Should Celtics Be Worried About Kristaps Porzingis?

CLNS Media Sports Network

On the latest episode of Celtics Beat, Brian Barrett of the "Off the Pike" Podcast with The Ringer joins Adam and Evan to talk Celtics news and schedule. In this clip, the trio discusses the injury status of Kristaps Porzingis as he deals with plantar fasciitis that will keep him out of the World Cup.   Should Celtics Be Worried About Kristaps Porzingis?  FULL SHOW: https://youtu.be/QNAEbD5LElA  This segment of the Celtics Beat Podcast is brought to you by Fanduel Sportsbook, 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.

Transcript

00:00 So Porzingis, you know, I've alluded to this a couple of times.

00:03 The news has come out that obviously he's missing the feeble World Cup.

00:06 He's dealing with the plantar fasciitis that what, three to four weeks or

00:12 something like that was the timeline.

00:13 But bottom line, they said he should be ready for the start of camp.

00:16 Great.

00:16 I just wonder to what degree this is going to be like the Celtics, to

00:23 use the word again, managed.

00:24 To what degree the Celtics are going to have to manage him and his workload more

00:28 so than we already thought, we already knew that, you know, like you're lucky

00:32 if he plays more than 60 games, you know, it was, again, it was a celebration

00:36 when he played 65 or whatever for the Wizards last year and granted he could

00:39 have played more, they sat him at the end of the year, but this is not a guy

00:42 who is typically you're, you're talking like we're having the same kind of

00:46 conversation that we had when they got Brockton last year.

00:48 This is someone who, you know, is, is going to miss roughly a quarter of the

00:52 games, but is it that much more alarming now that you know about this foot issue

00:57 that is going to linger?

00:58 This isn't something that, that heals and goes away when you're an NBA player.

01:02 Like this isn't something he's going to, you know, is going to be fully

01:05 better for him until after he's retired.

01:07 So how problematic for lack of a better word, Barrett, do you think this is going

01:12 to be for the next few years here?

01:13 Because he's signed on, they've committed.

01:15 Yeah, it's concerning in just the sense that it's a foot and it's a big man, but

01:20 at least it's not something severe.

01:22 It's plantar fasciitis, which basically you got to rest.

01:24 I mean, I think you got to roll your foot on like, you put like a water

01:28 bottle in the freezer and then roll your foot on it to try to help with it.

01:31 In terms of the pain.

01:32 I hope this is not something that lingers into the season, but the thing that I will

01:36 say is I feel like it's a good thing that they discovered this now and he's not

01:40 playing in the FIBA tournament.

01:41 Like, right.

01:42 Like, cause then if he comes back, he plays the FIBA tournament and then it's

01:45 like, Oh, cause we heard about the foot injury a couple of weeks ago.

01:48 It's like, Oh, he played on it and he had plantar fasciitis.

01:51 I'm glad that he's out of the FIBA tournament.

01:53 Right.

01:53 So, cause the goal here is for him to come here and win a championship.

01:56 That's the goal.

01:57 That's why Chris tops Boerzingis is here.

01:59 That's why he wants to be here.

02:00 That's why he opted into the contract because he could have become a free agent.

02:04 So naturally we're going to be somewhat concerned about this, but I'm holding

02:08 out hope that they can, they have done.

02:10 I give them credit with this.

02:11 Like, if you look at Al Horford, like he's played too many minutes over the past few

02:15 years, but last year he didn't play in back to backs, right?

02:18 Like that type of situation.

02:19 I think they can come up with a good plan in terms of how many minutes to play.

02:23 And the other evidence of that is Brogdon last year, right?

02:26 Brogdon last year played self at 30 minutes per game, and he was pretty much

02:30 healthy the whole season until the playoffs.

02:32 But that was a freak injury, right?

02:33 That wasn't a lower extremity thing.

02:35 Like Brogdon in the past has dealt with calf issues.

02:38 He's dealt with foot issues.

02:39 The arm thing, that's just freaky, right?

02:42 That has nothing to do with him playing too many minutes.

02:44 So I think they did it.

02:45 I think they had an injury prone player in Brogdon and they decided, Hey, we're

02:49 bringing them off the bench, obviously a different situation than Boerzingis, who's

02:52 not coming off the bench, but they came up with a plan to keep him healthy for the

02:55 postseason run.

02:56 And I know Brogdon, he gets a lot of crap for some of the stuff, smoking layups,

03:01 et cetera.

03:01 But Brogdon, to the point where he suffered that injury, he had the best plus minus

03:05 on the Celtics in the playoffs.

03:06 Like they were actually playing well with Brogdon on the court.

03:09 And I do attribute that to the coaching staff having him fresh.

03:12 If he played north of 30 minutes per game, maybe he wasn't.

03:15 So based on the evidence we have with Brogdon, them keeping Brogdon healthy, I

03:19 think they can come up with a similar plan as it pertains to Boerzingis because we

03:23 just saw them do it this past season.

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03:40 Just concerning, you know, Kaufman, when this came out, I texted you immediately.

03:46 It's something we should probably have Dr. P back on the show to just kind of throw

03:49 some water on this a little bit.

03:52 Because when Kyrie had his knee issues, you know, we were pretty quick to, you

03:57 know, say like, look, this could be a really big problem for him going forward in

04:00 his career.

04:01 Like this is a degenerative issue.

04:02 He has arthritis in his knee.

04:03 It's not gonna get any better.

04:05 It's just gonna get worse over time.

04:06 It's gonna be about management, managing the pain and so on and so forth.

04:08 So we got yelled at for that, I think quite a bit back then.

04:11 Um, but this is, it's an injury that takes management.

04:15 You know, it's something that you're going to have to be mindful of.

04:17 And it's something that Boerzingis is going to have to be honest about with the

04:20 training staff.

04:22 That like, hey, you know, I'm not feeling great tonight.

04:24 I can't go tonight.

04:25 You know, let's take a day off and let's see.

04:28 Let's let's look at this tomorrow.

04:29 Like it's it's not going to go away.

04:31 You know, LeBron played with plantar fasciitis the entire playoffs, didn't he?

04:35 I think.

04:36 Didn't he have some injury?

04:38 I think LeBron played with two broken arms and a broken leg, according to him.

04:42 I think he played with something and they.

04:45 He definitely had like a foot injury, though.

04:48 You're right.

04:49 He definitely had something going on with his foot.

04:50 I'm trying to compare Boerzingis to the the Terminator robot that is freaking

04:55 LeBron James, because he's just mad.

04:57 He's just an unbelievably.

04:59 OK, yeah, this is well, it's a story from February 26th of 2023 appeared to be a he

05:08 had a partial tear of the plantar fascia, according to the pro basketball docs.

05:13 I don't know what that means.

05:15 I'm not going to lie.

05:16 So it just sounds something similar, basically saying, you know, LeBron

05:19 played on it, like I'm not expecting Boerzingis to be LeBron, but I'm also not

05:24 expecting Boerzingis to carry the workload of LeBron to carry late in the season

05:28 and in the playoffs.

05:28 So it's something that can be played with, played on.

05:33 It's just going to be about trying to manage that pain to the playoffs.

05:35 And at that point, like, you know, the wheels, training wheels come off and it's

05:39 go time.

05:39 But, you know, yeah, as we've all kind of danced around, this is not the most fun

05:43 thing you want to hear about a big man, seven foot two, who already kind of looks

05:48 a little like a walking injury waiting to happen.

05:51 You know what I mean?

05:52 Like, you know, I just have so many good memories of Marcus Smart easily boxing him

05:56 out because he's just so light on the lower half that I know it just feels like

06:00 potentially something throw in there.

06:02 But, you know, just got to ride it out and see how it goes.

06:04 Yeah, it's unfortunate, but I'm just like and I know right now we're talking about

06:09 the injury, I'm so excited to see him like in this Celtics offense.

06:13 Where it's like they've never had a player like this.

06:15 Right.

06:16 And obviously the front office and maybe some of the coaching staff as well.

06:21 But OK, we're sick and tired of all these playoff runs where our offense goes stale.

06:26 And now we have something else where it's like, hey, you know what?

06:29 Our threes aren't falling or they're cutting off Tatum.

06:32 They're cutting off Jalen Brown's driving lanes.

06:35 Let's dump it into the guy that's seven foot three, because he's pretty good at

06:38 scoring near the basket and all the different lineup constructions they can

06:42 come up with.

06:42 He's a pick and pop guy that can also play in the post.

06:45 And I'm fascinated to see to me.

06:48 And I don't know if you guys agree with this.

06:49 I would be start.

06:51 I would have Al coming off the bench and I would be starting Rob and Porzingis

06:55 together and just thinking about what that defense could look like.

06:58 Because Porzingis is an excellent shot blocker and he actually held up really

07:01 well defensively last year.

07:03 And they really never got to the double bigs much last year.

07:06 Remember, it's like when Rob came back, he was coming off the bench and that

07:09 double big lineup was so good for them two years ago and just all the different

07:13 sort of mix and matching you can do with Porzingis.

07:16 I'm just excited to watch it because it's totally different from what we've seen

07:19 the past couple of years and how they integrate them.

07:21 I think it's going to be fascinating.

07:22 I agree.

07:24 I'm on board.

07:25 I, you know, I look at this point in time, whether you like the trade or you

07:29 didn't like the trade, you prefer it was Broughton versus Marcus.

07:32 Like none of that.

07:32 And we've spent enough time talking about it.

07:34 Me, especially none of it matters.

07:36 Now what matters now is this is obviously the roster barring any future moves that

07:40 send somebody else out and bring in another, you know, role player type guy.

07:45 But there there's nobody else truly impactful that is coming in and joining

07:49 this team and no doubt Porzingis, especially when healthy, I, you know, I

07:54 don't know, I don't know that I am as excited or enthusiastic about the

08:01 defensive side of his game as you are, but the offensive side, like he's a weapon.

08:06 No question.

08:07 We've seen it for years and I'm, I'm eager to see what it looks like

08:11 aside alongside Tatum and Brown.

08:12 No doubt about it.

08:13 They have different things that they can do now.

08:15 They don't have to be as reliant on the three.

08:17 Will they be?

08:18 I'm sure.

08:19 But at least to your point, if the threes aren't falling and I'm just

08:22 thinking regular season, I'm not even thinking beyond that.

08:25 I'm not even thinking about the in-season tournament when, when the

08:29 threes are not fallen, they will have other approaches and I am, you know,

08:35 to channel my Bob, Brian, old man shakes fist at cloud kind of mentality.

08:40 This is not the NBA I grew up with.

08:42 And I'm like, I don't know.

08:45 I think you need to be right around 40.

08:46 If there's any part of you that still feels that way.

08:49 And that's where I'm at.

08:49 I would like to see them, you know, be more on the block, be more on the post.

08:54 I don't mind the mid range too.

08:56 In fact, I think it's a strength for some of these guys, Jalen Brown on that list.

09:01 So I'd like to see more of that stuff and Porzingis can provide you with a lot of it.

09:04 No question.

09:05 Yeah.

09:07 Him and Tatum are going to make just wonderful offensive magic together.

09:11 I just can't wait for that pick the pop combo because you're, you're dead either way.

09:14 So it's going to be fantastic.

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09:32 [Music]

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