The most balanced title team in NBA history
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- Опубликовано: 5 фев 2025
- The "best" player doesn't always win a series, especially against balanced, ensemble teams filled with a number of really good players.This detailed film breakdown & scouting report explores how the 2024 Boston Celtics might be THE most balanced title team of all-time, and how Game 5 of the Finals against Dallas epitomized nearly everything that makes them so great, from Joe Mazulla's coaching adjustments to their historical spacing, intelligent defenders, unique backcourt, multiple playmakers and more.
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Music by csus (instrumental)
#ThinkingBasketball
I never thought I'd see the fucking Gini coefficient in a basketball video lmao
Crazy shit they just pull out and surprisingly a nice stat to use
Gini Buss Coefficient 😂
Welcome to thinking basketball lmao
@@doors1708Heyooooo!
Wouldn't be surprised if Ben Taylor worked at the LISC at some point in his life lmao
Jaylen’s defense on Luka is why he won a well deserved Finals MVP. Luka would have dropped 40 on almost other people. Happy for JB after all the jokes about his left hand struggles.
It's pretty wild that keeping Luka at 30pts is a success, but it's true.
@@fringe_minorityaveraged 29 points on 25 shots a game that will never be a winning formula. Browns defense made the difference.
Luka averaged 34pts 10asts on 62%TS in the reg season -> 29pts 6ast on 53%TS in the finals @@fringe_minority. Elite defense by Brown
@@fringe_minorityOn how many shot takes? He shot below 30 from three lol
So everyone's just gonna pretend Brown was the only defender? What about Holiday and White? These guys are so underrated for their defensive efforts.
Jrue Holiday and Derrick White do have a duo-nickname in Boston.
We call them “The Stock Exchange” because they just stuff the statsheet with both steals and blocks (“stocks”), their defense converts/trade-in’s into a lot of points, and you can usually see how well the team is performing by seeing how well they are performing (their “stocks/performance” in the game)
I hadn't heard of it before but that's bloody great, as is Ben's Swish Army Knife
Also…white Christmas
That's badass
Proof that j and j get carried. Celtics fans are fake happy and keep saying they only care about ring. Yet they keep inserting j and j
shoutout derrick white’s dad… he’s been calling them the stock exchange in twitter since the start of the season
White and Holiday already have a nickname, given by White's dad... The Stock Exchange
The Stock Exchange, The Law Firm of Tatum and Brown, and Tingus Pingus 😂
@@tim.noonansuperteam of villains 😂😂🍀
That's a fantastic nickname.
@@tim.noonanno one cares about jjs
@@tim.noonancookies and cream for brown and kp, plus the jays obviously
Danny Ainge & Brad Stevens architected a masterpiece of a team. Even without Kristaps Porzingis, they still won the vast majority of their playoff games. They went 16-3. They won a many of their close playoff games as well. That was the difference between this year and last year. The additions of Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis helped make this team a championship team.
Not to understate the impact of the J's. But in these playoffs the Celtics won EVERY game that was close. Especially against Indiana, there were wins up for grabs in 3 out of the 4 games, but we took every single one of those wins. I have to credit Jrue Holiday as the biggest difference between this year's team and those of past years. Both White and Holiday have no idea what it means to choke or even tighten up. They just keep playing crazed defense, steal rebounds, hit 3's, and do whatever it takes for a team to win. They are incredible.
@@Ironfangzu The Celtics were great in the off-season, but the Pacers definitely threw away 2 of those games. The undisciplined turnovers and horrible inbound plays/sets killed them
Shame they didn’t really play anybody tough, The East was a piece of piss especially with the injuries and Dallas and especially Luka were spent after going through the clippers, Okc and Minnesota. Such a shame Denver couldn’t get to the finals as Boston have zero answer for the joker
Yes, but adding D. White 2 years ago was the start.
They won under mazulla tho Steven's couldn't get it done with more talent
Using the Gini coefficient to measure the equality of basketball teams is probably the craziest idea I've heard today, but I guess it does technically make sense
Curry Tatum brown glazers are shook
Absolutely
@@chauvintookaknee4blm268no one is “shook” lmao
@@chauvintookaknee4blm268 how fucking dumb do you have to be to think making the right play and raising the level of your teamates is a bad thing for superstars to do 😂😂😂 what a loser 😂
Woke up today and the Celtics are still world champions. What a beautiful feeling.
NBA World Champions is fine. The NBA finals was called the NBA World Championship Series until 1986. I almost feel as lame for correcting you as you should feel for correcting that guy. That's how little this matters. There's also the World Series in MLB...but they aren't playing any other leagues in the world. It doesn't bother me.
2 weeks later and it's still true. 🥳🎉
You know what the scary thing is? Brown is 27. Tatum is 26. KP is 28. White is 29. Horford will retire soon and Jrue will soon age out of his prime, but those four have the chance to play together for a while yet. They're not going anywhere.
It's silly how you guys are acting like KP isn't one of the most injury prone players ever. And it makes sense that he is with his body type. Counting on having KP in playoff runs is like counting on having Embiid. As in, if you need that to compete (which you will with Horford retirining or declining) then your chances are iffy at best. And if they have to play a healthy Embiid or Freak (let's not even mention Joker) then who is guarding them? I still have the Cs as the best in the east but they need to solve their center problem.
You make a point but I would rather have Turner over KP just cos KP is injury prone..
@@Solo2121 well have same people gaurding embiid as we did last year in game 7 holding him to like 15 points, and giannias itll either be tatum, al, or kp
They'll have a solid 3 year run. The nba changes too fast to assume it'll be any longer than that
@@Solo2121 Bro, you know the Celtics get to make moves every off season just like every other team, right? You act like replacing Horford is like this huge mountain lol. Bro is old as fuck and was essentially a roleplayer in the Finals. They can probably UPGRADE from Horford fairly easily over the next few years.
Defensive legends series would be much appreciated this off-season
I pray for a Ben Wallace video on this channel 🙏
Agree
or a Legendary Teams series too! seeing what group of guys really had the best season/seasons possible would be cool
Ak47 will definitely get a video
The board crashing by the Celtics perimeter players was so huge. All the rebounds denied the Mavs precious possessions. The energy was so awesome. Banner 18 tastes so sweet!
Yes in the 3rd and 4th Qtr, as the Mavs were trying to close the gap, all the Celtics but especially Holiday kept getting rebound after rebound. If I were a Mavs fan I think I would have torn all my hair out. Every rebound meant another possession for the Celtics, and time that the offense of the Mavs couldn't afford. Sure enough, the Celts just kept that same 18-21 point gap until there were about 4 minutes to go. There was no single dagger play. We just didn't give them a chance to catch up. Finally they knew it was over and gave up. Such a stress free win, haha
Not only did the 5 starters perform amazing but the bench. Hauser, Pritchard, Horford all played great. Total team effort.
pritchard was AWFUL outside of his two buzzer beaters. he was legitimately unplayable on defense and horrendous on offense
@@plusnightlife true he was really really bad, in game 3 of the finals he was one of the baggiest reasons the Mavs were able to shrink back that 21 point deficit. I hope we can trade him for someone or something better
You name only 3 bench players lol😂😂😂😂
@@superrookie-1 he is nice now
that pritchard shot will always be goated, he literally played 1 play in an nba final game just to shoot a 40 foot halfcourt shot. The play was for him, horford looked at jaylen then ignored jaylen and when horford looked at tatum he saw him point to where pritchard was and BANG!
That shot should've been called for travelling, but refs don't even care about travelling no more.
And for what I see, must fans also don't care about the rules.
@@AverageGuy28You’re right. But C’s still won by 18. It wouldn’t have made a difference.
@@AverageGuy28 They haven't called traveling since about 2002.
Everyone talks about the Celtics offense but defensively is the Celtics identity that won this championship
I was too young to watch the 08 celtics being 6 years old. These are MY champions. Go green ☘️☘️☘️
Damn . I was 13. lol
I was 17 in 2008 , I saw Pierce get drafted and brown and Tatum
2008 was my first title and now 2024 cheers Go Celtics ☘️🏆🏀🙏🏽
Feels good to have our own, right? I was old enough to remember, but only vaguely!
6 years old definitely ain’t too young but hey I guess this thing is merely an acquired taste to some
Boston = a team with 5 all stars all playing their role.
Dallas = average support cast carried by Luka and partly by Kyrie.
@flexermc4333 this is a casual take the Celtics Have Two Superstars in Brown and Tatum then they have Solid Role Players
@@malikwilson7387 Tatum = multiple all star, Brown = multiple all star, Holiday = multiple all star+ selected for the olympics, Porzingis= All star, White = border line all star and potential replacement for Kawhi in the Olympics. And i'm not even counting Horford who had 6 All-stars. Just because they play their role doesn't mean they aren't all star caliber players
No jrue holiday is a role player and other than game 1 porzingis wasn’t even healthy and white is a role player that not a super team there both defensive mind gaurds and Tatum and brown played well passing to get them opportunity because Dallas dared them to make plays and pass and they did well
@@flexermc4333 this is a horrible take you're one of those casual fans that see names and assumes everyone is a star kristaps is a role player same for Jrue they are very good role players
Porzingis wasn’t health and white and jrue a role player hoford a role player their good role player the difference was brown and Tatum was more impactful passing defense and rebounding than Luka and kyrie that was the difference because white and jrue went off because brown and Tatum made plays for them
The beauty of your "gini" analysis is how vivdly it reflected what our eyes told us -- BOS is a brilliant team of near equals. Well done.
I can't state enough how much your editing has helped me understand basketball. The slowed down clips with the term that's happening following the players that's doing it helps so much. Thank you from someone who has just gotten heavy into basketball this year and has been looking for a channel that explains things as well as you!
I think people get a bit lost in the Celtics having "weak competition" when a better description is that this year, they were just that much better than everyone else. When you combine season and post-season records, the last Celtics team to lose this few games was the 86 squad. Luka made the Timberwolves look helpless, who played the MVP and defending champs to the worst game of their careers the previous series. These Celtics played really good teams, and made them look like weak competition, and now have some nice hardware to show why.
I think you are making the same mistake on the other side of the scale. It was very weak comp buy they were also far ahead of everyone in the east. Like the record during the regular season is effected by schedual
This stretches back into the regular season, where the East was being mocked as being horrifically weak, when in reality each team was going to lose at least one game to the Celtics. It was still a little weaker than the West imo but having a historically good team on that side is gonna be hard on any conference.
People were saying the Celtics wouldn't even be in the playoffs in the west.
Almost every series in the west would go 6-7 if Boston was in the west… they went against teams that was down star players, superstars at that. Congrats to Boston but if they faced teams that Is at least close to star studded as the Celtics, I can see them losing every time
@@StayINCheckthey just beat the western conference champions in 5. What kind of logic is that?
@@StayINCheckLet’s see if they were the first seed in the west they would sweep or beat the pelicans in 4 beat the mavs in 5, probably beat the wolves in 5or 6 and sweet the finals since it would be the pacers lmao no difference? one series difference playing the wolves
It's disgusting how good they are even without tingus pingus. 5 shooters, 2 elite rim runners, jrue holiday is not 6'3, Derick white is Steph Curry from temu but is an elite defender, al horford is glorious, sam houser cannot miss from three, pp is the best half court buzzer beater I've ever seen in my life. Just a very very good team overall.
Curry from Temu??? 😂😂😂❤
Hauser is quietly a very good defender per NBA stats.
White and Curry play nothing alike
@@jordancromwell true but it's funny so who cares
@michaelschaefer1904 He's a decent sharp shooter too.
The NBA fandom needs a breakdown video about how impactful Jayson Tatum’s defense was in these finals shutting off the water on Dallas’ 1-5 PnR Offense, and how that nullified their lob game and how that trickled into nullifying their kickout corner 3 game.
Too many toxic fans right now think Tatum played no defense in the finals just because he wasnt asked to guard Luka or Kyrie straight up every play, and the fandom needs a course-correction based on accurate information
I mean you are right but when he did have to guard Luka he got COOKED. Like straight line drives. It's not toxic to say that he was terrible in his one on one matchups and that is a part of defense.
@@Solo2121clearly I would take Tatum over Luka when it comes to defense. it's not even close.
Yeah and everyone's acting like Tatum was trash the entire series, like he wasn't being doubled and sometimes tripled and being forced into the playmaker role and setting up the others on the team to score. Brown especially.
@@Solo2121 But see this is exactly what I mean, and I dont mean that I believe you are being toxic at all, but others out there are for sure.
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Defense is not just guarding someone 1on1 in iso and counting how many shots go in or not. We seen Tatum do this before to KD in ‘22. The reason Tatum was not doing the same now that he did then is not because he wasnt good defensively, its because the team’s defensive schemes are different because whats required to shut down ‘24 Dallas and to shut down ‘22 Brooklyn is entirely different schematically, and Tatum was asked to do radically different things in both series.
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In this series, Jaylen was tasked as the primary on-ball defender on Luka and was awesome, S+. He done better than we’ve seen anyone try in Luka’s whole career, including Kawhi. Brown deserves all the credit for his defensive effort on the ball on Luka and Kyrie, nothing at all to take away from him there.
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But some have tried to argue that, because Tatum was not guarding them on-ball this series, or that when he was he was “getting cooked”, that JT was nowhere near as impactful on defense as JB was, as if there was a huge gap defensively. This take is asinine. Tatum was probably the biggest reason defensively why Dallas’ offense as a whole struggled to break 100 points in their 4 losses because of JT’s ability to guard Dallas’ centers. By placing him on their centers, it schematically shut down Luka’s and Kyrie’s ability to find easy lobs all series long through their 1-5 PnR offense (which they had major success spamming through the whole western conference).
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This defensive scheme was only possible because of Tatum’s size and ability to guard centers on and off the ball as well as switch onto any guard at any time. Because of this, if Dallas wanted to hunt Horford or Porzingis in the PnR, they wouldnt get their center rolling to the rim for a lob, it would be DJJ or PJ, and Tatum would be there in help to prevent the lob pass. And because of the lob pass being taken away by Tatum, this allowed Jrue and White to almost solely focus on preventing kickout corner 3s. So because of Tatum’s ability to be so impactful off the ball, the 2 most effective plays in Dallas’ playbook, the lob and the kickout corner 3, were suddenly completely unavailable all series long. *Its not possible to take away BOTH as effectively as Boston did in these finals if Tatum was not capable of filling this crucial role defensively*
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So yes Brown did an S+ job for shutting down Luka and Kyrie *ON THE BALL AS SCORERS,* but Tatum also deserves recognition for doing an S+ job for shutting down Luka and Kyrie *OFF THE BALL AS PASSERS.* Both JT and JB were hugely instrumental in completely shutting down Dallas’ offense, they just both did it in different, yet equally important, ways.
@@PaM07675 100% this. So much of Tatum's game goes without praise because people simply don't see all the things he's doing on an elite level. Box scores sort of ruin the game in a way.
Wow. Great breakdown. This take already passed the eye test, cool to see the deep dive only proves it further. Ben Taylor you are simply the best.
😂 Nobody will be surprised when they get knocked out in the first round of the playoffs next year. These guys might have the trophy. But it's an ✳️ asterisk in my eyes. They did no work
#Rig 😊
@teuthserum6672 you are crazy if you think team is getting knocked out in first round next year.this is most dominant,well rounded team around,& they have everyone locked up for a few yrs.if no injuries,they’ll be right back in finals next year.you are just a Celtics hater
Second to none.
@@debbiebrantley61 Mark my words when the C's get bounced, &trounced 😂
Nobody wanted the Mavericks in the finals, except the media 😆 for Doncic🤮 whom couldn't come through. So predictably the story lines end with 🫤keltic pride 🤮🤮
Celtics were just dominating this season 😂
thats not what the media was saying tho
i hope those people keep that same energy they were giving the celtics
The Lakers beat them without LeBron or AD. Won by like 20.
@@andremiller1566and yet they were bounced out the first round, lakers held up the ist trophy while we held up the Larry o Brian trophy deal with it
@@andremiller1566good thing they whooped them with lebron and AD playing then
@@andremiller1566somehow u bring up the lakers trash azzes 🤣
This video made me feel some type of way man. Celtics basketball this season was the most beautiful poetry in motion. The teamiest team if there ever was one. Awesome video!
I'm not a Celtics fan, but it's frustrating how good they are and I can't be mad about it because it was brilliant. And even more so with the slo mo and picking each possession apart.
Cmon Thinking Basketball you gotta bring back those Top 10 players this season recaps. I miss seeing those as a recap at the end of the season.
Yes I'm hoping its in the works right now
Dominant Boston finals performance. Ben Taylor please give us more content now that the off-season is here 🙏😭😭
White and Holiday have a nickname, already, it's The Stock Exchange.
(For those unaware, steals and blocks are often grouped into one stat - stocks)
I prefer anti-heliocentric. Because the defense has effectively neutralized heliocentric offenses for years, the Jays are two way players that share the load in all facets, and the team built towards a “no weak links on either end” build instead of one focused around the magic of a primary superstar scorer.
I feel like there is one helio title and one balanced title per decade. In the 2020s it was the '22 Warriors and '24 Celtics respectively. The '23 Nuggets are a borderline helio team but I consider Murray a legit independent weapon. In the 2010s it was the '11 Mavs and '14 Spurs. In the 2000s it was the '03 Spurs and '04 Pistons.
@@somerandomguy84 I actually don’t consider the warriors a heliocentric team. They do have one big time star, yes, but heliocentric is an astronomy term that describes a galaxy that orbits around a central star.
In nba terms, everything revolves around that player.
> Their usage rate - which measures how often a possession ends with them - is extremely high.
> Their potential assists, which measures how often they possess the ball and pass it right before someone else takes a shot, is also high.
Both those stats combined describe a player that is the center of the orbit. They’re either taking the shot themselves, or passing it to someone else who immediately shoots.
Luka, for example, is #1 in usage (of players with 1000+ minutes player) and #3 in potential assists. Giannis is #3 and #11.
Steph though, is 8th in usage rate and like 52nd in potential assists. In my opinion, that supports how much of an OFF-BALL phenom he is. He works tirelessly off ball but he doesn’t necessarily possess and pass/shoot the ball at a high rate.
In other words, Steph orbits around other players almost as much as they orbit around him, it’s two-way.
To your point, Jokic is similar in that way too, but slanted towards playmaking over shooting. But you see a lot of possessions where he simply sets a screen, or someone passes it to him at the nail and he immediately redirects it to someone else along the baseline.
Those types of players are really dangerous because they are such great overall players, but they enable a team ball that gets everyone involved within each play and doesn’t have a lot of guys standing around waiting to get a pass their way if the main star gets trapped.
I think the guy that probably qualifies here for you would be the Lakers 2020 with Lebron. #1 in the NBA in potential assists that year. That’s 54% of his teams total assists, an insane number. It’s basically him, a gap, and then a bunch of point guards like Harden, Luka, and Trae.
Game 5 was the only game I was able to watch because of work. It showed me how much improved and how much they played for the next player instead of being an individual. I'm hoping more teams can examine the blueprint and get their own version of what Boston did, after we win another championship.
Can we get a list of the Gini coefficient numbers for all previous NBA championship teams? It would be interesting to see Larry/Magic LBJ/Jordan comparisons
Agreed. Also, I’d imagine there was a pretty big gap for the 2022 warriors. To me that team was constructed more like the 2011 Mavs or 2003 spurs. It’s not that Steph had no help but it’s reasonable to say he had less scoring help than a typical title team
@@somerandomguy84Wiggins and JPoole both played out of there minds and avg almost 20PPG and so did Klay that’s 3 18PPG+ players that’s a lot of help
In terms of output sure but in terms of raw impact and defensive attention there’s a decent case that he had less help. Only Poole cracked +2 obpm in that run
@@davis2k1234 that's basically the 2011 Mavericks per 75 both Dirk and Curry were forced to average about 29 points a game (Curry also was second in assists). Terry and Poole both averaged 22 and Barea and Wiggins both averaged 19 and Marion and Klay both averaged 18.
@@jamalwalker04 Moreover, Looney was the only other Warrior besides Curry to crack +3 in overall bpm. And Looney played a mere 20 mpg.
Jrue and Derrick's nickname is The Stock Exchange, coined by Derrick's dad on twitter like 5 months ago
Fire name
JT is by far the best player for Celtics. Just look at his passing, his controlling of the tempo, his all around game. Without JT, the Celtics offense and defense system simply collapse.
Don’t understand Thinking Basketball’s take on no superstar for Celtics.
Celtics is such efficient both offensively and defensively just because Tatum is INSANELY good.
Yeah people seem to really be missing this. Tatum was literally the floor general offensively and defensively for this Celtics team which just absolutely crushed the entire league. And people are STILL calling him overrated.
One thing I picked up throughout the series-
In scramble situations (my definition is, BALL ends up out top, followed by iso attack or ball screen), strong side corner shooter will probe his defender toward the paint with a subtle move as if to backdoor cut. Holiday punished the Mavs on this- constantly threatening with that face/basket cut, when he ultimately patient pushes himself back to corner for wide open three. Universal concept enhanced by the Celtics. Absolute destruction from all angles
An entire starting lineup that plays effectively on both sides, not to mention a few role players that always seem ready in the moment. Maybe more people should have seen the gentleman's sweep coming.
Reminder - they went 16-3 in the playoffs without a 7'3'' 3 point sniper who blocks like 3 shots per game. Good luck NBA🍀🍀🍀🍀
Good luck with what? You sure they will EVER have that 7'3" 3 point sniper in any playoff run? Boston is super legit but acting like the KP injury problem isn't a problem is wild. If Al retires or just declines even more as expected of a 38 yo then the spacing is gone. And KP is already having surgery and will be out "months".
@@Solo2121 so your only hope is that Porzingis gets hurt. and even if he does we still will win. I agree that the Celtics need big man depth but like...at minimum thats gonna be the 6th best player on the roster. Brad is a genius and he is going to get an undervalued guy again.
And the Celtics are always going to have god-tier spacing, whether or not their center can stretch the floor. JB and JT can collapse the defense too easily and White and Jrue are excellent shooters who punish aggressive closeouts.
The point is that Boston is an incredibly well constructed team...that can miss an all-star caliber player throughout the whole playoffs and still dominate. Meanwhile you got other teams crying abt their role players getting hurt. Just be better. its simple
Luckily for the NBA they will only exist for another year. lol
Suddenly everyone forgets that the Celtics played every Eastern Conference team with injuries to those team's best players. No Jimmy Butler, some Donovan Mitchell, a little bit of Tyrese Haliburton. That's not like the Celtics losing Porzingis. That'd be like the Celtics losing Tatum.
Denver can beat this team
I liked how brown took Luka out the game mentally early
A great season. JB deserved that MVP and it’s nice to put the “they can’t win together” nonsense to sleep. 💚☘️
Great season of basketball analysis! Y'all's work on this channel n the official nba one was a treat every time n I'm excited for whatever series you're cooking up for the off season!!!
Their bench was huge. I remember your biggest question mark for the Celtics was if their bench could hold up. Hauser was reliable and Tillman was good in spot minutes. Also luckily only one major injury.
When the best scoring duo runs up against the best defensive guard duo of all time.
Jrue Holiday being able to join the Celtics is so irritating, that kind of fit is unfair
At least it’s not as bad as KD to the 16 warriors 😅
only way tatum was ever gona win a title was having an actual all star team around him no cap
If only they could have kept Smart to win with them
They basically got 2 all stars on top of Tatum and Brown and White. In jrue and porzingis
@@lebronjamesfromdwade4103 if porzingus was healthy all playoffs it kind of would be
I’ve watched this more than a few times. It was a great video about an all-time great group of guys. Watching them methodically implement Joe’s game plan and respond to obstacles on the fly seamlessly is, in my admittedly casual opinion, a beautiful thing.
12:28 is so hilarious. White got pushed off but still got the rebound cause PJW was a joke
That was hilarious 😆
After many years of all the superteam talk and drama its clear that a TEAM have won the chip and i feel like this is great for the future of the NBA
LFG Celtics!
Thank you, Thinking Basketball!! Learned a lot from you, which makes being a fan a LOT more fun!! Hope to see you next season!!
There is always one guy that does everything on the championship teams. this year is Jrue Holiday, last year was Bruce Brown
The Nuggets really missed the presence of Bruce Brown in this year's playoffs.
White and Jrue do have a nickname is “The Stock exchange” Steals+Blocks=Stocks
I’ve noticed that every year ending in 4 since 2004, the winning team ends up being a balanced, cohesive team with no particular standout players beating a team with two top heavy more talented players
2004 Pistons against Shaq and Kobe Lakers
2014 Spurs against the LeBron and D.Wade Heat
2024 Celtics against the Luka and Kyrie Mavericks
Totally and the 1994 Sonics were like that too. They really should’ve done it. The year they finally did break thru they had to play MJ lmao
that bosh guy was a scrub and all those elite role players were shit
I randomly watched the Pistons Game 5 win over the Lakers in ‘04 bc it popped up on my feed (on Detroit’s channel, I think?) and it was odd how similar I found that series to this year’s finals. Outside of Shaq & Kobe, Detroit knew no one could hurt them- similar to this year with Luka & Kyrie (save for the fact that Kyrie was basically a no-show, unfortunately). It didn’t hurt that aside from knowing that, Detroit had a famously stifling defense- much like the Celtics this year. An incredibly well-balanced team beating the imbalanced, super-star heavy opponent. Kinda can’t stand Boston fans lol but you have to tip your hat, that is one hell of a team they’ve put together and I’m really happy for those players- they’ve faced an inordinate amount of scrutiny since they walked into such a storied franchise.
I'm glad that there's a team of switchable defenders that don't just switch every single time
I find it interesting that the 3 championship teams from the thumbnail all won exactly 10 years apart from each other. 2004, 2014, and 2024. Whats just as interesting is all of those teams were truly balanced team first teams and that nobody could've predicted at the start of those seasons who would win fmvp
Celtics fans tried to tell everyone the C’s were a matchup nightmare for Dallas. The only team out the west that worried me as a fan was Denver. Anyways, my boys did it!!☘️🏆☘️
I wasnt worried about Denver just because Jokic and Gordon and to a lesser degree Porter Jr arent going to be able to stop JB and JT who would have put it on the floor and got around them at will if that was the game they had to play
I was worried about the Timberwolves, to be fair. Their defensive coverage is good and they seemed to play much less iso ball than the Mavs despite losing that series. I think Celtics-Wolves would've been an all-time classic series, unlike what we got
Even Horford was shutting down Kyrie one on one. Celtics are crazy good.
What a great analysis; what a great channel!
This video was amazing. The ending made me realize we really just watched one of the best basketball teams of all time. Thank you for all your videos 🫡❤️
04 Pistons
14 Spurs
24 Celtics
2034 champs will be an ensemble team confirmed
I know having Hakeem probably eliminates them from this category but the ‘94 Rockets were pretty well balanced too .. lol
@@JoiRandomThe Knicks fit this category better but they lost Game 7.
@@RenaldyCalixte knicks whole offense in Brunson. They do NOT fit
@@tomi2x180 I'm talking about the 1994 Knicks not the 2024 Knicks.
@@RenaldyCalixtenow with KAT tho...
"these dudes just terrorize people" 😂 11:52 Jrue and D. White man ... the stock exchange.
There's something that's totally missing from your (and may others) analysis of Jason Tatum and the rest of the team. Yes it is a great ensemble cast. But they are not all playing the same roles. Tatum's role is a lead role. And so I can see how some peope would think that Brown had a better series (although Tatum had better numbers) but they aren't playing the same role on the team. There's overlap. And JB is certainly the Robin to JT's Batman, but a lot of the offense runs through JT. I think football really illustrates this well. The quarterback always has the more difficult job. Because that's just the nature of the position. So while yes, a receiver can have a great game, in the case of the superbowl against the Rams, Edelman won SBMVP, Edelman can't really do much without Brady doing what he has to do.
I don't want to take anything away from Jaylen Brown. Because he played amazing. I just think the context of the roles they play on the team is super important. Tatum is a superstar, maybe he's not quite as talented (on offense at least, defence he's a lot better) as Luka. But he's still a superstar. And he's playing his role to the best of his ability in order to win games. That's all. Nobody on this team was concerned with anything other than how can they win the most games. And that's why they won the championship.
Only thing missing from this video is how Tatum on the bigs combined with Jaylens pressure completely eliminated the Mavs alley oop offense
Derrick white’s dad coined jrue and d white the “ stock exchange”
Which is cool as ever lol
Excellent video. The DEE won this series. regarding Derrick White- The finals stuffing Lively, next year Wemby! White and Holiday's connections were sweet too!
Making the Case - 2024 Boston Celtics
Jayson Tatum is the first player in NBA history to lead his team in Points, Rebounds, and Assists in the Finals, win the chip, and NOT be named Finals MVP
Masterpiece, ben
great video, as always!
Tatum seemed to level up that last game. Specifically it was his drives to the rim which were under control. He did things like come to a live-dribble jump stop, which stresses the defense so much more than his 1 legged runners do, allowing him to keep his options open and forcing uncertainty in the defense.
As a long time Celtics fan, I'd love to see your thoughts on this. Thank you for your great work!
12:30 we call them the stock exchange
The reason why I cheered for the Celtics was because they played like a TEAM, they were so unselfish and this was a huge win for team basketball over heliocentric ball hogging basketball, hopefully more teams play like them!
I honestly think they would’ve swept every single round if KP was healthy
It's always possible and there have been a few teams that have been swept in the finals.
They lost to Miami in game 2 and Porzingis got injured in game 3. Took the Heat an all-time 3pt% playoff game record to do so, tho.
@@DanthonPlaysbut heat always shoot like that in playoffs or similar efficiency
@@jasonmoukala8909 Um, the Heat do not always shoot at above 50% from three in the playoffs lol
@@alecgleason a lot of times they shoot like 40 or higher lol
"they don't need the best player in the series to win, there the best team" that a nice line
Faster than the Celtics ending every playoffs series this year😂
Not a C's fan at all. But Jaylen perfectly executed Pippen's tutorial on how he would defend James Harden in his prime. "Well first of all you have to start guarding James Harden when he gets out of the car when arriving to the arena"
But let the Casuals tell you that The Celts weren't dominant, that they got lucky & faced a weak east with every team injured 😂😂
Those folks conveniently ignore that the Celtics were without Porzingis, who averaged 20 ppg this season, for most of the playoffs.
2 things can be true people the Celtics were the best team in the entire NBA and the East was bad especially with all the injuries in the playoffs
Is it really hard that both things can be true?
Wow, one of the best breakdown of the Celtics I have seen in a while. You should be an nba analyst!
I would add the 2011 Dallas Mavs to this ensemble championships… Yes, Dirk was their star, but Kidd, Terry, Marion, Chandler, Barea, Stephenson, etc… They were so good as a team!
Will you post the Gini chart somewhere with all the data-points labeled? That'd be really interesting to go through, especially to compare how team balance has changed throughout the years. Great video as always.
What happened to him
What a beautiful video 🥹
ITS NOT EVEN THAT BOSTON PLAYED SO DOMINANT💯ITS THAT THE MAVS PLAYED SO BAD😮💨💔💔
It’s both
You can’t comprehend what you’re seeing
And could say that was because of Boston.
Stop yapping you know nothing about ball you casual
I just wanted to see more winning basketball from a balanced team as opposed to one or two guys dribbling half the time. Not a Boston guy, but i badly wanted them to beat Dallas. Congrats to the champs.
2014 SPURS!?!?! Cmon now
I'm a Celtics fan but I agree that spurs team was extremely special the best ball player movement on offense I've seen
?
watch the vid first bfore commenting
@@sostdm617 they were amazing but I think against a switching defense much of that would go out the window and iso ball wasn’t really their best offense until kawhi went nuts
@@davidfebreeze428 kawhi averaged 14 points or something, it was 100% a team effort
Boston went 16-3 in the playoffs and Porzingis was hurt for most of it
Role Players win Championships. Boston was the best team all year cuz they have All Star caliber dudes as their role players. It's why the Suns got swept in the first round; they spent all their money on 3 ball dominant players that didn't put enough stress on the paint and didn't have any money left to fill out the rest of the roster. It's why the Nets flopped so badly when KD was there too
13:45 made me think of those golden days when you just see the warriors swinging the ball so effortlessly and smooth.
Best Breakdowns, keep'em coming big fella!
I can't say about the earlier Pistons team but i remember the other balanced teams he mentions pretty well and hold this Celtics team as the highest level of all. Their only big flaw was their history of "hangover" games every few weeks - i.e. games like Game 4 where they all played like they had a fifth of tequila for breakfast.
Good break down. Also the part wherre drew holiday generated 15x extra shots off of his ability to crash the board and area of the key for the celtics to generate extra offensive rebounds or disruptions. Well played in Game 5 win for the NBA Champs Boston Celtics.
The impact of Brown on Luka wasn't so much in just shot-contention on Luka, but rather that in defensive configurations with Brown defending Luka, the Celtics held Dallas to a miserable 84.8 ORtg. JB was easily the best matchup defender on Luka in the NBA this season, both regular season and playoffs when measured by total team points per possession defended. That wasn't always about defending Luka's shooting because that included Brown on Luka on off-the-ball as well. Because they could rely on Brown to cover Luka one-on-one, they could stay home on everyone else and eliminate the high-efficiency shots that Luka liked to generate through play-making, such as lobs to Lively & Gafford. Those plays disappeared in the Finals. And that dropped Dallas' efficiency like a rock in a pond.
Boston held true to two defensive tactics: 1) If Luka or Kyrie had the ball, make them shoot it and make sure to contest it. And 2) if Luka or Kyrie gave up the ball, deny them getting it back, forcing one of Dallas' weaker ball-handlers to play-make, which was usually a disaster for Dallas.
Summed up: They eliminated play-making and forced Dallas to just rely on shot-making.
Seeing them play offensively reminds me of the Timmie Spurs.
It's not about who scores, it's about scoring the ball.
Great season from you guys and great video as always. 💪🏽❣️
no way you timed csus instrumental with the buzzer beater...this channel is so goated
One of the nicknames I’ve heard for the Holiday-White backcourt is the stock exchange, as both guards are great at getting both steals and blocks
The use of Gini coefficient to quantify the balance of a team is flat-out awesome
Great season for you all, appreciate the coverage this year 💪🏾
have been subbed for a while have put all my friends on best detailed videos on the tube!
They all hustle, hunt together, help each other, serve each other as a proper team should do!
I never thought my economics background and my love for basketball would come together like this! Truly Thinking Basketball!
this entire celtics team is all about trust, the entire roster from tatum to walsh has complete trust in each other which allows them to make that extra pass because they know that whoever they’re passing to will make that shot, you can see the difference in earlier years where the duo was playing hero ball instead of looking for the open man. mazzula helps with this even more with his fucking insane basketball iq. anyways i’ve never been more proud to be a celtics fan and i can’t wait for next season 🍀🍀
Thank you Ben for the excellent work/analysis this season!
1 word that describes each player on the Celtics = White - awareness, Tatum- Talent, Brown- dependable, Holiday- versatile, Horford- Jack of all trades, Pritchard- high IQ , coach mazulla- selfless