← Green With Envy: A Boston Celtics Podcast
Green With Envy: A Boston Celtics Podcast
Would Jaylen Brown be MVP if he were Jayson Tatum? + Cam Boozer player comps and the mystery of Anthony Edwards' pregame poop
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This is Mike Gorman and you're listening
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to Green with Envy with Will and Greg. All right everybody, going live Celtics Green with Envy Post game live Celtics win 147 to 129 on the road in Miami. A J's absolute master class. This is kind of a two part podcast here guys, so I'm rocking solo for the post game part of it and then part two. If you're listening here on the audio version that's going to have me and Greg passing the rock. If you're watching us here on YouTube, it's just going to be me here and then you can find the rest of the podcast at the top of the page. But for right now it's agreeing with Envy. Post game Live Celtics win. Let's get into it. What up, what up, what up? Welcome into another edition of Green with Envy. As always, this is your boy Will. We're checking in. How you doing? How you living? Tonight we are rocking a Green With Envy Post Game Live. Riding solo on this one. As I mentioned at the top, kind of a two part podcast that we got going here. For those on the audio side listening on Spotify, Apple, wherever it is that you listen to podcasts, make sure you Drop a spot 5 star rating view on this one here. You're going to hear me at the front half. Talk about the recap here from the Celtics road win and what could be a potential first round playoff matchup with a 147 to 129 win over the Miami Heat. On the second side you'll hear Passing the Rock Gear where Greg and I get into a few topics that actually overlap with what happened in this game tonight. So you'll probably see me kind of go over a few of those different items. But for this particular game here, let's start to, to get into it and really what I'm going to do is I kind of just wrote down some notes of things that, that caught my eye during the game and of course we're going to go through the box score and kind of check everything off. I am live on YouTube right now, so if you guys are joining me here, feel free to drop some questions comments in the chat. We'll make sure that we get to them. But again, Celtics win here 147 to 129. Just some masterful performances here. Celtics specifically from who else but the Jays? So from the Jays tonight we end up with a 40 point explosion from Jaylen Brown including 20 points, part of a 53 point first quarter for the Celtics. 20 of those 43 coming in the first quarter. Jaylen Brown finished tonight with 43 points, 7 assists and 4 rebounds on 17 of 29 shooting. Then his partner in crime, Jason Tatum, 9 of 21 from the field but 25 points, 18 rebounds and 11 assists, a triple double for Jason Tatum, his first of the year. Celtics walk away with the victory against the Heat. Again, this could be a potential matchup. That bottom part of the Eastern Conference is just completely jumbled. I think Heat right now technically are in the 10, but there's a few games still going on tonight here. So that may change some of the here and you know, for most of these teams, I mean right now the Sixers are closing in on that six and five seed around the, the Raptors, Hawks. Like it's, it really could go anywhere from that 5 to 10. There's a lot of things that could happen but does leave the option of this potentially being the 72 matchup as it looks like the Celtics are trending in that direction. But let's start with the first quarter. So the Celtics score a season high 53 points in the first quarter. Remember the days when 53 points was a lot at halftime for those 90s games, those even early 2000s games. 53 was a lot just for a half. This was just the first quarter here for the Celtics. Now we've talked about it before, Greg and I with, with two small children. Sometimes we are kind of playing catch up when we, when we go into these games. So I'm actually putting my daughter down to sleep and I, I knew something must have been happening. I kept feeling my pocket vibrates. I knew something was going on. I was, I was getting hit up. So by the time I sat down to, to watch the game and you know, classic ESPN, I checked the games on ESPN, saw it was starting 6:30 local time was like cool. 6:45. I'll turn it on and pause it and I'll come back and catch it. You know, of course they started on time. They, ESPN never does. I, I don't know. I, I give up. I don't know when games start on time, when they're going to be delayed with, with, with pregame nonsense. So I don't know. So I paused the game before I bring my daughter into her, her bedroom to put her to sleep. So it was already 20 to 18 and that was like three, four minutes into the game. So it was gonna be a high scoring game. But my phone is starting to go off. So by the time I go back to replay and kind of catch up and cut through all the commercials and everything, you know, I couldn't help it. I saw one of the text messages where it was 53 points. Holy. Something to that effect. And so I knew a lot of points were coming. But even watching that unfold, I, I was still shock. I was watching and, and what I watched was Jaylen Brown and Sam Houser, who we have talked about on the last couple episodes, really need to have, you know, a big game. And tonight he did have one. You know, Sam plays just under 29 minutes. 9 of 11 from the field, 5 of 7 from the 3 point line, 23 points, 17 of that coming in the first quarter. So it was good to see Sam get, get a couple of those threes that just snapped the net and he had that really confident quick release tonight that we haven't seen or at least we haven't seen it go in right and seen it snowball in the way that it did. Because that's one of the things that makes Sam Houser so dangerous. And it's why to at least some degree, regardless of, you know, Greg and I think Baylor Shireman should play more than Sam. Like Sam's gonna be a part of this rotation. He's, he's a definitive, concrete part of this rotation. And part of it's for nights like this. Part of it's for the gravity that he's earned and is understood across the league. So, you know, it's good to see Sam have this night because it, it's been a little rough at times over the last few weeks. So big night for Sam, big first quarter. But Jalen Brown is where we get to start because man, he was hitting some incredible shots all night. Really. And you saw here, as you know, I don't, I don't love when players start, start chasing 40 points or 50 points or you know, whatever it is. 83 points, bam. No, I'm just kidding. We're not going, we're not going down, down that whole path again. But you know, I don't love it. But you did see two of the last shots that Jalen Brown hit. You know, they were reminiscent of some of those just absolute heater heat checks that he hit in the first quarter. You know, that one where he's in the corner against Tyler Hero who, you know, we'll talk a little bit about just him and Tatum just relentlessly going after Tyler Hero. You know, just an incredible shot making performance by, by Jalen Brown. It's evidence in the 17 of 29, 4 of 10 from 3. And you know, for as prolific as Jalen Brown has been to the free throw line, he didn't even really need the free throw line to get those points today because of that 17, 29, right. He got there seven times, but he's had games in the, the last couple weeks where he's gotten there double digit times, multiple. So for Jaylen Brown tonight, just unbelievable shot making. And to see the Jays kind of back on display, that's really the story of, of this game. And so you know, Jaylen Brown, talk about the 43 points. You go to the other Jay and let's talk about Jason Tatum who throw the nine for 21 out the window. 921. It's, it's, it is, you know, it's, it's okay. 921, it's fine. Four of 13 from three, couple of threes. Again, probably could have left them table. Probably could have, you know, found an alternative shot. That's not the point. He looks amazing. He looks amazing. He's grabbing 18 rebounds. He's coming off player of the week. You think about his game against Charlotte, you think about this game against Miami, his last two games that he's played. This is looking more and more like the old Jason Tatum. And, and actually, you know, back that up. Back it up. It doesn't look like the old Jason Tatum because this is a new version of, of Jason Tatum that we're getting the rest of the season. And I think this kind of equal attacking Jason Tatum from a, from a box score perspective of 25, 18, 11, I think I, I doubt that we're going to see many games of Jason tatum at that 30, 40 level, but I think seeing Jason Tatum pretty consistently in that like 22 to 28 range where he is just dominating on the, on the offense, on, on the glass, and then also being able to use those playmaking skills which were very much on display tonight with his 11 assists. Like, I think that's the Jason Tatum that, that we're getting right now. And that's a very, very good thing. It's a very, very dangerous thing for this team with the way that Jalen Brown has elevated himself. So I think watching Jason Tatum tonight, there was a few things that, that did stick out to me. He had a. Early on in the, I think it was in the second quarter, he had two back to back threes I thought were really interesting. One was him in transition where almost he, he weaponized his ability to playmate. Right. It's something that it, at least to me we've, I've watched a lot of Jason Tatum. I'm sure you could find in one or two examples, but not something he's really done in the past. But on that break, uses the, uses the look away for the pass and then comes right into the shot. It was something that I think is really interesting to keep an eye on and seeing how much Jason Tatum, who's, you know, I think assist numbers are going to continue to go up. We've seen he's had a lot of potential assists. I think his assist numbers are only at like 4 or 5 per game right now. Since he's come back, I think that's going to continue to climb and you've seen just if you're going off the eye test, never mind the numbers that his playmaking, at least to me feels like it's maybe even better than it, than it was before. Maybe I'm not giving enough credit to how much he's improved in that area, but it feels like it's, it's really made a difference in this team. And so watching him weaponize the pass to get the shot, I thought was a very interesting move from Jason Tatum. He then had another three, which at least to a degree reminded me a little bit of a mini version of that LeBron signature shot, the kind of quick pound look away. And it was a mini version. It was a mini version. I wouldn't say it was definitely that over, you know, drawn out version that you get from LeBron James, but a little mini version of it. So I thought that was. Those were a couple Interesting shots from Jason Tatum. But really what I enjoyed here was, was tonight, you know, he was 4 of 13 from the three point line, but you know, some of the mid range jumpers he's got were really, really nice. There was a couple that were specifically kind of reminded me of almost being Krist Zingus like. So there's specifically one in the second that I think the broadcast called out. There's a flare screen where it was run for Pritchard on the right side and ultimately Tatum gets the ball on the left nail with, I think it was Davion Mitchell was guarding him. Catches turn, little bit of a jab stuff, but basically right into the jump shot right over Davion Mitchell. Now this is something to a degree again that we saw with Chris Daps Porzingis. Now KP can basically shoot over anyone not named Wemby right there. There's really not anyone that KP can't shoot over. So you can't. JT won't be able to do this with everyone. But as the Celtics did in this game, that killer whale offense was in full effect. When you get those mismatches against Abby Mitchell, when you get it against Tyler Hero and you're kind of free throw line, free throw line extended or in the lane, I love seeing Jason just go right up into the shot. Like don't mess around, take the shot, the shot's there and he's a great mid range shooter. So this is something that I want to keep an eye on because he got at least three or four of these looks tonight that if the Celtics can kind of build that in more, I think that's only going to help Jason Tatum continue to be unleashed. So Jason Tatum in the mid range, it's always something I'm going to be looking for. It's something I always want just a little bit more of. And I thought tonight he got to a couple of spots where he just kind of caught Rose up, says, you can't get to this and I'm going to shoot right over you. And those are the Jason Tatum shots that I think are pretty easy looks for him that, that I would like to see more of. But overall, triple double for Jason Tatum tonight. 43 points for Jaylen Brown. Not a 30 for 30 game. But you know, as you saw on the broadcast, 20, 20 games as well for this, for this duo here just continuing to climb. We talk a little bit in the second half of the podcast about just how impressive their, their careers have been with the amount of winning that they've Done. And you're going to see the two of them continue to climb that statistical ladder. NBA history and Celtics history wise as now they're just two games behind. I forget who it was actually off the top of my head here as they're trying to chase down Bird and Mikhail for most 20, 20 games in Celtics history. But they're third in that list now and they got one more one. They're two behind whoever was in second place. Can't remember the top of my head right now, but. All right, let's go. A few other things here that just caught my eye in this game. This one is just a kind of Peter Griffin style. What GR finds my gears. The hell's this red light in Miami? Like I. I don't know if I haven't watched enough Heat this year that I hadn't noticed was this there in years past, everything they make a basket, they flash that stupid freaking red light. Listen, when you're down 20, you gotta have some game operation awareness. It looks ridiculous. It looks ridiculous. It feels ridiculous. You want to play some different songs, some, you know, some little sound effects, whatever, but the red light was just annoying. It was pissing me off the entire entire night. Could not stand it. And especially when the Celtics were up 20 for majority of this game. Other than that third quarter where, you know, Miami makes the run and you know, it just, it. It pissed me off. I have nothing else for it. It pissed me off. It's stupid. Stop it, Miami. Stop it. Next thing I got on my. On my list here is pump fakes in the lane against the Celtics. If you're gonna do this, beware because this team is coming for you when you do it. Whether it's Jordan Walsh, whether it's Baylor Shireman, obviously we know Derrick White's prowess and Nemi Cato was sending into the stands tonight. So the Celtics themselves, you know, outside of. Of Nene and Derek White, funny enough, I. I don't think, I wouldn't say they have like elite rim protection, but when you. The way this team, it's very similar to me how this team swarms the glass and they've been just, you know, even before Tatum being a great rebounding team that was all built on the Shiremans and the Gonzalez's and the Walshes. Just, just kind of out working guys with the way they crash from. From the side and when you get to either the middle of the lane or specifically if you get on the baseline and the Celtics have a clear path to kind of come and help, that's where you're just going to get in trouble. And that's where you're seeing so many of these. You know, obviously Derrick White and his iq, but you're seeing ne and specifically Jordan Walsh's last couple of games. You've seen them come over and make some pretty big blocks from the weak side or from behind, depending on, you know, where the play is is taking place. And so any team that's. You think you're going to get to the sideline, you think you're going to pump fake once, twice and have a chance, maybe you might have your guy in front of you, but there's somebody coming from, whether it's behind, whether it's on the side, somebody else is coming to help that guy. So I think that's another little thing that I really enjoy watching and I'm excited to see see the Southern continue to. To on. Are these. These help defensive plays? I mentioned earlier that, you know, the Killer Whale offense, again, just attacking Hero and Norm Powell didn't play tonight, but I think that would probably be a part of it as well is, you know, forcing the Heat to make a decision on what their personnel is going to be. And watching this game tonight, it made me think of. This has got to be at least partially in the thought for the Cleveland Cavaliers and making the trade of Darius Garland. And when you think about the last couple of postseasons, it's guys like Garland, guys like Hero who are great offensive players. And I wouldn't even say that they're, you know, they give effort on, on the defensive side. Garland has been pretty feisty at times defensively, but they're, they're just going to hurt your defense enough and probably not make up for it enough on the offensive side or you don't have enough offensive guys to, you know, have enough juice to be able to sustain, you know, what they're lacking on the defensive side, it me is. Is a reason that, you know, Hero just has kind of a weird value in the NBA is to, you know, he's a good player. I like Tyler Hero. I think he's a good player. But the Celtics see him and they see barbecue chicken, and that's how they felt with Darius Garland. That's what they're going to attempt to do when they play the Knicks with Jalen Brunson. I think that's going to be one of the key matchups. If we do get that 2, 3 matchup that we feel like we're heading for is, you know, and it's something. And this isn't new it's not breaking news that is going to be something the Celtics hunt. It's going to be something the Celtics look for and it's to depend on the rest of the defense of how they can hold it up, how much of the integrity of the defense can they maintain. And this kind of new look of the Celtics is going to be interesting to see how much different it is this year because last year or in years past you could have attacked that with Kristaps. You obviously have the Sila J's going for it. But now you get Peyton Pritchard on a different level and the way that he's playing, if you have to, you know, if the man guarding Peyton Pritchard, if you kind of do that peel switch I talked about before, if they need to go help off Peyton Pritchard, now you're leaving a guy like him who's wide open for three at four of seven from three tonight. So again, you know it to me that feels like one of the reasons why I just am not worried about playing Miami in a series. And when I think of, you know, the Cavs and obviously they traded for James Harden, who is not a defensive Stallworth by any means, but he's a bigger guy and so he's a bigger body and so he's not going to be someone that the Jays will necessarily be able to. They can certainly take advantage of, but they won't be able to punish him into the lane the way they would with Darius Scarlet, which creates a defense collapsing, collapses the integrity and makes everybody kind of scramble. It will be a little bit different. There'll be ways to attack him for sure. So just to be clear, but I do think it makes it a little bit different. So I feel like watching Hero tonight I was thinking of the Cavaliers and just thinking, you know, combined with the lack of availability, this is part of the reason that, that we make that trade. But that's all I had tonight. Thoughts on the Celtics win. Not a lot of defense in this one, I'll say that. 147 to 129. Not the not the strongest defensive effort all around, but ultimately a night that just belongs to Jalen Brown with his 43 points and to Jason Tatum with his 25 point, 18 rebound, 11 assists and of course shout out to Sam houser on the 23 points. That's going to do it for this side of the podcast here for our Green with Envy post game live. But if you are listening to the audio version, you are now going to hear Greg and I past the Rock where we hit topics like Joe Missoula's greatness. What if Jalen Brown was Jason Tatum? Think about that one for a second. Is Peyton Pritchard just meant to be a legendary sixth man? We've got that and a few more topics that we hit next coming up here after the break. For those of you listening to me on or watching on YouTube, go ahead and scroll up to the top of the podcast section if you want to check that out. Celtics take home the Dub 147 to 129. We will catch you guys later.
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No.
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If you work in university maintenance, Grainger considers you an MVP because your playbook ensures your arena is always ready for tip off. And Grainger is your trusted partner, offering the products you need all in one place, from H VAC and plumbing supplies to lighting and more. And all delivered with plenty of time left on the clock. So your team always gets the win. Call 1-800-GRAINGER visit grainger.com or just stop by Grainger for the ones who get it done.
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Passing the Rock One of our favorite segments to do here, where we just go topic for topic back and forth of different things that, that we want to hit. It's a little less structured, a little more freelance here. Greg, I'm gonna let you go first on, on this one and then we'll just go back and forth. What you got for us?
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Passing the Rock I want to start with Jaylen Brown because I have a little bit of, of a theory, especially with Jason Tatum coming back. I'm just going to call it the historical baggage theory. And I'm going to be reading some notes up here on my big screen here. So bear with me if I'm not looking direct. Looking you directly in the eye. Okay. So some people have been arguing that the only reason Jalen Brown is even on the fringes of the MVP conversation is because nobody expected him to be this good this season. Right. The expectations for him is ceiling. Probably third team, all NBA, myself included. I thought second team, all NBA is probably his ceiling. There are a few people out there, voices in the wilderness, that said Jalen Brown was going to do exactly what he's been doing this year, right? But I started to think about what if that's actually the kind of working against him in the opposite. So the. What I've been wondering to myself is what if Jason Tatum was having the exact season that Jaylen Brown is having this season? Where would the Jason Tatum season, with all the Jalen Brown numbers and everything Jaylen Brown's been doing, be ranking in the MVP conversation? Just because he's Jason Tatum and he has the history of kind of being in, you know, in the, in the MVP conversation. He has a fourth place finish before, a sixth finish before four straight years on first team, all NBA. He's just entrenched in that conversation. Right. So I think this is actually the case of someone's reputation and their perceived ceiling clouding the lens of the present and how great Jalen Brown actually has been. Okay. So I'm wondering here, Will, if the initial narrative would have been coming into the season. Imagine Jalen Brown's the one who has torn his Achilles. The initial narrative would have been, will Jason Tatum finally win his first MVP award? You could see the podcast talking about that. You could see the blogs writing that SportsCenter would probably lead with that. And it would kind of be that moment for Jason Tatum to solidify himself as one of the all time greats in terms of the first nine years of his career. Right? It would be five times all in, first team, all NBA MVP championship, all that stuff, right? So it really cemented him. So I started wondering, where would this Jaylen Brown season rank if his name was actually Jason Tatum? So I started to look at some numbers. If this were Jason Tatum, it would be second highest points per game ever. If it were Jason Tatum, it would be the second highest assist per game. It would be the fifth highest rebound per game, it would be the second best field goal percentage. The and the only one better was Tatum's rookie year. Jaylen Brown is also improving frequency of his high assist to turnover games. So this season he has had 27 games with at least a 3 to 1 assisted turnover ratio, which is his highest since 20182019 when we all know he was not entrusted with the offense and with the keys. Right? He also has 15 games this season with a 4 to 1 assist to turnover ratio which is also a career best since that 2018-2019 2019 season. He also has a career high 21 games this season with at least 7 assists. And for reference, Tatum's career best was last season with 31 games and his second best was 22 games which is the 2324 season. And you brought this up on a recent pod. But not only all these numbers, you know, that I just, that I just mentioned, but Jaylen Brown has been an absolute assist machine since the All Star break. So he has played 17 games since the all star break break. In those 17 games he has only had 6 games with less than 7 assists. So he's had 1111 of the 17 where he's had 7 assists or more in only 3 games with less than 5 assists. Those 111 assists in the last 17 games would be a career high for any 17 game sample in, in Jalen Brown's career, he's had 127 assists in his last 20 games. Should Jaylen Brown get 15 assists in his next 3 games, he will tie Jayson Tatum's peak for any 20 game sample size of, of assists which is 132 over a 20 game sample stretch. Right. So he needs, if you take the 17 games that he has played since the All Star break, he's at 117. So he needs to average five assists per game to match Jason Tatum's all time peak of a 20 game sample size. I mean this season seems to be on par with a lot of the great Jason Tatum season. So why is Jaylen Brown still not getting the respect he deserves?
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It's an interesting question and I think the way that you framed it was, was well done because you're totally right at the beginning. If the, if the roles were inversed right the beginning of the season, we would have already just assumed that Jayson Tatum is still going to have another first team all NBA season. But one of the things that had always been to a varying degree a detractor of Tatum was the fact that he played with somebody else that was as great as Jalen Brown and the other supporting cast figures that were around, Marcus Smart, Defensive player of the Year, Drew Holiday, Chris Aps, where Zingus, so on and so forth. And so it's interesting to think about this being the inverse problem now for Jalen Brown is that we had such low expectations that we weren't expecting him to be here. And now it's kind of. Of capping out right at a. At a certain level because of. Of those expectations. So if this were. Were flipped around, would it be different if the numbers are exactly the same? I'm gonna actually say no. I think. I think the way it's thought of may be presented slightly differently, but I think when you look at specifically Wemby Jokic pre injury, maybe a little bit more closer now since he's come back from injury and he's felt for the first time in maybe five years, felt like more like a human version of Nikola Jokic than he ever has. And, you know, sga, which, you know, I think SGA on his own is an interesting topic of the way he's being officiated in the last, like, week or two, which it feels like that's starting to flip a little bit. His efficiency numbers are just, like, insane. Like, they're. They're literally, you know, exactly what's up with the player, like, Michael Jordan level. Like, there's like, the only, like, guy that you can, like, compare to some of the efficiency numbers. And so not because of the numbers, but I think just the competition would probably leave Jason Tatum actually in the same position. But I do think your positioning of how the conversation has started and how it's developed is 100 accurate. Right. I think, weirdly enough, I think Tatum would have likely ended up in the same spot unless his numbers were greater. Right. Like, I think that's the only thing that. Because I think you're right, like Jalen Brown, like, this year, it's on par with any Jason Tatum year that you can. You can think of. The new question going forward, which I hope we never have to answer, is what happens to Jason Tatum if he's fully healthy for a year with no Jalen Brown? And does Jason Tatum eclipse his best numbers? Which then maybe skews the argument to those other three or four guys that are in the conversation. But I think if we're just taking it on surface level, as everything is one to one, we're just flipping the situation exactly as it is, is we probably end up in the same position where this is probably going to be fourth place finish for Jalen Brown, maybe fifth, depending on how you feel about Luca. But I think the. The way the conversation has started and the way it's developed throughout the year, I do think those are very different. So it's kind of a split Decision is how I'm answering your question.
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C
Yeah, because Tatum would have started the season as a top five MV MVP prediction, right? Everybody would have had him in the top five. Five. Jalen Brown didn't.
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Everyone looks for the upside pick, right? Like who's the guy with the upside going into the season? Like Anthony Edwards is. Anthony Edwards and Luca seem to be the most interesting picks. The beginning of each season when people do their predictions right because they're like they haven't won it yet, but they're going to have the opportunity where they get a one seed, a two seed, all of a sudden that's going to push them there. Tatum with a one seed, two seed would be in this conversation. To your point. Jalen is hanging on basically, right?
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C
Because Jalen had to climb like this season. He starts out of the MVP conversation, out of the all NBA conversation and he has to climb his way into that right? Quarter, quarter season mark, oh, maybe Jaylen Brown's third team half season mark. Oh, Jaylen Brown's probably second team and then the MVP chance star. And we had Drew Carter on earlier this season. I was like where the hell the MVP chance at TD guarded like the, the fans were slow to catch on to how great Jaylen Brown actually was. Right. So if he had already started at like the 5, 6 range, maybe he's climbing up into that 2, 3 range. And then the argument of Wemby in the minutes and all that, then you can really make the case that like the Tatum season with Jalen Brown's performance is arguably a top two, top three finish. Jalen's probably going to be like, I mean people were saying Cade was inarguably above Jaylen Brown this season and the Pistons are great. Right. But you're seeing right now with Kate out out, the Pistons are still a good team. Right. They've only lost one or two games without Cade. So it's not like Cade has been playing with nothing. It's just that's the style that they chose to play with Kate Cunningham, much like you see with Luka Doncic and guys like that. That's just the style the team has chosen. That doesn't mean he's playing with a bunch of riff raff.
- [32:30]
A
Yeah, it's honestly what's been happening in Detroit. I need to lock in a little bit more because I've just been box score watching them since Katie went out and I keep explaining expecting them to fall right. Like I've been expecting it. But again, I think, I think the Pistons success is something that you and I have been. Been honing in on the teams that have been successful. Right. They have a culture, they have a formula, they have an identity. Right. And this is part of how the Celtics were able to succeed without Jason Tatum. Right. Is. Is kind of leaning into that. But I think it's a fair point that definitely when you look at the Cade vs. Jalen arguments like that was part of the. The uplift decayed. Right. Was the. He's doing it with nothing. Right. And. And Jalen's doing it with less without Tatum. But he still has six man of the year Peyton Pritchard still has, you know, Derrick White and you know, Anthony Simons at a time or, you know, whatever. And so much.
- [33:18]
C
Dude,
- [33:21]
A
didn't mean to make you nostalgic there for some good old inferno over there, some inferno Simons. But. Yeah, but it's really interesting. I, I love the way that. That you frame that. That to think about how this season could have unfolded narratively. Because it's the narrative. It's different. Right. That's. That's the biggest thing that may have changed the. The way this season flows. And I don't think you're wrong. I think with the other performances, we probably end up in the same spot. But it is really interesting to think about because, you know, what's. What's the Jalen Rose rule, right. About expectations. I know you. You know this. You always say. You've said this before.
- [33:53]
C
Yeah. Success is a function of realistic expectations.
- [33:57]
A
Exactly. And so if your expectations were he's top five already and now, oh, my God, we didn't expect this. Now all of a sudden the only place to go up is from five is into the top three. Right. So now you're in a different spot. So I think that's fascinating. I think at this point, Jalen Brown, I. I think it's hard to see him not getting at least the first team nod. I don't know where he'll finish. An MVP voting. It feels like four or five for both of those is kind of. Of both. Voting wise for all mb, first team, all NBA. And voting wise for MVP is probably where he's going to settle. And it's all super well deserved. So shout out to Jalen Brown. But that is interesting to think about. I like the way your mind's thinking over there. All right, I'm gonna go to. Yeah, I'm gonna go here. This happened while I was. Was out. The Celtics once again crossed the 50 win marker. Fourth straight time they've done that four, four seasons under Joe Missoula 450 win seasons and you know Joe Missoula was then asked about whether coach of the year was something that would mean something gave the most Joe Missoula answer just couldn't be bothered to discuss it. Really hated it in fact asked no one to ask him about it ever again which I thought was I hope
- [35:07]
C
no one ever asked me this question again. I think it's stupid.
- [35:10]
A
Unbelievable by Joe and so then I saw going around this is appropriate where you know first half of this podcast if you listen to the audio version I'm going to cover Celtics Heat and we've consistently for the last several years it's been pretty widely accepted that if Eric Spoelstra is not the best coach in the NBA he's one of the top two or three he's going to be taking over Team USA and inspos which is crazy that suppose been the the head coach of the Miami Heat for I think it's around 18 years now which is insane that he only has 450 win seasons now. There's a bit of an asterisk here.
- [35:46]
C
Greg.
- [35:46]
A
I did the research on this two of those seasons. One was a 66 game lockout season in which they were easily going to surpass 50 wins with the LeBron James Dwyane Wade heels and that team. So it's really five and it's potentially six. The COVID season they would have needed to go I think there was nine games left they would have had to go six and three with that with that team which they easily could have done. Like I wouldn't say that's as much of a layup as the as the other lockout season for them getting 50 wins but even still still 5 to 650 win seasons for SPO in 18 years and to see Missoula 4 straight years and I think this year is really interesting for me when we think of why we think of SPO as being the best coach, it's doing more with less, right. And so anytime a coach does more with less we start to to try to shift again using that narrative of look at how good this coach is and that's what this is. Brad Stevens had the same effect right where Brad Stevens was making Jordan crop was was Jordan Crawford into player of the week multiple times. Right. And so it was like this has got to be the secret sauce of Brad Stevens. Eric Spoelstra has had bam and you know Tyler hero Jimmy Butler who was you know had like a two to three year really strong peak but other than that was, you know, he hasn't had these top tier all NBA guys. He doesn't have a Giannis, he doesn't have a Yokic, he doesn't have a Tatum. Right. And so we look to Spo as like, man, he's doing so much to get 45 wins wins out of these teams year in and year out with tragic. And all these other guys from, from
- [37:17]
C
years past and got about Goron, right. The Dragon.
- [37:21]
A
And so and so for Joe now, four straight wins. And now I think Joe gets his turn on the narrative wheel. Whether he likes it or not of this year kind of belongs to him. And Jalen Brown, right? This belongs to hey, Jalen Brown as we just talked about, like, like he's certified. He's a $50 million player. He's, you know, you're, you're cool with it. He's a top 10ish guy. He's in that range even when everyone's healthy. And Now Joe Missoula, four straight 50 win years has really elevated himself into this SPO conversation, right? This SPO. Rick Carlile, Steve Kerr, some people put Ty Lue in this conversation. You know, Mark Dagnault's obviously certainly making a claim there. There's other guys you can put in there. But now you can't have a conversation about, about best coaches in the NBA without Joe Missoula. And before this year, the three straight 50 wins he inherited kind of IME's team that was, was pretty loaded. They added Malcolm Brogdon, of course. We know the Drew and KP editions like. And we were, and I won't say we, I'll say I, I'll put, put this on myself. I was slow to be like, hey, I don't, let's see. I gotta see how much of this is really Joe and how much is just. You just have more talent in everybody because that does sometimes just be the case in the NBA. And this year you're seeing it, man, you are just seeing it. And I just think it's really special to acknowledge Joe Missoula with the four straight 50 win seasons and putting himself into this whole other level of discussion of coach, not just in the NBA but even Celtics lore, all time being able to, to achieve this.
- [38:52]
C
Yeah, I mean he's really come up, man. We made a clip about it from the last pot as well. But I was just extolling him and just how much more I trust Joe Missoula now. I just think he's gonna, he's, he's gonna make the adjustments, he's going to push the right buttons, he's going to figure out the lineup combinations that work and he's going to have a strategy and he's going to have a game plan that is going to give the Celtics a chance to win every single game. And that's all you can really hope for. And add to that, he's an absolute character and he's so freaking funny. I went to see Project Hail Mary last night and it's a great movie, Great movie. For anyone who hasn't seen it yet, go see Project Tail Mary. But it's good for some reason. There was a, a preview before and I forget what actor it was, but he, he kind of had this look on his face that reminded me of Joe Missoula. And I was like, you know what? I bet Joe Missoula would be an unbelievable actor. He would commit so hard to the role that I think he, he might actually be like an Oscar winning actor because he's just so.
- [39:55]
A
He'd lose that, that, that type of, of actor.
- [39:59]
C
Yeah, Heath Ledger type. Like, he would definitely, he would definitely go for it. So I think we're lucky to have Joe Missoula. He's fun to talk about, he's fun to watch on the sidelines, and he knows what the hell he's. He's doing okay.
- [40:12]
A
Yeah. Next up, we got one more thing I wanna, I want to add on this real quick. That's, that's tied to it and it's just this lining up with this Jay's era of basketball and just had me looking at like some of the records over, over the last couple of years. And so I was just looking at like, what are the records since the Jays, you know, like officially came together, right? Like since the, since the Jays have, have been on the, the same team. So going back to the 2017, 2018 season, it's pretty incredible. Greg, when you look at the amount of winning that these two guys have done, like if you take out that one 20, that one season post Covid where just nothing went right. Celtics finish.500. Jalen, you know, doesn't finish the season. They just don't have. Kemba gets, you know, never recovers. And it's just a shell of what that team was supposed to be and what it could have been. If you take that out, they have only one season together that is under a.600 winning percentage and it's 59.8% at 2018-19. And if you just go basically from the bubble on aside from that 500 year the last several years. 60 6226-957807-44667 this year. Like it's pretty incredible when we start to think of and this started to get brought up with like the Joe Missoula four straight 50 win seasons. Like how I think Larry Birds in in team in the 80s they had a few different head coaches but it was like nine straight 50 win years. Like that's a potential, right? Like that's the, the when we just look at the Jays era and the historic amount of winning, it's going to add up. Now will the championships add up to what Larry Bird that crew did? I don't know. But the amount of release regular season winning and success is going to be right on par and it's pretty incredible to look at on paper.
- [42:04]
C
I can't wait to see like where these guys end up ranking in history when, when it's all said and done. Like they're already climbing up all the ranks. Like the all time ranks, all time scoring ranks, all time steals, all times three pointers, all that stuff that they've been doing since they got to Boston. But it's going to be fun to see like where they actually rank in all time all NBA conversations because they're, they're absolute legends. And I think the winning definitely goes underappreciated. In the one year that they were 500, they were playing Evan Fournier and Jabari Parker in their like closing five.
- [42:37]
A
Like Romeo Langford started a playoff game. Exactly that.
- [42:41]
C
That team wasn't good. Jalen wasn't even in the playoffs. So. Yeah, yeah, no, I think that's great. Okay. I want to go to the NCAA tournament and the Duke Yukon game, which we can talk about if you want to talk about. But I really just want to focus on Cam Boozer and my impressions. Watching him throughout. Not really throughout the season because I didn't watch him all that much during the season, just didn't have time. But in the NCAA tournament I was hoping to see someone that would blow me away and I'd be like, oh, this guy clearly is a top five pick pick despite any year. Like throw him in any draft, like that's the way he's been talked about. I saw some articles early in the year like he might be the best prospect in the class. He might be one of the best prospects ever. And I was like, really? Cam Boozer's that good, huh? And then I tuned into the NCAA tournament and I just didn't see a high level NBA athlete out there. And the, the guys that he reminded me most of was Tyler Hansborough. Just to piss off all the Duke fans, I had to bring a Tar Heel into it. Reminds me of Tyler Hansboro, Demontes, Sabonis, and Detroit Blake Griffin. Okay, I threw Rui Hachimura in there or Hachimura in there because they kind of have similar body type. They both have huge hands and stuff like that. But he doesn't quite really remind me of Rui, just more in body types. But those three guys were the guys where I was like, this is who I think Cam Boozer is. And to me, that's not worthy of a top five pick. Tyler Hansboro didn't even last in the league. Sabonis is just like an average NBA center. He, you know, he's probably a little bit above average, but just like terrible on defense, good playmaker and all that. And then you got like the last good year of Blake Griffin in Detroit. So, like, you're not getting a bad player, you're getting a competitor. You're getting a guy with huge hands that can do some stuff from the perimeter, doesn't really have a jump shot, decent defender, can't get a shot off inside. Like, if I had a top five pick, he would be the last guy. Guy that I would be pumped to get right. Like, I would rather have Wilson over him. I'd probably even rather have Acuff over him. So that's kind of where I'm at with Cam Boozer. Might be a hot take, might not be a hot take. What are your thoughts?
- [44:53]
A
So I don't think it's necessarily a hot take. And I have, I didn't. Why? I've been traveling a lot during the NCAA tournament, so I haven't watched a ton of the, the NCAA tournament, but I did catch Cam Boozer during the year because that's the one thing I try to do every once in a while, like during the season is like, okay, if there's a big prospect in the game and I'm just like home chilling, I'll try to watch it a little bit. And I'm with you. The couple times I watched him, I was like, what am I missing? Like, I feel like the way he's talked about, like, you kind of nailed it. For me, he just seems like a quality, slightly undersized big who has a high iq. Sure. But like, I didn't see watching the high upside, right? I like, I saw the high upside for college for him to be a, like, you Know if we're not in the era where he would ever stay four years, right. But like if we were in that era, I could see him being an absolute legend, right. Like turning into what Tyler Hansboro was for UNC, you know, in that four year stretch that he had like that I could 100% see and just kind of dominating college. But pro wise, yeah, I, I saw a guy that, that's probably, you're probably not going to get a zero out of him, right? Like you're going to get something out of him. And it was interesting. I don't know if you saw this floating around the other day where I think it was one of those like anonymous GM notes or whatever, but it was like teams are terrified if the Celtics, spurs or, or like Thunder, basically all the smart teams got Cam Boozer because they would know how to use them. And it kind of said two things to me. One, respect to those good teams that you're just like, I don't want them to get a guy that you have to, you know, that they could unlock. But number two, it said to me that like, like a lot of teams that get this guy, they're probably less worried about Cam Boozer hurting them because he's gonna be, he's gonna need to be specifically utilized and weaponized to be the best version of himself. Whereas you look at all the other guys. You mentioned a Wilson, the Bansa, Peterson who, you know, minus like I don't know how real some of the, you know, injury weirdness around it, but like just watching him play, I'm like, oh, I could see where that guy has game. Like I see right where that dude.
- [47:00]
C
You know what I bumped into to Zach Muskin, who's a big Jayhawks. We were just like both at the Eastern park food trucks. He had just come from soccer practice with his, his little girl and I was like, hey man, like what were your thoughts on Peterson this year? And he was just like, man, that guy. People don't talk about how great of an athlete he is and how great of a defender he is. So like even if he doesn't end up being this like awesome number one option, he's going to be like a high level two way player. So the, the floor on him, him is a lot higher than somebody like Cam Boozer where I could see him being like a legit bust. I don't think there's any way Peterson's going to be a bust. I could see a world in which Boozer is a bust.
- [47:40]
A
Yeah, I mean the comps that I've seen for Boozer, that and, and apparently he hasn't really got a chance to shoot the three ball this year, but like can shoot the three ball. So that will be an interesting, you know, differentiator that, you know, could put him separately from some of the guys that you mentioned.
- [47:55]
C
Right. Maybe that's where the Rui Hatsumura comes in.
- [47:58]
A
Right, exactly. The one guy that you mentioned that, that can shoot the three ball a little bit. And so maybe it's a little combination. And by the way, Blake Griffin, Pistons. That one year was actually really, really good. Like that was that. That was a really good Blake year. So if you got that constantly more than one year, right?
- [48:14]
C
And that to me, that's the ceiling. That's the ceiling of Cam Boozer, right, Is Blake Griffin and his good year on Detroit, which is a really good player. And then the floor is like, oh, we just got. Got Tyler Heronsboro, you know.
- [48:25]
A
Right. So that's, that's Doc. But I'm with you. Where the couple times I watched him, I was like, I, I don't see this like, special player that people keep talking about that should be in the conversation with Peterson and Banza. Like, I just didn't see that. Like, at least even with Caleb Wilson out of unc, I was like, I could see flashes of it. Like when I watched a couple of the games, I'm like, oh, okay, that's different. Right? Like I could see that a cup. You could see it a little bit. But like, like, yeah, I'm with you on Boozer. I think it's a little bit of a confusing draft comp that we're hearing for him. So we'll see how that plays out as his comps. Oh, sorry. That's what I was getting to. High end comps is what I've seen is like Al Horford and Kevin Low. Like those would be some, some areas and like, you know, from an IQ not going to be overly athletically dominant. Like I could see those as like high end again. Al Horford later in career with his three point shot. Kevin Love, I think is probably misremembered a little bit for how really good he was on those Minnesota teams and even early Cleveland teams. Like Kevin Love was, was really, really good. So you know, those would be really good outcomes. But I think like those make decent sense to me at least is like, if you're going to say something he's high end somewhere, then maybe it is somewhere in that range along with some of the guys that, that you know. Yeah.
- [49:42]
C
I think Blake Griffin's like, right around that range too, right? So the Blake Griffin.
- [49:46]
A
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that makes sense.
- [49:49]
D
Today's show is sponsored by Strawberry Me. Let me ask you something. Do you think championship athletes got to the top by guessing?
- [49:58]
A
No.
- [49:58]
D
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- [50:50]
B
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- [51:21]
A
All right, next thing I got here. Do you think Peyton Prison is just going to become the new era? Jamal Crawford, Lou Williams, like, is that. Is that just meant to be his destiny? This guy is. Is incredible off the bench. So I looked it up here, Greg. He's been coming off the bench since February 3rd. He's not going to be eligible for any sixth man of the year. You got to play at least half your games as a six man. He started too many games, so it's not happening this year. But since that time, he's gone for over 20 points six times. Leads the league, leads the league in just for the entire year, or at least in. In that time frame, in that. Since. Since February 3rd. He leads the league at six times, scoring over 20 points per game. I believe the next closest is. I think Ben Matheran is at 5 in his share time, but it's really the two of them kind of, you know, head and shoulders above the rest and, you know, coming off the, you know, while I was out, he went off against Atlanta at home in the win and then had a great Night in Charlotte, kind of giving JT the support that he needed with no Derrick White, no Jalen Brown in that game, especially after the Hornets came in and kicked our ass. Like, that felt like a night where it was like kind of like making a little bit of a mini state. I won't call it a major state, but a mini state statement on the road where you had the best all around Tatum game that you had and then you had Peyton Pritchard there to support against a fully, fully engaged, fully healthy Charlotte Hornet team that's been playing unbelievable basketball. And so it just got me thinking, like, Peyton Pritchard, like it. He certainly has. This has earned the right to be a starter on this team or to be a starter next year. But I think his destiny just feels like being the new age age, Jamal Crawford, Lou Williams, like he is. He just seems to be electric in that role. Like, I just think that should be his role. That's kind of my question and my take is, is he? And my answer is he should be.
- [53:10]
C
I love it. I think it's great. And you know, you left out Mono Ginobili, who I think is like the all time six man, right? Like he's, he's just unbelievable. And he just embraced it because he knew that that was the way to make his impact on the team and the way to contribute to winning. And if you think about, you know, just drawing analogous organizations, spurs and Celtics, I think there's a lot of synergy there in the way that they handle their business. And Peyton Pritchard is a winner. He wins wherever he goes. He's won. He won four straight high school championships. Like, that's crazy. In the state of Oregon, you know, he. He didn't win any national titles in college, but he always, always on a good team. And then with the Celtics, he's done nothing but win since he's been here. And that's the first thing we all notice as Celtics fans when we saw Peyton Pritchard make his initial impact his rookie year. Watch out, Marcus Smart. Peyton Pritchard's there to take your minutes at the end of the game. Like, those are words that came out of my mouth. And look at what he's become. He really has. This is, you know, if you think about the, the outcomes that we were expecting from Peyton Pritchard when we drafted him, I think we're at the peak outcome of Peyton Pritchard and what we could have expected of him. Same with Jalen Brown. This is the best that he probably has ever been or ever could be just. He's getting to prove it this year, so maybe not. Maybe this is like the, you know, second or third best outcome for Jalen because maybe there is a world in which he's entrusted to be the number one option three years earlier and becomes this guy sooner, but it's pretty damn special Finance mvp. You're not gonna, you know, it's not nothing to sneeze at.
- [54:37]
A
Yeah. I do think for Peyton Pritchard, though, this. This has got to be very close to what the absolute, you know, ideal ceiling of what he could have been drafted out of Oregon. Right?
- [54:48]
C
Yep.
- [54:48]
A
Is, you know, I. I remember when we first drafted, I was like, he's got a little Kirk Heinrich to his game game. I think he's, you know, Kirk Heinrich was actually underrated defender, but, like, I. I think he's kind of surpassed Kirk Heinrich, you know, as far as, like, their. Their peak level abilities. Right? And. And he's just a gamer, dude. Like, Peyton is just a gamer, man. And he's been on. Dude, he's been on a roll with these buzzer beater shots. Like, I. It gets back. Like, there was a little bit of a time this year where it just kind of felt like, all right, we're going to it a little bit too much. Like. And over the last, I, you know, I need to get like Drew or get, you know, get the. Get the team on it here. Get dick life on it. But I feel like in the last, like, month, month and a half, he's been hitting them at like, a historic pace. Like, I just feel like now. Now I feel like they're going in every time he shoots.
- [55:33]
C
You know what? You know what? My ultimate hope for the Peyton Pritchard, like, buzzer beater experience is that there comes a really important game in the playoffs where Peyton Pritchard decides to be the. The decoy boy for a buzzer beater. And we end up with like a Jason tatum wide open 3. Because everyone was looking.
- [55:52]
A
Richard.
- [55:53]
C
We just like, faked the ball to Pritchard and hit Jason Tatum, and everyone's like, what the just happened? Jason Tatum just won a game at the buzzer because everyone's looking Peyton and Pritchard. That's kind of what I hope.
- [56:04]
A
It's going to be the. The reverse of the. I forget what they call the Steph Curry shot in the Olympics, but you know how you can see KD and LeBron wide open and he still shoots it over Wemby. It's going to be that. But instead, Wemby's closed out on Peyton Pritchard. And Peyton, just dump Jason Tatum for a wide open 3.
- [56:20]
C
I hope it happens, man. I hope happens. All right. I only got one more pass in
- [56:23]
A
the Rock before you will.
- [56:26]
C
Did you happen to see Anthony Edwards and why he missed the start of his game the other day?
- [56:32]
A
Had to take.
- [56:33]
C
Had to take a. We just got a new meme, and I'm just excited for the ability to utilize this meme in. In, like, workplace slacks and. And just, like, text messages with your friends. Anytime you. You didn't show up to something, you can just send the video of Aunt Edwards saying how to take a.
- [56:53]
A
Can we start doing this, Greg, when we're getting ready for a podcast? Like, hey, man, be ready in five. Just send me. If. Just send me Anthony Edwards. Like, a picture of Anthony Edwards, I'm gonna know exactly what it means.
- [57:02]
C
I can't. I can't wait for it. And I told Danielle about it, and she thought it was the funniest thing because she watched the starting five documentary with me, and she thought he was the funniest guy on planet. Planet Earth. So when I told her that, she's like, that's amazing. Like, you can just miss the game because you're in the bathroom taking a. I was like, well, I only missed two minutes. But, like, they announced him in the starting lineup, and he just wasn't there.
- [57:22]
A
So. Okay.
- [57:23]
C
So Junior had to hop in because
- [57:25]
A
I saw this only in passing. And I actually. I was like, I'm definitely, you know, you know me. I've been susceptible to false accounts on social media. I was like, I don't know if this is real. So I went to the start. So first I went to, like, NBA.com just to see if he started or not. And I was like, okay, okay, he didn't start. So let's start there. So there's. There's a reason now. He was coming back from injury, so I was like, he's been back for a little bit. But, like, I was like, maybe this is. Maybe I missed. Like, that he's coming off the bench here, right?
- [57:48]
C
Me too. That was my initial thought, too. Yeah.
- [57:50]
A
Yeah. So. So I was like, I'm doing my 2D. I like that. Some things I just randomly. I'm like, yep, that's true. Post it. And this. What I'm doing a lot of due diligence on. Did Anthony Edwards actually take a.
- [58:00]
C
You're doing your due diligence.
- [58:01]
A
Exact. Exactly my due diligence. And so was there anything else that was shared after the game or like, did, did I miss any. Like, so he got announced, they went out for the tip. He just wasn't there. And like, did he clarify later it was like diarrhea. Like, this is such a, like this has never happened before to my knowledge
- [58:21]
C
of it was, it was sad that the reporter didn't have a follow up question ready. I know he was probably extremely surprised to get that answer out of Anthony Edwards. But like you got to be, you got to be quick enough to come up with like an answer or someone
- [58:33]
A
else has to jump in and do the follow up benefit. Like, because that, to your point, I would have probably been like it. You know, it's, it's like the time I got pulled over by the cops, asked me if I was a member of Al Qaeda. I was a little surprised by the question. Didn't, didn't have. Didn't. Didn't have a good response for it. Right. You know, like, I was a little thrown off. I wish I, I wish I had an immediate response, but it didn't. That, that was a tough one. I didn't, I didn't know what to say. So, so you know, when, when. And the Edwards they think of. I'm sure the reporter was just like, I, I had several follow up, like how you try to, like, you think of the pro, the, the conversation, how it might play out in your head and what can be a follow up that wasn't on the radar. So I think whoever else is in that media scrum has got to jump in and be like, okay, let's, let's, let's stick on this question here. Let's clarify what you meant by you had to go take a in between and tip off.
- [59:21]
C
Here's my thing. He missed the start of the game because of it. So I would imagine he's back there and he's like, God damn it. Like, I have to take a, like I'm, I'm missing the start of the game. I gotta finish this up quickly. Or maybe he's Anthony Edwards and he's so cool. He's like, ah, it like they'll be all right without me. I'll get in when I get in. But I think it's the first thing. And my question is, did he just play the game with the itchy. Because there's no way he wiped good enough to get all that out of there before the game. He's playing in the compression shorts and everything.
- [59:49]
A
You know, it couldn't be a quick thing. Right? You know what I mean? Well, that's why this is like, like, yeah, I don't want to get too much. This is gonna get too graphic, but you know what I mean? Like, like, you know. Yeah, but I'm with you. It's. There's a lot of unanswered questions about that situation that, that I think we need some more answers to. So Minnesota Timberwolves media, I know the time has probably passed, but I feel like we got to revisit this. Somebody's got to get us get on the case and get us more information on Anthony Edwards.
- [60:15]
C
Does he always take a pregame? Was this just. Did he just eat something he shouldn't have eaten? Like, what. What was this a routine thrown off a little bit? What happened? I need to know more. Anthony Edwards, Tell me more about your pregame poop routine.
- [60:31]
A
Yeah, there. There's more on that. Min. Minnesota Press get on that for us. All right, last thing here, and then we will wrap up again. If you're looking for the Celtics Heat recap, I will have that for you on our YouTube page. At the top. This will be. Or excuse me, that will be in our game recap section. This will be at the top section. And if you listen to us on audio, it's in the front half of the podcast. But last thing I've got here in passing the Rock, Greg have. So I've only. I haven't been watching a ton of baseball, which started about a week ago, but have come across a lot of these clips of the ABS challenge system in which the. The. I believe it's the catcher, the hitter and the pitcher, the only three that can touch the top of their hat and get a challenge against the umpire. And it happens in real time. They put it on the big board and number one, it feels like the players are winning these at historic rates. Like, it feels like they're winning five or six times before the umpire wins one of these battles. And the crowd reactions, man, are electric. Like, there it is. Like, one of the most exciting moments in baseball all of a sudden button is when these challenges take place. So my question for you is, one, have you enjoyed them even if it's just in clip form? And then two, is there anywhere in basketball that we could create a very quick. Because, like, replays are way too. We don't need more replays. So I'm trying to think of something that we can utilize in basketball that we could do as quick and seamlessly and might be as exciting as apparently ABS is going to be for baseball all year.
- [62:08]
C
Maybe goaltending, like, maybe there's some sort of, like, project, a projection you can put around the rim and, like, the. The height of the ball and all that stuff. Like, maybe I don't want to see it. I don't need any more challenges in basketball with the. The ABS system. I don't know, man. Like, I think I like it, but at the same time, I saw a clip that it doesn't actually have the 3D representation of the. Of the plate, and it only takes the average, and it's like where. Where it crosses at the middle of the plate. But the strike zone is actually supposed to be the plate itself. So there are. I saw a couple of clips where it's like, yeah, ABS had this as a ball, but it actually was a strike. Right. Just because of the way that the. The system works. So I didn't really like that. And then I also think there should probably be some sort of, like, human error built into it where you see some of them.
- [63:02]
A
This is the one issue.
- [63:03]
C
Yeah. Where it's like. It's like a fingernail away from the. The plate, and it's called a ball. It's like, yeah, but human error, right? Like, protect the plate.
- [63:13]
A
Yeah, yeah. You always grew up here and protect the plate. And so, yeah, the ones where it's like 0.01, it's not even an inch or it's a centimeter. I don't know, like, what, like, acceptable
- [63:22]
C
human error needs to be in there.
- [63:25]
A
Yeah, that. To me, that's. That's one of my issues, because then we get into, like, my least favorite call when we do replays in the NBA and we slow everything down, is the deflected ball that scrapes a fingernail that you can only tell if you go all the way in. And I'm just like, yo, if we're playing ball anywhere in the world, that the ball is going the other way. Right? Like the. Like, it. I guess, technically scrape the. Off the offensive guys. Pinky or something. But, like, that was knocked out by the defender forcefully pushing the ball out. We don't need all of these. I hate that one. No matter what. Even if it works for the Celtics, I hate that one. And so a couple clips to your point, Greg. I did see where it's like, wow, this. This poor umpire, man. Look, I actually felt bad for the umpires. I'm like, yeah, they're getting. Because it is.02 inches, centimeters, whatever.
- [64:16]
C
Now there's some egregious increase the border of the abs, you know what I mean? Like, give me, me, give me Something like there's nothing prettier to me than a pitcher like painting the black, right? If they can do that. That was. Pedro Martinez was unbelievable at painting the black, painting the corners and like there were some that were definitely a little bit off. But you just knew it was a strike, right? You just had a, you like that was a strike. It might not be a strike by the ABS system, but that's a strike and we all know it because that's just part of baseball and that's what I'm missing. I, I want there to be a little bit more leeway way for umpires to be like, yeah, I see, I see the abs, but it's, you know that's a strike, right?
- [64:55]
A
Because you think about it like, you know, thinking back to like my days of like playing baseball, like when you could, when you could strike out a guy looking for the final out of an inning and you just knew it and you like as your momentum just took you straight to the dugout. That's a badass feeling right now. You gotta pause, wait, look up. Like there is. So there is some downside to it, right? But I do enjoy the crowd reactions. It's, it's one of those things where I think in the first week is something new. It's feeling like a success. I am very curious to your point. As we get more and more close games that hinge on a 02 off the plate or did hit the, you know, these toss up calls, are we going to start to, to end up ultimately doing what we're doing with all replay across sports where we're like, hey, what if we just went back to no replays where that's like everyone's suggestion, like I wonder with get there or,
- [65:44]
C
or it shouldn't be like the whole game. It should be like you can only do it in the first five innings and then it's all up to the umpires or the opposite. You can't do it in the first five innings, but you can do it at the end of the game. And like there's got to be just like a little bit more. Maybe it's only when there's runners in scoring position and like it's a scoring chance. You know what I mean? Like I, I know that getting a base runner on base can lead to a whole bunch of in baseball and all that, right. Like a walk can lead to a huge inning. But I just think there's, there's just too much technology in my life and I don't need any more.
- [66:17]
A
We're in the era of AI, Greg, it ain't going anywhere. It's only getting worse. There's zero doubt about it.
- [66:22]
C
Yeah. Jesus Christ.
- [66:23]
A
Yeah.
- [66:23]
C
There's this clip. I don't know if you saw this. Well, I know you don't consume much UFC content, but Dana White was asked about how the UFC has been using some AI, like, automated, like, promotions for their events, and somebody asked Dana White about it. Okay, what about paying artists to create this stuff? You know what I mean? Like, why are you guys using AI? He's like, AIs here and it's coming for all of us. Shut the up and watch the fights. It's like, really? Come on, man. Like, that's just. That's just a horrible sentiment to have. Like, let's not just bend over and take it from the machines. Let's put up some sort of fight.
- [66:58]
A
Yep, that's. That's what's coming. That's. That's. That's what the heads of companies are basically, Dana, saying the. The quiet part out loud, that a lot of companies are going to try and give you some. Some speech around it, but. But. Yep, that's what's coming for us, man. Well, that's a fun note to end the podcast on. AI is coming for us, and if you're out there, let's try to fight back just a little bit. Just a little bit.
- [67:20]
C
Give me some human error.
- [67:21]
A
A little bit of human error. We got human Error on this podcast if you want human error. This show is not AI. It's brought to you by Will. It's brought to you by Greg. Brought to you by the Green with Envy Squad. Shout out to our guy Alex. That'll do it for this episode here. Here. As always, appreciate you guys rocking with us. Make sure you're following us across all of our social media platforms. We will be checking in again probably sometime later this weekend or early next week. We will be updating you guys with everything on the playoff races. Things are heating up. Looks like the Celtics are likely going to be the 2 seed. That game against New York, depending on where the standings are at, will be really big coming up here in. In about a week or so. That will be a big game. Game. But other than that, it looks like something's gonna be locked into that two seed, and we'll see who comes out. Seven, eight, still up for. Still up for grabs here. So we will keep you tuned. We'll give you the analysis you need. We got y', all, and we will catch you guys later. Until 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 door at vrbo, we understand that even the best of plans sometimes need a little support. So we plan for the plot twists. Every booking is automatically backed by our VRBO Care Guarantee, giving you confidence from the very start. Whenever you need help, it's ready. Before your stay, through the moments in between, and after your trip. Because a great trip starts with peace of mind and maybe a good playlist, but we've got the peace of mind part covered.