In the latest episode of Celtics Beat, Adam and Evan were joined by Seth Landman to discuss the Boston Celtics and the addition of Kristaps Porzingis to their squad.
Was last year's success in Washington a fluke for Porzingis? Or did the Celtics just add another true star to their core? The guys discuss in this segment.
FULL SHOW: https://youtu.be/NZsNVceIAxE
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Was last year's success in Washington a fluke for Porzingis? Or did the Celtics just add another true star to their core? The guys discuss in this segment.
FULL SHOW: https://youtu.be/NZsNVceIAxE
Fanduel Sportsbook is the exclusive wagering partner of the CLNS Media Network. Visit FanDuel.com/BOSTON and start earning BONUS BETS with America’s #1 Sportsbook! Because right now, when you bet on a Super Bowl Winner, you can GET BONUS BETS EVERY TIME THEY WIN IN THE REGULAR SEASON!
21+ and present in MA. First online real money wager only. $10 Deposit req. Refund issued as non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at fanduel.com/sportsbook. Hope is here. GamblingHelpLineMA.org or call (800)-327-5050 for 24/7 support. Play it smart from the start! GameSenseMA.com or call 1-800-GAM-1234.
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SportsTranscript
00:00 How are we feeling about this roster as compared to last year and what major questions do you
00:05 have going forward?
00:06 Oh man, well can we first can we have a fair and balanced conversation about Chris F's
00:12 Porzingis?
00:13 Oh, okay.
00:14 No, because like I want to talk about there's like a Twitter guy, there's like a kind of
00:19 Twitter guy these days who is like, okay, what this what this kind of person is doing
00:26 is like taking video highlight videos of Porzingis from last year in Washington with the Wizards
00:33 and acting like this is like the Rosetta Stone to understanding the entire career of this
00:38 person and I just want to like, okay, Chris F's Porzingis is a really good basketball
00:45 player.
00:46 He also is like, was it hard for you to admit that?
00:49 No, it's not hard for me to admit that at all.
00:51 I don't think I think what's going on is that when it's convenient, people want to look
01:01 at the previous season and say that like improvement is linear.
01:06 Whatever you did last season, you should be able to replicate that the subsequent season.
01:11 But this guy has not been a good player for like most of the last four years.
01:17 He had a really good year last year, and I think what's going on is that he's a player
01:23 who everyone talks about how he misses a lot of time, like he's injury prone, he misses
01:29 games.
01:30 I think the bigger concern is that when he's hurt and he does play, he's ineffective.
01:35 And so not only are you missing some games, but like part of the reason that he wasn't
01:41 as effective in Dallas as he was last year in Washington is that he wasn't healthy.
01:45 And so what that affects is like is all are all the things that the Celtics are ostensibly
01:51 bringing him in to do.
01:52 So they've talked a lot about like beating mismatches in the post to scoring out of the
01:58 post.
01:59 He was great out of the post last year.
02:01 I looked up, he shot 61 percent on post ups last year.
02:04 The previous three seasons, it's 46 percent, 50 percent, 42 percent.
02:09 He's not like this is not a player who has traditionally been a good post up player.
02:14 He had a really good year last year doing it.
02:18 The rim protection.
02:19 So like last year, opponents shot fifty three point five percent within six feet of the
02:27 hoop when he was the primary defender.
02:29 The previous two seasons, it was up at fifty seven percent, which isn't good.
02:33 So yes, he was a good rim protector last year.
02:36 He's still not nearly the rim protector he was early in his career.
02:40 And for the previous two seasons, when Dallas brought him in to do that job on a team that
02:45 had real ambitions, he struggled to do that.
02:48 So this is not to say like I don't even know what to predict for next year.
02:53 Like if he's healthy, I think he'll be really good.
02:55 I think I think there's there's good reasons to believe he could replicate some of what
03:01 he did last year.
03:02 But it's it's totally fair to wonder about whether last year was a fluke.
03:08 And I think a good comparison point would be like a player like Julius Randall, who
03:13 has made made all NBA teams two of the last three years, but is sandwiched in between
03:18 those two seasons is a season where he was terrible.
03:22 And I think, you know, a lot of players who aren't, you know, like the top 10 players
03:27 in the league are going to have years where they're better than other years, depending
03:30 on how healthy they are or what system they're in.
03:33 And so I don't know that like when when it comes to Porzingis, I feel like I think the
03:39 Celtics have a lot of eggs in that basket, especially with the the two years they added
03:45 on to his deal.
03:48 I think I think they're paying him fair market rate.
03:50 I just it's not the gamble I would choose to make if I was running a team.
03:56 And and I think the I'd rather like run it back with smart and Grant Williams or if you're
04:02 going to do that smart trade, take all the assets that they could have got instead.
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04:26 Do you believe they're worth?
04:31 So on paper, are we saying that Porzingis like how many games are you giving Porzingis
04:35 on paper?
04:36 Well, I mean, you're.
04:39 If I give him 50 games, I think like 50 out of 80, if I give him 55 games, let's say he
04:44 plays two thirds of the games.
04:46 I think they probably win right around the same number of games they won last year.
04:50 I don't I don't think they're meaningfully worse or better.
04:53 I just I think I think they have like a more likely downside than they did last year.
05:00 But I think, you know, if everything goes right, they're just as good a team as they
05:03 were.
05:04 I'm going to ask you to do what Celtics front office had to do when considering whether
05:10 or not to make this trade.
05:12 Put yourself inside, you know, Brad Stevens said Mike Zarin said Austin Aikens said whoever
05:16 else and project.
05:18 You know, we don't know.
05:19 We're not going to know until we actually see it.
05:21 But we are projecting.
05:23 Looking back on, you know, he's he's bounced around a little bit, but let's forget New
05:27 York.
05:28 Let's forget Dallas.
05:30 Let's forget last year in Washington specifically.
05:33 Let's say that was some sort of a turning point.
05:36 He's entering his prime years age wise, all that good stuff that people like to reflect
05:41 upon.
05:42 David Aldridge, you know, who watched him very closely there was on this show and talked
05:45 about how in his mind, Porzingis is your perfect third star, which obviously is what the Celtics
05:50 are asking him to be.
05:52 How do you believe he fits into this system and what the Celtics are going to want from
05:57 him?
05:58 Yeah, I think so.
06:02 Once what I think is that once it became clear that Derek White needed to play more, I think
06:07 at some point last year it became clear Derek White was the best guard on this team.
06:12 And once you acknowledge that, you have to acknowledge something we saw in the playoffs,
06:18 which is that Derek White is not as good at Marcus Smart as Marcus Smart at guarding up.
06:24 And so I think if you have more lineups with Derek White on the floor and a higher percentage
06:29 of minutes with Derek White on the floor, you're sort of already conceding that you
06:33 probably can't switch on defense quite as much as you were switching before that it's
06:38 going to make sense to play more standard coverages.
06:42 So once you decide that, I think there's some reasons to try to get bigger.
06:48 Porzingis is really good in the drop.
06:50 In fact, it's probably the only defense he's comfortable playing.
06:53 He's not someone that's going to be out on the perimeter checking guys and staying with
06:57 like water bug guards on the perimeter.
07:01 You want him around the rim and hopefully if he's healthy when he's been healthy in
07:05 his career, he's done a pretty good job protecting the rim.
07:08 So I think in that sense, it's like it's fair to those two things go together.
07:16 More Derek White, less switching.
07:20 Porzingis makes sense in that scheme.
07:22 I think all those pieces do kind of fit.
07:41 [Music]