit by a team that like very easily could still go to the finals. Maybe not very easily because Yokich is good. But like, I just don't there's a total disconnect here. And it's a little premature to say this, but for the first time, really is Memphis is forcing this guy away from the team for a while you start to wonder, is he actually the future of our franchise, Like if all this stuff still doesn't send it for him. The money, the fact that we were just knocked out, the fact that this happened two months ago and that you sat down face to face with the commissioner, the fact that you've invoked mental health with regards to it, the fact that there have been all these other things that he potentially could have gotten in real trouble for that, frankly lucked out that some of it wasn't investigated carefully because people aren't really looking to make an example of someone that is that big a name in the community. Quite frankly, he has been fortunate to not have gotten any more punishment than what he's had. So I don't wish anything on him. I wish that this would get through to him so that it's not a recurring issue anymore. But I am now at a point where I'm just I'm worried for him because I don't know what the wake up call is. The Scariest thing I've heard over the last few days is it's just the idea that people that really are about that life look at this and like, oh so this is what you want life to be like, but you don't know it. And I think that that actually does agitate a crowd of people that do know what that life is and I.
Just don't know.
We're talking about the clip. You're talking about the clip I think from brick Baby, the rapper part of the that was making the rounds on social media. Who is you know is or was one of the crips back of the day and he was out there saying, what are you doing, joh You can't. You can't be throwing up that crip sign, you know, during games. And if you are, you better pay us. You gotta pay the crypts to do that. Like I mean, Josh strikes me as a guy, you know who I don't know everything about his background, but you know kind of where he's from in South Carolina. You know, he grew up with his parents, he went to college, like he he strikes me as a guy that wants to be about a life that he's not. And you know there's the danger of that. The legality of what Ja Morant did in that car is not an issue here. Like take one of us, Like if it was one of us in a car flashing a gun we probably get fired, like from our jobs, like not because it was illegal, but because we work for private companies that have the right to do whatever they want if they feel like we are tarnishing their image. And the NBA is courting and has deals with you know, family friendly products, whether it's you know, soda, power, aid, waters, come like everything, they get their hands in, all kinds of pies that drive revenue for the NBA. So you know, it's there's there's a reason the league is probably going to come down pretty hard on John Morant because they can't have this become a thing with John Morant or anybody else that things acceptable to to do stuff like this. I mean, I did, I did think that, you know, having gang members weigh in and criticize you was wild.
That was a wildrin it.
I'd never I'd never seen that before. I mean, if this is not a wake up call for Ja Morant, I don't know what it is. But bottom line, I'm gonna guess between forty and fifty games for Ja Morant next season and if it ever happens again, multi year suspension we could be talking about. I mean, I think the NBA is gonna come down pretty hard. This time. I think the Union's probably gonna fight them on it, you know, whatever they decide to do. But I think this will be Ja Morant's last year.
Have you ever? Have you?
I mean Mannix here in LA and have had to profile people of the stature before, probably in settings where maybe it wouldn't be a crazy thing. There are a lot of celebrities that when you're in their space hanging out with them, that they will just when you're at an event at their place, they will literally collect your phone. Not that of like encouraging job be waving around guns at any point, but certainly not when they's like on a video camera or on the phone at a certain point.
But it's so self inflicted.
It's that's what I'm not even like, it's just you you need to like John maybe doesn't need to have a phone or on him when he's like doing anything, and maybe the circle of people that he's gonna have need to not have phones with them when they're like because it's just it's self inflicted in a way. And that doesn't mean that stuff that he does won't be caught another way, that we won't see images from a bar or a club or something surveillance potage is someone uses which that was a funny image, but I just I met Emma a total loss, and it's just it seems over such stupid stuff, you know. The one last thing I'll cite that Barkley said and tying it back to what I said about Carmelo and the fact that Mark Spears wrote a piece about Carmelo putting a team of advisors around him after he had early career missteps with stuff as it related to the law, and just as far as the NBA's morality stuff and whatever else.
It's fine to have a gun.
It's fine to have someone in your party and your circle that has a gun. Let that be your security guy, Jaws probably at a place where he needs one. When you have people who are affiliated weighing in on stuff as it relates to you, you probably should have one. But Jaw also just being a big name celebrity as it relates to the NBAGE, should have one. But as Barkley was saying yesterday, and I agree with him, you will never know I have it. You will never know my security guard has it because you're not waving it around, because that's not what it's for. And irrespective of the conversation around Jaw and the country and where a country is at with guns, it's an issue, it's a problem. But the people that make the argument of like al, we should be able to do what he wants because of gun culture in this country, they don't have. They're not worth hundreds of millions of dollars. They're not a corporate face for the league. And I get it at twenty three in a jersey in a uniform that people aren't thinking about it corporately. But watch press conferences when you see all those companies that are behind them. Hell, Chris, you're sitting from a sports like you said, we're part of a brand. You don't get that luxury if you want to call it that. It doesn't feel like luxury to me. By the way of like waving guns around, But you don't get that luxury. You don't get that pass when you are representing the Grizzlies, the NBA Power Aid, Nike.
You know his his NBA Finals are sponsored by YouTube TV, like there are corporate sponsorships everywhere. And to your point, if your job morant and you want to act like that, you have every right to do it. Like as a resident of this country. You can do it. You just can't do it and expect your employer, the NBA, to tolerate it and to pay you the kind of money that it's been paying you. All Right, I want to finish with what we saw this week in Philadelphia. The Sixers go out in the second round. The first casualty is Doc Rivers fired after three seasons on the job. You know, look fair, maybe not, but surprising, not really, because look, this Sixers team came in with the most pressure on it of any team in the playoffs. They had to at least advance past the second round. They didn't do it. They blew a three to two series lead. Coach is always the first to fall. But Rohan I interpreted this as a overture to James Harden because I was in that Sixers locker room after Game seven and I was standing there when a reporter asked James Harden what he thought, what his relationship was like with Doc Rivers and does he want him back, and James Harden said it's okay, meaning his relationship with Doc is okay. You knew then in there that it was one of the other. And the Sixers moved quickly to at least signal that they were going to choose James Harden. So I guess the question for you is where you say, prized by the decision to fire Doc Rivers and you know, what does this mean for the future of James Harden, who has a very complicated offseason ahead of him.
Definitely not surprised. As you mentioned, the coach is kind of the low hanging fruit. I actually thought Doc did a really good job with this team throughout this season. He really leaned into that heart and embead thick and roll of this year in a way that I think maybe fans were upset that he did not last year. They the fact that they pushed Boston to seven, I don't think anyone expected that. Frankly, I don't think anyone expected Philly to me up three to two and have a chance to end this series at home the way they did. And do I hold Doc responsible for what happened in that fourth quarter? No, I do not. Do I hold him responsible for Embiid and Harden both laying massive eggs in Game seven with you know, all time choke jobs and pathetic performances and all the turnovers. No, I don't hold doc responsible. I think he was actually a good coach of this team. What's bath to me, Chris. You also heard Daryl Moury say in his press conference about the firing that Joel Embiid was shocked to receive this news. Now, is Darryl maybe playing that up for the media a little bit?
No, I don't think. I don't think he was. Everything I had heard from people around Joel was not pleased and endorsement.
Yes, yes, Embiid gave a very you know I love you know, he thought he'd done a fantastic job. Why is Darryl Moury like catering to James Harden as opposed to Joel Embiid. That's what I don't understand. And I know Morey came in. Uh you know this is gonna sound more sensational than is. Like Embiid's not Maury's guy, right, like he didn't draft him. But even Daryl Morris, who was starting to know who the heart the single most important aspect of this franchise, and that's Joel Embiid, Why are you catering to James Harden? You know that there's rumors already they might bring in Mike Dant Tony. I'm not saying that they should not have gotten a different coach. I could see why they might need someone. I just think they're going about it completely backwards, catering to Harden here, Why do you want James? Like do you are you sure you want James Harden back? Like you can't just let him walk for salary reasons. But I think their best frit is to like look for a sign and trade for Harden or something this summer. You're going to bring him back on a max and get him the coach he wants. After that playoff performance, outside of the two forty point games he had, he had sixty seven and the other five combined. I'm just blown away that Philly seems to want to get back into bed with Harden after way the playoffs shaked out. I'm I would be nervous if I were a six Ers fan the degree to which they seem to think Harden is important part of this team moving forward.
I Mean, all I've heard the last couple of days from people I respect on television is that it would be a disaster if James Harden walked away from Philadelphia. I don't really see it that way. If James Harden walks away going into next season, Yeah, they'll be without a terrific All Star caliber guard. But I think with more opportunity, Tyrese Maxie will play better. I think he has another level to get to if he's has the ball in his hands a lot more. You would have Tobias Harris' contract, which has one year remaining at a big number. You could trade that for another piece to the puzzle. And you still have Joel Embiid, who is gonna be thirty next year, in his prime, coming off an MVP season. So I don't think it would be catastrophic. What I do think will be catastrophic of Philadelphia, and I've said this repeatedly, is giving James Harden a max contract, and it feels like that is going to be what it takes. You had Chris Haynes reporting that Harden is going to opt out of this contract. Not a huge surprise there. Old thirty five million, he's gonna be looking for between forty and fifty million per year on a four year deal, and the Sixers, as has been noted elsewhere, do not have the advantage of being able to offer him that fifth year. So it's open season right now for James Harden, with every team with cap space in the NBA, and these rumors about Houston, even though I think they're wild, Like I think it would be absolutely bonkers if the Houston Rockets go down and sign James Harden, If they give James Harden four years and two hundred million dollars, Adam Silver should seize control of the franchise and operate it because it would be one of the more insane moves I have ever seen a front office make. This is not about James Harden the player. It's about where Houston is right now with its organization in the infancy of a rebuild, where you have Jalen Green, You've got Jabari Smith, You've got Alprin Sangoon, You're gonna get another top draft pick with the fourth overall pick. They are not in the kind of position where you need to bring James Harden in. If we're being quite blunt, James Harden is not exactly the veteran role model I think I would want some of these guys around. There's a reason James Harden wants to come back to Houston and be part of that organization. Some of the reporting around James Harden was that he was looking for, you know, a chance to kind of play his way and you know, be part of a competitive situation. Well, what he wants seemingly is a return to the yesteryear days when he was the m v P.
And I mean, well, yeah, no, I mean, like, look, he wants he likes Houston, he likes the scene down there.
So I mean, there's no there's no disputing that. But if you're the Rockets, you're nuts. Nuts. That is absolute insane. But that seems to be in the water supply. That seems to be a possibility for James Harden. And if if Philly thinks that's a possibility, they're gonna have to grossly overpay to keep him. And if they give James Harden a contract at four years and close to forty million or more per season, that instantly becomes the most untradable contract in the NBA. It does because Harden's gonna be thirty four at the start of next season. This will take him up to age thirty eight. He's already shown signs of decline. Nobody's taken that contract on what I think re signing James Harden, that type of deal does is. I think it puts a ceiling on Philadelphia, and that ceiling is not championship. It's not I think if you don't resign him, maybe in the short term, at least on paper, you are a worst team. But I think you're underestimating how much improved Tyrese Maxey will be with a bigger role. And I do think there's some maneuvering to be done with some of the flexibility that you've created with Tobias Harris' contract that is still out there. With whatever draft assets you have left to make deals, you can bring in a piece that works. Look Herring Milwaukee showed that you don't need multiple superstars to win a championship. You just need one alpha, one big time top five player and the right pieces around him. And Joelle Embiid is that alpha, and he's going to be that alpha if he's healthy for two or three more years. That should be the priority in Philadelphia. Resigning hard at a big number that just seems crazy to me.
Can I say this? And I really hadn't thought about it till just now. I think.
If they resigned Harden at a big, big number for more than I would say, two years, which if you get him back, I imagine he would not sign it unless it's for more than that. That will be the capstone and the end piece of the process if we're not already there. Because I can't think of a team, and I don't think I was discussing it with either of you all. I was talking to my friends about it. I can't think of a team, a high level team that's in the conversation basically every year for championships that his shot itself in the foot more than Philly. There have been so many high level mistakes. They just got beat by one of them in the playoffs. From the standpoint of okay, and I understand, and like it's not to say that some of these weren't understandable mistakes by the way Markel Foltz, the Jason Tatum thing. There's that There's the fact that they took okafor and a draft that also had Karl Anthony Towns. They didn't quite get the number one pick, but Porzingis turned out to be really, really good, So there's that aspect. There is someone else is still in the playoffs, that is that they're watching kick Ass and Jimmy Butler, and the fact that, you know, depending on him.
They they couldn't trade James Harden for Michale Bridges straight up today, Brooklyn, Like.
Right, they could have after kept him include like three first, but.
They could have they could have kept him, you know, And and that was someone that like I'll never forget that one specifically because that, like I've always thought, this is very awkward that we've got the Mannixes and the Wojes and the Shams of the world that get information and can report it before it's actually live on television on draft.
Night meet like I get one or I get one or two draft picks.
You'll be knowing stuff before it happens, even if you don't necessarily report it or you're still waiting to hear. More Like, working with you now for long enough, I know that you know certain things before they happen, or that.
They might happen. Uh.
The mckail Bridges thing was so awkward though, because his mom worked for the organization they drafted him ESPN had it teed up. They already had him on camera talking to I guess it wasn't Malika. Maybe at the time it was Rachel Nichols or whoever it was. But talking to him on camera about what it was going to be like to be able to stay home play for an organization that you have a tie to.
And meanwhile, we're back at the ranch. We're all on Twitter, like, uh, he's going to Phoenix. Uh.
And so the fact that they shipped him out, there's just been so many errors, high level errors. James Harden signing a long term deal, and I say, this is someone that was blown away by the fact that he had two forty point games in this last series, like he still had. There's still flickers and moments, and by the way, he was great during the regular season when he was healthy, led the league in assists, still was able to score, still was able to get downhill. I think the biggest shift that we see with him is that he slowed down a tick and that he does not draw vowels at the same rate. He's a better shooter than what he was several years ago, but that's not the problem here. He's also not a great defender. We've known that for a while, even if it was overstated a little bit, He's not He's not going to age well at this point. Like, even if he's really important to your team now I always think that when the moment comes when you're essentially over the cap and you don't have a replacement for someone because you can't go out and get somebody else for real money because of where you're at cap wise, this is when teams make bad mistakes. They and they made it the last time when Butler was there figuring out that situation. And how much was Ben Simmons gonna worry about? We didn't even I didn't even mention Ben Simmons and all the mistakes they've made. But I mean this would be this would take the cake on some level, and I think it would effectively close their window.
You have to trust it. Maxi is good enough.
He's shown in moments where Harden isn't there that he's ready to take that spot. Doesn't mean they're gonna win a championship by leap like letting Harden go. But you have to ask, is the upside of letting Harden walk long term better than locking yourself into something that you can't trade, And I think the answer might very well be yes.
On that they have made a mistake after mistake really for the last five years, going back to twenty nineteen, when they wouldn't extend that five year contract to Jimmy Butler. I mean, imagine where they be right now. I mean, is there any is there any better pairing or pairing that you'd want more than Jimmy Butler and Joel Embiid like two Ultra respects hell out of him, incredibly so, incredibly so. So I just think that that was the big mistake. I understand the logic behind trading Simmons for Harden, and it's not like Simmons has done anything since then. But even though you gave up real capital to go and get him, you can't look, if you get him at three years ninety great, bring him back absolutely if it costs you four years anywhere from one sixty to two hundred, Hell no, hard pass. That is a franchise detonating deal. It just is.
There's only a couple teams. Did it even makes sense for him to go to big, bigger money than.
What any team that it makes any sense? Who does? Like? I mean Houston, It makes no sense. And I jump up and down on Houston lot. I think they've made some gaffes over the last couple of years. I think scapegoating Steven Silas was one of them.
But uh, I have the one team that makes sense, okay, and it's because their owner can spend however much money he wants. That's the Clippers. It's the only team that makes sense. They have the contracts, they can get away with paying him for a couple even up to three years. They're opening a new arena. You know, their main guys are always hurt. That's the only team that makes a remote sense to me. And even then it's like, it sound like I think it makes some the favorites. But yes, I just can't get over that they're gonna find a coach for James Harden, Like, what are they like Darryl Murray's obsession with this guy? It could really come back to hurt them.
If it's Mike D'Antoni, I give.
Bro Is D'Antoni? Bro Come on?
Is Joel and b getting any touches in that kind of system? Like? How does that work? I know, Mike D'Antoni, but this is a different kind of player altogether.
They weren't letting Omar posts up fifteen times again?
All right? Well, Heat Celtics back in action on Friday night. On Thursday, we get Lakers and Nuggets. We're back on Monday to break down all of it here on the podcast. In the meantime, subscribe, rate, and review everywhere you get your podcasts.
Thank thank you,
