On the latest episode of You Got Boston, CLNS Reporter Noa Dalzell hosts Jack Simone from the How 'Bout Them Celtics Podcast to discuss the upcoming Celtics season and make their predictions for who would win theoretical Celtics-specifics awards, including MVP, Defensive Player of the Year, Sixth Man of the Year, Most Improved Player, and Clutch Player of the Year. Tune in to hear Noa and Jack's picks, and sound off in the comments with yours. Plus, Noa shared some thoughts on Joe Mazzulla's championship trophy presentation in Rhode Island, and yes, we discussed the Lonnie Walker acquisition.
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SportsTranscript
00:00What's up, everyone? This is Noah Dalzell, and we're here with another episode of You
00:23Got Boston. And I'm here with my former coworker, former Jack Simone, who is now with Hardwood
00:30Houdini, previously at Selfish Blog. That's Al, right? That's public knowledge.
00:35Hardwood Houdini? Yeah, I've worked there for a month. Yeah, it's public knowledge.
00:38Hardwood Houdini.
00:38And I think you didn't do a big announcement, you know?
00:41I did it on Twitter.
00:42You know me, I always do my big announcements. No, you stuck it in there.
00:46I'm not a social media guy. I leave that to the professionals like you. I'm not built like
00:51that.
00:52I know. Um, well, we have a couple things we're going to talk about today. I wanted to share a
00:57little bit of an update from the event in Rhode Island earlier this week with Joe Mezula. Not
01:04too in depth, because Bobby Manning and I already did a stand up on that one. But just to give you
01:09guys some context, it was pretty cool. Joe was at the Rhode Island State Capitol, celebrating the
01:15championship for Freight. I wrote a story about that for Selfish Blog, you can check that out.
01:19For me, it was personally cool, because I used to lobby at the Rhode Island State Capitol.
01:24Because for some of you know, I was previously a full time lobbyist. And now I do this full time,
01:28which is fun. So it was cool. I recognize a lot of like the legislators in the crowd. But I was
01:33like, I hope that we don't have to talk. So it's not, it doesn't feel like I'm like, too, too mixed
01:39up with everything. But it was a very cool event, beautiful day. And Joe just seemed really,
01:42really happy to be able to celebrate this championship alongside his family and friends in
01:47Rhode Island. I talked to his aunt, his cousin, they were really funny and like really cool. Like
01:52I was hanging out with his aunt and his cousin. And I was like, I would be friends with this girl
01:55like in real life. So it was definitely cool. Then we didn't get to talk to him. But he did speak to
02:00the crowd and just shared like how meaningful it was, because he was really raised by the Rhode
02:04Island community. And all that. And then Joe also did, I'll just plug, he did a one on one interview
02:09with John Corrales at Lockdown Celtics, which some of you might know is my all time favorite
02:14Celtics podcast. So no offense, no offense, Jack.
02:20I get it. No, it's fine. Yeah, it's fine.
02:24So yeah, check that out as well. Those are my two plugs. But I have Jack here today because we're
02:28going to do a little Celtics season preview, but award style. Because I think that as you all know,
02:34this is as dead as it gets as far as the Celtics offseason. We really did have like a lot going on
02:39for a while between the finals and then right to the draft. That turnaround, I really didn't like.
02:45I feel like that was way too quick. To the point where like, I'm the first to admit, I did not have
02:49enough time to research those guys. And then right to summer league, which we were both at. And that
02:54was a cool experience to get to know some of those players. And then right from there to the Olympics.
02:58And so that was, you know, all the narratives that came with that. So there really hasn't been a slow
03:01moment between now and the 24th, 22nd, 24th. Yeah, it's been pretty dead for like the last
03:10week or two. Like there's just been nothing going on after the Olympics. And I mean, it's kind of
03:14nice because like, I feel like for the first few days, you're like, oh, now I get to breathe a
03:17little bit. Then you're like, I just, I just want to watch and talk about basketball again. Like,
03:20I'm over it already. Like, it's such a quick, I just need a week and then bring the season back.
03:24But now we've got like another, I mean, training camp starts up soon enough. So I guess that'll
03:28give some, some entertainment, but we still got like over a month and a half at least until
03:33regular season basketball, which not fun. I need it. I need it now. I need it very quickly.
03:39I know I am excited for training camp, especially because now there's like the Lonnie Walker story,
03:44which by now you've probably, you know, those of you that follow CNS and just follow Celtics
03:50media in general, you've probably seen 25 Lonnie Walker podcasts. So I can't, I don't even think
03:56we should talk about Lonnie Walker because that's been, that has been heavily discussed.
03:59And honestly, I think it's a little bit of a mystery, like why he's in this position
04:03and we're all kind of speculating, but we'll probably get a better sense in the next few
04:07weeks. Like if there's something about him that has made teams want to pass up on him or
04:12what I maintain, I think he might've just played his cars wrong the same way that like
04:15O'Shea Brissett might've as well, where you maybe just didn't make the right moves earlier in the
04:20off season. And now you're in a predicament in September. Who knows? I don't know.
04:26Do you have a different perspective on it?
04:27I think Lonnie Walker is fine. I don't think he's a great fit on the Celtics in particular.
04:31Like, I just don't know. Like everyone's talking about, oh, he's this great shooter,
04:35but like the Celtics already have shooters and you can't have enough shooting, but everyone's
04:39taking like, I mean our comment section the first day when it happened, it's like, oh,
04:42they can trade Pritchard down. Like guys, like let's, I get it. I get getting excited for
04:46somebody that they just signed, but it almost feels like to me, like as much as it could be
04:53like a Dennis Schroeder or O'Shea Brissett, like they just waited too long in the money
04:56dried up situation for Lonnie Walker. Like there's also a reason that other guys got
04:59chosen over him at the end of the day. And so I think he could contribute, but I guess I'm not
05:04as high on him as some other people are. I know you're pretty high on Lonnie Walker and we've had
05:08discussions about it, but I I'd love for it to work out. I think there's a chance Lonnie,
05:12like I think the ceiling is great with Lonnie Walker. I think he could score,
05:15obviously. I think he's a good shooter. I think he could do all that stuff with the bench for
05:18the Celtics. But if you're Boston, you're going to play Pritchard over, you're going to play
05:21Hauser over him. You're going to play all these guys over him. And you don't really like at the
05:25end of the day, like there were all these rumblings at the trade deadline last year, like, oh, they
05:28could be interested in Lonnie Walker, blah, blah, blah. And then they traded for Springer.
05:31And Sam and I talked about this and how about themselves? Like, he's like, well, there's a
05:34reason they doubled back. And I was like, well, what if they chose Springer over him? Like,
05:37what if it wasn't, oh, we couldn't get a deal done. What if it was, we could have Lonnie Walker
05:40or Jaden Springer. And they're like, oh, we like the upside of Springer, Lonnie Walker. So it just,
05:45I think it'd be cool. I think it's going to be very interesting to see how he does in the
05:48preseason. And I think the chances of him making the roster wholly depends on how well he plays
05:54during the preseason and training camp and how well they fit in with the roster. Me too. Because
05:58it's like all eyes, he has more eyes on him than any training camp player in the NBA right now.
06:04A hundred percent. Which is so wild. It's also, especially because there's going to be,
06:08there's nobody new for us to watch at training camp. Like Porzingis won't be playing. So there's
06:13not going to be that. Plus I think fans have relaxed a little bit on him. Like they know
06:16it's going to be a little while. There was a moment in time there where I feel like every
06:19practice and shoot around that we showed up to, it was just, can you see Porzingis? Is he in the
06:23room? Like is he crossing the, is he on his phone walking by the gym? You know, it was like, that's
06:27all everybody cared about. And I feel like that's going to be set aside for a bit. And then other
06:31than that, it's like going to be the same old guys. I know there's going to be stuff around the
06:35Olympics for sure. There's going to be questions around that, but I don't think it's going to last
06:39that long because like, how much can you talk about it? You know, after the first, every, all
06:44the main guys are going to get a question about it. I mean, some of them have already been asked
06:47about it, like offline, like in other places, like Krause's podcast and Drew Holliday was asked
06:52about it at that Raising Cane's event that we were at. And so there's certain people have talked
06:56about it, but there's going to be like Gerald Brown's going to, he's going to have a lot to
07:00talk about. But Gerald Brown just in general, like his summer, that's going to be a whole thing.
07:04He's been everywhere.
07:05Everything that he's done in the rap career, the Twitter hacking that he still hasn't figured out.
07:09And so he's been busy. But yeah, Lonnie Walker will be, will be the story I think,
07:14just because he's really one of the only fresh faces and plus like the summer league guys that
07:19we had at summer league. So we're like, we, I mean, how many times have we talked to like
07:22Baylor Scheinman and Anton Watson in like a two week period, you know? So he'll be the,
07:26he'll be the main event, which is funny to say, considering it's a championship team and he's on
07:29an exhibit 10. But yeah, so what we're going to do today is go through like Celtics awards. So
07:36naming who we predict, each of us predict will be the MVP next year, the most improved player next
07:41year, the sixth man of the year, defensive player of the year and clutch player of the year. And
07:46that's just for the Celtics. So like, we're going to pick from the guys that are currently under
07:50contract next year. And we'll see, Jack and I haven't talked about our selections yet. So
07:55we'll see if we agree. I hope we disagree on some of these. We haven't had a good old
07:58fashioned argument in like a few solid weeks, you know? So I would be, I'd be happy to argue
08:05about something. Yeah, we'll see. So I'm trying to think maybe we should start, let's do MVP last.
08:10Okay. Even though I have a feeling we have the same person for this. Yeah. Yeah, probably.
08:16But let's do, okay. Let's start with clutch player of the year. Cause that's the most like,
08:20and I didn't even remember this was an award initially. What is this? Like, this is like
08:23the third year that they've done clutch player of the year, right? Yeah. Who's Darren Fox,
08:28Steph Curry. That's it. I think. Yeah. I think it's just been two. What a wild first two winners
08:33like obviously Curry makes sense, but Darren Fox winning, but the inaugural clutch player of the
08:37year. Yeah. And then last year he did like, didn't have anything clutch about him. I don't think so.
08:43So clutch player of the year, to me, this one was a no brainer. I'll let you say it first.
08:51So I was originally going to say Jalen Brown. I was going to say Jalen for my answer at first.
08:56And then you said something that like triggered another thought process that has me debating
09:01changing my answer. You were like, Oh, Jalen Fox is only clutch that year. And he didn't do much
09:04last year. Cause like realistically it is so like being the clutch player is so predicated on
09:09getting the shots, like getting the clutch shots and making them right. Like, like Jason Tatum
09:14could take 10 clutch shots and make one. And nobody thinks about it. Derek White could get
09:18make two, well make two. And like, then he's the clutch player. You know what I'm saying?
09:23So it's so, it turns out that I'm going to go Jalen though. I think during the playoffs,
09:27you really saw it for JB. Like a lot of those games in the Pacer series and the Mav series in
09:32particular, like they get to the end of the game and it's close whether or not it should be close,
09:35like whether or not the Celtics blue lead or whatever, like you see him hitting these big
09:39time mid range shots, even in the regular season last year, like he got one chance.
09:43I think he didn't get many clutch shot opportunities because Tatum got most of them.
09:47And the one was like the Pacers one where Buddy Heald hit him on the head and they called nothing,
09:50blah, blah, blah. Obviously he hit the clutch of shot of the season, arguably in the conference
09:55finals against the Pacers. So it just makes sense to me. I feel like he's one of the better
09:59shot makers in the league, like tough shot makers at this point. And I think after what you saw in
10:04the finals, not only should the Celtics be more comfortable letting JB take some of the shots,
10:09but I think Tatum should be too, because it's clear that he can. And I feel like at the end
10:12of the day, he might be better suited to hit those types of shots than Tatum is anyways.
10:17Yeah, I think that's a great pick. And it was funny when you just said he hit the clutch of
10:20shot of the year, I actually had a different shot in mind than the one you said. I had the
10:25game three in the finals where they were totally losing. That's the one reduced afterwards in the
10:30locker room. It was like, we almost lost. I remember sitting there. I can't remember. I
10:34don't think we were sitting next to each other that game, but I was sitting there being like,
10:38it was on the brink of like, if they go up 3-0, they're winning the championship,
10:42pretty much. Two, if they lose this game now, they're one game away from it being tied. And
10:46we've seen plenty of teams come back from being down 2-0. I felt like those two minutes at the
10:50end of that game three, their legacies were really cemented there. And I remember seeing
10:56post-game, Jason Tatum and Joan Brown walk out, and you could just see they had won the
11:00championship. And that's why game four I felt like was a little overreacted. But he hit that,
11:05it was like a mid-range shot. And there was a minute to go, but they just couldn't score. They
11:10were just turning the ball over and nothing was going in. And then he kind of stopped bleeding
11:14there. So he had, I would say, this past playoff run, he was the no-brainer pick.
11:19I have a different pick though for Clutch Player of the Year for next year.
11:23And it's not Jalen Brown and it's not Jason Tatum. It's Derek White. And I think Derek White's,
11:28the one hang-up that I had when making that pick was the fact that he just doesn't get as many
11:34looks down the stretch, like down by one with 30 seconds to go. Is he going to get the play?
11:39Like, I don't think they're going to run things for him, but I think we've seen now that
11:43both Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown are comfortable passing out in those moments and increasingly so.
11:50Like the game that they won, the Eastern Conference Finals, Derek White is the one
11:52that hit the three there. Throughout the entire season, it felt like every time there was a big
11:56three-pointer, Derek White nailed it. And I don't know what his stat ended up being at the end of
12:02the year, but there was a point where he was hitting like 60% of his three-pointers in clutch
12:05time on the NBA season. And so I feel like that's going to continue even in the Olympics, I felt
12:12like when he checked in. I mean, just showing up on the Olympic team, having not been there
12:15for training camp, coming in and hitting your first couple of three-pointers, he just has
12:18something about him where he just stays so steady and the defense can't overreact to him because
12:23there's just too much challenge on the roster. So he's my pick, but it was a close one because
12:27I think Jalen Brown earned it from his play last year. I just think Derek, we have a big
12:32sample size of just how clutch he is in those moments. Yeah. Derek White hit, I have the stat
12:38here, just reset, 12 of 23 from three in the clutch of the regular season. So he was definitely
12:44pretty clutch in those moments. And he was the guy I was going back and forth on when I had my
12:49dilemma before I said Jalen Brown, and it was because of the Raptors games. He had the same
12:53exact three-point shot against the Raptors twice to bury them. I know. I forget who passed it to
12:58him, but it was identical shots, identical timing, identical situations, and he just buried the
13:04Raptors both times. So I think that's a good pick. I think Tatum obviously could be it too,
13:07just because of the volume. And realistically, if he makes three of those shots, it's a completely
13:12different narrative around him, but he didn't last year. And so I think Jalen is the favorite
13:17pick after what we saw in the playoffs. Yeah. That would be a tough pick to make.
13:21That would be like, I'm looking into the horoscope and I think-
13:24Bounce back. Yeah.
13:25Yeah. Because we didn't see that last year. What we did see is in the playoffs, an increasing
13:30willingness to not settle for that shot that we all hate. The double-teamed fadeaway, running
13:36the clock down. We didn't see much of that in the playoffs. And I feel like there was a narrative
13:40all season that the Celtics can't win during the regular season. And then obviously in the
13:45playoffs, sorry, the Celtics can't win clutch games in the regular season. And that was the
13:49big thing that we were all concerned about. I mean, that was really my only hangup on this team
13:52was like, what happens when it's a close game down the stretch? And then they literally won
13:56every single close game throughout the playoffs. And so, yeah, wouldn't have been able to predict
14:00it, but it wasn't because Alphaz and Tatum turned into a clutch shot maker. It was more because
14:04everybody else, he was willing to give it up to other people and they were always finding the
14:08right shot, whether it was Al Horford or whether it was Jalen or whatever it was. So, so yeah,
14:13but those are, those are two good picks. And we're going to hear from our friends over at
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15:21So let's go to defensive player of the year as the next pick. I think this one is actually
15:28really tough for me because I feel like whenever I think about Celtics defense, there's a couple
15:33different ways you could look at it. But again, I'll let you go first. I already have my mind
15:37solidified. I'm not going to be persuaded. Yeah, this is hard because the Celtics play such a team
15:46oriented style of defense. It's not like Rudy Gobert's jazz teams. He won defensive player of
15:51the year because those jazz teams were not good at defense, but he was such a force inside that
15:56he changed everything. The same can be said for a million other defensive players. The Celtics
16:01team is not that. They have good defenders up and down the roster. So it's realistically just
16:05going to come down to who makes the most big plays, who shuts down the most stars on any given
16:09night, blah, blah, blah, stuff like that. And if Porzingis is out, I think Horford's actually going
16:13to be a lot more important than people realize. Same with Tillman and them, but I don't think it's
16:16as big of a role to the point where you could give him this award. I feel like it's so obvious for me
16:22as the Derek White guy to do it, but I'm going to do it anyways. I'm just going to pick Derek White
16:26because it's Derek White, right? He is one of the most, I think, one of the most unique defenders
16:32in the league from the perspective of he's so good at guarding bigs as a skinny guard. He has
16:38perfected the chase down block from behind in the half court. The way he stays in front of guys,
16:44smaller guards in the perimeter, I think is really impressive. I think Drew Holiday,
16:46Jalen Brown, Jason Tatum even would be awesome picks as well, but I'm going to go Derek White.
16:50I just think he could end up having the most big time plays and big time moments for the Celtics
16:55this year. I think he's going to be en route to another all defensive team.
16:59It's a good pick. I went with Drew Holiday. For me, the three selections and beyond just this
17:06exercise of thinking about next year, I generally, when I think about Celtics deserve some players on
17:12the all defense team, who are those players? Obviously, Jalen Brown really wanted to be on
17:17that team and he wasn't. At the time, I was like, okay, if you look at his all around defense,
17:23night in, night out, I get why he wasn't one of the 10 guys that were selected. He does make
17:27mistakes. He's not as good of an off-ball team defender, but then when you see in the finals,
17:31what he did to Luka and what he did just throughout the finals, throughout the playoffs,
17:34when he would just match up with someone and take them out of their element, he's really the only
17:38guy in the roster that could do that to that level with his size and with his athleticism.
17:43Also, he's really in this prime of all that. He was a tempting selection, but I went with Drew
17:48because I think when you think about his value from a team perspective, I don't know that any
17:53one player has as big of a team defensive impact. It's tough because Derek gets most of the highlight
18:00plays. I think Jalen gets the tough one-on-one matchups just because he is in the position that
18:05usually the best NBA players are, the forward type players that are a little bit longer,
18:10a little bit taller, but I still think Drew has the edge just because of what he's able to do
18:14and just the way that he's able to correct other people's mistakes. There's so often where you see
18:19somebody cheat or somebody goes back forward, and Drew just fixes that. I feel like from a
18:24basketball player standpoint, whenever I play basketball, I start to think about it more
18:27through that lens because I'm thinking people don't even really realize that this person just
18:31cleaned up four people's mess. I feel like that doesn't show up on the statute as much. It's not
18:35going to get as much credit. Then there's moments where he does. When he got that steal on Aaron
18:40Neesmith at Secure, it was game three, I believe. He does have those plays, but ultimately, I think
18:46he doesn't have as much of them. He was my pick, but I was tempted to say Jalen Brown just because
18:51I feel like being able to do what he does one-on-one, it changes the game. Then obviously,
18:57Derek too. It's a tough one, but I'll go with Drew. I think ironically, I was between Derek
19:01White and Jason Tatum for my pick as you were between Jalen Brown and Drew Holiday for your pick.
19:06I feel like most people would be like, why Jason Tatum? The reason why is because
19:11the Cavs series in the Eastern Conference semifinals because
19:18that protection. I'm not saying close, but when Al Horford was on the bench and when they were
19:24running Jason Tatum at center, basically, he was just going to switch on to Evan Mobley.
19:28He was coming over to switch from the corner and playing rim protector role. He can do it. He's
19:336'9", right? Long arms, lengthy defender. I'm not saying he's going to get down there and bang
19:38down low with Embiid and Jokic. He's not built like that. Nobody is, but I think you're going
19:43to see Jason Tatum tap into a more versatile defensive, I don't know what the role this
19:51season with Porzingis out, especially considering now he knows Jalen and Derek and Drew are fully
19:57capable of contributing to the offense winning a championship. I feel like he could tap into that
20:01a bit more this year. I'm very high on Tatum's defensive ceiling this year, but I still think
20:06Derek White is going to get a lot of those highlight plays in terms of game winning,
20:10game impacting situations throughout the year more consistently than Tatum will.
20:15That's a good point. I guess the thing is, I was thinking about it a little too much in the frame
20:19of who's currently the defensive player of the year because I didn't think there was going to be
20:23that much change, but I guess there is room for someone to make a leap like Joan Bradley on the
20:27defensive end this year. I don't know that Tatum did as much considering his career. I feel like
20:31he was probably better than he was in years prior, but Jalen Brown made a more noticeable leap.
20:37Yes, I agree. We'll see. And especially, I mean, we'll see about the shooting thing,
20:40but if the shooting struggles continue, he's going to have to make up for it in other places.
20:45You better tap into that defense, buddy, if that's going to keep up. I will say it is
20:50crazy that we discussed defensive player of the year and we had four different,
20:53even potential options. That's just a testament to how good the Celtics are.
20:57I feel like for this whole award series, the fact that there are so many good options for each of
21:01these, it does kind of highlight, for some teams, it would be really obvious. This is the MVP.
21:06This is the obvious sixth man. I actually didn't feel like any of these elections were super
21:10straightforward to me. But let's go to sixth man of the year. Should I just keep letting you go
21:18first? I kind of like this flow. I think I'm going to steal your thunder,
21:22so I feel like maybe you go first for this one because I might, I worry I can steal your thunder.
21:28Okay. Do you want me to go first then? Okay. Nevermind. Okay. And that's not who you had.
21:32I know. It was a close one, but I think that Sam Hauser has made a big leap in the past year,
21:41but I actually think he's about to make another massive leap just because we started seeing just
21:47more from him offensively, but very small glimpses. So I don't think it's really come
21:50to fruition yet, but I could see him being a double figure scorer off the bench. And I don't
21:56know that I could see Pritchard being that. And a lot of times sixth man of the year kind of gets
22:01a little bit dumbed down to that. So Pritchard will always be the guy, at least for right now,
22:06maybe not always, but he's the guy that runs the show and really kind of manages that second unit.
22:12But I don't know that he's always the guy that's going to receive the most credit for it or the
22:14most points. And I think Sam Hauser has the ability, has the potential to really produce a
22:20lot this year, especially because he's shown that he can stay on the court during big moments. Like
22:25in the finals, Pritchard didn't even really play in the last game. Sam Hauser was a key part of
22:29that team and it hit like half of his three-pointers and it was just great off the bench. So I'm very
22:34high on both of them currently. And in the future, I think Sam Hauser is going to have an even bigger
22:39weight lifted off the shoulder that he has this contract now. I feel like for shooters and just
22:43for bench players in general, knowing that your financial future is secure, it does take a load
22:47off. And Pritchard had that this past year and you could see that it made things a little bit
22:50easier. But he was, he was my sixth man of the year pick. I was between the two and I ended up
22:57on Pritchard. So I was worried I was going to steal your guy there, but I just, I think there's
23:02room for both of them to grow. I am intrigued to see if the Celtics give Peyton Pritchard more
23:07bald handling opportunities because for as much as he got last year, he was still largely like
23:11catch and shoot guy, get a stand deep behind the three-point line, really space the floor
23:14and let guys drive inside. I think giving Pritchard the ball more and letting him run
23:20more than just the second unit could do wonders for the Celtics team. I, I'm, I know you love
23:25Pritchard too, but I think he's so much better than even a lot of people realize in terms of
23:29his ability to organize the offense, create for himself. Obviously he's never going to be an
23:33amazing defender. He, he hustles, right? He tries. He's fine on that end. I think he holds up better
23:37than people expect him to, but just being a small guard, you're never going to be, you know, this
23:41a plus tier defender or whatever. But I think his ability to run the offense, make plays and
23:47create for himself and others should encourage Joe Missoula in the Celtics to give him more
23:52opportunities, especially considering like he's 34. He's not going anywhere anytime soon, but like
23:56you never know any given day, like if they win another championship, maybe Drew's like, all right,
24:00I want to spend time with my family. Right. And I'm not saying he's going to do that. He just
24:02signed an extension. It sounds like he's going to be involved in for a while, but I feel like
24:06elevating Peyton Pritchard and even like down the line, like Jaden Springer, like seeing what you
24:10got in him is a testament to, we want to keep, make this more than just a three-year window where
24:15we can win a title. We want to elevate these guys. And I think giving Pritchard more responsibilities
24:19next season could be a way to do that. So I think he could make another leap similar to Hazzard.
24:24And I do really hope, like you said, that this year during the regular season,
24:28like they do tap in, you know, Joe and the coaching staff do tap into some of those bench
24:32guys a little bit more and just, and I think they will just because you have a finals run
24:36in the Olympics under your belt, like, and through holiday, like you said, you know,
24:40played a lot of minutes. And so, yeah, I think they both are a strong case to me. I think
24:44they're both going to improve and they're both going to play a really critical role for this
24:49Celtics team. Even though there are other bench pieces that could jump in there. Like, I feel
24:53like those two guys now they're pretty proven. Like it's not much of a question mark. You've
24:57seen them for an entire playoff run. I love the way like Hazzard bounced back from a bad shooting
25:01series and then had the final series that he had. I felt like that showed a lot about him
25:06as a person too. Like the fact that he was able to be so resilient and then on the brightest stage,
25:10like was so effective, but yeah. Okay. We're going to do, we got two more here. We got most
25:16improved at MVP. I almost wanted to do coach of the year and like pick an assistant, but it's a
25:21little too much. We can. Do you want to? It's fine. It's your show. Here's my thing though with
25:26the coaches and like, I was on the big three podcast with Sherrod and Gary and Quanie yesterday.
25:33And we were talking about like what, what we want to see from Joe and like what kind of
25:38improvements Mozilla can make. And my thing with just talking about coaches is I always struggle
25:43because I feel like it's so speculative. Like what do you actually know about the coaches?
25:48Like I know who's really nice from the assistant coaches. I know who has some responsibilities.
25:53And I know you did a lot of research on the assistants last year and like kind of the
25:56stories of how they got there, the player development coaches. But I still feel like
26:00it's really hard to gauge like who is responsible for what strategically. Like we don't really even
26:05really know who the scouts were for each series. Like that has been not that was true. So that's
26:09my thing was like, I would love to be able to say like, this is going to be the coach.
26:13But a lot of times it's just going off like vibes and you can pick up on stuff. I do think like
26:17you can pick up on Charles Lee and Drew Holliday's relationship just based on being there pregame
26:21and like how they were literally like this, you know, and you can pick up on the fact that
26:26Jermaine Bucknor was clearly like really becoming more and more comfortable and had a bigger role.
26:30And like, then later on in summer league, like I think EJ McClay said, he was the guy that grew
26:34the most and obviously got an assistant job. So you can pick up on little things, but it's just
26:37hard from our vantage point. I wish we had more access to like watch practice and then we could
26:41say like, yeah, this was happening. But by the time we get to practice, it's like, who's participating
26:46in the trick shots drills with Derek White. I love the trick shot drills though. You won't hear me
26:51complaining about that. I love it. But yeah, I mean, it was fun. It was, you've said that last,
26:56you said that in the playoffs last year, you've been working on that story for months.
27:04Really the only access we have is like watching pregame and them. And that's really only the
27:08player development guys are like, we never really get to see like Sam Cassell as much
27:12or Emile Jefferson or half these guys do like a lot of this stuff they do. So it's a very
27:16small window. We get to watch them work with players. And I feel like that doesn't even come
27:20close to telling the whole story. So you just don't really know. I love going to events right
27:24now. It's football season. Love going to football games, concerts, really any events living in
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29:18off. Download game time today. What time is it? Game time. So we're going to do most improved next
29:24and I'll have you go first, Jack. I think there was a lot of worthy candidates and I viewed it
29:28as more about opportunity, like who I think will have opportunity to improve. But I'll let you
29:34share your pick first. Listen, anybody who listens to How About Them Celtics knows my answer for this.
29:40If Xavier Tillman has one hundred fans, I'm one of them. If Xavier Tillman has five fans,
29:44I'm one of them. If Xavier Tillman has one fan, I'm him. If he has none, I'm dead. Right. Xavier
29:49Tillman stock. I'm buying it. I love Xavier Tillman. I think he is. I don't think this
29:54obviously could have found a better potential for replacement in the NBA than Xavier Tillman.
29:58I think he is one of the most impressive switchable defenders they have on the roster already.
30:01I think his three point shot is real. And I think he's going to get a chance to show that off next
30:04season. I think he's going to get a ton of opportunities with Chris Epps. And I think
30:09you already saw the start of that in the finals. Like they needed an extra bench guy. They didn't
30:12go to Canada. They didn't go to Cornette. They went to Xavier Tillman. Right. Like they said,
30:15OK, this is the guy we're going to trust. This guy we're going to go to with KP out.
30:17He's going to be the next big up in the rotation. And Joe was it was so big on trust that I think
30:21he earned a lot of that in the finals. He earned a lot of that over the course of a small time
30:24with the Celtics. And so you give him an entire training camp, you give him his first full season
30:28in Boston after getting here at the trade deadline. I think he's going to be phenomenal
30:31next year on offense and defense. And I think he's going to be a seamless fit. So give me all
30:36the Xavier Tillman stock in the world. I'm all in. I need it. Is that how I'm supposed to say
30:41his name, Xavier? Xavier Tillman, Xavier Tillman. I'm not sure I pronounce Xavier. And there's
30:47Xavier. That's a good question. Let me let me go to basketball reference. I could be wrong.
30:50I was saying to me, I should get it wrong the entire season. I was saying to my pronunciation,
30:56Xavier Tillman. It's just Xavier. It's just Xavier Tillman. Well, yeah. Spoiler alert.
31:01Mine is Nimesh Kedas. He was my selection for this award. There are other people that I think
31:08are going to improve a lot. I wanted to pick James Springer because I was really high on him from
31:12summer league. I also just really like his game. I love guys like that that are defensively minded
31:18guards that are clearly like who would already be an elite NBA defender. But just looking at
31:23the roster, I don't know that he's going to get an opportunity to showcase that improvement.
31:28If he was on another team, I think I would I would probably buy some of the stock. But I don't
31:33know that unless somebody gets really injured, like someone's outbursts in the period of time,
31:38which obviously I hope is not the case, then I don't know that James Springer is going to have
31:41that opportunity. On the flip side, like you said, you know, there's going to be an opportunity in
31:46the frontcourt. And I do think that they're going to be very cautious with Porzingis coming back.
31:52And I was between like between thinking about the frontcourt. I don't think Luke's going to
31:56make any jumps. I think Luke is Luke and he's what he is and it's great and he plays his part
32:00well. But there's no reason to think like this year he's going to make a massive leap. But then
32:04you have, you know, Amish Keita and you have Xavier Tillman as the other two guys that are in
32:09the mix, you know, in that trio that resigned to serve on the bench. And I just think we really
32:15didn't see much with Nemi last year. Like he played there was that road trip and, you know,
32:19around Christmas time that he was actually like a big contributor in. But the rest of the way,
32:22like he was just an extra body and, you know, played in blowouts and then played in Maine.
32:27He was really good in Maine. But I think that his skill set of just like him as a lob threat,
32:33the athleticism that he has, the defensive potential that he has, and it really is
32:38potential at this point because we haven't seen it all come together to be like a really smart
32:41defender. I think if he's able to stop fouling and to stay on the court and to give you 20 minutes,
32:46like people are going to be really surprised at what he can do. Him and Tillman are kind of like
32:51opposite players, like in a way, like they're what their skill sets are and what their strengths
32:55and weaknesses are. Like if you could combine them into one player, like his switchability,
32:59but then Nemi is like a lot, you know, athleticism and jumping and rib protection, all that. Like if
33:04you could combine those two, you know, it wouldn't be a veteran minimum guy, which is who we have.
33:10But I'm going with Nemi just because I watched, I watched a lot of him in Maine. I watched a lot
33:15of him in summer league. And I feel optimistic that he's going to be able to be a real NBA
33:20level contributor. But I'd be happy without any of those guys standing up to the plate. So
33:26time will tell. Yeah. I said this recently on how about those Celtics. I think Nemi has the
33:31biggest gap between his ceiling and floor next year. Not that floor not meaning like I think
33:35he'll get worse, but like the floor is he doesn't improve much. The floor is he like stays the same
33:39as defensive and sticks don't improve. His positioning is still off. He still fouls a lot,
33:43still isn't screening without fouling is like he just is his abilities like composure. Like if he
33:52just stays in position on defense, if he just stays down, doesn't jump too early, if he can
33:55screen without fouling, like he's a legitimate rotation center in the NBA. But again, that's
34:00why it's a ceiling and a floor. But I think the gap is so big, but I think that's a good pick.
34:03I think he's got yet just as many opportunities as anybody else behind Porzingis. I think those
34:09probably split it up pretty evenly between Toe and Kada depending on matchup. So I'm excited to
34:13see what he does. Okay, so this is the grand finale of MVP. I think we're going to disagree
34:21on this one. Actually, the more we've disagreed on every single one so far. I like your picks.
34:25They've been like my runner ups, but we haven't landed on any of the same ones, which is good.
34:29It makes for more interesting discourse. Why don't you go? I know what you're going to say.
34:36Tatum, is that who you say? It feels so lame because it's just the obvious pick because
34:40everyone is like, oh, it's just Jason Tatum. That's the Celtics. But I truly think you could
34:45see Tatum improve even more than he did year to year this upcoming season. And the biggest thing
34:51for me is something that Tyler Rucker of No Ceiling said to me and Sam right after the finals.
34:55He goes, I feel like the weight of winning a championship being off his shoulders is going
34:58to make him play so much differently than he has in years past. I feel like a lot of times this
35:03year and in years past, you've seen Tatum really press just in very niche big moments. He'll be
35:08like, I got to get the shot off. I got to do this. I got to do that. The pressure of knowing that he
35:13hadn't gotten over the hump, what everyone thinks he should have, I feel like was almost just in the
35:18back of his mind. Even if it wasn't a conscious feeling and decision, it was subconsciously
35:22eating at him a little bit. And now that that's gone, as stupid as it sounds, he cut his hair.
35:27He's back to whatever. He's just like, all right, cool. I can do whatever I want now. I don't have
35:31anything else to prove to anybody. I'm just going to be able to play free. And so I don't even think
35:35it's going to be like, oh, he's going to score 30 points. I think he's going to average like seven
35:39assists a game. I think his assists are going to go up. I think his rebounds are going to go up.
35:42I think he's going to lock in on the defensive end as well. If anything, I think his scoring
35:45numbers could go down and his efficiency goes up and he might take less threes. I really think
35:49you're just going to see a more streamlined version of Jason Tatum that while he might not
35:54get the MVP love that everyone wants him to have because his scoring numbers could go down, I think
35:58he's going to impact winning at a much higher level than he has before. And that's saying a lot
36:01considering how much he impacts winning. So I'm very high on this season as a streamlined version
36:06of Tatum in terms of his passing, rebounding defense. And I think that's what's going to
36:10make him the MVP again, because I think he has been for a while now. You make a good case. And
36:17I agree with a lot of what you said. And I had him originally as my selection. And then I thought
36:21about it more. This is maybe a bold claim, but I think Jalen Brown is going to have like an
36:28insane year, like the best basketball we've ever seen from him. And I don't have that. This is like
36:35not even like basketball analysis. Cause it's just hard. It's just all speculative right now.
36:38Obviously you're both great in the playoffs. I don't have that feeling that Jason Tatum is going
36:41to come out and do anything different than what we've seen in the past. I hope his shots on like,
36:46that's the biggest thing I would hate to have him go through like a season long shooting struggle
36:51where now it's like, he's just getting like Ramon Green guarded where like, he's just giving him
36:56threes all of a sudden. Cause he, he's not far from that. If he starts to shoot poorly for a few
37:00weeks after everything, like I can see people starting to dare him to. And I don't think it
37:04would ever get to that point, but maybe I'm just, it would have to go on for like another full
37:10season. I think. Cause like for, for as bad as he was in the playoffs and team USA, like everyone
37:14knows station Tatum can shoot the ball. Like he's absolutely, he's streaky, but if you get the wrong
37:19side of the streak, like you can't take that risk. I feel like, and that was, that's what makes him
37:23so effective. And so I don't, I can't see 30% from three on the year, like the way that he did
37:28in the playoffs with all the weapons you have on that Celtics team and his ability to drive and
37:32everything. Like I can see people doing it just to mess with him a little bit. I don't like it,
37:37but I even felt like when the Warriors did it to Jalen Brown, like I got what they were doing.
37:42If you find something, you found something like watching Rondo get guarded, watching Russell
37:47Westbrook. I mean, seriously watching Russell Westbrook get guarded. It's like, it just ruins
37:52everything for our team when he's on the court, he's thinking about it. He didn't, he wants to
37:56show them that he can shoot. So he's taking bad shots that he wouldn't have even taken. I don't
37:59know. I hope it's not the thing. I don't want to manifest that, but. No, I know what you mean.
38:04And I get it, but like, I feel like people are almost taking not you or not people. Cause I
38:09mean, I've talked to Sam a million times. Sam is as big of a Tatum shooting hater as you can get.
38:14I feel like people are making almost too big of a deal out of the slump at the playoffs
38:17because I truly believe it was just like the worst possible time for something like
38:21Tatum's gone through 20 game stretches where he shoots 30%. Like that's, that's a normal thing.
38:25He did like, I did, I pulled up basketball reference. And the first thing I saw November
38:2917th to the end of December, he shot 30% from three and eight and a half times a game. Like
38:35it just happened to be the playoffs. And that sucks because it was a giant stage, but I feel
38:40like exactly. And it didn't matter. And for what it's worth, those 20 games that I'm at 18 games,
38:45I mentioned where he shot 30%, he still shot 37.6% from three on the season. It was his best
38:50percentage since 2021. Like, I think it's almost getting overblown a little bit. And I think the
38:55team USA stuff, people are like combining into that when that was a different situation where
38:59he was like playing a role that he was never used to. And he was just completely thrown off.
39:04I don't know. Maybe I'm just like a Tatum defender. Cause as I've been accused by in the
39:08comments plenty of times, but I'm not, I'm not taking too much stock into the Tatum is a bad
39:13shooter thing yet. I need to see if he continues like for the next month of the next season,
39:16next X amount of games. I'll be like, all right, yeah, there's a problem now.
39:20And I'm not saying Jalen Brown's a bad pick for MVP. Like based on everything I said, like,
39:24I don't think it's a likely world just because I think the shots are going to be similar to what
39:27they were last year. I don't think they'll take that big of a difference, but I could see a world
39:30where Jalen Brown averages slightly more points or at least on par points with Jason Tatum.
39:34This year, if Tatum wants to take a step back in the department, but I only question it because
39:39I don't know how much they're going to try to change actively what they did last year when
39:43they so clearly weren't right. Like for as much as like these little minutiae, we're talking about,
39:48oh, change this Tatum, take less threes, Jalen Bradby, Morgan's blah, blah, blah. Like they
39:53dominantly want to change it based on everything they did last year. And so I do think Jalen
39:58Brown's a fair pick for MVP. I think he's going to have another great season. I think his playmaking
40:01is going to go up. I think he's going to lock in even more too. I just don't know how much room for
40:07differentiating. We can get in the scoring column.
40:09That's fair. I think, yeah, I think that's fair. The one piece that has influenced my decision,
40:15and I'll just say, I totally agree with you on the shooting slump thing. I thought that it was,
40:19like we were discussing after every Olympic game, like we did a whole, you know, the Gardner
40:22Port post game show and we're breaking down and I was like, at certain points, like he was like,
40:26oh for two, like how, you know, like let's not, oh for two doesn't really mean much.
40:30End of the world. It's done.
40:31I also feel like because like, not to bring up me playing basketball twice in one episode,
40:36but I also feel like because I've experienced it firsthand where it's like, it's not a mechanical
40:40thing. It's like literally just, do you have confidence or not? And I've seen my dad,
40:43who was like literally the best three point shooter I've ever seen go through games where
40:46it's like all of a sudden he's over 10 and it's like, you know, if you were had like a media
40:50analysis, which sure there was back in the day when he played, like people would be like, oh my
40:54God, what happened to shot? And it's like, I just, I find that whole, it's like my least favorite
40:58narrative about basketball is talking about people shooting slumps and speculating and
41:02extrapolating and freaking out about it. When 99% of the time people, if they're a good shooter,
41:07you bounce back from it. Right. Like how many times have we seen Al Warford be, you know,
41:13Last year, the 23rd, I couldn't shoot.
41:16I remember for, yeah, 2024. I mean, there was in the, up at the first two rounds,
41:21he couldn't shoot. Then he turned it around completely. I remember in Cleveland,
41:25he had missed like 20 in a row. But in any case, I have Jalen because A,
41:31I think that he's, he won MVP of the finals and conference finals. So like, I'm just kind of going
41:36with the flow of what we've seen of late, but also I think the Olympic thing is going to impact
41:42Jalen better than Jason for two reasons. One, because again, from my perspective, from covering
41:48them, it seems to me like Jalen Brown is somebody that has been more effective at harnessing
41:52rejection and frustration and actually being motivated by it. I haven't really seen that as
41:57much from Tatum. Like I don't, it doesn't seem like his personality as much. Again, there's a lot
42:02that goes on behind the scenes that maybe we're not aware of, but that's the impression, at least,
42:06that has been available to us. And I also think that Jalen Brown didn't really get embarrassed
42:12this summer. Like he got a lot of fuel and attention and stuff, but he's going to, he's going
42:17to kind of be like, I want to prove all these people right. They were with me, all these people
42:20wrong to work with me. Tatum was actually in a worse position in a sense. Obviously he has the
42:25gold medal and like in the longterm, that's what's going to matter. But from like a narratives,
42:30like rejection standpoint, like he was all summer on ESPN, zoom ups of his face, sitting there on
42:36the bench and like that same jump shot that he missed off the side of the backboard getting
42:40replayed. Like, I feel like that, that can get to you more than just non-making of the team.
42:45And everybody's saying it should be on the team, you know, and it just his personality. So I went
42:49with Jalen on slight edge, but I think they both probably have really good seasons. And the main
42:53thing is like, I feel like everybody's like so excited about the fact that I keep seeing this
42:56dominant media narrative around like Charles Barkley, people saying like, they're going to,
43:00you know, who's everybody's messing with Boston. They're going to go out and show them
43:04like, hopefully they don't go out and show them too much. Hopefully they just play basketball
43:07the way that they did last year. Cause if they start to have like a revenge tour vibe, like
43:11it's probably not going to benefit the team too much. So anyways, those are our picks. So we had,
43:17I had Jalen Bradford MVP, Nimesh Kedar for most improved, Sam Houser for sixth man,
43:22Drew Holliday for defensive player, Derek White for clutch player. And you had literally all
43:27opposite picks. Yeah. We didn't agree on anything, which is probably good. I know I had Tatum for
43:32MVP. I had Xavier Tillman for most improved. I had Jalen for clutch player, Derek White for defensive
43:40player of the year and Pritchard for six man. Right. I think that's all of them. I didn't
43:43name Tatum for anything. Yeah. You're a hater. I know. I don't get any, any death threats.
43:49I have to say it. I have to say it. I actually am going to do WNBA focused episode, not this one.
43:58But in that episode, I want to say, everybody has been telling me,
44:02oh my gosh, you can't handle the WNBA coverage. Imagine if you covered an NBA team.
44:06And I just want to say shout out to Celtics fans because I haven't seen anything like this
44:10of Celtics fans, but that might be too ambiguous of a statement. I guess I'll just say I enjoyed
44:14covering Celtics fans. Yeah. Okay. We'll probably have Jack back. We'll see. We'll
44:24see if he made the... Oh, whoa, whoa. We'll see. No, we'll have Jack back. The audience
44:31engagement just goes all the way down. Like no one... I know, imagine if I get like four views
44:35on this episode. I'm putting your name in the subject line so we can really A, B test it.
44:38No. So we'll see. Leave a comment if you want to see Jack back or not. I'm just kidding. I
44:45actually don't want to open the door for Jack. Or not. No more online hate. Okay, Jack. Thanks,
44:51Jack, for joining. Maybe I'll join your podcast at some point. Of course. Of course. We'll make
44:56it happen soon. Is there anything you want to plug? I'm on Twitter, Jackson1NBA. I feel like
45:01I'm doing that How About Them Celtics outro now. How About Them Celtics is my podcast and my
45:05written works at Harvard Houdini, but that's it. Thank you. Thanks for having me. This was fun.
45:09Thanks for joining. Have a good one, everyone. I'll be back on
45:13Sunday. We'll do a live episode again, so.
45:35Bye.