5 Stats that Tell the Story of the Boston Celtics this Season!
[Music] [Music] What’s up everyone and welcome in to your Septic Source on this Patriots win Sunday six in a So, you know, a sloppy performance, very much like we what we’ve seen from the Celtics this entire season, but this is a Celtics show, so we will talk about the Celtics. And I wanted to start with you. You know, you can take whatever you want from last night. You’re playing against a very talented Houston Rockets team. you’re playing against a, you know, on a back-toback um and you know, it’s sort of a scheduled loss in my eyes. I don’t disagree. I hate the scheduled loss comment. I think about it this way. If you tell me you’re going to play Houston, Philadelphia, and Cleveland, and you’re going to take two out of those three, I’m gonna sleep at night. I’m gonna sleep at night. Yeah, that’s probably fair. like, you know, still crushed Cleveland, barely hung on against Philadelphia, though should have won by more, but a win’s a win. Patriots as well, and then you just got steamrolled. I think you just ran out of gas, you know. Uh, I mean, they were never in the game. They were never in the game. It didn’t I mean, that’s right. At no point were they winning that game. Nope. And I just think, you know, this team doesn’t have the depth to to fight through a rough run like that and that phys that Philadelphia game was tough. I mean it was tough game. So I think that’s right. I mean Al Horford would have been sitting tonight anyway. So uh yeah but um you know I wanted to take this video to talk about some you know silver linings from the se uh from the season so far. Um, I want to talk about Josh Minot at the end because I think he can be a valuable valuable piece not just this year but next season as well. Um, but before we do that, I have five stats that I think are defining this start to the season. And it’s not the stats themselves, but it’s the play style that is coming about because of these stats. The starting five. That’s how we do it on this show. Let’s go. Give it to us. Yeah. So the first stat is that Derek White is shooting 26.1% on wide openen threes. So that is 4 to 6 feet uh of space and he’s making just 12 of 46 total attempts. I think he shot 38% last season. Yeah. All right. What’s that number two? Well, you want to talk about that one first? What? You want to save that one for after or? Oh, no. We could talk we could talk about that. I think um I Derek White hasn’t had a great season so far. Early days. I do believe he’ll shoot better. I also we can’t overlook that he’s the center of attention now, right? Same. I mean, we’re going to say the same about Pritchard when you probably give me his stats in a little bit, right? And it’s like when when you are on that front line and you don’t have a Tatum drawing the number one defender, when you don’t have, you know, a Porzingis down low or something like those guys are getting picked up harder and faster. Even I know you’re giving me open looks, but I think it’s affecting his whole game. Yeah. I mean, I’m looking at the way Derrick White’s playing and he’s taking these deep threes that, you know, he’s trying to get open, get that four to six feet of space, but he’s taking shots from the logoer way outside the arc trying to get that open shot. And those are just unreliable shots to begin with. And then, you know, when he’s dribbling around, you know, he’s getting guarded by the first or second best defender and it’s, you know, affecting any shot he takes. Yeah. I don’t think that’s going to go away. I don’t think so either. I don’t think so. Um, I would like to though, you talked about deep threes for one second. I’m going to make a little bit of a segue. Can we just talk about that three ball that Jaylen Brown hit from the L in Phillip? Yeah, I mean that was Phil. And then I mean Simon’s had a similar one in the Rockets game last night. Looking like prime Damian Lord out there. I wonder where he got it from. I know. But I just that Jaylen Brown just pulled up and dropped it from 62 feet and it was like whoa. So, but I think you’re right. But I think what is um well I mean after he went into the paint and back out of the paint he was trying to find a way to get a shot off and finally he just chucks it up. You know I we’re not talking about Jaylen Brown but we’ll come back to him. I have some I uh I was listening to some uh some of the competition who was calling the game. I think they had some good insight. So we’ll come back to Jaylen Brown another another point. But I think you’re right. White white is white is getting pressure and that’s not going to change and I think it’s affecting his game. Well, I mean the next stat that I know if you want to talk about can be Jaylen Brown. I do have a stat on Jaylen Brown. Um, and that is that sort of the opposite of Derrick White. Jaylen Brown is shooting 46% from three to start the season. Yeah, I think um we know that as Jaylen Brown goes, this team is going to go right until Tatum is back and and maybe even after that. the um the the the commentary I heard that I thought was really spoton was uh and we’ve seen this in the past is that Jaylen Brown is not forcing the ball. He is taking what’s given to him and he is delivering and converting right and so that you know in the past you see him drive the lane, lose the handle, do all the stuff that sort of made you a little frustrated about Jaylen Brown and I don’t think he’s doing that. I think he he’s taking what they’re giving him. Maybe it’s uh you know threes, maybe it’s the paint, maybe it’s dish it off. Um and so I think that it’s really um it’s nice to see he’s converting on what they give him. Mhm. What do you think? Yeah, I think that three-point percentage is going to come down. He’s not going to shoot 46% the entire season, especially with the looks he’s been getting. But it’s nice to see that, you know, that, you know, tough shot that he’s, you know, known to making, that mid-range shot that he, you know, that is not a great shot for anybody, but it he’s made it a great shot. It’s nice to see that that’s falling because that’s his bread and butter and that’s, you know, he’s had backto back before that Rockets game, he had backtoback 30 pieces. Um, so, you know, he’s doing his part on the offensive end. And I talked about this the other day. You know, there are turnovers that are going to come with him, especially when you’re handling the ball that much and you’re not, you know, I’m not saying he’s not used to handling the ball, but it wasn’t his main priority on pre uh previous years. So, that’s going to take time. I think those turnovers are just going to be there all season with that usage that he’s getting. But, if he’s going to be, you know, consistent and efficient shooting wise, you can deal with some of those turnovers. Yeah, I mean, look, everybody turns the ball over sometimes, right? I think if he’s, you know, if he can keep shooting anywhere in the 40s from three, right? You know, 40.00 and, um, keep delivering, uh, you know, 30 spot a game, like you can’t really ask for much more. Mhm. So, um, moving on. Um, you know, we I’ll stay with the offense for one more stat and then I have, uh, two defensive stats. Okay. Um, the Celtics, and this is I guess it’s not really solely an offensive stat, but the Celtics have a pace of 96.3 possessions for 48 minutes, which is ranked 30 out of 30 NBA teams. Yeah. after coming into the season and saying they were gonna play fast and uh you know get out in transition. What What’s going on with that? This is a good question because it does feel like, you know, I I’m going to sort of ignore the game last night where they just they just got the they just got the floor mopped with them, which is fine, but it does feel like against the Cavs against Philadelphia does feel like they’re playing faster and and and running more, right? The the numbers go against the the eye test. Well, yeah, that’s a good that’s a good comment. I don’t know. We’re gonna have to watch that. That’s What do you think? I just think, you know, the teams that they’ve been playing, actually, you know what I think it is? I think it’s the the extra possession and offensive rebounds, you know, that are changing up the way that the stats are being counted and possessions are being counted. whereas, you know, um they might be getting out quickly, but if you’re giving up an offensive rebound or you’re getting a rebound, that changes up, you know, whether they count that. Yeah, that’s like because rebounding has been a huge problem for this team. So, yeah. Yeah, that’s interesting. We’ll have to keep an eye on that. They do want to play fast. Um I’m not sure it feels like a fast team to me, though. Like not that you don’t have guys who can play in transition a lot, but like they seem a lot more I mean it’s hard to break from the methodical swing the ball 13 times to the open man for the shot to run the court and crash the glass and then get back and hustle. This is a very different style. And I know I know we don’t want to, you know, count the Rockets game in here, but the Rockets shot like 70% from three or something like like if you’re always picking the ball out of the basket. Yeah. There’s no transition. Yeah. Exactly. There were no like we could I give the credit um Celtic I give credit to the Celtics for not giving up many offensive rebounds last night because there were no offensive rebounds to give up. The ball was in the basket on every possession. Yeah, it was um it was tough to watch, but you know what it’s we know those games are going to happen. So, it’s like, okay, we know we’re not better than Houston. Doesn’t mean we can’t beat them in a game or two, but like I mean, we shouldn’t be better than the Cavs either. And we absolutely blew them out, although they’re missing guys, too. Yeah. Yeah. I like I mean, I really like the Philadelphia matchup where you should have won the opening game and you blew it and got punched in the mouth and then you came back and won. I like that. Well, it’s sort of the opposite actually. It was, you know, in the Philly game, you’re up big and then you you get, you know, they come back and they win. No, I mean the first Philadelphia game like you should have won. That’s what I’m saying. You’re up big or you’re up and then Philadelphia comes back game you’re actually down a little bit and then you come back or I guess you’re not down but they come back but then you’re able to hold them on all. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you were up though. You were up the whole guy game. You never you never weren’t leading, but you were up by 24 and then all of a sudden you were tied or whatever. You’re never zero. You know, it’s a it’s an in interesting scenario here for for Joe Mazo. He has to decide right now on whether he puts offensive guys on the court who can’t really play defense or defensive guys on the court who can’t really play offense. Um and you know, this is where Josh Min comes into play where we’ll talk about him in just a second. Yeah. But on that possession against Philadelphia that you know to end the game, he puts all these defensive guys in and give Celtics credit they Philly didn’t score so they did their job but then you can’t even get the ball over half court because the offensive li like limitations that those guys have. Yeah, I agree. I uh I want to get to Josh Miner um because I’m going to I’m going to tell you he’s my um number one secret surprise of the year for me. Like if you pick one player who you know you didn’t think you were going to like love when he’s on the court, that’s the guy I didn’t didn’t see it coming. I thought you know maybe Gonzalez, maybe you know uh uh Simons. I wasn’t sure but nope. I love him not out there. Not that he’s a perfect player by any means, but I just feel like he hustles. He’s dynamic. Well, there’s a lot of guys on this team that, you know, are seeming to hustle and play with effort, but at what cost to the execution does that matter? I mean, Josh Min when he’s, you know, knocking down a couple threes and on the defensive end, he’s able to, you know, guard the best player and contest shots at the rim because Kada, you know, he’s had his limitations and his, you know, flaws this season for sure. And there have been moments where Joe Misoula decides to take Kada out of the game and play with a small ball lineup with a May not as maybe not your center but as one of your bigger guys on the court and you need him to block shots or at least contest shots because just because you take your guy out doesn’t mean the other team’s taking out their center. Yeah. And he is though. He is. He’s getting blocks. He’s contesting. So, he’s my um he’s my uh joyful surprise of the season so far. Yeah. I I wonder what role he can play on, you know, a team where, you know, let’s say next year they’re able or maybe not next year, but in the upcoming years they’re able to restock with shooters and playmakers and centers. What where does he fit into that? like what position and what like yeah I don’t have an answer for that. Um we’re just trying to get through today. We got to show you today. But my question is actually a little different. What? Let’s just say Tatum comes back tomorrow. Okay. Who’s your starting five? Um Tatum Brown. Um you know what? Here’s what I want to do. Listen to this. Tatum Brown. White Pritchard and May not with Tatum playing your your five and no Kada or maybe you go I’m trying to think of see that that three. Think about this. What about this Tatum Brown White Kada and May not as your starting five. Yeah. So you put Pritchard back on the bench and Prard and and Simon’s on the bench and they come off and just score like crazy. Yeah. I like that idea. Um, you know, I we talked about this the on our last show, but the thing you’re missing most from Tatum, you know, it’s just his ability to guard everyone on the court. It’s not actually his offense right now that you’re you’re missing. Well, the other thing you’re missing, but on offense, I mean, you’re not missing the points. You’re not missing the points, but you’re missing the playmaking and the Yeah, the playmaking and the gravity. He pulls That’s fair. That’s fair. the best guys to him so other guys can score. Right now Brown is pulling the best guy to him and White has the number two guy instead of the number three or four guy, right? I mean, yeah. I mean, White’s White is definitely feeling the the absence of Tatum right now, right? Which he’s up for it. Not a problem, but like I mean, right now it’s a problem. Hey, you know what? We thought this What was the under over on this team for this season? 40 and a half. We’re right at 500. six, seven games in. So, you know, we’re right. You’re right where you thought you would be so far. Like, let’s look at 20 games. Yeah. And let’s see if we can be 11 and nine. Could we steal 12 and eight, right? Like, hey, and we got a couple games that are, you know, must wins. Um, Jazz Monday night. I mean, you got to win that game. You gotta win. Yeah. You got to win that game. You got This is what I’m talking about. There’s no margin for error to lose the games. You got to win. That’s right. Yeah. Um, you know, Josh Min, we were talking about him. He is a plus 22 for 100 possessions. So, that’s not his overall uh net rating. That’s every game, right? Cuz the Celtics average about what did I say they average 96? 96 possessions. So, almost 100 possessions per game. So, he on every night is almost, not quite a plus 22 when he’s on the court. Well, in a game that’s not that’s not I mean don’t you have to actually look what is I’m going to look up what his actual plus minus is. Well, no it’s it’s that’s it’s done by by a 100 possessions. Yeah, but like I wonder I’m curious what his what his plus minus was in the last couple games. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like you have to go to the game logs and look at his I know. I wonder if they do the No, they don’t. That’s Yeah. Yeah. But I I don’t I mean it doesn’t really matter. The point the point I’m trying to make is on nights where you’re not the team overall is not coming away with results, he is still a net positive or a silver lining from that game. For sure. For sure. He’s I mean he’s um he’s a legitimate player. He’s again he’s uh he’s the guy we didn’t we knew he’s I mean he’s a major league major he’s an NBA player right we know that right but I don’t think we expected what we’ve gotten so far right outperforming sort of like Luke Cornette last season like you knew Luke was good and solid and then he outperformed yes but Luke Cornette played played in for the Celtics last season. No, I know. I’m just saying people that are like Pritchard again, you knew Pritchard was going to be a great six guy off the bench. You didn’t know he’s gonna be six man of the year. So, who’s somebody who is overperforming expectations? He’s one of them. Like, I’d say Anthony Simons is actually delivering expectations. I don’t think he’s Yeah, he’s not he’s not overperforming, but he’s also not underperforming. I think No, he’s delivering your specifically on the defensive end. I think he’s held up to a his fair share of defensive work that he needs to perform on every night. Yeah. Um well, oh yeah, um Minot, you know, I was saying Luke Cornet, right? Luke Cornet played last year. Minot apparently like barely touched the court. Like you didn’t even see him last season or in other years for Minnesota. So, it’s, you know, it’s surprising how he’s able I guess that just shows the, you know, the sheer talent in the NBA that anybody can put the ball in the basket, you know? Well, this is the thing we, you know, we always talk about. We we talk about the last guy on the bench on the last team, 12th guy, and like that guy sticks. He’s better than every other basketball player on the planet, right? the last guy in the NBA is that much better than anyone in the G-League. Anyone, you know, like it’s just amazing like the talent gap. So, um I’ll tell you the other guy that is um he’s showing flashes and streaks of greatness though a few mistakes here and there. Young young player out of Espa. Um you know, I know you have some thoughts. Talk to me about Yugo Gonzalez. Yugo, you go. I I mean right now I have I really want him playing 15 20 minutes a night just cuz you know if he’s going to be making same with Minot. They’re very similar players in the sense that I think Minot’s actually a better three-point shooter. Although Joe Misulla tries to make every player a three-point shooter whether whether you shoot threes or not. If you want to play, you’re shooting threes. Um Kada, did you see yesterday Kada attempted a three-pointer? I did not see that. I know they leave him alone on the perimeter mostly. They did. Um you know, he didn’t miss by much. It did hit front rim, but it didn’t hit front rim and go up. It hit front rim and went right back to him. Oh yeah. I mean, but it’s a, you know, that’s not, you know, the truth is though, if he could, if he could hit, okay, I was going to say one out of three, that makes him a 33% three throw shooter. That’s probably not fair. One out of four threes, right? If he could hit a three a game, it does change it a little bit, right? You gota if he can hit, but he’s not taking 12 shots to get to his. Oh, right. I mean, I say, what if he shot 25% from three? like all of a sudden it’s not good, but like when he’s on the rim, you maybe one more step toward him, right? You’re right. Or maybe you open up other guys by, you know, his gravity of being a quote unquote three-point shooter, right? I mean, you know, speaking of other crazy is a pretty good three-point shooter, actually. Yes. But he’s always taken threes like that. True. Yeah. True. Um, give him credit. His shot looks better than Derek White right now. I’ll tell you that. They’re like although has some bad air balls. I will be shocked if uh okay G sample size of one uh two but uh Embiid does not look good on the court. I mean he just he does he’s so slow and he looked he found his rhythm a little bit better in that second game going against Kada. Um but he just he’s slow. He his knees just must really be bad because bunch of years ago before they really started like he was just fierce, right? He was qu I mean quick for a big guy, but like he made quick moves. He could, you know, he was the rim. he was and now he’s like there’s 11 guys at one end of the court and then like in the picture he comes you know it’s like yeah I really think he has to become like a Jokic type player who can sit on who can make who can make passive for others and have good on court vision but is not not trying to score. That’s a good call. Change it’s going to be hard though, right? Changing your style is like you know you know this is what got me to be one of the best in the NBA. now like I got to be somebody different. I don’t I don’t want to do that. Even if I Now, if you become Yokic, you become the best player in the NBA. But true, true. All right, let’s keep moving. What else you got on your list here? I’ve really got nothing else. I think, you know, we talked about Min, we talked about Gonzalez. Um, Shyman, I thought he, you know, despite the blowout loss, I feel like he he had his best performance for sure of the season, but he, you know, maybe has proven to Joe Missoula after last night’s game that he can have some sort of role on this team, right? I think he scored 17 points uh in 22 minutes or something like that. Um, I think he made four or five threes. Um, right. And it’s just a confidence thing with him right now. if he’s going to be, you know, out there and he’s, you know, losing track of the ball and he’s just sitting in the corner and missing threes, yeah, he’s going to be at the end of the bench and not play. But he is a first round draft pick. He’s someone that, you know, you have at least another year with him. Um, and you really want him to become a valuable piece of this team, right? Well, I wonder if um how long it’ll take because I think it’s a when, not if. They’re gonna start moving pieces. Jordan Walsh, they’re gonna move Jordan Walsh. He doesn’t get on the court, right? They’re gonna start I think they’re going to start cycling guys with potential or talent that are just too far down in the depth piece. Um, you know, that maybe, you know, coming up on a a contract or something, right? and, you know, maybe get some more start amassing some second rounds or, you know, getting farther under the apron or I I I bet they’re like I bet Brad Stevens is 10 games away from starting to move guys. Think so. Really? That quickly? Well, 10 games away gets you 17 games. It’s quarter of the season. Yeah. Um, what did uh what do you think of Joe Mazou, you know, mixing up the lineup or the starting lineup at least every every game? Um, you know, I think it’s matchup based, but I think it’s a little bit of hockey hockey style here, which is not the whole line substitution, but you know, as you know, as a hockey fan, you have to experiment a lot with the lines to find the winning combinations of guys that really play well together. I think that’s what he’s doing. He’s looking for that sort of magic starting five, you know, or two sets of starting five guys, you know, three or four the same or something. And so I I you know I love that he’s experimenting. So you know what it’s it’s it looks like or yeah it looks like you know he’ll start you know one or two guys and if they do well they’ll start again the next night. If they don’t he’ll cycle them out and put new two new starting guys in. and he’s just waiting for two guys to have backto back, you know, good games so that he can keep that lineup cuz I think Joe Mazula wants to stay with one lineup because I think that’s just better for everyone, right? If you have a go-to lineup. Yeah. Yeah, I think that I think that’s right. I mean, I wouldn’t be surprised if he was cycling the fifth guy in and out a little bit. Um, but I I’m okay with it. I mean, he’s trying to find find the rhythm, so I’m okay with it. M um anything else here before we wrap it up? No, I think um you know after an 0 and3 start I’m I’m I’m feeling okay. How are you feeling? Yeah, I agree. I think you look at the schedule ahead. You mark you know the ones that are you know almost definite losses on the season and if you get a couple of them that’s a bonus, right? And then you look at the games where you know you just have to win. game like Monday night. Um especially, right, you just got to take advantage of these opportunities that you have. Um when you play the White Socks, you got to win. Yeah. And I just I just think if this season does go south, I think the best thing to do is to just look at the silver linings, the positives from every game. um and try and see if you can string together, you know, games where role players are having good performances and something that you can build on for the upcoming seasons. Um you know, if the Celtics are in the playoff contention, yeah, you’re going to you’re going to react to every game in the ups and downs of the season, but if they’re not, what’s the point of reacting to a win or a loss here or there? just react to the player performances, not the the overall outcome. That’s just that’s just my take on the season. I think that’s right. I I still I think this team, what we’ve seen so far, I think they can be the six seed. I really do. I don’t know that they will. I think that’s a reasonable reason. That’s the ceiling. I think probably I I mean I don’t know. It just seems like there are some teams that like the Bulls right now, they’re 4-0. We didn’t think we thought they were going to be a perennial all-star or perennial playin team for the rest of the NBA. I mean, Heat Heat are playing great, right? Heat are playing well. The Knicks are, you know, have a losing record like the Celtics. So, but you know that they’ve got talent, so you assume them to write the ship. No, I agree. I think the six seeds your goal. I agree. All right. Yeah, we’ll wrap it up here. Follow on social media. We will be back tomorrow night after the Jazz game. Um, make sure that you listen to this podcast wherever you get your podcast, Amazon, Apple, Spotify. And uh, until next time, go Seas. Go Seas. Brown left it fly. Bottom a three from behind. Knocking it away. Tatum cashes in. But she got it back inside and [Music] Brown lets it fly. Bottom a three from behind. Knocking it away. Tell your friends.
In this episode, we dive into 5 defining stats that reveal how the Celtics are performing so far — from Derrick White’s shooting slump to Jaylen Brown’s 46% start from deep, and why Boston ranks dead last in pace despite promising a faster style of play.
We also highlight Josh Minott’s emergence as an unexpected bright spot — a +22 per 100 possessions and proving he belongs in this rotation. Plus, we touch on lineup tweaks, trade rumors, and how Joe Mazzulla’s constant adjustments are shaping the team’s chemistry.
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Sorry for the Poor Connection: Can Josh Minott become a full time Starter?