← Green With Envy: A Boston Celtics Podcast
Green With Envy: A Boston Celtics Podcast
Jayson Tatum's Return Puts the Rest of the NBA on Notice
00:30:48
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- [00:00]
Arby's Announcer
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Arby's Announcer
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- [00:25]
Will (Green with Envy Host)
Arby's.
- [00:26]
Wells Fargo Announcer
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- [00:29]
Will (Green with Envy Host)
for a limited time.
- [00:30]
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- [01:00]
Greg Manakis (Green with Envy Co-host)
This is Mike Gorman, and you're listening
- [01:02]
Will (Green with Envy Host)
to Green with Envy with Will and Greg. All right, everybody, Jason Tatum is back. That's it. That's all you need to know. Celtics won. That ain't the story. Jason Tatum back on an NBA court looking like Jason Tatum. Let's talk about it. Let's get into it. It's agreeing with M. Postgame Live. You guys know the deal. Let's lock in. What up, what up, what up? Welcome into another edition of Green with Envy. It's a Green with Green Envy Post Game Live. Jason Tatum is back edition. That's the type of night we on. As always, this is your boy Will. We are checking in. How you doing? How you living? 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. Let's go. I don't have anything else.
- [02:12]
Greg Manakis (Green with Envy Co-host)
Let's go. Let's go, man. Like, what? What did we see? Like, are you kidding me? Jason Tatum looked that good in his first game back. He goes 15, 12 and seven in his first game back. And, like, when you think about people talking about, oh, Jason Tatum, you know, in the documentary, I ain't coming back. I ain't coming back to be a role player, Doc. Like, this is kind of the role player Jason Tatum that you got out there tonight, right? Where he's just doing everything and not trying to do too much. It was beautiful, man. And like, there was some, you know, there's some Hiccups, the missed dunk, the airball. He had two air balls in this game, but overall, seeing him on the court and that one, just emotionally, I was just like, this is awesome. Two, just to see everybody else just immediately kind of just fall into the right place, it made so much more distribution. Everybody makes more.
- [03:08]
Will (Green with Envy Host)
Made so much more sense. Just the, the shots everyone was getting, the responsibilities that everybody had. It. It just seemed, it just seemed right, right. Like, like it's. We know that there's been a missing piece and obviously a giant missing piece all season, but it's one of those things where, like, obviously we've kind of fallen in love with this team. So I, I think in certain respects we were able to kind of out of sight, out of mind it, right? And just really dive in and be a part of what this team has been this year. And it's been really special. But when you insert Tatum and honestly shout out to our guy Fred here in the chat, 27 minutes, 12 boards and seven dimes. Let's go. Like, I didn't expect it to look as clean as it looked tonight. And by clean, I mean how he looked, right? Like, I thought the fit, as we talked about this morning during coffee and season, I thought the fit was going to be pretty seamless because Jason Tatum can do everything. And it's funny, Greg, because you could tell he was waiting to, to, you know, he needed to get that easy dunk to get going, right? He needed that. But before that, he had five assists. And like, that's something that's so desperately been missing from this team. Just another playmaker, another guy that can create for someone else, another guy that can handle the ball, get into the lane, like, can initiate without having to look around. And where are the only three guys that can handle the basketball? And even before he scored, you felt like he was helping to, to put everything in place.
- [04:40]
Greg Manakis (Green with Envy Co-host)
Like we're talking about, he, He's a professional basketball player. He's a professional pick and roll, ball handler, he's a professional screener, he's a professional off ball shooter, he's a professional rebounder. Like, he is just the consummate professional out there on the court. And when you go from The Boston Celtics, second in the East 41 and 21, coming into the game tonight, they've been gimmicky, right? They've had to do it with energy. They've had to do it with, like, figuring out ways to win on the margins that we haven't seen in the past. And when you put Jason Tatum back into place and everybody else just like, starts to see how much easier the game is actually going to be because you have a 68 and a half point guard out there on the court. Like, he's, he's unbelievable, man. And like, you saw Derrick White immediately looks like Derrick White again. Jaylen Brown seamlessly goes 22, 7 and 7 on the night. Like, he was awesome. 24, 7 and 7. He was awesome. Nemi Kada and Jason Tatum, like, have this unbelievable chemistry already. And Pton Pritchard, you know, he, he, he struggled to start the game, but he finishes 8 for 17 from field. Got going in garbage time a little bit. And like, I, I, I, I'm just like, at a loss for words at how, how, how good this looked, man. Like, we looked amazing.
- [06:02]
Will (Green with Envy Host)
Yeah, there's a, you know, it's, it's the mad. Which, by the way, I haven't even said this yet. Celtics won 120 to. To 100. That, that, that was the, the final scored. We haven't, we're. We're 505 plus minutes in of a post game and didn't even talk about the final score. Celtics win by 20, and you know, it is the Mavericks. So I'm going to reserve some of the thoughts that are going on in my head right now, because the Celtics have three really tough games coming up in the next week on the road, and if they pull, if they pull at, you know, two of those three out, and really depending on how it, like, how it looks, even if they don't, there's a real chance I'm gonna start getting reckless on this podcast by next weekend. Like, there's a high chance of recklessness.
- [06:44]
Greg Manakis (Green with Envy Co-host)
All my text messages are already reckless, man.
- [06:47]
Will (Green with Envy Host)
Yeah, well, that's the whiskey talking. Whiskey got. Got in. It got in the mix, bro.
- [06:52]
Greg Manakis (Green with Envy Co-host)
Like, when he missed that dunk in the first quarter, I was like, all right, I'm, I'm opening up the whiskey. I was like, I don't know. Like, I'm, I'm nervous. I need. I, like, I was on edge. He looked good, but when I saw that, I was, like, waiting for him to tweak something. And the fact that he got through the game healthy, I was excited. The whiskey definitely helped Jaylen Brown.
- [07:12]
Will (Green with Envy Host)
Great game. Dude, chill with the alley. That alley freaked me out. Like, the, the alley itself was f, like the attempt, but just like, the pass was so bad, I was like,
- [07:22]
Greg Manakis (Green with Envy Co-host)
that should have been. Go to jt. Back to you for the alley. Don't throw jt the alley.
- [07:29]
Will (Green with Envy Host)
Come on dude, it was, it was because it's one of those things where like now that the game's in flow, you could see Tatum like trying to adjust and over adjust and extend and I was like, oh my God. Like I have just like a brief moment of pan. It was fine, but I had like a brief moment of, of jb. Let's, let's simmer down now. Simmer down now. Dude.
- [07:47]
Greg Manakis (Green with Envy Co-host)
How awesome was JB tonight though?
- [07:49]
Will (Green with Envy Host)
Dude, he was great. He was great. And you know, we talked about it this morning like he was starting, he wasn't hitting the wall. I don't want to say that that's not the case but like he needed help, right? Like, like that's how it goes. And they talked about on the broadcast like how he is, you know, I think he's either the league leader or second in the league in, in usage rate we've seen. And I want to go back and I'll, I'll try to look this up for our next podcast. Didn't have time today. I want to go back and look at guys who led the league or were like top two or three in usage rate over the last couple years. My guess is they didn't win. Right? Like, like you think it's probably going to be Luca. It's probably going to be go back a couple years. It's going to be going to be hard. And I'm trying to think some of the guys that are like just unlike crazily ball dominant. It probably didn't end in, in, in victory or in championships or, or for some of the guys ending up in the NBA finals. So it's a good thing that his usage rate is probably going to dip down a little bit because he's going to be able to kind of spread that wealth with Tatum. And as you, as you saw tonight, like it just looked, it felt easier. Like it's not the same.
- [08:48]
Greg Manakis (Green with Envy Co-host)
Ryan, there was not one and in once again it was the Mavs. There was not one moment that where Jaylen Brown had any sort of like stress in this game. Like everything that he did was easy for him, man. Even like the, the post ups that he had, like he, he had a little bit more bounce to him. He looked energized, he looked refreshed. He was coming off of pin downs.
- [09:12]
Will (Green with Envy Host)
He actually has a moment to reserve energy to be able to push in those certain moments and have those bursts that you know, as the season has gone on, we see slightly less and less because he's been carrying such a large, you Know know such a large load for this team.
- [09:28]
Greg Manakis (Green with Envy Co-host)
Yeah, the game was easy for him, man. The game was easy for Derrick White and like, dude, like Jason Tatum. I forgot how good he, he is. Like, as I'm watching this game tonight, this, like, his ability to get off a pick and roll, get somebody on his hip, get to a spot, look for a lob. Like the lobby had to Kada in the, like the first one of the first insisi out of the game. That's not an easy pass. And he just made it look so easy after not having played for almost 300 days. Like, are you kidding me with how good Jason Tatum looked in this game? I, I mean, I. V goes down another note here. Vuch goes down with a fractured fingers, getting surgery. He's going to miss a month.
- [10:10]
Will (Green with Envy Host)
That happened so quickly.
- [10:12]
Greg Manakis (Green with Envy Co-host)
Doesn't matter. Like Jason Tatum coming back. Vuch was always going to be someone that you hoped could, could mesh and might unlock something and be the Porzingis Horford facsimile. But the whole point is just like if Jason Tatum comes back, everybody else slides into place. V. I mean, think about last year, man. Like Porzingis, even the year before we won the championship, Porzingis barely played in the playoffs. Right. And it was just like Jason Tatum just went to a whole another level. Jaylen Brown went to a whole another level. And those two guys are the guys that matters. These ancillary pieces are just like icing on the cake. And Mimi Keda, I mean, the, the chemistry between Jason Tatum and Mimi Kada.
- [10:53]
Will (Green with Envy Host)
Another fantastic Mimi game tonight, dude. 16, 16 points, 15 boards, had a block, that sequence with the block, and then he ends up with the. And one missed the free throw, but the and one on the other end. You know, to the Tatum point, though, Greg, of just reminding us of how good he is. This is, I, I don't mean this in any way. It's a slight to Jalen Brown. Jalen Brown's been awesome. He's probably going to be first team all NBA. We're certainly going to be very vocal about him being first team all. Jason Tatum's done that for four straight years. Like, I think we forget sometimes because it's become so part of his norm and it's, it's, you know, like that's a, that's such a. In bold, like on your resume. Four straight first team all MBAs. Like, that's not a normal thing for guys to do. Like, there's very few guys, like, we love Paul Pierce. Paul Pierce never sniffed the first team all NBA, Right? Like, and you can go back and, like, you know, you can. You can talk about the different context behind it, but Jason Tatum is right there. He's been there, you know, and so when he comes back in, as great as Jaylen Brown's been and is deserving of everything for this year, we forget that. The way that he's performing right now this season is what Jason Tatum has done for four straight years in. In to some. To some degree. And watching him come back and just feel like, you know, other than, you know, taking five or six shots to. To kind of get his rhythm, scoring the basketball, everything just felt like. It felt like Tatum.
- [12:21]
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- [13:14]
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- [13:31]
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- [13:38]
Arby's Announcer
Oh, where'd that come from?
- [13:39]
Will (Green with Envy Host)
Arby's. We have the meats and participating Arby's for a limited time. It just. It's. It's. I'm hard, hard pressed to find words because it felt so much like I didn't expect that.
- [13:51]
Greg Manakis (Green with Envy Co-host)
I mean, the rebounding was. Was unbelievable in this game. Just like the. The decision making was quick. That one play where he ghosts the screen, slips the screen, kicks it out to Hauser for the three in the corner. Like, the read that he made off of that was crazy. Didn't feel like the game was too fast for him. He Was playing at his own pace. He's such a methodical player, and he was able to just like, immediately get into his spots and, you know, do what Jason Tatum does out there. As I was watching, I was trying to think, like, am I seeing any sort of limitation? Do I see, like, lack of lateral movement, lack of explosiveness, like, anything at all? And like, honestly, dude, I didn't really see anything that was like 75%. I would say he was probably like 95% Jason Tatum out there, and I was expecting 75 to 80%.
- [14:43]
Will (Green with Envy Host)
Right. I think he certainly exceeded expectations. I think there's. There's no doubt about that. The. The only thing that I was really watching was, like, defensively, you know, they. They kind of put him on, like, PJ Washington. No, they. They put him on guys that weren't really going to attack him. So it wasn't necessarily like, we saw him, you know, have to be the point of attack defender for the most part. Right. Which is fine. That's like, not a knock. That's just something that I think as.
- [15:05]
Greg Manakis (Green with Envy Co-host)
And he wasn't really willing to. To be a rim protector. There are a couple moments where he was the low man and he kind of, like, shied away from contact and stuff like that, but that's fine.
- [15:15]
Will (Green with Envy Host)
Yeah. Also, I mean, on. On offense, though, the third quarter started that. That drive downhill where he gets the contact, bumps off to the right. Like, that's, you know, that's part of this. Like, what am I looking for? Like, is he gonna go get that contact? Like, no free throws tonight? Like, I'm sure that's going to change as we get more and more into this and he starts getting back downhill a little bit more, looking to score, looking to be aggressive. But yeah, I mean, those are like the minor things that, that I would look at that over, you know, over the next couple of weeks, we'll look to see that build up. It's going to be interesting because, you know, the Mavericks, this is where, you know, playing the Mavericks comes into play. Like, they have Cooper Flag, who's a rookie. Chris Middleton isn't Chris Middleton anymore. Like, he's fine, but, like, they have no one that's really going to challenge you and go downhill and try to do that. Coming up, they've got Donovan Mitchell coming up, they've got James Harden. You know, even Dennis Schroeder, if he gets a mismatch, is going to think that, like, hey, I'm going to make Tatum run and work in some capacity. Like, there's multiple guys that will do that. The spurs have several ball handlers. OKC is unlimited ball handlers. Like this will be something that we'll see more of over the next week. But I think this was a good warm up game where that's not necessarily a main thing that Tatum had to do. But that would be to your point of like where was he at limitation wise? I wouldn't say it's limitation. I think it's just I would put him at 90, 95% because we didn't get a chance to see that, which is again totally fine. But will be coming.
- [16:40]
Greg Manakis (Green with Envy Co-host)
But he, I mean he played more minutes than I expected. He started which I thought he was
- [16:43]
Will (Green with Envy Host)
going to come off no limit, 27,
- [16:47]
Greg Manakis (Green with Envy Co-host)
27 minutes in his first game back. And like if it was a close game, I feel like he probably would have went 30 minutes. We were up 20 when he came out of the game with five minutes left. Right. So I mean raving reviews for, for Jason Tatum. A couple other things to point out like team wise in this game, Celtics were unbelievable on defense. Sixteen total stocks compared to seven for, for the Mavs. So we win that by nine. And the, when you know, the, the comments I made about being less gimmicky there, there were less opportunities to be gimmicky because we were just so much more efficient out there on the court. But one thing I do want to point out, Vuchevic going down with the injury allows Luca Garza to come back into the rotation, which is going to be a really interesting thing to, to watch over the next month as Vuch is going to be out basically until the playoffs. Right. So what are we going to see out of Luca Garza coming into this role where he's been great as the second big all year? He's a gimmicky player, right? He's, he's one that just like spams, offensive rebounds and he's not like the greatest defender. I thought he was pretty good on defense tonight. But what, what were your thoughts seeing Luca Garza get 18 minutes in the absence of Uchovic who only played 2 minutes?
- [18:04]
Will (Green with Envy Host)
I mean you've been saying for the last couple games or last couple weeks, like maybe he's just as good or better than Vuj. Right. And that's certainly entirely possible. And like I think this comment here in the chat right now, next week is the test for us. I think it's the real test for Garza. Right. I think it's the real test to, to your point of how truly gimmicky is you know, what we've seen from Garza, but I think the same logic that we applied this morning to can Tatum unlock Vuch, I think there's a little bit of that that also applies to the Garza sense. Right. Because honestly, like Garza in the sense of, you know, when you say gimmicky, it's, it's that he's an energy guy. Right? An energy kind of when you get to the playoffs, it only takes you so far. Usually those guys by game four of a, you know, a 6, 7 game of a long series, they're, they're relegated
- [18:52]
Greg Manakis (Green with Envy Co-host)
to, like, because everybody's playing so hard, right. So, like the energy that you bring in the regular season, everybody's matching that energy in the playoffs.
- [18:59]
Will (Green with Envy Host)
Yeah. And so I, I think with, with Garza, again, to the Tatum factor, because one of my biggest concerns of Garza and why I thought Vuch is going to be an upgrade is, is Vuch is a really good defensive rebounder. He's really, really good at boxing out. Garza pretty good, pretty good at boxing out. Really good offensive rebounder, pretty poor defensive rebounder. Now, when you add Tatum, maybe that can kind of make up for it. And you see tonight where he comes in and, you know, and has 12 rebounds off the jump, 11 of those on the defensive side. So I wonder if that helps to unlock Luca in the sense that you can get away with him on the court for longer. Because Tatum is helping. Because we've talked about this morning, like, before Tatum comes back, like, you're just playing so undersized. Like after Luca, the next biggest guy on the court is usually because you're not playing double big is Jalen Brown if he's out there, or you're relying on Ugo Gonzalez or Baylor Shireman to be guys that are just crashing the boards like mad Men. So I, I, I think for Luca, I think, you know, aside from just continuing to see how Tatum looks, I think Luka's probably the number two guy over these games against Cleveland with Mobley and Allen, against the spurs with Wemby, Luke Cornett and everybody that they have, okc, you know, Hartenstein and Chet and everybody, they have, like, I want to see can Luca hang or is he just going to be an obvious can't play this type of guy this week? Because I think this is a real big week for Luca. And I think ultimately with the Vuch injury, I think we'll be fine in the regular season. I think at the end of the day, I started to lean into even watching Luca today and him having a pretty good game. I, I think the idea behind Neemi is can you just patch together 20 minutes or 25 minutes between, between Luca and Vuch and you know, let Joe just kind of play it out. But I think that depth, when we get to the postseason, you'll need it to get through three or four rounds. Right now for the regular season. Not super worried, but I do think they'll need all three of those bigs to get through three or four rounds. If that's actually something on the table, which after said I don't think it might be.
- [20:59]
Greg Manakis (Green with Envy Co-host)
Yeah, our guy Fred says, am I the only one who believes we're better with a three headed big rotation? It's been the norm for most of the T term through to some degree. You know, I think there was so much inconsistency with the Porzingis minutes that the amount of like three big I'd have to like really think about like when Porzingis was healthy, how much three big did we actually go to? But yeah, I mean it, it's, it's interesting when we think about matchups because the playoffs is going to be all about matchups. If we see the Knicks in the second round, which is what the matchup would be right now. Going to need Vucc in that matchup. Right. Mitchell Robinson is such a problem for us. Luka Garza is not big enough to deal with Mitchell Robinson, Vuchevic. I mean, the one time we played the Knicks, he had a couple great box outs of Mitch. That really stood out to me where I was like, oh, shoot, like I didn't. I've never seen anybody on the Celtics box on Mitch Robinson. So like it was nice to see somebody do it. You know, you mentioned the Cavs. We're going to see them on Sunday. The guy that like is starting to come back into the back of my mind is Amari Williams. With Vuch being out, Amari might get some opportunities. As Fred said, like we've gone to some three big rotations. Could make some sense to see Amari Williams, just to see how he meshes in there as another Kada. Right. So he has a very similar skill set to what Kada brings out there on the court. So might he be able to steal five minutes because Nemi shouldn't be playing 30 minutes. Right. So if Neemi's playing 25, Garza's playing 15, that leaves an extra eight. Right. And maybe it's Tatum at the five for a little bit. Maybe it's hit him at the 5 for 3 minutes. Amari in there for 5 minutes. Something like that. But those minutes are going to be really interesting. The distribution without vouch because that's a whole nother wrinkle that we weren't expecting coming into this game tonight.
- [22:52]
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- [23:23]
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- [23:54]
Will (Green with Envy Host)
Yeah, so I think that's gonna be one of the most fascinating things to watch. The other thing that we talked about this morning is these young wings have been really good. So it's to be interesting to see how Joe balances that. And tonight it was Jordan Walsh. Jordan Walsh was the guy that got cut from the kind of three headed young power pole, you know, wing position that we've been talking about all season and I wonder if that's going to stick or if that's a matchup thing. We'll see. I think that's another part that I'm going to be kind of watching over this next week. And you know, Ugo and Baylor were both really good tonight. You know, it's I, I think watching I meant to look this up and I'll try to look it up here in a second. I feel like Hugo Gonzalez is getting really confident with that three point shot and he's got, he's got a really nice release like when it, yeah, when Ugo is on two for three tonight. Three point shot. Yeah, when he, when he's on with that three point shot, like it's, it's pretty wet when it goes in and, and I think that's really big for Ugo sticking in the Lineup above Jordan Walsh. Scheireman again, I think just made a bunch of winning plays. Really falling in love with the way Baylor Shireman has been playing. I think it's gonna be interesting to see how Missoula balances that kind of going forward.
- [25:04]
Greg Manakis (Green with Envy Co-host)
Yeah, man. And I think, you know, hearing some more stuff behind the scenes with Tatum's return. Ugo is his understudy. Right. Tatum has taken Ugo under his wing. They sit next to each other on the plane. That's his guy. And when you think about just like watching the team and who's going to be an 82 game player. Vers who is a playoff player. Ugo. Gonzalez feels like one of those guys that's just not going to be out of the rotation at any point this year. Baylor Shireman has definitely started to insert himself into the minds of all Celtics fans as, oh, this guy might just be one of our, one of our top nine guys, right?
- [25:42]
Will (Green with Envy Host)
Telling you I called it. Baylor games coming at some point in the playoffs, we're getting that random, the random guy.
- [25:47]
Greg Manakis (Green with Envy Co-host)
I believe it.
- [25:47]
Will (Green with Envy Host)
I'm, I'm, I'm calling Baylor for him calling my shot.
- [25:50]
Greg Manakis (Green with Envy Co-host)
I believe it. And Jordan Walsh is one of those guys where he's, he's gimmicky, right? To use that word again, like what he does on the court. He's super long, super athletic. He's like kind of a one trick pony in that he's a point of attack defender, can do a few other things but for the most part he, he kind of just does one thing and he guards the ball really well. Ugo, really good cutter, really good ball mover, connective piece. Baylor Shireman can shoot the three and he knocks it down with consistency. Good on, good point of attack defender as well. Really, you know, tough as nails. I've compared her to Marcus Smart multiple times. Walsh I think still has a lot of long, long term potential with the team. I just think last 20 games of the season with Jason Tatum coming back into the fold, you need to at some point figure out who are your nine guys, who are your 10 guys. If we're extending it out to 10 for just the way that the NBA is evolving right now. Jordan Walsh just, just because we're, we're loaded with Jason Tatum coming back, he's probably going to be the guy that finds his way out. But I wouldn't be surprised if Joe finds some opportunities to give him, give him a shot in these last 19 games.
- [27:04]
Will (Green with Envy Host)
Yeah, I think we'll get some shots here in these last 19 games. And I think in my head the way it's going to play out is whichever one of Ugo, Baylor and Jordan Walsh finds himself out of the rotation to start the playoffs. If the Celtics are going to make a long run and I think this would really be. I'm envisioning more happening with Jordan Walsh that in these long series you got to make a lot of adjustments. There's going to be a time where if, you know, we match up with Philly where it's like, yo, Maxi just killed us for three straight games. Like we're just gonna play Jordan Walsh this game for 15 minutes and you're just gonna guard Tyrese Maxi the whole time. Like there's gonna be.
- [27:38]
Greg Manakis (Green with Envy Co-host)
It's like the, you know, back when Brad Stevens just pulls out the Gerald Green into the starting lineup against the Bulls when we go down two zero, it's like, oh, Gerald Green starting at the fourth. Like there's going to be a game where Jordan Walsh is doing some like that.
- [27:51]
Will (Green with Envy Host)
And that's the DNA of the pre Jason Tatum version of this team that I think can carry over. Right. Is the kind of stay ready environment and then knowing like, hey, we gotta, we gotta go to the tool belt here. We gotta, we gotta go get a new drill. It's Jordan Walsh this time or it's Baylor Shireman, whatever it might be. So I think it's going to be an interesting mesh of Tatum rising, obviously the skill and professionalism on a night to night basis. But. But the guys that built up a lot of experience and you know, for the most part especially from that young group that bounce back and forth like they're going to be ready to jump in if and when needed and I think that's going to pay. Pay dividends for sure.
- [28:30]
Greg Manakis (Green with Envy Co-host)
Let's go to the chat here. We got some comments here from Team X Men Double Zero says I think Tatum should win mvp. I think Tatum is the best player to touch a basketball. I'm taking Tatum over Kai Jones and Michael Jordan. Let's go. That's hilarious, Kai. I think Kai Jones called himself the goat or greatest player of. I think that's what he's referencing. Comment here from Nate. Does does H vac 83 shout out to Nate if you need your H vac repaired. Hit hit up Nate. No way. You think anyone should be worried? Nah, I'm playing LOL Celtic solid. As Celtics fans, I think y' all would hate to hear who I like. Go ahead, Nate. Say who you like, man. It's all good.
- [29:10]
Will (Green with Envy Host)
You like man, but Yeah, I mean, when it comes to, hey, put your.
- [29:14]
Greg Manakis (Green with Envy Co-host)
Put your H Vac, like, contact information in there, but he needs a H Vac service.
- [29:23]
Will (Green with Envy Host)
You know, like I said, I am one week away from feeling pretty reckless on this podcast. Like, I gotta see how this week goes. You and I are gonna get to see in person. This team, I think, is gonna make a wild difference for how we feel about this team. What it looks like Tuesday night in San Antonio, when we're there, if you're gonna be there, hit us up celticsnoyees gmail.com@green envy pod. Slide into the DMS. Let us know. Would love to. Would love up. But yeah, I, I think it's going to be, you know, real, real potential that the Celtics end up, you know, getting two of these three games or even if it's one, but it's like kind of, you know, at the very end, they maybe lose one of these. Like, these are three. The. The Cavs are streaking. The Thunder and Spurs are two of the three best teams in the league. Like, there's. There's a chance that if this week goes. My expectations for this week are changing as I'm speaking, because of what happened with Tatum tonight. So anything's on the table right now for, for what we're going to be saying by the time we. We record next weekend.
- [30:23]
Greg Manakis (Green with Envy Co-host)
No, and I think that's a good point. To bring up the strength of schedule here as we kind of wrap up this. This post game pod is with or without Jason Tatum, the Celtics were about to enter the toughest stretch of the season, right? So, like, the 42 and 21 record, kind of throw that out the window for right now just because I think a lot of that. There's a lot of noise around that record. And I think coming into this really tough stretch where they have, like, the third toughest strength of schedule for the remainder of the season. Just looking at the games that, that we're playing, I was expecting closer to a.500 record. I think that's kind of what it's going to be. That's what it is in the playoffs, right? You have seven games. You only need to win four. The other team can win three. You only need to be one game above.500 in the playoff series. And when you play these. These better teams and these contenders, you're going to lose some of these games. That's just the way it goes. There's only one winner, and you get the test of the Cavs. You get the test of the Spurs. The Thunder, like There's a. There's a world in which you go owing three, but do you compete? Do you have. Are you showing the habits? Are you showing the chemistry with Jason Tatum back into the fold that can make you believe these Celtics could actually be contenders?
- [31:37]
Will (Green with Envy Host)
Or.
- [31:37]
Greg Manakis (Green with Envy Co-host)
Or is it, like, oh, shoot, like, maybe. Maybe we're getting a little too big for our britches right now after one game against a lowly Mavs team where Clay Thompson looked pretty good, by the way.
- [31:47]
Will (Green with Envy Host)
Yeah, Clay has those nights, man, where you're like, oh, I see the old Clay. I remember when Clay was awesome and everybody used to love Clay. It was great. But, yeah, exciting week coming up. It was great. You know, Cooper Flag was. Was okay in this game. Looked like he got injured kind of early and, you know, took. Took a little bit of the steam out of, you know, 7 to 23. Not. Not a very efficient night for Cooper. Flag did have eight rebounds, six assists. So main event with his first look in the TD garden, you know, potentially, maybe. Maybe a future Celtic. We'll see.
- [32:15]
Greg Manakis (Green with Envy Co-host)
I don't know.
- [32:16]
Will (Green with Envy Host)
You know, favorite player was Larry Bird. He wants to be like Jason Tatum, so best place to learn is, you know, under Jason Tatum's tutelage in three years. So we'll see. Yeah, maybe. Maybe.
- [32:23]
Greg Manakis (Green with Envy Co-host)
We got a comment here, Will, from 414eva fee. Tatum Will. Get out of here, bro.
- [32:31]
Will (Green with Envy Host)
Yeah.
- [32:31]
Greg Manakis (Green with Envy Co-host)
Out of here.
- [32:32]
Will (Green with Envy Host)
Yeah.
- [32:32]
Strawberry Me Sponsor Announcer
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- [32:32]
Will (Green with Envy Host)
What are you doing, dude? Okay, this is just a side thing. What. To this particular person, why are you coming into a Celtics podcast and commenting about Tatum getting injured? Like, how bad is your life that you're. That's what you're doing on your Friday night? Like, that's. That's what the. Dude. All right, let's get out of here. On that note, Let that guy do whatever he needs to do to feel better about his shitty life, and we'll keep rocking here. So coming up next week, as we mentioned, gonna be a fun week of sell this game. Sunday matinee, Celtics, Cavs. That will be a good one. Tuesday night, myself, Greg will be in the building down at the Frostbank center in San Antonio against Big Wemby, and then Thursday night against Oklahoma City Thunder. For our podcast schedule, we're gonna have something for you guys Monday. We're gonna record Monday morning instead of Sunday. So Monday morning, Monday afternoon, and then likely, we'll have something for you guys probably after the Thunder game. It's a later start, so we might be able to do that one despite our. Our men's league, league schedule. So we'll figure it out. We'll let you guys know. But a fun week of basketball. And most importantly, Jason Tatum is back. That's all.
- [33:38]
Greg Manakis (Green with Envy Co-host)
That's called baby.
- [33:39]
Will (Green with Envy Host)
Jason Tatum, welcome back. Glad to have you. This has been another presentation here of green with entity. We will catch you guys later. It don't take much no more
- [33:57]
Strawberry Me Sponsor Announcer
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- [33:57]
Will (Green with Envy Host)
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- [34:04]
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- [34:08]
Will (Green with Envy Host)
Until
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- [34:36]
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- [34:37]
Will (Green with Envy Host)
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