You Got Boston w/ Noa Dalzell: Celtics Summer League Recap, Matt Reynolds Journey to Coaching

You Got Boston w/ Noa Dalzell: Celtics Summer League Recap, Matt Reynolds Journey to Coaching

Tatum the drive. Tatum the finish. It is 18. The mission commanding is mission accomplished. What’s up everyone? This is Noah Delzelle and I’m here with another episode of You God Boston uh live from Las Vegas. This is my first podcast from Las Vegas. It has been a very busy week or so. Uh, so I’m going to be recapping a lot of kind of what I’ve observed on the ground here through the first four games of summer league. Um, and then also discuss a feature that I put out this morning uh about the summer league head coach Matt Reynolds, which you can check out on Celtics blog as well. Uh, and as always, this I’m going to be taking in live questions in the chat. So, feel free to put in any questions you might have um about Summer League, about any of the players, about uh Ugo Gonzalez and his acclamation, about the other guys in the roster that are not necessarily going to be on the Celtics, but may be somewhere, maybe in Maine, maybe elsewhere. So, we’ll talk all of that. I got to Summer League on day one, so this is Friday. I got here last Thursday. Um, and I’m truly happy to talk about all these things. So, feel free to put in questions and I’m also going to discuss kind of my observations. I think the big question that everybody had going into summer league is which of these guys is going to be a rotation player. Um, and I think the three guys that everybody has in mind are the three, you know, top draft picks that Brad Stevens has has selected over the past three seasons. Uh, Jordan Walsh in 2023, uh, Baylor Shyman in 2024 and Ugo Gonzalez in 2025. Uh, the latter two being first round picks, Jordan Walsh selected 38th. None of them have really played a ton of NBA minutes. Obviously, Ugo has yet to make his NBA debut. Um, and so this, you know, these past four games has been an opportunity to see how three forwards who have slightly different skill sets, but also some overlapping skills, um, kind of stack up. And I think they had three different experiences here. Uh, and so we’ll talk about all of that today. Uh, before we get started, please do subscribe to the You Got Boston podcast on YouTube, Apple, and Spotify, wherever you get your podcasts. Um, and we I’ll continue to have coverage here on the ground over the next couple of days. Subscribe to CLNS Media. We’ve been doing a postgame show after every game regardless of the time, regardless of who’s playing. We will be on. I was on with Gary Washburn and Asard Blakeley yesterday after the Celtics beat the Lakers. That was a fun game. Um, and you can also check out a lot of our other coverage, podcast, pressers, all of that. So, any offseason content, this has been a pretty busy offseason. I don’t feel like I’ve honestly had much of an offseason. and I spent last week at uh Jaylen Brown’s youth camp at Bridge. So, I’ll talk a little bit more more about that in a separate episode, so you can check that out. Um, but today is going to be mostly summer league focused. And if you’re still here after four games of summer league, you’re extra locked in. So, I appreciate you being here. I know a lot of people are get really excited about game one, maybe game two, uh, and then it kind of goes down. But, the Celtics have kept playing, uh, all of their guys. you know, a lot of player, you know, a lot of teams have already shut down their like actual rostered players. Um, but they haven’t. They have their fifth game on Sunday against the Hawks. Um, we’ll see if that actually happens and you know, who actually plays in these games. Um, you know, there are eight guys in the roster that are not on a two-way and that don’t have a standard contract with the Celtics. So, those are the guys that usually get a little bit more of an opportunity in game five. So, you know, maybe we’ll see guys like Kenny Loftton get more opportunities, Isaiah Wong, who’s, you know, had some ball handling responsibilities, but then also other guys that we haven’t seen really at all, like Hayden Gray and, you know, Zack Hicks, Ben Greg, like those guys that are kind of at the bottom half of the roster who have still been here for the full experience. So, that’s probably what we’ll get on Sunday. Um, and yeah, I do apologize. I have been slacking on the getting out the podcast front. It’s been a very, very busy week. Um, and honestly really hard to find a place to podcast, but that’s no excuse. We’ve been doing our postgame, so this is going to be a little bit of a makeup episode. So any questions you’ve had over the last week, we can do them here today. Um, so I’m going to start at the top of the player that I think has been most impressive so far. Um, and probably most of you agree, and that’s Jordan Walsh, who is in his third summer league. He also is just a couple months older than than 21. He turned 21 in March, so like he’s in his third summer league, but he’s also still really young. and a lot of players that are, you know, two, three years older than him that are also competing in summer league right now. Uh Jordan hasn’t been like mindblowing, overwhelming, like, wow, he’s so amazing. Like, I think, you know, obviously it’d be fun if there was one player that we could say, you know, this guy just absolutely destroyed the competition at Summer League. That hasn’t really been the case for any of the Celtics. Um, but Jordan averaging 15 points per game, shooting 46.3% from the field, 38.9% from three. Uh he’s appeared in all four games, so he’s not one of the guys that’s gotten a rest day. Um but I will say he did get ejected for those of you that watched game three verse the Miami Heat. He got ejected in the first half. Um that also was the Celtics only loss. So he has they have been better when he’s been on the floor. I think defensively he’s been better. Uh just seeing him play within himself. Everybody remembers last year summer league he really really struggled. That story has kind of been beaten to the ground. So, I won’t relive the whole thing, but he talked about how he really wanted to be like the Tatum or the Brown of Summer League and he just wasn’t that. Um, and in turn, he had like a really, really difficult, you know, offensive stretch there for the first four games. Jordan looks a lot better now. He’s a year older. I think he has the experience of like this is what happens when you force the issue at summer league. Um, and he has found a way to like hit his threes, play good defense, be aggressive. He talks a lot of trash, which is something that I honestly didn’t realize about him quite to this extent, but at summer league, we get to sit like right next to the bench and right next to the court, and that has really stood out for me. Um, but of the three young, you know, prospects the Celtics have at the wing position, he’s the guy that’s had the best summer league so far. And that doesn’t mean that he is without a doubt going to be the guy that carves out real NBA rotation minutes because we already know you can have an awesome summer league and be terrible or vice versa. Sam Hower in his second year couldn’t hit a shot and we all know he went on to be a great NBA shooter. Uh players like Trey Young, Horford, even Wem didn’t have a good summer league. So it’s, you know, on one hand I’m here and obviously I think it matters, but at the same time you put an asterric on all this stuff, good and bad. But for Jordan, this has been a good four games. I don’t know if he’s going to have any more games left in this run here. The Celtics are three and one, but they did not make the playoffs because you have to be undefeated to make the playoffs. and even a few undefeated teams then I’ll make it actually. Um but generally speaking I’ve really liked what we’ve seen out of him. Um and it’s just it hasn’t been you know he hasn’t been like I said like spectacular but I think this is what you want to see. The question is how is that going to translate uh to Maine? So uh thank you for the super chat. The happy hour network. I actually didn’t even realize that I had super chats on for this podcast. So thank you. Um 3 and D modern I see a role for Wallace. 3 and DD modern Tony Allen plus three ball uh 16 plus to 22 minutes love the length that I think is the vision you know with some of these guys you draft them because you hope that one day can all come together and they can be a a borderline all-star um Jordan I don’t think that necessarily is the role but sometimes it’s actually easier to play in the NBA because the spacing is better you have more talent around you the game’s a little bit more slowed down a little bit more controlled so I don’t necessarily think that summer league has been like the best fit for any of these guys. Okay, there’s a challenge that’s posed with playing in this environment. Um, but in a best case scenario, I do think he becomes a 3 andd player. Uh, he’s shooting well right now, as I said, you know, 38% from three. He shot well in the G-League. Uh, in the NBA, he didn’t has not shot well, but it’s also been such a small sample that it’s just really hard to draw anything from that. Um, but again, he’s going to have to hit them in the NBA for it to really matter, right? So, we’ll see. Um but yeah, he does talk a lot of trash. That was the biggest thing that I noticed um just sitting courtside. It’s just it’s a huge part of his personality. He told he told us after the game that he talks trash to. Uh Jaylen Brown at practice oftentimes. JD Davidson is a big guy he talks trash to. Um but he’s just he’s a fun loving guy. I think he is, you know, having a really good time being here, which some guys you can tell like they’re kind of like, “Oh, I’m a third year player. I wish I wasn’t playing in summer league.” and that translates to their persona on the floor. That hasn’t been the case with Jordan. Like Jordan, I think has has been he has no issue at all playing summer league. He’s having a good time. He’s playing hard. Uh the ejection was kind of a stain on his otherwise really strong stretch here. He would be averaging more points to because one of those games got cut off, you know, in the first half. Um but the ejection actually I watched Joe Misoula walk over from the bleacher to Jordan Walsh and I was like, is he going over there to congratulate him after he got ejected? This is after the Celtics only loss so far of summer league. Um and so I asked Jordan about it postgame and he was like yeah Joe Joe loved uh Joe loved it. He texted me that he was hype. Um and he said I don’t know what to make of that. You guys make that what you will. He said I don’t know if Brad loved it. I apologize to Brad. I told Brad that I’m more professional than that. So uh you know that’s that’s kind of a Joe Missoula thing. Jordan came on the Garden Report a couple weeks ago. You can watch that full interview if you’re curious. Um but he said on the Garden Report that uh Joe’s always trying to fight him actually. So, it was kind of in character that Joe liked the ejection. I’m sure some people that doesn’t sit well, some people it does, but um yeah. So, curious to hear what you guys think about Jordan. Feel free if you have any Jordan specific questions. Put them in the chat. I know some people are going to feel feel like he’s really improved. Other people feel like, hey, if he’s playing in the third, you know, someone said someone here said this, you know, if he’s playing in year three, it’s hard to imagine him contributing to an NBA team. Uh certainly it doesn’t stack the odds in your favors. I mean, the the more you’re not an NBA player, like the longer you spend in the G- League, the longer you’re on a two-way, like those are factors that’s, you know, stack up against you. But at the same time, like, you know, we’re here to watch these guys develop and and some of these guys are going to break out. And at the same time, some of the guys that have been really, really dominated summer league like Drew Timmy has been probably the best player here or one of the best players here, he might not end up being a great NBA player. So, it’s it is like a slightly different league with slightly different factors that kind of what makes players successful. Um, but overall definitely a lot better. Uh, we will see if he’s a rotation player. Obviously, that’s the big question. I think that that’s his goal. There are opportunities now that there just weren’t last year that weren’t the previous year. And he understands the system. He understands how to be a professional. Um, I think he came in really young and like acted young and seemed young. He was 19, a young 19, too. Like he had just been he just turned 19 when he was drafted. Uh so we’ll see if he’s able to kind of make the most of it and and kind of find a way to break through that’s uh different from how the last couple years have gone for him. Um then I move on to Baylor who has had a tough summer league. And for those of you that are here, I’m assuming it’s because you’ve been watching the games and so you already know this, but Baylor, you know, averaging 12.3 points per game. He’s shooting 20.5% from three. Uh most of his shots are threes. He’s like I think he’s like 27% or so from the field. Uh he has been distributing, rebounding, 6.8 assists, 5.3 rebounds. Um but the shot has just not been falling. Um and this is for those of you that know me and have listened to me talk for about a lot of Celtics related things, you probably know what I’m going to say. I don’t ever overreact to a small sample in shooting. Uh which at the end of the day, this is still four games. Um and so I thought Baylor had a really strong second half of the year with Boston. He looked really good in the G- League. He looked really good in March when he came up to Boston. He didn’t get opportunities in the playoffs, which was kind of expected considering just the situation and the stakes and all that. Um, but I I was like, you know, Baylor is going to have an awesome summer league. If you if you had asked me two weeks ago, which I think we did some shows on this, Baylor averaged, you know, 20 points per game. That’s what I would have predicted, shooting 40% from three, being one of those like really developed players. So, that’s what I expected. And this might sound kind of crazy, but I actually don’t think that that’s totally off base. Um because he has looked pretty good. Um he just hasn’t hitting hit his shots. And at the end of the day, you can’t there’s only so much you can do in the NBA if your shots aren’t falling and you’re supposed to be a shot maker. And that’s certainly one of the roles that he has on this team. He was drafted because he can shoot, you know, among other things. He knows that. It’s why he’s here. Um and here’s just him talking about those struggles yesterday. I thought that he had some pretty good perspective. You guys can’t hear that, right? Is it just me or can none of us hear that? That sound bite. Um, I’m going to assume nobody else can hear it, but let me know in the chat. Um, it was muted. Okay, cool. Uh yeah, I don’t know why, but in any case, he was talking about the fact that he has been shooting, making shots his whole life. That’s why he got to the place that he is. Um and so he’s not going to now freak out because he missed four shots. So that’s what he said. I actually posted the clip on Twitter, so you can find it on my Twitter if you really want to watch it. But basically, he is not concerned over a couple game stretch because at the end of the day, these guys are like, you know, I I was drafted. I had a great college career. I hit shots in the NBA like because I shoot threes, right? It’s not like somebody that’s they’re they’ve been trying to learn how to shoot and like they they just they’re not breaking through. Like he already feels like he’s in that position that he’s he he feels like he’s a proven shooter. I know a lot of people don’t feel that way because you haven’t seen it in a large sample. Um so I’m not overly concerned about it. Obviously the shot has to fall. Um but I go back and I think about like Peyton Pritchard uh the the beginning of the championship season. I don’t know if you guys remember this, but right after he signed that extension, which now is one of the best bargain contracts in the NBA, uh Baylor shot, you know, Peyton Pritchard could not hit a shot. And like he was still on the floor because Joe Misulla was like, you do other things, but he could not hit a shot. He really couldn’t. Um and so at the end of the day, like he got out of that and he last year he was one of the, you know, mo most efficient guard shot makers in the NBA. Um is that what Baylor is going to be? I don’t think he’s a pure shooter the way that Peyton is, the way that Sam is. But that’s where he’s working towards. So, we’ll see how the next, you know, we’ll see how preseason goes. We’ll see how the beginning of the year goes. Like, I’m not walking away like, wow, he really showed us that he’s ready for the next step. But at the same time, I’m not going to over I’m just not going to overreact to it. And I think that the one thing that I don’t know how much it translates to viewers at home versus on TV. Um, and I’m not, you know, I understand nobody wants to hear about intangibles and like, you know, people want to see real production right now. it’s summer league and you know these guys matter and next year they’re going to have an opportunity. But I watch a ton of basketball, right? Like I watch basketball games all day every day this entire week and most of the year. It’s my job. Usually when a guy is struggling, they are not hitting their shots. Um and so sorry. Usually when a guy’s not hitting their shots, the struggles start to stretch to everything else. Um their body language is bad, their defense slides on the bench, you see them getting frustrated. It’s human nature. It’s okay. Um, and everybody kind of does it. Like Sam Hower when he misses some shots, you can see he’s putting his head down. He’s like exasperated. I think Baylor made a point going into summer league that he was going to play really, really hard and dive on the floor and throw, you know, set up his teammates and be engaged and all those things regardless of whether or not the shots were falling. And there have been few times in my life that I’ve seen a player sustain like their focus and intensity and attitude and all these things as well as he has throughout this past week despite being in such a bad shooting slump. Uh so that’s a point for him. Some people might say like, “Hey, that’s stupid. I don’t really care about his, you know, how his attitude has been. I want him to make shots.” And I I I get that. Um but from where I sit, like that’s the stuff I’m looking for because I’m I’m at these games so I can see the things that are not just on the box score. And that is like has been really really standing out to me just kind of how he has uh managed to stay like in it and not let the the misses kind of pile up and affect his other impact. And I still think that he’s been pretty impactful uh for this team despite the fact that clearly he’s just not, you know, putting up points the way that you expected him to. Um and I think there was only really one game where he was even I think found any rhythm offensively and that was the the game that they lost against Miami. Uh but we’ll see. Maybe he gets a fifth game here. I would imagine Jordan and Baylor probably both are are done for summer league. We’ll see that for sure. Celtics play on Sunday at 300 pm Pacific, so 600 p.m. Eastern time against the Hawks. Um, tomorrow they have practice and we’ll get a better sense tomorrow at practice of who’s playing and and all of that. Um, just a quick message before we continue from our friends over at Prize Pix. Prize Pix is the best place to turn your sports knowledge into cash. With millions of members, Prize Pix has made daily fantasy sports accessible to all. You just pick more or less on at least two players for a shot to win up to 2,000 times your cash. Run your game all season long on Prize Pix. 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So, just wanted to talk about Ugo Gonzalez because I think that he’s the player that probably there were the most expectations around uh heading into summer league. You know, not most expectations or most anticipation just because he is the Celtics first round pick this year. Hardly anybody knew anything about him. Um you can let me know if that’s not accurate, but I, you know, as I was looking at potential prospects, this is not the guy I thought they were going to go with. I thought that for sure they were going to select a kind of NBA readyish big one of those guys that was on the board, Ryan Kulkbreer or Rashir Fleming or whoever else it might be. Um, and they go with kind of a wild card pick who I’ve talked about on previous episodes of this podcast. Uh, Ugo Gonzalez who is a 19-year-old out of Real Madrid who has barely played, you know, really any at all in the last year. He was, you know, just playing a couple minutes a night uh for that pro team. They win the Spanish league. that same night he gets the call that he’s been drafted to join the Boston Celtics and he comes over right away and it’s pretty much been go go go ever since. So he’s appeared in three games here in Vegas. He got one rest day on I think it was the second night of a backto-back or first night of a backto-back. Um and so far I I think it’s you know there’s been a little bit of ups and downs for Ugo. You know averaging 11.7 points per game. He’s actually shot pretty well from three. 37.5%. he’ll take that, especially because he’s not supposed to be a great three-point shooter at this point. Like that’s not necessarily what his thing is. Um, but certainly has been turning the ball over a little bit higher than you would like, which has kind of been the theme for a lot of these kind of like raw playmakers who are on the younger side who have upside like this is not exclusive to Ugo. Um, so 3.7 turnovers a game. Uh, three point the the field goal percentage is not great. 31.4% from the field. There are moments where you’re like, “This guy is exactly what they pitched him to be when he crashes the offensive glass and lays it back in or he’s just navigating screens or he’s just playing really hard.” Like, there are these moments where you’re like, “Okay, I kind of see the vision.” Um, I’ve heard the Manu Jenobi comparison for him as like that’s obviously that’s an incredible player. So, that’s a lofty comparison, but like kind of going in that direction, having that type of role with, you know, the cutting, the ball in your hand, all of these things. Um, but to me he’s looked overwhelmed and like not even like in a basketball sense, but you know, he’s he’s it’s just it went zero to 100 for him. Like he gets drafted, he comes overseas, he does a couple days in Boston getting acclimated, immediately comes to Vegas. He was talking yesterday about like he’s going in the, you know, hotel and he’s walking through casinos and he’s like, “What is this?” And it’s like, obviously we all know that that’s not like that’s not anything to do with this experience in Boston. But it’s just been a lot like a big culture shock, right? A lot of these guys know a million people at summer league from their high school teams and college teams and everything and he doesn’t have nearly as much. Um, but he seems like he’s having a really good time. He’s been joking around a lot with his teammates, with his coaches. Uh, Craig Luchid, who was the head of player development for the Celtics, somebody that I’ve seen him spend a lot of time with. They were playing like Papa Shot yesterday after practice and, uh, they’re always kind of teasing each other, joking around. Uh, so that’s like one friendship that I’ve I’ve able I’ve been able to kind of see. uh Max Schulga, who I won’t talk about too much today, but he was their 57th pick, the Celtics, and presumably he’ll be one of the two two-way players. Max Schulga um and him have been speaking in Spanish. Max speaks like five languages, including Russian, Ukrainian, English, Spanish. I might be missing one, maybe it’s four, but those two guys have had a little bit of a friendship coming in as rookies. Uh being able to communicate in a different language on the floor. Um but I think Ugo is going to take a little bit of time. He’s going to spend a little bit of time in Maine. There’s going to be some struggles for him. There’s going to be a little bit of an acclamation. You could tell that there were moments where like the physicality, the just the quickness. Like he was just like having to adjust like his thought process and he was making decisions is a little bit of a slower pace. So he Yeah, I do think he looks a little bit rushed. Um, you know, is it going to work out for him? I definitely have no sense after three games like what what his career trajectory is going to look like. Um, but I do think that you can see that he’s very professional, that you can see that he really cares. He has been really really hard of himself after tough tough games. So, he was really disappointed that he went one for five from the free throw line in game one. Um, he was really disappointed that he struggled a lot in game three. Like, he was really down on himself. You would have thought he just lost game seven of the NBA finals. Like, I almost wanted to be like, “Go, like, it’s okay. It’s just a summer league game.” Uh, but not my job. But I I do think that you can see right now that this has just been a lot for him. Um and I don’t think he’ll play again. I think these three games are probably it. He wasn’t even sure if he was gonna play. Like initially I think that you know he had just finished the Real Madrid Stevens. Brad Stevens uh said you know on draft night I don’t know if he’s going to play or kind of what the situation is. Um and he seems like she’s a really good teammate. So, like all three of these guys, again, being a good teammate, being, you know, energetic and having a good work ethic and caring a lot, like that’s not going to give you an NBA career single-handedly. Um, but it’s clear that it’s something that Celtics value because all three of these guys are that. Um, have spent a lot of time seeing kind of watching them in action, watching them in practice, that shoot around, interacting with one another, interacting with us. Uh, these are really fun guys that have great personalities, that seem to be really easygoing, great teammates, very coachable, um, all of these things. So, I’ve had a lot of fun talking to him. We did a an interview with him in Spanish. You can check it out. Me and Bobby did one. Um, we we tried to do some Spanish. Bobby and I are neither one of us are very good at Spanish. Uh, but we tried our best. So, you can watch that. Um, we can al you can also watch. He’s done he’s done a bunch of presses over the last couple days. So, if you want to get to know him a little bit more, uh, he’s actually pretty comfortable answering questions and just joking around with us. I think it’s because he has a lot of pro experience being in Real Madrid and talking to the media. Um, and in Real Madrid, like the expectations are really high. There’s a lot of eyes on you. Uh, so he’s used to that. And I asked him yesterday like, “Did you know you wanted to go to America like right away? You’re 19 years old.” Like because in my head it’s like this is a great place to play. Um, you know, this is the kind of thing where he, you know, you know, he’s been dreaming. He’s from Madrid. He’s been dreaming of playing for Real Madrid his whole life. Like, why not give it a few years? But he said he was always going to go when he felt ready. Um, and at the end of the day, like he just signed a guaranteed contract, you know, and and obviously h has opportunities to uh make it over here and was a first round draft pick and a lot of I talked to a lot of people here at summer league. A lot of people think this guy’s going to be really really good. Like not that it not that like the word on the street at summer league always is the biggest indicator of things, but it’s very obvious to me that this guy, nobody was like, why would they pick him at 28? You know, everybody was kind of thinking he was he was almost slid a little bit longer than teams expected. So, we’ll see. Um, I actually don’t see Manu at all either. I say Manu because that’s what that’s one of the players that he’s referenced as being kind of somebody that he looks up to. I asked a bunch of guys, who are your like NBA not comparisons, but like if you’re watching film, you’re getting in the film room, who are you studying? Like, who are you modeling your game off of? Um, and sometimes guys don’t like answering that question because it makes them like they don’t really want that comparison out there because they’re probably never going to be that player. Um, but I’ll just run quickly. like the ones that people gave me. Uh Miles Norris, who has had a pretty pretty nice summer league here, had some good moments. He said he’s been studying Michael Porter Jr. Um offensively, Robert Coington as well on the defensive end being like a defensive playmaker. Um Amari Williams said Nicole Joic. Uh so you can watch and again all these presses are on media, so you can watch kind of more extensively in their own words, but uh Nicole Yokic, he was a he was a point guard growing up. He loved Derek Rose and he, you know, when he got taller he now he’s been studying Jokic, Sabonis, kind of these playmaking European bigs. And he’s from the UK, so I don’t know if there’s any connection there. Um, and then Max Schulga had an interesting comparison that I’ve seen people online say, but he’s been studying um, who did he say? Oh, Dante Denzo. Uh, which obviously Dante Debenzo a little bit more um a little bit more athletic, can jump a little higher, a little stronger, but hey, you’re gonna if you’re if you’re picking one of these guys that’s in the NBA that’s had a good career, like they’re probably going to have things that you don’t have right now. So, you have to figure out how to get there. Um, so I’ll keep asking. I’m always curious to see what they say. It’s not like they can be that guy. Um, or they’re going to be that exact player. Like, there are no two players in the NBA that are the same ultimately. Um, but when they’re watching film, like I’m always curious, who are you watching? Because you’re probably not watching Jason Tatum Jay Brown film, right? Uh, so we’ll see. And Shogga I haven’t seen a ton from yet. I think that he has been pretty quiet on both ends. He is really stonefaced. Like you can tell he’s super locked in. He’s, you know, probably one of the best ball handlers on this team. Um, and then Amari Williams. I think he’s really struggled through the games that he’s played. It looks to me like this, and this has not been confirmed, so I don’t want to like start anything, but I I he kept getting like stretched and worked out, and I I think he might be dealing with some like knee pain or something. Uh, I don’t know if it’s anything to be concerned about, but that seems like in my just in my vantage point, like that could be slowing him down. But he’s also looked a little bit hesitant around the basket, both rebounding and finishing. So, the passing is beautiful. Like, we all know about the passing. Now, obviously, he’s going to need to do a whole lot more uh than than just pass. But both of those guys were late second round picks for a reason. Both of those guys are going to be two A’s at first. They’re going to start in Maine, and we’ll see what the process is to kind of get them acclimated to Boston. And maybe eventually one of those guys becomes an impact player in the Celtics, maybe they don’t, but it’s a two-way contract. It’s not a big deal. Anyways, um I will just say that Drew Peterson, who I know some of you guys remember, I mean probably probably anybody that’s watching a Friday Night Summer League recap podcast knows Drew Peterson, but Drew Peterson was the Celtics 2-way player for the last year and a half. He was basically gonna be not get a two-way contract because if you remember, you know, the 32 pick, 32nd pick became two second round picks, the 46th and the 57th, which means now you have two second round picks with the two-ways. Miles Norris is already guaranteed for this year. He was he signed a two-year two-way contract. So, basically, long story short, Drew Peterson was not going to have a contract available in Boston most likely. So, he was not in any summer league roster. I was concerned that for him that he was going to find himself out of the league and maybe have to go overseas or something. but he does get an opportunity to go to Charlotte. Um, and he signs a two-way contract there under uh Charles Lee, who you guys remember is league assistant for the championship team. And Blaine Miller, who was the main Celtics head coach in Drew Peterson’s first year, he’s an assistant over there. Um, so if you like Drew Peterson, if you were hopeful about his game, you can continue to follow his career over in Charlotte. If you want to hear more from Drew, we had him on the show a couple weeks ago on CNNI, so check that out. I mean, he’s not on the team anymore, but he’s a nice guy. Uh he was my one of my first interviews that I did when I was covering the Celtics is when he signed a two-way contract. I DM’d him on Twitter and he was down to talk. So uh that was before I knew how to get interviews. So uh nice guy. I think he has showed some good flashes but never really shown shown through in Boston. And ultimately like if you were with the Celtics um for you know one two years like you’re eventually not going to you know you’re not going to be at 2A for three years very often. JD Davis and what he’s done where he’s been a two-way player for one organization for three seasons. That is so so unusual. And talking to people around the league, nobody really knows what they’re going to do with JD. He’s on a non-g guaranteed contract next year. Was not on the main summer league team. That would have been his fourth summer league, so it was a little excessive. Um, but he might go elsewhere. I don’t think he’s been working out at the hourback center. At least I hadn’t heard that he has been. Um, so if you look at like, you know, he’s been working out elsewhere. like maybe he’s maybe there’s other opportunities that could open up for him, but I’m not I don’t have a strong sense right now one way or another whether he’s going to be on the roster next year and if he’s a part of their future guard rotation and plans and things. So, that’s just like my initial thoughts of some of the players. I did want to get into uh the thing that I found most interesting about the summer league and that is Matt Reynolds, the Celtics summer league head coach. He is the Celtics longest tenure assistant if you count from like when he got hired which was an internship in 2013. Um, Matt has been one of my favorite assistants to talk to for since I started covering the team. So, I was really excited on a personal level when he was named summer league head coach because usually the way that it works with the Celtics is you can’t interview coaches on the record unless they’re the head coach um or the head coach of the main Celtics or the head coach of the summer league team. So, there are three coaches in a given year that you can get on the record. Um, and if they’re not one of those guys, you’re probably out of luck, unless there’s like a very specific reason why you need to get to talk to them. So, I’m going to drop this I’m going to drop the story here. Uh, if you are a reader, you can check it out as I talk. You can also just check it out later. Um, I had a lot of fun writing this. I interviewed Matt uh for about 20 minutes talking about his upbringing and how he landed here. Uh, the thing that’s cool for you guys to know for those of you that are not going to read the whole thing. First of all, I’ll say I think a lot of fans that feel a little bit disappointed with the summer league so far because none of these guys has broken through is like, wow, you know, Jordan’s been on fire, Baylor’s been on fire, Ugo, Amari, like I don’t think there’s one player that you could be like, wow, he has been insane. Uh, I will say quick asterric that Charles Bassie has been probably one of the team’s best players and he’s not on the roster anymore. He only played the first three games. Um, and Charles Massie, that’s no surprise. I talked to some people, agents, scouts, that knew this was coming. So, I had knew this was coming before the team announced it. He basically was never going to play the whole thing. And I think that this was just more of a showcase for him. So, that’s why there was not a lot of like discussion around him uh coming into this team. Nobody even really knew he was going to play for this team. So, I know everybody loved Charles Bassie. Does not look right now like his future is going to be in Boston unless something were to change. But, he was never going to play all of summer league. So, nothing went wrong. Um, but going back to Matt, so fans want to see the the players go off, but at the end of the day, this team has had a lot of success. They’ve beaten teams that have had better players on paper. Like they opened up with a win over the Memphis Grizzlies, who had Jaylen Wells, who was one of the best rookies last year, who had Gi Jackson, guys that have gotten a lot of NBA opportunities. Um, this is cool. Somebody here says, I went to high school with Matt, same grad class. What’s crazy is he didn’t play hoops in high school. So for him to make it out of all of that, out of all of us that hooped, big shout out to him. So that’s kind of what my story is about. So check it out on Southwest blog. Um I do want to play a couple clips because I think for the a lot of people know Matt Reynolds as the guy who does the timeout challenges for Joe Misoula and that’s kind of what I knew him as initially. He always has an iPad on the bench. So if you think about it like going from being the guy that has an iPad on the bench who can rewatch plays and decide if you know you need to point something out to the head to the other coaches or if you want to you know make a challenge time out those kinds of things. Matt Reynolds is the guy that does that. Um he’s in a completely different position now. So, he is standing on the sidelines uh and communicating with players directly. He’s been yelling a lot. I asked him like, “Did you know if you were going to be a yeller or not because it’s like you don’t actually know what kind of head coach you’re going to be.” He’s never been a head coach before. Um he as somebody here, you know, as the commenter here said, he did not ever play competitive basketball, but he loved sports. He grew up in Lexington, Mass, and he always knew that he wanted to play in sports. He wanted to work in sports. And I think a lot of people have that thought, and it’s just was really hard to make it in. And I asked him at the beginning of camp like just a little bit about his background. I I knew he was a Celtics fan, but this is just him talking about how he kind of came into this. I know you’re from Lexington and you grew up I think a Celtics fan. Could you share a little bit more about your upbringing and just like like Joe kind of has that having that local background and what it means to now be a head coach ultimately for this group? Yeah. No, it’s very special. It’s been special to work for this team, you know, since since I got here. And so I don’t I don’t take a single day for granted. Um, I remember I got to go to one game in the old garden and you know that’s like I don’t remember a whole lot about the game. Um, but it was like little moments like that where like you know childhood you’re going to to a to a game the garden I didn’t know you know what what it meant at the time but then you know going to games at the Fleet Center TD Garden all that stuff like it it coming up as a Celtics fan I remember the day I got the job it was just like a pinch me moment and then you know since then every single day I wake up so excited to come here and uh you know to have this opportunity is just another thing that I’m incredibly grateful for. Yeah. So, we talked a lot throughout the summer summer league. Like, when you’re here for a week, you get to talk to these guys almost every day. So, one of my biggest, you know, objectives was yes, I want to cover the players. I want to cover Ugo and Jordan and Baylor, and I’ve talked to all those guys a bunch of times, and we’ll continue to do so. But, I also really wanted to get to know Matt, who is one of the lead assistants for Joe Missoula, and who is the longest tenur assistant. Um, and he has also been around since 2013 when he got the internship. uh funny story that he shared is that he got the internship after he graduated from Syracuse. He was the basketball team manager there. He did not have a job. He was doing a volunteer coaching at Wuburn High School. Those of you from the area recognize some of these talents. He’s from Lexington. Um and basically he knew a guy who was a video coordinator through his sister’s friend. Uh so his sister’s friend made a connection for them and they had an intern hired for the film room but something fell through so they needed somebody last minute. Matt got the job. He had no NBA film experience, but the job was basically just cutting film. It’s something that today you don’t even have to have a person do. It was just just an automatic uh you know, now it’s something that you can just use like chat or artificial intelligence to just do do for you. Um but he got the job and once he got it, he was like this is my dream come true. I’m a huge Celtics fan. Like imagine as a Celtics fan, you have no experience with NBA film. You just love being around sports and you get this opportunity to do this very basic internship. Um but obviously he made the most of it and kind of went from there. um he actually has a photographic memory. A lot of people told me that when I asked him about whether he has a photographic memory, he was like, “I don’t know if it’s photographic, but it’s really good.” And then he proceeded to like point out multiple things that we had discussed about a year ago, uh who that I had no recollection of. And I I think I have a pretty good long-term memory, but I had no recollection of any of this. Um so I was able to see in action just how good his recollection is. And and you know, with Matt when you’re, you know, as far as memory goes, like he can remember a specific play and pull it up right away. Um, and he does that with Joe and you know it makes your life so much easier when you’re like what was that screen or what was that time where Tatum was supposed to pass but you know where Jaylen turned the ball over like he can pull up that play right away. Um, and so that’s been a huge asset for him. But above the fact that he’s a fan, above the fact that he is really really intelligent obviously and super prepared he came into the summer league and he said that you know he really wanted this to be a very enjoyable experience. And again, that’s I think that’s why they’ve been winning games despite the fact that a lot of these guys are individually struggling and like acclimating and all of that. Um, and I asked Ugo about it yesterday because Ugo, as you guys have seen on television, he’s been getting down on himself. Um, here’s what he’s had to say about just Matt and the environment around him. Baylor was saying that Matt has created a culture of joy around this team. Have you felt that like you guys are trying to have fun or like what what behind the scenes? Is that what it’s felt like? Of course, that what we try to to do. Um, anytime we’re on the court, we’re trying to have a great feeling. I mean, it’s nothing that we have to to try to do because it’s something that is coming natural. And then we were going on the core, everyone is focused and knowing what we have to do. So, yeah, probably having the both I mean on on both sides the the best. What are the ways that Matt has made it like feel like, you know, have fun like something he’s saying? Are you guys like playing games? Like, how is that? It was something like uh really really different from it from what I was used to cuz I remember the first and the third game the ones that I played he was telling me like uh at the end of the quarter sometimes like are you having fun? I’m like yeah I’m having fun and he told me I’m having a lot of fun right now. So that’s a lesson that he’s he’s telling me right now like uh I’m a when I have fun is better player than I am. Yeah. And so if you know Derek White and Derrick has has had this big thing over the last year or so that there’s moments where Derrick White has lost his joy for this team. I’ve I’ve talked about it. I’ve asked players about it. But when when you’re that kind of player that needs to play and like have have this joyful feeling around you, it’s really important to like stay in that space, right? And Matt is Derek White’s go-to guy. I see it every practice, every shoot around. Derek does this trick shot thing. I’m sure you guys have seen it on Twitter or on social media where he has some challenge that him and all the assistant coaches have to accomplish whether it’s like bouncing a ball off the ceiling and into the basket or something crazy like that. Matt Reynolds is the leader of that experiment that you know that challenge. So I think he’s taking in Ugo in a similar fashion. Um Jordan Walsh also talked yesterday about just like I asked him yesterday about uh what kind of the tone that he has set and just you know Jordan’s now seen him as an assistant for the last two years. So, it’s cool for him too to get that experience uh to see Matt as a head coach for the first time. Um, are there ways in your eyes that he’s done that? Is it just his personality? Is it like little things you guys have talked about? I think I I really think a big part of it is his spirit. Um, he’s super competitive and usually he’s not a guy who’s like, you know, super vocal or like super like yelling and like all that. He’s usually the guy that’s, you know, behind the scenes, you know, and stuff like that. But have him come out and see how happy he is and excited he is. He’s jumping around screaming. I’ve never heard him scream before he jump around and screaming and it’s just for me it get it lights a fire on me personally but I think that’s a big part of everybody. So yeah, that’s just some of the guys talking about what it’s been like to play for Matt Reynolds. I think he’s going to be around for a long time. Obviously coaches shuffle in and out. You see coaches are always looking for their next opportunity. They want to move up in the world. And I think Matt because he’s from here and he grew up a fan. And it’s not that he would never go anywhere else, but he’s clearly like when all of Emeoka’s assistants went with him to Houston, Matt stayed. Like Matt’s coached under Brad Stevens, he was the special assistant to Brad Stevens. He then became an assistant coach to Emmaoka and he’s been one of Joe Mazoula’s lead assistants over the last few years. Um he also said that about a year and a half ago he was told he was going to have this opportunity. So he knew going into last year’s summer league that he was going to be in this position and he gave him a chance and like it really is yeah it really has been a really really nice environment and I think for a lot of these guys as they’re acclimating uh you know draft picks all these things like it’s hard you know you have a lot of pressure on you want to be great and there’s an adjustment period and most of these guys have been struggling right like outside of Jordan I think like all of these guys have been struggling in one way or another um and so they’ve still found ways to win games And you know, ultimately, yes, nobody really cares all that much about the Celtic summer league record, but last night they beat a Lakers team that was pretty good and Bronny James is pretty good and all that because despite the fact that individually guys aren’t necessarily hitting that many shots, uh, they found a way to collectively play really hard, play really together. Um, and I do think Matt Reynolds deserves a little bit of shine, a little bit of spotlight for that. Um, and if you want to know more, you want to hear a little bit more about Matt Reynolds and his story, you can read the entire feature um, on Celtics blog and I have a lot of quotes and things and he talked a little bit about his upbringing as well and uh, just managing the basketball team and all that and it’s kind of a remarkable story. I think there’s less and less coaches that come out of the film room. Eric Spolstra of the Heat is a very prominent example, but most of these guys have played at least in college, you know, if not the NBA. Joan Misilla talks all the time about how, you know, he didn’t play in the NBA and that’s something that he kind of has to like overcome. Um, but he was not in that position. So, Matt has kind of found ways around that. And he said, you know, if you’re prepared and you ask and you’re honest, then players will respect you. And I’ve talked to almost every player here and they all very much respect him. Uh, so that’s a little bit about Matt. You could read the entire story on Celtics blog. Um, but I just wanted to talk a little bit about him. I know that it’s he’s a guy I think they call him on the broadcast through the Green Lantern. I think everybody has heard his name, seen his face. Um, and obviously he’s getting a bigger opportunity here. Uh, so I appreciate you all for indulging me there. Uh, as always, please subscribe to the You Got Boston podcast on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, whatever else it is. CLNS Media, we have a lot of content. We still have a lot of content coming up here in the next couple days. Uh, postgame shows. I have an episode about Jaylen Brown. I had a long conversation with Jaylen last week. uh published in two different stories and then also some stuff that didn’t even make it into the story will be coming out later this summer. Um but just how he’s feeling going into next year. So that’ll be coming out soon. A lot of podcast the big three podcast uh my podcast Boston CLNS media will have a postgame show on Sunday as well. Uh so keep your eyes peeled. Turn on notifications so you can join live for all these things. Um but as always thank you so much for watching. They hope you enjoyed the show. If you have things you want me to focus on, you can always message me on Twitter. Um, and I’m happy to make sure we get some coverage over the next few weeks. I think things are going to slow down here. So, it’s been a crazy off seasonason so far. A lot of turnover. Uh, the new Celtics players, the sign as free agents, Luca Garza, Josh Minot, they both signed this summer as well. So, you can hear they talked to us at some really good one of the halftimes of one of the recent games. So, you can watch those videos on CLS. Um, but thank you all. So, Oh, sorry. Is there a question that I need to answer? I saw she ignored my questions. Okay. Sometimes I don’t know if you guys are debating back and forth with each other and if I read along then I I lose my train of thought. But what is the point of getting all these undrafted free agents if they’re not going to play? It’s not that they’re not going to play. It’s that I think in recent years those guys were signed uh because they were going to be like insurance like if something were to go wrong then maybe Tory Craig would play. But you have to have buyin from the head coach ultimately, right? You have to have Joe Misoula’s buy in to like trust those guys. So, I think a lot of what we know to be true about Joe as a coach and his willingness to trust younger players is going to be out the window next year because everything’s different. You’re no longer worried about like no margin of error, competing for a championship, all of that. So, I do think this year we’re going to see uh Joe, I hope, and I think I I do think it’s going to happen. You’re going to see guys play through mistakes in a way that we just haven’t seen over the past few years under Joe. So, this is going to be his fourth year as head coach. It’s kind of wild. That’s a long time. Um and we’ll get a sense of that whether that’s true. Maybe he’s going to have to kind of get more comfortable watching guys make mistakes, but I I do think Luca Garza, Josh Mine on, they’re going to get chances on the floor. Uh we’ll see though, maybe I’m wrong, but that is uh that is my understanding right now. And Luca said, you know, they wanted to be here. They don’t have a lot of bigs right now. So if they don’t trust Luca Garza and Amari Williams is going to be in Maine to start, I think Nimas Kada is not going to play 48 minutes a night, right? So they’re going to have to trust these guys. That’s kind of the difference between this year and previous years where hey, you know, Nimi, you made a couple mistakes. We have Al Horford, Christoph Porzingis, and Luke Cornet on the bench, and they’re going to make less mistakes than you. Like, that’s just the way that it’s been. Um, so I think it’s going to change, but if I miss any other questions, I apologize, but we’re going to wrap up right here. Uh, thank you as always, and I hope you enjoyed the show. [Music]

On this episode of You Got Boston, Celtics Reporter Noa Dalzell recaps the Celtics’ Summer League action in Las Vegas, highlighting standout performances from Hugo González, Jordan Walsh, and more. Noa also dives into the journey of Celtics Summer League head coach Matt Reynolds, who went from being a Celtics fan and sports lover to becoming a veteran assistant coach for Boston. Tune in for insights on player development and the growth of Boston’s young talent.

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