Yeah, we got a lot to get into now that technology is working.
I'm in Atlanta, Georgia. Thank you so much to Zach for holding it down for a few minutes after his show here on the Infinity Sports Network. Thank you to our producer in New York City for this show, helping us out tonight, Nico Scarlatos, who's also, like I said, in New York City, where the Nick fans are absolutely losing their minds right now. And so obviously, based on what we just discussed, Zach and I, there's a lot of basketball talk that we're going to get into. We'll talk about these obnoxious New York Knicks, or at least their fans. We'll talk about the Indiana Pacers. We'll talk about the team that decided to blow out the Nuggets yesterday on their way to a Western Conference Finals. We will talk about the Thunder. We'll be joined by Andrew Schlecht from the Athletic. He covers the Thunder. We'll talk about the Wolves. We'll get into the Boston Celtics, whose season is over. Nick Sirianni. He's not done in Philadelphia.
We knew that. He got himself a nice contract extension. He's not going anywhere. Paul Skeans, one of the most electrifying pitchers, one of the most electrifying players in all of baseball right now. There's a rumor that he might be traded. Like, what are we talking about? What are the pirates?
They wake up and become the Dallas Mavericks overnight? So there's a lot for us to get into. If you want to be a part of the show, you always can. You can call us up. Here is the number. 888-710-4ISN.
That's 888-710-4ISN. You can find me online everywhere at JR Sport Brief. Nico, how you doing, man? You good? I'm good, yeah. Happy Monday to you.
Happy Monday. You a Knicks fan? Yes, sir. Very proud one.
Okay. So many people associated. Obviously, this station is based in New York. How you feeling about the Knicks? Are you optimistic the Knicks are going to make the finals?
How you feeling about this? Yeah, I don't know if I can guarantee that they win it because the two teams in the West are very good. But I really do think that the Knicks are better than the Indiana Pacers. Okay.
And why is that? Give me some meat here, Nico. Well, I just think that they lost to them in seven last year. And that was without Karl-Anthony Towns and Mikhail Bridges. And a very injured Knicks team. I mean, Ojianna Nobe was hurt. Josh Hart was hurt. Jalen Brunson was hurt.
Give me this Knicks team healthy against the Pacers and let's see what happens. Now, you weren't... I hear you. You weren't amongst those fans out there that was like throwing trash at that guy. And you weren't out there, right? I was not. I was back home on Long Island. Okay.
Smart, smart man. Why do you think Knicks fans are such a pain in the ass? I think they're just excited. I mean, we haven't seen this type of success in New York in so long.
Oh boy. But why specifically New York? Why don't we see other fan bases?
Okay. In Philadelphia, they climb poles and act nutty. And I think a lot of that, and I might be wrong, has to do with, I don't want to say Philadelphia, a college town, but there's so many colleges downtown in a close proximity that I think people just, they wild out. There's no colleges, massive colleges of note, dead smack in the middle of Manhattan, where it's just like, we're going to have a bunch of people outside partying.
Why specifically New York? Thunder fans, I get it. They're not acting nutty. They had success in the past with Durant. They've been to a finals, Westbrook and Harden.
Minnesota, I heard people in Minnesota, St. Paul, the Twin Cities are very nice. They're not acting. Why New Yorkers specifically? I think it's just a testament of how much this city cares about their sports teams.
Okay. So people in Oklahoma City, they don't care about their team? They do, but I don't know if that has much. I mean, what else they got going on besides basketball and football and oil?
I mean, I guess that's a, that's a fair point, but I don't know. It just seems like the passion that New Yorkers have is so much bigger here than it is in other places. And I'm not from Oklahoma City. I've never been there.
I don't know what those fans are like, but New York is just a different breed. Okay. Yeah. I don't know. Maybe it's more access to alcohol or drugs. Maybe there's more to do.
I don't backdrops for social media. I have, I have no idea, but the New York Knicks have obviously advanced. They beat the living hell out of the Celtics on Friday. They're moving on. It's been a party in New York the entire weekend. And so we're just getting started.
Thank you again to Zach for holding things down at the open of the show. We're going to get into those Knicks. We're going to talk about the Pacers, but before we do anything, we have to talk about the teams that are done.
We're going to take a break. When we come back, we'll talk about the Denver Nuggets. Nikola Jokic sat in front of a microphone and he pretty much said, yeah, obviously we, we, we not good enough to win.
We need a new team. I'm paraphrasing, but that's basically what he said. It was a strong statement for a guy who typically doesn't say a lot. So we'll hear from Jokic. I mean, on the Boston Celtics side, we know this season is over. Tatum season is over.
And then we had Brown running around with a torn meniscus, partially torn meniscus in his knee. Zach asked me, we're going to get into Angel Reese and Kaitlin Clark. Just the story that doesn't end. They're going to be locked together, intertwined for as long as they are in the WNBA.
We got a lot to get into. It's the JR Sport Brief Show. Happy Monday Coast to Coast on the Infinity Sports Network. It is the JR Sport Brief Show here with you Coast to Coast on the Infinity Sports Network, 888-710-4ISN.
That's 888-710-4ISN. Right before we went to break, we took a look at what the hell is going on with New York and their crazy behind fans. They do not know how to act, but yesterday down in Oklahoma City, that there was a, a big party.
It was a big party inside. I didn't see anybody throwing garbage at anyone. I didn't see anybody yelling at reporters and cursing people out because of their predictions. I just saw the Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Denver Nuggets, 125-93. I mean, outside of that, that first quarter where the Nuggets had a lead and then squandered the lead, the Thunder ran away with the game. Shea Gilgus Alexander, 35 points. And Jalen Williams, he decided to wake up again. He had 24 points. Alex Caruso was actually out there playing defense on Jokic. He chipped in 13 points, excuse me, 11.
Chet Holmgren had 13. And next up for the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Minnesota Timberwolves. They get going tomorrow in game one of the Western Conference Finals and OKC, of course, since they are the number one overall seed. Now, what does this mean for the Denver Nuggets? Well, it means that Jokic can go back to Serbia and he can hang out with his horses. You know, he can ride a boat. I don't know. He can he can get on the tractor.
I have no idea what he's going to do. But I know that this Denver Nuggets team is not good enough to win anything. Despite the injuries to Aaron Gordon, he's dealing with or was dealing with a hamstring issue, still gutted it out and played, had 11 points yesterday. 11 rebounds to go along at eight points, I should say. You also had Michael Porter, Jr. for the majority of the series is dropping two and three points because he can't move his arm. He had the he had a shoulder issue. I mean, we had Jamal Murray running around.
He was sick the other day, had a big game yesterday. He only had 13. And Jokic in the final game of the season, 20 points, nine rebounds, seven assists. This team is a long way off from having guys like Bruce Brown, Kentavious Caldwell Polk. You even think about old man Jeff Green, guys who played defense, guys who knew how to shoot the ball and just got the job done. Jokic doesn't have that that luxury. He has an old Westbrook who can cut to the basket. He has a bunch of young players, Strother and Brown. These dudes are unproven and not big time shot makers. And the Nuggets, despite winning another 50 games, they're going home.
And Jokic, kind of crazy. I've never heard him speak like this before. He was asked about the team and whether or not they are good enough to come back and win next year. And he's like, did you just see us lose? Obviously, we're not good enough.
Listen to this. I mean, we didn't. So obviously we can't. If we could, we will win it.
So I don't believe in those if stuff. So we had the opportunity. We didn't win it. So I think we can't.
Oh, damn. We had an opportunity. We didn't do it. I don't think we can.
Damn. Tell me how you really feel if you're in that locker room with Nicole Jokic. You think about the Denver Nuggets. This is a team that just got rid of their head coach before the season started and Michael Malone. They just got rid of Calvin Booth, the GM.
Those two guys didn't get along. They had an interim head coach and David Adelman who came through and picked things up. Russell Westbrook is he has like a contract option. I'm sure he's just going to pick it up in return. Like this is a team that.
They're not good enough to win. That's that's quite apparent. We knew that was going to be difficult when guys started walking. The first dude was was Bruce Brown. He couldn't get paid enough and he's gone. A matter of fact, Jamal Murray, who is going nowhere, he just got a contract extension before the season started.
Jamal Murray was asked if there are changes coming to Denver. I just focus on what I can do out there. You know, I look at you know, the shots that I had, the great looks that I had and how I can help this team win. You know, that's above that's above my pay grade. I just do what I have to do out there and focus on that.
And that is a question for another person. Listen, I'm not mad at him. Not my job. They pay me to shoot the basketball, OK? They don't pay me to put the roster together.
They pay me to shoot the ball. Aaron Gordon, he could barely run up and down the court. This is one of the biggest high fliers in the entire league and slam dunk contests and flying all over the place. He had some big threes as well throughout the course of this series. Aaron Gordon was asked about the core of the team and if they can still go out there and win.
This is what he said. Confidence doesn't waver. A couple of plays here and there could have changed the series. Yeah, confidence doesn't waver. I have full confidence in everybody in that locker room that we can do what we need to do and get it done. OK, so answering the question is not above his pay grade. Nikola Jokic is the most influential guy on the entire team. It's not above his pay grade to answer the question, but Jamal Murray is like ain't got nothing to do with me.
So quit asking. Here's what the Denver Nuggets can do. This is about the only thing that Denver Nuggets can do to legitimately get back into playoff contention, and it's going to be tough because I don't know who the hell would want him, but.
It's it's Michael Porter junior. Like that's the guy who's supposed to go out there and and help out and he's he's nothing and I get it in this offense. What is he expected to do? Nothing. Just catch the ball.
And shoot it. He provides nothing else. I mean, what is it just that he just stands around and watches Jokic and waits for the ball to come his way. I mean, on the season he averaged 18 points to assist because when he gets the ball he shoots it. He ain't passing it back to anybody. He's knocking down 40% of his threes. He doesn't really offer anything else. And you think about his career.
God bless him. He's 26 years old. He was expected to just be an injury case with the back problems dating back to college. He's been durable, played 81 games last season, played 77 this year. He's about the only thing that you can move. Or you can take a look at Michael Porter junior and you could find some sucker on another team, another GM to say, hey, we'll add him. But then what the hell you get in return?
I have no idea. Like this is what the Nuggets need. They need more shooters.
They need people out to go play defense. This man is six foot 10 and is a bean pole. And I mean, the expectations for him were to be a borderline all star. That's not who he is. He gets ball, shoots ball.
And that's it. That's not going to be good enough for the Denver Nuggets. I'm really afraid that what we've seen with the Nuggets, they they pee. I don't know what you can do with Jokic or who you can move. Aaron Gordon isn't going anywhere. Jamal Murray just got paid. He definitely isn't going anywhere.
And then you think about Nicola Jokic. He's 30 years old flat. OK, his contract runs until twenty twenty eight. He's stuck there. He's not going anywhere. And I think this is what the new NBA is.
This is why even this year we're going to crown a new champ. Because you can easily become a victim of your own success. You can't keep your core together after you win a championship.
Guys are able to get money elsewhere. You're locking in guys into contracts that are basically you can't move them. And so you win and you lose with who you have. Denver Nuggets are stuck.
I hate to be the one to say it. I think they're going to have to run the same team back unless they are part of some type of mega trade. There is no one for one deal that's going to fix things. And one thing the Nuggets do not need right now, the Nuggets don't need young players. They've got enough of them. Are they all going to wake up and mature and be solid contributors and consistent NBA vets right out of the gate just over one offseason?
I don't think so. Look how long it took Christian Brown to evolve to who he is. And I mean, he has some games in this series where it's just like, bro, please just don't shoot the ball. And you could tell he was afraid to shoot the ball. That's not helping the Denver Nuggets win the damn thing. I think Nikola Jokic, for as amazing as he is individually, I think his Denver Nuggets team, I think it's peaked. The same way that Giannis Atakounmpo up in Milwaukee. He's now going through multiple coaches. He's going through MVPs. He has a finals MVP. He has a championship. Giannis' time is likely done.
They got everything that they could out of that Milwaukee Bucks team. Now it's old. It's done. Nikola Jokic, he has his three MVPs. I doubt he ever gets his hands on another one.
We know it's going to Shay Gilgus-Alexander. He has an NBA championship, a finals MVP. I doubt he gets another one, not as the lead dog and not on his Denver Nuggets team, because I think they're screwed.
I think they're stuck with what they got. And that's bad for Nikola Jokic, who is one of the best basketball players. Forget one of the best big men. He's one of the best basketball players that we have ever seen before.
And so Nikola Jokic was asked about what he's going to do now that the season is over. Take a listen. I need to decide over there is a EuroBasket, the European championship. I need to decide that.
I need to talk with the coaches and with some of the main players, let's say like that. And we will see, you know, but from now, like next couple of days, there's going to be a lot of beer probably. Yeah.
Yeah. He'll think about basketball, but for right now, he's thinking about beer. Don't, don't call, don't call the, don't, don't, don't call Luka.
Don't call him. Okay. Luka is trying to avoid the beer. Yeah.
We don't need any beer for Luka Doncic. Hey Nico, you think this Nuggets, do you think they got a chance to build? I feel like they peaked, man. Yeah.
I mean, it's going to be, like you said, it's tough to move any of those contracts. So I guess they have no choice, but to run it back. But also they, they almost beat the Thunder, right? They took them to seven. Yeah.
Well that's, that's the max. I mean, is the goal to, to just go there and hope for the best? Or do you, is the goal to just beat the living hell out of people and, and win a championship?
No, you're right. Obviously it's to win a championship. But like Aaron Gordon said, if a couple of things go a different way or two, they might find themselves beating the Thunder. And then if they were able to beat the Thunder, why wouldn't they have been able to beat the Timberwolves and whoever comes out of the East? A touché. But I think every year, as teams go to look for improvement and tinker, like it's without a shadow of a doubt, one of their issues for the Denver Nuggets throughout the court, and this is from when they won the championship, is depth.
Okay. They didn't win no championship last year. That did not happen. They didn't win it this year. I mean, with this roster, you heard it from Jokic, he doesn't expect for them to win it next year. What's going to change? I mean, everybody on every team, every team that has certainly advanced, everybody gets a break.
And sometimes that break comes down to health. We see where the Golden State Warriors are not playing. Steph Curry went down, not healthy, but they also don't have size.
Everything has to go right. The New York Knicks, they're still playing. Everybody says that Tom Thibodeau runs his players into the ground. His guys are healthy. I can't believe Mitchell Robinson is actually in the playoffs healthy enough to play basketball. Minnesota looks good and healthy. I mean, Ben Matherin, he wasn't available for the Pacers run last year. He's running around the Oklahoma City Thunder.
They all look good. And so everybody gets a break. But how are you going to put talent on the roster that can kind of, you know, take a bump here or there and help hold you down? Denver Nuggets, I think they are screwed. I have no idea what they can do this year.
It might be just a lateral move just to go ahead and shake things up. Keep in mind, this is a Denver Nuggets squad right now. They don't have a full-time coach. Adelman has not been given the job. They don't have a GM. We know Calvin Booth got the boot at the same time as Michael Malone. The Denver Nuggets have a lot to figure out. Meanwhile, they got one of the greatest players that we've ever seen in his prime. And the Nuggets, they're kind of stuck in the middle.
They're screwed. It's the JR Sportbreeze Show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. 888-710-4ISN.
That's 888-710-4ISN. We are going to take a break. When we come back, speaking of injuries, we're going to talk about another team that was eliminated over the weekend on Friday night. It's the Boston Celtics. Oh, you thought Tatum was the only dude with an injury? How about his co-star?
He's been playing with an injury the entire postseason. We're going to talk about Brown. We'll talk about another team in the Celtics that, how the hell can they improve in the offseason?
I think the answer is, they can't. I'll explain on the other side. We have a lot to get into.
We talked briefly about Angel Reese and Kaitlyn Clark. The beef in the battle continues on. We have so much to get into. Shout out to all the truckers out there making the economy move, making the products move, the services, the goods. Shout out to everybody out there making money on the road. 887-710-4ISN. That's 888-710-4ISN. I need you to think O'Reilly Auto Parts for all of your car care needs.
Get guaranteed low prices and excellent customer service from the professional parts people at O'Reilly Auto Parts. Right before we went to break, we talked about the Denver Nuggets whose season is over. That was yesterday.
Yesterday afternoon in a blowout. Saved me some time at the end. I was hoping for a good game.
I didn't get it. Was excited at the beginning of the game and then things just went haywire for the Nuggets. They ran out of gas and then they basically got ran out of the building. A similar situation to what we saw on Friday night. While we were live on the air here, I think the game might have ended, well it was it was already a beat down.
I think it ended after we left. But the Boston Celtics blown out by the New York Knicks in Madison Square Garden 119-81. And now we already know that Tatum, he went down. This man has a torn Achilles. We have no, a ruptured Achilles, excuse me. We have no idea when he's going to come back, when he's going to return. We also learned that Brown, Jalen Brown is dealing with a partially torn meniscus in his knee.
And he's been playing with this and through this since March. We didn't know the severity of the knee issue. He did have to sit down and sit out some games towards the end of the season and was ready to go by the time the playoffs started. But this stinks for him because imagine now a possibility with Boston Celtics are without Tatum and Brown for next season. They might as well just tank for a high draft pick and keep it moving.
Why the hell not? I mean you got a new owner coming in. You got these big contracts that are going to start being paid out to Tatum and Brown and they kick in this upcoming season. You might as well try to bring in some cheap talent who can help you into the future.
At least have some options and some assets. And so the Boston Celtics with Brad Stevens, he actually spoke today about Jalen Brown. And we don't know. He's going to rest, but he's going to be evaluated to see whether or not he needs surgery. And if he does, what does that mean for him? Is he going to miss a month, two months, three months?
How long? Is he back at the top of the year? We have no idea.
We don't even know if he needs to get cut open. Brad Stevens, he says, you know what? I hope that this dude is cool just by sitting down and not playing basketball.
The knees in a good place structurally. And so, you know, I think he felt comfortable getting out there and going after it. And, you know, hopefully, you know, he'll, you know, feel better after being off of it for a couple of weeks here. Well, there ain't no guarantee in that. I wish everything just got better with Russ, but that's not how things work. Derek White is under contract. He's not going anywhere. You still have Kristaps Porzingis.
Al Hallford is old, so he might go. I don't want to say this is a team in the same position as the Denver Nuggets because the Celtics have depth. That's it. Like what they didn't have this postseason was health. Kristaps Porzingis is running around with a mystery illness. He can't run up and down the court. He had four points in 11 minutes. He's seven foot three.
I don't know. I don't know what his issue is, but he can't catch his wind. He can't catch his breath. And Joe Mazzola has to sit him down.
It's unfortunate. Jalen Brown running around with a torn meniscus in his knee, partially torn meniscus. This man averaged 22 points here in the postseason. And when Tatum went down, he couldn't carry the load by himself. It's impossible. The Boston Celtics are another team.
I think unless it must be real. You can't move an injury. They're not moving Tatum. Tatum is not going anywhere. Brown would be the best candidate to potentially move on and not with a big contract coming up in a partially torn meniscus. How the hell you get rid of Kristaps Porzingis is impossible.
You're not getting anything high on him. Why would you get rid of Derek White? Peyton Pritchett is the sixth man of the year, but I guess you can shrug your shoulders if the other guys, the stars are hurt. What does it matter if he's even on the team?
Doesn't. The Boston Celtics are just, I think, like, like the Nuggets, the Nuggets, I think have a better chance of running things back next year with the same team and getting the same results. The Celtics got a couple of guys that they can move. I don't know what major move that they're going to make.
I don't know if there is a major one. It'd have to be a minor tweak to go ahead and get things adjusted. Nico, how do you feel about these Celtics? I feel like they, they, they're going to run back a similar team next year. And that's, that's pending what happens with Brown.
Yeah. I mean, I don't know if it's to the point where they should tank. I mean, I guess you make a lot of sense where it's like, they're probably not going to win an NBA title without Tatum or even possibly without Brown as well. But I still think there are enough pieces for them to be a playoff team. If the, those other guys that we're talking about are healthy, like, you know, Derek White and Kristaps Porzingis, if they can stay healthy, we've seen the Celtics before still be good enough to win games without Jason Tatum.
So I don't see why they can't compete at least to stay relevant. You're saying if Brown is out there playing. Right.
Yeah. Jalen Brown is healthy. I think they are still good enough, maybe not to compete for a title, but they are good enough to still make the post season. For all of that, I'm telling Brown, just sit down, bro. Sit out a year.
Like take, take it easy. Cause it doesn't, at that point, what's, what's more valuable if I'm the Celtics and I know this year I'm not winning a championship, why bother? I mean, not from a business perspective, you still want fans to show up.
You want butts in seats. You want to sell the fan base on what you can do, or you can, I would say smartly, just throw in a towel on the season and try to develop players. Cause if there's no Brown and there's no Tatum, they're screwed. And if they're missing one out of the two, they're screwed just like they were this year.
And so I'm taking the approach of if I have no Brown, if I have no Tatum, I'm, I'm, I'm throwing in the towel, man. Drew holiday is 34. He ain't getting any younger. Chris Staps Porzingis after this season has one more year left on his deal. You know, he'll be playing for a contract. So maybe Chris Staps will show up for a regular season. I don't know, do something like play 70 games, which seems impossible given his body and his size. The Celtics are in a spot right now where they're, they're in an ownership transition.
They're paying all of these players a crap ton of money. Al Harford is about the only free agent on the squad that they could just say, all right, bye. And then at that point, yeah, he's, he's good as well. He, he spaces the floor.
He's a veteran. Do you want to bring him back on another cheap old deal? Possibly, but that's, that's not moving the needle towards a championship.
Where the Boston Celtics are. Well, this year is a wash. Let's go set it. Let's put it that way. I mean, even if Tatum comes back in, I don't know, April, let's say, or he comes back in February, they're going to turn things on and compete for a title.
I mean, that, that would be best case scenario. But once we find out about Brown and see what happens, we'll, we'll go from there. I guess it's good that he played through the injury.
I guess that's indicative of being good. I mean, Brad Stevens, he talked about Brown just playing through this issue. Listen, the good news is, is, you know, I think first of all, Jalen wants to play Jalen's a competitor. Jalen's a warrior. Jalen, you know, takes great pride in being out there. Okay.
All right. Well, they paying him a lot of money. They playing a Tatum, a lot of cash. I mean, over the next few years, these dudes contracts are going to jump up to something crazy. I mean, last year of Tatum's contract, there's going to be 2030.
That's a player option. He's going to have the opportunity and the ability to make $70 million. Just in that singular season, $70 million in the final year of Jalen Brown's contract.
In 2029, he'd be making $64 million. And these are the type of deals now that in the NBA, you just go, you really, are you trading guys one for one? Because this is where we're going. Like you can no longer cobble together, you know, three bums and trade on three. I don't want to call these guys bums, but you can't package together three also rands and just say, I'm going to trade three guys for one star and the salaries are matched up.
You can't do that anymore. And so we talked about this with the Denver Nuggets. When you got these contracts and you have these stars and you have these big names, you're stuck.
It's stuck. I think ultimately, and this isn't an immediate thing. This is not this off season.
This is not next year. I'd be shocked. Man, I'm surprised to be honest that I didn't expect them to win a title together. I'd be surprised if Brown and Tatum spend their entire primes together.
I'd be very surprised. Let's see what the Boston Celtics do. A lot of it is not going to, you know, hold on to what's going on with Tatum. It really depends on what's going on with Brown. Is he going to need to go underneath the knife? Or is he just going to wait out the rest of the season and just come back next year for a Celtics team that will do absolutely nothing?
A lot of big money being passed around with the Boston Celtics, including a $6 billion pending sale. Whoever comes in is going to say, hey, let's, are we winning? No. Yeah.
Okay, fine. I just spent a lot of money on this team. Let's chop some of this payroll down. I think that's coming to Boston Celtics way. It's the JR sport re-show here with you coast to coast on the infinity sports network. It's crazy how fast time flies and how fast things could change. When we come back on the other side of the break, I told you, we will have a guest. Andrew Schlecht is going to join us next hour to talk about this Oklahoma City Thunder team.
They got a bunch of young guys and they're not on massive contracts. And then speaking of young, this is a young budding growing rivalry, angel Reese versus Caitlin Clark. What is this? I don't know.
This would be season three, man. They got it going over the weekend and people are up in arms. People is about race. It's not about race. These two ladies hate each other. They don't hate each other. I'm going to tell you what the hell the issue is on the other side, the JR sport re-show the infinity sports network.
