LIVE Garden Report: Celtics vs Grizzlies Preseason Postgame Show
Hard hat’s all about showing up to play hard, doing what it takes to win. If you want to cement legacy, win another. He’s your third center. You don’t want to help him up too much, but it’s hard not to. This is maybe the most I’ve ever agreed with you. Yeah. Let it roll. I miss this song. Look what we’re doing. Uh uh. Is that a hard hat win, Jimmy? Based on the way this season’s about to go, Bobby, it might be. Honestly, Jimmy, walk us through the whole game, would you? Okay. Jaylen Brown, he did stuff. Derek White did stuff. Hu. You go. Ugo. Ugo. You go. I go. We go. You go. Yeah. Look, some fun stuff. We’ll get into all of it. Uh, we got Noah. Noah was one of like 27 people to see this game live down in Memphis. Um, so she she may jump on. There’s preseason crowds. Oh my god, that was something. Before we get into the game, welcome all of you into the first of many garden reports this season. Preseason action. People asking, are we doing a garden report? [ __ ] yeah, we’re doing a garden report. to ask. You don’t have to ask. Come on. Come on. It doesn’t matter who plays. We don’t take days off. We don’t take days off. Neither does Prize Picks. Get in on the action here. One of our sponsors here at the Garden Report. Download Prize Picks, America’s number one daily fantasy sports app. Make some money off your sports opinions, guys. Download Prize Picks. Use code CLNS. Get 50 in your lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. And hey, Raycon, why not? You need some earbuds? Yes, the Everyday Earbuds Classic right now. Terrific uh offer right now. Go to buyracon.com/pcs. Get 20% off everyday earbuds classic. Check them out. Toss them in. Listen to Bobby tell us the plan’s coming together. They’re playing with pace. Everything’s going to be okay. This is the new This is the new Boston Celtics, guys. They’re going to be just fine. And look, you know, a little bit somewhat as Come on, John. You had to be pleasantly surprised by what you saw. Look, look, look. Here’s the way I Larry and Mo on the other side. Here’s how the three of your guys were missing. Time out. Time out. Here’s how I do this. Okay. If if if a group of people if the Celtics went out and shot 8% tonight and lost to this group of Jags and everyone looked awful, everyone would say it’s just the preeason game. So if you’re going to do that, you can’t also overreact to positive things. But we can talk about the positive things. Okay? But we’re not doing apology cams today, Bobby. We are going to talk about say that on the air. I know. Yeah, but you might have you might have you would have eventually gotten there. But look, what are we looking for, right? The series of things and we got little flashes of everything, right? Uh the pace, we’ll talk about that. Got to see Shyman in year two. Got to see uh Ugo as a rookie and see what he’s going to do. Got to see the new guys um you know, Buchard and uh and and and Minot who I thought, you know, again, brought a lot of energy. Garza. There’s stuff to talk about with each one of them because a lot of people I mean I’m not saying the the Garden Report fans are casuals. Most people have seen these guys play. But how familiar are you with their games? Like how much have you seen of these guys? Not a lot. So this is going to be a crash course for a lot of people who are kind of getting to see like what’s this guy all about? You know, I remember a little bit. I’ve got flashes. I’ve seen some games, you know, but what what are these people about? And you’re breaking in a lot of new people here and you you you know you’re getting a sense of you know what it’s going to be like. You saw Jaylen Brown post knee surgery coming out smoking. Uh Derek White had a terrific game. So definitely a lot to like here. Some areas of concern. We’ll get through all of that. But Bobby, what stood out to you the most uh in this game? Just how on the same page everybody was when you have eight new players coming in and probably like three or four who are actually in the rotation. I think Garza Garza might not Ugo Gonzalez as well, the rookie coming in who had a pretty sloppy summer league if you remember and didn’t quite look ready for him to get in the NBA action now and after talking so much about how the game’s fast and he’s got to adjust and it’s completely different than Europe and get two blocks in a minute and look pretty capable on defense and be in the right spots on offense. Uh, that was nice. Garza set all the right screens. It wasn’t always effective, but was in the right positions for the most part. And Josh Min played that energy role. Defender, offensive rebounds, just all over the place in terms of making things happen. So, you know, those three guys were awesome right off the bat in the first time you’re seeing them. And as you mentioned, John, these are guys who haven’t played much NBA minutes, period. So, you know, beyond not knowing what those guys are in Boston, you don’t know who those three guys are as NBA players in particular. And then for Chris Bucher, who’s obviously just getting here too and has a lot more experience. Slow start. He starts next to Tilman. Sloppy early, you know, getting in Brown’s way a little bit and just didn’t do a ton. But in the second half, I thought he did a lot more. Even the second quarter when they put that small ball lineup out there is when the defensive intensity really started to ratchet up there. So listen, the Grizzlies they played against weren’t good. Four key guys out on that side. Not much that impressed you on their end. So, you understand what you were going against in this one, but you destroyed this team playing your style and did it pretty deep into your bench with three of your own guys sitting. So, um, my biggest takeaway was Joe and the coaching staff have these guys pretty well integrated already, and it makes me even more excited to see Simons on Friday because, you know, he he could be pretty far along in his acclamation process as well. Yeah. Before we get uh Jimmy’s opening thoughts on this game, we’re going to pipe this in with Cool Chay dropping a $20 super chat on us right out of the gate. Missed the CLNS fam. We missed you guys too. Ugo looked really intriguing. May not Bush both look solid. Garza will mixed bag on Garza. Sucked. Uh still don’t see this team breaking 45 wins. Feel like we’re stuck in NB. He you’ll see again Jimmy the rebounding caner there the rebounding in the interior presence I he doesn’t he can’t get one he can’t get three inches off the ground there is no hope of them grabbing rebounds with him in the game and the there is no interior presence it’s going to be all hands on deck to be able to do that cool chay thank you very much for that we do appreciate it uh we can let you guys know that uh should you choose to give us any super chats it’s distributed to the host posts and we absolutely do uh appreciate them. So yeah, by all means fire away. We’ll put your comments on the screen and talk about it. Uh but if not, just listen along, chat with each other and that’s cool, too. However you guys want to play it, but thank you very much. It is appreciated. Uh Jimmy, any thoughts? So for preseason, I’m focusing on I really wanted to see you you go. I really want to see Shyman. Those are the two guys that I think are like one and two on my list at least certainly tonight since you really who goes that high up on guys that I want to see what they’re capable of cuz these are players Bobby that you can actually hope maybe will be a part of the long-term plan of this Celtics team. Guys that maybe two years from now are in the rotation in some capacity. So it’s like Bucher, okay, whatever. Like sure, he looks like an NBA player. He can play. We know he can play. We’ve seen him again on the Raptors and such. Um, but you know, guys like that, Garza, like, okay, Garza, he is who he is. I’m not going to lose sleep over what Garza did in the preseason because I don’t really care if you depending on what your take is on this season is going to determine on which players you really focus your energy on. For me, it’s the guys that I think will be a part of this team beyond this season. And for me, that’s Shyman and that’s Yugo. And so, I wasn’t expecting lights out basketball from those guys tonight, but I I really did like what I saw from Yugo. Are we calling him Yugo? We calling him Gonzo. We calling him Gonzalez. Gonzo. Ugo. I don’t think Gonzo is going to work. Whatever you guys want to call him. He’s somebody that I’m looking at in the preseason because I know that when the regular season comes along, we’re not going to get the same amount of minutes. At least not up front. We’ll see how things shake out. Shyman going into his second year going to take on a bigger role. A player that, you know, came into the league with a shot and you want to see if that shot’s going to translate to that NBA level. It’s good to see him with a bigger role and feeling a little bit more comfortable taking the shot. I think tonight certainly, you know, you want to see him hit a few few more of those. And I thought a little bit sloppy there in the fourth quarter with, you know, some of the other guys coming in that he probably doesn’t have much playing time with. But those are the two guys that I’m going to be focusing on in the preseason outside of the regular. So, obviously Friday when Pritchard, assuming he comes back and plays, I want to see what he does. I’m really interested to see how Kada looks going into his season where he’s supposed to have a much bigger role. And there were certainly times in the last couple seasons, Bobby, where you were banging on the table. I was banging on the table that we we wanted to see more Kada. And then there were times where we said, “Get Kada off the floor.” So, which one is it going to be? I’m not entirely sure. But there’s no getting him off the floor this year. No one else. So, he’s gonna have to play that guy for sure. I was one of the underrated storylines tonight and I was so excited, not excited, but I was so intrigued by this going into camp. John, was Tilman even alive? Like, was he even gonna appear at games this year? Can’t believe we’re starting here, but yeah, sure. I mean, alioop dunk starts this game, even though Joe says not to read too much into that. Looked pretty spry on both ends. Had some real moments on both ends as well. I mean, again, relatively young defensive stopper earlier in his career. You need some defense on this team, but the fact that he’s able to actually play 23 minutes in an NBA game right now, cuz what he said in training camp, I don’t know if you saw it, Jimmy, didn’t surprise me at all that his knee blew up in January and he was pretty much done from that point on last year. So, um, he he was not healthy and says he is, you know, lost 12 pounds and, uh, looked like it tonight. Yeah, I I tweeted it that like I said that’s the best he’s moved since he’s been a Celtic. It wasn’t even close. Do you remember? Yeah. Do you remember, John, like the beginning of last season when when he stepped on the court and he was like, whoa, he looks like looks like Tilman ate Tilman or something. Yeah, he looked like Are you in there? He also looked like he was like 52 years, but he’s the oldest looking 26-year-old on the planet to begin with. Get a little skin routine, drop a few pounds, watch your life change. But, uh, he looked he looked he was moving. It was even before the dunk. I tweeted that, which that was the highlight, but like he was just moving a lot better. He just looked a lot more spry uh and springy. So, that was definitely good. I’m still not counting on a ton from Tilman. Um, you know, there. But again, politicism is there somewhere. Every every every bit every bit helps here because it’s going to be a it’s going to take a village uh in order to do this. And again, I think that that’s part of the vision. when we talk about this idea about the pace and how they’re going to do it and you know I’m I’m dubious to be honest because like you know you can run up and down and you can jack shots early and that’s what they were doing and it’s all good but you got to have the horses and again it’s really hard to get it’s a preseason game. You’re not going to read a lot into it. You’re missing a couple of your best shooters but they shot 15 for 53 from three. That’s kind of my fear is hey we shot it early and we moved fast. We missed them all, but we played fast. That’s gonna happen. And look, we know this team’s going to lose game, but but it’s necessary because you can’t win. You can’t win other ways. Like you can’t just play the way you’ve played and win on talent alone. You’re going to have to be fast. You’re going to have to be sparky. And like everything about this tonight was that. And it wasn’t just the pace and them getting up the floor and getting shots up quickly because they did certainly in the first half and in the Jaylen minutes and when Derek White was out there, but just seeing how scrappy they were. May not all over the floor. He he and you he and Ugo together are absolutely frenetic. Holy crap. Like they’re the guys who when you’re playing pickup and you’re like, “Dude, can you just chill?” Like we’re we’re just trying to play here. Just almost immediately after fight Bucher first off got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got got you you know got in somebody’s face and pushed them off and then Jaylen Brown gets into a little bit of an altercation but Ugo was a pain in the ass and so was Mot. They’re up in your [ __ ] all game long. That’s fun to watch. You know, you want to see that. You want to see the attitude you want and that’s you like to see that because again a super talented team like the Celtics were last year, you’re going to have superstar performances and like h maybe I’ll play defense, maybe not. These guys are are, you know, fighting for their lives here or they’re trying to establish themselves in the league, what have you. They’re going to get after it and that’s definitely a positive. So you saw a lot of that tonight. Yeah. Forced 22 turnovers, too. And that didn’t really start. They only forced two in the first quarter until they got that Buché may not Ugo group out there in the second. And that’s when they started turn up the heat on on the Grizzlies and were able to make some stuff happen there. That was the thing that I was most dub. I knew they were going to play fast. I knew they were going to switch some things up offensively. But could they actually get out of their element defensively, play a little more undisiplined, take some risks on that end, and force teams into mistakes? They’re going to have to because of the deficiencies you talk about, John. like they can’t rely on their rim protection as much. They can’t rely on winning the rebounding battle every night. Things that you’ve just taken for granted in the past, elite defenders at every position, being able to switch across the board. This is stuff they’re not going to be able to do now. So, you’re going to have to force turnovers. You’re going to have to gamble a little bit on that end. And it’s calculated risk. That’s what they’ve talked about in camp. And, you know, my not had a good live ball in the second quarter. How’s he got in a passing lane? Um, Ugo had the two blocks, you know, jump balls forced inside. So, they were more aggressive in this one. Willing to foul a little bit more, too. Like that was a conversation at camp, too. We talked about Noah and I after one of the practices is how they just they feel like the refs are going to let a little more contact go after the playoffs this year or at least when you get to the postseason. So, that’s something that they want to embrace as well. It’s the old Eay approach. Never fouled, you know. That that was that was Eay’s approach was foul them until they call it, you know, like just keep fouling, you know, play play super super super physical. Set the precedent on how it’s going to be. Make them call it, but don’t you know, you know, don’t do what they, you know, the Joe philosophy was a little bit different. That’s fine. Before we continue on, I want to let everybody out here know, uh, this is not the only postgame show in the CLNS family right now. We got these guys going on right now. Evan Marinowski. That’s live. And that’s live, my friends. This is inception. The Bruins win. Oh, they did. Dude, the Bruins win. Let’s listen in. 910. 912. Something like that. Not Beza, but back to a slightly better than average. I think that’s pretty fair. And the defense if Charlie Mag get back to being a middle of the road defensive team. This is like Matthew McConna watching his future self. I think that’s also fair. And can the power play go for 29 overall? I just want They’re going to trade Martian. They’re going to trade Martian. I just want to put it out there. CLNS has you covered all the postgame stuff. This is technically an episode of Poke the Bear hosted by Connor Ryan and our buddy Evan Marinowski. If those of you guys want to dip in over there and listen to a little Bruins talk that’s going on uh as we are doing our thing now, but I just wanted to uh uh put it out there. Those guys are doing their own thing. Wow. Look at that. What was what was your biggest takeaway from the night, John? What’s that all about? As acidbat, [Laughter] what was mine? Yeah, mine was mine was the energy, guys. Like I said, I was impre like my not might have the ugliest shot, you know, I I’ve seen in history. Um, but boy is he all over the place and defensively he covers a ton of ground. He’s he’s he’s he’s in the action, you know, he’s almost in every frame. And then Ugo relentless. I mean, the chase down blocks, you know, uh the the, you know, tying up that loose ball that caused that first little altercation in the first half there, getting out on the break in transition. I don’t think he has anything to his game outside of a Euro step. So, he’s got to figure out, you know, something more to be able to generate offense. It’s not going to be a point guard year one for sure. No, certainly not. But if that three, and again, he knocked down a three. that three falls at an okay clip and he can he can give you energy. He may play as well. He may play himself into minutes also. And again, it’s early and it’s just one game and it’s a preseason. It’s not like he suffered like a, you know, season ending injury, but Walsh, you know, uninspired in his whatever. He was all right. But he goes out with a little injury, too. That opens the door of crack for Ugo to establish himself a little bit more and get some minutes in there. So, I like that. I I I’m I liked that aspect of it. I do like seeing them play with a little bit of pace. Uh for sure. I mean, nothing drove me more nuts than the walk up. It’s just simply a question of the talent. How much is there? There’s a lot of holes in this lineup uh here. And I like that they want to embrace this style of play, but I am a little dubious. You know, you really got to see it with their full roster against another team’s full roster and be like, “All right, can they can they do this?” and and have some success doing it. But I definitely like the energy guys. Uh and I like rooting for like scrappy underdog types. Uh it’s just it’s fun because they got nothing to lose. So like I those guys are easy to get behind. You know, you want to see them do well. And and speaking of the talent, I mean the the two guys you’re looking at, White and Brown, who are going to have to lead them through this. Then Pritchard eventually when they get him out there they as advertised like Brown comes in starts four for four pretty casual 21 points in his first half minutes. Uh why what do you think of how he looked? I missed a good chunk of Brown’s performance. I mean he just he just got what he wanted, you know, he got scored. It was easy. So that’s good. Yeah, he definitely looked He didn’t even look like he broke a sweat. I’m not kidding. Like it it was it was easy. He he he was he was coasting and he was Yeah. But White and I don’t want to do the scal the scal on the broadcast was like no one’s talking about White. But I kind of got what he was saying in that this is a guy who you look at and you’re like all right he’s going to be Derek White. Like he’s just going to do his thing. You know what you get from him and that’s you know just put it to the side. He might actually be able to expand his game a little more than we give credit to if taking more shots, more time on the ball. I mean, he got to nine assists like like it was nothing first half. Um, and another guy who was just able to step I know he goes two for nine from three, but got to all the spots he wanted was in full control. That’s the thing. And like, yeah, everyone’s going to everyone’s going to read this incorrectly. Um, so try not to, but like the the the reliance on Tatum to be your everything means you live and you die by it, which means he has the ball in his hands, which means you play at his pace. he’s your best player and it’s not even I mean not particularly close and and he’s obviously the most important player on the team but it does not I’m not going to say limit but it doesn’t let everybody else be every bit of the person that they could be uh because the opportunities aren’t there as much as we simply talked about you’re going at the beat of his drum you were you but not just that you’re exactly but you’ve got Holiday and White out there who are both point guards who don’t have the ball in their hands like late in games. So, you’ve got two all-star caliber point guards, not neither of whom is handling the ball because Tatum is handling the ball and they’re spotting up in corners or waiting for kickouts or whatever it is that’s going on there. So, you’re not able to kind of access everything that you can do. So, White, absolutely. You’re going to see a lot more him just taking the ball, driving, hitting those floaters. Uh, you know, you know that he had a nice, you know, leaner early on off the glass, like seeing him go into attack mode a little more, which you see at times, especially when they’re like down a star and we’ve seen, you know, Derek White takeover mode in games, but they’re going to need it this time. So, he’s got he’s going to have free reign. You had to think about it, right? If you’re Holiday or you’re white or you’re Porzingis, you’re one of those guys and you’re on one or you’re feeling it or you feel like you could get what you want to get in a game, but you’re looking around and be like, I got to probably give Tatum and Brown some touches, right? Like, I can’t just be shooting all the time. So, you can’t do it. Here, you can because it’s like, Jesus, please Derek, shoot. Like, get those field goal attempts up. We need 18, 19, 20 of these from you a game. So, it it just it if it’s going to free him up to be, you know, kind of a more complete version of who he can be. We’ll see with the added defensive attention if he’s able to hold off. I think he is like I think he can. I think he’s going to elevate. I think you’re going to see all the numbers go up across the board. Yeah. And they will naturally to some degree. I just don’t want it to become the Jaylen show the world I’m the man season because I think that’s going to be the worst version of this team. I think he’s in a good place just hearing from him at camp so far of knowing this isn’t all about him deferring to some of the other guys. Yeah, Jimmy, you want this, Jimmy? Is this what you want? Shoot. What? No. Get this out of here. You get out of here. Oh god. We got to put him back. Fix it. Don’t do this. Jimmy, what you got to say? It’s your your show. What did I do? I literally did nothing. I don’t know why you’re up there either. Um, what were you saying, Bobby? Okay. I was saying that I’m glad so far from the signs we’ve seen. Jaylen’s Jaylen. Help. I don’t know what happened there. I I’m glad what we’ve seen so far is that Jaylen’s not taking this season as let me take over and show everybody what I’m made of. Still, it hasn’t even started yet. But that’s what he’s talked about at camp so far is that it’s not going to be about him proving he’s a 1A. He might even look at himself as the top defender. Can I Can I say this once? We have to stop just taking what they say and then just putting it out there as factoring it everywhere. That’s what they say. Has has any star in history ever said, “I’m going to make this all about me.” He did. I could, you know, I sacrificed. When has a star When has a star said, “This year’s about me, [ __ ] Get out of my way. I’m out to prove a point every year.” He’s talked a lot He’s talked a lot in the past about how he has to sacrifice here to win, to play with Tatum, to be part of what they’re doing. He could lead a team elsewhere, but it’s great to win in Boston. You know, he’s done it on numerous occasions, and there’s been none of that this camp. It’s I’m gonna defend. I’m gonna, you know, get other guys involved, you know, get these young guys in the mix. Like, that’s been his message so far. He would not hesitate, John, to say, “I’ve been overlooked and this is the year where you’re going to see what I’m made of.” I don’t think he would have any hesitation about saying that if that was his mindset. Anyway, I whatever. Let’s I just want to I I’m really curious to see how it goes when they all get out there and they’re playing actual teams. So, you know, again, let’s let’s see it. But again, good start from Jaylen. Good start from the team. Good, you know, good job with them kind of, you know, doing the pace thing that they said said they were going to do. Good for them being physical. Joe, you know, Joe has to love that stuff. He and Buchet were talking about their little altercation when he bumped into him a couple years back. You see Buchet get in the mix there, too. You know, Joe’s loving a lot of this. Noah tweeted something. Guys coming off the court and them being fired up. So, like the energy is great and you know, you know, I don’t know about Brown saying he’s going to let guys do whatever. All he did was shoot when he was out there. Um, so, and he did well, but I mean, it’s just he’s got to be relied upon to score a crap ton of points. And that’s and that’s fine. You know, he had zero, Bobby. He had zero assists. Okay. It’s like you’re making me say it, Mr. I’m gonna let everybody else eat. Just shot today. That’s fine. But like it’s okay. It’s fine. Yeah. And it’s and it’s not just him. Like this could be a year where White is like, I have to do a lot more. Say it. I don’t want to say it. Right. I mean, it’s not just him either. I mean, White has said it’s not going to be about him doing too much. Pritchard says he’d still come off the bench even if no one’s going to do anything. Got it. Nobody wants the ball. My my point. Yes. And to John’s point, Jaylen’s going to have to do a lot. All those guys are going to have to do a lot. But any one guy can’t look at this year and say, “This is going to be about me doing a ton. This is gonna be about me taking over, me being Tatum in Jaylen’s case. Like, that’s not how it can go. It has to look like tonight where it’s pretty collective. And yes, John, it wasn’t Jaylen’s firing the ball around and being the point forward. No, he’s just like, “Give me the ball and I’m going to shoot some target practice.” It was a pretty collective team approach. Like, this was 10 guys plus all doing different jobs and fitting in together and, you know, exceeding the sum of their parts here. And that’s what they’re going to have to do because as you said a million times, John, the talent isn’t there right now. And Jaylen even said that at practice last time that they have leaned on talent around them. They’ve been spoiled by the amount of talent that they’ve had here. And now they’re going to have to do it with physicality, speed, and a collective approach. That’s what I’m talking about here. Not shot totals necessarily. Okay. Uh we’re going to get uh into a little bit more. We want to get into the rookie a little bit uh and realistic expectations for our everybody’s new favorite player, Ugo Gonzalez, who we’re going to hear from right after this message from our pals over at Prize Picks. And again, yeah, you want to get in on the action right now if you can with Prize Pick. This episode brought to you by Prize Picks. 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That is code CLNS to get 50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. Prize picks. It’s good to be right. Yes, it is. I like that. It’s good to be It’s good to be right. That’s my motto. It’s good to be right. I should try that sometime. It’s good to be right. It’s good to be right. What is it when you’re wrong? Bad. Never. I’m having a bad year. That’s my motto. Um, let’s talk about our Let’s talk about our guy. Uh, we did like what we saw out of Ugo. Uh, he was a spark plug. Jimmy’s gonna love this guy all season long. And again, he’s only 19. And typically on a regular Celtics team, this is a guy who would have been shipped back overseas and we wouldn’t see or hear from him for a couple of years. But on this team, he’s got a spot. And does can he have some minutes? I don’t know. But here he is after the game talking about his performance. Tonight, uh, we got the win. Working for a thing. I was playing good basketball today. We’re trying to um making the things that we doing in practice. Uh hoping that we’ll be practicing a lot because it’s the first win but still preseason. You need to figure out a lot of things. Did the level feel noticeably different from the league? I mean four is a race level I would say. Um also different pace. We want to play with a pace that not much teams want to play like. Uh we want to make them uncomfortable. So probably also apart from the highest level, we also have improved from made some big plays defensively. Do you feel like you’re able to show what you can do? I mean obviously not every day you can you can go and try to have steals as soon as getting back the game uh defensively making correct field the correct things. I think that’s the most important thing apart from having big plays or something like that. Yes, correct defensively so you can have a line. You talked about that pace. People usually talk about, you know, pushing the ball on offense. How important is pace to defense and the way you play on that side? I mean, it’s everything. If you defend, you’re able to run. Uh, everybody on this team wants to run with wants to have open shot in transition going for dunks and everything. I mean, that’s what we looking for, you know. So, as soon as we uh have the defense up there, we are able to run, we’re going to be really, really dangerous. Did you kind of like the mix up? Paul kind of pushed you and you blocked the shot or Yeah. shot and Paul kind of pushed you and then Buché came in and kind of Did you kind of like that little mixup? Like just shows the physicality and like of the NBA, your first NBA game. You kind of like that. I mean, um who play hard. They play hard too. Normal common things in a contact sport, you know. So, I would I would think that much, you know, and I know I play hard. Uh men’s play a hard game, too, I would say. So, just common incidents on the game that can happen to whoever. I don’t give him don’t give him much attention to that. It seemed like you were talking to Joe quite a bit on the sidelines. What are the kinds of conversations you guys are having in the game like when he’s pulling you inside and kind of giving you tips? Well, um I know I was going to throw Spanish correcting things that obviously as a as a 19 year old that is playing his first game in the NBA, it’s I got a lot of things to correct and he was just trying to give me live feedback from things that I need to improve. Some reads that I didn’t well I need to improve them. So basically is it hard to process like get feedback and then do it in real time or do you feel like you’re able to kind of do that in those games? I mean you got to think fast. It’s sported that you need you need to think fast. So basically try to apply whatever they they telling you cuz they they’re seeing it from a better perspective than you. So just trying to apply what they say you is is a great way. There’s our boy Ugo and of course good for him. He can speak good English for some, you know, like coming from another country. Good English. Yeah. Good for him, man. It’s not easy. I can’t even speak good English. I’m from here. Yeah. What do you think? Seems like on his shoulders. Yeah. Yeah. And the one thing, you know, when you’re when you’re readingout Yeah. And when you’re reading the scouting reports on him, it’s like, all right, he he didn’t play a ton for real. Doesn’t have much of a seasoned offensive game. You know, the three-pointer is even a real question with him. but you knew he was going to defend with intensity, fly around, has the size to guard a bunch of different positions. So, in terms of defense, he’s in a pretty good position right off the bat, especially, I’m sure, the practices out there and everything like his real team had Sergea and Dennis Smith Jr. for a stretch and Compazo and like you could probably rattle off like six, seven, eight NBA guys on that roster who he’s practicing with each day. Uh, so it was a legitimate outfit as it usually is out there for him to have been in that system for, let’s say, like three years, give or take. Um, that’s more than a usual 19-year-old would come with in terms of experience and coaching and that sort of stuff. Like it’s a whole development program out there. So, he’s young. He’s relatively inexperienced, but I feel better about him coming in than, you know, some 19-year-old out of high school here who’s just doing whatever. like he, you know, is pretty far along in his development, I’m sure, specifically on that defensive side of the ball. So, as I started to watch tonight, John, depending on how things shake out, who’s available, all that, right? I was thinking about him as a guy who’s probably up in Maine to start the year, but if he shows like this on both sides, why not have him in the mix in Boston to to begin this season, especially as one of your first round guys, as you’ve mentioned, Jimmy, see what he’s made of? I think listen, when you’re that young, too, the other thing that matters is how coachable are you, right? And it sounds to me like he seems like a very coachable kid. He’s tough on himself, too. You know, he beats himself up over the mistakes, which is good, you know, good to an extent. Obviously, you don’t want to get too too down on yourself, but if he can take what Missoula, you know, yells at him and with the coaching staff, Cassell, I mean, Cassell is a great guy to have in your corner, uh, I think he’s going to learn a lot and and it’s no question I would rather him be up here or down here in Boston than up in Maine. Um cuz listen, no offense to the main program and all that stuff, but does it really matter what what the hell goes on up there in Maine? Does it really matter what goes on up there in Maine? Just keep him down here with Boston. Get some burn. Maybe he can contribute to some extent. Obviously, early on that might not be the case, but guys are going to be in and out of the lineups this year. Bobby, who knows what the record’s going to be midway through the year. Get this guy some experience at a young age. And it’s been a while since you’ve had some young upand cominging homegrown talent on this roster that you could sort of blend in with some of the proven stars. And maybe next season, a season or two down the road, he’ll be a guy that can be a serious part of this rotation at a young age. Yeah. And he he was guarding him out of Maine for God’s sake. Well, yeah. I mean, usually you’d send a guy to Maine who just doesn’t have any path to playing in Boston on this team. There’s not much separation between those bench guys. He and a minod who’s 22 and Walsh who’s barely played NBA minutes at this point and certainly Shyman’s pretty, you know, early in his NBA career as well. So, there’s not a ton of separation there, I don’t think. Yeah. Yeah. You guys, you guys different like I know you and Noah believe in the development in Maine because they play the same system. To me, it’s just a place to showcase people so they can be plucked into the pros by other teams and that’s about that. But I just you you see that hey that’s where hower and cornet went through and it’s fine that’s the point. It’s like it’s just like hey look at me I’m doing good here you know you think I could help you in the pros and you’re going to find some talent there but the idea of the development like I’m sorry like yeah I mean they might be playing a Celtic system up there but JD Davidson is not going to play that type of role when he’s here in Boston. You know Davidson the other night. Yes I did Bobby. Everything’s going to be great with him. He’s going to be amazing. Um, but like I said is, you know, we’ve had a crisis here in in in developing young talent, right? A legit a level other than and so the the bringing putting them here and sitting them on the bench, putting them here and sitting them on the bench doesn’t do it. So, yes, if that’s what you’re going to do with them, I’d rather them play in Maine. But I I I love the idea of letting rooks just especially when wins and losses don’t matter as much, you know, as as we think that they might not this year. Let the kid take his lumps up here. Yeah, why not? There’s no there’s no one he’s necessarily far behind here. I think that’s the key point now. And they’re probably going to need more bodies overall. I don’t know if they’re going to do the hockey line thing. Like that isn’t necessarily what we saw today. No, but the first two subs came in. The first two subs came in early in the 4 and a half minute mark or so. So they Yeah. And they were going pretty rapidly throughout the game. And also it wasn’t a regular rotation because Jaylen played the whole first quarter. He might be doing that in the regular season, but they went quick. So some of the ancillary guys, the smaller, you know, those guys did sub in a little quicker. So that go and go hard. And yeah, that’s what they’ve been doing. There was a weird thing during training camp. Jimmy Walsh on media day was like we’re going to do four or five guys cycling in and out going as hard as they can. and then Joe had to be like, “We’re not doing that.” But I think it was semantics a little bit. That’s what they’ve been doing in practice. That’s what it looked like they were doing here tonight as John mentioned. So there trying to get them in the habit of playing hard for short shorter bursts. And they want to listen, they want to maximize possessions because 33% on a on however many shots, they’re going to need to take more shots, right? If they’re going to have a lower percent, yeah, don’t make me do the math, but 33% of however many shots they take, they need to just take more shots. Get that score that scoring number up higher. Right, John? They had 95 shots. That’s that’s how numbers work. 33% of a higher number is going to be a higher number. They count up. Um by the way, for anyone who thinks the three-pointers might be going away 53 tonight. So, no, no, no. I mean, and that’s part of it is more more possessions, more shots, higher number of threes. Maybe it’s not as high a percentage of your total shots, but if the idea is you’re going to get the ball moving and and and try to uh, you know, try to get the ball up quickly, then yeah, they’re still going to shoot 45. Yeah. And, you know, I like some of the other stuff here, too. 34 free throw attempts. Garza got to the line a ton, and we can talk about him in a second here. 17 offensive rebounds is a great number, too. You know, if you can get those shots back after you miss the threes, this is a, you know, they lot of scrappy rebounds. Yeah. Right. And listen, they’re they’re adjusting certain things here like the pace and aggressiveness defensively, but I think a lot of the core Missoula stuff’s going to stay, you know, the threes, the offensive rebounding, winning the shot battle, that kind of stuff is still going to be pretty core to who he is as a coach there in Central. So I think it will to an extent too, Bobby, because some of these guys he wants to say, “Okay, if that is the style that we see ourselves playing in the future, which one of these guys can stick around in next year’s team when we That’s the whole question this year, right? Yeah, exactly. Who are we bringing on? Who are we bringing to the contending years, right? Um, so they’re not just going to go from a half court offense to a fast, you know, fast-paced offense to a three-point shooting offense to a, you know, pound the paint offense. Like, they’re not going to go back and forth every other year. They’re trying to figure out which players are going to be able to play the style of basketball that they want to play in the years to come. Yeah. Uh, we’re going to continue on and we we’re going to hear from Josh Mayov from the locker room, too. And we might get a chance to hear uh from Noah as well. But we do want to tell you about another sponsor here at the Guy Garden Report and that is Raycon. Raycon. And that’s some cool stuff. You can see it here on the unboxing. Wow, look at that. Yeah, it does look cool, doesn’t it? I like it. And again, different program sponsored by Raycon. It’s Raycon’s anniversary. And what better way to celebrate than with a deal on the Everyday Earbuds Classic. They’re now 20% off. Perfect time to get your hands on these. Reliable, super comfy, and yeah, sometimes cool things happen. Like when we get a sponsor, they send us stuff. And these are awesome, awesome earbuds. I’ve been a fan uh of these since the moment I got them. Uh really, really terrific stuff. Again, everyday earbud classics, loaded with upgrades, active noise cancellation, multi-point connectivity, so you can pair two devices at once. Ergonomic fit stays on no matter what you’re doing. And I move around a lot, so yeah, I need that. New colors are a vibe. I like colors. I like colors are a vibe. He says, “I like colors, Bobby.” You hear that? I don’t I don’t like black and white and gray. I want red and orange alloo. Give me the fun stuff. Give me fun stuff. That’s what I like. Um so check it all out. Less like earbuds, more like accessories. I love them. Go grab them. Go to buyracon.com/pcs to get 20% off the Everyday Earbuds Classic. Once again, raycon.com/pcs. Get 20% off the Everyday Earbuds Classic. Go get yourself some. You know what else I’m vibing? Noah is coming in hot out of the locker room right now. Yes, our first report. The vibes report. How’s it going everybody? And Noah, everything they said was going to happen was true. Take it away. On a personal level, things have gone ary for me. I need to just start there. I got a bloody nose. Can I just Can I start with a personal anecdote or is that just I got a bloody nose in the middle of Joe Miswell’s press conference. Um, which was a whole scene. You’ve been known to give those. Yeah, I lost my coat. I broke something at the facility here. So, the wind feels so far away right now. But I reathered and I’m ready to discuss the game. But I just know where I was coming from. Prayers up. Joel likes the Joel likes the physicality. A little bit of blood. How’s the nose? Is it dry dry air over there? It’s all good now. Just keep an eye out, you know. Did you injure Jordan Walsh? No. But Jordan Walsh, it was very clear where he got injured. I actually turned to I turned to Jack Reed in that moment and I said a normal person would be out for three months on that play and it turns out also an NBA player could get hurt on that play. What happened? Yeah. But I’m curious what you guys thought about the game. What’s the No, no, no. We tal we we’ve done it all. We’re done. We’re done. We’re good. I’m glad I can my life. We’re ready for your take. Yeah. Um I mean, obviously the last like quarter there got ugly with um different Yeah. You know, different group out there. Um but I feel like the new additions were impressive and you could see the vision of like what we’ve been hearing about from camp over and over again. Like I think you could see the pace. You could see they were playing with a little more energy than I think we’re used to. Ball wasn’t sticking. So, I like what we saw. I mean, granted, the competition was not the most impressive, so I’m not going to like go crazy with what we saw, but I thought Luca Garza had some great moments. I thought Josh Ma. Yeah. Um, I thought Ugo for a rookie considering I thought he struggled a little bit at summer league like he had some great moments in this game. So, it was pretty encouraging. I mean, Derek Derrick was awesome. Jaylen looked like he was healthy and didn’t miss a beat. So, it was it was a pretty encouraging performance. John, you’ve been dying to talk about Garza. What What was the issue? You don’t like Garza? Some guy in the comments said he stunk. What? The major the major the majority of my commentary has been positive. Noah, mainly because um you like to see the spark plug players like May not and and and Ugo go in there just fly around, you know, and just be super active and aggressive and that was a lot of fun to watch. Um you you definitely saw uh that increased pace a little bit with the getting shots up more quickly. Um certainly in that first quarter there, uh you could see how quickly in in each possession, uh everyone’s been given a green light. First first good look, let it fly. So I did like to see that. I like to I liked how Derek White was being more aggressive looking for his offense. uh as well. I think if you’re going to pinpoint the negative off of this is while Garza had some moments, his presence out there is emblematic of just how difficult things are going to be on the glass and trying to defend the paint. Um you know, and again, you’re you didn’t have Kada tonight, but he’s going to be a problem in that regard. Uh and so that’s a little bit worrisome because that’s your depth behind Kada who’s kind of an unproven. So, I’m definitely a little bit concerned over that. Um, not that he didn’t have some moments and do some good things, but I I think that if you’re if you’re going to walk away with a concern tonight is, oh, rebounding is going to be a problem. Yeah. And they actually seem to shave back his minutes a little bit, I felt like, and go to Buché at center. And I know, know, we talked a lot about how he probably looked like he was going to be more of a four here, but he did play some center through the middle stretch of this game. So, be interesting to see how that stacks up once Cage is back on Friday. Yeah, I wouldn’t I wouldn’t read anything until like who played how many minutes in this game because it wasn’t really it was they weren’t obviously not running anything close to a regular rotation, but uh rebounding was definitely a struggle and I had a really good seat for this one. Memphis still is like one of the only arenas that has all the reporters literally in the front row. I could see you and Jack hanging out. Yeah. Oh, you could see us. I was having the time. All I wanted was for the game to never end. Um, but it’s the best when you get those seats. I was getting I was getting like nostalgic halfway through. Um, you know where we get them? We get them. We we would get them every time I covered um NCA basketball when they would play a regional at the Garden. Um, you get those seats like second row just floor side seats and it’s just awesome uh being there. You know, you don’t get you don’t get a chance to be that low. Right. Right. You know, I was I remember I was there for Melo um his championship. So nice. Yeah, that was a lot of fun. But anyway, one thing I noticed though is that Joe, the thing that Joe seemed to have like the shortest leash on was the rebounding and a couple times like there was one play where he was yelling at Luke at a rebound like before the shot even went up and then he missed the rebound. He immediately called a timeout. Like that was it’s clear that I think the team knows this is going to be a weakness. You you lost your best defender. You lost a bunch of other good defenders. Your small like Yeah, that’s what I mean by the best defender. like Tatum, you know, I think got kind of flown under the radar in that regard, but that’s going to be a point where they have to, you know, overemphasize. Everybody’s going to have to be better. The guards are going to have to be better. And I don’t think Yeah, I don’t I mean, I think some of the front court players like Tilman’s not a great rebounder. I don’t know that Garza is necessarily I thought he was fine in this game, but Amari Williams, I think that’s probably his biggest weakness. You he’s on a two-way, but like it is it is definitely a teamwide issue and is probably going to continue to be, but it’s really early, so we’ll see how it pans out. But I think like just looking at the roster that that’s an obvious area and it feels like that’s going to be a nightly struggle and it looked like it for a lot tonight. But they they ended up winning the offensive rebounding battle and overall 6560 I feel like competitive enough for now Ed’s out, Jackson’s out like you didn’t really have like world beaters there. John, I know you mentioned against like a actual physical interior dominance going to be tough. But I I’m going to remain dubious. Like you know what we saw was good because it like I said the buy stunk Memphis. Oh my god. They did. But like I said, I like the buy in because that’s what you need off of all of these new players coming in. You have no idea how it’s going to fit. And to see them playing in the style that Joe Missoula has preached on night one bodess well because it’s not going to work if they don’t or everybody’s doing their own thing or looking for their next contract or their next job and that can happen if seasons go off the rails. So that I’m not ruling that out but on night one preseason game number one great to see what they said was going to happen kind of happen. Um, so definitely good. But yeah, I am dubious how it’s going to play against a against a good team. It’s great run up and down the floor. You need guys who can shoot it. You need guys who can defend. You need guys who can def, you know, who can who can grab boards and this and that. And against better teams. How effective are some of these guys who we enjoyed watching tonight because of the energy that they brought? How how are they going to be in the regular season? It might work because not everybody wants to go 120 miles an hour. And if you’ve got guys that do and you’re going to do these quick substitutions and rotate in and throw in a lot of bodies, they could make themselves a little bit annoying to play against. And so I’m curious how it plays out once the real games uh start a little bit, who’s actually in and who’s out. Noah, Joe said it before the game. I think you posted the sound. Don’t read anything into who’s playing. You can’t. But if you had to just try to glean off of tonight, okay, who that played right now is in line for actual minutes once the season begins. Who do you think? First of all, I think a lot more guys than we’re used to. Like I think we’re going to see a deeper rotation, especially early on as different people get opportunities and you kind of see what what sticks and who plays well together and all that. So, I actually think a lot of the guys that we saw, but maybe one guy who was not I was not super high on when they signed him is Josh Min, who I think you might probably talked a little bit about. But there are things that he does that I think this team is going to need. For example, the rebounding like he is somebody that can actually be an asset on that end. And as we just discussed, like that’s an area of potential weakness. I don’t know about his shot. Like his shot is a little it looks a little clunky. He didn’t he missed I think all of his threes today and he was like a 32% or something like that last year. Um but I actually do think he’ll be in the Yeah, I think the Celtics like him. I think they’re excited about what he brings to the table. I think he’s happy here. He’s kind of fitting well. So that’s one guy. Um in the seven minutes that Jordan played, I actually liked a lot of what he did, but his night was just cut short with that adductor strain. I think it was Is that serious or is it just I don’t know. Uh I’m not sure. I I didn’t see him postgame. Um but it didn’t he played through like what looked like the initial moment of the injury. So I’m sure I don’t think it’s anything super long term, but um yeah, he’s he was you know, again, we’ve had this ongoing question of like between Jordan and Baylor and Ugo and Josh and all these guys that have some overlap in their skill set and obviously some differences like it’s not going to be all all of them that are in the rotation. And I think right now Josh actually seems like he has a little bit of an advantage and he reminded me postgame that this is his fourth year in the NBA. You know, we’re talking about, you know, Ugo, who’s a 19-year-old, like Joshua, Luca, like new. Yeah. They haven’t played a ton. You know, they haven’t played a ton of NBA minutes, but they’re they’re kind of getting the hang of things. Like he was saying, my first year, like I could not make those reads, and now I know how to make those reads. Like, there’s a certain level of like they’re not these guys are not rookies anymore, right? They’re far from that. And so, that’s going to bode well for them, too, when it comes down to potential opportunities. Um, I think they’re all Yeah, they’re all five years younger than Baylor Sherman. So, how old is Baylor Shyman? 25. Damn it. He’s 25. No, he’s 26. He’s 25. He just turned 25. He’s 38. He just turned 25. He’s 40. Why are we being so dramatic about He’s He’s Savior Tilman’s age. Yeah, he is. Which is the craziest thing. And that was the surprise tonight. And again, you don’t read too much into it, but we were trying to guess no who will be that surprise star. Always is one. But oh my god. Yeah. Anyway. Yeah, we can’t read into the we can’t read into the starting lineup because just because you know we have three guys. I thought it was funny. I I I thought it was funny because obviously the big debate has been Peyton Prid or Anthony Simons. Who’s going to start? They both when the starting lineup came out I was like oh is he just trolling us? Like he’s just not going to start either. Absolutely. Every start, but you know, they put Tilman in there. So, yeah, I think a lot of that’s Joe. Tilman. Part of it is Joe did this last year in Memphis, too, but like I do think that he likes having um Tilman play in Memphis. Memphis means a lot to Tilman. They had the signage. He was chatting it up with everybody. I think like if he can give him the start, like he he does that. He did that in the regular season games. He played there back in the 70s. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, but he’s one at three guys. He showed up without a contract. He showed up with his lunch pail. He was like, “Hey, you guys needed you guys need a a body.” And he never left. When I when I think when I think of Tilman and I think of my uh those two specifically, they’re going to score this year. I I have no doubt about the offense. Like they’re going to figure out between the threes and Jaylen and Derek and everything like they’re going to put up points. Defense is where they’re going to have to figure this stuff out. And our guy um Eisenberg uh John he he tweeted what earlier that they were going to have a bottom eight defense this year. Yeah. Like he he was super low on what this when the when the Aussies are down. Oh my god. That’s not great. That’s not great. And I mean that’s you look at the roster. I don’t know how you felt about the defense tonight, Noah, but they’re going to constantly be looking on that end. And yeah lapses actually. Tilman’s a potential solution, right? because he’s a bonafide defender and May not I think is actually a potential key there because he’s the only guy outside of maybe Kada who has some pedigree here too but they need somebody to protect the rim and between his length and athleticism and ability to just hover over he’s talked about he’s doing this in practice too I actually think Min can give them a little bit of rim protection because they have none right now in a game like this scal even said it at one point it was so funny in the second quarter he was They have no rim protection. They have no rebounding. Yeah. Yeah. And I think part of it, you know, Scout asked Joe about it pregame, but a part of it is that, you know, if you don’t have the size, you don’t have the protection, you do have other things. And we’ve seen the small ball lineup work at times. Like I think they’re going to have to lean, not not to literally sound like Joe right now, but like I think they’re going to have to lean into different identities, too, because you’re not going to find an elite or protector on this roster. I don’t think like even if Kada can give you some of that like that’s never going to be a strength of this team compared to other rosters and compared to previous iterations of this team. So what can you do differently? What can you lean into? And I think that there is there are unique things about this roster that they can have an advantage on the floor. We didn’t really see those things today because I think it kind of lands on Pritchard and Anthony Simons quite a bit. Um who by the way Anthony Simons a shoot around today was just doing defensive drills and he was he was locking people up. Not to not not to overdo it, but I’m I’m curious to do that. He was trying. You mean? Yeah. I mean, locking people up. In his own words, though, he’s just It’s like a poster of the clips because I didn’t want to I didn’t want to I didn’t want to put on blast the players that he was locking up more than I already did. So, yeah. Okay. It’s like It’s like the Araldis Chapman thing. Uhhuh. Guys, the uh he like he never thought he never thought to locate a pitch. Simons never thought to play defense. He’s like, I guess could. Nobody ever mentioned it to me. But like when they first sign when they first signed him, that’s the first thing I said. I’m like, I don’t care if he didn’t play def like he’s clearly athletic. Like it’s a choice. Defense is a choice. If you’re if you can move your feet and you’re an athlete, which he is, he should be able to play defense. It really is a commitment. So I would buy into the I would buy into him being able to. It’s just whether or not he’s going to commit to it and do it consistently on every possession, you know, night in night out, or he’s just going to take some days off or possessions off. So, who knows? But can he do it? Yeah, he absolutely can do it. I think they’re going to drill it into him, though. I mean, I I think Joe’s the type of coach, too, John, that holy, he won’t be scared to yank them, you know? I think that’s what I said. I don’t think he’ll have any worries. Even with the depth you’re talking about, John, I think some of these some of this like Noah said it off the top, we’re going to see a deep rotation this year. You’re going to need him. You can’t I don’t think he’s yankable, Jimmy. I think I think they’ll yank him if he doesn’t defend. John, he has no clout here. If he if he just straight up doesn’t defend, I we do this a lot. They will. I know, but I think he’s become a little overhyped the defense thing, too. Yeah, it’s like the first person to not defend on a bad team and score a bunch of baskets. exactly environment and you find yourself, you know, I think the hardest thing to do is is score and he can score and very few people, not very few, but there’s not enough people on this roster who can. His role is set here. If he doesn’t play defense, that’s going to suck because they’re going to they’re going to give up they’re going to give up as much as they get when he’s on the floor. But there’s plenty of players like that in the NBA. He’s too valuable to take off the court because of his offensive skill set. So, no way Joe benches him so he can play more freaking, you know, he’s gonna bench him for the game. But I I don’t think Joe’s just going to sit there and let this guy just, you know, Olay out there on the court. I just don’t think so. Yeah, exactly. I think he’ll be harsh on it. He’ll be critical. I think he’s not scared to embarrass him a little bit. If that means yanking him out, I’m not saying for the rest of the game, but he’s not Jason Tatum. He’s not Jason Brown. Like, there’s no cloud here. So he doesn’t tell him he loves him. That’ll tell him he loves him. Exactly. That’ll tell him he loves him and say, “We’ll see you next week. We’ll see you next game.” But I think back going back to Noah’s original point, the guys at the end of that rotation who are going to crack it are going to be the ones who are playing harder on defense. I think because they’re not going to be expected to be big scorers. They’re not going to be looked at to to run the offense, but they’re going to be looked at to play hard. And if that means playing def that means playing defense. So, you’re talking about those guys in the ninth, 10th, you know, 8 n 10 rotation. It’s going to be the guys who are playing good two-way basketball. I think that’s what it’s going to come down to. So, no, no, let me ask you about this. And again, we got to go beyond the box score a little bit on it because it’s not fair, but um you know, definitely in the negative column tonight, at least offensively, Baylor Shyman starts out great where with with with couple of threes early, that super deep one, and then I love the corner catch and shoot three where he didn’t have to go into that big dip. He just caught it and released it. And you and you want to be able to see him do that. And then he just went ice faking cold the rest of the game, which is a bummer because again, you know, he’s not going to be a he’s he’s an effort guy. You saw him hit the ground, you know, once or twice as well. Uh, and he’s not afraid to throw himself around there, but he just doesn’t have the feet to be able to play, you know, consistent defense at a high level. I think he can at best be competitive and be able to hang in there. He’s got to knock down shots and you want to see him get there. Like again, it’s only one game, but your overall thoughts on just how he looked here because this is one of those guys who you’re really hoping takes takes a leap in year two because it’s a guy who has some skills that you’d like to see them translate at this level on this team because they need they need more of what he could potentially bring. But I hate seeing I hate seeing lines like this even if it is in the preseason because you just want that three to be a little bit more automatic for him. Yeah. And honestly the what the shots that stood out to me the most were the twos because he I’ve seen this this was the same thing at summer league like he kind of forces I don’t even want to say forces but he he steps into a more difficult shot than maybe he had earlier on. Like there were a couple times today where he ended up doing like a like a going off his left foot floater like going to the right like just like difficult looks and he’s not making them and then you go back and you’re like okay how did he finish three for 13 and it’s not like he he missed nine excellent shots like he takes a few bad ones and so it hurts like it’s kind of like when you think about Tatum’s efficiency like that was always a knock on him but then he’s Jason Tatum like I feel like he has a couple shots per per night and this was the same thing at summer league where they’re just not probably not the best look that he could get and sometimes after he passed up a better shot so I don’t know if it’s a shot selection issue. I do think his shot is a little bit un unproven compared to some of the other guys in the roster like the Sam Hazards of the world like guys that have been elite three-point shooter. So, it’s definitely the biggest question for him. Like, he’s going to have to be an offensive threat to be in this rotation. Like, I don’t He does other things well to the best of his abilities. He plays really hard. He’s a good passer. He’s a smart player, but I don’t think he does them well enough and he doesn’t have the athleticism to separate him from these other more athletic guys if he can’t score the ball at a high clip. So that’s like the big question with him, right? I think we we thought about that at trench as last year. Like there was a month where he was on offensively last year and then he looks like a really good player. But outside of that, like LA most of last season, summer league and this opener game, like it has been a little bit of a challenge. So I don’t know. I’m a little bit like we’ll see how the rest of preseason goes. But it does feel like it’s not as fluky like today. I thought I I thought to myself a couple times, okay, that’s a that’s a tough a tough look. Like they have to be able to get something better here. Um especially with the guys that are playing around him. I don’t think he’s like a ball hog or anything like that. I think he’s trying to make the right play, but maybe overthinking it a little bit, too. This This reminded me a lot of the summer league stuff we saw from him. Yeah. When and especially he plays late into the fourth quarter in this game when he’s in that position and he’s running point and he’s in that role. I do feel like he presses way too much and tries to play that run everything, you know, everything’s going through me kind of role here where his best chance of succeeding on this team is fitting in and playing off other guys. I thought he did that early. He got a good look from Hower on the move in the corner. Some of his early shot selection, as Noah pointed out, was much better than stuff we saw late here from him. Defensively, it’s a lot of gambling. He got a few nice steals doing that. Um, but I’m not sure how that’s going to play out in in real action here. And then, you know, the four turnovers you see, one of them was just ridiculous. He tried going around his back and flipping it to nobody and some, you know, some Grizzlies player just grabbed it. So, this wasn’t super encouraging to me what we saw from him tonight. Um, especially when you did see some real solid defensive stretches from Walsh and and Ugo and some other guys who might not who he’s maybe competing with with there. But I also view him a little bit more as a ball handler in the back court. Maybe that fourth point guard, if you want to call him that, in their rotation behind Simons, Pritchard, and White. Uh, so that might free him up for some more minutes. But I’m still trying to figure out what he is here. Like, is he a guy who has the ball in his hands a lot, creates his own shot, or is he a guy like Hower who’s, you know, catching and shooting? He’s caught in between the two, it feels like. and then the defense is a work in progress. So, I mean, he’s moving in the right direction, it feels like, but I don’t know. The summer league to me was a little bit of a step back from what we saw from him late last season, and this was a continuation of that, I felt like, but it’s just one game. We’ll see what he looks like on Friday. Uh, yeah. Uh, we’ve covered I think most of it, but uh, Noah, anything again? You were you jumped in, we’d already talked about a bunch of stuff. Is there anything that you uh that stood out that you haven’t had a chance to talk about yet? Yeah, I mean I’m sure this is like maybe not the most like surprising topic, but like Derek White, maybe it’s just me, but I feel like he’s been flying a little under the radar when it comes to this team because there’s the storyline of like is Peyton Pard going to make another leap? Is Jaylen Brown I said that earlier. Yeah, Scout even said it too. Yeah, it just kind of hit me like at one point in this game he just looked way too good to be on the court and perhaps like at for certain moments like he just had complete command of the game on both ends it felt like and had suddenly he had 10 assists and I was like I didn’t even you know I didn’t realize he even played long enough to rack up that many assists and I think he’s going to have the ball in his hands a lot more this year because Tatum’s not going to have the ball and you know Tatum’s not going to be there and a lot of people’s initial instinct is okay Jaylen’s going to have the ball more but I don’t think that Jaylen’s at his best when he has the ball in his hands for most of the game Tatum was What do you mean? Nothing. Go ahead. Are we doing it? No, we’re not. I promised. I promise. No, we can. Now that you’re here, we can. I I’m not doing it. Okay. So, I just think Derek White is going to be Derek White has the potential to really be like the engine for this team. Who’s gonna be the Allar? Him or Pritchard? Why not both? No, just kidding. But maybe it’s just me, but I feel like I’ve underrated a little bit like the leap that he can make with having the ball in his hand a little bit. I said the same exact thing. So, he really impressed me in this game, but I said it better. As did Jaylen, who again, we haven’t seen him play healthy in a while. And I did think that right off the top, like you could see that he had a little bit more explosion than he had when we last saw him last spring. Um, so it was good to see him play like the full first half and lean into those two guys strengths. Brown’s a scorer, White’s a facilitator, and he had nine assists before you could blink. So, I I think both of those guys would benefit from sharing the wealth at the top of this team here. And then it’ll be interesting to see how Pritchard fits into that, too. I can’t Why did Pritchard not play tonight? Like, Simons, maybe I get like easing into things. Kada played Euro Basket. I I don’t get why Pritchard didn’t play. I think they’re not play guys for four games and so I think this honestly they play those guys didn’t play. So, one would start and one would come off the bench and then Joe would be like, “Oh, is that how it’s going to be?” So, he’s, you know, he he’ll start he’ll start he’s going to start on one about that topic. Oh my god. He was ready to go. Day one. It’s not Pritchard versus White uh Simons. Yeah, that’s how I see it. That’s how I see it. Um All right. Well, we’re back at it on Friday in Toronto. Uh the Bobby the Lunatic is going to go up there. Noah’s going to be there as well. Uh, I can’t promise that that shows like Toronto, John. You do. I like Toronto. Who else is going Who else is going to be in Toronto but not working? Amit. But I want you guys to check in on him because I’m worried about him all the time. Um, but Ahmed’s going to be up there in Toronto. That’s why we’re really there. Keep an eye out. His old stomping grounds. Yeah, he’s behind the scenes right now. Thanks to Ahmed for uh helping produce this show. And yeah, we’re back. We’re all the way back. Garden Report. It begins now. It’s gonna be a sludge, dude. I thought I thought everybody was going to be like encouraged by this game. We were We were We No bad things for No bad things from the game. I just on your face, John. I can see it on your face. I’m not ready to I’m not ready to crown them. These two are scared about how it’s going to go. No, I have to counterbalance you a little bit. So, when you come on, I have to get a little bit I got to That’s fair. But I I it’s funny even like how bright my light is and then you’re kind of more in the dark, you know, get all we definitely going to need some positivity from from that side of the of the I don’t know if it’s wrong way. Yeah. Sorry. No, I was positive for me generally speaking for the for the for the for the entire season. We might we we need them to bring the positivity for sure. So I do appreciate that Noah. Do your passion. I can get I can get behind this. I can get behind uh scrappy underdogs. Absolutely. I can get behind Scrappy Underdogs, too. That being said, give me the third seat. The third pick. Yeah. Yeah. Give me the third pick. Yeah. Look at this. Not third seed. I want to make clear. Yeah. Um I would take the third seat if I thought it was possible, Bobby. To be clear on that. Yeah. We’ll see. Uh but so yeah, we’re back at it Friday. This might be a funky one. that show might be slightly delayed uh just due to personnel issues with those guys up in Toronto, but you can follow us on our socials. We’ll update you. We are certainly going to be doing a show uh for that one. And then we’re back on Sunday as well. We’re going to be doing all the way through. There’s no rest. There’s no stop. West Coast, doesn’t matter. We will be doing garden reports after every single game. So, we do we’re happy to have so many familiar faces back in the chat here hanging out with us. I think this was a lot of fun. So, thanks. Quick shout out again to our sponsors. prize picks. Download the prize picks app of America’s number one daily fantasy sports app. Use code cls get50 in your lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. And our pals over at Raycon, you want some cool earbuds? Yeah, the colors are a vibe. Go to buy go to buy go to buyracon.comcs. Get 20% off the everyday earbuds classic. By the way, finish. No, go ahead. By the way, I’m just gonna roll right through the goodbye. I didn’t get a pair. I didn’t want to blow up your ad. I didn’t want to blow up your ad read earlier, but you were like, “Oh, it’s great when they send us stuff.” Nobody said Yeah, I got three pairs. Um, and my daughter and wife both love them. Uh, which is great. Outstanding include you, Jimmy. He got three pairs. The rest of the panel somehow got none. Hm. Wonder where they should have went. Celus defeat the Memphis Grizzlies, if you can even call them that. 121 to 103. in the preseason opener. Lots of positive things to talk about. You can read about it more with Noah Dzel over at SP Nation Celtics blog writing about it. Bobby Manning at CLNS Media. And of course, check out all the Celtics related podcasts here on the CLNS Media Network. Like us, subscribe, do all of that stuff. Uh please, please, please uh we’re going to be here all season long. And if you like WNBA action, make sure you subscribe to the WNBA today on CLNS Media on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, where we wanted to get to a,000 subs, but now now that we got there, thousand. That’s nothing. I want 2,000, 3,000. I want 10,000. I want 10 100,000. I want I want 10,000 by the end of the year. That’s where we want to get to. Uh Noah dominating that channel. So, make sure you check that out. Subscribe. Lot of drama in the WNBA. Noah, we got to get that drama. Isn’t it fun? Not in the finals, though. I’m thinking we You know, we talked about having like a like No, that’s why Noah does this. You know, we talked about having a drama segment on the Garden Report. I’m thinking we incorporate the WNBA into that because that’ll give us some really juicy go like hot goss if you know what I’m saying. Just like a random WNBA segment in the Garden of Fourth. Once in a while we mix it into the drama segment because there’s always something going on. I There’s some drama tonight. James Vince Williams. Vince Williams. Yeah, it’s juicy stuff. I love having a front row seat to that stuff. Yeah, it was that was fun. So, we’re Listen, guys, we’re gonna need to get creative. You were You were ending the show so well. It was It was seamless. You got the ad. We’re gonna have to get creative this season. We really are. Yeah. So, I think Jimmy give me mid-season form hijacking my ads and my goodbyes. I I was just about to say goodbye, so we’ll do it again. Thank you very much for watching. Thank you on behalf of everyone on the Garden Report. Have a podcast on our segment soon, too. This We will see you guys on Friday after I can find the outro. Bell’s going to be on CNN soon. No one’s sneaking a vegan brownie by me. I’ll tell you that. Okay. You know what? We’re going to do it. You have to feel that way, too, Bobby. I have to feel that way. Slide out over and and make Luke your first center. Bobby, we gave you Luke hour earlier. We are not going to end this on a damn conversation about Luke.
The Garden Report’s Bobby Manning, Noa Dalzell, and John Zannis break down the Celtics’ Preseason matchup vs. the Memphis Grizzlies.
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46 comments
Thanks for the great commentary.
Some observations before watching this vid.
I think the Griz are gonna be better than people think when they get their starters back. Wells, Coward, Ball and Smalls look like great young talent. When Edey, JJJ, Clarke and Ja return, they're not going to be easy to beat.
Bailor will always be a liability on defense, Garza too.
JB has no lift, with luck that will return in time. He barely left the floor shooting jumpers and couldn't get to the rim because he couldn't get by anybody. However, he shot often and well even when well guarded. For a first game back from knee surgery, he looked pretty good.
Hugo had his best game in celtic uni. He still doesn't have an NBA handle, and he got blown by a couple of times on defense, but overall he was a force out ther.
Minott and Walsh were really good defensively.
Hauser was sharp.
Harper looked real good, he might be a great signing. He plays like a 7-yr vet. Knows what to do with the ball.
Wish Amari Williams got more playing time.
Garza can’t rebound? More than porzingis
Dude Walsh plays with no aggression he’s gotta go if he doesn’t pick up his intensity. I’ve been a supporter but it’s time. We drafted u for defense and I’ve seen very little defensive growth
Them boys played hard loved how they looked out there our guys are back CLNS
Fino alla fine go Celtics.
"NO HAPPY THOUGHTS, NO HAPPY THOUGHTS!!!!!!!!!!!" – Zannis
Gonna be a fun year, as hoped 👊☘
Now Jaylen is the Babyface, and Tatum will be the Heel.
Bobby, please for the love of God – stop cutting people off and interjecting so damn much!!
Idk, I see a lot of Derrick white in Ron Harper jr
Hugo looked much better than he did in summer league
Minott gives great great effort, similar to Aaron Nesbit role in Indy is a possibility
Boucher is just a solid nba player, he gives us similar skill set as horford
Garza is a deep bench big just like Luke kornett started as
We needed Queta on the floor much more last year not less. Him and Torrey Craig not getting minutes is why we peedered out in the playoffs
Xavier looked solid, he is just a good rotational big to spot defense and set screens.
They did not run up and down very fast….such an exaggeration. We play3d exactly the way we have been playing
Hugo will piss off a lot of players just because he is in their space….hugo, minott and Boucher are great energy guys off the bench
Walsh is not good
So glad the show is back! Gonna be an interesting season no doubt.
Zannis really doesn’t like JT I guess.
It makes no sense to me that Baylor shot is not translating. He was shooting from the same distance in college. It’s not like he is a beneficiary of the college line being closer. He didn’t shoot anywhere near the college line in college. So it’s really strange that his shot, just disappears
Can Garza play the power forward position? I feel like he needs to play with QUETA. Hopefully Garza can hit three-point shots and play the 4
There are not hardly any good front courts in the nba, it is the worst era for centers since peach baskets lol, if you want to be weak in an area, center is the place
Pp, dwhite, jb, Sam and Queta…Simons and Boucher main rotation guys that could start when needed…. Minott, Hugo and Baylor as energy guys….garza when extra size is needed. But think of that top 7 when you add JT for playoffs and you got a great 8 man rotation
Watch next game, Simon’s and pp will both start and dwhite will sit
Simons has a great attitude so I definitely see him accepting coaching and playing defense…plus it is a contract year, and he knows he has an mo for not playing d so he is going to play
Garza could be like a Jonas Jerebko for this team
I want to see Walsh being way more active defensively next game
Oh my bad for being so harsh on Walsh. I didn’t realize he got injured. That’s on me.
The shop making ability of white is starting to get ridiculous. He does not care if you are 2 inches from his face. He’s going to pull that thing before you can even get your hand up.
I’m sorry I still wish we did not get rid of JD. We traded away a long-term answer at the back up guard position for a one year rental. That was a huge mistake to me. What are we gonna do next year when Simon does not sign here? we had a guy that we had been molding for years on a minimum
22:55.. Jimmy makes me die😂😂
I think getting these young guys reps in the NBA while they are young is very important. I can’t stress this enough and I think that’s part of the mistake we made with JD although he just got his body NBA ready in my opinion. But it takes some good players, full seasons to become efficient NBA players. I wouldn’t mind getting Hugo on the floor this year if he is going to play with that kind of intensity.
Love how we literally molded jd into a ball dominant guard then said.. we don’t need a ball dominant guard. Never gave him a chance to be anything else. This should have been the season. What are we gunna do when simons signs somewhere else next year for more money? We needed cheap depth
John complaining about Brown’s assists makes me question if he even watched the game
I feel like if u play Garza with queta, a lot of the rebounding and size issues get cleaned up. And neemy can make up for some of the lack of rim protection. But this all relies on garzas ability to hit the 3
Queta and Garza could be interesting if Garza can knock down the 3 he rebounds tough just doesn’t quite have the ups. Queta has the ups so they could compliment each other. Garza sets great screens where queta kind of struggles. Might actually be a good pairing
A new intro, perhaps?
Baylor not looking to good seems like his shot aint it needs a change
So far from the days of denis rolling the ball down the court. But maybe JT is gonna come back and slow down to iso and Zannis is gonna lose his mind.
It's good to be right but it's also good to have some humility and let your colleagues have equal significance.
Bobby made John say it. So funny.
Great job by fab four as usual.
Best offseason reportage award goes to Bobby Manning. He had the most interesting guests/shows, well done Bobby. That being said, Luka Garza was "awesome"? C'mon, man, awesome? Awesome? Maybe a little too much punch at the pre-game party? Somebody should send this vid to Garza as it is probably the only time he will ever be called awesome.
Noa great as usual, but I hafta disagree that JT was our best defender. Jrue Holiday is the best defender of his generation. Paul George, Dame, james Harden, KD, among others, have said he's the best defender in the league, and they are correct. On the Cs next to him is DW, then maybe JB.
Not to worry, Z, that JB didn't pass the ball. He's not going to play like that in season. They wanted to get him a good stat line and some confidence in his first game off surgery. All things considered he looked pretty good. He's not very springy, but that may return in time. He tried three times to beat his man off the dribble and failed each time, but it's his first game since surgery. He lost the ball four times, but managed to recover it three. He lost the ball on the first possession of the game–JB being JB. If there's a record for just flat out losing the ball, flat out just misdribbling, he's got to have it. Worst handle ever.
They wanted him to score and he did, overall it was encouraging. The real test of that knee is whether he can defend, we shall see, but still encouraging.
Agree about Bailor, wonder if he can play in this league.
If JB can play at something like his previous level, and Queta can be a starting center, not just a center but a good one, this team could win 30 games. Obviously, this is the worst Celtic team in a very long time. Let's hope Queta can't play and we get a lottery pick.
This year will be rough when talking about wins and losses, but there’s potential for this team to be very fun to watch!