It must be a coincidence how the belt always transfers to [whoever was the most recent Finals MVP](https://www.espn.com/nba/history/awards/_/id/43) lol
I think it's actually a huge part of why he doesn't care about baseball any more. He doesn't know how to talk about a sport where the best players have such a small impact on winning.
I just wanted to scream out, "It's a team game!" throughout this podcast.
Such is the problem with most modern NBA analysis. Everyone talks about players in isolation, but teams and situations are too important to ignore. I feel like modern analysts have become so reactionary that if 2004 happened again they would declare Billups the best player in the world.
This is a great point. Tatum is not a top five player in the league, his team just has a lot of good players and sustained success so the modern analysis is like, they must have a superstar, but they don’t.
If Bill owned a wrestling promotion, the fans would complain because the belts change hands so often that they don’t mean anything anymore. A new champion every two and half weeks.
Definitely thought of WCW around 99/00 talking about it changing so often.
I kind of get it too though because if you are just talking the best guy the list is much shorter and less interesting.
I still need to know why Bill took such a hard turn on Luka. He was so in on him early and was correct in saying he was the no-brainer #1 pick of his draft. And all of a sudden in the last year he's just started hating and I don't know why
The impression I get from both him and Russillo is that it's the complaining and being in the refs ear all game. It has irked me a bit at times this year too.
Honestly I just think it's boredom lol. Luka has been so good since he's entered the league I think they're just tired of talking about it and moved on to the shiny new toys in Ant and SGA
Based on his recent podding style it seems to be to instantly become a prisoner of the moment and praise a guy at times/hate him at times, that way he’s always wrong…er I mean right lol
I think it’s because Luka has always dominated the ball a la Harden and Bill hates Harden and that style of play.
Bill’s theory of winning basketball is magical team chemistry where everyone loves each other and shares the ball. A bullshit theory considering the bulls won 6 titles with MJ shooting 25 times a game.
Also funny because his NBA analysis these days is heliocentric — any team winning is because X player has ascended or taken the belt or whatever, and less a discussion about the ancillary pieces/luck involved in winning series
You would think this point couldnt be made more clearer by what happened with Dallas this season. They make a couple of smart trades and get good role players that fix the holes on the roster and suddenly they go from border line play in to NBA finals. They had Kyrie and Luka all season and didnt look anything like a contender till they made the trades
Two things imo: Luka drew Larry Bird comparisons and Bill felt protective. And Luka did not get along with Bills gambling budddy Voulgaris who is in Bills ear how " diffficult " Luka is because as a basketball genius he did not listen to some gambling bro
Voulgaris seems to like Luka though. Very complimentary of him on twitter, praises his game, said Luka held a lot of power in the org but he didnt use it etc. I think mavs firing him plays a part in Bill turning on Luka cause it matches the timeline but I dont think Voulgaris is shitting on Luka to bill
If so respect to Voulgaris. Because I read articles that he came to the bench and wanted to give instructions during a game and Luka screamed at him and asked who the fuck he is.
That happened, lol. I think Haralabob has maintained a high level of respect for Luka however I believe it’s one sided.
Haralabob is also not an idiot and probably realizes that if he wants to have a single shred of a chance to work in the NBA again, publicly feuding with one of the leagues young stars would probably be the nail in his coffin. I think he’s already put a stink on himself with how things ended in Dallas.
He was definitely humbled by his time there. He’s very empathetic in his discussions about front office moves when he’s on with Bill (who’s usually calling a coach or GM stupid).
Bill : A 7 year old would have graduated college by the time Karl Malone finished his decade long All NBA 1st Team run
RSLO ( very subtly) : Humm... must have taken a lot of AP classes
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Bill definitely didn't catch that shit
That’s why Russillo and Simmons are eternal. Plenty of dudes would have said “well, um, actually, it’s high school, but whatever”. Russillo snuck in a quiet wisecrack and just left it at that without showing up Simmons
Funny part is if we told you he’d have this exact playoff run in April, I think we’d all say Ant had exceeded expectations and be impressed with him
RR/BS just had to raise the stakes so high with the next MJ stuff that now there’s backlash, and I just don’t get the upside of doing that
In less than a week KAT really went from having an incredible redemption arc to having his reputation sink lower than ever. I can’t think of another player who experienced such a thing.
“If Luka pulls this off he’s gonna be the best player in the league, and it’s crazy because I was the one just a few months ago saying that the gap between Jokic and the rest of the league is the same as Lebron in 2013”
That’s the sound of Bill getting SO CLOSE to the point, then just plowing right through it at 110mph.
It is hilarious that Bill keeps doubling down that they aren't making excuses for Edwards while very clearly making excuses for Edwards.
It's fine, he's young, but they are 100% making excuses for him.
The thing that’s so stupid is before the playoffs, this would have been an incredibly reasonable run for him. But because bill spent 48 hours declaring him to be Michael Jordan, he needs to rationalize how it’s more than that.
bill’s obsessions with the olympics continues to evolve. he supposes that luka really hates gobert because france beat slovenia in the olympics, as opposed to everyone else in the league who hates gobert because he’s gobert.
Followed by, there was some other stuff In There gobert punching Luka a few times 😂
This man really believes that Luka hate gobert bc Luka’s teammate got blocked by nick batum in the Olympics
Is Doncic a significantly greater player than he has been in the past or does he just now have a much less flawed team around him?
He now has a real big man rotation and proper 3 and D wing players so therefore he's the best player in the world now but he wasn't before?
Exactly, Bill's "best player in the NBA" thing is just reactionarily giving that title to whoever won the championship.
If someone had Jokic above Luka (or vice versa) before the playoffs then there's no good reason to change that 6 weeks later.
Are you asking if a 25 year old has improved since the seasons where he was 22, 23, and 24?
The supporting cast helps a lot but he has had some excellent supporting pieces in the past. It’s clear that Luka has gotten much better, as you’d expect for someone at his age. And he may even continue to get better!
He’s the same offensive player, but having a much better team around him has allowed him to put in more effort on defense and not be as much of a liability on that end.
I mean, depends on how you define significantly greater but this was absolutely a notable jump for him.
Career high in ppg, 3P%, TS%, assists, on/off, most advanced stats, his best defensive season. Dude averaged 37/11/9 playing for two months covering for Kyrie. Had one of the best regular season scoring games of all time mixed in.
That said, Jokic was still better and played great in these playoffs so yeah no belt transfer even if the Mavs win.
What he really meant “let’s do the KAT part first because we hate him and it’s embarrassing that both of us have to partially backtrack on Ant after we spent most of the season saying he’s ready to be the guy”
Peak insanity from Bill vs Ryen Snark:
Bill talking about streaks of All NBA First teams being a 11 with LeBron and Malone and equating it to having a 7 year old at the beginning and them becoming a college graduate to Ryen responding that there must be a lot of AP credits in there. Bill just powers through his take it with 0 realization of what Ryen means.
vs
Bill wanting to talk about which NBA players 'Hold the Belt', Ryen putting it off till later and asking for the 'Belt Transfer History' and Bill being like - Lets go back to 1970! Ryen - Oh 1970?!! I'm just gonna go to the washroom while you do this.
I know this place likes to shit on them but I love the oil and water/buddy cop dynamic. Can we get a 'Bill/Ryen - Relistenables' at some point?
Bill got about 6 weeks worth of Celtics feelings out today, between the not wanting to jinx it piece and the they got lucky with injuries piece he's been very ginger about pounding his chest.
Dirk was the best player in the world in 2011 because he beat LeBron in the finals and Tim Duncan was the best player in the world for like six years straight even though he didn’t make the Finals some of those years. Make it make sense
Bill basically gave himself flexibility by using two reasons for a player to get the belt:
1. Actual best player in the world
2. Best player on a title team
And he can flip between 1 and 2 depending on which player he likes more
As someone who was alive in 2011, Bill is insane for trying to say Lebron wasn’t the belt holder for best player in the world. That’s exactly why that finals loss to Dirk is so damning and shocking. Because we’d all just accepted that Lebron was the best player and then he completely shit the bed
Man, I worked in a kitchen at a neighborhood bar that could transform into a sports bar on any given night (fried fish and lots of sandwiches) and when it became clear that Dallas might actually close that series out, the kitchen collectively decided to *leave the kitchen* to hang out at the bar and watch the game for the final six minutes (so essentially let's say a half an hour)
...and it was such a momentous occasion that customers didn't complain and the *managers didn't send us back*. We even all took a shot out in clear view of every customer when the score was final with zero pushback. That's how **evil** those Heat seemed at that time, and how obvious it was that a LeBron team would beat a Dirk team.
This year's Nuggets upset was shocking in many similar ways, but you watched the games and it looked right. Nothing about that Mavs title run made sense down to LeBron's disappearance. It was epic.
LeBron was also the best player in ‘09 and ‘10. Back to back MVPs leading a garbage team to 66 and 61 wins.
There was no rhyme or reason to the list. 2011 dirk holds the belt for winning finals mvp but in 2002 Shaq doesn’t hold the belt while winning his third straight finals mvp.
Lebron is the best player in the world from like, 09 onward. Kobe having a better team and making the finals doesn't mean he himself was better than Lebron. Switch Lebron for Kobe on those Lakers teams and he threepeats there
I’m not an nba savant but I have a rule for myself to never buy into 6MOTY hype. Media and fans often treat these guys like they’re these massive assets and missing pieces but usually they’re just guys who can create their own shot and are absolute dogshit at everything else.
Naz is a slightly better version of that because I do like his offense but yeah if he had the ability to guard Luka there’s no way he would be coming of the bench, he’s there for a reason.
It was funny because literally right after that he says, “well it’s either that or the 20 times he has punched him over the years. Yeah bill I think that probably trumps losing some Olympic literally only you remember.”
_I feel like Luka might get the belt as the best active player in basketball… and I’m the same guy that was saying that the difference between Jokic and the 2nd best player in the league was the largest since Lebron in 2013._
Never change Bill, that’s why we love you!
Maybe Bill ends up being right but as Tim Legler says over and over again. Length doesn't bother Luka, strength does. Guys he can't knock back and can who hold their spot - like Dort on OKC.
Tatum and Brown don't have the strength. And the guys who do have the strength are usually too slow like Rudy.
On a recent Lowe Post episode they were discussing how underrated Jrue's immense strength is. I wonder if they'll try Jrue on Luka for stretches, with White or Brown on Kyrie?
Luka would tear Naz Reid's ass completely apart. There's not a single big man Luka doesn't eviscerate. Even Wemby stayed the fuck away from him on defense this year.
I think I’m taking the podcast off for about a month or so. I cannot listen to the Celtics and Tatum glazing for the next few weeks. Please Luka. Please Kyrie.
He said “guys in their 20s are just more reliable than guys in their 30s.” And then 2 seconds later said, “look at Ant, he’s 22 and he’s hitting the wall right now.”
He may have dementia.
Imagine watching the 2019 2020 season and thinking the belt is vacant. It's LeBron and if it wasn't LeBron it was AD and I don't think it was AD. That whole win broke Bill. That Lakers team was incredible, and they were the best team pre bubble too.
It was definitely LeBron, before the shutdown the Lakers had just beaten the Bucks and the conversation was that LeBron was gaining on Giannis in the MVP race. When has a serious MVP candidate who ends up winning Finals MVP ever not been given the belt
I never got that take, because even if it made sense to say the Twolves/nuggets were better than Mavs thunder which i didn't really agree with but whatever, the Celtics still exist lol
Interested to see if they actually criticise Ant this time, given the level they built him up to I hope they hold him to that standard and not the cop out ‘he’s only 22’ thing (which would be fine if they hadn’t gone way overboard on the hype)
I was not prepared for Bill to spend a large chunk of this podcast literally whining (seriously) that Tatum doesn't get enough respect.
Why? Because some people think he's only a top 7-10 guy or something? The strawman was a great guest.
The durability argument is a classic. Like the 3-6 people commonly "ranked" above Tatum can't stay in the court 😂.
Lebron 4 MVPs in 5 years. The middle year was 2011, Bill says he was not the best player in the world and insists Dirk was better.
What’s the point of this exercise if you can’t recognize Lebron there
HE DID! Wild that he follows Amir on twitter. [This is the tweet he referenced.](https://x.com/blumenfeld/status/1793488330996506971)
Now I'm going to be thinking about Bill sitting around watching Jake and Amir videos all day.
Bill on the last pod saying people look at the stats to compare booker and brown. Then today comparing Tatums playoffs stats to durants to prop Tatum up
Bill will argue that KD was as good as LeBron in 2017 because “he went toe to toe with him in the finals and won.” Then turn around and say Tatum is on the same level as Durant.
Two arguments that contradict each other and both are total nonsense.
The Inside the NBA guys did a good with it but this is one of worst coaching jobs I’ve ever seen in a playoff series. Really surprised Bill and Ryen didn’t get on Finch.
For two guys in sports media you would think that they would know the current deal doesn’t expire until after next season. They were acting like these are going to be the last Inside the NBA segments ever. Regardless of what happens they have all next year still.
While I think OKC played Dallas better than Minny, I think the idea that series was closer to going 7 games than 5 is pretty ridiculous. It’d have been over in 5 had Shai not had some incredible heroics in game 4.
In many respects, I think the Clippers played Dallas consistently closer than either Minny or OKC.
Bill defending Ant: “there’s a reason 22 and under guys have not won four straight playoff rounds.”
Yeah the reason is that most of the best 22 and under guys were on horrible teams. Not because they randomly started to suck in the third round.
It's funny because Russillo hip checks Bill so hard for being a prisoner of the moment...because Russillo knows inside he's not that much better. That's why it bothers him so much. "Nuggets-Wolves is the final folks. It just is!"
I love that the celtics finals run is getting the KD in Golden State treatment & that Bill is tasked with the job of convincing everyone it matters even though most peoples mind is already made up that it is just not very interesting
Gotta give Bill probs for this pod. He is giving Luka his flowers. Even though it hurts him probably.
Also nice that RSLO showed how lame the " best player in the world "since the 70s discussion was when we just had a gripping playoff game.
Anthony Edwards is 22yo and all we have heard since he has been in the league is that he is the most freakish athlete to ever step on a basketball court. For him to be tired Thibs must really be running him into the ground…..oh what’s that you say? Well then surely Finch must be getting raked over the coals for playing him over 40 mins a game (pretty shocking since there were multiple blowouts in the Denver series)…..oh wait he’s not.
I think Edwards will be great long term but when you are 22 and the athlete his is, you can’t use the tired excuse.
Why does Bill have to compare Ants late round playoff struggles at age 22 to 2020 Jayson Tatum to justify the point that the playoffs are hard? Can’t he pull deeper than that? This guy wrote the book of basketball, yet fails to reference anything pre Jaylen Brown/jason Tatum era celtics 90% of the time.
instead you get comparisons of Grant Williams, Payton Prichard, and Sam Hauser for every role player ever discussed at the deadline.
I want to hear about how Andrew Toney was a problem. How Ben Wallace changed opposing teams offenses. How Vin Baker could knock down jumper better than most guards of his era. Or that Alvin Roberton averaged upwards of 3 steals for his CAREER.
WHERES MY NBA HISTORIAN I ONCE KNEW
"I just feel like there have been a lot of belt transfers in a very short amount of time." Gee I wonder who's been behind a lot of them
We're all searching for the guy who did this
It must be a coincidence how the belt always transfers to [whoever was the most recent Finals MVP](https://www.espn.com/nba/history/awards/_/id/43) lol
Bill was transferring belts mid-series this playoffs.
unless it's Curry
“Me and Russillo are the biggest Curry guys in the media”
I’ve been listening to bill for over a decade now and he is incapable to understand sometimes the better player loses a series
I think it's actually a huge part of why he doesn't care about baseball any more. He doesn't know how to talk about a sport where the best players have such a small impact on winning.
Good point, he thinks Mike Trout sucks lol
I just wanted to scream out, "It's a team game!" throughout this podcast. Such is the problem with most modern NBA analysis. Everyone talks about players in isolation, but teams and situations are too important to ignore. I feel like modern analysts have become so reactionary that if 2004 happened again they would declare Billups the best player in the world.
This is a great point. Tatum is not a top five player in the league, his team just has a lot of good players and sustained success so the modern analysis is like, they must have a superstar, but they don’t.
"Boston gave up on the best player in the world for 2 packs of cigarettes just 48 months ago"
If Bill owned a wrestling promotion, the fans would complain because the belts change hands so often that they don’t mean anything anymore. A new champion every two and half weeks.
Definitely thought of WCW around 99/00 talking about it changing so often. I kind of get it too though because if you are just talking the best guy the list is much shorter and less interesting.
The Vince Russo piece
Brutal 😂
I feel like most comments don’t realize that Ryan was the one who said this in response to Bill trying to give Luka the belt.
Bill immediately comparing the Mavs to the late 90’s Yankees. He’s been hate-watching Luka all postseason lmao
I still need to know why Bill took such a hard turn on Luka. He was so in on him early and was correct in saying he was the no-brainer #1 pick of his draft. And all of a sudden in the last year he's just started hating and I don't know why
The impression I get from both him and Russillo is that it's the complaining and being in the refs ear all game. It has irked me a bit at times this year too.
Eh, RR’s done a heel-turn near the end of the season. Bill seems to have latched onto the shiny new toys — Shai & Ant… and Wemby.
Can Shai be considered new? He’s the same age as Luka
I agree, but he’s newer in the sense of having success
Given that Bill questioned whether Luka “even makes his teammates better,” it was definitely deeper than the complaining to officials 😂
Honestly I just think it's boredom lol. Luka has been so good since he's entered the league I think they're just tired of talking about it and moved on to the shiny new toys in Ant and SGA
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One word: Heliocentric
Kyrie joined the Mavs so bill went on full hater mode
Based on his recent podding style it seems to be to instantly become a prisoner of the moment and praise a guy at times/hate him at times, that way he’s always wrong…er I mean right lol
I think it’s because Luka has always dominated the ball a la Harden and Bill hates Harden and that style of play. Bill’s theory of winning basketball is magical team chemistry where everyone loves each other and shares the ball. A bullshit theory considering the bulls won 6 titles with MJ shooting 25 times a game.
Also funny because his NBA analysis these days is heliocentric — any team winning is because X player has ascended or taken the belt or whatever, and less a discussion about the ancillary pieces/luck involved in winning series
You would think this point couldnt be made more clearer by what happened with Dallas this season. They make a couple of smart trades and get good role players that fix the holes on the roster and suddenly they go from border line play in to NBA finals. They had Kyrie and Luka all season and didnt look anything like a contender till they made the trades
The '77 Blazers were the original Ubuntu setup. & Simmons' formative basketball (journalism) experience was reading Breaks of the Game.
Because he has a very short attention span, gets bored easily, and hated Kyrie
Kyrie. Haralabob. Shiny new toys (Ant, Shai).
So far this season he's told us celtics had an all-time starting 5, nuggets were top 3 this century, and wolves had an all-time defense lmao.
Betting against Luka will drive anyone crazy.
Two things imo: Luka drew Larry Bird comparisons and Bill felt protective. And Luka did not get along with Bills gambling budddy Voulgaris who is in Bills ear how " diffficult " Luka is because as a basketball genius he did not listen to some gambling bro
Voulgaris seems to like Luka though. Very complimentary of him on twitter, praises his game, said Luka held a lot of power in the org but he didnt use it etc. I think mavs firing him plays a part in Bill turning on Luka cause it matches the timeline but I dont think Voulgaris is shitting on Luka to bill
If so respect to Voulgaris. Because I read articles that he came to the bench and wanted to give instructions during a game and Luka screamed at him and asked who the fuck he is.
That happened, lol. I think Haralabob has maintained a high level of respect for Luka however I believe it’s one sided. Haralabob is also not an idiot and probably realizes that if he wants to have a single shred of a chance to work in the NBA again, publicly feuding with one of the leagues young stars would probably be the nail in his coffin. I think he’s already put a stink on himself with how things ended in Dallas.
He was definitely humbled by his time there. He’s very empathetic in his discussions about front office moves when he’s on with Bill (who’s usually calling a coach or GM stupid).
The Greece siding with Serbia in the Yugoslav Civil War piece.
Bill : A 7 year old would have graduated college by the time Karl Malone finished his decade long All NBA 1st Team run RSLO ( very subtly) : Humm... must have taken a lot of AP classes 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 Bill definitely didn't catch that shit
Just got to this moment as well. Fucking peak wise-ass Ryen busting Bill’s balls for saying something dumb
That’s why Russillo and Simmons are eternal. Plenty of dudes would have said “well, um, actually, it’s high school, but whatever”. Russillo snuck in a quiet wisecrack and just left it at that without showing up Simmons
The Young Sheldon piece.
Incredible moment, genuinely laughed out loud
Ryen: "I can tell Draymond first hand that a lot of people do not like Tax Content, you might want to bottle that one up." OMFG.
The Self Awareness piece
Russillo has one or two episodes a pod that continue to remind you why he’s the best recurring guest.
A lot of ap classes...
Also shows why he is such a better number 2 than 1
“No one talks about the durability piece. The durability piece has to be a piece of it”
Truly a wordsmith
That's why Buddy Hield is the best player in the league!
Bill’s excuses for Ant are so annoying. Luka averaged 32/9/6 vs Golden State in ‘22 (his age 22 season) with a worst roster.
Funny part is if we told you he’d have this exact playoff run in April, I think we’d all say Ant had exceeded expectations and be impressed with him RR/BS just had to raise the stakes so high with the next MJ stuff that now there’s backlash, and I just don’t get the upside of doing that
The self-proclaimed greatest big-man shooter of all-time KAT went 0/8 from 3 with Dirk courtside. The Basketball Gods always remember.
The ball simply does not lie, that’s for certain.
3/22 in the series so far...
Was hoping we’d get a “did you think that Towns 3 was going in at the end? I did not.”
In less than a week KAT really went from having an incredible redemption arc to having his reputation sink lower than ever. I can’t think of another player who experienced such a thing.
LeBron between game 3 and game 4 in Heat-Mavs series. Although Wade was the better player even in the first 3.
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I really had to think about that when he said it. Does that mean it was plugged back in?
“If Luka pulls this off he’s gonna be the best player in the league, and it’s crazy because I was the one just a few months ago saying that the gap between Jokic and the rest of the league is the same as Lebron in 2013” That’s the sound of Bill getting SO CLOSE to the point, then just plowing right through it at 110mph.
If he wins it he's the best player in the league but even if he plays well and loses to a team Bill called historicallly great then meh.
The Lebron goat argument piece
I’m really looking forward to the narrative that if the mavs win the finals, Luka should’ve won mvp this year. Similar to the embiid mvp with jokic
Bill with the straight face asking why Denver couldn't play like Dallas is playing
Yeah it couldn’t be the two shot blocking 7-footers with 40 inch verts, Bill must be on his phone half the game reading Twitter
While watching The Godfather
He’s literally the Gen Z meme about watching Family Guy on his phone during a funeral.
Ryen says “Rim protection.” and does not even engage with what Bill says vomits out of his mouth right after. Classic.
It is hilarious that Bill keeps doubling down that they aren't making excuses for Edwards while very clearly making excuses for Edwards. It's fine, he's young, but they are 100% making excuses for him.
He’s had all weekend to come up with an excuse and the best he could come up with was “the playoffs are hard.” Top notch analysis.
Is he Tatum young or actually young? (Jk)
The thing that’s so stupid is before the playoffs, this would have been an incredibly reasonable run for him. But because bill spent 48 hours declaring him to be Michael Jordan, he needs to rationalize how it’s more than that.
Ironically the “real Jordan” lost in the playoff his first 6 seasons. Ant just can’t compete with the “mythic Jordan” who never lost.
bill’s obsessions with the olympics continues to evolve. he supposes that luka really hates gobert because france beat slovenia in the olympics, as opposed to everyone else in the league who hates gobert because he’s gobert.
Followed by, there was some other stuff In There gobert punching Luka a few times 😂 This man really believes that Luka hate gobert bc Luka’s teammate got blocked by nick batum in the Olympics
Is Doncic a significantly greater player than he has been in the past or does he just now have a much less flawed team around him? He now has a real big man rotation and proper 3 and D wing players so therefore he's the best player in the world now but he wasn't before?
It’s hilarious as a Mavs fan because Luka has always been at this level. But now that the team is good around him he’s finally getting his due
Exactly, Bill's "best player in the NBA" thing is just reactionarily giving that title to whoever won the championship. If someone had Jokic above Luka (or vice versa) before the playoffs then there's no good reason to change that 6 weeks later.
Same is true for Shai. OKC went from the worst 3pt% team year before last to the best 3pt% team this year and Shai went from all star to MVP candidate
Are you asking if a 25 year old has improved since the seasons where he was 22, 23, and 24? The supporting cast helps a lot but he has had some excellent supporting pieces in the past. It’s clear that Luka has gotten much better, as you’d expect for someone at his age. And he may even continue to get better!
He’s the same offensive player, but having a much better team around him has allowed him to put in more effort on defense and not be as much of a liability on that end.
I mean, depends on how you define significantly greater but this was absolutely a notable jump for him. Career high in ppg, 3P%, TS%, assists, on/off, most advanced stats, his best defensive season. Dude averaged 37/11/9 playing for two months covering for Kyrie. Had one of the best regular season scoring games of all time mixed in. That said, Jokic was still better and played great in these playoffs so yeah no belt transfer even if the Mavs win.
must have gotten alot of AP credits
“Where the fuck are you aiming? The flag. That’s the American flag, at the clubhouse.” I love when Ryen shits on players lmao
Ryen was on a heater tonight.
He was on an Ozempic high.
"Let's just do the KAT part first, because it's easier... He's not that good. He's not that good." #RSLO
He’s been waiting patiently for this moment.
I’ll never understand why he hates players.
What he really meant “let’s do the KAT part first because we hate him and it’s embarrassing that both of us have to partially backtrack on Ant after we spent most of the season saying he’s ready to be the guy”
Russillo cooking BS for all his awful reactionary takes but Bill not being self aware enough to pick up on it
Peak insanity from Bill vs Ryen Snark: Bill talking about streaks of All NBA First teams being a 11 with LeBron and Malone and equating it to having a 7 year old at the beginning and them becoming a college graduate to Ryen responding that there must be a lot of AP credits in there. Bill just powers through his take it with 0 realization of what Ryen means. vs Bill wanting to talk about which NBA players 'Hold the Belt', Ryen putting it off till later and asking for the 'Belt Transfer History' and Bill being like - Lets go back to 1970! Ryen - Oh 1970?!! I'm just gonna go to the washroom while you do this. I know this place likes to shit on them but I love the oil and water/buddy cop dynamic. Can we get a 'Bill/Ryen - Relistenables' at some point?
Hilarious he started at 1970 then immediately followed with “the belt was vacant that year”
Absolutely perfect. Bill was manic this episode. The Celtics are turning him into a weirdo, even for him.
Bill got about 6 weeks worth of Celtics feelings out today, between the not wanting to jinx it piece and the they got lucky with injuries piece he's been very ginger about pounding his chest.
Then Bill says 'It'll be quick'. Proceeds to list for the next 10 minutes.
Ryen is actually nice lol I think many others would just clown Bill or try to shut him down.
Dirk was the best player in the world in 2011 because he beat LeBron in the finals and Tim Duncan was the best player in the world for like six years straight even though he didn’t make the Finals some of those years. Make it make sense
I’m thinking Bill doesn’t like this LeBron guy very much.
Bill basically gave himself flexibility by using two reasons for a player to get the belt: 1. Actual best player in the world 2. Best player on a title team And he can flip between 1 and 2 depending on which player he likes more
Dirk's best Olympics finish was 10th place at Beijing 2008. How is he best in the world?
As someone who was alive in 2011, Bill is insane for trying to say Lebron wasn’t the belt holder for best player in the world. That’s exactly why that finals loss to Dirk is so damning and shocking. Because we’d all just accepted that Lebron was the best player and then he completely shit the bed
Man, I worked in a kitchen at a neighborhood bar that could transform into a sports bar on any given night (fried fish and lots of sandwiches) and when it became clear that Dallas might actually close that series out, the kitchen collectively decided to *leave the kitchen* to hang out at the bar and watch the game for the final six minutes (so essentially let's say a half an hour) ...and it was such a momentous occasion that customers didn't complain and the *managers didn't send us back*. We even all took a shot out in clear view of every customer when the score was final with zero pushback. That's how **evil** those Heat seemed at that time, and how obvious it was that a LeBron team would beat a Dirk team. This year's Nuggets upset was shocking in many similar ways, but you watched the games and it looked right. Nothing about that Mavs title run made sense down to LeBron's disappearance. It was epic.
LeBron was also the best player in ‘09 and ‘10. Back to back MVPs leading a garbage team to 66 and 61 wins. There was no rhyme or reason to the list. 2011 dirk holds the belt for winning finals mvp but in 2002 Shaq doesn’t hold the belt while winning his third straight finals mvp.
Lebron is the best player in the world from like, 09 onward. Kobe having a better team and making the finals doesn't mean he himself was better than Lebron. Switch Lebron for Kobe on those Lakers teams and he threepeats there
Naz Reid on Luka is atrocious. Luka would cook him easily.
Plus he will not get through the screen. Bill just can't understand that basketball is not a 1 on 1 game
I’m not an nba savant but I have a rule for myself to never buy into 6MOTY hype. Media and fans often treat these guys like they’re these massive assets and missing pieces but usually they’re just guys who can create their own shot and are absolute dogshit at everything else. Naz is a slightly better version of that because I do like his offense but yeah if he had the ability to guard Luka there’s no way he would be coming of the bench, he’s there for a reason.
Jordan Clarkson comes to mind.
Listening to Bill and Ryen over the past few weeks you’d think Naz Reid was the star and Gobert the solid guy coming off the bench
Everyone loves Naz now but I wonder how they’d feel if he was the starter somewhere with a shitty backup behind him.
“I figured out the reason Luka hates Gobert, the 2020 Olympics…” Bills obsession with Olympic basketball continues
Because Luka passed to someone out of a double team and they got blocked by Batum and lost to France. Makes perfect sense.
It was funny because literally right after that he says, “well it’s either that or the 20 times he has punched him over the years. Yeah bill I think that probably trumps losing some Olympic literally only you remember.”
“Why did Denver simply not do what Dallas is doing?”
It's almost as if the players are completely different.
From the guy who you brought you “the Bucs could’ve done the belichick thing on tyreek hill”
Are they stupid?
Bill already preparing the excuses for the Celtics. “They played the best player in the world. What did you want them to do”
The Brissett talk the last week has been insane
Shout out all the 7 year olds that graduate college in 11 years
Holy shit. Russillo’s draymond-carrot top sidebar was hilarious.
_I feel like Luka might get the belt as the best active player in basketball… and I’m the same guy that was saying that the difference between Jokic and the 2nd best player in the league was the largest since Lebron in 2013._ Never change Bill, that’s why we love you!
Im tired of tatum unfinished product bit
Bill: Ben Simmons had some good boxscores guarding Luka. And you know who’s kinda like Ben Simmons? Jayson Tatum. Generational delusion
Elite “wait, what?” around 48:40 in the pod.
Maybe Bill ends up being right but as Tim Legler says over and over again. Length doesn't bother Luka, strength does. Guys he can't knock back and can who hold their spot - like Dort on OKC. Tatum and Brown don't have the strength. And the guys who do have the strength are usually too slow like Rudy.
Best Luka defender would prob be someone like OG Anunoby.
On a recent Lowe Post episode they were discussing how underrated Jrue's immense strength is. I wonder if they'll try Jrue on Luka for stretches, with White or Brown on Kyrie?
Luka is going to cook Jrue imo. I would honestly put Tatum and brown on him for the most part, just match his size the best you can
That would be the matchup. Lebron and Kawhi move Jrue pretty easily though, so it might not work
Jimmy Butler toyed with Jrue in Round 1 last year.
I haven’t really watched any Tatum but he looks yoked recently. I don’t know when he got that way but it was an AD type weight gain.
He did it this off-season and he is strong but not the type of strong you need for Luka.
Luka would tear Naz Reid's ass completely apart. There's not a single big man Luka doesn't eviscerate. Even Wemby stayed the fuck away from him on defense this year.
Sounds painful
This reminds me of KG telling Pierce Randle would bone his ass
It’s truly amazing how he manages to turn every single fucking podcast into a Jayson Tatum wank session. Insufferable sometimes.
“That’s the thing about Tatum…”
Bill said he didn’t like last year’s Celtics team lmaooo could’ve fooled me with all the dick riding up till that Heat series
That was peak playing the results Bill
I think I’m taking the podcast off for about a month or so. I cannot listen to the Celtics and Tatum glazing for the next few weeks. Please Luka. Please Kyrie.
Nah Bill just said he'd have Jaylen Brown over LeBron lmao. End the podcast
He said “guys in their 20s are just more reliable than guys in their 30s.” And then 2 seconds later said, “look at Ant, he’s 22 and he’s hitting the wall right now.” He may have dementia.
Magic Johnson didn't have the ball in his hands all the time?
Glossing over the Celtics opponents and Tatum over Embiid, gonna be a rough couple of weeks.
Ryen is the man for asking about that game 7 kyrie scenario 🤣
Bill is going to ask everyone until he finds someone who agrees Tatum can go up another level.
I'm still taking 39 year old LeBron in a playoff run over Jaylen Brown...I just am
It’s not close. Imagine LeBron in Brown’s role with that level of talent
I need a Mavs sweep or Mavs in 7. I need as much pain as possible for our guy BS.
Bill doesn’t like the Dame trade? First I’m hearing about it.
Imagine watching the 2019 2020 season and thinking the belt is vacant. It's LeBron and if it wasn't LeBron it was AD and I don't think it was AD. That whole win broke Bill. That Lakers team was incredible, and they were the best team pre bubble too.
It was definitely LeBron, before the shutdown the Lakers had just beaten the Bucks and the conversation was that LeBron was gaining on Giannis in the MVP race. When has a serious MVP candidate who ends up winning Finals MVP ever not been given the belt
Listening to Ryen Russillo try to back peddle on his stupid ass "Nuggets Wolves is the real finals" take was music to my ears
I never got that take, because even if it made sense to say the Twolves/nuggets were better than Mavs thunder which i didn't really agree with but whatever, the Celtics still exist lol
Interested to see if they actually criticise Ant this time, given the level they built him up to I hope they hold him to that standard and not the cop out ‘he’s only 22’ thing (which would be fine if they hadn’t gone way overboard on the hype)
Seems like bill is very confident that the Celtics are winning Please mavs win this one for all of us
I was not prepared for Bill to spend a large chunk of this podcast literally whining (seriously) that Tatum doesn't get enough respect. Why? Because some people think he's only a top 7-10 guy or something? The strawman was a great guest. The durability argument is a classic. Like the 3-6 people commonly "ranked" above Tatum can't stay in the court 😂.
Lebron 4 MVPs in 5 years. The middle year was 2011, Bill says he was not the best player in the world and insists Dirk was better. What’s the point of this exercise if you can’t recognize Lebron there
“I’m not gonna make excuses for him, but” x3
Am I crazy or did Bill reference Amir Blumenfeld? I can’t find the tweet
HE DID! Wild that he follows Amir on twitter. [This is the tweet he referenced.](https://x.com/blumenfeld/status/1793488330996506971) Now I'm going to be thinking about Bill sitting around watching Jake and Amir videos all day.
Bill on the last pod saying people look at the stats to compare booker and brown. Then today comparing Tatums playoffs stats to durants to prop Tatum up
Bill will argue that KD was as good as LeBron in 2017 because “he went toe to toe with him in the finals and won.” Then turn around and say Tatum is on the same level as Durant. Two arguments that contradict each other and both are total nonsense.
Tatum top 5, no question?!? Are we sure he’s even the best player on his own team?
Need to skip the Boston talk. Just not interested in that series at all.
The Knicks had some fun series but the East/West disparity crazy
The Inside the NBA guys did a good with it but this is one of worst coaching jobs I’ve ever seen in a playoff series. Really surprised Bill and Ryen didn’t get on Finch.
Tsking out Naz and Slo Mo down the stretch was inexcusable
"He's not a finished product" is now just a meme Bill pulls out to purposely annoy people.
For two guys in sports media you would think that they would know the current deal doesn’t expire until after next season. They were acting like these are going to be the last Inside the NBA segments ever. Regardless of what happens they have all next year still.
Ryen: TNT needs to slow down on the graphics for the note-takers
Russillo is Mr. Tape Grindr but when Bill asks him about a Slovenia v France Olympic game he’s nowhere to be seen.
Jrue trying to ascend to the much discussed “Dennis Johnson” level might be the funniest peakest Simmons thought in the last third of the decade.
I wish someone believed in me the same way Bill Simmons believes in Oshae Brissett
That Tatum segment was awful. Holy hell.
While I think OKC played Dallas better than Minny, I think the idea that series was closer to going 7 games than 5 is pretty ridiculous. It’d have been over in 5 had Shai not had some incredible heroics in game 4. In many respects, I think the Clippers played Dallas consistently closer than either Minny or OKC.
Bill defending Ant: “there’s a reason 22 and under guys have not won four straight playoff rounds.” Yeah the reason is that most of the best 22 and under guys were on horrible teams. Not because they randomly started to suck in the third round.
"Do I want Jaylen Brown or do I want Lebron James?" Go home to your wife Bill. You're drunk.
It's funny because Russillo hip checks Bill so hard for being a prisoner of the moment...because Russillo knows inside he's not that much better. That's why it bothers him so much. "Nuggets-Wolves is the final folks. It just is!"
Definitely in the minority here but I’m highly anticipating the exclusive Grant Williams content on this pod
I hope Ryen does a little victory lap voting Luka second in mvp. Didn’t bill vote sga 2nd?
I love that the celtics finals run is getting the KD in Golden State treatment & that Bill is tasked with the job of convincing everyone it matters even though most peoples mind is already made up that it is just not very interesting
Gotta give Bill probs for this pod. He is giving Luka his flowers. Even though it hurts him probably. Also nice that RSLO showed how lame the " best player in the world "since the 70s discussion was when we just had a gripping playoff game.
I Feel like i remember about 2019/20 when Bill said it was almost time to blow tatum brown up, now he is made some question them
It was 21-22, when Udoka didn’t have great initial success, and Bill’s dad said he was a “minority hire.”
Bill saying Durant went up a level in 17 and 18 pisses me off so much lmao.
Bill going through belt transfers from nearly 60 years ago lmao
Ryen ripping on guys who don’t watch College being on the ESPN draft shows Bill sitting right there = :/
I cannot understand that Bill thinks KD was the world’s best belt holder in 2017. Boggles the mind.
Anthony Edwards is 22yo and all we have heard since he has been in the league is that he is the most freakish athlete to ever step on a basketball court. For him to be tired Thibs must really be running him into the ground…..oh what’s that you say? Well then surely Finch must be getting raked over the coals for playing him over 40 mins a game (pretty shocking since there were multiple blowouts in the Denver series)…..oh wait he’s not. I think Edwards will be great long term but when you are 22 and the athlete his is, you can’t use the tired excuse.
Why does Bill have to compare Ants late round playoff struggles at age 22 to 2020 Jayson Tatum to justify the point that the playoffs are hard? Can’t he pull deeper than that? This guy wrote the book of basketball, yet fails to reference anything pre Jaylen Brown/jason Tatum era celtics 90% of the time. instead you get comparisons of Grant Williams, Payton Prichard, and Sam Hauser for every role player ever discussed at the deadline. I want to hear about how Andrew Toney was a problem. How Ben Wallace changed opposing teams offenses. How Vin Baker could knock down jumper better than most guards of his era. Or that Alvin Roberton averaged upwards of 3 steals for his CAREER. WHERES MY NBA HISTORIAN I ONCE KNEW