LIVE Garden Report: Celtics vs Cavaliers Preseason Postgame Show

LIVE Garden Report: Celtics vs Cavaliers Preseason Postgame Show

Hard hat’s all about showing up to play hard, doing what it takes to win. If you want to cement legacy, win another. He’s your third center. You don’t want to pump him up too much, but it’s hard not to. This is maybe the most I’ve ever agreed with you. What’s going on, Sherrod? What’s up, Jay-Z? What’s up, buddy? What’s going on? And I I I I think I think I missed you. We we communicated some, but we haven’t hung out. We haven’t hung out here on this stage in a long time. So, it’s good to see you. Must meet must be the regular season is about to start. Here we go. I’m trying to I’m trying to get Here’s the thing and I said this to Jimmy uh and you know but you know you know with on our on our text thread with Bobby which we spare you from like I I wasn’t looking forward to the preseason because I I don’t know how much I’m looking forward to the season. Uh and I didn’t know how we were going to do any of these things. But I have to tell you, like, you know, after three games, there’s some fun things to watch here. And it’s it’s hard to not I I say this because I want to like temper expectations, right? It’s a little frustrating that at no point in time have they played another team with real players because you want to see it. They’re playing Vegas League rosters right now or I mean, they’re playing, you know, stay ready cruise, right? So, it’s really hard to get a gauge. You want to get excited about some things, but you you really do need to see it in action. But that being said, what we’re seeing right now so far, I like a lot of it. And there’s, you know, and there’s pieces that they’ve added, and this is what’s going to kill me. Guys like Buché and May not would have been awesome on last year’s team. You know what I mean? on on a you know like you needed a guy like that. It playing major minutes on a team that’s trying to contend. I’m still dubious. We’ll see how it goes. But oh my god, I love it. All the way down to the end that Wendel Moore Jr. can have a spot on any team that I’m on that that I’m part of. Active roster for that. Oh my god. I want I’m keeping that guy. My goodness. I’m keeping that guy. So again, so we like it. So, you know, it’s it’s fun. It’s fun to watch. That’s that’s the thing about this team now. I mean, which is good. Fun is good. It doesn’t always have to be wins. If it’s fun to me, you have to do one or the other. Pref preferably both, but either win or entertain the hell out of me. Give me at least one of those. And it’s clear as day that this team, if this is a 40 45 I’m being told to be less optimistic, by the way. Okay. Like I’m my view is too sunny. This must this guy must he must be new. But that’s okay. Keep going. Sorry. Go ahead. Sh. This this team clearly is gonna be fun to watch. I mean, I’m I’m looking at guys that like Luca Garza, for example, just just plays hard, gets a lot of rebounds. Pton Pritchard is going to do what Peyton Pritchard does. Jaylen didn’t have a great game today, but you can see Jaylen is looking to be more of a playmaker, which I think is great. Uh because that’s the one part of his game that I think he needs to get better at. Uh Derek White has g you what whatever you you need from him. This is gonna be an enjoyable team. And then you got guys at the end of the bench like Minot who I’m assuming we’re gonna talk about. I really like him. Uh and shout out to Gary Washburn who invested in Minot stock way early on this one. Uh he did I kind of gave him the side eye when he was talking about my not you know a few weeks ago but I I’m a believer that kids can play. Uh is he allstar? Hell no. But can he play? Absolutely. Well, it’s the energy, right? It’s one, he’s all over the place. I mean, he really covers a lot of ground. He’s just all over the ball. He’s everywhere. So, it’s fun to, you know, watch him play and you need those types of guys. But so far, you know, and again, credit to Joe Moula. Um, you like to see that the vision is coming into uh place a little bit. They are playing faster. Uh, they are getting shots up quicker. Uh they are uh you saw early uh you know it’s not quite the hockey subs that Jordan Walsh talked about but they’re getting guys in early and you can see you can see the vision. We’re going to have three four guys who are going to play a lot of minutes and then we’re going to have eight nine guys that are going to play 15 to 20 15 minutes each. That might be and then there might be a hot hand situation or or a matchup situation. But you can see that they’re going to run it through quite a bit depending on what’s going on in here cuz right now they’re digging into the bench. They want to keep that energy level high to start it looks like. And again, if we can read anything off of preseason games, right? They have now in the last couple, you see that first sub coming in in the three and a half to four minute mark. That’s extremely early to rotate people in. And you had two guys coming in. I believe it was Minot and uh maybe Garza came in right out right out of the gate. And then Simon soon after that and then they just kept rolling it, you know, and they rolled they rolled through with a lot of those guys. Um I could definitely see 10 and 11 being a pretty normal uh output in terms of people playing a night in a night and and they’re going to have to be unconventional with the units they play. And I thought we saw that right from the jump. I mean Buché was your center. I mean, basically, and that that’s, you know, a very unconventional lineup with him, Sam Hower, Jaylen Brown, Dererick White, and Pritchard. Uh, that that’s if you’re looking to play fast and have five guys on the floor who can score, that’s the kind of lineup you’re I think you’re going to see. And it gives you the flexibility that if if a team is just beating the crap out of you, you got got plenty of bigs uh on your bench uh who can do different things. And this it’s going to be trial and error with this team all season long. But the thing that I’m I’m loving so far is that they’re they’re fun to watch. Uh I’m I’m not sure I’m not sure this team will be as enjoyable to watch if they went with a traditional starting five where you’ve got two guards and two forwards and a true center. So, it’ll be interesting to see how are they able to to me find that happy medium which is having a team that can win some games but also be enjoyable to watch. Yeah. Yeah. And again, you really do want to see it against real competition because uh that’ll make a bit of a difference, but there’s definitely a bit of a vibe and you and I, you know, this I’m not in the minority here, but I love guard play. And so I really like seeing guys like White and Pritchard be the engine uh that drive this team. And again, everyone’s going to assume this is a referendum on Jason Tatum, and it’s not. But like I I hate it. I hate Point Tatum. I hate slow it up. I hate put it in a guy’s hands and just let him assess what’s going on. Even if he’s good at doing it, very capable, and even if the numbers say that it’s good, it’s just you want to see, you know, the little guys pushing the ball, you know, you know, putting pressure on the defense, you know, moving it, you know, getting it up the court quickly and and and you are seeing it from those guys. You know, Derek White has, you know, quietly been pretty awesome in this preseason in his minutes. And you can really see that when the regular season rolls around, his offensive role is going to be significantly uh you know uh higher than it’s been in years past because there’s not you know we I talked about this a couple shows ago. One of the good things about you know you have Pritchard, he goes on his heaters. have, you know, uh, you know, white every once in a while, but the reality is is like on a on a night that you’re playing and you know that Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown are on the floor along with Chris Porzingis, you almost feel guilty to just be jacking it up 18, 19, 20 times because it’s like, should I I am feeling it, but should I be doing this? You don’t have to worry about that on this team anymore. So, I kind of like I like the green light that these guys are going to have all year. Yeah. Yeah. And you can get away with playing that slow, methodic pace because you got guys that can absolutely thrash you in a half court game. You don’t got those guys anymore. No Al Horford, no Porzingis, no Drew Holiday, no Tatum. So you’re going to have to figure out a way to generate offense and it’s clear that they’re looking to get out do some things defensively, fullcourt press, which I love. I absolutely love inline to end inline pressure. Uh that’s something that we saw, you know, the Indiana Pacers do at a really high level last season. Uh, and the pace the Celtics they’re looking to do a lot of that this year when you and it’s not just uh Peyton Pritchard. I mean, we saw Derek White, we saw Jaylen Brown, you saw Minai, you saw pretty much everyone that plays in the back court or at the wing position looking to press their men, whoever was bringing the ball up. And that’s going to be really key for them to have any shot at winning because over course of a game, it wears you down. And I think that for the Celtics, that’s going to be one of those things they’re going to have to beat teams. They’re going to have to wear them down. shots. You guys finished with 39 defensive rebounds. Put up Joe while you’re talking. You’re somewhere in the like 60% 60 something% range. Um, what do you see as a solution for the defensive rebounding? Just keep playing, find guys that will rebound. Is there is is is like do the wings have to do more? Do do you need to see more crash? What’s the philosophy there as far as like like wings crashing and stuff like that? Find five guys a rebound. Five words. Joe, you guys like it taking a lot of threes because you’re, you know, personnel has allowed for it these past few years. You guys are employing a faster pace style this year. The process of getting to those changed at all because of the faster pace. Does it lend to it differently or is it just the same process? I’ve answered that question a hundred times. Find a twoon-one, make the right play versus the twoon-one. It’s that simple. Could be a three. Could be a layup. Find a twoon-one do. I’ve answered that for two years now. Find the two-on-one. What does a twoon-one present? Are there two shooters on the two-on-one? There’s two shooters on the two-on-one. You pass pass. You’re an open shot. There’s not two shooters on the two-on-one, you cut. You create a twoon-one in a different way. I’ve answered that for three years. Why do we keep asking that? Create two-on-1s. Find a twoon-one. Everybody should be able to answer that question verbatim based on my answers to that question for almost three years now. What’s our offensive philosophy? Create two-on-1s. What do you do when you create the two-on-one? Read it, find it. Last year, there was two 38% three-point shooters in a twoon-one situation. So, it was a pass pass shot. This year, there may not be a 38 to 40% three-point shooter on a two-on-one situation. So, that twoon-one may be created off a cut, and then you can create a twoon-one in a different way than the cut allows us to get an offensive rebound. I don’t understand. That’s why it’s so hard. I said it for three years. You just keep ignoring what I said. Find a twoon-one, make the right play versus a twoon-one for however long I’m here. That will be the offensive philosophy. Any other questions? You seem just a little frustrated. What was just your overall view of this game tonight? And or was there something about the game? Not frustrated. Extremely fulfilled and and happy about what we’re doing. I mean, if you ask the same question for three straight years, you know, with with the rebounding like Dra, you said find five guys. What are you seeing? Find five guys that will rebound. But what are you seeing? I don’t see five guys rebound. So then I go get five and they rebound. It’s that simple. Doesn’t matter about wings, bigs, doesn’t matter. Find five guys that’ll rebound, rebound, go. It’s that simple. Joe, obviously there’s been a lot of conversations about Anthony defensively, but what have you seen from him in his fit offensively here? Uh, yeah, he’s just got to be a complete player. Has an understanding of the physicality that’s needed on every single possession on both ends of the floor. That’s the only thing I care about. He’s got to be physical. He’s got to box out. has to be able to defend and everything else will take care of itself. Joe, this is the first time you had the full complement of guys for a preseason. What did you see of just the mixing and matching of lineups there? What have you What did you like from the guys? Find five guys that’ll rebound, that’ll give space, that’ll run, that’ll play. It’s the most important thing. I don’t care about lineups. Don’t I don’t give a about lineups. Care about having five guys out there that will play as hard as they can. Overall, what did you see from Josh tonight and just his activity at both ends of the floor? Yeah. Uh has to keep that up. Has to play hard. Has to be able to rebound. has to be able to sprint the floor, has to crash, has to shoot the ball if he’s open, has to defend at a high level. He’s getting better at that. Joe, do you see rebounding as simply an effort thing, or do you think that there’s something technical that guys are missing that is leading to those missed defensive rebounds? Five guys on the floor, everyone’s responsible to rebound. Go get the ball. Every rebound is a 50/50. Loose ball, you go get it. So, it’s mostly an effort. It’s everything. It’s everything. Will, technique, whatever you got to do, you do it. Questions? Yes, I could do this all night. Let’s go. What do you got? Combat changed with the revamp roster. Guys don’t know you. They’re trying to get to know you. They don’t know when you’re really upset or kind of upset like do you have you had to change or kind of be a little gentler or are you just the same and they’re just have to I think that’s a good question. I mean, I think you have to constantly adjust based on the roster that you have and the personalities that also the personality that you want your team to have, right? And I think there’s there’s different personality. Everyone’s different, right? So, you have to treat everybody differently, but at the same time, you have to have a collective personality as to what you’re trying to do, you know? And so, I think uh you have to be able to spend time and understand what each person ticks could be different for everybody, but at the same time, your team has to tick at a certain level. And so you have to coach to the individual personality, but then you also have to push to the collective personality about what a group of people have to be able to do when they come together. So I think you’re constantly, you know, doing both of those things. It’s a good question. What else? You said there’s no rush. Get all the questions in you want. You said the playing the personality you want the team to have. What is the personality that you want? Yeah, we’ll figure that out. I mean, it takes time. You know, you have to understand Celtic basketball. Play at both ends of the floor, be well balanced, understand screenreing, understand spacing, be tough, understand the dynamics of defense, you know, so all those things that just go into being a good team. You have to be able to do night in and night out, play together. Uh, all the things that all coaches are trying to get the team to do. Just have to work to do it more nights than others. Thank you, Joe. That was fun. Don’t let him go. Don’t come on. Oh my god. Did not see that coming. Didn’t see that coming. October 12th, preseason game number three, and Joe Missoula just gave the Hall of Fame press conference of all time. Oh my god. I I gotta give those guys. I want to go give Jack Simone a hug um and a cookie. He didn’t deserve that. Um, wow. Really? Nobody did. Holy guys, thank God Bobby wasn’t there. Oh, Bobby dodged a bullet on this one. As you know, Bobby Yeah. Thank goodness. Uh, uh, Bobby wasn’t there again. I think everybody right now is over there consoling Jack and just patting him on the shoulder. Did nothing wrong. Nothing. Nothing. What? What? So, I’ll ask you this and I don’t want to hear in the chat stupid questions. All questions are stupid. It’s just part of the gig. Nobody’s asking, you know, meaning of life questions here. It’s just general stuff. Well, first of all, it’s a preseason game. You sucked at rebounding. Is that going to be a problem? It’s pretty obvious like you’re not trying to like solve, you know, mysteries here. So, you’re going to get asked about it, right? I don’t know what set him off. What What do you What do you What What set him off there? I I I’m curious what we’re missing. It feels like there’s something that transpired between the tip off and the time that Joe walked out of that damn locker room to do his post game. Uh that just absolutely just put him in a crappy mood. Uh where he was not taking any crap from anyone. Um, and it doesn’t seem and those qu those questions were they got their asses kicked in the boards. So, what do you ask about in the post game? Rebounding. What you got your ass kicked in? Even though you won the game, you still it’s clear that there’s some some issues that you got to work through. And the fact that he went off like that. Odd. Really odd. So, my question is this. Look, and look, I I’ve made my feelings on this stuff known. Like, if you’re an to the media, you’re an It just is what it is. Like, it’s the same thing. If you’re an when you go to get order a coffee or at the supermarket because you don’t have patience for whatever you think is stupid, they already they asked you twice if you wanted paper or plastic, you answered it, and you ripped their head off. You’re an I don’t give a crap. Doesn’t matter. It doesn’t change how effective he is as a coach. It doesn’t matter to fans like that stuff. and as long as he’s got the players, he’s fine there. So, I don’t care about that in terms of like, is that going to have any impact on anything? Has no impact on anything that happens on the court. I just don’t get what he’s so mad about. My question is it you can take it out on the media. That’s fine. They could be the the the whipping boys, you know, for you all day long. Is he mad at the team right now? Is there something that that’s bothered him? uh or the line of questioning just simply we just won by 40 points and you’re asking me about the one negative thing here. I’m kind of curious what you think here. Is he is he pissed that like yeah, we’re not crashing the boards and I’ve had it with these guys. I I don’t know. Yeah. I I I think that’s probably more likely and and and rather than take it out on them, take it out on the media. Uh they’re because they’re not going to fight back. They’re not going to push back. Whereas your players, they’re gonna be like, “We just beat them by freaking 31 points. What the hell are you talking about?” Um, so I think it’s some of that because I think this is the thing I think Joe realized. He realizes what you and I and I think most of our listeners realize that was a shitty Cleveland team that you played. That is nothing close to the team that you’re going to have to play. And they still on when it came as far as the glass is concerned, they were better than you, significantly better than you. and you played most of the guys that you’re going to actually have to play when you faced them. There was no Mobly there, you know, there there was no Donovan Mitchell, you know, there weren’t the guys that normally you’re going to face when you see Cleveland that are going to give you problems and you couldn’t even deal with their, you know, stay ready crew in that regard. Uh, and so I think the last thing Joe wanted to do was talk about what I think we all saw was a problem for them. This was a a good win from the standpoint they won by 31 points, but there’s more than enough meat on that bone that he knows they need to work through uh to be a better team. There’s just no doubt about that. Yeah, no doubt about it. But again, very the whole thing bizarre. Really bizarre. Also, I’m on the left. I don’t know what I’m doing over there. That’s bizarre, too. Um I’ll ask you guys, what do you guys think? I mean, the fan the the Yeah, probably pissed at the team, I would say. So, and and look, we we pointed this out, too. This is a problem. Uh, you know, the the stuff that coaches like, you know, Joe has his offensive philosophy in a way that he wants him to play. Absolutely. But the uh the thing that drives coaches crazy are, you know, getting killed on the glass and not holding your own on the defensive end. And, you know, you do wonder if he’s seeing things with this team like, I don’t know how this is going to hold up here. Um, but I don’t know. I mean, I don’t know. I’m trying to think of like, you know, you have guys that just simply aren’t like you can’t get mad. That’s what they do. That’s not why they’re here in the league. Yeah. You’re not That’s not what they do. Like, you have to you have to understand and embrace some of the imperfections here, which is like that’s why you’re choosing to do your hockey line subs or play really fast. You’re trying to create advantages to mask some of the disadvant the natural disadvantages you have by the, you know, attrition that you experienced this offseason. You lost a lot and you can’t do things the way you would normally do them. So, you got to reinvent yourself and hope that that works and like you you disguise some of your flaws. Every NBA team does this to some with the exception of the, you know, the elite teams. Everyone does that to some. You can’t just play your way and just exert your will on teams the way they have the last couple years. Celtics play their agame, they beat everybody. That’s just how it’s always been. They got to play a different way. This is going to continue to be an issue, the rebounding thing. Uh and yeah, it is a team effort. So maybe it is more the other guys knowing that the bigs and some of the bigs who are in there, that’s just not their game. You know, like a guy like Garza is just not going to be grabbing down boards. Um so you need help there. Maybe that’s been emphasized in practice and maybe they’re just not giving him, you know, what he wants out of it. I don’t know. Super interesting to see. Um, just teasing what’s ahead. We’re gonna hear whoever else comes up to the podium here. And yet, a couple of guys have some good games and we want to get into those a little bit as well. But also, uh, Noah is going to be joining us from the garden. Bobby is off tonight. He will be back. I promise you that. 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Use code CLNS. 50 in your lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. Once again, get $50 in your lineups after you play your first $5 lineup when you download the app and use the code CLNS. Prize picks. It’s good to be right. That’s what they like to say. I like that slogan. Good to be right. Back to the Celtics here. And uh again, I don’t know what there was that to be mad about this game. Even look, Sherrod, I mean, Joe Mazula just made himself the story of this game, which is really bizarre to me, right? But anyway, it doesn’t matter. The third like you can play a team of replacement level players and it would be annoying if you struggled against them with your A team, but they didn’t. They ran them off the freaking floor, right? Um, and it’s hard to not look at the offense and just what it looked like because they were getting up threes in the previous games. And again, the the Cleveland, by the way, I mean, whatever. 12 of 60 they shot three. That was just gross. Celtics finally shot at a good clip. They got up 45, they made 18. They were hotter in the first half than they were in the second half. But nice to see the guys like Payton Pritchard and Simons out there uh along with Derek White and the guys who are going to be shooting that ball uh there. I I’m going to start I know I think May not is one of the best takeaways so far of the preseason because of unexpected minutes, but uh curious to I a guy like Simons is really intriguing to me because when we talk about what they lost Sherrod, I feel like Simons gets discounted as an addition um a lot. people are just looking at the losses and not saying, “Well, this person can help you in some ways.” I’ve always been a fan. I’m curious how the defensive side of things is going to go with him. We were debating and some people on the stream had mentioned or in the chat were saying he doesn’t play defense. He’s not going to get in there. And I don’t think that’s the case. I think he’s going to because they don’t really have a lot of other options. But man, for the people who don’t have League Pass or stay up late and watch West Coast or you’re not seeing Portland on a lot of national telecasts, you know, you watch him play and you see it. He is one of the most effortless shooters and scorers out there. It is just butter. He makes it look so damn easy. And and to me that the thing about and it really doesn’t matter whether you’re actually running offense to get him shots. He’s can he can do it either way. either you set him up to get shots or he can just get a shot off the dribble on his own and they don’t have a choice whe to play him big minutes. I mean, especially if you’re going to have Peyton Pritchard in that starting lineup because you’re going to need someone to come off that bench and give you some juice. And I like the idea of him coming off the bench uh without Peyton Pritchard to start and then maybe either play him with Payton or him with Jaylen uh you know when he’s on the floor. uh so that again he has the ability to be a primary scorer but isn’t going to be teams aren’t going to be able to just absolutely gravitate towards him and not have to worry about anyone else out there. I defensively I think that’s going to come. Uh and I think that if they continue to play at a relatively fast pace, this defense isn’t going to be that big of a liability because again, if you’re playing at an an uptempo pace, your defense in theory is going to cause some some chaos, havoc, get get some easy buckets in transition. And he’s getting better. I mean, I I I saw him play, you know, 10 15 games last year and the defense was just bad. And when he says that it really is about like wanting to do it, he’s not kidding. I mean, we watched him last year. It looked like he did not want to play defense. That his mindset was there’s there’s I know I’m playing full court, but I’m really only going to play half of the court, and that’s on the offensive side. Now, it there’s at least effort to become a better defender, and I think he will be never he’s not going to be an allNBA defender or anything like that. But to me, the one thing he’s got to do, and it’s to me it’s the most fundamental basic part of being a defender and simply that’s stay between your man and the rim. If he can do that one thing with a relative amount of cons, don’t block, you don’t need to block shots, you don’t need to contest shots, you don’t need to go for steals, just stay between the rim and your man, that is going to significantly improve his play as a defender. I mean, I I when I was in Detroit, I saw Chanty Bills named AllNBA defensive team for that reason and that reason alone. He wasn’t getting ste. He just stayed between his man and the rim and and that got him a couple of AllNBA spots defensively. Uh I don’t expect that again from from Anthony. But again, the ability to to just stay in front of your man. It’s not like he doesn’t have the ability to do that because if you got the ability to break and blow by guys, you damn sure got to have the ability to keep them in front of you. Yeah. Yeah. Certainly. And again, this is something I’ve said from the get-go. This is a slam dunk champion. This is a guy with elite athleticism and quickness and explosiveness and and it it is a matter of will. It was very, you know, funny slashshocking to hear him say like, “I never really thought about playing defense before and will wait what?” So, you hope you hope he can flip a switch there. I again I I I’m I’m curious to see it once the season starts because it’s a commitment uh from everybody. I mean, it’s a commitment. You have to decide that’s what you’re about and do it all the time. You can’t I think that’s where most people fail as as the the people who don’t really want to play defense but don’t want to be embarrassed all the time turn it up only when they have to and then you know play Olay a lot of the other time they’re pick magnets they don’t fight through screens you know they they pass off guys quickly and they just want to kind of be done with that end of the floor and you can get away with that in the first quarter second quarter blah blah blah and you know different games different But then you’ll try to clamp down on a possession that’s really important later in the game. But that doesn’t help. It’s that’s the thing. It’s it’s a constant constant thing. We got someone else coming up to the podium. I hope it’s half as spicy. It’s Simons. Let’s get in there. Hey Anthony, obviously it’s a role you’ve had earlier in your career, but how was it coming off the bench tonight? Um, I thought I was at first I was kind of overthinking it, but uh, you know, once I got out there, I felt a little, you know, more comfortable. Um, you know, obviously when you’ve been starting for I don’t know how many years now, um, you know, you feel like, you know, changing kind of routine that you that you’ve built, you know, over the past couple years, but I think um, those early years coming on the bench really helped me and trying to understand, you know, coming off the bench and the rhythm and the, you know, just the the preparation they had to come off the bench. It was good. And obviously there’s been a lot of talk about you on the defensive end this season. Do you feel like this team playing a more aggressive brand that that helps get the most out of you at that end? For sure. Um, you know, like I said before, it’s like a standard, you know, um, that you, you know, you want to obtain, you know, joining the team. And so, um, you know, knowing that each and every everybody else on the team is going to bring it on that end. Um, it kind of forces you in a position to, you know, put your best foot forward and, you know, fit in into that. Dude, pressure is a You had a few head coaches in Portland. What’s What’s the process of getting to know a new head coach and what’s the process of of getting to know Joe? Uh, just building a relationship off the court. Um, I think that started, you know, as soon as I, you know, found out I got traded. um you know be trying to be in constant communication and trying to get to know each other and I think we’ve been building a great relationship. Um he knows I know a lot about his family life. He knows about lot about mine and um you know it’s been it’s been good. I think each and every day we’re continuing to build that relationship and it’s been good for me because it helps on the court when he’s trying to hold me accountable and you know push me to be the best version of myself. You went to a playoff game, Celtic playoff game. I think you went to game three against Orlando. Like did you have any idea? No. Like what what was that what was that night like kind of watching that game with some of your teammates and and just checking that? Yeah. I mean, one of the things that, you know, I thought about like, you know, when you become a player, you never really get to see the game as a spectator. And obviously, I’m from Orlando. And so, um, you know, I just wanted to go and see a game, you know, not knowing that I was going to end up, you know, being traded to Boston. Um, which is crazy and coincidental. Yeah, Anthony getting, you know, to learn to how to play with Peyton Pritchard. I know you played together tonight, but even in that Toronto game when you guys started together, what’s the process of playing off each other’s spacing? I know you played with Dame and CJ, but like when you have two guards that both like to shoot from deep that both have similar shot profiles, like what’s the process of playing off each other’s spacing? Yeah, just um filling it out in the game and then like obviously just having constant communication with him and obviously like I said I played play with Dame and you know CJ and so I was able to learn how to be able to space pretty well and u give those guys some room to work and so it’s just the same thing with Peyton Peyton can get downhill create his own shot and so you got to give him the space that he needs and also it helps it helps put the defense in a in a bind you know just you know he’s going oneonone at the top of the key or on on the wing and I’m on the other wing and it forces the help defender to make, you know, make a choice and choose. And then defensively, it seems like you guys are sending a lot of help like pressuring the ball off the ball and stuff like that. Like what’s the, you know, thought process behind going for a certain risk, not going for a certain risk. Like how do you read the floor and determine when and where you go for those, right? And it’s it’s not going to be perfect. Um, you know, we gonna take some risk and it might not work out, but we have to protect each other um, you know, once those mistakes happen. And so that’s been the the constant, you know, talk about this whole training camp is just, you know, you mess up, you cover for your teammate, cover for your brother, and then, you know, we figured out, you know, as the as the possession goes along. I mean, Joe sounded a little frustrated with the rebounding after the game. What has he voiced to you guys about your work on the defensive glass in particular? Uh, just box out, out out the other um other players trying to get the offensive rebound. I think it’s really that simple. and um you know obviously he’s been he’s been pretty adamant about that. So he’s just trying to set the tone of how we need to bring it each and every night um from the beginning on that that side. And what is what is the key for that for you guys? Is it is it an effort thing? Is it um just understanding understanding you know angles of which the shot is coming off of and um just you know it’s all about really toughness and just boxing out your man making sure at least your man doesn’t get it um if you don’t get it. So, it’s really that simple like that. John, Evony, going back to the coming off the bench thing, can you just explain the difference in in the preparation and the, you know, that that four or five minutes of sitting and watching? What are you watching and and how do you get into the flow right away versus, you know, feeling out a game at at the beginning, right? Uh obviously it’s a different obviously different team but early in my career when I came off the bench I just tried to understand the flow of the game what we what we feel like I needed um or we needed to you know when I came into the game and so uh it’s it’s always at first it was difficult obviously coming in trying to find our rhythm offensively and you know what I mean you not having been playing this whole time so um just feeling out how the game is being played um you get to get a snapshot before you go in of how the defense is is playing certain players and you might get the same coverage. So, um you kind of get, you know, a good idea of how, you know, the team’s going to play and then, you know, I think for like early in my career, um we used to me and my trainer used to do drills where we would come in late at night and I’ll sit down and for a second and then he tell me to get up, come in and shoot a three and I got to make it. You know, certain drills like that help me to be able to come in and be, you know, pretty productive pretty early in the game. Final question. What were your first impressions of playing at TD Garden as a Boston Celtic? No, it’s uh every time I came to play here, I you know enjoyed the environment and um yeah, the fans are you know top level fans and so um it’s always been a been a arena that I’ve you know looked forward to playing in and I always thought it was a good shooting gym for me. So um you know I feel like it’s the same same thing. Great shooting gym for sure. Thank translation. I used to give y’all buckets. Great shooting gym. I love to hear that. It’s like, you know, you got players that just like to hit at certain ballparks. You know, everybody likes to light it up here. It’s pretty good. You see that a lot, too. Like a guy a guy tunes you up. You think he’s better than he is, and you’re like, I’m going to get that guy. Not saying that’s what happened in this situation. This is just how it played out. Oh, man. I lost Sherrod again. We’ve had a couple of technical gaffs uh with Sherrod and his wife. Hopefully, we’ll get him back in a little bit. In the meantime, I can fill a buster uh as we talk about the Celtics win here. And I liked what I saw out of Anthony Simons for sure. Uh another thing we talked about a good bit uh just throughout the preseason so far is this idea of pace and what the Celtics are going to do to be playing at a faster pace. And we’ve talked about the hockey lines in terms of substitution and run run and you are seeing some of it. Um I think we caught up with Pton Pritchard might have been a practice yesterday and he was talking about that very thing and he seemed to kind of light up and he’s the type of guy who you can tell he wants to run. He always wants to run. He wants to go go. He hasn’t really been able to always uh with this team but um this was him talking about kind of the Celtics playing faster. Um, well, certain players we had and we were winning. So, you know, JT wants the ball at the top. JT is the top five player, so you might as well give him the ball and let him work. So, um, you know, we don’t have him at the beginning of this year, so we got to go to what benefits our team the most. But, you know, it’s just different like when you got a guy like JT, you got KP, you know, you can throw it to on the elbow and score, like, you know, you weren’t going to change things up when you’re winning a championship. So, just I think the NBA sometimes can be a copycat league, but like you got to go with what what really works for your team and it’s going to help you win on every given night. So, I wanted to play fast, but JT wouldn’t let me. Kind of. Not really. But we said that that was going to be a thing. And I This is going to be an interesting storyline if Tatum does in fact return. Is let’s just say the Celtics do. Look, you’re going to do what Jason Tatum does and what Jason Tatum wants to do because he’s Jason Tatum. Um, but it is interesting if the Celtics go out and light the world on fire and are scoring 130 points a game and playing at this break neck pace to have it come crashing to a halt if Tatum returns as a physically limited version of himself and kind of, you know, goes back into the way that he plays. Uh it’s understandable, but it is it is interesting, you know. Uh are they going to flip a switch back if Tatum returns? Is he going to play faster? How’s that going to go? It’s not necessarily a problem. And hold on, someone’s trying to communicate here. Okay. Um but it is interesting to see how it does uh how it does play out if and when Tatum does return uh and they have adopted this much much much faster pace that they’ve been playing with. Uh we got Sherrod back here and I just played a clip from Payton I think at shootaround this morning talking about them like yeah well we couldn’t play fast we we had guys who didn’t you know Holiday Tatum Porzingis like that’s not a team that’s gunn it up the floor you know um yeah old men I mean look we talked about it if there was a slight flaw with those old Celtics was they weren’t super athletic you know um and so they wouldn’t get out and run and teams that were really athletic and physical were the ones that would give them a little bit more uh trouble. So, yeah, you get rid of a couple of the old guys or like a guy like Porzingis who’s, you know, kind of got the body of an older dude. It’s going to change a little bit. So, it’s kind of nice to see some of those young Bucks in here coming in here with a with fresh legs and spry and wanting to wanting to run and get out on the move. Yeah, the Southerners, they don’t have a choice but to to lean on on that style of play if they have any shot at winning because they don’t have the benefit of having better than above average talent at every position. They don’t have the benefit of years and years of experience that they can lean on. So, the only thing they really can do in order to give themselves a chance to win is to get out and run and just muck the game up a little bit. Those are the kind of things that when you’re a team that’s kind of not necessarily rebuilding, but just retooling yourself to be competitive, that’s how you got to do it. Yep. U Derek White is Derek White is up at the podium. We’re going to listen in and hear what Derek has to say. And someone asking here, yes, absolutely. We’re going to run back that Joe Mazoula soundbite when Noah gets on the show. So stand by for that. Crashing the boards, what do you see as a responsibility for you as a rebounder? There’s all of us. um we’re crashing the paint um flying around getting loose balls. Yeah, whoever whoever’s out there, we got to find a way to get the get the rebounds and um that’ll fuel our offenses. So, um I mean, as a guard, I got to I guess switch on a big then just try to keep him not getting the rebound or um I think a lot of teams are crashing four or five guys anyways. And so, um, it’s a responsibility for everybody and, uh, it’s going to be a big, uh, talking point for for Joe the whole year and so we all got to do it. Is Joe any different this year with this group? Uh, yeah, a little bit. In what ways? I think we just got a bunch of new guys and new um people that had like hunger for opportunity. So, we kind of got a um not as much like experience as we did the last couple years. And so, um, just having that hunger, having that, I don’t know if desperation is the right word, but, um, a lot of guys that are getting an opportunity, um, for maybe their first time in their career or, um, we’re counted out at a different spot and, um, just going out here and, um, Joe’s Joe’s on them. Did he warn you guys there’d be a quick hook if you didn’t stay on your man with a rebounding? That just understood? No, he didn’t he didn’t say nothing. uh which is just kind of obvious. Oh, so much that’s said with with what’s not said. Love it. Love it. Uh Derek, obviously it seems like Josh is one of those guys that comes in with a lot of energy. What has been your your take on him just in camp and also just playing with him today as far as the energy that he can bring to you guys? Yeah. Uh he definitely comes in with that like excitement, that joy, and um he’s one of those guys that um just excited for his opportunity and um he can do a lot of different things out there on court and can guard multiple positions and just kind of be a pest out there. And so um he’s been he’s been great for us this whole uh preseason. Um he’s just always just listening, learning, um wants to just keep getting better and uh show what he can do. And so, um, we try to give him a lot of confidence to go out there and do what he can do. And, um, he can do just a little bit of everything out there, which is, uh, it’s a good tool to have. Definitely interesting. Just a little different. Just a little different for sure. Um, you know, pretty funny response from uh from Derek there. And it is curious before he answered the question. Loved it. Loved it. Yeah, they’re in, you know, they’re definitely in a little bit of a doghouse uh with Joe on some stuff here. So, it’s interesting uh to see. And that’s always, you know, we talk about the concerns when you bring together this many new players and you throw them all in there. like it’s I’ve you know I I hate comparing you know crossport comparing but you would always see like you know I think a great example was with the Patriots there you have a program and you have a system and it’s built on the people there with the leaders at the top you’ve lost a leader you still have Jaylen Brown which is huge uh but sometimes the losses are so significant that the knuckleheads kind of outweigh the grown-ups in the room I’m not saying there’s knuckleheads here, but you saw it happen a couple of times with the Patriots, 2009 being a big one where they they lost control. They lost they lost the plot a little bit. Uh there the knuckleheads had won and it just wasn’t enough. There’s a famous clip on a you know on a on a special with Bellich and Brady and Belich saying I just I can’t get these guys to to to to do what I want them to do. Just couldn’t do it. even though you still had those two guys. And I’m not saying that you you look like you have a fair amount of buyin here, but it’s still early and it’s still the preseason. That’s going to be what’s really interesting to me is how many guys out there are playing for their next contract. How many guys out there are here because they believe in what the Celtics are doing. If this goes sideways or it’s not as competitive a team as you like, you do wonder whether some people start to kind of look out for what’s, you know, I’m going to look out for what’s mine. I got nothing invested here. They they got me on a one-year flyer. I’m I’m a bargain basement rental. I wanna I want I want a real contract next time I play. I gotta I gotta get mine uh here. I’m not, you know, killing myself for this team. I I I have no indication. Nothing I’ve seen from these guys would make me believe that at this point, but it is interesting, right? Simon’s playing for another contract. You know, Buché wants to show people, you know, whatever. uh you know uh you know why not all of these guys like I you know come get me or you know see you guys pay me but they want to get paid. Uh they do and so and you don’t know how the personalities mesh and you don’t know you know if they’re going to buy into what you want to do. So I don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes if Joe’s struggling to get some of his points across to some of these guys and that’s what manifested itself. Again, I’m really curious Noah’s take because she’s pretty good. Got her finger on the pulse and she’s been with the team the entire preseason. So, she’s seen what’s gone on uh you know on the road there with these guys and in the in those first couple of games. So, we’ll get her on uh in just a little bit uh as well. But I definitely think that that’s a factor. Let’s talk a little bit about him. Um my I think Mayot is the revelation of the preseason so far. Um it really gives them a lot of what they need. What are your impressions? And you said, you know, Gary Gary, you know, your your your podcast pal Gary was at the forefront of this, but you know, what are you seeing that you like? I I see someone that gives you a little and kind of what Dererick White was talking about. He gives you a little bit of everything. I mean, he he to me the the biggest question mark about Josh Min was could he actually shoot the ball? Can he can he actually knock down open shots? And to me, when he starts doing that, he now becomes not just a guy that you can throw out there and play, a guy that you can go out there and play significant minutes. And by significant, I mean 15, 20 minutes and not be the least bit concerned about him being a liability at one end of the floor to the other. Because defensively, he’s going to give you great effort. Defensively, he’s going to make plays. He’s going to be a pest. He’s going to do all those things that you absolutely love if you’re Joe Mazula. But can he knock down an open jump shot? Can he finish at the rim through traffic? Can he just give you something at the offensive end of the floor that can augment what he’s given you defensively? And this was really one of the first breakout games where you could see him do that at a relatively high level. But that is the kind of Josh Mina that they need. They need him to be a difference maker for this team to have any shot at meeting or exceeding the expectations that many have for them. They’re gonna need one or two or three guys that have had very little opportunities in the past getting that opportunity now and maximizing that moment. Uh, he’s that guy. I mean, right now, I would say him followed by Garza are probably my top my two favorite players from the preseason because of the roles that they’re being given now relative to what they’ve done in the past and how they’ve made the most of those those moments and those opportunities. Yeah. And so I I see him I agree. I see him getting significant minutes. And in fact, you know, and and again, I’m gonna be curious Noah’s take here. I feel like we might have seen I I still don’t know what they’re going to do at at at the five, but I feel like we we have an idea what the starting lineup’s going to be uh next week because you saw it tonight. With the exception of I’m not entirely sure. I I feel like Buché must be one of the guys in the doghouse because he started that first half. He got a quick hook. You know, he only played might have been 11 minutes on the night. Yeah. Um here and uh and that’s fine. You know, Garza is the next man up, but then you’re not going to get the type of rebounding you want out of him. And and Xavier Tilman starts at the five to start the second half. I don’t know if that was a message. Uh if you’re going to based off of Joe’s postgame freakout, maybe there’s something there. But other than that, you’re looking at it appears to be Pritchard, Hower, Jaylen, and Derek as the rest of the starters. I wouldn’t be shocking if if Minot worked his way in there. He might be a great spark plug off the bench. It depends what you need more to start games versus what you need coming off the bench because it’s good to have Hower out there because you’re going to need spacing. You’re going to have a five for the first time ever. you don’t have a stretch five on the floor. Um, and they’ve had that recently. So, maybe Joe wants to kind of maintain the shooting there and you don’t want to play a lineup that’s going to have a five that can’t shoot plus May not. So, Hower might remain there and not come in might come in as energy along with Simons who can get buckets with that second unit a little bit and then you leave Jaylen or Derek on the floor as well. So, I I that’s probably where he’s going to be. I feel like he’s legit. Yeah. You know, I was just gonna say that was the whole point of having Bouche out there to give you a a five that where you have five guys who could theoretically knock down he will shoot it. Yeah. I mean, he’s he’s a willing shooter. Yeah. Right. Right. And so to me that conceptually it makes sense for him to be out there, but if he’s out there and he’s not shooting the ball and he’s getting his ass kicked on the boards and and that domino effect affects all the other guys, whether it’s him triggering that or those guys not doing their part and it affects him, the bottom line is they weren’t getting the kind of rebounding presence at all from him on the floor. Uh, and Luke, you know, this was one of the few games where Garza I I didn’t feel had a really good effort defensive or on the glass. I mean, before coming into this game, the first two games, he was averaging a damn near double double in like 15 16 minutes. Uh, so he was statistically speaking having really good impact and presence, but I just didn’t feel he did much uh in this game. He had a couple offensive rebounds, but for the most part, not really giving them that kind of presence they needed. And Joe, I know it’s a team thing that Joe is talking about, but you’re going to need at least one guy who can call rebounding their thing. Yeah. So, again, it’s it’s hard to say if it if it’s this the the his players that have upset uh Joe or if it’s the media that has upset Joe. Um, so we’re gonna bring in one of the members of the media present in that postgame locker room and ask pissed off Joe. Noah, what the hell did you guys do to be my Joe? You broke my first off, I I want I want two answers. First off, first off, what were you thinking while that was going on? I was just looking at Jack’s face to see how good his poker face was. All I was thinking. Okay. All right. We’re gonna have to we’re gonna play it. Okay. Now, the thing that set him off first was rebounding. I would love to hear it. So, that the five fine guys who could rebound, five guys who could rebound. Um, and he said it over and over and over again. And then Noah later on asked a follow. Well, what is it? Is it effort or technique? And he just kept saying the same thing over and over again. He didn’t really answer your question, but I think it’s a valid question. Like, are they just not trying? Like, what why aren’t they doing it? Are they just not capable? or they not whatever. But the thing that lost his mind was Jack’s question. Was it about threes or transition through? What was he What was it about? It was about threes in a more fast-paced offense. How that changes? Okay. Okay. Great. And it seemed like a really innocuous question. And here’s uh here’s how Joe responded earlier. Joe Drew, you guys have taken a lot of threes because your you know personnel is allowed for it these past few years. You guys are employing a faster pace style this series. The process of getting to those change at all because of the faster pace. Does it lend to it differently or is it just the same process? I’ve answered that question a hundred times. Find a twoon-one. Make the right play versus the two-on-one. It’s that simple. Could be a three. Could be a layup. Find a twoon-one do. I’ve answered that for two years now. Find a twoon-one. What does a twoon-one present? Are there two shooters on the two-on-one? There’s two shooters on the two-on-one. You pass pass. You’re an open shot. There’s not two shooters on the two-on-one, you cut. You create a twoon-one in a different way. I’ve answered that for three years. Why do we keep asking that? Then create two-on-1s. Find a twoon-one. Everybody should be able to answer that question verbatim based on my answers to that question for almost three years now. What’s our offensive philosophy? Create twoon-1s. What do you do when you create the two-on-one? Read it. Find it. Last year, there was two 38% three-point shooters in a two-on-one situation. So, it was a pass shot. This year, there may not be a 38 to 40% three-point shooter on a two-on-one situation. So, that twoon-one may be created off a cut and then you can create a twoon-one in a different way than the cut allows us to get an offensive rebound. I don’t understand. That’s why is it so hard? I said it for three years. I mean, you just keep ignoring what I said. Find the two-on-one, make the right play versus the twoon-one for however long I’m here. That will be the offensive philosophy. So, the funny thing is is that he actually answered the question in full. Like, Jack got Jack got his answer. Um, yeah, I don’t know what that whole press conference was about, honestly. And it wasn’t just that. It was like all the rebounding questions. Yeah. Um, obviously they won. And not only that, he was like, “What else you got? Give me more.” He was he was spoiling for a fight. He wanted more. Yeah, I would I honestly I can’t say I understand what that was. Um I mean I do think he’s gotten iterations of that question, but like that’s just that’s not the only like there’s plenty of questions that have been recycled many times and that will continue to be the case when we can only talk to one member of the coaching staff and we talk to him 12 times a week sometimes. Like it’s like there’s going to be some repeat questions. I don’t know what that was about. Um, but Jack was fine afterwards. So, if anyone’s worried about Jack, I texted Jack as well, uh, just to see. I I als I also invited him on the show, uh, if he wanted to come on and talk about it and, you know, have a little group therapy here, but he’s got his own stuff to do postgame, but if there’s time, maybe we’ll get Jack on and he can talk about it. I don’t get it. I don’t get it. Do you think it was he just didn’t like seeing his starters or his A team get it get get its ass, you know, kicked on the boards by Cleveland reserves or what was were there moments where you’re like, okay, that was bad. Who’s like I assume he’s upset at something with the players and it just manifested itself and let me just beat up on the media because I’m annoyed right now. Um, is there something you saw a person because I again we’re trying to read into it. Buché was in there. He quick hook but again they’ve been doing the quick subs to start the game here but he only played 11 minutes in the game. Neimus Kade only played seven minutes in this game. Did they find themselves in some sort of Joe Dogh house because of defensive, you know, effort on the defensive glass? Anything you saw there that would lead you to believe that? Yeah, I don’t know. I mean, I don’t know that Kada’s minutes were related to that because I thought Kada was kind of in the doghouse to begin the game. Maybe that was more as of a carryover from Friday night’s loss. Um, but it certainly has felt throughout all three of these preseason games that if you miss a defensive rebound, that’s it. Like Luca Garza missed a defensive rebound, I think, in the first quarter and that was it for a while in this game. Like that’s that was the that’s been the trend throughout this preseason. It’s a completely new thing. He even pulled Jaylen uh for about 45 seconds, but he pulled Jaylen and you know, usually Jaylen and Jason don’t really get pulled for one mistake. That’s like I’ve I’ve rarely seen him do that. So Derek White was asked postgame about whether Joe is coaching differently this season and he I think you guys saw the clip, but like he didn’t really get into it, which makes sense. I don’t know I would have known how to answer that question in his seat, but it’s clear that that is that he is coaching differently and I think he’s been a little harder on players than he typically is. Um, and it also makes sense because it’s completely different. It’s no longer about managing the egos of a bunch of lottery picks and superstars. It’s about bringing out something out of guys that have not accomplished a lot in the league. Like I can see how from a mentality standpoint like it requires a different ski, you know, communication vibe. But yeah, it was, you know, we that’s been like the number one thing we’ve seen through preseason is that you you miss a rebound, you’re pulled out of the game. Um, so I think that’s what we saw again tonight and we probably will continue to see. And the thing is like I do think there was some effort involved and there were times where guys were just sleeping on the job. Like I rewatched game two of the preseason and like there were some clear moments where it was just an effort play, but we also knew that the rebounding was going to be an issue as soon as this roster was constructed, right? Like we knew that going into the season. So it’s not like it’s just a a bunch of guys being lazy. Like this team has a major pull on the roster and it’s rebounding and it’s the the front four. this rebounding and you you you you are I I think I’ll be curious to see how they defend actual teams uh because there’s you know there’s some guys out there and again I think you’re going to get good effort from certain players on this team uh but then there’s others who are just limited. So, I’d asked Sherrod this uh Noah and I’m curious what you think is I don’t think this level of anger and intensity over these types of mistakes is sustainable on a team that has inherent flaws. It doesn’t really make sense. I think you when you have a team that has shortcomings, you just scheme around it. Find ways to create advantages wherever you can. And in this case, they’re deciding to play with greater pace. use a lot of guys, go deeper into their rotation and see if that works for them, maybe to mask some of the things that they’re just not going to be able to do well. And there’s never an excuse for lack of effort. And maybe that’s what he’s seeing is guys, we’re not faking good enough to take plays off or to not, you know, attack the glass or just, you know, let some guy slip by you. And so he’s being extra harsh now. But how mad can he get at players who just simply aren’t particularly good at one particular, you know, aspect of of of the game as as as you pointed out? Yeah. And it’s interesting because preseason’s different, right? A lot about preseason’s differing from the rotations to the objectives, like everything’s changed. So, I don’t think we’re going to see him pull five guys routinely during the regular season. Like it’s one thing to have that as something in your teaching toolbox in preseason, but it’s going to look different when they’re actually trying to win games to make a playoff push or wherever they wherever they are in the standings. We’ll see. But I don’t think he’s going to have that philosophy. But I think that right now he’s in training camp mode where they’re still 10 days away from opening night and there’s still like habits that need to be instilled and like very basic things that a lot of new guys have to kind of get on board with. So I to I would guess this is more preseason thing. But sure, but do you get do you get a vi do you get a sense that there’s um a lack of effort from some of the players right now that’s bothering him? Because that’s the only thing that makes sense is like I understand we’re not great at some of this stuff, but I don’t like the effort I’m seeing from some of you new guys cuz you know you look for little signs. Even Derek White, you know, when he’s asked is Joe being different? He’s like right a little bit. And like to me that’s Derek White saying is like yeah he’s there he doesn’t like some you know there there’s there’s some things with the new guys he doesn’t like. Well, I think part of it is that it’s there were like lots of moments throughout the last three years where the Celtics on the floor were not playing 100% or there were lapses in lapses in effort or lapses in focus or with discipline or whatever else it is, but they were so talented that it sometimes didn’t matter. Like how many games did they win where it’s like the few guys didn’t give it, you know, weren’t their best, they their margins, like there were things that they didn’t check off and they were still able to win with your talent. They’re not going to be able to win this season if they are outrebounded the way that they were in this game against most teams, right? So, I think I don’t know that he was holding them to a higher standard, but Joe wants to win. Like, that’s his thing, right? And this team is has a pathway to win some games, but they’re going to have to be the hardest playing team out there. We heard that all of camp. And I don’t know that we’ve seen through three games that this team is like, “Wow, they are playing so much harder than everybody else.” like there have been some stretches of that and there have been some lineups and some moments, but it’s not like they’ve been this overwhelming like we’re playing so much harder than everybody and I think that that’s where he wants to get them. So, I would imagine that that’s the message that he’s trying to send. Not like you guys suck or you know, but it’s like we’re going to have to give it a thousand% and that hasn’t always needed to be the standard, you know, it used to be more about like be smart and give it to Tatum and space the floor and you know, those kinds of things. They’ve had this huge margin for EF they’ve had this huge margin for of effort that they could play with for years. So you’re right, Noah. I mean, they’ve never had it’s since Joe has been running things, they don’t have to play great effort and it’s I mean, how many games did we see them basically sleepwalk for two, two and a half, three quarters and are down by like eight or nine points and win by 20? Uh they just that that’s just how they were built, but they’re they can’t do that anymore. I think Joe part of whether he wants to acknowledge it or not, he’s got to be a little bit different, too. Uh I think he is. Yeah. Right. And and I think he’s trying to figure out how can the changes I need to make as a coach mesh with what I need from these players because in his mind, he’s thinking, I’m doing this different, I’m doing that different. These are the results that I should be getting, and I’m not getting those results right now. Uh, and it’s he’s gonna have to he’s the thing that Joe is going to have to have, whether he wants to admit it or not, he’s gonna have to be more patient with these guys. That doesn’t mean that you tolerate their their nonsense, but you can’t snap in game three of the freaking preseason because your guys didn’t rebound the way you wanted to and 31 freaking points. But here’s the question, though. Why not, though? Why is that? Like, I’m not saying it’s for sure the right approach, but isn’t it possible that it is? Everything that I’ve gotten from talking to these players and you know being at camp being on the road with him over the last couple weeks is they were like 100% bought into Joe. And so if they if you know they they view him now as like this is a championship coach. It’s different than Joe Mula of two years ago that didn’t have that credibility. And I think the new guys are really excited to be here. Luca Garza, Josh Mina, they all keep telling us we’ve run through a brick wall for Joe Mosul. You see it in their body language. Like we’ve asked them about Joe. I haven’t gotten a whiff of like this is too much or like this is performative or like you know we’re trying our best here and maybe it’ll get to that point because it’s been a couple weeks but I also see a world where like my biggest barometer always of coaching is are the players bought in and you can’t always know 100% but you can read between the lines. We all know the difference between giving the right PR answer and and answering like with 100% of your of yourself. And I right now I’ve gotten every indicator that the new guys love playing for him and they feel motivated and they feel inspired. Yeah. So, so in that case, is it is it bad, you know, is it bad for him to freak out in preseason game three or is this going to be the moment that we look back at in five months and they’re I don’t think it’s bad for him to freak out. I just think it’s bad to not acknowledge or at least internally acknowledge the fact that they’re not that team that you’re used to. Uh, and they’re going to have games like this where they’re going to get their asses kicked. Your job is to be that calming presence. Getting bit out of shape after game through the preseason that you win by 31 points because your team whose talent is limited don’t play above and beyond that talent doesn’t really make a whole lot of sense. Yeah, I I don’t have a problem with him uh beating beating beating up the players uh especially early because I think you got to set a precedent. If he if he doesn’t do it now, it’s going to be harder to drop the hammer later. Um so I’m I’m a tough love sort of guy. I have got no problem with that. Um I just think he’s going to literally blow a gasket um if he doesn’t find a way to just to roll with it a little bit as time goes on. It is early uh in in in in the process here. And if things go poorly, you know, raging doesn’t isn’t going to help it at that point. So again, it’s fine. It’s fine. It’s But it goes back to something you said, John, before Noah came on and entertaining that became the story of this game. Yeah. And that that should that just shouldn’t be happening in the preseason. Yeah. Look, I mean, it’s that’s that’s kind of the point is like it works when you’re winning and people like it too. And you’re right, he has the cred, but if the team is struggling and he’s just flipping his lid all the time, that’s gonna that’s not going to go well, you know, for a lot of these guys because some of these guys are short- timerrs, too. So, it’s a delicate balance there. I for Joe’s sake, I I I want I want I want him to find a little bit of inner peace here. That’s all. Uh this is this is what you’re really worried about, John. I’m worried about Joe. I’m worried about Joe. I’m worried about Jack. Uh, and Jo. And honestly, I’m very worried about Bobby and I’m glad he wasn’t there today because I’m not gonna lie, I was really like Bobb’s not here. Like I really I had to remind myself because I was I was bracing for it cuz Bobby Bobby would have been the dumb the dumbass to follow Jack with a with a something else and just Joe would have lo absolutely lost it. I’m so glad Bobby wasn’t there. I could I couldn’t take it. We were getting mad when he wasn’t answering your question directly. Hey, he he would have Yeah. Yeah, he would have body. He honestly ended up answering my question. I was actually just curious because I don’t think rebounding is all effort. My personal opinion as a as a poor rebounder, but I was curious if Joe’s message is basically like they’re just not playing hard enough. And it wasn’t. He did talk about the technique and like there’s other things involved. Like obviously I know that, but I was curious if he was going to acknowledge that or if he if his message right now to the players is is simply effort. And I think it’s smart that it’s not because there’s other things to it, right? And Dererick acknowledged it. I think I think it was Dererick that acknowledged a post game where if you’re switched on to a big like probably all you can do is just make sure that the big doesn’t get the board and like just be 100% focus on that. I I want to point out just the the people in the chat that don’t understand stuff. Um the tough love is I don’t care. He could he could we we’ve been preaching tough love on players forever since the days of Brad. I don’t like the nice nice stuff and the love and this and that. People want to see the coach get mad at the guys. I don’t like him getting mad at Jack Simone. Like, I just think that that’s rude and disrespectful. There’s a better way to handle questions if you’re frustrated. If you’re frustrated with your players, great. Go into practice, put the balls in the closet, and make them just run up and down for freaking three hours or just grab bored. I don’t care. That’s fine. But that’s that was the reaction was like, “Dude, chill the f out, man. Nobody in the room deserved it on such a simple, innocuous question. just answer it and move on. That’s all. Anyway, um as for the game, Noah, I do want to talk about because it’s it’s not all about Joe here. Feels like this was close to what they’re going to try to do in the regular season from a lineup perspective except for at the five, which I still think is a bit of a mystery and I can’t figure out how that’s going to go. I do feel that like right now it looks like the Hower, Jaylen, Pritchard, and uh Derek will will start, but Buché gets a start in the first half. Tilman in the second half. Kada, as you said, might be in the doghouse from a game or so ago, plays limited minutes. Garz is in and out with a couple of quick hooks. Are we still experimenting here on who’s going to play? Is there going to be somebody? Do you think somebody has the inside track there? Yeah, I mean, I don’t know that Chris Bush at the five is going to be sustainable long term. I mean, I literally I I had a one-on-one with Chris Buchche like about a week ago, and one of my big takeaways from that conversation is that he does not like playing the center position, and he feels like he’s better as a forward because he’s long and he’s athletic and he can disrupt the perimeter. And I think that that’s where he feels like he can shine the most, whereas with centers, he’s oftentimes undersized. So it was when I saw the fact that he was starting at the five today, I was like that’s kind of ironic considering like I know that that’s not his personal preference. And also when we were in Toronto, we talked to Raptors guys and they all made that clear. So maybe that’s just for today because he played he’s been playing well preseason. I think Joe likes a lot of what what he brings to the table. But is that going to be is is him at the five going to be the solution in four months. I would be very surprised if that were still the case especially considering some of the centers that this team is going to have to face off against like somebody on press row mentioned like Joel Embiid. Imagine Chris Bush getting that assignment from the top. Like that’s going to be challenging. As far as the other guys go, like I thought Kada struggled in the preseason game, but it was also 17 minutes of basketball. So, don’t want to like overreact to that. Obviously, Joe has seen much more than 17 minutes that we haven’t been able to see at training camp. So, maybe it’s been a bigger issue than just that game. Um, and then I actually thought Xavier Tilman did some good things in the second half or especially in those first few minutes. Like, it was probably his best of preseason so far. Um, but is he the answer of the five? like he’s also a little bit undersized. He’s also not like they just don’t I don’t know that this roster has a solution. There’s not I don’t know that there’s going to be one guy that comes in and just like solves this issue. And if they were trying No one’s going to solve it for sure. But who who do you think they run with? I think Chris Buchet to start like I do think today was indicative of I think that was indicative of like who he trusts the most right now. Um and then in an ideal world it’s the Mascada. I mean, he has the physical tools to, you know, potentially play that role. And I thought that it we saw flashes of it in Euro Basket. We’ve seen flashes of it throughout his NBA career. I think Luga Garza is going to struggle defensively. Like you’ve already seen moments of it, but you know, we haven’t seen like real competition yet, but there’s things that he does well, but I I still lean towards Kada in that spot. It’s just that’s clearly not been the MO this preseason. and I didn’t think he played well on Friday, but also again there’s been a ton of practices and a ton of runs really for the last like 9 to 12 weeks that we haven’t seen. So, I’m sure that’s helping informed. Maybe he’s dealing with like a lingering injury, too. I don’t know cuz he only got seven minutes today. So, that was that was Yeah, that was interesting. Sherrod, are you worried at all that Kada played himself out of a you know, I feel like this was Kada to lose um starting starting job. Is it weird that he might have played himself out of it in such a short period of time? It’s insane that this could potentially have been, you know, kind of the the rise and fall of Kada after three preseason game preseason games. Uh I I think ultimately when when all said and done, I think he will be the starting center. I I think that it won’t necessarily be because he has outshined other guys. I think it’ll just be by default. Uh because I think with with the Celtics, when you look at this roster, uh you look at the four guys that they’re probably going to throw out there to start, you’re gonna need someone who can do those things that Joe wants done. C can I get one rebounder, one guy that can actually rebound? And Kada, I think, is longterm their best option, an opportunity to do that. Uh Garza just is just lateral quickness is bad. Uh and I I love the effort with Garza because I do think he does play hard. I do think he is a smart player. he just doesn’t move well when when folks get him in that ISO type situation or when he has to step away from the paint and and guard like a trailing big like the you know I think of guys like uh Carl Anthony Towns Joel Embiid guys that can just be trailers and knock down the three I don’t know if Luca can get out there quick enough to guard them uh and Tilman as Noah pointed out is undersized uh another one that I think you know effort-wise could is decent but just doesn’t have the kind of the the that heft that you And so Kada to me is going to ultimately wind up with the position by default unless the Celtics go outside and try to make a trade between now on the trade deadline to add some. And the reality is is that if this team was trying to win a, you know, win as much as possible this year, there’s an ob like I I I’m still in the mode of like you’re covering a team that’s trying to win and I’m like, okay, let’s look at who who the bigs are on the market because this roster has a clear deficit. Meanwhile, probably the front office is more thinking about how can we shed some salary before the deadline because they’re still in the first apron. So, like they’re probably just going to struggle with this by committee all season long, which is part of why Joe is making it such a big deal early on because it’s not going to be solved by one guy. And somebody like Jaylen Brown, who has never really been like a huge rebounder, is probably going to have to be average eight or nine rebounds a game in the season. You know, like every single person is going to have to have a level of ownership around that. But it’s not just rebounding. There’s also like the fact that there are some elite centers in this league and that I don’t think they’re going to find a solution for on this roster. Um, but it’s it’s like Bobb’s been asking a bunch of the the senators about this. Like they’re very excited to have this opportunity. I just don’t know that I don’t know if there’s somebody on the roster that can just straight up solve it. There’s not there’s not. It’s just it’s a choice at this point. And it’s a pick your poison sort of situation. And again, this is back to the earlier point of just accepting and embracing a roster that’s going to have shortcomings that you were not used to having. Not only did you have it’s highly unusual for a team to lose not one, not two, but three centers and all three centers that you lost are better than the centers that you have on your roster. Yeah. It’s just that’s just not normal. Uh so I I think it’s this is going to be an issue that we’re going to be dealing with and talking about all season. That’s the thing. the fourth center on your roster from last year was the presumptive starter this year and he wasn’t good enough to get minutes for the majority of last season and that guy played himself out of that role. That’s how dire this situation is. Is it fatal? No. There’s plenty of teams out there that operate without a classic big or a dominant big or one that’s even, you know, anybody. But the there’s nothing behind it. That’s the point is it it each one presents a different challenge. They can do something that you like, but they’re going to you’re going to you know, and that’s going to be that’s going to be the situation with this team all year. I think have we’ve been spoiled. You had a perfect team like perfect. You had one through eight or nine that could play with in any combination with any people on the floor. Yes, we miss you, Luke. We do. Luke Luke Cornets will Luke Cornet comments will always put a smile on Noah’s face. It doesn’t matter how many years from now when she sees I remember my first show my first show I got such a kick out of it and it hasn’t worn off at all. The only time I ever comments every time every time you see Luke that little smile creeps that’s how it’s going to be. That’s how it’s going to be all year long with a lot of this team. It’s going to be imperfect. Uh, and just got to roll with it there. Um, rest of the lineup here. Uh, again, nice look at Simons again today in what’s probably going to be his role coming up. Mr. Instant Offense off the bench. U, so much has been made about his defense. I haven’t seen anything that looks like he’s playing a lot of defense yet. Um, but I don’t know if you see anything different, but I he is an absolute bucket. Um, and it just is effortless. And we’re saying, you know, not everybody gets to see him on a nightly basis, but he’s so smooth and easy. And that shot is just so pure. It just, you know, he’s one of those guys when he shoots, you’re just surprised if it doesn’t go in. So, he that’s going to be great to have, but everyone’s talking defense, defense, defense. What are you seeing? Are you seeing anything that’s going to lead you to believe that he can hold his own there? I like this by Ben. He’s been refreshingly neutral defensively, which is fine. That’s all you’re going to need to The problem is is that right now we’re not seeing like again all three games so far in the Ben first of the by the way. Make sure you guys watch that too. Go ahead. From the second, these are, you know, they’re guarding second unit players. So, there’s that. I think he’s been trying like he has been play he’s been playing hard and in turn I think he’s been fouling a little bit too much because it’s almost this like over eagerness to defend and he picked up a few in in the previous game and I think he had to kind of like calm down a little bit after that and he said that but it’s some of it is again some of it is effort but there’s also a lot of technique and one of the most like stunning answers that we got out of training camp was when I asked him about if there’s specific things that he’s been doing and he said yeah I’ve actually never done defensive drills before we’re we’re doing deflections we’re doing positioning. Like it’s my first time doing defensive drills which is kind of mindboggling because he’s I think he’s what 26 like you know college basketball years as a pro but it maybe just a reflection of the state of basketball and coaching and all that but like there’s certainly some potential there and I don’t know that he has shown me that he’s like a complete disaster on the defensive end. Um, I think it’s become a huge story and until we see that he’s a massive liability, it might be a little bit overplayed as far as what he can bring to this team. He had 21 points tonight and I didn’t even notice it. Like I looked up and I was like, “Oh, he’s the leading scoreer on this team.” And it was kind of quiet and that’s how he’s been the leading scoreer for an NBA team for the last two years. Like there’s not a lot of guys that have been leading scores for a franchise and so I’m actually like pretty excited to see how he Yeah. how he takes off here. Oh, sorry. We Joe Mula popped back in here. Here’s a Here’s a uh live look at Simon’s trying to play defense. Let’s get that clip again. That was captured by our that was captured by our Rich Lame uh prior to the game. Uh, we’re bringing Sherrod Blakeley back, but we’re also going to welcome in a special guest, and that’s our buddy Jack Simone here. Who Have you wiped your tears, Jack? Yeah, my face is dry now. Don’t worry. It’s okay. Did you I can Can I give Can I give you a hug? I’ll take all the hugs, John. We gave him the exact opposite reaction as a media unit after the press conference. We just passed on. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, group hug. Um, so Jack, not to relive it, but we are gonna relive it because I’ll play it for you one time. But what you want to hear it now? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Who wants to hear it now? Let’s Let’s hear it. Let’s get it over with. This is one time. Here it is. Okay, here we go. Here’s Joe. Let me I got to rewind it. Joe, you guys have taken a lot of threes because your, you know, personnel is allowed for it these past few years. You guys are employing a faster paced style this series. The process of getting to those changed at all because of the faster pace. Does it lend to it differently or is it just the same process? I’ve answered that question a hundred times. Find a twoon-one, make the right play versus the two-on-one. It’s that simple. Could be a three. Could be a layup. Find a two-on-one do. I’ve answered that for two years now. Find a twoon-one. What does a twoon-one present? Are there two shooters on the two-on-one? There’s two shooters on the two-on-one. You pass pass. You’re an open shot. There’s not two shooters on the two-on-one, you cut. You create a twoon-one in a different way. I’ve answered that for three years. Why do we keep asking that? Then create two-on- ones. Everybody should be able to answer that question verbatim based on my answers to that question for almost three years now. What’s our offensive philosophy? Create twoon-1s. What do you do when you create the two-on-one? Read it. Find it. Last year there was two 38% three-point shooters in a two-on-one situation. So, it was a pass shot. This year, there may not be a 38 to 40% three-point shooter on a two-on-one situation. So, that twoon-one may be created off a cut and then you can create a twoon-one in a different way than the cut allows us to get an offensive rebound. I don’t understand. That’s why it’s so hard. I said it for three years. I mean, you just keep ignoring what I said. Find the two-on-one, make the right play versus a twoon-one for however long I’m here. That will be the offensive philosophy. Okay. First off, why haven’t you memorized everything Joe Missoula has ever said at a press conference? I want to ask you that question. But number two, all right, we’ve had our fun. What set him off there? What is he mad about? What do you think? I I don’t know. I mean, I assume he’s just mad at the rebounding, but he also like he got mad and then actually answered my question like halfway through. Like I have it here. He said, “Last year we had two 38% three-point shooters in a twoon one, so it was a pass pass shot. This year there may not be one. So, you know, you can twoonone can be created off a cut and created.” All he had to say was that was all he had to like he answered the question. But listen, I get it. Like I would get frustrated. People keep asking me about threes. So, he can be mad and that’s okay. But I I got the answer I wanted eventually. I guess I just had to live through the the death slams and him being upset. But that’s all right. Who’s who’s the main rebounding culprit here that that’s the target of his eyeire? Oh, man. Everyone. I mean, no one was safe. Jaylen got the hook for missing a rebound. Anthony Simons had it happen a couple times. Baylor, Luca Garza. I think almost everybody who played tonight got from the game because they didn’t get a rebound. I don’t think Derek did and I don’t I don’t know if Josh did, but I I don’t think Derek did. That’s the only one I can think of. Payton maybe, but I think he even got one. We need to keep a tracker in the final preseason game to see if anybody leaves unscathed. Does that stuff carry over, Jack? Do you think in the in the regular season though? Like, you know, we were talking about, you know, slight disagreement here, but, you know, if you’re going to beat him up, preseason makes sense because you can pull a guy, you can make a statement, you’re not risking a W or anything that’s going to cost you uh long term. So, sure, why not? Um, but is this going to be a quick hook sort of situation with guys all year long where you mess up something I don’t like or I don’t see this this effort, you’re gone and then I’m just going to bury you on the bench and play other guys. I mean, it’s interesting to consider cuz like if Jaylen and Peyton Pritchard both miss offensive rebounds and you pull them both within the first two minutes, like I I feel like there has to be some sort of line to it. Maybe it’s just applying to, you know, the guys who are on the fringe of the rotation and he gives Jaylen and Pritchard a little bit of a break, but that wouldn’t exactly apply Jojo’s philosophy of holding everybody the same standard. So, I I I feel like it almost has to be a little bit more relaxed once the regular season starts so you don’t ruin your like your scoring, the balance of your lineups and stuff like that. But, I I I think there is going to be a tighter leash from Joe this season in general for sure. You think that does extend to the stars? At least at least a little bit, right? Like if Jaylen misses like two in a row, I think Joe’s going to give a piss. Maybe sub him out for a minute and like tell him to, you know, fix whatever is going wrong. But I I don’t think it’ll be as quick as you miss one, you’re out of the game after 60 seconds. I feel like there’ll be a little bit more leeway. I don’t think so either. You don’t think they’ll be? I just think that from like us a like and obviously like I’m not inside their relationship, but like I don’t think that you’re now almost like a coach Jaylen 180 different because the talent around him has changed because I could see that’s how you start losing losing players too. So I I do think that some of some of the guys are going to be on a little bit of a different a different leash scale. Yeah. Yeah. And and that and that’s always the way uh the stars are going to get away with it. Jack, while we have you, uh, takeaways from the actual game itself, what’s what’s standing out to you? And again, you’ve, you know, traveled to the preseason games as well, and you’ve gotten to see this team, uh, you know, up close and personal through three preseason games. I feel like Josh Mayot to me has been the story so far of the preseason, just in terms of the almost instant impact, not only he’s making in these preseason games, but that you can project forward to see that he’s probably going to make in the regular season as well. Um, I don’t want to answer the question for you, but out, you know, anything that like really pops for you from from from this game that we’re like, “Oh, I I kind of like this.” Yeah. I mean, Josh Monot, like you said, is obviously the player who has stood out the most, but I I think the Celtics defensive activity in general has been pretty fun to watch. Like Josh Min said in the locker room in Memphis that they they were playing a lot more, you know, help each other. He said it’s it’s not a one-on-one, it’s a five versus the ball. And I mean, you see it in this game, Gonzalez helping off the ball. Derek White helping and in the post game tonight, Derek talked about, yeah, we’re all ready to cover for each other if I help and, you know, go do double team someone in the post. Sam Hower is going to rotate and it’s a big rotation. And I I think the pace that everyone talks about offensively in terms of getting out in transition is also translating to everyone is sprinting around in the half court defensively. Like there’s a lot more, you know, help defense. There’s not a lot of players left on an island as much anymore. And I I don’t think it’s a product of, oh, we have less defensive talent, even though they did lose a lot of great defenders. I think it’s just we want to force more turnovers so we can play fast. And so I think they’re going to take a lot more risk like that. And I think it showed up in the preseason. For for anybody here, I’m kind of curious like we just haven’t gotten to see them against a real team. How much how much carryover is there going to be? This is what I guess the frustrating part. There’s so much to like about tonight. I know, you know, Joe kind of changed the tone of this show by losing his mind over the rebounding issue, but I mean, they I you played a bunch of reserves, but you beat him by 30. That’s what you’re supposed to do if you play an inferior team. But you’re seeing the pace, you’re seeing energy, you’re seeing some defensive effort. You got to see, you know, uh, Simons do what he’s, you know, supposed to be doing here. How much of what we’ve seen on the positive side of things, no, I’ll start with you. do we think is going to translate directly when the competition actually is real? I think this offense is going to be pretty good. Like that’s been one of my takeaways. You look at this, look at say say this is the starting lineup on opening night. You have Derek White, Peyton Pritchard, Sam Hower, three elite shooters that can really give you good spacing. You have Jaylen Brown who we know is a a great scoreer like I think and and Chris Buchchet can certainly kind of get his and pick a spot. So I think the offense is actually not going to be bad at all this season. And it’s I think the the big questions is from what we thought going into the season. I don’t know that I realize how good some of these offensive lineups could be. I mean, you still have Anthony Simons coming in off the bench and being the talented scoreer that we’ve seen now in two games that he is and obviously seven years in the NBA. So, that’s going to translate. I don’t I don’t think anything is going to change just because they’re playing better players. But the things that they’ve been struggling with that they’ve kind of gotten away with like the defensive rebounding, some of the front court wos, like that is also going to be magnified when they’re playing Jared Allen and Joel Embiid and some of these like legit Eastern Conference bigs and just bigs across the league. I mean, I’m imagining Jokic like I don’t know. I don’t even know where you start with Jokic. So, yeah, that’s that’s kind of where I’m at. Yeah. Anyone else? Yeah. Um, I guess for me, just watching them play these these these three preseason games, I’m going to like their second unit way more than I thought I would. Uh, I think that they’ve got lots of energy type guys that are going to allow them to be in a lot of games that they otherwise would just be getting their doors blown off of. Uh, we’ve talked about mine now, but I mean, Ugo Gonzalez, I think he’s he’s one of those guys that he plays with great energy. uh you can tell that he’s still trying to find his way, feel his way throughout the league and things like that, which is what you expect from a rookie. Uh but it’s not going to be because of a lack of effort on his part. Uh and and you figure one of those bigs is going to come off the bench and and uh give him a little bit something and and and last but certainly not least, Anthony Simons. Uh you’ve got a legitimate 20 point per game scorer that’s not starting. Uh that’s probably not going to start. So you’re going to get some offensive juice. You’re going to get some guys that provide good energy and I think it’s going to allow them to be a little bit more competitive I think than people realize or expect them to be. All right, I have one last question about the guy who you should have the least amount of questions about and that’s Jaylen Brown. We saw him in his first preseason action pour in 20some points. Um, you know, just kind of shoot first sort of mentality, but zero assists. Tonight’s statline completely different. Uh, eight points, five rebounds, six assists. kind of quiet, but playing that, you know, set distributor role, the guy who does a little bit of everything. Who is Jaylen going to be on this team, guys? Which guy is he going to be? Is he I mean, the easy answer is you give the game what it needs sort of thing, which is what we’d always asked for from Tatum. But like, what do you think Jaylen’s gonna be for this team the way it’s constructed? I mean, I I think he’s gonna be Jaylen, right? Like I I I I don’t think you should change what Jaylen has to be because the Celtics are different. I think you have to change the Celtics because Jaylen is leading, right? Like I think he’s going to do a good job. I think you almost have to. Yeah, a little bit. Like they’re going to play this fast pace style which he loves. He loves to run. He loves to get out in transition. He loves to be, you know, a pest on the defensive end. He loves to get to his spots on offense. And so when they are in the half court, I think he’s going to look to either drive quickly or get to his spot in the post. And then from there you just have, you know, Luca Garzer, Chris Basher, whoever setting off ball screens, you know, away from Jaylen’s action or spacing the floor so he can get what he wants. Like Noah said it, they have three guys who are three of the best shooters in the NBA. And Pritchard Hower and Derek White, that is automatically going to be great spacing next to Jaylen. And if it’s Buché, you put him on the three-point line. If it’s Tilman or somebody else, you put him in the dunker spot and you work from there. And I think you just have to build the offense and the defense around what Jaylen does best so you can maximize the talent you have on this team. And if you increase, you know, the the his usage, uh, you’re also, let’s be real, you’re going to increase the number of turnovers that he’s going to commit. I think it’s it’s not it’s it’s I’ve never I’ve never constructed a Jaylen Brown lower third without the turnovers on it. So, Bailey, come on, man. Um, but yeah, but but the flip side of that is have more gonna have more he’s gonna have more turnover. He’s gonna have more assists. all of his numbers are going to show a a jump appreciably. Um, but I’m more concerned with him just getting others involved. Uh, I think that’s the part of his game that he really has to make I think a conscious effort to do. Uh, I still kind of cringe to be honest with you when he gets in that ISO situation where he’s trying to break a guy down and dribble dribble dribble and I’m looking at the shot clock and there’s nine seconds left and he still hasn’t made that that first pass. Uh, and at that point it’s like either he’s going to take a bad shot or he’s going to turn the ball over. Uh, that’s typically what what happens. But, uh, yeah, I I I want him to be more of a playmaker. Um, I really think that’s the part of his game. But again, more assists is going to equate with more turnovers, too. I think that’s the biggest if if you look at a statline this season over last year, I think the biggest jump is going to be in the assist column. Like he has talked for a while about how he feels like he’s made a playmaking leap. And I think you see it in flashes, but it hasn’t quite like mounted on the box score. And so I think that this season you’re going to see that more than anything else. I actually don’t think he’s going to average necessarily like significantly more points, if any more points than last year. That’s like at the deeper we’re going into the preseason here in training camp, the more I’m getting the sense that that’s not really we’re not going to see him like shot chuck. We’re not going to see him try to like just score as many points as possible. like I think he wants to demonstrate that he’s a an all-around player and that there’s actually a lot of offensive talent around him. There was moments this off season where it felt like wow he’s going to really have to carry this team offensively like you know he’s going to have to you know play at an MVP level offensively and really this team doesn’t lack offensive options like there are so many weapons on the floor at any point. You guys know how I feel about Peyton Pritchard. I think he’s going to have a monster year offensively. I think Anthony Simons can come in and do what he’s done every time he’s come in so far as a Celtic. And Jaylen’s going to be looking for those guys. And in this game, you really saw that like he was at one point I was like, “Has he even taken a shot yet?” Because it felt like he wasn’t even looking to score. And that’s a little bit extreme, but there were guys that were open and he could have had even more assists than he did in this game. Like he was really looking to set guys up. And I think that’s going to be a point of emphasis for him. But like Jack said, what his biggest gift is is scoring. And so you don’t want to like move away from that too much because that’s ultimately like what makes Jaylen Brown Jaylen Brown. So that’s that’s where I think I think he’s going to probably average like six six, seven assists this season. Well, I mean that would be huge because I mean you’re talking four and a half. It’s it’s not all about assists. Of course, we know. How many times have I told you about potential assists, Jack? Um, but you know, he was So there will be a test on this next week. There’s going to be so many little bits to be able to bring out of this with Jack. For 17 years, I’ve been saying this. Every time he answered, he kept outing the years. Years I’ve been saying this. 10 years I’ve been saying, we have tomorrow. When you were a baby, what was it? And I told you about this yet. He’s going he’s going to be so nice to you tomorrow. He’s going to be so nice. I’m going to ask I’m going to apologize. You should just rephrase the question. You should just bring up tonight’s question slightly different. Follow follow up on it. Yeah. What do you talk about? That’s what I want to talk about. Ask Ask the dumbest follow you can off it. Like what exactly is what what is a twoon one break? Yeah. What’s a twoon one? Can you break that down for me? Kind of zoomed over my head. Can you imagine? Imagine if you would have been like, “What’s a twoon-one?” I wish we could go back simulate that and then come back to the show. Yeah, that’s one of you guys should have jumped in there and be like, “Joe, what what what exactly is a twoon one?” Would have been great. Would have been great. Solidarity, people. You’ll you’ll get there. You know, you need you got to have each other’s backs in there. We had solidarity after the after the press conference. I felt after after he was but Jack’s body was laying on the you know on the press room floor at that point there and they’re like let’s wait till the carcass is not breathing then we will come together. No, that’s a little get help. He’s dead. He’s dead. I think it was solidarity that the press conference didn’t end. Like anybody that asked the question after Jack’s question was throwing Jack a little I don’t know if I want to say a bone Yeah, I think so. Yeah, it went very there for a good few seconds. And then and then got the good question. Yeah, I can’t of all things the that’s the biggest upset of the night. Like Gary, how did it feel? They got the good question. That’s gonna be a new award on the show this year. We’ll we’ll call it the Gary the the the question of the night. We got to I I can’t believe Gary got that. But yeah, look, the Jaylen story I six assists would be a ton. He went from I mean a careerhigh 4.5 up from what 35 or 36 which was his careerh high before. If he’s going to have the ball in his hands more, he’s got to that number’s got to come up for sure. So, we’ll see. But again, um you know, it’s nothing really matters until we see them play for real. We’re very very close. Um a little bit over a week away until the opener. We got one more of these uh preseason situations to go uh coming up on Wednesday. So, we’ll wrap that up. We’ll have a big Garden Report preview show as well. I can’t wait to see what happens at practice tomorrow. I might go, Jack. I might go. You should. Yeah. Need a little extra beef there. Um Oh, man. I might go hang out. But, uh John, I’d love to see you in practice tomorrow. And let me ask the dumbass questions. Uh well, we’ll see what I we’ll see what I get ready for. You’ll be fine. You’ll be fine. Good. Good. Good on you, Jack. Uh you know, tisk tisk Joe Mazula. You don’t talk to people like that. But anyway, thank you guys for watching the show on this preseason game. Check out uh Jack Simone uh and all of Jack, you want to plug your own stuff? Sure. Whatot? Yeah, podcast. How about the Celtics? My written works at Hardwood TD. I’ll have more videos and stuff on my Twitter account too throughout the season. So, excellent. You might see viewership triple right now after tonight. Yeah, I got to crank out a video tonight. Jack Simone guy. I got I got to make a Tik Tok. I asked Joe Missoula about twoon-one situations. And this is what he I wanted to go like like an attack ad like dramatic and dark like you know. You know those videos that’s like that’s me. The freeze frame. You can do your Yeah. How did I get here? Just call me an idiot. What’s my back story? You’re just from a gutter somewhere, right? How did I How did I get here? Um Noah Dzel obviously for SP Nation uh and Celtics blog. Check that out. Uh check out Sherrod Blakeley Substack as well as uh you know the big three Celtics podcast with Mr. Question of the Night, Gary Washburn. uh and uh Quani Lewis and and and one more plug for the WNBA YouTube channel. Uh check that out. The season’s over, but the news is going to continue rolling. It should be a fun, spicy off season. Maybe we get a new commissioner. There you go. Yeah. Yes. There you go. Sorry. May maybe we get a new commissioner. Maybe we get uh you know, some good news. Maybe we get a team in Boston. Who knows? But Noah’s going to have you covered all the way through there. Last shout out to our sponsor, Prize Picks. Download that app. Use code CLNS. Get 50 in your lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. Once again, code CLNS. 50 in your lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. The Celtics defeat the Cleveland Cavaliers 138107 in preseason action. The preseason wraps up as we said on Wednesday. We will be here immediately after the game. And if Jack wants to come hang out, we love having him. But if not, Jack, thanks for joining us and being a good sport on this one. We appreciate it. Of course. Yeah, I got to laugh it off. All right, thanks. Thanks a lot everybody. We’ll see you next time. Good night. A vegan brownie by me. I’ll tell you that. Okay, you know what? We’re going to do it. You have to feel that way too, Bobby. I have to feel that way. Let’s fight over and and make Luke your first center. Bobby, we gave you Luke hour earlier. We are not going to end this on a damn conversation about Luke.

The Garden Report’s Noa Dalzell, John Zannis and Sherrod Blakely break down the Celtics’ Preseason matchup vs. the Cleveland Cavaliers

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