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- [00:02]
Adam Kaufman
This episode is brought to you by Amazon Prime.
- [00:04]
Evan Valenti
Black Friday Game Day on Prime is.
- [00:06]
Adam Kaufman
An epic day of live sports.
- [00:08]
Evan Valenti
It all starts at 9am Eastern with a capital one skins game.
- [00:11]
Adam Kaufman
Then Black Friday football returns when the.
- [00:14]
Evan Valenti
Bears take on the Eagles at 3pm and it culminates with the final night.
- [00:18]
Adam Kaufman
Of Emirates NBA Cub group play with.
- [00:20]
Evan Valenti
Bucks Knicks at 7pm and Mavs Lakers.
- [00:22]
Adam Kaufman
At 10pm Black Friday game day only on Prime.
- [00:28]
Evan Valenti
Extra value meals are back. That means 10 tender juicy McNuggets and medium fries and a drink are just $8 only at McDonald's for a limited time only. Prices and participation may vary. Prices may be higher in Hawaii, Alaska and California and for delivery.
- [00:43]
Adam Kaufman
This episode is brought to you by State Farm. Listening to this podcast Smart move. Being financially savvy Smart move. Another smart move having State Farm help you create a competitive price when you choose to bundle home bundling. Just another way to save with a personal price plan. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state. Coverage options are selected by the customer. Availability, amount of discounts and savings and.
- [01:10]
Evan Valenti
Eligibility vary by state.
- [01:13]
Adam Kaufman
Today's Friday, November 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 652 features U.S. yeah, and I'm.
- [01:28]
Evan Valenti
Evan Valenti, the other guy. The U.S. part of the U.S. today's show is powered by Prize Picks. Prize Picks is the official daily fantasy partner of CLMS Media. Download the app today, use the promo code CLNS and get $50 in lineups when you play five times.
- [01:52]
Adam Kaufman
Hey everyone. Welcome in new Celtics Beat as we out November. I know as we sit here there are a couple days left in the month, but this is the final show before we get to December and then we're really into the winter, baby. I know what you're thinking. Just the two of you. Really. Evan Valenti, Adam Kaufman.
- [02:10]
Evan Valenti
That's it?
- [02:11]
Adam Kaufman
No. Guess it's really this simple. It's the holiday season. Thanksgiving as we sit here was yesterday. We just didn't feel like bugging people. Enjoy your holiday. Enjoy your 22 voices. It's more than enough. We'll have you covered. Not to worry. And if you do miss the guests, we don't blame you. We love having the guests too. We will return with our usual array of experts come the next show. But for today ev it is the two of us weighing in on the Celtics best win of the season. Not even close obviously after taking down the Detroit Pistons knocking out a 13 game winning streak that the Pistons had had. If I remember hearing this correct, I don't really remember it actually happening. My brain sucks for this type of stuff. But I remember reading that the Celtics were the team that had a long winning streak and ultimately, well, I don't even know if they had a long winning streak actually. I take that part back. But the Pistons a couple years ago when they were, you know, the, the runts of the NBA and had like 14 straight losses, it was the Celtics who were on the other side when they finally ended their streak. So whereas the Celtics couldn't do the job a couple years ago and what for them was probably a meaningless game, that odds are we came on this show chastising them for losing that one. Now we celebrate the Celtics for ending the 13 game run for the best team at least record wise in the Eastern Conference right now, the Pistons. But we'll get into that. We'll look at ahead to what is a very difficult schedule for Boston. A team though that has won five out of six as we talk today and that is just a fun thing to get into. Sees back at it over the weekend, Saturday, tomorrow again as we do this in real time. I don't know when you out there are going to listen. Hopefully everybody had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Happy, healthy, friends, food, family, football. All the F words. Ev, I saw on Instagram you were out there working the bird. How was your holiday?
- [04:04]
Evan Valenti
It's tough because you know, you got to do split, you know, half with my family, half with my girlfriend's family. And so I, I tried to do my best pace yourself sort of like eating job that I've done so far. And like I was, I was lucky that my parents were kind of in on it too. So they just only did appetizers when I went to their house for four hours. And so then I could kind of keep, you know, I could have a, like a snack or two and then like go back watch football, go back up and they're like shrimp cocktail. And then the big meal was at her folks place and, and they, they cook way too much food. It's just ridiculous. I help with stuff that's just my nature. But I didn't actually cook anything start to finish yesterday, which was a nice break for me because I normally do a ton of stuff.
- [04:47]
Adam Kaufman
Do you.
- [04:47]
Evan Valenti
You look like a cooker coffin. You do a lot of the cooking in the house.
- [04:50]
Adam Kaufman
There's no part of you that believes that. And I feel I. No, not, not. No, no.
- [04:56]
Evan Valenti
I.
- [04:57]
Adam Kaufman
There's there's no dancing around it. There's no pretending. I like the extent I so, like.
- [05:02]
Evan Valenti
What. What do you do? What is your job? I will make.
- [05:06]
Adam Kaufman
I'm. I'm a. I'm a great cleaner upper. Not so much a cooker, but I. I'll. I'll clean up like you read about. I enjoy doing it. I find it somewhat therapeutic. Oh, yeah.
- [05:16]
Evan Valenti
I'll.
- [05:16]
Adam Kaufman
I'll help set the table and get ready and. And, you know. Hey, you need something? Yeah, over here. You want me to help people with the drinks? I got the drinks. Yeah, no problem. When it comes to actually preparing them, preparing the meal, it's not my thing. I. I just. And it's. I. I consider that a service, honestly. I mean, you don't. You don't want to eat my food. Trust me, I am doing you a favor. Let the professionals handle it. And by professionals, I mean like my wife and her parents, who are far. I sometimes, not always in any walk of life. I think many of us are a product of what we grew up with. Right. My parents don't cook. Not good at it. And that did not fall far from the tree. I guess I could have, you know, broken the mold. I could have broken the mold. I could have been. I could have set an example, but I. I guess I didn't. I didn't have the lust for it. And so, yeah, I'm. I'm. I'm a helper.
- [06:10]
Evan Valenti
Well, you got disappointment because you're just following in the same footsteps as your family. It's like if they were cooking a lot and you didn't, you'd be a disappointment. I mean, you are for several other reasons, but not for the cooking, truly.
- [06:19]
Adam Kaufman
Yeah.
- [06:21]
Evan Valenti
Well, happy Thanksgiving to you, Adam, your family, everybody listening and watching as a part of the CLNS media network. Of course you can catch us. Celtics All Access channel on clsme. There's a bunch of stuff on stealing US Media. You get a lot of content. Ours Celtics all access channel is a part of CNS Media. Follow us there. You can download the podcast on itunes, on Spotify, wherever your podcasts. But we're thankful for all of our listeners, our viewers, our commenters. We love all of you. Thank you so much.
- [06:50]
Adam Kaufman
Legitimately, I go looking at the YouTube feed just to check out what people are saying in the comment section. And again, agree with us. Disagree with us. Be kind, compliment, chastise, criticize, I don't care. I mean, keep it above board. Don't be inappropriate. But by all means, you've got your Opinions out there and we enjoy reading them. So if you agree with us, cool. If you disagree with us, call us out. That's great. Maybe we'll pick some favorites, do a little bit of a mailbag show next time around or something like that. Get your thoughts. But by all means weigh in. We love to see it. All right, let's talk about what we've had going on over the last couple of weeks. Have bigger picture. The Celtics have won five of six. They blow doors against the Grizzlies as they should have. Now granted that team didn't have John Morant. It was playing, you know, short. Whatever, I'm not, doesn't matter. You win by like 40 points. Took down the Clippers, honestly should have been an easier game than it was, but nevertheless that was a team that was really reeling at the time. And you escape with a win there at home, you split with Brooklyn. Really, we should be talking about a six game winning streak right now. That is a terrible team. One of the worst in the NBA. Double digit favorites in both. You win on the road, you lose. The NBA cup game at home is like a 15 point favorite. Fell in that game by 8 points. Cost me some money. I'm still not happy about it. But you bounce back. Beat Orlando, a team that again was down three of his top five scorers. There was no Palo Banchero, no Jalen Suggs, no Wendell Carter Jr Celtics go out, they win by nine. High scoring output of the year with the 138 points. And again the most impressive win of the year, bar none, is what they just did against the Pistons, a team that did have its guys. You had your guys obviously absent Jason Tatum and it was a real fight to the finish competitive game. Cade Cunningham, you know he's not going to win it, but he's in the MVP conversation on the other side. Another solid game out of him. Jalen Brown, balanced attack, led the team basically across the board. Points, rebounds, assists. He was the seas leader in all of it. You got good contributions whether it was Peyton Pritchard obviously in the second half in particular by Derrick White. Celtics, given the injuries, like Nimi Cada unavailable, you know, for the short term anyway. And the Celtics over these last couple of games have altered the strategy looking at at a smaller lineup across the board. I know they did call up Amari Williams from Maine and he got some run and actually performed pretty well all things considered. He was a minus player, minus 10 in his minutes. But I think there were some encouraging things out there, especially for a guy that entered the game with I think seven NBA minutes total, you know, coming into that one. So, you know, put him in a big spot with guys like Duran on the other side and, and Stewart on the other side and some real legitimate bigs. But to step up the way that he did, especially with a guy like Garza struggling as he was, and, and no Keda and, and to, just to, to be, to emerge victorious in this game, Ev, I, I, I'm, I'm bouncing around it, but it, it to me was an incredibly impressive victory and in some ways a perfect example these last few games of what this Celtics team is at least without Jason Tatum. Meaning you're going to go out, you're going to win some games that you probably shouldn't, you're going to play even with a lot of teams that are on your level, both conferences, and you're going to frustratingly lose some games that you definitely shouldn't, like that one against the Brooklyn Nets and ultimately be a team that hovers around.500 and probably goes just above that, you know, a, a 40 to 45 win team or so. If this whole season played out with this roster, I don't think it will. I still believe Jason Tatum returns and then it changes the whole complexion of everything. But as they exist right now, I think this is kind of what they are. And, and I guess for better or worse, I'm coming around to that.
- [10:44]
Evan Valenti
Well, they try hard. They at least, you know, put effort out there. And what you saw Wednesday night with the Pistons game is, oh, this is what happens when Derrick White hit shots. I mean, it's, I don't mean to make it that simple or that generic, but you know, in the games where your second best player struggles to score, you're going to struggle to win. And when he finds, when water finds its level and considering how bad he's been, he was just white hot in the second half, especially three point range. I mean, some of the stuff that he was doing, pulling up with guys in his face from 28ft, I mean that's pretty high level stuff. And he was able to keep the Celtics in the game. You know, if, if he's not hitting shots, they're, I mean they probably get blown up by 15 points. And with Cade Cunningham just roasting everybody on the other end, like they needed a lot from Derrick White that night and he contributed. So that's, that's the thing for me that you take away, it's like, oh, so this team's actually pretty good when their second best player Hit shots like, that's, that's, that's. It's not really rocket science. And the Southern have been up and down all season because they haven't gotten, you know, I would call consistent contributions from guys like Derrick White. And unless now, I think he's been more steady, more stable. Craig Payton, Pritchard was like that to start the year as well. And so you get those two guys kind of coming around a little bit. Hauser, you know, again, one of the best shooters. And I don't mean to sound hyperbolic here, but in terms of start a career, the guy's basically been a 42, three point shooter as soon as he walked on a basketball floor. That's pretty good. So if you have guys like that that aren't shooting well, of course you're not going to win a lot of games. You're going to have to win on the margins. And we know the Celtics are not going to win on the rebounding margin. So again, you go back to just scoring points. How easy this can be when your team's actually shooting the ball. Well, boss could hang around. I mean, look at the Eastern Conference, Adam, a team that's 15 and two, okay, went into a Celtics. It's not like TD Garden is an easy place to play. The crowd was really into it. And Jaylen Brown spoke to that after the game, how much they fed off the crowd. But you're a team that's 15 and two. You're playing a team that's down their best score, down their best center, and a team that could easily say, yeah, we don't really, you know, we don't have it tonight. A team that went without a center to end the game, they, they played five guys that are six, nine and shorter. Right. Basically, and they won. So what it tells you me is like, look, if Boston can find a way to kind of like stay afloat and keep, hang around and play hard and, and not get decimated by injuries when Tatum comes back. I know it might sound a little homerish, but like, I don't know, maybe there is, maybe there's a road map here because Derrick White will slot down, Jalen Brown will slot down, and everything might fall into place.
- [13:22]
Adam Kaufman
I don't know.
- [13:23]
Evan Valenti
I just, to me, I get done with that game and I'm like, yeah, that's the, that's the Celtic team that I remember, you know, falling in love with the past couple of years. Team that shot a ton of three, sure, but was one of the best. I mean, 20, 24, the title year One of the best offensive teams I've ever seen. Flat out.
- [13:39]
Adam Kaufman
I think it's fair. I think the, the conference is obviously jumbled to your point. You know, you can look at the powerhouses in the west, most especially OKC Thunder, you know, on a, a record pace. And now getting Jaylen Williams back tonight. Incredible what that team has been able to do without its second best player in sga. You know, we'll have it on our text thread. We go back and forth about some of the numbers and some of the stats, the advanced metrics. I mean, this dude is doing things that, you know, not even Michael Jordan did in, in his.
- [14:07]
Evan Valenti
The.
- [14:07]
Adam Kaufman
The prime of his career. So it's, you know, we'll see small sample size in the bigger picture if it maintains over the course of a year. Incredible. And obviously Nicole Jokic, and I'm shocked, admittedly, by what the Lakers are doing. I would not have seen this team at 13 and 4 as we sit here right now. But the Eastern Conference, you know, Detroit, a lot of people were high on Detroit coming into the year, and I don't think anyone was 15 and three high on them, but a lot of people were high on the Pistons. To me, they were, you know, four or five seed. I think I had them at, in, in the East. Thinking about, like most people, Cleveland, New York, Orlando, it's a mess. Like, Toronto is off to a 14 and five start. Miami, who I didn't think would be a playoff team, I figured, like play in tournament, but not part of the top eight. This team is 13 and 6. Knicks and Cavs, they're going to get better. The Hawks, I think, are going to get better. Orlando has started to turn a corner, and I think that team is going to continue to do so. Milwaukee is a little further down than I thought we'd be looking at. You know, I know maybe I'm unique to this. I think there were a lot of people that were pretty low on the Bucks. I thought that Giannis would be enough to carry them to respectability. And 8 and 11 at the moment, losers of six in a row. Whether that's a rut or a sign of things to come, we'll find out. Philadelphia, Chicago, you know, you, Orlando, Atlanta, like you're all kind of in the same vicinity at the moment. So it's the, the watching. We're. We're sitting here right now, not quite, but basically a quarter of the way through the year and watching kind of the rise and fall of some of these teams, I think is going to be really Interesting. But to your point, other than Detroit, and you can decide out there objectively if you're buying on this being real, like if, if this is who and what the Pistons actually are, and if you buy, great. But if you're skeptical, and I'm still a little skeptical, not as to whether this team can contend in the Eastern Conference, but you know, 15 and three is 15 and three. I don't look at the Pistons and I think 15 and three and obviously a 13 game winning streak is going to, you know, lift that up quite a bit. But if you think that water is going to find a level with some of these teams one way or the other, then yeah, I mean, it's, it does sound homerish, admittedly, and you can still have all those same depths questions about the Celtics. But if Tatum comes back in February, let's say February or, or the beginning of March and actually looks somewhat like himself, and maybe by early April he does look like himself. And again, a lot of ifs here obviously, but sure, the Celtics are, are at that point right there in the mix in the east to win that conference. I'm not talking about a title, but if you can get there, if you get to the NBA Finals, you're in the conversation automatically. That's just how it works.
- [17:02]
Evan Valenti
Yeah, for me it's, it's a, you know what this team is and you know what, you know what they can do, you know what they can't do. Like, you know this team's not going to rebound. Well, we've been talking about that for months. Yeah, right. They can control what they can control. They don't turn the ball over a ton, so they're going to be in games that way. They force more turnovers than they have in the past. So they're going to be hanging around that way. And if they could just shoot the three relatively well enough between Jalen Pritchard, White Houser and Simons, like they're gonna, they're gonna have a shot. Like, I'm not expecting Josh Minot or Jordan Walsh to hit a bunch of threes. I am expecting to do other things, but like there's, we know this team has an identity at least, but there are. And there are teams around that don't. I mean, obviously you look at the Eastern Conference, you know the Knicks are always going to scare you because of the way they can control the glass. You look at a team like the Cavaliers, now, I know Boston beat them, but you know that team, when they get Garland back, they have bigs between Jared Allen, Evan, Mobile, like that's a tough thing for them to play, etc. Etc. It's just to me again, beating the Pistons is, is, you know, it's a, it's a, it's a great outcome. It's one game out of 82. I get that. It's also something you should celebrate a little bit. Like that was, that's a pretty impressive win, especially considering your deficiencies. You didn't have, you didn't have ne who's been one of the best defensive centers in the league this year. You don't have Jason Tatum and you're playing guys like Jordan Walsh, who's really found a really nice home for himself right now in the starting lineup. He's done great there. Josh Minot, Baylor, Shireman getting more run again. They closed the game with Pritchard, White, Brown, Walsh and Shireman. Like I didn't have that in my bingo card. The Celtics would close a game against the top team in the conference with those five guys and win the game. Didn't see that happening. Like they're, they have an identity and at least they know what they can do, what they can't do. And so when you, you're starting to kind of look at this thing from the 30, 000 foot view, which is what we do, what are you learning? Well, you're learning one what we talked about in the beginning of the season. Regardless of what happens this season, you need to figure out if you have guys or if you don't. And we're finding out that out of the, the Shiremans, the Walshes, the Ugos, the Mike, like there's at least some guys here that can play. Like they can really contribute. Whether it's on this team or some other team they can play. They can contribute. Again, they're not going to sign all these guys to long term contracts. I'd be surprised if they did. But one of them might stick long term and one of them might help you get somebody else that's going to be in the Celtics, you know, locker room for long term. Like it's, these are all good things and yeah, and, and with all that being said, they're 10 and 8. It's not like they're the Memphis Grizzlies who are sleepwalking to maybe or they're the Washington Wizards who are just, I mean Alexar has been great. I'm not saying he hasn't, but like that team is a disaster. They're not, they're not the Nets, they're, they're there's at least some respect in that locker room. There's some pride in the locker room. And so again I know it hasn't been the most fun start of the year but 10 and 8 here we are. Like I'm thrilled with what I've seen.
- [20:05]
Adam Kaufman
So far considering you mentioned Walsh and and like you said, it's the impetus of this season is is learning more about the depth of your roster and finding out which of these guys are pieces going forward. Maybe that's the head coach in Maine offering his opinion on Amari Williams.
- [20:21]
Evan Valenti
Hard to say.
- [20:22]
Adam Kaufman
But you look at, you know, up and down this thing, obviously you have, you know, we, we know like you said, Brown, White, Pritchard, Hauser, even Hauser I view as more as of adept piece but we know who and what he is. Keda I'll include him in the mix as well. Garza I don't think he's part of the plan, you know, but, but we'll see. In terms of a depth guy, obviously he's not your starting center. He's not even ideally your number two center. But whether or not he has a spot on this team, whether he could be supplanted by Amari Williams, hell it felt like it happened in one game. We'll find out. Clearly Boucher is not part of the plan. Tillman is not part of the plan. These guys are just not even playing at this point when you could really use guys you think with their skill sets. And Joe, he just doesn't see it. Ugo, Shireman, all of that. I. Simons, you know there are all sorts of trade reports out there involving Simons and and what the Celtics would like to do with him. So we know he is not viewed as part of the plan as well and the inconsistency there in his game also like it's, it's sad, it's unfortunate. Maybe this is a little bit of a credit to Jaylen Brown. At the same time this guy is going out and he's giving it to you every single night. He's I mean with rare exception he is delivering upon the number one promise on a average to good team. We'll see if it has the chance to be good. But right now an average team he is a bonafide number one on a team of that level and he's playing himself into an all NBA conversation obviously all star. You know I'm not going to put him anywhere near mvp. Part of that is obviously the Celtics and who they are and what they are as a team right now but still he's going out there and he is putting up numbers. Not the most efficient performances. You know, we saw him go 12 of 32 against the Pistons for 33 points. That's, you know, that is not efficient. But nevertheless, it's what he did. But you know, after him, like, it's just, it's unfortunate. This is where I was going with the sad part. It's unfortunate that you know, that going into definitely a game like this, maybe any game, that you have to have minimum 25 and often 30 plus points out of Brown to even be competitive. And from there, can you get 15 to 20 points out of two of three guys. Those being White, Pritchard, Simons. You have to have it from two out of the three you, you have to. And Simons is not regularly giving that to you. Obviously White, not either. You know, really, Pritchard has been sort of the, the next most consistent after Brown in that group of players. But Jordan Walsh, and I know I'm throwing a lot out right here, but I'm just sort of thinking about a lot of this at the same time. When he fills out the box score. He's a high energy guy, tenacious, aggressive, all of these things. How many teams in the NBA, and I don't want you to name them, but just ballparking it, how many teams in the NBA do you think he starts for?
- [23:15]
Evan Valenti
Good question. You know, top of my head, at least a handful. Five, six, seven, somewhere in there.
- [23:22]
Adam Kaufman
So what does that say? What does that like it doesn't that really say something about exactly where the Celtics are right now as well? Like if Jordan Walsh starts on your Boston Celtics, but he would only probably start on maybe less than 10 anyway teams across the rest of the NBA, good or bad. I don't want to turn this into an anti wash thing. He's played very well, but I think it is very representative of the roster construction flaws of this team.
- [23:50]
Evan Valenti
Well, it's also like he's also 21 years old. It's not like he's been around for a while. He's super young.
- [23:56]
Adam Kaufman
Absolutely.
- [23:57]
Evan Valenti
You know, it's not like he's got a lot of NBA run. I mean, I get what your point is. It's like how far. What is this team really doing if they're starting Jordan Walsh? But at the same time, it's not like he hasn't gotten that opportunity and kind of run with it either. Right. It's, you know.
- [24:12]
Adam Kaufman
I mean, he was gifted. It maybe. I don't even know if he earned it. But he was gifted it and he's now he's made the most of it.
- [24:17]
Evan Valenti
He earned more minutes. And Joe, given the roster construction, said, you know, what effort. Let's see what this. Let's see what this looks like. And to his credit, has not looked back. And, you know, you, You. I've always been intrigued by the idea of Jordan Walsh, of a guy that, again, super long arms, great defensive ability, interesting offensively in terms of, like, he has a little bit of, you know, flow to him. He's got a little bit of. There's. There's a little creation in there. You know, he can play without the ball, like all this stuff, but he just needed time and needed minutes and inconsistent minutes. And you can't get that with a team like Boston who's trying to compete for the title when you have Drew Holiday and Chris Apps, Porzingis and the Jays and. And Derrick White, like, there's just. There's not room for you to be experimental. But now that you do have the time, you're seeing what he could possibly do again. I don't think Derrick White's gonna end up being a starter for a while, but he. He can show you that he can contribute. I mean, look at the guys he's guarding. I mean, he's guarding, you know, Cade Cunningham and Tyrese Maxey and Jaren Jackson Jr. James Harden. Like, it's not like he's. He's. He's. He's not going out there guarding you and me. He's guarding some of the best offensive players in the league this year, and Jaren Jackson Jr. So there's. It's not like it's. There are different ways to evaluate what he's giving you. I can tell you this. A lot of teams could use a guy that could go out and defend different types of body types like that and be a pain in the ass and. And guard 94ft. Like, with the way that the NBA is currently going, where all these teams are going to start using 10, 11, 12 guys because the pace is a little bit higher and guys are getting guarded to full court more than ever. I mean, not more than ever, but more since like the 1970s, 1980s, having a guy that can do that consistently and have, like, kind of run like an Energizer Bunny battery, like, that's important. Like, his skill set is becoming more important. Or maybe Jordan Walsh is focusing more on a skill set, that feeling more important in today's NBA. So, you know, despite the fact that he's a starter or not, like you at least found a guy that can play. Whether, you know, in last year at this time, Adam, we couldn't say that. You couldn't say that Jordan Walsh was anything we didn't know. He had some fun highlights in summer league and you get every, an update every once in a while from our guy Glashin who was doing play by play for the main Celtics. Yeah, other than that, like you didn't know. He had no idea. Now you're getting concrete evidence this guy can play again. Whether it's for Boston or somebody else. We'll find out. Hope it's for Boston because that's why you draft him. You hope that he can turn into something. But he is something and, and you know, I'm, I am excited to figure out what that something is between him and Minot. They're just kind of like, just guys that are pests. They're pain in the asses and the more tends tends to like we learned this with Marcus Smart. The more guys that you have that are kind of like that, the more fun it is and the better your team ultimately performs, you know, in the end of the day.
- [27:08]
Adam Kaufman
Let's take a quick break, tell you about our good friends over at Prize Picks. This episode is brought to you by Prize Picks. It is the holiday season, the best time of the year for sports, bowl games, basketball matchups, playoff pushes. It's all happening at once. And while you and I are out here making decisions every day, what gifts to buy, what to eat, which game to watch, on and on, there is only one place where it just feels good to be. Right? Prize Picks. Prize Picks is the best place to get real money sports action. Join over 10 million users and sign up today. Prize Picks invented the Flex Play, which means ev, you can still cash out if your lineup isn't perfect.
- [27:49]
Evan Valenti
That's my specialty. That is quite literally my specialty. Guess what happened last week off Flex Play. Saved my ass again. Unbelievable. I, I, you know, my lineup, two thirds of it really great. We hit the Drake May part of my lineup. Drake May's longest completion today, more than 36 and a half yards. And Jackson, Smith and Jigba continues to deliver not only for the Seattle Seahawks and that fan base, but for my wallet too. So I want to shout out JSN Flex Play Friday, baby. We got another one ready to go for you for this week. And we're going to start with the Arizona Cardinals and Trey McBride, who's been an absolute monster this year against Tampa Bay Bucks. I'm going Trey McBride more than 68 and a half receiving yards. Just to tell you folks, Jacoby present is only thrown it to Trey McBride and Michael Wilson and that's it. That's it.
- [28:52]
Adam Kaufman
He's got a great score with both of them with Marvin Harrison Jr. Too, but obviously he's been out the last couple of weeks. Point is, this team, who I do think as dogs are going to win outright, I just want to mix that in. This team is just better with Jacobe Brissette than it is with Kyler Murray. And and I don't think Trey McBride would disagree.
- [29:10]
Evan Valenti
Trust me, Trey McBride would agree with all of it because his numbers have gone through the roof. Next part of our lineup. Coffin, Malik Washington of your D.O. miami Dolphins.
- [29:22]
Adam Kaufman
Mine?
- [29:23]
Evan Valenti
Yeah. No, I don't know where I was going with that, but Malik Washington against the aints, more than two and a half receptions. I actually think Malik Washington is pretty good and I think that the Dolphins have a good idea of how to use him. And I think that's an easy. Like he's got to catch three, three passes. Seems pretty easy to me. And then the last part of the flex play Friday is R.J. harvey more than 71 and a half rushing and receiving yards versus the Washington Commanders. I don't think the commander's defense is really all that good. RJ Harvey's gonna have a bigger opportunity because JK Dobbins is on ir. I'm a big, big RJ Harvey believer and hopeful that our Sean Payton and Denver understands that you should probably use the guys that are that, that are pretty good. So that's, that's our part. That is our lineup for this week. Trey McBride, more than 16 and a half receiving yards. Luke Washington, more than two and a half catches. RJ Harvey, more than 71 and a half rushing and receiving yards. And you guys know the drill by now. Three picks, all of them right. I3X my money. Two out of three, I would actually get my money back. And that's all I'm looking for. Coffin. That's really all I'm looking for. And if you weren't convinced by flex play being the thing, well, prize picks now has early payouts. If your lineup gets off to a great start, you may now have the option to cash out those winnings before the game even finishes. It's happened to me once or twice that all the time, but it has happened to me a few times.
- [30:46]
Adam Kaufman
Getting your money. It couldn't be any easier. In as little as 15 minutes, you can wash that cash roll right into your account. Heck, Prize Picks even uses Venmo. There is literally nothing easier than that. Download the app today. Use code clns. You get fifty dollars in lineups after playing your first five dollar lineup once again right after this show. Even while you're listening. If you want, download the Price Picks app. The promo code CLNS to get $50 in lineups after playing your first lineup for only five bucks. Prize picks. It's good to be right. Let's get back to the show. All right, Ev. So we're talking about this run going here for the Celtics, the five out of six, all the things that went well against the Pistons, some of the pieces on this roster that obviously the team is continuing to evaluate on a daily basis. And I alluded to it earlier, the schedule, it's not getting any easier, man. Consider what we have in front of us here. Just in the last or next, let's say half dozen games at Minnesota, Anthony Edwards, that game is coming up on Saturday. It's a back to back. You're playing Sunday at Cleveland again, one of the forces of the Eastern Conference, a favorite to win coming into the year. Then you're back home to begin December on the second Tuesday just a few days away, hosting the Knicks Peacock game, nationally televised. Then you're at Washington. Fine. Wizards think that's Thursday. Friday, back home against the Lakers, who Of course has LeBron James available to them. Now that's another prime video game, by the way, another nationally televised game. And you know we'll be back with you before, either before that game or maybe even after on the Saturday. We'll see after playing that out right now. But the point being this next five game stretch, there was only one game in that mix that should be a clear, no doubt about it win, and that is in Washington. Will it be these are the Celtics? Probably not. Hopefully they win. I just think it'll probably be sweatier than we would like it to be. But these other four at Minnesota, at Cleveland, home against or home against New York, home against the Lakers. Then by the way, after that, just to mention the run, even though we'll be back ahead of time to talk about these at Toronto, home against Miami, at Toronto, before you have a pair with the Pacers who are openly tanking in the face of the NBA. But those Raptors and Heat, as we mentioned earlier, overachieving right now. So this is a stretch here between now and damn near Christmas that this team on December 21, before that first game with the Pacers, are The Celtics still above.500?
- [33:32]
Evan Valenti
Probably not. But you Know, I, as someone who was, I accused myself of being a homer earlier in their pod. I don't, I don't know, man, this Minnesota team is going to be again, Minnesota's gonna have to a weird start, but they're, and they have, they have a bigger lineup. Like how many, how many rebounds is Rudy Gobert gonna get in this, in this game? All the rebounds. You go to the Cleveland Cavaliers game Sunday. Boston beat them earlier in the year. But, you know, I, we'll see how this goes. If Kate is not back at that particular point, you know, the Knicks are going to rebound the hell out of the basketball. They have a new revamped offense. It's, it's a much more fun team. I would agree with the people that didn't want Thibodeau there that this team's a little more fun to watch. But, you know, Boston might have a little revenge factor there. That's possible. The Washington, I mean, they should beat Washington. We said that they should have been Brooklyn, but they should definitely beat this Washington team. Then the Lakers. You know, that'll be a fun one because that's competitive and that's the rivalry and so on and so forth. But it's not, it's not an ideal stretch here. Toronto's been way better than I think anybody could have imagined. Defensively, they've been, they've been very good. Miami's been able to sort of rework their voodoo magic and they've been much more relevant than I expected. The, this year, it's not going to be fun. And honestly, the, the latter half of the stretch, you break up into four games and four games, you can make the argument that the second four games, la two Toronto games in Miami would be harder than the first four. That includes Cleveland, New York and Minnesota, three teams that made the playoffs last year. So I, I, I, I don't have a lot of confidence in this. But yeah, you know, as I, we said in the first half of the show, Derrick White getting hot. Very possible they could sneak out of when they shouldn't. They shouldn't get. I mean, if Derek White's gonna maybe come back to earth here, life gets a little bit more fun and life gets a little bit easier. But if, if Derek White's still gonna, is still gonna be up and down, they have, they could easily lose seven out of these eight games.
- [35:29]
Adam Kaufman
Now, to, to be totally fair, you know, because I, I can practically hear people in the YouTube comment section saying, you know, how, how would you have looked at this stretch if Cleveland were the first game or even if Orlando were the first, you're right now the magic granted with all their injuries, the Celtics actually were favorites to win that game. So they simply went out and did what they were supposed to do. But yeah, I didn't have them beating the Pistons. Absolutely not. I figured that was probably going to be a 10 point loss or somewhere along those lines. So to go out win is short underdogs and they were not massive dogs. I don't remember what the number was. Three and a half, something like that. But to go out there and win that thing outright against a Cleveland team that is so far superior to you in the standings at the very least that's encouraging. So that's not to say that you can't beat Minnesota, you can't beat Cleveland again. As you said have already beaten the Cavs once this year, albeit now don't have Keda. Some of these other teams along the way, I mean it's the Celtics are not beyond surprising us, but it just takes a certain recipe, a certain amount of, I don't know, things to break right for that to come to fruition. So I guess to explore we can. You don't need to break down individual matchups. We're more of a big picture show obviously. But this stretch of these next few anyhow where you presume you don't have Keda and we'll see. You know, I haven't seen an injury report as of yet for tomorrow's game. I don't think it's out. But you know you're not gonna have Tatum. You hope you're gonna have everybody else. This team has found success over the last couple of games absent Keda, playing basically without a big or limited minutes with a big small ball. Basketball, we talk about it all the time, wasn't necessarily the plan going into the year. But now without Keda, you're almost forced into it, but it's working. And so what do you take from that into these games? Knowing that like you said, Minnesota has Gobert, Cleveland has Mobley and Allen, New York has Towns and Robinson, you know, Washington sucks, Louisiana has Ayton. You know what, like what does this look like?
- [37:38]
Evan Valenti
You're gonna have to hit a lot of shots. I know it's so simplistic, but the reason why is because you're not getting a lot of rebounds and if you're not shooting the ball well, the opportunities for you to collect up on the offensive glass are going to be really, really limited considering again the bigs that you're going to be playing here now I can say this and they can go out and out, rebound somebody and somebody's going to call me a jackass in the comments, which is very valid. But it's, it's if, if Boston doesn't shoot the ball well, they have to do so many other things at an extraordinary level to beat some of these top teams. I mean again, you'd have to rebound the ball extremely well against if you don't shoot well, if you just have a subpar shooting night, you have to out rebound Minnesota or force just a ton of turnovers. You have to find a way to get the possession battle back in your favor because at the end of the day you, if you're not generating enough possessions against Minnesota or Cleveland, New York to, to because you're not hitting shots, you're just, you're not gonna have opportunities to score enough points. And again, because Boston has one big on their roster right now. Would even call Amari Williams a big. I would. But like is he really going to play a lot? We'll see. See Garza, you know me, I'm not a huge Garza guy. But to beat some of these upper tier, upper echelon teams with no center like this is going to be such a tough pill to swallow. I It would be interesting to see how long they ride the hey, we have to try something. Like they trotted Luca Garza out for a little bit in the first half, a little bit in the second half and scrapped it pretty quick. Like, no, this is just not going to be our thing tonight. That'd be something I'd watch. You know, how quickly is Joe going to be like, nah, this isn't working for me. We got to find another thing that's going to work because this isn't going to work. We're not going to win the we're not going to win games. We're not going to win this game this way. Might win other games this way, but tonight, this game we're not winning this way. So he's. I've been really impressed, I don't know about you with the way that Missoula in the I think they'll be highlighted in some of these games. Coming up with the, the, the plug and playness that Missoula's like, that didn't work. Let's try this.
- [39:36]
Adam Kaufman
That didn't work.
- [39:36]
Evan Valenti
Let's try this. Like she's like troubleshooting so much on the fly that it feels like every night you have no idea what to expect because you don't know who's gonna play. I mean, how many times you've. We've had this podcast, you're like, Anthony Simons played four minutes in the first half and, and then 20 minutes in the second half. Like, it's like a lot of these times these things happen and it's frustrating because you can't, you just can't get a good read on any of this.
- [40:01]
Adam Kaufman
What do you attribute that to? You know, the. I don't want to say it's Missoula shooting from the hip. I give him a lot more credit than that. I don't think he's just chancing into these situations, but in terms of, you know, how much of that is in game feel, when things are either going well with certain guys but not one guy, or they're just not going well and you're inclined to try different things across the board. Like what? I mean, you said it. When, when Simons or whoever. I mean, there are other examples. It's not just Anthony Simons, but maybe he's the most high profile given his expectation going into the year. When a guy plays so little in one half and so much in another half and you know, for the game kind of evens out when you just look at the game log. But if you're paying attention to the game itself, you see how unbalanced it is throughout the game. I mean, what. While we're sitting here giving Missoula credit for. For a lot of the things that he is managing correctly on the fly, is it just that are these things happening on the fly or, or where are these decisions ultimately coming from in your mind?
- [41:05]
Evan Valenti
I think a lot of it has to do with consistency. I think you have only a handful, a select few players on the Felix right now that are consistent players, right? It's been Jalen Brown, it's been Payne Pritchard pretty much for consistency, that's been it. Now again, you expect more of Derrick White. See if he can find his level here and if he can consistently get back to the guy that we all know and love, like, that's going to be a huge thing. But you know, you have Minot great example, starts the year he's the everybody's new shiny favorite toy and then all of a sudden he gets pulled because he's just not consistent. You know, Jordan Walsh, same thing. Baylor Sharman, same. Like all these guys are inconsistent and Simons might be the poster child for the whole thing because, you know, defensively, the defensive effort stuff is in a whole separate category. But if he's not shooting the ball well. He doesn't really give you that much. So it's like, man, I just. I can't. I can't sit out here with Anthony Simons not shooting the ball well on one end and then giving up, you know, a lot of points to their end. It's like when. If you go back and watch that Detroit game, look how much Boston targeted Duncan Robinson in that game. They hunted his ass. The only reason why Boston hung around in that game for so long is because Duncan Robinson played. He was out on the floor, and whenever he was out there, Boston was like, where is he? Get over here. We're gonna. Whatever we do offensively, we're gonna come at you, we're gonna find where you are, we're gonna attack that. And however Detroit tries to figure out how to. How to. To play around, that we'll. We'll pick at the other stuff that they try and play around. We will absolutely hammer this guy as much as we possibly can until you take him off the floor and they find something else. Joe has been able to do that with Simons and then say, like, look, he's just getting killed over here. We have to find a different way, especially he's not shooting well. So you, again, as you look forward here, I would expect more. More chaos, because that, honestly, it might be part of the Celtics mantra at this point. It's like, no, I'm just gonna be an agent of chaos and just throw out weird lineups as much as humanly possible. I mean, you know, again, you had a lineup the other night of, you know, you had Ugo, like Jordan Walsh and Baylor Charman, like, all playing at the same time. So buckle up for this one. So it's.
- [43:19]
Adam Kaufman
It's.
- [43:20]
Evan Valenti
It's. Again, it's. It's interesting that Joe is doing this, but I'm also, again, finding a lot of. A lot of fun and watching him kind of piece things together every single game.
- [43:28]
Adam Kaufman
It's very.
- [43:28]
Evan Valenti
I would say I've been more impressed with Joe Missoula this year so far than I thought I would be. I'll say that.
- [43:35]
Adam Kaufman
You mentioned Derek White a few times. And again, water finding its level. Is he dependable? All these conversations we've had around him, and very recently on the show, we have discussed how it, you know, this. He's taken a real step back by comparison to maybe. Well, definitely my expectations. And for those of us out there, that. That had Derrick White in a borderline, if not, not borderline, all star conversation. I thought Derrick White would be a bonafide number two on this team with the extra responsibility and shot volume and be an all star and all. And maybe he will be. We'll see. But right now he's certainly not that guy. That said, it has gotten better of late since this team has won five out of six in these six games. The point production remains inconsistent and he hasn't hit 30. He's gone 20 plus three times. The rebounding has been there, the assists have been there, obviously the usual blocks and steals, all of that. But when we talk about the shooting, he has been 50 or better four out of these six games from three point range. So this is now, excuse me, A, you know, it's a. It's still the shot volume in general is very low. There's an outlier 7 out of 17 against the Clippers, which by the way was the norm earlier this year. In terms of shots that he was jacking up now more frequently, it's in that, you know, I don't know, like tops 15 a lot of the time, even down around 10, 11, 12. I mean, the shot volume is much lower for Derrick White right now and has led to an increased efficiency and make rate and all of these things. How connected are those to you? You know, did you find him watching him earlier in the season versus now? I know we all want to say, look, if you're open, you shoot the ball. It's that simple. Especially when you're a shooter of the caliber of Derrick White. But was the coaching staff putting too much on him? Was he putting too much on himself? Whatever it was to where, I don't know. He just wasn't comfortable jacking it up at the rate that he was like Derek. Maybe Derrick White within himself doesn't want to be that guy that's taking 20 shots a game.
- [45:49]
Evan Valenti
Yeah, it's the added responsibility can be sort of a burden. You could be, oh, this is great. Look how many more shots I get. At the end of the day it's like, is this really good for everybody? I'm not quite sure. Like if you go back earlier in the season I had right around the, you know, it's. It's hard because small sample size theater. But you go back to the Halloween episode with Jack Simone and we did a little trick or treat segment and part of it was, is Derek, is Derek White currently was shooting ten three pointers a game. Is this going to hold up or is this something that's going to, you know, go back to, you know, fall back to the mean a little Bit and obviously now he's eight and a half. So clearly the answer was yes, he is not going to, he's not going to shoot.
- [46:23]
Adam Kaufman
Well, here, let me, let me give you these splits by the way, and obviously is a boatload of November games because we're at the end of the month. You know, they start mid to late October. That was a smaller sample. In October they played 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 games. Six games in October, obviously a ton since. But in October he averaged 18 shots per game. Like you said, 10 and a half from three. In November, larger sample, he's down to 13 and a half shots per game, seven and a half from three. And the point per game rate is near identical, right? 16.7 versus 15.7.
- [47:02]
Evan Valenti
And the percentages are up, way up. So is he taking. The question would be in what? Like in what part of the game flow is he getting these shots off? Is he taking less shots because he's like, I'm just shooting too much. Is he finding less opportunities in the game to shoot these shots? Like there's, it's a little bit more nuanced than kind of what we're making it. It's, you're like, oh well, he's just taking less shots. Well, is that because the, the, the flow of the game is dictating that or is it something that Derrick White is consciously doing because he's trying to get other guys involved? Like it's not as an easy one for one comparison, but the less shots have at least resulted in a much more efficient Derrick White, which is what made Derrick White awesome in the first place. Right. He was an over qualified, I mean especially in that 2024 title team. He was an overqualified, what, fourth banana on that team. Like what you're really looking at, you're looking at Porzingis being, you know, in the pecking order of offense, maybe higher. Obviously with the Jays, Drew Holiday was like your fifth option. Like yeah, he's a extremely over qualified fourth guy on this team. It's crazy. So what a luxury to have. So a lot of the shots that he get were just great looks, great shots. Now it's a little different because of defense is focused on him. He's taking a little bit of a step back and we'll see how it goes. Again, I always say Derrick White, I always get a good feel of what he's doing in terms of like if he's gonna be productive or not shooting the basketball based on the floater game, his mid range game. If he's got the touch there. It usually translates into more efficient nights, especially from three point range. But like the stuff that you're seeing now, 16 points a game, five and a half assists, four rebounds, two steals, two blocks or one and a half blocks. That's, that's the secret sauce to Derek White. And that's why as you he listen to people, you know, guys that have bigger platforms than us. And I've discovered the NBA as a whole when you talk about potentially trading for Derrick White, the price for Derrick White is still unbelievably high because what you'd get is not the guy you'd get on this other team right now. You'd be getting the much more efficient version of him where he could be the super do it all like hybrid player that you really want. Again a guy that's a guard but also guards up and, and is one of the best shot blocking guards you've ever seen in your life.
- [49:19]
Adam Kaufman
So why don't we cap it with this and it could be a larger conversation but we'll just, we'll scratch the surface and then maybe get into it. In the next show the ringer released its current most, you know, the top 100 players in the NBA and you know a lot of outlets will do this going into a season. Right now it's in season gets updated periodically. All of that. You were talking to me about this just before we came on. Jaylen Brown naturally is the most prevalent Celtic on this list and he's inside the top 15. I think you said 13 on this list. So that's all NBA territory, you know, whatever team you want to put them on. Certainly it's all star territory. I think we both expect him to be on both of those lists. If he can stay healthy through 18 games in his 32 and a half minutes he is shooting or, or hitting, you know, for 28 points per game. A little bit more than that. Six rebounds, four assists. The turnovers bit of an issue. Those are three and a half. So the assist to turnover ratio is not good. But shooting 50%, 34 from 3, about 78 from the free throw line. Who remember this is a guy historically not the best of free throw shooters. So you always take that with a grain of salt. But Jalen Brown is basically doing about as much as you could reasonably ask him to do with this group night to night and generally has been very, very consistent. Does top 1315 call it what we want? Is that appropriate to you? Do you, do you think he should be even higher on that list? Should he be inside the top 10.
- [50:55]
Evan Valenti
I think he's flirting with an all NBA spot. Whether he makes it or not, we'll see how it goes. But he's playing winning basketball right now, and he's doing it as number one guy with all the defensive attention on him, especially the early part of the season, because again, outside of Jalen Brown, Peyton Pritchard, like, there's been a lot of spotty shooting nights for the Celtics. So I would consider what he's doing right now as sheltering, shouldering the load, offensive load for this team right now. It's pretty impressive to me because again, all the people that wanted to know or had questions about whether he could be a leading man or not, that's being answered right now. How good's the team? You know, maybe it made slightly above.500 team. You know, it's not like it's an awesome team, but he's doing it. He's showing he's capable of it. And again, it makes you excited for when Jason Tatum comes back, what they might look like. But Jalen's been a top 15, top 20, I'd say top 15 player in the league right now, you know, with the. For the first 18 games. And I think that's pretty impressive considering there are people. We had Brandon Anderson on the show. Where did BA have Tatum in his top 150, something 30s, something like that. And we brought him on. We noticed that you were getting a lot of flack in your. In your mentions.
- [52:07]
Adam Kaufman
Explain yourself, why don't you?
- [52:09]
Evan Valenti
Why don't you? Instead of two sentences in a block in a. In a, you know, article for the Action Network and, you know, the 100, whatever characters you get on. On. On. On Twitter. Why don't you come on the show and actually let's have a conversation about it? And it was actually probably the most nuanced part of conversation he had on that particular subject. And we basically were like, so Jaylen Brown is like Klay Thompson. He's like, yeah, basically I would, I would, I would say that they're similar players in the roles that they have. And I was like, okay, I can deal with that. Klay Thompson, you know, definitely one. How many all NBAs for Klay Thompson? I would say several, probably. Right.
- [52:49]
Adam Kaufman
I can look that up for you.
- [52:50]
Evan Valenti
A top 15 player when he's really got it going for sure. And I think Jalen, you know, has gotten so much criticism throughout his years, and some of it very warranted, no question about it. But he's also worked his ass off to be a way better player than the guys that were drafted in front of him, that's for sure. The guys trapped it behind him, a lot of those guys, that's for sure. He's been a huge hit and now you're seeing him operate as the primary, you know, focal point of an offense. And he can do it. And I gotta give him credit. And it's not. I mean, yeah, the line ball turnovers are always going to kill you, but what you're seeing with at least the athleticism being back in his legs, he's just a deadly, deadly mid range player. And get to the basket almost against anybody. It's great.
- [53:34]
Adam Kaufman
Two time, all NBA for Clay Top.
- [53:38]
Evan Valenti
I would have guessed more than that. I would have guessed more than that. But I, you know, maybe just considering how good they were, how dominant they were for so long, it's like, well, Stefan Steph is obviously the first team, and then Durant's first team or second team, and then you have Draymond. Like, you, like, we guys just can't have like all the spots. So, you know, it's one of the best teams ever seen. He was a big part of it. And I think that's. You say similar things for, for Jayla Brown.
- [54:02]
Adam Kaufman
I do continue to take issue, by the way, with Basketball Reference and all of these nicknames that I've never heard of before. You know how many nicknames are listed for Klay Thompson before we get out of here? Big Smokey. Don't know that one.
- [54:17]
Evan Valenti
First term, I've heard that one. Kill a Clay. I've heard that one.
- [54:22]
Adam Kaufman
I have heard Game six, Clay, although not in a long time. Yep, the Electrician.
- [54:28]
Evan Valenti
That's.
- [54:31]
Adam Kaufman
And wait, one more. Sea Captain.
- [54:35]
Evan Valenti
That one I get. I don't know if anybody calls him the Sea Captain, but he definitely. He would always take the tugboat to the warriors home games, which is the best. That's why I love Clay. What was the Electrician?
- [54:48]
Adam Kaufman
The Electrician and Big Smokey do not resonate with me. For Klay Thompson, Clay Thompson, Big Stoner.
- [54:53]
Evan Valenti
You think, is that why they call him Big Smokey?
- [54:55]
Adam Kaufman
I. I mean, I don't know.
- [54:58]
Evan Valenti
Electrician is. The electrician to me is like when, when you look up Brady's nicknames, they have like the Pharaoh. It's like nobody has ever called Tom Brady the Pharaoh ever in the history.
- [55:10]
Adam Kaufman
But like, but like, I'm looking at Jalen Brown now, so. Jalen Brown, jb, obviously old man.
- [55:18]
Evan Valenti
All right.
- [55:19]
Adam Kaufman
Yeah. And the Gravedigger, which isn't. Isn't isn't the. Like, I've heard Drew Carter say it, but isn't true. Like, the only one who says it?
- [55:28]
Evan Valenti
I don't know.
- [55:29]
Adam Kaufman
Like, isn't that just one of. One of those ones that, like, Drew throws out on the broadcast? Like, I don't know. There used to be a nickname threshold. Like, it's got to be like, Wikipedia, too. When we were growing up, at best, guys had, like, one nickname, and you're. You know, like, Paul Pierce doesn't have. I mean, I'll pull it up. I'm guessing Paul Pierce doesn't have 17 nicknames. It's just the truth, you know, like, there he probably does, but, like, not that you would recognize or refer to him as ever. No, the. The truth. And P double, obviously. Paul Pierce, but no one's ever called him that. Like, the only guy that I remember having, like, 17 nicknames was Shaq, because Shaq made a big deal out of it all the time.
- [56:18]
Evan Valenti
Right.
- [56:18]
Adam Kaufman
Like, how many you think we're gonna see here when I. So shacket? Yeah, it's multiple lines. Shaq 14. Diesel. Shaq diesel. Big Aristotle, Superman. Shaq Fu. Shaq Daddy Warrior. The Big Cactus. The Big Shamrock. Of course, at the end when he was with the Celtics, but again, I think that was. I think he nicknamed himself that. I don't think anyone else called him Big Shamrock.
- [56:42]
Evan Valenti
No.
- [56:43]
Adam Kaufman
Maybe Shaughnessy or somebody put it in an article, but I'm guessing that was something that Shaq said about himself. You can't give yourself a nickname, man.
- [56:50]
Evan Valenti
I agree. No, they're out of control. These are all out of control.
- [56:54]
Adam Kaufman
We could do this forever. But Basketball Reference needs to develop a threshold for these things.
- [56:59]
Evan Valenti
I want. I want you to cite your sources. Basketball Reference. That's all I'm looking for.
- [57:03]
Adam Kaufman
Doesn't fit. Maybe they'll make us an ambassador about. I know some people that are Basketball Reference ambassadors. Maybe I should ask them how this happens.
- [57:10]
Evan Valenti
Let's do it. I'm in. Okay.
- [57:12]
Adam Kaufman
Brandon Anderson might even be one of those guys. All right, so the Celtics back at it as we sit here in about 24 hours. But Saturday, 5 o' clock Eastern at Minnesota. Nationally televised game on NBA tv. I'm sure local broadcasts will have it as well. Over on NBC, it's a back to back on the road at Cleveland on Sunday. Big weekend ahead of come Monday morning or the next game on Tuesday. We're either talking about a.500 team, maybe a team that somehow, some way is four games over, or obviously a split is on the table. Feels like 500 though, doesn't it?
- [57:46]
Evan Valenti
Probably. But you know, we'll see. That's why they play the game.
- [57:50]
Adam Kaufman
That's why they play the game. Happy Thanksgiving to everybody out there. We hope you had a wonderful turkey day. Food, family, football, friends, all that stuff. All those F words. As we always like to say and most importantly do, check out the Celtics Speed podcast wherever you listen to audio, Spotify, Pandora, Apple, on and on, of course, the Video CLNS YouTube page, specifically the Celtics All Access page. You will find great Celtics beat contest and our content and other maybe we should have a run a contest content and other Celtics related content that we've got across the network as well with our many, many hosts. We thank you very much. We'll have a guest for you next week. Look forward to that. But man, keep doing what you're doing. Cease more games like what we saw against the Pistons. This could be a fun season after all for Evan Valenti. I'm Adam Kaufman. We will talk to you again next time. Ev. See you later.
- [58:43]
Evan Valenti
This episode is brought to you by Athletic Brewing Co. No matter how you.
- [58:47]
Adam Kaufman
Do game day, on the couch, in.
- [58:49]
Evan Valenti
The crowd or manning the snack table, Athletic Brewing fits right in with a full lineup of non alcoholic beer styles.
- [58:55]
Adam Kaufman
You can enjoy bold flavors all game long. No hangovers, no buzz, no subbing out.
- [59:00]
Evan Valenti
For water in the fourth quarter. Stock the fridge for kickoff with a.
- [59:03]
Adam Kaufman
Variety of non alcoholic craft styles available.
- [59:06]
Evan Valenti
At your local grocery store or online at athleticbrewing.com near Beer Fit for All times.