Steve Bulpett is a Senior NBA Columnist for Heavy.com. Steve joins the program to discuss the impressive start to the Boston Celtics west coast road trip, why Tatum's MVP case is murky, and whether Victor Wembanyama is really the next true great star.
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SportsTranscript
00:00:00Celtics Beat is brought to you by Price Picks and the Game Time app.
00:00:06Hey everyone, welcome to a new edition of Celtics Beat.
00:00:10Happy New Year, hope everyone had a great holiday season as well.
00:00:142025 off to a banner start, obviously for the Boston Celtics.
00:00:18Banner 18 was part of 2024, hopefully Banner 19 is a few months away here.
00:00:24Celtics starting off the new year just the same way they closed out the old one.
00:00:29Wins, December 31st, took care of business in very lopsided fashion.
00:00:34Beat the Toronto Raptors by like, I don't know, 90 points.
00:00:38And then the first couple games of the new year, we've seen a bit of a sweaty one
00:00:45against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
00:00:47One that left their star, their superstar, Anthony Edwards, crying in the locker room
00:00:52after the game and whining and we can get to all of that.
00:00:55And of course, the back-to-back, again, we see Joe Mizzoula coaching circles
00:01:00around Emei Odoka, the former Celtics coach, 109-86 in Houston.
00:01:05That's three straight wins for the Celtics, who just as when we were here last time
00:01:09a week ago, sit with the third best record in the NBA, second best in the Eastern Conference
00:01:15and generally speaking, life is good.
00:01:17I am Adam Kaufman, Evan Valentis here, and our guest of the day, guest of the show,
00:01:22Steve Bullpett, again, Heavy.com senior NBA columnist there.
00:01:25Steve, happy new year. How are you?
00:01:27I'm living the dream, actually.
00:01:30I'm glad to hear it, obviously.
00:01:33How is the NBA coverage going for you right now?
00:01:37Because obviously, as we know, we've had you on the show for many years
00:01:41and your roles have evolved to where you were very locked in, all things Celtics,
00:01:46but NBA columnist and eye around the league and obviously all of your contacts
00:01:50around the league and all of that, and that's sort of morphed into in recent years
00:01:55more of a broader scope of the entire league, a little less the day-to-day on Boston.
00:02:00Where do you stand here in early 2025 as it relates to how much coverage
00:02:06and your own personal time and interest investment and all of it
00:02:10into the defending champs, hopefully future champs,
00:02:14versus all the other contenders around the league?
00:02:17Well, yeah, I guess the larger focus is trying to find stories around the league
00:02:24or finding them, just how to put them in the proper perspective.
00:02:30But the fact that the Celtics are such a big story around the league
00:02:35makes our site want to lean toward them, lean toward coverage,
00:02:40because there's obviously huge interest in one of the top two or three teams in the league.
00:02:47Which fits nicely because I'm based here in the Boston area,
00:02:52so that makes things a little convenient.
00:02:55But there are so many things going on around the league, especially in the last week or so,
00:03:02that it's gotten pretty crazy.
00:03:04It's just a matter of putting it together and trying to crank out some stuff this coming week.
00:03:10It's true. Usually a lot of that drama is sort of reserved for the NBA offseason,
00:03:14but it truly is just year-round.
00:03:16And maybe front of the line is everything going on in Miami right now
00:03:21with Jimmy Butler on the outs, and he's now suspended for conduct detrimental
00:03:26and wants out, obviously.
00:03:28We've had Sean Grandy on a number of times, and I don't remember exactly the phrase
00:03:35or the expression, but he's talked in the past about how,
00:03:39and this was usually in regard to Kyrie Irving,
00:03:41how at a certain point in time, if you're always sort of pointing fingers
00:03:46at everybody around you, like maybe you're the bad roommate.
00:03:49You know what I mean?
00:03:50And so obviously this is now yet another stop where Jimmy Butler is kind of
00:03:54worn out as welcome.
00:03:56Obviously there's reports that a lot of the friction with Pat Riley goes back
00:04:00to when Riley told him to keep his mouth shut oh so long ago about sort of the
00:04:06trash-talking when he wasn't even available to play against the Celtics.
00:04:10So he's going to be on the outs here.
00:04:12What do you think this does with respect to, I guess, I don't know where he's
00:04:17going to go, but presumably he's going to go to a good team.
00:04:20I think he'll go to a good team.
00:04:22So if that winds up happening, does this rock the landscape
00:04:25of the Eastern Conference at all, or was Miami a team that was
00:04:28a little bit off your radar?
00:04:30Well, look, I've always looked at Jimmy Butler as he's had some good
00:04:36playoff runs, but there's times even in the playoffs where it's like you need
00:04:41to lean closer to the floor to see him.
00:04:45He kind of falls away from the picture a little bit.
00:04:51But as far as him going to a good team, it's hard to see which good team,
00:04:57which team that is close to perhaps winning maybe a player or so away
00:05:03can afford him.
00:05:05And not just his salary, but making his salary work vis-a-vis the cap
00:05:11and the apron and all the other fun things that drive people crazy,
00:05:16but are an essential part of how teams can maneuver.
00:05:22It's not just a case of let's get the best players we can and go to war.
00:05:29Which players can fit in their salary structure that aren't going to bankrupt,
00:05:33well, not bankrupt the franchise.
00:05:35They're pretty much foolproof at this point, but not tick off the people
00:05:39that are signing the checks.
00:05:41So I think it's hard to see him.
00:05:44You know, someone, any good team or decent team really wants to move for him,
00:05:49you're looking at a three or more team deal, and those things are really hard
00:05:54to pull off with regard to the cap and apron and with regard to teams,
00:06:01you know, more teams now because of the plan that are, you know, in the mix.
00:06:07So there aren't teams that will say, hey, look, let's pack it in,
00:06:10let's help make this deal and see what we can get out of it down the line.
00:06:14So, yeah, I'm not sure how this works out, but it's going to be difficult.
00:06:21Yeah, I'm just happy that, you know, like this is a win for the Celtics
00:06:25because wherever Jimmy Butler does end up going,
00:06:27unless it becomes more of a Jimmy Butler thing,
00:06:29and we'll see if he stays in the Eastern Conference, you know, again,
00:06:32wherever that that destination is.
00:06:34But, you know, a lot of the PTSD that Celtics fans have about the Miami Heat
00:06:38is very Butler centric.
00:06:40So not that I think Miami is this great team.
00:06:43There are other teams that I would worry about giving the Celtics problems
00:06:46in the Eastern Conference playoffs before Miami, but that's one less.
00:06:50You know, we can knock away here.
00:06:52Yeah. And you don't have to revisit the skeletons in the closet,
00:06:55you know, depending if Miami were to make the playoffs
00:06:58and you have to go through that.
00:06:59Well, you got to take them seriously because they have Eric Spelster
00:07:01and all these other guys in the team that would probably,
00:07:04well, depending on the return, go away.
00:07:05What I think is interesting, I was going to throw this to Steve is
00:07:09the NBA has done a really nice job of, and this is,
00:07:15I'd say to the credit of the NBA and the credit of just the fan.
00:07:19It's not like a, it's a multi-tiered thing where the trade deadline
00:07:24and the off season are like two of the most fun things about the NBA,
00:07:28the transactional, the movement part of the NBA,
00:07:31I think has brought a lot of eyes and attention to either stories
00:07:36you're writing or videos that we post on our YouTube page
00:07:39or just clicks on Twitter or X or blue sky or wherever the hell
00:07:43we're posting now just brings a lot of attention to the sport in general.
00:07:46So what I find interesting is, is it seems like this CBA has sort of
00:07:52not neutered, but slowed down the idea of player movement
00:07:57and player transactions.
00:07:59The leak is, as you stated, like this train, Jimmy Butler is not like a,
00:08:02Hey, let's just hop on the trade machine and we'll just make this work.
00:08:06No, there are there, the caps and the aprons make this much harder
00:08:09to pull off.
00:08:10And so I phrase it this way, Steve,
00:08:12do you think the NBA knew at the time as they ratified this new CBA
00:08:16that they would hinder a big part of what makes this sport so popular
00:08:22in the public opinion?
00:08:26I think in any situation, anytime you make a change,
00:08:29there are pretty much always an unintended consequences.
00:08:35But I think it's been a goal of the league as much as the
00:08:41transactions and the possibility of transactions,
00:08:46as much as the exact deals themselves are great drivers of interest.
00:08:53I think the league has always tried to lean toward
00:08:57keeping some teams together.
00:08:59I remember a billion years ago, and it was so long ago that
00:09:03it was an all-star game in San Antonio.
00:09:07So we can look up what year that was.
00:09:09But I know that Ainge was doing TV at the time.
00:09:13And it was a few hours before an all-star game at the Alamo Dome.
00:09:18And we were on the court just, and it was hardly anybody,
00:09:22it was people in the building, but not all, you know,
00:09:25the crowd hadn't come in yet.
00:09:26The players hadn't really taken the court at all.
00:09:28And this is well before, and the place is still semi-dark
00:09:31and I'm giving you more detail than you really want.
00:09:34But we were talking to Stern and I said,
00:09:37and this is, again, a billion years ago, I said,
00:09:39just, you know, hasn't the cap kind of outlived its usefulness
00:09:44because there are so many teams that,
00:09:48so many towns that wake up on the opening of the season
00:09:51and realize they have no chance, you know,
00:09:54and shouldn't they be able to make moves more freely?
00:09:58And his response, I think, was pretty telling as to what the,
00:10:02certainly then, and I think to a degree it's carried over,
00:10:05what the NBA's just overall view of it was.
00:10:11His response was, who did Dave Winfield play for?
00:10:15And his point being that the hero is a star
00:10:20that had bounced around so much that, you know,
00:10:24which team did you identify him with?
00:10:27You know, retrospect now, you'd probably look at it,
00:10:30you know, and say, yeah, the Yankees and, you know,
00:10:33the Padres and, but, you know,
00:10:35Minnesota and all these different situations.
00:10:37So I think he liked the idea of having the stars remain
00:10:43and where they are and develop some consistency
00:10:47so that fans could kind of lock in.
00:10:50But, you know, as it's gone on,
00:10:52I think it's become a little, you know,
00:10:55the owners, whenever CBA comes up,
00:10:59they want things to be as foolproof as possible,
00:11:02as them-proof as possible.
00:11:06Because what's hilarious is, and it, you know,
00:11:10we haven't had a lockout in a while, but, you know,
00:11:12sitting around and the last one was 2011.
00:11:15We were, you know, sitting around covering the lockout.
00:11:18We just laughed because here are the owners in there
00:11:21trying to make the best deal possible for themselves
00:11:24to protect themselves against themselves.
00:11:28And they know that as soon as we all, everyone knows
00:11:32that as soon as the ink is dry on the new CBA,
00:11:36they're out trying to find ways around it.
00:11:39You know, what's the loophole?
00:11:40How can I get around this deal that I just, you know,
00:11:44negotiated?
00:11:45So, yeah, it's, excuse me.
00:11:52I think it's a little more difficult to make moves,
00:11:54but I think you're going to see a lot more teams saying,
00:11:57you know, guy doesn't want to be here.
00:11:59We'll let him play it out and leave.
00:12:01You know, the Paul George situation,
00:12:05instead of let's get something for him.
00:12:07Let's just, you know, the space, the cap space
00:12:12and the maneuverability that comes with losing a big salary
00:12:17is almost more valuable than trying to get an asset
00:12:21for that player, because it's hard to get value,
00:12:25proper value, you know,
00:12:27proper replacement value for that player.
00:12:30All right, let's take a quick break.
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00:14:41Let's get back to the show.
00:14:43Well, obviously a guy that Celtics fans are hoping will be a career Celtic.
00:14:49And he's got a long, long ways to go.
00:14:51But he's under contract for a while.
00:14:53And there are multiple guys that would fit this distinction.
00:14:55But Jason Tatum being the head of that snake, obviously,
00:14:59is once again just having a tremendous year.
00:15:03He's probably more realistically in the most valuable player conversation
00:15:08than he's ever been before, at least in my mind.
00:15:11Years past, I've never really taken it seriously.
00:15:14We've talked about that in this show, so we don't need to rehash that.
00:15:17But this is a time where it's entirely justifiable
00:15:23that Tatum be in that mix.
00:15:25And we're not even halfway through the year,
00:15:27so who knows how all of that evolves.
00:15:28But just with all the little things that he does
00:15:30and the way that he has broadened his game,
00:15:32Evan loves to talk about Point Tatum,
00:15:34and I'm sure he'll have some thoughts on that.
00:15:36Just the way that Tatum is playing right now and leading this team,
00:15:39it's been a ton of fun to watch.
00:15:42And Jalen Brown has missed a couple of recent games.
00:15:45The Celtics even still really haven't missed a beat,
00:15:47these two to begin the new year.
00:15:49Tatum, the shot volume's obviously there.
00:15:52He's taken 19 and 27 shots, respectively, in these two games.
00:15:57All told, only shot about 43%, 44%.
00:16:00Launching threes like you read about, 27 between the two games,
00:16:04but hitting them at a 37% clip,
00:16:07not getting to the line nearly as much as maybe you'd like him to,
00:16:10but even still just turning it on when he has to.
00:16:14With what you've seen from Tatum, and again, just the continued growth,
00:16:19because he is obviously such a young guy.
00:16:22He's only 26. He'll turn 27 in March.
00:16:25We say this all the time, NBA age-wise,
00:16:28he's only just entering his prime years.
00:16:31It's that 26-27 to 30-31 range,
00:16:35where guys are generally at their absolute best.
00:16:39What ascension and growth and maturity and all of it
00:16:43have you seen from Tatum here in this season?
00:16:48Well, I think it goes back to last season, really.
00:16:51I don't think it's changed much since last season,
00:16:54what his basic point of growth has been.
00:17:00The Celtics won the championship last year for a couple of reasons.
00:17:04Chris Hapsburg saying this was huge.
00:17:09Getting Drew Holliday, replacing Marcus Smart with Drew Holliday.
00:17:15Before that moved, I think the Celtics had some serious questions.
00:17:20Losing Marcus Smart, what would that do defensively?
00:17:23Then all of a sudden, you've got Drew Holliday.
00:17:25It's like, okay, this is serious.
00:17:28That maneuvering was important.
00:17:32The reason the Celtics won the championship last year
00:17:36and why they didn't win it two years prior
00:17:40was the growth in Jason Tatum's game.
00:17:43Against the Golden State Warriors a couple of years prior,
00:17:48the Warriors had just basically kind of goaded him into
00:17:55take the ball and go do something.
00:17:57You saw the dribble, dribble, dribble, and try to force a play.
00:18:01What you saw last year, especially during the playoffs,
00:18:06and the things we're talking about,
00:18:08the things I'm going to talk about with the growth in his game
00:18:10are things that don't necessarily make for MVP sparkle.
00:18:17I think the MVP thing, that can be so much BS
00:18:21because there's an object to the game.
00:18:23What does your guy do to get your team to that object?
00:18:29The difference you saw last year, especially in the playoffs,
00:18:34was Jason Tatum seeing the double team coming,
00:18:39the extra defense, not necessarily double, but just extra shading, etc.
00:18:43Seeing it and making the right play to counteract it.
00:18:49One of the fallacies of assist totals is he makes the important play
00:18:57that maybe leads to the pass that leads to the assist.
00:19:02But it was really Jason Tatum's thought process
00:19:07and the move he made with the ball that created the bucket.
00:19:12That made the Celtics.
00:19:15The Celtics moved the basketball.
00:19:17You've seen it at times this year where they've had just ugly-looking games.
00:19:22It's like, well, you're not passing and cutting.
00:19:25You get too many guys saying, I'm going to go make a play now.
00:19:28We've talked about it before, I think.
00:19:31I know I've written about it.
00:19:33Perhaps the most dangerous thing about iso ball
00:19:36is that sometimes it works and can lure you into thinking that's a good idea.
00:19:40It's not.
00:19:42Yeah, you need to make plays sometimes.
00:19:44It's important, sure.
00:19:46But the Celtics, when they move and cut and pass the ball
00:19:50and get everyone involved and space the floor,
00:19:54they're pretty much unguardable.
00:19:57So that part of Tatum's game, it probably cost him,
00:20:04I'm sure it cost him the finals MVP,
00:20:07which should have, by all rights, been a split.
00:20:10It should have, you know, I know there was nine voters.
00:20:14It should have been four to four with someone voting for, I don't know,
00:20:18Luke Cornett just so you could have Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum share that MVP
00:20:24because that really was justifiably the way it should have worked out.
00:20:30But he cost himself that award because he moved the basketball
00:20:34and it didn't always wind up in a stat that someone could hold up.
00:20:38That's what made the Celtics, you know,
00:20:41because teams are going to load up to Jason Tatum
00:20:43because they know he likes to, excuse me again,
00:20:48they know he likes to take the ball, pound it, and go make a play
00:20:52and he's good enough to do that.
00:20:53But him giving it up last year
00:20:56and getting in a better position to be more of a finisher at times
00:21:00but to allow other people to score, which totally screws up a defense
00:21:05because now instead of just loading up to him
00:21:08and a couple of key players, you've got to worry about everyone
00:21:12and that's what, you know, that's what won him a title.
00:21:16Yeah, what's funny is we're coming off these two games,
00:21:19the West Coast, Minnesota and Houston,
00:21:21and they're coming off what was an extremely impressive performance
00:21:24by Tatum in that Minnesota game where I talked to this
00:21:29on Brian Barrett's podcast off the pike after the game was done
00:21:32and you go look at that third quarter where, you know,
00:21:35Minnesota ratcheted up their defense a little bit.
00:21:37They picked up Tatum a little bit earlier than they were in the first half.
00:21:40McDaniels did a spectacular job, my opinion,
00:21:43trying to get him uncomfortable and Tatum saw that was like, all right,
00:21:47well, we'll just get Jaden McDaniels off me.
00:21:49Where is Julius Randall? He's over there.
00:21:51Where is where is the big guy go bear? He's over there.
00:21:54Well, let's get let's just switch this out.
00:21:56And now I am playing at the advantage, right?
00:21:58And whether they were sending doubles at him later in the game,
00:22:01he just knew how to think the game.
00:22:03And as you said, Steve, it wasn't maybe it wasn't the past.
00:22:06It led to the shot.
00:22:07It was a past of the past that led to the wide open, whatever.
00:22:10And then postgame to get the comments we got from Anthony Edwards
00:22:15in terms of, oh, they're doubling me and that's not my game.
00:22:18I just, you know, I want to shoot.
00:22:20I don't want to pass the whole time.
00:22:23He flat out said he just wasn't engaged.
00:22:25Right.
00:22:26In a three point loss.
00:22:27That's I'm not sure how much they really doubled him.
00:22:30It was just the defense switching and guys showing to him.
00:22:34You know, anyway. Yeah.
00:22:35But that's that's the difference, like in the maturity of Tatum,
00:22:39of what he was to.
00:22:40And I'm not saying Tatum was ever going to say anything like that
00:22:43because he just never wore this on his personality.
00:22:45But I can understand how a 23 year old is like, yeah, I'm, you know,
00:22:48I'm the next new big thing.
00:22:50I'm, I'm, I'm a, I'm, you know, I'm Anthony Edwards.
00:22:53They're comparing me to Michael Jordan.
00:22:55Like I'm just going to be this guy to,
00:22:57to what Tatum did in the finals and what he did, you know, that night,
00:23:00what was that Thursday night against Minnesota?
00:23:03It's just, instead of chasing stats, it's giving the game what it needs.
00:23:09And oftentimes we talk about Nikola Jokic in terms of,
00:23:14and now this year is a little different.
00:23:15He has to score more because that's the burden he has to bear on this team.
00:23:18But Nikola Jokic, the, the,
00:23:20the thing that makes Jokic so great is he always give this gives the game
00:23:24what it needs.
00:23:25That's why it's so terrifying because he can kill you by passing the ball
00:23:29just as much as he can by, by shooting the ball.
00:23:32So when you look at where Tatum is now,
00:23:34and you look at some of the guys below him,
00:23:37it's like he should be propped up as an example of like, look,
00:23:40you got to swallow your pride a little bit.
00:23:42You got to swallow your ego a little bit.
00:23:44And you have to learn how to trust your teammates.
00:23:45Because once that happens,
00:23:48you can truly embark on the next step of NBA greatness of becoming an all
00:23:53time champion. I mean, we, you know,
00:23:55we all have followed the Celtics roughly for a kajillion years here.
00:23:59That's the secret sauce to Celtics basketball.
00:24:03It's not individual accomplishments.
00:24:06It's team accomplishments.
00:24:07And as you look at Tatum now, I think, you know,
00:24:10other than probably Nicola Jokic,
00:24:12I don't think there are too many other guys, Steve,
00:24:14that embody winning basketball more than this guy into your credit.
00:24:19Like,
00:24:20how do we not factor this in more to the MVP equation?
00:24:24It's just not sexy enough for everybody.
00:24:26Well,
00:24:27with regard to MVP voting and awards voting,
00:24:32I stopped voting on that stuff a billion years ago.
00:24:36No. And to your credit, that's great. You should, you should definitely,
00:24:39that's where these all NBA awards where money is tied to these things.
00:24:43Exactly. I just think that's, that's on it.
00:24:45I don't think it's ethical and I'm one of the vice presidents of the writers
00:24:49association, PBWA. And I still, you know,
00:24:52I bring it up from time to time to guys, guys like their guys and women,
00:24:56like their votes and like being a part of that process.
00:25:00But, you know, I, I just don't think it's, it's right.
00:25:03And I, I think like you, you're talking about
00:25:08judging MVP, you know,
00:25:12it's hard.
00:25:14And I'm sure we've talked about on this broadcast podcast, excuse me,
00:25:18that the, what I always point to is that, you know,
00:25:22there wasn't a day and I'll repeat it.
00:25:24It wasn't a day in Bill Russell's life that will Chamberlain wasn't a better
00:25:28basketball decathlete, could do more things,
00:25:31could do more things better and an individual skills competition situation.
00:25:38But Bill Russell understood the game in a way that will never,
00:25:42and I love wilt. He was a great guy to talk to and fun and all that,
00:25:46you know, sometime I'll,
00:25:48I'll tell you about his answering machine on his own, but he,
00:25:54Bill understood the game in a way that we'll never fully grasp.
00:25:57So you have wilt who winds up being a Colossus and you've got Bill Russell
00:26:03who winds up being merely the greatest winner in the history of team sports.
00:26:09You know, what are you here for? You know,
00:26:14a more, you know, bringing it into this century or, you know,
00:26:18the end of last in this century, Tim Duncan, you know,
00:26:22I mean, how great was Tim Duncan?
00:26:24No one talks about Tim Duncan when they're mentioning the greatest players and
00:26:28they're mentioning this guy with the flash and this, you know, Tim Duncan,
00:26:31you know, it's not just a matter with Tatum.
00:26:34And this is something that he's still growing with.
00:26:37It's not just a matter of being willing to make the pass, which is step one,
00:26:42but it's all of a sudden gaining the knowledge like, like an NFL quarterback,
00:26:46they become good because of how fast,
00:26:49the faster they can recognize what the defense is and what's available in that
00:26:54defense. So it's not just the willingness to pass.
00:26:58It's the ability to recognize what the right passes and Tim Duncan with that
00:27:02was him, you know, and that's why, I mean,
00:27:05no one talks about the Spurs so much because they weren't sexy.
00:27:10Although, you know,
00:27:13manager, nobly remains one of my favorite athletes,
00:27:16manager, nobly remains one of my favorite NBA players of all time.
00:27:21I remember I'm walking down the hallway in Boston after a,
00:27:26a game and was talking with Greg Popovich and you know,
00:27:32and I just turned to him. I said, I, I said,
00:27:34I got to admit man was my NBA man crush.
00:27:38And he turned to me and said, he's mine too. You know,
00:27:43you know, I mean that's winning plays, you know, when you need them,
00:27:47the right play and not just like a, something that winds up on the stat sheet,
00:27:52but a deflection knowing how to play a passing lane,
00:27:55all those things that,
00:27:57that are what I really love about basketball,
00:28:01that it's such a social game. There are so many things that go into it,
00:28:05relationships on court relationships, understanding it's geometry,
00:28:10it's understanding spatial relation. It's you know,
00:28:15how you deal with your teammate when he misses three shots in a row, you know,
00:28:19that kind of social interaction, you know,
00:28:22do you say the thing or give the pat that lets them know it's okay.
00:28:27And you get to, you know, the next play is better.
00:28:30All those things I think are huge in basketball. And it's, again,
00:28:33it's why, you know, I love a lot of sports,
00:28:37but basketball, I think combined so many things that are, you know,
00:28:41that are life real that you know,
00:28:45I know we've gotten kind of far away from what the hell we were talking about
00:28:47at the start of this, but yeah,
00:28:51those kinds of things are what make players great and what make teams win.
00:28:56Well, believe it or not, Steve,
00:28:57you took me exactly where I wanted to go because it's like,
00:29:01you're reading my mind because Tim Duncan was actually going to be the next
00:29:04person that I brought up with respect to Jason Tatum because there was,
00:29:08and Duncan's a what top 15 player all time.
00:29:13Am I even shorting him when I say that, you know, top 10.
00:29:16But who mentions him there?
00:29:17Yeah. I mean, he's, he's incredible.
00:29:19There was a tweet a couple of days ago that went viral by this guy.
00:29:23I don't know who it is, but the handle is Tev rebranded.
00:29:26And the tweet was Jason Tatum might have the same problem.
00:29:30Tim Duncan had like,
00:29:32this is clearly one of the best basketball players we've ever seen,
00:29:35but he isn't very exciting or interesting.
00:29:37So people tend to overlook his greatness goes on to say,
00:29:41plays the game the right way, makes the extra pass,
00:29:43defers to his teammates at times. Isn't a human highlight reel.
00:29:46It's not what the average NBA fan gravitates to a lot of the stuff that
00:29:49obviously we've been saying already here.
00:29:52And I'm not saying Jason Tatum is Tim Duncan. Again,
00:29:54we're talking about arguably a top 10 player ever compared to a guy that
00:29:59would love to one day be in that conversation, but has, you know,
00:30:02a long way to go, obviously,
00:30:04but with respect to MVP conversation or just general day-to-day
00:30:10acknowledging a certain player's greatness, because he isn't,
00:30:16you know, like Anthony Edwards, John Moran kind of flashy.
00:30:20Do you feel like there's like Tatum and Duncan specifically have,
00:30:26have kind of a comparison there that's, that's valid to make?
00:30:32Duncan was known as the big fundamental. Yeah. And I think,
00:30:36I think his game was a lot drier than, than Jason Tatum's.
00:30:40I think what subtracts points from,
00:30:44from Tatum and in the eyes of his own fans, I mean,
00:30:48if you're at the garden, you hear it, he'll excuse me,
00:30:52excuse me,
00:30:53force up a shot here and there and the garden will, you know,
00:30:56there'll be a collective grown. So I think there's,
00:31:00there are significant differences in their games, but you know,
00:31:06Tatum is what he's still like only 19, right? Isn't that the case? Yeah.
00:31:12He's going to grow more, I believe, you know, and I remember, you know,
00:31:17it's been said a billion times
00:31:20Paul Pierce talking about when, you know, to me about when a player comes in a
00:31:24league, they want to establish themselves. They want to show they belong.
00:31:28Then they want to show they're a star and all those different things.
00:31:33And Pierce had admitted that if they'd have put the,
00:31:37the Pierce Garnett Ray Allen group together several years before they might
00:31:41not win, but they were at a stage in their career where it was like, yeah,
00:31:45it's time to do this. These are our goals.
00:31:48These are our goal.
00:31:49This is our primary goal now as individuals is to win. So
00:31:57excuse me, my goal is to stop coughing going around, man.
00:32:01Don't you worry about it. We're going to take one more break today.
00:32:04Today's show is powered by game time.
00:32:06There is nothing better than going to a live game, right? I mean,
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00:32:20So many core memories that I have as a kid, or even as an adult,
00:32:23taking my kids revolve around going to some sorts of sporting event.
00:32:27I mean, Evan here, he's going to the Celtics or the,
00:32:30the last Patriots game of the season.
00:32:33My kids have been on me all week. So, you know,
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00:34:16Let's get back to the show.
00:34:17You know, while, while we're on the spurs,
00:34:19Evan and I were talking about this earlier,
00:34:21there was a tweet earlier today, or maybe it was yesterday.
00:34:24I think it was yesterday, actually, uh, from this guy,
00:34:27airless Jordan is the handle just to give credit.
00:34:30So this was going into last night where Wemby was a beast.
00:34:34Victor Wemenyama was incredible last night.
00:34:36The tweet is, uh, Victor Wemenyama was playing in his one hundredth,
00:34:40uh, pardon me game tonight.
00:34:42It is first 100 career games.
00:34:44He has more points than LeBron Durant,
00:34:47Carmelo rebounds than AD Ewing Embiid blocks than Shaq Matumbo,
00:34:54Elijah one and Curry clay,
00:34:58Trey young Wemby is 21 years old.
00:35:04Matter of fact, today is his 21st birthday.
00:35:07Happy birthday, Victor Wemenyama.
00:35:09You can drink now.
00:35:11Are we truly looking at a one of one?
00:35:16I mean, if, if this guy can manage to stay healthy and avoid so many of
00:35:20the things that, you know, impact guys of his size stature build,
00:35:25you know, in, in the years to come, is this, you know, we,
00:35:28we call like yo kitchen guys, you know,
00:35:30the unicorn and that type of thing, but as is Wemby,
00:35:34does it feel day to day?
00:35:36Like we are watching something that we have truly never seen before and may
00:35:39never seen again.
00:35:41Yeah.
00:35:42Um, yeah, my answer is yes.
00:35:45Okay.
00:35:46What's the next question.
00:35:47Um, the thing about him is if you,
00:35:50if you focus just on his, on women,
00:35:53Yama's a skill set, you can, that's,
00:35:58that can be enough right there.
00:36:00But, um, I think I mentioned this on, uh, uh,
00:36:03I'll still call it Twitter, um, last week or yeah.
00:36:07Something like around a week and a half ago that, um, you know,
00:36:10like I've always been impressed from the first time I spoke with him and
00:36:14saw him speak in a group, even at, at, uh, at summer league,
00:36:19his rookie year, when he just had come over,
00:36:22the thing that impresses you first is his maturity, um,
00:36:28his, his grasp of things.
00:36:31And then that carried on.
00:36:34Um, he was in Boston last year.
00:36:37Um,
00:36:38we were talking to him after the game and he talked about the Celtics and he
00:36:42just said, Hey, it's how they play with each other.
00:36:45And, um, move the ball and all these different things. He goes,
00:36:49that's what makes this team great. And he, I should find,
00:36:53I wish I had thought about this and had the quote available to us,
00:36:57but it is, um, it's, it was just like, wow,
00:37:01this guy is not only a great physical talent,
00:37:05but he's obviously working to make himself better every freaking day.
00:37:09But he also quote unquote gets it. Um,
00:37:13and the latest thing,
00:37:14which right back to what I started to say about tweeting a week and a half ago
00:37:19was, well,
00:37:22the thing that struck me after they'd lost to the Knicks, um,
00:37:27excuse me on Christmas day was that the game is over and a tight game
00:37:33and a bunch of his teammates, they're all, you know,
00:37:37greeting the other Knicks and they're smiling and Hey, um,
00:37:41good to see you. And it's stuff like this.
00:37:42And you and the camera focused on women Yama and he's like, he was pissed,
00:37:47you know, they'd lost a basketball game and he didn't like that.
00:37:51And I think the way I ended it was, you know,
00:37:53talent plus competitiveness equals greatness.
00:37:58And like, that just struck me like, yeah, you know,
00:38:04he lost a game and it's one of 82 and, you know,
00:38:08it was in New York and they put up a good fight against the team that,
00:38:11you know, in the, the, uh,
00:38:14on the NBA food chain right now would appear to be better than them.
00:38:17And they fought him to the end on,
00:38:19on the Knicks home floor and all this stuff. And, you know,
00:38:22it was a good look in a lot of ways for this person, but he was pissed.
00:38:27So, you know, and then was it the next day he says, uh,
00:38:31tweets out like any good places to play chess here.
00:38:34He goes to Washington square park and is playing chess with people, you know,
00:38:39um, he's like, you know, still what, 21 and, you know,
00:38:44get off my lawn age. And I wish I had his maturity.
00:38:48I wish I had his life outlook.
00:38:50Yeah. He's, he's an impressive guy. And what's, what's interesting to me is,
00:38:55you know, we, we,
00:38:57NBA ratings have been just like this hot button issue that we just keep
00:39:01hammering home and hammering home and hammering home about how are the
00:39:04products unwatchable or, or there's no American stars or whatever.
00:39:08I think when B might be Kaufman,
00:39:11like the first one of these international guys that transcends popularity
00:39:16to the American side. I mean,
00:39:18it's first off that playing chess and Washington square park on a,
00:39:21what was a really awful rainy day with random fans is a great way to win the
00:39:27hearts and minds of people, Americans, you know,
00:39:30at least in New York city, like to, to this point, like,
00:39:33my dad is now kind of obsessed with Wendy. Like my dad is not a huge NBA guy.
00:39:38He's interested in this stuff because I do a podcast and he's always asked me
00:39:41about this, but we had that game on, we had the, the Knicks Spurs game on,
00:39:47uh, on Christmas day. And I told him, I said, before the game, I was like,
00:39:50dad, you're going to see this guy. His name's Victor.
00:39:53He's this French kid. He's 20 years old.
00:39:55And you're going to be blown away by how good he is. And he's like, well,
00:39:59how will I know it's him? Like, Oh, you're going to know he's going to be
00:40:02unmissable. And he comes out and he,
00:40:04the guy, the guy that can guard the Chrysler building. That's,
00:40:06that'd be him basically, basically right. The logo. And he's,
00:40:11he comes out, he's got 24 in the first half.
00:40:14And my dad at the end of the half looks at me and goes,
00:40:16can anybody guard this kid? And I said, no, nope.
00:40:19And then I showed him a clip of the other night where Chris Paul,
00:40:24just cause Wendy's got great position underneath the basket.
00:40:27He's just sitting right there. And Chris Wallace goes,
00:40:30he's right there. Just taps it in, run back the other way.
00:40:33I think this might be the first guy of this bunch. The, the Shays,
00:40:37the Lucas, the Yoka is when B might be the guy that,
00:40:41that breaks the mold and brings the international basketball scene kind of to
00:40:46the front of American popular.
00:40:48Like people are going to root for this guy in coffin.
00:40:51I know about you maybe with your kids, if, if this is a thing yet,
00:40:54but with my dad, who again is a very casual NBA fan of the regular season,
00:40:59watches more than the playoffs, cause it's more intense,
00:41:02but he is locked in on Wendy.
00:41:04And the last guy he was locked in on was Steph Curry. And you know,
00:41:08again, that's the most popular guy. I think since like Jordan,
00:41:12Wendy, I think coffee, is it with that way with your kids and how popular,
00:41:16I'll answer your question this way. My 10 year old and my,
00:41:18both my 10 and 12 year olds are obsessed with the NBA,
00:41:20but my 10 year old is kind of on a Jersey kick right now.
00:41:24And he has three non-Celtics jerseys.
00:41:28One of which is Steph Curry.
00:41:30The other one is Luca and the other one is Wendy.
00:41:35That makes all the sense in the world.
00:41:36As Meatloaf once said two out of three, eight bad. That's right.
00:41:42It's unbelievable. But here's the thing though,
00:41:45among the different words you could use to describe,
00:41:50Victor Wiminyama,
00:41:53if you picked like the top five words to describe them in anyone's list of
00:41:58five, the word authentic has to be there.
00:42:02Cause he's not doing this stuff to like, Hey, look at me. It's like, you know,
00:42:06we're staying over in New York before we fly out. You know,
00:42:10do I want to lock myself in the hotel or what do I want to do?
00:42:13I want to experience New York a little bit, you know? You know,
00:42:18you know, it's, yeah,
00:42:21I pictured him at the playing chess there and I was, Oh God,
00:42:25I'm blanking on the on the actor's name, but the movie
00:42:31Finding Bobby Fisher, you know, damn, who was the actor?
00:42:35Like there it is. This guy's playing chess in the, in the park.
00:42:43Now I want to look it up.
00:42:44Lawrence Fishburne wasn't Lord. I mean, he was, he was in the movie.
00:42:47I haven't seen it forever.
00:42:49Yeah. Like, you know, so anyway, it's a great movie, by the way, see it.
00:42:54For all you trust.
00:42:55On rotten tomatoes. Perfect. Perfect. Yeah. Perfect.
00:43:00Just for the people that are curious.
00:43:02But yeah, it's like, that's, it was, it was,
00:43:07when you watch, you know, hundreds and hundreds of games,
00:43:11as you guys have, and certainly as I have over the years,
00:43:15you, you kind of look for like little moments that stand out.
00:43:18People talk about, Oh, you know,
00:43:22what was the best game you covered? What was the best?
00:43:24And some stuff runs together, to be honest,
00:43:27because there's so much basketball, you know, little moments stick out.
00:43:32Like the Celtics played a game the other night in Minnesota.
00:43:37That was by any account. I mean, there were, you know,
00:43:4115 plays in there that were like, wow, that's a big play.
00:43:45The moment that sticks for me is a couple of,
00:43:52I'm not sure how many minutes or seconds after Derek white hit that fall away
00:43:57three off the glass. Like, you know, that the horseshoe shot, like, you know,
00:44:02there was a break in the action. He's over by the sideline.
00:44:06And there's this young kid in a Timberwolves Jersey.
00:44:11And it's still this young angelic child smiles,
00:44:16looks up at Derek white and says, did you mean that? I mean,
00:44:21like, it's like, you know, I mean, or no, it's like, this is like,
00:44:24this is cool. I know, you know, we actually were talking about, well,
00:44:28they set a hard pick and all this stuff here, you know,
00:44:31when he's seeing so much basketball, little things like that to,
00:44:34to weirdos like me stand out.
00:44:36I thought he was going to go with the,
00:44:38the chess scene from independence day with Judd Hirsch sitting there and like
00:44:42the part playing chess with Bobby Fisher,
00:44:45a little bit more of like a chess movie, not, but more up my alley,
00:44:48more up your alley. I thought with independence day,
00:44:50I thought about Judd Hirsch sitting there in the park,
00:44:52playing chess and then Jeff Goldblum comes by and beats him.
00:44:54When, when the kid, when the, the kid shot, was it Josh Waitzkin?
00:45:00It was a real person, a movie. Was it searching for Bobby Fisher?
00:45:05Yeah. That's right. Yeah. Yeah.
00:45:06When he's in the competition and the,
00:45:10the parents are afraid that he's, that he's not, you know,
00:45:14ruthless enough and all that stuff here.
00:45:15And he makes the move and the family and Lawrence Fishburne are in the,
00:45:19another room watching it on video because they're not allowed in the,
00:45:22in the big room.
00:45:23And when he finally figures out the move to make,
00:45:28and it's like, find it, find it, find it.
00:45:29And he makes the move and Lawrence Fishburne points the thing.
00:45:32Oh, there it is. And it's like, yeah, Ooh, that's a, you know,
00:45:36it's like that scene. It's like the one in,
00:45:40remember the Titans where Bertie Sanders,
00:45:43who was a big fan of the Titans,
00:45:46remember the Titans where Bertier goes over the opposing coach and like points
00:45:51at him, you know, like, you know, stuff this up your tush,
00:45:54you racist bastard. I think that was dialogue that I added,
00:45:59but the intent was there. You can read the thought bubble, you know,
00:46:03I read the thought bubble over the linebackers head.
00:46:06It was in the stage directions. Yes.
00:46:10It was in the notes. All right. Let's, we don't have a lot of time left.
00:46:13Let's take it back to the Celtics a little bit because we have it's been
00:46:16interesting, but yes, we have veered off course a little bit from,
00:46:19from being Boston centric. That's okay. We do that every once in a while.
00:46:23It's a gauntlet of a January for this team. Now it started off great,
00:46:27obviously with these back-to-back wins on back-to-back days.
00:46:31And while shorthanded at Minnesota and Houston, no Jalen Brown,
00:46:35we've seen Al Horford, you know, he's not playing the back-to-backs.
00:46:38They're just, they're not a hundred percent healthy.
00:46:40And they're still going out and performing at the clip that they are,
00:46:44but the, it does not get any easier. The road specifically,
00:46:47they have two games Sunday at Oklahoma city.
00:46:50It's an afternoon game. And then Tuesday at Denver. So you have, you know,
00:46:54I, I like the, you know,
00:46:56absent like golden state being part of this with Celtics are going to visit in
00:47:00a couple of weeks. I like the dichotomy here of, you know,
00:47:04sort of the perceived next champ in,
00:47:07in, in the NBA from the Western conference anyway, and the last one,
00:47:13you know, in, in, in OKC and Denver and,
00:47:15and a team that you still this Nuggets team that you don't count out by any
00:47:19means. So long as Jokic continues to do the Jokic things that he does,
00:47:23but these two games as part of this,
00:47:25like every other stretch that Boston is more or less in throughout this month,
00:47:30they'll get a little gap after the road trip, a Tuesday to Friday. But
00:47:35what do you need to see? If anything, I mean,
00:47:37it's easy to look at it and just say every game is one of 82,
00:47:41none means more than another, all of that.
00:47:43But you know how this works, like at the very least fans,
00:47:46if not to a man players and coaches in that locker room,
00:47:49look at games like OKC and Denver and others as bench, you know,
00:47:54witness tests and measuring stick games and all of that stuff.
00:47:58Is there something that you feel like as a consumer that you need to see
00:48:04from the Celtics in these games that make you feel any sort of way,
00:48:08or is there just nothing approved when you're the defending champs?
00:48:14I think if you see like in the game against OKC,
00:48:17if you see defensive focus, if they're, you know,
00:48:21and that's kind of gone away from them at times and certainly their offensive
00:48:25focus has, but if you see that, you know, basic locked in idea,
00:48:31they can still lose that game and it won't, you know, it,
00:48:34it won't be a wound that leaves a real mark.
00:48:39There is just so much that it's, it's so hard. You never really know.
00:48:45When I've spoken to groups and stuff and you know,
00:48:48businessmen,
00:48:49they always want to talk about the gambling and the betting and things like
00:48:52that. Celtics go into Houston. Now,
00:48:57Celtics didn't have Jalen Brown. Houston didn't have a few guys,
00:49:00but still Celts playing on the second night of a back-to-back after a
00:49:04difficult game, a late flight,
00:49:06a longer than people realize flight from Minneapolis to Houston.
00:49:12Was there any thought in your mind that the Celtics would do what they did to
00:49:17Houston in that game? I mean, if you had money to bet,
00:49:20you would have had to say, if you were just betting a strict money line,
00:49:24win loss, you'd have to say, you know, if, if my life depends on it,
00:49:27I got to bet Houston, right there.
00:49:31I mean, well, this for one, to your point, it was a virtual pick them, you know,
00:49:35especially after the injury news, like the Celtics were, I don't know,
00:49:38three and a half point favorites, three point favorites, something like that.
00:49:41So, you know, they were favored, but narrowly to your point. I mean,
00:49:45I think, I think a lot of people would have,
00:49:47and I don't know what the betting splits look like,
00:49:50but I think a lot of people would have been on the heat for sure.
00:49:54But you certainly didn't, you know, expect what, you know,
00:49:56that kind of a situation. And so it's like.
00:49:59Wouldn't have wagered on a blowout,
00:50:00alt spreading the thing up to 20 points or whatever.
00:50:03Going into OKC, it's like, you know,
00:50:06there can be like a fulcrum point where the game can kind of spin off into,
00:50:10you know, ridiculousness or it could stay tight, you know?
00:50:15So again,
00:50:17if they just come out with focus and don't like, you know,
00:50:21if they show that they're serious here, maybe that's not the right word,
00:50:24but see if I were writing,
00:50:26I'd be able to like zip back and erase that and type on.
00:50:31So yeah,
00:50:32if they just come out and play the way that with that kind of a,
00:50:36of an intent, then you can live with the results.
00:50:40And it won't make a whole lot of difference when they, if they meet again.
00:50:45You know,
00:50:47certain matchups can, you know, be,
00:50:51I look more at that, you know, how will,
00:50:53how will teams deal with certain matchups and what effect that could have?
00:50:58So, you know,
00:51:01the Celtics,
00:51:02when they would play the heat and the game back the old Jimmy Butler thing,
00:51:05you know, yeah, he would do things,
00:51:09but it was like the matchups that got created there that made it so difficult.
00:51:13Not necessarily that Jimmy Butler was that quote unquote,
00:51:16freaking good, but that's, you know, what you would look at more.
00:51:21The Celtics in the second half last night,
00:51:24totally counteracted the Shangoon minutes with the way they changed their
00:51:29defense. Brilliant. You know? And the Rockets never recovered. So yeah,
00:51:35the Celtics come out and just play with you know,
00:51:38their game and don't lose the focus.
00:51:41And you can take with whatever happened. You can live with whatever happens.
00:51:44You should be able to anyway.
00:51:47Yeah. I'm, I'm looking forward to these just because it's not too often that
00:51:50Boston plays a deponent where they can actually learn something about
00:51:53themselves against set opponent. You know, it's, I,
00:51:56I love when when Boston plays Denver,
00:51:58because it's a chess match and you get to learn a little bit about how these
00:52:01subjects will react to certain situations.
00:52:03I think Oklahoma city is going to provide an excellent chess match for these
00:52:06guys, especially on their offensive and Oklahoma city's defense event,
00:52:10because Oklahoma city, I mean, I,
00:52:12you go back to that NBA cup game and I know they lost to the box.
00:52:16I understand that.
00:52:17But if a certain couple of things go a little differently,
00:52:20Oklahoma city would have come back down 20 and won that game because how good
00:52:23their perimeter defense was. It, you know, if you're, if you're Milwaukee,
00:52:27and you're sitting there thinking, Hey, we won this game. So out of the net,
00:52:30no, no, no, no, no.
00:52:32What I would be concerned about is if when Dame's on the floor,
00:52:34the Oklahoma city can completely shut the water off of your offense with how
00:52:38good perimeter than the perimeter they are. That's scary stuff.
00:52:40So when you look at Boston, you look at, they're a great offense. You know,
00:52:44you, you had the Houston rockets on, on Friday night.
00:52:48That's a great defense and Boston did pretty well against them.
00:52:53I'm looking for sort of that. Like this is a, one of the best,
00:52:56if not the best defensive team in all of basketball or in Oklahoma city,
00:53:00especially on the perimeter where Boston's strong. I mean,
00:53:03they have Derek white and drew holiday and Jalen Brown and,
00:53:06and Peyton Pritchard and Sam Hauser and Jason Tatum against where that's where
00:53:10the bread and butter is.
00:53:11And if they're going to have a tough time getting into sets against local
00:53:14Oklahoma city team, well,
00:53:15then you've got to come up with some wrinkles later on in the season to
00:53:17counteract some things. So as you sit here,
00:53:20these are the games I get really juiced up for,
00:53:22because you're going to learn something.
00:53:24And then Mark Dagnall is going to come out. He's going to have a plan.
00:53:26He's going to have a way to make you uncomfortable.
00:53:28How does Boston respond to that? It'll be fascinating. And you know,
00:53:32you get bogged down in the season with the Charlottes and the Detroit's and
00:53:36the, you know, whatever, have you,
00:53:38these are the real fun ones and it's a shame that they only play often like,
00:53:42you know, once, twice a year. And they, they're so spread out. And it's,
00:53:46you know, when you have series that are best of seven,
00:53:49you only get to play these teams twice. It's like, man,
00:53:51what can you really take? But at the same time, like, I don't,
00:53:54I it's unfortunate cough because you and I were talking pregame or pre-show
00:53:57that I will not be watching this game.
00:53:59So I'll be in Foxboro to watch Mitch Trubisky, Mitch Trubisky,
00:54:03and Joe Milton do it out and in sub 20 degree temperatures. But
00:54:10this one is appointment television here.
00:54:11And this is like one of these days where if you're an NBA fan,
00:54:15whether it's like casual or not, you'll be locked in on this game.
00:54:19I think a lot of people last night, as an example,
00:54:21I think a lot of people last night or Friday night were locked into that
00:54:27Oklahoma city, New York Knicks finish. Well, you saw the whole game or not.
00:54:31I don't know, but you probably saw the last four minutes of that game.
00:54:34Similarly, you probably saw the last four minutes of Denver and,
00:54:37and in San Antonio, did you watch all game? Maybe not.
00:54:39You got into the, at the end when it really mattered.
00:54:41This is a great test for Boston and Kaufman. And as you look at what Boston
00:54:48can or cannot do,
00:54:49it's just going to be how their offense reacts to this great defense.
00:54:52Cause cause Boston hasn't seen a defense like this,
00:54:55the entire season, buddy. And I know about where you're at,
00:54:57where your temperature is at,
00:54:58but I think this will not be as smooth as a lot of people think when we,
00:55:03when the ball gets tipped on Sunday, for sure.
00:55:06No, I think it's going to be a, a fun game for sure.
00:55:09And I'm going to be kind of more locked into football as well. It just,
00:55:11you know, time of the year and everything week 18, but it this is one of those.
00:55:16If, if we lived in a world where people could successfully block things out
00:55:21and avoid communication, turn off all notifications on their phones,
00:55:24and just record that thing and watch it later with no knowledge of how it
00:55:28played out. It's obviously the kind of game to do so. But like you said,
00:55:31you know, a couple of regular season meetings. And I, I do think this,
00:55:35this is a finals preview.
00:55:36I do think we're going to see that best of seven between Boston,
00:55:39Oklahoma city in a matter of months. And I'm rooting for it.
00:55:42I think that would be just so much fun. And I, you know,
00:55:46independent of what I think about the Celtics who, you know,
00:55:51are at least have the makings anyway, of,
00:55:54of a little mini dynasty here, potentially, you know,
00:55:57obviously a lot needs to go right for that to happen.
00:55:59The thunder have felt like they are the team that is ascending and they're
00:56:03next. And they're, you know,
00:56:05just with all the incredible young talent on that team to begin with,
00:56:09coupled with all of the assets and picks and like, I mean,
00:56:13somewhere we're making age blush with what Presti's been doing out there
00:56:17stockpiling for that team. So yeah. And a couple of that with again,
00:56:21Chet and, and, and obviously all the other guys,
00:56:25but even just what they've been able to do recently through the draft.
00:56:28It's it's incredible. I think it will be a fun one for sure.
00:56:32And then, you know, after they sweat through that thing,
00:56:35you got Yokich waiting for you. So it doesn't get any easier for sure,
00:56:39but that's why it'll be really interesting to sort of circle back in a few
00:56:43weeks, one look back on January and see how the Celtics have survived it,
00:56:48but they, excuse me,
00:56:50they've given themselves a nice cushion right now sitting at 26 and nine,
00:56:55four and a half behind the Cavaliers in the Eastern conference.
00:56:59Whereas the Oklahoma city thunder sandwiched between them in terms of overall
00:57:03NBA record at 29 and, and five.
00:57:06So a lot of great stuff and Steve will keep an eye out for,
00:57:09for posts over there on heavy as well.
00:57:12You can make sure that you check out heavy.com easiest. Well,
00:57:15easiest way obviously is just, you know,
00:57:17you could Google Steve bullpen heavy and it'll, you know,
00:57:20first thing that pops up will be his personal page and you can see all of his
00:57:23articles, but if you want the direct link, you want to type it all in heavy.com
00:57:28slash author slash Steven bullpen, that is Steven pH.
00:57:32So make sure you check it out. Obviously, Steve,
00:57:35we really appreciate you hopping on first guest to 2025 and hopefully you feel
00:57:40better as well. All of us,
00:57:42that nagging cough that's going around and you know,
00:57:45get comfortable in front of the TV tomorrow with regard to the football dilemma
00:57:50tomorrow. Just remember the three most exciting letters in all sports,
00:57:53entertainment DVR. That's right.
00:57:57And look, it's in kind of, to your point,
00:58:01the big thing to watch for tomorrow with the Celtics is going to be adjustments.
00:58:05Like in my case it took me a long time to adjust and realize that I have a mute
00:58:11button here. So when I cough, I could,
00:58:13I prevented you from having to deal with that. So my bad, but you know,
00:58:19some of us are smarter than others. Some of us radio for you, you know,
00:58:23number than others. That's right. No, I don't know. We,
00:58:27but very important Kaufman, you got to have that ready to go. You never know.
00:58:31No, you're, you're right. You're right. We don't. It's a podcast, but I got it.
00:58:35I'm, I got the mute button on my mic. You don't have a mute button on yours.
00:58:38Ah, it's over there. I just, I keep it, keep it real. Just cough for the people.
00:58:44He has a Kaufman button. Every time he pressures it,
00:58:46there's a really strong take. There we go.
00:58:50It's Steve on Twitter at Steve B hoop. Steve always appreciate it.
00:58:54We'll we'll bug you again real soon for sure. Guys be well. Okay. All right.
00:58:59You as well for Steve, for Evan, I'm Adam rate review. Most importantly,
00:59:02subscribe to the Celtics beat podcast. Whether you listen to us,
00:59:05wherever you download your podcast, or of course,
00:59:08if you check it out video version on YouTube over there on the CLNS media,
00:59:13YouTube page among a bevy of Celtics theme podcast,
00:59:16make sure we are part of your rotation. We greatly appreciate you.
00:59:20And all-star game and all of that stuff, you know, mid season it's,
00:59:23it's approaching,
00:59:24we got a lot of basketball in front of us here in the new year and hopefully
00:59:28a nice new banner and rings and all of that for, uh, well,
00:59:31the people that received them anyway, in a matter of months to come,
00:59:34we'll talk to you next time on Celtics beat.
00:59:58Okay.