Keith Smith (2:42)

Does.

Adam Kaufman (2:42)

Is he like working at a Walmart the rest of the year and they just gotta like Mac, Mac, it's your time buddy. We, we're gonna need you. I mean just the. Oh God. I used to love the dunk contest. We have the three point competition obviously and you know, rising stars meet the. The celebrity game. Again with the, the quote fingers. If anyone has looked at the rosters of the. I, I guess Keith Smith joining us here. Evan Valenti. I am Adam Kaufman. I, I'm, I'm not as in tune as I once was. I remember a day when you know, Kevin Hart was, was like 10 all star appearances. Not all star, but all star celebrity appearances. And like I don't even know like Justin Timberlake is playing in this thing or, or Ken Griffey Jr. Maybe I'm starting to confuse this with like rock and jock. I'm not even sure. But we had legitimate rosters. I pulled up the roster which I could do as we sit here for this celebrity game. And maybe it's just, maybe it's just not my world anymore, guys. Maybe it's a bunch of YouTubers that are really popular that I've never heard of. But up and down both rosters. Like I could probably recognize like two people on either team at, at most. I mean it's, there's, there is not a part of me that would be. I hope it's not even televised. Who would want to watch this game? Keith?

Keith Smith (4:05)

Yeah, I mean you're asking the wrong guy. And I apologize for the minor earthquake. Might have looked like I had here we. Somebody's in the backyard cleaning up from getting our grass cut and the dogs are losing mines. But yeah, if I didn't have a 14 year old, I wouldn't know who any of these people are either. She. She thankfully keeps me in the loop on. Oh yeah, this one's this person and this one's this. I would recognize the former athletes and that's probably it. And it's. Yeah, I don't looked at this watch that.

Evan Valenti (4:33)

Yeah, I'm looking at it right now. I'm actually, I'm looking at it right now because you said something and I gotta be honest with you. Look, I am a 34 year old. I'm holding on to 34 for a couple more months. 34 year old.

Adam Kaufman (4:44)

I've got like a decade on you. So.

Evan Valenti (4:45)

You have. Yeah, but you have kids.

Keith Smith (4:47)

Kids.

Evan Valenti (4:47)

Like even, even like, you know, we, we had granny on last week. Granny was like yeah, you know, my, my kid. You know, one of my biggest accomplishments in life was working with Kaiet. Like, you know, like that's. That's huge. I know who that is. I do know who that is. Obviously. Two chains, Barry Bonds. That's easy.

Adam Kaufman (5:04)

Two Chains are coaches. They don't count. Yeah, yeah. At least I know who they are.

Keith Smith (5:09)

That's great.

Adam Kaufman (5:09)

They don't count.

Evan Valenti (5:10)

But so we get to Kaisernat. Who? I know. Baron Davis. I know. And then after that, for this entire roster.

Adam Kaufman (5:18)

Alicia Gray's wnba, right? So we know her.

Evan Valenti (5:21)

Yeah, I know. I know. Noah Khan is somebody cool. Is he like an actor?

Keith Smith (5:27)

He's from Vermont.

Adam Kaufman (5:28)

Isn't he a musician from Vermont?

Keith Smith (5:29)

Well, yeah, he's the one who sings that Stick Season so song.

Evan Valenti (5:33)

Okay, all right.

Adam Kaufman (5:34)

Well, he just sounds like a country singer. I don't know if he is, but.

Keith Smith (5:37)

He sounds like kind of like a. Like bluegrass, like folky.

Adam Kaufman (5:41)

Like Danny Ramirez, like. Yeah, I've never heard of Mickey Guyton. I don't know who that is.

Evan Valenti (5:50)

What a wrestler?

Adam Kaufman (5:52)

Maybe Rome. I think it's a she.

Evan Valenti (5:54)

I think she's a wrestler.

Keith Smith (5:56)

We think there are a couple.

Adam Kaufman (5:59)

This is all one team, by the way. We're not like cherry picking these people. Like both. The other. The other side is equally obscure other than to Terrell Owens and Shibuzzi are on the other team. The. The Jerry Rice team. Shabuzzi and his one song. I bet he performs too. Before this thing starts, who do we have like Chris Brickley, Bail Bay Lev. Oh, Matt Barnes. Cool.

Evan Valenti (6:26)

Theo and Matt Barnes in the same team. Seems a little interesting.

Adam Kaufman (6:30)

Just a dude's nickname or is that walker Hayes? Shelby McEwen, maybe. I don't know who any of these effing people are. I like, this used to be fun. I used to record this game so that I could watch it after the fact.

Evan Valenti (6:45)

I don't know either Would tear these guys up. That's all I'm telling you right now. Justin Bieber would tear everybody up. Except, yeah, we lock it down.

Adam Kaufman (6:52)

Oliver Stark.

Evan Valenti (6:55)

I. Yeah, I'm not cool. I never was cool.

Adam Kaufman (6:58)

But is that Caleb Burton's alias?

Keith Smith (7:01)

I don't know.

Adam Kaufman (7:02)

I don't know.

Evan Valenti (7:03)

We have no idea. Can we be. Can we be excited for a second that Jalen and Jason are on the same team?

Adam Kaufman (7:10)

Oh, it's good that Jalen's making time for this. Missing games going on Fallon. I don't care. I'm not going to make a big deal out of that. I know we've done that in the past. Like, truthfully, in the history itself, it's been. We have made a big deal out of like, you know, Kyrie Irving missed a couple of games. But no, he's not going to miss the all. I don't care. I do not care. I don't think anybody cares. You have the third best team in the NBA. The important factor is being healthy come the spring. Things that we'll touch on. I do not care that Jaylen Brown is missing action, especially games that they're winning anyway to then appear in the All Star stuff. I don't, I do kind of laugh though. I mentioned this on my radio show. I think last night as we sit here, just sort of the timing of stuff. Guys, I saw this. This. It's like how the Twitter algorithm works. The, you know, it was like back to back tweets, regardless of who they were from. I don't remember. But back to back tweets were essentially like Damian Lillard scratch from tonight's game for the Bucks. Damian Lillard will, will participate in the three point contest on All Stars Saturday night. Like, come on. Like, there's just. The system's broken, Keith. It really is.

Keith Smith (8:22)

Yeah. I mean there's definitely been some of that going on this week. But as a lot of people were saying is they're just going to go out there and put in a half effort anyway in the game. Give me somebody else that'll go out there and play hard and, you know, go there. From the Celtics perspective, I saw a little bit of grumbling, especially last night because no one's ever happy on social media. Right. They got to complain about everything. The team's rolling. They were never threatened in the game. A couple times the spurs cut into the lead.

Evan Valenti (8:52)

But as much as Doris Burke wanted it to be a game, it just was never again.

Keith Smith (8:57)

Right. Yeah. It was like, please don't turn this off. But it was. Yeah. People were starting to be like, oh, Jalen Brown couldn't play, but he could do Fallon. And you know, all the stuff that people said there and then the, the one that is a slight worrisome to me. He's got nothing to do with the All Star Game. Drew Holiday and the fact that he's been ruled out early for several games, that tells me this isn't just Jrue Holiday's resting. Like there's, there's something I think actually going on and you've seen him multiple times in games. Looks like he's trying to work out something in the shoulder. Hopefully it's just get him off his feet now for a week, hasn't played in a week, comes back and he's ready to go for the stretch run. But all the rest of it, yeah, I don't really care. It doesn't really bother me all that much anymore.

Adam Kaufman (9:41)

The big picture of it all. Ev just to let's, let's, let's let's go here and we can circle back to concerns and whether or not Holiday is just being, you know, load managed like you read about or if there's a legitimate issue there. But our our guy Greeny barstool Greenie Dan Greenberg, who's been on with us multiple times, he wrote a an opus going into the All Star break here on this team and I do want to read a part of it because I think if you're listening to this show you're probably either you've read it or you're aware of some of this stuff to begin with. You're probably not hate listening to this show, but it is I guess either way we're happy to have you. But Greeny writes It may be hard to believe, but when it comes to the 2425 Boston Celtics, you are currently watching one of the best title defenses seasons in NBA history. Skip ahead. Skip ahead. After taking care of the spurs to win their seventh game in eight tries, 10 of 13, the Celts are currently on pace for 58 wins this season with a plus 9.1 point differential. How rare is that? Well, during the entire century there have only been four other teams in NBA history to win 60 plus games in their title defense season. Celts are currently under that at a 58 win pace, but how they're playing getting back to 60 isn't all that crazy. Those teams are the 0506 Spurs, 0809 Celts, 1213 Heat and 1415 Warriors. How many of those teams had at least a plus 9.1 differential in their title defense season? Only the warriors plus 10.8 and you'll remember that was the 73 and 9 team goes on to basically talk about how what we are seeing is special compares this year's team to last year's team in a variety of categories 3 through 54 games. You know where the Celtics are a little bit behind where they're ahead if anyone's curious, sitting right now 38 and 16 compared to last year's 42 and 12 point being Keith, we have spent time on this show recently sort of bitching about the malaise a little bit that that we saw there for a few weeks in you know, basically much of the month of January. But you know, with the alternating win, loss, win, loss, win loss and all that for as long as it went. But now we are consistently looking at a team that has remained top three, top four in the NBA all the way throughout that is firmly third behind Cleveland, five and a half back of the Cavs, who are 44 and 10. The only other team who of course is in front of both OKC 44, nine over there in the Western Conference. Do you feel like, put the stats aside to the eye. Do you feel like you are seeing something in terms of title defense that is special, that is noteworthy out of this Celtics team, or do they still have something to prove to you?

Keith Smith (12:36)

It's funny, I don't know that I feel like I'm seeing anything special, but they also don't have anything to prove to me either. I am. I'm not the slightest bit worried about these guys. Even if you. I know you said put the stats aside, but even if you look a little deeper into them, the expected win loss is like three games better than what they actually are. And that kind of matches. Right. Because they've kind of thrown a few of these games away where it's like, probably should have won that game and they just didn't. For whatever number of reasons. I. I think we see when they get a team that is trying to, like, come at them, like the Knicks, for example, the other night, where there's a lot of talk the Knicks are going to catch them, they're going to run them down, and then they went out and absolutely destroyed them. And that tells me they've still got all of that in them. Like, they're like, yeah, when we want to show up and kill somebody, guess what? We're going to do it. But more often than not, we're just going to kind of go through the game. Big thing is, I think we're seeing. I could really cut it loose and try to run this guy down and try to break up a fast break, but, man, it's just not worth it. Like, what, what. What's the added benefit of saving two points in a game in the middle of January? It's just not, you know, there versus. Yeah. But then I could pull a hamstring and be out for two months or whatever it is. So I. I don't know that I feel like, oh, my gosh, you know, what a special team this is. But I also am not the slightest bit worried about this team either.

Evan Valenti (13:59)

You know, one of the things I've thought of lately, Kaufmann, is like, the way in which we view this team and the lens that we view it with. And it feels like to me, and I understand why they won a title last year. Yes. But there's been a lot of, like, shortcomings with this particular core group since they've been together, right, They've gotten so close, and they never got there until last year. They got over the hump, they won the title. They raised the banner.

Adam Kaufman (14:22)

Everything's great.

Evan Valenti (14:23)

And it feels like to me, people are viewing this team as a team that hasn't won the title yet. Like, I've been saying this for a long time this year, and, and I, I feel like I'm repeating myself way too much. But it just comes back to this. Everybody views the Denver Nuggets as like Teflon. Like, you have to beat Jokic four times to. For anybody to find a belief that the Denver Nuggets Nuggets are not going to win the title, you have to beat them four times. I don't think this Celtics group gets that same. How do I put this? The just the same courtesy, right, of this is last year's champs. Like, who cares that they went 8, 8 in a stretch in the middle of December and January, right? That we have way more evidence this is an elite team who is still operating elite level. Kaufman, I don't know if you agree with me on this, but it just doesn't feel like people are viewing the lens, are viewing this team through the lens of this is last year's champs. They don't have a lot to prove, you know, has a lot to prove. The Cavs, the Knicks, the Thunder, the Nuggets. Again, you could mark, I mean, I don't know if you want to put Golden State with Jimmy Butler in there, etc. Etc. But this Boston team has nothing to prove. They won last year. They brought everybody back and then added Tory Craig last week, which is an exceptional addition, especially with Drew Holiday going out. Like, we don't view them the same way. It's driving me crazy because everybody's complaining about effort in the middle of January when it's like, okay, wake me up in March or wake me up in April, then we can have a serious conversation about it.

Adam Kaufman (15:53)

I think the Jokic thing is simply, it's not so much about Denver. I mean, you highlighted it. It's Jokic. It's. It's not Denver. It's not the supporting cast. Although Jamal Murray has taken it to another level recently. He has been incredible as that team deals with some injuries, you know, Porter Gordon and not at a lineup, that type of thing. Brown doesn't get the respect probably that he deserves as a. A role player. He's been very, very consistent this year. But Jokic is still, until further notice, at least in my eyes. I don't know how many people would disagree with this. The best player in the NBA, I still determine. Like it doesn't mean he's going to win mvp. Like SGA is going to win MVP and he should win mvp. But if you're asking me between SGA and Jokic, who is the best player in the NBA, that's still Joker. I think he is just beyond like, like even what my eyes show me when I am watching him. I find it hard to believe. So I I think it's that level of respect coupled with the fact that he has already done it. If he hadn't won a title a couple years back, all that doubt that you talk about or all that we have something to prove that it's attached to so many other of these teams that you rattled off. The Nuggets would have that as well. The reason they don't is because they've won. But the difference there to Boston is I just think Tatum, while he is a top five player in the league, an exceptional player, we're thrilled to have him on the Celtics. We spent a lot of time with Grandy last week just basking in the accomplishments of Tatum and what would it take for him to be, you know.

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Adam Kaufman (18:26)

Mount Rushmore of Boston Celtics and yeah, how far away is he? All that stuff. He is still, I think to the eyes and statistically such a far cry from Jokic, which is not a slight on Tatum. I think Jokic is just truly otherworldly. Like I'm not ready to say Jason Tatum is a top 10 player in NBA history. I'll call him a top 10 play. A top five player in the NBA right now. Jokic, I think is a top 10 player in NBA history. So that's sort of what we're comparing at this moment. And Jokic is still obviously in his prime. I think where it comes back to the Celtics though that you do hear from some people that I think pay attention is this team still is capable. You know, we've seen it during this, this streak of the seven wins in eight games and throughout much of the year, maybe not as much during that sort of up and down nature of December, January, but generally speaking, this team can shoot the lights out and has so much talent top to bottom on its roster, at least in terms of its rotational players that where it comes back to with Boston. And we, we said this throughout the postseason last year. Yeah, you could beat them at some point in time within a seven game series, maybe even twice. But as long as water finds its level, that doesn't mean they're going to go out and shoot 55% from three on a given night. I mean it might happen once, but they're also not going to shoot 25% from three probably more than once or at worst twice. So as long as their average is their average, Keith, their median is their median. Good luck taking four out of seven from this team. And that's kind of what it comes down to. As long as Boston is healthy and shooting the way that it is capable of. For me it's not who's their biggest problem, who's the toughest matchup. Boston's its own worst enemy. As long as the Celtics go out and do what they do. I don't worry about this team, at least in the Eastern Conference.

Keith Smith (20:29)

Yeah, I completely agree. They are the only team. I'm just double checking this through. Last night's game in the league and no OKC got there last night, but they're them in the Thunder. The only two teams that are both top five in offense and defense in the league. The Cavs aren't even that. So we're in a spot where like, Gary, yeah, they've lost some games, but it doesn't matter. And I'm exactly with you. The same thing that I. What you said is the same thing. I repeat whenever anybody's. Like, what are. Where's your concern level with this team is till somebody beats them four times in seven games. I'm just not all that worried about it because of all the things you laid out. I think part of the reason why maybe they don't feel special and dominant and all the other things. And it's to Evan's point, like, we still say Jokic needs to be B. Right? You got to be Jokic. And people don't say that about Celtics is one. I think from their own fan base, you. This team's just not good enough for a lot of the Celtics fans, which is, you know, bananas. And it's typical Boston right where it is, well, we have higher expectations. We want more. And I always say we have unreasonable expectations. This is ridiculous. You want to. You wanted this team to come be better than they were a year ago, which was historically good. You know, a couple of people in the off season ranked them as, like, the top five team in history of the NBA. Like, what are we doing? Like, you want it better than that? You know, and it's like, well, you know, sue me for having high expectations. And it's like, you know, it comes down to once a team has won in Boston, then it is, well, winning isn't enough now. Kill everybody right now. Hand up. I was there with the Patriots for years where it was like, all right, well, they're going to be in the super bowl. Like, what will make it better? All right, Go undefeated. Right? Kill everyone. Beat everybody by 20 or 30 points. And it was like, you know, and at some point then I finally grew up and realized, like, no, it's pretty cool to just win the super bowl like that. That's enough. I'm happy with that. And that's where for this team, like. Like, I've tried to tell people, like, just step back. Just out of the. Yeah, they lost to whoever, you know, in a game. But just step back, look at the bigger picture. And most people then they're like, yeah, you're right. They're fine. You know, and that's just where, you know, we just. We get a little too crazy. But I think, you know, I still see on a national level, a lot of the people who check in, they're like, you get a game like it was against the Knicks, and it's. Yeah, there it is. They're going to beat them again, right? Who's, until you beat these guys when they hammered the Cavs the other day. If you can't be, if you can't beat them, yo, who knows where you're at?

Evan Valenti (23:15)

Yeah. And for me, it's like you watch this team, you talk about last year's being. Yeah, it was one of the best years any team's ever had in the season. And you know, we were coughing. We've talked about it this year a little bit. You know, when the year first started, it was, is this team actually better, this team actually better than last year's team? And we had that conversation. I can't tell you how many weeks in a row of, you know, you look at Pritchard, Pritchard's better than he was last year. And then, you know, Derrick White's having a pretty good season and you know, Jaylen Brown, you know, maybe, and we'll see with Kristaps Porzingis comes back. But we had legitimate discussions, is this team better than last year's team? Then all of a sudden this 8 and 8 stretch threw us off the scent. And now the recent seven and eight wins in seven and eight, I think it brought us back to that particular side of it. The one thing that I'll throw out there, cop and the one thing we, we can say definitively, no question Jason Tatum's better today than he was last year. He is outrageous right now. And I think if you go to the game, this is, we're recording this on a Thursday. So Wednesday night's game against the spurs, oftentimes you'll hear us other talking heads out there in the world that watch this team on a day to day, week, month basis. Tatum could do way more and average way more points and more rebounds and more assists. But that's not what the team needs him to do. And everybody wants. You know, there was that great clip that made the rounds this week of like Jason Tatum's a system player. It's just an outrageous take, but it got a lot of traction. I, I, I, I shudder to think that like anybody thinks that Jason's assistant player. We look at Wednesday night, what do you have? 32, 14, seven. Like that, his 14 rebounds, seven assists, 32 points. Like if Jason Tendon to have an awesome team and like heaven forbid that Jason Tatum has awesome teammates.

Keith Smith (25:02)

Right?

Evan Valenti (25:02)

Heaven forbid that LeBron had Wade and Bosch or anything like that, or Tim Duncan had Mono Ginobi and Tony Parker and whatever. If he didn't have these guys, I Think people, this is my personal opinion, Keith. I think people would rank Tatum so much higher than they currently do. But because Tatum plays on this awesome team and doesn't have to carry load every night, that we don't get to see this unreal. Tatum, who's scoring efficiently, getting into his spots wherever he wants to go, you know, facilitating the offense, passing it all over the place. He's making passes now that are unbelievable. His three point shots back, his defense is, is spectacular. Like I just, I, I think we're seeing now like this is the final form, I think of Tatum, the getting to his spots part of it I think is very particular of like getting to the rim or getting to the mid range and doing his work as, as well as he can. We have like I think one more year of him like really figuring this out until we reach pig Tatum. But again, I think for other people, maybe I'm wrong with this. Keith. The fact that his team is so good actually takes away from how good he really is. And if they weren't there, he'd be easy. Top three, no problem, no questions asked every year.

Keith Smith (26:11)

Yeah, I did a show the other day and I said so you would like this a lot more if he was doing it on a three games above.500 Atlanta Hawks team, like that'd be better. Like what are we doing? Like that's where I don't understand it. Like he's still to me in a way when he stands out the way he does within this collection of talent the Celtics have. That says a whole lot there. I'm glad you mentioned a couple of things you said about him too. I like now he is very content and almost purposeful looking too play through contact. He this year, more than I can ever remember is you put a small guy on me, I'm taking him right inside. He had a play last night, Stefan Castle, who's quite. He's not that small to begin with him pretty strong. Tatum took him on the block, went into the paint and went right through him for a layup like he wasn't even there. And he's doing that now with regularity. He's the plays where it used to be. He would drive in, get past the guy, maybe they go, he's going to try to avoid the contact and flip it off the backboard and it would roll off the ram and all the other stuff. Those aren't there now. Now it's, I'm going to play right through guys. And he still, I think gets a little bit of a raw deal with the whistle at times. But for the most part, I think, you know, he's earning that stuff. He knows where he wants to be. And then the single biggest thing that should stand out for anybody is, even if we go back to a few years ago when they made the finals against the Warriors, Jayson Tatum wasn't scoring at times. You didn't feel him in the game. You might feel him on the defensive end, but his impact was hit or miss. Now, he'll have games where he'll miss shots, but he's making plays defensively. He's making plays on the boards, making a ton of plays as a playmaker. And because he has all that talent around him, he is now smart enough and willing enough to say, my shot's not going in. Then I'll just. I guess I'll go get 10 assists and I, this is what the game needs for me, and I'm gonna go make it happen. And he does. I mean, he had some great reads last night, set up. You mentioned Tory Craig, which let's, hey, yo, I'm gonna be the wet blanket here. Like, we all need to breathe for a second on Tory Craig. People are like, that's it, yo. Hang the banner again. Book the duck boats. Like, he's a nice addition. I get it. If he plays meaningful minutes in the playoffs, something probably went wrong.

Adam Kaufman (28:33)

So he's a good depth player for the.

Keith Smith (28:35)

Nice player for the next. Yeah, next few months. But. But that said, Tatum had a couple great setups for him last night. And then that pass to Sam Houser in transition, where that, to me showed more than anything, where Jason Tatum's just playing the game now at Jason Tatum's pace, it was. He got the ball in the middle of the floor, came up, he slowed it down so that Hauser could pick up speed, draw the. Drew the whole defense to look at him, and then just an easy, simple bounce pass. And that's one of those, again, where I like to say Tommy Hindson, you know, I could hear him in my head screaming and yelling about, oh, run the floor.

Evan Valenti (29:13)

You know, that's how you do it.

Keith Smith (29:14)

You know, and all the things he would have done and would have loved it so much. And that's. That's it. Like, we're seeing Jason Tatum now. It's just, he controls games now. Now it's. This is going to be played the way I want this game played, and that's going to be how it is. And that's. That's. That's incredible. And, you know, and then the fact that the rest of the guides are like, yep, let's go. Like that just tells you again, you know where this team's at.

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Adam Kaufman (30:04)

Yeah, I think that, you know, I'm just sort of glancing at, you know, at these all star rosters. Shaq's team, Kenny's team, Chuck's team, all of it. And I, I don't know to, to push back ever so slightly on just some of what Ev was talking about. Not in terms of what Tatum is doing on the floor, the praise that he is earning, but in, in the sort of how he's viewed nationally. And what if he were doing this without all the help around him? Look, Brad Stevens and Mike Zarin, Austin, Ange and all these guys have put together obviously a championship winning team that is, you know, poised to go out and try and repeat. So the depth that we praise so often on this show is incredible. But sometimes we get maybe ahead of ourselves and we talk about them like they've got, you know, four all stars. Two. Obviously it's Tatum, it's Brown. Tatum is a top five player in the NBA and Brown is top wherever you want to put him. But he's obviously a, A, a very, you know, a great player. You know, he's, he's not a superstar, but he's a star. And I just think most, most good teams, like most great teams have multiple of those guys as well. You know, it's, it's, it's, it's not all of them obviously, but you know, we look at the standings here. Like Cavs have Donovan Mitchell, who I think is like painfully inconsistent. At least coming from the perspective of someone who, you know, puts money on this guy on a night to night basis, it feels like he has again, depth around him. But there isn't another star, you know, necessarily, there's Mobley, there's Alan, there's Garland, but there isn't like, you know, someone of Brown's caliber. So fine Knicks, Brunson, Towns, Pacers, Halliburton, Siakam. If you want to put Siakam in that conversation. Bucks, who by the way are barely above.500. Pardon me. You know, it's two superstars, bona fide superstars in Giannis and Lillard. You know, you go down to Western Conference, obviously Thunder, it's like, it's that I think is, is part of why we're, we're spending so much time on SGA for mvp because he's not doing it alone. But you know, he is the only guy that is even close to that caliber. Jalen Williams would be next, but not a. I hesitate even to call him a star. I think he is an above average player who is in a great system for his talent. Maybe he would be a 25 point per guy on a bad team, I don't know. But you know, I, I don't necessarily view him in the same light as some of these other guys were. Maybe he's like a Siakam, that kind of guy. Grizzlies, you know, are there. There's just between Bane, Jackson, Morant, you know, like whoever else I'm not thinking of in this moment. Like the Kings, honestly are like star laden. It feels like, you know, after the Levine trade too. Even though Fox went out the door, they're barely above.500. You know, timberwolves, like how much help does Ant really have there? And that's part of why they are where they are. The Nuggets again, it's Jokic and Murray, the, you know, the Lakers, obviously with, with Doncic replacing David, we can go on and on. I don't, I'm rambling with this, this point, but I just think that I'm not sure Tatum doesn't get his due. I feel like there are a lot of people in the Celtics rooting community that feel like there's this disrespect around Jason Tatum's name and I'm not sure I'm really there. I think that maybe there was for a long time and people have held on to that. But right now, Keith, I feel like Tatum is kind of properly viewed. Do you disagree?

Keith Smith (33:48)

No, I think so. I think on a national level you have the couple of people who are going to be contrarian holdouts and they're just never going to come around. But they're. Every single great player has someone like that where ah, they're not very good. I mean there were, you know, people doing that to Stephen Curry when he was on an incredible run. Whereas like ah, you know, he's okay, but he's small. Like, put. Put the right guy on him and shut him down. Okay, well, that right guy hasn't been born yet, so good luck with that. But when I think about Tatum, I think part of what it is, too, is this isn't a criticism at all. Celtics fans, there's a lot of them, and they're extremely loud and right. We're all from Boston. We, when we feel slighted, oh, we're going to let you know, right? Like, we are going to let you know. We rally around our own more than any anywhere else that I know of. And it is. That's part of it, right? Is Tatum's not in a top five of an MVP straw poll. It gets super loud, which then what that does across the rest of the NBA landscape, it turns people off because it's right. All right, we get it. Your guy's good. But would you shut up about it already? And that's where it becomes like a whole thing. So I think that's part of what happens here. And then I think, you know, if we go into, you know, did the other parts with Tatum is there are still a handful of people on the national level are like, ah, but, you know, I remember those failures, you know, back in, you know, X, Y and Z years. Never mind, they leave out when he was in his third year, his fourth year, like, like, what are we doing? You know, it's not his fault his team won at a ridiculously high rate from year one. Like, then to expect more out of him for that, that just always felt a little off to me. But yeah, I mean, he's great. I think most people have come around to he's not quite on that Jokic level, which is fine. Yo, I don't even think that's all that big of a criticism. I don't think he should win MVP this year either. But he's first team all NBA, and I wish people would be like, hey, that's pretty good. Like, that's pretty good recognition of where he's at, you know, nationally, and that people see it.

Adam Kaufman (36:01)

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Evan Valenti (36:05)

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Adam Kaufman (38:34)

Back here with Keith. So with this team playing the way that it is playing again, seven wins in the last eight games taking them into the All Star break where I mean if ever there were a time to sort of sit back, unwind, I know a couple of these guys obviously have their All Star game commitments, but everyone else, they can kind of, you know, vacation or rest or spend time with family and all the above, whatever they're going to do obviously sort of reset a little bit before they get back to work in as we sit here at week from today as a matter of fact at Philadelphia on February 20th depending on when you're out there listening. But you know, we, we've talked in, in recent shows of, about constantly when, when good teams have bad nights. A lot of the post game questioning surrounds flip switching. Right. And, and you know, or does like, does, does a random Wednesday night in January matter compared to what things are going to look like in April, May, June? And I generally am not someone, Keith, that, that believes in flip switching. I, I think that you know, like there's, there's bad habits and sometimes bad habits are baked into your DNA and, and those are problem, you know, like red flags going forward. That said, if ever there were a time for this team to prove to people that flip switching is a thing is real, that they can turn it up when they want to, when they feel like they have to, it was what we saw last week. This team went out and laid an absolute egg at home against Kyrie in the Mavericks with no Anthony Davis. Kyrie's first win back at the Garden since he left, by the way, off a road trip. It felt like a very predictable letdown spot for this team, especially if again, you like to gamble. It was like, I don't know about losing outright as a big favorite, but taking the Mavericks with the points feels like a smart bet. That said, two days later, and we had Grandy on this, this time last week we were previewing that game and, and you know, that little two game trip and just talking about where the team was, it felt like, and I'm not saying I saw a 30 point win coming, but the response felt inevitable. That felt like, quote, unquote free money. The Celtics go into Madison Square Garden even a little bit shorthanded against a team that people want to say like, this could be an Eastern Conference finals preview and this is going to be a team that, that emerges from the east if the Celtics don't, you knew that the Celtics were going to go into that game and take it very seriously. Whether that means, you know, win by three, win by 30, anything in between, I just, I would have been shocked. I would have been more shocked by a Celtics loss at New York than I even was by the home loss to the Mavericks as heavy favorites. So it's games, it's instances like that that actually do lead me to believe, okay, like last year's team is still in this team somewhere. It's still in, in there in their heads for all the doubters, like, you know, are they as good? Can they compete at that high level? Can they, you know, run the table in the playoffs as they essentially did last year if healthy. Obviously. I think that group is still here and I. And I think that that game at the Mecca at MSG kind of proved it.

Keith Smith (42:08)

Completely agree. I'll even go back to the game in Cleveland. I think those two games in short order. Yeah, the Mavs game happened in between them, sure. But I think that you had the team really kind of come out and say, yeah, we're still the best, we're still the champs. Like if you want to get to the finals, you want to win a title, it goes through us and you got to beat us. And that they went into those two buildings. Cavs game got close, but again, never really in doubt. The Knicks game certainly never endowed like that was a blow from step one. And they did it in ways that are, if I'm clear. I mean, I think the Cleveland game directly led to them trading for DeAndre Hunter. I think they were like, we cannot just let Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown walk our small guards into the post over and over and over again and scoring them at ease or with ease, I think it is that led to that. And then I think with the Knicks. Do you. It's funny, I watched them after that and even against the Hawks, they were starting to do things a little bit different with Karl Anthony Towns. And I think it is or we can't beat Boston playing Towns up in pick and roll boys. We also can't beat them playing them back. So we're going to have to figure out a way to get them off the out of these situations before we get there. And they're going to have to figure that out. And that is when you know you're the best is when other teams start adjusting to you. When it is we have to make changes to be you. You're not making changes to beat us. That's when you know you. You're. You're the team everybody's trying to be. And I think that is just people need to. Need to. You'll fully recognize that's where it's at. Because you know what? There's going to be more games like the Mavs game where they're just going to show up and be like, yeah, who cares tonight the other one too. I'll just throw in there. Going into Miami and destroying the Heat when that has been a house of horrors over the years where it almost doesn't matter who is playing on the Miami side, feels like they're always going to challenge Boston and they went in there and just dispatched him with ease. Now that's kind of become a thing over the last two seasons where it's just, we're going to bounce these guys and go, but those are things that, you know, show me. And then last they'll say, just going in chronological order, the spurs game, there was ever one where it's like good teams mail in a game. It's that last one before the All Star break because, I mean, Chris has Porzingis, I don't think could get off the court post game quicker because he's like, I'm going somewhere warm. Bye. And like, just left. And like, I've been in locker rooms where I've watched players come in, throw a sweatshirt and sweatpants over their uniform and leave. Not even shower or anything because that's how quickly they want to get out of the building and get headed where they're going. Then he got a couple guys headed off to All Star as well. So I think you're just in a spot where the focus was there when it needed to be. Spurs made a little run. They said, that's cute. Let's take control, let's handle these guys. And by the end, you know, none of the regulars are on the floor. And, you know, it's just, I mean, these are all the signs I need to say, yeah, teams are adjusting to them. They're still handling these teams, especially on the road. All right, everything's where it needs.

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Evan Valenti (45:52)

Now, you mentioned turning this, flipping the switch. Kaufman and, and I'm glad Keith kind of went into this a little bit. If you look at the Celtic schedule to finish this, to finish the quote, unquote, second half of the year, I mean, if I had to call anything, I think there's like eight games from here to the end of the year that are actually like big marquee games. There's a lot of Toronto's, Philadelphia, Utah, Brooklyn, Portland, Sacramento, Miami. I, I think Miami's probably at this point pretty garbage. Washington, Charlotte, back to back to finish the year. Like, I think we're gonna have a very similar. I don't know, I don't know how to put this because like some people were tense and people were intense, but like a similar tension with the end of the year that we had previously because there are like, again there's only like eight good games. There's a couple of Knicks games in there. There's an OKC game and there's Denver game, there's a Lakers game in there, a couple of big high end games that we're all going to get up for. There's also a lot of like, just trash. And so when we talk about flipping the switch, I don't know if we'll ever really even see it right. I. With the schedule that I'm looking at right now, where coming out of the All Star, you have Philly, then the Knicks, which is fine. Toronto, we'll see Detroit, who's playing great and I still have all my cade stock, which is great. But then you have like a stretch of Miami, Brooklyn, Brooklyn, Utah, Portland, Sacramento, Phoenix, San Antonio before you hit Memphis again. Like, are we going to do the same thing that we were previously? Like it feels like the, this, this theoretical switch they're going to flip unless they just start killing everybody by 30 points. I don't think we're ever going to see it personally, but I don't. Kaufman, I don't know if you feel like any of those teams you're going to get up for or maybe it's just going to be such a, just a run through that won't even, that that will be enough to quote unquote, flip the switch for everybody. I don't know. It just doesn't matter to me. I just don't see it. I don't see if they're gonna, that they're ever gonna even do it with the exception of maybe like four or five games.

Adam Kaufman (47:57)

Yeah, I mean, I'm not gonna pretend that somewhere in the last, whatever they've got 25 games left ballpark, you know, that there aren't going to be duds that of course there will. Like, they'll, they'll be a, you know, like that they could lose a Sunday game in Portland and, and piss everyone off. You know, they, they could split those last two games of the regular season with Charlotte and irritate everyone because maybe someone, you know, collection of guys don't play there and, and others in between, you know, fall on, on the, you know, couple weeks in, in Toronto, whatever. Like you. It's. These games are going to happen. That's is what it is. I don't want to say it's fine, but it is what it is. It's expected. Teams don't generally go 73 and 9, but I just want to see consistency, Keith, throughout the, the, the end of the regular season, into the playoffs. I mean, I. Look, we all know we can all agree no matter even if they go. 500 the rest of the way. All that matters is that everybody is healthy come mid April when the playoffs start. I, I fully recognize that that is priority number one. From there, seating and from there, I don't, I don't even know. I mean, it's, it's. And even seating is sort of an in, after, at, after the fact priority. I mean, they're not going to lose top four. They're not going to lose home court to at least begin the playoffs. I don't think they're going to finish ahead of Cleveland, get number one. Now, if the Cavs do go down at some point, and then Boston, you know, by default gets home court advantage all the way, you know, through other than maybe OKC on the other side, then cool. Like, that's. I just, when, when I know how talented the group is and I see what they did last year, I'm not worried about whether or not they're home for a Game 7, because I'm not really thinking about these series going to a Game seven. So that's, that's not on my mind. What's on my mind is health and consistency. Don't fall into bad habits. You know, obviously you want it like, we'll go full circle before we wrap up. You want to see Holiday get right. You, you want to see Porzingis continue to be insanely consistent since he's come back from his injury. You want to see Tatum just. This is sort of the jumping off point, right? Like, it's not like Tatum is bad by any stretch in the first halves of seasons, but, but this is where he starts to kind of go nuclear. This is where you start to see him personally ramp up his game all the way through at this point in time. So what does this in season next level for Tatum look like? Is Brown going to be okay? Is White, as he has started to lately, going to fully rediscover what he was the first 20 games of the season before he hit a, you know, a little bit of a setback is, you know, Horford going to be able to play consistent minutes? It's just, it's. It's the typical things that we always talk about with this group that I think we're all looking for down the stretch.

Keith Smith (51:00)

Yeah, I'm with you on all that there's. Whenever I would say to someone, just breathe for a second, right? It's fine. They'd be like, so there's no problems. And I'm like, there are little things I'm concerned about, you know, and then if I get into those, it's. I don't understand what's going on with the free throw shooting. Sometimes it's just weird, you know, it feels like every game, Tatum, Brown and Porzingis have to go into a trip to the line and miss both. Like, that's just a little odd that that happens. I don't know what's happened to Brown's three point shot. Like, it just hasn't been there this year. He's under 33% for the year. Like, that's not great. Drew Holiday goes through these weird stretches, which is. Last year was like the complete Charmed Life, because Bucks fans are like, it's going to have these moments where you're going to be like, oh, cool, wide open layup. And he just threw it over the top of the backboard. And weird stuff happens. But he doesn't always finish around the rim. Horford, until about two weeks ago, couldn't make the jump shot. Now those are starting to fall. But those are all like, little things for me where I'm like, all right, you know, I've got my eye on it, but I'm not, not going to lose my mind because again, unless they're all happening in the playoff series, I don't know. It's funny because I say that and then I start to feel like, man, I sound like a real cocky, you know, what with this, right, where it's like they're just not going to lose. But I should go back to what we said before. Just, unless they beat themselves once in a series, then have two cold shooting games, I just don't know how they lose like that. That's just. I struggle to see that Cavs got better with DeAndre Hunter. I don't think that's better enough. I don't think the Knicks are there. I don't. I. It's really. The Cavs are the only team that even slightly concerns me in the Eastern Conference. If Boston is healthy. And then in the west, all right, let's get there and see who's even there. Because those teams, I think, are going to have to really work to get there. And I think it's going to be a little bit like Dallas, where they think there was two things. One, Dallas wasn't as good as Boston. That was very clear last year. But I think Dallas put everything they had into just getting there. They didn't have anything left and that's where that's going to be. Basically every team like the Thunder are great, but if they need to ride SGA like this through three rounds of playoff series just to get to the finals, what's he going to have left in the tank? And those are the things that I start to really look at and I'm just like, I just don't see reasons for concern beyond, yeah, this little thing. This little thing. And maybe they all add up and it becomes like, well, there it is. There's a, you know, they all added up into one big thing, but I'm just not there.

Adam Kaufman (53:47)

Have any parting points before we wrap?

Evan Valenti (53:49)

I just, I'm excited to see Jalen and Jason of the Satan all star team in that team shack, I think is going to win this thing. Kenny's is like really kind of rough, I think, I think he got the shortest stick. But I, I, it's gonna be fun to watch those two guys play together an exhibition sort of way. But like, you know, it's gonna be nice to have a nice break too. I, I say this and, you know, we're all going to be starving for basketball come, you know, a couple of days here, but there's going to be enough. Kaufman, big news for you and me. Cobra Kai just came out this morning, jacked up about that. Got White Lotus coming on Sunday tomorrow. New Marvel with Harrison Ford. It's a red Hulk. Like this is just, There'll be some content, I think, out there for us to consume the next week or so. We'll be all right.

Adam Kaufman (54:34)

New season of Reachers coming suits la. I mean, it's a, it's a big month, folks.

Evan Valenti (54:38)

Yeah, big month. Big.

Adam Kaufman (54:40)

Yeah.

Keith Smith (54:40)

I, I, I had to be inside baseball. I had to tell Adam, hey, can't do the show Friday because I'm actually going to the new Captain America movie with the family. So like, yeah, I'm fired up and that's. And I, it's funny because I went through this period of time where during the trade deadline, the guy was afraid to go take a shower because I was like, what's going to happen when this, you know, what news is going to break? Never mind actually leaving the house. And now it's like I come out and I'm like, man, bio news can wait till, you know, I get out of the movies. Like, I'm, I'm beyond excited. But Evan, you hit it exactly right. It'll Be sometime Sunday midday. You're gonna be like, can we. Is there game like what? Like, I miss NBA games. Like, like I want to watch games. Like, I've had a couple days without them. That was enough. Like, let's get back. But yeah, I, my wife and I were talking about. We've got a stack of TV shows where it's like, all right, we'll start to catch up on some of that here over the. Over this little break.

Adam Kaufman (55:37)

I have no. Let's. Let's all put on our proverbial sweatsuits, don't shower and get the hell out the door, folks. It's all Star break time. But we'll be back with you either right before the, you know, second half commences against Philadelphia or in between those couple of games that the Celtics have on the way between the Sixers and Knicks, of course, Boston back at it Thursday, February 20th, one week from today. As we sit here now and stretch run, folks, it's coming. March Madness isn't too far behind either, by the way. Just for anyone out there in the college basketball football community getting ready for a busy, busy stretch of hoops. Going to be a lot of fun. But again, for spot tracks, Keith Smith, who again is, you know that. I mean, the man just stays exceptionally busy and we always appreciate when Keith hops on with us. Make sure when you are not listening to us that you are always tuned into what Keith is doing. You wrote recently, by the way, about a whole bunch of future spending, you know, information for teams and, and cap space and, and what sort of commitments are. Are going to be out there. So a lot of good just information out there for people that get invested with all things salary cap and, and second apron and what teams are, are capable of doing that. You know, could we see another Luca like trade on the horizon for teams that are trying to avoid uh, you know, it's a whole conversation that, that we didn't have here on this show that Draymond Green talked about on his podcast recently. And, and you know, saying that like you're going to see more of this stuff just because teams, you know, ownership is going to want to stay away from obviously some of those, those huge bills down the line. So it is really interesting. This may be sort of a golden age for the Boston Celtics for us to enjoy. Let's try and do so. Keith also, of course, part of the front office show with Trevor Lane. Make sure you are checking that out. So Keith, thank you, sir. Enjoy the, the break, the downtime, the stack of TV shows the new Marvel movie. All of it. We'll connect again soon.

Keith Smith (57:40)

I appreciate it. Thanks for having me.

Adam Kaufman (57:42)

Absolutely. So again for Keith. For Evan. I am Adam. Happy All Star break. Everybody go. Enjoy All Star Saturday night. Make sure you lock in for that celebrity game. Must watch tv. We'll see you.

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Evan Valenti (58:04)

Yep.

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