Celtics’ Neemias Queta POISED for MASSIVE Leap | Will He SHOCK the NBA?

Celtics’ Neemias Queta POISED for MASSIVE Leap | Will He SHOCK the NBA?

Opening up the mailbag to see who takes the biggest leap this year for the Celtics. Signing an antenna. Not that one. And a new version of the Killer Whales. What will we call these guys right now on the Locked On Celtics podcast? Uh-huh. Be ready. It’s who else could it be? What they going to say now? Screaming like JT coral we kept the manice every game every practice prime time de white on the sideline raining J how it started raising business how we finish locked on Celtics home of the winners. Hey welcome back to the Lockdown Celtics podcast right here on the Lockdown Podcast Network where it’s your team every day. Your team is the Boston Celtics. I cover them for Boston Sports Journal. I’ve been doing a version of this job for about 20 years. My name is John Carales. I host this show every Monday through Friday. It’s free. It’s available everywhere. So, make sure you’re subscribed wherever you get your podcast. Watch the show on YouTube. Get into the comment section and share your thoughts. Today’s show is brought to you by FanDuel. New customers can bet $5. Just five bucks. If your bet wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. So, download the app today. It’s a mailbag Monday. Mailbag questions can be submitted to johncorales.com/mailag johncorales.com/mailbag as long as the offseason continues which is like a couple more weeks. Mailbags are on Monday. I want to answer all of your questions or as many as possible. So johncarales.com/mailbag later on we can’t call these guys the killer whales anymore. We got to come up with a new version. I’ll try. We’ll talk about signing an intent. Not the one that everyone wants to sign. Am I a Kada hater? And let’s just start with this since we’re doing this. Uh I probably should have structured this a little bit differently, but uh Mike starts us off with out of all the Celtics players, who do you think will make the biggest leap this year and who would you like that to be and why? So when you talk about leaps, we have to start with how do you make a leap? You have to start at a place and have enough room to make a big jump. Who makes the biggest jump from where they are to where they are going, which I think eliminates I can’t say Jaylen Brown. I don’t think he makes the biggest leap because he’s already pretty damn good and he’s 28. So he’s he’s I think past the big huge leap portion of his career. I think the same can be said for Derek White and Payton Bridget like they can get better. They can make jumps. You want to call it a leap, fine. But when we talk about biggest leap, you have to have room to jump, right? If you if if the if you’re jumping and you have uh 9 foot ceilings, you can jump only a certain height to touch the ceiling, right? But if there’s 12t ceilings, you want to touch the ceiling. It’s a lot more room. That’s a massive leap to get up to the 12t ceilings. So, who could that be? Who are the candidates here? Uh, you have the returning guys. Sam Hower, uh, I think is a candidate. Uh, Nimish Kada is a candidate. Jordan Walsh would certainly be a candidate. Xavier Tilman could be, I think, maybe. But Luca Garza, Josh Minot, the guys that were recently signed. Uh I think those are the leap candidates. So now who gets the most opportunity? So I think when you look at opportunity, biggest leap opportunities will be guys playing a lot of minutes. Sam Hower qualifies. I don’t know that Sam is going to get like that much more time. He may start um he may come off the bench. Either way, he’s probably going to play like 30 minutes. So, he has an opportunity, but I think a guy like it it may be Namish Kada. I think that’s the guy I’m going to settle on as Namish Kada as the biggest leap. And I I say that because he he went from a guy that lots of DNPs, uh did not really play in the playoffs, hasn’t really played much in the playoffs over the past couple seasons, uh has I don’t think like Joe Mazula likes Kada. I think he you know, how much does he trust Kada right now? He Well, he’s going to have to more so than he has in the past. he doesn’t have many better options. So, Kada, there’s a strong possibility that Kada can start. Um, and so you go from a lot of DMPs and, you know, sporadic play to starter. And I think that that qualifies you for the the biggest leap. I think that’s that’s where I’m going to ultimately settle here because I I feel like he’s going to get the the run with Jaylen and Payton and you know Sam I don’t know that Sam’s going to run a lot of pick and roll. Anthony Simons will have opportunity there. Um, in fact, I think tomorrow I’m going to do just an Anthony Simon ccentric show just because we’re finally I I think we can finally just say he’s he’s not getting traded before the season starts. Meet days in a couple weeks. So, but I think Kada will have the most opportunity with the biggest kind of um runway to make a jump. So he I think he’s the obvious candidate to make the biggest leap. Uh and listen, let me fold in this question here from Hurdler 17. Namish Kada is the only Celtic playing in late summer with Eurobasket. You are a former big man that has played in Europe yet you have no coverage of Eurob Basket or Kada. Why are you a Kada hater? Okay. So, uh I would say I I have had some coverage of Euro Basket, although admittedly not a ton. Uh I think that’s I think that’s because I don’t see I don’t see direct correlation and I don’t want to overreact to the Euro League stuff because it’s it’s not the NBA. It’s not NBA competition and there are guys who can look great in Euro League and international competition and not so great in the NBA. Look at Dennis Shruder. Germany uh Germany won the Euro Euro Basket tournament. They Shruder was the MVP. He’s been good in the NBA. He hasn’t been an, you know, allstar. He hasn’t been great, but he’s out there winning Euro League MVP. So, international players, uh, international competition, it’s just different. So, I I didn’t I didn’t want to make and I don’t think there’s a big appetite for Euro basket, uh, stuff here in the United States. Uh, Kada played well. So, I am not a hater. I am not a Kada hater. I am a person that looks at basketball, NBA basketball, and I’ll be honest with you, I don’t like the way Kada moves out there. I don’t like the fact that his his limbs kind of like flail around a little bit. I think he looks a little bit like those um you know the the in wacky inflatable uh used car dealer thing, the the balloon man thing that I think when you see him move, he doesn’t have full control of his limbs sometimes. I don’t know any other way to put it. He moves to the left and his arms are going this way and his arms are going that way and he doesn’t seem like in full control of his body. He’s knocked, right? You watch him when he’s moving. His knees touch when he’s moving side to side. That’s not good. That takes away power. That’s why he always had to dip so much to jump and try to dunk. That’s why he doesn’t dunk as much as a sevenfooter should dunk. There are things there are limitations, physical limitations that I just looking at him think that’s not ideal. At the same time, he is a seven-footer. He’s learning the game. He picked up the game late. He’s learning it. He’s going to get plenty of opportunity. Joe Misoula fully has his back. Joe was out there in Utah a few days ago uh with uh you know there was a an event there with with Kada and he was there. He’s supporting him. He’s always got Kada’s back. So I think Kada will have plenty of support. He’ll have he’s having plenty of opportunity to develop and grow. The coaching staff is fully there. Like there there’s no greater support staff for Kada than this Boston Celtics team. So, and I am I I would happily if Kada averages 15 and 12 in three blocks, I’ll be the first person to be like, “Hey, great job.” Because I’m not rooting against the guy. I just my opinion, my evaluation has been what it’s been. And frankly, when the talent is high, he’s not getting the run. He’s not getting the opportunity. Now, a lot of that talent has gone away. He’s going to have to step up. I hope he does and I think he is gonna have an opportunity and I think Eurob Basket was incredibly incredibly encouraging. So don’t brand me as some hater. I’m not say look you want to brand me as a hater Trey Young all that stuff. Totally. I get it. There are some things that I dismiss because you know whatever. I get it right. We all have a thing and I I understand that. But that’s not what’s going on with Kada. I have no ill will towards Kada. I have no I I haven’t talked to him a ton, but he seems like a nice guy. He works hard. There’s I have no negative thing to say about him like I would I don’t know Tristan Thompson who I thought didn’t take the regular season seriously and I thought that attitude kind of permeated the locker room. That’s me being a hater, right? That for good reason. I think Kada I just my evaluation of him has been less than what some other evaluations have been. People are fans of Kada, especially in Portugal. Great. Great. I hope he does great. If Kada has a great season, this will be a surprising year for the Celtics. They could I think the Celtics are 500 team if Kada is good and he stays healthy. Who knows? Maybe 45 wins. Maybe he maybe Kada being healthy can get them a few more wins. So, yes, that makes him the biggest leap. But I will I will fight the notion that I am strictly hating on him. I am not. It’s just look, I’m going to be honest about my evaluations. That’s it. I’m always gonna be honest with everybody about my evaluations. And whether you like it or not, I’m sorry. If I think the Celtics are not good, I’m going to say they’re not good. I’m not here to rahrh cheerlead. When they were good, I said they were good. And I said it a lot. And people accuse me of cheerleading, but they were good. They won a championship. They went to the finals. They were good. Now I’m saying the honest thing. They’re not so good. And the honest thing is that I didn’t think Kada was as good as some people said. Now he’s going to have that opportunity. I hope he does well with it. When we come back, we’ll talk about the Jaylen Brown leaving stuff. Another topic that’s been uh retroactive here. We’ll do that. We’ll get to the antenna stuff when uh I come back. Today’s show is brought to you by FanDuel. NFL season is here. The Patriots won a ridiculously crazy up and down emotional roller coaster game. If you had bet five bucks on that game, you might have been like, I win, I lose, I win, I lose. Uh, and who knows? It’s crazy, crazy, crazy. But you can bet just five bucks. And if your bet wins, you’ll get 300 in bonus bets to use across the app. I enjoyed watching that Patriots game and watching people like lose their minds over it. uh if you had a few bucks on the game, I’m sure it would have uh enhanced that that feeling a lot. It does make the game uh a lot more exciting whether you’re watching your team or just keeping an eye on your fantasy lineup. It’s quick, it’s easy, and the best way to add a little bit more energy to your Sundays. If you’re ready to play, download the FanDuel app by visiting fanuel.com to get started. Do that. Once you do that, you’ll sign up. It’ll ask you to set your limit, set your budget. Please do that. Please do that because we all get, you know, a little bit, you know, carried away. Start chasing the dragon a little bit. We don’t want to do that, okay? Just whatever you can afford to lose, do that. Have some fun with it. Bet five bucks. You can get 300 in bonus bets to use anywhere across the app. So download that at fanduel.com to place your first $5 bet. Thank you for making Lockdown Celtics your first listen every day. Go check out Locked on NBA. Locked on NBA game night. I’m on there with on Fridays with Jake Madison when the season starts. We’ll be covering every game seven days a week on Locked NBA game night. The afternoon shows got all the big stories. We’re talk we’re just talking NBA and both shows. So go check it out wherever you get your podcast. Let’s get back to the mailbag Monday which is johncarales.comag. at johncalles.com/mailbag. Pistol says, “Looking at the roster with camp approaching, I’m still mystified why Brad and company traded down in the second round. They could have taken Ryan Kelk Brener, who looks like he could have slid right into Luke’s role to a degree, where I don’t see Williams contributing, frankly, ever. Side note, please do more math on the fly. It’s very entertaining. Uh, math on the fly breaks my brain, especially uh last week. a week ago was not feeling my best and so my brain was a little foggy and I don’t need foggy brain when I’m doing math. I need my absolute sharpest self and even then math on the fly is always an adventure. So yeah, I can understand why it’s entertaining. I probably was absolutely horrible. It was, you know, I’d like to say it was embarrassing, but I don’t know. I’m used to it by now. As far as the, you know, Cal Bunner and the Charlottes picked him up in the second round. and he’s the 34th overall pick. I don’t know what he’s going to be. Um, but this is what happens. Everybody has their favorites, especially in that part of the draft. They think he’s a steal. Um, I’m just going to lean on this. Every team in the league passed on him at least once. And okay, so then he goes in the early second round. Fine. They gave him uh the second round exception contract. So, it’s four years, 10 million, a couple of that guaranteed. So, it’s a nice little deal for him. I don’t know what he’s going to be, but I can tell you this, he probably wasn’t going to slide right into the Luke Cornet role right away. He’s a rookie, and that’s just it took Luke a long time, and it would take him a long time. if if he was ready to step into the Luke role right away, he would have gone at least in the middle of the first round, maybe earlier, because you very rarely in the second round find the guy that’s going to step into a starter six7th man lineup. Uh that’s I I I know you like the guy. Apparently, you love this guy uh to a point where you think the Celtics blew it by not taking him. And I’ll give you this, maybe they did. Maybe they did, but I’m not I’m not gonna I’m not gonna before the season starts, before this guy ever plays a minute, sit there and be like, “You blew it, Brad Stevens.” Because we don’t know. A lot of these second round picks don’t pan out. Uh so unless he turns into uh you know, Nicola Joic or something and we’ll see. I don’t know. Then we can’t say much. And as far as Williams, like at this point in the second round, I I don’t Why wouldn’t Williams contribute ever? He He has a his pretty good passing ability. So, I don’t know. Let’s Let’s just wait and see. But I’m not I’m not killing them over over that pick. Uh Kevin from LA says, “Kev Jaylen Brown hasn’t closed the door on possibly joining the Hawks in the future.” We talked about that last week on the podcast. Um he says on Twitter, “Your speculations uh about the Celtics future is almost true, but Brown will be forever loved in Boston.” And listen, yes, that is true. I have talked a lot about Jaylen Brown and the potential for him leaving because I think it’s one of the biggest storylines to watch this upcoming season. If you haven’t heard me talk about it, is very simple. Jaylen’s going to get his crack at being the number one guy. I think if things go perfectly for him and he has an incredible season, plays 70 games and averages, you know, 266 and six or something, you know, crazy like that. 2777, you know, throw throw all your sevens uh like the lawyer with the commercials, whatever it is you, if he has that kind of season, I think there is a possibility that he might say, “Look, I got to be a number one guy somewhere. I need to find out if I can be the number one guy on a team. And we know that Jaylen uh probably won’t get that in Boston if with Jason coming back from the injury. Now, there also is a possibility that Jason coming back from the injury, he he won’t be the same and Jay like they’ll switch places. I don’t think that’s how it’s going to go. I think Jason’s going to be Jason. But I I’m just watching for Jaylen to have an incredible year as the number one guy and I want to see how he reacts to that. He may not he may he may say, “Hey, I’m comfortable with that. I know what I can do. I’m comfortable with that. I want to stick around in Boston. I’m happy being this. I’m happy being here in this role and I want to retire in Boston.” And that would be great, too. Like I I don’t know how it’s going to go. But looking at this season, I look at that and I go, that could be a thing. That just could be a thing. Now, would he be forever loved in Boston? Man, I hope so. I hope so. He has had an incredible career in Boston. And not only an incredible career in Boston, an incredible impact on the city. He has been monumental. one of the most impactful athletes that Boston has seen in terms of impacting his community, touching the community in a way that empowers kids, empowers the community, uh, makes a difference. I think he is doing an incredible job at that. So, he should forever be remembered not just as a basketball player, but as a person who has made a massive difference in the city of Boston. I think that is um that should be his lasting legacy and I think that’s the legacy that he wants it to be as well. He has scored 11,436 points uh regular season. So he’s almost at 12,000 if he sticks around, you know, he’s he’s he’s could he could get to 20,000 which is automatic hall of fame. I think he’s he’s going to make the Hall of Fame, you know, provided that he doesn’t um get injured or anything like that. But look, four-time all-star, he has an AllNBA. Um he’s obviously a champion, a Finals MVP, they have the conference finals MVP. He has a u he has a resume already that that makes him pretty close to Hall of Fame worthy, if not a Hall of Fame worthy career already. Uh, so he should be and better be appreciated by the city of Boston and by Celtics fans because he has been Look, he’s been incredible. Has he been perfect? No. No one’s perfect. Has it, you know, have I had criticism of him? Of course. You know, they have criticism of everybody. Partly my job, but it’s also that’s how it goes, man. This some of it goes well, some of it doesn’t. But he’s been incredible. incredible for this this team. They obviously don’t win a championship without him. They don’t get to the finals without him. They they aren’t this good this often without him. Um and like I said, his impact on the city is has been incredible. So yes, Jaylen Brown, no matter what happens, no matter what, should be forever forever appreciated by Celtics fans in the city of Boston. I don’t think that’s even a question. We when we come back we’ll talk about signing an Intent Koopo and we’ll come up with a new killer whales or try for this year’s team. That’s coming up next. Today’s show is brought to you by 5Hour Energy Caffeine. Just got a flavor upgrade. 5Hour Energy Shots deliver tasty caffeine in 17 bold flavors. Each 2 shot packs the caffeine of a premium 12 ounce cup of coffee plus B12 vitamins, nutrients, zero sugar, zero crashes. What I love most is they are portable. Big taste, tiny shot. When I I travel a lot, just grab a bunch of those, put them in my bag, they get through security nice and fine, and whenever I’m lagging or once I get off the plane, boom, fiveh hour energy shot, and that gets me going. When I’m trying to cover the Celtics on the road, it’s always tough. I lose a lot of sleep. So, these 5-hour energy shots are great for getting me through whether it’s a postgame, a travel day, whatever it is. So, enough with the boring flavorless caffeine. It’s time to give your caffeine a flavor upgrade with 5hour energy shots. Get the favorites you love or be bold and try something new in store and online at 5hour energy. That’s the number 5hour energy.com or on Amazon today. Thank you for making Lockdown Celtics your first listen every day. Like I said, the Patriots had an incredible win over the Dolphins. Uh I was watching at the gym and like me and a few other dudes, we were just laughing at that game. If you want full reaction to that, locked on Patriots is the place to go. But if you’re not a Patriots fan, locked on, whatever your favorite NFL team, it’s there. Go check it out. Check out Locked on NFL. They do an amazing job on the NFL side. So go check it out. Lockdown Red Sox. Red Sox Yankees going on as I record this. So, whatever you want. Locked on. Just pick your team name. We probably have a podcast and a great one for you there. Let’s get back to the mailbag. Mailbag questions at johncales.combag. Elias says, “I’ve been watching Greece play in the Euro League Basketball tournament. I have to say that Costa Santako is looking good. What do you think about the Celtics looking to acquire him as a center prospect? Uh I look he had a a big defensive game against Turkey. I don’t think that he is uh going to be an NBA center prospect. Number one reason why uh he’s about to turn 28. So he’s not a prospect. He’s fully formed at this point and he hasn’t been in the league since 2021. So, he’s a fully formed uh basketball player. There’s not a ton of improvement left for him to make because he’s, you know, by the time you get him developed and all that stuff, he’ll be turning. It’s it’s not it’s not uh the way to go. But he he is signed with Olympia, uh, you know, pretty high level Greek team. So he’s he’s probably going to play out his career in Greece overseas and and I think that’s going to be it. So um I know people tend to think that all the intents are pretty young, but the antenna are about to age out of the you know I age out of basketball which is crazy to me and makes me feel extraordinarily old. All right, let’s get into excuse me some some more fun questions. That was a fun one. We’re going to start with Tim. Last year’s Missoula Last year Missoula went allin with the killer whale approach and the Celtics put up a record three-point volume. If his intensity shifts to pace this season, fulltime fever dream, what would the record pace actually look like in practice? Do they have the personnel? And if last year was the killer whale, what’s the nickname for a paced driven identity this year? Okay. What is basically the question is what’s the Celtics offense going to look like? They they are not going to put up 53s a game. They may put up 53s in some games, but they’re not going to do that every night because they lost two huge three-point uh and and well, three with the Tatum injury. They lost what? Almost 30 three-pointers per game. So, they’re not going to make that up just on Pritchard’s going to take more, White’s going to take more, Simons is going to make up for some of that. Um, you know, that’s they’re not going to make up for that. This team is not the killer whale team. This is uh we’ll come up with the the the new name or try, but this is going to be cutting. It’s going to be pace. It’s going to be turnovers. They’re going to try to force a ton of turnovers. They’re going to try to run off of those. They’re going to try to rebound a lot. They’re going to try to, like I said, cut, move without the ball. It’s going to be uh just uh 48 minutes of relentless basketball. And so, what’s what is that? What is 48 minutes of relentlessness in the animal kingdom? Well, the the the best thing that I could come up with, and it doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, but it is the African wild dog. Now, the African wild dog, which is also called the painted dog, the cape hunting dog, or the painted wolf, we call them the painted wolves, excuse me. what these dogs do. First of all, hunt in massive packs, right? So, there’s like 30 or 40 of them in packs. Dogs are pack animals. So, this is going to be it’s depth. There’s your depth. So, the African wild dog hunts with depth and they hunt in relays. They will chase something down and like one one dog will take the lead and then another dog that’s been saving its energy will then take the lead when the first dog gets tired and they’ll just run these relays and just run their prey to death basically. And the the by that time the the prey is exhausted and they just it gives up. They take it down. So, you want to call them the painted wolves. You want to call them the whatever iteration, but the African wild dog is the reference. That’s the pack. That’s the That’s the animal that they should be emulating this year. Now, the killer whale, I think I think that still kind of holds uh a little bit, but you have to move on. I think if I’m Joe Misoula and I’m channeling Joe Mazula, he wouldn’t come on the podcast this year, but I’m channeling my my telepathic thoughts. You’re showing the African wild dog, which is relentless. It chases its prey across m planes like miles and they as a team. So that’s what they’re going to look like. They’re going to have to run like crazy. They’re going to have to wear other teams out. They’ll have to outscore some teams for sure, but it’s just going to be just one after another after another after another after another. So, like I said, the African Wild Dog doesn’t have the same ring as Killer Whale. That’s why maybe Painted Wolves kind of works, but there’s already a Wolves in the NBA. So, if somebody in the comments section can come up with something better or another name for it or look, there is the natural you got that dog in you type of thing. Well, that type of dog is the African wild dog. So, I don’t know. Whatever you think, let me know. Let me know. Let’s come up. Let’s workshop this. Bob, I love this question. Is there any rule that would prevent a fan base crowdfunding payments to players? Let’s say Celtics fans, a million Celtics fans kick in 25 bucks in a promise to give it to a hot free agent. It’s 25 million. It doesn’t count towards the cap. It’s fan-based salary cap circumvention. I I don’t know. I don’t know the answer. It feels like there should be a rule, but I don’t think there is a specific rule that says that players can’t take money from fans. And if enough fans got together, you you just can’t do it at the direction of the team. And the team may say, uh, don’t do this. And I think it would be a little go for a player to take like a GoFundMe check from the fans to get an extra 25 million in here. However, in this era of salary cap circumvention and the Clippers and all of that stuff, wow, what a what a way to get around it. I think if the fans got together and came up with a product, maybe maybe what we could call it brainstorm brainstorm live on the show. Maybe what we do is we get money together for a locked on Celtics endorsement. Okay, let let’s do that. When the next big free agent that comes along, can we get a million Celtics fans to just forget the $25, just kick in five. All right, a million Celtics fans to kick in five bucks and we’ll come up with a $5 million endorsement deal and that will be a little something extra. That would be enough. Okay, maybe maybe 10 bucks to make it 10 million. We don’t have to go full 25, but another $10 million will be a big difference. We crowdfund that and whoever the free agent is, we got to come up with a reason, a contract for them to sign. So, boom, locked down Celtics endorsement. And the lockdown Celtics endorsement will just be, I don’t know, we’ll make it a no-show endorsement. We’ll just take a picture of that person’s face and just put it in the corner somewhere up here. The where? Here, there. somewhere in the corner. I’m just talking to people on YouTube now. Um, I like it. I like where this is going. As far as a rule, I don’t know that the CBA covers crowdfunding s salary cap circumvention. Um, it may by the time we’re able to do it because it’s it’s honestly not out of the question. I I believe in the power of the internet, so who knows? Let’s wrap it up here with Paulo, who asks, “John, who are you going to kind of root for this year while waiting for the Celtics to compete again? I love KP and for me, Atlanta is at the top of the East. Uh, I also think they might have found a way if everything works to hide Trey Young’s defense. Uh, then I guess the Magic Cavs in the West, I’ll go with Rockets and Nuggets.” Uh, so I I like this. So So who who out there, if I’m not sitting here saying, “Hey, the Celtics, I hope the Celtics win.” Who in the NBA would I be rooting for say, “Okay, if this team wins a championship, I’m okay with it.” Uh, I look, Denver certainly a choice because I really love Joic and I think getting him a second one just to I think hammer the hammer everything home would be uh great. I think it would be amazing uh just because I think he should have won the MVP, the Embiid year, and he should have been a three-time MVP. And I think that was my fellow media members overthinking it and choosing to give it to Embiid, looking for a reason to give it to somebody else. So, they they weren’t the ones to give a three-time MVP to Joic for some reason. Um but whatever. So, that’s certainly an option. I also I love the idea of you you give it to somebody that hasn’t won before. Cleveland would certainly, you know, Donovan Mitchell, that group, I think they’ve worked really hard. So, I mean, I could I I can get behind a Cleveland run. Uh I cannot get behind a New York Knicks run. So, they are out. Um a a magical Pacers run without Hallebertton would be incredible. I can get behind that for sure. So, I don’t know if I’m rooting for any one team. Okay, I How about this? Let’s root for the funniest thing that could happen. The funniest team to win an NBA championship this year would be the Clippers after everything that’s happened this summer and what would be possibly probably a seasonl long investigation and I’m guessing a significant punishment for the league for the team by the league. I think it would be hilarious. Hilarious to see Adam Silver and Steve Balmer up there being like, “Here’s your championship.” And then like a day later, I’ll take some draft picks from you and also you’re suspended for a year. Like that would be just incredible. Just incredible drama, storytelling, and like victimless. Uh, so except for like the Clippers and their future draft picks, but at that point they would have won a title and so what? So I think I’m rooting for Chaos and go Clippers. Go Clippers. That’s my That’s my mantra. Go Clippers. That would be the funniest outcome. Thanks for all the questions. johncaralis.combag. Thanks to everybody if you’re in every day or if you’re with me every Monday through Friday. Thank you so so much. if you’re with me 35 minutes into the podcast. Love you for that as well. Really do appreciate that. Um I would love to have you as a new subscriber. Hopefully you enjoyed this mailbag episode. Uh again, tomorrow I’m going to get into unless something breaks. I think I’m going to get into some Anthony Simon stuff tomorrow just because I think it’s time to admit he’s not going anywhere, at least not in the short term. So, we got to start thinking about him as a uh part of this team and how big a part is he going to be. So, make sure you subscribe to get that conversation tomorrow. I would love it if you share your thoughts in the comment section and then share the podcast. Tell your friends, tell everybody they should be listening to and watching the Lockdown Celtics podcast. It’s here in the Lockdown Podcast Network.

Boston Celtics shake up strategy as roster changes loom. Will Jaylen Brown’s future with the team hang in the balance?

In a new “Mailbag Monday” episode, John Karalis of boston Sports Journal breaks down the Celtics’ evolving game plan, highlighting potential “leaps” from young talents like Sam Hauser and Neemias Queta. The discussion covers Joe Mazzulla’s new offensive approach, emphasizing pace and forced turnovers. Karalis also analyzes Brown’s impact on Boston and speculates on his long-term commitment to the franchise.

Can the Celtics adapt to their roster shifts and maintain their competitive edge? Tune in for insider insights on the team’s path forward and key players to watch this season.

1:15 Intro: Opening the mailbag for Celtics questions
5:07 Neemias Queta could make biggest leap this year
10:12 Not a Queta hater, just honest evaluations
16:52 Jaylen Brown’s future with the Celtics
24:04 Kostas Antetokounmpo unlikely as Celtics center prospect
26:36 New team identity: The “Painted Wolves”
30:47 Fan crowdfunding to attract free agents
34:22 Rooting for Clippers chaos this season

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Locked On Celtics is a daily Boston Celtics podcast by Boston Sports Journal beat writer John Karalis. It’s an inside look at the C’s from a former professional basketball player who is at practices & games.

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