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- [00:00]
Narrator/Advertiser
As a scientist, I can tell you that Sundays are only 24 hours long. But with NFL Sunday Ticket and YouTube TV, you get every game, every Sunday all in one place. That's upwards of 30 hours of NFL in one day. How can there be 30 hours in 24 hours, you ask? I have a theory. Magic new users get NFL Sunday Ticket for eight payments of $34.50 per month. Sign up at NFLSundayTicket.com local and national games on YouTube TV. NFL Sunday Ticket for out of market games excludes digital only games and commercial use terms and embargoes apply. Availability varies.
- [00:34]
Steve Bullpet
When did making plans get this complicated?
- [00:37]
WhatsApp/Verizon Advertiser
It's time to streamline with WhatsApp, the secure messaging app that brings the whole group together. Use polls to settle dinner plans, send.
- [00:45]
Steve Bullpet
Event invites and pin messages so no.
- [00:47]
WhatsApp/Verizon Advertiser
One forgets mom 60th and never miss a meme or milestone. All protected with end to end encryption. It's time for WhatsApp message privately with everyone. Learn more@WhatsApp.com this episode is brought to you by State Farm. Checking off the boxes on your to do list is a great feeling. And when it comes to checking off coverage, a State Farm agent can help you choose an option that's right for you. Whether you prefer talking in person on the phone or using the award winning app, it's nice knowing you have help finding coverage that best fits your needs. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.
- [01:25]
Adam Kaufman
Today is Friday, March 28th and this is Celtics Beat on the CLNS Media Network, the leading online provider of audio video coverage of the Boston Celtics. I'm Adam Kaufman. Episode 617617 how about that features Heavy.com's.
- [01:40]
Evan Valenti
Steve Bullpek and I'm Evan Valenti and today's show is powered by Prize Picks and Game Time. Prize Picks is the official daily fantasy partner of CLNS Media. Download the Prize Picks app today and use the code CLNS and get $50 instantly when you play. $5 and download the Game Time app. Create an account and use that code CLNS for $20 off your first purchase.
- [02:14]
Adam Kaufman
What's up everyone? Welcome back. Another edition of Celtics Feedback and good news. SEAS are still rolling. They are on the cusp of closing out March as we sit here. Just a couple games left. They will play at San Antonio at Memphis Saturday and Monday respectively and who knows if they win both those games. Both winnable games obviously and we'll see who plays who doesn't. For Boston we could be talking about a 14 and one month. That's a that's that's a pretty good stretch. His team has been red hot since the All Star break. We didn't have a lot of time last week to dive deep into it. We'll be able to expand a little bit more this week. Adam Kaufman, M. Valenti, we're always here. We have Steve Bullpet from Heavy.com joining us. Steve, welcome back. Hey guys, great to have you here with us. And you know, we had Cedric Maxwell on with us last week again, abbreviated show, which was not on. Max, Evan and I were actually the ones that were a little more rushed for time. Otherwise we could have gotten a little deeper with Max into all things Celtic City, especially because he was on right before the episode, the most recent one that, you know, really kind of introduced the Larry Bird Celtics era. And Max was a big part of that episode, too. He was a lot of fun. Steve, I'm, I'm curious and we'll get into it a little bit later on where where you are with with this series and and if it's appointment viewer for you on Monday nights there on on Max. We also talked about the Celtics sale, which is definitely something I want your thoughts on. The big news with Bill Chisholm and his group setting things in motion anyway to formally buy the Celtics for north of $6 billion. But because we didn't do a lot of it last week, let's start with this. Celtics are flaming hot. We just talked about the success so far in March and going back through the All Star break. You've written about it recently, Steve, acknowledging that, yes, they're winning a lot of these games, although most of them against, you know, really inferior teams. But your latest article in talking to some coaches execs around the league, we spent a lot of time last year when The Celtics were 14 games clear of the rest of the NBA in the regular season standings entering the playoffs. And then all throughout it was their path, their path, their path. Could this be easier getting the banner 18 and you know, trying to kind of argue against that and push back and, you know, bicker with the critics and all of that. Right now a lot of people could do something similar, talking about the general sense of the Celtics worst enemy is themselves. And we always know this is true of any team. Health is paramount. But beyond that, can anyone knock them out when you get into a best of seven or is it ultimately just Boston needs to play its game. Doesn't matter who's on the other side. And in your article, and I'll let you expand upon this, obviously a little Bit of pushback around the league, you know, with the sentiment of the Celtics are, you know, it's, it's, it's the Celtics, you know, series or championship to lose. There are actually other teams out there that we should be giving more credit and taking more seriously.
- [05:26]
Steve Bullpet
Yeah, exactly. I think the Sellecks have largely overcome their, whatever self destructive tendencies they've had. They, we see them let teams back into games. So it's still there to a degree. But the, the people around the league look at it. Yeah, the Celtics, if they're playing at their max, at their best, they're going to be really difficult to beat. But they say that the Thunder and Cavaliers are really well equipped to deal with Boston. So why, like one of the quotes was I wouldn't bet against Boston, but these other teams are real, you know, these are, these teams are legit. Oak City and Cleveland are, are worthy adversaries.
- [06:23]
Evan Valenti
Do you really?
- [06:25]
Steve Bullpet
Yeah, I do. Particularly, particularly Oklahoma City. They've got their defense and the way that they can throw defense at you is really tough. And look, the Celtics, when they move the ball and you know, I know we've talked about it in the past that Jason Tatum's evolution last year to be a more complete player was, you know, that was what got the Celtics over the edge. But with all that, the, the Thunder can look at your and say, okay, yeah, keep moving the ball. This is great. We can switch everything. We've got, you know, athletic bodies, we've got, you know, all the counters to what you want to do. And then it becomes a matter of will and, you know, and toughness and crashing the boards and all that other fun stuff. So, yeah, I do think that they are well equipped to deal with Boston. I also think Cleveland, they've got, you know, maybe better than a puncher's chance to. It's kind of under the radar a little bit. But picking up Hunter at the trade deadline, you know, that's a, that's the kind of a defensive body that can help when you're throwing people at Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown.
- [07:49]
Evan Valenti
Yeah, one of the things I liked in your article was just. And I mentioned this on, on X or Twitter or whatever, but the, the, the lyric from Oklahoma was very, very nice. And as someone who was in the show when he was younger, I really appreciated that particular lyric there. But you look at Oklahoma City and you look at the two matchups Boston's had with them so far this year, and this is not just a Celtics problem. This is an NBA league wide problem. They have an SGA problem. Shay Gilgis Alexander in both games has been able to do a lot of things against that defense basically whenever he wants to. And again, this is not just a Celtics thing. This is a league wide thing. There was a great piece today, I don't know if it was Matt Moore or Jared Dubin or somebody wrote one about how when you get parallel with Shay, you're toast, right? If he somehow gets his hips square to your shoulders, you're dead in the water. And Boston, you know, you've looked back at some of their games. You look at whether it's Tatum or Brown or Derrick White or Drew Holiday or name any player on Boston, it's just been hard to stay in front of that guy. And he's clearly the, the, the engine that makes everything go for Oklahoma City. And you know, I mean, he's got probably when the MVP this year and has had one of the most efficient years at guard since Michael Jordan, right. So he's clearly a problem. As you look at some of the things that either Boston has done or other teams have done to slow him down, do you believe that there's enough in Boston's, whether it's defensive schemes or bodies or both or whatever, is there enough there for Boston to really handle him? Or is this a case of, look, Shea's gonna do his thing and you're just gonna have to be okay with that. It's about limiting Lou Dort, who killed them last game. Limiting check Holmgren, who killed them last game. We didn't see Jalen Williams the last time they played. Is it more about limiting the other guys, limited the damage and just letting Shay kind of do is not do his own thing, but just don't worry about that as much. Is that the play here?
- [09:53]
Steve Bullpet
I would think so. I mean, to the degree that you can just play basic solid defense, guard your yard, they're going to do scheming, they're going to do switching, they're going to hedge on picks, all these things. But I still think it comes down to, you know, doing what you can as well as you can and know that a team with that much firepower is going to go on runs. The big thing for the Celtics is when, when the Thunder or even anybody, they're going to play in the playoffs, when that team goes on a run, do you stick with your plan or do you, do you let it affect how you play offense? Do you rush on offense instead of, you know, it's the old John Wooden thing, You know, be quick, but don't hurry, you know, do you play with force offensively or do you, you know, say, okay, enough of this moving the ball. I'm going to take it. I'm going to go make a play now. And that's the stuff that killed the Celtics over the years when they should have won more, they should have gone further in the playoffs. They probably should have won the 2022 championship. Yeah. So I think that you play as solid as you can and know that you're going to be a problem for them, too. So, you know, don't lose sight of the fact that there are two ends to the court.
- [11:25]
Adam Kaufman
Most important thing, obviously, and again, true of anybody, but especially when you're a team like Boston or Cleveland or, you know, some of the others, this would apply to as well, where, you know, what your seating is going to be. You know, you're, you're not jockeying for something. You're not fighting for that six playoff spot. You're not fighting to, you know, remain in a certain seed in the play in tournament, whatever, what, what have you. The Celtics right now, no, they are the second seed in the Eastern Conference entering the playoffs. They're not going to catch Cleveland. I don't think they care to catch Cleveland. They're not going to fall to third. They are second. And so we are going to see over the next nine games, as we have been seeing quite frankly, that much more roster management for these guys, lows load management, to just get everyone as close to, you know, 100%. I know that doesn't really exist this time of year, but as close to that as possible come mid April when these playoffs begin, if everyone is healthy for Boston for the stretch of the postseason, as they mostly were last year. I know Porzingis was in and out and all of that, but generally the team stayed healthy if they are fortunate to do so this year, we're talking about their, their promise, their ability, who's capable of knocking them off, all that. But let's say, heaven forbid somebody gets hurt. And I don't mean Tatum or Brown, because they are clearly your, you know, 1, 2, 1A, 1B, however you want to categorize it. But after that, in terms of what they're looking to accomplish, since there's been so much, at least national debate around, you know, can you win without Porzingis, that type of thing. And I think they probably could have last year, quite frankly, not that he wasn't very good. Who do you think is the next most important guy to their sustainability in a deep playoff run? And, you know, know Banner 19.
- [13:18]
Steve Bullpet
I don't know. I mean, so to me, that's kind of a weird hypothetical. There are guys that are such important, critical pieces in their role. I mean, look back at this year and tell me how you would have survived to get this record without Derrick White. I mean, he came up so huge in a number of games. I think you can, you know, just reach back into your quick memory and think of, you know, five or six games where he was hitting huge threes in the last quarter. And we know what he does defensively as well. Porzingis, to me, is a huge X factor. I mean, the way He's. He's not 100% now, which is crazy. But you look at all the different ways that he can impact as you need him to impact, okay, Sit outside, shoot, you know, 25, 26 foot threes to draw the opponent's defense out, post him up, you know, pick and roll, where he slips the pick and gets the lob. I mean, look at the lobs that Luke Cornett's, you know, throwing down. There's a lot of different ways the Celtics can play. And I think one of the best things about what they've gone through with some injuries and some rest and being cautious, et cetera, and is that other guys have, have got an opportunity. You know, we've seen a lot of Baylor Shireman lately, and I don't mean to put him into the conversation as regards your question with like, who's critical, but, you know, seeing that, and I.
- [15:15]
Evan Valenti
I think that.
- [15:18]
Steve Bullpet
Craig is going to be huge and, or can be for them in a playoff series where the matchups will lend you toward. Toward getting him minutes. So, yeah, there's a. There's a whole bunch of stuff there.
- [15:36]
Evan Valenti
Yeah, I.
- [15:37]
Steve Bullpet
And we left out Drew Holiday, one of my favorite players, and last year.
- [15:40]
Evan Valenti
I thought he was critically important to what they. What they did. I mean, you know, everybody has opinions on things, but I thought after Jalen and Jason, he was the most important player on their team. And you look at just the defensive stuff that he was able to do. You know, the steel against Nemhard obviously gets the most shine and the most accolades, but the guy does so many different things on the defensive end of the floor. It makes Boston so hard to score against because he just, he does that free safety thing where he kind of roams around. But I do want to get back to the Porzingis thing because if, you know, Kaufman, if you had asked me that question, I would have gone with Porzingis because of what he, the chemistry he has with Jalen Brown and the way they play off each other is really important. We've seen throughout the years Jason Tatum plus four guys is gonna work. And I think Joe has done a really fun job this year of putting really interesting lineups around Tatum to kind of test that theory. But it's, it's been positive for the most part throughout the entire season. But you see how much different they are because this is, you know, you get back to the okay. And this is. I feel like it's, it's dumb to boil basketball games down to this simple thing, but, you know, can you win the non jokic minutes? Can you win the non step minutes? Can you win the non sga minutes? Right. Boston has to find ways to win the non Tatum minutes. And it's easier for Boston when Porzingis is on the floor because he gives Jalen an outlet in case, you know, he gets shut off from doing whatever he wants to do. So Kaufmann, I'll throw it back to you. I, I'm, I'm on the Porzingis train. I think Porzingis is crucially important this particular season because of the depth of the other teams, obviously with Oklahoma City and Cleveland being the, the, the tier one of those guys. But just for me cough. The, the. His ability to make Jalen's life easier as a initiator, playmaker and as a safety valve, which is what Brad Stevens talked about needing after they lost the 22 finals. Needing someone to not be in the perimeter and be a safety valve for these guys to dump the ball into and to score on, on some mismatches. I think Porzingis is going to be extremely critical to a long run in, in Banner 19 if they get there. I don't know where you're at on this coffin, but I think it's, and this is, I'm not trying to talk down Derek White, but I think it's course Porzingis with a bullet for me.
- [18:00]
Adam Kaufman
Yeah. So I, I think your cop out answer would be depends on the matchup. Depends on the series. Right. You know, certain guys are certain, you know, are certainly more important depending on, on what you've got. If you're telling me one guy, you know, you can't have in the entire playoff run now, good luck. The one I would again after the Jays least like to lose would be Derek White. I think that White is just so incredibly instrumental to what they do on both sides. Obviously there's the perimeter defense and his ability on that side of the Ball. But in terms of what he does offensively, the clutch Gene the threes is, as Steve, you know, alluded to, that's one. He's a big fourth quarter player. You know, he's going to be out there at the end of games now that we're a couple years removed from Brogdon and those debates and you know who's going to be out there? Smart, Brogdon, White, all of that stuff. But also his role. I know it's, you know, we, we talk a lot about like Point Tatum, you know, in the offense filtering through him. But there's still an awful lot of the time that, you know, White is. Is your quote unquote point guard and he is the guy that you're running the offense. Maybe not through, but it starts with him and it goes from there. And you know, I think that you lose him, heaven forbid, as I said before. And you know, the, the trickle down there of. All right, well, now it's. Peyton Pritchard is in. Is, you know, theoretically in your starting lineup. Maybe Joe doesn't do that because. What's that.
- [19:31]
Steve Bullpet
You'd be going double digs if.
- [19:33]
Adam Kaufman
Yeah, and you're, you're probably right, but, you know, big but if you were to see it, period. And I, I think you probably are right because Pritchard has started one game this entire year and it's not like guys haven't missed games.
- [19:45]
Steve Bullpet
He was a butcher.
- [19:47]
Adam Kaufman
Yeah, but if, but if you had him starting lineup, all of a sudden you're trickle down there of. All right, well, what does the bench unit look like and who's running that? Where's that, you know, instant microwave offense coming from? I, I just think there's. You're losing more in Derrick White. Full package all the way around. Not to mention. And I know he's missed, you know, 10 games or whatever it is, but generally durability, like Porzingis obviously is, is not, you know, he's. He's excellent, but he's not known for his durability. So, you know, I, I would. Even if, even if White, you know, was gone, you have Porzingis, I would just be constantly worried about. And as people joke about on Twitter, anytime the Porzingis comes down awkwardly on his foot, what's that going to lead to? So I think Porzingis is very important for sure. Can you live without him? I think you probably can.
- [20:43]
Steve Bullpet
I'm not sure you can do that, not against some of the teams. They're going to be coming up against Cleveland with their double digs Oklahoma City with, you know, Hartenstein and, and Holmgren, you know, just some ridiculous size there. So. Yeah, I mean, but he, yeah, he's a, he's a guy that can just change, like changes the platform. You know what I mean? It's like, okay, we're playing this, we're playing chess now. Okay, now we're gonna play three dimensional chess because we're going to put poor Zingus here or we're going to move them down low. You know, they can just alter the game board anyway. But, but excuse me for saying, I just think it's kind of a silly thing to, to talk about because a lot of it is going to be matchup based.
- [21:36]
Adam Kaufman
Yeah.
- [21:37]
Steve Bullpet
And you know, the Celtic strength is that they have all these guys.
- [21:43]
Evan Valenti
Right.
- [21:43]
Steve Bullpet
So it's like to say, well, what one without this one without that one, you know, the product would be hurt.
- [21:50]
Adam Kaufman
Right.
- [21:51]
Steve Bullpet
You know, and yeah, I just, you know, I just, I'm not sure it's.
- [21:59]
Evan Valenti
A.
- [22:02]
Steve Bullpet
A great use of the time.
- [22:04]
Adam Kaufman
You know, I can imagine the people out there in the YouTube comments. Which way to be all doom and gloom. Kaufman. Thanks.
- [22:10]
Steve Bullpet
Which of my, which of my fingers would I most, you know, I could do without? Well, I can't do without my middle finger because then you can't drive in Massachusetts.
- [22:19]
Evan Valenti
Right.
- [22:20]
Adam Kaufman
Probably the pinky.
- [22:21]
Evan Valenti
Right.
- [22:22]
Adam Kaufman
I mean, it's, you know, it's, you know.
- [22:23]
Evan Valenti
Yeah. Gotta be easy.
- [22:24]
Adam Kaufman
Yeah, it's gotta be the pinky. I mean, it's, I don't know, I'm just trying to think like, I don't know. I mean, it's a good thing to have when you're swinging a baseball bat. Other than that, how much use are you really getting out of it?
- [22:35]
Evan Valenti
You swing golf club. That's all I really care about. You don't need that.
- [22:40]
Adam Kaufman
Take a, a quick break. Tell you about our good friends over at Prize Picks. Prize Picks is the best place to get real money sports action. With over 10 million members, billions of dollars in awarded winnings, Prize Picks has made daily fantasy sports accessible to everyone. You just pick more or less on at least two players for a shot to win up to 1,000times your cash. 1000x. Seriously, run your game all season long on Prize Picks.
- [23:07]
Evan Valenti
Yeah, Coffin, we always talk about flex play on this show. It's usually the best idea for me because I end up hitting two out of three. A couple weeks back, I missed the Tatum points. The more than 28 points against the Nets. I was so upset about that. Still would have, still, still won though. So that that's not bad for the prize picks for this week. When I look at Friday night, couple of different places, we're going to start with Clippers and Nets. Been very impressed with the Clippers lately. So we're going to take Kawhi More than 33 and a half points, rebounds and assists against the Nets. Going to continue their zubach against a very small team. More than 12 rebounds against the Nets. Then we're going to flip over to Pistons and Cavs. Malik Beasley and Donovan Mitchell have to combine for more than 38 points. And with the flex play, Kaufman, if I hit all three of those, they will give me two and a half times whatever I throw at it, right? So 20 bucks I win two and a half times that if I hit all three. But by choosing flex play, if I hit two out of three I still 1x my my my play here. So if I win, if I if I throw $20 in this lineup, if I hit two out of three, I get 20 back. That's fantastic for me. And, and getting your money, Kaufman could not be any easier thanks to Venmo, right? Venmo is what we all use anyway to do a lot of things in terms of transactions. Guess what? You can have it delivered right to your Venmo account and one press of a fictional button can have that transferred right into your bank account in as little as 15 minutes.
- [24:44]
Adam Kaufman
Download the app today. Use code CLNS to get $50 instantly after you play your first $5 lineup. Once again, download the app today. Download that prize picks app, the code CLNS. You get $50 instantly after playing your first lineup for only five bucks. Prize picks Run your game. Let's get back to the show. All right, back here with Steve and as I mentioned, nine games left in the regular season and we'll get into the ownership stuff and Celtic City and all that. As I mentioned off the top of the show here in just a little bit. But what do you suppose this looks like these final nine games for Boston? You have, you know, obviously some of these teams will be playing for something all the way down the stretch. But in terms of games that, you know, you might as a Boston fan view as any type of litmus test in the playoffs, any type of could we see this matchup in the postseason? I mean there is only one really, and it's the Knicks like that. That would be it. You know, it's a, it's, you know, it's a, it's a pretty light schedule that the Celtics have the rest of the way. And so knowing full well that there's nothing to achieve in terms of seating, but that I'm sure Joe would be the first person to tell us. Look, I mean, you.
- [26:05]
Evan Valenti
You.
- [26:06]
Adam Kaufman
You avoid bad habits, and you work on your continuity by playing basketball together. We're not going to sit guys just for the hell of sitting guys. What do you suppose we. We see down the stretch of the regular season here, Steve?
- [26:20]
Steve Bullpet
I think you see, you know.
- [26:23]
Evan Valenti
Guys.
- [26:24]
Steve Bullpet
Being sat not purely for rest, but also, but, you know, for. For injury management and, like, knickknack injury management. But the point about bad habits, I think, is really large, and I think it's really important with Missoula as well. Something I wrote about this past winter with the Celtics is that the way that they were. They were just, you know, flat in a lot of these games, even some of the ones that they. They won, they had some pretty hideous losses. Let's start there. But even in some of the games they won, they were, you know, dude, did you show up tonight? I mean, is this you? Is this somebody else? Is this, you know, the AI version of you? But. And the. The fear, the. The only danger there, you know, because everyone around the league said, yeah, they're bored, they're this, they're that. It's hard to retrace those steps coming off a championship and not have human nature kick in. The danger is that if something becomes a habit, you want to have your best game on your computer chip. You know, you want it to be instinctive. Boom. It's right there. It happens. It's why Larry Bird would shoot for hours before a game, why Steph Curry takes between 250 and 300 pointed shots after practice. You want that on the computer chip. And anything that. That slows the reaction time from your brain to your body in terms of doing the right thing, making the right play, making the right read, that can be what eliminates you from the playoffs. It can cost you a critical game here or there. So I do think Missoula will, with whatever lineup is available to him. He's not going to sit on the bench. You're not going to see Joe on the bench, sitting there with his arms folded, you know, he's not me, like, sipping an iced tea and, you know, with an umbrella thing in it. It's not going to be Joe. So they will. With whoever's available, they will push it. And I think that's important because you're giving guys real reps. If it comes down to you needing Baylor Scheireman in the postseason, you know, now you've got a little bit better expectation. Slash. Hope that he can handle that. But that's, you know, that comes from keeping this stuff competitive no matter what the situation is, lineup wise, roster wise.
- [29:12]
Evan Valenti
Yeah, he's been pretty impressive the last couple of games. As he's gotten his feet wet, he's gotten more comfortable. Obviously, everybody went nuts over the fake behind the back, you know, then dump off Takeda for the. For the. The lay in there. I thought that was awesome to see that. You know, I thought Drew did a nice job of mentioning that it was the Rondo sort of fake behind the back pass thing, and it's been awesome to see him get more comfortable.
- [29:34]
Adam Kaufman
But you mentioned.
- [29:35]
Steve Bullpet
Go ahead. I'm sorry. Well, no, you just.
- [29:37]
Evan Valenti
You mentioned that, you know, this team had a lull in the middle of the season that we all were trying to figure out. You know, is this the same team, or is this the AI version of what Boston's trying to do here? Yet at the same time, they have a shot to win 60 games. Right. I know it might seem like a little bit of a long shot, but, you know, the schedule is very favorable for them. And considering how many teams, you know, have won a title and then try to come back and repeat and had various amounts of success doing it, I find the fact that Boston, you know, this entire season, you know, a lot of people want to point to that one spot of like, yeah, but it was weird in January, man. Just didn't look right. But yet, if we take the scope of the entire season, this team was, again, dominant, basically from start to finish. So to get back to the question, how much focus do we put on that very small little sample size of man, it didn't really go right here for a little bit this month. Meanwhile, the past two years combined start from the beginning of 23 to the end of 25, this has been as dominant as a run as we've seen in a while, and Boston has looked like one of the greatest teams of the past 30, 40 years, given this stretch. And, you know, you contrast that a little bit with a little blip that Cleveland had on the radar. They lost four games in a row where things didn't look like they were going right, and a lot of people want to jump on them for that. Meanwhile, I'm like, there's way more data that suggests this team is unbelievably good, and it's going to be a really big pain in the ass for anything that plays them. How Much of what you saw in January we actually take as like, this is something right here, as Boston moves on that had to be aware of versus the two years of data that says this is one of the best teams we've ever seen.
- [31:32]
Steve Bullpet
Well, that's kind of what I was talking about, the perspective of it. And I said it. I've said it here and I've written it that, you know, sure, let's take a step back, but let's point out that there is danger there. And the danger is that, you know, you develop some bad habits. You know, we have, you know, they've been able to. They booked a lot better recently. Not sure how much the competition plays into that. Did. Did the Phoenix Suns, are they going to get paid for that game they played the other night? I mean, are they gonna roll their checks? Clear. So, you know, but that, you know, the Celtics, you do what you do, you can't pay attention to whether another team has been, you know, taking Ambien before the game. But, you know, keeping it in perspective. The danger was what we talked about, what I spoke about, the idea of you don't want to develop bad habits, and that's the thing that you've got to keep an eye on, I don't think. I guess there were people saying, oh, they stink now, and they're missing here, and there are a bunch of bums when they were having the difficulties and, you know, losing home games, which is ridiculous that a team with this much support and, you know, people loudly with them at home having, you know, this much difficulty, relatively speaking, for their talent in the garden. But, yeah, you've got to. You can't not point out. You can't just sit back and say, hey, they've been good for two years. The question is right now, what are they? And then when you look at it and say, okay, here's how they're playing, let's look at this in the bigger picture is, does this kill them? Absolutely not. When they're playing poorly like that. But, you know, what's, you know, where is the rate they could step on here? What's the potential problem? And I think the potential problem was, and I guess still is over these last couple weeks, you know, do they keep focused? Because if you don't, then all of a sudden, you know, when you reach back for it, you know, you don't want to be thinking consciously when you're on the basketball floor. You want everything to be instinctive, and you want it to be, you know, again, like, why did Larry Bird Take all those shots in the garden, you know, a few hours before the game when no one else was there but the guy retrieving the ball for him, you know, I mean, it's so that it's there in an instant. Why do you, why do you get reps? You know, okay, the football team, you know, this is the play. Here's how to run it. Why do you run it 10 times? Because you want it to be there without having to think consciously of it. You know, I, I can go back and, and point out to you in history, look, the, the 84 Celtics were not better than the 84 Lakers. But this, but the Celtics, with what Mikhail did to Rambus with their just overall physicality, took Showtime and made them look over their shoulder. Okay, so all of a sudden the Lakers, instead of playing free and easy run, go fill the lane. They were playing with conscious thought and great physical defense is one of the things that helps you against good offense, but also the other thing that really can kill an offense is, is conscious thought, is having to be mechanical and think, I must go here now, you know, if, you know, you, you look at why the, the plays are getting made now with the, the drop offs, the lobs to, you know, to Cornet, I mean, these are things because these guys are used to it. They're not sitting here going, I think I will fake this way here and I will, you know, cut back door. No, it's just there and it's there before. The offense should always have an advantage because offense should know what it wants to do before the defense knows what the offense wants to do. And if you're pausing to think about it, you can be screwed.
- [35:53]
Adam Kaufman
So a couple things, One, you guys have brought up Baylor Scheimen a couple times and this run that he is on of late, you know, obviously seeing more minutes, more production. He's shooting well, shooting with confidence, playing late in games, getting an opportunity, because obviously either guys have been out or he's just kind of moving up in the rotation a little bit. That's just. We don't need to talk about it, you know, because you guys have, have already kind of expanded upon this. But just throwing a couple of thoughts. That's one thing that I do really appreciate about Joe. You know, you think back to a couple of years ago, the singular IMEI year, which, you know, you mentioned before, Steve, is, is definitely a championship that was in Boston's grasp. It was a winnable title that year. I mean, up to one in that series and then it all implodes at that point in time. And I think that one thing that, that, you know, I was very critical of at the time, in real time, it's this is not just a revisionist history, give credit to Joe kind of thing. One thing I didn't like about IME that season was a failure to sort of acknowledge that you might need some of those depth guys down the stretch. Because when there came a time, especially against the warriors, when you could have really used Peyton Pritchard, you could have really used Sam Houser. And their three point shooting ability is Steph Curry was lighting it up on the other side and he just didn't go there. They. They weren't ready either. They weren't ready. He didn't get them ready. He didn't believe they were ready either way. He wasn't willing to go down the bench a little bit. He was just going to die with the top end of that rotation. That's exactly what happened. Whereas I think that Joe does a really good job of isolating where guys can help the team. And you know, I. Doesn't mean I want to see Shireman in the playoffs, doesn't mean we'll need to see Shireman in the playoffs. But I do believe that this run that he's been on of late and presumably from an opportunity standpoint will continue to go on in the final nine games of the season. It's good to know that if called upon, I don't think he's going to turtle in the moment. I think that he will be, you know, at least confident in himself in the opportunity if it's there and he gets it. So that's just, that's one thing. But you mentioned the 80s before. Let's move to Celtic City. This documentary a little bit, which I believe is four episodes in of the nine at this point in time. We've moved into the Larry Bird era now and you know, we're. We're starting to talk a lot more obviously about the late 70s into the 80s, and you know, oh my God, the white guy can play. And all the way into the new Big three with obviously the acquisition of Mikhail and Parrish. And you know, Max is in there a lot and, and you know, Evan and I were texting the other day and, and maybe it's not quite yet. I hope it is at some point. We're wondering, you know, when, when are we seeing Steve Bulpette in this thing talking about the Celtics? Because obviously you have been very closely tied to this organization for a number of years now.
- [38:46]
Steve Bullpet
I have no idea. I know. They talked to me for a long time.
- [38:51]
Evan Valenti
There you go.
- [38:52]
Steve Bullpet
But, you know, I. I have no idea how that. How it's running. The next episode, episode five is coming up, right?
- [39:00]
Adam Kaufman
Yeah, I believe so.
- [39:02]
Steve Bullpet
That was the one they showed at the premiere.
- [39:04]
Adam Kaufman
Okay.
- [39:05]
Steve Bullpet
So, you know, so there's a lot of good stuff there as well. You know, it's. It's gonna be the one thing I can tell you from what we. Well, I knew going into it. I could tell by the tone of the questions and what other people were being asked as well. They're. They're not going to lose grasp of the whole racial thing. They're going to carry this thing through, however. Yeah, that's going to be a part of this thing. But there's a whole lot to talk about coming up with. Yeah. Just the. The way that the team has been built and been rebuilt. You know, what you're going to miss in this next episode is something we had at the premiere, which is there's going to be a point where they're interviewing Bill Walton, and he's saying, you know, because he was traded for Cedric Maxwell. And, you know, he. You know, Bill, he goes off and it's like, this is fantastic. It saved my life. It was the best thing ever happened to me. Whenever I'd see Cedric Maxwell, I'd apologize. And then he says that. And then Max is in the crowd of the premiere and yells out, no, you didn't. Yeah. Wish they had cameras there for that. They would insert that into the. Into the documentary. But, yeah, it's gonna be. There's a lot of stuff in there that you guys, I'm sure, already knew personally.
- [40:44]
Adam Kaufman
I mean, it's. It's. It's been fun in each episode, though. You know, little tidbits, you know, but things that I. I hadn't heard or, you know, didn't know. I mean, obviously, we're. We're still in an era that I wasn't even, you know, born for, you know, when. When, you know, Larry joined Boston. But in, you know, obviously, as it. It proceeds, things will get a little bit more into my memory bank.
- [41:09]
Steve Bullpet
You know, Adam, I really want to invite you over so I can put you on my lawn and tell you to get off it.
- [41:17]
Adam Kaufman
But, yeah, it has been fun learning about different things along the way.
- [41:21]
Steve Bullpet
And in a personal sense, I can tell you that the. For me, it's been just these, like, flashbacks to the old garden to just people you'd see. You know, there's one scene coming up in the Next wing, where Auerbach's walking across the court and he's with an usher, Mr. Carroll, Andy Carroll, you know, who's long since passed. But, you know, these guys were friends of mine, you know, and seeing the people that. Just the periphery in the background of these shots from these games, seeing the stuff from the old. From the Forum, which is still there in la, but just remembering those days there. The. You know, the first road trip I ever took was preseason Indiana for one game, L.A. the forum for two games. And just these, you know, the people and how things looked back then, that's the part that's kind of sticking with me. And again, that's just. That's personal. Doesn't, you know, doesn't mean, you know, a hill of beans to anybody else. But that's the stuff that's been catching me.
- [42:39]
Evan Valenti
I. I get it. I'm younger than Adam, youngest person in this particular square right now, and it's been fun for me to. To learn a little bit more about, you know, the Russell. Subjects have been obviously covered very well, but prior to that, I really enjoyed some of that. That. The photo that they showed of Koozie with Russell kind of behind him, that's a. A rare photo. I'd never seen that before. That was really neat. And then the 70s Celtics, I thought, was also very interesting. You know, during COVID I went back and watched some of those Milwaukee Bucks in Celtics Finals. Games 6 and 7, I believe are on YouTube. For those of you that want to join me in that. I did that during COVID and I. I laughed a little bit, but I. What was really great to me was they spent a lot of time on Dave Cowan's, who I pounded the table for. When I watched those games, I'm like, I don't think people understand how hard it is to guard Kareem because of just, you know, we're so used to guys being ginormous now, but you plop him on a floor in the 1970s, he clearly sticks out. And Dave Cowins, significantly shorter than him, gave him as much hell as he possibly could. And when you walk away from that series, you know, if you're someone that hasn't seen it, you don't really understand the impact of a guy like that. But I actually loved how much time they spent on talking about, you know, his character and. And his impact on Celtics history. Is there anybody.
- [44:06]
Steve Bullpet
Steve?
- [44:07]
Evan Valenti
You know, again, maybe. Maybe it's coming up later in some of the episodes that we haven't seen yet, but is there anyone that in Particular you think deserves a little more shine than they probably either got in this or will get in this, potentially coming down the road. Because I thought the Cowan stuff was awesome.
- [44:26]
Steve Bullpet
Yeah. I mean, Count. And by the way, Collins is still that guy. I still talk to him, you know. You know, and you've seen Mikhail, you know, he's still crazy, but. Yeah, I mean, I. I don't think people know a lot about Sash Sanders, about Tom Sanders, and, you know, he's. I think I. I once tweeted out that, you know, Sash Sanders is what you get when you take class and put a bow tie on it. I mean, he's just. He's just, you know, a deep person with, you know, and great character. But, like, Havlicek as well, he. You know, he was kind of. He could be a little strange with his. What's the term for it? Just, he had to have things precise, you know, hanging his socks, putting his socks on a hanger, you know, when he was in the locker room. But he was a guy, you know, these were. These were deep guys that, you know, that in these later years now, they're. When you see them dealing with the loss of teammates. I was sitting with Satch at the services for JoJo White, and there came a point where Satches, you know, it was just clearly like, you know, you could see how deeply it was affecting him. And, you know, it's been all these. There's a lot of guys here. This. You know, people don't even get mentioned. I've been trying to get someone to do a story on Mel Graham, who played for the Celtics and stayed in the area, became a lawyer, became a judge. You know, I mean, he was a really good player whose career probably should have been better. He had some injury issues, and things didn't quite work out, but he was a partisan, you know, some of these Celtics teams, and, you know, there's a bunch of guys like that and trying to think up top of my skull, but, yeah, there's just a whole bunch of people that. And Parish is giving you. You know, he's always gonna. He was always a guy you'd go to when the team lost because he'd tell you what happened, you know, and the guy that. That I think is missed in all this, and I. I just miss him personally a lot, is Dennis Johnson. Dennis was prickly when you were. When he was playing, and he could be really, you know, but if you dug in and reached out, you could have some. Some important conversations. And we became, you know, we. We talked A heck of a lot more when he stopped playing. And it was, you know, his passing, you know, was, was a big effect. But I, I'd really love to be hearing his perspective on a lot of this stuff. Yeah. And then, you know, the, the whole Len bias thing which, you know that's coming even more. It's just amazing when you think about the. As good as the Celtics were in the 80s, what that one situation, losing that person meant, not just, I mean we can look at it and say just in basketball sense, I mean this is a man's life got lost. But you know, what it would have meant to the Celtics would have been, you know, amazing as they went into those, into the late, late 80s. And what his loss did for society, what it did to society in general because it, it gave politicians the license to say, okay, war on drugs and who lost that war? You know, what people got caught up in that, you know, what group of people got hurt by the war on drugs. It wasn't just a thing of the people that were. Yeah, it goes deeper. It runs into some real serious social issues. So. And the Len bias thing was the catalyst. He was the reason they could hang a lot of these different laws on that affected one group of people more than it did another group of people.
- [49:18]
Adam Kaufman
We're gonna have more with Steve coming after a quick break here to tell you about our good friends over at game time. You know, there's just nothing better than going to a game live. I know it's fun to watch on tv, but being there, right Being in and just hear all the sounds, all the different views that you don't get to experience on television. You're in the atmosphere, you're around other fans. Who doesn't love high fiving strangers when big things happen. Even those hugs, hugs you get to exchange at a championship game. So many core memories I have as a kid revolve going to some sort of sporting event or even now taking my kids and going to a game as easy, easier than ever thanks to our friends Ev over at game time.
- [49:58]
Evan Valenti
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- [51:29]
Adam Kaufman
I didn't know if that sentence was going to end with, you know, Sabrina Carpenter, my girlfriend. This is favorite artist.
- [51:36]
Evan Valenti
Yeah, I wish I I should know what next time I'm going to do.
- [51:39]
Adam Kaufman
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- [53:44]
Adam Kaufman
All right, Steve, we've been going at it for a little while here, so I don't want to keep you forever, but I do want to make sure that we mix in, you know, the, the pretty big news of the Boston Celtics, this iconic franchise not only in the NBA, but across sports. Sports being sold. You know, we've got Bill Chisholm and his group coming in. Bill has been, if I'm sure I can call him that, you know, the good friends that we are. Chisholm has been making the rounds here a little bit mainly with the broadcast partner, NBC Sports Boston. I don't know if he's done anything on the radio side with the sports hub, but I've seen him at a game now road game, doing an interview, he and his wife with Abby Chin and you know, even his wife was kind of, you know, fan girling out a little bit. I think this is a all just very cool to them being, you know, Dartmouth guy, local, you know, Massachusetts native and grew up a Celtics fan. A lot of the stuff that we talked about with Max last week but on the business side of it here, you know, one I think you do just as people that have followed the Celtics for a long time and, and you would be obviously much closer to it than, than the rest of us. But you feel for Steve Paliuca and, and his desire to, you know, be a majority owner of this team. You know, he'll, he'll be out of the picture obviously soon enough. And I know there were a lot of people, me included, that were, you know, rooting for him, I think, you know, not that I know Steven any personal way, but I think it was kind of, you know, you at least root for what you feel like. You know, someone who's already in the family and cares about the team and roots for the success of the team. And you, you believe he's going to go out and do what's necessary to keep this team contending versus like Fenway Sports Group or what would a Jeff Bezos do or that type of thing? Well, Chisholm comes in as you know, though he's said all of the right things so far to his credit. He comes in as obviously something of, of an unknown. You know, you've observed this stuff before with the Celtics and elsewhere. What do you sort of make of the deal? The, the record setting deal economically for one, but also in terms of the willingness to, you know, with, with big decisions to be made financially in the second apron and all of that. Is this team going to be what fans want it to be, which is a contender for years to come?
- [56:05]
Steve Bullpet
Well, I think first of all I want to, I would want to see this process played out more because as of right now, the Chisholms group has some issues. There are issues with how much of this is real capital. And they've got to figure out there's a formula about how much direct cash has to be in the lead owner, etc. So that's got to be worked out still, you know, they've got to either come up with some more investors that can put more cash in the deal because they don't want teams being, you know, with. I'm blanking on the exact term. That was like a venture kind of thing, venture capital money in there.
- [56:54]
Evan Valenti
Private equity.
- [56:55]
Steve Bullpet
Private equity, there you go. You don't want that because, you know, a bad week and all of a sudden that money can disappear. So they want, the NBA wants to see real, real money, real backing, real collateral here. So I think before you say this is a done deal, before you say totally goodbye to Steve Pagliuca, you know, for all intents and purposes, you're right. This is, you know, it's Adam Ev and Billy C. Hanging out together, having a few beers after the game.
- [57:31]
Evan Valenti
It's you guys.
- [57:33]
Steve Bullpet
But I'd want to see this play out first. And you know, the other thing too is saying this guy, it's a $6.1 billion valuation. He's not coming up with 6.1 billion, you know, in the couch cushions. This is for his. This is the percentage that he's buying is based off of that valuation and that valuation for the other people that come in that have other parts of the team that could sell that could end up pushing the valuation higher. It could be at a higher valuation. So, you know, there's a. There's a whole lot to play out here. But to the stuff that. That means anything to the people that follow the team. Yeah, you're right. He's saying the right things. The problem comes in, not so much. I don't think with, with the amount of cash that's got to be that. That the team needs to spend to keep the roster together. I think the other. The big issue will come in with that. Somehow the Players association let the league, you know, they were in these negotiations, but they let the league put in these onerous second apron rules, which are going to make it really hard for teams to make moves. Teams are above the cap, and this is, you know, they're trying to, you know, placate all the owners that, you know, ones that have been kind of stuck in neutral in the, in the, in NBA Middle earth for a long time. So that part has got to be worked out. I think that's the difficult difficulty you're going to find with this. With any new ownership, any ownership coming. It would be the same if the present ownership stayed as is.
- [59:27]
Evan Valenti
You know, you know, there's. There's been some great reporting around this. Axios has done a nice job of kind of reporting when it happened, what the next steps are, what hurdles they have to clear, etc, and, you know, hat tip to all them, I think it would be, you know, I. Goes without saying, if they're gonna need to find some other people to come up with some money for this, I think they're. It's not going to be super difficult considering you could probably, you know, amongst the. Yeah, right. Coffin you're in. You're. You're locked into. You got that cheddar line around somewhere?
- [59:58]
Adam Kaufman
No, I mean, we. We need to define minority investor. But yeah, I'll. I'll throw some cash at it with.
- [60:04]
Evan Valenti
Some shekels at them for sure. Yeah. All right, well, hey, look, look, we'll get in touch with them. I'm sure we can make that. Yeah. Happen very easily. But it's. It's one of these things, like, you know.
- [60:12]
Steve Bullpet
Yeah.
- [60:13]
Evan Valenti
You can probably pick like there's other groups. I'm sure there's ways to get guys from other groups to pull everything together to make this happen. But given some of the reporting around this, it. There are hurdles to clear here for this to get done. So in that particular perspective, would you be shocked if it didn't get done, Steve? Because there's still a lot to go here. It's not like this is a slam. This is done. There's still a lot to get done here.
- [60:42]
Steve Bullpet
Probably. I'd be shocked if it didn't go through. But it's also fair to say that the. That Steve Paluca group hasn't turned the porch light off yet. You know, so, you know, the Celtics are in a great position with what they have and what's coming up. And, you know, even talking down to, you know, a guy that's kind of been perhaps the star of this podcast, Baylor Scheireman, you know, the way they drafted people who can contribute. And by the way, as we're talking about Baylor Scheiman and, you know, gassing up the car to send him down I90 to Springfield, to the hall of Fame, let's put in a quick word for Sam Hauser, who's been doing this stuff for quite a while now with his team.
- [61:37]
Adam Kaufman
He already got his payday, though. Now we got to celebrate the guys.
- [61:40]
Steve Bullpet
No, I mean, but it's like people are saying, like, you know, Baylor Scheireman, and he can do this. He's better than. Than Sam Houser. Like, no, Sam Houser is pretty good. Yeah. And, you know, Sam Houser goes to the basket. One of the hidden parts about Hauser's game is he can go to the basket really well. Just doesn't do it often because it's not what's being asked of him. Okay. But Sam will not be part of the new ownership group. Getting back to your point. Yeah. The thing is that finding investors, finding people to put up the money for these things shouldn't be a problem because these are not professional sports teams, are not these owners primary business. So they don't need to make money out of these things in the immediate. They can. You know, there are whole kinds of all types of tax benefits. You know, they depreciate these assets on taxes. They. And then there's always the whole thing of, you know, when I remember David talking about this with David Stern, when owners were bitching to him during, you know, the 80s when things were difficult, you know, there are still some franchises that, you know, are not on great local footing. But he would always say to them, you know, hey, you can sell and make 10 times or more what you paid for it. So. So, you know, don't come crying poor. So that still exists.
- [63:25]
Adam Kaufman
Guys, let's. Let's wrap with this. You've probably, and I hope, been so engulfed in the conversation that you've not noticed some breaking news on social media. The reason I've saved it for the end is it is not directly related to the Celtics, but I do think it's worthy of mentioning it, especially to you, Steve, because you are not a Celtics reporter per se. You cover the entire league. Sham Charania Taylor Jenkins fired by the Grizzlies this morning with nine games left in the regular season, with this team sitting tied for fourth in the Western Conference. There was a statement that came out from the team. I can read it to you in part, although it doesn't really tell you anything from Grizzlies. PR says Memphis Grizzlies announced they parted ways with Taylor Jenkins. The president and GM of Basketball Ops, Zach Kleiman. I'm genuinely appreciative of Taylor's contributions to this team in the city over the past six seasons. This was a difficult decision given the consistent and tangible development of the players and overall success under Taylor's leadership. I wish Taylor the very best going forward. So that can only take us to one place, guys, which is what happened, because obviously something happened. The team has not been great for a couple weeks. There have been some up and downs, admittedly, but I can imagine sitting tied for fourth in the Western Conference with this team improving as it generally has over the last half dozen years, that ownership or the front office looked at it and said, we're just going to go out in the first round of the playoffs this year. We got to wake everybody up.
- [65:12]
Evan Valenti
I don't get this at all.
- [65:13]
Steve Bullpet
Yeah, there's got to be, you know, something beneath the surface here. You would think I would first dust Taylor Jenkins to see if John Morant's fingerprints are anywhere. But, you know, I mean, you know, just like we're going back to the whole, you know, Magic Johnson, Paul Westhead situation, Is this one of those? Who knows? What I can tell you is that whatever situation the. The Grizzlies are in, where they are in the food chain and the playoff structure or whatever, they're a team that other teams really don't want to play against. So, you know, there had to be something to, you know, beyond the basics, beyond, hey, we think we can do better with a different coach at this point in the season. There's got to be something else there. So you Know, I mean, maybe Jaw's dad got ticked off at something. Who knows? But, you know, this is. This is strange because again, you know, yeah, there are, you know, the. The Thunder, the Nuggets, when Jamal Murray is being Jamal Murray and not the hideous version we saw, you know, last year and at times this year, the first half against Boston and all of a sudden, the different Jamal Murray in the second half. So. But looking even at the teams that are there in the west, the Grizzlies are a team you don't want to play against. You might beat them in a series, but you're going to come out with wounds. You know what I mean? You're not going to. You're not going to come out unscathed out of that playoff series. It's not going to be a, you know, a walk down Beale street.
- [67:29]
Evan Valenti
Another good one. I just. I. They. That team's been hurt more than anybody else over the past couple of seasons. They've had devastating injuries all throughout their roster. I mean. I mean, Gigi Jackson last year was getting serious playing time, and he turned into a hell of a player. I'm not saying that was a. That thing. Just saying they had to go so far down their roster to get bodies, and they overachieved. I think they're not. A lot of their guys got better from when they drafted them to where they are now. I. I have. I'm stunned here. I. I'll make a proclamation. He won't be unemployed for too long. He's a spectacular coach. Somebody's going to pick him up and.
- [68:06]
Adam Kaufman
Oh, he'll be at the top of the hiring cycle next year.
- [68:10]
Evan Valenti
Absolutely. I mean, you know, I know. I wonder how the Kings feel about Doug Christie, but, I mean, there's an easy way for him to stay out west.
- [68:16]
Steve Bullpet
I don't. I didn't get that firing either. I mean, that's kind of. That's kind of why they lost Fox, you know. Right. Fox said, you know, basically said, told the Kings, you know, if I'm gonna have to play for another coach, it's not going to be here. Like, he basically said, if you get rid of this guy here, I'm out. You know.
- [68:44]
Evan Valenti
I don't like Brown. One, like, coach here two years ago. Like, it wasn't.
- [68:49]
Steve Bullpet
Yeah. I mean, some of the. I mean, I don't know what the situation. We obviously, we don't know the situation in Memphis, but I will say, in the overall situ. Overall scheme of things, when there comes to be one of these coach things situations, if you are in the front office and you know that the coach is not doing stupid things, is not, you know, giving them bad advice, putting them in bad situations. You know, the coach is competent in doing his job. And someday in the not too distant future, we'll be saying, coach is doing her job as well. I think you're going to see a head coach in the not too distant future. But those situations would be better rectified if ownership comes down and walks into the gym at practice and says, look, grabs a coach, that this guy's staying. You got to ask yourself if you're staying or not. And you know, it's like in a marriage, do you work things out or do you say, you know, do you have the, do you have the divorce attorney on speed dial? You know, and if you do have the divorce attorney on speed dial, then you're always one misstep away from breaking the situation up. And the, you know, you saw it with the Kings as well. They make the coaching change. The team plays better in the immediate because it's like, well, if we play well now, then it'll be the coach, the other coach's fault. It'll. This will show that it was his fault. But if we play poorly, then it's going to be our fault. It would, you know, would look badly for us. You know, that stuff goes on. You know, sometimes there are needed coaching changes. Cleveland, you know, horses for courses. J.B. bickerstaff is better equipped to deal with the roster he has in Detroit than he was in Cleveland. Kenny Atkinson came in, you know, that was even as good as Cleveland was last year and how injuries might have kept them from going further. Kenny Atkinson has opened up that team. He's given the players a sense of self determination that has really, you know, switch them into a higher gear. So sometimes coaching changes are good and important. This one is going to be a little curious.
- [71:29]
Adam Kaufman
Steve Bullpet again, senior NBA columnist for Heavy.com you can get him on Twitter at Steve B. Hoop. A well rounded episode of Celtics beat, that's for sure. Touched on a lot of different stuff. With the playoffs rapidly approaching for the Celtics and the Grizzlies and not for Taylor Jenkins. We also have a fun episode of Celtic City on the way that, you know, Evan and I haven't seen yet, but Steve has from the premiere and it's going to be that, that next stage deeper into the 80s here. It's gonna be.
- [72:00]
Steve Bullpet
You're talking about Max. Can we slip in one quick Max story?
- [72:03]
Adam Kaufman
Sure, yeah, of course.
- [72:04]
Steve Bullpet
Always perhaps, you know, As a writer, you live for the great quotes. Right now. This is. This predates me covering the Celtics. But the principals have all agreed that it happened after a Celtics game where they had not played well. Cedric said, you know, he was discussing the situation. Said, yeah, we were very dorsal tonight. And Kevin McHale, like a locker away in that corner of the old garden Celtics locker room says, you know, Max, you're right. We kind of did play like fish. But I think the word you're looking for is docile. And what's funny now is that, you know, in terms of knowing words and stuff, you do not want to play against Max and Scrabble, okay? Journalist, heavy reader, writer, everything, all these things. I don't want to go anywhere near that dude.
- [73:08]
Evan Valenti
Interesting.
- [73:09]
Adam Kaufman
Listen, he's. He's an author in his own right now.
- [73:12]
Evan Valenti
That's fair. Yeah. Anyway, I'm gonna challenge Max to a game of Scrabble now. I like that.
- [73:19]
Steve Bullpet
You know, we did say.
- [73:21]
Adam Kaufman
We did say we were gonna get.
- [73:21]
Evan Valenti
Him back from Max.
- [73:24]
Steve Bullpet
I'll be, I'll be. I'm gonna go over the encore and see if that's if the line.
- [73:31]
Evan Valenti
Heavy favorite, Cedric maxwell.
- [73:32]
Adam Kaufman
I look, that's minus 7, 500.
- [73:35]
Evan Valenti
Let's go.
- [73:36]
Adam Kaufman
I'm ready for Steve Bullpen. Evan Valenti, I'm Adam Kaufman. Thanks to all of you out there for watching, listening. However you're consuming us, be it obviously in podcast form or on the CLNS Media YouTube page, we appreciate you again. Should be a, well, hopefully pretty lackluster finish to the regular season, but the fun is right around the corner next month, so let's keep enjoying it. We'll talk again next week.
- [74:01]
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- [74:09]
Steve Bullpet
Yep.
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- [75:08]
Steve Bullpet
Whatever.
- [75:09]
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