NBA Finals MVP Winner (Hour 4)

MVP! MVP! MVP!

MVP! Aaron Gordon right now, through the first quarter of the NBA Finals, hickster, would be the MVP of the NBA Finals as the Denver Nuggets have a 27 to 20 lead. And right now, Aaron Gordon is 6 of 8 and has 12 points in the contest. How about that?

I did not see this one. That Aaron Gordon was going to be dominating the first 12 minutes of the NBA Finals. Dominant.

And you know what they're saying? The winner of the first quarter MVP award of game one of the Finals always wins the NBA Finals. So, betters, go to the book right now, put all your earnings, put everything on Aaron Gordon, Finals MVP while you can.

I know you're being a jackass there and marinating in sarcasm, but you actually have made me come up with something right on the fly. We just saw in the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference Finals, Nicole Jokic win the Western Conference Finals MVP. I don't think anyone is legitimately going to tell you he should not have got it, but you could have made a case for Jamal Murray easily. And in the Eastern Conference Finals, you will have people that will tell you that it should have been Caleb Martin, but it ended up going to Jimmy Butler. And that was very close, nine votes that you have, and it was 5-4 in favor of Jimmy Butler. And ironically, Reggie Miller, who all he did was kind of campaign for Caleb Martin in game seven, ended up voting. He was one of the nine voters. He ended up voting for Jimmy Butler. I'm really wondering, when you look at these NBA Finals, if Jimmy Butler's Miami Heat team wins, is there any way Jimmy Butler doesn't get the Finals MVP?

Can you make the case for someone else? I mean, the only other person I would probably say would be Caleb Martin and have him go off even more than he did in the Eastern Conference Finals. But if you're telling me the Heat right now win the Finals, I don't see anyone outside of Jimmy winning MVP. Only one player on the Heat has a chance.

Now let me clarify this. I do agree. I'm at like 98% if Miami wins that Jimmy Butler's going to win the Finals MVP. But I'll give my other 2% not to Caleb Martin, who was great in the last round. It's Bam Adebayo. Bam Adebayo is the biggest key for the Miami Heat this series. And so far, Bam, in 10 minutes, he has 4-6 from the field and has 8 points, and he pulled in two rebounds. But Bam is going to be enormous in this series, where he may actually be the biggest key for Miami. Because you know Jimmy Butler's going to do what Jimmy Butler does. But Bam Adebayo, if you just look at the last few years with Miami, even Miami fans kind of have a love-hate relationship with him.

Where now they'll tell you everything's great. But for a while, they didn't always love Bam Adebayo. Bam Adebayo. And I was on a Miami radio show, WQAM, 560 WQAM, legendary radio station. And I love their afternoon guys, Hochman and Crowder. And you hear Alejandro Solana, part of the Heat radio network.

And he's their producer, and he's been on this show a bunch during this run. And they had me on, they're like, how do you view Bam Adebayo? And I said, I don't view Bam Adebayo as a star. I view him as a really, really good player. Where there's some ups and downs, and I think he's more so of a three on a championship team than a two. And you just look in this last series, in the last few games where Miami was on the verge of blowing a 3-0 lead, and being the first team in the history of the NBA to blow a 3-0 lead, and Boston was going to win four in a row. Bam Adebayo was really a non-factor for them. And I think Denver is a better team than Boston. So if you want to slay this dragon that are the Denver Nuggets right now, with Joker, and with Jamal Murray, and Michael Porter Jr., and Aaron Gordon, and Contavious Caldwell Pope, and Bruce Brown coming off the bench, and Jeff Green still being in this league.

The elder statesman, I think he's like 36 or 37 years old. If you're going to beat this team, you need Bam Adebayo to be a number two piece on a championship team. You need him to be great. And I think there's too many inconsistencies with Bam Adebayo. Now I'm not knocking the guy and telling you like he stinks.

That would be just foolish. He's a really, really, really, really, really good player. And at times, he shows you that he could be a great player. But Hickey, for me, I need him to be not a good player in this series, not a very good player in this series, but I need him to be a great player because I don't think the Miami Heat can win this series if Bam Adebayo is not a great player. And so far, there's one thing talking about the offense. In that first quarter, points in the paint, 20 to 16 in favor of Denver. Bam Adebayo's defense is also enormous in this series. That's why I think, even though it most likely will be Jimmy Butler, because usually all MVPs go to who's the best player on the team, not necessarily the most valuable. In all likelihood, it would be Jimmy Butler as the best and most valuable, but Bam Adebayo, I think is the only player in the Heat that you can make that case could win the MVP in this series if Miami wins it and it's not Jimmy Butler. I definitely think his biggest impact will be defensively.

And if you are able to slow down Jokic and really kind of take control of the paint, not allow second chance points for Denver, that's where this series can be won for Miami. The tough part, at least in terms of MVP, that's what he actually played really well defensively against the Celtics. The issue for him was offense.

He was putrid for the most part. And that's where you look at the stats, you look at the numbers. A lot of people always do favor offense over defense. I know Andre Goudala with the Warriors won the MVP, so you can kind of get some wonky MVP winners. But most of the time in the NBA, you're not going to win an MVP based off what you did in the defensive side. Right. I would agree, which is why I would choose Caleb Martin as like the, if it can't be Jimmy Butler, who else would you choose?

You'll go Bam. I will go Caleb Martin just from the offensive, purely offensive perspective. Although I do think the defensive part about Bam is more important for the Heat to win the series.

Now I will say this, another person that you could make an argument for even before Caleb Martin, who was the best player for Miami in the last round, Tyler Hero. This could set up, like let's just say Denver loses tonight. And let's say Rick Kamla's right, where Rick Kamla believes he joined us earlier, that if the Heat win tonight, you won't see Tyler Hero to game three.

But if the Heat lose tonight, he thinks there's a very good chance that you could see him in game two. It's so early right now. There's 1054 remaining in the first half.

Denver's up 29 to 21. Let's just play into that. That if you're going to take Jimmy out of the equation, and you have Denver winning game one tonight, Tyler Hero comes back in game two and has an awesome game two. And we talked about how much of a run this has been for Miami. And they've had to overcome injuries and you get Hero back with the fresh set of legs. And we'll see how the hand does hold up. I kind of look at Tyler Hero. If you want to tell me, my first answer would be Bam. If it's not Jimmy Butler, if I had to give you a third answer, it would then be Tyler Hero.

How about that? Because the storylines could set up, even though it's really premature right now, for him to have a big impact on this series. I'm very afraid of the layoff for Tyler Hero in the sense that it's going to be almost now six weeks since he's last played. He has a hand injury, which now, you know, you talk about impact, you know, impacting your form and your shot. You're trying to just not only get back in rhythm for the first time in almost six weeks, you're also now trying to work on a shot that you haven't really been able to work on a ton either because it was a hand injury, not like a foot injury.

Have we seen him warming up the last few games with the cast off? So for me, that's why I'm skeptical of his having a big impact. I just think there's too many factors working against him to have him come in right away and also then be great.

Now for Denver, I think you can only make the case for two people. It's Nikola Jokic and then it's Jamal Murray. Most likely it will be Nikola Jokic because you just even kind of saw it in the last round with, even though that be in a sweep, how great Jamal Murray was. Joker just never plays poorly enough. Where even though I've been saying it all throughout the year, the best player for the Denver Nuggets is Nikola Jokic, but to win a championship, their most valuable player is Jamal Murray.

Joker doesn't play ever at a bad level. Like even when he's out at his best, he's still better than most of the players in the league, like 98% of the players in the league. And he's still able to go out there and get a triple-double and his ego, since it's really non-existent, if Jamal Murray's going off, he has no problem passing the ball off to Jamal Murray and seeing him score 23 points in a quarter. Jamal Murray can make a big push, but I still don't know if it will be enough for the physical award of the MVP, the Finals MVP to be handed out to really anyone other than Nikola Jokic. The only thing is if Miami says we're not going to allow Jokic to score. We're going to stop his scoring. He averages 30 points in the playoffs. Maybe a team that has done that since he's been in the league the last few years.

Oh, it's very tough. I get it. But if he's more, let's say, of a facilitator in this series than just a pure scorer, that's where I think the likelihood of someone else winning would ratchet up where Jamal Murray, let's say, is averaging 28, 30 points per game in this series.

Or look, I know it's one quarter. It's like a crazy, but if Aaron Gordon is basically left on an island and he has a size advantage every single game and they're going to let him beat him. He's not going to score 25 points. I would agree, but also at the same time, if that's what Miami is going to try to do, and like you said, you make Jokic a pass first guy instead of a score first guy, I would argue that's one where he's better anyways. I don't know if you want to do that if you're Miami, but if that's what they do, all of a sudden now you're going to get better looks and more opportunities for teammates, put up good numbers and maybe steal the award just because of Jokic just has, let's say 15 assists per game, but he's only only like 19, 20 points a game.

I just would wonder how the voters would look at that in terms of giving out the MVP trophy. Kind of if I'm Miami and this is going to sound weird because Nicole Jokic is the best player in the sport. I would just, and I know Spolstra right now is the best coach in the league, but if I, if I was Miami, I'd be like, let Nicole Jokic go get his, let him just go off and absolutely dominate and we will out effort the other four players on the court and just let Nicole Jokic beat you. And if that's the case, you could live with that because when you just look at the construction of the roster of Denver, Denver has a much better roster than Miami.

I'm more intimidated by a lot, a lot more players on Denver's roster than I am Miami. So with that being said, it's so tough to stop the rest of the team because the rest of the team, like Jamal Murray is phenomenal, but I would kind of just let Nicole Jokic get his and then just see the team that is like the definition of grit and defense in Miami. If they could just lock in on everybody else and you let one guy dominate instead of Denver gets to pick, oh, is it Nicole Jokic for half? And then is it Jamal Murray for half? And then Aaron Gordon and then Michael Porter Jr. It's, Denver's such a tough team to defend. And what makes them so tough to defend is their one, two punch is so phenomenal and Jamal Murray is back to being that bubble form that bubble form of Jamal Murray that a lot of us fell in love with.

And then he was able to survive and get through the ACL injury. And now we're like at a point where when you have both those guys on, they could almost alternate on who takes over the game. And here's the best part about it, Hickey, neither of them actually really care who leads the team to victory. Joker's fine with passing the ball off to Murray.

Murray's fine watching the brilliance of Nicole Jokic. And not that this is a super team, I'm not saying that, but a huge part of the championship team is knowing when to let other people eat. And sometimes ego absolutely destroys a team, but there's not really ego on this team. Like we talked about Jimmy Butler, how he's the alpha in Miami and he sets the tone. Nicole Jokic setting the tone and not really having an ego and not trying to be the star in the media or the star in all the endorsements. Or I forget who it was, Scott Hastings joined us when I did the show out of Philly. And he was saying was either when they got Aaron Gordon or Michael Porter Jr to the team. And I'm sure you remember this story that when something along the lines of like Nicole Jokic changed his routine and practice or went to another side of the court because that player liked to do something on that side of the court and do that.

And that's the guy who's, that's his organization. And that's what makes Denver so great. Not only do they have an incredible construction of the roster, but they don't really care who gets theirs and when they get there because they all know that eventually they're going to eat just with the way that this team is constructed. And that's what makes this team so hard to defend if you have Jokic as a pass first guy and it's I think almost impossible to win this series if you're in Miami if that's where he is. I think you can win this series if you're in Miami if he's scoring 40 points a game and no one else is really kind of going off. But if you are sitting here now and he's dishing out assists and Aaron Gordon's got 20, he's got 12 already right now in the game and Michael Porter Jr already has eight quick points and Joel Murray is doing his thing and next thing you know there's like four or five guys at any time on the court that can hit an open shot your defense is screwed. Your defense is screwed and for how good Miami's been especially on the defensive side of the court this entire post-season you can't slow them down. You cannot slow down this offense which is why I'm with you like make them be a scorer. First you can weather that storm better than if he's a facilitator and is getting all his teammates open looks like I said they're all selfless they all just want to win that's part of the reason why they've been so dominant this postseason is because they just want to win and they don't care who does it everyone for the most part has stepped up in a big way and you know offensively defensively it's a true team effort and that's why so far that they are cruising at least early on.

Mike Norvell going to join us coming up at 9 40 p.m eastern 6 40 p.m pacific we will move up the closing bell and we'll do that on the other side. T-Mobile's network can help keep you connected to all your favorite podcasts when you're out and about whether you're an early bird looking to dive into a daily news podcast or a night owl who wants to catch up on the latest reality tv drama T-Mobile will keep you connected on their strong and reliable network. T-Mobile covers more highway miles with 5g than anyone so if you need great coverage especially when you're on the go check out T-Mobile.

Find out more at T-Mobile.com. That's S-E-E-W-H-Y. You're listening to the Zach Gelb show. Another day is in the books and we're taking stock of the sports world. It's time to find out who's up and who's down.

Let's end the day right and hit the closing bell only on the Zach Gelb show. Tyler Herro. He may need to be the hero for the Miami Heat. Things aren't looking all too well for Miami in this first half. Adrian Wojnarowski did report today and remember a day ago Chris Haynes said that the heater targeting game three for a Tyler Herro return. Well Woj gave you better news today. He says he's hearing that game two now returns now looms as a possible return for one Tyler Herro so it's looking like you're gonna get Tyler Herro sooner rather than later in this series. That's good news for the Miami Heat.

Give them a stock up. Monte Williams the last two years I know three years ago he got to the NBA finals but the last two years no show up against Dallas in the final game of the season no show up against the Denver Nuggets in the final game of the season. He got sent packing. I didn't love that move by the Phoenix Suns because who you gonna bring in that's probably better and I don't think the answer's out there right now with the remaining candidates that they're interviewing as they trim down their list. Well Monte Williams clearly didn't want to go to Detroit and then Detroit threw the bag at him. I don't care what Monte Williams says this is such an overpay.

Six years seventy eight point five million dollars and the contract could actually reach up to eight years a hundred million dollars. That is please Monte Williams who is a good coach but isn't the savior come to Detroit and be the savior and I don't think that's gonna fit now. He'll coach a bunch of young players he'll develop players he'll be fine but is he gonna be worth that money I don't think so but good for him forgetting that money so give him a stock up. Joe Mazzola back with the Boston Celtics money probably played a factor into that but once again who are you gonna bring in that was better. You gonna bring back Doc Rivers yeah no thanks. You didn't get Nick Nurse.

I don't think you're bringing in Monte Williams as well and he just went to the Detroit Pistons. I'm fine with Mazzola coming back they got to find a way to have Jalen Brown who was an all NBA second team player this year take his game to that next level because he had a chance to step up in the moment when you had the rolled ankle by Jason Tatum he didn't do that but Joe Mazzola keeping his job at the Boston Celtics give him a stock up. Tom Brady even though he said he already said it which is it is not true he finally did admit it he's telling people he's done playing football and he's not actually going to return and he's looking forward to this next chapter as minority owner eventually with the Las Vegas Raiders and then a year from now joining the Fox broadcast team about time Tommy like I love Tom Brady but I didn't want to go through this entire year is he gonna return is he is he gonna stay retired it was just too much and you would need 24 owners to give the thumbs up to Brady coming back that's not happening anyway so we give a stock up to the GOAT for finally coming to the realization that he's retired and actually retired. I know this story is a few days old but it's worth mentioning so Liam Hendrix was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma I think December going back to last year and he made his return to a big league mound the other night just wanted to mention that we continue to wish him nothing but the best of health give Liam Hendrix a stock up. So Ted at Lasso has come to a close I know there's some speculation that the show is going to continue maybe they're going to focus on some of the other characters I'm not telling you that season three was the greatest thing that I've ever watched because it wasn't but people saying that season three was absolutely horrible I don't get it I like the stuff with Zava Sam's restaurant the development and the relationship between Jamie and Roy there were some things I didn't like and it did drag on a little bit too much but I thought the last two episodes were really really really good so I don't understand all these Ted Lasso haters for whatever happened in season three so give them a stock down. I'm going to continue on on the TV shows Real Housewives of New Jersey it's a spoiler spoiler spoiler please turn off your radio if you are a fan of that show and you haven't watched the reunion yet how anyone watches the first part of the union and still defends Teresa Giudice I don't understand you at all she is a nasty nasty woman and she's just a bad human being and I give her zero the benefit of the doubt so give Teresa Giudice a stock down to all of her crazy supporters. Did you see what Noah Syndergaard said Hickey your guy Noah Syndergaard one of your favorite pitchers of all time who now stinks he's like pitching like a 6.5 ERA he said he would give away his hypothetical firstborn to be the old him what happens when Noah Syndergaard has a kid well just like in in most coach speaks I don't live in hypotheticals you can tell as his kid we don't we don't do that so you're here I love you son I was just kidding that's going to be tough in like 10 to 15 years from now I'll give that range out there or maybe Noah Syndergaard would be like Al Pacino and I'll just be pumping out kids left and right until he's like 83 now that's a stock down we already gave him a stock down last night you you are you already missed the boat where you were going around enjoying that met Philly game that you were at last night so I don't know maybe Syndergaard's gonna wait till he's 80 something to have a kid but whenever that kid is born and he goes to Google and he sees this article in this quote that he would give away his hypothetical firstborn it's gonna be a bad job and a bad quote for Noah Syndergaard to explain so give a stock down to Noah Syndergaard and finally I did see that Eric Lewis who's the referee that's getting put under investigation right now by the league for what may or may not be his burner account he is not going to be refereeing the NBA Finals as he continues to be under investigation and if this is true then after what happened with Brian Colangelo and his wife which by the way Brian Colangelo's wife didn't actually follow me on one of her four burner accounts which I don't know why like I was a media member in Philadelphia but it's not as if at the time other than calling her husband lion Brian for a little bit that I was really destroying Brian Colangelo why she would be following me like I was a nobody then in Philadelphia but the fact that he saw the way saw the way that the Colangelo situation did play on out and he may have a burner account out there like we don't have it verified that Eric Lewis that this is his burner account but if him or his wife were dumb enough to actually create one that's just so stupid hickey after seeing what did transpire with Brian Colangelo and Philly what do you have to gain you're an egghead you're insecure well like oh Eric Lewis sucks no I don't wow boom roasted you got him there good job so if you're Eric Lewis you're just insecure if you're his wife you're just trying to support your husband and go to battle for your husband but it's dumb in this circumstance so give a stock down to Eric Lewis as he's not going to be uh refereeing the NBA finals because he's under investigation experiences are what people love most about travel with Viator you can browse and book tours and activities so incredible you'll want to tell your friends they offer everything from simple tours to extreme adventures and all the niche interesting stuff in between Viator has experiences in over 190 countries there's something for everyone plus Viator's travel experiences have millions of real traveler reviews so you have the information you need to book the best activities for your trip Viator lets you keep things flexible use reserve now and pay later to secure the activities you don't want to miss without being locked in whether you want to take a backstage tour of the grand old opry a miami bimini bahamas day trip by ferry or a private guided tour of the grand canyon Viator is for you download the Viator app now and use Viator 10 for 10 off your first booking one app over 300 000 experiences you'll remember do more with Viator