CLNS Celtics reporter Noa Dalzell goes live alongside Jack Simone from How 'Bout Them Celtics to answer questions about the Celtics season so far, including Neemias Queta's breakout, Jordan Walsh's inclusion in the rotation, Jayson Tatum's hot start to the year, and a couple of early losses. Tune in to get your Celtics questions answered and come hang out as we talk Cs through the first 9 games of the season.
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SportsTranscript
00:00What's up, everyone?
00:27This is Noah Dalzell with a Thursday edition
00:29of You Got Boston, and I'm here with my former colleague, Jack Simone, of How About Them
00:35Celtics.
00:36How are we doing, Jack?
00:37You love saying forward.
00:38It's like you take pride in the fact that I no longer work for the Celtics.
00:41I'm good, though.
00:42I'm happy to talk basketball.
00:44I mean, that's kind of all we do at this time of year, but always happy to do it.
00:48Glad to be back.
00:49Yeah.
00:50And, you know, also, I feel like we didn't talk about this game yesterday because our
00:54seats were so far apart on press row.
00:56So this can be our first time really breaking down what happened in the rare Celtics loss.
01:01But I did title this video Three Early Encouraging Things About the Celtics because I feel pretty
01:06encouraged about the team regardless of the two losses.
01:08I almost don't know that I'd feel that much better if they were 9-0 and just blowing teams
01:12out because eventually, you know, things are going to go wrong anyways.
01:16And so it's like you don't need them to hit that, like, super, super hot streak.
01:20That's my personal spit on things.
01:21Maybe it's toxic.
01:22But yeah, just figured we spent some time today answering questions, seeing what the
01:27people want to hear about.
01:28And then I was going to share kind of the things that I find most encouraging early
01:32on here.
01:33And then, Jack, curious for your thoughts.
01:34And I guess it's a little bit ironic because we're fresh off of maybe the worst loss of
01:39the season.
01:40How would you compare this one to the Pacers loss?
01:43I think it's all relative.
01:44Actually, we, Sam and I, for How About The Celtics, did our video for tomorrow.
01:47And it was a lot of like how I don't say unlucky, but like you look at the numbers,
01:53the Celtics took 20 wide open threes of their 54 as in defenders were six plus feet away
01:58and they made five of them, which is just not like something that this Celtics team
02:02usually has to deal with the offensive rebounds, the bads break.
02:05So I think as bad as it was in the first half and it wasn't great, like the Warriors played
02:11phenomenal defense and the Celtics didn't adjust well or as well as you'd like to see
02:15them.
02:17So I think they did a better job than what it might have looked like, at least from a
02:19numbers perspective.
02:20And we know Joe likes to look at that.
02:22But I mean, since there were only two losses, I would I actually might think might say that
02:28the Pacers one was slightly worse just because I think the offensive variation in this one
02:33could have made up for it.
02:34But the defense in that Pacers game looked really bad.
02:36And I think defense being bad is more concerning than offensive variation.
02:40But at the end of the day, the Celtics are 72.
02:42They're on a 64 win pace still, which is exactly what they won last season.
02:45So I think worry is probably the subheadline to the encouraging things, which is the literal
02:50title.
02:51Yeah, I figured we could all use some encouragement.
02:54Yeah, I you know, I feel like the storyline with the Pacers game, I honestly we did, you
02:59know, the postgame show on that.
03:00And I honestly felt like I couldn't even think about the loss because the big takeaway was
03:04Nimesh Kedar and his impact on that game down the stretch, and it felt like a turning point
03:09in the amount of trust that Joe Mizzoula was going to have in him, and maybe even just
03:12the amount of confidence that he would have in himself.
03:14And so like thinking about that Pacers game, I was like, okay, so the win column is like
03:19ultimately not going to matter in the scheme of things.
03:21But the fact that we may have just found a real legitimate backup center slash maybe
03:25even a future, you know, down the road, a starting center, you know, for this team,
03:30who knows?
03:31That felt like the story.
03:32And certainly the fact that, you know, that has continued, it wasn't just a one off, you
03:37know, you've had a really pivotal role these last four games.
03:40So yeah, you know, I think that's, that's, I guess, that's kind of a segue to my first
03:44encouraging thing.
03:45And I think the entire world is excited by Kedah.
03:48And I was talking about this with Bobby Manning yesterday.
03:50But I feel like there's something about him beyond just his impact on the game, that just
03:54makes him like a crowd favorite, and that has its own kind of secondary impact.
03:59Do you feel that as well?
04:00Like just at TD Garden yesterday, that he has this, like, just the kinds of plays that
04:04he makes, we don't see a ton of those in Boston, like, it just feels like there's another layer
04:08to it.
04:09I think it's similar to why Rob was super popular, just the, you don't really get the
04:14explosion, explosive dunks, you don't really get the crazy blocks, like that's not really
04:18the mo of the Celtics team, it is, we're gonna pass the ball, we're gonna shoot a bunch of
04:21threes, and we're just gonna play good team defense, like Celtics last year, I know, didn't
04:25force it to turnovers, right, they're just a very solid team all around, and they effectively
04:29play the math that they're going to beat you by the threes they take and the defense they
04:33play.
04:34But to me, each kid is sort of, I don't say breaks the mold, because he's consistently
04:38getting better at playing within that system, but the fact that he can get a snatch block
04:42in the first quarter and then play perimeter defense on the Steph Curry and then throw
04:46down a an alley-oop and transition off a putback, or not an alley-oop, but a dunk and transition
04:50off a putback in the fourth, like, those moments aren't something you get a lot from a team
04:54that is, I feel like emotionless is the wrong word, but generally pretty, like, level-headed,
05:02doesn't really get too high, but obviously doesn't get too low, which is the good thing,
05:05Nimi, like, provides that extra oomph, and I feel like fans appreciate that.
05:09Yeah, I think there's something to the word emotionless, like, the media, the fans,
05:16they like the drama, last night was a perfect example, like, the Olympic storyline and,
05:21you know, the dramatic pause before announcing Steve Kerr's name and the place going really,
05:26you know, that was as loud a booze as you'll see in introductions, and then, yeah, nobody
05:30really gave fodder to it, like, Tatum's not going to say anything about it, Jalen Brown's
05:34the only one that will play the game with us a little bit, like, he'll drop the lines,
05:38he'll feed into it, but for the most part, it's a team that kind of, they stay out of
05:43controversy, out of the spotlight, and they also play in a really kind of humble way as
05:49well, if that makes sense, and yeah, I think Keita just has a flair to him on the floor,
05:53and a couple of those putbacks, he had four dunks yesterday, three of those were actually,
05:56like, pretty wild, like, the one, you know, there was the Al Horford follow-up one,
06:01and then, in the fourth quarter, he had two of those, it just, it changes the, I honestly thought
06:07they were up by, like, 10 at one point, just because the energy was so high, and then I was
06:10like, oh, the Warriors, like, actually keep hanging in there, but I'm just looking through
06:15the comments here, I think, first of all, the fact that they won the championship last year
06:20is going to make us have a very different take on a lot of these early losses, because nobody's
06:23going to be like, this shows us X about this team, where, like, we can't, they're not going
06:27to be winners now, moving forward, you know, that's just the reality of it, obviously,
06:30if they start losing, like, constantly, then that would change things, so totally resonate
06:34with that, and then Tom, absolutely, you know, the thing with me is that I predicted high ceilings
06:39for, like, half the bench players, so I was going to win regardless, but certainly, Cade is a guy
06:44that I've been really excited about since he was in Maine last year, and just, since he got to
06:47Boston, I think a lot of people were positively surprised and impressed by what he was able to do,
06:52Jack, I forget, where did you land on Cade at preseason, did you think that this was coming?
06:57I was relatively low, he's definitely proving me wrong based on what I thought, like, I thought,
07:01and, I mean, I don't think it was crazy to think, like, Tillman and Cornette played better than him
07:04in the preseason, they just looked more consistent, they looked more comfortable,
07:07that couldn't be further than the case, now, I still think that the floor of Cornette is still
07:15higher than the floor of Cade, I think that is slowly, that gap is slowly closing, because,
07:20like, even yesterday, Nemi wasn't perfect, like, he was awesome, he had huge plays, but, like,
07:25defensive rebounding wasn't great at times, there were points where he missed wide-open
07:29tutors in the perimeter, like, he doesn't pass out of the post, really, so, like,
07:32there are definitely flaws, and I think those flaws are mitigated with Luke, but it is inevitable,
07:38and I think inarguable at this point, that the ceiling of Cade's impact is greater than the
07:43ceiling of Luke's impact, and that's not saying Luke's not a good player, I think he is, and I
07:47still think the Celtics should go to him, but I was definitely lower on Cade, because I was
07:51concerned with what we saw in the preseason relative to how he could play with the starters
07:55a lot, but he's fitting really well, he's given them nice punches so far, and I think he's one of
08:01the, I don't know if he's, like, a leader in plus-minus, excuse me, just because he doesn't
08:04have the minutes, but I bet if you do plus-minus per game, he is one of the best on the Celtics
08:11for the games he's played, because even yesterday, in previous games, like, he will be far and away
08:17above some of the starters, because he's just playing in those minutes, he is fifth on the team
08:20in plus-minus per game, behind Derek White, Tatum, Brown, Horford, and he's above Pritchard,
08:25he's above Drew, he's above Hauser, he's above, like, he just makes a positive impact, and I think
08:29that's, at the end of the day, the only thing that matters. Yeah, and the last few games, in
08:34particular, you can just see that he's found a certain level of confidence. A couple questions
08:39here about the double-big, and honestly, we didn't get to this post-game yesterday, so
08:42I'm glad we can talk about it a little bit now, because I've been a little bit unclear, like,
08:49why we're pivoting away from just having Sam Hauser plug in for a missing wing, and instead
08:55trying this Nemi-Al Horford frontcourt, or the Luke-Al Horford frontcourt, and it's one of the
09:01things that, I don't think anybody's outward-asked Joe, but I also don't think he would give an
09:05answer, so maybe that's why nobody's asked, but what do you think it is that has made them,
09:10this year, kind of move more towards the double-big? Because there are things that you can
09:14just tell, there are more mistakes that are made sometimes with the double-big, and so, for me,
09:18my interpretation is, like, they're just doing it because they want to get better at it, and they
09:22want to be able to kind of iron out the wrinkles with it, or maybe it's actually something that
09:26they think is going to be more important this season than it was last season, they didn't
09:29really do a lot of double-big, I mean, in the playoffs, there was really no double-big, so,
09:33yeah, I'm just curious, like, from your standpoint, if there's a reason why it seems sometimes,
09:36like, just plug Sam Hauser in and do the thing that you're used to doing.
09:41Definitely. My guess, and again, like you, I don't really know, is maybe they just want to
09:48get longer looks at some of the bigs, and this is the easiest way to do it, while also keeping
09:51Hauser and Pritchard in a role that's consistent, like, Nemi didn't start a lot last season,
09:57obviously, but he played big minutes early in the season, just like this year, and I would
10:01have to look to see, but I bet they went to it a little bit last year, too, I'm trying to, like,
10:05pull up lineup stats and see how double-bigs has looked, because I don't think it necessarily has
10:09been bad, it's definitely been a little awkward at times, because Nemi's not the best at knowing
10:15when to block a shot, or go for a block versus knowing when to stay home, Luke Cornett obviously
10:18doesn't have the athleticism to, you know, stunt and recover and get back to the paint, and then
10:23Tillman is just completely out of the rotation right now, so it's kind of awkward to play double
10:28bigs from that perspective, and you'd probably want to see some more Hauser starting lineups,
10:33but looking at double bigs so far with Kada, if I'm trying to pull up advanced stats, because I
10:39feel like the ratings is what's more important here, Kada and Al Horford in two-man lineups,
10:44let's see, nba.com, that's how I usually do it, so Kada and Horford so far have a offensive rating
10:54of 121.8 and a defensive rating of 103.7, which is pretty good, compared to other two-man
11:02lineups on the team, if you look at offensive rating with two-man lineups, Kada and Horford
11:08is up there with, I mean, obviously with lineups that include Kada, if you want to filter it by
11:12how many minutes have played together for context, Tatum and Derek White have played the most minutes
11:17of any duo this season with 223 so far, so if we just do two-man lineups that have played at least,
11:22we do 50, 50 minutes, you look at offensive ratings and Kada's up there in a bunch of those,
11:28Kada and Derek White minutes have been really good offensively and really good defensively,
11:32like Kada, Derek White is up there, Al Horford and Kada isn't awful either, it just seems like they
11:39are okay with what it looks like and want a longer look at Kada, I don't really know
11:44other than that, because like you said, they didn't do it in the playoffs and I don't think
11:47they'll do it in this playoffs either, but I don't know. Yeah, certainly, and I think a lot of
11:53this year is going to be just acknowledging the fact that a lot of things that went really right
11:59last playoff run are probably not going to, you can't just count that things are going to be the
12:02same, like they also didn't really play any formidable bigs during that playoff run,
12:08there was no Giannis, there was no Jokic, there was no Embiid, and so not that Al wouldn't have
12:14been able to hold up, because I think defensively he didn't hold up quite well, but that wasn't
12:19explored in this past playoff run, so who's to say, but I will say, I kind of want to ask Joe
12:23about a pregame tomorrow, but is there a chance that I'm going to get a good answer there? I feel
12:27like I'm just getting good. I mean, I think if you phrase it like, I'm curious, what have you
12:32liked out of double bigs so far, why are you running that rather than going with Sam, which
12:35is something you ran a lot in the playoffs? I think that's a fair answer, saying, hey,
12:41you didn't really run double bigs in last year's playoffs, we saw it a little last season,
12:46what do you want to learn from it or anything? I think if you phrase it in a way of what do
12:49you hope to learn from this, he'll give you something. Yeah, well, wish me luck.
12:56So yeah, and I feel like a lot of people are saying this, a lot of people are saying the
12:59Rob Williams comparison, it's inevitable that we're going to go there, just because everybody
13:04loves Rob Williams. There's some obvious physical tools that are similar offensively,
13:12some similar limitations. I mean, Rob did things like as a help side defender that I don't think
13:17we can, I mean, Mimi's out there now, I don't know, maybe the sky's the limit, but there's a
13:22little bit of a reach, but certainly the fact that we're even having those conversations with
13:24the guy that came in with a two way is one of the early encouraging signs about this season.
13:30So I'm going to jump to another thing that I've been encouraged by, but anything,
13:35maybe you go first, Jack, is there anything that's stood out to you so far this season?
13:40Positive surprises? I would say it's pretty obvious, but
13:48what's it called, Peyton Pritchard playing really well? Peyton Pritchard just being-
13:51Wasn't even going to be on my list.
13:54He's just been great. Also, I remembered vaguely something, just one final thing on Keita,
13:59when he was waived by the Kings, he was waived with New Orleans Noel, and I found it in our
14:04Google Doc sheet from last September when Sam and I were recording, and it said people on Twitter
14:10saying Celtics should get New Orleans Noel since Blake Griffin's leaving, and I wrote,
14:14no, I like Mimi better. So I remember that in my docs, but no, Pritchard's been a monster.
14:22He was on pace. I remember writing it and tweeting it out a few games ago. At one point,
14:27I think he's probably slightly fallen off, but he was on pace for 324 threes this season, which
14:32Stephen Curry has done five times, James Harden has done once, and no other player ever has hit
14:37that mark. He is just been- It was a crazy hot third.
14:40Yeah, he's been on another world from behind the arc, and the record for threes in a season off
14:45the bench is 218, which was Wayne Ellington in 2017, and Pritchard so far this season,
14:53through nine games, has made 35 already. So quick maths just to see the pace.
15:02If he continues on this pace, he will make 319 threes, which would beat the record by 100, and
15:10only three people have ever made 300 in a season. Again, he would have to play all 82 games,
15:14a lot of context. He would have to continue at this hot streak. It's probably not going to happen.
15:18That said, 218 off the bench is a very, very attainable goal for Pritchard, and the fact that
15:23he is this hot and being trusted this much by Joe Mizzoula, I think is a really good sign.
15:30Yeah, I mean, 16 points a game. No matter how you want to look at it, that's big time. That's not,
15:35especially on a team where we know there are a lot of scorers on this team. It's not like he's
15:39the number one option right now, by any means. He's taking the ninth most threes per game in
15:43the NBA, period. Not like off the bench, not any, like the ninth most threes. The only players who
15:49are taking more threes per game than Peyton Pritchard this year, LaMelo, Tatum, Ant, Maxie,
15:55Luca, Dame, Derek White, Jalen Green. He's taking more per game than Troy Young, more than Stephen
16:00Curry, more than Jordan Poole, more than Klay Thompson. And then if you look at totals, I assume
16:05the number might be similar. He's taking the fourth most total threes in the NBA this season
16:10behind Tatum, LaMelo, and Derek White. Hey, I'm here for it because he's been making them.
16:16He wouldn't see that. He's at 41%. And I just think that the fact that teams have to stress
16:21about him, like for a while there, he hadn't really commanded the attention of opposing
16:26teams' defenses. And so he was burning them. But I felt like even yesterday, he didn't have the
16:29best game yesterday. He struggled a little bit with the shot. I think he finished three of 11
16:33from three. But you could tell the Warriors made him a focal point. They were not going to allow
16:38him to do the things that he did against the Bucs and the things that he's been kind of doing every
16:41other game now. And just that in and of itself, it's like, if you're going to have to worry about
16:46Pritchard coming off the bench and lighting you up, then it's like, who else do you have to,
16:50you know, what do you, what do you compromise in there? Because you're giving something up
16:53constantly. We talk about that all the time. And yesterday, that was the best defensive
16:56performance I've seen against the Celtics in a really long time. So I love it. I'm so, you know,
17:02I love it so much that I'm almost like, I'm letting other people do the talking on Pritchard
17:05now, because I feel like I was doing it so prematurely that when I talk about him,
17:09people just don't even take me, take me for my word anymore. But I don't know if you saw Drew
17:13Hall. I did an interview today. And he said that Pritchard is the hardest player on the team to
17:18defend and that they do a drill in practice. And that it's Pritchard going full court and
17:22everybody takes turns guarding him. And then Drew said, he's the hardest player on the team to
17:26defend. So it's so funny. Also true. We are live. Yeah. Just to answer the person who recorded
17:33right now. But no dude, watching Pritchard get guarded in like those late game situations,
17:41like five seconds left is what I can imagine. Those drills, like the full court drills being
17:45like, like having to know he's quick enough to get by you for a layup. So you can't completely
17:50press him. If you don't completely press him, he's going to pull up from the logo and he's going to
17:54make it like the ability to step back, the ability to go between the legs and shift. He has a side
18:00step to his game. Now he has a little turnaround, a mid range shot that he's shown off a few times.
18:05He can dribble under the hoop, like TJ McConnell, and then go up on the other side. Like he's
18:11incredible. And for what it's worth, teams have attacked him on defense this season too. And he
18:15sold up really well. I think the Bucks did it a lot in that one game. And even Giannis was on him
18:19a few times and obviously he's going to get back down. He's not going to be perfect. He's just
18:22small. That's just how it's going to be. But he held his ground enough for the Celtics to send
18:26help and or force a pass and or force a tough shot. So he is fully earned the trust of everybody
18:34offensively and defensively. And I mean, like I said, he's taking that many shots per game
18:38and on a Celtics team with Jason Tatum, Derek White, Drew Holiday, Jalen Brown, all this stuff
18:44per game. Peyton Pritchard is averaging, if I had to guess, the fourth most shots on the team.
18:49I don't know that for sure. I'm going to check now, but yeah, the fourth most shots in the team
18:52behind Jalen, Tatum, Derek, and then it's Peyton Pritchard. That's insane.
18:57That is insane. And obviously, Jalen and Prisinga's being back in the mix is going to
19:02change things. I still think Hauser needs more touches. He took five shots last night.
19:06And I used to feel last season how many shots Hauser was taking was representative of how good
19:11the offense was running a lot of times. Hauser getting a lot of good looks was a good sign for
19:15the team's ball movement in general. And there was a couple of times where they missed him.
19:18Yeah, I think that's part of it. I don't know. I didn't have as good an angle yesterday,
19:23but when I was in Charlotte, where we were sitting was kind of right behind the bench.
19:27And he was constantly, he had the hot pack on his back. He was running around. He was stretching
19:33constantly. There was a lot going on. It was not just a normal day sitting on the bench and coming
19:37back in. And so he's dealing with this lower back thing. And I don't know if that's going to be
19:42a long-term thing or not. I don't know if it's going to keep him out of games. He hasn't been
19:45on the injury report these last few games, so that's certainly a good sign. But I don't know
19:48if that's why he has not been shooting or scoring as much. Part of it is also, I do think Pritchard
19:54is being more aggressive. And last season when the two of them were in, Hauser was the one that
19:58got more looks. But you want Hauser to get some more of those as well. And they need it. I think
20:02that was one of the things they were missing yesterday was they needed points from some other
20:05guys. Tatum and Derek White held their own, but they needed it a little bit more from somebody
20:09else. And he was one of the guys where it could probably take a few. And he had one where Nemi
20:13didn't find him. Did you see that one where Nemi got a couple of them? This is the one I was
20:17talking about. He was so mad. Oh my gosh. We looked at that on the pod this morning or last
20:23night. We watched the replay. I could find it right now if you want to watch it on the stream
20:28because I remember exactly what it was. I did the box score. I'm not tech savvy enough for that,
20:31but if you know how to do it. Yeah, I got it. Of course I do. Of course. I said it on the pod. And
20:38again, I don't want this to turn into Nemi is bad. Nemi has been objectively super bad. No,
20:43so far. Nemi is simultaneously a non-pastor out of the post and also not a good post score,
20:50which is just not a great combination to be once he gets the ball down low.
20:56But this is, is this it? No, I think it was a different one. I remember he, he got an offensive
21:01rebound. So that's the set I have to go to. He got an offensive rebound and Sam Hauser is sitting
21:06there and then you can just see him go like this after the play is over. It's a really
21:11unfortunate. We're not doing that. We're not doing that. I have to scream at you to shoot the
21:18ball. I am saying, shoot it, please. This is, I believe this is my screen sharing. You have to
21:27add it. Yeah. So this is, this is the play. Nemi gets blocked here and then he gets the ball in
21:33the middle of the floor. It's just as a wide open and just, just unbelievably wide open.
21:42And he gets another rebound. He's open again. And he just goes inside and then look at Hauser's
21:46face. Okay. To be fair though, Hauser is so expressive. Like this is where, this is a rare
21:56moment where it's like, and not like anti somebody, but it was like, obviously, you know,
21:59Nemi was the receiver of that facial expression, but do you notice like when he gets scored on,
22:05he's like always so dramatic. He has his hands on his face. Like, I kind of like it because I'm
22:09like, you can't, you can't say he's not, he's not trying. But yeah, you're, I mean, that's
22:14going to be a place of growth for him. And I think like the exciting thing about Keita is like,
22:18we're not watching a finished product. And I think that's why fans are so excited about him is that
22:22when you're watching Luke for all the good things that he does and he's had some really good games
22:25this season. So I don't want to disrespect Luke, but you're assuming that you're watching a finished
22:29product. I think he's 30. He's been in the league for a while now. And so, yeah, the fact is, is
22:36that like with Nemi, it's like, I see stuff like that. I'm like, okay, he'll figure that out. He'll
22:40get better at that. And we'll see, maybe he won't, like not everything's going to be perfect in his
22:44game ever, but I do feel like I'm, I do feel excited about that as the next step for him.
22:50And it's hard. I feel like this happens a lot with these really young, natural athletic bigs is that
22:53they get the offensive rebound and it's like, they just get so excited. And it is kind of a
22:58tough pass. Like you have to, you know, it wasn't like he was right in front of him. He had to turn
23:00a little bit and be aware. But yeah, it was a funny play. Okay. So we did, we did Nemi as one
23:07of the pluses. We did Peyton Pritchard. I got a question here. I've been pushing this agenda.
23:12I actually don't know your take on this, Jack. So let's hear, do you think Derek White will make
23:15the all-star game? I have a very strong take here. You can probably guess it, but let's hear yours.
23:19Normally I would say no, but the Bucks and the Sixers are really bad right now. So if you cut
23:26like those all-stars out of the picture, because if the Bucks, I mean, you honestly get all-stars
23:31because of the popular vote, right? I don't think Dame gets in with the coaches if they are not in
23:37the playoff picture. Maybe he does. And Bede will probably get in with the voting. I don't think
23:43Maxie will get in if he, you know, they're that far out of the playoff picture. And Maxie's missing
23:48a few weeks here. I don't know if you saw that. Yeah. So he'll be out. I do think it gets tough
23:53because I think the Cavs are going to have at least two all-stars just from the early returns
23:58we've seen. Obviously it's been 10-ish games, less than 10 games, but whatever. That said,
24:03averaging right now 25 and four on one of the only two above 500 teams in the East.
24:11Right now, if the ballots were cast, yes, I think he'd be an all-star.
24:15Yeah, I think so too. I mean, I think I actually would be shocked if he wasn't an all-star and
24:19simply because of the phenomenon that we see of people, like retroactively giving people awards,
24:25like after the fact. And I feel like, you know, some things are going to be fresh off a championship
24:29and they're going to, you know, Derek White, I feel like is very highly regarded by everybody,
24:34by the fans, by players. I saw an overtime video the other day when I was scrolling through TikTok
24:38that was like them asking high school prospects, who do you want to be in the NBA? Or like which
24:42two players are better? And they were literally picking Derek White over everybody, like over
24:47all-star. Yeah. And so there's a general understanding in the world now across all
24:51cylinders that he's a great player and he's a two-way player and his numbers are adding up to it.
24:55And he just like casually had 26 last night. That wasn't even a big story because we've kind of come
25:00to see that from him pretty often. And so I think it'll be him, Tatum, and Brown. And who knows?
25:05I mean, maybe Brown misses more time here. Obviously I hope that's not the case, but
25:08you know, a lot of injuries right now. So I think he'll get in. Obviously it's super early. How many
25:13games is it until all-star voting? Probably like 40? A lot. Yeah. Almost 50. Almost 50 because
25:20it's more than half. Yeah. Also him, Peyton Pritchard, and Jason Tatum are combining to
25:25shoot over 33s a night together. Just the three of them. That is crazy. It's 11.4 for Tatum, 9.6
25:32for Derek, 9.4 for Peyton. Yeah. And I do agree, Tom. I do think it's hard to get three all-stars,
25:39but if there is going to be a time, I think it's going to be for a team that just won a
25:42championship and did so in a really kind of like egalitarian fashion. Like this is kind of the
25:48prototype of a team that would have multiple all-stars. I can't believe the Hawks. Remember
25:52the Hawks team that had like five all-stars? That was so weird. Yeah. I think they identified. It
25:58was crazy. It's insane. Even if you look at the standings, I don't know if I can share my screen
26:02or you have to approve it again, but like you look at these standings, right? Cavs are probably
26:06going to get two. Mitchell and Garland probably, unless they just give it to Mitchell, which I
26:12think they should get to. Celtics are probably going to have at least two, so that's only four
26:16right there. I don't think the Nets will get an all-star unless they maintain this level of
26:22top whatever in the East. Pacers will probably get at least one, so that'll be five. I think
26:28Jalen Brunson will be the only all-star in New York. Maybe Trae Young. That's seven.
26:32And then past that, it's a free-for-all because the Bucs and the Sixers are bad. The Hornets,
26:39maybe LaMelo gets in if you want to count him. Paolo's hurt, so I don't know if he'll meet the
26:42limit and Pete's hurt. I don't know if he'll meet the limit. Jimmy's been bad, relatively speaking,
26:48in terms of numbers. He's been pretty mediocre. There's a lot of flexibility. That's at least
26:52three or four spots who are going to be wide open, and Celtics sitting there right at the top.
26:57I think it's very, very easy to picture them getting three.
27:02Yeah. No. We'll see. We'll see. I mean, he's going to have to keep it up. It's obviously
27:05hard to have. And also, did you see he's going on The Young Man and the Three,
27:09which is a JT Reynolds' old podcast? I think he's hosting. Yeah. He's helping us.
27:12So far, both times he went on, three weeks shooting slump. I don't want him to jinx his
27:18all-star campaign. But he's hosting. This is the new podcast, Young Man and the Three. No,
27:22no. This is a new one. We'll see. We'll see. Let's take a quick moment to just hear from
27:26our friends over at game time, and then we'll come back to do some more questions here.
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28:16create an account and redeem code CLNS for $20 off. Download game time today. What time is it?
28:22Game time. Awesome. Yeah, and I'm seeing here people are resonating with our all-star take.
28:30I would take D-Way too. Honestly, defense is never going to be valued enough when it comes
28:34to all-star. It never has, it never will. Otherwise, we'd see guys that don't score
28:37a lot that are just lead defenders constantly be in the conversation, and that is never the case.
28:43Rudy is the exception. Rudy and Draymond are the literally only ones I can think of off the top of
28:46my head. How many all-stars does Rudy Gobert have? I think three or four. I can double check,
28:52though. It's so great. Now that I left my original computer on the plane,
28:56this computer is so fast I can look stuff up while I'm on here.
28:58Three. He is three. He is more defensive player of the years than he does all-stars,
29:07which is an interesting stat. And Draymond-
29:09That is actually nuts.
29:11Draymond has four all-stars, so.
29:14That is actually wild. Okay, question here from Adam Smith about Tatum's techs, because I actually
29:19thought that yesterday that he got a soft tech, and then I was scrolling through Twitter, and I
29:22saw that you had tweeted that it was a long time coming. And so I think it was you, at least.
29:28So I'm curious, what did you see out of him yesterday? I usually can't even see that well
29:32to be able to see if someone's arguing. All I saw, he did this to the refs three, four times.
29:40And if you do it enough, you're just going to get attacked for doing that. If you complain,
29:44if you scream, if you emote enough and then hit him with basically a screw you,
29:52like the wave off, you're going to get one. He was complaining. He always complains. It
29:56is what it is. I think you got to come to accept that that's what Tatum does.
30:00For what it's worth, I do think he still doesn't get an amazing whistle. I also think it's partly
30:05his fault for, I don't think he shies away from contact, but the way he contorts himself around
30:10the rim to try to finish doesn't embrace it as much as a guy like Giannis or LeBron or stuff
30:14like that. But I just saw him waving off the ref a few more times than he probably should have.
30:20Yeah. I feel like the kinds of texts that he gets are in the lower category of-
30:25Definitely.
30:26They're a little soft, but he does do the verbatim thing that gets a text. So I get why
30:30fans feel that way, but he really does check the box of the wave off or complaining when they told
30:37you not to complain anymore. But it's just never anything that egregious. So it's always funny when
30:41he's at the end of the year, he's at the top of the list of tech receivers. You remember Porzingis
30:46when he first got to Boston last year? He was constantly getting technical fouls.
30:49The machine. He was like, the first two weeks of the season, he had eight.
30:53Yeah. And he was like, I'm just so excited to be here. So I'm sure he'll get back in the swing of
30:59things. It is kind of wild. I mean, we've been seeing him warm up regularly for these games.
31:02It's been funny to see just how he looks like he's moving well. He looks like he's been moving well
31:10for a long time now. I think he's going to be back sooner than we expect, honestly. I feel like
31:13we've all kind of moved on from him as a storyline because we knew he was going to be out for a long
31:17time now. And I think all of a sudden it's going to be like, Porzingis is about to come back and
31:21people are going to remember what a dynamic he adds to this team. On the flip side, Jalen Brown
31:27misses four consecutive games tomorrow with that hip strain. Our good friend Cam tried his very
31:32best yesterday to get answers out of Joe pregame from Jalen. I saw that clip went pretty viral over
31:38the back and forth. I saw that. Yeah, that's what made me think about it actually. But nothing
31:46from Joe. Joe's never going to say anything on injuries. He's famously said that there was zero
31:49concern about Porzingis' leg when it was that injury that he's now still out for. That was
31:53in June. So I've just learned usually he's not the guy. I mean, he's a coach, right? He's not
31:58the medical staff. So I get it. I feel like they should give us like a press conference about one
32:02medical person per month where we can just ask them questions. Yeah. Especially with the big
32:05injuries like KP. Yeah. And then question here on the Celtics being sold. I haven't heard anything
32:13new. Do you have anything new on that front, Jack? Not really. Just the Globe article that came out
32:18weeks ago that said it's going to start soon. It's going to ramp up. I think right now it's
32:22probably in the process of they're reaching out to people they thought might be interested.
32:26People who are interested are submitting bids, stuff like that. So I just think it's a quiet
32:30period and we're probably not going to hear anything. If the Celtics and the people involved
32:34were going to keep anything under wraps, this would be what they keep under wraps this time
32:38period. So I just think it's ongoing at the moment. Yeah, I think so, too. And obviously,
32:44like, I think everybody's hoping for CPEC. You could somehow still be involved moving forward.
32:47Like, you want to see as much continuity as possible for this future of the franchise.
32:53You don't want to see a completely new ownership group. So yeah, we'll see. We'll see what happens
32:58there. We'll be sure to report if we hear anything. It's funny because that New York Post report,
33:02I feel like, is the one that has been the biggest storyline, but that came out of not,
33:05you know, not anybody from Celtics media. So I feel like maybe the next thing is also going to
33:08come out of some New York Post or something kind of random outside of our orbit. So we'll see
33:13certainly something that matters in the long term. We've talked a lot about the generosity of this
33:17team or like how much they've been willing to spend and ownership pertain to everybody. And
33:20so it's ironic that that's not going to be who pays for this team. But I think as long as they
33:25keep winning, it's going to show that the payroll is worth it, at least in the short term. I just
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33:50For me, I would go over on Jason Tatum, who we can talk about for our last portion of the
33:54segment here. I feel like he's just going to continue to put up big numbers. What did he
33:58have yesterday? Oh, sorry. Yeah, he had 32 yesterday, 32 points on 10 of 20. I would not
34:05expect more tomorrow. I feel like he's going to continue to shoulder some of the load here.
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34:28PrizePix, run your game. Okay, we got one more new question here.
34:35How will Brizzy get his ring, Svee gets his ring in March when the Jazz play the Celtics?
34:40I don't know. Do you know? I assume they're just going to give it to him away from the public eye.
34:46Yeah, I think it'll just be a little handoff. Charles Lee got it last weekend.
34:50Charles Lee got it in Charlotte the day before their first game.
34:54Charles Lee got it in Charlotte the day before their first game of the back-to-back. So
35:00Brissette's probably going to have something like that. It was a little bit of a bummer.
35:04Probably do a video. I'll probably do a video on it. For sure. I would guess, but I don't know.
35:09Okay. Well, I could ask around because I actually do recognize this question was asked previously
35:15in this chat. And I think I said I would ask last time. So we'll see what we can gather on that.
35:21If nothing else, O'Shea Brissette's still doing the vlogs. So you could always leave a comment
35:25on his YouTube as well and ask him because he's pretty interactive over there. But I thought it
35:31would have been cool if he could have been in ring night just because he could have been,
35:35but I understand how that would have been a little bit of a weird situation. So we'll see.
35:41Last thing I want to talk about is just Jason Tatum. I think overall he's had a really good
35:45start to the season. Some really good shooting games opening night versus Atlanta. He was on one
35:52last night. He was efficient from threes in particular. What has been your just general
35:56take on him this season through nine games here? Do you feel like he's where you expect him to be?
36:01Better? Worse? Where's kind of the biggest area you'd like to see him improve or just where he's
36:05at? I mean, I think he's been really good. I think he is playing a similar level to what he has in
36:11the past. I think he is taking more threes for sure. Definitely ramped up his three point volume,
36:17but the percentage is down a little bit. But I think people have to accept the reality that
36:25he is just a streaky shooter and that's probably not going to change regardless of if the mechanics
36:30look better, which I do think they look better. I think every once in a while you see him slip into
36:33that pull up. I still think he takes maybe a few too many dribble dribble. I'm going to pull up.
36:39I'm going to force my shot here. But I mean, I just I brought up to stop. I know Bobby Kravitzky
36:45tweeted it to like Tatum had 14 potential assists against the Warriors, and he had two assists on
36:49the game. So sometimes that part of his game won't be accentuated as much by the box. Joe does not
36:55like the fact the potential set out of the box score. He makes that very clear to us. So I think
37:01Tatum does a good job of working out of double teams and for all of the what's the word for all
37:07of the the bad shots for all of the mysteries all that stuff. This dude is seeing more double
37:12teams than a lot of players in the NBA. You saw the Warriors do it last night. You saw the Pistons
37:18do it at times you saw the Pacers do it like they'll just double team and they'll live with
37:21the result of whatever happens after that. Because for his greatest Eric White, Peyton Perchard,
37:25Drew Holiday, Jalen Brown are these teams are more scared of what Jason Tatum would do to them.
37:28Still wish he could work in the post a little bit more. Still wish he could get to the basket,
37:31stuff like that. But it is what it is and also for what it's worth. He's averaging 4.8 assists
37:37and 2.7 turnovers, which isn't like incredible. It's not amazing, but you look at other guys
37:41around the league, Anthony Edwards, three assists, three turnovers, the metal ball,
37:44six assists, five turnovers, right? Like even Luca is eight and three, which is slightly better
37:49because the assist numbers are up, but he's just a real solid player. So no complaints.
37:55Yeah, and I saw he's been very efficient at home in particular through three home games. He's
37:58shooting 48% from three. So and that's been true for him last year as well. I think the splits
38:03were better at home. He loves blowing the kiss. He loves the garden crowd. I do want to highlight
38:09Ben here has a comment about how he threw some weird passes last night. The one thing I'll say
38:12about potential assists is that sometimes I feel like, you know, when Joe's talking about like,
38:17okay, I wish there were potential assists, like sometimes your pass is part of why the shot
38:20didn't go in, you know? And so, yeah, and we used to joke about like, you know, sometimes I would
38:26see Sam Hauser, you know, practicing the drill where he's getting really bad passes. And I'd
38:29be like, these kind of look like passes like Jalen Brown throwing him when he's like really
38:32trapped, you dive into the basket and things. And so, like the actual accuracy of the pass,
38:36he sometimes, you know, plays a big part in things. And he also has had some ones where
38:40he's just finding Jordan Walsh like perfectly and Jordan just hasn't hit or whatever else it is.
38:44And I think the bigs have gotten some tough passes just across the board. There were some
38:47Bosh-Dahl you still get better. There's some new connections being formed there. So we'll see. But
38:52yeah, I think, you know, generally speaking, you have to be happy with this performance.
38:55He had a couple of defensive like slip ups yesterday. The buddy healed one was pretty bad
38:59when I walked around when I rewatched it. I didn't realize how egregious it was at the time
39:02where he really just fell asleep. But it's part of part of the game that happens. We've seen
39:06everybody do that at various points. You know, even Derek White the other day, you know,
39:10didn't really close out on Siakam enough, you know, going, you know, down the stretched area
39:14about the way Jalen Brown certainly has had his moments of getting backdoor cut or losing his guy.
39:18So yeah, I think you have to be happy with this. I mean, at the end of the day, he's the third
39:21leading scorer in the league right now, three 30.2 points per game. And he certainly benefited
39:25from some of the absences here, but he's been able to step up to the plate. So we'll be fun
39:29to continue to watch him. Jack, anything you want to plug before we wrap up here? Anything
39:33you're working on? Just the pod. So thanks. I can find my written work at Harvard Houdini.
39:42And yeah, that's that's about it. Thanks for having me on again.
39:45Oh, yeah, we still haven't played. I know that people want to see
39:48someone I get this every pregame. I get this question every pregame. We got to schedule it.
39:53Yeah, every time Cam was asked. I don't know if you remember.
39:58Of course. Yeah, I'm sure. So yeah, we'll do it soon. We'll do it soon.
40:02We need cameras, though. We shook on it. I'm only doing if there's cameras there.
40:08I like my reputation right now. It's like there's that one clip of me getting a rebound over you.
40:11I don't really want to mess with it. There will be a camera there. I'll bring it myself.
40:18Okay. Okay. Thanks, everyone. We'll have more this weekend. We'll have postgame tomorrow on
40:23CLNS. Subscribe to You Guide Boston if you're not already. Subscribe to How About Them Celtics
40:27if you want Jax pregame and postgame coverage as well. And we'll have a Garden Report postgame show
40:32after Brooklyn. That's live from the Garden tomorrow. So thanks, everyone. Have a good
40:35rest of your evening and we'll catch you next time.