Speaker 1: What is up? Fellasiko's Onbafa Valley coming at you with
our second to last twenty five twenty twenty six NBA
season look Ahead. We are at long last on to
the Boston Celtics, which means I get to be joined
by Bobby Manning, covers the team for CLNS. Be sure
to check out the Garden Report. They go live after
every Celtics game. Good stuff over there. Follow him on
the socials machine at real Bob Manning spelled exactly as
it sounds. It's also in our YouTube link and our
podcast description. Bobby, you're back for year three. I appreciate
you doing this for a third consecutive year. How the
heck are you doing good? Yeah, you said year three.
Speaker 2: I'm like, wait, this is your six for me covering
the team on the ground here, I want to say
our six of the Garden Report as we've been doing
it for sure, so you know times phone here a
little bit, which is which is crazy. But this seem's
in an interesting spot gap year, trend istion year, whenever
you want to call it. It's going to be interesting
how it all plays out roster wise. How competitive are they?
Does Tatum come back? I think this team, for being
pretty mediocre on paper, actually could be intriguing the follow
a week to week just based on how I don't
want to say erratic, but this could be a year
where they're all over the place, a little bit, really
good forst stretch, really bad first stretch. So you know
Tatum's on the court, is he almost here? Like there's
gonna be a lot of storylines around the team as
the year progresses.
Speaker 1: And look, the Eastern Conference is nothing if not forgiving
to the middle class, So that's something the factor. And
you mentioned Tatums. Let's just start there. The right achilles injury.
The vibes feel really good right now with the videos
they've been posting, there's the report that he wants to
play this season and the Celtics haven't ruled it out.
Do you expect him at this point, just giving all
the noise we've heard around it and the videos that
are being posted to now see him play this season?
And do you ultimately think that you're not a doctor?
I'm going to ask you if it's the right call, but
do you think there's value in will you get that
mental hurdle of having to come back out of the way,
so next season, when the stakes in theory are higher,
it's maybe just not as much pressure.
Speaker 2: Yeah, if I had a guess now, I think we
will see some amount of him by the end of
the year. Now, the timing's tough because as you start
to count out the months here, and I think his
dad said like eight to nine months to ESPN when
it first happened, and the timing of the surgery and
the techniques they're using now, particularly O'Malley who performed the
surgery is known to do the speed bridge technique, which
brings guys back a little earlier. I think he's in
a great position to come back sooner than most guys.
And I even look at, you know, some of the
players coming back from it now, Drew Smith, Isaiah Jackson
as well as James Wiseman. They're all, you know, full
go in these preseason games. So could they have been
playing even a month earlier than this on their timelines,
I don't know. But for Tatum, I think the timing
around March April is going to be interesting because where's
this team at this point. At that point, are they
trying to gear up for a playoff push? Is it
so tight to the end of the season where bringing
him back and trying to fit him into things is
awkward or doesn't make a ton of sense. I think
there's a lot of factors like that at play they're
going to determine whether we actually do see him this year.
But physically, I think he's going to be in a
really good place by February, March, April even and let's
say it is April two weeks as you mentioned there,
getting comfortable, getting his feet under him, gaining his confidence
back in live action. Let's say the team is out
of it at that point. That could be good for
him going into the following year. So if I had
a guess right now, I do think we'll see some
amount of him this year.
Speaker 1: Do you think it is less likely that if they
still have something to play for, that he would come back,
just to then throw him back into that scenario where
what if they are really going after the sixth seed.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's interesting, and I asked that question a lot
because I'm not sure if that's actually a factor. But
you can understand, right let's say he's ready to go
and the playoffs are starting. I don't think it's easy
to just jump into action for a playoff game if
that's what it's going to be. And similar if there's
just a couple of games left, is it worth it
at that point or do you just want to take
extra time off the court and doing whatever you can
a non game action the ramp up for next year.
I think that will be a small factor. The biggest
ones obviously is he cleared and you know, allowed to
go there, and that seems feasible by the time the
season ends there, So if he intends to play this year,
they're open to it and the doctors clear him that
it might be as simple as that, and whether they're
in the mix or not the you know, it might
not matter at all. But I do think it could
be awkward if they figure something out, are in the
playoff nes there and you're trying to fit him in
because it's not going to be full go Tatum right away,
like it's going to be a minute limit and maybe
off the bench or some diminished version of So can
you address those two things at the same time trying
to fit him back in while trying to enter the
playoffs at full speed ahead. And obviously it'd be better
to have him for a playoff run if that's feasible
then not. But you know, I think the thinking is
you're usually not yourself until well over a year after
this thing, and if we're counting out eleven months, that's
the end of the regular season, So the timing is
going to be tight against the playoffs, which I think
is going to be the difficult factor here. But does
that even matter or are they just going to say
go ahead when you're ready. I could see either direction
being the case there, but this stuff is so hard
to determine because you see him flying up and down
and dunking and all that, and it's exciting, But how
much does that actually mean at this point? I don't know,
because you know, from what I hear, that's that's stuff
you're theoretically able to do at this point in the
recovery five months out. So I don't think we've seen
anything yet that makes you say, all right, he's coming back.
This is going to be the quickest recovery ever. I
think he's on track, which is good, but I don't
think he's swooping in to save this season by any
means here. Whatever happens, that's not going to be the case.
Speaker 1: He does seem like the type of sicko that would
want to see, Okay, what's the quickest return from an
achilles injury?
Speaker 2: And that's good, right, because it means he's putting everything
into this process he possibly can. And let's say, like
this is like a carrot, that you know, him returning
this year is what's motivating him to get in there
every day, give it as all, and take every step
as seriously as possible. And then let's say it doesn't
work out, you still did all that work for the
following year and put yourself in the position to succeed
next year. But this clearly is motivating him. He's sending
that signal with interviews and posts and everything else that
I'm still here, I'm going to be back. And the
worry there is that he pushes too hard, and I
think that's something they're probably have to manage, because, like
you said, he's relentless. I don't think he is a
guy who wants to hold back at all. But with
these kind of recoveries, you might have to hear and
there and you might have to say, all right, this
season isn't smart. Let's wait for next year. And that's
going to be difficult for him if that time comes,
but he has also stressed, you know, we're not going
to come back any sooner than when I'm absolutely ready here.
So you hope that that's the case with him. You
hope there are no setbacks because obviously the big thing
everyone wants to see is this team being back in
position for twenty twenty seven. He's gonna miss most, if
not all, of this year regardless of when he comes back.
So does that make this year a wash? Are they
better than expected? Is it a tank year? Whatever happens,
it's not going to be a championship contending year this season,
So you want to be back in that position the
following year, and his recovery is the biggest factor in that,
is they've said.
Speaker 1: That's a perfect segue into the question I want to
ask you about what your read was of how they
navigated the offseason. Do you look at it as they
were really trying to steer into people want to call
it a gak beer a tank here, or was it
just a cheaper form of relevance in the Eastern Conference.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they definitely had financial reasons to do what they did.
The second Apron gets talked about a lot, and I
get it. They got below that line with the Porzingis move.
I think you can look at the Porzingis trade financially
and as a basketball move and say, all right, is
he going to be healthy, consistent and effective moving forward?
And if the answer is no, maybe it doesn't make
sense to have him on your books in a year
where you're not trying to contend at thirty million or
wherever he was floating around at that point. So I
get some of these moves. I think Simon's was good
value for Holiday. I think Holiday gang off three years.
There was an excellent move at this stage of his
career and some of the decline you started to see
from him there.
Speaker 1: But now it was initially I know they didn't end
up with them. Yeah, they gott yeah as part of
that deals. I was actually floored because I love Drew,
but like that contract was just not viewed favorably around
the league. So yeah, that was a trade that you
could have justified for it was financial, but you also
probably could have justified it for basketball reasons too.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So the two trades I think made sense, especially
let's say you had to get off some money this offseason,
like those might have been the two ways to do it.
Certainly didn't want to trade brown or white if he
didn't have to, so they did that. Then you know,
you lose Al. You start to hear win that that's
gonna happen, and obviously it didn't happen till later. And
that one's tough for me because it's like, all right,
two million on a minimum two to three million versus
five six million, like you ended up getting like you
couldn't match that. I get hurt that much to try
to keep Ault around. Now. I'm sure he had his
own factors there and in continuing to contend for a championship.
I know that was written about and I wrote about
as well as a major factor and starting out in
golden status he's going to I don't know if that
would have been certain here. So there were definitely other
reasons aside for the money that he left. But that
was tough for me because if you're trying to keep
the ship afloat develop young guys have some stability or
even just be back next year, like I don't think
this is necessarily Al's last year. It was tough to
see him go, especially when you don't have a ton
at center remaining. We can get to that in a minute.
But the one that killed me is Luke And you
know I've reported that. You know, they try to do
a structure of like five years at the minimum to
get him the twenty million. They made a pretty competitive
offer there, I think, because when you look at you know,
he got forty million ish from San Antonio, but only
about like twenty three was guaranteed. So I think in
his case, you know, is it the ability to win
in San Antonio. He grew up close to there, so
maybe that was a factor as well. Playing with one
min Yama and having a bigger role himself too, I'm
sure was appealing. So I think there were other factors
there for him as well, aside from the money, but
that one, to me was the killer because he was
ascending like Al's late in his career, these other guys
later in their careers, to me, Cornett was still ascending
at a position where you're completely uncertain into the future
now and you spent all of those years developing them.
He was a big locker room piece for this team
as well. I love them, So maybe I'm a little
biased here, but I thought losing Cornett was a killer
for this team. And you look at what he's doing
this preseason already in San Antonio, the.
Speaker 1: Alley Us chemistry with Wemby, Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, playing pick and roll with Wemby, and defensively he's
just excellent. That was a tough loss. I think there's
a case he could actually be the guy they missed
the most out of the four guys they lost.
Speaker 1: I thought actually those two moves that you have, the
al Horford like him leaving and the Cornett signing were
the two that kind of telegraphed oh there. It was
like purely out. This whole offseason was financially driven. So
now you look at it and they're twelve point one
million away from ducking the tax. To me, now, the
expectation would be, now the repeater clo that they would
pay repeater tax this year, that they're going to duck
that number. But I would have probably guessed that they
did it before entering training camp, which they did not,
which is also a little confusing because it gets harder
to shave that kind of money off during the regular season.
So what are your just expectations there, just based off
everything they've already done. Do you expect them to try
and work to duck the tax or might they make
it a results based thing where, oh, if we're better
than expected, like we will just stomach the bill this year.
Speaker 2: Well, it was interesting when the preseason broadcast their cap
guy Mike's Aaron was on there and he almost like
spilled the beans. It sounded like like, you know, we
had to get blowed the second apron, and you know
we're gonna get blowed the first, something to that effect.
And they're a little over the first right now, that
apron doesn't matter as much to me, Like there's no
like draft pick penalties for being over that one. You
can't do sign and trades and a couple other things
that you know, the mid level next summer, I'm sure
you want it, but that one to me isn't like
you have to get blow the first apron. The tax
is the question. And there's still like twelve thirteen over
Simon's was the big conversation there all summer. Can you
move off him and you know, get blow of that
line completely there? But for whatever they either weren't suitors
for you know, you're talking twenty eight million there. It's
a pretty hefty contract along with just the positional need
around the league, point guard is overloaded on pretty much
every roster. There aren't a lot of teams that are
trying to win that need a point guard. And I
said all along, if you're looking across the league, who
needs Simons, it's actually the Celtics. So you know, it
had him out and the guard depth they lost, like
they actually need him more than any other team, So
I'm glad they kept him. It was a mixed bag
in the preseason. You know, even the finale yesterday was
pretty rough as we record this year against Toronto, but
they're working hard on the defense. He's exceptional as a scorer.
The Cavs preseason game on Friday or Sunday rather was
was excellent, just him and his best stepping back, drilling threes,
being a threat on that end. So he's super talented
and still relatively young. If you can pay a little
bit of tax this year, and ownership's willing to do
that to just keep some of the roster intact, and
he'll obviously go to free agency next summer, let's say
you can keep them at half the cost, because I
think that's what free agency is doing. There's squeezing guys
to that level financially. I don't know how much money
they'll be out there from this offseason unless he just
goes off this year, which you tip your hap if
it had if that's the case, or maybe you move
him close to the deadline if that's where things are going.
But I'm glad they didn't just try to dump him
or attached picks to him to send them to Brooklyn
or whatever the move would have been there, because they
clearly wasn't great value for him out there, and so
I think it's a no brainer to take him into
the year and see what he can do. This is
a good fit for him. They shoot a lot of threes.
It's a great defensive system coaching wise to get a
guy to play better on that end, and I think
they're hopeful that in this environment, especially without a lot
of attention on him right Jalen Derek Peyton, those guys
are gonna get a lot of the defensive attention. I
could see him succeeding this year. So he's one of
the actual few things I think fans can latch onto
this year and be excited about. Is this guy having
the motivation to have a contract year and one way
or another, I think you're going to benefit from that
if it happens.
Speaker 1: I think the other thing too, just looking at their payroll,
is that it's less prohibitive to just be into the
tax now. In general, it's when you start, as you said,
getting into the aprons where there's the draft pick penalties
or the transaction restricts.
Speaker 2: Just money. I think, like the thirty million tax bow
right now, I.
Speaker 1: Think like that, but it's not it's not hard money,
and so ownership tends to think differently. The other thing
with Simon's two is that so it seems like he's
going to come off the bench for them, and some
of the lineups that I saw him in during the preseason,
I'd just say, not a lot of ton of like
other ball handling around him, which in theory could then
make his job tougher. Have you gotten any more of
a sense for how you think they're going to deploy
him or what players you want to see him maybe
tethered two to optimize like what he's doing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I think even unrelated to Simons, they
got to find some ways to generate rim protection this year,
and that's gonna be challenging. You lost Cornett and Porzingis
was great at that. They had so much of it
last year that now you're like, all right, you know,
Kate is a decent room protector. It seems like he's
going to start here. I think Joe signaled that yesterday.
Chris Bouchet can help with, you know, some of the
weak side stuff, as well as Josh Maynot, who I
think is intriguing on this team deeper down the roster
is one of the minimum pickups they had, So I
think when you look at the second unit right now,
it's gonna be tough if he is there, you know,
mine not will be out there. But if he's playing
with guards, I think that's a guy who struggled defensively
in the preseason for them. You know, you're you're not
looking at a ton of defensive pieces around him into
second units there, So they're gonna have to get creative
with how they do it. There's a big debate in
Celtics Land. You start Porchard, do you start Signons Prichard
obviously thrived as a six man a year ago. I
think he's earned the right to start for this team
just where he is, you know, standing wise at this point.
But there is a case, whether you're doing it actually
changing the lineup down down the line, or just doing
it in rotation. And they're certainly going to be subbing
guys in and out like crazy, as we saw during
the preseason here. Getting the different combinations that are going
to help him out. Defensively, playing next to White, playing
with rim protection behind him, I think that's all going
to be important there, But it comes down to his
efforts because teams are going to go after him. He
filed a lot in the preseason. He had four in
the Toronto game. I think he was like close to
six and the other one. So he's a work in
progress still at this point in his career, and he's
super talented. They're going to coach him tough. He's going
to have to improve on these things if he wants
to take the next step in his career at this
point ahead of free agency here, and I think he's
definitely motivated to do that. So they're gonna have to
get creative with the way they run their lineups this year,
and seeing how often they sub guys in and out
of those preseason games, I don't know if it will
be as rapid fire as it was in training camp,
but they definitely go you know, whoever starts these games,
you know, an opening night and beyond here. I don't
think it's going to matter a time because four minutes in,
it's going to be another group in and you know,
from there just mixing and matching throughout these games. I
don't think the starting lineup is gonna matter much for
this team at all.
Speaker 1: The Celtics are among the teams, among the many teams
that have talked about playing faster this year. I know
Joe mizzoulis pushed back against some of the pay stuff,
but like even when you just look at the average
offensive possession time last year, Boston was in the bottom three,
it's like they do have room to beat things up.
So I guess where do you land on that? And too,
do you buy that Like that's going to be sort
of like playing noticeably faster is going to be a
core part of their identity, maybe in part to try
and paper over the fact that they don't have their
down one superstar offensive talent, so you don't necessarily want
to go up against set defenses as often.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they want to get into the actions earlier, and
they talked about that last year too. It didn't work,
and it was funny to even hear Pritchard at win.
The practices here at camp just essentially be like you know,
it was it was Tatum. You know, you're gonna play
Tatum's way when he's available, and that's what we did
and it worked. We won a title. But you know,
Jalen wants to play faster. Pritchard has always wanted to
play fast. Simon's is a fast athletic player, and they
have a bunch of guys they've added who can fit
that play style now too. Even their bigs can get
up and down the floor a little bit. So you know,
you hear them talk about it. Every team talks about
in camp want to play faster? Do they actually do it?
And they did. You know, they got up to one
of six possessions that through the four preseason games there
that was tied for six or even as high as
like third if you just you know teams that are
in the one oh six range there, So they were
in the top half of teams effectively in pace, and
you mentioned it. They got down to like twenty ninth
of the season. Over the last two months they were
last and then they in that Knick series, they were
down like a ninety one pace. It was ridiculous how
slow and plotting they got into that playoff loss there.
So that was one of the first things Brad talked
about over the offseason is we have to address that.
How they balance that against turnovers is going to be interesting,
because they turned it over a lot this preseason. There
were some aberrations with like the you know, tryout guys
in these games giving it away, so the number might
be a little deceiving, but they did turn it over
a lot, even into the starting lineup, you know, minutes there.
So ball control is definitely gonna be a question. These
guys who have been more secondary contributors, Pritchard, Brown, you know,
alongside Tatum, are gonna get the full brunt of defensive
pressure this year. So I think that's another reason to
play fast, is to avoid some of the traps and
double teams and stuff the teams are gonna throw at
them to try to slow them in the half court.
It could be a struggle at times for this team.
In the half court. There's not as much shooting as
a year ago. There's not as much playmaking, especially in
some of these second units, so their approach. You know, offensively,
it's gonna have to be fast, and then even defensively,
they're gonna take more risks. They're gonna try to go
for steals and do things that they haven't done the
last couple of years here, there's been a bottom five
team through Mizzoulu's tenure for turnovers. You could see them
in the top half of the league in that department
now this year too, because they just have to do it.
There's certain things they don't have now as a team
that they're gonna have to make up for in other ways.
And one other thing I've loved from them this preseason
is they're offensive rebounding. Like they're not going to be
a great defensive rebounding team, but if they're getting second
chance opportunities on the other end, and they're very good
at it the way they coach it, that can counteract
that a little bit. I think this team, and you know,
we can talk about Joe for a minute here if
we want to. I think they're gonna benefit from his
coaching and the way he finds little advantages and just
how attentive he is. The stuff the system he's built here,
I think that's gonna add more wins to this team's total.
Then people give credit for like just watching these preseason games.
It's a lot of guys, like just a lot of
players who you know, you don't know much about it,
these even NBA guys, but like the threes are going
up and they're on the glass, and like they're defending,
you know, aggressively as a team, and they they're just smart.
They're smart team. They're well coached, and they might play
better than the sum of their parts here because you
just look at the roster and the players that are
on it, and it's not super impressive when you look
at it, but you actually watch these precids, you know,
they put up one twenty in one game, they put
up one thirty in another game. They didn't face a
lot of competition, but like the machine just seemed to
kind of keep rolling no matter who was in there.
And I don't think you know, if you didn't watch
this team super closely over the last couple of years,
they had a stacked roster, but they would win games
for like Howser and Prichard and Cornett would start. So
I think that might continue even with a even less
talented rosters. Than that this year.
Speaker 1: The Missoula points interesting because I think a lot of
coaches can feel reinvigorated when they don't necessarily have to
tailor everything they're doing around one or two players, and
then it's mostly the players that they get to fus
and fiddle with, or the players adapt to how they
want to play, and so like, do you see any
other like the Celtics have become known for their three
point volume, but are there any more like interesting wrinkles
you could see rolled out by Joe Mizzoula And what
is basically whatever they're trying to do this season, it's
going to be more experimental than years past, for sure.
Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure, they've wont to get into some full
court pressure, you know, like Indiana did last year. I
think that's the trend that's gonna start showing around the league.
I think they're willing to file a little more. There's
a team that hasn't fouled at all essentially under Miszula,
So I think they're willing, especially in a situation where
they start to see more things going uncalled around the league,
maybe being willing to give up an extra file or
two here to try to get away with it. I
think that's a conversation they've had in camp here. The
three point volume is still going to be there. I mean,
that's just who they are. I think for this team
with Howser, Pritchard, Simons, it actually makes sense to still
get a lot up. And you know, the last preseason game,
Jalen goes down and Derek White shot seventeen threes and
scored thirty three points. So you know, it drives fans
crazy sometimes they're three point totals fifty sixty a games sometimes,
but it actually does suit their roster decently. Even you know,
kat is tinkered with a three point shot this offseason
and guards that can shoot it. I feel good about
him out there. This is a roster that I think
actually benefits again from shooting a lot of three. So
I think they're gonna lean into that harder pace, a
more aggressive defensive approach to try to force turnovers. They
just look for every advantage they can find there. And
for Joe, it's like the four battles, the free throw battle,
the rebounding battle, the turnover battle, as well as the
shot total battle, and like that's pretty much what he
stresses every night to try to win games, like, if
we do two or three of these things, we're probably
gonna win. And even on the more talented rosters, that's
how they would get by and gain even more of
an advantage. So I'm a Joe guy. Like we ever
we butt heads in the pressers sometimes and even on
the court in this media game, but like to me,
he's a smart, innovative coach, and he's gotten a lot
out of this team, Like they haven't won fifty sixty
games every year under him just because they've been the
most talented team in the league, Like they have scratched
every advantage they can find. So I feel good about
him going into this year. But they do need to
find talent too out there, and that's going to be
the work in progress as they tried to develop this team.
Speaker 1: Do you have anything you're monitoring or expecting when it
comes to seeing Derek White and assuming he's healthy after
the hamstring snafu, Jalen Brown scaling up in Tatum's absence,
and I honestly think, I though this sounds weird, White's
the more interesting one to me there because a lot
of people just assume that because he's been more of
a tertiary offensive, Like he scores a bunch of points sometimes,
but he's been more of like a secondary offensive player
for them that he's the one who could be impacted
the most. Adversely, But when you look at like the
level of difficulty on his shots or what can happen
when he gets up a lot of shots of the
way that he's just able to move, I'm actually sort
of fascinated to see. I think he's going to be
a lot better this season than people nashally might expect
without Tatum there, without Drew there, without Porzingis and now
Horford there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And just to look at the box score from
the finale the preseason's like thirty three nine to six
and four blocks. Like if he's doing something close to
that every night, regardless of how this team's doing, people
around the league are gonna look up and be like, whoa,
you know, Derek White's maybe even an All Star this
year what he's doing statistically, Like that's the kind of
weight he might have to shoulder, especially if Jalen's gonna
miss some time here, and I think he inevitably will
at certain ports sparks of the schedule as well, He's
gonna be the guy they have a tough decision on
and Jalen into the future as well, just because of
the contract. But I think there is a more limited
market for Jalen because of that and a deal he's on.
Derek's on this great contract. Every single team in the
league not only needs a guy like that, but it
could perfectly fit him in and benefit from it immediately.
Like I know, the talk almost instantly when Fred van
Fleet went down in Houston was imagine Derek White in
that position. Can they go get White? You know, I said,
teams called them over the offseason, nobody blew them away
with an offer. Like I think the thinking was, like
Michale Bridges type offer could maybe get Boston off White here,
but let's say the desperation of some other teams around
the league increases in Boston. You know, it doesn't look
like they're going anywhere fast here. They do get offered
like five first and a good young player for White,
it's gonna be hard if they're in a bad position
to completely swat that away and say, no way, we're
not trading him, because like you're gonna see him ascend
to a different level this year. I think, you know,
I'm in full agreement with you on that. But by
the time this team get back, gets back to championship level,
is he's still like a major part of what they're
doing there. That's what they're gonna have to ask themselves
this season, because how does this team get better into
the future? You know, they drafting high next year, they
don't have other picks into the future. In fact, they
o picks to other teams over the next couple of years. Here,
They're not going to be signing free agents or even
doing signing trades necessarily next summer. So how do how
do you start to set this team up for long
term success here? Maybe your vision is just pay for it,
keep White, Brown Tatum around and just figure it out
around them. I think that's a perfectly fine plan, But
you're gonna have to find some other pieces this year.
Feel good about Jason coming back or where Jalen's at
into the future here, they really think you can just
run this thing back. White's gonna continue to be a
difficult decision for them because I'm almost certain as this
year goes on and team suffer injuries or try to buy,
they're just gonna be knocking the door over trying to
get this guy from Boston because there's an argument this
is the best complimentary player in the league, Like that's
the level he's reached on both ends of the floor here,
and he looks like the final piece to a championship
team right now. And so is there a number you
can get to? Is there an offer you can get
to as an opposing team that makes Boston say all right,
we'll take five first and this, you know, really intriguing
young player here. Whatever that offer looks like, I think
that's gonna be something to watch this year. Maybe it
doesn't happen this season, the next offseason. Where are you at?
Where's he at? I think that's going to continue to
be a conversation here. But in the meantime, I'm gonna
appreciate getting to watch this guy any amount of games
that we're able to hear, because he is just awesome.
He really is.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, even thinking about that type of a transaction,
if it offer comes on the table, does that imply that, like, oh,
this isn't just going to be a gap year, like
they're looking at this as like a multi year return
to the level that they were at.
Speaker 2: It might have to be right, like I don't know
how you get better next summer if you're them, like
you'll have a mid level maybe cause that get you
like a decent big I don't know. You don't have
a ton of trade assets unless some of these young
guys start to ascend. You don't have a ton of
draft capital and your pick. Let's say they are six
seventh in the East this year. It's the middle of
the middle of the draft, and you're not getting a
ton there, like Tatum will be back, Brown will be back,
you know, White whoever? Else? Is that enough to contend
for a championship next year?
Speaker 1: I don't know you did allude to this a little
bit before, but do you expect Jalen Brown and Derek
White to be on some sort of a loose maintenance program?
Kind of a loaded question because we don't have any updates.
We're recording this in the Jalen Brown hamstring injury, But like,
do they look at these if they are trying to
be back to that level semi soon with those two guys,
they could look at this as especially given how banged
up Jalen Brown was last year, they could look at
this as an opportunity to not lighten their workload when
they're on the floor, but certainly lighten the number of
games that they have to play in.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's going to be an interesting balance
between the coaching staffs that I think wants to go
full speed ahead this year I'm share, and the front
office it's probably looking more long term. So those are
the kind of things that I think will be interesting
as this year goes on here and we start to
see where they're at, because it'll be easier to push
them further if they're playing great. It will probably become
a more challenging conversation if they're banged up and the
team's not playing great as this year progresses here. So
I don't have a great read on how that's going
to go so far. I think we'll get some indication
of it right now with this Jalen situation because he
exited the game with a hamstring, which can linger and
you don't want to rush back from so they's super
careful with him and hold him out for the first
couple of weeks here. As things get going, I think
that'll say a lot about how they're going to handle
even tweaks or minor injuries. If that's what this ends
up being here, and obviously you hope that's the case.
It was a killer after everything they went through this
preseason and some of the developments they had that your
next best player ends up going down in the final
preseason game here. So we'll see how that pans out
with a week to go into the regular season here.
But you know, trades rebuild versus reload for the following year.
I think just from you know, what I've garnered from
the front office here so far is that it's just
wait and see what opportunities are out there. How's this
season going, Just make decisions as they come. I don't
think this team has a firm d A, you know,
fully fledged outlook for how they're going to handle the
next couple of years here as they try to get
back into it. It's it's gonna be a lot of
monitoring and assessing things as they come along here. And
let'stenk credit to them. I think they found an underrated,
nice backup Big and Garza for the minimum here. I
think my not on a two year deal with a
second year team option. Just given the financial assets that
they had to work with this summer, they found some
interesting guys here. And even Ugo Gonzalez, you know, with
the what twenty eighth, twenty nine to thirtieth pick in
the first round, already shown to be a heady defender
and showing a few flashy moves offensively and looking like
for his age a guy who could step in and
contribute pretty quickly, maybe compared to what you would have thought.
I think those already look pretty good on this on
this front office, and we'll see what that actually looks
like when the games get going here. But there were
some guys over on this roster that I thought had
had solid preseasons, and I'm interested to see where they
end up fitting in here, because that's that's the goal
of this season, right which one of these guys who
are playing right now can actually help us out when
we're trying to win again. If you can find even
one due the course of this schedule here, I think
that's a big win.
Speaker 1: Well, that's actually let's go there then, So starting with
Hugo Gonzales, given just their dearth of sort of proven
wing depth now, which is just such a bizarre thing
to say about the Celtics, quite frankly, is there a
chance that that allows him to like get shots with
like the actual big club this year, or do you
think that this is mostly going to be like a
main season for him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I thought it was going to be a main
season for him until we started to see some promising
returns to this preseason slate here and Walsh had a
rough you know, preseason in that positional group. Shireman had
a awful preseason. Unfortunately, Yeah, that did not go the
way you want to see it with him. So I
think those open a door for Ugo, who just played
poised and I thought his summer league was erratic, rushed
and he looked raw, and that's where you said, all right,
this is probably a main season for him, But he's
made improvements. I think a lot of guys are in
the gym throughout the summer and try to nail down
the system as well as what they're going to do
skill wise this year. And you know, he pulled out
the spin move to the basket in the Toronto game
and played a little point earlier in the preseason as well.
He's a pretty versatile guy, almost like a like gadget player,
Like can he screen a little bit, can he handle
a little bit? It looks like he can shoot a
little bit. He might just be a guy that they
throw out there for energy and to affect the game
in different areas because he's a big body, he's long,
he's tall, he's a pro, and he's got an NBA
physique already. It looks like it comes from that real
Madrid system where he was there for a couple of years,
being a pro already. I think that gives him, even
though he's nineteen twenty, a little bit of a different
outlook than the average rookie coming out of you know,
one year at college or wherever they're you know, playing
that off year now. So I'm intrigued by him. I'm
not saying he's going to be everyday part of this rotation,
but I do lean toward especially if he capitalizes this
on a couple of weeks the teams have before the
G League opens up. He could stick around on this roster.
Speaker 1: Why not.
Speaker 2: They'll be injuries, they'll be guys with ups and downs.
I think it makes a lot more sense for him
to be in Boston if there is opportunity to play,
then to be in Maine, where you might not benefit
as much from the lower level competition that you're going
against So they've used Maine well with some guys over
the last couple of years here, but this might be
an all hands on deck season for the pro club.
Speaker 1: Who sort of intrigues you the most for this year?
I know Beler scheidro Man had a really bad preseason,
but there's also a Josh might not, Jordan Walsh, that
sort of whole crew is. They're just like someone in
particular you're you're monitoring most closely.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think by not it's interesting because he gives
the stuff they need rebounding, the rim, protection from him,
just given his length and athleticism, I think is going
to be vital to trying to get stops at the rim,
protect the basket the way they have the last couple
of years here. Well, now he's gonna have to shoot.
He's gonna have to figure out some way to fit
in offensively consistently. The shot looks pretty bad, and that's
I think what killed him in Minnesota to start his
career was his inability to fit in as a shooter
just anywhere offensively. But you know, he's put the ball
on the floor and attack some closeouts. This preseason. He
hit a three at one point and it's just so
active on the offensive glass that I think he's gonna
be a guy Missoula leans on pretty regularly off the bench.
And you know, I'll say this, I think Chris Bouchet
he showed well enough to maybe start over Sam Hauser
and it doubles We're on the.
Speaker 1: Right podcast, Sir, Chris Bouchet fanatics.
Speaker 2: I love watching him this preseason and I love meeting him.
Hearing from him. You can tell he's just been around, poised,
old veteran who's won a championship, like he's just level,
you know, already impressing some advice on younger guys and
just seems to be a guy that Missoula can lean
on for good minutes. And that closing stretch against Toronto,
it's like a block. Then you know this bounce pass
to White for a cutting layup and you know you
can shoot three. You know he can defend inside and
out too. This is a guy. I don't know if
he's their starting center, but he's going to be in
that front court dynamic the whole way through here. And
it still blows my mind that they got him late
in the summer for the minimum the way they did
there because out of all the players right now, you
would have said, like, oh man, you would have liked
to have had this guy in the championship teams. I
know Jalen said it about mine not, but I actually
feel that way about Bouchet. Like having him in the
mix the last couple of years when they were trying
to go for the title I think would have been awesome.
But I'm glad he's here now and I think he's
going to help them out a lot this year.
Speaker 1: I think also if he's able, if you're playing him,
and if you're able to get some minutes from Luca Garza,
does that help out having a like a floor spacing
option at the five, does that help out Josh Mayno
and his offense make it easier to play him?
Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure. They'll play different combinations again, like the
pacer are going to be playing at this year, and
just the small gap and skill between let's say like
five and six on the roster and even like eight, nine,
ten to eleven. Here, you're just gonna see a lot
of guys and Joe Joe pointed to that as well
before the last preseason game. Here is they could go
to a deeper rotation than usual. I think Tilman's another guy.
He hit the game winner against Toronto in that one.
He showed to be healthy, effective, and uh, he's probably
their best defender at the five slash four overall. And yeah,
he's a guy a year ago you wondered if he'd
even be back with how physically limited and ineffectively he
played last season. So it's it's been a pleasant surprise
to see him out there doing what he's doing this camp.
Lost twelve pounds, got the knee right, so he's probably
that dynamic too, I'd say. So they have, you know,
four guys in there. Two of them can play the
four if they want to go bigger, who can just
give them minutes there? And obviously you'd like to see
one guy excel and separate himself, and that's Kada, who
I think has the most potential at that spot. But
if it is center by committee, you you're gonna see
a lot of all four of those guys. Is they
just try to play the matchup game and see who's
playing well on any given night. Again, maybe this team
starts the same five every night, but they're going to
be going in different directions fast and certainly the closing
lineup is going to be more interesting with this group
than who actually starts these games and any given night.
Speaker 1: What are you looking specifically to see from Keda this
year since it seems like Joe Mazzuola is clearly very
invested in him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I just want to see him be able to
stay in these games and play consistently. Like to me,
for the coaching staff, it's like, you know what this
year is. I know you want to be tough on him,
but he's gonna have some highs and lows. You just
got to let him play through it this year. Let
him learn from that and play through highs and lows
to get to the other side. Because I think the
other side for him is a guy who can be
a threat around the rim, off the roll, be a
better room protector, and just be a presence out there.
And I think we've seen that from him already in
his careers, that he can just fill out space in
that lane, set good screens. I don't know if he's
actually gonna capitalize in this three pointer that he's been
teasing here, but it's intriguing to even see him showing
that in the EuroBasket run there. I mean, I don't
know how much of the euro stuff you watched over
the summer, but there's a guy, the best player, the
guy who's the best player on his national team and
powered them through some really tough games, like they went
against Shengun and Turkey and Porzingis and Latvia and even
had a jokicen their group, and you know, he was
battling with those guys and ended up getting them onto
the Portugal to the knockout stage there and doing it
with some big numbers. So I think they're wary of
the fact that some days he's great and some days
he's just not the same. And you see that with him.
So I don't think they want to just give him
this pass of saying like, all right, you're the starting center.
Here you go, You're good to go. It's not going
to lose it. I think they want him to have
that sense that if I don't show up on any
given night, I might lose this job. But in all reality,
he's the guy with the potential more than anyone else
to be part of this team. In that next iteration
of you know, the championship contenders there, and he's been
around long enough he knows the system well enough, I
think to take this job and run with it, and
it's on him. I hope he does, because so much
of it's just going to be playing with consistent energy,
being in the right positions defensively, and finding ways to
get guys open on offense and obviously get all the
offensive rebounds he can out there, which is the strength
of his game. So I'm excited to see what this
year brings from him. I mentioned it earlier, like who
can you find this year to carry on to the
next championship contending version of this team? And I think
the best candidate for that is Keda because you know
they'll probably add some center depth to this team going forward,
but he's going to be here. I think he has
one more year on his contract beyond this, and maybe
they can come to some kind of extension too if
he plays well this year. So he's one of the
big stories to watch this year with this group, obviously,
going from fourth string center last year to probably the
starter on this group.
Speaker 1: When you look at sort of the you keep saying
center by committee is a perfect way to describe it.
What do you think, just of the collection of players
is their biggest weakness is it kind of the defensive
rebounding when you look at the body types that they
have out.
Speaker 2: There, Yeah, as well as the room protection. I don't
despite his pedigree, you know, he's one of the all
time leading college shot blockers, I don't feel like Kada
gives them consistent protection inside just positionally, you know, And
he's gonna have to guard centers a lot this year,
just straight up. So I don't know how much help
defense he can actually give them in there, just the
way that they're gonna liign this year, So I think
that's going to be the question. Like Tilman's a little shorter,
guards is not much of a room protector either. Even
Bouchet he's you know, Slummer and isn't a guy you
ideally want to be playing at the five necessarily. So
they're gonna have to manufacture that They've been one of
the best teams that deterring rim shots going back for
you know, pretty much the entirety of Missoulu's coaching ten
years so far here, and that's going to be harder
to do this year. Like even that last preseason game
was like a layup line at times for Toronto, So
you know, yes, it's rebounding, it's room protection even on
the perimeter. They have some weaknesses defensively this year, and
I have a few doubts about this team continuing to
score the ball with the personnel that they have. I
think this is the top ten offense, but they might
be fighting to stay out of the bottom ten defensively
this year, and that could swing how the season goes. Like,
if it's a disaster defensively, you're probably talking about the
worst versions of the season. If they can find a
way to be middle of the pack and capable on
that end, you're probably seeing one of the better outcomes
that this team can have here. So it's going to
be constant problem solving at that end, because again, I
like the offensive personnel they have here. Just think of
the guys that went out the door defensively, the holiday
porzingis reached the high level on that end. Horford's been
like their rock on that side of the ball for years,
even Cornett, heady smart defensive anchor. You lost four of
like the hundred best defenders in the league this offseason,
and that's tough to make up for.
Speaker 1: Does the center group have any strengths though that you glom.
Speaker 2: Onto rebounding offensively, I think, like.
Speaker 1: That's so funny. That's so funny. Just on defense. The
concern is rebounding on offense.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's weird, right, Like, I don't know how that
works out, but like just the angles they play at,
how aggressively they crash, taking advantage of other teams who
maybe aren't defending as well. Like they've done a good
job with that for a while, and it showed in
the preseason. Again, I don't have a number in front
of me here, but I think they were probably one
of the better offensive rebounding groups in the preseason here.
So that is weird how that works out, But I
actually do think that's gonna be the strength of that group.
CA great there you know, mine not I think is
going to be impactful. Yeah, they were ninth in offensive
rebounding in the preseason. Defensive rebounding they were twenty second,
So there you go.
Speaker 1: I think that group when you look at Bouche my
not it's not the center, but he's in there. And
then even having Kada, maybe they'll be like sneaky at
swatting shots on the perimeter. They got we defensively, they've
got some weaknesses defensively on the perimeter. Maybe that'll be
a hidden strength of that.
Speaker 2: Bruche is gonna be great. Yeah, when when they were
puning him a Sason, I love him. Yeah. I love
how he guards the perimeter, and I hope that they
can keep him there. He even said he doesn't like
playing his center as much, so keeping him on the
four side of things there I think will be important.
And that's why it's crucial that Kate is a rock
there and Guardza gives them something so they can keep
Bouchet over at the four. And you know, I thought
when they went to double big in the preseason finale
there the rebounding defensively got a little better obviously, So
I don't love sending Sam Hauser the bench. I mean,
he's a guy we didn't even mention here, but he's
excellent all around now maybe even has another level he
can reach this year. But just what they need on
both ends of the four right now, it probably is
important for them to have two bigs on the four.
And you know, bring it back to Tatum, that in
itself is like a massive rebounding defensive loss. I think
everyone thinks of the offense he lose with Tatum, but
they might lose even more from what he brought them
on the defensive side of the four. So Bouchet is
not Tatum, but he's at least a similar sized guy
who can shoot and rebound and do similar things at
that position. So I'm hoping that he ends up getting
that job. Of course, the starting lineup in the preseason
finale was White, Richard, Brown, Bouchet, and Cata, and if
they're all healthy, I would predict that'll be the starting
lineup and opening night against Embiid and Philly there.
Speaker 1: I meant to ask this earlier, what is an expanded
I don't want to say role because he played twenty
eight plus minutes a game last year, Like, what does
a scaled up version of Peyton Pritchard now look like
on this team? Is there something specifically you're watching for?
Speaker 2: I just want it to be big, Like I think
this could be a massive season for him here potentially,
because every time he's played in uptick in minutes, I
feel like we see this higher level version of him,
not say, you know, my co host Noah thinks he
has all, you know, all star potential. I don't necessarily
see that, but I think he can be close like
he could be in that conversation. If he's playing a
lot of minutes and doing a lot of things for
this team, he's the guy more than anyone. I'm interested
to see how he handles the extra defensive attention because
I think he's mostly played in free space off Brown,
Tatum and others these last couple of years. Here. Last
year was a breakout season for him off the bench.
Now he'll be starting. Now he'll be getting those double
teams in pressure from opponents. So how does it look
for him when you look in his career when he's
played thirty to forty minutes so extra opportunity, he's averaged
seventeen four and five. You know, it's pretty good. Like
if that's the he's going to have here, I think
he'll take that. When he's played forty plus, which obviously
were some like you know, garbage games at the end
of the year, but he's put out twenty nine, ten
and seven in those spots. So this is a guy who,
if you give him a little more opportunity and shots
and just responsibility, has taken it and run with it.
So I think there is a world where he has
the most surprising season on this roster in terms of
how much better he is than the year previously. So
I think that's what you're hoping for. I'm not going
to use the E word and say Isaiah here, but
I think there are some elements of like Isaiah is
slowly ramped up toward that level of opportunity that allowed
him to become the All Star he did by the
end of his Boston tenure. I don't think that's going
to happen for Pritchard here, but it might be something
reminiscent of that, where he just continues to get more
and more responsibility and does more and more with it,
and then you look up and it's like, well, look
at what Peyton Pritchard's doing. So he had a massive offseason.
He always does working out and do some of these
drills and stuff, and you know the ways he improves
himself here in and year out. I'm excited about and
I think he's one of the big big strainths of
this roster this year going in is that you have
this two guard who's this level of a shooter, this versatile,
and this ever improving. I'm super he might be what
I'm more excited about this year than anything else, because
you saw what he did last year. Now it's like,
can you take that to another level? And I think
he can.
Speaker 1: He's number two on my list behind just seeing Derek
White on this team because I think that, I mean
the defensive attention he's gonna be fine with because you
can do more stuff in a crowded lane than I
think people from credit for like getting defenders on his hip.
I think does scoring opportunities in transition or this opportunity
will always be there with the way that he fights
for rebounds. I hadn't considered could he become an All Star,
but in my mind I had. It just wouldn't shock
me if we looked up this year and Peyton Pritchard's
averaging twenty point six assists in like six rebounds or something,
which would probably be numbers that would get you in
that conversation. It's not unlike we've seen with Derek White
in the past.
Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure, and those two will be balancing each
other a little bit. It was interesting in camp because
like you could have this conversation with all three of them,
including Brown, like what more can they do this year?
With Tatum out how high of a level could any
of those guys reach too, And I think each of
them could have made that the conversation in camp. Jalen
in particular, who has talked throughout his career about how
he's had to sacrifice, how he's been in Tatum's shadow
a little bit, and how he's had to make it
work for this team to win, and he went the
other way like, maybe I'll just focus on defense a
little more this year. I'm going to focus on getting
some guys involved. It's not going to be about me
this season. And I thought that was interesting to hear
on media day from him. Prichard similarly was like, if
I need to come off the bench for this team,
I'll do it. And you heard similar things from White,
who even said, like, when I've put too much pressure
on myself in the past to do more in these
spots where it looks like that's the expectation, I actually
haven't done well with that. So I'm still willing to
playoff the ball. I'm still willing to just spit in
and be a piece rather than have this expectation that
I'm going to be scoring more and doing more. And
fortunately for him, that just happened naturally for him in
the preseason. I mean when you pull up the stats here,
it's kind of crazy what he did, you know, especially
in that last game, but really through the entire preseason slate,
he just looked excellent. I think you could come away
from these four games here and say, like pertru I mean,
White was the story of the preseason. Twenty two points
a game, eleven three point attempts per game only came
in at thirty percent, but that should be higher. And
in the regular season six rebounds, seven assists and only
one point seven turnovers per game alongside the three blocks.
And he's obviously one of the best shot blockers at
that position in the league. So yeah, you were well
within the right to be most excited about Derek White.
Speaker 1: Are you ready to enter the Cookie Cutter Slash Lightning
Round portion of the podcast? Sir, We've talked a lot
about the weaknesses, But what is the single biggest weakness
to you looking at this row right now?
Speaker 2: Probably defensive rebounding. What is the single biggest strength of
the roster, probably three point shooting.
Speaker 1: And is there something about this team that you think
is kind of flying under the radar that deserves more
attention Overall?
Speaker 2: Like I said earlier, the coaching. I think this team's
going to coach its ass off, like Joe. The staff.
How they manage this roster and get the best out
of them, I think is actually going to be one
of the bigger stories around them after it went under
the radar a little bit the last couple of years.
Speaker 1: Okay, So, if I'm asking you to build a ten
man rotation, who are your five starters and who do
you think end up being the five most used reserves?
Speaker 2: Yeah, like I said, White, Prichard, Brown, Bouchet, Cata to
start off the bench, I'd say Simons, guards might not
at least right now. Hint of Gonzales, and I don't
want to leave anybody out there. But did I say, Howser.
Speaker 1: I think you had him in the starting lineup? Did
you not?
Speaker 2: No? No, no, I had Buche and Cadas, so bench would
be Garza, Hauser Min not Simon's and let's go Uga.
Speaker 1: I think've seen more of Gonzales this team more than most.
I feel like this is very matchup dependent, or maybe
it's vibes dependent on how Joe Zula is feeling that day.
But what do you think will be their most used
Crunch Time lineup.
Speaker 2: Ooh, it's definitely gonna be one big So let's say Bouchet, Pritchard, White, Brown,
and Hawser.
Speaker 1: That is a lot of I love that lineup. I
think that's I'd be curious what the defense looks like.
But I might say that about every single lineup you
throw out there.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I was tempted to say Simon's maybe three guards,
but they can only go so small this season, right, Is.
Speaker 1: There a weirdo wack a doodle lineup you want to
see Joe Mizula try this year?
Speaker 2: Probably the three guards? Yeah, White, Pritchard, Simon's out there together,
you know, throwing Hawser and Mouchet and it's like, whoa,
there's just shooting everywhere here. They can get some lineups
this year that are just going to have ridiculous amounts
of shooting, and can they make up for the defensive
and rebounding deficiencies that come with that. That's when you
really start to talk about this team being an elite
shooting group, and a lot of that's going to be Jalen,
Like Jalen's going to be more physical, going to be
more of a rebounding force, got to be more of
a defensive stopper this year to make this whole thing work.
So that's another reason I'm excited to see him enter
this year with that approach, because he almost had. He's
their star, but he almost has to be their glue
guy too to just make all this work. And that's
what Tatum did in the number one role for this group.
Speaker 1: Before I I asked you to make a couple of predictions.
Is there anything else about this team we haven't talked
about that you think needs to be discussed?
Speaker 2: No, nothing about this team specifically. I'm trying to see
if we missed a player. Like I said, I think
Howser is worthy of a mention. He's sort of just
viewed as Howser sometimes, like he's just gonna be who
he is. But he has been super steady these last
handful of years here, and just like White, just like uh,
you know, Jalen and even Pritchard. There's going to be
a lot of demand around the league for a guy
like that, and how much can they counteract that by
having a good season and position themselves for the future
with what they have here. That's another way they could
potentially shed salary here along the way is is Howser
potentially going out the door, but you really don't want
to do that if you don't have to hear, because
I think he is one of their bigger straints and
more certain players going to this year in terms of
what he's going to give you and can he even
do a little bit more. I think that's an underrated
thing too, play making off the dribble and attacking close
outs defensively. He's come such a long way. I don't
think he gets enough appreciation from Celtics fans just how
good he's become since he started here.
Speaker 1: Moving him would be weird just because he doesn't get
you out of the tacks, and so then it's, ah,
we still have to move another player, and their payrolls
already kind of just like Top Heavy, where it feels
like the four floor sort of falls out.
Speaker 2: The Niang trade might have saved him like that, getting
off Niang the way they did might have Like those
were two guys who are making about the same money
doing the same thing. So I thought that was an
important move, a nice bailout probably from Utah that they
were able to get off that for nothing.
Speaker 1: So how many games do you have this team winning,
and where do you think they land just kind of
in the grander scheme of the East.
Speaker 2: So I have them at forty five, which is where
like that ESPN projection was more or less a lot
of that's health, Like this could go lower if they're
not healthy, if Jalen's out to start the year, like
we mentioned, like you're already taking a hit there, I imagine.
So you know, if I if we were doing like
an over under thing, I actually would go under because
I think there's more scenarios that can happen for this
team to come in below expectations rather than like a
million things happening that push them the fifty plus wins
here other than just teams capsizing in the East. Certainly
that's happened already with some of the injuries have taken
place around the conference already. But I think forty five
is fair. That puts you around seven based off last
year's standings, and if you win another game or two,
steal a game here or there, you are in that
sixty conversation with a handful of other teams. Yeah, I
had Miami there before the preseason. I'm a little lower
on them now. I'm probably getting a little higher on
Milwaukee as I start to think more and more about
what that might look like, and you yeah, and then
you know Indiana, like I felt great about their ability
to sustain this Aliburn thing, just based off Carlisle's coaching
and the way they played through having him and others
missing in the past, but then McConnell goes down. I
don't love that for them, and the center situation there
is somewhat suspect as well, just like in Boston, So
I am a little lower on them now as well.
I love Detroit still, I love in Diana what they did,
and Orlando, to me is going to have the biggest
jump of anyone in the East. But I don't think
there's anything as long as they're fully healthy stopping Boston
from coming in at six maybe seven.
Speaker 1: So I mean, look, even as we're recording this, because
you made this point before we hopped out about the
East just being like this maze of murkiness. The Pistons
just lost Jay and Ivy for at least four weeks.
Speaker 2: So crazy, what's going on? Like every day someone's losing
someone and the Celtics sustained that right up until that
Jalen thing. Yesterday as we record this, So I mean
they went from having the fewest injuries aside from Tatum,
of a lot of these middling teams to suddenly having
the biggest here potentially of all the middling teams. But
you know, poking around today, early indications I'm hearing there
is that not a massive amount of concern about the
Jalen injury, but we obviously won't know until practice tomorrow,
so we'll see what happens there.
Speaker 1: I will admit either over under when we did it
was forty one and a half, and I just went
under because I'm convinced this team is just not going
to like go after it. Don't even know if it's
I feel like they're gonna be worse than expected. I
just don't think that's the priority this year. I think
it's getting back there next year. And maybe I'll just
be flat out wrong, especially if so many teams end
up dealing with injuries and they're relatively healthy, which brings
me my next question. Let's remove Jason Tatum from the equation.
Is there like one of the better teams, prospective playoff
teams in the East that you still feel like Boston
is an interesting matchup for.
Speaker 2: I was thinking about this the other day just because
of where they might finish, But Cleveland to me, like,
let's say it is Boston Cleveland round one. That's been
a tough matchup for the Calves, even going back to
their series a couple of years ago. Calves haven't been
super healthy in the late stages of their playoff runs
through this whole Mitchell era, and I feel like the
Celtics have played them well. And let's say Tatum is
back in the mix, then like you could be in
an interesting situation come playoff time where the Celtics are
like seven or eight and they're going up against like
the Knicks, who are you know, I have a lot
of respect for where the Knicks are at roster wise
right now, But let's say it's the Calves or even
the Magic who the Celtics beat round one a year ago.
In five you might have a weird playoff series there
where it's like, all right, Magic Calves, whoever that is
was better all year long. But now it's like that
Celtics team that's always here and always seems to win
and has Brown and Tatum intact and is hitting their
stride going into the playoffs. I think that could be
one of the more interesting outcomes of the season if
that's where they end up, because all of a sudden,
like you might have one of those series where it's like,
all right, you would think the Magic and Calves are
favorites here, but a lot of people are actually gonna
be picking the Celtics because of where they are, you know,
at this point in the season, and what they've done
in the playoffs before. So that would be the ideal
scenario for them, I think, is going up against one
of those higher end teams. That's not the next I'm
still taking the Knicks out of the East as I
continue to think about it here, it's where I just
went by default. And the more and more I see
how Brown's handling the early stages of their camp and
the roster they have, which I like a lot, I
think this might be the year they actually capitalize and
get to the finals. Right now, like, I love what
they have, even that run they went on last year
with Snake bitting a little bit and the East Finals
were tough with some injuries and other things that went on,
but new coach Fresh Voice a couple of nice depth
editions there, including Yabu, who I love. I still lean
New York in this conference and obviously based off how
it went last spring, wouldn't love a Celtics Knicks matchup
Brown one?
Speaker 1: Can I get one additional Celtics prediction for you from
the season? It could be whatever you want.
Speaker 2: It to be. Oo hmm, let's see.
Speaker 1: You want to go Peyton Pritchard for the All Star
for the All Star team? Make or you said your
co host Noah, make your co host Noah happy.
Speaker 2: I can't go that far with him. I guess I
would join you on Derek Island and say he'll be
in that conversation and might even get there. I could
see if for sure?
Speaker 1: Is it so much an island as a planet?
Speaker 2: Yeah? No, I don't think there's anyone who doesn't like
Derek quite. Derek White All Star Island is what I
should have called it.
Speaker 1: Uh, wouldn't I favor that prediction? I think that's a
good one. This was great, Bobby. I'm now higher on
the Celtics than I was when we started, which happens
all the time, which means that your insight was awesome
and is already making me rethink predictions I already made
but before I let you go, can you just let
our listeners know, audience know where they can find you
and all the great work that you do.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Steelingismedia dot com, the Gardener Reporter as you set
up the top if we go live after every Celtics
game and it's a fun time, great insight as well
as laughs. Stealing us media for all of our video
content as the year goes on. Then you can read
me occasionally on Boston Sports Journal dot com as well
as Celtics Blog dot com too. So keep pretty busy
over here into year six. And I'm excited to get gone.
Speaker 1: And now do you have an agent in case anyone
wants to sign you? Do a ten day after that
scrimmage against the Celtics coaching staff.
Speaker 2: Well, I didn't score, so I don't think I'll be
on the radar. It'll be the two people who actually
did I think who'll get the looks there. But man,
that was awesome. Even just getting a shoot on that
four was pretty cool to start the day, and then
to play on the court would have been cool. And
then the actually play against that staff and some guys who,
like you know, these weren't NBA players buying larger than
Phil Pressy. But you know these are you know it's
a Neil Jefferson. We all watched him on Duke and
you know Deshaun Butlin Missoula from the West Virginia teams
and these were some high level players. And the level
they reached that day maybe going like eighty ninety percent hard.
I can't even imagine what the NBA intensity is like.
Speaker 1: This was great, Bobby, Thank you so much, And as
you know by now, I will be pestering you again
in the future.
Speaker 2: Well do man appreciate you me and anytime