← Locked On Celtics - Daily Podcast On The Boston Celtics
Locked On Celtics - Daily Podcast On The Boston Celtics
Boston Celtics Had A Gap Year After All | Tatum Was Most Important Development
00:39:07
Boston Celtics fans relive a season of highs and heartbreaks, as postseason realities expose the limits of the roster’s surprising regular-season surge. Did Neemias Queta prove he can anchor the starting center spot, or will Brad Stevens seek reinforcements? The collapse against the Philadelphia 76ers and Joel Embiid’s playoff transformation spark questions about defensive strategy, bench scoring depth, and next season’s true contender status. John Karalis of Celtics On SI and Tom Westerholm break down Jayson Tatum’s return to form, the Celtics’ roller-coaster ride, and what this so-called “gap year” means for offseason priorities. Key discussions include potential moves using the mid-level exception, the futures of Payton Pritchard and Nikola Vučević, and whether a new bucket-getter is a must for a playoff run. With off-court dynamics, coaching decisions, and fan expectations in the spotlight, is Boston poised to turn heartbreak into hope next season?
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Foreign. Hi, this is Wes Goldberg, host of Locked on NBA Daily and Locked on Heat. And today's episode is brought to you by adt. Imagine you're watching the game at a buddy's house when you get a call that someone tried to break into yours. In a second, everything can change. That's why there's ADT. ADT security systems help keep your home safe 247 with the most company operated monitoring centers in the industry. And the ADT plus app keeps you in control the whole time. Don't leave your home wide open during an emergency. When every second counts, count on ADT. Visit ADT.com or call 1-800-ADT ASAP.
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This is Jake from Lock Dawn. When the game's on the line, the best know when to pass.
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So it turns out this was a gap year after all. We'll take one more look back before we look forward and try to answer some questions about this roster. Granted, J was starting reason business. How we finish locked on Selfish pod. Home of the winners. Peace. Hey, welcome back to the Lockdown Celtics podcast. I am John Corrales and today we're getting one more look back at this Celtic season now that it's over. And before we take a look forward, later on in the show, we'll start looking forward at some of the questions and how the Celtics are going to start approaching their off season. This is going to be a lot of what we talk about as the, as the, the off season starts to progress. But this really was a gap year and to talk about that with me is, of course, our guy, Tom Westerman.
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A
Thank you, thank you, thank you. I'm thrilled to be here to discuss once again the utility and usefulness of gap years. They're good.
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B
Yeah. Actually, it's kind of funny. So I, I, I mentioned this on yesterday's podcast. I'll throw the analogy out to you that this was like, you know those little used car places, the little, like little lots that, yeah, spring up along the side. It's like Joe's used car lot and he's got like 10 cars on there. Like that's what this season was. That it was that Little used car. And like, when you, when you buy it, it's like, yeah, this is kind of all I can afford right now. And I know it's not great, but we're gonna see, we're just gonna. It's just gonna get me to where I need to go.
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A
Yeah.
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B
Then you're like, you know what? I know how to tinker with an engine. So you tinker with the engine a little bit, clean it up, blah, blah. And this starts driving great. You're like, wow, this is actually a better car, man. You might have gotten a great deal on this car. This was. You know what? This is what a. What a find this was. This was like, by March like this, you might have gotten the best deal on a car ever. And then all of a sudden, it breaks down. You're like, we probably should have expected that, actually. Probably should have expected this thing to break down kind of when you needed it the most. That's my bad. We. We knew that from the beginning, and, and kind of here we are. So that's my take on what this season ended up being.
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A
I hate this analogy because it is, it is yelling directly at me and my wife, who bought a Honda CRV and would crowing about it to anybody who would listen, and then the transmission went out.
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B
So.
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A
Yeah, you know, Yeah, I, I don't, I don't. I don't know why you tailored this analogy directly at my dome, but here we are.
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B
I don't really like you, Tom.
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A
That's. It shows. It shows.
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B
That's a little secret here. We pretend. But I kind of hate you, actually, so that's. I take this little. Take what I can. No, no, no. That, that. It's actually for J. King, that's.
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A
Always remember who the real enemy is.
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B
Always. Always remember who public enemy number one is. As always, I can't even say what I want to say. It's funny. Jay and I were, like, joking around on Twitter, going back, going at each other, and, like, legitimately, people were texting Jay, like, are you guys okay? Are you are mad at each other? Like, we sit next to. We sat next to each other the whole season. So, yeah, it's kind of no wonder
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A
you're mad at each other because.
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B
Yeah, no, of course. It's like a roommate. Like, you take your, like, put your socks away, you know, do the dishes.
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A
Once. One time.
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B
Once, Jay do the dishes. So, yeah, I think. And look, it's fine. It's fine that that's what the season was. I, I, I was seeing some people talk about how, oh, I can't believe they made us believe.
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A
Like, you know what?
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B
Be grateful that they made you believe. This is. You got. You got a season where you got to buy into something and really feel good about this team. And you look around the sports landscape and, you know, Patriots went to the super bowl, and that's great. And you get that same kind of feeling with the Celtics of, you know, we didn't expect this. And, like, oh, my God, this was. This was so much more than I thought it was going to be. And Tatum comes back, and he's great. And, yeah, and he fell apart, too, when you need them. Like, everything kind of at the end was just like, oh, yeah, all right. This is kind of where we. We thought we would be. But I'm. I'm choosing to appreciate this ride more than anything. And I've already yelled about Game 7 and this playoff series. There are a lot of things that the Celtics absolutely did wrong, and they take a lot of the blame. I. I'm. People want to be mad about the Sixer series. Absolutely. You should be, because that should have been over in five.
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Yeah.
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I don't go back and say, boy, I missed on some of this analysis. No, I still believe in my analysis. I still think I was right. The Celtics didn't execute what they needed to execute to make me right.
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So they let you personally down.
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B
Personally let me down. And I still choose to see this season as a successful season.
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A
Sure. Yeah. I think. I mostly agree. I. I think, you know, that you look at this season and. And, like, they made. They made everybody believe. Like. Like, we got caught up in it for sure. Right. Like, you know, you. It's tough not to when you see Tatum come back looking the way he did. Like, he looked. He looked incredible. Like, everything really. You know, everything really worked in ways that didn't always make a lot of sense. And, you know, I think a lot of this. We spent a lot of the season talking about how, hey, I don't. This is crazy. Right? Like, we. We spent a lot of the season talking about how insane this all is, that all of this stuff is hitting. And, you know, I mean, things just don't go perfectly forever. Right? Like, things. Things happen. I mean, for me, one of the things that I. I really take away from this is the. The importance of remembering the. That the postseason is a lot different than the regular season. Right?
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Yes.
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I mean, I'm sorry, Joe. It just is. Like, I know he wants to say it's the same thing, but, like, it's not like all the extra scouting, all the, you know, all the intense laser focus on, you know, trying to hammer the, the weaknesses of another team. Right. You know, the, the Sixers are able to take a really hard look at like, hey, we could really get Keda in a lot of foul trouble if we, you know, do X, Y and Z. There's, you know, all this stuff, it, it makes it just a much different game. And I, I wonder if we're going to start to see more teams kind of try to take that into account, trying to turn themselves into more of a, of a, you know, a 16 game team, more so than an 82 game team. I, I wonder if we're going to start to see some of that stuff. But, you know, I mean, I think you talk about a gap year and I think if you're mad about this season, I think a lot of it is just that it, it felt for a little bit there for like a really, I think especially when the Celtics, like, for instance, barely lost to the, you know, to the spurs and you could, you could really, you know, find ways that they could have won. You know, they had like some, some really tough games against the Thunder. You could, you started to be able to kind of be like, like, man, maybe, right? Like, like maybe. And like, you know, we were like. I, I agree with you that I, I didn't, I don't feel like my analysis before the season, before the series was particularly wrong. I think that the crazy thing that happened was that the Sixers, I don't think anybody thought that the Sixers were just going to click into place just like instant bang. This is precisely. Even the first game within bead, his usage was way too high. And then all of a sudden, game five, six and seven, he's just Jokic out there throwing ridiculous passes, drawing double teams and dishing everywhere. It's like this was not a guy that we had seen in any of his previous.
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B
Right.
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You know, so I think all of that stuff, it's like it would have been really hard to see that coming. In retrospect, I think that maybe the Celtics, you know, being this like, well oiled regular season machine, you know, that, that tries really hard and wins all the margins, that stuff just kind of didn't show up in the postseason the way that, you know, that it kind of needed to, for them to make a real run. So, yeah, I mean, I guess that's kind of all over the place, but that's, Those are kind of my overarching thoughts where it's like Yeah, I think gap year is fair. I think if you're mad about it, mostly you're mad about the fact that this, you know, that, that it felt like there was something else to this team. But I think what we just saw is that no, like, playoff team. They were. They were. They were a playoff team, maybe not like a real contender.
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B
Yeah, look, the. The. The regular season, they were able to. They were able to get a lot out of a lot of guys. Right? There's. And. And this, this will play into some of the things we talk about later when we talk about roster questions. So much went absolutely right. But we. We sat there all season long and talk about, man, everything went right for Brad Stevens and, and Joe Missoula. And that's. That is true. Like, that is a testament to how. How well the, the roster was assembled and the coaching and all of that. But when we started asking the questions about, okay, now can they do it in the postseason? The answer was kind of mostly no. They couldn't. And. And that was. That was what was tough, that they couldn't. They couldn't rise to the same occasion. And everything is so magnified. I am still mad. Like, you talk about Joel Embiid turned into Jokic. He shouldn't have turned into Jokic. Okay. But also, Paul George shot like 55 from three. Yeah. Which is ridiculous. So once again, here's a guy that shouldn't have burned the Celtics from free. This is. This is like Gabe Vincent all over again. You know, like what. What happened here? One series and he's. He's back to prime. Paul George Edgecomb had a great series, minus a couple of games in there. But also the Celtics just. Why. Why were they doubling? Why. Why do you double Embiid on the catch? So he can see everything. It's. They. Did. They know. They know what the formula is, and they. I haven't mentioned Al Horford in any of this, but come on. I know Al Horford is the guy who defended Embiid, and he can defend indeed, really well. But you. You still. There are certain rules to guarding Embiid. That's. They've been well established. You don't just double him. You don't just walk up to him, be like, hello, Joel, I am here to double team you right now. Like, you just. You gotta.
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To your left. You will see the man I was supposed to be guarding. He is now wide open.
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My. My kindest regards. Sir, may I call your attention to a teammate in the corner? Thank you. No, you're supposed to, like, Wait till he dribbles. Trap him on the dribble, trap him on a spin. You know, if he's fading away, you dig at the ball, you know which way he's going to turn. Like, you just anticipate some of these things. You, you don't make it easy for him. The whole knock on him was that he couldn't handle double teams and he has gotten better at that, but still hammer at that. This stuff, this is the stuff that drives me nuts and why I'm, I say, like, be mad about the series. Be mad about the series because they kind of screwed that part up.
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Yeah.
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But there are two concurrent things they blew this year. They botched this series. They botched it, but also the season itself ending, ending here. Not how it ended, but when it ended. Totally fine. In the end, it's not. We got caught up in the moment of wow. Like you said, the, that OKC San Antonio thing was like, oh boy, these guys are legit. And it, that was kind of like little, little fool's gold. Let's, let's come back because I want to get your take on the Tatum stuff too. And why that was also part of a successful season because I think that was a big, a big part of it. That's coming up when we come back here on the Lockdown Celtics podcast. Today's show is brought to you by Game time. You got to download that Game Time app because, well, there's no more playoff basketball for Celtics fans. 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Been covering the team for 20 years doing this podcast for 10 and mostly enjoying it, mostly enjoying this season, Tom and it's funny because I mentioned this on yesterday's podcast, I said a while ago, like back in January maybe, that Jason David's gonna come back in March and when he does, the regular season ends and the preseason for 2627 begins. And I backed off that comment because of all of the things that happened. I'm like, you know what? No, let's go for it now. Ultimately, the previous the initial sentiment was correct that what we got for Tatum here was everything that I was looking for in his return. He mentally returned and figured out he could be himself physically. He looked Great he wasn't 100. He was at 80 to 85%. He still has physical work to do to get the right leg up to what the left leg is. And because of that, the left knee tightened up on him. But all of the things that he learned about himself, the things he figured out that he can do, the hurdles, the, the check boxes that he checked, I think aside from missing the game 7, this was as perfect a return as you could get. And when you're looking at it from the, the lens of prioritizing the 26, 27 season as that's the seat next season, they are contenders. They have to be contenders. Yeah. Brad Stevens is putting together a team. He will put together a team that will be a contender next year, and that's how they should be treated. For Tatum to go through everything that he went through now, to me is perfect because now he's got five months. Go chill out, lay on a beach for a little while, come back, get yourself right, go through all the steps you need to go to. You have all, all of the information you need. You've actually. The fact finding mission was perfect. Beautiful. So to me, that makes this season especially successful because it really does set the Celtics up for next season.
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A
Yeah. And when you talk about. Again, right. When you talk about this being a gap year, how many times this season did we say that the most important thing was Tatum's, you know, getting back healthy and being, being back to. I mean, I think if you, once you kind of get past losing to the Sixers, the way the Celtics just lost to the Sixers, it. Which, like, if you're a fan, like, fair enough if it takes you a while, because that was pretty bad. But once you get past that, I think that there is actually a lot of kind of utility and it's, it's kind of a. Not the worst thing in the world for the Celtics that they don't have to try to balance keeping Jason Tatum healthy with trying to win games further into the playoffs. Right. You win that game, all of a sudden, you know the Sixers play tonight, right? Like they're, they're already playing now again, like tonight, not presently. They're playing tonight against the Knicks. And the Celtics would, after resting Tatum in game seven, if they won that game, they would have had to decide, is Jason Tatum gonna play or not? And the further you get in the playoffs, the harder it's going to be. If he's feeling kind of 50, 50 or kind of like 60, 40, the harder it's going to be to not play him. Right, because you. The further you get in the playoffs, the more you want to win. So, you know all that stuff you said, right? It's. It. We saw, we saw Jason Tatum looking like Jason Tatum. We know he can do this. We know that he was not 100%, but like, I don't think there's going to be that much athletic drop off for him at all, if any at all, once he gets himself fully back together. Right. Once, Once he, like you said, strengthen. Strengthens the right leg to be as strong as the left leg. Like, once he gets to that point, it's. He's going to be in really good shape. He's, I mean, literally and you know, kind of figuratively. Right. He's going to be in, in a really good place, I think, moving forward and I think just having this extra time off for him, honestly, I mean, you know, I don't want to, like, say that like, it's a good thing that the Celtics got eliminated, but I, I think it's not the worst thing for Jason Tatum that they got eliminated because it, this is a lot more time than he usually gets to rest and recover. Celtics have had crazy playoff runs for quite some time now. You get eliminated in the first round, it stinks. But now you've got all of May. Like, if he doesn't touch a basketball court or a basketball until the end of the NBA season, he will have a month off and then some. Like, that's not a bad thing for a guy who's coming back from an Achilles injury who already proved that he can be a star again. So. Yeah, I mean, I think the way the season went was perfect for Tatum and I think honestly, the way it ended really isn't bad for him either. I know it's going to sting, but realistically, I mean, it's so much better this than trying to push him along and then, yeah, I mean, developing some kind of injury, whether that's, you know, the knee, the calf, like, God forbid, something else like that, this is probably better for him in the long run. And what's better for him, quite frankly, is probably better for the Celtics.
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That's true. That's true. Listen, we don't want to sit there. I know there's going to be like the young kids, I like to say, cope. This is not, this is not about coping with the loss. It's like they, you. You always want to win and the preference would be to have beaten the Sixers. But when you look at it strictly from a Jason Tatum perspective, this is absolutely a benefit to him. And he said it. It's a silver lining. I get to go and make my, you know, get myself to 100, 110% or whatever. That is absolutely true. The dude hurt himself in, you know, last May, went through all of the emotional stuff, immediately started rehabbing. Like, the instant that he could start flexing his toes, that started his rehab. So he didn't have an off season. Yeah, he didn't have the chill out, relax, get off your feet. Don't worry about basketball. You know, go visit your girlfriend while she makes music, if they're even still there. I don't even know what his personal life, and I don't care. But, you know, I mean, like, go enjoy your kids. You got two kids like Deuce and Dylan. Just go play in a park with them for a little while and not even worry about anything. He didn't have any of that. Mentally, he didn't have any of that. And so there's, I'm sure, a piece of him that's just like, you know what? This ain't bad. This ain't bad. You know, go to some private island and just shut your brain off, shut your phone off, let your social team put clips from your season on Instagram, and that's it. Like, that's the extent of May for. For Jason Tatum.
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A
And is that an option? Can we do that? Is that. Can. Can I. Can I go to an island? Shut my.
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B
Yeah.
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A
Oh, wow.
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B
Only if you have a social team.
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A
Yeah, right. Oh, yeah. I'll hire somebody.
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B
Okay.
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I'm taking resumes if anybody's listening.
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Sure. Well, you'll be my social team. If I. If you. If you can be. If. Oh, yeah, I'll be yours, you'll be mine. What if we both go to the island?
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A
It's just gonna have to stagger it.
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B
All right. While we figure that out, let's look forward, because we're just talking about Jason. Let's. We know Jason's coming back. Let's just start to. Let's just start scratching the surface about what this team might look like, like, moving forward. As we continue on the Lockdown Celtics podcast, Today's show is brought to you by Kalshi. Playoffs are here. Obviously, it's the most electric time in basketball for some people on calsha. You can trade every single playoff game, every series, the conference finals, and the championship. You can check out all the matchups here. Just looking at Philadelphia and New York, Tom mentioned that they're playing. Philadelphia is a very strong underdog. So if you buy into a hundred share was $100. On the Knicks your payout is going to be 138 so you can check it out on Calgary. You do that for everything. All the basketball, all the all the other sports. I mean there's geez, some New Zealand, there's New Zealand, nbl, there's soccer, there's all kinds of stuff over there. On Kalshi so you can check it out. At Kelsey you're trading against peers in a live market, meaning there's no house and as the probability changes, you can buy in or out of your position so you don't have to wait for the game. You can buy in or out right away. So for a limited time, download the Calci app and use the code locked on to get $10. When you trade 10 that's Kalshi K A L S H I kalshi trade on anything 18 plus only restrictions and eligibility requirements apply. Event contract trading involves risk and may not be suitable for all investors. Prices, values and available markets may differ from those mentioned. For more information, see CalSHI.com it's smart to always have a few financial goals and a really smart one. You can set earning cash back on what you buy every day. And with Discover you can get this Discover automatically matches all the cash back you've earned at the end of your first year. Seriously, all of it. And we trust you to make smart decisions. After all, you listen to this show see terms@discover.com credit card that's discover.com credit card thanks for making lockdown Celtics your first listen every day. And being an everydayer, that means you're with me every Monday through Friday and for the bonus episodes. So let's make it official. Join the Locked on every day or club. Get ad free audio and access to our members only. Discord and more. All built for you, our most loyal fan. Click on the link in the show notes or just Visit Locked on celtics.supercast.com Locked on celtics.super cast.com and join the Lockdown Celtics community. Tom the Looking Forward this is such an interesting kind of off season because heading into the the series I thought everything was pretty cut and dry. We learned so much about everybody. Like, okay, we know we got this and then the playoffs happen and it's like, okay, like I keep bringing up the mish k. What does Brad Stevens react to more? The regular season or the postseason? And the postseason wasn't bad. He wasn't. It's not like he played horribly. He was in foul trouble a lot. Yeah, he played well, most half the time he was on the floor. He played well.
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A
Yeah.
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B
Committing some of the fouls that he didn't. That he did. That was, that was bad. That's playing poorly. And, and he made other mistakes. And, and so you start to wonder, like, I went into it thinking, mimi, is your starting center next year. He can be your starting center next year. And now I'm like, can he? I think he can be your starting. What do you think of this? The Celtics have a bunch of assets. They have a traded player exception. They had full mid level. I think you use the mid level exception to get whatever position you can fill. Maybe, maybe you're scoring off the bench. Hell, let's just say Anthony Simons wants to come back and you bring Anthony Simons back on the mid level.
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A
Sign me up for what it's worth.
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B
Absolutely. I mean, I think, Come on, think
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A
Simon to hear that I want Anthony Simons back on the Celtics, but yeah,
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B
I would take him back for sure. And at the mid level, I think that would be a good, a good fit. And then you start the season with Nene as your starting center. And you see. All right, buddy, what did this, what did these playoffs do for you? What inspiration did you get? What kind of work did you do over the summer? Let's see who you come back as. And then if you don't come back with any material improvement, then we'll use the traded player exception to, to, to acquire. Try to try to acquire our starting playoff center. If you do come back with a, a more of a bag and a little bit better game, whatever, then okay, great, you, you, maybe you can be our starting playoff center and you use the, the traded player exception to, to get maybe the backup or something or fill another. So I don't know. What do you think about that plan?
- [28:53]
A
I think it makes sense in theory. I think the, the biggest issue, right, is that how are you gonna know what you have in Keda until next year's playoffs roll around, right? Because he was really good in the regular season. Like, like, I don't think it was crazy for us to be like, oh, he's, he's ready to be the starting center. He's. Look how he's playing out there. He was really good. So I guess, you know, you talk about him having more of a bag. He, he really cut down his fouls. He cut down some of his, you know, bigger mistakes during last year's regular season. So if he does it again, I guess you better be confident that it's gonna stay that way, when the postseason rolls around, if you roll into the postseason with him as your starting center, I'm. I'm fine with trying it because I do kind of. I don't know, I'm pretty high on, on Keda after this season. I thought it was really good. I think that there's. I think that playing in the playoffs is really hard, and you probably learn that a lot of, you know, he, he got the entire regular season to learn and figure out how to be a, a starting center. It didn't all come right at the beginning. Right. He improved a lot, but it didn't all come right at the beginning. He developed over the course of the season. You get thrown into the pressure cooker of the playoffs your first time, and, and hey, by the way, here's Joellen Bead. You know, halfway through the series now, you got to try to deal with him. You're already a little bit of a foul prone guy. He's probably a lot of nerves involved. I, I think that it's. It's reasonable to think that next season he'll be a lot more prepared for the playoffs because, you know, it'll be his, his second time being the starting center if, if he is the starting center as opposed to his first time, because that's always difficult. But, but again, I think you better be ready. You better be quite sure that that's the case. So, I mean, I think you're. I think it's a, It's a reasonable way to approach the off season for sure. And obviously there's a lot of other, you know, questions about the roster that, that will need to be answered before then as well. But, but again, I just, you know, I mean, clearly the answer isn't Husovich. Right? So I think if you're.
- [30:51]
B
I guess not. Man.
- [30:53]
A
Okay. Goodness.
- [30:54]
B
Actually, let's, let's just, let's dip our toe into that because I think what we'll ultimately do is. I think we'll do podcasts on all of these guys individually. Yeah, yeah, let's try to really dive into this stuff and to give us, like, real topics so something to look forward to as, as we cover the off season. Well, we will have to dive into all of this, but so clearly Vuchovic was out. He didn't play in game seven, really
- [31:24]
A
conspicuously, like, yeah, Garza starts and everything. Like, yeah, yeah.
- [31:29]
B
And so Buchovic didn't do an exit interview. There was, there was, there were some questions like, I thought he was going to, and then he didn't. And so it's like, okay, he probably was not happy about that. He is currently the only unrestricted free agent on the roster. The Celtics hold team options on Baylor, Shireman, Namishkeda, Jordan Walsh, Amari Stoudema. I'm already sorry. Old man. Old man. Amari Williams, Max Shulga, Ron Harper and Delano Banton. Amari Stoudemire, the oldest, give him a shot. I don't know, he might have helped for like two minutes in game seven. But the only unrestricted free agent is Nikola vuchovic. Now he's 35. When's his birthday? October 20th. So he's going to turn 36 before the season starts. I don't know if there's a big market for Vuch. No, I'm going to give him this benefit of the doubt. He got traded here, he was moved to the bench and he immediately broke his finger. Like, you know, like he, he, he played a minute and a half with Jason Tatum before breaking his finger. That, that dude never had a chance, never had a chance to get comfortable here. So again, two different, two different things can be true. In that moment. It was very like Vuch. Just as much as I wanted him to, to, to figure it out, and as much as I thought they were right to try to figure it out, it just never, ever clicked to the point where he was benched in game seven. At the same time, he has a long track record of being at least decent. If you wanted to bring him back now, it might have to be on the minimum to come back or at the very least tag, you know, $5 million, whatever the taxpayer mid level is. If you want to, if he'll take that and you want to give him that, giving him an off season with. Here's your homework. Here's what we expect from you. If you're good with it, we're good with it. And if he signs great, could he could be a good backup. Like that could be a good backup for you. With all of the theoretical things that never quite materialized in Boston, but we're part of who he was in Chicago. I'm not ruling out Nicola Vucheric. I'm not saying you have to bring him back. Most are not ruling it out because he never did have a chance to, to get comfortable at all.
- [34:18]
A
That's fair. I, I, I guess I would be very concerned. I mean, the, the, the defense obviously is. I, yeah, no, I mean basically untenable against some of the best other, some of the other best teams in the Eastern Conference. Right. Brunson would have had a field day with him. Donovan Mitchell would have had a field day with him. I mean, and look, you know, if, if you ever. If you're coming up against Tyrese Maxey again, like, you now know that Vuzovic is not the answer on that score. I mean, I think the three point shooting was. Was disappointing, right? He's been an up and down three point shooter for a while now in his career. You know, good seasons, bad seasons. I, you know, I, I guess he didn't make enough of them to make me feel like, hey, that's a. You know that. But, but if, but again, if, like you're saying if you're getting him for a minimum, it's not hurting anything, that's fine, I guess. But again, I think what you're definitely looking at with Vucevich is somebody who is just not the answer, right? Like, he's not. He. Like, he can be. If you want to bring him back, fine. But he's not the answer to any of these questions. He's not the answer to the backup big. He's certainly not the answer to the starting big. Like, he's. He's kind of a periphery guy who maybe if he's cheap, sure, take another flyer on him. But I think the biggest thing is just like, you know, he, like, his, his conversation is almost completely separate from Keda, right? Because question is like, hey, is the. What are, what are we doing about a starting big here? Vucevich's question is like, I don't know, how do we want to throw around a couple million? You know?
- [35:50]
B
Yeah, yeah, that's all fair. It. It went from so promising to like, just devastating and so fast.
- [36:02]
A
Well, I mean, it's just crazy to go back to like game four, right? I mean, it, like, it didn't. It wasn't the course of the series, Beginning of the series, it was like, okay, we're locking in for a long playoff run here.
- [36:14]
B
You know, like, yeah, life comes at you fast, man.
- [36:18]
A
It does, man.
- [36:19]
B
You know, it was that, that, that trade for Vuch. He must have been like, oh, yes, yes. And then now here he is, another first round exit. I mean, at least you got to the first round, but, yeah, yeah, maybe he's the curse. Maybe he's the curse. Maybe you just don't want him around because he's. I don't know. But look, look, Luca Garza, another question. Do you bring him back because he's. You need, you need the innings eaters. You need the guys that can. Luca has proven he can win. You regular season games. Yeah, you need somebody like that. Even if he. He falls out of the rotation in the playoffs, you need somebody that's going to come in and be like, it's January, guys are tired and like they don't care as much. And Luca is just like, wind up the toy, put him out there. And he's like, we'll go crazy. Ah, rebound, rebound, rebound. Like he can win you three January games because everybody's missing because they're all short and he's just like, ah, I'm just going to be a ball of energy. So yeah, those types of guys.
- [37:27]
A
Peyton Pritchard is kind of one of the best innings eaters in the league. Right. And then you get to the postseason and it's like, you know, he might have a big game but you. But like that's kind of not what he's there for. Right. Like you're. When you get to the playoffs, it's like we want our. We want the big boys to be out there like really, you know, putting up the big numbers. Like Pritchard can help. He can be supplementary. But man, like innings eaters is a great way I think of looking at a player like him, right. Regular season. He can win you 15 games over the course of the year.
- [37:56]
B
And yeah, which is why you need to get somebody like a Simons or a bench. Any kind of bench guy. You need another. You need another potent bench guy to. To be out there just to. You need a bucket getter. The Celtics have pro. They need a bucket getter. And like again, Peyton can be a bucket getter for sure. But you need another one. You need one more bucket getter off the bench. It's Tatum Brown. Derrick White, like Derek White is like glue guy with Tatum and Brown you need starting center, which you may already have. And you need other. Other starter which who knows, maybe. Maybe Baylor grows into that and is a regular sermon. Whatever. Maybe it's. Maybe it's still Sam. Whatever. So you. And then off the bench you need good backup big and you need another scorer. You need a ball handler like that. That's your eight. So Pritchard is kind of one of those. Who's. Who's your center? Is. Is. That is Neemi. The Neemi is here like keep Neemi. Is he better as the starter or as. Can you find somebody better than him and he becomes like the. The best six man center in the league. That could be a thing that. That a role for him. But I'm not ruling out that he could be like the starter next year and in the playoffs, all that. But you still have at least two question marks with another score and another big however, those guys fit so much more, much more to come as far as the off season goes. I'm not done talking about the Celtics, though. We're done with this podcast. You want to talk. There's a lot of, there's a lot of Jalen Brown stuff that I think we should talk about.
- [39:46]
A
Yeah, for sure.
- [39:48]
B
All right. That means bonus podcast. There's a. I have a bell. Where's the bell? Ding, ding, ding. Do I have a bell sound effect at all? No,
- [39:59]
A
no. You don't want to go the gong route.
- [40:02]
B
No, That's more, that's more appropriate for how this podcast is ending. Thanks, Tom. Appreciate you. We'll be back with a bonus podcast coming up here, but for now, this podcast is done. Bonus podcast will drop on Tuesday afternoon. Talking all Jalen Brown lots to talk about his twitch stream, his performance, the his comments.
- [40:27]
A
There's.
- [40:28]
B
There's a lot going on there, so make sure you're checking that out. The only way to know when we drop that is to be subscribed. So make sure you're subscribed, whatever audio platform you want. Also on YouTube. And then I would love it if you share the podcast. Tell everybody they should be listening to and watching the Lockdown Celtics podcast here on the Lockdown Podcast Network. It's your team. Every day
- [40:49]
C
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