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- [00:01]
A
It's okay not to be perfect with finances. Experian is your big financial friend and here to help. Did you know you can get matched with credit cards on the app? Some cards are labeled no Ding decline, which means if you're not approved, they won't hurt your credit scores. Download the Experian app for free today. Applying for no Ding decline cards won't hurt your credit scores. If you aren't initially approved. Initial approval will result in a hard inquiry which may impact your credit scores. Experian Today's Friday, October 3rd, 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. This is episode 644.
- [00:44]
B
Featuring us just us today, buddy. Powered by price picks and Game Time Prize Picks is the official daily fantasy partner of CLNS Media. Download the app today, use the promo code CLNS. Get $50 in lineups when you play your first $5 and download a Game Time app, use the promo code CLNS for $20 off your first purchase. Welcome in everybody. New edition of Celtics beat.
- [01:19]
A
You got the two of us with Evan Valenti. I am Adam Kaufman. I only wish we had the Red Sox still to talk about and look forward to. But sadly, baseball season around here, it's come to an end. I know those Yankees, they're off to face the Blue Jays, a team that I wish the Red Sox had faced in this wild card round. I was actually rooting for New York to overtake Toronto there late in the season for the division so that we could see the Blue Jays in round one. Yeah, setting up the inevitable date ev with the Yankees. But at least that would be a best of seven. It would be a series, it would be home dates in both ballparks.
- [01:55]
B
I don't like about they have no.
- [01:56]
A
One to blame but themselves. I mean they took game one, they just had to play 500 ball for the next two. But they turned into themselves of of, you know, really points throughout the majority of this year where all of a sudden the offense goes away, the defense is the worst in baseball and they just sucks.
- [02:15]
B
I'll tell you just real quick because this is something speed night Red Sox beat. I will say I I thought Ely pitched our early pitch great last night. I thought he was fantastic people.
- [02:25]
A
Great, great through three.
- [02:27]
B
I thought he was great even in that inning that like there was all soft contact and defensively just it just didn't come through for the guy. I thought he was fine. I feel bad for Yoshida because he Actually was awesome in the end, the stretch, the end of the year in Toronto, he was nails. I thought, you know, the righty lefty thing is tough for him. But when he was called upon as a pinch hitter, he always got on base. Thought a great series. Trevor Story. My word, what a season for that guy. Again, offensively was one of the few guys consistently every night bringing it. I thought he was great. Just Mr. Grand Slam by like that much. I need, I need say Don Raphael in the off season to just find a way to spit on off speed pitches that are off the plate on the outside corner. Like I, I can't watch a guy, I, I mean I love him to death. He's great. He, I love the, I love the antics, I love the, the drama. He's fantastic. But he's just got to learn to just spit on these curveballs that are off the outside corner. He just can't lay off them.
- [03:25]
A
You need him to go full Pedro Serrano is what you're saying.
- [03:28]
B
Yeah, I need him. I need him to like to say f Fu Jobu. I'll do it myself.
- [03:33]
A
He needs to sacrifice a chicken, a live chicken.
- [03:37]
B
Kfc, you know, maybe might work. I don't know. What a great season for the Red Sox. Every best player. Obviously that's a bummer, but there's a lot, there's bright future ahead with Crochet and Anthony. This is going to be some fun, I think.
- [03:51]
A
Yeah, a lot of young guys, but like you said, Celtics beat, not Red Sox beat. But that is available to you across the CLNS media network so you can check that out. Go to the CLNS YouTube page. You can find all the great programming. Red Sox related, Patriots related, Bruins related, obviously Celtics content. And there are many shows that you can pick your favorites or just listen to all of them. I don't know how many hours you have in the day commuting or at your desk at work or whatever it is. But we all offer different perspectives and different voices and different minds and all of that. So yeah, tune in, check out the CLNS All Access Celtics page as well. You will find our show clippings, full shows, all of it typically surrounded by great guests as well. We had Sean Grandy last week. All of that information, even though it was pre media day, still very current, looking ahead to the upcoming season. But of course of this show it is largely to kind of reflect upon what we heard back on Monday media day. First time a lot of these guys chatting with the media, be it on the NBC Sports Boston desk and Talking with Kayla and Drew and Mark or obviously in those, you know, podium situations where you've just got reporters throwing you questions. We, we heard a lot of Celtics related stuff this week. And outside of the Celtics, the, you know, sort of felt like an inevitability. But officially, Al Horford to the warriors. And I'm sure that will resurface a lot of these should number 42 go to the rafters conversation and all that. Maybe if we have time, we'll mix it in. But honestly, we've done that on this show. We've done it a number of times in the past. So anyone who's a regular listener of this show is already aware, I think, of how we feel upon that issue. But first, preseason game coming up in Memphis October 8th, which if I'm not mistaken is also Bruins opening night. So while the Red Sox are done, football season's in full swing and it's the reminder that the Celtics, the Bruins right around the corner. Ev, we can pick through some of this stuff and, and by all means, I know you listen to a laundry list hours of sound as well, so, you know, possibly there was something that caught your attention that didn't catch mine. Or maybe you heard something that I didn't hear these guys talking with so many different outlets. But, you know, I, I think that we got more of the same, obviously, a day or two later from Jason Tatum talking about the rehab and the progress and the time in the gym and the hope to come back as soon as possible. He didn't specifically say this. Did the whole the fans thing again. Sure. Yeah. I mean, I, I, well, here's where I'll start. I'm bought in. I now I have been saying, if you've listened to this show, if you've listened to this show for months, you know that I have said he's not coming back this year. Like, this is stupid that we're even talking about it. He's not coming back this year. One freaking video of watching him on the floor that Kevin Durant loses his mind to, and all of a sudden I'm like, this dude might be back in November. We're gonna see him. We're. He's gonna play 60 games this year. I do believe that Jason Tatum is going to play at some point this season. And at this point, I'm going to be borderline disappointed if he doesn't.
- [07:00]
B
I was on the golf course. Somebody sent me a text message of the video.
- [07:05]
A
Yeah.
- [07:06]
B
And I was with a buddy of mine who, who's also a big C fan. And I was like, you see this? He goes, no. I'm like, good, get over here right now. He was like, what up? What's up? And I was like, we were watching and I looked at him dead in the face. I was a dude. He's 100 coming back this season. If he's already here and it's. It was at the time September. Like, if he's already here and it's September, buddy. February, like, February, March, all the. I am. So look, we've all been kind of like tiptoeing around this because it's, it's. It is just like, okay, you don't need to rush him back like this. Keep the, you know, 35, 000 foot view, make sure he's healthy, whatever. What I saw in that video is a guy who looks like he is. And anyway, you've heard this, but visually looks like, yeah, he's. He's 100 coming back this season. And I, I even think the date that Sean threw out there, March 4th, right. I actually think that's like, probably going to be on the money. I think he's going to be right on with that. I. I related birthday present. I. I read some stuff this week. I think it was. And if I'm misattributing this, I really do apologize. I think it's Dr. Jesse Morse, who is one of these guys that tries to, you know, like, yeah, one of these guys, these Twitter doctors that try to get everybody, like a little bit more of a timeline. I think he expressed that it's possible Tatum, with like, the best possible outcome could be back by January. More likely February. Right. Given what we saw given on that video, you know, what we know of the procedure and all that kind of combined together, I think February, March certainly is in play. And I cannot believe how good he looks. Just like running, lifting. I don't even care. Notice they didn't show you any shots going in. By the way, he did say in the video he's a little rusty, but I can't believe how far back along he is at this stage. Like, I know part of the thing that's the hardest to do is to rebuild that calf muscle back up to be as strong as it was pre injury. And like, I, I just can't believe he's doing all this stuff already. I'm. I'm so encouraged and I've been so, like, wet blanket. Like, you and I both have been like, ah, I don't know. And I've been, well, playoff games are gonna be Different. Like, I've. Everything I said, like, just throw it out the window. Every take I had, like, just take it. Throw it.
- [09:26]
A
All the mouth breathing we've been doing on this show for the last several.
- [09:30]
B
Months, you get all that content that we spent months doing, like, just take that gone. I completely.
- [09:37]
A
I. I don't have any medical training. Neither do you, but obviously you read what some of these guys. And I don't know if this doctor you referred to was one of these people that made mention of this as well. Maybe he was, but some of these people have talked about how just important it was to have the surgery when he did, you know, meaning having it. Obviously, he was in New York, and of course, one of the specialists for this type of procedure is in New York, so that couldn't have worked out better. So you didn't have to fly anywhere. He could literally just go to the hospital from Madison Square Garden. But to have this surgery inside 24 hours of the injury, evidently, this is what the medical people say is a really big deal in terms of speeding up the recovery. You get beyond. It's. You know, it's longer than 24 hours. All of a sudden, you enter this different time frame, this different window of recovery. You do it inside 24 hours, and it's, holy, this guy's about to return. So, look, I don't know. I have no idea. And we've had the conversations going back several weeks about Tatum looking to beat science and, you know, be the fastest guy to come back from this type of injury and all these things. We'll find out all in due time. But to your point, what we know is what we see and what we saw, even in a kind of a. A highlight reel, right? Like a sizzle reel of him on the court. It wasn't just this, you know, ongoing video where there were missed shots or trip ups or pauses or what have you. This was. This was designed so that we could see it with a. Complete. With a message from Tatum to the fans at the end of it and the promotion of his new sneaker and all like this. This was done by design. This was a marketing campaign. But putting that aside, what he was marketing, independent of the shoe that, of course, he's wearing in the video, is his body and the way that he looked in the reasonably short aftermath. Five months since this injury last May, and he seemed to be moving pretty freaking great. So, you know, again, totally different. Running around the gym or going to this function, that function, walking around, you know, no boot, no wheelchair, no crutches. No, whatever. Like, obviously if you just saw him, he looks like a perfectly normal regular dude moving just fine. You get him in the gym and that stuff looked pretty good. It looked pretty encouraging. That's all, you know, consistent with what we've been saying on the show, that that's all incredibly different than playing an NBA basketball game, than Even playing a 5 on 5 workout with teammates, than playing certainly high leverage playoff contests when that roll around. You know, presuming that you're in the camp that believes the Celtics are at minimum going to be in the play in tournament, if not a top six seed. But I don't know how you can listen to the guy during this media tour that he did over the last week and watch that video and truly actually think this guy is not hell bent on coming back this year. He is. He absolutely is. We can all. And this is a royal we. Not me, not Evan. We can all sit here right off the Celtics say they're not contenders this year. Look at that roster. Even if you do have Tatum back, all these things, and I'm not even saying we'd be right or wrong in, in saying that, but I, I guarantee that Tatum does not feel that way. Tatum is thinking, get me back out on the floor. You still got me. You got jb, you got White, you got Peyton, you got some of these other pieces. Yeah, we've lost half our rotation from last year. We're gonna have some pieces and the east is wide open. Why can't we make a run? Why not? That's what's in his head right now, clearly.
- [13:28]
B
And the thing for me is, like, I have been. I don't think it's a shock to anybody to listen to the show. Like, I have been presuming the entire season was just going to be whatever and Jason Tatum might have a part in it at the end of the season. And like, even if he does again, I don't think he should play playoff minutes. Like all that stuff, everything I am. That video changed my entire outlook on the season to now. I'm like, you know what? Like why, why not, you know, fool around a little bit, you know, and try and see if you can, you know, get into that top six. Because I think the entire. I'm like, yeah, whatever. Like, you know, they don't make the playoffs, but I like the draft. Pickle man, that's fine. I'm now just like, you know what? Screw that. No way. Scratch that. Wipe it all off. Clear it all out. I am way more in the camp of okay, like, let's, let's. Let's get every. Let's. Let's get this figured out. I think there's going to be a way for this team to make the playoffs. It was gonna be a way for this team. Like, imagine if you're, like, if you're an Orlando Magic team, right, who's feeling great about themselves for the regular season, they get a top three seed or whatever, and they draw the cells in the first round. Like, that's going to be tough. Now. I know Boston's not going to have the Horses it did years prior. And in Orlando, to their credit, was a ginormous pain in the ass to play in the playoffs last year. You and I, I mean, I, we're. We're both Palo Banchero fans. We. We love the fact that he played so hard. That team, you know, is tough defense.
- [14:50]
A
They'Re a fun team and they've only.
- [14:52]
B
Gotten better, but they're gonna, you know, somebody's gonna draw their Celtics team as their first round opponent and be like, oh, man, not ideal here. Like, can you imagine if it was a 27 Knick Celtics to a rematch in the first round? Like, you don't. Again, I would not pick Boston to win that series. Like, obviously, maybe you would.
- [15:10]
A
I mean, you wouldn't right now. Maybe when that rolls around, you would.
- [15:13]
B
You.
- [15:14]
A
You don't know what every. You know, their health situations are going.
- [15:16]
B
To be the point. Like, what if, like. And this is the most. I. I love that I'm already here. Like, I love that I'm already like, hey, like what? Hey, you never know, right? There's like so many injuries can happen throughout the season, can change the entire landscape of everything. It's pot.
- [15:34]
A
It.
- [15:34]
B
It is a very small possibility. It is possible for Boston to get the right bracket lineup with people that have some serious injuries and make some serious noise. I'm not saying I would count on it, right? I'm not. I would not mortgage my house on this happening, right? Not like I would mortgage my house against the Bengals losing this week at the Detroit Lions. But, like, it's there and it changes my entire. Like, I was already excited for the season anyway. I was already, like, pumped up to see what this team looks like, to see the young guys look like, just to get a feel for it. I have a whole different level of excitement now because eventually this season one of my favorite players leagues come back and we're gonna see what it looks like again. And I just, I could not let myself. I don't know about you. I know we've spoken a lot about both sides of this thing, but I could not allow myself to get excited over the fact that Tatum was going to return because I just didn't think it would look right once that video came out. My. I just like, you know what? No, I'm. I'm already. I'm ready to go. I'm so ready to go. I. I'm so excited. I cannot believe where he's at. And the whole season now has changed. In my opinion that what you want to accomplish this season has totally changed. Yes. You want to get some of the young guys, figure out what you got there. Totally. But I do think there's a different element to the season now because I do think we can all expect reasonably without any setbacks. Tim will be back February, March, somewhere in there, no problem.
- [16:59]
A
Here are your Vegas odds, by the way, on the Eastern Conference. This is not obviously to win a championship. This is to win the East. And I bring this up for a very specific reason that I think will be evident when I'm done talking. Cavaliers, Knicks, Magic, Hawks, Pistons. Okay, that's five. Five fingers up for those watching on video. Six seeds in the playoffs before you get to the play in tournament gave you five. Number six at 12 to 1. Boston Celtics ahead of the injury plagued, already injury ravaged Philadelphia 76ers at 13 1. Who has lost Jared McCain already to a UCL tear in the thumb, Joel Embiid. They have no idea when he's gonna play Paul George. Will he be ready for opening night? This is going to be the Tyrese Halliburton and and quite Quentin Grimes show all over again where those three dudes don't play more than freaking 15 games together. So they were already on the outside by the way.
- [18:05]
B
Just a Halliburton plays for the Pacers. You met Maxi.
- [18:09]
A
Did I say Halliburton? I meant Maxi. Yeah, yeah, sorry, no. Well, Halliburton doesn't play for the Pacers either because of his injury, so. Yes, no, I meant Maxi. Thank you. And then you have the Bucks, who I do think maybe the books are sleeping a little bit on Milwaukee, but truthfully, Giannis has nothing around him, so maybe they're not 19 to 1. And then you have those Halliburton Pacers who have already just on the year, you know, 30 to 1. And then the Raptors, the Heat, the Bulls, the Hornets, the Nets, the Wizards, in that order. So the Celtics come in preseason right now and we'll see, you know, because they're Always. Again, illustrated by Philadelphia. There are always injuries that happen this time of year, even before the season begins. Hell, and I'm not speaking this into existence. I'm not wishing for this. But, you know, Jalen Brunson could break his leg in Abu Dhabi for all we know. And all of a sudden, the east is a complete mess. You get my point. So at the moment, Cavs, Knicks, Magic, Hawks, pistons, Celtics at 6. The Celtics, in the eyes of the odds makers, are a playoff team in the Eastern Conference. Right now. Obviously, the Jason Tatum news and the way that he is talking and the video that is, you know, all contributed to some line movement versus where it was a week ago, not to mention Philadelphia's situation, which has moved things the other way. But I think we need to be. Not now, even though we're kind of having it, but be ready to have the conversation, ev, that playoffs are a reality. Like, this is not, this is not a, a tanking team. And we've kind of had that conversation at points throughout the summer as well. This is not a team that's hell bent on the lottery. This is not a team that's going to win 25 games, barring again, major injuries. This is a team that should still be viewed as a 45, maybe even more win team, depending on not if, but when Jayson Tatum returns.
- [20:04]
B
Totally reasonable. And it's, it's for all the reasons that you said. I mean, the east is, you know, not the most talented conference. We know this. You know, any injury, any of the top stars, like a Donovan Mitchell or Jalen Brunson or Giannis or a Apollo Bankero or a Young, like, it's gonna flip this whole thing upside down and Boston's gonna have the weird ability to sit there and say, you know, we're gonna, we're gonna be hanging around, but we're gonna get way better come February, March. And that's not because we're trading for anybody. It's because our best player is coming back. So I just, I, I've been so cautiously optimistic that this particular part, and that's why, like, I'm so giddy and so excited right now, is because I haven't allowed myself to really feel this at all until a week ago. And now it's just like, kind of catching up to me in real time. They're, they're going to be again. This is, this is a conference that, you know, anybody could win. I mean, the Detroit Pistons, who I think have put together a really great roster again, given a couple rolls of the Dice could end up in the Eastern Conference finals. We saw what happened years ago when Trey Young made his magical run to the Eastern Conference finals, right. We could probably count on is the Philadelphia 76ers are not making the Eastern Conference finals. But that's a whole different story. But it's like, it's, it's this why not us sort of thing. And so it makes all the things that are happening now, like with media day and we're listening to Joe and all the players talk about a few things, it just changes how I take that in because now instead of trying to, that's Joe Mazz on the phone right now talking to me. Instead of trying to figure out like, you know, what young guy works best with who and, and, and wanting to see out of X, Y and Z, it's like, okay, no, like there's going to be clear roles defined for everybody in the beginning of the season that will come to fruition like February, whenever, when all the pieces are back together together. Right. I, as someone who has advocated for maybe not starting Richard. Well, if you're gonna get your, your, your, one of your wing guys back where you can play bigger, right, because one of the things that Boston did last year was they never really took Payne out of that six man role, let him have that all the time. And if they needed to bring somebody else off the bench to start, it was usually like Hauser or somebody else. It was really never paid. Well, now if it's Pritchard, White, Brown, Tatum and some five man, now I can see starting Payton Pritchard because defensively they'll be the hold up when they're back together and whole. Right. I was never planning on Jason Tatum really coming back and playing that starting role and, and being the guy that he's always been. But now like I can see like, okay, let Peyton Pritchard be the starting point guard all season and just have him understand, your life can get way easier as we come along here. Your life as the point guard defensively and offensively will be so much easier when Tatum comes back because he'll be ready to rock and roll immediately.
- [23:00]
A
Then for the third time in four years, Boston Celtics sixth man of the year, in this case, Anthony Simons. That's, that's where we're heading with this.
- [23:08]
B
Yeah, it's possible. It's certainly possible. Everything is possible now with that video.
- [23:14]
A
Anything is possible. You might even say, right. Let's take 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 and billions of dollars in awarded winnings, prize picks has made daily fantasy sports accessible to all. You just pick more or less on at least two players for a shot to win up to 2000 times your cash. Again 2000X. Run your game all season long on prize picks.
- [23:44]
B
Coffin. We get on our flex play Friday here, buddy. We're ready to go. We're, we're three out of four in the season hitting the flex play right. That's two out of three. We don't lose any money. We haven't lost too much money. That's awesome. We love that. And with that in mind, we have another flex play Friday. Couple of guys you can throw in your lineup if you want. I, I, I'm not having a bad history this year. So let's, let's, let's keep it rolling. So we're going to start with and we've been doing a lot of more thans. We're going to throw some less thans in here. Jordan Mason, less than 65 and a half rushing yards for the Minnesota Vikings. That Vikings offensive lines beat up. You have a great front for the Cleveland Browns. I love it. Jared goff less than 30.5 completions. The Lions are playing the Bengals. The Bengals are terrible. They're going to be in a negative game script the entire time. The Lions will be running the football. I don't think they're the pass a lot. That's where that comes into play. And then I love this angle. I'm a big fan of it. The revenge games to find Diggs against the Bills pick Patriots Bill Sunday night we're gonna go more than 46 and a half receiving yards. And this week flex play will get me 4.6x or 4.2x. Excuse me if I hit all 3 or 1.4xva 2 out of 3. So I will finally be able to make some money here. Even if I only get two out of three. Just get my money back. We got a little extra on top this week.
- [25:02]
A
Often getting that money couldn't be any easier either. In as little as 15 minutes you just watch that money roll into your account. Heck, price picks even uses Venmo with who doesn't use Venmo? There's literally nothing easier than that. So download the app today. Use the code CLNS. You get $50 in lineups right after playing your first for only $5. Again, download the prize picks app. Do it right after the show. Heck, do it while you're listening. To the show. Use the promo code CLNS. You get 50 bucks in lineups after playing your first five dollar lineup. Prize picks. Run your game. All right, back here with ev. So we were talking a lot about Tatum and expectations for this team and all that good stuff. There were a lot of guys like you said that spoke at media day, everybody for that matter, and talking about the changes and I think there were just some different things. You talked about Peyton Pritchard and you know, he acknowledged, and I think this is genuine, he doesn't really know what his role is going to be, whether he is starting, whether he's coming off the bench, nor do I think he really cares. I think Joe Missoula probably has made up that decision or has at least an inkling of what direction he's going to go in. I do believe that Pritchard honestly is just kind of waiting to hear like the rest of us. Personally, I don't care who starts, whether it's Pritchard or whether it's Simons or however this shakes out. Because I know that, you know, we, we've watched this guy coach long enough to know these, these guys, they're still going to have their roles, you know, like Pritchard, if he doesn't start. And it looks like we're. At least, most people believe he's going to at least out of the gate. But let's just say for the sake of argument that he doesn't. Even if he's check, you know, checking in at the six minute mark, he's still going to play his normal minutes. He's still going to get his normal workload, volume, shots, all this stuff. And so again, whether he's with the starting unit, whether he's leading the second unit, I don't care. Simons, the big thing with him that I, that this, this I feel like was one of the more kind of revealing sound bites and not necessarily in a positive way to come out of media day as the Celtics players spoke was that he's been, you know, he's chatted with the coaching staff about defense and acknowledged and they all kind of agreed. Like, you know, I, I just, I haven't been trying, like I just, like I just need to try. It really is what it is. And I don't want to totally pick on him because, and I've said this elsewhere, who knows, maybe in Portland they weren't even asking him to play defense. Maybe they just said focus on the other end of the floor. Don't expend your energy defensively. We need you to pump out a bunch of high quality shots and, and be our scorer and be our leader on that side. We don't even want you, we'll cover you up defensively. We don't want you to worry about that side. So maybe that's the case. But if he wants real minutes here and he wants to rebuild his value, which we've had a lot of conversations around whether or not he truly has any, because again, I do think the Celtics have tried to trade him since he got here and so far they haven't found a taker. And we've had these conversations around what's his contract look like at the end of the year, be it with Boston resigning or elsewhere, if he's traded or just leaves to go somewhere else, what does that deal wind up looking like? This is a great opportunity for Simons to come in here, do what's asked of him, you know, play his role. The whole Brad Stevens, be a star within your role and impact winning as, as they like to say around here, put in a good defensive effort, stay on the floor, get your shots, get your points and maybe he does average in the vicinity of 20 points per game if he's playing with the second unit and they're, they're replacing roughly 75, 80 points per game from this lineup that have, have left, you know, and that's including Tatum, obviously, with you know, his at least temporary departure. I know he's going to be back in about three weeks, but for right now he's unavailable. So I don't know. Ev, I mean, I, I was momentarily kind of alarmed by him saying like, yeah, I need to try. I haven't been, you know, whatever the exact quote was, but him basically saying that it's defense, no crap is about effort. And he hasn't been putting in any on that side of the floor. But the more I thought about it, I kind of came to the well, maybe he wasn't asked to, like I said before and this is going to look different. What are your Simons expectations and have they, I don't know, changed in any way, shape or form since you heard him chat the other day?
- [29:19]
B
I always find it funny because I feel like guys that are bad at defense always, oh, I don't try hard. And I always feel like that's kind of a cop out. It's like, I no, I think you might just be bad at defense. I, I, there aren't many guys who, I'll put it this way, who say I just gotta try harder and then they all of a sudden become good defenders. Like, I'm not, I'm not holding out because he's gonna try harder, going to be better at it. I think it's possible they can put him in better situations than Portland has. I, I don't, I don't believe, and this is just a personal belief, I don't think Chauncey Billups, guy who was a great defender, one of the best point guard, defenser defenders of his generation, I'm one of the best defensive teams of all time, is, doesn't, doesn't care about defense. I'm just not buying that. I'm just not buying that. So I, I guess, like you, I was disappointed in the comment. I'm just gonna try harder. Okay. Like, the only thing I'll see is he was on so many teams that didn't do well that it's hard to really care about defense when you know you're gonna lose. And if that's the case, then maybe I can buy this. But I, that being said, I am looking forward to seeing him on the court. I'm looking forward to seeing him with other guys that, you know, will defend. Then, like, if he's playing with Derrick White, Jalen Brown, etc. Etc. Peyton Pritchard, who, you know, again, that guy gives effort. Like, you'll, the one thing you'll know is you'll be able to see it. Like, Payton Pitcher might be the best defensive player on the floor, but he does freaking guard his ass off. Right. We will be able to know very quickly if it just was an effort thing, which I think actually reflects poorly on your, on your character a little bit. It's like, really?
- [30:53]
A
Yeah.
- [30:53]
B
You need to go to a different place to try hard on defense. If you don't just do that automatically. Okay, I don't love that. So we'll know if it's an effort thing or if, like, no, he just really isn't that coordinated on that side of the board. I, I, I do understand that there is effort involved with defending. I'm not saying there isn't. There's also instincts, too. I mean, the one that's been beautiful about being a Celtics fan for the past kajillion years is guard defense has been something they've sort of either fallen into or prioritized, and it's sometimes a little bit of both. Like the Marcus Smart era. I mean, for crying out loud, there was such a big media and fan push to get Marcus Smart the Defensive Player of the Year award that he actually won it for the first Time as a guard since Gary Payton. Like, that's amazing. Having Drew Holiday, Derek White, Marcus Smart around for the past decade has given us all great examples of what real defense looks like, real hustle looks like, but also defensive intuition. Like, the one thing we Drew Holiday is one of the smartest defensive players anybody has ever seen. From a cerebral standpoint. That guy understand fundamentally how his, like, how his gravity can change defensively what other teams do. Marcus Smart was a menace. Derrick White's the best shot blocking guard we've seen since, like Dwyane Wade. Like, there's just, we've seen Will know very quickly with Simons because we've had so many other glowing examples of this. If he actually does have a little bit of this in him or, like, it's not an effort thing, guy, you're just, you're just not good at it. Just not any good, you know? So we'll see. I, I, the offensive stuff obviously gets me jacked up. That's really exciting. I just, so defensively, again, I'm more of a see it when it happens. I, I, I'm not buying it. I'm just not buying it right now.
- [32:42]
A
Which would you rather hear a guy say though? Because either one, I guess, could be viewed as an indictment. Yeah, I just haven't been trying. I, I, you know, I, I need to be better. I'm gonna, these guys are going to coach me up. I, I haven't, you know, I, I just wasn't, I wasn't putting in the effort on that side of the floor or, yeah, guys, I kind of suck defensively. It's, it's just, it's not my, I've tried, it's not my thing. I'm gonna keep trying, but it's just not my thing, which, I mean, I'm sure there are versions of this where you don't hear those things, but which one would you rather hear?
- [33:15]
B
I think I'd appreciate the honesty of, like, I'm not great at this, but I'll give it my best shot versus, like, I've never tried this before. Like, I don't know. To me, that just, like, that doesn't really stick well with me.
- [33:26]
A
Yeah.
- [33:26]
B
Personally, I just don't, I don't, I don't love hearing that. And like, you, I was like, dude, really, you gotta really say that right now? Like, that's not, not digging that. But we're gonna, we're gonna forget about it then. Tatum, video dropped. I forgot about everything. We're fine. We'll see. And with the Right. Coaching. Like, you know, the one thing I'll say I'm really excited for is for Sam Cassell to start working with Anthony Simons. Because Sam Cassell in his tenure has been a terrific guard development guy. I mean, go back to his days with Philadelphia. You listen to Tyrese Maxey talk. Like, there's a lot of conversation both around. Thank God Sam Cassell was going to show me how to do this right. And so if you're gonna get. And Sam Cassell's. We all know that he's an. He's gonna be an. The entire. He's gonna get in your face. He's gonna. He's gonna. He's gonna talk trash. He's gonna be in your. In your shorts the entire time just to try and make you better. So in that case, like, maybe having Sam, I mean, obviously it's a good thing, but maybe Sam's the guy. Maybe he needs the. Because here's the right coach brings the right things out of guys. Maybe Stan Gasl is the right guy for Anthony Simons and I'm here for it. But that comment did not sit well with me either, buddy. I'm with you on that.
- [34:39]
A
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- [35:16]
B
Yeah, it's the best. I love game time. And with the NFL season in full swing here, Patriots tickets, folks. They are available and there's no better place to grab them than Game Time. I know they're gonna be in the road for a while. Coffee. They come back home. Browns on Sunday afternoon. Browns at home. Right now. I'm on the Game Time app and you can get in the low, low price looks like 158 right now. Which is the cheapest deal. And the best part about Game Time is you can literally see the best deals right up front. They have this super deal right up front. It's like the best deal you could possibly get within one person. The top 1% of value. Amazing deals all over the place. But if you want to just get in the building, they'll show you that too. All that's super easy. It's very toggleable on the app on your phone. You can zoom in, you can zoom out, you get a view from your seat. There's nothing easier than buying tickets with the Game Time app.
- [36:13]
A
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- [36:42]
B
Seat views.
- [36:43]
A
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- [38:22]
B
There's a.
- [38:23]
A
A bit of, like, let's prove it. Let's show the world. Let's silence our critics. The whole us against the world thing that we've talked about for so long during the Belichick Brady era Patriots. But you. I mean, are you buying it? You buy. This isn't in 30ish years in the NBA that this four days, whatever it's been, is the toughest stylistically, maybe the grind, the exertion, all the things that are involved in it. We're not behind closed doors. We're not seeing everything, obviously, but this is the toughest camp that Sam Cassell has seen.
- [38:57]
B
I'm calling BS on this. I think we can all kind of see through this. It's like, yeah, I'm in the best shape of my life. Like, yeah, okay, sure, I, you know, I hope so. But at the same time, like, I'm just not buying it. I'm not saying. I'm not trying to be derogatory in that. I'm trying to actually just be like, I think Sam Cassell was on some pretty unbelievable teams. So, yeah, I, I don't want, you know, I think. I think he's. He's being nice about it. I think he's trying to, you know, pump up the rest of the team and spin this the right way. But I, you know, I just think that there have been past training camps at the same Costello's been a part of. They've been a little bit tougher. And that's just, again, without knowing anything, not being there, I just. There are. I mean, you go to camp with. With kg, I just don't. I mean, that guy's a psychopath. And I, I'm not saying that there isn't anybody that could maybe conjure that, but I haven't seen it. Like, I love Jalen. That's not who Jalen is. Jalen's not a. In, like, he's not pounding his head against the stage before every. Every single game. He's not. You know, that's just the intensity that KG brought. And I'm not. Again, I'm not trying to downplay this training camp and trying to downplay what these guys are doing, because obviously they're doing some stuff and trying to get ready to go. And I'm sure they are motivated. I'm sure they're right. I'm sure they're pissed off. I'm sure there's. I'm sure everybody in this team's pissed off. They've been only been Told that they were, they wasted an opportunity and that they blew it against the net. They've been hearing all this stuff for five months. And I'm sure that definitely takes a toll on you and it weighs on you and if you care, you care about your profession, being told you suck for 150 straight, it's, you know, take a mental toll on you. So I'm sure they're going, I'm sure they're practicing art, but I, I don't know if it's, if it's the toughest training camp anybody's ever seen. I mean, we won't know that. I, I, how, how would you possibly know that? And, and we were, we're not there now. We weren't there then, you know, know we weren't, we weren't there, we weren't there in the, in the early 90s and mid-90s and early odds trying to, you know, look at what training camp looks like. Basketball certainly was different back then. I, I, I don't know, I, but I just, I'm not buying it. I'm not at the lip service and if you're buying it, you know, good for you. I just think you're a sucker, that's all.
- [41:10]
A
Yeah, I mean look, they've got a four game preseason that begins in five days as we sit here right now. And that's at Memphis, at Toronto, home against Cleveland and Toronto. And then you get to the regular season roughly a week later, in fact a week to the day after that fourth game, Wednesday, October 22nd, against those injury riddled 76ers at the Garden. And then you got a two, three game trip, new York, Detroit, New Orleans. Just nice to be talking about real games by the way. I think if, and I'll, I won't even whether as a disservice or a service to them, you decide I'm not even going to include preseason in this. They're going to look however they're going to look in preseason when the regular season starts if they come out of the gate roaring. Right. And I don't even mean 4, 0, I just mean stylistically and the way they're playing and their energy and the stamina and like Jaylen Brown, you know, doing an interview recently talking about how he would really like to see this team play at a faster pace. You know, the Boston Celtics in recent years are not known for their pace. They, they, you know, have played kind of a, more of a slow down offense and he has said that he is coveted, wanting to play at a faster Pace, like some of these teams that have gone on these nice, deep playoff runs. If this team, with its personnel as it exists, comes out of the chute playing fast, playing hard, playing, you know, just looking different. And again, that doesn't always translate to wins immediately, but just, again, you'll know it when you see it, if you know what I'm talking about, and I think you do if you know it when you see it and it's happening. Maybe at that point we look back and say that can. That Sam Cassel wasn't blowing smoke, right? Like, he. He was on to something. Because I do think, you know, when we'd have to dig deeper with Cassel, like, we'd have to talk to Cassel about this. But I think generally speaking, when a coach says, this is the, you know, toughest camp I've ever witnessed there, that that's physic. That's physically. That's not. That's not mental. It's not emotional. It's not psychological. I don't think it's physical. It's. It's, you know, running the hills at Patriots camp as. As we like to reference around here, it's, you know, making sure that you are physically prepared for the grind of the year, more so than maybe some of those other teams out there who had a lighter camp or just wasn't as well conditioned. If the Celtics are that, then, okay, let's go show us something.
- [43:37]
B
Yeah, that's kind of the big thing, the big takeaway. I think everybody's got to mention how they want to play faster, whether it's brown or white or Walsh, who apparently maybe speaking too much to people, and Joe's had to kind of walk some of that back. It does seem like pace is going to be maybe the biggest difference that and in what their shop map looks like. I do think Joe the other day talked about how, like, we shot a lot of threes because we had five guys that could shoot threes and then the floor at all at the same time, because it would be stupid not to take a ton of threes when you got five guys that can shoot 36% or better on the floor at the same time. So, I mean, everybody's kind of openly acknowledged that this team is going to look very different. And I think one of the biggest ways that they can look different is just by speeding the pace up. You had Joe speak about how. And this is why I love Joe, and this is why I always. I believe in Joe so much. And again, I've been the look man you know, this is a big season for Joe. Doesn't go well. It could be, you know, chopping block could be, you know, relatively soon here. But the one thing he did say is like, we all talk about offense and trying to speed people up with offense. And he goes, you're not thinking about the defensive part of it, how you can speed people up defensively and how you can create a. A different tempo defensively and speed it up that way. And he was talking about. He's referencing the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Indiana pictures, respectively, and how they both did that differently. And I was like, see, this is a guy that understands fundamentally the little nuances that really make up a basketball game. And for me, as someone who, again, I love how he sees things and someone who believes in Joe, that's kind of what I wanted to hear of. Like, it's not just going to be an offensive pace thing. Defensively, we have to do things that speed people up and make them make mistakes so we can take advantage and get out and run and score. And so that kind of stuff where it's like, we're not just tweaking offense because everybody goes to offense. I understand why you got to score to win. Totally get it. He's thinking about, you know, know, not just from an offensive perspective, but from a defensive perspective. We need to up our ball pressure so that we can create more turnovers. Because Boston last year was not a great team at generating turnovers. They just weren't. They just. That's that what like, outside of like a. A Derrick White or a Drew Holiday deflection, they weren't really generating a ton of turnovers. They would out rebound teams and get out and transition in that way, but they weren't creating transition points with defense takeaways. So maybe that's something that they try and do. I mean, Peyton Pritchard is the perfect guy for this. Of a guy, like, go hound that guy for literally the entire time he's on the floor. Go hound that guy. I'm sure Derrick White is capable of something similar. We've seen Jalen Brown do that against bigger guys like a Luca. Like, I'm. I'll throw the Luca. Dodge each other as an example. Like, oh, just go. As soon as Luca gets the ball, like past the free throw line on that side of the floor, like, go, go guard him. Or as soon as you cross that pool, go guard him. Get in the shorts. Like, that's the kind of stuff, you know, maybe Josh Minot helps with that. Maybe we'll see With Ugo Gonzalez, whether he can stick, we'll see with Baylor Shireman if he can do something like that. Jordan Walsh is someone I'm expecting a lot out of here this year because defensively I believe he can make an impact and he's athletic enough that, you know, on fast breaks he should be able to get some easy free points. So when you talk about speeding the game up, listen to Joe this week talk about this immediate day and days after. That's the stuff where I'm like, this is why I love Joe Missoula, because he's not just thinking about what the floor and how it'll translate on one end. He's thinking about both ends and how to make, how to connect both of them together. That's awesome.
- [47:17]
A
So there was all of that this week. There was Jalen Brown talking about leadership and obviously what this looks like without Tatum. There was, you know, White on his role. Brad spoke about the losses in the off season, most notably of Al and Cornette and letting them go after making offers to them and all of these things. Was there anything we haven't hit on or I haven't brought up that, you know, you took away from either media day or some of the conversations that have happened since?
- [47:48]
B
There's been some substitution pattern stuff that's coming up that I find very interesting, how they're going to try and be a little bit different. Walsh talked about maybe like wholesale line changes possibly as something that they might be. They might be tinkering with like again.
- [48:02]
A
And then Joe said that's not happening.
- [48:04]
B
Yeah. And then Walsh said it again like today. So today. Today is Friday. So he was like, I might have over said this, but we've kind of been talking about it, kind of been doing it. I wonder if Jordan knows not to talk about this stuff because he's just kind of young and it's his first time. Kind of like being in the spotlight a little bit. That stuff intrigues me. Like I would say what a good third of our content. This Austin's been like, what. What are they going to do differently? And that's a little different. And something that I could get behind the trying to tweak your substitution patterns to be a little bit different. Like again with not having Jason Tatum for a while. There are going to be moments where you don't have a J on the floor and how in past we thought that was so sacrilege to not have a Jason or a Jalen on the floor to this year they're going to have to do it, it's not possible to not do it. So the substitution caught my eye how they, you know, mix guys in, you know, the, the Luca Garzas, the Josh Minots. We've heard from Xavier Tillman senior, how he's lost some weight, looks, knees a little better shape. Like, could he contribute something? Like, I'm not holding my breath on that, but, you know, could he be a part of this big man rotation that we all agree is probably, probably the worst in the league? Could he make them not the worst in the league? You know, there's, there's, there's still a lot of things to iron out, and we'll have way more clarity on that when they play a game. Like another thing that I like, Coffin. I don't know if you saw this. Taylor Jenkins is hanging around. I would love for Taylor Jenkins to hang around. I loved having, I loved having Van Gundy around. I thought that was great. They've been a nice, like, safe haven for older coaches who have been fired. Like, you go back to Pacers coach, ended up with the Lakers for a minute. Defensive guy. Oh, balding. Give me a minute. I can't think of his moment. Vogel. Frank Vogel.
- [49:51]
A
Vogel.
- [49:52]
B
He was hanging around for a while, like, just as a, just to, you know, be a part of something and hang out for a while. I love when they, like, if Mike Malone came by, I'd be thrilled. If Mike Malone came by just to have a chat with Joe Missoula and Brad Stevens. I think that's great stuff. I just, you know, having another brain around. I, I do think that Van Gundy stuff was, was pivotal for them winning and why you might not have seen it. But I do think you around to kind of help educate and guide Joe in a couple different ways. I think it's great that they have guys. Anything stick out to you that we, that I, That I've missed here?
- [50:24]
A
No, I don't think so. Again, really just sort of those bigger picture things that we've brought up. I do want to, you know, I know we're about out of time, but we don't want to go forever. I guess nobody's sitting here with a stopwatch. But I do want to hit in the Al Horford thing. And, you know, we, we've been talking about him for a while. We have known for a while pretty concretely that just economically it wasn't going to work out for him to be back in Boston. And so a lot of the conversation for a little while was, okay, will he return to the Celtics while That was still on the table. Will he retire or will he go somewhere else? And where's the somewhere else? And his free agency open on July 1, you start seeing teams knocked off that list one by one by one in terms of who guys, you know, which teams went out and got guys to fill a similar role at maybe similar dollars. And so after a while it became increasingly clear, ev, that this was between retirement and Golden State and you know, the Kaminga domino. Turns out he's going to be back there after the contractual sort of stalemate they were dealing with. And now Al is, is going there multi year deal and you know, approaching 20 years in the league and you know, I think we could do a whole song and dance about appreciating Al Horford and his time here. And you know, I just don't. It's not that he's not worthy of it. I just don't think we need to do it because we've done it plenty of times. But the fact of the matter is he is moving on. Are you not surprised that he's not coming back to Boston? But are you surprised that he is a warrior now versus retiring? Are you surprised that retirement, as he said, never even entered his mind that he was so full go on playing? Are you disappointed that he is in Golden State simply because it feels like he's going from one situation where he's probably not going to win to another situation where he's almost definitely not going to win, but he's still hanging around and gets the opportunity to start and continue to have a role.
- [52:24]
B
Not mad at Al? No way. This, this time is way different than when he left for Philly, obviously, you know, just trying to latch onto something for one, one final ride here. He's been a tremendous Celtic. He's been a great mentor to the Jays for sure. No other guys on the team. He's been a constant professional the entire time that he was in Boston. Very clear that he openly made a mistake. And I think he like maybe admitted to it in the press conferences. Philly, that if he had known that the Kyrie thing was going to go the way it did, he might not have left the first time. I love the guy. I, I was thrilled that the Boston got a championship for him. I think people that are holding grudges against him leaving, I think are just being a little ridiculous. It's like, dude, understand like he's not definitely not going to win here. Could he win with Steph? It's possible. Are they? Probably not. But you know, give it A shot. I think they have a better shot than Boston does right now. But I'm not mad at it.
- [53:17]
A
I want to look at those odds while you're talking because I'm not so sure I believe that.
- [53:20]
B
And if they do, might say one thing, but my, my heart says another thing.
- [53:24]
A
If they do, it is marginal. Let me. I'll. I'll.
- [53:28]
B
So again, yeah, I mean, the west is a beast.
- [53:29]
A
Boston is 12 to 1 in the east. Just.
- [53:32]
B
Yeah.
- [53:33]
A
Golden State in The west is 171 1. That's 17 to 1 after Oklahoma City, Denver, L.A. lA Lakers, Minnesota, Houston, LA Clippers. So, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. So Golden State is a play in tournament team in the odds in the eyes of the odds makers. And if you want to, because I think this would be fair, compare apples to apples versus conference to conference and just look at championship Bonds. Not that conferences don't come into play in that conversation. Then you have in order. Thunder, Cavs, Nuggets, Knicks, Lakers, Wolves, Rockets, Magic, Clippers, Warriors, Hawks, Celtics. So Warriors 27:1, Celtics 33 to 1.
- [54:27]
B
Feels about right. I mean, I, I think. I just think they're. They're better. And I think having Steph is the ultimate, just like ace in the hole. I mean, look, I'll never doubt Steph until you eliminate him. Like just the stuff that he did against Boston a couple years ago in the Finals. I know it was a couple years ago. I still believe that guy's still in there somewhere. Jimmy Butler, maybe hanging around could be beneficial for them. Having Draymond getting. They got Gary Payton the second back, having Al Horford there. I think they're, I mean, it's, it's possible it's going to be much harder in a Western Conference that's way deeper. But, you know, I don't think anybody besides Oklahoma City or Denver come out of that conference. But, you know, if you get a couple injuries, is it possible? Absolutely. Absolutely. But I think people that are holding a grudge against Al Horford, I think, are just being a little ridiculous. The guy's clearly at the end of the, of his. At the time here. Still got a little bit left. If Boston was in a position to compete for a championship, I do think they would have looked at him staying here, but they're not. And I. And this was probably decided before they figured out what the hell Tatum looked like, which is fine. Nothing wrong with that. And it's not like Al Horford is going to stick around much longer anyway. Right. He's going to retire shortly, so you might as well start it now and start building for the next Celtics, you know, contender. And it won't feature Al Horford. They'll be sacked. Because Al's been around for a long time. I know he took a little bit of a break, but you go back to that summer when the Celtics signed him. I was so giddy they signed him.
- [55:55]
A
To date it was the biggest name Celtics free agent ever. Certainly contractually, you know, and I know for many years they didn't have the cap space to go out and sign a guy that, of that caliber or of that magnitude financially, but that was the guy. And then it was overtaken by Gordon Hayward obviously in his contract. But yeah, Al Horford changed things in many ways around here with just sort of the outsider viewpoint of whether or not Boston could be a destination.
- [56:29]
B
Yeah. And clearly since he's signed here, they've been done nothing but win. So that's also kind of a big thing.
- [56:34]
A
Oh, he's had an impact. Yeah. There's, you know, I, I look, we remember the whole, and we've mocked it on this show in, in years past. We remember the whole like average owl thing versus, you know, and I would pull it back the other way and do the all around owl thing and talk about like he's not this. Al Horford was never a guy that was going to come in here and average 20 and 10 because he wasn't that guy in Atlanta. Like that's, that's not where that wasn't primal Horford. It certainly wasn't going to be post primal Horford. But he is somebody that again, to use the phrase impacts winnings at winning. He is a leader. He has a locker room presence. He is certainly a guy out there on the floor. He transformed his game, you know, as, not just as a Celtic but as the, excuse me, the, this era of basketball has obviously invited the, the volume of the three point shot for, for bigs and stretch fours and fives and all of that stuff. He, you know, he wasn't a three point shooter of, of any regularity or threat during his time with Atlanta and became that guy with Boston. I mean, just to you know, let people know for, for anyone that doesn't remember, and I'm sure anyone who's listening to this show does, but for the sake of mentioning it, to pull up the raw numbers on Al Horford's three, three point shooting, just pulling it up on basketball reference here. So during his time with Atlanta, here were the attempts from 3 per year or by year 51 1. These are G seasons that he played like 80 games. 41 6, 11 36. And then this final year with Atlanta, this is when it started to change. 256 when he shot 34 from three. He was an all star. He obviously got that contract defensive player of the year vote. I mean, he was 13th, but he got votes. Then he goes to the Celtics. Whereas recently as last year, at 38 years old, this dude shot 314, three pointers, 325 a couple years ago when he shot 45 from 3 EV and in his career has a 3738 average. So again, I just, you know, look, Al Horford is a Hall of Famer. He is a pro basketball hall of Famer. Anyone that hears this and disagrees, you're just wrong. I mean, I, I could make the case, but I'd rather just tell you you're wrong and wait and see and you will be proven wrong in however many years it takes until that, you know, comes calling. Because obviously he's still playing. This guy has won multiple championships in college. He's won a championship in the NBA. He's a defensive all team, you know, all, all defensive team player. Back as a Celtic, by the way, in 2017, 18. He was all rookie team way back when. He's all NBA team in 2010, 2011 with Atlanta. Five time all star. Again, hall of Famer because it is the pro Basketball hall of Fame, not the NBA hall of Fame or it's the Basketball hall of Fame, not even the pro basketball because again, incorporates college. It is the Basketball hall of Fame. College counts, international counts, all that stuff. We had the conversation on this show about how Dino Raja is in the hall of Fame, about how Dennis Schroeder could be a Hall of Famer. I promise you, Al Horford is a Hall of Famer. It's going to happen.
- [60:13]
B
Yeah. There's number 42.
- [60:15]
A
Does number 42 belong in the rafters, though? What's that?
- [60:21]
B
We've had this conversation.
- [60:22]
A
I know, so, so for anybody new, let's, let's not have like, we've had it in depth. Let's not do that again. But just a quick 30 second, 60 second opinion on it. Is Al Horford's 42 1. Do you believe it should be in the rafters? Because that's one side of it. The other side of is it will be. Will it be in the rafters. So your opinion versus reality.
- [60:47]
B
I think there are guys that are up there that have similar profiles, histories, profiles to Al Horv that are up there, So I think he'll end up up there. I do think that Boston has had this moment of, like, there's just too many numbers up there now. They might have to be a little more, like, stingy with it, so. But I do want to point out, like, he did make a ginormous impact in this team. Like, I love. I can't wait to watch what happens now after he's gone. And again, this is. Now that he's going to be probably gone forever here what the legacy of Al Horford is, like. Because there's the KG thing of, like, KG obviously went up for several reasons, but one of the reasons why KG went up there is because he literally changed the entire culture of the Celtics. You know, when he came to Boston, that had clearly stayed there even after he left. So the KG stuff, like, even still today, like, the. The. The screams of KG still echo through the hallways of TD Garden. I want to know what the legacy of Al Horford is. You know, is he a guy that once he retires, is he around a little bit? Does he come around? Does he mentor some people, even though he's not involved anymore? Like, how much is he still going to be hanging around? Because, like, a lot of teams can claim Al Horford. I think Boston probably has the best claim to Al, even though he spent a lot of time in Atlanta. I think his most impactful years are with the Boston Celtics. So I think, you know, if he's gonna have, like, the bust go up, what jersey does he wears, you know, all that stuff. I think he. I think he belongs in the Celtic jersey because of the biggest impact. But it'll be about after he's gone, too. What does that look like? You know, does he. This is the impact that Al Warford had when he was here. Linger on. And I think it's easy to make the connection because Jason Tatum freaking loves Al Horford. And he talks about it all the time, about how much Al meant to him as a mentor when he was a rookie in the league and how much Al helped him understand what he needed to do at 20, 19, 21 years old to make sure he can play till he's 37, 38, 39. You know what I mean?
- [62:52]
A
No, I think it makes sense. I was just looking at. See this quote from Al Horford, by the way, on. On his first day at training camp with the Warriors, Steve Kerr shouted at me, saying to pass it to Curry. I didn't know which Curry, so I passed it to Seth Curry, and he missed the three.
- [63:10]
B
Well, he did pass it to Curry. He did.
- [63:12]
A
He passed it to Curry. Get ready to, to impact winning there as well.
- [63:20]
B
Sir.
- [63:21]
A
Yeah, look, Al Horford's 42. I, I don't know. I mean, I, I wouldn't put it up there personally. Whether or not it goes up there. I, I don't, I could see Wick wanting it up there. I don't know if his voice is going to be heard on that matter under the Chisholm ownership now. But I. To your point, I just think you could look at some comps that are up there and say that Al Horford belongs and that would be fine. I'm not one of those like our run out of numbers. How do you put another. I like, I don't care enough. I just don't care enough. I think there are some that are no brainers. Like Pierce was going up there. I thought Garnett's did belong up there. I did not think Ray Allen's belongs up there. And I don't think that door is closed yet, by the way. I think that's possible. I think Mark is smart as possible one day. I think Rajan Rondo is possible one day. Tatum and Brown absolutely should be up there and like, I, I don't really have much doubt that they would lock that in. Yeah, you know, Tatum especially, but Brown, I, I think is, is pretty strong.
- [64:26]
B
Seven's going up probably.
- [64:27]
A
And then on top of that, like Danny Ainge is going to be honored up there one day. Now, whether that's a 44, whether it's the name Ange, like Loski, that sort of thing, you know, because obviously a lot of what he contrib in, in a, you know, a builder role, a GM role versus what he did on the floor, even though that, you know, led to championships as well. So he's going to be up there like, I mean, how many did we just name? That's a handful of dudes. A handful of numbers. Slash names that are, are going to someday find their way up into the rafters, you know, so it's, you're not going to run out of numbers that like, no time soon you may start to get some weird ones out on the floor, but you're not going to run out of any. I mean, what number is. You know, because I was surfing Twitter a second ago. Oh. I was trying to remember what if, if Ugo, Ugo Gonzalez had a weird number. It's 28. That's not that weird. I, I didn't know if he was like 72 or some crazy number. But yeah, man, I don't know. I. Nothing I guess really surprises me. But we'll see.
- [65:36]
B
Yeah, I mean, look, we could have this conversation a million times. Me now and when it actually happened. So. But I, I, I should it go up? I could be, I could have that conversation. Will it go up? I think, considering what was happened, I think it's, I think it's likely. But, you know, we'll see.
- [65:52]
A
Well, he will be honored one day in one form or another, there's no doubt about it. And forever celebrated a Boston Celtic. But I think that's pretty good for time here. Media day reflections. And again, preseason games are right around the corner, less than a week away. Looking forward to be able to react to that because that's just a little bit different than summer league, isn't it? So for Evan Valenti, I am Adam Kaufman. For our good partners over at both prize picks and game time and we remind you, check out the CLNS YouTube page, specifically the Celtics all access page for great Celtics content across the board, including, we hope you believe this show Celtics beat rate Review. Subscribe if you like the audio, wherever you find the audio. And as far as the video, yes, we do read what's in the comments section. Whether you want to call me long winded and say I talk too much or you want to comment on the way that Ev looks or any of these things, we're here for it. We appreciate you. Thanks for hanging out, Ev. Let's do it again next week, huh?