A. Sherrod Blakely is joined by Vince Goodwill of Yahoo Sports to discuss the beginning of the NBA season. The Celtics have come out aggressive and on a mission with a 4-1 start. Who looks like true contenders around the league? Who will improve? Who will decline?
0:00 - Intro
1:12 - Biggest surprise this season
3:01 - Players left on margins
5:23 - Issues with 76ers
6:44 - Joel Embiid's uncertainty
9:01 - Playoff prospects discussed
10:30 - Regular season importance
13:02 - Cleveland Cavaliers surprise
16:49 - Cleveland's strong start
18:30 - Golden State's resurgence
21:36 - Orlando Magic's potential
22:50 - Carmelo's skill set
24:44 - Major disappointment teams
27:02 - Celtics' championship prospects
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0:00 - Intro
1:12 - Biggest surprise this season
3:01 - Players left on margins
5:23 - Issues with 76ers
6:44 - Joel Embiid's uncertainty
9:01 - Playoff prospects discussed
10:30 - Regular season importance
13:02 - Cleveland Cavaliers surprise
16:49 - Cleveland's strong start
18:30 - Golden State's resurgence
21:36 - Orlando Magic's potential
22:50 - Carmelo's skill set
24:44 - Major disappointment teams
27:02 - Celtics' championship prospects
CLNS Media is Powered by:
Prize Picks - https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/CLNS
Download the app today and use Code CLNS when you sign up & Get $50 instantly when you play $5!
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#celtics #NBA #BostonCeltics
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SportsTranscript
00:00The Big 3 NBA Podcast is powered by PrizePix and the Game Time app.
00:25Welcome to another edition of the Big 3 NBA Podcast, I'm your host, H. Rob Blakely, and
00:29I'm joined by Yahoo Sports, always on the move, on the move, Vincent Goodwill Jr.
00:36What's going on, Vince?
00:37H. Rob Blakely, how you doing, man?
00:40I'm wonderful, wonderful.
00:42Glad you could squeeze us in because you are now, you are in the midst of doing what all
00:47NBA beat writers are doing this time of year, you're on the move, doing your thing, and
00:51I want to just kind of just really jump right into conversation.
00:54The season has gotten off to a pretty good start.
00:57Some of the teams that we expect to get off the fast starts are doing it.
01:00Some teams have been a little bit in slow motion so far, as far as winning and things
01:05like that.
01:06When you look at the way the league has played out this first week or so, what's been the
01:12biggest surprise to you as far as how things have started this year in the league?
01:18I think, Sherrod, every team goes into the offseason saying, we need to make a big move,
01:23right?
01:24We need to make this biggest, splashy move, and it's going to pay dividends very early
01:29in the season, if not late.
01:31I think what we're seeing, Sherrod, is continuity wins the day.
01:34When you're looking at the Celtics, when you're looking at even Golden State, who's made moves
01:39around the margins, when you're looking at the Clippers, you're looking at Oklahoma City,
01:43the teams that are winning are teams that have been together for a long time and have
01:47a system and a style of how we want to play.
01:52Even though the style of play, Sherrod, has changed throughout the NBA, it's way more
01:56three-point heavy.
01:57I got a lot of criticism about that, but in terms of winning and how it looks, you can
02:02see that the teams that understand the style, the Celtics are going to launch 53s a night,
02:07right?
02:08Golden State is going to launch a lot, even without Stephen Curry there.
02:11Oklahoma City is going to play to their youth, to the point that they're playing eight against
02:16five.
02:17You know what I mean?
02:18It's about continuity, and it's about youth, because conversely, they got a lot of continuity,
02:26and they don't look good at all because they don't have shooting.
02:29You know what I mean?
02:30It's a lot of different things working here for and against these teams, and I think that's
02:39what's going on in the Boston State.
02:43Yeah.
02:44I mean, there's no question that continuity is a big thing.
02:48You talked about putting things together on the margins.
02:53One of the things we've seen is that some pretty decent players have been left on the
02:57outside of the margins.
02:59You look at a guy like Markel Fultz, you look at a guy like Lonnie Walker.
03:03Why do you think teams have been so reluctant to add guys who have shown that they can play
03:07in this league?
03:08They're not superstars by no stretch of the imagination, but you're talking about guys
03:12who are pretty good rotational type players who are doing kind of what you and I do in
03:18most NBA nights, and that's watching other ballers play.
03:23I'm really surprised about Markel Fultz.
03:25There's a story behind that that nobody's talking about, because for all of his struggles
03:31that he had early on in his career, Sherrod, he found a niche.
03:35He found a way to make things work using his athleticism.
03:38The shot was going to be the shot, but whenever you can get to the basket, I feel like as
03:43a small guard, a small-ish guard, and you're an active guard in terms of athleticism, there's
03:48going to be a place for you in the league, and not just a place for you, there's a place
03:51for you in the rotation.
03:52He's a rotational player.
03:54Same thing with Lonnie Walker.
03:56I understand why the Celtics looked at him from a numbers standpoint and said, hey, we
04:01were only going to be able to give you a training camp look.
04:04It's a championship team that's paying a lot of money to a lot of guys, and you're
04:08way deep into the luxury tax.
04:10Why haven't the New York Knicks picked up Lonnie Walker before?
04:13Can someone explain that to me?
04:15He is a seventh, eighth guy on a rotation, and you know, Sherrod, like I do, no matter
04:20how long you've covered this league, you win in the regular season with eight or nine guys.
04:25In the playoffs, you maybe play seven and a half, eight, but he's a good regular season
04:30player.
04:31He won the playoff game with his bare hands against the Golden State Warriors when he
04:36was with the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2023 semifinals.
04:40He had a fourth quarter that nobody saw coming, and the fact that he doesn't have a job right
04:46now, I'm wondering if teams are waiting for the 20-game mark and saying, okay, maybe some
04:51of these young guys that we have on cheaper contracts, if they're not going to show and
04:55improve, we're going to bring in some veteran players, but Sherrod, that's why I think there's
05:00going to be a lot of movement this offseason in terms of front offices, because not everybody
05:05knows what the hell they're doing.
05:07Right, and it's being exposed in a big, big way when you look across the league, and when
05:13you talk about front offices being exposed, and you know, there's some people that may
05:17say that, Sherrod, you always hate on this team, but damn it, I got plenty of reasons
05:21to now, and I'm talking about the Philadelphia 76ers.
05:24Now it's one thing when you've got load management with your best player, but then you make a
05:29deal to bring in him some help who has as many, if not more, load management issues
05:36as your main guy, and then to really put the icing on the cake, you begin the season with
05:41not one of them, but both of them doing the same thing that you and I are doing, watching
05:46games play.
05:48Are you surprised that Philadelphia went in like they did on Paul George, and depending
05:53on what you say to that, are you surprised, or is this expected, that they would have
05:59both of those guys on the sidelines so early in the season, at the start of the season?
06:05No and no.
06:06I'm not surprised that Philadelphia went all in on this.
06:09I'm not surprised that either guy is sitting, and I'll tell you why.
06:13Because from a coaching standpoint, Nick Nurse has done this before, right?
06:18He did it when he was the head coach of the Toronto Raptors, and he took over Dwayne Casey's
06:22team, and you added Kawhi Leonard.
06:25You didn't have to have Kawhi Leonard there to establish a culture, reinforce a culture.
06:30The culture was already there.
06:32You had your Kyle Lowry's, you had your Serge Ibaka's, you had guys like that there, right?
06:38You didn't have to worry about that.
06:40In Philadelphia, Joel Embiid theoretically is the culture, but I don't know what that
06:45culture means.
06:46He's an MVP player when he plays, but you don't know when he's going to play.
06:51For him to have almost courageously played through the back end of that surgery, right?
06:57And to have had some big playoff games in that first round series that they lost against
07:01the New York Knicks, to turn around and play in the Olympics, and then to say, you're not
07:06ready for the regular season?
07:08Which job is your job, Sherrod?
07:11Which job are you getting paid $45, $50 million for?
07:15What happened between the Olympics in August and training camp in September?
07:19Did you have another injury?
07:21There wasn't another surgery, at least not that we know about, that you can't even play
07:24five-on-five.
07:25You're coming in.
07:26Most guys, Sherrod, come from the Olympics, and they come ready, rocked to go, right?
07:33Because they've had a summer of conditioning.
07:35They've had conditioning, yeah.
07:37Right.
07:38You're loaded.
07:39You're loaded into NBA basketball.
07:40Not only that, you're loaded in terms of competition.
07:43You're loaded in terms of you've been playing ball against the best of the best all summer,
07:47so all you got to do is get yourself in basic basketball conditioning, basic, and get yourself
07:54on the floor.
07:55So, Joel Embiid said, I don't want to play back-to-backs.
07:58I'm not going to do that this year or the rest of my career, and Paul George, who was
08:02playing in the preseason, you know what I mean?
08:04He was playing in the preseason, Sherrod, and hyperextended his knee.
08:08We saw that happen.
08:09I can respect that, but for Joel Embiid-
08:12Obviously has been a problem for the Sixers this year.
08:17Clearly, whatever he's dealing with, in his mind at least, it's enough to keep him off
08:24the floor, which it opens up opportunities for Maxie, who's, I think, been playing out
08:30of his mind, but Vince, we've seen this movie before.
08:34Good player, bad team, lots of losses.
08:37What does that mean in the grand scheme of things?
08:41Where do you see Philadelphia, at the end of the day, stacking up in the Eastern Conference?
08:46Because we didn't even talk about the NBA Finals, we're not talking about titles.
08:49In the Eastern Conference, how do you think the fact that you have so much uncertainty
08:53with Joel and Paul George, how do you think they're going to finish this year?
08:58Sherrod, I'm not very bullish on them as a playoff prospect, as a playoff team, and I'll
09:04tell you why.
09:05The regular season, as it's been undervalued by a lot of people who follow or watch the
09:11NBA, and maybe it's been some of us in the media who undervalue the regular season.
09:16I do not.
09:17I think those 82 games develop muscles, and you have to wind up relying on those muscles
09:23when the playoffs begin.
09:25Take a guy like Tyrese Maxie.
09:28You like Tyrese Maxie as a guy who's an energizer bunny.
09:31He's going to zip up and down the floor.
09:35That's just his energy.
09:36His energy is to be aggressive at all times.
09:39When Joel Embiid isn't there, he has to be a point guard.
09:42He's not a table setter.
09:43He's not a natural point guard.
09:45He's not a guy that you can run your offense through because you want to give somebody
09:48else shots.
09:49Tyrese Maxie is going to give Tyrese Maxie some shots, and maybe, just maybe, he'll make
09:54the pass that leads to something.
09:55But if you're asking him to be the hub on offense, Sherrod, that's not the best use
09:59of his talent, and simultaneously, when Joel Embiid is out, and that's 30% of your usage,
10:0635% of your usage, guys can't get into a rhythm.
10:09They don't know what type of shots they're going to get, how many minutes they're going
10:12to play.
10:13Sure, it's putting them in different positions, but they can play different roles.
10:18But what muscle memory will they have to rely on when times get tough?
10:21Are you going to be playing 15 minutes as a backup, or are you going to be playing 30
10:24minutes in a playoff series?
10:26I think to disrespect the value of the regular season, we'll come back to bite them when
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12:15Yeah.
12:16And, you know, and again, obviously there's a lot of games left to be played for sure,
12:21but this is not the kind of start that you would want to have, particularly when you
12:24have so many integral pieces that you're trying to get on the same page.
12:30The longer it takes for them to get on the court, the longer it takes for them to be
12:33in sync.
12:34And I'm not talking about just Joelle and Paul, but Joelle, Paul, Maxie, they've got
12:39a lot of pieces that they want to make sure give them the best chance to be successful.
12:44And that's just not happening.
12:45But Vince, as you look around the league, I mean, there are some teams who are probably
12:50playing a little bit better than most people thought.
12:52Is there one team that jumps out to you that has really just been a pleasant surprise of
12:56sorts for their fan base, at least as far as how they play?
13:00One jumps out to me that I did not expect to be this good, this quick, and that's the
13:04Cleveland Cavaliers, right?
13:06Yeah.
13:07Right?
13:08Like when you looked at their roster and you looked at them firing JB Bickerslaff, you
13:12were wondering, okay, how much were you expecting someone like him to get out of that team?
13:17What is that team ceiling?
13:19Like he got him to the second round of the playoffs with your main player being hobbled
13:23in Donovan Mitchell.
13:24Like what, what do you expect?
13:26How much work are you expecting the head coach to do?
13:29Kenny Atkinson has jumped in there and has sort of taken it to another level.
13:34And Donovan Mitchell, I think is one of those players, believe it or not, he's a top 15
13:40player who has not gotten to the conference finals, right?
13:42Joel Embiid is a top 15 player who's never gotten to the conference finals, but we look
13:47a little bit different.
13:49And I think with Cleveland, if you're going to play double big, you got to lean heavily
13:53into one of those bigs being your guy and that's Evan Mobley.
13:57And I really like Evan Mobley as like a concept.
14:00I think he's Slim Duncan, not Tim Duncan.
14:01I want him to put on some weight.
14:03You know what I mean?
14:04Let's just eat a little bit.
14:05Just go to the Rasheed Wallace School of Dieting just for like a couple of weeks, put on some
14:09weight, right?
14:10You know what I mean?
14:11Have him put on some weight and then he can, you know, just sort of slim it down a little
14:17bit.
14:18I'd rather you have a little bit too much than not enough to start when you're playing
14:21four or five, because I think that kid is special.
14:25He's got some talent.
14:26And if you play through him, you might have something.
14:27Yeah.
14:28Yeah.
14:29Well, first of all, there will be no Rasheed Abdul Wallace slander on the big three NBA
14:33podcast.
14:34No slander.
14:35No slander.
14:36There is no Rasheed Abdul Wallace slander.
14:38But you're right, though.
14:39I mean, he has shown himself to be a guy that in certain situations can be really, really
14:44talented and impactful.
14:45The big thing with him is consistency.
14:48He doesn't seem to.
14:49And the other thing, too, is, you know, he's got basically a backcourt with two off guards
14:54who are supposed to be playmakers.
14:56They don't really don't have a clear, definitive table setter, as you put it.
15:00The guy that they've got in that role is actually better at eating than to set the table.
15:05You can get buckets.
15:06And then when you talk about Donovan Mitchell, who obviously is a big time prospect, and
15:10then there's Jared Allen, who it seems they want to be that hub.
15:15They want him to be that central figure that, you know, in terms of the impact that the
15:19bigs can make.
15:20Jared is the one that they seem to be really because I was listening to Austin Carr the
15:25other night talk about, you know, the Cavaliers.
15:27And I mean, he is as close to that for that team as anyone with, you know, just his role
15:31and just his TV presence.
15:34And he was talking much more about Jared Allen and just making sure that he gets and he's
15:39in position to be impactful, which kind of was a little bit of a head scratcher to me,
15:43because if you've watched that team play and we've seen Jared play and we've seen Mowgli
15:47play, Mowgli's got way more.
15:49There's way more room to grow for Mowgli.
15:52Mowgli is a guy that could be not just an all star.
15:55He's got all NBA potential, I believe.
15:58I can't say that about Jared Allen.
16:01Jared Allen, all star, but not all NBA type talent.
16:04We've seen the best of Jared Allen.
16:06That's not to say that that's not good.
16:07That's a great player.
16:08But there's no more high notes for him to hit in terms of where he can go with Evan
16:14Mowgli.
16:15He's in year four.
16:16Like, he's a guy that you're going to be expecting in a critical playoff game to be guarding
16:21Jason Tatum on a perimeter, to be guarding Chris Stapps for Zingas in the midpost, to
16:25be guarding Al Horford on the block.
16:27Like he's that gifted and that talented on both ends of the floor, Sherrod.
16:31You're just asking him to be a little bit more aggressive and assertive and to take
16:35the team.
16:36Like when you're on a team with Donovan Mitchell, you're probably not going to be handed the
16:39team in terms of hierarchy, or you have to take it on the floor where a guy says, you
16:43know what, this is your team now.
16:46Absolutely.
16:47Absolutely.
16:48And obviously, you know, Cleveland, they have had a great start, won their first six games
16:52looking like, you know, one of, if not the best team in the NBA.
16:56But there's, there's the usual suspects that are lurking, you know, the Boston Celtics
16:59lone loss, you know, was to Cleveland, excuse me, to Indiana on the road in overtime on
17:05a night where they just did not look very good.
17:08Oklahoma City is doing some really good things out west as well.
17:10The Los Angeles Lakers have had a, you know, a pretty good start, obviously, but Vince,
17:16is there a team that has, that people aren't talking about that they probably should at
17:24the start of the season?
17:25I hate to, I'm going to say I hate to say this, it sounds, it sounds bad, but I think
17:30we've all written off the Golden State Warriors as a team that has hit a sunset, right?
17:36They've hit a sunset.
17:38And for some reason, now they're back to strength in numbers, at least that's what it looks
17:41like early on.
17:42Now, they haven't had the hardest schedule, they're about to go out east, I think for
17:45five games.
17:46So you're really going to see what they're made of, especially with Stephen Curry being
17:50out with that ankle injury.
17:52But when you look at the Gary Paytons of the world, the Jonathan Kamingas of the world,
17:58the Andrew Wiggins, guys that you don't think of as, shall we say, big spades.
18:04We don't think of these cards as big spades, they're going to win you a book, they're not.
18:08But for whatever reason, they are hellacious on defense, Sherrod, they're very, very active.
18:12These are like eight and nines, we're talking eight and nine spades, yeah.
18:16They walk in, that eight and nine is walking every nine again, and next thing you know,
18:23you're picking up six, seven books, and you're trying to figure out how you're getting off
18:26the table.
18:27They are taking people off the table.
18:29What they did to New Orleans, and you know this, Sherrod, is to beat, one of the hardest
18:33things to do in the NBA is to beat a team on back-to-back nights when there's no travel
18:36involved in these home-and-home series.
18:38And they whooped New Orleans' behind, being from down 20 to winning by basically 20, shutting
18:44down Zion Williamson, shutting down CJ McCollum.
18:47That just shows that they have an activity, they have an ethos, that I think could be
18:52very scary in the Western Conference because it's so deep, but I do think it's one of those
18:57things, Sherrod, when trade deadline comes around, that's a team that you need to be
19:01looking forward to because they have just enough good players that maybe they can go
19:05fetch a great one.
19:06Basketball season will be here before you know it, and that is great news for Celtics
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20:43Yeah.
20:44Yeah.
20:45And the thing that all those guys that you mentioned, for the most part, are dogs.
20:49They get after you.
20:51They understand that they have no shot at winning unless they compete.
20:55And that's the scary part about a team like Golden State right now, because their ability
21:01to compete night in and night out is going to mean that they're going to get a chance
21:04to win every single game.
21:06And that more times than not, when you got a guy like Steph Curry in the building, and
21:11you got guys who are genuinely talented players, I mean, these aren't scrubs who play hard.
21:16These are decent NBA players who play with great effort.
21:19They're going to give themselves a chance to be successful.
21:21I would agree.
21:23They've been a big surprise this year.
21:24The team that I probably think has been, record-wise, maybe not as great as some people think, but
21:32I watched them play, and they will make me a little bit nervous, is the Orlando Magic.
21:37They got some interesting pieces there.
21:40I mean, and I need to talk about, yeah, I mean, they got, I mean, the way that Banchero
21:45has been just, I mean, he has been bully ball personified so far.
21:50Yes, yes.
21:51I mean, he is taking kids to the shed, and those kids ain't coming back, V.
21:57He's leaving bones, and they are not coming back.
22:03And the thing is, he's young, he's starting, the thing that he's doing that I really am
22:08impressed with is his understanding the mental part of the game.
22:13He's always had talent, he's always been able to physically impose his will, but there seems
22:18to be a different level, a higher level of thought to his game now that is a problem.
22:23Because if he's thinking the game better, combined with the physical gifts that he brings
22:27to the floor, Orlando could be that sleeper team that, man, you don't want to see them
22:33come April.
22:34No, because they don't scare, right?
22:38I will give you two names because you're a Syracuse guy.
22:42So his game reminds me of a mix between two guys that might be near and dear to your heart,
22:49okay?
22:50One is obviously Carmelo Anthony.
22:52Everybody can see the Carmelo, the way that he handles the ball, the way that he can sort
22:58of, the skill set for his size, right?
23:01But you know who else I see?
23:03I see Derek Coleman.
23:04Ooh.
23:05Ooh.
23:07Big man who can handle, big man who can beat you up.
23:10You know what I mean?
23:11He's got the Derek Coleman inside with the Carmelo outside, which means you don't have
23:15a guy that can really defend him because if you send a big on him, he's going to blow
23:18by you.
23:19You send a small on him, he's going to, like you said, take him to the woodshed and punish.
23:22That's a problem you don't want to have in a seven game playoff series where you got
23:27a scheme for it.
23:28Well, as soon as you touch, you've got to double.
23:29That means you're in rotation.
23:31That means boom, KCP is open four, three, but one of these other guys that's young and
23:34hungry is going to be open.
23:36You don't want to play this young and hungry team that can take you out.
23:39No, no, you don't.
23:41And the point that you made earlier, we saw a little bit of that last year.
23:44This team ain't scared at all.
23:48And to be as young as they were last year, and they're just looking at every team like
23:52what?
23:53Who are you?
23:54We, what?
23:55Are we supposed to be punked by y'all?
23:57Nah.
23:58And now they got the experience of the success they had last year and they're better talent
24:02wise and their best player has got appreciably better.
24:06I mean, he's going to be in the all NBA conversation this year.
24:10Assume he gets back and gets healthy and can play enough games.
24:14Yes.
24:15Like that.
24:16That's a blessing for the league, for those opponents, for the next four to six weeks
24:19that he's going to be out.
24:20But I wouldn't be surprised if a kid like that makes it back and wreaks havoc on everybody
24:25else for the last 60 or so games of the season.
24:28Yeah.
24:29Because he'll have enough time to do that.
24:30And I could be way off base on this, but I just get the feeling that he ain't going to
24:36be, he's not one of those guys that's going to take a long time to get right.
24:38I'm with you.
24:39I'm with you.
24:40I mean, it's four to six weeks, but I would not be surprised if we see him back in there
24:43in like three, three and a half, maybe four.
24:46And Orlando, what they need to do between now and then is just kind of hold the fort.
24:51Keep stay, you know, within striking distance.
24:53Don't, you know, go on one of those seven, eight, nine game losing streaks type things.
24:57Just stay, just stay in the game and they got a shot.
25:01And obviously you got, you know, the Celtics and Oklahoma city.
25:04I wanted to just kind of pivot real quick, Vinny, cause I know we're pushing up on time.
25:08What are a team or two that has been a major disappointment to you so far?
25:13Ooh, a major disappointment.
25:16I think we have to start off with the Denver Nuggets, right?
25:20Or do we start off with our buddy Doc Rivers and the Memoriality Buck, right?
25:25Cause they, yeah.
25:27Cause they just got smashed by Memphis and Memphis was coming.
25:30I think Memphis had a, it was like a back to back for Memphis.
25:34And the stuff that Memphis was doing, stuff that just should never happen.
25:37I mean, you got John Moran literally on his ass on the court throwing lobs.
25:43How are you going to throw a lob out of you?
25:45Harlem Globetrotter style, baby.
25:50Exactly.
25:51And he's doing that in game.
25:53We ain't talking about like practicing before the game.
25:55We ain't talking about after.
25:56We're talking in game.
25:58This counts that they got some problems, man.
26:02I think one thing, look at that team, Vinny.
26:06I think they got to make a move and they got to get Portis in that starting lineup.
26:09He gives them great juice off the bench.
26:10They got to do something to shake things up though.
26:15I'll tell you this.
26:16I think their roster is just flawed because when you look at it,
26:19Sherrod, who's the athlete?
26:21Who's the guy that defenses just have to bend?
26:24Not in terms of just taking it and being a superstar, but
26:28just adding in a level of energy and adding a level of,
26:34hey, we're going to make things easier for Giannis and Damian Lillard.
26:37Giannis is balling, right?
26:39Giannis is doing what he does, but it's not in the context of winning.
26:42The Bucs, they definitely have some issues to work through for sure.
26:45But one team that seems to be rolling along are the Boston Celtics.
26:49Vinny, obviously the defending NBA champions, that's the goal.
26:53From what you've seen, what do you think their prospects of repeating
26:56as champs looks like?
26:57As strong as any team who hasn't repeated over the past, what, seven, eight years?
27:02And I mean that as a sincere compliment,
27:04the last team to repeat was 17, 18 Warriors.
27:07And that team had Kevin Durant in his prime and
27:10maybe the greatest offensive weapons we've ever seen on one team.
27:13The Celtics look like they have broken the math of basketball.
27:17Like they're going to take as many threes as they can.
27:20You have all these versatile wing defenders and
27:22guys who can also attack the basket.
27:25Remember, Christophe Porzingis hasn't played a game yet.
27:28You know what I mean?
27:29And they're still destroying teams.
27:31And they are coming in, Sherrod, and you can never mistake the importance of this.
27:36They are coming into this season mad as hell.
27:39For whatever reason, they are mad.
27:42And then you got a coach who is ornery as he is unique, right?
27:45I'm actually starting to like Joe Mazzullo,
27:47because that man a little different, right?
27:49He's a little bit on the different side,
27:51which means I don't think you have to worry about this team getting complacent.
27:54I don't think you have to worry about this team sort of having
27:56the championship hangover.
27:57They're going to have some bad games here and there.
27:59But, Sherrod, I still think they're going to be 60 wins, and
28:02you're going to see the decent tatums of the world and MVP conversation,
28:06which I don't think we could have expected over a year ago.
28:08Very true, very true.
28:12Look, appreciate your time as always.
28:15Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports on the move as always, literally and figuratively.
28:20Vince, thank you for your time, brother.
28:22I appreciate you.
28:23I appreciate you, my man.