Celtics reporter Noa Dalzell goes live to discuss the team's December struggles alongside her dad, Jon Dalzell, a former professional basketball player of 16 years. Noa and Jon discuss the Celtics' defensive woes and effort issues, and what fans might get wrong when trying to diagnose the Celtics' struggles of late. Tune in to get your questions answered on all things Celtics.
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00:00Thank you for joining us.
00:30My dad, John Dalzell, for a post-couple-losses edition of You Got Boston.
00:37We'll talk a little bit about yesterday's game, but honestly, I think the more important
00:41thing than specifically yesterday's game is just, I guess, how this team has been struggling
00:48of late and just the feeling of panic around the month of December, and they've lost 4-6
00:54and they're 6-5 and they lost 11, and everybody now has heard all the statistics around the
00:59fact that this has been one of their more losing stretches in recent memory.
01:04Definitely since I started covering this team, there really has been no adversity.
01:06So for me, I'm not used to covering losses.
01:09And Derek White said post-game yesterday that this is the most challenging stretch that
01:13he's experienced as a player since he got to Boston, and you may remember he got to
01:16Boston and then they basically haven't gone through a losing stretch since.
01:21So before we start, I'll have my dad introduce himself, just to give a little bit of context
01:24on why we decided to pull him into the show, and I'll just say, but maybe before I hand
01:28it over to him, we were on the phone earlier and I was kind of curious for his thoughts
01:33about the loss and just about what they're going through in general, and he started giving
01:36me some of his thoughts and I was like, wait, hold up, hold up, like, let's save this for
01:39a podcast, because they were some good thoughts.
01:42So I figured I just would, instead of having him say it to me on the phone, we'd save it
01:46for this, and that's what we're doing.
01:48So yeah, why don't you maybe introduce yourself a little bit in case there are some first-time
01:52listeners that you've been on here a couple times, and then we'll talk about what it means
01:57to play without effort, which I think is everybody's concern right now.
02:00Okay, well, it's good to be back.
02:03Thank you for inviting me.
02:05And for those that I haven't introduced myself, my name is John Dalzell, I'm Noah's dad, played
02:11high school, college, professional basketball overseas, came from a basketball family.
02:18Basketball has always been a huge part of my life and continues to be a huge part of
02:22my life.
02:23I still play basketball four nights a week.
02:27And I love the game, and I love talking about the game, although usually I've spent my time
02:33talking with friends and most of the time with you before you got into the media.
02:40And now it's interesting because I'm paying particular attention, which I never actually
02:44did.
02:45I always was a great fan of watching the game.
02:48And I had my own thoughts, and usually they were a lot different than what I was listening
02:53to coming from the media.
02:54And I, in general, never really listened to the media.
02:58I like watching the basketball games.
03:00And when the game was over, I would immediately kind of turn it off and go my own way.
03:06And now, because you are involved in the media, I've started obviously following the podcast
03:14that you do and the post game things that you do and the analyzations that you and your
03:19colleagues do.
03:21So I've started listening even more to some of the things that have been happening and
03:25some of the things that the media has to say.
03:30And it's interesting because it's a lot different than, of course, what I think.
03:35And I think that that's some of the thoughts that I've shared with you.
03:38And maybe that's what you found a little bit different than what the general talk is of
03:44the town right now, particularly with what's going on with the Celtics in the last month
03:49of basketball that they've played.
03:53And how is everybody interpreting that?
03:55And what do they actually think about what's going on with this team?
03:59I find it really fascinating.
04:00So that's what we were talking about today on the phone, and I guess it'd be nice to
04:06share with your audience as well.
04:09So yeah.
04:10So we're going to talk a little bit about what it means to play that effort and why
04:12we're seeing that.
04:13Because I think that's...
04:14People are sitting at home and they're like, why are they not trying?
04:16I'm so frustrated watching this team.
04:17I bought Christmas Day presents for my kids and then they came out and they didn't show
04:21up for the 76ers game and they didn't really bounce back with a bunch of wins like we expected.
04:26So feel free to put questions in the chat as we go along here.
04:30And then at the same time, we're going to just talk through some things as well.
04:33But we're also happy to do questions.
04:35So I haven't been doing as many of these live shows.
04:37I've been doing more kind of post-game reactions.
04:39But yeah, feel free.
04:41Feel free.
04:42Anything at all, Celtics, NBA-related questions, we're happy to kind of talk through these
04:46as well.
04:47We'll probably do about a 30-minute show.
04:50But I want to start at the top.
04:51And I think that if you look at the schedule over the last couple of games, they've lost
04:55three or four.
04:56There was the loss to Indiana yesterday.
04:58There was the loss on Christmas to the 76ers, to Orlando against a very shorthanded Orlando
05:04team.
05:05There was the Bulls' loss.
05:06There was the Grizzlies' loss.
05:07So I think none of those teams are contenders or maybe Memphis, but for the most part, these
05:15are not the NBA's most elite teams.
05:18And there's been some questions around maybe it's harder to get up for those games, too,
05:22especially when you've played 82 games in a season, and then the playoffs and the Olympics.
05:26At a certain point, it's more and more games.
05:28So curious for your standpoint, we were asking the players yesterday.
05:32We asked Tatum, Derrick White, Bjorn Brown, Mazzuola, if it's an effort issue.
05:36And it's like everybody's frustrated.
05:37They want to turn it around.
05:38They're not happy to be sitting there after a loss, right?
05:41So what is, I guess, your theory or your thinking around why it looks, when you turn
05:45on the TV, that this team is playing with low intensity or low effort or at least not
05:50playing as hard as we're used to them playing?
05:53Yeah.
05:54I mean, that's what we're hearing a lot of right now.
05:58And I watched the press conferences, and I heard the same thing that you have been hearing
06:02and other fans are hearing.
06:05And effort is really the wrong word.
06:09It's really the wrong way of thinking, in my opinion, because it's not about effort.
06:13These guys haven't decided all of a sudden that they're not going to give it 100%.
06:16They're all of a sudden not going to stop playing hard and trying and giving effort.
06:23It's not about that.
06:24It's truly not about that.
06:26And I think anybody that's out there that's played a lot of basketball games, and I'm
06:31talking about maybe at a high level, to put it that way, I mean, college, professional,
06:39whatever, that you've played where it actually means a lot and there's a lot on the line
06:44and there's people watching, there's critics that are going to be following up after the
06:49game, there's going to be media waiting for you, there's a lot of pressure on these guys.
06:55And it doesn't matter that they won a championship last year.
06:58That relieves the pressure for 10 minutes.
07:02And then the next season starts and everybody has even higher expectations that can they
07:06do it again?
07:07Why should they do it again?
07:08Why can't they do it again?
07:09And all that.
07:10So when you translate what's going on with the game and how it looks, it's not about
07:15these guys not giving an effort.
07:17It's about they're just not playing well right now.
07:20They're just not playing well.
07:21You know, and, you know, everybody's talking about the, it was interesting, I was listening
07:24last night.
07:25They're talking about the three point shooting.
07:26They're going to live and die by the three point.
07:28Of course they're going to live and die by the three point.
07:29They're a bunch of great shooters.
07:31And these guys are going to continue to shoot threes and they will come back and they're
07:36not going to change the way that they look at the game of basketball because they're
07:39in a little bit of a slump.
07:41They're just going to continue to do what they're doing.
07:44And they're going to come back and they're going to get their confidence back as everyone
07:48knows that it's all about confidence.
07:52It's all about whether, you know, you believe in what you're doing and whether you believe
07:55in what you're saying.
07:59And it's about confidence.
08:00It's about really doing the right things at the right time and playing the game that you
08:05know how to play the game and backing it up on the court.
08:08And right now things are not working out.
08:10Things are just not, are not, the ball's not dropping.
08:14Guys are not playing well.
08:15The thing is just not going the way that it should be going.
08:18And of course, then it gets in your head and it doesn't matter if you're, you know, a max
08:23player or if you're a two way player, it's the way, it's the way that the game was designed
08:30is that it's about what you believe that you can do at that particular moment.
08:34And there's guys that are questioning themselves on the court right now and you're doubting
08:37yourself and you're tightening up a little bit and the balls that you usually would get
08:41your hands on or the defensive play that you usually make, you're missing it by a fraction
08:46of an inch.
08:47Derek White's going up for a block and instead of getting the block, he's getting a foul
08:50or he's missing the block and, you know, maybe just not, things are just not happening the
08:56way that they were happening when everything has fallen into place.
09:01But the key is, and I think this is for you, you know, for your fans, is that this is not
09:07a time to panic and start looking at the game as if something's different.
09:11All of us, these are the same guys that led this team to a championship and they will
09:15snap out of it very, very quickly and they will turn it around and that's what's going
09:20to happen.
09:21And it may happen next game and it may take them a few days, may take them a few games
09:26to get back on track and they will get going.
09:30And then they'll have another, you know, they may have another low along the way.
09:34This is the way that the game of basketball is and you have to accept it or you better
09:38find another sport.
09:40That's the way I see it.
09:41And it's absolutely not about effort.
09:45You know, it just doesn't, it doesn't, it doesn't really translate into that word.
09:52It's really wrong to be thinking that.
09:55But they need to get their confidence back.
09:57They need to get that looseness and that confidence that, like I watched Derrick White
10:02play in the last few games and he's, he's just doesn't look the same.
10:06And I think people are talking about that because he was the most loosey goosey player
10:09I think I've ever seen.
10:11He's the guy that in, you know, in the championship series catches the ball with the world riding
10:17on it in the corner and shoots it like he's out in his backyard and he just loose as a
10:21goose and the ball just kind of freely flows out of his hand.
10:26And you know that he's going to make it and he does make it.
10:29And right now he doesn't look like that.
10:32But he's the same guy and he will, he will get it back and he will be back.
10:36So that, that's my take on the whole thing.
10:39Yeah.
10:40And I think, so I think that's the part that maybe doesn't translate for people is this
10:43idea of confidence versus effort or like being in a rhythm.
10:46Like I feel like if someone's missing a bunch of shots, then it's easy to say, you know,
10:51they're in a shooting slump, but you can be in a slump where you're not, you're not as,
10:55you know, instincts are not as quick or you're not making the right plays, your decision
10:58making is off or whatever it is.
11:00And it does seem to be pretty contagious.
11:01And it's not that they've shied away from, like, I think it might look like an effort
11:05thing even to them.
11:06Like, you know, Tatum was saying we need to communicate better defensively, but it's not
11:10to me, it's like they didn't stop communicating defensively because all of a sudden they hate
11:13each other.
11:14All of a sudden they don't care about defense.
11:15It's like, they're not in that rhythm or that flow where it's like everything is kind of
11:19firing on all cylinders.
11:20And if you think about like the 2022 team, the way that they flipped a switch, you know,
11:24mid-season and went from being one of the, you know, a very mediocre team to the best
11:28team in the league and then making the finals, it's like something clicked for them.
11:31And then all of a sudden they're going out there every night and they're like ready to
11:33kill people.
11:34And I think that they felt that for a lot of last season and a lot of the playoffs and
11:39for the beginning of this year.
11:40And it's just harder when you're in that slump to come out of it than I think people expect
11:44or hope.
11:45It's not just like, okay, now we're going to show up and we're going to try really hard
11:47and we haven't been trying really hard.
11:49And honestly, like the game that maybe people can recall is game three, or sorry, game four
11:55of the finals last year, the Celtics are up 3-0, they have a chance in Dallas to close
12:00it out and win the championship.
12:01And I remember, you know, being in Dallas, there were so many Celtics fans that flew
12:05in to, you know, see the, you know, see the championship happen and everything.
12:10And it's like, we all kind of expected it to happen.
12:12I remember even in the morning we talked to Sam Hauser and shoot around and it was like,
12:16he couldn't even really answer our questions.
12:17There was so much anticipation.
12:19And I was already pre-writing like the championship story.
12:21I was so sure.
12:22Like they won 3-0, they're going to sweep them, the Mavericks are done.
12:26Yeah.
12:27And then all that happened is that, you know, Dallas literally came out and beat them by
12:3140.
12:32I mean, it was like the worst game I've ever seen them play since I started covering the
12:34team.
12:35And it was like, they weren't running back on defense, they weren't rebounding.
12:39I was like, do they not want to win the championship?
12:41And it's like, obviously nobody woke up that day and said, I'm not going to try hard tonight.
12:46Right.
12:48It was the biggest game of their entire lives.
12:50And so sometimes it's like, you get tight.
12:53Right.
12:54And I think we've seen that in the past with like game seven and the Easter conference
12:55finals versus Miami, that all of a sudden it's like, you know, it's contagious and everybody's
13:01like, they almost try to overcompensate one play from another and that sort of thing.
13:06And yeah, I think in this case, it certainly has been a little bit different because it's
13:12these aren't like high pressure games per se, but there's pressure now because now the
13:16narrative is like, wait a second, they're losing all their games.
13:19Like, so now there's pressure, right?
13:20Every single, like there isn't like the Pacers aren't a bad team and they played really well
13:24yesterday I thought.
13:25And Tyree was great.
13:26Great.
13:27Great.
13:28Yesterday, by the way.
13:29Yeah.
13:30You can't deny that the Pacers would have beaten anybody by, by 25 points last night
13:32that we were playing.
13:33Probably the only thing by 30 was where the Celtics in my opinion.
13:38And I think like there are things defensively where I felt like they weren't shooting a
13:42lot of threes.
13:43And I think that's what happened in the basket and the Celtics were kind of playing them
13:45for threes.
13:46And at a certain point, it's like when you go back and Jalen Brown said postgame, like
13:49we probably could have played more help defense instead of worrying about them kicking it
13:52out because that's not where they were beating us.
13:55And so it's like hindsight's 20, 20, obviously.
13:58But yeah, I think that's, that's certainly a part of it is like, you know, sometimes
14:03teams also just play well and they're not going to win, but had they just lost yesterday's
14:05game and it was a normal stretch where they had just won six in a row, it wouldn't have
14:09been a whole discussion, but because they've been losing, it's like now every game, like
14:14tomorrow's game, it's a game versus the Raptors on New Year's Eve at three o'clock.
14:16They're notoriously bad playing in the afternoons.
14:19Raptors have lost 10 in a row.
14:20They lose tomorrow.
14:21It's like a disaster, right?
14:23That's the thing.
14:24The thing is they know that they know, they know what's, what's, what's going on outside
14:29the locker room.
14:30They know what's going to happen if they lose that game.
14:33It's not just a game anymore.
14:34It's, it's, it's a game attached to a bunch of other things that have happened.
14:38And that puts pressure on these guys.
14:39The thing that's, the thing that's always fascinating to me is that people forget that
14:44these guys are actually human beings.
14:47They are people.
14:48They're there.
14:49They drive to practice in their cars.
14:50They get, they get upset when somebody cuts them off.
14:52They have to deal with their families and the things that go on in their own personal
14:57lives and everything else.
14:58They're absolutely human beings in every, every way.
15:01And when they get, when they're going into a game, like the game that you're describing
15:04tomorrow, they're all thinking about, everybody's talking about what's wrong with us.
15:09Everybody's talking about, you think that they're not, then you're, you're, you're,
15:12you're missing something.
15:13That's probably one of the most interesting things about professional sports and professional
15:17basketball is that they have to deal with all that and they have to deal with it under
15:21a microscope.
15:22You know, you, we were talking the other day about Jalen Brown.
15:26Everybody was like, what's wrong?
15:27What's the matter with him?
15:28What's going on with him?
15:29He doesn't seem like he's, he's not okay.
15:31That's what, that's what the talk of the, of the media was for about five minutes.
15:34And he went out and dropped 40 the next game and dominated everybody.
15:39And it looked like he was having the, like the time of his life on the court and we'll
15:42look happy.
15:43And afterwards he was speaking to the press and everything was, was beautiful.
15:48This is the way that this is the, what, what these guys have to deal with on a, on a, on
15:52a regular basis.
15:54And that has an effect.
15:56There's no way around it.
15:57So it affects more players more than others.
16:00But it has an effect on them and it's going to affect the team.
16:03And the only way to get it off their backs is to win four or five games in a row.
16:08And then they're going to get that looseness about them and they're going to get their
16:11confidence back.
16:12And then they're going to look like nobody's going to be talking about effort anymore.
16:16All of that stuff is going to go away.
16:18And the only way that it will go away is by winning basketball games.
16:23And, and that's the way it always is.
16:25And that's the way it's always going to be.
16:27Yeah, I agree with that, honestly.
16:29And I feel like it's easy when you're watching, especially when you're there in the building,
16:34it's like, you see things like they're almost processing things.
16:36So honestly, Jalen's a great example because everybody knows he's so competitive.
16:40Everybody knows he's so hardworking.
16:41Like you've never met a single person that knows him that hasn't described him as incredibly
16:45hardworking and motivated.
16:47And sometimes you watch him on the court and it's like his processing is just slower.
16:52Like all of a sudden he's getting, you know, there's a play that he's getting backdoor
16:56caught over.
16:57And he's thinking about the last play still and like, you know, 10 minutes have passed,
17:01that sort of thing.
17:02And so I don't know, I think, you know, there's a certain flow that maybe is underestimated
17:07when it comes to everything outside of like three point shooting, which everybody kind
17:09of acknowledges and agrees upon that it's hot and cold.
17:12And then Jalen has had a really great stretch here where, you know, I asked him like to
17:16describe what it felt like.
17:17And he was like, there's a rhythm where you're not, you're not thinking about anything other
17:19than basketball.
17:20You don't notice the refs calls.
17:21You're just, it's just you, the basket, the fans, but like you're not, and you almost
17:25have to like make sure you don't, you don't break out of it.
17:28That was interesting to me that he was saying, like, you have to make a point to not complain
17:31to the refs or something.
17:32Like you have to make sure you're locked into it.
17:33And sometimes you're completely out of that rhythm and you're trying to figure out a way
17:36to get in.
17:37And like, they're not, they haven't really been in it.
17:39Absolutely.
17:40You know, I've always, I may have said this to you, but, you know, for me, it sounds a
17:46little bit silly, but it's actually the exact way that I look at basketball is basketball
17:50is kind of like, it's kind of like music.
17:53There's something musical about it.
17:55And you sometimes feel like you're exactly in sync with the music.
18:01And when you do, then everything just seems so easy and effortless.
18:04And that's where the word effort may, should be used because then everything is effortless.
18:08You fly down the court, you block shots, the ball feels light in your hand.
18:13Everything is just, just everything is easy.
18:17And when things are not, and you don't, you don't, you're not in rhythm with the music,
18:20you don't hear it right, then everything is a struggle.
18:24And anybody that's out there that has played the game of basketball knows exactly what
18:28I'm talking about.
18:29And those of you that haven't, then it may be a little bit more difficult to understand
18:35exactly what that must feel like.
18:36And maybe you can apply it to other things that you do in your life or other sports that
18:40you've played.
18:41But it's exactly like that.
18:42And sometimes when you're out of sync and it becomes contagious, where all of a sudden
18:45it looks like the whole team seems to be listening to a different song or something, and it looks
18:51strange, and it looks like something's wrong with the team, and why are they not playing
18:55hard and why are they not getting back on defense?
18:58And all of that is just, is the way that it kind of materializes itself on the court.
19:07But it's all part of the psyche of the game.
19:10It's not about that these guys don't want to play anymore, or they just don't feel like
19:13playing tonight, or they come out on Christmas Day and don't really feel like giving an effort.
19:18It looks like that.
19:19And I think that's what Jalen Brown was apologizing for, that he said, I felt bad that people
19:25came to the garden with their kids as a Christmas present.
19:28We went out there and played not well at all.
19:33But it wasn't because they didn't want to play.
19:34I'm sure that they were dying to put on a show on Christmas Day in front of their fans
19:38and the national television, but it just didn't work out.
19:42But it is what it is.
19:45It's a game that if you can't enjoy that part of it as well, then it's not realistic
19:55of you to really say that you understand the game of basketball.
19:58That's the way I see it.
19:59We've got a couple questions here, but before that, we're just going to hear from our friends
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21:07So we've got a couple of questions here.
21:12As you know, there's one home game tomorrow, Celtics play the Raptors, who have been one
21:16of the worst teams in the league this season, they've lost 10 in a row.
21:20They're calling it, I don't know if you've heard this term, but they're calling it capture
21:22the flag.
21:23That's the race to the bottom to get Cooper flag as the number one pick.
21:28So they're coming from a very different standpoint.
21:31Obviously we know in the NBA that doesn't mean anything, that they can come in tomorrow
21:35and play rejuvenated and beat the Celtics.
21:38But this is not, tomorrow's not the game that's going to be like, I don't think anybody's
21:41going to be super impressed with a win here, regardless.
21:44But they go out West, they're going to be in Minnesota, which they've really turned
21:49it around as of late.
21:50Houston, who's had the second best defense in the league.
21:54Minnesota's also up there, one of the top defenses.
21:56Then they play Oklahoma City, who's been one of the best teams in the NBA all season.
22:01They've won 11 in a row because the commissioner cup game actually doesn't count.
22:05They've won 11 in a row.
22:07And then they play the Denver Nuggets, who have not been the same Denver Nuggets from
22:13the past.
22:14But at the same time, they've also beaten them the last couple of times they faced off
22:18in the regular season.
22:19So this is a really tough road trip.
22:21Southsiders here asks, question for Noah and John, what is the one thing they should focus
22:24on to get out of this funk?
22:28So curious if you have any thoughts on that.
22:31Playing a few basketball games in a row.
22:34So it's nothing that they have to do at this point?
22:36No, no.
22:37It's like something when a shooter's in a slump, everybody's talking about how can he
22:41get out of it?
22:43What should he do?
22:44Go in the gym and practice your shot for nine hours a day, reanalyze your shooting form
22:51and everything else.
22:52There's only one thing that gets a shooter out of a slump.
22:54It's making like 10 shots in a row in a game or going eight for 10.
22:58And then all of a sudden, that shooting slump that everybody was obsessed with, maybe for
23:03days and games and weeks, all of a sudden it's gone.
23:07It's not a miracle.
23:08It's just that's the way that it works.
23:10Once the confidence is back and they start to really hear that music and start to feel
23:15like they're all on the same page again and they're in a flow, then they're going to be
23:19the same thing that they were last year, that they were just kind of rocketing through the
23:23league, just taking no prisoners.
23:26That's the only thing that will do it.
23:27It's not going to happen in practice.
23:29It's not going to happen in one-on-one sessions with players and all that kind of stuff.
23:34I've been through a lot of that stuff.
23:36And there's only one thing that really works, and that's going out and playing really well.
23:40And they will.
23:41And they'll get that feeling back.
23:42And then all this funk that you're describing will be long gone.
23:49And then the ARC here has a question about how much of the responsibility is on the head
23:54coach to have them ready and motivated to play?
23:56What can he do?
23:57These are grown men, millionaires.
23:59Who's responsible to have them ready?
24:00And this is a good question because I think we see Joe, we talk to Joe more than anybody.
24:05We talked to him before and after every single game and during every practice.
24:08So he almost has to answer for the shortcomings or the product that we're seeing on the floor.
24:13And I don't know that he's always the best position to answer because he might be sitting
24:15there being like, I don't know why they're in a funk too.
24:17So I don't know.
24:18What do you think?
24:19What's his responsibility here?
24:21Yeah, I mean, his responsibility, I think, is to really protect his team at this point
24:26and to, you know, like not to do what some coaches do, which is, you know, start outing
24:31guys for how they're not playing up to the level that he expects of them.
24:36That's nonsense to do that.
24:38That's where you lose the locker room or you lose respect of your own players.
24:41I think he knows.
24:42And I think he's really, I think he does that really, really well.
24:45I think he knows that.
24:46I think all the players know that he's got their back.
24:49He's going to protect them from, you know, any kind of, you know, ridiculous criticism
24:53from from anybody around, you know, the press, whatever.
24:58But any and his his responsibility, again, if I were one of these guys, I know what I
25:04would want out of my coach.
25:05I'd want him to relax, to figure out ways to take the pressure off a little bit, to
25:13make sure that, you know, when you see guys that are starting to get down on themselves
25:17and that's probably the biggest problem when you have guys that are, you know, not everybody
25:22is mentally tough.
25:23There's just like physically there's differences between these guys mentally.
25:27There's huge differences and it's very hard to to figure out who's who until things start
25:31to go wrong.
25:32And, you know, the same guy that was extremely, you know, we would consider as extremely,
25:37extremely confident player maybe has never gone through something like this, even, you
25:42know, maybe they have, maybe they haven't.
25:44And some of them are probably, you know, can be struggling with it.
25:48And the coaches, I think the coach's biggest responsibility is to recognize who's struggling
25:53right now.
25:54You know, Jason Tatum might be like laughing at this whole thing that guys are, you know,
25:58I don't know.
25:59I don't know.
26:00I don't know.
26:01I would say this from covering this team and like just their backgrounds, Jason Tatum and
26:05Jalen Brown, I would say are very this, you know, especially after last year, but also
26:12just thinking about their tenure, I'm hearing some feedback, maybe you can mute while I'm
26:17talking.
26:18But especially I think winning after winning the championship, like it's even more so because,
26:25you know, they have their finals MVP, you know, he has their finals MVP of the championship
26:27trophy.
26:28Think about the stuff they went through beforehand with the Kyrie Irving years, the maybe we're
26:32going to trade Jalen Brown for Kevin Durant.
26:34Like this is kind of nothing, you know, and especially so, but then there's guys like
26:39Derek White.
26:40Exactly.
26:41Those are the two guys.
26:42And I don't want to like speak like I've talked to them and they've told me this, but both
26:46of them to me have been putting their heads down so much where it's like just the most
26:50visible thing where it feels like they're getting discouraged.
26:53And then when you think about them as players, Derek White has talked very openly about how
26:56before he got to Boston and before he got really comfortable, he wasn't that confident
27:00in himself and he didn't know that he was capable of doing the things that he was able
27:02to do.
27:03And the Joe spoke that confidence in him.
27:05And then we saw last year's season as a result of that.
27:07And I don't want to be too hard on him because he's honestly been fine and he's actually
27:10found a good rhythm here offensively, but you can see from watching him that he's not
27:14exactly the same confidence, you know, smoothness decision-making that we saw at points last
27:20year.
27:21And he's somebody that I think probably needs to snap out of it.
27:23Hauser looks very rattled to me by the fact that he's been dealing with what I think is
27:26a probably a debilitating pain, like the fact that he's dealing with back spasms and things
27:31and he's still playing through it.
27:32And then he's coming to the bench and he's putting a hot pad on and he's going back in
27:35and he's like, I don't know if people realize, I don't know if people have had back issues.
27:39I know you've had back surgeries while you were playing, but maybe you can give us a
27:43little bit of it.
27:44Maybe, maybe actually on that point, like everybody's been so hard on Hauser and I really
27:48feel bad for him because he's never in his entire life, high school, college or NBA shot
27:52below 40% from a three in a season.
27:54Like he's as consistent of a three point shooter as you'll find.
27:58And this season he's like at 36%, which is actually league average, but for him that's
28:02very low.
28:03Um, and people are very concerned about the contract that he signed and is he not a good
28:07player anymore?
28:08It was last year flu.
28:09Like I know we don't know exactly what his thing is that he's having with his back, but
28:13it's been going on all year.
28:15Like what is it like to be a basketball player and play through back pain?
28:19It's torture and, and anybody who's been through back pain to go get in your car and drive
28:25to practice can be a painful experience.
28:27So you can imagine what, what, you know, he might be going through.
28:30I don't know what the level and I don't know what injury he's going through, but anything
28:34with back is really, really difficult.
28:37Um, and one thing I can tell you just from, from, you know, my own personal experience,
28:43my own career as a shooter is that if you have any kind of injury that you're dealing
28:49with, particularly with back, particularly with like movement, uh, and being able to
28:53move loosely, um, it affects your shot and it affects it not in a little way, in a big
28:59way.
29:01So if you're shooting the ball from, you know, 25, 27 feet, however, he shoots from way out
29:05and that you have to be right on target, uh, with everything, with all, with all the mechanics,
29:11they have to be perfect.
29:12And if all of a sudden your back is a little bit off, then you immediately have to adjust
29:17it by using more of your arms, a little bit more wrist, a little bit more, whatever.
29:22And all of a sudden the same shot that you've had, you know, kind of your entire life is
29:27now affected by it.
29:29And that, and that, that's, I mean, I, I can't even imagine, uh, what he, what he might possibly
29:37be going through.
29:38Again, this is all, you know, the kind of word on the street stuff, what's going on
29:41with, I don't know if anybody knows exactly what level he's at.
29:44We don't know exactly.
29:45We don't know, but it doesn't matter.
29:47He's not going to go into it.
29:48It doesn't matter.
29:49He's not comfortable right now.
29:50And when you're not comfortable, that means that you have to adjust what you're doing.
29:53You have to think about what you're doing.
29:55And when you're thinking about your shot, you're already in trouble because the shot
29:59has to come just naturally.
30:01It has to be, you know, muscle, muscle memory and nothing more, nothing less than that.
30:07And now all of a sudden you're thinking like, I'm a little bit tight.
30:09I got to do this.
30:10I got to get myself in a little better position.
30:12I got to square up a little bit differently than I used to write.
30:15Just those thoughts alone will screw your shot up, you know, at least to, to go, you
30:22know, to whatever percentage you went down to 36 where he was last year.
30:26Where was it last year?
30:27Forty something.
30:28Forty three.
30:29Forty three or something.
30:30Yeah.
30:31Forty three.
30:32So that, I mean, you're talking about, you know, you're, you're talking about not a major
30:33difference.
30:34It's not a collapse of a shot.
30:35It's just not shooting the ball as well.
30:37And I, I look at him on the court and I, I, what I see just from, uh, you know, watching
30:42on television, he just doesn't look like he's moving comfortably and that, and that's tough.
30:47And defensively, I think you noticed it too.
30:49Like I don't think he's able to hold his own the same way.
30:52Last year he was really a good defender.
30:53And right now it's like, I think people are taking advantage of him more than we saw last
30:58year.
30:59And probably 99% of it is the pain.
31:01And then the, him being in his head about the pain, probably too, a little bit.
31:04Absolutely.
31:05And then he's tightening.
31:06And then you, you have the pain and then you have, you, you just missed the two shots in
31:09a row that you know that you should make.
31:11And then you're running back on defense.
31:12You're thinking about the shots you just missed.
31:14You're not feeling great anyway.
31:16And then you get burned on defense.
31:18Welcome welcome to basketball.
31:20You know, this is, and, and, and he knows it.
31:23I mean, he's, I'm sure he's been through rough periods in his life.
31:25There's not a basketball player on the planet that hasn't gone through a period where things
31:29were just not going well and things were just kind of a struggle.
31:33And he knows that he, you know, he'll snap out of it.
31:35The question is, you know, how long it's going to take and, you know, and how long is it
31:39going to take the whole team to just kind of get back in rhythm?
31:44Will it happen tomorrow night?
31:45Very possibly.
31:46Will it take another week?
31:48Could be, you know, you just don't know about these things, but once they get it back, then
31:53there'll be the team that they, that they truly are.
31:55This is not who they are right now.
31:57And they know that.
31:59And I've seen, I've seen people say like, you know, maybe while the house was dealing
32:02with this, like, don't play him.
32:04Like, you know, someone here said they should play Drew Peterson instead.
32:07Obviously we see his minutes are down.
32:08I think part of it is probably a minute's restriction with his injury, but Jordan Walsh
32:12has gotten more run.
32:14What's the balance at this point between the, if someone's struggling like that, I don't
32:19think he's, I don't want to overdo it.
32:20Like he hasn't been terrible.
32:21He actually hit, he hit his first couple of threes yesterday.
32:24The other day he was hitting his threes.
32:26So he kind of was taking mid range shots, but do you feel like there's a certain level
32:30of, you know, he's done enough out there to warrant, you keep him out there, you let him
32:34kind of work it, work it out rather than benching him in favor of somebody who's less proven
32:39on the team because they're healthy.
32:41That sort of thing.
32:42Yeah.
32:43I mean, I think this is where you go back to Missoula ball in a way that, I mean, the
32:46way that, the way that he looks at, and I find it really, really interesting.
32:49And I, I think it's really, really fantastic what he, what he does.
32:54The psychology that he uses is that he wants, he doesn't, he doesn't really weigh too much
33:00on winning each of these individual games.
33:03He's looking at the big picture all the time.
33:05And that's something that coaches are very, very seldom do.
33:08He doesn't, I don't think he's panicking at all.
33:10I really don't.
33:11I mean, I'm sure he's, he's putting on a face of not panicking, which is, you know, being
33:16professional, but I think even behind closed doors.
33:19I don't think that he's panicking.
33:20And I think that what he's doing, like with Jordan Walsh is, is, is it's kind of experimenting,
33:25you know, like he's trying different things because later on when the, when the, the game
33:29is, you know, life or death type stuff, and they're in the playoffs and all this, then
33:34he's going to want to know whether that's a good idea to make that move or not.
33:39And the only way, you know, if that's a good move to make or not is by trying it out during
33:43the course of the season where the games aren't going to weigh too heavily on, on, you know,
33:47they're not going to impact what's going to happen later on.
33:50And he knows that.
33:51And usually coaches don't do that.
33:52I mean, coaches are famous for like, all of a sudden, you know, it's game seven or game
33:55six sticking a guy in the game that hasn't played in two months is like, what is that?
34:02You know, like you're, I mean, even if it works, I mean, what possibly, how risky can
34:07that be?
34:08And to put a guy in a position like that, the least that you can do for a player who's
34:13not, you know, a starting player or a guy who's, you know, a player that's constantly
34:18coming into the rotation, at least give them some opportunities during the course of the
34:22season to feel what it's like to be out there when the game actually does have meaning,
34:26not stick them in when the game is down, you know, that, you know, last three minutes when
34:29it has no meaning.
34:31And he really has mastered that.
34:33So by giving Jordan Walsh these opportunities, when there is an opportunity where he's going
34:39to need him, where somebody is down or whether it's, he wants to put him out there as a stopper
34:44on defense, Jordan Walsh is going to walk on the court and not, and be familiar with
34:48what's happening out there.
34:50And it will give him that little bit of comfortability, confidence that a player needs in order to
34:56succeed.
34:57So he's setting all these guys up, even if, even if it fails during the, during the, you
35:00know, not, not because of Jordan Walsh that they lose last night, but even if they lose
35:03the game, or maybe if he had done some other things, he may have won that game.
35:08The big picture is you want to have these guys all prepared and ready to go when it
35:12really, when the, when the, when the season is actually on the line where these games
35:16have the utmost importance.
35:18So I think he's, I think he's really, I think he's really clever and he's really has, has
35:23foresight to do things that many coaches would not be willing to even try.
35:29And I think there's a lot behind that.
35:30I think that, first of all, you just won a championship.
35:33So he has job security right now.
35:35And I think that, you know, reinforces the way that he believes.
35:38And now, you know, it worked last year.
35:40So who's going to question him this year?
35:42Only a fool was going to question him what he's doing now, because he's already done,
35:45you know, what many coaches have never been able to do in their entire careers.
35:50So he's got, he's got a lot on his side and the players are completely behind him.
35:56So I think, I just think that what he's doing is, is, you know, somebody's asking about
36:01Peterson.
36:02Peterson also has some great opportunities.
36:03So he's, he's, he's, he's gotten opportunities that no one ever expected him to get.
36:09So everybody's pretty much, you know, bar a couple of guys at the end of the bench,
36:14maybe everyone else is pretty much ready to play whenever their name is called, which
36:18is unusual at this level.
36:21And I think even the guys like Jaden Springer, who's been probably the most out of the rotation,
36:26like I forget which game this was, but just last week he played like 10 minutes in a game.
36:30He honestly didn't do like that much in his opportunity, but he, he got that chance.
36:35Some guys have capitalized on it and then they get four opportunities.
36:37Some guys have had one and then you don't see them again for a month, then they get
36:40another one.
36:41Right.
36:42So like, I think Jordan Walsh, he's actually been pretty good in his minutes.
36:46So that at least, you know, the main thing, the way I described Jordan Walsh is that he's
36:49not, he's, he's at least a net neutral there.
36:52Like he's not making mistakes.
36:53He's kind of just hiding, which is all you can really ask for as far as somebody with,
36:57you know, his profile and you know, where he's at in his development.
37:00And you're building his confidence.
37:02Trust me.
37:03Yeah.
37:04Whether you see it on the court or not, whether it, you know, whether it translates into him
37:07hitting a three from the corner or missing a three from the corner, that's not really
37:10that important.
37:11It's really not.
37:12I mean, everybody gets all excited because somebody makes one three, but that's not really
37:17what, where the value comes and putting him in the game.
37:19The value is that he's out there and he, and guys are getting used to him being out there
37:23with them and he's getting comfortable being on the court and that three, the next time
37:29he takes that same thing.
37:30I was just thinking about, cause he had a wide open three yesterday and he, you know,
37:33and he missed it.
37:34It's a big deal, you know?
37:35Yeah.
37:36But he took it, you know, but he took it and he, and he's getting more and more comfortable
37:41with what he's doing.
37:42And that, and, and again, you, you don't know how much you're going to need these guys,
37:46you know?
37:47And undoubtedly the teams that go all the way, they need players coming off the bench
37:52more than maybe they anticipated.
37:54And the risk factor of success is, is, is going up as these guys get a little bit more
38:00time out on the court during, during the regular season.
38:03So it's, it's all again, the, these guys are going to be fine.
38:08If I, if I had to put my money on, on a team to, to, to win the championship right now,
38:12I still got, I still put my money, my money on the Celtics for sure.
38:15I still, I still feel that the best team, the best team in the NBA, and they, they will
38:20turn this, you know, they'll, they'll turn the corner on what's going on right now.
38:24Okay.
38:25Well, I think we'll wrap it up there.
38:28I appreciate everybody for tuning in.
38:29Hopefully this made you feel a little bit better, or at least gave you another perspective,
38:32because I know a lot of people are just frustrated when this really becomes about effort because
38:37they're like, you know, they're making so much money.
38:39Why aren't they trying harder?
38:40I bought a ticket.
38:41So it just helps give a little perspective because as my dad said, you know, he played
38:45professional basketball for, what was it, 16 years overseas?
38:4716, 16 years.
38:49And some of them were-
38:50How many championships did you win?
38:51That's what I want to know.
38:52I don't remember.
38:53Oh, it doesn't sound good.
38:54I've been in four game sevens.
38:55How's that?
38:56Over four?
38:57Oh, four game sevens.
38:58I don't remember what happened.
38:59Oh God.
39:00We should take your advice if you're over four in game sevens.
39:01It's all a blur.
39:02It's all a blur.
39:03Okay.
39:04Well, thanks everybody for tuning in.
39:05We'll probably have you back.
39:06If people enjoyed what they had to hear, I'll have to kind of pull the, pull the viewers,
39:07see if you get invited back for another show.
39:08And then we'll be back on CLNS with a postgame show.
39:09So stay tuned.
39:10We'll see you next time.
39:11Bye.
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