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Will
Welcome to Walgreens. What can I help you with today?
Greg
Hi, I need a last minute gift for a secret Santa.
Will
Something thoughtful, impressive.
Greg
Not a fruitcake.
Will
We've got Ferrero chocolates, artisan coffees, even a spa kit. Any vibe you're going for, Whatever says, wow, this guy's great at giving gifts. How about this premium skincare gift set? Just needs a bow. Will look like you planned it weeks ago.
Greg
Well, happy holidays, gifts, holiday decor and more. The holiday road is long. We're with you all the way, Walgreens.
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Greg
This is Mike Gorman and you're listening.
Will
To Green with Envy with Will and Greg. All right, Everybody. Celtics are rolling. 15, 9. Third place now in the Eastern Conference. How the hell is this happening? We're going to try to talk about it. We're going to try to figure it out. We've got five, five stats that may help to explain the quick rise up the Eastern Conference standings. This is Green with Envy. You guys know the deal. Let's lock in.
What up, what up, what up? Welcome in to another edition of Green with Envy. As always, checking in, doing how you living recording late on a Monday night due to some sicknesses, scheduling difficulties, all, all of the above here. A little bit of a different recording schedule for us this week, but appreciate anybody that is joining us here as we are live on YouTube, live on Twitter, or if you're just listening to us on the way to work, hope we're making it a little Bit better for you. Joining me as he does each and every time, my best friend, co host and the coach of our podcast, the one and only Greg Manakis. Greg, appreciate you accommodating the many conflicts I've had the last couple days.
Greg
All good, man. I see you got a new little hat. You wearing new little hat.
Will
I don't really know if I like the way that you said that, but, like, you got a little nice little. Little hat there. Hat buddy. I know you didn't mean it that.
Greg
Way, but here's my thing. It's like you clearly have your camera settings on mirror my video. So, like, your Boston is upside down.
Will
No, that's the hat.
Greg
Oh, that's the hat. Okay, Tell me about it. Tell me about that.
Will
Yeah, no, it's just so. It's funny. I do every once in a while. So this is like kind of behind the scenes here. You can like, click different settings when you're going into the podcast studio. Sometimes I click that mirror my image setting. Sometimes I don't. I don't actually know what it does. So that's. But I just do it. Everyone's. I'm like, yeah, I'm sure they have it for a reason. People must use it. So sometimes I click it, sometimes I don't.
Greg
So why is it upside down?
Will
It's just kind of a style I've seen out there. And when I was at the game last over Thanksgiving, the. The Pistons game, I was just kind of looking for a new hat. I wanted a new Celtics. I've been wearing the. The, you know, girl dad collective hat. It's of that same style. And so I've been looking for another hat to just have a little bit of versatility with that style of hat.
Greg
Nice.
Will
This one was just a little bit different. It was, you know, I usually get basically the same hat. Like, if I look at my, like, hats that I have here, half of them are ruined from. Anytime I go golfing and it's 100 degrees out and then I try to wash it and it brims, get all bent, whatever. I'm just. I'm really bad at taking care of anything clothes related or apparel related. It's just not. It's just. I'm just not good at it. So I'm trying to find a couple of hats. I'm like, okay, these are only going to be worn, like either, you know, here, podcasting, whatever areas that. That I can. It's really easy to maintain. And so I really obviously like that girl dad collective hat. So I was Like, I've seen of these style of hats. I don't know if there's a particular name. They're just snapbacks. But they do have, like, I could. I could point them out to you if we were showing you video or in the street, and. And I've seen these ones.
Greg
You know us. You know us out in them streets.
Will
Out. Out in the streets. Out in those streets, you know? Yeah. When it's 9am Getting a taco while the kids go play.
Greg
Yeah.
Will
Just like. Yeah, right there. Those. Those streets. But, yeah, I saw this one. It's got, like, the letter, the. The, you know, Boston upside Down on it. I've seen it in, like, a bunch of videos with, like, Texas and, like, other brands that have it. And. And I was like, you know what? I don't know if this is necessarily me. I also made this decision, like, trying to beat the rush at halftime, and I didn't really want to think about it too much. And so I just went with, like, a quick instinct. Let's pull the trigger. Let's get back before the third quarter starts, so.
Greg
Well, it looks great.
Will
It looks great.
Greg
I didn't.
Will
I didn't.
Greg
I didn't mean to demean you by saying you got a little. Get a little new little hat there, but it looks great. I'm. I'm jealous of it.
Will
You.
Greg
You always look good in a hat, man. You look better in a hat than I do, so it's a compliment.
Will
Hey, man, I. I appreciate that, and I. I like the chances that you've taken with your. Your hat collection recently. I know you think you got a bunch from, like, I don't know if it was a thrift store or someone's clean out their closet.
Greg
No. Grandfather died.
Will
Okay. Yeah, that makes it sound a lot. A lot worse. That's not. That's not great. But it's a great way to honor him.
Greg
Yeah.
Will
Noble of you. And I really respect the way that you. You honor those. Those that have come before us. Let's transition out of this.
So the Boston Celtics are good at basketball. Didn't see that coming. Greg. Hand up. Did not. Here's what I'll say before we. We get into the gimmick that we have today. This season is just so enjoyable, and I think we're not alone. And you're starting to see the ripple effects even in national podcasts where they're like, hey, guys, the. The Celtics are actually just, like, good. And it's. It's, you know, it's still rel. It's still somewhat early. Right. So there's times you can be really fooled by a record, but I think everyone's seeing what we're seeing, which is. Which is. Makes me feel good that we're not just sitting here completely biased by, yeah, it's the Celtics, the team we love, but it feels like we're watching good basketball, and a lot of people think so, too. So that makes me feel good that what we're watching and the way we feel about it feels like it's translating not just in Boston circles, but. But in national circles as well.
Greg
Right. And it's those podcasts that I don't actually know are popular or if my Instagram feed just decides to send me, like, NBA podcasts, where I literally have no idea if these are popular podcasts. They just always end up on my algorithm, like, oh, people are talking about the Celtics now.
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Greg
And, like, I don't really know if, like, a lot of people are actually talking about the Celtics, but one thing I was wondering, Will, as you were just talking there, is, are you having more fun this season than you did last season watching this team?
Will
I thought about this the other day. 100. It makes no sense. Like, it's. It's illogical to be having, like, the record last year was better. The team last year, more talented. The potential of that team. They were coming off, they were defending a champion, a championship. But it is, without question, way more enjoyable this season to cover and watch. Like, both things, both elements of the way you and I consume this team are much more enjoyable.
Greg
It's just more fun rooting for an underdog dude. Like, I had so much more fun rooting for the Brad Stevens Error Celtics.
Will
This feels like a Brad Stevens team.
Greg
It really does. It really does. And it's. It's cool. Just kind of like being back in that irrational fandom that. That we haven't really felt in a couple of years because the expectations on this team have been so high. And now I'm just like. You know, when I texted our group chat with Lip Tac about, like, the Celtics being Teddy listener episode and put in our group ch, you guys are already back in on the Celtics being contenders. I'm like, I. I kind of, like, I'm not joking. Like, I really kind of believe that they are.
Will
And in one of his responses, our. Our buddy Lift out, who's been on the show here, which really put it in perspective, he's like, I don't know, man. The east wasn't, like, crazy stacked, and you guys had, you know, a better team last year and lost in the second round. So maybe you guys should slow your roll. And he's not entirely wrong. And it made me think. But at the same time, I don't know. Like, I really don't know. They genuinely mean that this team, like.
Greg
Kind of makes more sense as a modern NBA team than the previous iteration of the Celtics, especially with, like, an older Al Horford, a depleted Chris Taps person, I guess, in an older Drew Holiday. Like, there were a lot of names, but the game didn't necessarily match the reputation of the name last year. And that was kind of the issue the previous year. Like, Drew Holiday was amazing. Al Horford was still amazing. Chris Staps had his moments where he was just unstoppable. But then last year, it was, like, pretty underwhelming when you compare, just, like apples to apples, Nemius K and what he's doing this year versus Al Horford and what he did for the team last year. Like, was Horford really that much better than Kada? Like, Drew Holiday versus Peyton Pritchard? Was Drew Holiday that much better than what Peyton Pritchard has brought to the starting lineup? You know what I mean? And then Jaylen Brown versus Jason Tatum. Like, was Tatum better than Jaylen Brown is this year? Like, I don't think he was.
Will
Well, and the thing is, that team, while you knew what you could get or what to expect, there wasn't really a lot of room for growth. Right. Just because of the age and the style that you had to play. And, you know, you knew who you were, which is. Which is good. That can be an absolute benefit to you, right. In certain moments. But sometimes when you don't know who you are and you're kind of trying to figure it out and you can be a little bit more free, like, it's almost like the wild guy that you don't want to fight, right? Like, he's like, that guy's a little bit of a wild card. I might be able to knock him out because he might come out swinging wildly, but he might connect. And as the fight goes on, he might settle in and then start to understand some things. And all of a sudden, this guy is way more dangerous, even though at the beginning, he wasn't as dangerous as it seemed. I'm not a boxing guy. That might not have made a ton of sense, but. But it's just kind of this unknown that these Celtics are bringing to the table. And so some nights, you're getting these performances that it's like. And this is a Good litmus test of when it feels like a Brad Stevens team. When you're in the group chat and you're like, man, Jordan Walsh and Josh Minot, if that's what you're leading with, that feels like you're leading with man. Remember Kelly Olenek and Evan Turner? That's kind of what a Brad Stevens team. Even though Isaiah Thomas and Jalen Brown are the heads of the snake, you're sometimes almost more leading with the secondary or the tertiary stories that, that really jump out to you because you're like, those shouldn't be the second and third lines of a, of an epic win against a true NBA Finals contender. But those are the second and third lines once you get past Jalen Brown.
Greg
And when you go back to the Brad Stevens era and like the money he was able to make for people, now I'm looking at guys like Kada and Walsh, I'm like, are we gonna be able to afford these guys?
Will
You know what I mean? Like, it's a fair point.
Greg
It's. It's pretty crazy. Like, Jordan Walsh has been unbelievable, man. He's shooting like 90 from the field or something like crazy over the past five games.
Will
Well, let's use this, let's use this, Greg, because that's, that's one of the, the five stats that, that. Okay, yeah, I have five different things that we're gonna do here, so. So I found five different stats. Two of these, I've got a few more than five, so I'll pick and choose depending on where our conversation goes. But one of them is Jordan Walsh related. And so let's just start here with, with stat number one, we'll go to Jordan Walsh and I'm gonna shout out Jack Simone on this because I grabbed this from his Twitter here. But it's just a breakdown of who Jordan Walsh has guarded during his stretch of being, becoming what is essentially, it seems like it's gonna be a full time starter for the rest of the season for the Celtics here. Jordan Walsh vs. The following Jordan Walsh vs. James Harden, 3 of 7. Donovan Mitchell 2 of 8 Cade Cunningham, OH, of 6. Tyrese Maxey 1 of 9 Scotty Barnes 1 of 3 Franz Wagner 1 of 4 Austin Reeves 0 for 3. Jaren Jackson Jr. Over 5. Anthony Edwards 3 for 7, Carl Anthony Towns 1 for 4. We've talked about it before, Greg, but that's, that's an all that we could be having an all NBA or an all star conversation if I just threw those names out to you with no context. That's probably your guess as to what type of conversation that you're having and the versatility of Jordan Walsh defensively, which is feeling like he's making, you know, an all defensive team case. Now it's still very, very early for that, but right there, that's a damn good foundation for the start of your all defensive case.
Greg
He's been unbelievable, man. I, I like really am struggling to, to believe that this is actually happening. Like the Andre Iguodala potential that I always was. I was like trying to speak into existence, but I always felt silly saying it and seeing him realize that potential over a 10 game stretch where I'm just like, holy, was I right? This whole time like Jordan Walsh is.
Will
Like, well, because there was like, who was it Terry Rouge that had Alan? I was. You used to compare to Alan Iverson.
Greg
I did, yeah. But I always got away with it by saying like he moved to like Alan Iverson. I know he's nowhere near Allen Iverson.
Will
Right, right.
Greg
Like Allen Iverson, like just the way his body moves.
Will
Terry had some moments and now he's, you know, he's got some other things going on right now.
Greg
Yeah, yeah. And like with Jordan Walsh. So man, it's just everything that he's doing on defense is just really, really special dude. Like he's stealing little bits of defensive identity from all these guys that he's been able to look up to over the past three years. Like the Jalen Brown, Drew Holiday anticipate when you drive a certain way and just like beat you to the spot and swipe and just like lead yourself into your own fast break off of a steal. Like he's getting really good at that. The contest from behind that Derrick White is so good at the ball pressure, see out of Pton Pritchard and Drew Holiday like the Jason Tatum help side defense. Like all that stuff that he's been able to just watch and just study from some of the greatest defenders in the NBA. And he's like, you know what? This is my only role, so I'm just going to go ahead and be an amalgamation of every single one of you guys. And I'm also 21 years old, so like I have boundless energy and I'm okay picking up 94ft, so I'll hit.
Will
You with the league. Corso, not so fast, my friend. Maybe that's not his only role because the last five games there has been a Jordan Walsh offensive renaissance that has gone along with this. And so I, I'm pulling, I was pulling it up here as you Were talking because I wrote down his last five games. 14 points, 7 rebounds, 2.8 stocks. Those are just kind of the, the upfront numbers, the shooting numbers are so stupid. They just have no chance to be any type of, of realistic. So I didn't even write them down. But luckily I still had them them pulled up for when I pulled these stats earlier. So let me just read you his sh. Stats from the last five games. Right now in the over the last five games, Jordan Walsh is shooting 76.5% from the field on 34 shots. He's shooting 63.6% from three point range, 7 of 11, 82.6% from the two point range 19 of 23 and then has gotten to the line 13 times, 84.6%. So I don't think the 76, 63, 84 slash line, I don't think that's going to quite hold. But this again, to the point that I said earlier about like last year's team versus this year's team, there just continues to be this growth that you don't see coming. First we didn't see Jordan Walsh getting play in time. Then we didn't see Jordan Walsh becoming this ace defensive stopper in the starting lineup. And now we have these nights where I'm like, Jordan Walsh is just going for 20 points. Jordan Walsh is going for 15 points in a night. Now I don't know what's going to happen. End up holding. True. But my eyes tell me the Jordan Walsh offense, like there is something there to his offensive game. Like he's not just a defensive, he's not Tony Allen, if you will not, you know, to be like a complete zero on offense. Like there's so like we talked about in that Cavs game where we were like, man, he got an offensive rebound, made this little pivot move in the lane and faded away and it looked really comfortable. Nice. And in each game I just feel like you're seeing a little bit more from Jordan Walsh on the offensive side. And to your point, I don't know where it's going to keep going, but I'm, I'm buckled in. I'm on the ride. I can't wait to see what happens.
Greg
Best offensive player of this group. I just, I'm going to throw some names at you. You tell me based off of what we've seen out of Jordan Walsh this year.
Will
Yeah.
Greg
If it's like even close, you already mentioned one of them. Tony Allen. Okay. Tony Allen, Andre Roberson, Thabo Cephalosha, Matisse Thibel, Jordan Walsh.
Will
I mean, this is tough. So I will say Tony Allen had moments on the Celtics before he blew his knee out doing that dunk that didn't count, when he thought it was the big four instead of the big three, and he was the four. Like, Tony Allen at least had some moments. So I'll put Tony Allen to the side because he at least gave you a window. The other three guys, I can't really remember, other than them just sitting in the corner and you praying they hit shots, right? Like, Jordan Walsh is driving closeouts. Jordan Walsh is getting to the rim, scooping up and under and getting in once. Jordan Walsh is. Is not just. I mean, he's being. He is getting open shots, but he's shooting them with confidence and in rhythm. It's not one of those ones where, you know, I'm thinking of. Of Tabo Seosa, who you mentioned, like, it's Westbrook in the lane, it's Durant in the lane, it's Ibaka gets double team down low, and it's like five seconds left. We know Tabo's open. Let's just kick it to him. And he's gonna have to shoot six of these. I hope two of them go in, right? Like, that's not Jordan Walsh. Right. So I. I think other than, you know, let's just reserve this being, you know, not a. Just a hot streak and we're. We're over, you know, giving him too much credit. I'll say I'll put Tony Allen above him. But the rest of them, from everything I've seen now, I didn't watch them as closely like he's there or above. Like, that's where I would put Jordan Walsh right now. And I. And I feel very confident about him going forward. Showing us more and more what you've.
Greg
Seen out of Jordan Walsh this year. Do you feel more or less confident than you did at Grant Williams peak with the Celtics?
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Will
Offensively, right?
Greg
I'm gonna go overall.
Will
Overall.
I mean, I'm very in the moment right now, so I want to say I feel more confident, but there was a time where I really believe Grant Williams was very undervalued and that he was very, very important to this team. So if I really check myself, I. I gotta say Grant, I felt stronger about for longer, but, like, check back here in, you know, 40 games. Let's see where we're at. Because right now this is, you know, an 11 to 12 game stretch for, for Jordan Walsh. So let's see where we're at when we get to, you know, early February or around the All Star break, we can reassess that question. So I would say Grant Williams for now. And that's me really having to, to check myself on this. What would you say?
Greg
I'd say Grant. Yeah, there was a time where I really thought Grant was going to be like, the small ball five of the future for the Celtics. And, like, he'd have games where he'd be like, primary assignment, guarding Devin Booker and doing a pretty good job of it. So I hope Grant gets healthy and is able to play NBA basketball again because he's just like a streamer now as he recovers from his boring streamer.
Will
Have you, have you seen his clips? Like, his clips, really? Like, like, I don't necessarily. We've talked before. I don't get the streaming culture, but like, Grants are like, him trying to be exciting And I've watched like two or three clips and I'm just like, yeah, this doesn't have the same feel. Like JB's got like, like hip hop stars in his room and Everybody's like, like JB's doing the thing that I don't get that everybody loves. Grant Williams is like a nerd in his room with his glasses. Like guys, now a pick and rolls coming, but I just didn't see it coming like this. Yeah, it's like.
Well, soon Grant.
Greg
Yeah, but I, I, I, I would say Grant. There was a real moment for like an entire season where I was like, grant Williams is like super underrated. So I think if Walsh plays, he's not going to shoot the way he's shooting right now for an entire season. But Right. Just like the impact that he's having, if he's able to do that for this entire season, I would say that piece is the piece that the Celtics have been missing.
Will
Yeah.
Greg
For the past few years. Whereas Grant was just like kind of doing what Al Horford was already doing. You know what I mean? So like it wasn't quite as important to have that because it was a little bit redundant. But when you think of like Grant Williams, Semi Oshile who like Semi was the guy that we were trying to be Grant before Grant, and he was unable to reach that potential. Like Jordan Walsh is already doing more than Sammy o' Shelay ever did for the Celtics. Right. Aside from like, I mean, guarding Giannis in like real moments is something, but it was more just us talking ourselves into Semi being a Yanis stopper than him actually being a Yanis stopper.
Will
Like Jordan is a Ruben Patterson level Yana stopper.
Greg
Yeah. Like you just like think about the names that you just listed. That's, that's insane. Like, to be able to do that over an entire season is impressive, but to be able to do it over a 10 game sample is unheard of.
Will
Yeah. And then it's one through five, right. Like you got Tyrese Maxi and you got Carl Anthony Towns in the same list. Like, yeah, that just shows you the, the versatility. So that's, that's the first stat that we were looking at here. And that was just Jordan Walsh stats for you. That's all that was just a variety of Jordan Walsh stats stat number two that I got here, Greg. And this is something that has become a Missoula staple as a coach since he's taken over. The Celtics finished seventh in turnovers per game his first year. They finished in the Top three the next two years. This year they are back at the top of the board. League best 7.8 turnovers per game. You know, we've mentioned it before, Missoula ball, I think it gets mangled up in the media a lot. It's just, oh, they just shoot a lot of threes. That's Missoula Ball. Not correct. It's advantage basketball and it's winning on the margins. Like those are the two things that I think of when Missoula Ball and what it actually represents, and this is one of those winning on the margins type of things, is being, you know, relentless about making of securing the basketball. And so this is going to lead into a couple other stats that I have here, but one to first just highlight, you know, the Celtics taking care of the basketball because then I think that opens up a few of the other things that we're going to talk about. But it's been so important for this team, especially where that could have easily been an area of concern where you lose Tatum for the, for however long he's out, you lose Holiday, you lose the decision making of Al Horford, of Luke Cornett, who's a high IQ guy. And you know, we talked about it, what an episode or two ago. We're like, did you expect to end the game with Jordan Walsh and Josh Minot making reads out of the, you know, out of the short roll? And so that's a lot to go on this team and to still be at the top of the league in turnovers, I think that's extremely meaningful given the roster turnover.
Greg
Well, when you think about what the philosophy of his offense is, is to create those advantage moments where it's five on four or four on three or three on two or two on one, it's like kind of silly to expect to have a high turnover rate when you are playing advantage basketball. Like if you're turning the ball over in a 4 on 3 situation or 3 on 2 situation, it's like these are drills that you run all the way back to when you're like first playing basketball. You know what I mean? It's like anytime you have an advantage, if you're turning the ball over, you're running sprints. Like that's just what it is. Like you should not turn the ball over when you have an advantage in numbers. But then when you think about the personnel that the Celtics have and Peyton Pritchard is a low turnover guy. Derrick White is a low turnover guy. Jaylen Brown has been historically a high turnover guy. But they're putting him in positions to be a low turnover guy this year. It's just like when you think about the last game that the Celtics played, which I, you know, they, they, they go up big. They end up blowing the lead against the Raptors. And in the fourth quarter, it's kind of the Derrick White show. And Derrick White just plays like unbelievable basketball. And like, this is kind of what we were talking about over the last couple of years. It's like in crunch time, should we just give the ball to Derrick White because he's not going to turn the ball over. We're probably going to get a good shot. Right. He hasn't shown it so far this year, but in that last game against the Raptors, it was like, yeah, I kind of just want the ball in Derek White's hands. Everybody, like, get the out of. Think about a couple other couple games ago. It was the same thing with Peyton Pritchard. We were like, why are we even messing around giving the ball to anybody but Peyton Pritchard right now he's not going to turn the ball over and we're going to get a good shot. Right. So I think those stats just kind of exemplify and underscore the importance of having those high IQ guys that are just going to make the right decision throughout 48 minutes and especially in crunch time.
Will
Yeah. And you know, with Derek White, another stat that I didn't have on here, but I did see seven clutch three pointers made this year at shooting them at about a 64 clip. And so while the str. The numbers are still not up there for Derrick White, they're. They're coming back. You definitely feel like you've seen the Derrick White that we've been looking for over the last five to seven games or so. So hopefully those numbers will start to come back up. Those clutch numbers are certainly very encouraging and again match up with what we've said about Derek White for the last couple of years. So that was stat number two, league best 11.8 turnovers per game. Now I've got a group of stats here that kind of all go together. So this is really going to be kind of stat number three and four that we're kind of working all in here together here, Greg. So something that I think is really interesting. So limit the turnovers per game. However, the Celtics, and this is something that I think is playing to their benefit. And I saw this again some somewhere in my algorithm here and I, and I, I apologize. I don't know who to credit exactly for this, but they talked about the Celtics are kind of playing small ball or money ball but in, in basketball terms. And so we brought this up several weeks ago because of all the talk in the preseason. We're running, we're a track team, we're out, we're gunning. They're dead last in pace, dead last in pace. But I think with that what they've been able to do is with the limited turnovers, here are some other things that being last in pace that they've been able to do that kind of tilts the math in a really interesting way in their favor. Because of those limited turnovers, they're actually third in field goal attempts despite being last in pace at 91.6 shots per game. The more shots you have, the better chance you have to very simple math there. Their third in second chance points. This is of course rebounding just in general. An area that was going to be very highly concerned was at the beginning of the season. Celtics have definitely stemmed that tide. Third in second chance, 17.5 points per game, fifth in offensive rebounds. So I think when you look at all of those together, Greg, I think those are really interesting ways that again this goes back to Missoula ball, finding the Avantas like you mentioned, 3 on 2, 4 on 3 and then winning in the margins and finding these ways. And we know the three point volume the Celtics have always had that's going to be there. But I think also getting just more shots up, holding on to the ball, not turning the ball over, playing at that, that slower pace. Even though the rest of the NBA is trying to match up with the Pacers style of play. The Celtics kind of have this alternate look at it and then you look at them with their second chance points, their offensive rebounding and a lot of that's coming from the Jordan Walsh, from the Josh Minots, from Hugo Gonzalez and the, the crashes that they have from the wing, right. That's something the Celtics have had an emphasis on the last couple of years. And now again we're going back to the beginning of the conversation. I love when this happens organically that the beginning of our conversation just kind of goes all the way through. But you look at the personnel that we had last year and like you're not going to see Al Horford crashing across the court from the three point line, right? You're not really going to see that with Drew Holiday as much maybe select times now it's an all out battle. You may have Josh Minot and Jordan Walsh crashing each other in the middle of the paint when a shot goes up because they're both crashing from the side. Sam Houser underrated at doing, at doing this element for the last couple of years, but now it's every single person on the court is doing this. And so it's not just select lineups. It's basically every lineup that's happening with the Celtics. And so despite the fact that they've only played one center basically over the last two weeks, they're still continuing to rank this highly. And so a really interesting kind of combination of all those stats.
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Greg.
Greg
Yeah, and sometimes when you put an emphasis on offensive rebounding and crashing the offensive boards, that can come at the expense of your transition defense. I don't have the numbers on where they rank in terms of transition defense this year right now, but it's just something that I kind of thought about, but that in. In the past they kind of emphasized having their half court defense set, right. But like, the league is becoming more of a chaotic league where you need to find, like to your point about small ball, money ball, like you need to find the, the, the winning on the margins, as you said with Joe Missoula. But as you were talking about, the offensive rebounds just reminded me of the Knicks game, right? And I just went back to look at the offensive rebound numbers. Jordan Walsh had four offensive rebounds, Keda had two, Josh Minot had three. Ugo had won. And they were all like these really loud offensive rebounds for like wide open layups. I think there were like five or six that like, they just crashed the glass and just like caught the ball right at the rim and laid it up. And like those moments were seemingly. And we watch every single Celtics game. Like, you and I, we didn't see that a lot last year. And like, maybe our memories are not serving us correctly, but it really didn't feel that way. Like they didn't have the young spry legs to go ahead and get those offensive rebounds. Maybe there'd be dunks like at Chris Eps, where Zingus put back dunk or something like that. But how many games did Porzingis play? Oh, by the way, dude, how crazy is this? So Chris Eps, Porzingis, diagnosed with pots, whatever the POTS was. Never heard of it in my entire life before. Not gonna put this person on blast, but a person pretty close to me in, in my life, recently diagnosed with pots. And I was like, where the have I heard this before? I was like, holy, you have the same, you have the same virus or like disease, whatever it is.
Will
Yeah, I don't even know what it is. Whatever ailment you want to call it.
Greg
Yeah. And I was, like, talking to them about it, and they were like, yeah, like, sometimes I'm just sitting there, and all of a sudden my heart rate, like, spikes through the roof, and I feel like I've run a marathon when the morning comes along, and I literally haven't done anything except, like, sit down and I'.
Will
And I. I hope this person in your life is. Is. Is fine. That actually in. In a. In a weird way that makes me feel better about the whole Chris Staps thing.
Greg
Because.
Will
Because, honestly, because to your point, I've never heard of it, so I'm like, this feels like kind of made up. Like, remember when Markel F was going through. Whatever he was going through?
Greg
Outlet syndrome.
Will
Yeah. It was like, okay, you guys just made this up because you could. You had nothing, and you just. He just got the yips. Right? Like, you just couldn't figure it out, so you came up. Up with something. That's what this felt like, right? With this whole POTS thing that we just couldn't name it for eight months, nine months, whatever. So I hope that person in your life is okay, but that makes me feel a little bit. That's just like a normal person is like, yeah, you got pots, man.
Greg
I know. I. And, like, the. The thing about it is it seems like one of those things where, hey, we've, like, tried everything, but we don't know what it is. So, like, it might be this POTS thing that we've come up with, you know, I mean, like. Like the same thing with, like, the faults thing. It's like, yeah, it's the ratchet outlet syndrome, where it's something we can't explain, but for some reason, you can't lift your hand over your head anymore.
Will
What a ridiculous. What a ridiculous time that was with Markel Folds. Yeah, man. Just one of the best athletes in the world, and now you just can't lift your arm over your. Your shoulder.
Greg
And there's no, like, the Philly people in my life. It's like, yeah, he got in a motorcycle accident. And, like, they don't want to just report that. Like, all Philly fans are just, like, convinced it was a motorcycle accident.
Will
Yeah, you just pulled the J1 Williams.
Greg
Yeah, yeah.
Will
But yes. Anyways, from the pots conversation, I. I think, to your point, I don't think you're wrong in not remembering, like, those same type of putbacks, because, again, like I mentioned, can you picture Al Horford crashing the glass? The way that we're seeing these guys do it now.
Greg
Not like, corner crash, right? Like, you can see him, like, getting a garbage rebound under the basket. But it was like, not those super athletic, like, sprint from the corner, finish at the rim type of putbacks, but.
Will
When you're playing five out, like the Celtics still do a lot of the time, right? Like, that's how you get those offensive rebounds, is you got to come from the outside in. Like you're. Other than Neemi, you're not down there. No one else is down there. Because if. If Joe's not playing a second center, everyone is still playing mostly from the outside. Of course they're going to be cutting through, but, like, that's where you're going to have to, you know, make your mark. And so I think it makes a lot of sense. I think our eyes are telling us the, you know, the correct story. When you look at last year versus.
Greg
This year, and it reminds me a lot of just like when I watch a hockey game, I'm not a hockey fan by any means, but, like, the way that hockey is played with like, everybody cr. Like trying to, you know, put the trash and what was it like?
Will
The.
Greg
I think that's what it was like. Clean up the trash. Was that a Mighty Ducks thing where, like, they were hitting all the trash into the bat, into the. In the goal, right? And it, like when you think about defenders in hockey and like, they're always kind of just pressuring the entire length of the ice. And that's what it feels like. This NBA is kind of moving into is like basketball as hockey, where there's like a lot more happening on the other side of the court. Where previously it was like, hey, let's just get our asses back and play defense like past the half court line. Now it's like, hey, we can also play defense 94ft away from the hoop and like, slow them down here versus having to, like, get back on defense and slow them down after half court when maybe they already have an advantage.
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Will
Yep.
Greg
My attention.
Will
Hey, we we try to give everybody what they want here, right? That's what we try to do on the show. I got two more for us here, Greg. I'm go back to some personal stats here and then I'll wrap us up here. So first one I got. We haven't talked enough about him on this show. We have talked about him in other episodes. It's Nemius K man. The advanced metrics for him are kind of off the charts. I know in the chat we have our guy Rob version one who's talking about getting another serviceable big to go along with Neemi because when he's off the court we basically have to go small ball. And it's really interesting because with Mimi on the court, the Celtics are one of the best defenses in the league. Without him, they're one of the worst when they do those wing lineups. But but with those all wing lineups, it's off the charts offensively. I was listening to our guy, Jason Tim and Sam Bassini on game theory. I think he had it on those wing lineups. I believe the defensive rating is somewhere around 130, but the offensive rating is like 145. So it's just like an insane number. But with Neemius Keda, a lot of advanced metrics that you could look to here. One of the ones that I chose is one that scale just harps on all the time in, in broadcast is right now Nemi is. Keda is one of eight big men averaging four plus screen assists per game. Those are turning into an average of 9.8 points per night. So while this team doesn't have your traditional creators in ways that you think of playmakers like this is another example of winning on the margins. And Nemi Esqueda just doing things that.
You know are, are making a massive difference that we weren't sure he was going to be able to do. This was going to be something where it's like, we understand he's going to try it, but everything we've seen in the past with his inconsistent minutes was that this is likely going to be how he gets into foul trouble every night. And now it's a massive, massive asset.
Greg
This is the best case scenario season for Nemi Escada. He's been playing his ass off, dude. Like, this is all the high moments. Like you think about the warriors game last year. I don't know if you remember that kind of early in the season before Cornette had kind of established himself as the, the third big on the team. And with Porzingis being out just the backup big, we were like clamoring for more Keda, the entire Celtics nation was just like, hey, Nemius kid. It just proved he can hang against the warriors in crunch time. Maybe we should play him more. And then Cornet just proved to be more reliable. I was always making the comparison between Cornett and Kada to being like Daniel Tice versus Robert Williams. The bubble season and how Brad Stevens just relied on Daniel Tice because he knew he was always going to be there. He was never going to be out of position. Rob Williams, Bitcoin Bob. It was just like it was Boomer bust with him, right? Especially early in his career. And Keda is finally getting the opportunity where you've removed all the safety blankets and like your only option is Luca Garza or Xavier Tillman. It's like, we gotta play Keda. Like he's either gonna prove to be a legitimate big man or he's Gonna prove to be a career backup. Right. But we know he's talented enough where, where he's an NBA big. And this year he's proving that he's a starting center in the NBA. He's a top 15 center in the NBA without question. And the, the real question is how high can he go? I've always compared him to deandre Ayton. We got the opportunity to see him versus Ayton side by side against the Lakers the other night, and it's like kind of would just rather have Kada, like all things equal, I think I just rather have Kada.
Will
Yeah, it's been an unbelievable season for him, man. And it's, you know, it's so funny like when in the off season when we laid out what is the path for this team to actually be in contention when Tatum comes back. If Tatum comes back this season. And it was like, man, Jalen Brown's got to be all NBA. Nemi Escade has got to be a certified, you know, starting center in this league. And we gotta have, you know, one or two guys pop. It's like so far through 20, you know, almost 25 games, like, basically all those have happened.
Greg
All that shit's happening, bro. Yeah, we're gonna talk about Jalen's last tat. About.
Will
He's the last one I got here. Yeah. Yes, we'll talk about him. But yeah, just, just the Nemius, Kate of it all is. Yeah, I didn't. I was hoping to establish him as a great backup option. And to your point, like, I think he's changing the dynamics on what Brad has to do now, as I think I've sent you in a couple group chats, I mentioned several weeks ago when Celtics beat the Clippers and they're going real downhill. I was like, man, Zubac is like mine. My number one trade target with a. With a bullet. If we can figure out a way to make it happen, and he still is, I would still absolutely want to make that move if there's a way to do it. But I think, you know, obviously that's going to cost a lot because Zubach is a really good player. Almost made all NBA last year. But I think with Neemi's development, what it allows you to do is, hey, maybe we don't need to give up as many assets to get zoo. Or maybe we just choose not to. Or it's, you know, it's two months, whatever, and we can just get like another. We should like a quality backup big. Unfortunately, we need another Luke Cornett that's kind of what we need is we need Luke Cornett back on this team. But I think it gives Brad more versatility to aim a little bit lower. Keep some of your, you know, your weaponry if you will for off season, future moves, whatever and still maybe be able to upgrade this team in season. We'll see. I don't know but, but I think Neemi's done done a hell of a job and has made Brad's job a little bit easier to be honest, when it comes to finding another big yeah.
Greg
I got some comments here in the chat, a couple from Rob that you mentioned earlier. He says Amari is tearing up the G League. He's had a triple double the other night. Says I'd like for him to get more looks than garbage time or for matchups where he can't afford to play small ball like we saw in in the Pistons game right where he blocked Cade gave gave him some real trouble at the rim. Played really well against Jalen Duran.
Will
I like the Mario in person. I'll just real quick on that. Like I am already in person and I was talking about this with with our guy Phil. Your guy Phil? What kind of our guy too? Our guy Phil. I was talking about this with him the other day and because he was at that game as well and like Amari felt like a real presence out there. Like it felt real dude he's legit 71 I I think Joe has some trouble trusting rookies fully. And you're seeing this with Ugo as well too, right? Because Ugo, even though know when he gets out there I feel like he's always making an impact. His minutes kind of go up and down. I can't imagine that that Joe is gonna throughout the season feel comfortable enough to to play Amari the way that you know is being suggested in the chat. But I'm I'm for giving him more opportunities when we can.
Greg
Yeah and then other comments here. We got one from Wexy Robinson rather get Claxton than a slow footed post big that Missoula could never never used before. I'm assuming that's a reference to Zubot because you were just talking about him. Rob also prefers Claxton to Zubac. I mean Zoo is just he's like borderline all NBA big. You know what I mean? Like I think you just got to take the talent over Claxton who's like yeah he's athletic and he can do some stuff. He's switchable maybe is a better skill.
Will
He's good man who's really good, he's skilled. And if you think about some of the bit like if the Celtics need to, to kind of beef up, like they don't really have any way to do that right now. Right. Like, even when Tatum comes back, like there's like, you think about like it and this is obviously looking way too far ahead to, you know, like, like an NBA Finals, but if it's also gonna be the top of the Eastern Conference, Tatum comes back. That's what we're doing. That's what we're doing. Talking about. And like you think about if the Thunder can throw out double bigs if you play the Rockets and they can come out with their smash front line if you play, you know, Jokic, like wherever Giannis might end up, like some of these are going to end up being real problems. And like, you know, even with Amari, like I watched, you know, in that Pistons game, there were moments where Jaylen Duran just like he would disappear, but there were also moments where for four or five straight possessions he just got nine rebounds. And so like that in a playoff series, like Zubac can help to eradicate that. But as well as he's very skilled, he can do a lot of things. So yeah, I've never been a huge classic guy.
Greg
Yeah, I mean he's definitely better than Claxton. Like, there's a reason why people are like lining up to try and get Zubots right now. And Claxton's good. I'm not saying Claxton's bad. It's just like, like I think people are kind of underrating Zubac at this point. He's not Jonas Valentunas. I think people are kind of like thinking he's like Yonas, Valentin Tunis right now. And like there's completely different level of players who's a really, really good player. And when you think about teams like the Knicks, for example, we were able to play Mitchell Robinson off the court in the last game, right? And like in a, in one game, yes, you can do that. But over a seven game series, you're going to be able to play Mitchell Robinson off the court and keep him off the glass. I don't know that you're going to be able to do that.
Will
Think about how badly he us up in the Eastern in the, in the playoffs last year.
Greg
Dude, he was a problem. Like he can't push Zubots around like that. And I, I do share some of the like, fit concerns that people are kind of putting into the chat. I don't Think he's like, the cleanest fit with this team. But in terms of a talent play, I don't think it's a question like zubac over Claxton 10 days out of 10, but in terms of fit for the price that it would cost, like, yeah, Cl. Like, I think the Nets are going to be able to play hardball with Claxton. Just in terms of, like, what do I know?
Will
It's funn about this whole conversation.
Greg
You're just like, I don't know what we're doing. Good.
Will
Yeah, they don't know what they're doing, but Clason's more expensive than Zubot right now based on their current contract. So that's the other side of this, too. And, like, either way, this is the Anthony Simons trade, right? This is. This is who's going out, but. Right.
Greg
I think it's like, who's sneakily kind of playing good lately.
Will
Listen, he's still not my. My type of guy, but he's hitting shots. This the thing. If he's hitting shots, shots, that's.
He. He's been. He's been crushing it with the shot. And I do think he's playing in better lineups. So I got to give Joe some of that credit. That was something we talked about where I was like, you can't just leave him out there with four guys and just be like, hey, go create. That's just. It's not gonna go well. We've seen enough of it right now. We know that's not the answer. So definitely something to keep an eye on. And I. I will, you know, keep an open mind to the Anthony side.
Greg
Good. You're coming around on him. That's what I want to see.
Will
Coming around. Coming around. All right, last thing I got here, and this is kind of like five asterisks here. I got. This is really kind of like the 6 stat that we' here gotta talk about the Eastern Conference player of the week, Jalen Brown. And to be honest, I don't really have any stats. It's just Jalen Brown. Jaylen Brown has been. You know, I do have one here. He's fourth in total drives in the NBA. But let's just be real. He's number one in awesomeness. He's been awesome this year. I got that. That's. He's. He's been unbelievable to watch. He's been someone along with the Celtics I feel is now nationally. People are catching him up to, hey, we gotta start giving Jaylen Brown props. I saw on the MVP ladder on NBA.com he's now in the top 10. Like, he's starting to get the. All right, this is like, this is like borderline. Like he's got a shot at that fifth all NBA first team, all NBA spot and he's like pretty solidly second team all NBA at this point.
Greg
Especially if Giannis is going to miss out on first team because he's not in 65 games. So it's like Wemby's probably not going to hit 65. Giannis, it might be two spots open.
Will
Yeah. Yeah.
Greg
So like there's no reason why Jaylen Brown can't work his way into at all. First team, all NBA discussion. If the Celtics continue to play in and stay in like a home court advantage situation in the Eastern Conference playoffs, like, he's playing that good. It's not even like the team success is finally backing up what we've all been seeing this year. It's just like this is the best we've ever seen. Jaylen Brown. It's pretty damn special. And like there are some guys having some great years out there. Like, a guy that always comes up is Donovan Mitchell, Devin Booker. They're kind of looked at his as his peers. I think the national media would rank both Mitchell and Booker over Jalen Brown. There have been times where I've had Jalen over both of those guys. There have been other times where I've had both of those guys over Jalen. I just think they're all living in the same space. Like, I don't think anyone like definitively better than. Than the other guy. But this year I think Jalen is playing the best basketball of those three. Donovan Mitchell's playing really good basketball, but his team's shit in the bed. The Cavs have been disappointing the Suns on the other. You know, Booker has been out the last couple of games. They're still winning basketball. They won tonight against the T wolves without Devin Booker. 108, 105. Gillespie is like a revelation for them. Dylan Brooks is playing great basketball. Grayson Allen's playing great basketball. So like, you could also kind of make the argument for Devin Booker out west just because the Suns are surprising in a much deeper, much tougher Western Conference. But right now, dude, like gun to my head, Jaylen Brown's on my first team. All NBA. Like, he's been that special.
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Greg
Yeah.
Will
Excuse me.
Greg
Super shredder over here.
Will
I know that that explains some of the rescheduling right there, if you will. Yeah, I think it probably can down to him and Cade. I think that would be the. Probably the battle for. If there was only if. We're assuming we're still counting Giannis for now and there's one spot. I think that's probably who it comes down to. Yeah.
Greg
My conversation was if it was two spots. No Y.
Will
Two spots. Yeah, yeah. Then, then, then likely. I think, I think he would have to be. He would have to be in there. Listen, I don't know. It's 25 games in, but he's in the conversation. There's no doubt about it. Like he's right there with everybody else. There's only three guys that you can definitively right now that are healthy that you put above him. That's the sga, Luca and Jokic group. Right. They live in a separate tier by themselves and everybody else. They're all in that mix. Four or five, whoever's like, however you want to go ahead and rank them. And Jaylen Brown is squarely in that mix. He's got 1330 point games right now on the season and it's just playing so in control. I think I saw this stat the other day too. In the mid range. I believe he's shooting a league. League. I think it's 50 on at least four plus attempts. I believe he's shooting 53. I think it was. Kawhi was at 51, SGA was next and Brandon Ingram. So it's like all guys that you're like, man, they're mid range assassins. And Jalen Brown is. Is even more efficient. Which is the craziest part about his season for me, I think think is the efficiency with the added responsibility and not losing anything from it. In fact only getting better and it's, you know, it doesn't feel like it's gonna end. I just feel like he's just so. He's never been this in control of. Of the game before. And it's really, really fun to watch.
Greg
Yeah. After Jalen Brown won the finals mvp, you know, I was all in on last season being the holy. We're entering Jalen Brown's like prime time, that guy. We even had a video that was like, are we entering the Jalen Brown era? And then he ended up. He got hurt last year, man, straight up. Like he just wasn't healthy. But coming off that finals run where he, he and Tatum, like, he was, he was even Eastern Conference finals mvp. Finals mvp. He deserved it. But you could have made the argument that Tatum deserved both of those and like the fact that they're right there on the Same level as players. Just something that like, like I was always. Like, you always made the joke. Like, when is Greg gonna make. Make the joke that Jaylen Brown might be better than Jason Tatum? Like, we don't have to compare the two, but we do because they're. It's just like natural to compare. And he's just playing like, you wonder what Tatum could do. Like fully healthy, no Jaylen Brown with this lineup. But like, man, Jaylen's been fucking special this year, dude. Like, I can't even imagine anybody having a better season with this roster around him. Like, Jalen Brown's been that special. Yeah.
Will
I mean the thing I will say for, for Tatum is you always look at the last couple of years when you're like, man, look at these plus minus darlings of Sam Houser and Peyton, Pritchard and Lucrat. You look at the five man lineup, it was just Tatum and on the bench, right? Like that was like where all of these inflated bench numbers were coming from is was Tatum running with whatever the closest equivalent to this to the team Jalen Brown has now is where you got a lot of those analytics like metrics that were. That were just kind of like eye opening. And it was all because Tatum was just uplifting them to a different level than what they really needed. So, you know, again, it's just we're lucky to have two of these guys that, that can really do it. And I think when it comes time, you know, you really have started to. Well, you. Plus the success of this team opened my mind to like the conversation around what does it look like for Tatum to reintegrate. Like, that's so fascinating. Fascinating now because I think in years past it's been Tatum had the responsibility of you got to carry these bench lineups. Now it's kind of like who. Both of these guys can carry a bench line, both of these guys can carry whatever lineup, right? Like it doesn't need. Like there's going to be so much versatility. It's gonna be really interesting to see if and when that happens. And just talking about the lead up to it of how it could look, I think that's just going to be extremely fascinating.
Greg
The lineup, the lineup of, of Brown, Tatum, White, Minot and Walsh. I just like want to see it so bad. I want to see that line of play together so bad.
Will
And you can, and you can put Minot or Ugo in there, right? Like you can, you can actually have like both of those two. And so it's. Yeah, I think that's going to be really fun. Hopefully we get to see that this year. Greg, really weird scheduling quirk that allowed for us to to kind of be a little bit flexible with our recording schedule. So we're recording this here on Monday night. Celtics have two more more days off, then they play Thursday at Milwaukee. Giannis list Bucks so hopefully that should be a win to continue moving the chains here for the Celtics. Then they've got three more days off, then an awesome home matchup against the Pistons followed by three more days off. Thank you. NBA cup and then a back to back with Miami and Toronto next weekend. So really interesting schedule here. Lots of time for rest, lots of time for for practice, for team bonding, whatever is going to be happening here. But the Celtics being third in the Eastern Conference, not much is going to change between now and the time we get to that big Pistons matchup because there's not many people are playing games because of the NBA cup and the way the schedule kind of breaks. So really looking forward to that game on Monday which is could potentially be 1 versus 3 in the conference. And Greg, I'm sure you know, after the game on Thursday, maybe we'll pop on here, give a couple thoughts, maybe set up a preview for it. We'll see, we'll figure out what that schedule looks like. But that's going to do it for this episode here of green with envy. Celtics 159 third place in the Eastern Conference. They are back on the court Thursday night against the Milwaukee Bucks. We will have more coverage for you guys later in the week. Greg as always appreciate you and everybody listening. We appreciate you. Make sure you guys are locked in and following us across all of our social medias and we will catch you guys later.
It don't take much no more.
Greg
Until.
Will
I hit the floor.
Every time I get this high it's you I find it don't take much no more.
Until I'm at your dark.
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Podcast: Green With Envy: A Boston Celtics Podcast
Episode: Five Stats to Explain the Rise of the Boston Celtics
Release Date: December 9, 2025
Hosts: Will & Greg (Blue Wire)
Featured Guests: Insights referenced from Mike Gorman, Drew Carter, Amina Smith, Dana Barros
Will and Greg break down the Boston Celtics’ impressive surge to third in the Eastern Conference (15-9) using five key statistical trends. This episode explores the transformation of the Celtics into a dynamic, “Brad Stevens-esque” underdog roster, the emergence of role players like Jordan Walsh and Nemius Queta, the philosophy of “Missoula Ball” and winning on the margins, and the elevated play of Jalen Brown. The hosts contextualize stats, player development, and team identity shifts—all with the lively tone and camaraderie that defines the Green With Envy podcast.
Will and Greg, in their characteristically loose, banter-filled manner, provide a podcast episode that will energize any Celtics fan. The sense of fun, group chat-like debate, and deep knowledge (as well as chatroom and insider references) make this a must-listen for those excited about Banner 19.
Key Takeaway:
Boston’s rise is no fluke. It’s the result of defensive tenacity (Walsh), roster youthful energy, ingeniously low turnovers, and new star-level surges from Jaylen Brown—wrapped up in a team identity reminiscent of the plucky Brad Stevens era but elevated for the modern NBA. With Tatum’s return on the horizon, the “margin” winning Celtics could just be getting started.