Jay King

speaker

816 appearances 7 recordings 1 series first heard Jan 2025 last heard 7 Jul

Jay King’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 4 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 1.

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The Athletic NBA Daily · Grizzlies maul Wolves in comeback win | Celtics bounce back · 21 Jan 2025 podcast

And part of that is because the math suggests like if good shooters get up that many shots, it's going to be really tough to keep that offense down. And that's part of the reason why they've been so efficient at the rim is because you have to worry about everyone on their roster firing away. And so I think, yes, you do have to have other things to go to.

And I think Porzingis coming back, getting him in the post. Jalen Brown has developed as a post player. Jason Tatum in ISO has been more efficient than anyone else so far this season. There are other ways they can score. But, yeah, like if you do shoot. low 30s for a month in the playoffs, then maybe you don't survive that. But I don't think they're the only team that that would be the case for.

I think pretty much any team, if you go through a cold shooting stretch, will have real difficulties. So it's interesting because if their three-point percentages were just normal during this streak, how different would it be? How many more games would they have won? And so you can point to shot luck, but also at the same time, it's like,

I think the process going into those looks hasn't been quite the same as it was earlier this season. The thing that Joe Missoula has pointed out a couple of times is like, they're not, they're also not getting up as many threes as it did earlier this season. It was like 50, they were averaging 52 threes attempted per game for a while, which is insane.

And over the last month or so, it's been down to about 45. So I think he would be okay with them getting up more. And I think it's, it's, part of the clunkier process that they've had that they haven't gotten those up and also bringing poor Zingas back. Obviously, he's going to take more twos. He's going to take more post-ups.

So it's been a process for them figuring it out the last month or so, especially with that starting lineup. the struggles they had with that group for a while was really startling.

Yeah, I think that's a big part of it. Obviously, like when Porzingis was out. The first two months of the season, they were actually one of the best teams at preventing three point attempts by the other team. Right. And so that was the style that they use.

Whereas last year with Porzingis, they sort of played like the Bucks did with with Brooke Lopez and Giannis under Budenholzer, where they were like, you can fire away. We'll leave your best shooters. We'll protect the rim. We'll kind of have our defense start from the inside and then work out.

um and with porzingis back they've kind of gone back to that previous style where they're allowing a lot more three-point attempts and right now teams have been gassing them the last month teams have been gassing them from behind the arc i think to some extent like every team is shot like the cavaliers against it was something like when porzingis i looked at this a couple games ago uh so it's probably not exactly the case anymore especially after what the warriors just did but for for a 10-game stretch

When Porzingis was on the court, the Celtics opponents were shooting forty three point five percent from the three point arc and getting up like forty four three point attack for forty eight minutes. Damn. So so it's like every team was was shooting like the Cavaliers against them, both with volume and percentage. And it's like it's going to be tough to survive that one.

Also, I don't think other teams will sustain that. But. I think part of it is playing a new style. Part of it is, like I said, probably a low-energy stretch, and you let guys get too comfortable.

But they definitely have to adjust to kind of a new style, and I think at the end of the day, it will help them out that they can kind of toggle back and forth between a team that shuts off the arc and a team that allows bad shooters to shoot open ones from above the break. But right now, they're just sort of figuring it all out.

So Cleveland has obviously been the best team in the race. That's not even a discussion. They played a historic pace. The one thing I think about as I project forward to the playoffs is like, The Celtics don't really have any weak link on either end in their rotation. There's no one you can really hunt that you'd be comfortable hunting.

There's no one you can leave at the three-point arc that you'd be comfortable leaving. And I just feel like Cleveland has some of that. Like, they're vulnerable in different places. What does Darius Garland do if Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown are hunting him relentlessly? What is, you know... Sam Merrill do? What does, you know, what does George Niang do?

Guys that are important to their second unit. Ty Jerome, like, they've been really good. They've been incredible. That second unit has just blitzed teams all year. But in the playoffs, I do wonder if they have just... just too many weak links to survive another great team. That said, they're absolutely good enough to beat the Celtics. They've been a well-oiled machine all year.

The Celtics would have to play a great series against them. I would love to see it. But yeah, Cleveland's been unbelievable.

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