Update on Kristaps Porzingis injury? Celtics insider Mego joins! Which team could give Celtics trouble in a 7-game series?
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00:00Happy holidays and best wishes to you and yours at this most joyous time of year. How are you?
00:05I wish you good health. I know. I don't know what it is. You know my my theory
00:10It's stress holiday. The holiday stress has gotten to you
00:13I don't feel like I'm somebody who gets stressed out, but maybe I don't even you don't feel it, but your body does
00:19Yeah, your body is acting out because you won't let your you're too tough. You're like, I'm not I'm not stressed
00:24I'm not who cares about this stuff. I got it all figured out and then all of a sudden you're in urgent care
00:29Well, I would prefer that to what WebMD says, which is I only have two days left
00:34WebMD is always tumor. Yeah, always. I think it's IBS
00:38It's like you're like my I have a heel pain and they're like it's a brain tumor number one killer for men over 55 stress
00:44Yeah, do you think Costa Rica would make you less stressed?
00:48Uh, I don't I'm worried that I go to Costa. Yeah, and then I have some kind of like a medical emergency
00:54And I don't know no disrespect to Costa Rica, but I don't know about the doctors and their qualifications or mid-flight
01:01Well, I saw this. I didn't see this on tick-tock. It was more goner than more of an Instagram hatch get yourself right now
01:10vacation insurance
01:13Because if you go someplace I'm dead ass go someplace
01:17Yeah, and then you have to go over there and you don't have like vacation insurance
01:22You're in a you'll be down bad
01:25I just saw some lady who and I'm sure speaking of insurance that they'll cover everything
01:31You'll get all that money right away that work if you find yourself in like an Amanda Knox situation doesn't cover your attorney
01:39Telling you vacation insurance man, and it's cheap too
01:43They got policies out there that achieve but get it get it now
01:46You cover you for when you're you know out of the country
01:50Help you out before we get to the one team around here that we have very little issue with
01:56Where are you currently on Gerard Mayo and the future at that position here in New England?
02:03So I will say that I felt like Sunday was a turning point for me
02:07And you can say that I'm late to the party on
02:11What I'm about to say, but I I think that you should exercise patience overall with a rookie head coach
02:17especially when you pair him with a rookie quarterback and the roster that New England did and that you were a year early on your
02:24plan and
02:25Exiting bill out, but I do feel like the way that everything unraveled not just on the field
02:31But in the post game on Sunday was so disappointing that it was the first time that I looked at
02:36The situation here with the coaching staff and said even if you clean house completely around Mayo
02:43It just feels like a real he would have to make a real jump next season to even get anywhere
02:50In meaningful progress, like I I don't think that you'd be in the playoffs next season around a winning record
02:56But like can you win seven games next season?
02:59Could you even be around eight and maybe be a fringe playoff team?
03:04The way that I came off of feeling Sunday with all the you know, you said it not me
03:10I just thought that that was that was a really really low point for him and for the coaching staff overall
03:15And you'd have to be a fringe playoff team with Vrabel because if you only have four or five wins
03:23Then aren't people going? Well, maybe Vrabel's not the right guy, right?
03:28and don't we go down that road again, so I think it's easy to look at the schedule and to look at the
03:35The record and say like you are what your record says you are
03:38but I kind of feel like this team is
03:40Worse than the record says they are like when I came off on Sunday
03:44I looked at and I was like, I don't even know how they won three games
03:50Everything it's it's not just you are what the record says you are the context around it actually feels worse
03:56And that's where I think even if you say, okay
03:59Well if Vrabel was the coach or somebody else was the coach next season and you only have seven wins or six wins
04:05Did it make sense to veer away from the Mayo plan?
04:08Well as much as winning the games is what?
04:11ultimately counts and getting into the playoffs and getting back to the Super Bowl you also have to look at the direction of the team
04:16And the franchise overall and it feels like we moved backwards this season
04:21Which is weird because I think if you were to ask Gerard Mayo and he had some truth serum
04:26I think he would say that he feels the record is
04:29Worse than what the team actually is
04:31I think he would point to the fact that they lost some of these games in overtime or by only one touchdown
04:37Yeah, so I think that while the fans I agree with you I feel like the team feels worse than what their record is
04:43I bet you Rod Mayo would tell you that they're better and he deserves some of the blame
04:47But the biggest problem person is Elliot Wolfe. That's the guy you should move on from
04:51Yeah
04:51I agree
04:52If you bring Vrabel in and and you stick with Elliot Wolfe and then you don't bring any talent because yeah males made mistakes
05:00I agree with you Greg and we've kind of we we we go back and forth, but your team
05:05Has zero
05:07Talent other than the quarterback and Christian Gonzalez and Bob Moore's been hurt for the majority
05:13But that's it. And that is clearly on Elliot Wolfe's plate. He put nothing around
05:21Gerard Mayo and he might be the guy who's like, we don't want to start Drake man. We want week one
05:27Yeah. All right. Well the NBA has a cup champion
05:31What if anything can the Celtics glean from this
05:36So the Bucs won last night over the Thunder and I actually think it's great for the Celtics
05:41I think it's so great for the Celtics because I think it was even last week that I came on here and I said I
05:46Have an 85% confidence meter in the Celtics winning the championship again, but I got to see them against the Thunder
05:53Mm-hmm, and we still haven't seen them against the Thunder. They're gonna play them in January
05:57but the way that OKC fell apart against
06:01The three-point shooting from Milwaukee last night
06:03I think it's extremely indicative of how those teams the Celtics and the Thunder could match up against each other
06:08Should they meet in the NBA Finals?
06:11I thought OKC
06:11Looked like a young team who spun a little out of control in the second half and didn't know how to handle the Bucs three-point
06:18Shooting which is mostly Dame Lillard. They outshot them 51 to 15
06:23now if you look at the three-point shooting that the Celtics have which is far and beyond anybody else in the NBA right now as
06:29Irritating as it might be to you if you want another Boston championship
06:33I think we saw a little bit of the roadmap last night and it should be a big confidence boost for the Celtics
06:39I don't look at it and say ooh
06:41Milwaukee is really scary. Like we got to look out for a Milwaukee
06:44I looked at it and said
06:45The Thunder still have a lot of stuff to work out and you just got a little bit of an indication of how you could
06:51Beat them should you meet them in the finals, right?
06:54You're spot-on when it comes to the three-point shooting it really is Dame Lillard and maybe a sprinkle Brook Lopez in every now and then
07:02Yeah, but the Celtics that's what they do. You know, we might I think they're all of them do it
07:07Yeah, well the team itself
07:10Averages I want to say and correct me if I'm wrong
07:1451 51 and the next closest team is that like 43, right? So you're always
07:21Celtics and
07:22We we might not like it
07:24But that's what gives them the edge because they're gonna keep they're gonna keep hawking them up
07:30Yeah, and they're gonna probably make them
07:32I know we see these losses and these close games sometimes against teams that are much lower in the rankings than them
07:38Where you see them shooting?
07:41There's making the attempts, but they're just it's not balls not going in and you say live or die by the three
07:47But the law of statistics
07:49Unfortunately, not the way I want to talk about basketball
07:51But it proves out for the Celtics with the level of talent they have for Chris stops the heel injury
07:57I mean, he's injury prone that that's something we can confirm, but he said he doesn't think it's anything major after the game
08:04Yeah, so I was at practice yesterday and Joe Missoula said that Chris stops was doing some shooting at practice
08:10He's day to day right now. He was also in the weight room. So it's not like it's something that sounds like it's super
08:17Concerning and I will say it's the other foot
08:20So it's not the leg that he had the surgery on that. He was rehabbing back for most of the season
08:26I think it's just the way that you go with Chris tops. Yeah
08:29Yeah, I love him and I'm sure he wants to be out there
08:32But they're also just gonna be overly cautious with him. So she at this point in the season when it's December
08:38Why are you gonna push him against the Wizards?
08:40He played 11 minutes he'll hurts get him out of there
08:44Make sure that he's okay when the season and the seating is really on the line
08:48Do you feel like there is any team?
08:52that
08:53Can give them?
08:56Trouble in a seven game series because I don't feel like whether it's the Eastern Conference teams all the Western Conference teams
09:02Just looking at them and watching some of these
09:05I don't think there's any team that I would even be concerned about losing in a seven-game series. I think it'll be interesting
09:12I'm not concerned about a loss
09:14But I'm just interested to see how the Bucs progress as the season goes on because if you think about what happened last season
09:20They bring Doc Rivers in at a point in the season when the team's not even really
09:24Practicing at all and he's trying to figure stuff out on game day to game day. You have Damian Lillard out there
09:29Who's totally miserable?
09:31He's like giving quotes about how he comes home and plays video games and he had no idea
09:36Milwaukee was gonna be as miserable as it was as a
09:39Climate and his family's not there and that town like Giannis sounds like he wants to leave
09:44I still don't like you could have something quirky happen there. I just don't think it's in the east
09:48Okay, and so out of these teams out of the West I told you like I'm afraid of the Thunder's defense
09:55They're a really good defensive team
09:57And you're like, so do you just out shoot them in a seven-game series and that's why when you look at some of these teams
10:03I'm just like unless somebody does something
10:06So crazy by the trade deadline, you know, which is possible
10:11I just don't see a team that can beat the Celtics or Chet Holmgren comes back and he looks
10:18Completely transcendent for the Thunder and all of a sudden you're like damn. That's that's a that's a much more real team
10:24It's not just SGA, but it remains to be seen. I am interested in your perspective on NBA ratings
10:31Yes are in the toilet. Yes
10:35Christmas was there they owned Christmas now Netflix is giving them. Well, I mean Jesus
10:42For their money, what why do you think the ratings are down?
10:46So I think it's pretty simple and it's not the three-point line and it's not off-court causes or anything like that
10:54Right. No, I don't think so. I think and you can completely argue with me like everybody's and this is just my opinion
11:00But they're down 28% through November 21st at the same time
11:04You have a 76 billion dollar deal for TV rights for the NBA that just went through it is a star driven leak
11:11And I think you're in one of these cycles in the NBA where the stars that everybody knows
11:18Curry LeBron
11:20Durant
11:24Dealing with something physically
11:28So the the most notable stars are physically running to a lawyer's office
11:35He's waiting to get moved to Golden State
11:37Well, they're aging out of the league
11:39And then you have this kind of like weird middle point where guys that you thought were maybe gonna be a huge star like Kawhi
11:46Leonard have completely disappeared in terms of just a casual fans consciousness
11:51And then you have yokich Don chitch Giannis and what I think you really need is just
11:58I'm sorry, like you look at what's spring-boarded the WNBA into everyday conversation
12:06stars
12:15People probably wouldn't be able to pick out Aja Wilson out of a lineup. That's what I'm talking about wiggy
12:20I think what's what people are really saying when they say the late 80s early 90s mid 90s were the best time for the NBA
12:27and sometimes they talk about that as
12:30The style of play as it wasn't so much three-point shooting. It was a rough and tumble
12:35You don't think I think at all. I think it all has to be like 51 three-pointers a game. It's boring
12:43Though I think it is no drama. All the guys are friends. Nobody actually hates each other anymore
12:49Rivalry
12:53People are telling you when they say the late 80s to early mid 90s
12:57Where's the best basketball is they're saying that's when I knew the guys the most and it goes into the drama
13:04That's when I knew the stars
13:06I knew what teams they were on because the player empowerment movement has guys like Kyrie Irving
13:12Bouncing around to four different teams, right? It's not fun to follow
13:16You don't form the same attack, but I would say this though about the ratings
13:19We're moving this entire season in
13:22Boston the NBA Finals averaged a 17-7 over the five games they played against the Mavericks
13:28Which is lower than the Red Sox one-game playoff in
13:322021 it is I think
13:35Half the audience that was there in 2010 for the seven game series against the Lakers
13:41The
13:44Patriots this year are in the 20s, right, but who did the Red Sox play in the one-game series? It was the Yankees
13:51It's the drama. There's no drama
13:54the NBA Finals
13:56The paint the Red Sox beat the Dodgers in 2018 a five-game series, right where it was a blowout similar to the Mavericks the Celtics
14:04I'm sorry, Boston on Fox did a 38 over those five games
14:0821 share points higher than those past one in the Celtics Mavericks had a Super Bowl like week off build-up
14:14But there's no drama in Celtics Dallas Mavericks. It's a championship. It doesn't matter
14:19What's the drama with the Red Sox with Dodgers when well, I think it was wasn't Mookie Betts playing for the Dodgers
14:26No, no, no. Nope. Mookie Betts was on the Red Sox what in 20 2018. I'm sorry about that
14:32I just think that 20 share points higher right, but I think with the NBA
14:36It's the lack of the the drama when I say the drama. It's like the rivalries
14:40There's no and you brought up the late 80s early
14:4390s there was still whether it was Jordan and the Bulls versus the Knicks
14:47Yeah, you know you threw the paces in there. There's just no and I think you're part, right?
14:52These guys go everywhere and then
14:54Where's the real like the drama is locally in Boston watching a team?
14:58That's been close to winning a championship over the last 10 years Brian breakthrough
15:01You're missing the point when you want to watch a series you're like
15:06Dallas Celtics Boston not this country Boston the city of Boston
15:11Did a 17-7 in the NBA Finals because there's a ton of drama everybody here was watching it
15:16We thought but they weren't drunk
15:17No, because even there I think they're like when you look at even now with Boston, it's still I re Irving
15:23That's a pretty big drama component, but it wasn't like yeah, but Kyra's pretending to be nice. Yeah
15:28That was fun, so you guys would have said before that series
15:32It's gonna do a horrible rating on TV in Boston. Oh if Kyrie Irving would have said, you know what?
15:36I hate the damn Celtics. I hate everything about game. It's the game
15:42Personalities I think
15:45Best branding like they make it every fan feels like they know them
15:48I think that the NBA when it comes to social media is the the forefront of how every league should be
15:56They every league should look at the NBA and do exactly how they how they do
16:00Right to a degree. Nobody hates like you don't believe that they hate each other
16:04No, like, you know, so where's it? Where's the like the like the Celtics hated the Pistons?
16:10Jalen and Janice or even right but that that interests you more even like the Celtics the big three, right?
16:16It was always about Pierce versus LeBron. There was drama there
16:20And so as you know Celtics fans are just basketball fans. They love that element of the game
16:27Yeah, I get the three-pointer might have turned off some people but the lack of you know
16:33The rivalries the the lack of like the superstars are there Anthony Edwards is a superstar
16:41Jason Tatum is a superstar
16:43Jalen Brown is a superstar Luka Dauntz. It's like they are there the superstars
16:49But I just think it's everybody's kumbaya, there's no like
16:54You don't know which one of them are gonna be playing like
17:00So many games have you seen any ratings may go this year for NBC Sports, Boston
17:04So I don't know about NBC Sports Boston in particular the 28% down is
17:09specifically this season up until November 21st
17:13A speaking of the year and the is Celtics winning it all the in your mind
17:20top Boston sports story of the year
17:23so
17:24Given the conversation that we just had where I feel like nobody wants to talk about the Celtics about Drake May
17:30Is that the I think that I think it's just bill going to college
17:34It's NFL NFL has got to be the top always
17:38So I think it's got to be build a UNC like that is just to me
17:42I wrote this last week one of the more bizarre sports stories that I can remember outside of the courtroom
17:48Outside of the courtroom one of the more bizarre sports stories because it's a guy who's trying to reinvent himself at 72
17:55We just don't see that that often egg. I compared it to
17:58Jordan going to play baseball in the prime of his career
18:01Those are not in the prime of his career
18:03But it's such a strange swerve that you look at it and you say can anybody really reinvent themselves this way
18:09And now and now to her point with the Jordan, I would say either like on like on the field not in the courtroom
18:17bill and
18:19Going to UNC is the biggest like
18:24Sports story that I would be like, whoa
18:29I'm
18:30Recency bias there, but it's like the greatest like Drake May and what he's turned out to be is
18:37It's huge. Okay, what's up? What's the biggest story and you might be caught?
18:41I'll quote you may go you might be right Red Sox re-signing Alex Cora
18:46When you talk about throughout sports history through all the sports, I don't think there's a joke is Stiglione leaving
18:53Joe I think it's I think it's bill going to UNC and Jordan going to play baseball
18:59you got the greatest coach of all time going to you and
19:04See after he's been coaching for 50 years in the NFL
19:08Right one got blackballed by the owner
19:10The other got blackballed by gambling and the greatest basketball player in his of all time during his eras going to play base
19:17There are no bigger sports stories in my opinion than those two and whether who's first or second
19:24You know, you could probably make the argument but this this is the biggest story. Yeah, we've seen in a long time