On the latest episode of Celtics Beat, Evan Valenti is joined by CelticsBlog writer and How 'Bout Them Celtics host Jack Simone to talk hoops! The two discuss the latest Celtics move of signing Svi Mykhailiuk, their thoughts on the signing, and Boston's overall roster build in comparison to the rest of the league. Are the Celtics too top-heavy? Are they just the Phoenix Suns of the Eastern Conference? Join in and check out the latest Celtics Beat Podcast as we discuss!
0:00 Intro
6:30 Svi Mykhailiuk to the Cs
16:07 Boston’s offense has Warriors-esq off-ball gravity
21:12 FAN DUEL
22:19 Kristaps Porzingis has never had easier shots
30:45 Brad Stevens has performed extremely well as GM of Celtics
43:14 Outro
This episode of the Celtics Beat Podcast is brought to you by Fanduel Sportsbook, the exclusive wagering partner of the CLNS Media Network. NEW customers can bet $5 and get $200 in BONUS BETS – GUARANTEED. Plus, all customers who bet $5 will get $100 OFF NFL SUNDAY TICKET from YouTube and YouTube TV. Now is the best time to join FanDuel! The app is easy to use and you can be on everything from spreads to player props and more! So, visit FanDuel.com/BOSTON and kick off the NFL season with an offer you won’t wanna miss.
21+ and present in MA. First online real money wager only. $10 first deposit required. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable bonus bets that expire 7 days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See terms at fanduel.com/sportsbook. Hope is here. GamblingHelpLineMa.org or call (800)-327-5050 for 24/7 support. Play it smart from the start! GameSenseMA.com or call 1-800-GAM-1234. NFL Sunday Ticket Offer ends 9/18/23. No refunds. Terms and embargoes apply. $100 off NFL Sunday Ticket, not YouTube TV. YouTube TV base plan required to watch YouTube TV. Redemption requires a Google account and current form of payment. Commercial Use Excluded. Subscription renews; cancel anytime.
0:00 Intro
6:30 Svi Mykhailiuk to the Cs
16:07 Boston’s offense has Warriors-esq off-ball gravity
21:12 FAN DUEL
22:19 Kristaps Porzingis has never had easier shots
30:45 Brad Stevens has performed extremely well as GM of Celtics
43:14 Outro
This episode of the Celtics Beat Podcast is brought to you by Fanduel Sportsbook, the exclusive wagering partner of the CLNS Media Network. NEW customers can bet $5 and get $200 in BONUS BETS – GUARANTEED. Plus, all customers who bet $5 will get $100 OFF NFL SUNDAY TICKET from YouTube and YouTube TV. Now is the best time to join FanDuel! The app is easy to use and you can be on everything from spreads to player props and more! So, visit FanDuel.com/BOSTON and kick off the NFL season with an offer you won’t wanna miss.
21+ and present in MA. First online real money wager only. $10 first deposit required. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable bonus bets that expire 7 days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See terms at fanduel.com/sportsbook. Hope is here. GamblingHelpLineMa.org or call (800)-327-5050 for 24/7 support. Play it smart from the start! GameSenseMA.com or call 1-800-GAM-1234. NFL Sunday Ticket Offer ends 9/18/23. No refunds. Terms and embargoes apply. $100 off NFL Sunday Ticket, not YouTube TV. YouTube TV base plan required to watch YouTube TV. Redemption requires a Google account and current form of payment. Commercial Use Excluded. Subscription renews; cancel anytime.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00 Celticspeed is brought to you by FanDuel, the exclusive wagering partner of the CLNX
00:07 Media Network.
00:08 All right, everyone, Evan Valente back inside Celticspeed.
00:11 Adam Kaufman taking a break for this week.
00:13 Again, it is the end of summer, but it is still summer.
00:18 So we're allowed to take a show off every once in a while.
00:21 If Kaufman needs one, if I need one, we're willing to sub in and out for each other to
00:26 make sure that everybody has an enjoyable summer and the summer coming to a close, which
00:31 means getting closer to training camp, which means like actual storylines are coming shortly
00:37 as we're still in that weird sort of mix of like we need to make content out of something.
00:43 So let's overreact to literally everything.
00:44 And with that, to react, overreact to everything, we're bringing in Celtics blog's Jack Simone.
00:51 Jack, what's going on, brother?
00:52 How are you?
00:53 I'm good.
00:54 I'm good.
00:55 I'm ready to overreact to stuff.
00:56 That's what I've been doing all summer.
00:57 And I'm glad to know that it's not just me.
00:58 It's everybody.
00:59 Trying to keep the content machine going like as in terms of the content machine, the last
01:04 time to the first time Jack had me in his podcast.
01:08 How about them C's, by the way, subscribe to that.
01:11 Be wonderful.
01:12 We talked about Pete Rogers, unbelievable saga of creating jerseys for every single
01:18 team when the Celtics had last year, which was an unbelievable feat, came out with a
01:24 bunch of really good ones.
01:26 And later on, those of you that don't know, I was brought back on with Pete to criticize
01:30 his own jerseys, which was really, really, really tough to do.
01:33 But since then I'm on the waiting list, Jack, I'm on the waiting list for the pink lemonade
01:38 Jason Tatum jersey that I can't wait to get in my inbox or at least the notification that
01:45 they're back into stock so I can buy mine.
01:47 Because I got to tell you, it's again, I'm not a huge like Jersey guy, but if I were
01:52 able to get both the Jersey and the shoes, it might be my favorite outfit of 2023 2024.
01:58 Yeah, that'd be quite the combo.
02:00 I mean, I have the the T Jersey that Pete Rogers made.
02:03 I have the the Boston Marathon jersey.
02:06 And I mean, the pink lemonade is clean.
02:08 That'd be quite the fit.
02:09 I know a buddy of mine wore the shoes to the Barbie Oppenheimer for me.
02:12 He was he's rocking the pink fit.
02:13 And so it was I think his pinks, I guess it's in, I guess, pinks way in and the pink lemonade
02:19 that I would like the cleanest version of the Tatum ones that absolutely know, but I'll
02:23 be honest, they've been better as they've rolled out to it's been a really, you know,
02:27 enjoyable part of my subtext fan it is to watch Jason Tatum's new shoe take off like
02:33 that.
02:34 But we're not talking about shoes in this podcast.
02:35 We're talking about actual basketball and actual things.
02:37 And what's funny to me, Jack is like, this became a storyline.
02:41 I find this kind of like hard to believe.
02:43 But some people don't seem to think that the NBA champion is the NBA is the basketball
02:47 world.
02:49 Don't understand how we haven't come to that consensus, because if you look at FIBA right
02:52 now, it's a great tournament.
02:54 Not saying it's not, but like just the best guys like kind of are.
02:57 They're not all playing.
02:58 They're not all.
02:59 Yeah.
03:00 I mean, we talked about this in our podcast and it's like by the very technical term,
03:05 like I guess technically you're correct, like because it's not facing everybody in the world.
03:09 But I saw people on Twitter saying, oh, so is the Premier League champion the you know,
03:13 the world champion of soccer?
03:14 No, because there are other leagues that are actually close to the Premier League in terms
03:18 of talent.
03:19 There is nobody in the world, no other league in the world that is even close to the NBA
03:23 in terms of talent.
03:24 People from other countries come here to play basketball.
03:27 I mean, look at the NBA is international.
03:29 Look at Luca Giannis.
03:30 Yo, it's just one championship.
03:32 You're telling me if the winner of the early played the Nuggets right now, they wouldn't
03:35 get stomped by 50.
03:36 Like, it's just it's just a silly argument.
03:38 It's peak summer content.
03:40 This is argument.
03:41 And it's it's foolish to think otherwise.
03:44 Of course, the world champions, no one knows.
03:45 And we're going to see this preseason Dallas Mavericks are playing, I think, Real Madrid
03:50 or FC Barcelona.
03:51 They're playing one of those Spanish teams.
03:53 And we're going to see just how much of an argument I think was Noah Lyles, the track
03:56 runner has.
03:57 But I can't imagine he'll have much legs to stand on.
04:00 It's like if they really cared and really tried, like you want to do a real game of
04:04 like the Denver Nuggets versus whatever it is, it's just not going to go well.
04:08 Like this U.S. team, like, look, the U.S. team was to send their best guys till till
04:12 it really matters.
04:13 It's like the Olympics, like Kevin Durant's not playing.
04:14 LeBron James not playing.
04:15 Steph Curry's not playing.
04:16 James James not playing.
04:17 Devin Booker's not playing.
04:18 And then those guys aren't playing.
04:19 They're just not playing.
04:20 So like, I don't want to hear how this is like the new official champion of the world
04:25 when the best guys in the U.S. are the only time we had to brag about this.
04:29 Right.
04:30 Because like in other international contests, we're not always the greatest.
04:34 And I say we like I'm on the U.S. team.
04:36 We're not always the greatest squad out there.
04:38 But for basketball, like it's going to be hard to be a team that really cares.
04:42 And like, again, that team's got LeBron Curry, Durant, Davis Tatum, Booker, that team's like
04:49 Anthony Edwards plays for that team.
04:50 He's like deep on the bench and not starting the game sort of thing.
04:55 Yeah, I mean, even look at the FIBA World Cup, which is going on right now, like the
04:59 U.S. just lost to Lithuania was their first loss of the tournament.
05:02 But then you look at, you know, Canada's really good.
05:04 Maybe they have a chance.
05:05 Australia was good for they got limited, maybe the chance.
05:07 The only reason these teams are good is because they have NBA players on their team.
05:11 Like it's Schaefer Canada.
05:13 It's even the Celtics or excuse me, Timmy USA losing to Lithuania.
05:16 It's Jonas Valanciunas leading Lithuania.
05:19 So it's obviously that's the international platform where these countries go to compete.
05:24 But it's all players who play in the NBA leading the way.
05:27 And there's some guys who never make it to the NBA that are obviously good, but there
05:29 aren't enough of them to even come close to competing with the talent.
05:32 Rudy Fernandez, like Rudy Fernandez was awesome for the Spanish special team, but got to the
05:36 NBA and like wasn't like bad.
05:39 Yeah, he wasn't the Rudy Fernandez we remember from international play.
05:43 So like it's not always going to always work out.
05:45 And I get Fernandez is probably the best example of that because he was supposed to be this
05:50 ginormous megastar.
05:51 And he was good.
05:52 I'm not saying like if you play in the NBA, you're a good player.
05:54 Like it's just no doubt about that.
05:56 But he wasn't as impactful.
05:57 I think a lot of people thought when he came over after like his his tour with the Spanish
06:02 team and that team was like the Gasol brothers.
06:05 You had Rudy Fernandez.
06:06 You had who's the point guard?
06:09 Give me a minute.
06:10 Ricky Rubio.
06:11 I mean, they had a bunch of dudes that were like NBA caliber guys that played really well
06:16 together as a unit because they played so much basketball together and they they won
06:21 gold in the Olympics.
06:22 So it's not like they were bad, but it's the same time.
06:24 It's like it doesn't always work out.
06:27 International play in the US NBA play to always work out together.
06:30 But that's right.
06:31 Let's keep it international, though, because the Celtics made a move.
06:34 Again, this is nice because it's late in the offseason and we have a little bit of content
06:38 to talk about.
06:39 See, he's pickups.
06:40 Zvi McIluke, formerly of Kansas.
06:42 And of course, the Knicks last year, the Hornets last year, pick him up for a year.
06:48 See how this goes.
06:49 And I'll be honest with you, Jack, like I'm not I said this on Twitter and I'm not like
06:53 here to say that I'm the biggest Zvi McIluke fan.
06:57 I'm not sitting over here grinding Zvi McIluke tape.
07:00 I'm not not like on my agenda of things to do.
07:04 I know who the player is.
07:05 I'm aware of what his skills are and what his skills aren't.
07:07 And it seems like to me the Celtics are once again kind of leading into that three point
07:12 shooting, trying to space the floor, trying to spread everybody out.
07:14 And they get a guy who is proficient at that particular spot, can play a little bit of
07:18 three, a little bit of four.
07:20 But it's another weapon to to kind of give the Celtics more space in the paint, so to
07:24 speak.
07:25 And and like, look, again, I'm not the biggest expert on it.
07:28 But if you look at people that follow the Charlotte Hornets specifically, not just the
07:31 Knicks, but more importantly, the Hornets, like this is a guy that kind of came on last
07:35 year and was actually not a bad player and it was a good shooter, but also was a good
07:39 like secondary playmaker.
07:41 And that that kind of stuff sort of intrigues me.
07:43 And as we get ready for the season and you look at the way the Celtics are going to have
07:46 to stagger their lineups, like I think Zvi can be a nice addition.
07:50 But in the back of my head, Jack, have Mike Muscala sitting back there thinking about
07:56 all the stuff that we said to pump ourselves up about Mike Muscala and nothing came of
08:01 that.
08:02 So is this more of like a in your opinion, are we talking more of like this is a, you
08:06 know, end of the rotation move, but an impactful piece?
08:09 Or is this like Mike Muscala in twenty, twenty three, twenty twenty four?
08:13 It's weird because like like you, I haven't watched Mike or see Mikhailu highlights like
08:18 when it came out, it was like the smallest crumb of content that we could get in this
08:21 dead season.
08:22 And we reacted to like some of his plays with the Hornets for a video for how about the
08:26 Celtics and he can like handle the ball a little bit.
08:29 Obviously he shot well.
08:30 I think he played 19 games for the Hornets.
08:31 He shot like 40 percent from three and shot almost five a game.
08:34 So like dude can shoot, obviously.
08:36 But you look at the Celtics lineup right now and heading into the summer, it's like, OK,
08:42 maybe you get an extra wing to back up Tatum and Brown.
08:44 Now you have Hauser and you have Bressett and you have Mikhailu and you have Jordan
08:48 Wall.
08:49 So it's like there's only so many minutes for these guys behind Tatum and Brown, because
08:52 those guys are going to play 30, 35 minutes a night.
08:54 Then you have Porzingis coming in.
08:56 He's going to play some for Al Horford and Rob obviously going to get their minutes.
08:59 And then you have Derek White, Malcolm Brogdon.
09:01 There is maybe one consistent roster spot left that's going to play even close to 20
09:05 minutes a night.
09:06 Does that go to Peyton Pritchard?
09:07 Does that go to Sam Hauser?
09:08 Do they try out some Jordan Walsh?
09:09 Like there are so many guys in front of Steve Mikhailu.
09:12 I think he has the talent to play, but I'm like more confused why they went because it
09:16 seems like this was probably there.
09:18 You know, we heard Lamar Stevens, TJ Warren, this big group of wings they brought to Boston
09:21 to work out.
09:22 Are you going to sign now another wing or was Steve Mikhailu the guy you chose over
09:26 the Lamar Stevens?
09:27 And if that's the case, I'm confused why you went with let's get a Sam Hauser replicant
09:31 instead of a guy who can play defense a little bit opposite.
09:33 So it just seems like I guess you can never have enough shooting.
09:37 But if Sam Hauser is healthy, why are we playing Steve Mikhailu?
09:41 That's the way I see it.
09:42 I think they're both great.
09:43 And I think he's like a nice like what's the word?
09:45 The famous football term, insurance option, handcuff option, or whatever you want to call
09:49 it, like a Sam Hauser gets hurt or goes cold for a certain period of time.
09:52 You have to be with Steve Mikhailu, but it just seems like redundant to have all these
09:56 wings who do the same thing, which is just shoot the ball.
09:59 But he can handle it a little bit, which is fine.
10:01 It's just I feel like he's going to get buried, might spend some time in Maine rather than
10:05 play.
10:06 Well, we'll see with that.
10:07 I agree with the Hauser point of like, OK, if you're going to try and play, really play
10:10 Sam House this year, which was up and down last year.
10:13 Why are you bringing a guy that seems like a duplicate?
10:15 Well, they clearly think they need a spot of someone that can do stuff like that consistently.
10:18 And maybe this is a way to push Sam House a little bit.
10:21 And that's why I want the C's to really look at Lamar Stevens so much.
10:25 And again, I'm not going to sit here and tell you I'm grinding Lamar Stevens tape like this
10:29 is like that's for someone who watches the Cavs.
10:32 It's not for someone like me.
10:33 I look to them to tell me what to how to feel about this.
10:36 But again, if you look at Lamar Stevens over his course of his career, you know, he was
10:40 I think I believe he is Penn State's all time leading scorer in school history.
10:44 So you can clearly fill it up a little bit.
10:46 But he comes in the Big Ten.
10:47 Those guys play defense.
10:49 His defensive prowess is what he's quote unquote known for in the NBA.
10:52 But I was someone I was like, if you just drafted Jordan Walsh and he did what he did
10:57 in summer league and I was only summer league.
10:59 But if you did what he did and showed out that he was not just a defensive guy, he could
11:03 play a little bit on the offensive end and really do some interesting things like I wouldn't
11:07 want to take minutes away from that guy.
11:09 So I was kind of anti Lamar Stevens because I didn't want Jordan Walsh's development to
11:14 take any to take a backseat to a guy that can play right now.
11:18 And I think it's very similar here with Svee and with Hauser.
11:21 It's like, look, I mean, like how's this kind of like already the guy that's there.
11:24 But at the same time, to your credit, to your point, we are in the twenty twenty three twenty
11:29 twenty four basketball.
11:31 There is no such thing in this league as too much shooting.
11:34 Like the more guys you can roll out to space the floor, the harder you are to guard, the
11:38 easier it is for Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown and Derek White and even a guy like Porzingis
11:44 to feast on the inside.
11:46 And as we've talked about ad nauseum, you, me, everybody else that's covered this team,
11:51 the more like Jason Tatum goes to the free throw line, the better off this team is going
11:55 to be.
11:56 And if the lane is open, more opportunities for him to get to the basket.
12:00 And even a guy like Malcolm Brogdon, a guy like Derek White, a guy like Jalen Brown,
12:03 either more free throws or more looks at the cup.
12:05 And that's and that's always going to be a positive thing.
12:08 I agree.
12:09 I agree.
12:10 I thought it was weird they were going for a wing in general, because like you said,
12:12 they have Jordan Walsh.
12:13 They really need Omar Stevens.
12:14 You have Sam Hazard.
12:15 Do you really need another shooter?
12:16 You even brought even O'Shea Bressett, who can play some three and four.
12:20 And then you have a trio of bigs who are either injury prone, injury prone or 37 years old.
12:26 And then you have Luke Cornette behind them and nothing else.
12:29 Like, and you can say, oh, well, Blake Griffin, if he comes back, well, even if he does come
12:32 back, you could have an extra big just because Blake Griffin is also older.
12:36 And if he doesn't come back, then you're left with Luke Cornette minutes, which I like Luke
12:40 Cornette, a Luke Cornette fan, but having an extra big who can bring you something else
12:43 feels like a little more important than another wing at this point.
12:46 Even another guard in case.
12:47 I mean, the Malcolm Brogdon situation is a little weird.
12:49 I don't really know what's going on.
12:50 If he's happy, if he's still upset that they tried to trade him, Peyton Pritchard, too.
12:53 Like if he doesn't get a consistent role, he wanted to be traded last season.
12:56 So if he doesn't play this year, he probably doesn't want to be here anymore if he's not
13:00 going to be playing.
13:01 So it just seems like a wing should have been lower on the priority list.
13:04 But I'm not Brad Stevens for a reason.
13:06 I think wing depth in general, I think, is something that Boston and a lot of other teams
13:11 focus on because there's not a lot of good ones in the NBA.
13:13 And if you get a couple of good, it makes life easier.
13:16 I do think they want to take minutes off Tatum and Brown and like, obviously not nearly the
13:22 same role, right?
13:23 Like like Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown and Steve McAuliffe, like they play way.
13:28 OK, but it is it is a little bit of depth to give them a blow a little bit.
13:33 I do think they're conscious of that.
13:34 That's why, again, I think they brought forcing us in because a few things.
13:38 But one, they know they can't rely on Al Orford to be the guy in the playoffs as he was last
13:43 year where he had no legs when they hit the Miami series.
13:46 You know, I just don't think it's and that's really feasible.
13:48 So I think they're what they're trying to do is, you know, we got to have more bodies
13:52 to replace Tatum and Brown so they don't play 40 minutes a bunch of nights this year.
13:57 I think they want to avoid that.
13:58 I think it's really smart.
13:59 Again, we're in this this era of trying to minimize regular season impact on legs.
14:05 And again, these two guys are 26 and 25.
14:07 It's not like they're super old or anything.
14:09 But at the same time, the more you do now, you know, the better off you're going to be.
14:13 And again, this is a team that relied a lot on three point shooting last year to a lot
14:19 of people's chagrins.
14:20 I think a lot of people were upset about how many threes the C's took.
14:24 I would I would put myself in that group of like, this is too many.
14:28 Like let's go to that.
14:29 Get something close to basket.
14:30 Let's get it like a layup or a jump shot in the mid range.
14:34 Again, that's where basketball is kind of headed.
14:36 But at the same time, get more space, more driving lanes, because this team loves to
14:40 drive and kick more than, like, I think almost any other team in basketball.
14:44 They love the drive and kick game.
14:46 And, you know, how many times on a broadcast, Jack, did you hear Scal go, you know, drive
14:52 and kick, penetrate one more time, kick it back out, rotate it around, get a good shot.
14:55 Like that's that's seems like the bread and butter of their offense.
14:59 It's Missoula ball, baby.
15:01 Joe Missoula is ready to shoot as many threes as he wants to shoot.
15:05 I had less of a problem with the threes that like Derek White was taking, Al Horford was
15:09 taking and more a problem with the let me dribble dribble step back at three with 18
15:13 seconds on the shot clock.
15:14 I'm Jason Tatum.
15:15 I'm Jalen Brown, which usually is fine.
15:17 Like Jason Tatum historically is a pretty good three point shooter on pull ups.
15:20 But last year, his percentage just took a massive dip.
15:23 And so when he's taking these pull ups with ample time in the shot clock, it really muddles
15:28 the offense, lets other teams get out in transition.
15:30 So I think if you cut back on those a little bit, get him to the hoop more.
15:34 I know Sam, who I host Tabitha themselves with, he's big on, you know, get said Tatum
15:37 some post reps, get him in there.
15:39 I mean, he's six nine, right?
15:41 He's stronger every year.
15:42 Get him down there, get him playing a little bully ball, at least I get smaller defenders.
15:46 But yeah, I don't know.
15:47 It's going to be interesting to me to see how many threes they take this year.
15:50 You can't imagine they take too many more.
15:52 I would I would assume it's either going to stay same or maybe they take a couple less
15:56 because not because they're playing less driving kick, but because we see hopefully less of
16:01 Jason Tatum.
16:02 I so I so Jalen Brown, I so I so where they just pull up, which those are the threes that
16:06 I have a problem with mainly.
16:07 I'll say this, though, like there's a great Twitter follow up there for the B-ball index
16:14 and they can get this scatterplot of on ball and off ball gravity.
16:20 And to to just put a feather in the Celtics cap for just a second, because we spend so
16:25 much time criticizing.
16:27 The driving kick game, too many threes games like whatever, like, yeah, it was a detriment
16:31 last year.
16:32 I think they they realized that and they they try to remedy the situation a little bit.
16:36 But they also have like similar off ball gravity to the Golden State Warriors in terms of how
16:40 much shooting they have around and how much respect those shooters command.
16:43 I think a lot of that is, you know, Al Horford and Malcolm Brogdon being just get I three
16:48 point shooters last year.
16:49 They got a lot to do with that.
16:50 We'll see that I wouldn't expect it to kind of go this way this year.
16:53 But at the same time, maybe they're like, hey, we saw this.
16:56 We saw this data.
16:58 We saw how much gravity are shooting creates the rest of our offense.
17:06 Maybe we need to lean into that a little bit more and be a little bit more efficient with
17:11 our off ball shooting.
17:13 And maybe that's something that they can like.
17:14 I've been accused of being a little too negative on this podcast recently.
17:18 So I'm trying to maybe even it out a little bit.
17:21 I'm trying to find some positive notes here with a 14th man signing.
17:25 But at the same time, if you're trying to step back and take a look at the bigger picture
17:29 of the Boston Celtics offense, maybe adding just a little bit more because like I don't
17:35 think O'Shea percent is going to add too much shooting.
17:37 I don't think Jordan Walsh is going to add too much shooting.
17:41 I know nobody likes smart.
17:42 Well, not nobody.
17:43 A lot of people were frustrated with Marcus Smart.
17:46 A lot of people were frustrated with Grant Williams.
17:49 Those guys can be good shooters.
17:51 I'm not going to sit here and say I'm reliant on Jordan Walsh to be a good three point shooter
17:56 out of the game.
17:57 I'm not going to sit here and say, oh, shape or set is going to be an awesome three point
18:00 shooter this season.
18:02 They added Chris S. Porzingis, who's a hell of a shooter at seven foot two.
18:07 And maybe again, bringing in this the Mikhailu, who if you go back to the draft, I was working
18:11 for Jeff Goodman at the time doing his podcast.
18:14 He had Scott Van Pelt on right after the draft.
18:18 And SVP is the best.
18:19 He like he did it like literally in between sports center hits and was talking about how
18:25 much and again, he's not a scout, but he's a guy who's educated about the college basketball
18:29 process was like, I think Sveen Mikhailuk was the best shooter in America last year
18:34 and he's only going to get better.
18:35 So maybe that's like a hey, if we put him in our system, we get the guys are like, as
18:40 you saw last year, the on off data with Jason Tatum and literally anybody else in the floor
18:44 was like through the roof.
18:46 That's why Sam Houser had a great plus minus because he was on the floor with Jason Tatum.
18:49 Maybe if they're like, hey, if we put Tatum on the floor with White and and Sveen Mikhailuk
18:55 and Porzingis and name somebody else like he's going to get a lot of open looks and
19:01 more open looks for guys that can shoot 36, 37, 38, 40 percent and three, the better offense
19:07 is going to run.
19:08 Maybe that's the idea.
19:09 Yeah, I mean, you really can't have enough shooting.
19:12 Yeah, I was I commonly got in fights with Sam on the podcast last year.
19:16 He is big on stop shooting so much, take some mid-range shots, mix it up.
19:20 And I was big on just keep shooting the threes.
19:22 I mean, it's working right.
19:23 Like Derek White shot thirty eight, thirty nine percent from three.
19:26 Obviously, like you said, Brogdon Horford shot forty four percent, which again probably
19:29 won't happen again, but they should still be good shooters.
19:33 And then I think a lot of people got particularly frustrated with it in the playoffs, which
19:37 was when Malcolm Brogdon Al Horford magically shot 10 percent worse from three.
19:42 And as much as there were plenty of other issues in that postseason run, like didn't
19:46 try hard enough on defense.
19:47 There was the effort problem against the heat.
19:50 There was, you know, blowing leads, all this stuff like at the end of the day, the bulge
19:54 didn't go in as much as it did in the regular season.
19:56 Like they were getting pretty good looks from three and Al Horford, Malcolm Brogdon just
19:59 shot literally 10 percent worse.
20:02 Both of them.
20:03 And then two of the top four three point shooters in the NBA and the regular season shoot like
20:08 thirty five percent and thirty four percent respectively when they shot forty five and
20:12 thirty four percent.
20:13 Like that's a huge difference.
20:15 And it would have taken a massive leap to get over that.
20:18 Those guys were playing 30 minutes a night in the postseason.
20:19 Right.
20:20 Those are your two year top eight guys.
20:21 They were on the floor every night.
20:22 And so it's hard to overcome that.
20:24 And again, that's not me saying this was the only problem the Celtics had in the playoffs.
20:28 That's far from the truth.
20:29 But sometimes as much as people nowadays hate to admit it, like the numbers are the numbers.
20:34 The Celtics were a really good three point shooting team.
20:37 Obviously, a lot of it was that hot start they had.
20:39 And I do think it's important for them to have a backup option, which didn't seem to
20:42 be the case a lot last year.
20:43 Like if the threes aren't falling, maybe sometimes you do go to the middle, you get get some
20:47 layups, you know, backdoor cuts.
20:49 And I think they'll have an extra valve for that this year with Porzingis in the post.
20:52 But I just think the Celtics are a good three point shooting team.
20:56 And so just because they didn't happen to shoot well for a couple of weeks in May, which
21:01 granted is probably the worst time for you to not shoot well, doesn't mean they're going
21:04 to stop shooting threes next year.
21:05 So I think you make a good point.
21:06 Getting Steve O'Kaylu, get as many shooters as you can to play around the Jays is probably
21:10 a smart way of thinking.
21:12 Get ready for the NFL season with incredible offers from FanDuel, America's number one
21:16 sports book.
21:17 Right now, new customers can bet five dollars and get 200 in bonus bets.
21:22 Guaranteed.
21:23 That's guaranteed.
21:24 Plus, all customers who bet five dollars will get one hundred dollars off NFL Sunday ticket
21:29 from YouTube and YouTube TV.
21:32 Now is the best time to join FanDuel.
21:35 It absolutely is.
21:36 The app is easy to use and you can be on everything from spreads to player props and more.
21:41 So visit FanDuel.com/Boston.
21:44 Kick off the NFL season with an offer you won't want to miss.
21:48 FanDuel, official partner of the NFL.
21:50 Evan Valenti back with Jack Simone of Celtics blog and a kajillion other things.
21:59 But most importantly here, Celtics blog talking about the C's again, more about, again, their
22:05 off ball gravity.
22:06 The team has added another three points.
22:08 We were in Steve O'Kayluk.
22:10 They have, again, some vacancies in that department, but one of the ones that I don't think people
22:15 are talking about enough in terms of that off ball gravity and how it's going to help
22:18 them.
22:19 The Porzingis addition, like as much as I've talked about how nervous I think people should
22:28 be about the addition of Chris Tapp's Porzingis and the plantar fasciitis already becoming
22:33 a problem in the season, it's already a training camp.
22:37 The thought of the seven foot two, like two guard being on the floor at the same time
22:41 as Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown is I think a very attractive option.
22:47 And as you look at or think about and compute about how this offense might look, I feel
22:54 like Chris Tapp's Porzingis might have the easiest time of his life in this lineup with
22:59 Derek White and the Jays.
23:03 I think he'll feast whenever he plays.
23:07 I think it's going to be one of these things of like, yeah, they'll manage it and maybe
23:10 we'll play it back to back, whatever, whatever.
23:12 When it looks right, when it's going well, they're going to be an offense that's going
23:16 to be really, really difficult to stop because guys like Porzingis are going to get wide
23:19 open shots because all the attention the other two guys bring on them.
23:22 And I think, again, go back to the off-ball gravity stuff.
23:25 He's another dead eye shooter, someone you have to be cognizant of 30 feet away from
23:30 the basket.
23:31 And if he has nobody on him, you might as well put three points on the board.
23:35 Yeah, I've been saying this all summer, like before, or excuse me, right after the trade
23:40 went through, it's all Marcus Smart's gone.
23:43 And I love Marcus Smart.
23:44 I've always loved Marcus Smart.
23:45 Obviously, he's probably my favorite Celtic of all time, just because of like when I started
23:48 watching the game and he was always there.
23:50 So that that was that sucked.
23:51 Right.
23:52 And then the plantar fasciitis comes out.
23:53 Oh, is he going to play these games?
23:55 This is a seven foot two, seven, three guy averaged 23 and eight last season and three
24:00 assists and shot 50 percent for the field and 38 percent from three.
24:03 And it feels like no one cares.
24:05 It feels like no one's excited about Porzingis.
24:07 It feels like all the focus is on, oh, he's injury prone.
24:10 All Marcus Smart's gone.
24:11 And all those things are true.
24:13 But at the end of the day, the Celtics have a guy who just averaged twenty three points
24:17 on near 50 40 shooting.
24:19 Like I feel like people are really not comprehending just how good Christoph Porzingis was last
24:26 year for the Wizards.
24:27 Right.
24:28 He wasn't played at an all star level.
24:30 And as much as again, love Marcus Smart, Brad Stevens got Christoph Porzingis in two first
24:36 round picks for Marcus Smart.
24:39 Like again, comes with the injury issues that come with the concerns, the plantar fasciitis.
24:44 But when Christoph Porzingis is on the court with Jaylen Brown and Jason Tatum, that might
24:49 be the best trio in the NBA.
24:51 If they're all healthy, that might be the best.
24:53 That's the top.
24:54 Right.
24:55 And then you add in the fact that they have an all defensive guard in Derek White and
24:58 all defensive center in Robert Williams.
24:59 You have Al Horford, who just shot 44 percent from three.
25:02 You have Malcolm Brogdon, who just shot 44 percent from three.
25:05 And then you have all of these, you know, role players.
25:07 You have Sam Houser, who's a three point sniper.
25:09 You have, you know, Peyton Pritchard, who can shoot it.
25:13 You have Steve McCullough, all these depth pieces now behind these guys.
25:16 Jordan Walsh.
25:18 The Celtics have three guys who could legitimately score 20 points in the summer.
25:21 And usually when you're talking about like a guy like that, you're like, oh, can you
25:24 defend Christoph Porzingis is an amazing defender, too.
25:27 He's great in the drop.
25:29 He's not as quick in the pick and roll, but he's seven foot three.
25:32 So he can probably make up for a little bit of that on the defensive end.
25:35 He just averaged one point five blocks last year and almost to steal a game like he's
25:39 a great defender added to an already great defensive team.
25:42 And I feel like since, you know, everyone, oh, they took so many threes last year.
25:44 They were the second best defensive team in the regular season last year.
25:47 And you're adding Christoph Porzingis to know you're losing Marcus Smart, but you still
25:51 have an all defensive point guard and Derek White, who as much as Marcus Smart was better
25:55 than Marcus Smart on defense last year.
25:57 Like I just I feel like people aren't fully excited about Porzingis, who, you know, not
26:02 to mention played sixty five games last year and he'll have more leeway to get some rest.
26:07 I feel like people are really not excited enough about the Porzingis edition like this
26:10 is.
26:11 He is going to be so, so, so fun to watch next to the Jays next year.
26:15 He's going to open up the floor.
26:17 They've had, you know, they've tried out some big threes in terms of, OK, Kyrie was there
26:21 and then they had Kemba there, but they've never had a star big man with them.
26:25 Right.
26:26 And so I think it's going to give him a new look.
26:27 I'm super excited for Porzingis.
26:28 I feel like more than the consensus.
26:29 I feel like the consensus would be a lot more excited for Kristaps.
26:32 One of the interesting things I think, you know, you mentioned it, the ability to have
26:35 three 20 point scorers in the team at the same time, but obviously at some point during
26:41 the season, they'll have them all on the floor at the same time.
26:43 It's going to be it's good.
26:45 There's three or closing five right there.
26:46 Again, we'll add Derek White and we'll see what happened last time.
26:50 When you think about adding another 20 point scorer on the team, you think about how many
26:53 teams in the NBA can boast three 20 point scorers on the same team at the same time.
27:01 The one really quick one that you can come up with in terms of, oh, yeah, they're going
27:06 to be able to add they have three 20 point scorers at the same time.
27:10 That's the Phoenix Suns.
27:13 That's Kevin Durant.
27:14 That's Devin Booker.
27:15 That's Bradley Beal.
27:16 And guess what?
27:17 The Phoenix Suns are a pretty loaded roster with top end talent.
27:22 A team that is a very interesting team, the Western Conference and a team that's probably
27:27 going to be heard from in terms of, you know, people betting on the NBA title or the Western
27:32 Conference.
27:33 Like obviously the Nuggets, as we've talked about ad nauseum on this show, Nuggets should
27:38 be.
27:39 And I mean, we'll see what it is come tip off, but they should be the favorites to win
27:43 the whole thing, considering how easily they did it last year.
27:48 Even if you look at a team like Phoenix, that's a team that could threaten the best team in
27:54 the league.
27:55 No question.
27:56 Boston is just the Eastern Conference version of that.
27:58 And I would add this there.
28:01 I think a slightly deeper team altogether than the Phoenix Suns like Phoenix went out
28:05 there and I think Phoenix is going to be a very interesting experiment.
28:09 I can't wait to see what it looks like on the floor.
28:11 I can't wait to watch 82 games of how they managed to put things together.
28:15 But like you look at that roster and yeah, they got a top four of Kevin Durant and Devin
28:19 Booker and Bradley Beal and DeAndre Aiden.
28:24 That's an interesting four guys.
28:27 But after that, you got a bunch of vet minimum guys and it's really kind of scary.
28:31 Boston has, you know, I think a pretty good top four with Derek White and Tatum and Brown
28:37 and Porzingis.
28:38 But I kind of like some of the other pieces like Rob Williams is a little bit more, I
28:43 don't know, accomplished than most guys in the Phoenix Suns out.
28:47 Warford is a little more accomplished than most guys in the Phoenix Suns.
28:52 And say what you will about Malcolm Brogdon.
28:54 And I've been a guy that's given him a lot of flack over the past couple of months.
28:59 Like he just has more experience than most guys on Phoenix's roster.
29:03 So can Boston really be a better version of the of the Phoenix Suns but out east when
29:10 you look at everything all together?
29:13 I absolutely agree.
29:14 I mean, like you said, the top four in Phoenix is great.
29:16 But then you've got I mean, if you're going one to one with the rosters, it's Robert Williams
29:21 versus Jock Lawndale, I think is who they have down there or Drew Eubanks or one of
29:26 those two guys.
29:27 I get them mixed up.
29:28 And then it's Eric Gordon versus Malcolm Brogdon.
29:29 And then there's just a lot more depth.
29:31 And there are plenty of other teams around the league who could have a guy go for 20
29:35 points like Philly has and be in Tyrese Maxey and kind of James Harden.
29:39 But like they could all go for 20 points.
29:42 And it just feels like the Celtics legitimately have three established all star players like
29:48 Porzingis hasn't been an all star in a few years, but he played at an all star level
29:51 for the Washington Wizards last year.
29:52 And if they want a few more games, he probably would have been in the game.
29:56 And then you add the role players in and I've been huge on Derek White.
30:00 And I really think he could have an even better season as the team starting point guard.
30:05 And as much as it's weird to say, because Porzingis is in town, I think he'll scoring
30:08 will go up.
30:09 I think a lot the ball in his hands a lot more like he's going to be great.
30:11 Horford's going to take a step back, but that's because he's probably going to be needed for
30:14 the playoffs.
30:15 I think Robert Williams is another player.
30:18 People don't talk about enough because last year he didn't play to the best of his ability,
30:22 but that's because he was coming off surgery.
30:24 Right.
30:25 Like he's full off season now.
30:26 Knock on wood to get healthy and come back and play well next to Porzingis.
30:30 And now I don't know.
30:31 I'm very excited.
30:32 I've seen a bunch of like criticism about the trade.
30:35 You know, you see all online like, oh, the Celtics won't be as good in the regular season,
30:38 but maybe they'll be better in the playoffs.
30:39 It's just I feel like people are really underestimating just how good Christoph Porzingis is a basketball.
30:45 Like he's he's so good.
30:47 And so far, like.
30:49 Not to.
30:50 The Brad, but I do think Brad Stevens has a good handle on how this job is going to it
30:56 works and what it needs to do to make tweaks to improve the team either a little bit or
31:01 incrementally.
31:02 I do think, as I've said a lot of times in the show, that Brad is very willing to watch
31:06 this roster for half the season and then go find another Derek White type trade out there
31:13 that really helps complete the roster.
31:15 I think they're done for now.
31:17 I think they won't make any big moves come the trade deadline.
31:20 But I do think that Brad has a good handle on how this job works.
31:24 And I'll give a little shout out to a good friend of this program, Ben Rohrbach, who
31:28 writes for Yahoo Sports.
31:29 He put together the top GMs of the NBA the other day for Yahoo Sports.
31:36 And I found it very interesting how much blowback that this got because of where Brad Stevens
31:44 was listed.
31:45 People were like, oh, how is Brad Stevens?
31:46 He came in at number nine of all the GMs in the NBA.
31:50 Cig is extremely fair considering they haven't won a title yet.
31:54 But Brad has done a nice job of building a roster.
31:57 He is behind a couple of guys I think people are angry about.
32:00 Colby Altman, probably the first and foremost one there.
32:03 Troy Weaver, the Pistons, that team has just been bad.
32:07 And they've been able to accumulate talent because they've been bad, which is a different
32:11 sort of object than some other guys.
32:14 I think it's a little not fair because you got Cade Cunningham and Jadon Ivey and a bunch
32:18 of dudes.
32:19 Kevin Pritchard, I have a hard time with that.
32:23 I really do.
32:24 But at the same time, if you go through the list, Brad Stevens is ahead of guys like Tim
32:30 Connolly, who built the Denver Nuggets.
32:33 It is the reason why Jokic is on the Nuggets.
32:37 Zach Klinman, who's done a great job with Memphis.
32:40 David Griffin, who's built two different teams.
32:42 And look, if Zion's healthy all the time, they're definitely way different.
32:47 And Sam Presti, who has this maximum ammo amount of picks at his disposal at some point.
32:58 So I think it's interesting to look at his particular place in the hierarchy.
33:02 But I do think they got him kind of right.
33:04 He's kind of in the top third of GMs in the league.
33:07 And the only thing that's really keeping him from the top five, in my opinion, and again,
33:12 I think Riley being sixth is a little disingenuous.
33:14 I think Pat Riley, considering the success of the Miami Heat over the past couple of
33:18 years with the undrafted guys they've had, it deserves to be a little bit higher.
33:22 But like if he wins a title, then he vaults into that top five status for me.
33:26 Because again, he hasn't missed.
33:30 He just really hasn't missed.
33:33 Getting Al Horford back for Kemba Walker has been huge.
33:37 I mean, look, as much as people want to gripe about certain things, and I was cheap among
33:42 them, getting Malcolm Brogdon was smart.
33:45 The Derek White trade was brilliant.
33:47 They've done a lot of really smart things and they haven't sacrificed too much of their
33:52 future to have success in the present.
33:55 Like they're not trading a kajillion, like five second round picks for Jay Crowder.
34:00 That's not happening here.
34:02 They're not mortgaging all of their picks to go maybe get a guy that fits.
34:07 They've made a couple of moves on the margins with Chris Hamps Porzingis being the most
34:11 recent one of these.
34:14 And considering what Brad has done so far, like you have to have a little bit of confidence
34:19 in that this is going to work out at least in the regular season.
34:22 I think Brad again is in that top third of guys league, despite the fact he's never had
34:28 this job before.
34:29 He's just thrown into it and he's done a really good job.
34:34 Definitely.
34:35 I mean, even look at their future picks like the Celtics have every single first round
34:38 pick except twenty twenty eight moving forward.
34:40 And that was to get there.
34:41 Right.
34:42 That's a swap with with San Antonio.
34:44 Yeah.
34:45 They don't have control over it because it was in the Derek White trade.
34:48 Now, outside of that, they have all their picks.
34:50 And I mean, since we just compared them, let's look at the Suns.
34:52 How many picks do they have?
34:54 Literally zero.
34:55 They literally don't have control of their first round pick until twenty thirty or later.
34:59 And hey, you have Bradley Beal, Kevin Durant, Dembaker.
35:03 Great.
35:04 The Celtics have Tatum Brown, Porzingis and every draft pick at their disposal or most
35:08 of them.
35:09 And a lot of people got mad at Brad Stevens on draft night, or at least we did because
35:12 we were streaming it and trying to make a video when he traded back four times to get
35:16 out your midnight that night.
35:18 I was so mad.
35:19 I was like, you just pick somebody.
35:20 I'm upset.
35:21 Look, it's a rush.
35:22 We were ready to record a video.
35:23 We're like, OK, we'll just react to the highlights of the guy, the draft posted as a video.
35:27 And then it was, oh, they got this guy.
35:29 Nope.
35:30 Traded again.
35:31 Again.
35:32 So we were up late.
35:33 But as much as people mock him, those second round picks, they're basically just cash.
35:36 Right.
35:37 You can just trade those.
35:38 You can just put those in.
35:39 And it's probably a little bit better to trade that many for J. Crowder when you have a gazillion
35:43 of them, not like the Bucks.
35:45 But Brad Stevens did a great job.
35:46 I like you said, he hasn't really missed.
35:49 Right.
35:50 Everything he's done has worked out pretty well.
35:51 I feel like the Porzingis trade, because they gave up Marcus Smart, is probably the first
35:56 like, OK, let's, you know, dip into the deep end a little bit.
35:59 Let's see how far we can push this.
36:01 And if it doesn't work out, people are going to go for his head.
36:04 But if it does work out, it's genius.
36:06 Right.
36:07 So as much as again, love Marcus Smart, you try to separate the the fan or the you know,
36:12 the fact that how much you respect Marcus Smart, how much you love watching the Celtic
36:15 Uniform from the value you traded Marcus Smart and a second for Christoph Porzingis and two
36:23 firsts.
36:24 And if you ask anybody outside of Boston and obviously the bias is there, love Marcus Smart.
36:29 Porzingis is just a better player.
36:30 Right.
36:31 And they do different things.
36:32 And there's the whole, you know, Marcus Smart's the leadership in the locker room and the
36:35 community.
36:36 So I'm not ignoring that.
36:37 But pure basketball value.
36:39 That was a great deal.
36:41 It was Porzingis and two firsts.
36:42 And again, we'll see how it works out, because you're sacrificing a big voice in the locker
36:46 room, a leader, all this stuff and a great guy in the community in Boston.
36:51 It's definitely a risk.
36:52 I'm not saying it's not a risk, but up to this point, the only mistake Brad Stevens
36:56 made was resigning and his freedom.
36:59 That's literally the only bad thing he's ever done.
37:02 And that was bad.
37:04 But it turned into trade for Daniel Tice.
37:05 So I guess it all worked out.
37:06 But literally everything else he's done outside of that one signing a plus.
37:12 So it's hard to say, though, we got a little flat for this.
37:15 I think it was last week.
37:16 All the weeks blend together now, but it's like we had Dan Greenberg on and his point
37:21 was like, this is this trade.
37:24 All the all the Brad trades have been kind of like no brainer so far.
37:27 Yeah.
37:28 Malcolm Brogdon trade for as much as people want to.
37:30 Again, I was part of that.
37:32 That was a no brainer trade.
37:33 Like, duh, let's do that.
37:35 Yeah.
37:36 Eric White was again.
37:37 People didn't like it.
37:38 And I fought those people tooth and nail.
37:40 I was like, you guys don't understand.
37:41 That's three guys.
37:43 Literally perfect for the way they want to play.
37:44 Yeah, that was a no brainer.
37:46 Training Kemba for Al Horford was like a lot of these have been no brainers.
37:50 This one is a little different.
37:53 And I think that we again, we mentioned last week it could sink or, you know, you know,
37:59 sink Brad Stevens, his career a little bit.
38:01 Yeah, go well, because he's on the hook for 30 million for the next three years.
38:06 And if you're not maximizing your title window with the Jays right now, then what are you
38:10 really doing?
38:11 Right at twenty five and twenty six, they're both under their primes.
38:14 You better be maximizing every opportunity you have, because we've just seen just two
38:19 years ago because you get to the finals, you come within two wins of winning the NBA title.
38:23 It's not guarantee you anything in this league.
38:26 It does not.
38:27 So this is a humongous risk for the Celtics.
38:31 But again, we've talked about that particular portion of it ad nauseum on the show.
38:36 I do want to at least give a little light to.
38:40 This could be an absolute home run of a pick or of a trade, and it could really open up
38:46 what was been so frustrating about Boston's offense in the playoffs the past couple of
38:52 years, especially against certain teams.
38:54 This might be, you know, the the decoder to unlock the DaVinci code or whatever the hell
39:01 I'm looking for, whatever example I'm looking for at 11 o'clock on a Sunday night.
39:06 But it is it gives them an answer to a problem they couldn't answer before.
39:12 Instead of relying on the perimeter so much.
39:14 And again, it's not really Porzingis' game to post up a ton, but at least it's an option.
39:21 You know, as much as people want to gripe about him, Marcus Smarr on the low block was
39:26 a smart play and it always was and it always killed it.
39:29 They didn't run more of that stuff for Marcus because he was a great not only score on the
39:33 block, but a facilitator to the block as well.
39:35 We're all clamoring for Jason Tame to spend more time in the post.
39:41 I think Jalen Brown has made a lot of jumps in terms of his low post play when he has
39:47 smaller defenders on him.
39:48 Like, I think there's potential there.
39:51 But Porzingis is going to be sort of the straw that stirs the drink a little bit.
39:56 And look, we know what this team looks like when they have the guys they've had over the
40:01 couple of years.
40:03 They might get to the finals.
40:04 They might win the finals, but that's not guaranteed.
40:08 And neither is this.
40:09 But this is different.
40:10 And because it's different, it might have more success because it might be something
40:14 that people can't prepare for as easily.
40:16 And I think that's part of the part of the equation when they made the trade.
40:21 Definitely.
40:22 And in Brad Stevens defense, he was a cold footed clipper away from this being another
40:26 pretty slant dunk trade.
40:28 Unfortunately, I tried to mention that because it really bothers me because when I went to
40:32 bed, it was it was going to be brought in.
40:35 And then I woke up and I was like, this is not the trade that I went to bed.
40:39 Like, yeah, that was a big thing.
40:41 And now here we are.
40:43 But this is what I say all the time to try not to justify it, but to try and smooth it
40:47 out a little bit.
40:50 At some point, one of the three guys had to go if you don't want to talk.
40:54 Yes.
40:55 OK, I agree.
40:56 And they made it.
40:58 Because this blew up, they had to make a decision.
41:00 And I think they made the right decision.
41:03 As painful as that is like.
41:05 Jaylen and Jason are just better basketball players.
41:09 And then the day you invested in talent more than grit and grind and hustle and that stuff.
41:15 And I'm not saying Jaylen and Jason are capable of that.
41:18 You invested more in the talent than the intangibles.
41:21 And a lot of times in in the NBA, talent wins out.
41:26 I agree.
41:27 And I think the reason this was open to and like you said, forcing is going to bring a
41:31 whole new dynamic to the Celtics offense for teams to worry about.
41:34 But the reason you're able to trade Marcus Smart is Derek White was phenomenal last year
41:38 in the playoffs.
41:39 Malcolm Brogdon won six men of the year.
41:41 You have two starting count.
41:42 You excuse me.
41:43 You had three starting caliber guards on the roster trading one for an all star.
41:48 Big man is a no brainer.
41:50 If you just say that we have three starting guards.
41:52 We traded one for an all star caliber.
41:54 Big man.
41:55 That phrase alone is yet.
41:58 When it was Marcus Smart hurts a little bit more.
42:00 But like from a roster building perspective, trading one of those guards to pair the Jays
42:05 with a star big man who could also another thing people talk about is going to take the
42:09 load off of Horford and Robert Williams a little bit more, creating a three headed monster
42:13 there.
42:14 It just it just made sense from a roster construction construction standpoint.
42:17 Excuse me, although I don't know if I'll be able to forgive the Clippers for what they
42:20 did.
42:21 All right.
42:22 All right.
42:23 We'll get over it as soon as training camp rolls around.
42:24 Be ready to go.
42:25 Yes.
42:26 Now, one of these typical shows in the middle of September now, late August, early September.
42:31 We're just killing time.
42:32 And I think this time, you know, we try to be a little bit more positive on this show.
42:36 I think we've been, I don't know, rightfully slammed for being a little negative.
42:41 We're just asking questions.
42:43 Right.
42:44 Yeah.
42:45 Asking questions and having discussions.
42:46 And yeah, there's a lot to worry about with Porzingis.
42:48 There's a lot to worry about with this roster.
42:51 And I think it's valid to raise these points.
42:53 But at the same time, we have to be balanced.
42:55 We have to be fair.
42:56 We have to educate the public.
42:58 I think we want a little more optimistic on this side just because we had a little bit
43:02 more time and we're getting close.
43:03 And again, we're just kind of running out of things to talk about at this point.
43:06 But I got to tell you, for your debut, Jack, I think we crushed it, so to speak.
43:12 I think we crushed it.
43:13 I think it will be what is the first of hopefully many times on this show.
43:18 Jack, before we go, please plug everything you do because it's a mile long.
43:21 Yeah, it's a lot.
43:22 Well, we'll keep it Celtics just for the case of this podcast because that's what the people
43:25 care about.
43:26 How about them Celtics, which is also part of the CLNS family now as of the last few
43:29 weeks.
43:30 So how about them Celtics on YouTube?
43:31 Subscribe to that channel.
43:32 Subscribe to CLNS, obviously, as well.
43:34 And then I write for Celtics blog.
43:35 You can check my work out there.
43:36 And then if you want to follow me on Twitter, that's Jack Simone NBA.
43:38 But yeah, that's all the Celtics stuff.
43:40 There's other stuff because we're grinding in the NBA sphere.
43:42 But for the Celtics people, that's where you can find me.
43:44 That's it.
43:45 That's Jack Simone, Evan Valenti, Adam Kaufman will be back next week with me.
43:49 Who the guests will be?
43:50 We don't know.
43:51 What we'll talk about?
43:52 We don't know.
43:53 But we'll be here for you every single week.
43:55 We'll be at the training camp.
43:57 We might have an announcement as we get towards the actual regular season about this show
44:01 and the format and all that stuff.
44:02 So stay tuned for that.
44:04 But make sure you subscribe to this show on iTunes, on Spotify, subscribe to CLNS Media.
44:09 And how about them C's on YouTube for sure?
44:12 Make sure that you get in on this FanDuel promo.
44:16 This is outrageous.
44:17 I don't know how many times I have to scream this from the mountaintops.
44:20 You can win every single week by picking a Super Bowl winner, that team winning in the
44:25 regular season.
44:26 Go to Fanduel.com/Boston to win money every week.
44:31 I promise you, the Chiefs are going to make you rich.
44:35 So for Jack, myself, Evan Valenti, for CLNS Media, you guys have a wonderful Labor Day
44:40 weekend.
44:41 We'll see you next week with Adam right here on Celtics Beat.
44:44 New FanDuel customers can bet $5 and get 200 in bonus bets, guaranteed.
44:51 Plus all customers who bet $5 will get $100 off NFL Sunday ticket from YouTube at YouTube
44:58 TV.
44:59 (whooshing)
45:01 [BLANK_AUDIO]