Bobby Manning and Noa Dalzell discuss whether Luke Kornet could start for the Celtics to keep Al Horford coming off the bench, along with other notes from practice before previewing Celtics-76ers and Raptors preseason games this weekend.
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SportsTranscript
00:00Can you say hard hats folks? Hard hats, munch pails, steel tool boots.
00:09Anything short of a championship this year is a failure.
00:11Look at this boomer right here.
00:13You've just got so much talent here.
00:15Somebody said we need to apologize for Jalen.
00:17Can I pull the John? What are we apologizing for? What did we say? What did we do?
00:21Hey, Bowie Manning here.
00:31Welcome to a Friday edition of the Garden Report.
00:34Celtics back in action tomorrow against the Sixers.
00:37And we'll get to see more of the guys we saw in Abu Dhabi and hopefully Al Horford,
00:43who Joe Mizzoula talked about his status, his outlook for preseason,
00:49even for the regular season, a little bit of practice yesterday.
00:52Noah Dalzell here. She was at practice today.
00:55So we'll get into that and some other stuff here.
00:57Brief check-in edition.
00:59Some stuff happened at practice over the last few days that I wanted to get into here
01:03and look ahead to some of the games that are going on.
01:05First appearance at TD Garden for the Celtics since their championship parade.
01:10And I think everybody looking forward to seeing what they're going to look like against Philly,
01:15if Philly is willing to play some of their regulars here.
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02:42So, Noah, Joe Mazula asked about Al Horford's preseason status.
02:49He didn't play in the Abu Dhabi games.
02:52Will sit some more in the next three, obviously three games coming up in four days.
02:57So they're being careful with him.
02:59They're ramping him up.
03:01And that carefulness could extend into the regular season, at least according to what he said here.
03:05Just ramping him up.
03:07We're still talking about that.
03:10Maybe two.
03:12Just kind of ramping him up and making sure he stays sharp.
03:22Yeah, they're starting to do whatever makes sense for the team.
03:25Obviously, he's been great to us, both coming off the bench and starting.
03:30So we just have to make that decision, whatever we think is best for the team at the time that we'll do.
03:34It's a credit to him that he's open-minded enough to know that.
03:37He'll just do whatever's best for the team.
03:41So pretty ambiguous there.
03:43Could be nothing.
03:45Did stand out to me, though, a little bit.
03:47The thought that maybe you go with Luke Cornett at center here.
03:51And I'm surprised I didn't come up with that.
03:54Corrales did.
03:56But it's not far-fetched.
03:58Horford played off the bench mostly last year.
04:01There's going to probably need to be even more load management this season,
04:05given the minutes he played last handful of playoff runs.
04:09He's 38.
04:11He looked pretty good in that second-unit role last year once he got used to it.
04:16And since that's where he's going to probably end up anyway, once Porzingis comes back,
04:20I guess it could make some sense.
04:22Cornett looked pretty good with the starters out there.
04:26Looks like he's going to take a step this year from the will we saw in those two preseason games.
04:31And I think he's just a good guy to fit in limited minutes with that group.
04:35And maybe there's some matchup issues here or there.
04:37I know Joe in that cut there talked about maybe going back and forth between different looks.
04:43I have a tough time thinking it's actually going to happen.
04:46But how do you feel about it?
04:49Yeah, I mean, I think if they do do any Al Horford off the bench,
04:52it's not because they don't think that the starting lineup would be better with him.
04:56Because I think that that starting lineup was so good in the playoffs last year
04:59with him anchoring the defense.
05:01I think it's just looking at the context.
05:03You want to think long-term.
05:04And I don't know that it's going to be exclusive to just Al Horford.
05:07This mentality of maybe sacrificing regular season wins in the name of longevity
05:13and ensuring that guys are going to be ready to go in April, May, and June.
05:17And so Al's going to be one year older.
05:19I think we haven't really seen a drop off from him where he's no longer contributing
05:25at a really high level.
05:26I think he's one of the reasons they won the championship last year.
05:29But if it means Luke starts sometimes, maybe they try Xavier Tillman in there.
05:34I think Tatum doesn't love being the five, but they can throw that in there as well.
05:38But just limiting, he's not going to be playing 35 minutes, 30 minutes a night
05:43during the regular season.
05:45And if you're looking at Porzingis being out for a while,
05:47that's going to mean that other guys are going to step up and play more.
05:51So whether or not he actually starts, I think the jury's out.
05:55I don't know if to make too much of that Jomezula clip,
05:58but I can certainly see him being moved to the bench just to save his legs.
06:03Yeah, I think it's more how they used him in Abu Dhabi than the clip there
06:07or any comments he made there.
06:09He looked good with the starters.
06:11That's the biggest thing is the movement, the way he pulled defenders away
06:15from even Tatum and Brown at different times.
06:18I've always said the screening game with him is so good,
06:21and then maybe you get a boost on the offensive glass as well.
06:24The downside, I guess, is going against a Warriors team,
06:28some other teams that are more five out.
06:30Knicks on opening night would be a challenge as well.
06:33It's tougher to play him in those spots.
06:36But at the same time, the alternative is having Horford out there
06:39playing big minutes, switching on the perimeter,
06:42and I guess you could drop him back to try to take the load off him.
06:46But I think the biggest reason you would do it
06:50is because Horford's going to have to be out in some of these games anyway.
06:53Those nights you'll have to start Luke,
06:55so you're not going back and forth as much
06:58if you're starting Luke right from the start
07:00rather than going with Horford.
07:02I think the other thing to take consideration of here
07:05is that Horford and Tillman looked pretty good last year.
07:08This team's probably better suited to playing big than playing small.
07:11I don't think you're going to see a Springer or Walsh kind of thing
07:14like we've kicked around.
07:16It's more likely I think you'll see some Horford-Tillman minutes
07:19that were really good last year, numbers-wise.
07:21And that is easier to do if you bring Horford off the bench
07:24rather than keeping him out there for a second stint with Tillman.
07:27I don't know if Tillman's going to play every night either here,
07:30but as I start to think about it, again, I'm like,
07:33oh man, why didn't I come up with this?
07:35And I'm not 1,000% sure it's the best move,
07:37but it's pretty creative because if Horford's coming off the bench,
07:40that just naturally scales back his minutes.
07:43Yeah, definitely.
07:44And the funny thing is I remember last year it was very clear
07:48that Horford wanted to still be a starter at the beginning of the year.
07:51And then there's this famous story of Tatum getting everybody together
07:55and having the conversation, and they collectively decided
07:58that he was going to be the odd man out of the starting lineup,
08:01but then obviously really excelled in that role.
08:04And I think the fact that they preserved his minutes during the year
08:07paid off in the long term because when they needed him in the playoffs,
08:10he was ready, and he was shooting at a good clip,
08:12and he was defending, and he really wasn't a liability at all.
08:15And so I could see a world where they're like,
08:18we want to follow that same blueprint as last year.
08:21And last year it was a choice.
08:24He could have started.
08:25I don't even remember if we realistically thought
08:28that somebody else was going to come off the bench,
08:30if it was Drew or Derek, because now in hindsight
08:32it makes so much more sense for Al too.
08:34But I think that they're probably having the conversation
08:36of it worked last year with him resting during the year
08:38and not overplaying, and we're not going to have that same luxury now
08:41because Porzingis is definitively out,
08:43so maybe we can pull in Luke or somebody else
08:46that can eat some of those minutes.
08:48So I get how they landed there, and actually,
08:50even just talking it out, it makes a lot of sense.
08:53And at the end of the day, I think Al Horford,
08:55they're going to really need him.
08:57That's the way this team is constructed.
08:59You never know if this is the year where he starts to feel
09:02some of those pains of getting older or gets an injury or whatever.
09:05We thought about it all playoffs.
09:07It would have been a disaster if he had gotten hurt.
09:10Would you do it, Sarah Cornett?
09:13I mean, you could give it a try too.
09:16That's the thing.
09:17They have 82 games for a reason, right?
09:19You could start them off with a bat, see how that goes,
09:22see what they're giving up defensively,
09:24what they're giving up offensively, see a larger sample size.
09:28I have to look at the lineup data, but I don't think that Luke
09:32played with the other four starters very much last year.
09:34And so if you give it a shot and it works, then there you go.
09:37Al can keep coming off the bench and save his legs,
09:39and kind of solves that problem.
09:42And then if it doesn't work,
09:44you probably didn't sacrifice too much with it.
09:47So that's the beauty of the long season.
09:50And I think maybe even tomorrow we'll see a little bit more of it
09:52just to see how they fare against different lineups.
09:54And I think it's probably why they ran with it in Abu Dhabi,
09:57was just to give it a chance too.
10:00Yeah, for sure.
10:01And I think he's in a good position to do it at this point.
10:03So it is worth a try.
10:04He looks stronger defensively.
10:07It seems like he can get on the perimeter just a little bit more
10:09than he could in the past.
10:11The rebounding's come along, 11 in that first game.
10:14So I think it's just a good time for him.
10:16Now he's prone to getting hurt too.
10:19And the idea that you would go back and forth a bunch with this
10:23doesn't seem to be their style.
10:26I think they like having one lineup and going with it.
10:29They always talk about, oh, maybe we could have different lineups
10:31and go a bunch of different ways with it.
10:34And that was a big talk going in the last year too, right?
10:37But that's not what happened.
10:39I remember this talk two years ago too, vaguely,
10:42because Rob was coming off surgery, I think, or something like that.
10:49And they were going to go with Cornett maybe in a starting role,
10:55or they had him in like a scrimmage at starters.
10:57So it started being a conversation like, oh,
10:59could you go with Luke to take the burden off?
11:02It was almost the same exact conversation,
11:04except it was just off a scrimmage.
11:06And Cornett ended up getting hurt, if I remember right.
11:10So they brought in Blake.
11:12So this was, yeah, two years, last year, two years ago.
11:16And Blake ended up getting into the mix a little bit
11:19on nights where Horford's sad.
11:21And Horford ended up starting for the most part that year.
11:24And nothing became of it.
11:26So this could be the exact same scenario.
11:29The difference this time, though,
11:31is that Luke's healthy going into the year.
11:33So that's a big thing.
11:35And I don't know, it still feels like that's not the most likely thing
11:41that's going to happen here.
11:43But I like the idea.
11:45I like that it moves Horford to a smaller role,
11:48because my biggest fear still is that they're going to lean on him
11:51too much during this absence period for Porzingis.
11:54And this is a natural way to scale him back a bit in rotation.
11:58Yeah, I think, honestly, at the end of the day,
12:02I don't think they'll go back and forth,
12:05but so much could happen as far as injuries go,
12:07as far as guys' plays go.
12:09Part of what I think is being insinuated here is that
12:11whereas some players spent all summer working on their game,
12:15I get the feeling that Horford really rested most of the summer.
12:18And so I think he's still just trying to work back
12:21into real NBA game shape.
12:23And so part of it could just be that.
12:25I mean, Joe mentioned we're ramping him up.
12:27So, you know, I think there's, you know,
12:29he was probably getting shots up and things, but he wasn't, you know,
12:32he was resting his legs over the summer, whereas other guys weren't.
12:35So, you know,
12:36maybe they're going to continue to scale up and he'll be ready to go and
12:39ready to start. So I don't know.
12:41I always find the starting lineup stuff to be kind of a moot point
12:43because ultimately like the goal is to get Porzingis in the starting
12:47lineup and to work off of that.
12:48And I think that in the playoffs if Porzingis was hurt again,
12:51they would run it back with Al as the starter.
12:53So it's really a question of like,
12:54how much do you rely on Luke to eat minutes during the regular season?
12:56And I think last year he showed that he's quite good at that role.
12:59So whether it's at the beginning or it's later on,
13:02like Luke can rely to play during the regular season.
13:04And I think another question is like, where does Xavier Tillman fit in?
13:08And does he fit in above Luke or alongside, or, you know,
13:11does Luke still have kind of the upper hand?
13:13A lot of it is going to come down to how well he can shoot too,
13:15because I think there's hope there that Xavier Tillman can stretch the
13:19floor and kind of give them that other option on offense,
13:21but it's not proven yet. Right.
13:23It's more of a concept than a reality.
13:25So I think that's the only other thing to consider is like,
13:27does he potentially eat some of those minutes in a more substantial way than
13:31we saw last year?
13:32Yeah.
13:33I don't think there's any doubt Luke has the upper hand and it's the
13:36knowledge of the system, the versatility on defense.
13:40They can play them in different positions there.
13:42I love the way he fits in next to these guys offensively.
13:45That tape in Abu Dhabi was just so great to watch of him passing the ball
13:50inside out.
13:51There was one play slips by Jokic and gets an and one.
13:54He didn't shoot amazing at five freight.
13:56You'd probably like to see him put another basket or two in there,
13:59but he's just so in sync here.
14:03And so much of a complimentary play.
14:06I can't get over the fact that for being a guy,
14:09who's such a small threat to score,
14:11he still opens up so much space for other guys,
14:14just with the way he moves and the positions he's able to pass from.
14:19And just the smart screens he sets.
14:21Now he can get an offensive rebound here or there.
14:23So I want to see this.
14:24I want to see what it looks like.
14:25I'm sure we will these next handful of preseason games.
14:28Cause as you mentioned with Al and that was something that stuck out to me
14:31at media day, he's not really there yet.
14:34And I think he said as much, like I'm still ramping up.
14:37The summer was short.
14:39That impacted me a little bit.
14:40And is he going to be a thousand,
14:43a thousand percent ready for the start of the season?
14:45I don't know.
14:46And some of it comes back to the minutes he's played the last handful of
14:50years. And it's kind of crazy to look at.
14:522,315 last year between regular season and playoffs,
14:572,539 in 2023.
15:00So he played even more without going to the finals and then 2,820,
15:05the year they went to the finals in 2022.
15:07So that's 7,600 minutes for Horford over the last three years here.
15:11And, you know, it was essentially the twilight of his career.
15:14So that combined with a short summer,
15:17maybe not a ton of activity as you talked about, it's,
15:21it's a tough position for him going into this year and it might be a slow,
15:25slow start for him.
15:26And that might transition from let's say a week or two where he's coming off
15:29the bench and playing small minutes into ramping them up.
15:33Cause I remember Brad talked about in June,
15:35both sides of that being important, reducing minutes, getting rest,
15:39but also playing enough minutes where you're ramped up to play big minutes
15:42eventually. And they're going to need them to play big minutes eventually,
15:45but it'll probably be in April, May, June.
15:49Yeah. And I was thinking about this.
15:50I went on like a radio station in Maine yesterday and they were asking like,
15:54what are the big stories out of camp? And I was like,
15:57is Al Horford going to start like who's going to play the backup minutes?
16:01Like there really has part of the challenge right now is like,
16:04and just thinking about this team is that it really is just the exact same
16:08team as last year with just the question of like, are you,
16:10are you even more cautious than you were last year about minutes and about
16:14rest, but they really were so cautious.
16:16Like what I'm curious about is just how the conference starts to shape up as,
16:19as the season gets started.
16:21Like if the Celtics are all of a sudden in the third or fourth seed because
16:24other teams are all going on win streaks and they drop some easy ones,
16:27like maybe you start to think about like,
16:29maybe I'm not going to go as hard in this whole like sacrificing regular season
16:32wins. I think we're used to them in this iteration of this team.
16:35Like they had such a lead in the standings last year that almost like wins,
16:39like the regular season games all felt like they were for practice and you
16:42could rest whoever, and the number one seed was really never out of,
16:45you know, never really at risk. So that,
16:48that'll be another element as well, like a few weeks,
16:50a few months into the season where all of a sudden,
16:52like maybe we do actually need to prioritize regular season wins because
16:56they're not at the standing.
16:57They're not at the spot where we might expect right now,
17:00though it was interesting to see in the GM survey, just like how,
17:03how overwhelmingly teams, you know,
17:06Other teams, general managers believe this team is going to dominate and win
17:08the championship and be the number one seed.
17:11I think it was like all but one team.
17:13And I think it was the Celtics themselves because they can't vote for
17:15themselves that had the Celtics as the number one seed in the East.
17:18So that's our impression, but obviously that can all change quickly.
17:23Yeah, for sure. Especially with health.
17:24And that's going to swing things drastically here and the Celtics are in a
17:27good spot right now with their compliment of centers,
17:29even with Porzingis out.
17:31But things change if one more guy goes down for any amount of time here.
17:34And I think that's another reason you have to be ultra careful with Horford
17:36is you want them available consistently.
17:40You don't want to miss any long stretch of time.
17:42So if having them sit out,
17:44maybe even more than those back-to-backs early on is able to save him from any
17:49ailments, you got to do it.
17:51And I think that's something that they're going to do in the early going
17:54here. I don't think there's any doubt about it.
17:56And not so much the Joe comment there,
17:59but more utilizing Horford with those starters in both those games.
18:03Not mixing that up all that much. And, you know,
18:06going to Kate off the bench first,
18:08I thought was telling in the second game using Tillman as much as they did.
18:12And the combinations to getting those guys together shows,
18:15I think how much they're going to have to utilize double big to get through
18:18some of their depth here to start this year.
18:20Some other notes from practice this week. And I know you were there today.
18:23I don't know if anything was too interesting,
18:25but continue to be on Jordan Walsh watch a little bit.
18:30Cause he played some good minutes in those Abu Dhabi games.
18:34He was out there today playing with some of the stay ready crew guys.
18:40And man, Lonnie Walker being on that Peterson,
18:44Demetrio Skopincev team doesn't bode great for his stock as,
18:49as we've talked about here, but Walsh,
18:52even though still obviously part of this group still on the lower tier things.
18:56I asked Joe on what's today, Friday,
19:00I asked Joe yesterday if we could see more Walsh in Boston during the regular
19:05season and said, if it makes sense, you know, we could do that.
19:09And still probably going to be main for him at the start of this year,
19:13but it seems like Joe's pretty impressed by how he responded to the summer
19:17league, put him in a position to, you know,
19:21play with the second unit there in those Abu Dhabi games.
19:24And he seems to be in a positive place too.
19:26I think he talked to Jay King yesterday in the athletic and they look back on
19:31the summer league thing that we talked about his mindset going into that,
19:35all of that. And I don't know,
19:37part of me thinks that we could see a little bit of Walsh during the
19:41struggle season,
19:42certainly more than last year as he tries to fit in and do a role.
19:46And I guess you misspelled peak there, Noah.
19:49Yeah. Yeah. You know, it's been a long day.
19:52I had a 5 a.m. bus leaving New York.
19:54This is going to be a lot of typos for me today.
19:56So more Walsh tomorrow. We're going to see him more second unit.
19:59Yeah, I think so. I think, you know,
20:02we're talking to Peyton about the preseason games. He's excited.
20:04He said, he'll be confirmed. He'll be playing in both games.
20:06He offered up that information.
20:07I don't think we suspect that ever going to sit in his whole career.
20:11He was like, I know some guys aren't going to play both games,
20:13but I'm definitely playing both games. But he, you know,
20:16I think guys like Jordan Walsh is going to be, this is,
20:19this is my bread and butter.
20:20I'm excited for these two preseason games.
20:21I'm excited to watch Jordan and to watch Baylor Shireman and James
20:25Springer, who I'm going to keep pushing the James Springer agenda.
20:28Joe said, he's been very impressed by his ball pressure. So that's,
20:31you think we'll see him.
20:32So we're thinking about the perimeter, right?
20:34Last year, they didn't, they didn't,
20:36they didn't have a lot of players in the perimeter.
20:38They didn't have a lot of players in the perimeter.
20:40Right. Last year,
20:41they didn't really have opportunities for anybody below Sam Hauser and
20:44Peyton Pritchard because everybody was healthy. Right.
20:47So like Drew Holiday had a couple ankle things, a couple of games,
20:50but they really didn't miss any time I'm expecting.
20:53And I'm assuming that this year there will be some sort of,
20:56some sort of guys missing time in that spot.
20:59Hopefully nothing substantial.
21:01And so who do you add to that mix below Pritchard and Hauser getting
21:05extended minutes, which I think you'll get, you know,
21:08there's Jaden Springer, there's Baylor Shireman,
21:10and there's Jordan Walsh. Those are the three guys potentially.
21:13And so Baylor's 24, really unproven.
21:17We have no idea how he looks.
21:18I thought it would be Baylor, but their returns aren't great.
21:21Jaden's 22, also limited. And then Jordan's 20. Right.
21:26So like,
21:27they're all have varying levels of experience in the NBA,
21:30but like their age and their basketball experience doesn't like align with
21:33that. So between those three guys, like who do I think right now is ready,
21:37most ready for an NBA game? I would pick Jaden, but it's, you know,
21:41I'm speculating. I don't know.
21:43Would you pick Jordan at this point of those three?
21:45I think they all have a chance.
21:47I like Jordan more because I think as we saw in small bursts in those
21:52preseason games, he has the potential to play in the lane, screen,
21:57finish, grab offensive on the rim. And the tough part with him,
22:01we talked about him as a three and D guy is that three point percentage
22:04started to tick up a little bit in Maine last year.
22:06Then he comes out in these two games here and in the summer and is missing
22:10everything from three. So that's the tough part. Yeah. Jordan.
22:16I thought Jordan was okay from three in the two Abu Dhabi games.
22:20Two of six in the first one. Right. And one of five in the second one.
22:26I want to say we'll check that, but that would be two of 11 or three of 11.
22:31So not ideal. And teams aren't going to,
22:34the biggest thing make or miss is that teams just aren't going to respect his
22:38shot out there and Jaden's too.
22:40And that's what limits both of those guys in terms of being able to play out
22:43there. So you got to put them in screening roles,
22:47play them close to the basket.
22:49And I think given that Springer is a smaller guard and Jordan's a bigger
22:53wing, I think he's in a better position to do that.
22:56Now defense is a thing there too.
22:59I think Jaden's obviously further ahead of Walsh defensively and that's another
23:04area where you got to be up to speed to get on the floor there,
23:06but they would play O'Shea because of the offensive rebounding he could provide
23:11despite the lack of a shot.
23:13And he had some positional versatility like I think Walsh does here.
23:16So I think Walsh isn't going to replace O'Shea because O'Shea had a decently
23:21consistent role last year, but again, guy out,
23:26need a wing to step up.
23:27Maybe he'll be available in that position and they go to him and see what he
23:30looks like rather than last year, him just being in Maine the whole time,
23:33like we talked about. Jaden, I don't know.
23:35I feel like he's in the Drew,
23:38Derek Pritchard camp rather than a wing, especially without the shot.
23:44I don't even mean wing. I mean like just perimeter guys.
23:47No, but if he could shoot,
23:49you'd be willing to talk about three guards given how good he is defensively.
23:53But I don't know if the shot's there with him.
23:55Yeah. I mean the shot,
23:56we don't really know with any of those three guys right now.
23:59Like I'm sure the Celtics have more data.
24:01Even Shireman.
24:03Yeah, completely. We have no idea. Jordan, I mean,
24:05we have his Maine Celtics numbers. Then we have a summer league numbers.
24:09Jaden and again, I'll reiterate,
24:11we've seen him play like so infrequently since he got traded a Maine Celtic
24:15game in a summer league game. So we can't really work with that either.
24:19I don't take stock in like taking one or two shots in a game, you know,
24:22so we really haven't seen him have more comfortably kind of get shots off.
24:26So I think the thing for me right now is 22 on 53 attempts right now.
24:3253 attempts is nothing, you know, like that, that means that,
24:35that just means so little to me. Like, you know,
24:38that's over the course of multiple years.
24:40I think the reason I lean Jaden is just because this is going to be his fourth
24:43year in the NBA. And at the end of the day,
24:45like there's a lot of player development that goes on behind the scenes.
24:48And I think they're going to at least give him a chance to start because he's
24:51more in a now or never mode than Edward Walsh who,
24:54I don't think that him going to Maine this year for the most of the year is
24:57like that out of what the intended development plan was.
25:01So just from talking to people around the team and just from just looking at
25:05years in the league here, I think like Jaden is going to get a first look.
25:08But again, there's not really a look for anybody much, you know,
25:10if nobody's everybody stays healthy. So we'll see. I mean,
25:15I think O'Shea and Svee were both guys that kind of flew under the radar because
25:18they didn't play a whole lot and, you know,
25:20they didn't have an enormous opportunity,
25:22but they were reliable when they were called upon.
25:24And so that's kind of what you're looking for with these guys.
25:27And I think we'll continue to see that.
25:29That'll be one of the main questions this weekend is of those three guys.
25:32Like, are there certain ones that, you know, stand out, you know,
25:35just one stand out more than the others. After summer league,
25:38I think Jaden looks to be above those guys.
25:40And then after the two Abu Dhabi games,
25:42Jordan kind of seemed to have that for hands. So, you know, we'll,
25:45we'll get a larger sample size, but I imagine that we see all three quite a bit.
25:50Definitely. And that game's at eight o'clock. If you want to go check out the
25:54game time app, the great deals over there right now. I don't know.
25:57You want to pull up some of the prices now and we'll share those with the
25:59people.
26:02I actually just bought my dad and my brother tickets to opening night.
26:07Yesterday I bought, I've been monitoring for a while. It was,
26:09it's three 50 to get in to the post fees and everything,
26:13which is a lot less than it was originally. It was like 600. So.
26:19Yeah.
26:21You can monitor it. You can keep an eye on it.
26:23Even right up until game time if you're in the area or live nearby,
26:26keep an eye on it.
26:28It went way down. I swear I know when I bought it, but yeah, it is.
26:33It's six 50 for two tickets now. Yeah. That's the thing.
26:36You just got to keep an eye on it. Cause it'll fluctuate. It'll change.
26:39I was looking at some of the concerts I went to this week and I did go to
26:42Stevie wonder last night. I should have waited,
26:45should have waited right until concert time.
26:47Cause they went so far down at concert time.
26:50It was a very tough ticket at first.
26:52You just never know. You never know if that's what's going to happen.
26:54But that's why game time, even after the show starts,
26:58even after the game starts,
26:59you can still go over there and get great deals.
27:01And with the code CLNS you get $20 off your first purchase right now.
27:05Terms apply.
27:07And they do have a question that they're asking this weekend as we get into
27:11some college games here, a hypothetical,
27:16would you, let's see,
27:21would you go to a wedding or college football?
27:29Who else is torn between celebrating a friend's big day and can't miss college
27:33football match-ups on the 12th, which is tomorrow.
27:35Well, the average cost of attending a wedding 650.
27:39Meanwhile for diehard football fans,
27:41you could be snagging tickets to Oklahoma,
27:46Texas for 484, 663,
27:50Iowa state Oregon football,
27:53normally 663 down to 279 and USC Penn state.
28:00You can get in for $31. I'm going football.
28:07I don't know. It depends which friend,
28:10maybe someone I don't know that much, someone I don't want to go.
28:15I'll pass. But if it was Syracuse football in particular,
28:18and I am going to Syracuse football, thanks to game time and to November,
28:24it's obviously where I'd rather be. I don't know.
28:26Which sounds better to you.
28:28I mean, I'm not going to skip someone's wedding for a college football game.
28:33Yeah. I don't watch football either, but if it's like,
28:37I've been to like so few weddings in my life also. So if it like, to me,
28:40it's like a, it would be someone important to me. So no brainer.
28:47Yeah. I'm looking forward to some weddings too.
28:49In a year from now, my, one of my close friends is getting married,
28:52so I wouldn't miss his, but certain ones, depending on the game, it depends,
28:56but 76% right here saying football.
29:01So I'm guessing that's a lot of big, big college fans,
29:05but look at those deals to 79, Ohio state, Oregon,
29:09USC right now at $31 Penn state. So yeah,
29:14there you go. And $20 off with CLNS,
29:17use that code for your first purchase terms apply. So,
29:22before we get out of here, games eight o'clock on Saturday,
29:24which is tomorrow. What are you looking forward to?
29:27Otherwise from this game? I don't know if we'll see him bead,
29:30but that'll be interesting. If it is Horford's debut, those two going at it,
29:33see where Horford's I mean,
29:34and beads at and Horford's at physically that'd be a good test against each
29:38other,
29:39but maybe they throw Horford into the more manageable matchup against Toronto
29:42there and beat is gone. But I think tomorrow is probably the night.
29:46You're most likely to see Horford out there for what's as Joe Mazula said,
29:50it's going to be one preseason game, maybe two here.
29:54So definitely could be some starters on hand. Celtic stars,
29:58had a good week off here. A couple of ramp up days,
30:00use some shorter practices to it felt like. So action in the games,
30:05activity and live practice of what they're working on right now,
30:10I think is the way they're going at least based on how the Abu Dhabi games
30:14like the stars played quite a bit in those games. So it'll be fun here.
30:17Sixers Maxie looks bigger. He looks stronger.
30:20It looks more able to survive out there. I'm interested to see how that looks.
30:23You're adding Paul George to the mix here. Is he going to play?
30:26We're going to get a sneak peek at what his fit is on that team.
30:29And then Yabu Selly coming back to town.
30:31I'm sure he's going to get a standing ovation when he enters.
30:34So a lot of fun stuff to watch for from this game that many people feel like
30:37could be these finals this year.
30:40Yeah, I think I was going to mention Yabu Selly is a fun one.
30:43I was like watching Peyton Pritchard play preseason basketball.
30:46I feel like it's just a just from a basketball standpoint,
30:48it's a fun experience. But yeah, just any insight we get on the rotation.
30:51I think that's the only thing that we can really think about right now is like
30:55just evaluating who's playing with who, who's playing well.
30:58Like I mentioned, you know, between the perimeter guys who might step up
31:01and get some additional opportunities,
31:03but we're not going to learn anything super substantial from these two games.
31:06I think it's going to be a continuation of what we saw in Abu Dhabi,
31:08but just probably less minutes for the starters and more kind of going
31:12deeper down the bench. Maybe we even see like an Anton Watson, you know,
31:15some of those guys that we have, we've seen very little.
31:20They might still be in scrimmage mode from what we saw today
31:25and the minutes in those games.
31:26It's tough sledding for the Shireman and Walker fans right now.
31:31And since I'm a Shireman fan, I'm right there with the Walker fans,
31:35even though I had pessimism about Walker coming in,
31:38but I don't know if those guys are going to get out of the garbage time
31:43minutes there unless they sit the starters down the stretch there.
31:46That's the opportunity.
31:47And that would probably be the case on Tuesday in Toronto.
31:50Who knows if the starters will even fly to that game.
31:53LeBron was complaining. He didn't want to go to Milwaukee.
31:56Famously. Yeah.
31:58And I doubt Celtics starters or the Celtics themselves will want their main
32:02guys going up to Toronto for that.
32:04Celtics had to leave the country twice this preseason and LeBron's complained
32:08about Milwaukee.
32:09I know that, that one's so viral. Everybody weighed in on that one.
32:12He was probably just being a little facetious, but it is kind of a funny,
32:15like it was not a deal to go to Milwaukee for preseason game.
32:18It's kind of like every, everybody's doing it.
32:20I learned a little bit how their schedule though.
32:22I think that that opened the door on people sharing that actually the teams
32:26make their own schedules versus the NBA preseason. Yeah.
32:29I didn't realize that. So it worked.
32:30So I learned a little something because LeBron will try to,
32:33to not to complain and everybody had to dunk on him.
32:35So Celtics Toronto, some,
32:37some love there because they're playing each other twice this preseason used
32:41to be Charlotte.
32:42I'm actually surprised they didn't do Charlotte this year with Lee and all
32:44that, but they'll see them pretty early in the schedule.
32:47So maybe that's why, but that's it for today.
32:49Not ton from these practices. Pritchard doesn't like our video.
32:53I'm going to blame Rich for that one.
32:54That was so funny. I was cracking up when you said that.
32:58So you can check that out over on the show.
33:01I don't know what that means. Again,
33:03different times in the past Hernan Gomez gotten a preseason game.
33:06You're like, Oh, is that a thing?
33:07Or for came off the bench that year when he may started and for,
33:10for just ended up starting that whole year. And then.
33:12Yeah.
33:13I don't know what that means. I don't know what that means.
33:15I don't know what that means.
33:16I don't know what that means.
33:17I don't know what that means.
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35:39I don't know what that means.
35:40I don't know what that means.
35:41Kevin's got an outro for us, I think.
35:43No, he doesn't.
35:44He said he was going to work on an outro.
35:45Man, he had a phenomenal game.
35:48Phenomenal!
35:49Phenomenal!
35:50Phenomenal!
35:51Phenomenal!
35:52Phenomenal!
35:53Phenomenal!
35:54Phenomenal!
35:55Phenomenal!
35:56Phenomenal!
35:57Phenomenal!
35:58Phenomenal!
35:59Phenomenal!
36:00Phenomenal!
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36:02Phenomenal!
36:03Phenomenal!
36:04Phenomenal!
36:05Phenomenal!
36:06Phenomenal!
36:07Phenomenal!
36:08Phenomenal!
36:09Phenomenal!