Celtics reporter Noa Dalzell goes LIVE to discuss the Celtics season through 23 games, including the recent 5-games-in-7-nights stretch, Payton Pritchard's scorching hot Sixth Man of the Year campaign, and more. Plus, Noa went to Maine to watch Baylor Scheierman, Drew Peterson, and Jordan Walsh in the G-League and will discuss what stood out.
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00:00What's up everyone, this is Noah DelZell with a Monday Night
00:29episode of You Got Boston, rare off day for the Celtics and therefore for me,
00:34and I'm joined by a special guest, my dad, who some of you have met in previous episodes.
00:39We had a good off-season episode with my dad in Paden Bridges College Coach,
00:43and I think that one's worth revisiting, but I will let you introduce yourself.
00:49Okay. I'm Noah DelZell. My name is Sean.
00:52Give us some background. I have to explain why do we care about your opinion?
00:58I don't know why anybody cares about my opinion. In fact, usually people don't care about my
01:01opinion, but I used to be, I'm still Noah's dad and I used to be a pro basketball overseas,
01:08pro basketball player. Basketball has been a huge part of my life. That's why when I listen to Noah
01:14talk about her, her history and her family, that yeah, it was kind of a religion. And I grew up
01:19also in a family where basketball was kind of a religion. My dad was a basketball player,
01:24my brothers were basketball players, and I grew up as a basketball player and I still play
01:31basketball and I still love the game. And I actually grew up, which is another thing that I
01:36may have said to somebody on the last time I was on a podcast, but I also grew up as a Celtics fan.
01:42Even though I grew up in upstate New York, my dad was a huge Celtics fan. He believed that the
01:46Celtics were the greatest basketball team. He loved John Havlicek, everything he believed as
01:55what should be and who is a great basketball player. He often used the Celtics as an example.
02:02And it was just a really amazing kind of thing that happened in my life is that I ended up
02:09actually moving to Boston 20 years ago, just randomly kind of by accident. And it ended up
02:17that I ended up living a mile from TD Garden and ended up going to lots of Celtics games.
02:22I never went to a Celtics game growing up because I was living in upstate New York. I just watched
02:26them on TV. And then suddenly I'm living in Boston and I'm growing up and my children are going with
02:31me to Celtics games and basketball all of a sudden is like way, way back in my life. And then you come
02:40along and become a sports superstar, a podcaster, and start doing your thing with the Celtics and
02:50writing and all that stuff. So it's like brought me back into the fold of basketball. And I'm so
02:55happy to be here and love being around basketball, talking about basketball. And I still love the
03:02Celtics. So I guess we will always have that in common. So now everybody knows where I learned
03:08to talk for. And I will say it's funny because whenever we go on the road and we see Celtics
03:15fans in different cities, I always ask them, are you from Boston? Why are you a Celtics fan? And
03:20usually people's stories like my dad's dad was a Celtics fan. So it's not necessarily
03:26geographic based. And I feel like your family is a good example of that. People will tell me
03:32my grandfather was a Celtics fan. I've never even been to New England, but they're decked out in
03:36tatum gear. My dad, your grandpa was a part owner of the Celtics. You know that, right? I told you
03:44that story. Yes. Because one year they went public one year. The Celtics organization went public. I
03:53don't remember the year, but I was probably a teenager and they sold stocks of the Boston
03:59Celtics and he bought like $300 worth of stock. He bought a hundred dollars for me. Yeah. No,
04:06no. But then they, you know, like a year, a couple of years later, they didn't go public
04:11anymore. And they sent everybody a check for like $115. And one of the things, as you know,
04:17I'm a collector of everything that I've ever had as far as basketball. I had a check that was
04:24written in my name from the Boston Celtics, like paying me back for the stock that I own. And I
04:29lost it. I don't know where it is. I can't believe I don't have it, but yeah, that was-
04:34That's funny. I feel like nowadays if teams went public and people could buy stocks in them,
04:40it would be very dangerous because already people's fandoms are crazy. I can't imagine
04:45if people are putting money like into the teams themselves, although maybe sports betting is even
04:49more than that. So maybe it's actually not that, it wouldn't be that different. But as always,
04:54this is actually going to be a pretty normal episode of You Got Boston. I just figured
04:58that my dad would come on just so we hear from somebody else. I know you guys hear from me quite
05:02a bit, but feel free to put any questions, either Celtics questions or they can be specific
05:07questions in the chat, as always. We're going to talk about just impressions of the Celtics
05:15through the first 24 games of the season. Somehow we're almost a third of the way to the regular
05:21season. And so it feels like it was literally yesterday that we were talking about preseason
05:26and who was going to play and what they were going to look like. But here we are. It's pretty
05:32remarkable, honestly, just how fast everything has gone. And this was a pretty busy stretch.
05:35We have a pretty slow week coming up. So that's why I figured we'd do a couple of these episodes.
05:39And as you know, Garden Report, we go live after every game. You can subscribe on CLNS Media to
05:45all of those. And then if you are watching this on CLNS, you can subscribe to my show, You Got
05:49Boston, which we're trying to go mostly on off days, just as a Q&A. And that is also on YouTube.
05:54So thank you all so much for the support. And it's funny to see, I see, Pete, that's funny that
06:01you're a Celtics fan because of Latvia, because I feel like we have a lot of people in this
06:05community that are from Portugal because of Mimi, from Latvia because of KP. So it is interesting
06:11how the, I don't know, is that the reason that you're a Celtics fan? Is it because of KP or
06:15is it not unrelated? You can put it in that chat, but I'm curious. So in any case, I want to share
06:22my initial impressions on the first kind of quarter, a third of the season here. And then
06:28my dad will share some as well. And then we, you guys can, yeah, anything specific you want to hear
06:31about, we can talk about as well. And also just maybe before I get into that, just because it's
06:36top of mind, I was in Maine yesterday and it was funny because we had a couple of, a couple of
06:42Celtics players that were literally on Saturday night in Boston playing against the Grizzlies
06:47and actually didn't play, but it was Drew Peterson, Baylor Shireman and Jordan Walsh.
06:52And Jack Simone and I, we were planning on going to Maine on Sunday, but it just went,
06:56like it's five games and seven nights for the Celtics. That also means that it's five
06:59days and seven nights for us, which means that we're on TD guard until 1230, one in the morning.
07:03So we were talking about like, maybe we just don't go to this game. And then we were like,
07:07okay, we're too tired to go to this game tomorrow. Like, how are the players feeling? And they all
07:11ended up going. And so in any case, I was at the main Celtics game yesterday, got to talk to Baylor
07:16Shireman and Jordan Walsh after the game, which was, for those of you that watched, it was a crazy
07:21finish. One of the worst calls I've seen, honestly, in a very long time. But with that being said,
07:27if you guys want to hear more about Baylor and Jordan, feel free to put those questions in the
07:31chat as well. I know we had talked about Baylor and his prospects. I could continue to be really
07:36impressed by him. I think that he just plays with so much energy. There were a couple of times
07:40yesterday where the Celtics were kind of flat and Tyler Lashbrook, the head coach, just looked over
07:44to Baylor and had him check in. He's the energy guy, but he's also a skills guy. So it's a cool
07:49combination. So I think he's going to be an NBA player. It's early on for him. He's just been
07:54there for a few months, but I think he's going to be an NBA player. And then Jordan Walsh had
07:57looked the best that I've ever seen him look in Maine, which is definitely a good sign because he
08:02hasn't been there all year. And I think that you want to see him continue improving.
08:05But also he had actually asked, I wrote a story about this from Celtics blog,
08:09which I'll link in the comments, but he had actually asked to go to Maine. So he wasn't
08:13assigned there. I think a lot of people saw like, okay, he finally gets his assignment that happens.
08:18But he, I asked him like, when did you find out you were going to come to Maine? He said,
08:21I actually was never asked to come here yesterday to practice. I was kind of asking the player
08:25development staff. Can I, can I spend my day off in Maine? Like, otherwise I'm literally just going
08:30to be sitting at home. Like, can I, can I go do something? I'd love to go up to Maine. He said he
08:33loves the food in Portland. So he wanted to visit all of his favorite spots. So he went up there,
08:37he was excellent. And then he just went right back to Boston. So Baylor is going to be in
08:40Maine for a while. So we'll have more coverage and updates from his development over in Maine.
08:45Drew Peterson, I didn't get a chance to talk to, so I'm not sure what his schedule is going to be,
08:48but I assume we'll be back in Boston since he was in the rotation so recently. So that's the
08:54brief Maine update. JD Davison continues to be like one of the best players in the G league.
08:58He's currently leading the G league in points. He's one of the leading assist-ers leading the
09:04league in assists. So he's phenomenal. I just, there's a question of like, how is it going to
09:07translate to the NBA? I'm really not sure because we really haven't seen it. So it's just kind of a
09:12imaginative thing right now. There are some moves that he does where I'm like, I don't know if this
09:15would work in the NBA, but then, then again, like you just never know until you see it. So,
09:20so we'll see. I'm quite curious, just while we're on the topic, do you have any thoughts on
09:24Jordan, Baylor, Drew? Like, do any of them stand out to you as we're talking here about, you know,
09:28backup wings and who might be able to be serviceable either this season or in the future?
09:33You're asking me? Yeah, I'm asking you. Yeah. I mean, I think the interesting thing that I think,
09:39I think all those guys, and I think they've all shown flashes, you know, up in, at this point in
09:44the season, they've shown flashes of being legitimate, you know, NBA players. And the,
09:50the beauty of it, and this is what I really enjoy. And I think everyone enjoys it. The fans are
09:55totally on board. And I believe that the, you know, the, the entire organization is on board
09:59to what, what coach Missoula is doing. And that is, if you're, if you're on this team, you're
10:04going to get not just a small opportunity, you're going to get a real opportunity to show whether
10:10you belong or not. And I think that that's something that is really, it's unique because
10:15it would, for many, many years, the NBA was a place where the top seven, eight players played.
10:22And the last four or five guys, you didn't see them the whole year, unless they were up by 30
10:26or down by 30. And they never really, really got a chance. That's not what he does. What he does,
10:31he put, he puts guys in at money time that you would not expect to be in the game. He keeps doing
10:37it over and over again. And what he's done, and it's now it's, it's public knowledge is he,
10:42he puts those guys on the bench with the intention that you better be ready because you never know
10:47I'm going to put you in the game. I might put you in the game in the first quarter. I might put you
10:50in the game and start you in the second half. And I'm going to put you in the game in the first
10:55start you in the second half. You don't know because he'll, he has, and we'll do anything.
11:00And that's, that's beautiful for, for a player to have that. You know, I, I can only imagine
11:06the difference between sitting on the bench on a team where you know that you're not going to
11:09get in unless they're up by, up by 25. And that, that goes for probably 75% of bench players around
11:14the league that, you know, that you're going to warm up with the intention that you're going to
11:18be ready. And if you're, if you didn't get in tonight, that doesn't mean you're not going to
11:22get in tomorrow. So I think all those guys have shown flashes and they've shown flashes where,
11:29you know, that there, there, there's a question mark that also arises, you know, when they do
11:34certain things or they show, you know, Kata doesn't look good for a small stretch of a couple
11:39of games and all that. But I think that at this point, the jury is still out. And the, the, again,
11:46the good thing is, is that the jury will have enough time to make a real decision on whether
11:50these guys belong or whether they don't. And I wouldn't be surprised if, if at least two or three
11:56of those guys end up being legitimate NBA players. And I think right now, you know, we can all
12:02speculate who they might be, but I think it's, it's tough to do that. Drew Peterson, you know,
12:07that came out of nowhere as far as I think all of us, at least us fans on the outside, I had no,
12:12I couldn't believe that he just all of a sudden was in the, in the mix there and played, you know,
12:1710 minutes in the first quarter and another 10 minutes in the second quarter or something like
12:20that. He ended up playing like 20 minutes. He played the entire second quarter. He told us,
12:26yeah. And he told, he said afterwards, he told Bobby Manning actually in the locker room that
12:29they said Drew and he didn't even move because he assumed Drew all day.
12:34Joe says Drew and he just sits there. And then eventually he realized they meant him.
12:40And actually like we've asked Joe, Joe has explained like why he doesn't tell people
12:44in advance about whether they're going to play. He strongly believes that if you tell a guy,
12:48like you're going to play today or you might play today, or you're probably not going to play today.
12:52Then that person is going to change their routine because now they know they're going to play.
12:56They're going to either do a little bit more or on days where they're told they're not going to
12:59play, like human nature is going to kick in. And so he was like, I want every single person to
13:04prepare every single game as though they might actually play. And sometimes when I watch them
13:08in warmups, cause we get there three hours before tip off. Usually you can see the first guys are
13:13warming up and guys like James Springer, who really hasn't played this year. He's like one
13:17in the first group normally. And I always think to myself, like he's going through the motions,
13:21like as though he's playing 30 minutes that I didn't, I know he's not going to play.
13:25But then he will, he will, he will do that to him.
13:30Opportunity at one point. And I think if you're not ready for your opportunity, that's, that's
13:34where the problems start. And that's a beautiful thing. I mean, that's a beautiful thing that he's
13:39doing and it's, it's innovative beyond anybody's imagination and it's working. And now everybody's
13:45looking around going, why didn't, why didn't I think of that? But he's, he's the one that came
13:49up with the idea. Yeah. And I think honestly, so for me, you know, I've got, we've talked about,
13:55you know, those three wings cause they are kind of in a similar position. Like all three of them
13:58went from Maine to Boston and from Boston to Maine on Sunday. All three of them have flashes
14:03of potential things that they look good at. I think Baylor's hustle like stands out to me,
14:08but he might not have like the physical tools that the other two have. Like Drew has, Drew 6'9".
14:14That's like, it's, I don't know if people realize how tall he is. He's, he's like a true 6'9".
14:18And then Jordan has like a crazy wingspan. And then Jordan's a lot younger too. So it's like,
14:24you know, he could become a lot of things that maybe he's not right now, but he also,
14:28with that, he doesn't have as much basketball experience, like even though he's been an NBA.
14:30So there's so many factors where every time I think like one has established themselves as
14:34the backup person. And again, we're talking like backup, backup wing, because really Sam
14:38Howard was the backup wing. And he hurt his adductor, which kept him out of the second
14:42half of that Grizzlies game on Saturday. And I thought that that was a huge loss because he's
14:46really been playing well. And then they didn't end up going with any of the backup wings. And so
14:50it kind of became that's when they started going to be going double big and then that sort of
14:54thing. So we'll leave it at that with Maine. Yeah, it is funny. Sometimes you see guys in
15:02person and it's like, it doesn't sound what you expect. I mean, obviously I see all the Celtics
15:05players in person all the time, but sometimes a way player is like, you see a guy and you're like
15:10this person, like I did not expect them to be this height, even though on paper,
15:13it's like, obviously they are someone like Mimi personally. And you met Mimi when you were in Maine,
15:17but like every time I stay next to him, I feel like I'm going to like, I'm trying to ask him
15:22a question. I feel like he's like 10 feet tall. Like he's just, you know, he's just one of those
15:25people. So we're going to take a quick break just for here and continue to put questions.
15:30And if you have them and Tom, I'm going to get through all your questions in a moment,
15:34how to do the usual Maine Celtics segment to begin with. Because you guys know,
15:38it's expected this point for tuning in that there's going to be some Maine Celtics stuff.
15:43So first I want to thank our friends over at Game Time. My dad actually has been a beneficiary of
15:48my love for Game Time. Game Time is the best ticketing app. I love going to watch basketball
15:54games. I like going to concerts, events. Noah Gahan was my top artist on Spotify,
15:58been to a bunch of his concerts through Game Time. You can basically just ensure that your
16:05price is as cheap as it's going to be. So there is the lowest price guarantee. Game
16:08Time will credit you 110% of the difference. You can also use all in pricing. So the price that it
16:14says on the Game Time app for a ticket, whether that's a concert, a basketball game, whatever it
16:18is, is there's no fees later on. So it's literally the price that it says. And then my favorite
16:23thing is you can get seat views. So you can actually see what the court is going to look
16:28like from your seat. So if you use Game Time, you can see if you want to... I hate sitting behind
16:34the basket. I hate having that view where you can't... I like having the TV view. So I'd rather
16:38pay more money or sit in the balcony and make sure I can see the TV view, which is what my
16:43press seats are, which I know sometimes when I post that people are like, why are you up in the
16:46sky? And I'm like, I actually like these seats. But you can take the guesswork out of buying
16:52tickets with Game Time, download the Game Time app, create an account and use code CLNS for $20
16:56off your first purchase. I wish it was still my first purchase. What games have I brought
17:01you to recently? Opening Night. That was a good one. Geez, I don't remember. It's been a long time
17:06since you brought me to a game. Opening Night. That was like a month and a half ago. That was
17:09a couple of years ago. That one still cost me. That was the most expensive game of the year.
17:12Thank you very much. So download the Game Time app, create an account, use code CLNS for $20
17:16off. Again, create an account and redeem code CLNS for $20 off. So if you want to go to Celtics game,
17:21you can literally check the upcoming schedule. There's a game against the Pistons on Thursday.
17:24I bet that's going to be cheap too, because that was like a late ad because of the cup. So
17:28download Game Time today. What time is it? Game time. Okay. So we did Maine and we introduced
17:35John Dalziel, a former basketball, which I will, I wanted to add this when you were giving your
17:39introduction that we still play one-on-one sometimes. And back in the day, I could beat
17:44you like two or three years ago. And then- I don't recall that at all, but-
17:48Yeah, he replaced his hips and he replaces me. You didn't replace or any, but what would you
17:53reconstruct or any, what would you say? I had a, I ruptured my quad tendon and now
17:57I have a new one. And then you also, yeah, you were,
18:00he replaced both of his hips. And for some reason now he's, I can't, I can't beat him.
18:04It's all to come together for me at 64. I'm suddenly back in the, I'm back in action.
18:09Yeah. So just like we, a lot of times we talk about, I mean, I've been dodging Jack in a one-on-one
18:13game. A lot of times when we go live, we get comments about that, but there's one clip of
18:18me scoring on him that's on YouTube. So I just want to leave it at that. There's no reason for
18:22me to reopen the conversation. Okay. But we're going to start, I'm going to scroll through these,
18:28some of these questions. Let's talk Marcus Smart's return. Because I don't think we've even talked
18:34about it actually, since he came back. He, so Marcus Smart returned on Saturday. It was his
18:41second time in the building, but it was his first time actually playing. Obviously the big story was
18:45the Celtics lost. And also Marcus Smart played really poorly. He shot one of 11 from the field
18:50and only played 19 minutes. But from just an atmosphere standpoint, I honestly thought it was
18:57a little underwhelming. And I thought that maybe that's the result of people not caring as much
19:04about the trade now as they did a year ago, because the Celtics won the championship and
19:08Porzingis was obviously a huge part of that. And everybody loves Porzingis. I mean,
19:13he's one of the most popular players on the team. It's hard to gauge, but you know, he walks onto
19:17the floor. There was such a loud crowd pop. It almost felt like, you know, enough time had passed
19:23that there were people there in smart jerseys and there were people there that were trying to meet
19:27him and get their autographs and things. But I expected a little bit more just considering how
19:32a year ago, you know, he wasn't even playing and there was tributes and there was just so much
19:36emotion. Another data point is the ticket prices to get into this game, which he was playing in
19:42were like $50, which is as cheap as it gets for a Celtics game. So there weren't really people
19:47lining up to go watch Marcus Smart play Petey Garden. And I do think as time has passed,
19:51more people have adopted this mindset of like, maybe he was the problem or like,
19:56maybe we're better off without him. Whereas a year ago when they hadn't won yet,
19:59like nobody really felt that way. I think everybody was sad that he was the player that
20:04they lost to get Porzingis, even though everybody loved Porzingis. So I'm not sure exactly why that
20:08is. I'm curious if other people have different thoughts about what, you know, why maybe there
20:13was a little bit of an underwhelming feeling. Again, there was a huge crowd pop when he checked
20:18into the game. He said that it was awesome. I'm sure on a personal level for him, like
20:22all the personnel that he saw, like the team staff, the people in the arena, his former teammates,
20:27like I'm sure it was a lot of emotion. I'm sure he's not sitting there being like,
20:30I thought it would be a little bit louder. I feel that way a little bit just because
20:33it was so much louder a year ago. And we were in that, we were there for that game
20:37when he was just there in the building, like, you know, not playing when he was injured.
20:42Then it does feel like some of it wore off, but it was still really cool. And it was still nice
20:45to kind of- I think it's a little bit of the second time around too, Noah, that, you know,
20:48it was early his return to the garden, even though he didn't play. I think the fans were
20:52a little bit confused. Are we supposed to do this again? Because I was, I was watching it also. And
20:57I expected it to be an ovation for like five straight minutes or something. That's what I
21:02would have thought he deserved. But I, you know, I don't know. And I know the fan base is-
21:07I know there are people that like love, that love Marcus Marks and the people that, you know,
21:13never always kind of, were not a huge fan. So part of it is that too. But, and part of it is
21:17the Celtics were losing. So I think the fans, when the Celtics were losing, nothing is going to like,
21:21the fans are not going to care about anything else. It doesn't matter who's in the building.
21:24It doesn't matter who's sitting courtside. Like that's just the way that it is. So that might
21:28have been a part of it as well. Like they weren't having the best game. But it was cool. It was cool
21:32to see him. He was happy to be back. And, you know, the fact that he was coming off the bench
21:36made it nice. Cause there was a moment where he checked in and like, there was a moment to
21:39recognize him. Jalen Brown said afterwards, you know, he's like a brother at this point. Tatum
21:45talked the day before how excited he was to play against him. He said he was going to tackle the
21:49shit out of him. I think there wasn't like a quintessential Marcus Mark moment. There was
21:53actually one where Tatum was dribbling up the floor and did his classic, like, you know, the
21:58little push off and Marcus dove like five feet on the ground. And I thought to myself like, okay,
22:04that's a quintessential play. We haven't seen one of those in a while. So yeah. So that was kind
22:11of my thoughts on the Marcus Mark return. I think part of it was also the fact that, you know,
22:18he, yeah, he didn't do much. Like he, I will say nobody tried to score on him a couple of times.
22:22Like Tatum had him as a matchup. Like they always called for the switch. Obviously he's a very good
22:25defender, but I was hoping to see like a little bit more like people taking Marcus to the basket,
22:28just to have that moment. But yeah, for obvious reasons people tried to avoid that matchup as
22:34much as possible. I think Porzingis did block him though. So that was one kind of shout out to the
22:39trade. But yeah. And then let's talk about, Tom, you had another question about that game. And I
22:44think that it's a good one to discuss. So I don't know if you saw this about how kind of Memphis
22:51really left Drew Holliday open on Saturday. This was kind of the story of the game in my eyes. We
22:56went on post game, we talked about it right away, but it wasn't, you know, he's always kind of
23:00covered in a way where maybe he's getting a little bit less attention than other people on the floor,
23:05less attention than he's probably gotten in his whole career. So that's, you know, it's kind of
23:10interesting to see. But this was another extreme. He downplayed it. He's a very chill guy. Post
23:16game he was like, I had fun. I like shooting. It's fun to get the shots up. I don't usually get
23:20an opportunity to shoot so much. Obviously I didn't have a good shooting day, but it didn't
23:22like rattle me or anything, which is also even if he didn't feel that way, like that's the smart way
23:27to say. But Porzingis, who usually is very honest and authentic with the press, he said like,
23:33you know, I, it was weird to see the Celtics, you know, the Grizzlies leave Drew open. And Drew
23:38finished the game 8 of 26 from the field. So he kind of shot his way out of that game. And then
23:43ended up closing with Pritchard, who's going to be who we talk about for the remainder of this
23:46episode. So curious, Dad, for your take on just that philosophy of like leaving a guy open. And
23:52we've seen this before, like with Jalen Brown, for example, with the Warriors leaving him open
23:56for three, and then he torched them. So do you think this is something that Drew is going to see
24:01again in the future? Is this something that he should be concerned about? Yeah, just curious on
24:06that. I don't, I don't think it's going to, I mean, he's, he's a great player. He's a, he's a,
24:11you know, a very consistent shooter and he's going to take whatever you give him.
24:15And if you're going to leave him open all night, he'll take 50 shots because he's not somebody
24:19that will ever hesitate because he'll, you can't get into his head. I don't think he's so mentally,
24:24he's one of the toughest players. And I've always thought that about him. He's one of the toughest
24:28players I've ever seen. Just nothing seems to phase him. He can come down the court, you know,
24:33throw up an air ball, throw up another missed shot, miss a layup, and then come down the court
24:37on the third play and hit a tough, you know, shot with a guy right in his face as if nothing,
24:42none of the other two plays that are even took place. So he's the wrong guy. If you know, to,
24:48to kind of play that game with it, it happened to work. I think it's by accident that he had
24:53an off night. Cause I think if, if, if teams did that, you know, 10 times, I think nine times they
24:58would, they would pay the price. I think it was just a, just kind of a weird night, a weird off
25:03shooting night for him. But I definitely don't think it psychologically like set him back or
25:09anything like that. Cause he's not that type of player. I think there's other players that,
25:12that might like freak him out a little bit, but he's definitely not one of them.
25:17Yeah. And I think like, even if he's not one of them, like it's, it's just like an adjustment
25:21that he had to figure out, like, am I really going to shoot every time? I guess I am like,
25:24it just throws like, to me, it was less about him. And it's more about now the team is not
25:28doing what they usually do. Like their offense, which is historically good is now different
25:34because of the defensive adjustment that's being made. Like, I think it was kind of smart
25:36of the Grizzlies, even if it didn't work. And honestly, in hindsight, like the Jalen Brown
25:40thing, like they, the Warriors look like idiots for that one, because Jalen had five threes in
25:45the first few minutes of that game and like had such a, you know, he ended up going off in that
25:49game versus Golden State last year. But if Jalen misses those first nine shots, like we're talking
25:53about a different story. So it's like a little bit of a gamble, but it shows desperacy from the
25:56other teams. It's absolutely desperate. They're not comfortable with like their personnel. Like
26:01they want it. It's like a one shot deal. We're going to try this because we don't believe that
26:04we can win if we just play straight up. So we're going to try something a little bit awkward and
26:08see if it works. And if it doesn't work, we're going to lose by 50 and that's going to be it.
26:11They're going to get blown out in the first half and it worked, but it's not going to work
26:15consistently over time. I think everybody knows that. Yeah. So I don't think we need to be too
26:21concerned about that, but it was interesting to see. I will say just being at opposing coaches
26:25pre-game press conferences, they usually get some question around like this team is, you know,
26:30shooting 63s a night and you know, you have these, you have Tatum, you have Brown, you have Derek,
26:35you have Pritchard coming off the bench, like what do you do? And I, and they always say like,
26:40they always have some funny answer around like, you really like, there's not really an answer here.
26:44Like we, you know, you're just going to compete. Like, like I think everybody feels pretty
26:48overwhelmed when they see the politics on the calendar from a, how do you guard them standpoint.
26:52So it's not surprising that I don't want to call it a gimmick, but it's a little gimmicky to be
26:56like, we're going to leave a two-time all-star open who last year was a lead from three this
27:00year. He's really struggling. He's down to 32% shooting, 32.8% from three this season. So I
27:06think it'll level out. We've talked about this before, but this is not a small sample size,
27:10his career numbers. Like we, you know, he's been a pretty consistent, he's at 37% for his career,
27:15but he's been better in the last few seasons around 40% for the last five years. So there's
27:19no reason to think that it's going to, he's not going to go kind of hover back up the same way
27:23that Sam Houser started slow, the same way that Pritchard probably go down a little, you have to
27:27imagine. So, so yeah, maybe not. So let's, that's a good segue. Let's talk about Pritchard for a few
27:34minutes here, because that's that was the title of this episode. And I know we had Dana Altman
27:39over the summer on and Dana Altman is a college teammate of my dad at Eastern New Mexico. Is that
27:45correct? I always want to say he's your coach, but he was my teammate. He was my buddy. Yeah.
27:49We played together for two years at Eastern New Mexico. That's where we met. We stayed in touch
27:54over the years. And that was a really good episode. You can check that out. If you haven't seen it
27:58before, it was, I'm just going to, I'm going to put a link to it. So those of you who are interested,
28:04this was an interview with his college coach, basically talking about what we could expect for
28:09his upcoming season. He's currently the coach of Oregon university. Yeah. So, so he's coached a
28:14bunch of NBA players, Dylan Brooks, Peyton Pritchard. And he shared a little bit about
28:19just his thoughts on Pritchard and also just what he expected from him in the coming year.
28:23What do you remember from him from college? So it was really interesting. You can check that out.
28:26But we had a lot of conversations about Pritchard this summer and in the past of really about
28:30leaving him in a player. And I'm curious from your standpoint, how sustainable you think this
28:35level of production is at this point? A lot of people think, you know, this is a little bit of
28:40a fluke. We're not a fluke, but he's having a little bit of a Linsanity run versus I think
28:45other people feel like this is the beginning of a guy who might be an all-star. I won't,
28:48I won't mention names. I was up by the way, I was on that hill when you started dying on that hill.
28:56I was already on the hill. So I've been living on that hill a long time. Yeah. I usually run my
29:00basketball takes by my dad just to make sure it's not just me, but that might not be, that might
29:04not be enough based on how I've been received by a couple of these, but okay. But yeah,
29:08what are your thoughts? No, I mean, since the day they drafted him, I watched him in college
29:15and there's something, there was something that I saw and obviously the Celtics saw the same thing.
29:21There's something really special about him. He's a really, really special player. He was,
29:25he was an awesome player in college, not just a, you know, he was, he was picked as the best
29:30point guard in the country. It was a COVID kind of awkward year and a lot of things happened that
29:37year. I don't know exactly the details, but it, the year got messed up with, with COVID. Anyway,
29:44so he, he had an awesome college career. He's an awesome player. He's, he's one of the most
29:51confident players that I've ever seen. And he believes in himself like no other. And I think
29:57that the more, the more he's been on the court, the more he's able to show that. But he, I don't
30:02think he ever doubted himself for one second. In fact, when you, when you see, or when you see him
30:06being interviewed, when he's talking about it, this is none of this is surprising him. He was
30:11just waiting for the, for the chance. And I think the Celtics again, you know, as they, as they seem
30:17to be just, you know, just outsmarting you know, a lot of other teams and the strategies that they
30:22use, but they really, really developed him perfectly and, and, and brought him in. Like
30:27when they signed him, when he looked like he wasn't even maybe going to be a, you know, a big
30:31player on the team. And then all of a sudden they signed him to a three-year contract you know, for,
30:36for not small money. And it kind of came out of nowhere, if I believe, you know, if I remember
30:41correctly and everybody was like, you know, why would they do that? Why would you do that? Because
30:45you believe in a player before they actually show everybody else what they, what they see.
30:49But he's, he's legitimate and he's just, in my opinion, he's going to get better and better.
30:54And what he's doing right now, which, which is really interesting is that obviously he's got a
30:59great handle on the ball, which everybody can see that he just, it's an, he's amazing ball handler
31:05and he's a great outside shooter. And now he's turned into a post player and that's really like
31:11confusing people, the way he's backing guys down. And, and what, what's, what's interesting to me,
31:17at least my take on it is that the reason that it's absolutely kind of unstoppable right now
31:22is what do you do? You double down on a point guard, you know, what you, you leave your man
31:26and go down and, and, and jump into the lane to stop a guy who's how tall is he? Six feet tall.
31:33Yeah. And he, and he, and he's posting a guy up. You're actually going to leave your man because
31:36that's a point guard. He sees the court better than anybody. He's going to, he's going to hit
31:40whoever it is that somebody leaves in one second. And that's going to be the end of that one. So
31:44this, this idea of backing guys down has really caused teams. It's a nightmare because you,
31:50what do you do now? You know? And the way that he does it is something that also, I don't know,
31:57you know, how much they've broken it down, how much you guys have been talking about it, but I've
32:00been watching it really carefully. He's doing it with strength and he's doing it with his arms.
32:05He's, he's got, he's got this move where he's kind of sticking his elbow out and driving it
32:10into guys and God help you trying to guard that one. Cause he's super strong. He's low to the
32:16ground and he's got the ability to push off and then, and then do this fade away, you know,
32:21short mid range jump shot. It is absolutely unstoppable. I mean, it looks like he can do
32:25it anytime he wants to. And if, and if they don't somehow get the ball out of his hands down there,
32:30he always, he's, it seems like he always ends up with kind of an easy mid, not even a mid range.
32:36It's like almost like a floater in there. And it's, it's really some, some move that he's
32:41developed. So the combination of everything that he's doing, taking guys off the dribble,
32:46shooting the three, like every time he shoots it, I think it's going in. Cause his shot looks
32:49absolutely identical every time he shoots the ball. He's one of the most pure shooters I've
32:53ever seen. Every time he shoots the basketball, it looks the same. It never, it never comes out
32:58of his hand differently. And I saw like, when it doesn't go in, I'm like, wow, I thought that was
33:01going in. Cause I think every shot he lets go is going in. So the combination of all that
33:07offensive rebounding, real tough defender. I mean, if you can't just take advantage of him
33:13because he's the wrong guy to think you're going to take advantage of. So in my opinion,
33:17to answer your question, he's legit. And he's going to be, he's going to be, he is going to
33:23be, I believe in all star. And the only thing that worries me is how are you going to keep
33:27him on this team? Because it just, that that's going to be, that's going to be a challenge
33:32because he's not going to be able to accept a backup role for, you know, for another three
33:36or four years. He just won't be able to do that when, when he knows that he could really,
33:41you know, be a, be a superstar in the league. And I believe that one day he will be.
33:46So you guys see, this is where I get my confidence in it, in this position for, from it's funny
33:52because someone here, a cool, cool, genuine Phil wrote, PP has developed a fadeaway like JB.
33:57Jalen was talking the other night, cause Pritchard's been wearing his shoes quite a bit.
34:01It's like, it would have to say I'm not much of a shoe person. I didn't like Jalen's shoes at the
34:04beginning because they were, they kind of looked funky. Like they had the little diamond looking
34:08things on them, but actually they're really cool now they've grown on me. And maybe it's
34:11because I've seen so many good Jalen Brown and Pritchard games in those shoes that they've
34:15become cool. And Jordan Walsh was wearing those shoes yesterday in Maine. So there's definitely
34:20some popularity among the team in, in those shoes. But Jalen was saying, not just, you know,
34:25he's not just wearing my shoes, but he's like kind of getting in my bag. Like he's hitting
34:28all the moves that I have. He almost was saying it like, I need those moves back. And it's funny
34:33because Jalen's had a slightly less efficient season than he's used to. He's at about 45%
34:37from the field down from like almost 50% last year, which I think will even out. But maybe
34:42Pritchard did steal a couple of his moves because he has been, you know, that, that mid range shot
34:46and it's just the separation that he gets on and always, no matter who's guarding him.
34:50We've talked about this, but I feel like almost the most valuable thing is that the Celtics
34:55offense is historically great. Everybody knows last year they had the best offense in NBA history.
35:00But sometimes late, late in the shot clock, like everybody knows the more time that you leave an
35:05NBA defense, you know, you let, you let an NBA defense set the better that defense is. So shots
35:10in the last five seconds of a shot clock are very low percentage, no matter who's shooting them.
35:15And I have to get all the advanced analytics on this, but I think when it's the last few seconds,
35:19like Pritchard's your best shot. So if the offense has broken down and the play you were running or
35:24the action you were doing was, did not pan out in a clean look at that point, I would like my,
35:29my instinct is like, give the ball to Pritchard because I feel like he's made something out of
35:32nothing so many times now. And we've talked about like the end of quarter heaves and half court
35:36shots, but those are like, that's a few plays over the years. That's not really like day to
35:40day what matters, but it's the end of shot clock shots that sometimes have been actually so
35:45impactful that he's able to just get, create separation or the offensive rebounds too.
35:49Because honestly, like that, every time someone asks Joe Mazzullo about Pritchard,
35:53and I've mentioned this before, he almost has like a, he's almost like AI coded that he will
35:59automatically say it's, and what about his offensive rebound? The most important thing
36:03he did today was his offensive rebound. Like he wants to make sure the narrative around Pritchard
36:06is not about his scoring. And then it's about the other things that he does, like how much he's
36:10improved as a defender. But it's from an offensive rebounding standpoint, it's not just the number
36:15of them, but how critical they are down the stretch. And what I always notice is it's not
36:19that guys are falling asleep. Like all the time you see somebody get an offensive rebound and you
36:23go back and rewatch the play. And it's like the person that was guarding them literally just
36:26forgot about them. When we talk about like- He goes over people and gets them. He's going right
36:31over top of people. This guy knows what he's going to do. It's on the scouting report that
36:35he's going to get, he's going to get an offensive rebound. So especially down the stretch, like you
36:39see guys, like they're literally before the shots went off, they're focusing on boxing him out. And
36:43so he still finds a way to get around them. The Celtics posted a really good video today
36:48that just gave like a behind the scenes look at his game. And Craig Lushanin, who is one of,
36:54is currently the player development director who's worked really closely with Pritchard and Hauser,
36:58talks a little bit in that. So if you haven't checked that out, you can find that. I think
37:01they posted it on Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, everywhere. So that's just a short clip, but it
37:05was a good, it was a good watch because you don't very, you don't often hear from the player
37:08development coaches. They're not really in the media circuit. So it was interesting to hear about
37:12how hard he's worked as we hear oftentimes behind the scenes. So we'll do a couple more minutes on
37:18Pritchard. I just want to take a quick second here to thank our friends over at PrizePix.
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38:34$50 instantly after you play your first lineup. PrizePix, run your game. Okay, so last thing I
38:40wanted to just say about Pritchard is I think people are, there's this question around like
38:43what is his future in Boston? Because I've maintained that I think he's going to be an all-star
38:47and I was on Sherrod's podcast, the Big Three podcast that he does with Quani and Gary Washburn,
38:53and we were talking about like what if that all-star berth that I view is a potential thing
38:57in his future. I don't mean like he for sure will be an all-star because Derek White's never been an
39:02all-star, it might not be an all-star, like we, I don't, you know, but I mean that caliber of player
39:05that's in those conversations. It's not about who votes for him, it's about if he gets to that level
39:10of all-star. We've seen worse all-stars than guys that have never been all-stars, like I don't really,
39:15that that actual designation is not the point, it's more that category of player.
39:20And then I think it begs the question of like what does a starting guard Pritchard look like
39:25if Drew Holliday is no longer on the Celtics? Because I think, I hate to do this, especially
39:29when they're winning, like I really do hate that we have this conversation, but Drew Holliday is
39:3434, 35. He's, I think, yeah, I think he's going to be 35 this year, so he's 34. And he just signed
39:42a four-year, a massive extension, and so when we talked about, you know, is Drew Holliday going to
39:47be the starting guard on the Celtics when he's 38? I actually have no idea, like I wouldn't rule,
39:52I don't rule out any of these guys because of how much they take care of their bodies, because of
39:56guys like Al Horford who have shown that we can keep talking about his age and it doesn't really
40:01make a huge difference. So I don't know that Drew Holliday definitely won't be on the Celtics in a
40:07few years, but there is a feasible pathway where he's not because they're just looking at their
40:11payroll and he's going to be one of the most expensive contracts and a guy who's going to be
40:15on the tail end of his career. And in that case, I do think Pritchard can be a starting guard.
40:21And defensively, like if you're playing alongside Derek White, like if there's a guy that can help
40:25you defensively, like he's that guy. Drew Holliday and Derek White have talked about
40:29what it's done for their own individual defense to play alongside one another. So I think it's
40:35feasible. I know the Celtics like, you know, it is tough when he's out there, like there is a guy
40:40that can be a mismatch and teams go after him. But I think you, I think that's just part of the
40:45game. Like there's, you know, when Luke Cornette's on the floor, like you're losing something on the
40:48shooting end, he's gotten better. He's gotten stronger. He's never going to be able to get
40:53taller. Like that's just the reality. So, but yeah, I think, I think it's feasible. So I wouldn't be
40:59shocked if he's a starting guard in a few years because either Drew's on the bench or, or, you
41:03know, where, or Derek, I don't, I don't want him. He's definitely going to be a starting guard in
41:06the NBA in the next three or four years. But could it be in Boston? That's the question.
41:10It could definitely be in Boston. Yes. In my opinion, definitely could be in Boston because
41:14he he's got, he's young, he's got a long way to go. And somebody like Drew Holiday would,
41:19would absolutely accept coming off the bench if that was what they were asking of him. This is,
41:24this is the ensemble that they put together. These guys are all, they're all ready to do whatever
41:28they need to do in order to keep winning. They would, they would have no problem. That's, that's
41:33the, that's the kind of the magic of, of this team is that everybody's ready to do whatever
41:38they need to do. And everybody knows that they're, you know, when you win, everybody gets
41:41credit for everything. Everybody's going to be riding on the bus, going through, going down
41:45Com Ave and Boylston street. And nobody cares who started when they won the championship. Nobody
41:50cares about the stats anymore. I think it definitely could be a possibility very much in
41:54the near future. Yeah. So, and, and I, and Tom brings up a good point here that I think twice
42:01now, if, unless I'm forgetting a game twice now, Pritchard is closed for Drew down the stretch,
42:06maybe even, no, I think twice. Cause it was the Indiana game, the one that went to overtime. And
42:09then the other night he closed down the stretch with Drew struggling and Pritchard having a really
42:14big offensive performance. So it's definitely possible. I think outside of Jalen and Tate and
42:20Jason, like they're always going to finish games regardless of regardless of anything.
42:26Like they're always going to finish. You can, even if you've had a bad night, that's just,
42:28I've realized that at this point where they can have a nightmare game, they're going to close
42:32outside of that. I think there's some interchangeability for it. We've seen Porzingis
42:36last year. There were games where he didn't close because Al was playing better than him.
42:39Drew this year was playing fine in games where Pritchard closed. I don't know if Derek would
42:44ever not close. Derek might be in the Jalen and Jason category of like, he's always going to
42:47finish games. But I don't think that he would mind if he didn't close. I don't think he would
42:51have any problem with it. So there is a culture on this team. Joe's going to do whatever he sees
42:56that he's going to win the game. And that's, that's the difference between what he does and
43:00the way he looks at coaching as opposed to many other coaches. He's not afraid to, and none of
43:04those guys are going to give him any, they're not going to give him any pushback anyway. I don't
43:08think because they believe in what he's doing and what he's doing is working and that's it.
43:13You know, he's got it. He's got it. He's got, he's got the magic right now. I think he's ready
43:17to roll with it. Yeah. And I think there's a good point here by Patrick that a lot of times when
43:23we're talking about like, you know, guys' happiness on this team, on, you know, in their role,
43:28a lot of it is also not just about, you know, where they can score the most points. I do think
43:33they all like to score a lot of points. Like, it's funny because Porzingis was asked the other day,
43:37like how much, how nice is it to not have to be the primary option anymore and to have like so
43:40much talent around you? And he was like, no, I like, I like being the primary option. Like,
43:44it's like, I'll be like, I'm okay with the setup and things, but like, I think guys like shooting
43:48a lot. That's like the nature of why you play basketball. So Drew mentioned it the other night,
43:52like I had so much fun shooting a lot. Like it's, you know, it was actually quite, I didn't mind it.
43:57Obviously he didn't shoot great, but I think beyond their individual role and their willingness
44:01to sacrifice the things that maybe you don't see on TV as much as like what the family environment
44:05is like. Drew has multiple kids. They're all in school in Boston. He's already been uprooted a
44:10number of times. He's been traded twice in his career. He's close friends. His kids are friends
44:14with other players on the team's kids. You know, there's a big family environment on the team.
44:19I wrote this story last week. I don't usually plug, actually, I guess I sometimes do plug my
44:23stories here, but I'm just going to put this in the chat. If you're curious, if you want to read
44:27about just the family environment that Joe Mazula and the Celtics have created, Drew has been one of
44:32the biggest beneficiaries of it. He's not much, he's not a huge part of the story, but his kids
44:37are everywhere. They are on the sidelines, his family's all around. So I think a lot of these
44:41guys, like they don't want to, you know, they'd love to finish their careers here. And that's just
44:44the general impression that you get. And obviously winning helps breed that, but it's also things
44:48beyond just winning. So, so yeah, so this is, I'm going to wrap it up in a moment. If there are any
44:56closing questions, feel free to put them in. I think where we're at right now is the Celtics
45:01are off tomorrow. They were off today. They were off yesterday. So we got three days off of practice
45:06and Wednesday they'll be back in action. I think it'll probably be a long one.
45:10We'll have coverage on the ground from there. And we might actually have a studio show
45:14on Wednesday as well. Thursday Celtics are at home. You can check out tickets for that on
45:20game time versus the Pistons. Any chance of getting tickets for that game? No. Let's see how much they
45:25cost. Let me see actually so I can tell the people. Thursday night, this was a makeup game. So if the
45:29Celtics were playing, if they were, Celtics had won the last game or the Hawks game back then,
45:35or the point differential thing had worked out, they would not be playing the Pistons. They'd be
45:39playing the Knicks tomorrow, on Wednesday in Madison Square Garden. Okay. These are as cheap
45:44a tickets that you'll, you will ever see. $30. You will never see tickets this, I mean, this is,
45:49this is not even me. So if anybody wants to see the Celtics in person, I think you're going to
45:55see a full cast because they're coming off days of rest. Thursday night, $34. That's, that's the
46:00cheapest ticket of the year probably. And it's because it wasn't on sale as of like, the ticket
46:03of the game just got scheduled. So nobody bought tickets before a couple days ago. So I might buy
46:09some holiday presents, some early holiday presents on game time for Celtics Pistons. You can check
46:15those out. We'll have our post game show the garden report. In the meantime, please subscribe
46:20to my YouTube channel, you got Boston podcast, you can also subscribe to CLNS media, Celtics
46:26all access for the rest of our coverage. Feel free at any point if there's things you want me to ask,
46:31get into. Talk, talk to the players coaches about like I've you know, some of you have asked me,
46:36can you ask the players about Jalen's shoes I have so like, you know, if it's an appropriate
46:40question, I'll do it. Sometimes it's good inspiration. We all ask a lot of the same
46:43questions over and over again. So it's good to hear what the fans want to hear. So feel free to
46:47message me on Twitter. It's best place to find me. And thank you all so much for joining. Thank you
46:51for welcoming my dad who has actually been on a couple of times now. This is our first time going
46:55live. So I don't know. Can you see all the comments too? You can read them. I can't see any
47:00comments. Oh, you can't see the comments? No. If you clicked on comments, you would have been able
47:07to see them this whole time. Next time. Um, but do you see when I post them on the on the thing?
47:12So yes, that will be a pritchard night $34 not to not also not to diminish $34. Like, you know,
47:19I understand it's still still legitimate money, but it's that's as cheap as it will get for a
47:23solid scheme. And if you go to other NBA cities, you can get cheaper tickets. So with that, I'll
47:29close everyone enjoy your Monday night. We will be back with more coverage this week. Have a great
47:33rest of your week. I think it's a slow NBA night only one game tonight. So if you have other hobbies
47:37to do this is a good night to try those. Have a good one, everyone. Thanks for joining. Welcome.