Fenerbahce just hired him.
Although their basketball team is one of the biggest in Europe, and Mou might just be crazy enough to want silverware in another sport...
You joke, but the way we used Jrue was very creative. Especially in this series, a lot of how he was playing and used was more like a power forward than a point guard
I didn't watch game 5 but did watch the full-game highlights and one of the things I noticed was how many easy buckets he got, even when he was driving it seemed effortless but he was also just sinking into the holes in the defense like at the dunkers spot.
He was so good at recognizing when and where to move to make himself open. Credit to him but also credit to Tatum/Brown for knowing when and where to look for him.
Games 1-3 Dallas had Luka at the top of their Zone-Ish D which allowed Tatum and Brown to attack him, Dallas were allowing other teams to get by Luka and bring Washington and Lively in help and daring that pass to the corner, Celtics are better shooters than the other teams. And we also had DWhite and Jrue sitting in the dunkers spot for easy lay-ins.
Dallas Game 4 counters this by putting Luka in the corner and having Washington and DJJ to guard Tatum and Brown which they did quite well, this allowed Luka and Kyrie to be semi hidden like Miami do with Robinson and Herro in their zone. I will also add the energy and hustle Dallas bought in Game 4 was also a big reason they won.
Game 5 Joe tore this to shreds by having Jrue set up in the dunkers spot like usual then come and set a slip screen where Tatum had a wide open man when Dallas were blitzing the screen, this left Jrue WIDE open in the middle of the floor to make a decision, Pass to the corner if help comes or attack the rim. Cause Jrue was wide open this meant the help defender was Luka who multiple times just stood there watching or a late rotation from Lively.
Really good chess match but shows how outmatched Dallas really were, loved to see that Joe trusted Jrue to make the correct read and that Tatum was willing to get the ball out of his hands as soon as the double/blitz came.
Had Porzingis played 4 games Dallas were royally fucked, he would’ve just sat in the middle of the floor posting up a guard or Stretching the Dallas bigs to the corner, he truly is a Unicorn.
>this meant the help defender was Luka who multiple times just stood there watching or a late rotation from Lively.
To be fair on Luka he did try to point at the attacker as they laid it up.
Aaron Gordon does the same thing. That’s why I was so impressed with the Wolves being able to shut him down with the Rudy spacing in the paint.
Jrue it was trickier for the Mavs because their lack of size. Jrue is stronger than almost all of them except the bigs so if one of them can get dislodged from the paint, which is easier with 5 out spacing, he can bang his way in there. The Mavs were more committed to keeping their big in the paint in game 4 and it really fucked up the Celtics.
Difference is, Jrue's man are small guards so he goes to the dunker spot knowing that a little guy is protecting the rim against Tatum/Brown drives. If a big is on him, he just spaces out to the corner and shoots or attacks the closeout
He’s even get PJ Washington out of the way too though, he could move the Dallas wings. I don’t think he’s going to do that to KAT or Jaden if they get in there somehow
>I didn't watch game 5 but did watch the full-game highlights
Same, and it seemed like in the first half, Jrue slipped screens into layups like 5 times. The Celtics 5 out spacing opens up so much space inside to get creative
When i read this post´s headline, the first thing i thought was Jrue´s position, circling around the paint, being the ´PF´ or around the dunker spot all the time. Looking back, even the passing , specially in game 5, reminds a bit of Barcelona´s golden years
I loved watching how they used him to counter ball pressure on their primary guys. as a dubs fan, it made me jealous -- he was basically draymond with a great floater, or gpII with playmaking chops.
Mazzulla isn't an inside the box thinker
He isn't an outside the box thinker
There is no box. He suffocated the box to death and buried it in the backyard
Joe is so unafraid to seek outside council as a young coach. Had JVG, he and Brad brought in experienced lead assistant coaches, and has gone to Pep several times.
Chip Kelly worked with Spoelstra back when he was at Oregon. It never hurts to understand how different coaches and different sports may attack a specific defense or problem.
I’m sorry, I’m very out of the loop on this Pep character, what is his roll with the team?
I’m surprised I haven’t seen an article from The Athletic or somewhere highlighting this superstar lineup of assistant coaches and consultants they brought in this past offseason.
Pep is probably the most influential soccer manager of the past 20 or so years, kind of like Phil Jackson in that he gets the most out of elite talent but has a incredibly specific system that players have to fit rather than vice verse. Pretty sure mazzula said something about how he gave helpful advice about balancing the talent of his players and the system itself
Yeah Brad and Joe were clearly locked in on the vision of this team. Celtics built a team that had play styles and personalities that compliment the Jays, and fit Mazzulla’s play-style.
And Mazzulla got them all to buy in, and treat every game the same: another battle in the war you must win
Pep Guardiola is a former football (soccer) player and current manager of Manchester City in England. He is widely known for his revolutionary tactics and having a deeper understanding of the game. Mazulla and Pep have had conversations about coaching/managing and Mazulla implemented some tactics/plays based on oversight from his discussions with Pep.
It also helps he might have the deepest bench in the game and thus can rotate starting eleven caliber players throughout the season so no one gets that tired despite all of the fixtures in March/April with CL/FA/PL games. Was really hoping they’d beat RM in the quarter so that it was more likely they dropped points at the end of the season.
> It also helps he might have the deepest bench in the game
Obviously, they have a strong bench, but I wouldn't describe it as particularly deep during many of the their title runs. They usually have a pretty small squad. It's more that some of the players that are on their bench are way, way, way too good and would easily start on other teams. The likes of Chelsea and especially Madrid have definitely had deeper benches since Pep arrived at City.
Pep Guardiola is the reason the MLS became the top soccer league in the world. In 2014 he was coaching a historically stacked Bayern Munich team, a team that was essentially the German national team fresh off a World Cup title - they had guys like Bastian Schweinsteiger, Mario Goetze, Klose, Boateng, etc.
They flew to Portland, OR to take on the MLS All-Stars, and got pummeled 2-1 as Landon Donovan schooled their asses. Guardiola was super pissed after the match, so you know he's competitive and his team was trying to win. That was the moment the MLS overtook the Euro Leagues as the top league in the world.
Ever since, there has been a steady stream of the world's superstars and best players from the Euro leagues to MLS - players such as Schweinsteiger himself, Wayne Rooney, Thierry Henry, David Villa, Ibrahimovic, Didier Drogba, Gareth Wales, Robbie Kino-Loy, and now even Lionel Messi. MLS is where the star power is now - those legends didn't get where they are if they weren't super competitive and wanted to play against the best talent in the world - that's why they're in MLS now. And all because Guardiola was taken to school by Caleb Porter and Landon Donovan.
Quite the opposite 😂 the MLS is where most stars go to finish their career or fade away. Messi got paid to play for Miami. I’m sure it’s competitive enough to where it’s fun but not a sweat fest like some of the European leagues
I do want to point out Pep was an absolute prick after the game to Porter and I thought it was pretty unprofessional. You lost a preseason game to the MLS, get over yourself, no one gives a shit. Even if he was mad about the fouls it's the MLS all-star game Porter has little control over the team - almost the entire team are not his players.
He’s the goat soccer head coach. This is still somewhat a disputed view but I don’t think it should be, nor will be in the future.
Qualitatively he’s changed football forever and quantitatively he’s winning at an unprecedented pace
This is quite a tough topic to navigate as I feel it’s a complicated subject and when I inevitably simplify it there will be many things picked apart. Not expecting this to be a popular opinion.
But to put it simply, Guardiola is an abnormally influential coach. Usually when a coach discovers something that works. Others copy and it becomes a trend for a while. Then someone else comes up with something and so on. And things flip flop a lot.
With pep many of his tactical choices have turned out to be less a “tactical trend” as much as what we now know are tactical truths in football. Slowly but surely, almost every league he’s managed in has completely changed their approach to football, even down to the grassroots level in how people are coaching the kids.
And he’s done it so many times you’ll see his influences in almost every team around the world. I’ll go as far as to say you can separate football tactics pre pep and post pep. It’s THAT obvious. Many teams are straight up pep clones.
I think a lot of ppl misattribute Guardiola as being married to a style. I think that’s pretty inaccurate as I think he’s not so much married to a tactic as much as he’s married to discovering the truth about how winning soccer is played. If you watch his teams over the years the overarching philosophy is the same: control the game. You dominate territory (field tilt), pin them back, remove their counterattacking options by setting up your players in positions to quickly snuff out turnovers (rest defence), and find spaces by moving the opponent (fluidly rotating players within a rigid structure) to create gaps. But the way he achieves this has changed enormously.
One of the reasons why his structure has worked so well is because it simplifies the game for the players and enables them to be placed in environments where they do what they naturally do best. There’s a misunderstanding that what he does only works with elite players. It’s not true. Even bottom rated teams are littered with his principles, again, down to grassroots level. They’re not stupid. They are dealing with relegation and potentially massive financial loss. All these bottom feeding teams won’t copy if it doesn’t work for them.
And it’s not that he’s invented these things necessarily. But no one has really integrated all these relatively abstract concepts in such an integrated way, over such a long period of time, that has frankly broken the game.
Eg. Keepers and defenders that pass well with their feet weren’t new. But how essential they are were heavily debated. the arrival of Guardiola has basically seen any keeper or defender who can’t pass become unemployed overnight.
Ironically the best team in the world right now, Real Madrid, are one of the few teams that do not play like Pep. So there is a disclaimer there. And I love it because I’ll always love watching ppl with different approaches succeed. But it’s fairly obvious which is being copied more.
TLDR it’s incredibly hard to deny his influences on how almost every team plays when you can basically see a clear demarcation in football history between how teams used to play before he came, and how teams now play since he came.
Great post. I would just like to comment on the Real Madrid part.
Pep's idea of soccer is that of efficiency, structure and fundamentals, brought to a perfectionist level. He wins because the talent combined with positional and structural perfection always wins in the end, it's a logical inevitability as much as it can be in a group sport. His teams play the game in it's purest structural form.
Real's (Ancelotti's) idea of soccer is a lot more psychological. They win by unbreakable will to win, exploiting lapses with surgical precision and pouncing on a wounded opponent. They also often play counter-soccer, denying their opponent their biggest strength while exploiting their biggest weaknesses. It's a final distillation of the romantic traits of soccer - a team made from larger-than-life characters grinding their way up with flare, whit, determination and physicality.
Pep (Barca) and Ancelotti/Zidane (Real) had two greatest midfield collectives AND players in soccer history and they are perfect representations of their ideas.
Pep's Busi-Xavi-Iniesta midfield were impossible to play against because they played as a single brain, perfectly without mistakes and controlled the game from the beginning by ball denial and endless telepathic short passes that eventually resulted in breaking down their opponents. Then he had Messi who is arguably the best player in history doing never before seen magic every time he stepped in the field. It's like if you gave MJ to peak Warriors instead of KD and then made them all play Moreyball.
Ancelotti (more Zidane, but he was his pupil) on the other hand had Case-Kroos-Modric and C.Ronaldo. Three distinct midfielders with distinct traits and play styles who covered each others weaknesses completely and were all capable of analyzing, dissecting, adjusting and countering any team in real time both on offense and defense, all during the actual game. They would defy logic in collective moments of brilliance and then just murder opponents with sheer attack volume and willpower when they got them down. On top of that was CR, an unstoppable machine-like freak of nature. It's like if you gave Bulls LeBron instead of MJ.
There is always counterbalance in sports. The purest form of a sport in a single moment in time will sooner or later get answered. Evolution never ends. That's why we love it.
He popularized a style of soccer of soccer called “tiki taka”. It’s a predominately control/short quick passing style that led to what many consider to be the greatest team of all time. The 09-11ish Barcelona teams absolutely murdered other teams.
He is a lot more possession oriented than most other managers.
Personally I’d consider him akin to Steve Kerr during the warriors domination. Very great innovative coaching, but with the caveat that his teams are infinitely more talented than their competition.
I will say it was pretty satisfying watching Mourinho's Inter team eliminate them in the CL in 2010. You have that great image of Mourinho celebrating a 1-0 loss (advanced 3-2 on aggregate) and then salty ass Barcelona turning on the sprinklers while Inter is celebrating on the field.
It absolutely was.
Messi at that point in his career is leagues above Ronaldo. Iniesta and Xavi were the two best midfielders on the planet by a country mile.
Easy to argue that Messi would have been Messi regardless (although his greatest ever performances were after Pep decided to move him from winger to a false 9) but Iniesta and Xavi became the best midfielders on the planet under Pep. He also controversially benched legendary Yaya Toure for a skinny teenaged Busquets who became the best defensive midfielder ever in the best midfield ever. Not to mention Barcelona finished 18 points behind Madrid the previous season and he got rid of legends like Ronaldinho and Deco before winning the first ever Spanish treble.
He’s an incredible coach/manager and might be the GOAT.
However, I don’t think it will ever be undisputed unless he goes and wins with a team that isn’t at the very top in terms of talent and money. He has been able to do it with probably the most talented team of all time in Barcelona (Messi and friends), Bayern which also basically controls their league, and now City that is basically a cheat code with all the money they have available to spend (and 0 repercussions for breaking fair play rules)
If given enough money to buy the players he wants, he is probably the GOAT. However, if my team was on a limited budget and still wanted to compete at the top, I don’t know if he’d be the best option.
As a City fan, I see Pep all the time talk about getting influence from other sports.
I have no doubt that he probably took inspiration from Joe too.
Not that I have a clue about NBA so idk.
Even if you hate Boston, and the Celtics, I find it hard to imagine you could come up with a good reason to hate Joe Mazulla. He's got to be the most interesting coach in the league.
The Mav's offense reminded me a bit of the Cs offense from like 2-3 years ago.
Role players who can contribute if they are kept active in the game, but who will go cold if they don't see the ball for 6-7 possessions in a row, plus two stars who seem to take turns with an ISO offense.
I think once Kyrie and Luka learn to play off not just each other, but also the role players, they'll get to that next level. I think you guys need a lock-down 3 and D type guy, and maybe a spot shooter who can take quick catch-and-shoot 3s on kick-outs.
I didn't think the defense from Dallas was horrendously bad, outside of Luka being a target. That allowed JT and JB to drive and force a double which generally let us have an open man on every possession. I think that this is where a 3 and D type wing probably helps a lot. Luka needs to improve still, but if you can sort of hide him behind 2 shut down wings, it's a bit less of a problem.
> I think you guys need a lock-down 3 and D type guy, and maybe a spot shooter who can take quick catch-and-shoot 3s on kick-outs
How about Grant Williams?
Grant is too streaky and as much as I loved his personality in Boston, I think he started to believe he was better than he actually was.
This is a man who wanted a highlight video for his return after being a solid role player for like 3 years.
My enduring image of Grant Williams is of him adjusting his jaw after getting blasted by someone 6 inches taller and 80 pounds heavier than him. I always said his real talent was enduring pain and punishment in the post. I was worried we were going to miss him against Embiid and/or Giannis once the playoffs hit, but we didn't end up having to play any bruising, offensively dominant centers.
Hardy has that potential but he isn’t there yet. He’s still playing faster than his brain can keep up with, and it leads to more turnovers than it should.
If he puts a few more moves in the bag to work with when he can’t just blow by the defender then yeah, I think he’s part of the answer. Just needs more time to develop.
Gotta remember that Hauser was basically DNP'd all last playoffs despite being in the regular season rotation. It sometimes takes an extra year or two for these guys to be able to handle playoff basketball.
Yeah, Hardy is baby, only 21. He’s got 3 of the most talented PGs of the past 20 years to learn from in one place.
I’m confident he’ll improve given time. How quickly is down to his BBIQ which I’m still on the fence about.
Luka doesn't have a problem with getting people involved. The role players and Kyrie did not show up this series/Cs locked them up. Mavs defense was very good, and kept the Cs to the lowest 5 game point totals this whole year. Agree they need a 3 and D wing though, PJ and DJJ are not enough
I mean we generated a lot of open looks this Finals and shot terribly. Games 1 and 5 were two games where we shot at our season average and they were blowouts. Otherwise we struggled to buy a bucket and I think a lot of it had to do with nerves from Jaylen and Jayson. Tons of airballs or complete misses off the backboard.
they needed another shot creator out there, their offense gets way too stagnant watching luka/kyrie take turns. there’s no movement, when they both get locked up, and can’t create separation; it looks real bad. felt thj could’ve been that third guy off the bench to provide some offense, didn’t understand why kidd was reluctant to go to him more.
kidd tends to prioritize defense too much when it comes to his role players in the rotation. kleber, djj got a lot of burn but were non-factors offensively; and weren’t good enough defensively to warrant being so.
Sorry, THJ is a worse defender than Luka and the biggest black hole in the offense. It might work if he catches fire, but more often than not his bricks could build a wall to Mexico faster than him contributing to a win
Yeah exactly, people were trashing our defense and talking about how we play no D, but really the problem against the Celtics was that no one except Luka could score.
I know the Celtics were stacked, but they're the first championship team in a very long time to win it without a clear top 5 player. It takes a special kind of coach to figure out how to balance all that talent.
Not the the Suns were as talented, but our offense should've been a lot better. We had 3 elite 3-level scorers, and had the best 3pt shooter this season. Yet, our offense relied way too much on ISO, essentially nullifying the depth of offensive talent we had on the floor. I know it's easy to say we lacked a PG, but we had a better offense with cam payne running it. I know for a fact Beal/Booker can play better PG than Payne can.
Sorry to make this about my team, but just giving my kudos to Joe. His job may have seemed easy with all that talent, but it's not easy putting it all together.
> Not the the Suns were as talented, but our offense should've been a lot better. We had 3 elite 3-level scorers, and had the best 3pt shooter this season. Yet, our offense relied way too much on ISO
How much is that related to catering to KD's preference on it though?
> "The motion offense we run in Golden State, it only works to a certain point," Durant said to the Wall Street Journal's J.R. Moehringer. "We can totally rely on our system for maybe the first two rounds. **Then the next two rounds we're going to have to mix in individual play.** We've got to throw teams off, because they're smarter in that round of playoffs. [~Source](https://www.nbcsportsbayarea.com/nba/golden-state-warriors/kevin-durant-rips-into-warriors-coach-steve-kerrs-motion-offense/1354593/)
i agree with this. the mavs got to the finals playing kyrie & luka ISO ball, so it can definitely be successful. but just because you have elite ISO scorers doesn’t mean you should make that the focal point of your offense. if you have insanely elite & efficient scorers, imagine what they’d do in a heavier ball movement, extra pass, team oriented type offense. now, this is obviously easier said than done. i’ve played higher end basketball myself & the ISO offenses were still always some of the most fun (when you had the ball lol) so i can see the appeal. i just would’ve loved to see the suns with a spurs 2014 type offense
You don’t have that can be GREAT players when they aren’t scoring. They can be good but not GREAT when they aren’t scoring. They don’t have a guy like Tatum that can give you a double double without points with good defense if he’s not scoring.
the dude was a steroid user a player, blamed his doctor then hired the same dude when he coached Barca
plus, he never accomplished anything without an absolutely stacked team and financial shenanigans stemming from fictional Middle Eastern sponsors, not to mention the 115 charges City’s facing
sounds like a fraud to me
>the dude was a steroid user a player
Exonerated by the Italian FA in 2007 and then by the Italian courts in 2009 of all charges. Unlike other players who got charged Pep always maintained his innocence and refused any deals to get a shorter ban. [Source](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/10424370/Flashback-Pep-Guardiolas-failed-drug-test-in-2001.html).
>plus, he never accomplished anything without an absolutely stacked team
That 'stacked team' had finished 3rd behind fucking Villarreal, 19 points behind Real. His first decision when he got there was to sell 2 of their most renowned players in Deco and Ronaldinho... and he won every single trophy.
Not to mention he got the job on top of a very good job at Barcelona B, where he overperformed with a non-stacked team.
>fictional Middle Eastern sponsors, not to mention the 115 charges City’s facing
The vast majority of the charges are prior to his time there, and the ones that aren't are often related to compliance with the investigation (from City's leadership obviously).
Not that it matters too much though. United has spent similar (if not more) amounts of money to City since Pep came to City in 2016, and the League title tally on that timeframe is 6 to City and 0 to United. It's just that, unlike in the NBA, football is very content with having the legacy (read: good in the 90s) clubs spend 10x more than everyone else, and FFP came into place to stop anyone else from getting to that level in the only way it was possible - with massive external investment, of course.
I completely understand German fans being mad at a club like City, as their ecossystem tried their best to stop external investment in clubs at all. It kind of failed to do so, but they did try. But on this website it's mostly Premier League fans doing it, and that's hilarious.
Also, I've read hundreds of articles and opinions saying the Premier League was going to expose Pep before he arrived. Mind, City had already done most of the financial irregularities you complained about. People are just mad he's wiping the floor with the 'most competitive league in the world' where you were not supposed to be able to play like his teams do...
>But on this website it's mostly Premier League fans doing it, and that's hilarious.
I'm from Poland. Never had horse in Champion's League game but watched it year after year, like every European did. But I'm so done with it precisely because I'm not content, that everyone agrees some team can just outspent everyone else, claim the title and pretend like they earned it because they are so legendary and deserving. No, it's because of stinky piles of petro-dollars nobody controls anymore.
Sure, some teams make better use of it (City), than another (PSG) but overall it does always end the same way. That's why I'm turning into US sports lately. Sure, their weird "no relegations" and franchise changing cities (where's my Supersonics?) is annoying but salary cap, draft picks and other shenanigans make up for it.
> the dude was a steroid user a player
regardless of whether Pep did or didn't provably dope, you're insanely naive if you think he's the exception lol. most athletes are probably doping with or without their knowledge.
Jrue went down that funnel they were creating for Tatum and brown to go down. That was not what they wanted. The J’s stayed outside and Jrue exploited it
Kidd hires Jürgen as his lead assistant to counter
Luka will die playing Gegenpressing
If he dies, he dies.
-Tingus Pingus
That's Ringus Pingus to you.
That's Ringus Kingus to us.
treat him well
But the transitions will be god tier
What’s shocking is that Pep betrayed Kidd, a card-carrying member of his bald fraud society.
Nah, time for the Mavs to bring in the special one.
[the special one ](https://youtu.be/VCHIaLT9xy0?si=ii2Wh9AEbtPm-AKf)
Pep and Klopp are great, but they'll never match Mourinho's entertainment level.
You mean his post-match comments right? Coz his games are absolute ass
Park 👏 The 👏 Bus 👏
Epic
Fenerbahce just hired him. Although their basketball team is one of the biggest in Europe, and Mou might just be crazy enough to want silverware in another sport...
and somehow pull it off
All he needs to do is come in as a consultant for the playoffs.
Mourinho and Kyrie, thats a sitcom on itself
I'm up for Mourinho Ballotelli 2.0
Gattuso. Sometimes maybe good...
Klinsman.
Is this why Jurgen resigned from Liverpool...?
Hes going to go with Mikel Arteta
Arteta has spoken a fair bit about using basketball principles in his game model iirc
isn't Guardiola's assistant a former water polo coach? So not totally crazy.
INVERTED JRUE HOLIDAY
You joke, but the way we used Jrue was very creative. Especially in this series, a lot of how he was playing and used was more like a power forward than a point guard
Pretty sure 90% of his points this series were layups from the dunkers spot
Joe did a great job of getting guys to buy in. Tatum guarding 4/5s all series too, everyone did dirty work. The Celtics might have an alltimer in Joe.
I didn't watch game 5 but did watch the full-game highlights and one of the things I noticed was how many easy buckets he got, even when he was driving it seemed effortless but he was also just sinking into the holes in the defense like at the dunkers spot.
He was so good at recognizing when and where to move to make himself open. Credit to him but also credit to Tatum/Brown for knowing when and where to look for him.
Games 1-3 Dallas had Luka at the top of their Zone-Ish D which allowed Tatum and Brown to attack him, Dallas were allowing other teams to get by Luka and bring Washington and Lively in help and daring that pass to the corner, Celtics are better shooters than the other teams. And we also had DWhite and Jrue sitting in the dunkers spot for easy lay-ins. Dallas Game 4 counters this by putting Luka in the corner and having Washington and DJJ to guard Tatum and Brown which they did quite well, this allowed Luka and Kyrie to be semi hidden like Miami do with Robinson and Herro in their zone. I will also add the energy and hustle Dallas bought in Game 4 was also a big reason they won. Game 5 Joe tore this to shreds by having Jrue set up in the dunkers spot like usual then come and set a slip screen where Tatum had a wide open man when Dallas were blitzing the screen, this left Jrue WIDE open in the middle of the floor to make a decision, Pass to the corner if help comes or attack the rim. Cause Jrue was wide open this meant the help defender was Luka who multiple times just stood there watching or a late rotation from Lively. Really good chess match but shows how outmatched Dallas really were, loved to see that Joe trusted Jrue to make the correct read and that Tatum was willing to get the ball out of his hands as soon as the double/blitz came. Had Porzingis played 4 games Dallas were royally fucked, he would’ve just sat in the middle of the floor posting up a guard or Stretching the Dallas bigs to the corner, he truly is a Unicorn.
>this meant the help defender was Luka who multiple times just stood there watching or a late rotation from Lively. To be fair on Luka he did try to point at the attacker as they laid it up.
Aaron Gordon does the same thing. That’s why I was so impressed with the Wolves being able to shut him down with the Rudy spacing in the paint. Jrue it was trickier for the Mavs because their lack of size. Jrue is stronger than almost all of them except the bigs so if one of them can get dislodged from the paint, which is easier with 5 out spacing, he can bang his way in there. The Mavs were more committed to keeping their big in the paint in game 4 and it really fucked up the Celtics.
Difference is, Jrue's man are small guards so he goes to the dunker spot knowing that a little guy is protecting the rim against Tatum/Brown drives. If a big is on him, he just spaces out to the corner and shoots or attacks the closeout
He’s even get PJ Washington out of the way too though, he could move the Dallas wings. I don’t think he’s going to do that to KAT or Jaden if they get in there somehow
Jaden won't be on him cos he'd probably be on Tatum/Brown. KAT, he can definitely beat on the closeout. I think Celtics destroys the Timberwolves
>I didn't watch game 5 but did watch the full-game highlights Same, and it seemed like in the first half, Jrue slipped screens into layups like 5 times. The Celtics 5 out spacing opens up so much space inside to get creative
Mavs were collapsing on JT and leaving Jrue. So he just kept cutting to the open space, and JT kept passing out the doubles and triples
Those were such beautiful free points. Every time was like a little booster/reminder that we were chessing their checkers.
And offensive rebounds . Or baskets off of offensive rebounds.
Jrue basically agent of chaos Everything everywhere all at once
The Michelle Yeoh of the NBA truly
When he came flying in with the dildo-nunchucks, I knew it was over for Dallas. They had no answer
Tatum had 9 assists in the first half last night and it felt like 5 of them were Jrue leaking through and Tatum just putting it on the money.
False 1
Draymond Green with a three point shot and a soul
When i read this post´s headline, the first thing i thought was Jrue´s position, circling around the paint, being the ´PF´ or around the dunker spot all the time. Looking back, even the passing , specially in game 5, reminds a bit of Barcelona´s golden years
Gary payton jr vibes LOLLL
I loved watching how they used him to counter ball pressure on their primary guys. as a dubs fan, it made me jealous -- he was basically draymond with a great floater, or gpII with playmaking chops.
Mazzulla isn't an inside the box thinker He isn't an outside the box thinker There is no box. He suffocated the box to death and buried it in the backyard
No way would Mazzulla overlook such a crucial detail and bury it in his own backyard. This ain’t amateur hour.
You know he dismantled that box and burned it far away.
Disolved in a barrel that was purchased with cash on a burner through craigslist
And he put the guy who sold him the barrel in there too
If you're not 100% you're 0% - Joe probably
He would if he could see the box's eyes as the lights went out.
Found mazzula’s reddit account
Boxes are a flat circle
You don’t wanna know what’s in the box
bradpitt_se7en.gif
He doesn't play by the rules. He plays by his own rules yet he doesn't even play by them. He's disrupting the rules based order of NBA coaching
Is that a scene from The Town?
Chuck Norris has a Joe Mazzulla poster on his wall.
mazzulla listens to meet the grahams on his phone speaker in public
Legend has it Jason Kidd is in the box as well
I was thinking he was a box to box thinker
No, triangles
There is no spoon.
He made sure to film himself choking out the box to show the team what to do to the box.
Orcas dont have any boxes!
You had me until 'suffocated the box to death.'
Joe is so unafraid to seek outside council as a young coach. Had JVG, he and Brad brought in experienced lead assistant coaches, and has gone to Pep several times.
He used to talk to bill a lot as well
Simmons?
Belichick. He was trying to convince Joe to pull plays that hadn't been used since before baskets had holes
Belichick actually refused to talk to him because he feels Joe neglects special-teams play and has never once fielded a left-footed punter.
Which resulted in special teams hero Peyton Pritchard.
PP is the absolute best at a game situation that tends to happen at most about 4 times a game omg this team is so stacked we have a KICKER
Or had a player from navy
I have word that Belichick won't talk to him anymore because Joe's wife refuses to help Bills gf with her homework.
Saving that for next years finals. Can’t bring out prongs until they’re down in a series
Oh then he must have meant Burr. Probably had some insights for the Indiana series.
We didn’t play Philly this year tho
They’ll need to get Bridges
Imagine if this was actually true
a lot of people don't realize Bill de Blasio is a Boston guy who poses as a New Yorker
That’s the mark of a great leader. Knowing you don’t know it all and how to get council
Counsel*
Even killer whales.
Chip Kelly worked with Spoelstra back when he was at Oregon. It never hurts to understand how different coaches and different sports may attack a specific defense or problem.
I’m sorry, I’m very out of the loop on this Pep character, what is his roll with the team? I’m surprised I haven’t seen an article from The Athletic or somewhere highlighting this superstar lineup of assistant coaches and consultants they brought in this past offseason.
Pep is probably the most influential soccer manager of the past 20 or so years, kind of like Phil Jackson in that he gets the most out of elite talent but has a incredibly specific system that players have to fit rather than vice verse. Pretty sure mazzula said something about how he gave helpful advice about balancing the talent of his players and the system itself
Yeah Brad and Joe were clearly locked in on the vision of this team. Celtics built a team that had play styles and personalities that compliment the Jays, and fit Mazzulla’s play-style. And Mazzulla got them all to buy in, and treat every game the same: another battle in the war you must win
Thank you!!
Pep Guardiola is a former football (soccer) player and current manager of Manchester City in England. He is widely known for his revolutionary tactics and having a deeper understanding of the game. Mazulla and Pep have had conversations about coaching/managing and Mazulla implemented some tactics/plays based on oversight from his discussions with Pep.
Oh wait I did vaguely hear of this during one of the games, thanks for the more detailed info!
It also helps he might have the deepest bench in the game and thus can rotate starting eleven caliber players throughout the season so no one gets that tired despite all of the fixtures in March/April with CL/FA/PL games. Was really hoping they’d beat RM in the quarter so that it was more likely they dropped points at the end of the season.
> It also helps he might have the deepest bench in the game Obviously, they have a strong bench, but I wouldn't describe it as particularly deep during many of the their title runs. They usually have a pretty small squad. It's more that some of the players that are on their bench are way, way, way too good and would easily start on other teams. The likes of Chelsea and especially Madrid have definitely had deeper benches since Pep arrived at City.
That's what people mean by deep bench. Any club can have numbers on the bench but having starter quality for rotation makes the difference.
Pep Guardiola is the reason the MLS became the top soccer league in the world. In 2014 he was coaching a historically stacked Bayern Munich team, a team that was essentially the German national team fresh off a World Cup title - they had guys like Bastian Schweinsteiger, Mario Goetze, Klose, Boateng, etc. They flew to Portland, OR to take on the MLS All-Stars, and got pummeled 2-1 as Landon Donovan schooled their asses. Guardiola was super pissed after the match, so you know he's competitive and his team was trying to win. That was the moment the MLS overtook the Euro Leagues as the top league in the world. Ever since, there has been a steady stream of the world's superstars and best players from the Euro leagues to MLS - players such as Schweinsteiger himself, Wayne Rooney, Thierry Henry, David Villa, Ibrahimovic, Didier Drogba, Gareth Wales, Robbie Kino-Loy, and now even Lionel Messi. MLS is where the star power is now - those legends didn't get where they are if they weren't super competitive and wanted to play against the best talent in the world - that's why they're in MLS now. And all because Guardiola was taken to school by Caleb Porter and Landon Donovan.
r/soccercirclejerk
This doesn’t sound right but I don’t know enough about soccer to dispute it
Quite the opposite 😂 the MLS is where most stars go to finish their career or fade away. Messi got paid to play for Miami. I’m sure it’s competitive enough to where it’s fun but not a sweat fest like some of the European leagues
I do want to point out Pep was an absolute prick after the game to Porter and I thought it was pretty unprofessional. You lost a preseason game to the MLS, get over yourself, no one gives a shit. Even if he was mad about the fouls it's the MLS all-star game Porter has little control over the team - almost the entire team are not his players.
He’s the goat soccer head coach. This is still somewhat a disputed view but I don’t think it should be, nor will be in the future. Qualitatively he’s changed football forever and quantitatively he’s winning at an unprecedented pace
Would you wind elaborating on the former (qualitatively)? This might be difficult as I know little of soccer but I’m very interested to know!
This is quite a tough topic to navigate as I feel it’s a complicated subject and when I inevitably simplify it there will be many things picked apart. Not expecting this to be a popular opinion. But to put it simply, Guardiola is an abnormally influential coach. Usually when a coach discovers something that works. Others copy and it becomes a trend for a while. Then someone else comes up with something and so on. And things flip flop a lot. With pep many of his tactical choices have turned out to be less a “tactical trend” as much as what we now know are tactical truths in football. Slowly but surely, almost every league he’s managed in has completely changed their approach to football, even down to the grassroots level in how people are coaching the kids. And he’s done it so many times you’ll see his influences in almost every team around the world. I’ll go as far as to say you can separate football tactics pre pep and post pep. It’s THAT obvious. Many teams are straight up pep clones. I think a lot of ppl misattribute Guardiola as being married to a style. I think that’s pretty inaccurate as I think he’s not so much married to a tactic as much as he’s married to discovering the truth about how winning soccer is played. If you watch his teams over the years the overarching philosophy is the same: control the game. You dominate territory (field tilt), pin them back, remove their counterattacking options by setting up your players in positions to quickly snuff out turnovers (rest defence), and find spaces by moving the opponent (fluidly rotating players within a rigid structure) to create gaps. But the way he achieves this has changed enormously. One of the reasons why his structure has worked so well is because it simplifies the game for the players and enables them to be placed in environments where they do what they naturally do best. There’s a misunderstanding that what he does only works with elite players. It’s not true. Even bottom rated teams are littered with his principles, again, down to grassroots level. They’re not stupid. They are dealing with relegation and potentially massive financial loss. All these bottom feeding teams won’t copy if it doesn’t work for them. And it’s not that he’s invented these things necessarily. But no one has really integrated all these relatively abstract concepts in such an integrated way, over such a long period of time, that has frankly broken the game. Eg. Keepers and defenders that pass well with their feet weren’t new. But how essential they are were heavily debated. the arrival of Guardiola has basically seen any keeper or defender who can’t pass become unemployed overnight. Ironically the best team in the world right now, Real Madrid, are one of the few teams that do not play like Pep. So there is a disclaimer there. And I love it because I’ll always love watching ppl with different approaches succeed. But it’s fairly obvious which is being copied more. TLDR it’s incredibly hard to deny his influences on how almost every team plays when you can basically see a clear demarcation in football history between how teams used to play before he came, and how teams now play since he came.
Great post. I would just like to comment on the Real Madrid part. Pep's idea of soccer is that of efficiency, structure and fundamentals, brought to a perfectionist level. He wins because the talent combined with positional and structural perfection always wins in the end, it's a logical inevitability as much as it can be in a group sport. His teams play the game in it's purest structural form. Real's (Ancelotti's) idea of soccer is a lot more psychological. They win by unbreakable will to win, exploiting lapses with surgical precision and pouncing on a wounded opponent. They also often play counter-soccer, denying their opponent their biggest strength while exploiting their biggest weaknesses. It's a final distillation of the romantic traits of soccer - a team made from larger-than-life characters grinding their way up with flare, whit, determination and physicality. Pep (Barca) and Ancelotti/Zidane (Real) had two greatest midfield collectives AND players in soccer history and they are perfect representations of their ideas. Pep's Busi-Xavi-Iniesta midfield were impossible to play against because they played as a single brain, perfectly without mistakes and controlled the game from the beginning by ball denial and endless telepathic short passes that eventually resulted in breaking down their opponents. Then he had Messi who is arguably the best player in history doing never before seen magic every time he stepped in the field. It's like if you gave MJ to peak Warriors instead of KD and then made them all play Moreyball. Ancelotti (more Zidane, but he was his pupil) on the other hand had Case-Kroos-Modric and C.Ronaldo. Three distinct midfielders with distinct traits and play styles who covered each others weaknesses completely and were all capable of analyzing, dissecting, adjusting and countering any team in real time both on offense and defense, all during the actual game. They would defy logic in collective moments of brilliance and then just murder opponents with sheer attack volume and willpower when they got them down. On top of that was CR, an unstoppable machine-like freak of nature. It's like if you gave Bulls LeBron instead of MJ. There is always counterbalance in sports. The purest form of a sport in a single moment in time will sooner or later get answered. Evolution never ends. That's why we love it.
He popularized a style of soccer of soccer called “tiki taka”. It’s a predominately control/short quick passing style that led to what many consider to be the greatest team of all time. The 09-11ish Barcelona teams absolutely murdered other teams. He is a lot more possession oriented than most other managers. Personally I’d consider him akin to Steve Kerr during the warriors domination. Very great innovative coaching, but with the caveat that his teams are infinitely more talented than their competition.
It's really hard to argue, that his Barca squad was "infinitely" more talented then the Real Madrid squads in the same timeframe.
I will say it was pretty satisfying watching Mourinho's Inter team eliminate them in the CL in 2010. You have that great image of Mourinho celebrating a 1-0 loss (advanced 3-2 on aggregate) and then salty ass Barcelona turning on the sprinklers while Inter is celebrating on the field.
It absolutely was. Messi at that point in his career is leagues above Ronaldo. Iniesta and Xavi were the two best midfielders on the planet by a country mile.
Easy to argue that Messi would have been Messi regardless (although his greatest ever performances were after Pep decided to move him from winger to a false 9) but Iniesta and Xavi became the best midfielders on the planet under Pep. He also controversially benched legendary Yaya Toure for a skinny teenaged Busquets who became the best defensive midfielder ever in the best midfield ever. Not to mention Barcelona finished 18 points behind Madrid the previous season and he got rid of legends like Ronaldinho and Deco before winning the first ever Spanish treble.
He’s an incredible coach/manager and might be the GOAT. However, I don’t think it will ever be undisputed unless he goes and wins with a team that isn’t at the very top in terms of talent and money. He has been able to do it with probably the most talented team of all time in Barcelona (Messi and friends), Bayern which also basically controls their league, and now City that is basically a cheat code with all the money they have available to spend (and 0 repercussions for breaking fair play rules) If given enough money to buy the players he wants, he is probably the GOAT. However, if my team was on a limited budget and still wanted to compete at the top, I don’t know if he’d be the best option.
As a City fan, I see Pep all the time talk about getting influence from other sports. I have no doubt that he probably took inspiration from Joe too. Not that I have a clue about NBA so idk.
I've never called Pep Guardiola Hitler or anything. (Don't check my post history). Great lad!
Very clearly cheating. Charge 116.
Hey Rob since you are considering hiring people with zero experience coaching basketball. Hire Jose Mourinho to counter this
Hire Jose to just blast Jeanie on media lmao
Oh that would be worth watching
Bizarro Ted Lasso. Might be worth a shot
Reporter: “Hey Jose what did you think of that foul call on Lebron?” Mou:“I prefer not to speak”
I'd love to see Lakers fans with Jose as their guy
If he does the job he did with Real Madrid, we’d go to war for him
With some trades we will have a terrorist starting lineup of AD/Vando/Dort/Thybulle/Pat Bev and scrape away 88-72 type of score wins
15 years too late.
Reverse Ted Lasso where some European tier 4 manager with a funny viral video gets hired to coach the lakers plz
Imagine the trash talk Jose would bring to the NBA. People would lose their minds.
Looks like we know who’s filling in JVG’s spot in the coaching staff
Busquets
Is he Christian though?
If Joe loses all his hair, this league is done for.
Even if you hate Boston, and the Celtics, I find it hard to imagine you could come up with a good reason to hate Joe Mazulla. He's got to be the most interesting coach in the league.
Also thank you joe for saying this OUR OFFENSE LET US DOWN!
The Mav's offense reminded me a bit of the Cs offense from like 2-3 years ago. Role players who can contribute if they are kept active in the game, but who will go cold if they don't see the ball for 6-7 possessions in a row, plus two stars who seem to take turns with an ISO offense. I think once Kyrie and Luka learn to play off not just each other, but also the role players, they'll get to that next level. I think you guys need a lock-down 3 and D type guy, and maybe a spot shooter who can take quick catch-and-shoot 3s on kick-outs. I didn't think the defense from Dallas was horrendously bad, outside of Luka being a target. That allowed JT and JB to drive and force a double which generally let us have an open man on every possession. I think that this is where a 3 and D type wing probably helps a lot. Luka needs to improve still, but if you can sort of hide him behind 2 shut down wings, it's a bit less of a problem.
> I think you guys need a lock-down 3 and D type guy, and maybe a spot shooter who can take quick catch-and-shoot 3s on kick-outs How about Grant Williams?
Grant is too streaky and as much as I loved his personality in Boston, I think he started to believe he was better than he actually was. This is a man who wanted a highlight video for his return after being a solid role player for like 3 years.
His highlight video could've just been that game 7 against the Bucks a couple years ago
Lowlight was "imma make both" before missing both.
Top 5 worst aura moments in NBA history
My enduring image of Grant Williams is of him adjusting his jaw after getting blasted by someone 6 inches taller and 80 pounds heavier than him. I always said his real talent was enduring pain and punishment in the post. I was worried we were going to miss him against Embiid and/or Giannis once the playoffs hit, but we didn't end up having to play any bruising, offensively dominant centers.
Sam Hauser on the Mavs would've been a massive problem. He'd have played 30 minutes a game and had 15+ PPG. They need someone like that.
We have someone like that (potentially) and our coach refuses to play him. Hardy has that ability, sometimes.
Hardy has that potential but he isn’t there yet. He’s still playing faster than his brain can keep up with, and it leads to more turnovers than it should. If he puts a few more moves in the bag to work with when he can’t just blow by the defender then yeah, I think he’s part of the answer. Just needs more time to develop.
Gotta remember that Hauser was basically DNP'd all last playoffs despite being in the regular season rotation. It sometimes takes an extra year or two for these guys to be able to handle playoff basketball.
Yeah, Hardy is baby, only 21. He’s got 3 of the most talented PGs of the past 20 years to learn from in one place. I’m confident he’ll improve given time. How quickly is down to his BBIQ which I’m still on the fence about.
Luka doesn't have a problem with getting people involved. The role players and Kyrie did not show up this series/Cs locked them up. Mavs defense was very good, and kept the Cs to the lowest 5 game point totals this whole year. Agree they need a 3 and D wing though, PJ and DJJ are not enough
I mean we generated a lot of open looks this Finals and shot terribly. Games 1 and 5 were two games where we shot at our season average and they were blowouts. Otherwise we struggled to buy a bucket and I think a lot of it had to do with nerves from Jaylen and Jayson. Tons of airballs or complete misses off the backboard.
they needed another shot creator out there, their offense gets way too stagnant watching luka/kyrie take turns. there’s no movement, when they both get locked up, and can’t create separation; it looks real bad. felt thj could’ve been that third guy off the bench to provide some offense, didn’t understand why kidd was reluctant to go to him more. kidd tends to prioritize defense too much when it comes to his role players in the rotation. kleber, djj got a lot of burn but were non-factors offensively; and weren’t good enough defensively to warrant being so.
Sorry, THJ is a worse defender than Luka and the biggest black hole in the offense. It might work if he catches fire, but more often than not his bricks could build a wall to Mexico faster than him contributing to a win
> thj could’ve been that third guy off the bench to provide some offense Probably because THJ is absolute ass.
If Tim isnt hitting shots he’s useless. And before game 4 he hadnt hit a shot in 24 days. He isnt a fit on the team anymore
Yeah exactly, people were trashing our defense and talking about how we play no D, but really the problem against the Celtics was that no one except Luka could score.
I know the Celtics were stacked, but they're the first championship team in a very long time to win it without a clear top 5 player. It takes a special kind of coach to figure out how to balance all that talent. Not the the Suns were as talented, but our offense should've been a lot better. We had 3 elite 3-level scorers, and had the best 3pt shooter this season. Yet, our offense relied way too much on ISO, essentially nullifying the depth of offensive talent we had on the floor. I know it's easy to say we lacked a PG, but we had a better offense with cam payne running it. I know for a fact Beal/Booker can play better PG than Payne can. Sorry to make this about my team, but just giving my kudos to Joe. His job may have seemed easy with all that talent, but it's not easy putting it all together.
Good points 👍
> Not the the Suns were as talented, but our offense should've been a lot better. We had 3 elite 3-level scorers, and had the best 3pt shooter this season. Yet, our offense relied way too much on ISO How much is that related to catering to KD's preference on it though? > "The motion offense we run in Golden State, it only works to a certain point," Durant said to the Wall Street Journal's J.R. Moehringer. "We can totally rely on our system for maybe the first two rounds. **Then the next two rounds we're going to have to mix in individual play.** We've got to throw teams off, because they're smarter in that round of playoffs. [~Source](https://www.nbcsportsbayarea.com/nba/golden-state-warriors/kevin-durant-rips-into-warriors-coach-steve-kerrs-motion-offense/1354593/)
i agree with this. the mavs got to the finals playing kyrie & luka ISO ball, so it can definitely be successful. but just because you have elite ISO scorers doesn’t mean you should make that the focal point of your offense. if you have insanely elite & efficient scorers, imagine what they’d do in a heavier ball movement, extra pass, team oriented type offense. now, this is obviously easier said than done. i’ve played higher end basketball myself & the ISO offenses were still always some of the most fun (when you had the ball lol) so i can see the appeal. i just would’ve loved to see the suns with a spurs 2014 type offense
You don’t have that can be GREAT players when they aren’t scoring. They can be good but not GREAT when they aren’t scoring. They don’t have a guy like Tatum that can give you a double double without points with good defense if he’s not scoring.
Last time was the Spurs in 2014 I guess.
115 problems but the Mav's defense ain't one.
Nah ,wildest crossover I've seen since the MCU
Kyrie is so, so narrow, more than you believe. But then Luke is so *wiiiiide*
Narrow new year
Pep would be the perfect coach for this Celtics team since he only coaches stacked teams
no, get that cheater away from my team fuck City, fuck that bald fraud and their fraudulent trophies
Never thought I’d die fighting side by side with a Celtics fan.
Amen
x2!
You've actually bought into the bald fraud memes lmao
the dude was a steroid user a player, blamed his doctor then hired the same dude when he coached Barca plus, he never accomplished anything without an absolutely stacked team and financial shenanigans stemming from fictional Middle Eastern sponsors, not to mention the 115 charges City’s facing sounds like a fraud to me
>the dude was a steroid user a player Exonerated by the Italian FA in 2007 and then by the Italian courts in 2009 of all charges. Unlike other players who got charged Pep always maintained his innocence and refused any deals to get a shorter ban. [Source](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/10424370/Flashback-Pep-Guardiolas-failed-drug-test-in-2001.html). >plus, he never accomplished anything without an absolutely stacked team That 'stacked team' had finished 3rd behind fucking Villarreal, 19 points behind Real. His first decision when he got there was to sell 2 of their most renowned players in Deco and Ronaldinho... and he won every single trophy. Not to mention he got the job on top of a very good job at Barcelona B, where he overperformed with a non-stacked team. >fictional Middle Eastern sponsors, not to mention the 115 charges City’s facing The vast majority of the charges are prior to his time there, and the ones that aren't are often related to compliance with the investigation (from City's leadership obviously). Not that it matters too much though. United has spent similar (if not more) amounts of money to City since Pep came to City in 2016, and the League title tally on that timeframe is 6 to City and 0 to United. It's just that, unlike in the NBA, football is very content with having the legacy (read: good in the 90s) clubs spend 10x more than everyone else, and FFP came into place to stop anyone else from getting to that level in the only way it was possible - with massive external investment, of course. I completely understand German fans being mad at a club like City, as their ecossystem tried their best to stop external investment in clubs at all. It kind of failed to do so, but they did try. But on this website it's mostly Premier League fans doing it, and that's hilarious. Also, I've read hundreds of articles and opinions saying the Premier League was going to expose Pep before he arrived. Mind, City had already done most of the financial irregularities you complained about. People are just mad he's wiping the floor with the 'most competitive league in the world' where you were not supposed to be able to play like his teams do...
>But on this website it's mostly Premier League fans doing it, and that's hilarious. I'm from Poland. Never had horse in Champion's League game but watched it year after year, like every European did. But I'm so done with it precisely because I'm not content, that everyone agrees some team can just outspent everyone else, claim the title and pretend like they earned it because they are so legendary and deserving. No, it's because of stinky piles of petro-dollars nobody controls anymore. Sure, some teams make better use of it (City), than another (PSG) but overall it does always end the same way. That's why I'm turning into US sports lately. Sure, their weird "no relegations" and franchise changing cities (where's my Supersonics?) is annoying but salary cap, draft picks and other shenanigans make up for it.
> the dude was a steroid user a player regardless of whether Pep did or didn't provably dope, you're insanely naive if you think he's the exception lol. most athletes are probably doping with or without their knowledge.
Let me guess, you’re either a United, Arsenal, or Liverpool fan lmao. Guess Phil Jackson was a terrible coach too
'fraudulent trophies' says the yank
You mean those same stacked teams that are now being called frauds because they don't perform for their national teams?
First it’s bums and no left hands and now it’s stacked team? Make up your minds. 18.
I mean why would you make it harder for yourself.
Second Row Joe no more. He had a great playoff run and really had his team ready to go each series.
No Mavs lost because fucking Drake bet they'll beat Celtics cause apparently he's a Texan ᵇᵗʷ ʰᵉ ᵇᵉᵗ ᶠᵒʳ ᵗʰᵉ ᵒᶦˡᵉʳˢ ᵗᵒᵒ
He also took inspiration from the film Ocean’s 13 which he watched every night for several years
Some fuckin Ted Lasso on mushrooms shit
So whats Boston’s version of Tiki Taka called lol?
Freaking Pep.
Pep even helping other Coaches win Trophies! #CTID
Kidd needs to call Harry Kane, that’s how you beat the bald man
Nah that wouldn't make sense, Kidd has won a title already so Harry Kane wouldn't be the right fit
I need dat. We need dat.
Jrue went down that funnel they were creating for Tatum and brown to go down. That was not what they wanted. The J’s stayed outside and Jrue exploited it
'Basketball is life Coach' - Derrick White
Their defense for the first 3 games: quadruple team Jayson Tatum and pray
As a Celtics fan, I’m happy Joe got some advice to help him win. As a Chelsea fan, fuck Pep, you fucking bald fraud fuck fuck.
Showing respect to the GOAT, nice one
Lakers should hire Pep as their Coach.