Welcome in to the newest edition of the Justin Tom Sports Podcast. I am your host, Justin
Jackson. In this week's episode, I'll be discussing the conclusion of the NBA finals
and talk about the outlook for both teams for next season and this offseason. Now, if
you're returning here, you already know what I'm about to say, but if you're new here,
sit back and get ready to learn something. Also, don't forget to like, rate, and subscribe
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social media platforms. Now, as always, like I said, sit back and get ready to learn something.
And I'll see you guys next time.
Welcome into the show. It's gonna be a quick episode. Um one of my usual 45 minutes to an hour. Um shout out to all you guys for listening in, for tuning in, um and for coming into the podcast today.
Um congratulations to the Denver Nuggets are in order. They won five games. Um I gave them, I gave them Miami Heat the respect of getting two games out of this series. I said Spokesman gave them one. Jimmy Butler had one of those 40 point swarrays and gets them a second game. Um the swarray never came. Um but I wanna, I wanna start off why I dive too far off into slander and other things. I wanna give Miami Heat credit.
They were an eight seed. I believe the second eight seed ever to win the East. Um the 99 New York Knicks did it in the strike shortening season. They did, they did get off to the Spurs I wanna say. But the 99 Knicks did it in the strike shortening season. Uh they went Patrick Ewing's only time in the finals. Uh they ended up going, winning the East. Which actually they weren't really a true eight seed. I think first through eight was separated by like three games and Ewing missed some time that season. It was a really weird season.
Um but they ended up making it um as the first ever eight seed to win the East. They made it to the finals. Then Miami Heat joined them this season. Again as an eight seed. They were pretty much a, well they were really a seven seed but they play in into the eight seed. They lost to the Hawks. Um they ended up in eight seed. They had a great run. They put the Hawks, they put the Bucks out in what five. Put the Knicks out in six. Um staved off the three. A comeback from the Celtics. Winning a game seven in the
game seven in Boston. When people like myself was saying if they don't win game six in Miami they have no chance of winning game seven in Boston. Um and they did. Um and so kudos to them and they even took game two in Denver which I didn't think was gonna happen. I didn't think Denver was gonna drop a home game um in this series at all. Um or in this season.
I'm not sure if that's the right base. My prediction is six. They're gonna have to at some point. Um but you know kudos to the Miami Heat for taking game two. But for the what? Fourth game out of five in this series. The Heat don't get 100 points. Max don't even get 90 this time. I said it after game two. So a lot of people that would listen and also I believe I said on the podcast.
The Yankees made 17 threes. They basically had no turnovers. They pretty much played a perfect game of offensive basketball. And Jamal Murray who didn't play well in that game. The Yankees only had four assists. Jamal Murray is shooting a step back three over Jimmy Butler to send the game in overtime that he left about three inches short.
So, you know, that's why that shot goes in and I may have been recording after game four talking about a Denver Nuggets sweep. Um absolute domination from the Nuggets in all areas. Eric Spolster tried everything he could. I mean if I look at it from the Heat perspective, Spolster tried everything he could and I know Udonis Haslem
would shout out to a great career for Udonis Haslem that he is retiring and walking away. Shout out to him. Integral part of the Miami Heat three titles during his four titles. Three titles during his career. Integral part of them especially 06. He was in his prime.
He was in his prime in the LeBron D way there. He was coming out of his prime. Still contributed somewhat but you know it was an integral part of those three teams. He's been in all six of the finals. So again congratulations to Haslem on an amazing career.
I want to shout out to, it's a pretty strong offense to Chris Haynes question or comment about how, what question really about how it could just be the talent gap. How the Miami Heat are just not good enough to play against the Denver Nuggets.
You know eventually that undrafted second round pick thing has to come up. Now yeah it's one of those things where like at a certain point this has to be addressed. And so yeah Nicola Jokic is the youngest, he's the lowest draft pick ever to win a final Denver pick. He was picked 41.
Famously he was drafted during a taco bill commercial. You know if you watch the NFL draft it gets really popular in day three where run 4-7 where the picks are coming in so fast and these networks still have to do finances. They got to pay their bills.
And so they sell ads and stuff but these ads aren't pigeonholed by certain pick times now. They just come on. And so you may miss three or four draft picks that just come across the bottom of the screen in the ticker tape style because the ad space is running.
Now when it comes back to broadcast talk about oh this guy was picked here that guy was picked there etc. Well Jokic was in that same spot with the NBA. He actually was drafted during a Taco Bell Chalupa commercial which I believe is the combination between a burrito and a quesadilla.
So he was drafted during a Chalupa commercial. And so again the Haslam took offense to it but even Jokic was a draft pick. 41st the Miami Heat had multiple undrafted players playing heavy minutes here.
Then the Struce and Martins jumped out to me quickly. And then with the cast offs. The Charlotte Hornets cut Kayla Martin. Matt Struce was shipped off out of Boston.
You have Tyler Hero who fell a little bit in the draft. You have Kyle Lowry that was sent away from Toronto after they got their title. Jimmy Butler has been cast off multiple teams. He got cast out of Chicago. He got sent out of Minnesota. He got sent out of Philly.
It was not the land of misfit toys but in a way it was the land of misfits. You had an issue over here. Come join us. You were underdrafted here. Come join us.
You were free aging. You worked hard and you came. Come join us. It was the land of misfits. And ultimately they just didn't have the talent. They didn't have the size and the genetic makeup or anything to bang with the Denver Nuggets and to really make this a competitive series.
But now that we've talked about the runner ups, the second place guys, the guys who are going to fly back to Miami, sad. It's going to be a quiet plane ride I imagine. It is time to move on to the champs. The Denver Nuggets. They secured their first title in franchise history in the year 47 of the franchise existence.
It breaks the 2016 Cavs actually for the longest time without a championship. And so the Cavs did it in 45 years with the 46 years of the Cavs. It's the 47th year of the Nuggets where they secured that title.
A dominating postseason run. They won their first series in five against the Timberwolves. They played the Suns, beat them in six. Then they played the Lakers swept them. Then they played the Heat in the finals in one and five.
So they only saw one game six. They saw two game fives and one sweep. Absolutely dominating. Yolkiz led the playoffs. He's the first player ever to lead the entire playoffs in points, rebounds, and assists.
He won the unanimous finals MVP 11-0. He's the first center to win finals MVP since Shaq in 2002. He's the first player to receive the finals MVP award since the passing of the Russell. Fittingly, he was the center.
Shout out to Jamal Murray. Lisa Salter spoke about it like two years ago during this time. He could barely walk. He's an NBA champion. Shout out Mike Porter Jr.
He had an up and down series, but really in the last couple of games showed his growth as a basketball player because his shot wasn't falling. He was rebounding. He was defending. He was working on the glass doing whatever he could to contribute to the team even though the shot wasn't falling.
He had multiple, he had three or four back surgeries. You got a guy like Bruce Brown that was cast out of Brooklyn. You got a guy like Mike Malone, Coach Malone who probably if he starts his career four years later may be fired already.
But it's his eighth year as a coach and he secures his first NBA title. Shout out KCP. He now has his second ring. Very cute, trippley role player. It's Smith. 13 years, 13 teams. He's an NBA champion.
DeAndre Jordan. He spent those years in Lob City, had some other stops. He's now an NBA champion. Thomas Bryant who requested a trade from the Lakers was slandered a little bit on social media when he really didn't play that much or at all.
In Denver, he's now an NBA champion. Christian Brown won the NCAA championship last season. He's an NBA champion this season. Kudos to all those guys for missing anybody. My apologies. Not my intent.
Kudos to all those guys. They've been dominating all year. I just remembered I forgot one. Jeff Green. Long career. He had some scary stuff in the middle or early part of his career that could have ended his career.
Put a little thread down his life. He's now an NBA champion as well. Shout out Uncle Jeff Green. He's had some flashback dunk moments this past couple years. Shout out him as well.
The Nuggets are dominating all season. They were the one seed. They took over from the Pelicans. They were the one seed in December. They haven't looked back since. They ran through the West and they took care of the Eastern champion in five games.
So I guess kind of what does the next few months in the totality of the landscape look like? Because Denver, if you're Denver, you look like you're just running back. You may end up having to replace DeAndre Jordan, but you got Thomas Bryan already in the building.
You may end up having to replace Isch Smith, but he wasn't really a key contributor of any sort. So that's probably like a vet man. Probably some more Christian Brown situation. We'll figure that out.
But Yokelitch, Mary Porter, and Gordon are all signed for at least another two seasons. Christian Brown is on his rookie extension. Bruce Brown, that's probably a very negotiable contract. So is KCP. There's no reason why Stan Kronke shouldn't play.
We'll go into the tax for them in a couple years and see how many he can put together. So absolutely a big up to them. Going to the Miami Heat. What do you do? You can't grow. Literally and figuratively.
Max Struce. I don't know what you do with that. Duncan Robinson. I don't know what you do with that. Tyler Hero didn't play. Still, I don't know what you do with that. That Miami Heat are in an interesting spot because now with team building, they have to figure out a way to team build and fill holes.
They need a point guard. They need a dependable bucket and they need a big. I love Bam Metabio. He's 6'9". So they need somebody that when you play a Yokelitch, when you play an Embiid, when you play a Giannis, that can sit there when those guys are healthy and bang with them and make their life difficult.
I just don't think Bam Metabio is 6'9". Can do that effectively. Quick side note. Shout out Jamal Murray. He becomes the fourth player to ever average 20 points in 10 assists a game in the finals.
He joins Magic Johnson who did it in 87-88. Michael Jordan who did it in 91. LeBron James who did it in 17-18. And now of course Mr. Jamal Murray. So absolutely a monster accomplishment for him. He played incredibly well.
Pretty much in a lot of finals and a lot of situations, he's the final MVP. The issue is Nikola Yokelitch put up an amazing record-breaking playoff and he doubled down within the finals. Doing things from a center position that honestly shouldn't really be possible in terms of how he passed the ball, his feel for the ball, his command and control for the ball. It really shouldn't be possible how he does, how he plays the way he plays.
So kudos to Yokelitch. Kudos to Mike Malone. Stan Kronke is having a hell of a year and a half. He owns four American sports teams. They've all won a title in the last year and a half. Stan Kronke is living on cloud 18 right now in terms of winning championships.
But now let's take a look forward. Let's go with the first, let's say the next month is going to look like. And then moving on to let's say next year in the NBA. So for next month we're going to start off with the two teams in the finals and kind of expand out to the league.
So for the next month you have the Nuggets. I think they're on a mission. Resign the group back. Mike Malone said the last step after a championship was the dynasty. I think they believe they can win the dynasty. They can make a dynasty.
I believe they can make a dynasty. But the first step in doing that is to make sure you bring as many of your cohesive pieces back that contributed to your championship. And so I think that that's what they do this off season is they work their tails off to secure their roster as best as possible.
They may do a couple of small strategic acquisitions, but as much as possible they contribute to their other. They fight to resign their roster and to bring back and keep that cohesion.
I'm not sure what you do. I think Duncan Robinson has to get traded, but the issue is what are you trading for? Maybe him, Max Truth and a pick might get you Miles Turner. Maybe that situation has kind of been rectified a little bit in Indiana.
It's amazing what a nice contract would do to the spirit and soul. But that situation has been rectified a little bit in Atlanta. I don't know if Miles Turner is available right this second. There's Carl Anthony Towns rumors, but I don't think that they can offer enough to pry Carl Anthony from Minnesota.
Even though he's reportedly available, you still have to make a deal to the team that's presenting him. It makes sense. He's in free agency. He can pick and choose wherever he wants to go. Carl Anthony is pretty much tied into whatever Minnesota wants to do regardless of how he makes them feel about the situation.
If you're in Miami, you're looking to add size and dependable shooting and probably a point guard. Kyle Albers is 37. I don't know how many runs he's going to give it. I think you're going to be looking to build a little more shooting, a little more size and a point guard. It's going to be paramount to the success of the team next season.
Expanding out to the league as a whole, we have the Kyrie Irving situation. Now reportedly, if Houston doesn't come to a deal with James Harden, they'll be looking to make Kyrie Irving their star. To me, the message is clear.
In Meadowdooka, they're saying I need superstars to win in this game. If he can't get me Harden, I'll go with Kyrie and then we'll add around Kyrie later. It's obvious that they are trying to build a really good team really fast, but they're doing it not sacrificing their youth.
I wouldn't expect to see a lot of Jabari Smith, Kevin Porter, Jaylen Green kind of packages unless we're talking Bradley deals available. Okay, man, you got to make some choices. I wouldn't expect a lot of big, big packages. I think Kyrie Irving is appealing for that Houston team because they can get him a free agency.
They don't have to offer draft picks and draft capital, etc. to secure his service. The same thing with James Harden. It will be a reunion because Harden's had it. To me, he's the best year of his career in Houston. They ultimately didn't win due to some untimely injuries, but I think that Harden to Houston probably is the best case scenario for everybody.
He kind of gets off the main championship title hunting thing. He can shoot a bunch of shots. I think it's the perfect mix and combination for everybody involved that Harden ends up back in Houston.
Fred Van Vliet unsurprisingly turned out his $22.8 million player option. He's looking to get a long term, fairly decent money extension or contract rather. And so he is an unrestricted free agency and it's probably going to have multiple suitors of playoff teams looking to procure his services.
So all in all, it will be a very interesting offseason for Fred Van Vliet. Kind of that time to be perfectly recruited to be wined and dined and taken care of while you're trying to make your decision.
And now just for a little housekeeping news from me. As you guys know, I thought it would take about a couple weeks break. So look for me to record something around the week of the 26th that is right before the moratorium period in the NBA for NBA free agency.
Of course, I'll be tweeting, I'll be Instagramming, Facebooking, all that stuff, keeping you guys updated and informed about what I'm hearing in free agency, about what I'm hearing in the moratorium period, you know, what plans are going on for what teams, all that good stuff.
But it is going to be quiet in terms of podcast for a couple of weeks. Like I said, the week of the 26th, I'll definitely be back because the NBA free agency is July 1 and I definitely do not want to be caught lacking for July 1 in the NBA free agency.
So I hope you guys have a great rest of your day. Hope you guys have a great rest of your week. Again, congratulations to the Denver Nuggets, also carrying the franchise's first ever NBA finals.
Congratulations to Nikola Jokic. Oh, before I go, Jokic has officially entered that room. You know I spoke about there's a small little room in the GOAT discussion that Kareem LeBron and Michael Jordan hang out in.
In the international players room, in the Euro room, it says Jokic. He's by himself. He's the guy. He's the greatest European player ever.
And then you have foreign players, international players in general. I still think he's behind Hakim Olajuwon because Hakim's got two rings. I don't know about the MVP count, but yeah, multiple defensive player of the years.
He's generally regarded as one of the best defensive centers of all time, along with his amazing footwork. I just got to give Hakim the dream. The number one spot international players.
But then Jokic might be two. And then there's an all-time center room. It has Kareem in there, Bill Russ is in there, Wilton there, Hakim in there, and Jokic is in there.
Jokic is in the discussion for one of the greatest centers of all time. I would have him currently fifth. Off the top of my head, Russell Wilt Shack Hakim. Russell Wilt Shack Hakim Kareem.
He's sixth in the most prestigious room being the big man. He's in that room now. He's the top sixth center ever. So absolutely major kudos to Nikola Jokic. He's the best player on the planet. I give it up to him. The mantle is his. He's the best player on the planet.
Like I said, he's in that. He's the greatest European player ever. He's in the inner sanctum of centers. He is absolutely ridiculous. What he can do to basketball. Scoring it, passing it, defending it. He blatantly took a kickball because you can't get teed up kicking the ball.
So there's a pass back door. Jokic won't bend down to get it. He'll just kick it. It's a pretty effective strategy to back door cuts and things. He kicked the ball out of bounds. But congratulations nonetheless to Nikola Jokic, Jermon Ray, Michael Porter Jr., Coach Michael Malone, and the rest of the Denver Legos organization.
Onyx and Kronke. Kudos to you all. Absolutely great NBA season. Twitter talked about the season was so funny. It was a very unserious season. Things happened this season I never thought I would see on the NBA court. Never thought I would hear about on the NBA court.
Or right off the court. Absolutely insane year. But that's what makes the NBA so great. So if you're an NBA fan, come back here next year. Get all your NBA talk. If you're just a general sports fan, again in two weeks we'll be rolling, cranking back up with podcasts.
It's going to be the week of June 26th to get you guys ready for the moratorium period in the NBA. But again I'll be tweeting, Instagram, Facebook, all that stuff throughout the day anyway.
But again, this is all I have for you today. Congratulations again on your order to the Denver Nuggets and Nikola Jokic. Absolutely amazing performance. So kudos to them. But again, like I said, this is all I have for you today. This is your host, Justin Jackson, signing out.
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