← Green With Envy: A Boston Celtics Podcast
Green With Envy: A Boston Celtics Podcast
How will Jayson Tatum's "quiet" return affect Jaylen Brown?
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Calling all fun lovers and memory makers.
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Texas invites you to cheer from our.
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Stadiums.
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And dance like no one is watching.
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C
To Green with Envy with Will and Greg.
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All right, everybody, all star festivities are in our rear view mirror the second half using air quotes here. 28 games left. Celtics 35 and 19. You know what, we got to leave with Jayson Tatum. Watch is officially on. 28 games left to go. What are the questions? What are the things that you need to be thinking about as a fan? We got all that and more coming up next here on Green with Envy. You guys know the deal. Let's lock in. What up, what up, what up? Welcome into another edition of Green with Envy. As always, this your boy, Will. We're checking in.
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B
How you doing?
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How you live? 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 Rez. Greg. It's about to ramp up here. We got 28 games left, and then it's money making time. It's the playoffs. I'm starting to get a little bit hype. How you feeling?
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B
I feel great, dude. I'm. I'm actually like the. I. I don't even know what to say right now, but I want to record more podcasts because, like, I'm upset the Celtics are going on a west coast trip because I want to do post game pods. I want to, like, give the people all the content they deserve because we're going into the fun part of the season and I'm excited, man. Jason Tatum watch is officially here.
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A
Yeah, that's the big news, right? So we're gonna hit a couple different topics here. We were going to record after one of the west coast games here, but let's be real with kids and everything. It's just too late. It's just. It just. It is what it is. But to Greg's point, as soon as the Celtics are done with this west coast trip, we're really going to start picking it up. So we've basically been two podcasts a week. I think you're going to start seeing three podcasts a week at certain points, depending on what's happening. And of course, the biggest topic since the last time that we spoke to you all, of course, is that now that we are past the All Star break, we've hit that window. We're in the next two to three weeks. Either it's happening or it's not happening. It is Jason T. Tatum. Watch time. What is going to happen with Jason Tatum? We're going to find out the next couple of weeks. And Greg, I think the, maybe one of the biggest clues that we got was during the All Star Game. I forget if it was during game in between game two or game three. Whichever. Which, which, by the way, we'll talk about the All Star Game. Not, not a bad All Star Game. Pretty, pretty, pretty good. Pretty, pretty good. And we got what is going to be a Jason documentary, Jason Tatum documentary called the Quiet Work that is going to be dropping. Although I have a fundamental question for you, Greg. When does the quiet Work cease to become the quiet Work? If you're filming the entire thing for public consumption? Is there, is there a certain point where, where, where that changes?
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B
Here's the thing, man. I don't know why he didn't just reach out to Isaiah Thomas and see if he could use the slow grind, because that's, you know, I love Isaiah Thomas's. It's the slow grind thing. And, you know, I think it would have been a nice little touch to kind of have those through lines going back to it. But yeah, Quiet Work is cool. Just like everything with Jason Tatum. Quiet is one way to describe him, but egoless is not a way I would describe.
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Yeah, yeah, it's an interesting. He. He's always been a very interesting balance of, of these two things. I don't want the spotlight. I, I just want everything filmed and everything manicured and for me to look great. That's it. That's all I ask. That's all I ask. But here, here's what I want to read to you, Greg. This is the YouTube summary. Got this from our friends over at Celtics Block who had it in the article. So this commercial, for everyone who doesn't know, drops in the middle of All Star Games. So this is not just NBC Sports. This is big time NBC. This is parent company NBC. And of course, this went along with the hype where the Celtic Sixers game has got flexed into that NBC Sunday night on. What is that? I think it's March 1st is what I believe that game is. So maybe that means something, maybe it doesn't. But Greg, let me read to you. Here is the description.
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B
Can you read it in like a movie trailer voice?
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Yeah, of course. Here is the description of the quiet work from YouTube. For the first time in his life, the game that defined Jason Tatum was taken away by an Achilles injury. The five part docu series the Quiet Work follows Jason through the most challenging stretch of his career as he fights to return to the NBA. From the locker room to the hospital room, through rehab and recovery, and ultimately back to the court. This is the unseen side of his journey in the work no one ever witnesses. Until now. Boom, boom. The quiet Work. Jason Tatum coming this spring. Greg, honestly, like, if he's not coming back, this is a dud right here. Like, what, like, what are we doing if, if you're, if you're putting this out there? Like, at this point, I've never been more sure he's coming back at some point.
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B
Yeah, it would be, it'd be pretty funny if he didn't come back. After last year, the Superman commercial comes out and then he tears his Achilles like the day after the Superman commercial comes out. Imagine if this came out and then he didn't come back. That would be like the ultimate irony and gut punch to all Celtics nation. So I mean, I'm excited to see this. Like, we know that Jason Tatum has been putting in this work behind the scenes, although it has been filmed. And I just want to see all the ups and downs, all the vicissitudes, the twists and turns of this rehab process because it's going to tell us a lot about who Jason Tatum really is. You know, like the, the whole, the whole thing we're talking about is like, everything has to be manicured and has to look perfect. Like, what does it look like when things get gritty and grimy in Jason Tatum's life? So I'm excited to see that behind the scenes because we only get the polished Jason Tatum that's at the, you know, at the press conferences or NBA fit check and all that stuff. Like, I want to see Jason Tatum a little bit more grittier and grimier because even when he was in the Netflix starting five, like, that was, that was just A commercial for Jason Tatum. Commercial for LeBron James. Right. So like this, this hopefully shows a little bit more of like the true human qualities of it and less of just like a Jason Tatum promo, if you will.
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Yeah, I'll be honest, my gut is it's more of a promo than anything else. Like, especially where I saw five part, I'm like, yeah, this was an hour. I think I'd be pretty. I'd be like, yes, let's, let's just get an hour of like behind the scenes. Because I think it is, I do think it's interesting to understand what this journey looks like. I think five parts is going to be very drawn out. It's going to be the things that he wants you to see. And like, I don't know, I have very, I have very limited excitement for the actual project itself other than what I think it represents, which is Jason Tatum actually back on the court.
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Did they say how long each part is?
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They did not. It only says five part docu series. So I mean, it could be like.
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15 minutes apart, you know?
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Yeah, it could be. Yeah, yeah, I know that's a fair point. We'll see what it is. But I think this public of a statement, again, feels like it's hard to, to walk that back. Shout out to our guy Fred in the chat here said he think, I think I read the parts or like 10 to 12 minutes. So if that's the case, that's a little bit of a different story. That actually would be something that I'm far more interested than if we're doing, you know, 30 to 45 minutes every single episode and it becomes an infomercial, like you said. But again, I think this absolutely highlights that Jason Tatum is coming back and that leads to, you know, Greg, I think some of the questions here, as you get up on, on the screen here, you know our guy Fred went ahead and bought tickets. The Celtics versus Spurs, which. Greg, I've been meaning to text you. We got to get. Do the same thing here for March 10th. JT and WEMBY maybe on the same court. We gotta make that happen.
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We gotta link up with Fred too. Fred, hit. Let's, let's grab a beer, bro.
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Yeah, dude. Fred, slide in the DMs. Let's, let's, let's coordinate something. And Greg, I think this starts to get to the question here. We've already talked about when we think he's coming back, right? Like, forget this west coast trip. It starts on the Sunday the 27th against Brooklyn or excuse me, Friday the 27th against Brooklyn. Don't think it's going to be then. But between then and basically, I think what we identified was the 18th against Golden State, which is really probably sometimes in that homestand. That's the window of whether or not Tatum's coming back. But the conversation, and I think we're finally probably at the point where we can shift into this mode as well too, is what do we think this is going to look like? Because you mentioned before, like Tatum being, you know, gritty and grindy and things not being perfect. The definition of things not being perfect is guys who come back from injury, very rarely does he likely not going to look like Jason Tatum. And when you factor in the success, which is relatively unexpected success compared to expectations this year now, I think we're at the point now for the next couple of weeks, this is going to be a topic we probably talk about every single night. But what do you think? What do you think it's going to look like or what issues or non issues do you think could present themselves?
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So I was thinking a lot about the fact that they're already reintegrate. They're already integrating Vucovic and they're going to have to reintegrate Jason Tatum into this completely different style of play that they've been playing this season compared to last season. Right. And I do think if Tatum was coming on to the team that still had Anthony Simons, it's probably a little bit harder to reintegrate him into that system just because all the other guys are used to playing exactly how they've been playing. But the fact that they've already upset the apple cart and brought in Vuchovic and got rid of Simons, they're already learning a new way to play, so to speak, with Vuch. So since they're already doing that, you might as well bring in the best player on your roster and Jason Tatum and just see if you guys can figure it out. Because with Jason Tatum coming back, the first question obviously is will he slide into place behind Jaylen Brown or will he slide back into place as the number one option on this team? My gut tells me he's going to slide right back into the number one option. I just think if Jason Tatum is coming back this season, he said on record, I'm coming back to be Jason Tatum. I'm not coming back to be anything else. I don't think that's the right call. I think he should come back as the second option and I think he should come off the bench for the first couple of games. But knowing Jason Tatum, I think he's going to come back and you're going to see him, you know, pretty much playing point forward to the point that.
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You'Re making about, you know, still working in Vuch into this. I think the interesting part of that is when you look at the core of guys that Tatum would be rejoining, Pritchard White, Jaylen Brown, Sam Houser, even Neemi, to a certain degree, it's almost re. Acclimating to the way that they played the last time Tatum left because, as you mentioned in one of our last podcasts, Pooch is somewhat of a Porzingis light. Right? Like, he does more things that equate to a combo, probably of Porzingis and Horford, of things that. That they did that Tatum is kind of used to. Right? Like, that's. That's more what he's used to. Whereas playing with Simons was going to be a different setup, right. Different style. So from a Tatum reintegration standpoint, it's probably actually a little bit easier with Vuch, even though he's a new guy, because his style kind of matches up with. With what, you know, Tatum knew. Now, I think, of course, you got to the crux of what's going to be the most fascinating and annoying conversation at the same time, which is how did the Jays make this work? Especially with Jaylen Brown, who, you know, as of right now, with 28 games left, depending on, you know, if you're projecting out who's going to be even eligible to win mvp, like, he's almost a shoe in to be top five at this point and really kind of in that top two to three combo. And so what does that look like? And it's interesting because on one hand, the Jays have played together for so long that in my mind, I'm like, I don't. It's not going to be an issue now. Like, these guys know each other. These guys have played together for so long. But on the other hand, Jaylen Brown's never had a moment like this. And so it's this really interesting balance of how it's going to work. And I'm kind of in the. The thought of a view that Tatum being, you know, quote, unquote, number two while he transitions back is probably the right call, I think, for Jalen. Like, I don't really want to mess up what Jalen has going. The only thing that I think for Jalen that would be something that I would call out is there's certain nights right now where Jalen just has to go it. No one else has it. I gotta do this right? I gotta put up 32 shots or 28 shots, because there's nothing is that there's gonna be a couple nights where it's like, wait a minute. Even if he's not full. Jason Tatum. I have Jason Tatum again, Like, I don't need to do that. Like, I. Like, it's not Derek White. It's not Peyton Pritchard. Respect to those guys. But there's gonna be nights where it's like, nah, let's go back to, like, the Jays here. Like, let's go 30 for 30 here on this. And I think that's going to be interesting to see how that reintegrates. So.
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And we've already seen Jalen be okay in fourth quarters, taking a backseat to Peyton Pritchard and Derek White this season.
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Right? There have been some games where those guys have had it going in the fourth quarter, and Jalen's like, you know, just do your thing, man. Like, you got. You guys are cooking. And I think that's been the superpower of this team. And is it's not that Jaylen has been empowered, it's that Derrick White and Peyton Pritchard have the ball in their hands a little bit more. Derrick White, obviously, his efficiency is just plummeted. But there is something to be said about more guys, like a more equal Opportunity offense that makes it harder to guard and a little bit more unpredictable because that was the thing about the Jason Tatum offense. It became very predictable down the stretch, much to, much to our chagrin. And I, I do want to bring up Jack Simone's article at this point because I think this is a natural point to bring this up here. Jack wrote a phenomenal article article on Boston Sports Journal talking about Jaylen Brown in, in context of how the Celtics have, have reimagined what film sessions look like. But there's a really interesting quote from Jaylen here, so I have it up on the screen and I'm going to read it for everybody right now. We've had a more analytical approach to our style of play. I think this year it was just like, get it how you live make. Maybe the way I play basketball doesn't jump off the charts analytically to some degree in some capacity. So I can see why people may think that maybe me being put in this role, it wouldn't be successful. But there's more than meets the eye. So I've just been playing my game. I play off rhythm, I play off feel, I play off what I see and sometimes that doesn't show up in the analytics. So I think we've changed our approach significantly. I, I was discouraged a lot of times to take mid range shots at different points in my career. They literally told me not to. So now it's like, Jaylen, you can take whatever shot you want. I was like, sure, I've been shooting as many mid ranges as I can get up. So when you see that quote from Jaylen Brown and you see how much he has just been like unleashed to do what he wants to do and.
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To play the game liberated, it sounds.
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Like really like he, like, can you imagine being as good and as talented as Jalen Brown and have somebody tell you, like, you can't take your preferred shot? Like that must be so frustrating as a player. And it speaks to his character and his willingness to sacrifice. But how much is he going to be willing to adjust if the team asks him to tone that down a little bit? I think they should just keep letting him cook and letting him do his thing. And for Tatum to figure out how to play off of that because it's been so successful and all that happens is Jalen Brown goes from 28 shots to 22 shots, right? Six shots go to go to JT a couple shots from Derrick White go to JT couple from Pritchard go to JT and all of a sudden Tatum's at 15 shots. Right. So I think that there's a world that Jason Tatum can still get up 15 shots. He can do a little bit more out of the corners. He can come off of pin downs. He can function as a screener, as we've seen him function as a screener plenty of times, getting into the short roll and isoing from, from the middle of the floor. So I do think there's a way for Jason Tatum to fit around Jaylen Brown, because when you read that quote from Jalen, it's like, damn, they've allowed Jalen to be Jalen. And the Celtics are the second best offense in the NBA because of it.
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A
Yeah. You can't argue with the results. Like, it's every podcast I listen to that no one has an explanation, a real, like a viable explanation for how the Celtics are second in the NBA in offense other than it's just Jalen Brown kind of willing them. Of course, it's Missoula pulling the right strings and there's.
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B
Right, but that's what Jalen's whole quote is about. Right? It's like, analytically, it might not make sense to you guys. Like, my efficiency might not be the greatest, but look, the team, and it's all because of me.
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Yeah, yeah. And he's not wrong. And so I, I think, you know, from that, it's, it's really interesting to hear Jalen having been told, like, hey, don't take that shot because, you know, Missoula's been here since, you know, pre eme, like the email days. Right. So it's not like, like Joe, it's been from Stevens who's been here to IME to Joe. And so, you know, it's been the same ecosystem or been pieces of the same ecosystem that have been around. They've been telling Jaylen not to take that, that a lot of those are still here today that were like, you know what? You need to just start doing you right? And, and maybe part of that was a byproduct of not knowing what this season was going to look like with, you know, taking away all the stars that, that we mentioned, aging stars, but stars nonetheless, that that kind of left this team. And then, of course, Tatum not being available, and now they're like, man, I guess we've unleashed something that we didn't necessarily maybe even expect to this degree. And so, you know, I, I, I think again, because you and I have always said, and specifically I've always said, I, I think Tatum takes like two to three threes too Many per game. Like there's just two to three that I wish were like either mid range or drives to the basket. And I almost, I honestly really wonder if Tatum can take a little bit from what he's seen from Jalen and been like, what if I just converted a couple of these like side step backs that I could get downhill or I could get to the, you know, mid range post area and, and take some of these shots. And I wonder if he'll start to add some of that to his game. Right.
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Turn your, turn your drives into post ups like Jalen Brown' drive into the mid post and then get to your bag. One thing I'm wondering with Jalen that we haven't seen a lot of this year is Jalen playing out of the post with the post entry, right? So much of what Jalen does into the post is just him driving, driving and turning that drive into a post up. Last year we saw a lot of Jaylen Brown in the post, right? Where you have a guy in the wing and you just traditional entry pass into Jalen at the post with Vuchevic on the court, with Tatum on the court now, I wonder if that will be an area that they just readjust where Jalen is getting his shots. Not necessarily decrease the amount of shots, but just kind of move him into a different place on the court.
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Yeah, it's fascinating, man. I think there's so many angles to it and I hate that some people are like, you can't talk about like, are they going to work? It's like, dude, there's real questions. There is real like interest as to how it's going to work. I think to ultimately dismiss it that it's going to be problematic or just say there's not going to be any problems. I think that's just as faulty as trying to figure out like what it might look because I do think this is a very different team that Jason Tatum is coming back to. But again, it feels like he's coming back. I think once we get past this west coast trip, we're really going to know and we're going to continue to get probably the most annoying set of updates over the next two to three weeks where it's like he's got to hit check marks. Nothing's been. It's just going to be so much until it just hits. And it's going to hit hard when that champs notification comes in and Jason Tatum is officially coming back. So it's exciting. I think Tatum watch is fully on. We're going to be locked in on it. We're going to continue to talk more and more as games that are being played. We're like, hey, here's where we think Tatum could fit in. Here's where this might be an issue. Imagine if Tatum was here and what that could be. We'll have all of that. But of course, you know, we got to get through this west coast trip here. Greg. So coming up this week, Celtics are at Golden State, at the Lakers, at Phoenix and at Denver. So four playoff teams that they're playing. So pretty, pretty tough stretch here to open the season on the west coast. And so Greg, I want to take a minute here and do non Tatum division. Just what are the biggest either questions or things that you're looking for outside of Jason Tatum here, starting with this four game west trip, west coast road trip, but into the rest of the season, give me one thing that you're looking for. We'll just go back and forth on a few until we, until we run out Baylor Shireman.
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B
I, I'm just like so interested by his development this season and I'm wondering how much he's going to be a part of this team's plan if Jason Tatum actually does come back. Because I do think that the starting lineup with Tatum back on the court should be Derrick White, Jalen Brown, Jason Tatum, Sam Houser, Nemius Kaeda. I do think there's a world in which Baylor sticks in the starting lineup and Sam comes off the bench. So that would be the one thing to consider just because of how good Baylor Shireman has been, how versatile he is defensively and how great of a rebounder he's been. So you have Jason Tatum who can guard up, right? So Sam Houser's done a really good job of covering power forwards. So now you just asked Tatum to cover the power forward, right. And you would be asking Sam to guard down that he's not quite as good at. So Baylor could just take that spot, right? And Baylor has shown the ability to be a knockdown shooter from the corners. He's shooting, I think he's shooting like damn near 50% from the corners this season. So you don't miss a lot of shooting from the corners. You miss a little bit of that movement shooting. But I think you get a better rebounder than Sam, although Sam's not a bad rebounder and you get a point of attack defender that Sam or Tatum is not really able to offer. So you take a little bit of pressure off of Derrick White, take a little bit of pressure off of Jalen Brown. Then you see if Baylor Shireman could actually stick in the starting lineup and have a supercharged bench lineup with Peyton Pritchard, Sam Houser and Vuchovic.
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A
Yeah, I love the idea of that, that shooting coming off the bench between Pritchard, Hauser and Vuch. And then you stagger that with at least one of the j. At least one or actually at least two out of the three, probably Derrick White, Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown. Like that's a really nice combo to be able to have that. And you know, I had something similar here, Greg, that I was, I was going to bring up is because assuming again and we're kind of in that assumption period here of Tatum coming back, the rotation that Joe Mazzulla has been doing with Ugo, Baylor and Walsh, as far as you know that that wing power ranking that we do every couple of weeks where somebody new is at the front, we get really excited, we talk about all this potential and fast forward three weeks later it's reversed and now it's 3, 2, 1. And when Tatum comes back, he's eating up a chunk of minutes like that. Like that's cutting down. So to me it's out of those three who separates themselves because I don't think once Tatum comes back and certainly once Tatum's kind of fully ramped towards the end of the season and we get to the playoffs, like it's going to be unlikely. There's just enough minutes for those guys to go around without, without Joe Missoula who does occasionally do the here's three minutes. You don't got it cool. Like you can do that. But I think at a certain point that's probably going to be less frequent than we're used to now. And so to me it's like between those three, I think this west coast trip starts it as like this is a real competition. Like who is going to be to your point either that last guy in the starting lineup, we've seen all three of them at different points, more so Baylor and Walsh than we have seen Ugo in the starting lineup. And then who's going to be that guy that if, if one of them is going to the bench that's going to be rocking with Pritchard and with Vuch. Right. That's going to be the staple of that eight man rotation. And that, that's I think to me is probably the most interesting thing because we're at the point now with 28 games left, like somebody is likely going to separate themselves and then it's going to be until you're done, until you lose Joe Missoula's faith. Like it's not going to be the same merry go round. It's going to be like one in, one out, more so.
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B
Yeah, and there, there is I think an argument to be made that because Derrick White, Peyton Pritchard and Jalen Brown have had such heavy workloads, you know, Tatum takes some minutes from other guys, but then Jalen Brown doesn't play as many minutes, Derrick White doesn't play as minutes and Peyton Pritchard. So there's still room for a nine to ten man rotation. And I do think that would probably be the wise thing to do for the last 28 games is to not cut it down to eight too soon because you're, you're never going to know which guy is going to be the guy that's on a hot streak running into the playoffs. And then playoffs are all about matchups, right? So we've talked about how Ugo, Baylor and Walsh all offer something similar but a little bit different at the same time. And maybe it's Baylor shooting that you need on the court, maybe it's Jordan Walsh being able to guard Tyrese Maxey, maybe it's Ugo needing to size up and guard somebody that you know that plays all the way to the four because Hugo Ugo can do that. Or you just need Ugo coming off the wings with his, you know, corner side crash or anything like that. Like all these guys offer a little bit something different. So I think you need to keep everyone sharp, you need to keep everyone ready and then Luca Garza is the last guy where is he just going to be relegated to the bench the rest of the season or does Joe still try and find spot minutes for him to keep him ready just in case, you know, there's no chemistry with Vuch and Tatum or Kada regresses or something happens like that. Because Garza has proven to be a useful player. Will he be a playoff player? Probably not, as I predicted earlier in the season. But you know, we'll see. He's had, he's a hell of a season.
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A
Yeah, the Garza point's interesting and that that goes into one of the other things I, I'm thinking about down the stretch here is is more Vuch just more understanding what are the Vuch spots. Right. And like I wonder. I doubt we see it much but it's interesting, you know, especially with I think this Denver game coming up. I'm very curious to see how Joe uses Vuch Against a guy like, like Yogic, obviously V is not like a shutdown guy. No one's a shut down guy. Against Jokic, we've seen this. But the thing that we've talked about with Vouch that's a little bit different is, you know, he's not quite. He's. It's so funny talking, trying to talk about between him and Garza, who's better on their feet. Like, neither of them are lightning quick, but I would say V is a little bit better on his feet.
- [28:47]
B
Well, I, I like what you said a couple, a couple pods ago where you were like Luca Garza, because it looks like he's trying hard. Because he has to try so hard. Like, maybe that's why we think he's a better defender than Vuch, but maybe Vuch just doesn't have to move with as much effort to like literally move his feet.
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A
There's no doubt between the two, Like Vuj is a better defensive rebound. Like, ours is a very bad deep rebounder.
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D
Big thanks to our sponsor, BetterHelp, for.
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A
Partnering with us for this important conversation about mental health.
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D
This is Steve Smith here, former NFL wide receiver and host of the 89 show on YouTube. So having a counselor and working with BetterHelp, that gives you an opportunity to really start to unpack. But people don't understand when you unpack things, you also open up a box that you're not always sure what's inside. So I think that's why seeing a professional is extremely important. If you need someone to open up to visit betterhelp. That's betterhelp.com89 to get started.
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C
Few things are as uplifting as the greatest moments in sports. And nothing brings us together quite like Team USA at the Olympic Winter Games. From NBCUniversal's iconic storytelling to the innovative technology across Xfinity and Peacock, Comcast brings the Olympic Games home to America, sharing every moment with millions. When Team USA steps onto the world stage, we're not just watching, we're cheering together. This winter, we're all on the same team. Comcast, proud partner of Team usa.
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B
Buch is the best box out guy on the team.
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A
Exactly. So I think that's going to be interesting for matchups where we see him against Jokic. You know that Philly game that we mentioned that got flexed like Joel Embiid. Like, I think those are the type of matchups where it's going to be interesting where if having a, you know, a bigger guy that you feel like can at least give you a little bit More muscle in there is going to make a difference. Maybe not. We, we saw Jokic, Tara Portinga. So I'm not saying it's gonna, it's gonna be game changing, but for what you have as a team right now, between what Vuch brings and what Garza brings, that is interesting to see if it, if it is a meaningful difference for sure.
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B
And there's also another nice piece in Jack's article. Once again, Jack Simone wrote a phenomenal article on Boston Sports Journal talking about how the Celtics have kind of reshaped their team based on necessity this season. Starting with this film session that they did in Toronto. Basically they did like a problem, problem based learning where the all of the Celtics got together and decided who the matchups were going to be. And the coaches just like didn't really have much to do. This gave them a problem and asked them to solve it. Right. And one of the things that they talked about in this article was how the defensive philosophy has changed this year because of necessity and different personnel. And one of the things that they said was one of the kind of reads that they allowed on the defensive side was if KP or Derrick White was on the court, they had free reign to leave their guy and contest at the rim. Right. So they were kind of like always on rovers and this season they don't have that. Now with Vuch, one of the. I think they probably still do have it with Derek White to some degree. But yeah, with Vuch, he's not a shot blocker, right. So he's never going to be someone to contest at the rim. But he is a great rebounder. He can box out. So with Jason Tatum coming back and Derrick White being a phenomenal rim protector, Jason Tatum has proven to be a great weak side rim deterrent, right. So I do think there's a world in which they figure out some sort of scheme where Vuch doesn't have to worry about blocking shots because he's going to be worrying about boxing out Joel Embiid boxing out Mitchell Robinson boxing out Jalen Duran. Right. Going to, that's going to be his role. And then the rim protectors are actually going to be the smaller guys on the court, which would be an interesting concept that just kind of popped up into my mind as we were talking about this.
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Yeah, that's going to be a pretty fascinating watch. And I think that whole article, especially that, and I didn't read, I didn't get a chance to read the whole article, but that, that part there was the main part that I did get a chance to. To read and take away from. And the idea of Joe Missoula assigning a school project on the flight over to Toronto, like, hey, guys, here's a problem. Like, here's a whiteboard. Like, like, go, go figure it out. And like, tell me. Come back and tell me what you guys think. I think that's a really interesting look into the way that Joe Missoula thinks, and not just. Not just thinks, but goes about, because there's so many things in there, right? There's camaraderie, there's the critical thinking skills that go into it, and it's just the things that obviously we don't usually get a lot of insight into, but we get to see the way that the. The mad mind of. Of Joe Missoula works. And, you know, I think it goes hand in hand with kind of like Jalen's switch in philosophy, which is surely tied to things that Joe Missoula is bringing up and telling him to do. And I've. And it's, listen, Joe Missoula, I think, again, probably the coach of the year at this point. I think his, you know, these last 28 games and what he puts together and if he's integrating or reintegrating Tatum into it, like, that's the other most fascinating point, is how he handles that and gets this team ready for the playoffs. Because I do think with the unexpected success this year, one of the things that we do forget is if you go back to that Celtics Knick series last year, and obviously we remember the Tatum injury and it's down 3:1, but it was a pretty bad series for Joe Missoula. Like, that was probably his lowest point as a Celtics coach. You can point to where it's like, are we sure this guy's the guy? Like, is he the guy?
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Well, I mean, I don't know. That's why it was so fascinating when the Knicks fired Tom Thibodeau, because it was like he completely out coats Joe Missoula.
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Yeah. Yeah. Like, it wasn't even close. Like, there was so many things in that series where it was like, what was Joe Missoula doing? It was. It was really hard to figure out. And so for where he's at now, it's number one. So impressive. And two, so interesting to see where he continues, especially as JT is on the precipice of coming back. Last thing I had here, Greg, which you already touched on, is I think for the. For the last 28 games, Derek White shooting, we just. We just got to get back on track, man. It's just got to get back to a certain level. And of course, I think we've talked about this for a while now. He's probably leveled up slightly higher than he really should be in the hierarchy and he can do it on certain nights. But as we've seen over, you know, this first stretch of games, like they're in second place. His plus minus, his analytics, like to the opposite of what Jalen said. If you look at the analytics, that's where you're going to find the value for Derrick White. If you look at the straight up, you know, shooting splits and stats, like he's shooting 38 right now overall, like that's terrible. And. But it's all the other things he does that he's right that he's still such a positive but ultimately like he's got to get back to. I was looking at some of his shooting splits month over month here. Like back in, let me see, what was it? November? No, December. He was averaging almost 113 point attempts per game at 38. Like that's elite numbers. Like that's, that's not quite Steph Curry, but it's a shade below like what a guy like Steph Curry would do. And then of course we know the numbers in January dipped down to 26. And right now in February, six games, he's back closer to 34.5. So it's, it's getting back up there. But I think that's something that if the Celtics are going to be serious with or without Tatum coming back, the Derrick White shooting has to get back to the consistent level that, that we know it can be at. Because without that it's really difficult with some of the lineups that you're going to need to have out there. And whether you're trying to balance size with shooting, that if he's not giving you that elite shooting that it just makes it, it makes the equation a lot more difficult for the Celtics, definitely.
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Do you want to talk a little bit about the All Star Game?
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Yeah, let's do that and then we can, we can wrap up here. So All Star Game over the weekend. Hand up. Didn't know it was a daytime affair this year. That was interesting to, to find that out. It's funny though. So I saw that there was like record ratings for the Sunday All Star activities. I think all of the outcry, which, which is also from myself here of Saturday not knowing that it was the middle of the day, I think that helped to get the attention that everyone Then locked in the next day knowing that it was going to be early. But I don't remember the. Like, we cover the NBA, Greg. I saw many people who cover either general sports or, you know, cover the NBA that didn't know this was happening middle of the day. Like, how could you have done a worse job of advertising this NBA? That there was an altered time because of the Olympics? Like, I saw nothing about this.
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I mean, here's the thing. Maybe they knew for Saturday night that it wasn't going to be much of an affair with the names that were in that dunk contest. And we actually kind of don't want people to tune in live. We just want people to watch the good clips and the bloopers. Chase Richardson, shout out on Twitter. Yeah, but I actually do have. I. I do have one fix for the All Star game that I kind of want to float out there because I really like.
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For the game or for Saturday night?
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For the game.
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For the game. Okay.
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Just adding on. It's not necessarily a fix because I thought it went really well. If you didn't watch it. They did. Three teams. One team was filled with all guys that were not from the United States, plus Norm Powell, I guess, whose dad is from Jamaica.
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And then he played for team Jamaica in like the qualifying. I think that counts.
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Okay. Okay, cool.
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It's a cat situation where cats cat was born in New Jersey, but he played for Dominican Republic, similar situation.
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Good call. And then there were two teams of US players. And basically it was like the old heads versus the the new generation, more or less. And you know, each game, each team played two games and the teams that had the best record point differential met in the finals. And all the games are great, Right. We got a buzzer beater in the first game where they did the Elam ending right in overtime. Yeah. So first game, they go to overtime, Scotty Barnes hits the three to hit the Elam ending target score five. And then in the second game, Darren Fox hits a three pointer at the buzzer to win. And then in the third game, Wemby misses a three pointer at the buzzer that would have sent the game to overtime. And then the fourth game was a blowout. So you got three really good games, which is great. I love that. Here's the issue was the team that played the the penultimate game and won and went to the finals that had all the old guys, right? So it was LeBron, it was Kawhi, and all them. And they were gassed. They had nothing left for the final game. So here's my proposal, Will. So here's, here's. I would fix overtime. Overtime is a Troy style in general is a Troy style one on one game where a team sends out their champion first to three buckets. So if you don't know the movie Troy, there's this great scene where Achilles has his, his battle, his army's going up against another army and they call for this big dude, his name's Poagrius and he's like poagria. Poagrius comes and they call for Achilles and he's like off banging some chick in a tent and they have to go get him to come fight for, come fight for the army. And then he kills him with this like s jumping like dagger move. So that's what would, that would be the thing, right? You go to overtime and it's like each team grabs one guy one on one game to three. Secondly, the championship game is a coin toss. So where the winner gets to decide the format. So champions, captains go to half court coin toss. Whoever wins the coin toss gets to decide. You get a one on one FIFA style shootout where the offense, right, sends out their player and then the defense has to respond with who they think the best matchup is, right? So for the most part it would probably be like a Wemby. But you know, if there's a super quick guy maybe you want to send out, you want to send out a Jalen Brown to cover them or something like that, right? Or you could have a 5 on 5 pickup game to 21 or a 3v3 3 point shootout. So that last game you get rid of all the people being tired unless they're like, you know what it, we want to play five on five. And that's where the, the captain gets to decide. It's a 5 on 5 pickup game to 21 or if they're gassed, they're like let's do this FIFA style thing. Or if they have like Steph Curry, Dane Lillard and Devin Booker on the same team, maybe they want to do the three point shootout. So that would be my fun little wrinkle to All Star weekend. What are your thoughts?
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It's. I love the Troy win one. I think that's, I think that's great for overtime. I really like that idea. I think you could even incorporate the, the FIFA style suggestion for that. So that would change it a little bit from what you're saying. But you could just do like all right, like just like the way they do like they have the five shooters and then you have five defenders. But maybe it's like, I don't know, you'd have to figure it away. Just like five one on one battles, right? Like you get the ball once, you get the ball once. Either you guys in the gate, when you keep going until like, until there's a winner, that. So essentially out of five, like first to three wins or you know what, whatever.
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Yes.
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Yeah, I think that's a really good idea. I really like that one. I think the one at the end, it's funny just the way that it worked out this year that it was the old guys that played three games in a row. And you could tell by that, that last game, which by the way, I did not watch this live. I, I watched a little bit of it live. I was, I was out golfing for a little bit and I was like, like, you know what, let me throw this on my phone. And I caught the buzzer beat over from the Aaron Fox, like, oh, this is going pretty good here. This is actually pretty interesting. And then, so when I got home, I rewatched the first three quarters and then the fourth one, I watched it for like a second. I was like, all right, this is not going anywhere. Kawhi Leonard going nuts in that third game was unbelievable. Especially, especially in his, in his home building. Right this, the, the building that aspiration built. But for that last one, I, I think I would give it another chance with this five on five. I love the idea, the three point contest, I think that just could be done. Like that should just probably be something that happens on Saturday night. There is another, like make the whole night basically three different versions of three point contest. It's the only thing that works. It's the only thing that's fun on Saturday night consistently. So I would do something like that there, but I, I want to give it one more year to see if the 5 on 5 format works. Remember with the elame ending which you brought up, which they did use like in the ot, Everyone loved that for like a year or two. And then the part that where it gets ruined is like games end on free throws. It's a blowout and you play for like 10 minutes in the last, you know, quarter. So I wanna, I wanna get.
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But the thing is like the captains get to pick, right? So it's not like there's no five on five. It's just the guys.
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That's true.
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The guys have a little agency in choosing what, whatever they want that last thing to be.
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Yeah. Well, I'll tell you what, if it's if it's the World Team, I don't think they'd pick five on five because they were playing with only six guys because Luca and Jokic could not be bothered to give a about it, Which I gotta say, Shout out. So Kevin Durant had a very interesting weekend. I like the Kevin Durant. I like that he fought back and was like, yeah, you guys are always talking about the All Star Game. Why don't you guys go pick on Joker and Luca? They literally don't do anything. Like, you guys keep saying everyone else needs to do stuff, go talk to them. And he's spot on that people do not give them enough for just being completely absent. But, yeah, then the KD files. Man, this dude's got to get off his burners. Like, what is he doing?
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He's got an addiction, man. He's addicted to the drama. He's just a messy dude. Like, Katie is a messy dude. He loves the chaos. He loves getting his hands dirty and he loves just, you know, talking. He's a talker. He's a pot stir. He's a troublemaker.
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Woody Woodpecker. I saw two other reporters that were like, yeah, listen, I've never publicized it, but Katie's been in my DMs arguing with me about his legacy, like, multiple times. And it was like, dude, kd, you are just on another level, my guy. But overall, I think All Star Game pretty good Saturday. It's whatever. I just care about the three point contest. That's the only thing I was upset about that I missed is. So, by the way, congratulations to you. We do every year, myself, Greg, our guys, Chris and Mark, we draft the three point contest to give us a little bit of. A little bit of interest, a little extra interest or a couple bucks on it. We did the draft, luckily in time for the three point contest. Yeah, I saw. I saw the last rat because I went to go check as to what time it was on, because I would. I think I just texted in the group, like, hey, whoever's actually watching tonight, like, just let me know so I can make my wife watch that. Because I was trying to give her like a basketball free weekend, but I was like, I'm gonna make her watch this. Because it's like usually 20 minutes and it's actually exciting. And I caught the last rack, so I caught Khan versus versus Dame versus Book. Dame versus Book was. Was intense down the stretch.
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I didn't even see it, man. It was a bummer.
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I.
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But I. I made my pick, so I won the bet. First of all, you paid me, Mark and Chris. Pay up, bro. Shoot me the Venmo, you know, And. And Danielle actually picked it. So you guys picked the first pick was what, Khan?
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Yeah. No, first pick was Maxi.
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Okay, so it was Maxi Khan. And who's a third pick?
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I. I took Jamal Murray. I knew I should have taken Dave.
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Oh, yeah.
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But I was just. But it was a bad pick. It was a bad pick. I. I don't know. I should have gone Dame, but I went Jamal Murray. Just to be different. Or book and.
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Yeah, yeah.
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Or book. But, yeah, it is what it is.
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So I. I had the fourth and fifth pick, so I took Dame and book and I was like, oh, yeah, great.
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Yeah, yeah, you defaulted into a championship. So congrats to you all. Star game. It's in the rear view mirror. We're on to the final home stretch of the season. 28 games left, as we said. Celtics Thursday night, I believe, prime time game against Golden State. And then LA on Sunday. Beat la, beat la. Likely we will be on recording after that Lakers game. So we'll have your fill of warriors news, Lakers recap, and anything else that leads us into the week coming up here, which includes Phoenix and then Denver against the Joker. Greg, any final thoughts before we wrap this one up?
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Luca Donkey. Luca Donkey. Get your stinky ass out of here, bro. I hope Jalen Brown locks your ass down.
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Can't wait. Big games coming up. Warriors, Lakers. We'll have more for you after. Celtics, Lakers on Sunday. That'll do it for this episode. Appreciate y' all rocking with us. Have a great rest of the week. See you guys on Sunday. Every time I get this high it's you I find it don't take much no more Until I'm at your door.
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C
Few things are as uplifting as the greatest moments in sports, and nothing brings us together quite like Team USA at the Olympic Winter Games. From NBCUniversal's iconic storytelling to the innovative technology across Xfinity and Peacock, Comcast brings the Olympic Games home to America, sharing every moment with millions. When Team USA steps onto the world stage, we're not just watching. We're cheering together. This winter, we're all on the same Team Comcast, proud partner of Team usa.