LIVE Garden Report: Celtics vs Magic G2 Postgame Show on CLNS Media

LIVE Garden Report: Celtics vs Magic G2 Postgame Show on CLNS Media

Always has to be a shot at somebody. I know they’re never clean. They have to run. That’s the only shot they have. They do it for 82 games. We’re about to find out. He already has shown what he’s capable of. Did surprise me. I thought we were going to hang in there. This makes me think that we do need to be humble. I actually think you’re the only one who deserved that beat. Abrupt. Wow. I wasn’t ready, but the Celtics were. Bobby Manning bucket hat Bobby in the building. I was wondering if you’re going to go hard hat cuz this was a hard hat win. This is a hard hat win. Absolutely. This a hard hat win through and through. The way they held on the down the stretch there. Contributions from all over. And I mean all over. If you if you told me that two of like the main contributors down the stretch here were going to be Hold, let me check my notes. Luca Garza and Jordan freaking Walsh. I would have ate I would I would hate my helmet. I would tell you no chance I hate my helmet. But that’s 25 Celtics, folks. Yeah, you you never know how it’s going to go. And five and six. They’re hanging in there. And this is a really good Magic team. I mean, this is a team Jimmy and I thrilled John is by the way, Bobby. Look how thrilled Xanis is by that win. He’s just beaming. So, let me just say this. No, first of all, you say this right off the top. This is like the I was proven right about this is like the I was proven right about everything game. So, I’ve got no problem being here tonight. Oh, good. So, we’re happy to hear my my Simon’s beef about the two minutes he plays. He scores 25 points in eight minutes. Yeah, Joe put a fire under him, dude. Fire under him. The the ridiculous Derek White panic that they’re playing too many guys like, no, they kind of settled into their rotation. Um, so I I’m just trying Derek White panic was ridiculous. Now I thought the Derek White panic was over the top. Like I just thought he was missing shots, but I didn’t think Derek White’s a different player this year. The defensive numbers, too. The defensive performance for him tonight was great. But I’ll just say this before we get into the game, John. You can either have this this year or you can have what the Pacers are doing right now. And I sent you the injury report tonight. They’re 1 and8. They’re going to tank town. M would you rather be watching Pacers G-League players or would you rather be watching the Celtics hang in there and win some games and try to float around 500 and make the playoffs? Ask me in in February. Actually, I’ll ask you in February with that. All right, but this is where we’re at now. They’re competitive. There’s there’s no debating that it’s more entertaining to watch the this Celtics product than the Pacers product. No one’s no one’s going to deny that. Bobby, yeah, Bobby, it’s the wrong question. It’s worth it. Yeah, it’s legitimately the wrong question. Everyone’s got this wrong, so let’s get it right. It’s better for the Celtics future if they’re bad. But nobody wants to watch them be bad. You want to watch them be good because you’d rather watch your team win basketball games, but if they happen to be bad, it’s not bad. So, it’s not like everybody’s like, I can’t wait to watch them suck tonight. That’s not what people That’s not what people tune in for. However, you know, and the best seasons, the best tanky seasons usually are built around young, scrappy, upandcoming teams that don’t have enough. And you get to watch guys grow and develop. They stay close. You notch a zillion moral victories and but you lose games and that’s all good, but you see that you’re building towards something. The problem with this your Celtics team, Bobby, is is that you’re really going to toss most of this stuff overboard when you move forward. So, whatever happens here, it’s nice. Luka Garza might have something to say about that. It’s more entertaining, but yeah, like you know, you’re not moving forward with these guys. So, like it’s not it’s like it’s like your friend’s girlfriends. Like, I’m not going to get to know and like her yet because she might move on. I don’t She gonna make it to the Christmas party. She might not even make it to the Christmas party. So, like I’m not ready to be attached to these guys yet. I’m not sure they’re moving forward with them. So, give give it time. Give it time. This is the beauty of the story this year, too, is that you have gotten some younger guys involved who have shown some things like Kada, like Minot, like Walsh now over the last handful of games here. So, some guys are breaking through on the underside of the roster, which is a good thing, and showing life and showing that there might be something there. Ugo Gonzalez is excellent again tonight as well. So, you’re not just burying those guys at the moment and using massive minutes for the veterans. I mean, Walsh was out there over Simons in the second half tonight effectively. So, they’re getting different things on different nights. It’s definitely going to be erratic. It’s definitely going to be inconsistent throughout the run of the season. And that’s how 500 years, 500 seasons go a lot of the time. But I think this team so far looks too talented, too healthy to this point, and too well coached to sink in the standings in my mind. Um, and you saw all three of those things here tonight. Again, 11 straight games where they’ve been pretty much fully healthy. Um, plenty of games where they’ve been competitive. And you know what, Jimmy? I got worried when it went to crunch time because they came in one and four. We’ve said it, they’ve been in position to win so many games at the buzzer in the final four or five minutes here. They did it on Friday again where they were tied with six minutes to go and they blew it. So, you didn’t feel great about them executing down the stretch here in a game where they were in more than enough of a position to win. Uh, but Brown got it done. Walsh got it done. White a big shot down the stretch as well. I mean, the shooting came around tonight which was a big part of the outcome as well. I love this uh comment here. The Simon stopper is Joe Mazula. It’s like the old uh it’s like the old Jordan adage. The only one who could hold Jordan under 20 is Dean Smith. Um you know, it’s like that’s what we got here. You put a stop to that. I do want to put something up on this on screen here because I again I do I do think there’s a nuance here that people don’t understand. You the coaches don’t tank. The players don’t tank. They go out there every night and Missoula coaches to win a game and the players play their asses off to win a game. management tanked when they let everybody go and then they signed these lesser players. If Missoula can make it work, get the most out of these guys and they’re scrappy and they win, that’s great for Joe and great for them and great for fans who want to see wins. Management punted on this season. They quote unquote tanked it. They didn’t give them the resources to build a winner. So if they lose, it’s because management decided it, not because the play People have to stop saying, “What do you want them to tank and not play these guys?” That’s not how it works. The the management tanks. Management already tanked when they still they still might have enough talent to be competitive and Missoula might be able to piece it together and you might the the the you know, you might get contributions from people you didn’t expect it from and they might be better than you think. That’s good. like that. But the tanking is the team they put on the floor. They didn’t build this team to win. They built this team to hold the line. And if you get good contributions like you got from Garza tonight, like you’ve gotten from May not several times, like you’re getting from Jordan Walsh right now, like you’re getting from Hugo, that’s great. It’s gravy. I mean, there’s enough there’s enough parody in the Eastern Conference where that whole middle class, Bobby and Jimmy, you can compete with those guys. Um, I think with the exception of three, four teams that are cooked already, I think anybody playing hard enough and playing with enough will and not having in and having some injury luck can compete with like most of the Eastern Conference. There aren’t really runaway teams where you’re like, forget about it. You know, if this was the West, the Celtics were in the West right now, they’d be a 25 win team. Like, they would because they’d be running into teams, they’d be running into brick walls all night. They’re not going to be that in the Eastern Conference. So, they’ll be competitive all all season long, I think. Right. They’re going to be exactly where I think no team really wants to be though, right? And again, they’re five and six. Yeah. You’re stuck in the middle, right? Like, put that out to 82 games, Bobby. You’re what? Seven games under 500 by the end of the year. Okay. Like, so what you thought? So, they are they are kind of are what their record is. They’re floating around 500. Yeah. Because they have such a they have such a new look roster that they’re going to have to figure some stuff out early. We knew that. I think we all expected them to get off to a slow start. The schedule’s packed. I think once they get done with this three game and four day stretch coming up here, they’ll have played 13 games, um, which is more than anyone in the league, and then they got the three days off at the end of the week. So, scheduling wise, it’s been tough to start off. And they just turned over the roster to such a massive degree here that they had to figure out what they’re doing. And they’ve actually figured it out pretty quickly here. It’s forcing the turnovers. It’s going with the bigger lineup with May not um, and some of the guys off the bench. They’ve started to figure out who they’re using where as well. Like every single night, I feel like they’re figuring out more and more about their rotation here. Derek White is better than Jaylen Brown. Anyway, moving on. Keep going. Um, no, Bobby, some of that’s true, I think. And again, you you are finding some things uh with this team, but there’s also still a lot of question marks. I mean, who who is Simons? Is he the first half? Is he the guy we saw in the first half today? Is he the guy we saw in the second half? You know, who is Jordan Walsh? Is he the guy that we saw for the first 10 games, or is he the guy we saw today? or the last two games, right? So, they are still finding things out. And I I I do question the consistency of these players in these teams because, you know, one day might not showing up and giving you 20 plus or 15 plus and looking like a, you know, the biggest steel in the NBA and then the next, you know, zero points and not saying he’s the focal point of the offense, but it’s hard to know who’s going to show up or what this team’s going to look like on a night in night in nightight out basis. But I think that’s just the makeup of this team. I mean, you know who Jaylen Brown is. you know who Derrick White is. I think after that it’s hard to really depend or rely on any of these guys um on any given night. So, you come out with a team that’s floating around 500 and that you really if you’re a betting person and we’re not, but if you are, it’s hard to get it’s hard to get a read on these guys. It’s it’s hard to to to do that. Now, if I’m a prize picks guy, maybe I go more, maybe I go less. That’s different. That’s completely different. But, you know, I I I just think the Celtics team is Well, as as many answers as you might be getting, Bobby, I think there are still even more questions. So, we’re going to have to a lot of bad. No, there’s not a lot of good. There’s Bobby’s on a extreme scale for the good. It’s fine. Everything’s not extreme. It’s okay. It’s okay. But again, you like the things that you see from the people that you’re seeing it from. And certainly you want to see every minute Ugo plays is like is exciting in the sense that his impact is absurd. He’s again it’s another 12 you know I forget what he finished here but it’s another like plus 20. What did he finish plus 19 and plus 19 in 13 minutes. Jordan W makes stuff happen. It’s he’s he’s one of the most active people I’ve ever seen just in terms of like around the ball his hands. He’s a freaking menace. He’s the type that’s a Bobbyism right there. What I’m saying is he’s non-stop. Like he’s the type of guy if you played pickup against him, you would want to fight him like every sec cuz he’s just in your [ __ ] the whole time. Jordan Walsh extremely high energy, super frenetic. Like you really like to see what they’re getting out of those guys right now. And it’s hard not to point this out point to this as this is the Luca Garza game. I don’t know what else we’re going to say about it. Like Luca When Bobby when Bobby was ready to abandon bigs altogether, Luca Garza said, “Ah, right there, buddy.” Like right at you. I’m not I’m not going anywhere. And he played a great game. Yeah. And he his minutes have been tough on the stat sheet. Just watching. I don’t get as ruffled up as Celtics fans have about like they they they can’t stand this guy by and large from what I’ve seen the chat, you know, people online. Like there’s a lot of disdain for his game that I I didn’t fully understand because honestly Jimmy, I didn’t have a strong opinion on him to start this year. Like the numbers haven’t been great. They haven’t used him a ton. But just watching it looks like he’s setting good screens. He’s been active on the offensive glass, which is what they want. There were a couple games where he got his three going, which is what I was excited to see this year. And tonight, you got some of the cutting and some of the activity on the offensive end that you’re looking for from him here. So, Bobby, you’re not supposed to have a Luca Garza. That’s the point. Yeah. Yeah. This is the point. This is a guy who’s just been in the league barely playing five and six minutes a night. Like, that’s who he is. You’re not supposed to have Josh Minard. You’re not supposed to have Josh Minard opinions. Like, you’re not. They’re just They’re not. They They They’ve been What do you mean hold on? What am I holding on for? These are guys are playing five. Guy’s the first This guy’s the first two-time college player of the year since Jordan. Okay, Bobby again. And how long has he been in the league? He’s been in the league for four four years prior to this one. He’s playing five and six minutes a night. This is not a guy you’re supposed to have an opinion on. He’s played enough. Same thing with Minod. These guys have played enough for you to be like, “Oh, we’re we’re formulating opin. being given opportunities cuz we the Celtics don’t have a choice and they have to play these guys and you need to give it some string. We got to go 20 30 games into this to get a good sense of like, oh, this guy’s a lot better than he’s been at previous stops or this guy needed an opportunity and now he’s getting his fine. But again, this is like the that’s where these guys are at. But this is the Deleno Banton conversation. Okay, he leaves Boston, he goes somewhere else and all of a sudden he scores 38 points and you’re like, did we let that guy get away? No, it’s a bad team he went to and he played a ton of minutes and he was given opportunity and he did something with it. But then the next night or the night after that, he’s a dog. And that’s what you’re going to get from these guys that they’re What was Josh Mina tonight? Josh Min was a zero. Like he’s he’s still bringing defensive energy, but he scored zero points. So the fixed three-point shot isn’t fixed. I don’t want to overreact to each game. I think like we got to give these guys. I think that’s what it is, right? He just got to give it time. Yeah. Give him credit where it’s due. Of course. You know, he did some great things for him down the stretch. He, you know, picked up the trash, if you will. You know, a couple good boards, put backs. Um, Bobby, you mentioned the screens, I think. So, sure, that, too. Um, but I think Luca Garza is what he is, and he’s a guy if if you can get anything out of Luca Garza, that’s a bonus, I think, for the Celtics. you know, I mean, they basically signed him as a body, and that’s just really what it comes down to. So, it’s all gravy. I mean, th this stat line and this game that he had tonight, I find it hard to believe anyone thought that that was going to be a stat line that he would put up, right, just based on the the history. So, we’ll take it. And sure, maybe that’s going to earn him a little bit more playing time. It probably should. You know, there’s opportunity here on this Celtics team. That’s what we said to enter the year. We all said it that if you are one of these guys, the the Garzas, the Mayots, you know, go down the line, Kada for example, taking advantage of his playing time. This is where you want to be. And that’s why it’s not it shouldn’t be hard. You know, when when it was when somebody asked mine out last week, you know, I forget what the question was, but he basically says, “I treat every game like it could be my last.” You know, and that’s how the majority of this roster should should act because on a lot of teams, it just might be. on this Celtics team. It’s not because there’s opportunity here. There’s, you know, it’s it’s a bridge year. It’s whatever you want to call it. No one’s calling it a tank year, but you’d have to be a fool not to understand what’s going on, right? So, you can be happy about the win. You can be good about the scrap. I got the hard hat on for a reason, but let’s just We know what this is, right? Like, let’s give it some string. I I the yo-yo reactions to these things are driving me nuts. Jimmy, real quick before we move on, I want to ask you. I I’ll give you I’ll give you a dollar if you can tell me what the score of the Steelers Chargers game is after one quarter. Just guess. Two to zero. Three to two. Oh, damn. I had no idea what the score was. You know, when you get asked that, there’s a two in there. There’s a two in there. Three to two. Oh my god. Damn. Three to two, huh? The real three to two. Um, so again, we’ll see if you get there, you get there. If if they’re good, you know, and you find some keepers in this group. And again, this is what happened in the Isaiah Thomas year with Jay Crowder and all of those things, you’re like, “Oh, I you know, these some of these reclamation, I mean, Isaiah was a freaking MVP candidate.” But, you know, he had a track record as a scorer. He just took it to another level. But your Jay Crowers and stuff like that, you’re like, I could Jereco like I could live with this guy. Yeah. you know, like they were good for what you needed and they was better. Come on, give give Jerco a little bit of credit, you know, and the whole was greater than the sum of the parts and that’s what you have. Let’s get um let’s get into real quick. Yeah. Let I want to talk about Yeah. freaking olet Jesus Christ. My god. Male Petrius is like the most dude. Male Petrius is like the most positive human being. Certainly the most positive basketball player I’ve ever been around. Interviewed. Sell this nation. Sell this nation would have loved this. Cellless Nation today would fall in love with Petus because it didn’t matter. Everything was the best day ever for that guy. And it was just green goggles non-stop. Go watch a interview with him. I had a good conversation with Stan Van Gundy in Philly on Halloween before that game. And the Petricuses and the Brandon Basses of the world. All those guys were coming up. You love Bass. Bass did not like me. Speaking I mean it’s fitting Celtics Magic. There’s been a lot of crossover here. a lot of history between these two teams. It’s been fun. Look, let’s So, people we are supposed to have opinions on. Um, I think Anthony Simons, uh, this was a hot topic last game. Okay, I know. I saw that. I’ll put up these two graphics back to back. Anthony Simons in the first half, 25 points, eight of 11 field goals. Oh my god. And went went nuts. End of the game. End of the game, 25 points. Yeah, right. What’s the reason for that? There was some crossover between he and Jaylen. They left him out of the mix. I felt like there um Jaylen put his head down in this game and a lot of what we talked about. Yeah. And listen, I mean, he iced the game at the end. Wasn’t super efficient 10 to 24. Um got to the free throw line, which is the hot topic with him, right? You know, I’m not even going to go there. But, uh, this was a mixed bag for Jaylen here. Two assists, four turnovers. I was trying to have an Anthony Simons conversation and now we’re having a bashing Jaylen conversation. I wanted I thought that was the route. I I want everyone to know I did not initiate this. I was I Bobby I thought about take it and go. I’m jumping up. Okay, listen. I’ll I’ll blame Jaylen first for it. I’ll blame Joe second as Jimmy did there for just pulling Simons off the floor. And this is where we ended up disagreeing last game. I you said the only person that can stop Simons is Joe. No, the chat did. Yeah. Oh, okay. You were quoting the chat. So, yeah, I’ll I’ll blame Joe as the chat. I agree. But, but this is the conversation we had um last game. I think Noah felt the other way about it in that Jordan Walsh, Ugo Gonzalez, they would bring you other things and we were like, I don’t feel like Simon should be interchangeable with Walsh and Gonzalez. Like, he should just be out there all the time. So, there was the argument. Yes, this is an interesting counter to that discussion because obviously Ugo and Walsh drove the closing stretch of this game while Simons was off the floor. So, I think there’s arguments on both sides there. Wait, what is the argument? What? The argument that Simons can be taken out of games and play two minutes and a half is valid argument. Well, we played six minutes in the second half, right? Yeah. And they won. Yeah. So, I mean, again, is this is what we’re going to do the whole time? I don’t think it should be the case. But if that is the result of them doing that in this game, I’ll tip my hat to Joe for finding the right lineup down the stretch. I don’t think that’s how they should handle Simons here. But in this case, it worked. On Friday, it didn’t work. So, we’ll see how it plays out whether I mean by they were like they were down a point going into the half. They won by four. It’s not like there was a 30point swing in the second half when Simons didn’t play. And it’s not like Walsh and Ugo did nothing either, though. Those guys were significant parts of the second half. I know, but we’re we’re pre Oh, we lost John. We lost you, John. We lost you. It’s probably a good thing that we’re predetermining here that if Simons had played more, they would have lost the game. Like that’s the logic that we’re using here. Like he didn’t play and they won, therefore not playing him was good. It’s a weird yo-yo thing that’s going on. Who’s to say he couldn’t have dropped another 25 if he played, you know? How did the game get to where it got to? Because Simon’s got you there, you know, with with all of the scoring like that. It’s it’s bizarre to me. But it’s really again is these are again nuance conversations that people are having incorrectly. It’s if we say Simons needs to play, the counter I’m getting is like, dude, he sucks at defense. We know that. We know that. The point is this is a talent deficient team and Simons can do what he did tonight and fill it up and score. He’s a basketball player. He’s a walking bucket. Is there room for energy guys? Yeah, you got a ton of them. Half your team is nothing but energy guys right now. Like the question’s going to be, do you need Walsh and Ugo out there or can you just roll with one? Those are those are kind of like two zeros on offense for the most part and throw toss min in there too. You get three zeros in there at the same time. So Jayen for white to go into hero mode. Yeah. Look how you won, Bobby. You got a three from Ugo. You know that Joe gave him the high five. You get a three from Jordan Walsh late. Like those are more likely than not not going to go down, you know, and they ended up being positive contributions there. But like, yeah, those guys serve an awesome purpose. We love the energy guys. How many games have we watched when like the starters were flat and we’re like, get those losers out of there and put in guys who are going to work hard. Like it’s not like the other guys weren’t working hard, but you love the energy guys. But the balance is just basically Simons just has to have guarant Simons to me isn’t a guy you’re sliding in and out based on feel. Like he’s a guy that’s part of your regular rotation the same way Pton Pritchard is. The same way Derek White is. He just plays and then some stints will be better than others like every other player. This well I’m just going to go without him thing is a bizarre strategy right now. That’s what I get. I’m not saying great. Yeah. My point is tonight was a unique circumstance where Walsh is plus 13, Ugo’s plus 19. So, you did want to ride the stretch that lineup was on there as they did with Simons in the first half. I mean, they pretty much played him the whole first half as he got going there and let him roll until halftime. So, they felt it out well in both halves. Again, I agreed with you on Friday. There shouldn’t be a circumstance where end of the day, those guys are wings. Simons is a guard. I don’t think those guys keep him off the floor, you know, so necessarily. Well, it’s white either. Yeah, but it’s fine. It’s It’s really more of a You’re back. You know where you are again? You’re back to We are right back to Brogden, White, and Smart. That’s where we are right now. No, that’s exactly where they are. It’s the same exact thing. And what’s happening is Pritchard is defaulting ahead of Simons all the time. Simon Simons gets lost in the shuffle. The same way Brogden would sometimes play one stint in the third quarter and then be iced out for the rest of the game because he was always going to clo he was always going to close with Smart and White. So Joe’s struggling to figure out where to place him in that rotation because he’s got his guys he’s more comfortable with and you see him disappear like he did in the second half. Last game he disappeared in the first half which is more odd. Typically when guys lose their spot in the rotation, it’s when you start to kind of manage the game in the second half and see where it’s going and you get into that fourth quarter. And that’s what happened tonight. And he got kind of managed out of it. And I get it because he was riding a hot hand. He stayed with his other guys. But it’s kind of a shame that you have a guy who was literally nuclear hot in the first half and you’re not you’re not working to get him the ball. You’re not putting him out there and say, “Let’s run some offense through this guy. He’s feeling it.” It’s so bizarre to me. That’s the problem. He played second He’s played six minutes in the second half and got one shot and wasn’t involved in all that was the problem. So that it doesn’t make sense that like I don’t understand the the philosophy there. I have no problem with playing Walsh and Ugo and energy guys when you need that because they’re sparking comebacks and runs and creating turnovers and getting steals. That stuff’s great, but like it’s at the expense of Simons is odd to me. Like I if you’re going to ice somebody out right now, get Hower out of there. He’s borderline useless at this point. Like I have no problem those guys taking his minutes because he’s not providing you the offense either. Simons at least provides you offense every time he’s out there. So it’s a strange guy to be yanking out of there. That’s all for sure. And I think we’re at the point where we’ve seen he provides the shooting that they need. And it happened again in this game. Like if we’re going to subtract, let’s say we subtract his shooting from this win here for the Celtics, they end up uh some math on the fly here. Eight for what do you have? eight attempts. So like eight for 25. Like that’s a much worse percentage at the end of this game than with his shooting here. And that was the same case last game. Like they were terrible shooting the ball on Friday. He gave them the boost in the second half that got them back into the game. And then you’re like, “Oh, could you have used a little bit more of this in the first half?” Cuz this is what I’ll say. They’re still trying to be a three-point heavy team. Like that’s at the core of who they are, regardless of what Joe wants to say about it. And so you do want your best shooters out there as often as you possibly can. But as you said, John, they’re in a Brogdan smart white situation where they’re leaning on White heavily as they should. They’re leaning on Pritchard heavily as he’s earned to begin this year. So Simons gets boxed out a little bit and they’ve tried the three guard thing. That is where the defense kind of falls off the cliff a little bit. I think they’ve given up 117 defensive rating with that group which would rank like bottom five in the league. So, that’s a tough unit to play. They should probably keep tinkering with it a little bit just to see if it can be part of their dynamic a little bit just because like you know what I was thinking in the car earlier, John? Like remember uh Hayward, Kemba, Tatum, Brown? Like remember that year you had all those wings but you couldn’t play all five of them together, right? They’re in that situation again where like three of their best five players are guards, but you have to have Minod and Kada and those other guys out there to glue it together even though those aren’t some of your best players. Well, like it or not, that’s going to bring you back to you’re going to be in the same position because I think again using the using the whole uh Brogden Smart White situation that year Marcus Smart was clearly the worst of the three. I understood and it was the same argument. Brogden doesn’t play defense, blah, blah, blah. But the instant offense, the instant offense Brogden was bringing that second unit was absolutely necessary because nobody else could score. I thought White was the odd man out. No, no, it was always Brogden. It was always It was Brogden would get iced out and they’d forget about him in the fourth quarter there. And and and and that’s what happens. It’s a very very very similar situation with guys who don’t necessarily play similar styles, but they specialize in one thing. and Brogden was not strong defensively and I understood why he’d get played off the floor sometimes, but Joe also would just lose him in the rotation because you had these three guards and he was just used to closing with, you know, with Smart and White and and and and he and he he’d ice him out. But it’s it’s it’s very very very similar that situation. Anyway, just a couple things. We do have uh we have a poll. I’ll put I’ll put a poll up in a little bit. Uh we have Noah Dzel at the Garden. Um she’s I mean at uh in Orlando. She’s going to join us in a little bit. We’ll hear from the Celtics, uh, Joe Mazoula, and a few other people as well. Uh, but before we march on with this show, I want to say something quick. Nope. Jimmy, see what I’m trying to do here? Before we march on with with this, we’re trying to get it in. We’re gonna get in this sponsor break here uh, with our pals over at Prize Picks. And you know the deal by now. Uh, number one daily fantasy sports app in all of North America. this episode. All episodes brought to you by Prize Picks. Being right can get you paid. You know that. Don’t miss the excitement this season. Whatever season that is, whether it’s basketball, hockey, football, all that you have going on. Get in on the action with prize picks. Very simple to play. Pick more or less on two to six player stat projections. Get your picks right. You could cash in up to 2,000 times your cash. Lots of special offers, free squares. You insert those into your lineups. Makes it much easier to hit. You have uh flex plays, which means you could cash out early if your lineup isn’t perfect. Injury reboots if you lose somebody in the first half. Lots of cool things and lots of fun features. But best of all, when you download the app today and put in that code CLNS, you get 50 in your lineups uh right away when you play your first $5 lineup. Once again, 50 inserted in your lineups when you play five at prize picks. It is that easy. Prize picks. It is good to be right. Now we want to do nothing but listen to Jimmy Tuscano’s take that we left on we left it on the table. What is it, Jimmy? I just wanted to continue the combo about Simons for a bit and the and Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Go ahead. How do you feel about it? Well, my it’s it’s more of a question to you guys. So, regarding the Celtic style of play, does it feel right now, Bobby, I will start with you. Does Missoula care more about being a three-point team or does he care more about being a team that creates turnovers, gets out in transition, maximizes maximizes like the turnover thing is the obsession right now. Exactly. And if that’s the case, you can understand a little bit more why he’s going with Ugo or why he’s going with Walsh because those guys are like dogs out there, right? And what I mean by that is like they’re like Rottweilers. They’re all over the place. I mean, even Jordan Walsh said he’s so confused out there that he doesn’t even know what what he’s doing. So, how can the next guy how can the opponent know what he’s doing? He’s just trying to mess the game up is is kind of what the quote was. I think it was after either Wednesday or Friday’s game. And so, it feels like Missoula is stressing that. And we know Simons isn’t really that guy. Simons is going to give it his best effort, right? But defensively, he’s not going to have the hands. He’s not going to be as active as those guys are. He’s not going to be all over the court running around. He’s a smooth shooter. He’s a volume shooter. And if you did truly care about being a three-point shooting team, he would have played 40 minutes tonight and he would have probably had 15 attempts. This didn’t look like a three-point shooting team tonight. The guys who shoot threes shot threes. You had obviously Derek White did his thing. Pritchard took, I think, six. And I think one other guy had a handful of threes. Other than that, they didn’t jack 53s tonight. What was it like 33 threes attempt? I think the Magic really shut that down. Every time they play the Magic, they end up taking like 30. and they were able to adapt and they were able to kind of focus on something else. I’d much rather see that than see them just force and stress take threes. Threes are worth more than two. Beep boop beep boop. Like I’m fine with that changing up the style and going with guys going with the energy guys. I will kind of echo what John said a little bit. When the energy guys are no longer energy guys and they’re just like the guys that are out there playing, I feel like that tells you a little bit about the talent on the roster and it’s like you can the energy stuff’s going to get you so far, right? But talent typically does win out. You might catch Lightning in a bottle in a game and maybe you can ride Jaylen Brown like they have been and maybe Derek White does get hot and that’s where you can get your points from. But you’re going to need shooters out there eventually. Right now Missou is just making the most of what he’s got which is guys with high motors, guys who have who can go out there, run, create turnovers, get out in transition. And I like them scoring at the basket. Like I saw them against this Magic team tonight. It didn’t seem like they were trying to force, you know, those outside shots. It felt like they were matching those their physicality, at least the magic of last year. I know this year they’re a little bit of a different team, but I remember the Magic as being a team that just kind of like outworked you. Like they were the hard hat team it felt like last year. Uh you know, tough, physical, hard nose. South kind of matched that vibe tonight a little bit. And I feel like that’s the reason they came out on top. And that’s why that’s why I got this bad boy on. It’s not because they not because they’re hitting threes. It’s because they were basically cleaning things up below. Yeah. Yeah, and we we’ve talked a lot about how they’re forcing Simons to improve his defense and fit into, you know, their system and the stuff that they’re doing here. There’s been an intense emphasis on that to be in his tenure here. And, you know, it’s it’s a different treatment he’s receiving than some of the other guys in the back court certainly who have been here for a while as we’ve talked about. So, it just doesn’t feel like he fits the identity of the This is why I’ve compared it to Schroeder. Not to knock him or Schroeder. Um, he was playing well that year. Remember, he came in, he scored a lot of points. There were stretches where he was just awesome, but they were trying to get the ball movement going that year. They were trying to emphasize their defensive system, switch everything. like there was a lot going on on that team that made him an awkward fit and ultimately made them go in a different direction that this year. And that’s what this feels poised for, right? Like he’s going to be here, they’re going to try to make it work, but is he going to end the season on this team necessarily with the tax implications and everything else? It it just doesn’t feel like it. So, I get to some degree the desire to prioritize guys who are probably going to be here long term. What I don’t like is, as we’ve talked about over the summer, completely boxing out the possibility that this talented player could fit into what you’re doing going forward and giving it a chance. So, it’s a tough balance and I get it. Like, you do want to see the Walshes and Ugos of the world. You do want to see other guys. White and Pritchard are outstanding. So, it’s tough to fit him in right here. At the same time, if you just get rid of him or let him lock at the end of the year, how are you necessarily getting a player more talented than Anthony Simons, who led his team scoring last year? I don’t particularly care about Anthony Simons, per se. I’m just looking at this roster when I’m making this calculation and just saying, I mean, again, I people have this weird Payton Pritchard obsession that they think he’s like like measures better than Anthony Simon. They’re two fairly similar players in the sense that they can score really well. Pritchard might be better with the basketball in his hands. Um, you know, and uh, honestly, I think he’s slightly better defensively because he has a better base and he can stay in front of opponents even though he is undersized and can get picked on. But Simons, I I think has been putting in some effort on the defensive end. It’s not an thing, I don’t think. I think it’s just a skill. I like his defense so far. If he was a left defender, he he’d be all NBA. Let’s just put it. Exactly. Like not everyone can. Bobby and I have this argument all the time. Jimmy, it’s like if if he was like, “Yeah, but he can’t do this.” I’m like, “Yeah, if he could do everything, he’d be making $50 million.” For Drew Holiday, some guys do something well, some things better than others. The hardest thing to do in basketball is score uh and to create your own offense. Anthony Simons can do that. And that’s why he gets paid more money than other guys who are, you know, more defensive specialists or do other things uh that are really important in basketball but aren’t necessarily scoring. Didn’t Kevin Durant just have this debate on Twitter last week? I saw like he kind of went He’s always saying that Kevin Durant Kevin Grant comes from our school. Defense beats defense. Of course it does. Like but in today’s NBA again, you got to be able to defend some because you’re getting played off the court and lineups can’t survive nowadays when you have multiple defensive liabilities. So, I understand why nobody wanted a guy like Simons at his price tag given the economy and the situation with the cap and and everybody trying to avoid penalties. Why? He’s a difficult person to absorb. But you got him. You got no choice here. Like you got you got to play the guy. That’s really more the argument. Uh that you wish he was a wing rather than a guard. But yeah, he’s what you got here. And what you got? It is tough. I’ll ask this to you, John, because we haven’t mentioned it yet this season. Does any part of you look at what Drew is doing out in Portland and say, “Oof, that’s tough.” I first of all, I hate all of you guys because you tried all year to bury Drew. And I’ve said I don’t see it. Like I I’m sorry. I didn’t see it. Like I I I think he had a tough shooting year. He wasn’t hitting those corner threes at a ridiculous rate. But this whole like he’s cooked. He’s he’s still people that don’t know he’s 175 and eight out in Portland. He’s he’s still an outstanding basketball player. He was he was forced to be like the sixth option here offensively and all you did was camp him in the corner and he and he hit threes. He didn’t get to be the version of super healthy last year either. Right. But he was he didn’t even wasn’t even on the offensive side of the ball. He wasn’t even close to the player he’s been his entire career. And he wasn’t allowed to be. He had to adapt and be a different guy. And he was still incredibly effective uh player. Drew Drew Holidayiday is still an amazing basketball player. But again, you couldn’t afford him. you couldn’t afford any of these guys and you move on. But burying I thought burying Drew Holiday was ridiculous, you know? It’s you had to trade him, but like the idea that he was washed and they had to get off of that. It was a terrible [ __ ] If there was no cap, you’d be thrilled. You’d be thrilled to have Holiday here with the Celtics. You’d be thrilled to have Porzingis. You’d be thrilled to have all of these guys. Porzingis isn’t looking great in Atlanta so far. He’s still missing games with illness. Like, I don’t know what’s going on there. Um, but yeah, there’s uh there’s definitely a possible event with Drew as things go on here. But the problem was three-year deal. You know, he’ll be 37 in the third season. So, we’ll see how it plays out. There’s definitely elements of the Simons experience, though, where you’re starting to see oo like that’s why he wasn’t part of the future out there in Portland necessarily and was a salary dump. Let’s move it on. Uh, are you Jimmy, are you buying or selling Jordan Walsh as a This is the third straight game he’s a regular rotation player. Are you are you buying or selling him as a useful player? You’ve already answered it, so I’ll move on to the next topic. Sam Hower, he’s bad now. I’m still selling. Honestly, I’m I’m not I’m not I’m not buying on Jordan Walsh yet. I’m not like Bobby small sample sizes here. Um, listen, I have nothing against Jordan Walsh. I like how that sounds. If he can contribute, great. But I’m not buying. It’s It’s all relative. Can he come in deep rotation role player, give you some energy and run around and do things? Sure. Does it matter like next year? Is that like It’s good. It’s a good thing to have this year. Like does he fit on the roster next year is what really what it comes down to. I don’t really know if I see him cracking the rotation next year if they bring in a couple of guys that can like shoot and score and do like those things right now. Not buying it. Play the minutes. I mean, why what are you going to lose? Play the minutes. But like I’m not buying it yet. No, I think the biggest and it’s nice to see the three starting to fall because I feel like the biggest problem he’s had in the super limited minutes he’s played through the first three years here is he’ll come in, the other team leaves him wide open in the corner. Even on that last play tonight, look at the amount of space he had out there. Like teams are just guiding the ball toward him cuz they know he’s the worst option out there to shoot out of all the five players. And the more he starts knocking those down and feeling comfortable with that pressure, the more stable his minutes will become. Cuz what’s happened so far, and this is why I hate their system sometimes for the younger players, is all he’s able to do is take two threes. If he missed both those threes tonight, guess what we’re saying? Walsh is out of the picture. Can’t play him. Not in your future. But he hit the two threes, so we’re sitting here saying, “Oh, is he part of your future?” Like I hate how that’s the you know decision maker on these guys minutes whether they’re good or bad. It is nice to see the amount of crashing that they’re allowing these guys to do. The cutting that they’re allowing them to do out of the corner which has gotten him a couple of two-pointers here or there and some nice secondary passes from him. Like he had the you know swing swing the white there a couple possessions before his three. Um he’s been able to make some plays on the move. May not has two. like they’re giving their fours a little more flexibility to do some stuff with the ball here. Even allowing a guy like this to bring the ball up sometime just to get a defender on him, I feel like would be useful for him. And this is, listen, I’m not the biggest Walsh fan in the world. I like the draft pick when they made it. I like the stuff he does in theory, but ultimately what is the ceiling there? They traded down like two or three times I feel like in that draft and they just like he was there when they took it. So again, I don’t know. I like what he gives you. He gives you a little bit of this, a little bit of that. But does he give you anything that’s like super valuable that you that he’s really really good at anything? I would say at this point, no. But I’m not saying is it’s I’m not saying that he can’t get better. I’m not saying he can’t become a role player in the league. I’m just not there yet where, you know, I see it in two games basically. Um I like the fact that he can contribute. I like that he hit those shots. Like you said, Bobby, yeah, if he didn’t hit him, would be bashing him right now. I don’t think that’s the play. I don’t think that in a perfect world if they could have run that play again. I don’t even think he gets that opportunity. But I’m glad that he was open. And I’m sure I know why he was open. But and the shot went down. And this is what we’re talking about though with Wall versus Simons. Like if that’s going to be your shot profile as a team and it’s going to be all drive and kick, it’s going to be a lot of threes, you do want the Simons of the world taking more of those world. But here, this is what drives me insane. We we we’re in this weird world where it’s like you’re celebrating guys who can only do one thing and bashing a guy who can only do one thing. And it doesn’t make any sense to me. You know what I mean? Is like like Walsh won’t hit those shots next time. You know why? because he can’t hit those shots because he But can he do other stuff? But but that’s the point. He can do some stuff, but he’s absolutely a zero offensively. A zero. Simons, if you’re comparing, is an elite offensive player. Who’s a zero? Even if he’s a zero defensively, he’s not. But like, why are we saying like they’re playing guys who can’t do half the game at all? And that’s okay. But the reason Simons isn’t playing is because he’s not awesome at the other half of the game. Because they they have a lot of different things they’re trying to fill out here. Like I know that, but it’s just it doesn’t make sense to me. Like Walsh, there’s a place for the Jordan Walshes of the world. If they can, what have we said about Walsh since day one? Jordan Walsh can get his three-point percentage even up to 35. he can play in this league because he he’s good enough defensively when he’s not all over the place and spazzy and fouling and jumping out, you know, because he is sometimes a little bit too much, you know, there. But if he can keep it together, he’s got really good athleticism and length and he’s Oh, John, did you realize this? I forgot. There it is. I forgot. There it is. Yeah. Suck it. Think about that one. Yeah. Listen, so that that’s what I He wasn’t in there to take that shot. He was not in there to take that shot. I think we can all agree the ball ended up in his hands probably accidentally. Good on him for taking the shot and hitting it. Terrible. It was It’s exactly Drew on the broadcast was like Jordan Walsh. Like we all had the same thought as the ball was released. It’s like it was like oh no that’s the shot they got and it went in but it awful. Yeah. And you know what? It’s funny cuz malpractice is what it is. That’s what you’re trying to do on defense, you know, the last couple years. Get the ball in the hands of a guy like that. Have them take that shot. That was your whole defensive game plan the last couple years. Bobby said this here. Simons dies so Pritchard can live. You can’t play them together at in the stretch and Simons is going to disappear in in fourth quarters of games unless unless Joe decides he’s a hot hand. He’s got to sit Pritchard. But he’s not going to play three guards and Derek White’s definitely going to play. This is gonna happen over and over and over again. He had the hottest hand tonight and he still didn’t play. I mean, Pritchard was what, one of six from three, I think. So, it wasn’t that difficult of a decision on, hey, who’s more likely to hit the basket tonight, right? It was clearly Simons. But again, goes back to what I said earlier. Celtic style of play tonight was not really a three-point shooting team. Yeah, it ended up in Wash’s hands, but he was in there because of what he was giving you, you know, energy-wise or activity-wise, defensively, running the court, theoretically getting the ball to the shooters, and that’s why he was in the game. That’s why he had that opportunity, and good on him for hitting it. But if you could, if you knew that the ball was going to go to him in the corner, you can say, “Hey, would you have Walsh or Simons in the game?” You’re obviously haven’t taken Simons. If you rather have Simons or Pritchard in the game, I think it’s Simons as well. the way the season has gone so far. But what Simons doesn’t give you defensively has ultimately been the reason for him to find the pine and that’s what right now and that’s it. Yeah. And the redundancy with um the redundancy with um with uh Pritchard, of course. I mean, it’s the same guy. They’re the same guy. They’re two offensiveminded guards who uh I mean, they don’t play a better two-point shooter. Stop. Just stop. I’m not comparing every aspect of their game. There are two offensiveminded undersized guards. That’s it. Well, I do want to say that because I’m sick of that’s who they are. I’m sick of the chat with the Pritchard Simons thing. Sometimes Pritchard’s a better overall player than Simons. Maybe like I think defense threelevel scoring. I’ll put it this way, Bobby. Anthony Simons, if Anthony Simons was on the team last year, he would have won sixth man of the year. And if they signed if they traded for Pton Pritchard, we’d be saying, “Well, he’s got to come off the bench because I like Simons a lot.” Like, it just it’s the guy who was here and everybody’s loyal to him. It that’s all that’s all it is. That I don’t believe it’s much more than that. They’re really They’re so comparable that anybody who has a strong opinion on it is just telling on themselves because they have a bias. Look at the two point numbers. I’m saying they are so comparable as you know, in terms of their skill sets and and Richard has also put up a monstrous assist to turnover ratio to start this year. He’s but he’s always been good. He doesn’t turn the ball over. He’s great like that. He’s more of a point guard. Simons is a combo guard. They’re not exactly the exactly the same. They’re score first guards, but Pritchard has been elite his whole career taking care of the basketball. That’s there’s no question about that. You You see the garage video? Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Um All right. Let’s hear a little bit from Joe Mazula. Aside from foul trouble, what did you think of how those guys were? Yeah, I just thought had a great run. I thought uh that lineup to start the fourth quarter gave us good stuff. I think it was 9685. They were playing well on both ends of the foot. I thought Joe did a great job on Carol in the second half. That’s just what we have to build trust uh in those moments and uh so credit to those guys. They delivered. Um that’s it. that group in the fourth it was it was Derek it was Ugo Jordan I think Richard and yeah did you see from that group sort of like but like it feels like an example of when that sort of aggressive defensive style can work out and and that group embodied it like how did that affect the game on both ends of the court for you guys? Yeah, I mean again it always comes down to three things. We we didn’t get beat in transition. We limited the one shot and we got good shots at the other end and we crashed and got offensive rebounds and so we just made those those connection plays. So, we uh got back on defense, rebounded, got out, some easy ones where we ran. Uh got made some shots. If we didn’t make them, we got a couple extra possessions. We made a big shot. Jordan made two big shots. Uh you know, and then I thought, you know, Payton and Derek and and Nimi, Luca held down the fort defensively in that. So, just comes down to those things and uh you got to do them longer than the other team. You know, those guys did it. And then last game, they got off to that hot start from three. They they made 10 fewer in this game. Was there anything you guys changed that you thought or was it just didn’t you they cut it to one and then you had two possessions with a lot of ball movement that led to open threes. What what went into those sequences? Uh those were just plays that we have. I mean I think they cut it to one and and some of that was on a free throw ball. We just got uh some good movement, some good execution. I think we’re doing it’s a tough balance between who want to play fast in the quarter get extra passes but then also I thought our guys did a good job of fighting to to get the right spacing and the match up and the right the right coverage there um and so I think it’s just you know that was the guys trusting each other trusting the offense the difference between game and tonight’s game try for tonight and also I want to know about the job from Luca and and unfriend him in front of bench they combined from 41 points know about the right into Yeah. Uh, you know, I thought we we played with the same level of effort and physicality in both games. I thought tonight we did a better job executing. Um, you know, they still shot 32 free throws, but, you know, I thought we did a better job in our shifts. We did a better job in our closeouts. You know, the other night we left our feet on a ton of closeouts and gave guys drives there. Did a better job on that. Uh, you know, I thought our offensive execution was good, but I think we had some good individual performers from guys that have kind of, you know, been been working hard and and, you know, and I think Anthony in the first half really got us going. He also made them change their pick and roll coverage, which, you know, was great. He had 25 in the first half, didn’t score, but he constantly gave us a twoon-one in the second half in his minutes. I thought Lucas uh, rebounding on both ends of the floor. I thought Jordan and Ugo um, you know, I thought Payton’s defense, I thought, you know, obviously Derek made some big time plays and Jaylen came Jaylen. So, I didn’t forget anyone, you know. Um, you know, Sam hasn’t shot the ball well, but he’s played defensively. Uh, just solid. So, I think it was just we had some great individual performances and and you know, we were able to pull together some execution there in the second half that we didn’t quite do last game. So, we just got to fight to be able to uh get the effort, physicality, and execution, you know, more consistently. Is this boring? Should I keep going? Oh my god, it’s awful. Oh, no. was about to ask a question. Knowing exacties, communication, we didn’t get beat on pick and roll coverages. So, it really is just execution. It’s that simple. Uh execution and you know, can you move the needle forward on the offensive end, whether it’s making shots, whether it’s crashing, whether it’s, you know, generating there and so uh you know, both those young guys uh executed the tendencies very well and they made some shots and they also got us extra possession. So, they just got to keep working, but it’s execution of the details. It’s it’s effort and toughness. Joe, you last question. I know you said that uh Jordan has kind of been the same even when he hasn’t been playing like he’s kind of had the same level of consistency. He said after the Wizards game he was kind of playing like his life was on the line. How do you see Yeah. How do you kind of see this merge for him where like he’s been working behind the scenes and then it’s seems like it’s translating an opportunity but like we don’t we don’t we don’t see a lot of what’s going on behind the scenes besides for kind of what you guys have shared. Yeah, I mean it’s a it’s a it’s a deep quote and it’s probably not real serious, but you have to have that that sense of urgency, you know, when uh you know, especially for a young player and and it’s hard to teach that. It’s hard to simulate that. It’s hard to do that, but he he’s turned and had that sense of urgency as if he’s playing like his basketball life is on the line and and he should play that way and it’s a credit to him. So, um you know, one of the reasons why I trusted him and went with him was because of his work ethic behind the scenes. uh his body language and work ethic never changed even when he wasn’t playing and you know I I can’t um sorry uh the uh I got to say this Bobby you guys the the worst thing about the there’s nothing we can do the worst thing about the media game is that somehow Joe Joe was neutered as a result of it the press conferences are so boring I liked it better when he hated I don’t mind the pullups I was I was going to say I’m saying I was like now I’m Now it sucks. I want him to be mean to you guys again. Yeah. Can you like can you just like ask him a couple questions that he’s not going to Yeah. Like can you get in there and just nothing but three-point questions? We might need to put you John. We might need to send Bobby on the road just to get like angry Joe on these road games. He’ll be in Philly, so go piss him off. Honestly, I don’t I’ll say this. I don’t think I have to try to make that happen. Yeah. Yeah. No doubt. Anyway, Uh, we’re going to get Noah on uh in a little bit. We do have to tell you guys about one more sponsor here on the Garden Report. And yeah, let’s get after it. And we got to get this in before We got to get I had Omaha steaks for dinner tonight. I’m not ready for the B-roll. We have to That’s okay. I’m I’m always ready for the B-roll. Looks good to me. Yeah. All right. Uh, anyway, you know the deal by now. Omaha Stakes, great great deal. Uh, burger, steaks, fries, doesn’t matter. You can get a bunch of different gift boxes uh with a bunch of different varieties. You’ll see it all here on the scene on the screen. Best thing about it is there’s a 50% sitewide sale. You see it right there with an additional 20% off as some on some select items. Uh baked potatoes, pies, chicken. Check that out. In addition to that, sitewide 50% off plus that code Patriots gets you an extra $35 off. What? Yep. $35 off. 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That thing’s gone to the moon. Yeah. Drake May is your MVP favorite right now. Yeah. Yeah. And Omaha Stakes is my steak favorite. Yeah, it is good. This is a I’m big on math in this show. True turkey. Thanks, man. Once we start. Yeah. Like once in addition begins, you’re in trouble. One of these times I uh I I do want to have a nontraditional Thanksgiving uh without the turkey. But we just This is going to be a hot take. I’m actually missing Thanksgiving this year. I’m Where are you going to be? I’m going to be in Paris. And they don’t celebrate it there. They don’t They don’t care about Thanksgiving in Paris, believe it or not. I’ve heard that hasn’t gotten there yet. Yeah. So, no Thanksgiving for me. I’m famously not a big Thanksgiving guy. I know that makes John want to throw up. Famously though, if you’ve ever watched the show, um I’m not like anti-T Thanksgiving. I’m not leaving because like I can’t be here for Thanksgiving. It’s not it at all. It just so happens that there’s a little you get a little time off zipping to Paris, doing that thing, and then uh we’ll be back. We’ll be back. I’m not going to skip Christmas, but I’m going to miss Thanksgiving this year. So, I might go to my steaks, get a couple steaks, get a couple fillets, get a couple burgers, get a couple of potato things that they got there. I’m skipping turkey this year. I think it’s overrated. Anyways, yeah. Um, yeah, it’s it is overrated. I think generally speaking, most Thanksgiving foods are overrated. Um, I still want to somehow do a Thanksgiving episode with you guys. I I keep I’m still I’m thinking about the Friendsgiving here hosted. I’m thinking about it. Stealing is giving. We’ve been waiting for this for like four years. I know, but I don’t know what to feed Noah. Like, you know, it’s toeky. It’s like a tofu turkey thing. I’ve read about it. I wouldn’t go near it, but I’ve read about it. Yeah. Um, true. Yeah, we’ll see. But you guys have to you guys you guys have to you have to cook with me. Like we’re we’re making you got to be here all day. We’re we’re paying we’re making pies. We’re doing the whole thing. Yeah, we’re doing it live. Yeah. No, we can’t do it live. You know how long that takes, Jimmy? Like I gotta I I gotta make the dough, then freeze it. You got to do You got to do a cooking show. Live check in. Yeah. There’s got to be something we could cook in 45 minutes. I make I make the pie dough, then I put it in the in the in the refrigerator for 3 hours before, you know, like I can’t do that. See, I just microwave something for 30 minutes. We go live. This thing’s just cooking in the back and we’re good. What I’ll have to do is do it cooking show style where we make it and then I pull the ready one out of the fridge or out of the oven. But that’s expensive. If Nick pays for it, I’ll do it. I’ll cook everything twice. Oh, and Nick will pay for it. Yeah. Do a pie giveaway. Yeah, he’s got the He’s got the change. Yeah, he’s got I sold way too many hard hats to not go live on Thanksgiving. Way too many. Fair enough. Anyway, uh Jordan Walsh is apparently the answer and the future all rolled into one. We’re going to hear from him after his big game. [Music] Jordan, there was a lineup in the fourth quarter there was you, Ugo, Derek, Peyton, Nimi, and it felt the sort of chaos you guys want to cause defensively was like a big part of why that lineup was successful. Is there any messaging or is it just like you go in there and you’re like, I know this is what this lineup has to be. Um, I think it’s more just the standard. Um, the standard is that, you know, to come in and play that hard game, you know, without the ball. Um, there it is. We all bought in to meet you go. That’s our whole portion of cards out. I talked to him when we go in. I was like, let’s just mess the game up like for everybody. So, that’s what we did. And he made a great impact. When there’s that much chaos on the court, is it hard to control like the chaos in your mind? Like are like what’s going on in your head when you’re playing like that? Um, honestly it’s run around make it difficult and you know air don’t let them attack me. Is it going in and out for you guys? And so it’s like okay it’s off. Uh we can’t listen to that. Sorry. Um apparently he said that he’s here to stay and uh Anthony Simons can suck it. I think um was f you Jimmy for not buying. Was the end of that is what I is is what I what I heard uh there. Are we going to find out a couple years from now that everyone hates Simon just like everyone allegedly didn’t like Brogdan? We’re going to hear the same thing. It’s exactly that once he’s gone. I freaking hated that dude. Uh I don’t know. I don’t have a good sense of it. Oh, Noah’s Noah just teased something great about Jaylen. I can’t wait. Oh, wow. What did she What did she Oh, is it a text or a tweet? It was a tease. Yeah, but like Okay, we’re not going to say it. Did she tease it over a tweet or over a text? Like, oh, okay. Just I got it. I got it. I got to get weird. I didn’t get the text. I’m going to have to ask why. Uh why am I not involved in this group text? This is This is good. Noah doing the work. Tofurky for everybody. I’m excited um about that. Yeah, let’s go. I’m excited. Yeah. Uh we ran a poll earlier. When was this poll from? Somebody tell me something. I don’t know what this is. I don’t know. Let’s put it on the screen. Uh Celtics are currently five and six this season. Um results from the pregame poll. I don’t know what the question is. Play to win. Play to win. Only cheer to win or tank is the way. They’re asking you which way do you want to go with this? Are you only cheering to win the game or do you believe that tanking is the way to go? 61% are cheering for them to win, John. 61% are on team Bobby. Sounds like 39% are tanking just so hard. We’re not Bobby, how old are you? 27. Okay, you’re going to live like 60 more years. Okay. Knock on wood. Yeah. Like you you can live through a bad season. Like if Let me ask you this. Okay. What? Let’s do this poll. What’s better? One bad year or 10 mediocre ones? Like I I just It’s so competitive every year, John. Let me Let me ask you this, John. If If they get to the deadline, let me ask you this, Bob. No, I’m just kidding. If they get to the deadline and I don’t know, let’s say they’re 500, are you tearing it apart to try to sink? What does tearing mean? There’s no tearing it apart. I’m simply saying at the end of the day, I would be happier if these close, scrappy, some entertaining games ended in losses because losses are better for them down the road because I don’t care whether they make the playoffs or not. I want to be entertained. I want to watch games. You don’t want to watch a Washington Wizards [ __ ] show. That’s I think everybody thinks that’s about if they fall out of the playoff mix, get into the lottery, get some lottery luck that benefits them next year. But they already have ground, John. It doesn’t change much, Bobby. You got to get better somewhere and you got to find ways to do it. It’s such a It’s a 13th pick, 14th pick instead of the number one pick, which they’re probably not going to get. They’re getting the number one pick. Okay. I was going to say I don’t think you believe they’re going to get the number one pick. Nobody does. But what we’re The thing is, John, he has to know what we mean. He has to know what we mean. If you think you don’t know what we mean by, Bobby, we always we always have two different conversations. I don’t think Bobb’s being obtuse. I’m not sure. But like again, it’s just simply there’s a benefit to it. Let’s leave it there. I’ve said if that’s where the season goes. So I don’t care. So, I don’t care about your feelings is what I’m saying. Like, I don’t care if you don’t want to watch it. I’m simply saying flat out there’s an there’s an obvious bene like a a thousand out of a thousand people will say that this team’s not going to go far this year. There’s no one’s questioning that. Knowing that there’s a benefit to being even worse than mediocre. That’s it. It’s the end of the story. It’s not what I want. It’s not what I want to watch. It’s not what’s fun. It’s just a fact statement of fact. That’s all. There’s a benefit to it. If it doesn’t work that way, it doesn’t work that way. And you write it out and you play it and that’s how it goes. That’s it’s so basic. There’s no argument. There’s no side. What I’m saying is a fact. Then you move on to the next season. No one ever talks about the season ever again. Just like we don’t talk about the ones from 5 years ago. Let’s say they do no major roster tinkering. There’s no major injury here. and they just continue forward at this pace more or less. I guess I’m stuck answering this question. I’m gonna have to answer this one. Damn it, John. Let’s Let’s say there’s no major injury, Jimmy. They don’t trade Simons for some small expiring salary that’s not going to do anything. Yeah, I get it. Everything stays the same. Right around where they are right now, right around 500. Maybe they’re above, maybe they’re below. Maybe you’re barely making the playoffs. Maybe you’re missing the playoffs. Maybe you’re a play-in game. Congratulations. This team is not built to do much more than that. They may overperform on on any given night, but they’re also going to underperform on any given night. We’ve seen it all this year. And at the end of the day or at the end of the season, I would be stunned if they were like much higher than a 500 type team, which maybe gets you into the playoffs most likely does in a bad East. Unfortunately, they’re not. No one’s saying they’re as bad as Washington or Brooklyn. No one’s saying that, but they can still be bad enough to give you a chance to get a low lottery pick and then you go then you’re the Sixers. Then you get a you get that’s where the NBA is now. Like you could from the playin tournament, let’s say you’re the 10 seed and you lose that game, lose and then have a nine 10% chance at a top pick. Okay, it doesn’t matter. We can’t have this conversation. We can’t have this conversation every show. We just have to come to an We have to come to an understanding that there is a benefit to being bad. But if they’re not bad, then you just watch it and whatever happens happens. That’s it. I don’t want to talk about anymore. Get a top 10. It’s like, but there’s nothing. It’s not that much more entertaining. It’s not that much more entertaining to watch a 40- win team than it is a 34 win team. Like, it doesn’t make a difference. They’re going to be wildly inconsistent all year long. We’re going to have these swings. It’s fine. ultimately in this year you want to see do you have anything good that you can work with moving forward and because there wasn’t a lot of pieces there have they shown that yet not again I I I keep saying I want to give this 20 to 30 games till you really get a sense of where they are what the rotations are what you’re getting out of people you’re starting to see usage rotations kind of lock in a little bit you get to see people over time and you can get a sense that okay pretty good but I’m so tired of my not having a good game and then a bad game and then us talking about it each time like kind of start for eight straight games. I know. And you’re and it’s a mixed bag. You get some some some impact then you get nights where he’s a zero. His his uh his shot looks good sometimes. Other night it doesn’t. You know, it is what it is. But we need more time to get a sense of if I agree. I just think the early signs are encouraging here. I don’t think so. The young guys. No. Isn’t it funny? You guys are watching the same exact game. They’ve blown four games at the John. If they if Pritchard hit his shot at the buzzer, if they grab one rebound against Detroit, if they didn’t give up the putback against Utah, we’re talking I know, Bobby. I know. But I think they’re I think they’re in these games right now because they’re playing hard, which is great because that’s what happens in the regular season. If the if they played Orlando in a sevename playoff series, they would be swept. I I’m very confident of that. But they can split games with them in meaningless regular season. And right now if these two teams played and it was elimination, Orlando sweeps them. That’s what I think. Like but right now in the regular season, you play hard, which they are. That’s inspiring. It’s fun to watch. Joe’s getting a lot out of them. He’s getting them to work hard. So they’re going to remain competitive. And I think they’ll that’s why I picked play in and Jimmy picked out of the playoffs. I think they’ll compete enough with this team barring injury to be able to stay somewhere in the mix. That’s who I think they are, but I’m not encouraged by it because I do think they’re going to t once they get better players or some financial flexibility, they’re going to toss most of these guys overboard and move on. So, the development of Luca Garza and this and that isn’t super super interesting to me. Uh, you know, here, but I like seeing it from I like seeing it from Kada that I want to see those guys play. I want to see them play through mistakes. I want to see them learn. I want to see them develop. Uh give you guys a uh just a quick uh note here. Super chats, if you want to support the Garden Report with super chats, you know the drill. We put them on the screen. We talk about them. We tell you that we love you. Um we yell at each other and we go on and the pro the pros, we yell a little bit. The proceeds go to the host. We’re going to start with our guy Dirk. Just want to get out of the season without any major energies injuries and a lot of injur energies. And I This is my This is my like fourth hour. You’re saying energy a lot today. It’s my fourth hour of broadcasting, I think, already. So, that explains a lot. Yeah, a lot of chemistry built up. If there’s a solid pick at the end of it, well, nice bonus, but that’s a gamble. Fair enough. I don’t think you’re gambling that much, but that’s okay. Uh, but thank you, Dirk, as always being one of our loyal uh viewers and listeners here. Hey, Jakari Davis, man, I love this show, especially after a win. Uh, and then uh and then Mr. Food Truck. Is this our food truck guy, John? It is. rooted like rooted like hell during this game, but if this team goes 41 and 41, I’m going to puke. Make the hard decision for me. Not so soft tank for the future. And again, that’s feel that way. I was surprised was 6139. You stay in it and then lose just barely lose just a little bit and then you’re we’ve said it. We are through 11 games and knock on wood they’ve had no significant injuries and that is a major plus in your record in your standings and your outcomes against other teams here. Look at Indiana. The reason they are 1 and8 is because everybody on the team is hurt. If that’s how your season goes, you’re going to tank and you’re going to get a top draft pick. Nobody tanks. You just lose. They just No, they just lose. You lose games cuz you’re bad. That’s how it works anyway. Right now they’re not bad enough to lose games. It it it’s they’re they’re they’re good enough to stay competitive. That’s what’s going to happen. If they lose, oh well, so be it. Anyway, Jaylen Brown, we did say, “Oh, I lost him.” I had him and I lost him. Give me Jaylen again. Is this the Noah Jayen thing or just the Jaylen thing? No, not the lower third. Wait, you lost You lost a video. I I lost a video. Okay. Okay. All right. Because Jay because Bobby wants to Jaylen Brown. What do you think of Jaylen’s thing? You can’t ask me what I had to say. You can’t ask me that. What have you thought of his season? What have you thought of his season so far? I said it last game. His score. Here’s the This isn’t even a thought. His scoring. It’s It’s It’s interesting physically. He’s not even close to where he was. It’s insane to me. The dunk for the second time tonight. But the dunk tonight that the Celtics tweeted with a caption, don’t jump jump with JB. That was like he like st it was like the he like tricked into it. He just barely gets the ball over the room. He’s not high-flying Jaylen by any means. His but I wonder if like not having that explosive physicality has made him slow down and play more efficiently uh with the offense. He’s back to that assassin mid-range stuff, even though it wasn’t cooking tonight. And he’s able, even without his explosive athleticism, just based on strength, um, to be able to get to the basket at will. So, he’s scoring really well, but he’s got a real crap assist to turnover ratio of basically one to one this year. And he’s not necessarily looking for people or making them better. So, again, last two games he’s, you know, he’s scoring, but his, you know, uh, you know, all of the other numbers again, it’s one, one assist, four turnovers tonight. It’s not great, but also I don’t know that he’s got the people around him to necessarily make better. So, it’s a tough one. I think his role on this team is to be who he is right now. But what he talked about here is not necessarily himself or the officials, but something that we were talking about on the show. I’m not sure if it’s early in the press conference or later, but we’ll listen in a little bit. Uh, and I’ll tell you what it is that we’re talking about. Jon, how rewarding was it to see Jordan hit that three in the end? Big time shot. big time pass um from Payton. Jordan’s been like uh you can see, you know, over the last couple of games up and down in his confidence, his minutes, his rotation, but just told him to stay with it, keep uh keep working, keep getting better. The opportunities going to come and he gets rewarded by playing hard the last two games. Finishes the game for us defensively. He was great and then caps it off with a big time shot to help us win the game. There’s a lineup in the fourth quarter that was Jaylen or excuse me, that was Ugo and Jordan. It felt like this chaotic defense you guys wanted to play this year. Those two are really good at sort of enforcing it and embracing it. What did you see from those guys in those fourth quarter minutes just in general this season? I thought they were good tonight. A lot more poised. Didn’t foul inadvertently like we kind of did last game. You know, we got they we were a lot more solid, a lot more poised. What’s the score now? They did a good job tonight. Five through a million of these. It’s so early in the season. 82 and three. Is there anything about this one that felt a little urgent? uh you know after after you give up the lead there and trying to figure it out in real time and figure out a way to absolutely big time win for us big time you know that was a you know a good Orlando team physical team you know that um plays really well at home in the regular season I’m not sure when’s the last time we beat them here um but you know it’s a good team over there so to have our guys on the road make some big time plays um some of our young guys step up and you know that’s what I like to see Luca Garza was great tonight you you know, Jordan, Hugo, you know, and Anthony, you know, started to step into Hugo. All great signs. How can that maybe down the road like having these guys have experience like that? Just keep building, man. Just keep building on it one day at a time. It’s still early in the season. Keep like I believe in them. I believe in all our guys. Stay with the game plan, you know, kind of like continue to empower everyone even through their mistakes, but just make sure that we’re comprehending where we can be better at and learning and just taking steps forward. you know, five and six is not ideal, you know, but a lot of games, you know, we could be seven and four right now or whatever. Um, so we just got to keep going, stay the course and don’t let our spirit break and keep getting better every game. What does that do for you when you do see like the bench having 50 points, bench points, and you’re able to I mean, you almost had 30 again, but what does that do for you when these guys step up? It’s awesome. It’s awesome. That’s what I That’s what I like. Um, that’s what we need. We just need to have a collective effort every single night and find ways to win. Um Atlanta’s a good team. They got a good defense. They’re physical. You know, they get away with a lot. Um they’re allowed to play with physicality, especially at home, and we played through it. We rebounded. Um we got stops. We turned them over. Um so that was a great great They’re great team. They’re allowed to just foul their ass in big moments. Um what has that process been like with so many new faces kind of being worked in and what does a win like tonight maybe do for you guys in that regard? I think it was great. I can’t I’m going keep saying tonight was a great win for us on the road. Um and how we responded to last game. Last game I felt like we were in a position to win. We kind of let it get away from us a little bit. Um and you know, maybe our spirit was down a little bit, but we came back out responded well. Didn’t start off the game great, you know, but we didn’t give up a 40point quarter um today. So, that was big. Um and then we just had some big time guys make some big time plays, and that’s what we needed. Like, like I said, Orlando’s a good team. They’re well coached. They’re physical. They’re big, you know, they’re bigger than us. We’re smaller. Um, and we came out and we fought. Um, we didn’t give them inadvertent fouls. Still spots that we can do better, but, you know, we didn’t, you know, make dumb plays and we and we played some winning basketball tonight. So, I’m happy with that. With Anthony in particular, it seems like he’s in kind of a weird spot. Obviously, going from being the number one option last year to adjusting to a smaller role here as a or not smaller, but different role as as a leader on this team. Are you in his ear to like look for your shot, be aggressive? It seems like you’re like extra hype when he scores. So, I’m just curious. Yeah, he’s We have to figure out how to maximize everybody’s potential to whatever degree that is. And Anthony is a guy who’s very talented. So, we have to figure out how we can continue to maximize his potential um regardless of like what it looks like. So, we just got to keep an open mind. It was great to see him be aggressive in the first half and get it going. That’s what we need. Um that takes pressure off of everyone. So, uh, going forward, we got to look for that more and it’s a long season, so we just got to keep an open mind. Jaylen, I think it was during the training camp excited that every individual might be a bigger challenge than it than it was in past years. I’m curious a lot of games and how much you’ve enjoyed embracing that sort of like gametoame challenge of like what goes into winning. Yeah, today was fun. Today was fun. Like hard fought, hard fought, collective win. You know, nothing brings me more joy than that. Um, we had some guys step up and make some big plays. Um, that’s excellent. That’s what it takes every single night. Um, to have that type of fight, that type of desire and then like have guys get like Jordan. Jordan’s been playing great the last few games. Physical defensive doing what we asked him to do. And then, you know, that’s the cherry on top. You do what you’re supposed to do. You know, you get rewarded toward at the end like, you know, big time shot for him. So, that was great. Thank you. We didn’t we didn’t get a follow there, but uh he clearly clearly intimated that we got to find a way to we got like we got to just the Ask pregame Tuesday in Philly, John. Yeah. Um again, this isn’t the first time Jaylen’s done that before. He’s done it with um um you know, Joe Missoula and the threes, you know, not last year, but a couple years ago about we got to go to the best year. Yeah, we got first Missoula year. he kind of got under, you know, a couple times and he would say stuff like that. We got to we got to be more aggressive. We got to take it to the basket, not always settle, you know. So, he’s not afraid to do that. But this was one of those quotes. Um whether you agree or disagree, you know, that’s entirely up to you. It’s very clear what Brian thinks on the matter. Uh, well, let’s bring in Noah because she was there and maybe she has a better idea of why he said that, but I think it’s probably clear that he sees the value in somebody who can score 20 points per game at will, oddly enough. So, let’s uh let’s ask Noah about that particular comment. Noah had kind of teased it in our group chat when she was still uh when she was getting out of the locker room there. Um, so Noah, how did you read into that uh that that we got to keep an open mind uh quote about uh Simons there? Yeah, I don’t know if he specifically was talking about inserting him into the starting lineup or if it’s just in general maximizing him more offensively, but the way I kind of saw that is obviously Jill wants to win as much as possible this season. Like he is not viewing this as a developmental year or a gap year or anything else. and he’s probably sitting there thinking, you know, we got a really talented player and like I I want him to, you know, be kind of achieve as much as possible. The reason I asked him that, I don’t know if you could hear it in the question, but is because he’s he cheers like so much when and when whenever an Fernie Simon scores or does anything like I can tell he’s really invested in getting him going. And the other thing is that he said towards the end of that question is it opens things up for everybody when he gets going. And I think he said everybody, but I think he really means himself because part of what’s been really challenging and a couple guys alluded to this tonight is that he is getting all the attention defensively and then guys have not been hitting their threes. And Jordan Walsh said it post game like I need to I need to look for that shot. I asked him are you looking for your three? He said I need to look for it so I can open it up for Jaylen. Like Jaylen’s getting double teamed. And so that that those were kind of the two interpretations 100%. But I will say when I as soon as he answered that question I was like I can’t believe that it’s my question that’s going to be fodder for the show tonight on this because I knew right away. I was like I almost want to crop this out of the sound. I was like I never mind. I didn’t ask. Did you expect it’s a little it’s not but I think Noah you nailed it and this comment hits it too. It’s not a It’s not an indictment on Joe, but it is kind of a passive swipe at like, “Yeah, man. This guy’s a bucket, you know, and like you you know, NBA players, they love they love these types of players. They love guys who can score.” You know, what why is everybody’s favorite player in the world is who? It’s definitely it’s Kyrie Irving, you know, like everybody loves Kyrie because he’s got this ridiculous all the players because his skill set, his handles, his his ability to get shots off and the tricky stuff and like the way he scores. It’s just it’s the beautiful game sort of, you know, aspect of basketball. And Anthony Simons just scoring is easy to him. So, it’s very easy to be like, look at what we got here and maybe not notice some of the things he doesn’t do as well or some of the things some of the other guys do better than him. But what Noah said I think is exactly right. The burden on Jaylen Brown being out there is I got to carry this and everybody’s just looking at me and you know you know collapsing on me as I try to get going and go to the basket and everywhere I turn there’s bodies. It’s a lot to ask for him to continue doing that. Uh and Simons is you know one of the few guys that can absolutely open it up by creating his own offense. That’s why again we said it at the top of the show. Why is what he does valuable? because it’s the hardest thing to do in basketball to be create your own offense and do it well. It’s a very difficult thing to do. I think it’s an interesting because Celtics fans have a lot of belief in this guy. Like obviously a lot of them want to see him start. So I don’t think he’s caught them off guard, but I do wonder if tonight and he’s had good games this year, but this is the first time we saw like a volcanic Simon’s performance and a half. And I do wonder if these guys are seeing this and in front of them for the first time. Jaylen in particular, you don’t play Portland a lot through the course of the year. You don’t see them a ton and said, “Oo, like we could get more out of this here.” And obviously in the second half, no, we didn’t see a lot of them. Just six minutes, one shot in that stretch. Sorry, continue. I was going to say like should they have gone to him a little more in the second half? I don’t so I think in his minutes he did really change defensively what the Magic were doing. Like they they really over I mean I don’t even want to say overreacted because when you go on a an offensive like explosion that way it’s the appropriate reaction but they started just like completely prioritizing guarding him which did open things up for other guys on the floor in those minutes whether that was Luca Garza or Jaylen or whoever else. I think that that that like explosion that he had was the turning point for the game bes even though he didn’t score in the second half. Um but what it comes down to to me, I don’t think this is a new perspective that Jaylen has. He has been pretty vocal and pretty clear that he views Simons as an important part of this team and he views him as somebody that they need to maximize everything that he can do offensively. And so he he said something about it earlier in the season. I think tonight will maybe be the most overt that he’s been, but I don’t think he didn’t realize that Simon has this in the bag. Like they all have talked about since the first day of media availability in September that this guy is an incredible scoreer. Um, and so maybe like the average fan hasn’t watched a lot of him in Portland, but they’ve been they’ve been around him for months now at training camp and like every time I’ve asked anybody about him, they’re like he’s an absolute bucket. You can’t guard him, you know? Um, and so Jaylen knows that. And at the same time, Jaylen’s also realizing just like how how difficult it’s been offensively. I mean, this has been one of the lowest scoring offenses in the league all season, right? So, it’s a natural thing. Like, I didn’t think it was a pointed shot at anybody, any one thing in particular, but uh Jaylen can bring something and we know this, but he he brings up a topic to the forefront without kind of being super explicit a lot of times. I think this was a pretty good example of that. You didn’t think it was a the the slightest of not a shot, but it was just a nudge at Missoula to say, “Hey, like we have to be open to other Yeah. But but I don’t know that it’s like specifically about the like we are talking about the starting lineup because that’s like that’s the type of basketball discussions that we have. I don’t know that Jaylen was referring to that. We’re more talking about six minutes in the second half. Noah after two minutes in the first half. Well, so because I mean this is what happened to him, right? You had two minutes in the first half one day ago and then he comes in two two days two nights ago. Then he comes in and he heats up. He gets those 11 points there may, you know, all all in one spurt. It was valuable. You know, he got himself going, but he couldn’t get himself going there. Then he gets that second stint uh in the second half after going nuclear in the first half and he only plays six minutes the entire second half. And again, it’s because Joe has decided he’s, you know, going to lean on the guys he leans on. He gets him in that first stint, but he wants to go with Pritchard and White over him. He gets phased out. We compared it a little bit to the white Brogden smart situation where Brogden would get forgotten in fourth quarters all the time by Joe Mazula in his first year there and I think Simons kind of falls into that category because the other two are the trusted guys and the starters and more slight more defensive but it and 100% with Smart and White I think the disparity between Simons and Pritchard isn’t as great as it was between Smart White and Brogden. That was a big gulf here. But that’s where starting does matter because from the rotation standpoint, he gets iced out late in the game and he goes back to those starters with maybe mixing and matching at another position depending on what he wants to do in his front court there. But White, Pritchard, and uh Jaylen are going to close every single uh game and there’s just not going to be room for Simons. So he gets that short stint and then he doesn’t get going. You don’t work him to get get him the ball and he never appears again and that’s that. So, you just kind of took the hottest shooter on the planet completely out of the second half of your game. And I think that’s what Jaylen’s more alluding to rather than the fan starter conversation. I don’t know that Jaylen had a problem with how they closed this game. I mean, Jordan Walsh played 12 minutes in the fourth quarter. I don’t have a problem with I actually love Joe Misoula’s fourth quarter rotation. Maybe I would have wanted to see like that first group that went on that run in the first half of the fourth quarter stay on even longer, but I don’t think that was the plan, right? The plan was not for Jordan Walsh and Ugo Gonzalez to play six minutes in the fourth quarter and then 12 for him out there. Yeah. How you know? So to me, you got like this was a well a well coached game from a substitution pattern. you got Anthony in in the first half when they really really needed him and then I think in the fourth quarter of this game like you got the guys on that were responsible for why they came you know it was this was a tied game in the beginning of the fourth and they got a double digit lead and so I I don’t have any issues with who who played and and I don’t I mean maybe I’m wrong but I don’t think I don’t think Jaylen was alluding to no we brought that up too it’s hard in that second half to get away from what was working to that degree I mean plus 13 plus 19 in those minutes was just ridiculous the question is in general, and this might have been what he was getting at. How can you find more creative ways, that’s the word to use, right? Creative, uh, to integrate him, involve him, um, utilize his skill set. And it’s been interesting to hear that the coaches have been begging him to get more aggressive, that they’ve been trying to figure out like where’s his sweet spots, all that, right? Because it shows that there’s an effort on the coaching staff’s part to utilize him more. It’s not like they’re just like, “Yeah, this guy’s not what we want. You know, we’re just going to minimize his role here.” So, I think there’s some proof that they’re trying here, but are they actually going to be successful with it? And I I think the the straightest path to it is probably going to be having a little bit, and I I’m not there yet. No, I keep I keep approaching this point, but I’m not there. Having a little more balance between the Simons minutes and the Pritchard minutes. Not that Pritchard’s doing anything wrong here. Not that he hasn’t been effective to begin this year, just having a little bit more of a tradeoff there to utilize both of their skill sets because they are different guys. Like, yeah. Am I wrong to say you’re probably going to get a little more three-point shooting out of Simons and Pritchard? No, I don’t think you’re wrong to say that. I mean, he can certainly create his own three-point shot. I think at least I think better than Pritchard can. I think Pritchard, you know, is is has gotten more from catch and shoot opportunities and things like that. But I don’t know. Oh, I I mean I know I know I’m just joining the show. I’m joining the show an hour and 20 minutes in, but the last thing I’m thinking about is like that minute distribution. Like I don’t think that’s been the the variance and kind of their five and six record. Like I think that you know they need to get the shooting is Yeah. So wait, what’s what’s the point though? Is the I think they’re taking the most threes in the NBA. So, they probably need their best, arguably best three-point shooter on the floor a little more often, unless they’re going to change their shot profile a little bit. And Pritchard has, right, Jaylen has. In this one, actually, they only took 33 threes. That that has to be a low in a long time. Their three lowest three-point total games have been this week. So, maybe they are starting to change their approach a little bit. But to begin the year where you’re taking the most threes in the league and you’re missing a ton of them, I felt like you maybe needed a little more assignments there. But obviously the identity of this team could change as as the year goes on. And if that’s going to be the case, fine. To me, it’s less about how much assignments playing. I actually I am kind of surprised to see he played 23 minutes. It felt like more. But it’s more about when he’s on the floor, how are you utilizing him? If he is not like one of the primary scoring options, if not the primary scoring option when he’s on the floor, you’re kind of wasting it because he’s going to be a little bit more of a liability in other fronts. So, it’s like get them get everything you can out of him on the offensive end when he’s out there. And that’s where I feel like they haven’t always done the best job. And, you know, I don’t it’s hard. Two shots in the second half. Yeah. Like I I mean, and part of that is Orlando. I mean, Orlando was freaking out every time he moved. So, I don’t know that that’s necessarily Boston’s fault. And there’s no stat for how many points you created for other people by existing, but I think in this game, if there was, he would he would fare pretty well in that category. So, in general, it’s to me it’s less about the minutes. He’s played he’s played a lot of minutes for this team. I think he’s top five in minutes, top four in minutes, but it’s more about when you know what what kinds of looks is he getting? How how much priority is there in in his him getting good shots off? And obviously part of that is him, but part of that is the people around him. I mean Jaylen in general talks in the terms of we need to get guys going. He said that about Derrick White about a week ago that we need to get Derrick going. Like that is something that we need to do. Whether that’s a shot of the coaching staff or himself or Peyton or whoever else it is, we don’t know. But I think that’s just the way he views. Can we get the sound up one more time, Bailey? I want to hear it again. And Jimmy, you can you can give your thoughts on this quick while while Bailey does that. What are we doing? Or what I want I want to hear what I want to hear what Jaylen said on this again because I want to like start to, you know, internalize it a little bit here, but you got anything else on this on Simons? On Simons, Jimmy? No, I mean I we talked a lot about Simons earlier in the show, so I don’t want to repeat myself, but I I I kind of echo what Jaylen said in a sense where it’s like, and John said the same thing, find a way to get this guy on the court. Find a way to get him shots. I agree with Noah. He can create his shots better than a lot of the guys can on this on this team. Certainly better than Pritchard can, obviously, you know, better than Hoser can. Different positions, of course, and that that’s a, you know, another topic, but you know what Simons can give you. And I just found it surprising that with the start he had to this game that they couldn’t find ways to get him in the game or get him his shots in the second half. Now they won the game. So I’m not going to, you know, go on and on about it. But I was I was glad to know that, you know, Noah’s question kind of led to us. It seems like a similar, you know, response. So mad and you know, he’s like, “What do we do? Talk about Kada. I wanted to talk about Jordan. I wanted to talk about all the fun.” We’re going to let you let you have those minutes. I know. I know. We’re not going to I joined too late. I know it. And I know Walsh minutes. Minutes. Minutes. Minutes. We talked about Walsh a decent amount. And this hasn’t been a full talked about Walsh. You probably have to say, but why don’t we why don’t we get Noah is Walsh. What did you say about Jordan Walsh? John said buy or sell, and I just said I wasn’t ready. The last thing I have I was going to ask about Walsh, Jimmy, but the last thing I got on Simons here because we talked about it a ton on Friday night and I know Noah’s perspective was that Ugo Walsh gave the game what it needed in that sec um in that first half and it wasn’t as much of a Simon’s game. I still even though that ended up being true tonight. So, feather in your cap for that one, Noah. um cuz those two guys had the right lineup and the right matchup and whatever else contributed to the win. Those guys played well enough to be the right choice in this game. But I still come out of these last two games where we’ve had this discussion generally feeling like Simon should not be a matchup uh you know hot cold interchangeable guy with the May not Ugos Walshes of the world. He should be central to what they’re doing because he’s that good. He’s one of their best players. And I get that it’s awkward cuz three of your five best players are guards and you can’t really play them all together. So that’s where to Jaylen’s point here, it’s about the creativity. And I’ll try to hit this point exactly here in his presser. Yeah. Don’t I think it’s the full thing with Anthony in particular. It seems like he’s in kind of a weird spot obviously going from being the number one option last year to adjusting to a smaller role here or not smaller but different role. As a leader on this team, are you in his ear to like look for your shot, be aggressive? It seems like you’re like extra hype when he scores. So, I’m just curious. Yeah, he’s we have to figure out how to maximize everybody’s potential to whatever degree that is and very talented. So, we have to figure out how we can continue to maximize his potential um regardless of like what it looks like. So, we just got to keep regardless of what it looks like. Great to see him be aggressive in the first half and get it going a little bit. That’s what we need. Um that takes pressure off of everyone. So, uh, going forward, we got to look for that more. And it’s a long season, so we just got to keep an open mind. Open mind. All right. So, aggressiveness, open mind. Um, maximize potential. Said that a couple times. This is my regardless of what it looks like. Regardless of what it looks like, what does that mean? Yeah. What does that mean? What could it look like? Can you maybe play three guards together, Noah? Maybe. Yeah. I mean, listen, like you, like you kind of said it, Bobby, like three of their best players are three guards that do some similar things. Um, I don’t know. I mean, personally speaking, I think the Ugo and Walsh minutes in this Orlando matchup, and that’s not always going to be the case, were the game-winning decision. We can move on to Walsh now. We don’t have to. And I think and I think the last and I think the previous game they were both plus nine and plus seven in a game that they lost, right? So I don’t think that’s going to be the case for every single team in this in the NBA, but in this matchup they were they were massive. Like I test alone I was like Joe do not take those guys out. Keep them on the floor. I don’t care who has to sit for them. I don’t care if it’s Pritchard or if it’s Simons or if it’s like I it just they were thriving in this matchup. And so I don’t know. I I I just don’t view Jaylen’s comment as specifically about rotations. Maybe it is. Honestly, I I probably should have just followed up like I was gonna say there needed to be a followup there by someone, but we didn’t. It was the end of the presser, so I get it. But we’ll we’ll ask Joe about it on Tuesday and I’m sure he’ll be happy to comment on uh Simon’s usage and his rotations. Um what were your thoughts on Jordan Noah because we saw him for the third straight game here, right? And obviously the most important moment of his career knocking down a corner three for the icer that he struggled to hit. Um, we asked how do you how do you feel coming out of this in the sense of are we going to continue to see more from Walsh? Like is this something that’s sustainable here? Is this just a blip in a long season with a lot of different rotations for this uh team? Here’s the thing with Jordan fans and I think the media to a slightly lesser extent, but not that much lesser. We overreact to the highs and lows of these young guys, right? Like a ton. and Jordan. Relax. You’re including yourself, right? I’m a member of the very much. Relax. Okay. Jordan Walsh. Oh, I’m relaxed. I’ve never been more relaxed in my damn life. Jordan Walsh is somebody that I think people have written off because he didn’t do much in his second NBA season. First season he was in the G-League and I think you’re looking at his third season and he was the DNP for most of the first week or so, right? two weeks. And so you start to just be like, okay, this was just a bust, right? Ugo was the hit and Jordan it was a bust. Like that’s just the way that it starts to play out. And then you look at somebody like Josh Minard who was in Minnesota for three years, didn’t do anything, was drafted at 19 just like Jordan. They have a very similar trajectory in the sense that they both didn’t, you know, had a year in college, a couple years in their first stop, and it it didn’t really pan out. And then you look at Josh Min in Boston and here we are a week ago after his 21-point game being like how did Minnesota like not do anything with this guy, right? And this wasn’t a a spectacular Josh Minard game, but I think we all feel pretty good about him being a player that can impact winning and is here to stay and we’re all talking about I wish we could extend him, right? Like it sucks that it’s only a two-year deal. Jordan Walsh is the same age and Jordan Walsh is actually a year behind in his NBA development. And so I don’t think that this idea that like maybe he’s just showing some good flashes and like it doesn’t actually mean anything because he’s done very little in his career has to stand. It doesn’t it also doesn’t mean that he’s gonna become a great NBA player. But they always knew that year one he wasn’t going to do anything. Like he was 19, he was raw. Like nobody expected him to do anything. Year two maybe, but like think about last year’s group. It really wasn’t a year for opportunity for any of these guys. Like you could barely even Luke got phased out of moments, right? Like it’s not you know it was not the year for for guys that are unproven. And then year three, this is all this was always going to be the year that was kind of the make or break year for him. And to be honest with you, I’ve loved everything I’ve seen from him on the court this season. I thought he had a good summer league and I thought he’s been great in these games where he’s played extended minutes. Even last game, he made a few more mistakes, but he was great in Orlando. He was awesome in the Wizards game. That was the best game I’ve seen him play up until tonight. And when there’s a loose ball and everybody’s fighting for a rebound, I trust him to get that ball right now more than maybe anybody on this roster. Like he has been a prolific rebounder. So the three-point shot comes around, which you know was good tonight. He was hitting everything in warm-ups. I pointed it out to the other reporters in the pregame like he could not miss in warm-ups. If it comes around, like I think you have a very legitimate NBA player here. And the vision that we all saw for him when he was first drafted of this guy that plays really hard and is long and as a talented defender, like it’s coming to fruition. And it’s honestly not coming to fruition that late. Like this was kind of the schedule that he was always going to be on as a 19-year-old that was drafted in the second round. Um, so I’m not going to say like you you you got a real player here for the future. like I don’t know, but he’s not behind and he’s shown really good things over the past week. The the situation, the reality for him is that there’s competition. Ugo got that role that he’s in to start the year, and now it looks like they want to use them together for extended stretches, which is playing out pretty well. I know you’re a big fan of that duo right now, No, and maybe we’ll continue to see it. But there is legitimate competition night in night out, and even long term for his men at Shireman. still don’t want to rule him out from being a part of this dynamic. And Ugo obviously looks like he brings a ton of pedigree and potential of this position here. So, I mean, he’s got what, one year left on his deal after this one before, you know, you figure out what you’re going to do with him long term. That’s another dynamic here is you lost two years of his contract with him in Maine and developing effectively since he came out so young. But, it’s nice to just see that he can fit in. You know, Washington’s one thing, they’re awful. Orlando’s physical, tough, experienced, you know, as the years go on here, and he’s playing a vital role in this matchup. And obviously, I think what’s important for him, Jimmy, he’s been a player who gets down on himself, frustrated, um, probably rides some emotional swings through some of the highs and lows of his career. And obviously, like his NBA opportunities, as we said earlier, know been like two shots in the corner. If you miss them, you’re on the bench. if you make them great game and that’s tough that’s you know N Smith was in that position Romeo all the guys we’ve talked about who came through here and looked like they had promised and then ended up somewhere else the tough part right now for him is it’s going to be inconsistent the opportunity it’s going to be low volume and can you just stay steady stay consistent through that it’s been a challenge for him so far but now that he’s finally starting to get some results now that he’s finally starting to get some of that consistency I feel like you might be able to actually get a little bit more from him energy-wise, Jimmy, and just confidence-wise on his shot. Like, his confidence in his shot right now is everything. And you’ve been up in Maine and seen him a ton now. Like, it’s a whole different ball game for him up there with the confidence than it’s been in Boston where he looks a little shaky at times and erratic. Yeah. And honestly, the other thing I’ll say is I asked him, I think you guys played it sound, but I asked him about like his preparation because I don’t think he knew what he was doing when he came in when he was 19. Like, he said it himself. I had no idea how to I had no idea how to prepare for games. I had no idea how to work and it took time. It took leadership from guys like Al Horford and Jason Tatum and you know being a part of this organization but Joe has gone out of his way to praise his preparation and you know Joe doesn’t like to praise people on his own accord. So like he has gone out of his way to do that and I think that’s a credit to how Jordan has grown during the three years that Joe has been coach and you look at somebody like Ugo Joe’s gone out of his way to say that Ugo’s previous coach this moment I was going to text you about that tweet. He high-fives people all the time. He’s always hiding. Yes, I’m gonna have to keep an eye on it. I feel like there aren’t a lot of Joe High. We need a high five, Connor. Yeah, we do. This is besides the point. That would be Noah’s That would be peak Noah content. The high five Connor. But besides the point, but but I think Ugo came in and Ugo already knew how to be a a winning player and knew how to work and knew how to prepare because he was a former Real Madrid player, not a guy that rode the bench at in college. I mean, Walsh was like what? Walsh wasn’t ready. Yeah. 10 months from high school. Yeah. Yeah. But that doesn’t mean that Walsh and I think he was like I don’t know. And I think it but it doesn’t mean that he can’t become a good NBA player. And so to me, I haven’t seen anything this year that has made me feel like he is not right on track of where he’s supposed to be. And obviously he’s playing really well right now. His defensive assignment was Po today. Like it’s super impressive that he was able to handle that. That’s not like you said, it’s not just the Wizards game where he’s just guarding, you know, god knows who who’s guarding at some of those moments. Yeah, I think it was super impressive and the shot from I I only get to watch him warm-ups, but I watch him warm up every single every single game. He is shooting so much better than he was two years ago. Like I would love to know what this the behind the the scenes like stats that they keep track for him in practice are because I test completely different shooter, completely different level of confidence. Like he does he’s moving trails with guys he doesn’t miss. I mean he he’s a really good shooter now and seen a lot of guys in my three years covering this team that do not shoot well warm up. So we need two things Jimmy. the high five counter and the warm-up uh I think high five counter is actually something that we could we might be able to incorporate that into the show. Um I’m going to start keeping an eye on it people. I was like what you have an archive of bench video. We can go back and see the tape of I’m going to defer to Noah over the years. Yeah. I’m gonna defer to Noah on the Walsh talk here because nobody knows Walsh’s game probably closer than Noah does. Maybe you too, Bobby, because you guys are you guys are main main Celtics uh you know, experts as well. Um I’m not quite there yet with Walsh. I think if he misses that corner three, we’re talking about him in a different light tonight. Making those shots is going to be the difference between being between him being in the league and not being in the league. I think that’s really what it comes down to. You can give We’re talking about energy like crazy on this show. And I’m glad because that’s what Walsh gave you and that’s what Ugo gave you. It’s you need those guys in some capacity. I’m not sure where they fit on a championship contending team. I’m not sure if they crack the rotation if that’s all they can give you. I mean, I think, you know, might not have shown you more. You know, you’re talking about guys that are going to see their roles diminish here on a championship caliber team or add add two or three more, you know, starting level players or at least guys one through six, one through seven type, you know, depth chart here. These guys are going to round out your rotation, but they need to be able to do a little bit more than give you like what John probably exaggerated a bit on by saying, you know, Walsh gives you zero out there. Let’s be realive. It’s not that far from that, though. If we’re going to be totally real, and you said it off the top, Noah, a lot of guys start a lot of Yes, we are. A lot of guys start their career in one place, develop, do the G-League thing there, and then carry that forward to the next destination. So, listen, you’d love to have him become the player he’s capable of being here in Boston. You’d love to see him thrive here and, you know, you capitalize on all that, but I don’t know what’s he going to make for next year, 4 million. Like, you remember what happened with Nesmith? Like, there were signs here. There were spirits. Not to say this was like an N Smith level prospect, but that carried on to the next spot. You know, he was involved in a trade. Indiana liked him and he got to thrive and become the player he was capable of being there. Maybe that’ll be the outcome for Walsh here and you end up getting something back for him to show off this year. N Smith was considered one of the best shooters in that draft. I’m not sure. Walsh didn’t make a blip in that draft. In fact, was Walsh a top high school recruit? Noah, I feel like that was his pedigree. Like there’s a lot of guys now who are like five stars coming out of high school. Like if you were drafting the high school players, they’d be one of the top picks, but then the college year doesn’t go how you expected and then they end up in the second round. Like that’s what happened to my not too. Um so they do JD and Jordan are both spot too. A lot of guys have go through that now. So the pedigree is here. The size, the length, the uh whole profile of a player who you think is going to fit in the NBA is here. But what’s he actually doing in the short minutes that you’re putting him out there? And last couple games it’s been pretty good. And it’s not just shooting. Like six rebounds here, four assists, a nice swing the white. Like he is not why he’s out there. Of course shooting is not why he’s out there, right? But at some point like tonight, great example. He hit the shot. That’s what’s going to ultimately get him back out on the court. Hustle and energy are great. either that or some other offensive contribution or on this team maybe defensive rebounding which is obviously a need and he’s given them that too. So that could be another thing. Yeah. That gets you on the court for this team. So I do know I see him carrying this forward for some amount of time. Obviously injuries and other guys getting going can influence that change that. But um it’s been a nice pleasant surprise the last week or so here cuz as you mentioned eight nine games in you were starting to get worried that well I was I won’t speak for you know Noah because I know you said you don’t do this. I was starting to get worried this was going to say I definitely didn’t say I was worried. I was he was going to be buried for the full season here. So credit to him big role in this win. Credit to the Celtics who got their best win of the year by far in Orlando. Split the two games down there. Jaylen mentioned it. They haven’t won a regular season game down there since Joe’s first year. So, been a long time coming. It’s a challenging matchup. Jimmy and I both think this Magic team can make the finals. I’m not feeling great about that after watching the last change their entire identity, but yeah. So, we’ll see what ends up happening with them. The Celtics are on to Philly, who’s looking pretty good. Trendan Watford just had a triple double at the four for them. And Paul George isn’t going to play on Tuesday, but he’s nearing return. And that’s been a tough matchup so far that the Celtics have split. Uh you heading there tomorrow, Noah? Yep. You have flying to Philly tomorrow. Tuesday morning. I thought you were doing mouse ears for Disney. No, I didn’t. Ah, I just hung out at the pool all day. Typical. All right, it’s not a bad choice. Get a tan on the company, huh? Okay, I’ll let Jos know. We were expecting mouse ears, but we got a bucket hat tonight. I was trying to be in the spirit. Um, we want cheese steaks in Philly. We want a cheese steak review. How about that for me? Do that. Yeah. Well, no, not not from you. Actually, definitely not from you, but from what would be a good vegan alternative for cheese? Yeah, there’s going to be a vegan vegan cheese option there. Something like that. Yeah, I can find something. Yeah, think about it. I’m scared to fly. Was flying a disaster, Noah? Uh, my flight was six hours delayed. I got into Orlando at 4:00 a.m. Nice. I’m very scared to fly on Tuesday, but flight talk. Don’t be scared, Bobby. You’ll be fine. You got this. 4 hours. I will not be fine with a 4 hour delay in Boston. Why? It wasn’t bad. I I got my nails done and I went to the gym. I I knew about it in advance. It wasn’t like It wasn’t like I was on the plane for six hours. You went on a tarmac. Yeah, I got I got green nails ahead of the real night. Oh, look at that. In the spirit. Jimmy’s got the green hard hat. annoying. My nails look green nails. There we go. That’s why it’s cigar report. Noah, I don’t know if you noticed the hard hat’s on tonight. Hard hat win. I mean, I checked two seconds into the show. I checked to see if you’re wearing the hard hat. So, cuz it was fitting, right? I thought this was the I thought this was the best regular season win I’ve seen. We are going to wrap. We are going to wrap it. But I want I do want Noah’s Is there anything else from this game, Noah? Because we really you kind of came on late, so I I want to make sure you didn’t miss anything. You talk Walsh. talked about Brown. Yeah, you get the final thought. Say this, my final thought. Ugo is going to be an insane defender in the NBA because he already is and he’s doesn’t even know anything yet. Like he’s a few months into his career. But yeah, he’s going to be an insane defender in the NBA. I’m so excited. What? He doesn’t know anything. He doesn’t know anything yet. I mean, he’s just he’s just learning. Like he doesn’t know these guys tendencies very well, you know? He’s just preparing right now like game to game. Like imagine Ugo when he’s been guarding Paulo for four years, you know, like maybe they did a good job on Paulo this weekend. He was he I just wish they fed him out in the fourth, but that’s another deal. His 12 minutes like again like he’s the ultimate guy where the statute is never going to capture what he’s doing. Um yeah, he’s awesome. He’s he’s going to be great and I love watching him and Jordan play together. I could watch those two disrupt opposing offenses so much. if they can hit their threes, like they were three for three in the fourth quarter, that was obviously the the difference here tonight. But if they can be solid three-point shooters as a duo and and guard the way that they have been guarding, like it’s it’s a sight to behold. So, I I thoroughly enjoyed it. For me, this is like the ultimate win watching those guys um you know, defend the way that they did and everybody hitting their shots and like Jaylen says, it’s really rewarding as a as a player to see like everybody impact winning, but guys like Luca Garza, like I think this was probably the best game of his NBA career, right? like there was a lot of that tonight and so um it’s in one week. Yeah, we saw Minot Kada. Uh, yeah, this is what it’s about. Walsh and this is kind of what we said could happen. Guys are gonna get opportunities. What are they going to do with them? Right? I mean, these these opportunities didn’t come in Minnesota for those guys. You know, they didn’t come for Walsh last year for obvious reasons. So, this is this is the season for that. So, who’s going to end up ultimately making the most of it? I mean, it feels like a night in night out. It could be anybody, but it’s good to see it coming from different different players. I think maybe Baylor’s got to get down the action at some point if he can get out of that dog. I know that’s a bummer right now. Yeah, someone’s going to be the odd man out at every point and Buch, which is unfortunate, but everybody is going to have their moment. And this team’s been healthy so far at this point. Like, I’m super optimistic about what we’ve seen, but injuries will inevitably strike during the course of a year. How can you sustain those? The schedule’s been tough, too. Like, they’re going to play the most games in the NBA. Know it through Wednesday with that backtoback and then they finally get a layoff here. So, I’m interested to see how they recover from that, too, and then uh get on to like the Brooklyn’s of the world who are coming up here. So, they’ve gotten through this tough stretch. I I said it. I don’t know how you felt about it, Noah. Like, they were going to struggle off the bat. They were going to have to figure a lot of stuff out. This was not going to be an easy slate scheduling wise either with these matchups, Orlando, and Philly three times. And, you know, the whole schedule was just brutal to begin. So, they’ve gotten through it. They’ve had some surprising wins. They’ve blown four games. They finally got a great crunch time win here. They were 1 and4 coming into this one in that situation. So, another step here. I feel like they keep figuring out more of who they are, who they want to play, who they want to be with each passing game here. And things are pointing up. So, I’m feeling good about it. Last thing, last thing I’ll say is the rebounding woes from the first two weeks of the season have neutralized quite a bit. like it’s they’re never going to be a great rebounding team, but against this Magic team, they were they had one fewer rebounds than Orlando did. So, something that I thought was going to be just defining every game this season has become more of a subplot and something that some nights has not even been a problem. After Detroit, you know, they were 0 and3. They couldn’t grab a single rebound down the stretch of that game and you were like, uhoh, is this what the year is going to be? And they figured out and the coaching. That’s no fun. I don’t want to see them lose because of that. That’s so boring, you know? I know. It has to be more exciting than asking guys rebounding questions every night which get the worst answers in the world. Um it would have been a nightmare, but we’ll see. There’s a long year ahead. There’s a lot of twists and turns to come, but uh this team’s hanging in there and this was an important one tonight. Thanks to Jimmy, thanks to John who jumped the ship on a positive angry John. Bobby got John very angry tonight. Noah, you I had to hold down the fort before you got here, Noah, with the uh with the optimism. Sean was uh John was once on tonight’s show. Yeah, it’s the best one of the season. Bobby just has to go back and watch. Bobby just has away. We’ll leave it at that. I do. Okay, I’ll watch it on the plane tomorrow. Yeah, I’ll luck your delay. Safe travels. Get the We’ll take the mouse ears after the Philly game. I know it won’t make any sense, but grab some before you go. Yeah. At the airport. At the airport. They’ll be there. They’ll have some at the airport. You can expense it. Jimmy, you think I can expense it? Jimmy said I could expense it. You can? Yeah. Jimmy made the decision. I got jealous. If I get a call about that if I get a call about those mous ears. Put it on my tab. Put it on my tab. Uh Jimmy, we’ll see when the hard hat’s back again. First opportunities Philly on Tuesday, 8:00 p.m. Uh that’s been a fun one so far and I I do enjoy the games down there. I’ll be down there. Noah will be down there. And that’s it for the road trip. back to back back to Memphis on Wednesday and then a little bit of a layoff after that for this team. And that’s it for tonight. Uh show some love to Prize Picks, our sponsor here. Use the code CNS over there. Big Monday night game coming up tomorrow as well as plenty of basketball going on right now as well. So check them out with CLS. And check out Omaha Stakes with the code Patriots as uh the holiday season comes up here for $35 off. Uh, check out our content everywhere. There was big Patriots coverage up and down. The seventh straight win from this lit. I think no one’s gonna take credit all evening tomorrow since you went to a game though at 2 and 0. So trying because they already were on a winning streak. All Noah, I guess. Yep. Yeah. And then good job. They got the Jets next week. So I feel pretty good about that. Jets are on Thursday. Thursday game. Oh, is it a Thursday coming up? Thursday. A short week. That could be a little bit of a trap. Um, coming back from the road. No, they’ll do fine. We got Celtics Tuesday and Wednesday, Patriots Thursday. CNS will have you guys covered regardless of the sport all day, all night. We got you right here. So, go uh go check that out. Noah, you’ll have a podcast tonight. Oh, of course I will. Some of these podcasts that’s been hard to find positive things. Not tonight. This is This is a podcast. I’m gonna be dancing during the podcast. Built for Noah. Yeah. Tonight. So, check that out. We had uh this dude just teasing some stuff. Jimmy, come on. We got We got 2,000 people in here who need the content. Um we also got AJ Debansa coming up on the Garden Report. He joined the show. That’s legit. We like potential number one pick. Uh he is playing at TD Garden on Saturday. So, if you want to see him at the garden in his hometown, I will be there. I believe Ahmed’s going to go as well with me and uh maybe we’ll talk to him even more while we’re there. But we have interview with When’s that interview coming out? Do we know yet? Later this week at some point, stay tuned. Stay tuned for that. You want me a little tank talk? Yeah. Well, he got into that. I’ll tease it. Okay. Which I didn’t think he would. You know, I asked him about a lot of Celtics fans want to see him on obviously his favorite team here in Boston. So, he uh gave some interesting answers to that. So, stay tuned for that. And with that, we will finally wrap. Jimmy, thanks, Jimmy. Thanks, Noah. I’m Bobby Manning, and this has been the Garden Report. Peace. [Music]

The Garden Report goes LIVE right after Celtics vs. Magic as CLNS Media’s John Zannis and Bobby Manning break down the game then CLNS’ Noa Dalzell joins from Orlando with postgame reaction and player sound.

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