00:00What do you think is the biggest reason for their ability to overachieve this year?
00:05You know, Missoula and Stevens, I think, can be on that list.
00:08You give Brad Stevens a lot of credit for finding these guys.
00:12I give Missoula a lot of credit for developing these guys.
00:15What's the biggest reason to you that they've overachieved this year?
00:18I think part of it or a big part of it would be Jalen Brown.
00:20I think Jalen Brown had talked about it.
00:23He wanted to be the face of the team and the number one option on the team.
00:29He'd been waiting for this moment, and he's lived up to it.
00:34Like, I think he couldn't wait for this opportunity.
00:36He talked about how he sacrificed all of this and all these different things along the way.
00:40You know, we always play that comment about him saying this is his favorite season.
00:44But he wanted to see what that was like.
00:46And even though he was the Finals MVP, people still are like, well, this is Jason Tatum's team.
00:50Tatum's a top-five player. You're a top-20 player.
00:52And he's like, okay.
00:53So he's heard that for five or six years, and now he is the lead guy,
00:57and he's making the most of it.
00:59I think everybody's sort of falling into place, and they follow him.
01:02It's not like there's no fight for it.
01:03There's no like, hey, maybe Derek White's the – maybe he's the lead guy this year.
01:07Maybe it's Pritchard.
01:08No, they've all had great games.
01:09But Jalen Brown has really taken over, you know, in NBA parlance, the alpha role.
01:15He has fully embraced it, and the team has bought in.
01:17So I agree with you.
01:19I think that's the reason.
01:20And I give Brad and Missoula plenty of credit.
01:23But Jalen Brown is fifth in the league in scoring, 29 a game.
01:26Yeah.
01:26The name's ahead of him.
01:27That's silly.
01:28Luka.
01:30SGA.
01:30Anthony Edwards.
01:31And then Tyrese Maxey.
01:32You saw him the other night.
01:33He's having a monster year.
01:34Maxey's a really good player.
01:35I don't know that he – when you think of top-five players in the league,
01:39he's quite there, but he's close.
01:40He's a scoring machine.
01:40And he's a great, great scorer.
01:43Jalen is ahead of names like Jokic, Donovan Mitchell, Kawhi, Brunson, Durant,
01:51Cade Cunningham.
01:51Like, he's ahead of guys like that.
01:53And I think when you look at some of the other stuff from Jalen this year,
01:57like, he's not top-five in rebounding, but he's 31st in the league among qualifiers.
02:02So he's a top-30-ish rebounder in the league, along with being a top-five scorer.
02:07He is 38th among qualifiers in assists per game.
02:11So you have a guy who's a top-five scorer, 31st in rebounding, and 38th in assists.
02:18Like, you have a very well-rounded player who's emerged as a true down-ballot MVP candidate
02:24and a true first-team All-NBA guy.
02:26That's why you're overachieving.
02:28You replace Tatum with an approximation of Jason Tatum overnight.
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