
Boston Celtics stars shake up the Locked On NBA Awards, but is Jaylen Brown getting the respect he deserves? Brown lands second team All-NBA despite a strong case for the first, Derrick White earns first team All-Defense honors, and Joe Mazzulla dominates Coach of the Year voting. Are advanced stats and shifting narratives holding back Celtics from more individual recognition? John Karalis of Celtics on SI breaks down all the major awards, scrutinizing votes for MVP, Most Improved Player, and Defensive Player of the Year, while spotlighting how White's unique defensive impact blurs traditional roles. The show explores why Celtics culture under Joe Mazzulla continues to set the standard, and whether Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and Derrick White are getting their rightful share of accolades. With insight into league-wide trends and the locked-on perspective, this episode sets the stage for Boston’s postseason ambitions.
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Now on the Lockdown Celtics podcast, we're handing out awards. The first ever Locked On NBA awards. It's bonus content here on the Lockdown Celtics podcast. Thank you for making the show your first listen. Maybe you're also your second listen every day. I'm John Corralis. Today it's all about the awards in the NBA, focusing on the Celtics. But we'll be doing all of the awards as voted on by Locked On NBA hosts across the network. So let's just dive into this. We'll get to coach of the year in the third section. We'll do all defense in the second section. Let's start with the all NBA. And the announcement here is that Jaylen Brown on the Locked On Podcast network has made second team all NBA. The first team is Shea Gilders, Alexander, Nicola Jokic, Victor Wembanyama, Luca Doncic and Kawhi Leonard. Jalen's on the second team with Kade Cunningham, Donovan Mitchell, Anthony Edwards, Jalen Brunson. The third team is Jamal Murray, Jalen Duran, Tyrese Maxey, Kevin Durant and Jalen Johnson. Now, of course I can hear all of you saying, how is Jalen Brown on the second team? He's first team all NBA. I want to just put it out there that my vote for all NBA first team was Jalen along with Luca, Jokic, Wemby and and Shea. Now also I want to make sure that this is clear. We did not use the 65 game rule. We said, you know, we're Throwing it out. This is just. These are the votes. This is who we're. We're putting in. So it didn't matter. 63 games, 65 games, whatever. We're just. We're making our vote. So my vote was for Jalen, first team, along with Luca, Jokic, Wemby and sga. My second team was Kate on what's up? No, it's cut off. My second team was Cade, Jalen Brunson, Anthony Edwards, Kawhi Leonard, Jalen Johnson. I had him on my second team. Jalen made the third team on that. And my third team was my personal third team. Donovan Mitchell, Jamon, Jamal Murray, Scotty Barnes, Tyrese Maxey and Jalen Duran. So most of the same people in there, but did I forget Anthony? No. Anthony Edwards is my second team. So I had. I had Jalen on the first team. Now the votes. Let me just call up my all NBA votes here. Kawhi had nine first team votes versus Jalen had seven. Kawhi had two, had 12 second team votes. Jalen had 13. And they each had one third place vote. So it wasn't. It was. It was close. And at this point, we're. We're separating guys by, you know, a few points here. Kawhi, look, the lake, the. The Clippers were, what, the ninth seed? But I'm going to just prepare everybody here for this eventuality that Jalen may not make the actual first team all NBA. Clearly, I believe he belongs on there. You probably believe he belongs on there. Just be prepared for someone else to get in there. Because the advanced numbers, this is the thing that everybody call, you know, calls up when Jalen Brown's candidacy comes up. The advanced numbers are not always favorable for Jalen. Other guys have better advanced numbers. And now you're starting to get the. Well, how much of this is Joe Missoula vs. Jalen Brown? How much of this is these other guys? Look at how it doesn't matter how Jalen plays. Listen, I talked about this in yesterday, in actually earlier today's podcast where the Celtics team has actually made me believe that it kind of doesn't even matter who you throw out there. They still have some. Some amount of success. You took. If you took Jaylen Brown off of this team for the whole season and you went without Jalen, without Jason. Yeah, they would suffer. But somehow I, I just have it in my head now that these guys would find a way to be at least decent, a winning team. I mean, maybe I overstated it in, in the earlier podcast and saying they'd be a 46 win team. No, maybe not. But they would be a winning team, right? They, I still think they would be above 500 just because Joe and everyone else, they find some sort of like magic potion. So that also kind of works against Jalen in some of these conversations. So voters are looking for reasons to disqualify players and so Jalen will get disqualified by some voters. I am telling you, just mentally prepare yourself that that's going to be the case again. I have Jaylen Brown on my first team all NBA. I believe he is a first team all NBA guy. I think he's been huge this season. As I said in the podcast, the earlier podcast today, the Monday podcast, that it's all intertwined. You can't really have the Missoula Magic without Jalen Brown. You can't have Jalen Brown without the Missoula Magic and you can't have that without Derrick White. You can't have it. It's all intertwined. And so everybody deserves a lot of credit. But like I said, people want to disqualify players for whatever reason they can. And when you look at that in the MVP voting, I don't have a graphic for the MVP, but the MVP on the network goes to Shea Gilgis Alexander with 19 first place votes and 209 total points. Jokic was second with 12 second place votes. Victor Wembanyama, who is kind of in the mix when you look at the ESPN straw poll. He's in the mix at the kind of the top and a lot of people have moved into it's SGA or Wemby and Wemby is third. He only had one first place vote in this. Luca is third, Cade is fourth. Jalen Brown is fifth. Now Jalen being fifth in, in this, actually sixth. I'm sorry, it's Shea, Jokic, Wemby, Luca, Cade and then Jalen with three fourth place votes and four fifth place votes. I do think that there's a little bit because it's a small sample. We had 22 votes. We have 30 shows. We didn't have everybody participate. But I think there's a little bit of anti Jalen going on in this. I think Jalen will finish a little bit higher. Also. The Luca like Luca won't actually be in the, in the awards. Cade won't be in the awards. So Jalen will finish above those guys anyway, naturally because of the rules in the NBA. But I think he should finish above. I, I think he's, he's a top five NBA mvp. Candidate he definitely did see deserves more love. Is he better than Cade? There's, there's a lot of discussion here. There's a lot of like healthy debate to be had about, you know, Cade was the, you know, led the top seed but Jalen played 70 with 71 games, whatever it was and you know, let was third in, in the league in total points, was, you know, led the league in field goals made. He, he's, he has a compelling case to be higher in the conversation. So Jalen makes second team here for the lockdown Podcast Network awards. I think he's a first teamer but you know, this is just, just gird your loins. It's going to be an interesting kind of award season for him. Let's come back with the all defense, the defensive awards. Derek White's on there. Where is he? We'll talk about it next. Today's show is brought to you by Turbo Tax. It is tax time and we know that doing it the old way, it's a lot trying to book an appointment that's not the most convenient. 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your first listen every day. Your second listen every day. Your third listen every day. We got bonus podcasts all over the place, but it's a Monday through Friday podcast. Guaranteed bonus podcast when they play on weekends when they, you know, playoffs are here and it's going to be all sorts of podcasting. I'm, I'm ready for a long haul for the next three months. Well, May, June, three months. Sure of podcasting. So make sure you're subscribed. I'm John Corrales. I'm a beat writer. I cover the Celtics for Celtics on SI. I've been covering the team for about 20 years doing this podcast for 10 now. So I love talking about these Boston Celtics. And we're going to continue our awards talk. The first ever locked on NBA awards. And we're going to move over to the defensive side and first team, all defense, Derrick White, first team, all defense along with Victor Wembanyana to Chet Holmgren, Rudy Gobert, Sar Thompson. That's your first team. Your second team is Scotty Barnes. Barnes. Bam. At a bio case on Wallace, Stefan Castle and Amen Thompson. So the Thompson twins up there on both teams, very well deserved, I think. You know, obviously D. White is one of the best defenders in the league. He was. So the voting breaks down. Wemby was unanimous. Chet Holmgren 21 of the 22 votes. So he had 21 first place votes. Sar Thompson, 18. First place votes, Derek White, 13 and Rudy Gobert, 10. So Derek finishes above Rudy Gobert in the first team, all defense. Then Scotty Bam Case and Wallace, Stefan Castle. I'm in. Thompson, that's your second team. And then on the outside looking in Og Anunoby, Dyson Daniels, Chris Dune, Evan Mobley, Tamani Kamara, Lou Dort, Ron Holland, Amishkeda gets a second team vote. Did I put him on my second team? Let me, let me. My, my, my. I don't think I did. Let's, let's my defensive. All defensive teams, where are they? This, this is clearly not all defense. First team Mine was exactly as. No, I had Scotty Barnes on my first team. I had one Wemby Chet, D. White, Scotty Barnes and Sar Thompson and then Casey Wallace Castle. Amen Thompson. Bam out of bio. Rudy Gobert. I did not have, I did not have Neemi on my all defensive team. Maybe I should have but you know, I, I just kind of went with, you know, the, the historically one. I, you know, you know, that's it is what it is. I, I, I upon further review, could I have put Neemi up there above. Maybe Bam. Maybe. Maybe that's fair. I, I think he deserves some consideration and was obviously one of the most impactful players on the team. Obviously. On the Monday podcast I, I put Neemi as my top storyline but he got the one vote and it wasn't for me. So shout out to whoever gave Nene a second team vote. That was really cool. So probably, I'm gonna probably guess that was one of the. Maybe, maybe Orlando. But he didn't play against Orlando in that last one. I don't know who might have given him that. But Nemi's obviously very impactful defensively. D. White is the most impactful defensively. In fact, we did a perimeter defensive player of the year. We had some fun with interior and perimeter interior was Wemby, obviously Chet second, Rudy Bam and Scotty Barnes. Those were your four. The perimeter defensive player of the year. These are all so out of order on my votes. But we had perimeter defensive player of the year was a Sar Thompson, Derrick White. My vote was Derrick White in a Sar Thompson second. But the thing with Derek and what makes him so unique as far as where does he fit in all of this conversation? He's not your traditional like Asar is. Like Marcus Smart was we're gonna put D. White on the other guy's best player. You actually didn't do that as often. It would be a lot of off the ball kind of stuff and he roams a little bit and he gets his, he gets a lot of his defensive plays at the rim. He had more blocks than steals for a guard. That's kind of like insane. He had three. There are three players six, four and under who had. It was 98 steals. I'm doing this off memory. 98. 98 blocks, 88 steals in a career in a season. The other two were David Thompson and Dwayne Wade. And Derek is the only one to do it in less than 3,000 minutes. So he's. Where do you, where do you slot Derrick White if he's getting More blocks than steals. As a, as a perimeter defender, he's blocking shots at a rate of an interior defender. But he's not an interior defender. He is a perimeter defender who slides in to protect the rim. It's a very weird kind of place for Derrick White to live, so he doesn't fit in. Like I want to say he's the best perimeter defender, but he's not doing the poke away steals. This is going to sound crazy, but I would put Jordan Walsh as a perimeter defender on the other team's best player. I would rap when the Celtics, let's say they play the Knicks in the second round like we expect. I don't want Derrick White on Jalen Brunson. I want to try Jordan Walsh with that length on Jalen Brunson and let Derrick White kind of float and make plays, get into passing lanes, get into. Right. Like you don't want to waste Derrick White just guarding a particular player. The impact of Derrick White, the true impact of, of White is being able to read situations and get into passing lanes and sneak up on guys. So that's, that's his strength and that kind of makes you can put him on first team all defense because he, that just. He is an elite, elite defender. But when you break it down to interior defender, perimeter defender, which, which one is he honestly better at? Like get into the comments on the YouTube page. Which isn't he better interior or perimeter? Right. His steals, how many of his steals are chased down like sneak up behind a guy type of things. Versus when I look at Jordan Walsh poking, poking the ball away, just straight rip a guy. Boom. You know, the Marcus Smart cobra dive steal the ball. Derek's doing that obviously, but not, that's not what he does in quotes, you know what I mean? So I love that he's a unique defender like that. It actually allows the Celtics to use a specialist like Jordan in strict one on one defensive or obviously Jalen Brown gets a one on one nod because of his quickness and his strength and size. So it's, it's an interesting kind of conversation about Derek and, and where he fits defensively. Let's do coach of the year next and then I'll get through some of the other awards because we handed out a lot, a lot of them, including the worst team to watch, the most fun team to watch, most improved player and all most annoying player. So that's all coming up next. Today's show is brought to you by Rocket Money. If you've ever opened up your bank account and thought where did All My Money go? You're not alone. Keeping track of subscriptions, spending and bills can get overwhelming fast. 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That's why the Fruity Rainbow five Hour Energy Shot brings that nostalgic flavor back in a whole new way. Fruity Rainbow 5 hour energy shots treat your taste buds through an explosion of fruity flavor with a tasty caffeine kick. It's a quick, easy way to satisfy that sweet craving while keeping things simple and on the go. It's a zero sugar treat that's sweet tooth approved and it's convenient. I can just pop a few of these in my bag when I'm traveling. A lot of traveling now. Coming for the playoffs. Last minute stuff, late flights. I'm going to need a pick me up so I throw these in my bag when I want something. Especially if I want something sweet without going overboard. Get Candy Flavored Chaos with fruity rainbow 5 hour energy shots available online at 5hourenergy.com, the number 5ourenergy.com or on Amazon. Thank you for making Lockdown Celtics your first listen every day. Thanks for being an everydayer and joining me Monday through Friday and for bonus podcasts like this during the week on weekends when they play. And they will be playing on a lot of weekends in the playoffs. So join me Monday through Friday. Also join the Everydayer Club. You get ad free audio on your favorite podcasting app. It's available on all the major ones and you get access to our Discord server in game chats and stuff there. So ad free Audi 5 bucks a month. 5 or 50 bucks for the year at Lockedonseltics Supercast. All right, let's get back to the awards. The Locked on podcast network has put out their awards, and the last one here involving one of the Celtics is Coach of the Year, which goes to Joe Missoula. Joe Missoula beat out Bickerstaff, Charles Lee, Mitch Johnson, and Jordan Knotts. So Joe Missoula gets the award he doesn't want. And let me find the coach of the Year. Joe Missoula got 16 first place votes, 86 total points. A runaway winner over JB Bickerstaff, who had 38 points, three first place votes, seven second, and two third. So Missoula's breakdown was six first, one second, three third. Geez. Three for third place, huh? Charles Lee was third with one first place vote. Mitch Johnson had two first place votes. Well deserved. I think this is right on the money. There's no. I don't think there's much debate anymore. Although, look, all of these guys are definitely deserving. Quinn Snyder got three third place votes. I guess once you lose Trey Young, you become a good coach again, whatever that means. But this has been the year of Joe Missoula. He's. He. I think he should run away with Coach of the Year. I know he doesn't care. I think it's a stupid award. Whatever. Understand that when you get it, this is a full staff award. It's a full team award. He. I know that he doesn't want any love on himself. He wants it all to be on the players and on the staff. He will flat out reject that it is him, and it'll. He'll be. He'll say, this is the entire staff. The entire staff has been empowered to work with the players, develop the players and all of that. And the players are the ones who went out and. And do this. I said this in the podcast, the Monday podcast. Joe sets the tone. He's the one that goes out there and teaches these guys how to do the job. And now the guys go out and execute the plan and do the job. So it's. It is everybody and. And it's an organizational award for sure. But Joe is the guy who sets the tone. The Celtics culture comes from Joe Missoula. And what I love about what Joe does is that he makes sure the messaging is consistent. He has said this multiple times. The guys walk into the practice facility and they will see three, four, five people before they see any of the coaches. And it could be people in the kitchen. It could be training staff, could be maintenance staff, could be any number of people and if any one of those people is not on board and has a different message that can permeate what's, what's going on in his locker room. So he wants to make sure that everybody is on the same page. He creates a culture from when you walk in the door to when you leave. And that involves a lot. That involves being involved, that involves being open and listening and, and treating these guys with respect and not treating them like robots and, or, or employees or anything like that. This is a, it's a perfectly run organization starting at the top with Brad. But Joe Missoula is kind of like the, the guy who sets the entire tone for all of it. So he deserves this recognition. I've been saying from the beginning that Joe has, is a great coach. I know when he got hired I said that this was the right hire. After his first season, I said this guy's got it. I know that he's going to be a good coach. And I've taken a lot of crap from a lot of people saying that Joe Missoula is the guy, he deserves to be the guy and he will be the guy. And now here he is. It's very clear now. All of a sudden everybody I talk to around the league, it's like, well, you, you've got an elite coach and of course, of course you're winning, of course you're doing these things, of course you're. Doesn't matter who's in or out, you have an elite coach. So congratulations to him in advance. If we want to do this, we can go through the rest of our. Let's, let's do the rest of the awards. Let me just go through all of the awards. Just in no particular order, the sixth man of the year goes to Keldon Johnson. He had eight first place votes, tied with Jaime, Jaime Hawkez, but he had seven second place votes and four third place votes. So Keldon Johnson beats out Jaime Haquez and AJ Mitchell to be the sixth man of the year in the Lockdown podcast network. I've gone through the all NBA teams, all rookie Cooper Flag Con Canipple, BJ Edgecomb, Dylan Harper, Cedric Coward. In fact the rookie of the year. Where's rookie of the year? Come on. Rookie of the year. God, man, they put this in all the weird places. Con Knipple wins rookie of the year over Cooper flag. 15 first place votes. Cooper gets 15 second place votes. They basically flipped. Khan gets all, you know, 15 first, seven second. Cooper gets seven first, 15 second. I was one of the people who Voted for Cooper flag. Here's my reasoning on Cooper flag. I think Khan had the. Maybe better overall season from start to finish. He had a better team. He had better teammates setting him up. He benefited from a lot of. A lot of that. Cooper for sure did not have as good a season. He was on a much worse team, but he had higher highs and the types of highs that were just individual. He did it right. Khan is going to be a great player. I think Cooper's going to be the better player, and I don't think it's going to be that close. And so when you look at rookie of the year and this is kind of a little bit maybe unfair, but when I look at the high, the higher highs that Cooper was able to get to and have much bigger individual games and the fact that he did it on a worst team, it was able to go get his own. I just, it was close to me. It was very, very close. And that was the tiebreaker that. I just think Cooper Flagg is the better player and is that unfair to con where you say, well, you're voting for the better season. If somebody were to tell me that about. Somebody's going to make that argument about Kawhi Leonard over Jaylen Brown as first team. They're just going to be like, look, it was close. I just went with the better player and Kawhi Leonard's the better player historically. And, you know, I can't, I can't get mad when somebody throws my own argument in my own face. I think that's going to be the argument that people make. So. But that's why I went with Khan. I mean, with Cooper over Khan, clutch player of the year is Shea Gilders. Alexander over Jamal Murray, Luca Doncic and Tyrese Maxi. Who else do we have here? We've got interior defender of the year. I told you. That was Victor Wembanya. Most improved, Nikhil Alexander Walker wins over Jalen Duran, Jalen Johnson and Denny Abdia. Now I know you're going to be like, where's the mish k? He was not on the ballot. He was not on the ballot. And I'm going to say hands up. My bad. I probably when I looked at the initial ballot, when it was sent out for review and over oversight on my part because I didn't even really. It didn't even really register that to, to look at that. So that's. I probably should have put him on there. He wouldn't have won. He wouldn't have won, but he would have gotten votes. And I Probably would have voted for him. Now I ended up voting for. Who did I vote for? I think I voted for Nikhil Alexander Walker. Let me see. Most improved player. Boy, there's no rhyme or reason to what I'm looking at, so I apologize. Most improved. I had Jalen Duran first and it's going to go to one of those two. Look, Nikhil Alexander Walker went from averaging single digits to averaging 20 plus. Jalen Duran is an all star now. They just had huge leaps. Nemi is to me the most improved player not just from last year to this year, but from this year beginning of the season to the end of the season. There's no doubt. So I'm gonna. I'm gonna fall on my sword. I should have pushed to include Mimi on the most improved ballot. He was not there and so I had to vote for somebody else. All right, so that's that. So most annoying player. My vote was Dylan Brooks. Four other people. Three other people voted him. So Dylan Brooks was first. Lou Dort was second. Alperence and Goon third. Lamelo Ball. Jayla Brown got a vote. See what I'm saying? There's Jalen Brown hate in the network. Lou Dort. I get it. Dylan Brooks has to be the winner. To me, most entertaining player. Victor Wembanyama had nine votes. Jokic was second. LaMelo, Anthony Edwards and Luka Doncic rounded out that group. Most fun team was the Charlotte Hornets. Thirteen votes. I think that's kind of self explanatory. Spurs, Nuggets, Pistons, Hawks. So the Celtics were not on the most fun team. I'm sure you disagree. We had an offensive player of the year. I probably should have mentioned that earlier that Nicola Jokic won. He was the offensive player of the year. So even though SGA won the mvp, it's very clear that people said, listen, the. The defense is an issue and so Jokic just on the offensive side. And look, Jokic has had. Jokic has had an amazing year. Oh, actually look. No, it's. It's 70 points a piece. So Jokic had Jokic wins the tiebreaker because he had the most first place votes. But 70 points a piece for Jokic and SGA. But look, Jokic led the league in rebounds and assists. He averaged a triple double. It's. It's crazy. We had a. The. I mentioned the perimeter defensive player of the year. Oh, worst team to watch. Worst team to watch was the Sacramento Kings followed by the Brooklyn Nets, Washington Wizards, Trailblazers, Bucks, Magic, Poor Magic, Rockets, Heat and Jazz. So those are the awards. Thanks for being here on a bonus podcast. Share your thoughts in the comment section. Maybe next year we have a a fuller more more participation in this. So but that's the Lockdown NBA Awards. I'm sure there's going to be some mirroring of what they what you see overall. So let's start the conversation here and continue it as the awards trickle out. Thanks for listening. Thanks for being here for a bonus podcast. I'll drop these bonus podcasts as things pop up throughout the course of the playoffs and definitely when they play on the weekends. So subscribe, watch the show on YouTube and share the podcast. 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Host: John Karalis
Date: April 14, 2026
This special episode of Locked On Celtics celebrates the first-ever Locked On NBA Awards, featuring a deep dive into the Celtics' representation on the ballots. Host John Karalis reviews where Celtics stars Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, and head coach Joe Mazzulla landed among national and network voters, and he offers insights on the award results, voting process, and implications for each honoree. Additional NBA-wide honors, fun awards, and some behind-the-scenes views of award voting are also discussed.
Jaylen Brown was voted as Second Team All-NBA by the Locked On Podcast Network, despite John Karalis casting his own vote for Brown on the First Team.
John’s Take:
Debate on Brown’s Value:
On Jalen Brown’s All-NBA Standing:
“Mentally prepare yourself that that's going to be the case again. I have Jaylen Brown on my first team all NBA. I believe he is a first team all NBA guy. I think he's been huge this season.” (06:11)
On Derrick White’s Defensive Rarity:
“He had three. There are three players six, four and under who had...98 blocks, 88 steals in a season. The other two were David Thompson and Dwayne Wade. And Derrick is the only one to do it in less than 3,000 minutes.” (15:01)
On Joe Mazzulla’s Approach:
"The Celtics culture comes from Joe Mazzulla. And what I love about what Joe does is that he makes sure the messaging is consistent...He creates a culture from when you walk in the door to when you leave." (24:10)
On Most Annoying Player:
“Dylan Brooks has to be the winner. To me, most entertaining player. Victor Wembanyama…” (32:07)
The episode blends expert basketball analysis with a touch of humor and authentic fan energy—Karalis both celebrates and debates the placements, frequently cites his own votes, pushes back on certain narratives (especially around Jaylen Brown), and shares unique insights into Celtics locker room culture and the NBA award voting process.
The inaugural Locked On NBA Awards provided a showcase for Celtics stars, with Jaylen Brown, Derrick White, and Joe Mazzulla each earning flagship honors. Host John Karalis gives listeners both the results and a running commentary on the voting logic, player narratives, and quirks of the process. Derrick White's unique defensive profile and Joe Mazzulla's culture-building methods are especially highlighted. The episode closes with a lighthearted rundown of “fun” and “annoying” awards, tying the serious and silly sides of NBA fandom together.
For Celtics diehards and NBA fans alike, this episode offers a spirited, behind-the-scenes look at both team excellence and the debates behind recognition.