The Celtics improved to 28-11 with a win over the Pelicans Sunday night, but the talk surrounding the team has mostly centered around their inconsistencies. On this podcast, Celtics reporter Noa Dalzell brings on her dad, Jon Dalzell, a former professional basketball player of 16 years, to discuss the Celtics' recent 8-7 stretch - and answer any other mailbag questions Celtics fans may have.
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00:00Thank you for joining us.
00:30I'm hearing a little bit of an echo that so maybe you want to I don't know kind of headphones
00:42are using but it's been a couple of weeks as we've done one of these so just want to
00:45make sure that we get back on track and can chat with all of you and happy to answer any
00:49questions about the team and about how things have gone over the last couple of weeks.
00:53The last one we did one of these episodes, it was about the Celtics effort and about
00:58kind of the misconceptions around simply not trying hard.
01:01And since then, the Celtics have gone on to drop two more games, but they also had a three
01:06and one road trip.
01:07So I think that's been a little bit of an up and down stretch here.
01:10And so last night's game, I think everybody has some kind of similar feeling about it
01:14certainly didn't, it wasn't the most inspiring win, but still a win, nonetheless.
01:19And we wanted to kind of talk through like what it why it looks like all of a sudden
01:23guys like Derek White or Drew Hall, they just aren't playing the same way that they were
01:27last year.
01:28And I think that that play was so important to their championship run.
01:31And then also just talk about this, you know, if there's different combinations or lineups
01:35or players off the bench that could be tapped.
01:38And again, I'll just start off by before we jump in, there's always our 28 and 11.
01:42So third best record in the league, it was only two games worse than they were last season.
01:47So it's not like, you know, I think there's a lot of Joe Musil said postgame yesterday,
01:51it feels like a Morgan here, based on the questions that we were asking, I thought that
01:54was a good way to put it.
01:55So it's not like we're, you know, things are disastrous here.
01:58But I think most fans that are watching are not feeling like, oh, this team is the same
02:02kind of breezing by blowing everybody out teams they remember from last year.
02:06So with that, I'll pass it over to my dad, who can share a little bit about maybe what
02:10you're thinking throughout kind of this most recent stretch.
02:14Okay, first of all, promise me you'll have me back on the show when they start playing
02:18great again, because I know I'm here to explain why they're not playing well, or at least
02:23try to.
02:25But it is it is really interesting to watch.
02:28And I've been paying really particular attention now to what's happening and what what transpires
02:34during the course of the games.
02:36I think it's really fascinating what Joe said yesterday, I think he kind of caught everybody
02:40off guard with the morgue statement.
02:42And also the fact that he said, I love it, you know, like, I'm like, he's getting a kick
02:46out of this.
02:48And I think that he actually is.
02:50And I think that the it may be hard to, like, for a fan to understand that.
02:57But as a coach, I'm trying to get into his head, which is a pretty challenging place
03:02to get into, I think.
03:04But I think that the part that he's enjoying about it is that if they were riding high
03:08right now, at this point in the season, and everything was just flowing beautifully, I
03:13think that would be more of a challenging situation for him from his perspective than
03:18it is to watch them struggle right now, because the struggles are going to come.
03:22When you play 82 games, there's no there's not a team in the history of basketball that
03:26just glides through, although last year, it kind of looked like that.
03:30But I think that generally, you're going to have some some struggles, and they have certainly
03:36struggled.
03:38And I think that he's taking what he's learning from what's happening out there.
03:43And he's going to make adjustments and build upon that.
03:46And I think that it's also I believe, in my opinion, it's building a character.
03:52It's going to have to build a character on that team that maybe he thought wasn't able
03:56to be built last year, because they had the kind of, you know, smooth sailing kind of,
04:02although they had some definite challenges, but it was a lot smoother sailing.
04:05So I think that I think if the season had been identical to what transpired last year,
04:10he probably, from his perspective, would be a little bit disappointed with that, because
04:15that's not what he, you know, I don't think he set this up on purpose.
04:18I don't think he's wishing that they were shooting poorly like they are.
04:21But the fact that they are and the fact that they are playing the way that they're playing
04:25right now, I think kind of falls right into his mindset, is that, you know, we have to
04:30build another team, even though it's the same players, it's a different season, the teams
04:35that they're playing against are different, different lineups that they're facing than
04:39last year.
04:40And, you know, maybe they didn't change, but the rest of the league did change.
04:44And last night was just another example, you know, I watched the game really carefully.
04:49It was a New Orleans team that's really, you know, not playing, you know, throughout the
04:54season, they've been playing poorly, they've been losing, you know, they got the worst
04:57record I think in the NBA on the road, or at least a poor record on the road.
05:02And yet, I mean, look at the players on the team, they got a bunch of really great players.
05:07So it's not like this is the NBA, this is not this is not the Celtics playing against
05:10the high school team.
05:11This is the this is the Celtics playing against a very talented team that just happens to
05:15not be playing well at all until last night.
05:19And last night, I think that the New Orleans played, you know, they shot the ball extremely
05:24well.
05:25I think they shot like, what, 46% or something from threes or something like that, or like
05:28a really exceptional shooting.
05:30And they were dangerous the whole night.
05:32I mean, the fact that the Celtics got away with a win, you know, it was the one bounce
05:39at the end.
05:40But I think overall, I think he was satisfied that he got a win and yet, you know, the struggles
05:44continue.
05:45So, you know, there's there's a lot to be learned and a lot to be taken from these games.
05:50And and again, he's this this this attitude that he has about it.
05:55You know, it's like it's perfect, you know, like he's loving it is really, really fascinating
06:00to me as a as a basketball fan, as a player who, you know, I believe that I have a good
06:06understanding of the game and I've kind of been in all kinds of situations as a player.
06:10I think that if I were the Celtics right now, and I had my coach talking and behaving the
06:15way that he does, I would I would appreciate that, you know, I think it's a good way to
06:19go about it.
06:20He's not turning on his players, he's not, you know, he's not, you know, badmouthing
06:24anybody, which I know that he never does.
06:27But he's, he's, he's kind of embracing the whole thing.
06:30And I think that if the team follows that lead, that's the way to get out of it.
06:35You know, they're in a slump, there's no, there's no question they're shooting the ball
06:39really poorly.
06:40Yeah, last last four games, they have the worst three point shooting percentage in the
06:45entire NBA.
06:46Yeah.
06:47So there are two and two in those games, but they have no team like think about how like
06:51there's teams that barely have shooters, and they have the worst percentage 27% over the
06:55last four games.
06:57Absolutely.
06:58And you know, and the teams that they're playing against are coming into the garden and and
07:01raising their shooting percentages by by 10% on any given night, not not 3%.
07:08So I think everything is really, you know, it's in a way it couldn't be worse.
07:13And yet they're they're 28 and 11.
07:17So you know, that's not that bad.
07:20And and at the end of the day, it's about winning.
07:22And that's it, you know, you can talk about how they win, you know, what kind of shooting
07:25percentage they have, what's happening on the court, all the other, you know, all the
07:28words that are being thrown all over the place, effort, defense, shooting percentage, you
07:33know, all this kind of thing.
07:34At the end of the day, they're 28 and 11.
07:35That's the only thing that counts.
07:38And I think that what what he is, you know, again, I'm I don't I don't know Joe Mazzola.
07:43And hopefully one day I'll get to meet him.
07:45But from what I interpret from the way that he handles these press conferences, and the
07:49kind of talk that he that he generally does is that he's he's, he's kind of buying into
07:54the whole thing.
07:55And he and he is planning, you know, like, kind of building upon what's happening out
08:00there.
08:01And I think if they were 11 and 28, he wouldn't, this would not work.
08:06You know, he wouldn't be able to talk the way that he's talking.
08:08But he's like, everybody, everybody cool, you know, cool your jets.
08:12We're 28 and 11.
08:13And we're not playing good basketball right now.
08:16So if I were the league right now, I'm thinking, you know, if I were an opposing team right
08:21now, and I was thinking about the Celtics, they're not playing well, they're shooting
08:24poorly.
08:25Like you said, they're shooting the worst percentage in the league, the last four games
08:28or something from threes, and they're 28 and 11.
08:31What's going to happen when they turn it around?
08:33You know, I wouldn't, I wouldn't be getting all overconfident if I was playing for another
08:38NBA team that now the Celtics are done, I would be thinking like, we're, I would be
08:42thinking kind of the way that I think he looks at it is that we're, we're kind of in a good
08:46position right now.
08:47Because you know, that the shooting is going to come back.
08:49You know, I think that anybody that thinks that it's gone forever.
08:53You know, that's ridiculous.
08:55These guys are great shooters and it's going to come back.
08:57We talked about it the last time I was, you know, I was on your show, you know, that it's,
09:02it's, it's confidence and it's, you know, it's right now the confidence is absolutely
09:07not there.
09:08You know, the guys are shooting a poor percentage and I was doing some research, so I would
09:13be prepared for your, for your podcast.
09:16And I, and I see that they're shooting less threes than they, than they've been shooting.
09:19They cut down on shooting threes.
09:22Why is that?
09:24Because they're, they're turning down shots.
09:25Well, I think it's actually more that other teams are like scheming for them to take less
09:29threes also, because if you were going into the season and if you're a team that was,
09:34you know, a contender, like if you're Oklahoma city or Cleveland or any one of these teams
09:37or even other teams, I think you look at what they did last year and they just took too
09:42many threes for anybody to be able to keep up with them.
09:44And so all this discourse around the league and whether it's too many threes, a lot of
09:48that is because of the fact that teams did the math and realize like they have to focus
09:53more on limiting opponents threes and something's about to deal with that.
09:56I think that there have been some games where they're being run off the line and forced
09:59to make kind of more uncomfortable decisions.
10:02Like Oklahoma city Thunder game, they scored 27 points in that second half and he missed
10:06some good looks, but they also were forced off the 3.9.
10:10And I think there were moments last year really have to go to a secondary option because teams
10:15were like doubling Tatum, driving to the basket and leaving Garrett quite open for
10:18three.
10:19I remember that was like the biggest mystery for me last year.
10:22We talked about that.
10:23So why would they, why would they, why do they keep double teaming Tatum?
10:26Why do they let Brown, let Tatum, let anybody go to the basket and eliminate the threes.
10:31And it's like, I think they're doing it now.
10:33I actually felt like I was kind of gaslighting myself last year of this would be, if I was
10:37a coach, I would say eliminate the three and like double, you know, all this other stuff.
10:42And now I feel like they were listening to your podcast and that's what they turned to.
10:46They turned to Celtics strategy around.
10:48Yeah.
10:49So there was something else I wanted to talk to you about and I think there's some comments
10:52slash questions in the chat that we can respond to.
10:55But I think sometimes people get frustrated when Joe doesn't say like, we played really
11:00not hard in this game or like, you know, Tatum was a disaster.
11:03Jalen was a disaster because a Ema Odoko, who I think a lot of the fans really connected
11:07with, he had that mindset and he still does on the Rockets of just calling people out.
11:12And then there's like guys like Michael Malone who have popularized this idea where if you
11:18criticize your star players after bad efforts, bad losses, like that's a positive thing.
11:23And obviously it worked when they won the championship.
11:25Everybody was saying like, there was games in the finals where Michael Malone was calling
11:27out his team when they won that series.
11:29So for those of you that don't know, I think probably most of you do, but my dad played
11:32professional basketball overseas for like 16 years.
11:35So not quite the level of media scrutiny that, you know, today's NBA stars deal with.
11:39But I think there's still this idea of like reading the paper and kind of hearing what
11:43your coach has to say.
11:44And Joe has a very clear, like, it would take something, I can't even imagine Joe ripping
11:48his players.
11:49It would take something insane.
11:50I actually don't even, I think even if something insane happened, you wouldn't do it.
11:53But what's your perspective on kind of why he doesn't do that and if there's any drawbacks?
11:58I mean, you're, I can only look at it as a player.
12:03And I've also coached, you know, you know that.
12:06I've coached, but I mean, as a player is where I, my, my thinking is dominated, of course.
12:11And there's no, there's no, there's no players that appreciate a coach outing them in the
12:17press.
12:18I, you know, I don't care.
12:20I'd like to see somebody go on a podcast or on a, on an interview and say, yeah, I actually
12:24liked it when the coach outed me and told the rest of the world that I was playing poorly
12:29or I wasn't working hard or whatever.
12:32You know, it, it, it, I don't, I don't see that as a, as a thing.
12:35I think it's, it's a, I think when a coach does that, they're clearly separating themselves
12:41from their own team and they're prioritizing their own reputation and they're basically
12:45looking out for themselves, which is, you know, that it is what it is.
12:50And you know, being an NBA coach is a, you know, what did Missoula say is, you know,
12:54I'm, I'm hired to be fired.
12:56Right.
12:57He said that a couple, a couple of weeks ago or a week ago or something like that.
12:59I mean, these guys, they know that their existence is always in jeopardy.
13:05That's a fact.
13:06I mean, every NBA coach has been fired.
13:08Every NBA coach has been fired usually several times.
13:11And that doesn't mean that they're not good coaches.
13:13It means that when, when the going gets tough, the coach gets going, you know, they're the
13:18first one to get to be on the chopping block because that's the easiest thing to do.
13:22It's the most swift change that you can make.
13:24You can't change five players on your team, but you can change the coach.
13:28So everybody knows that.
13:30And I think that, you know, that there's no way that a coach or at least most coaches,
13:34predominantly most coaches, or they, at one point it's survival, you know, and they, I'm
13:39not blaming them.
13:40I'm not, I'm not, you know, critiquing them right now, but I think Joe Missoula has a
13:46different outlook on the whole thing.
13:48Like he continues to be just different, you know, and he's not going to do that.
13:52I don't think he'll ever do that.
13:54I don't care that he could be, you know, one in 29 and he's not going to be talking
13:58about his players.
13:59He's going to be talking about the game and he's going to be talking about analytics and
14:02he's going to be talking about maybe what he could be doing better or what the coaching
14:05staff needs to do or what the team in general needs to be doing, but he's not going to be
14:09talking about, you know, specific players and kind of outing them.
14:13So it's not going to happen.
14:15And I think that if you want to, you know, if you're looking for the way to get out of
14:20the way that, you know, the Celtics are playing now, which is not good, they're just not playing
14:24well, that's part of the formula, you know, if they're going to come out of it and I know
14:30they will, you know, I believe they will.
14:34And that's going to be a catalyst for them snapping out of it is that they're listening
14:39and they're watching and they're, you know, they're aware of what he does and whether
14:43he walks in the locker room and behaves differently, that's behind closed doors.
14:49And that's a family, you know, that's family business and that stays inside the locker
14:53room.
14:54And what he says outside that door, that's where he shows that he's, you know, he's still
15:00together with them.
15:02And I, again, I look at it as a player and I would expect nothing less.
15:06And I've been kind of in both situations where a coach, you know, I remember I lost a championship
15:13game one time and by the time I got home and it was like a game seven situation where we
15:19lost and it was, we were brokenhearted and, you know, one of those things, we sat in the
15:22locker room for an hour and actually the coach was gone after about 15 minutes, which
15:26we thought was kind of strange.
15:29And we just all sat around and talked and, you know, kind of mourned the fact that we
15:32didn't win the championship.
15:33And when I got home, I turned on the TV and he was on, he was like on a talk show talking
15:38about how disappointed he was in us and kind of, kind of outed the whole team on TV.
15:46And you know, and that was the last time I ever had any respect for that guy.
15:50You know, he didn't, he didn't lose with us.
15:53He, as soon as we started to lose, he separated himself from us.
15:55And that's what coaches may do because there's so much pressure on them and the art of survival
16:01kind of falls in, but he's not going to do that.
16:06And I, you know, the more I see and the more I listened to him and the more I watch his
16:11behavior and everything else, the more I appreciate the guy, you know, I really, really do.
16:16So he's doing what, that's his DNA.
16:20You know, it's not like, I don't think he had to try to decide that this is how he's
16:24going to be.
16:25That's how he is.
16:26And it's authentic.
16:28And I think if it wasn't authentic, it wouldn't, it wouldn't work either.
16:30So I appreciate it.
16:33I think that the team, which is most important, it's not about what the fans think.
16:37It's not about what I think.
16:38It's not about what anybody, it's about what the players in the locker room think when
16:42they walk in the locker room last night and they go, geez, you know, we had, you know,
16:46I saw the game at the end when they, when that shot didn't go in, when CJ McCollum missed
16:51that driving shot, which was not an easy one, but he missed it.
16:54You know, there was just like, it almost looked like they lost the game anyway.
16:59You know, it was like, they were just like, you know, this is ridiculous.
17:01You know, like, how did we get here?
17:02We had the ball with like seven seconds left and we have a five second violation, Tatum
17:08misses two free, I mean, the game was basically in their hands and they almost, almost gave
17:12it back, you know, for a, for a loss.
17:16So there was no, there was no thrill in the, in, in that victory, but, but it's a win.
17:22But again, I think that the way that the language that he's speaking is the language that's
17:26going to bring them back to where they, where they certainly belong.
17:30I agree, and I'm just putting, just so everybody knows, I have these notebooks that I do after
17:37every game where you can read kind of the tone and tenure of everything.
17:40So I just put an example in the chat, just wanted a quick message from our friends over
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18:46Something about doing ad reads when you're also not feeling well, it's a lot harder.
18:49That was a tough one, I'll do it for you.
18:52That was a tough one?
18:53Yeah.
18:54Just give me the script, I'll do it for you.
18:55Okay.
18:56So, yeah, everybody in the NBA has been sick, so I assume that I got sick from just being
19:00around the NBA.
19:01It's been like kind of wild, like, you know, teams like the Mavericks, it's like there's
19:05almost like a plague going around.
19:07They told guys now if you have any symptoms of a cold or anything to just not even be
19:10around the team.
19:12So in any case, I'm sure, luckily I'm actually not going to be around the team for like five
19:17days now so they don't have to worry about me.
19:19So wanted to talk a little bit about the perspective because I know it's something that fans can
19:23get frustrated about, frustrated when Joe doesn't like rip the players, and I think
19:27that there's just a lack of understanding of like how different he is behind the scenes
19:31too.
19:32I'm confused by that, why fans want him to rip the players.
19:34I don't get it.
19:35I actually, so there's two things.
19:36Can anybody explain that to me?
19:37I don't get it.
19:38If you're in that camp, you can put it in the chat, but I have a feeling that there's
19:41not a huge overlap between that camp and people listening to this podcast.
19:45Maybe there is.
19:46So feel free to put that in there if you do want Mizzou to rip the players and you don't
19:50feel satisfied.
19:51There's a couple of things that I was wondering, there's something I was thinking about yesterday
19:54where like it feels like when the team is losing, fans want to see like everybody be
20:01mad because they're mad.
20:03So for example, like if you're a reporter, you're supposed to, I've gotten flack online
20:07from people saying like, why aren't you asking them why they played bad?
20:10Or like, why aren't you either?
20:11You're letting them off the hook, you know, where it's like, they're not, they're not
20:14like on trial.
20:15And my job is not to like, hold, like, I'm not there to hold them accountable.
20:18You know, like, I'm just writing about what happened in the game.
20:21Obviously, if there's things that if you think there's a reason for something that you want
20:24to uncover, like, there's an issue in the locker room where there's a certain play or
20:28there's something that they're doing schematically that, like, for example, I think a couple,
20:32you know, in 2023, when everybody on the team wanted Robert Williams to start and Derek
20:37White was starting and Robert Williams was coming off the bench and I'm being used a
20:40lot.
20:41I don't know if you remember this whole story, but he will finally played him and all the
20:44players were like, finally, you know, um, and in that case, it's like, it is kind of
20:49the reporter's job to figure out the fact that like there was a line of issue that everybody
20:53was kind of against and the coach took a while to catch up to it and everybody wanted Robert
20:56Williams to play more.
20:57Right.
20:58So that's a very rare example though.
21:00Like when a guy struggles from the field, like, why do I need, why do you, like, I don't,
21:03I never understand why people want reporters to be like, you know, why are you shooting
21:08two for 20 or like even telling them what to do?
21:10Like, I, my job was not to tell Tatum to be a better player.
21:12Right.
21:13It's not my responsibility.
21:14Right.
21:15And then if anything, like that's even harder for the coaches themselves, like I would want
21:19the coach to never turn on them, but I think people feel frustrated and they say like,
21:22I'm frustrated watching this.
21:24And then I turn on the press conference and the reporters are acting like they played
21:27well, the coaches acting like they played well and it kind of creates this like emotional
21:30disconnect.
21:31Yeah.
21:32So I don't really know, but that is that, that's something I see all the time.
21:36I mean, I get, whenever I ask a question after a loss, that's not like really negative.
21:41People always comment saying like, why did you ask?
21:45Why didn't you ask Jalen?
21:46Like why he kept dribbling off his foot?
21:48Like as though that's going to solve Jalen's, you know, you know, you can ask Jalen about
21:52like a very specific question if you actually want to know the answer to something, but
21:55just saying, Hey, you missed your layups or whatever.
21:57Like, I never understand why there's a desire for that, but yeah, feel free to let me know
22:01in the chat.
22:02If you do have a reason that maybe I'm not considering and it's good to see some familiar
22:07faces here.
22:08I'm going to try to go through some of these questions.
22:10Let me just see, there has been a lot of comments too.
22:14Yeah.
22:15I do think that this is, this was referenced in the illness thing.
22:18I do think this illness, I don't know if like regular NBA fans know this, but it has really
22:23impacted the tenure of this NBA season.
22:25Like because guys have been getting sick and it's been spreading across teams and there
22:29teams whose record I think are genuinely worse because of this, like whatever illness
22:32this is, whatever flu or whatnot, like Derrick White was in Denver, that's his hometown.
22:36His whole family's there.
22:37He played in the university of Colorado, Colorado had like PR people that were all there to
22:41like record and interview him.
22:43And he could not leave his hotel room.
22:45Yoko city almost died when he finally came back from that same illness.
22:49So there's something going on and it is kind of a weird situation.
22:53And then, yeah, there's always like, I think sometimes what people don't realize is when
22:58you propose like ridiculous things, like trading Derrick White for coming up because he had
23:03a bad game.
23:04Like I am, I work on in journalism now I, I get paid and I have a responsibility to
23:09make sure that people are clicking on my articles and clicking on my videos and things.
23:12I understand now when you write inflammatory things like this, people click on it.
23:17Like it's really unfortunate, but they really do.
23:19And so don't, the best thing to do is if you, this kind of stuff pisses you off or you read
23:23this and you're like, this is such a stupid article or whatever, like don't click on it
23:27because then you're incentivizing them to keep doing it.
23:29And when I write like, you know, nothing, everything is fine.
23:32Like nobody clicks on it. Right.
23:33But if you suggest one thing that pisses people off, like then it's, so it's just, this is
23:37it's a, it's a model.
23:38What does that mean? I was hearing trade probably on Twitter, but feel free to hear it on
23:44Twitter. Okay. Yeah.
23:45It's rage based. Yeah.
23:47Got it.
23:49And yeah, I totally agree with this.
23:51Like I don't understand why people are so quick to panic.
23:54I mean, and maybe we'll take a few minutes to talk about Jalen Brown, because I think
23:57that he is somebody who's having a tough season from an efficiency standpoint.
24:02He's had some rough games.
24:03He had some rough moments.
24:04And I feel like people already forgot that he literally was there, you know, won the
24:10conference finals MVP and the finals MVP like six months ago.
24:13And you would think that a guy who has been with the organization his entire career just
24:17won you a championship.
24:18You think that you'd have a little bit of like, I don't know, leeway or patience, but
24:22that's not really what I'm seeing.
24:23I'm curious because I'm a big fan of his game.
24:25I'm a bit. Oh, I didn't even realize my price picks got some extra ads here.
24:30So. Sorry, sorry.
24:38OK. So anyways, what do you think about Jalen Brown's struggles?
24:46Like what's the yeah, what's what's your mindset?
24:49What's your perspective on like why he has just not been able to string together the
24:53kinds of games we saw, like, for example, in the playoffs?
24:55And I have my own thought, but I'll let you go first.
24:58Yeah, I mean, I think it's it's all part of the same same problem.
25:03I think I don't think it's particularly individual.
25:06I think it's it's affecting him maybe more than others because of the fact that they're
25:10not shooting the ball well.
25:12And it ends up what I see when I see, you know, when I see that he's not playing well,
25:17it just seems like he's forcing and he's and he's he also seems to be thinking a lot.
25:24You know, I when I see a player that, you know, is overthinking on the court for me,
25:28it's like, oh, this is this is not going to go well because basketball is not a game
25:33about prethinking what you're going to do.
25:35It's about it's about your instincts kind of taking over and just allowing yourself to
25:39do the things that you know how to do it because you've been doing it your whole life
25:43and you make the right decisions, not because you thought about making a decision,
25:47because you just made it, you know, and and when things are when things aren't going
25:51well, that's when, you know, the overthinking comes in and you see guys making decisions
25:57and making plays that you're like, wow, I never I would never would expect him to do
26:01something like that, you know, throwing strange passes or trying to go, you know,
26:06split a, you know, a double team when obviously that was not the smart move at that
26:13point. And I think that the fact that there, you know, the fact that the Celtics are
26:17struggling right now, I think that someone like him is probably the one that it affects
26:22a lot, even more than others.
26:24And that's what I see.
26:26But again, do I think that he's going to snap out of it?
26:31I think it's going to I think what's going to happen is going to be a collective.
26:34It's not going to be all of a sudden Jalen Brown is playing great, you know, like and
26:38everybody else is doing the same thing that they're doing now.
26:40You're going to see this whole team kind of rise together.
26:46And suddenly when everything is starting to fall into place, you're going to see him go
26:51back to playing the kind of, you know, the kind of ball that he was playing, you know,
26:55dominant basketball that he was playing last season.
26:59And and everyone else is going to rise up with it.
27:01I mean, that's the way the game that's the way it goes.
27:03You know, it's not one guy, just individuals.
27:06This is a team sport. Everyone is affected by everybody else.
27:09And right now you're seeing what's what's you know, what happens when guys are not
27:14hitting shots and not shooting the ball.
27:16Well, it starts to be contagious.
27:18Guys are overthinking.
27:19Guys are turning down shots that they should immediately just take and then taking a shot
27:24that probably was not the best that they had had on an offensive set.
27:28And you're wondering, why did why did they turn down a good shot and settle for a bad
27:32shot? And it's just because a lot of overthinking and because of the confidence is not
27:36there. But it is what it is.
27:39But once it starts to happen, all of that's going to it's kind of going to evaporate,
27:45so to speak, on the court.
27:46And you'll and you'll see it happening.
27:48And and what they need to do is not to do it.
27:51That you know, not to get that feeling back for a half a game or three quarters, they
27:56need to get get it back for a consecutive two or three or four or five games in a row.
28:00And then the rest of it is going to be in the rearview mirror, the struggles will be
28:04behind them and they'll get back to playing the kind of basketball that I think we all
28:08are kind of waiting for.
28:10And they're certainly waiting for.
28:12Yeah, I agree with that. I think I was going to add and I saw some people were already
28:16calling me out on this in the chat, and I agree is I think there's a little bit of a
28:20over emphasis when he makes mistakes, because when he makes a mistake, like when he
28:24loses the ball, it just looks worse than when somebody else loses the ball.
28:28There's like whether it's the look on his face or whether it's because it looks like a
28:31turnover that was like so obvious that was going to happen.
28:34Like sometimes when he turns the ball over, I feel like there's like it almost is like
28:41everybody gets so frustrated and then you look at the box for and it's like, OK, he has
28:44one turnover in this game.
28:45Like that was really one play or he makes a drive.
28:48Like I think sometimes he's just one of those players.
28:50And I feel the same way. Like when Pritchard gets scored on, it's like, oh, he can't be
28:53out there. And it's like everybody gets scored on.
28:55It's basketball. Right. But because it's the thing that you're kind of known for, like
28:59Pritchard's known for being like the small guy that can be a mismatch defensively.
29:02Jalen's known for some of those games where he's had a lot of turnovers in the past.
29:06And so people look for those mistakes.
29:08And then as soon as they happen, I think it gets a little bit overdone.
29:12They go back to their fears of what it used to be.
29:15You know, this is actually I think this might surprise people.
29:17In his last 10 games, Jalen Brown is shooting 50.7 percent from the field, 33 percent from
29:24three. And he's averaging 2.9 turnovers a game.
29:27What about his assists?
29:30Yeah. And 4.9 assists.
29:32Which this is his best season as far as playmaking goes, this has been the season.
29:36So I think that people are looking for the negative a little bit.
29:40And he would be the first to say that he hasn't had a great shooting season.
29:43Like if you look at his efficiency numbers, they're not great.
29:45But what I can say is that covering him last year and this year, and I didn't cover him
29:50earlier in his career. And I think that there's a lot of, you know, that would have been a
29:53whole different experience. But last season, after he had bad games or they were they had
29:58bad losses, he was so frustrated.
30:00He would always say something like this is unacceptable.
30:03He made some kind of like veiled comments sometimes about like not being happy with
30:07like a shot attempts or like whatever it is.
30:10And so now you can literally have a 10 point game where he took seven shots and this
30:17other move by 20. And he has been like, everything's going to be fine.
30:19We all trust each other. Like he has this cool and calm about him that I don't know
30:23people realize. But to me, that's the biggest point of growth that you could possibly hope
30:26for is that he's not worried about it.
30:28And again, like I think shooting struggles, people think like, oh, it's been it's been 30
30:33games, it's been 40 games.
30:34Like in reality, it's been a couple of months.
30:36And this is a guy that's been in the NBA for years.
30:38And if you look at guys' career logs, like people have a whole season where they're down
30:42and the next year they can bounce back.
30:43And Jason Tatum couldn't make a three between, you know, May and August.
30:48And now I have nobody's worried about a shooting anymore.
30:50So I think one thing about one thing about Jalen Brown is when I think this is true, at
30:55least from from what I my perspective is, is that sometimes when he misses, he misses
31:00very badly. And a miss is a miss.
31:02You know, you can have a shot go in and out and roll around the rim and fall off.
31:06Or you can miss the you can miss a three point shot by by four feet to the right.
31:10And sometimes his shots actually go four feet to the right.
31:13And you're wondering, like, what was last night?
31:15He had one where he missed.
31:16He missed a kind of a wide open shot.
31:18I don't know if you remember it.
31:20But yeah, I thought he got fouled on one in the corner as he fell into this.
31:22I don't know. I think it was pretty wide open because I happen to be watching.
31:26And it was like he was like waiting for the ball.
31:28He had his hands like ready.
31:30Like, you know, if I get this, I'm shooting it.
31:31And he got it and he shot it.
31:33He missed like badly.
31:35Yeah. I mean, that's that's a miss.
31:36That's not it doesn't you don't you don't get deductions on how far you miss by.
31:40But I think the the the crowd and the media, they're like, what was that?
31:45You know, and it kind of reverberates and it kind of stays with you longer than if, you
31:49know, somebody misses a shot and it looks like it's going in and it doesn't go in.
31:53But it is what it is.
31:54And I don't think I don't think that it affects him.
31:56Not nearly as much as it affects everybody that's watching, you know.
32:01But again, last night, even though he didn't have a great game by any means, I thought
32:05he threw some great passes.
32:07He threw some really outstanding passes, which is something that he wasn't doing, you
32:13know, a couple of years ago.
32:14He didn't you know, he'd go through a whole game and have one assist, you know,
32:17sometimes. And now, yeah, he's looking for the he's looking for passes.
32:21Sometimes he overdoes it almost.
32:23But it's a different mindset where you can tell he's trying to to bring the team
32:28together and all that.
32:29So so I mean, yeah, I'm going to as you know, I'm an eternal optimist.
32:35You know, I'm here.
32:37So I don't think I don't see just I see the good and try.
32:41And I think like I'll follow Mazzola.
32:43I think he sees the good in even in the bad, you know, even when things are not going on,
32:47he sees something in there that's that's of value and he's going to try to extract
32:52that and use it, you know, in the future.
32:55And I think honestly, like when you just won the championship in your twenty eight and
32:59eleven, like that should that is actually the unbiased lens.
33:02Like a lot of people thought last year that I was really biased towards covering the
33:06Celtics and was like everybody kind of joked around.
33:08I was like a cheerleader. And the whole time I was like, I'm covering a historically
33:12great team. I mean, they had the high they had like a top net rating.
33:15They had the best offense in NBA history and they won the Eastern Conference by so many
33:20games that it was like they weren't even playing their starters starting in March.
33:23And so I think anything covering that team negatively is actually more biased than
33:27covering that team positively, because that's just kind of the reality of like what the
33:31situation in the team actually is.
33:34So, I mean, that's that's just the reflection on the on the media, don't you think?
33:37That I think and I think it's always it's always got to be it's a reflection on the
33:41media. But I will say now that I'm in this space and I have access to views and clicks
33:46and things, it's what people click on.
33:48It really is. We get more people, more people watch the Garden Report after losses than
33:53after wins. I can never understand that after losses.
33:56If I was a Celtics fan, I was watching a game.
33:58I wouldn't want to hear people talk more about the team after they lose.
34:03I would rather do something else.
34:04But you would think but the people I think whether it's a community thing or a venting
34:08thing, like it's great. I love doing the postgame shows after losses.
34:11And it's great that people tune in for those.
34:13But there is something to be said, like the Patriots right now.
34:15Everybody's obsessed with reading about the Patriots.
34:18There's, you know, the chaos and the firings and all that.
34:21Like that's that's what drives the media.
34:23The Patriots views right now are insane.
34:25And the Celtics.
34:27No, that is that was that was not what I was saying.
34:31And you cannot show it. Now our viewership is going to crash after losses.
34:37But I do think like, oh, that's interesting.
34:40OK, after losses, after wins, we're happy after losses.
34:43We need you to do that.
34:45I mean, we have a positive show, too.
34:46I think we joke around and stuff.
34:47But I do think there's something to be said about like the negativity thing is like a
34:50self-fulfilling cycle as well.
34:54But that's why I like I feel like finding like the positive stories and the guys like,
34:58I don't know, people thought that it was crazy that, you know, I was covering Jordan
35:01Walsh and like a positive lens earlier this season.
35:03Meanwhile, like he was playing good minutes and he was doing good things and he was, you
35:06know, like being fine.
35:08And I think you can always look at the things he's not doing.
35:10I mean, the thing that the thing that's fascinating to me is that this is this is,
35:15you know, this is entertainment, right?
35:17It's this is what NBA basketball is.
35:19It's a show. It's for people to enjoy, you know, and if.
35:25Why not try to enjoy it no matter what's going on, at least, you know, try to get the
35:28try to get the most joy out of it.
35:30And instead, it seems like that's not really the trend is like people are looking for the
35:35misery in it sometimes.
35:36And I don't really get it because there's a lot of joy out there.
35:39There's a lot a lot to to enjoy.
35:41So and I think the national media is already learning that there's some stuff that needs
35:47to change there. Like right now, I'm seeing like ESPN all of a sudden they're like the
35:50Cavs, Thunders, the future.
35:51Everybody has to watch. Literally three weeks ago, they weren't talking about them.
35:54And I think they must have had a meeting of like, we have to start elevating these teams
35:58that are like great teams.
35:59They're fun to watch.
36:00They have great fan bases and they're maybe going to win the next couple championships.
36:04So you have to start covering them positively.
36:05Like eventually, I do think it catches up just a quick break to thank our friends over
36:11at Game Time. Game Time is the number one app I use to buy tickets to all events.
36:16My best friend was out with me in Denver.
36:18She used Game Time to buy tickets to the Nuggets game.
36:21Not much of a basketball fan, but she figured why not?
36:23And it was a really good deal. If you look, especially not in Boston, you can get really
36:26cheap tickets to Celtics games.
36:29Pretty much you probably get on a flight and go somewhere and it would be cheaper.
36:31So all you have to do is pick an upcoming game.
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37:21So we'll wrap up here in a couple of minutes.
37:23I think there was something that people were asking.
37:27These responses are cracking me up about whether people show up to the Garden Report.
37:30I am a sick individual.
37:31I would show up either way.
37:33Good show. I love it.
37:34Yeah. No, I find it very entertaining as well.
37:37So I'm glad that.
37:40But I do think that there is it is just an interesting concept and everything.
37:46But one thing I wanted to just talk about is guys that currently aren't playing, because I
37:50know that that's something that people are always curious about.
37:54Like Kada has pretty much been out of the rotation these last few games.
37:58We haven't seen Tillman in months.
38:00Jordan Walsh hasn't been played.
38:02So curious, like people I think are frustrated, especially in games like the Sacramento
38:07game where, you know, what's his name?
38:11Sabonis was broke his own career rebounding record, 28 rebounds.
38:16And people are sitting being like Kada sitting there on the bench.
38:18Like, why not give him a try?
38:20What's your take on that?
38:21And I always find this stuff difficult because we also don't know what's going on behind
38:24the scenes. So we don't know if like maybe he's been terrible in practice or whatever.
38:27But like, what's your take on some of the guys that aren't being utilized?
38:31Because we're not seeing them dig deep right now.
38:33This move we should stretch, they're really sticking with kind of the core guys.
38:36No, I don't know.
38:38I can give you a theory, but I have no idea if this is actually what his thinking is.
38:43But I think that maybe because they're struggling, that, you know, the only way out of
38:50it is to is to be on the court.
38:52And I think that the guys that are struggling, they need to be out there as much as
38:58possible. And and to start rotating, you know, other players in and taking guys out,
39:06it may help at that moment.
39:08It may help. It may help that particular game, you know, like the game that you're
39:12talking about with the Sabonis grabbing the record number of rebounds maybe would have
39:16helped Kada to come in, possibly.
39:20But maybe he's thinking and this is just, you know, me, you know, trying to analyze.
39:25Maybe he's thinking that, you know, I got to leave these guys out there and kind of let
39:29them fend for themselves and get them out of this hole that they are a little bit digging.
39:35And and I think that, you know, maybe it hasn't worked entirely, but maybe it's a
39:43gradual thing that, you know, again, if you're if you're struggling as a shooter and the
39:47coach takes you out of the game, you're good luck with that one.
39:51You know, the only way to get yourself out of a out of a shooting slump or whatever is to
39:56is to be out on the court and keep shooting.
39:58And once the once you start seeing that ball go in, then suddenly everything changes.
40:04You know, that's the one thing that I can relate to because I was I was a three point
40:08shooter. You know, 85 percent of my shots were three point shots.
40:11And I went through slumps multiple times during my my my career.
40:16And if I was sitting on the bench, I would I would have been in a slump the rest of my
40:20life. But the fact that I played at different times and I played for coaches that said,
40:25you know, you stop shooting.
40:26And that's the one thing I remember is that coaches told me when I was shooting poorly,
40:30you stop shooting. You're definitely coming out because then you're you're you lost your
40:35value. So it's something like that, maybe that, you know, they're keeping guys in there
40:39to to let them fight through this, this, you know, kind of struggle that they're in.
40:44That's I will say, just to be fair, I felt like in Oklahoma City, kind of the reverse
40:48happened where Pritchard like was struggling in that matchup and he got benched and played
40:53like 11 minutes in that game.
40:54And I thought to myself, I very rarely like this is not a topic that I love talking about
40:58because I think we only have a small piece of the pie to be able to analyze.
41:03But I do think there are times where like some of those marginal guys are almost given
41:07up on pretty quick because it's like we don't want to we don't want to like dig deeper in
41:12a hole here. But it's like at a certain point, he's your six man of the year candidate.
41:15Like he's won a lot of games.
41:17Like I would rather see him play a little bit through that.
41:20And then I think there's this example of like he's given Hauser lots of opportunities in
41:25the past when he struggled with his threes.
41:26I think with Pritchard, it's sometimes it's like the physicality of certain games or
41:29whatnot is what limits him.
41:31That what you said, though, doesn't really connect with K to point, because I think
41:33people want to see Kada because they think there's like an element of like physicality
41:37that he can bring. And they get frustrated when Luke plays like a bunch of games in a
41:41row and Kada doesn't get the opportunity.
41:43And I do think Luke has been gaining more respect from the fan base in general because
41:47people start to recognize like the things that he does really well.
41:50And I do think there's a little bit of a delay.
41:52But they probably should recognize that a little while ago.
41:54But there's more respect for him.
41:56And I would say, like, if he looked different and he ran different, people would view him
41:59completely different because he does a lot of good things on the floor.
42:03Yeah. But I personally, I would like to see Kada more just because he is like a long term
42:08investment. But at the same time, he does make a lot of mistakes that I think Luke just
42:12doesn't make. And so it's like a risk reward.
42:15Like, I think we all probably all agree that who has the potential to be the better player
42:18is Kada.
42:20But who has the potential to be the really worst player on a given night is probably Kada
42:24too. He has a big, you know, Luke is like kind of like, you know what you're going to get
42:28for the most part. So maybe it's like a risk thing.
42:31I would love to see more. I'm sure he'll get his stretches.
42:33People forget, like sometimes it feels like this guy hasn't played in months, but it's
42:37been two weeks, you know, and he'll get his moments and certain matchups and road trips
42:41and things. And I do think this is true.
42:44I think that Luke's been playing really well.
42:47I saw Luke a couple of games ago.
42:49I'm not sure I remember which time, but they were like on a fast break and they hit him
42:54running down the middle of the lane kind of and he immediately kicked it out to the wing.
42:59You know, he knew, he already knew where everybody was when the ball was on his way and
43:03he caught it and immediately without even basically looking through to the corner, I
43:07think to Pritchard or to Tatum or whoever was in the corner and he made the shot.
43:10And I was thinking, you don't see too many seven footers that run the floor and can make
43:15that pass so instinctively.
43:17So there's a lot there's a lot that he that he can provide the team.
43:21You know, he's not there's a reason that he's out on the court.
43:24He's a very knowledgeable, very skilled player.
43:26There's some things that he lacks, but overall, he's a he's a really good basketball
43:31player. Yeah, for sure.
43:34OK, well, we're going to wrap up here.
43:36I think that one of the questions that a couple of people asked is about the trade
43:39deadline. From what I've heard, what I've gathered, there is going to be some marginal
43:44move. I would be pretty surprised if they went to the trade deadline and nothing happened.
43:48But I also don't think that anybody that they acquire is going to be a major factor in a
43:54championship run. Last year, you got Tillman and Springer and Tillman hit that three and
43:59had some good finals minutes.
44:00But like ultimately, I would be surprised if anything more bigger than that is going to
44:05happen. So we'll see if it does.
44:08You know, there's a couple of weeks here before the trade deadline.
44:10I know everybody's talking about a backup wing.
44:12Lonnie Walker is playing in Lithuania and is looking really good over there.
44:16And I know that multiple teams are in conversations or have been keeping his eye out,
44:21their eye out on him. So so we'll see.
44:24Yeah, Bobby's going to like that clip.
44:25You know, Bobby's a big Luke enthusiast.
44:28I'm sure you've gathered that from from the show.
44:30Papa Delzone, Luke's a great player.
44:32What'd you say?
44:33Papa Delzone, Luke's a great player.
44:36Someone making fun of me?
44:37Or is that nice?
44:38No, I think that I well, it's just someone said Bobby's going to clip that because, you
44:42know, Bobby's been advocating for Luke for years.
44:45He first signed with the Celtics, like when he was literally like with the main Celtics
44:48and everything. Bobby was like, this guy's going to be great.
44:50And everybody thought he was crazy.
44:51And so he like loves.
44:52Yeah, he loves Luke.
44:55So, OK, we're going to wrap it up here.
44:57We'll try to do this at least weekly.
45:00And so we'll do another Q&A probably this time next week.
45:03But in the meantime, if you have questions, things you want us to address, we can save
45:07that for the next show. So thank you all so much for joining.
45:09Appreciate it. We'll be back on Wednesday with the postgame Garden Report win or loss.
45:15And I can't I can't see any people not tuning in because it was a loss.
45:18But I think they'll win.
45:19They're playing the Raptors.
45:20I'll be I'll be tuning in.
45:22On the road. So you can tune into that.
45:24We'll have other coverage in the next couple of days as well.
45:27And I know Bobby right now is at an event with Xavier Tillman.
45:30So there'll be a video on CLNS, I'm pretty sure, shortly where David Tillman will talk
45:35about what he's been up to.
45:37So I'm curious to see because he hasn't played in a while.
45:39So, OK, thanks so much, everyone.
45:41Have a good one. Bye bye.