← Locked On Celtics - Daily Podcast On The Boston Celtics
Locked On Celtics - Daily Podcast On The Boston Celtics
BRUTAL start to Celtics schedule, but STRONG FINISH? | Celtics season preview
00:37:07
Celtics face uphill battle: Can they overcome key losses and a brutal schedule? Host John Karalis of Boston Sports Journal and guest Tom Westerholm break down Boston's challenging start, analyzing potential records and playoff scenarios. They explore the impact of roster changes, including Jaylen Brown's uncertain status and new addition Anfernee Simons. The duo debates All-Star candidates like Derrick White and Payton Pritchard, while predicting season win totals. Tune in for expert insights on how the Celtics might navigate this pivotal season without their best player.
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- [00:02]
A
It's the locked on podcast network. Your team every day. Morning, Zoe. Got donuts. Jeff Bridges, why are you still living above our garage? Well, I dig the mattress and I want to be in a T mobile commercial like you teach me. So.
- [00:22]
B
Dana.
- [00:22]
A
Oh no, I'm not really prepared. I couldn't possibly at t mobile get the new iPhone 17 Pro on them. It's designed to be the most powerful iPhone yet and has the ultimate pro camera system. Wow, impressive. Let me try. T Mobile is the best place to get iPhone 17 Pro because they've got the best network. Nice. Jeffrey, you heard them. T Mobile is the best place to get the new iPhone 17 Pro on us with eligible trade in in any condition. So what are we having for launch? Dude, my work here is done. The 24 month bill credits on experience beyond for well qualified customers plus tax and $35 device connection charge credits ended balance due if you pay off early or Cancel Finance agreement. IPhone 17 Pro 256GB $1099.99 and new line minimum 100 plus a month plan with auto PayPal taxes and fees required. Best mobile network in the US based on analysis by Ooklab Speedtest Intelligence data 1H 2025 visit t mobile.com and now a next level moment from ATT Business. Say you've sent out a gigantic shipment of pillows and they need to be there in time for International Sleep day. You've got AT and T5G so you're fully confident, but the vendor isn't responding. And International Sleep Day is tomorrow. Luckily, AT&T 5G lets you deal with any issues with ease. So the pillows will get delivered and everyone can sleep soundly, especially you. AT&T 5G requires a compatible plan and device coverage not available everywh. Learn more@att.com 5G Network we're previewing the Boston Celtics season. Can they get it together in time to overcome what might be a tough start? Best and worst case scenarios and we make predictions right now on the Lockdown Celtics podcast. Huh?
- [01:58]
B
Yep, yep.
- [02:01]
A
Be ever ready. It's the seas. Who else could it be? What they gonna say now Screaming like JT Corralis rec the madness every game, every practice, crime time. Depp and T White on the sideline. Ren and J how started raising ban is how we finish. Locked on Celtics pod. Home of the winners, baby. Hey there. Welcome back to the Lockdown Celtics podcast right here in the lockdown podcast network where it is your team every day. Your team is the Boston Celtics and I talk about them Monday Through Friday, right here for free. So you can listen, you can watch on YouTube. You can subscribe either place, both places, and get some high quality, I hope, Celtics content. So check it out. I'm John Corralis, B, writer for Boston Sports Journal. I've written a couple of books about the team. I've been covering the team for about 20 years, preparing for the 20, 25, 26 season. This is our season preview. And I can't do this by myself. I can't preview this season by myself. I have to bring in Tom Wester. Home, everybody. Oh, why the booze? That's so inappropriate crowd that we have waiting for us.
- [03:13]
B
Hurtful. I mean, I did enjoy that. Like, that kind of. I'm Ron Burgundy.
- [03:20]
A
Yeah, yeah. That's why you get the booze. Okay.
- [03:22]
B
All right. Cool.
- [03:25]
A
Yeah. So, you know, the interesting season, and we talk about, like, previewing this team and how. How. How do we even predict. And we're going to try, but how do we even predict this team? And I think. I think one of the things, when we look at the Overall, we're going to look at predictions. How many. How many games can this team win?
- [03:49]
B
I.
- [03:49]
A
Right away, I just want to. We're doing this on Wednesday. Like, this is the Wednesday show. They're starting the season against the Sixers. It looks like Joel Embiid's going to play. And we got to get this start to the season kind of out of the way here. Philly at home, day off. New York day off. Back to back, Detroit, New Orleans are already three games and four nights. Come home for a road game at home against Cleveland. Then back out to Philly after a day off, then back home for Houston. A seven game stretch where it's like, whoa. Every one of these teams. Well, New Orleans, we'll see. But every one of these other teams has the potential, I feel. You know, things have to go right. But every one of these teams has a potential, like, you know, to make some real noise. So I don't know, Tom. Oh, and seven. One in six. Two and five. First of all, how do you see the first part of this season kind of going?
- [04:52]
B
Yeah, I think I. I fall more in, like, the 2 and 5, maybe even like 3 and 4 camp. I. I think. I don't think this team goes. Owen, seven to start a season. I mean, that, like, you know, I'm. I've been wrong before. Right? Like, it's not. It's not impossible, but I. I think that there's a little too much, you know, like, you look at the top of this team. And I think you see there's just a little too much professionalism at the top of this team to start. Oh, and seven, you know, your Jalen's, your Derek Whites. Like, you know, I mean, you're Joe Missoula's, right? Like. Like, these are guys who know how to win, know how to inspire, know how to. Like, they know how to. Like, they've been here before, and they've. They've been in tough situations before, and I think I. I think that there's enough there to get a couple of wins out of this group. Like, you know, you have a good game, guys hit shots, you know, like. Like, Peyton Pritchard hits shots, Sam Houser hits shots. You know, if. If Pritchard and Hauser hit shots and Jalen and Derrick White play like a normal game, the Celtics team's gonna be really hard to beat. You know, like, that's. That's a ton of threes, a ton of offense. Like that. That's a. You know, that's a pretty good formula right there. If that happens one or two times in seven games, I think that you get a couple of wins right there, and then if you beat New Orleans, give a chance to get three. So, I mean, I think an optimistic. You know, super optimistic, I think, is like, 3 and 4. 4 and 3. That range, like, that's, like, if you start off there, I think you're in amazing shape for, like, going forward. But I. I think that squeezing out a couple of wins on this is. Is reasonable to the point of. That's what I expect.
- [06:25]
A
Yeah. And, you know, look, it's fair. I don't. I don't know what the season's gonna be.
- [06:29]
B
The.
- [06:29]
A
The beginning of the season is going to be. I say zero and seven because it's certainly. The potential. Is there the potential for losing to Joel and beat, like, Joel Embiid comes out, and I can see three early fouls into Mishkeda right away. And then it becomes like, whoa, how do you. How do you deal with this now? So I.
- [06:50]
B
But I want to get in on the weeds on that, though. It's like, does Joel Embiid have the stamina to beat you for 48 straight minutes? Right.
- [07:00]
A
No, that also fair. Like, I'm not. I'm not saying it's gonna go one way or the other. I can. I can see that. I can see.
- [07:06]
B
Yeah.
- [07:07]
A
Embiid, you know, kind of like playing like I did in, you know, these, like, you. You long. The long outlet kind of Stand in the back court like all that kind of stuff like he did in his preseason. One preseason game.
- [07:19]
B
Yeah, sure, sure.
- [07:21]
A
And, and like that now puts a lot of pressure on Tyrese Maxey and DJ Edgecomb and a lot of these guys to, to kind of perform and. Sure. Can the Celtics win that game? Absolutely, they can win that game. I don't know if they're going to be favored. I don't know where they will be favored in this outside of maybe New Orleans, but even New Orleans, you're like, hey, you know, Zion looks okay. And yeah, you just don't know. So when we're looking ahead to. People want to come in here and say, hey man, where's your faith? This can be a 50 win team. Okay, sure. If you, if you believe that, that's fine. And I'm not, I can't say that they're not going to be. I think that's going to be a little bit of a reach, but okay, fine.
- [08:04]
B
I think a 50 win season is, is. That's unbelievable success.
- [08:09]
A
If they would be like throw a parade for that.
- [08:13]
B
Yeah, yeah. Winning 50 wins might be a more impressive feat than the roster that won the championship. Winning the championship.
- [08:21]
A
Right.
- [08:22]
B
That was an incredible basketball team.
- [08:24]
A
So seven games out of 82. So that brings you to 75. If the, if there's a worst case scenario here and the Celtics play and they, they just had struggle out of the start and it's not impossible to say they're going to struggle out of the start because we, we haven't seen anything in the preseason, man, like they, they could be by March and April, like, wow, what a great, what a great kind of like finish to the season. And they could be on a, a, you know, however you want to characterize that, that, that's fine. But this is still in a way kind of glorified preseason for them. But Philly, New York, Detroit, Cleveland, Philly again, Houston, those are hard. Those are tough teams. If the Celtics go, let's just say worst case scenario, 07, to get to 50 wins, they have to win 50. They have to go 50 and 25 the rest of the way. And that is not happening. Right. They get to 45 wins. Now you're 45 and 30. But even that's like 60% of the game.
- [09:35]
B
That's like really?
- [09:36]
A
Yeah, you. So what I'm saying is whatever you think the season's going to be, if they have a tough start to the season, there's no seven game winning streaks somewhere along the way. I don't Think where you can point to this and be like, oh, the Celtics can absolutely rip through this. So the 45 to 50 wins, if they're gonna get there, they have to figure out a way to. You can't split seven games, but, yeah, at the worst. At the worst, three and four.
- [10:11]
B
Yeah. Yeah.
- [10:14]
A
You know, you're not going to get to 50. You're not. If you. If you go worse than three and four to start the season, you're just not getting to 50 wins. And I don't care how optimistic, how much faith you get, you.
- [10:23]
B
You.
- [10:24]
A
They're not. This team is not built to go 50 and 25 over any stretch of the season. They're just not. So.
- [10:30]
B
They're not.
- [10:32]
A
The beginning of the season could wipe out a lot of predictions that people are going to have. Right. Whatever the. The most optimistic people are, if. If there's a tough start to this season and it's 0 and 7, 1 of 6, 2 and 5, if that ends up how it's. How it is, I think people have to go, okay, we're gonna have to revise this down because we haven't even taken into account the potential for any missed games for. And we. We don't even know if Jalen's playing on opening night.
- [11:03]
B
Yeah.
- [11:03]
A
So.
- [11:03]
B
Right.
- [11:04]
A
You know what I mean?
- [11:05]
B
Yeah, He's.
- [11:07]
A
Joe has said twice he's done everything. Jalen spoke to us on Monday, and we asked him, so you're gonna be ready to go. And he's like, we'll see. So if Jalen Brown's giving you the. We'll see. He's not. There was no. Absolutely. There was no. I'm gonna do everything I can. It's just. We'll see. Day to day, you know, like. Okay, so if Jalen's already missing a game, you know, or limited.
- [11:36]
B
Yeah.
- [11:36]
A
Look, we got to be real about this. So. I don't know. I don't know. I. Maybe they pick up one of these Philly games, you know, maybe they pick up that New Orleans game. They're going to have to beat Detroit.
- [11:47]
B
They got to be Detroit. That's. That's so key to this start. Yep.
- [11:50]
A
That's. I think, right away, that's, like, the most important game of the early season. So funny, man.
- [11:56]
B
You got, like, circle that one and be like this, like, out of the first seven. That's such a. Such a pivotal game.
- [12:02]
A
Yeah.
- [12:03]
B
It would be funny if they beat the Knicks, though, after. After Tibbs was in practice.
- [12:06]
A
Oh, my God, that would be so hilarious, because all the questions be like, hey, did Tibs tell you how to beat these guys?
- [12:12]
B
Also, and also, like last year during the regular season, they just pieced the Knicks every single time. Like, it would be, like, it would just be very funny if they beat the Knicks. It would be the big one.
- [12:22]
A
But it's not. It's. It's not out of the question. There's going to be an optimist out there that says you split the two Philly games, you find a way to beat New York, Detroit's not ready and New Orleans isn't good enough, and all of a sudden it's four and three. And John, shut that, you know, now.
- [12:38]
B
What are you guys talking about?
- [12:40]
A
Which, again, not out of the question. I'm not saying they won't do it. I don't think they will, but I don't say they. It's not very likely.
- [12:48]
B
I think 0 and 7 is probably more likely than 5 and 2, right?
- [12:52]
A
Like, that's probably. Yeah, probably. But I don't know. We'll see. Like, this is the. The beginning of this season is actually going to tell us so much. And it's going to inform, you know, we're going to come out of October. Like, we're going to end Halloween with like, you know, a candy, a candy high and a much better idea of what this Celtics team is going to be.
- [13:18]
B
We'll have a lot of answers. I'll talk about it after break.
- [13:21]
A
We'll have a lot of answers, too. What we'll see when we come back. Tommy T's over here. Today's show is brought to you by prize picks. You go ahead and make some good decisions on prize picks because all they want you to do is pick more or less on a projection. So if you're a good decision maker and you're a good prognosticator, you can have some fun on prize picks because you get something like Drake Mays touchdown passes, and you set that at two, two and a half, and you go more or less and, you know, have some fun with that. You can do it with basketball more or less than, you know, four three pointers for Sam Houser, whatever it is, you just pick more or less on prize picks. And if you pick a few, pick enough, you can win yourself a little bit of cash. So super quick. You can make your lineup in under a minute. You can do the new stacks that they have on prize picks, which if you want to ride with the players, select, like, passing yards, rushing yards, touchdowns, all in one lineup. And it's fun to Follow other players on the app, copy their lineups with one click and they have an injury reboot feature. So if somebody leaves early, you can. They won't. They won't count against you. There's a special max discount promotion live on the board right now for the Golden State warriors versus the Los Angeles Lakers game, which this podcast on YouTube will post. Before then, Steph Curry is discounted to only needing more than a half point to win. So if you think he's going to hit one bucket, you can go ahead and pick that mix and match players from football, basketball and baseball to build your dream lineup today, download the Prize Picks app and use the code locked on NBA to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. That's code locked on NBA for $50 in lineups after your first $5 lineup prize picks. It's good to be right. Today's show is also brought to you by Built. You pay rent. If you are a rent payer, then you can get something out of it. You can get rewards. BILT is changing the game by turning your rent payment into real rewards you can actually use. When you pay rent through Bilt, you earn flexible rewards that could be redeemed toward hundreds of hotels and airlines, a future rent payment, your next Lyft ride, and more. Plus bilt not just about rents, but rewarding you around your entire neighborhood. So whether you're grabbing food at your local restaurant or heading to the gym, you can still earn rewards. These rewards have your rent working for you. Built has made everyday life feel more rewarding. From your neighborhood to your travel plans. Turn your rent into rewards and start earning points around the neighborhood by going to joinbilt.comlockdown and B that's join J O I n Bilt b I l t.com lockdown MBA make sure you use that link so they know we send you. Thanks for making Lockdown Celtics your first listen every day. Lockdown NBA game night. Make that next because we're recording this before opening night in the NBA. So after I post this podcast on YouTube and later on the audio channels I will be watching opening night two games talking about them with Jake Madison on Lockdown NBA game night. So go check that out wherever you find. Found this podcast. All right Tom, you. You started to say something and stopped.
- [16:39]
B
I mean master of the podcast tease.
- [16:42]
A
Continue. Continue your thought please.
- [16:44]
B
Yeah, no, I. I was, I was just gonna say the other thing that's kind of interesting about what the beginning of the season could tell us. You know, after These first seven games, I think we'll start to have an idea of things like, hey, do you want to hang on to Andre Simons? Do. Is this guy part of, you know, how does he fit with the other pieces on your team? Is this a guy who, you know, fits nicely with Jalen, who's, you know, who's a good. Can play well with Derek? Like, you know, once you start to get a sense of how Simons fits on your team, you can start to have a sense of, like, how will Simons fit on your team when Tatum comes back? So I think that's. That's kind of another piece of this, that it's honestly really helpful for the Celtics, that it's like, hey, there's this really kind of expensive part of your roster that you need, like, who's talented, very talented, and you need to have some answers about what you want to do with him. You get some of those answers just fire tested for you in the first seven games of, like, how does this guy fit with the rest of your team?
- [17:38]
A
Yeah, no, that's a big one, right? You. You need to know. And that's what the season is mostly about, is finding those answers. You know, who fits? Where do you find the cohesion in this. In this roster? Because some guys could be good and not quite fit. Some guys could be not as good, but fit better and therefore are more valuable. And that. That's what. That's right. That's right. My guy, Josh Minot.
- [18:05]
B
Yep.
- [18:07]
A
And. And like, that's. That's the thing. Like, I want to see what was real from this preseason. And we didn't see a whole lot. It's not. We didn't learn a ton in four games. I want to see it in action. Let's. Let's see the quick inbounds off of a make and running and pushing the tempo. And let's see Minot come in and guard. Like. Like when you're coming off the bench and when you're facing a team that's already starting their bench players, you're facing third stringers, guys who might not play, might not even make the team. When you're coming off the bench on opening night, you're facing a second unit. And so, you know, in a lot of first unit guys, so that's going to change. Some of that dynamic is like, Josh Minot has actually had good preseasons before. We're not the first people to say, hey, wow, this Josh Minot, he could really be something for us. That's been said in Minnesota for A couple of years now. So why would we just say. Why would we just expect that to translate when the. The history has shown us it might not? Like. So part of this is confirmation of some of the information that we have seen and that. That can't stress how important that is right now. Because you come out of the summer in. In preseason with opinions, and then reality smacks you in the face.
- [19:45]
B
So possibly seven times in a row. Yes.
- [19:47]
A
Yeah. Look, man, I. I hope. I hope it's not, you know, but we've talked, like, I've talked to Sean Grandy a couple of times, and, you know, he's tweeted this out. It's like, the Celtics have not lost five games in a row in. I forget how long it is, but it's been a very long time. The beginning of the season is a real chance for them to lose those five games in a row again.
- [20:12]
B
Yeah.
- [20:13]
A
And. And so what would it take for that to not happen? Obviously, Jalen playing, obviously, guys like Minot showing that the stuff was real. Luca Garza showing that the picks and stuff were like his pick setting and all that was real. That that Namish Kada can be the guy that looks more like the Euro League, the Euro basket guy. And you know when we say cohesion, that all of that stuff so hard to be like, okay, we're starting Keda, and when Joelle sits down, we're bringing in, I don't know, let's just say Garza. And then we're gonna play Garza with Boucher. And like, you're Derek White. And it's okay. I've got this guy who is my pick and roll partner here, and. And does this. I got this guy who does a completely different thing, and then this guy who does a completely different thing. At least when you had Porzingis and Horford, you did some similar things. And then you mixed in Luke Cornett, and Luke was just so good at kind of fitting into.
- [21:14]
B
I'm.
- [21:14]
A
I can't. I'm not gonna pop, but you can give me the ball here, and I'll just do the right thing with it.
- [21:19]
B
Yeah.
- [21:20]
A
You just don't know yet how these guys are going to handle this, this type of situation, this speed, all of that stuff. So, yeah, that when we talk about best and worst case scenario, the best case scenario is this stuff coming together quickly. Worst case scenario is going to take time, and that's why 0 and 7 is on the table, because we just haven't seen these guys against the live defense enough to know if they can do it for enough of 48 minutes to give their offense a chance to shoot them way to. Their way to a win.
- [21:54]
B
Yeah, I think when you like the best case scenarios, when you talk about those, you know, you bring up Cornet. Right? And I think it's interesting because I think that what we're looking for from this team, in a lot of ways, it's cohesion, but it's also just, like, attention to detail, like. Because that, I think is what so much of this is going to come down to is like, can you. There's so many things that this roster is so imperfect, right? So there are. There are, like, there are going to be massive disadvantages at times, especially, you know, turnovers. You're. You're. But mostly, right, the defensive class, that's the number one thing here, right? At least I think that's the number one thing because I think they got to. You get a stop, you got to end it, because, like, you don't have an amazing defense this year, so you've got to end it when you. When you get one. So it's like the attention to detail, to defend as well as you can, and when the shot goes up to. To box out, to do all these things that Joe's been preaching and preaching and preaching, and to just keep doing that over and over and over, that's almost more exhausting than getting up and down the floor fast. You know, these guys are in great shape. They have. They've got good cardio. They had a great, you know, preseason. You know, talked all about the training camp, how hard it was. These guys are in plenty great shape to run and run and run. I'm not worried about them from that perspective. Joe has shown that he's willing to throw new lineups in there and throw different looks in there and keep guys fresh. Like, admittedly, some of that was punishing guys for not rebounding. It's a double thing here. You can keep. You can keep cycling guys in. There's only a couple guys on this roster who are so good that they're kind of like, irreplaceable. The rest of these guys, if they need a break. Yeah, just. Just keep, you know, keep the waves coming. It doesn't matter. The real issue and the real exhausting thing I think is going to be mentally, I think it's. It's that it is that absolute. You've got to be precise, and you've got to have that attention to detail, to box out, to make, to. To not lean too much when you set a screen so that you committed, you know, an offensive foul and a turnover, all these little things. I think that's that's going to be so decisive for this team this year as to which end of the spectrum they end up on in Best case, Worst case.
- [24:05]
A
Let's get into some predictions because Best case Worst Case kind of folds into some of these predictions of players and the team. We'll do that when we come back. Today's show is brought to you by Rougier. Let's be real. Making excuses doesn't solve anything. We've all heard them before. It's just stress. I'm tired. It happens to everyone sometimes. But when it comes to performance, sometimes your body just needs a little extra support. And that's where rougier comes in. Rougier.com offers fast acting doctor prescribed treatments for ED designed to help you stop making excuses and start making moves. Rougier makes it easy to get started. You just connect with a board certified doctor, 100% online. No awkward waiting rooms, no in person appointments or anything like that. If you get the prescription, the treatment is shipped directly to your door. Super fast, simple, private, handled by real doctors. It's all about confidence, connection and getting back to the moments that matter. Visit rougier.com locked on mba that's r u g I e t.com locked on mba to get 15% off your first order. That's rougier.com locked on MBA and don't forget to use the code lockedonnba so they know we sent you Rougier. Stop making excuses. Start making moves. At Boar Said, we make game day entertaining, elevated and effortless. Whether you order catering platters ahead from your local deli or create your own spread with premium deli meats and cheeses, you're sure to impress your guests with the very best. Fan favorites like oven gold turkey paired with our classic Vermont cheddar are sure to score big game winning flavor in every bite. Boar said. Committed to craft since 1905. Thanks for making lockdown Celtics your first listen every day. Go check out Lockdown Fantasy Basketball. Make that your second listen. It's you've already made your you had your draft, the season starts but you don't know who the surprise stars are going to be. Somebody's going to get hurt. Somebody's gonna rise up. Josh Lloyd is going to get you all of the ads and drops that you need to help you win your league. So check out Locked on Fantasy Basketball wherever you get this podcast. All right Tom, Predictions for this team let's just look at how many of these guys you think end up as potential all Stars. I. Mike, my guess is they only get one and they only get Jalen. Yeah. Do. Do you think, like, Derek and Peyton have the types of seasons where Celtics fans would be like, we should be getting three. We're getting screwed?
- [26:49]
B
I think it depends on a couple things. I think, obviously, it depends on results, right? Like, if the Celtics are bad, but it's. Honestly, if the Celtics are bad, Jalen might have a hard time making it just because, like, that it's going to be crowded. Right. And if it's crowded, if you can come up with an excuse why somebody shouldn't be on. Yeah, you're. I mean, it's going to be tough, right? Like, so I. I think part. Obviously, a part of it is results. I think it also depends on Jalen's health. You know, I think you look at Derek, right? If. If the Celtics are like, okay, and Jalen, you know, has been kind of in and out of the roster, that leaves, you know, that leaves it open for Derek. Right. Like, I. I don't think that. I think there's plenty of people out there who would love to put Derrick White on an all star team, and if that's an excuse. But even, like, nationally, I think people who understand basketball love Derrick White, and there's a lot of people who really love basketball who vote on these things. I think those people would love the excuse to put Derrick White on an all star team. And, like, you know, no arguments here, obviously. I think the idea that Peyton would be on it, I. I like it because I think that he's gonna score a lot, and I think it'd be fun to have, like, a season where it's like, should Peyton Pritchard be an all Star? But I find it unlikely just because, like, there's no way that the Celtics team wins enough games to deserve three.
- [28:11]
A
No, no, not at all. But. So Peyton is gonna be an interesting case.
- [28:15]
B
Answer your question. I think two.
- [28:17]
A
Yeah, I think.
- [28:18]
B
Okay, go ahead. Go ahead. I think you're about to make the case. I'm about to make.
- [28:22]
A
Well, I. I'm just saying I think Peyton's gonna have an interesting case because, you know, he. They're going to be games where. Well, they're gonna be games where he has the. 1 for 10 shooting night, 1 for 11, something like that.
- [28:32]
B
Right.
- [28:33]
A
The. The added. The added time against first units is going to be a little bit of a difference for Pritchard, and it's not going to come as easy. And he. He is going to have to like playing at a faster pace. Like, he might like that, but that means he can ISO less and he has to be more mindful of Jalen and Derek and stuff like that. So there might not be as much opportunity for him to score as we might think. Because if he's going crazy and trying to score, that might actually be a departure from what the Celtics are trying to do. And so I, I don't know. I. I'm kind of. I go back and forth like he, I think Pritchard's gonna have a good season because he's a good player. But how much better is his season really, really going to be? I don't know that he rises. Could he average 20? Maybe it's not that hard for him to score a couple more baskets, you know, an extra three pointer and a couple of reasons like that. It's easy to get to that 20 points, but not as easy as you think.
- [29:34]
B
Yeah.
- [29:35]
A
You know, and so Derek. I'll make the case for Derek all day long. Because, you know, it's funny, I had another locked on host who shall remain nameless. Text me. Hey, what do you think of this trade for Derrick White? And I was like, no more. More picks. More picks. Because you don't know how highly I value Derrick White. How highly the Celtics value Derrick White. He's. He's better. Like, people, oh, he never made all star team. Like, dude, he is better than you think. You're gonna see him play on your team, be like, oh, okay, I get it.
- [30:08]
B
Quick digression on that. It's so fascinating how untradeable Derrick White is. But because, like, yeah, you're not, like, because you're not gonna. If you're, if you're a team who's trading for Derrick White, you're not giving up an all star, obviously. And it's like, you're not. You're not getting him for picks like, like, or like, like a huge pick package. Like, that's not happening because, like, Celtics want him to win and that's, that's. I mean, that's what Derrick White is going to help you do. So there's not really. There's no package that makes sense for him or that works for him. Like, you're not getting Derrick White.
- [30:42]
A
No, no. Right. Exactly. Exactly. Because the, the types of players that, that we would say you want for Derek White are, are much more accomplished players. Right?
- [30:54]
B
Yeah.
- [30:55]
A
Derek White is an absolute winning player. Yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm extraordinarily excited for. For the season. He's. He's gonna have me too. I.
- [31:06]
B
The other case I would make for Pritchard is. Is actually also if Jalen got. If Jalen got injured and the Celtics won a lot, I think that you would have an interesting case for the Derek Pritchard. The Celtics were still on course for like 48 wins, and Jalen missed like a month of the season or whatever. It might be like, you know, or like lit up. And the Celtics were still on pace for like a big season. At that point, the Pritchard White thing gets kind of interesting because then you also have the narrative thing, which people also really like. So.
- [31:37]
A
So. All right, you brought up 40. What do you think? Let's put a number on it. What do you think? The cell. Where do you think the Celtics end up?
- [31:45]
B
I think the Celtics are going to win 44 or 45 games. Yeah. I think that's where I've landed. After watching them in the preseason, after seeing precisely one post from Ryan Bernardoni that said that preseason is more predictive than you think. And now I'm fully, you know, I'm fully in. I. You know, I think we saw. We saw bits and pieces of a team. We saw a team that I think is better, is certainly considerably better than the worst teams in the league. Right. I think. I think we're looking at a play in to low playoff seed team here. And like, just from a talent perspective, I think that makes sense. I liked some of the pickups, I liked some of the, like, cheap production that they brought in. All that stuff to me, plus Derrick White, plus Jalen Brown, plus Peyton Pritchard. That. That to me looks like a slightly above.500 team.
- [32:37]
A
Yeah.
- [32:37]
B
I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt of like three games above.500.
- [32:41]
A
You know, it's funny because I think. I think I'm at 44 wins. Yeah, I think. I think 44.
- [32:47]
B
We did not talk about this before.
- [32:48]
A
No, we didn't. We didn't. We didn't. And you know what? I started out the preseason. I started out this, like over the summer. I was like, mediocre. 41 and 41, you know, maybe. Maybe 42, maybe 43, but, you know, also maybe 40 or 39. And again, best, worst case scenario. Best case scenario, things come together right away and you win like a little bit more than 45. Worst case scenario, things don't come together, guys get hurt and you fall below 40, and then that will leave the Celtics. I think in an interesting place when March comes around mid March. If they are fighting for that plan, the last thing I want is the Celtics fighting to make the play in. I do not want that. If it's, if they are somehow the 10th seed, I'd be like, look, shut it down. Shut Jalen down, shut Derek down. Just take the dive. Get into the lottery. Maybe you get some Dallas Mavericks lottery luck and just go from there. And, and. But you don't do that until it's the very end of the season. Right. And so some people will be like, just tank right away. But no, no, no, no, no. See where the season goes, because they are not. I agree. I, I think this, I'm willing to.
- [33:59]
B
Hear that out, to be honest with you, but I don't think that's happening.
- [34:02]
A
I don't think it's happening because I think they're too good to tank.
- [34:06]
B
Correct.
- [34:07]
A
They're not good enough to be like, yes, this is a championship contender, but they're not bad enough. Where you like, hey, yeah, let's just. You know what, we're gonna, we're just gonna play a bunch of Hugo Gonzalez, we're gonna play a bunch of Josh Minot. And no, that's. You still have all the guys you mentioned, all the guys that we've talked about. So. But look, injuries happen. Some things maybe we didn't see coming, maybe a couple like tougher stretches that we didn't see coming. And if that's how it goes. And that's how it goes and then you adjust in March, I think they'll have, I think the, the start of the season will be tough. I think it's gonna be like a 2 and 5 start to the season. And that puts you behind the eight ball. So even though I think this team has a potential to overachieve, I think the start of the season is going to be tough to overcome because like I said, there's no, I don't see a five or six game winning streak somewhere along the way where you can overcome this. And so it's gonna have to be win two, lose one, win two. You have to like gradually try to do. And that takes a long time. And, and you, you kind of run out of time to start like overcoming some of this. And that doesn't even take into account other potential losing streaks against a bunch of good teams. And so that, that's west coast road trip.
- [35:27]
B
That doesn't go well.
- [35:28]
A
Yeah, you know, the back to backs, the three and four, like that, those, those structures can just be more difficult for the Celtics. And it's not a knock on Jalen or Derek or those guys, because those guys will probably be fine. It's just that Kate is going to have bad games. Garza is going to have bad games. Simons, I don't know what he's going to be like. There's just too many variables that you can't expect it all to go right all the time. And then you mix in some bad shooting nights. You know, you're. You're 28 from 3 and forget it, you know, so 43, 44 wins. If I say I'll settle at 44, which was that 44 and 38, that's a good season. That's a good season for this, for these guys having lost.
- [36:18]
B
That's a great. Yeah, that's a great season for a team that lost its best player to an Achilles injury and then, like, had three of its other best players depart. Like, that's like that. That's really hard to overcome if you win 44 games. Honestly, I just talked myself out of it, so I'm gonna go back to 45. I talked myself out of 45 just now. Now I think 44 is a little too optimistic, but I'm gonna stick with it. But that's. That's so hard to 40. Like, that's so hard to overcome for any team. And if they get to that point, it's such a. You know, it speaks very highly of. Of Derek and Jalen and yeah, like, that's. That's a big accomplishment if they pull.
- [36:56]
A
It off carrying a heavy, heavy load. That's. Look, I. I think. I think 44 wins a winning season above.500 season for a team that lost everything that they lost. And we'll see what happens if Jason comes back. And I don't. I don't expect him to make, like, a material difference. That's not why I'm. I'm expecting him to come back. But that. That could. That could end up hurting the team wins wise. You know, it could slow things down and they lose a few games just because he's knocking off the rest. Like, I don't know which way that would go either. So 44 win team that, hey, maybe they're playing their best basketball in March and April and that could be a tough out. You know, maybe. Maybe they're a six seed that, you know, the three seed is like, oh, crap, we don't want to play these guys, right? And that's. Maybe that's a Detroit or an Orlando or something like that. And you know, the Celtics can find a way. A first, a first round win and then you go from there and you kind of just see if you can piece it together. You. We don't know about mid season trades. We still don't know any of that stuff yet. So If I see 44 wins at the end of the season, I'm just going to be like, you know what? Great job, guys. To be three games above.500, considering everything, I. I would take that as a win and anything above that, just even better.
- [38:17]
B
Yeah.
- [38:17]
A
So that's. That's where we're settling. All right, Tom Westerholm, everybody. Crowd over.
- [38:26]
B
I want him over. It was. It was. That's 44 wins for me. I love that.
- [38:31]
A
That's big. That's big. Tom, I appreciate you.
- [38:33]
B
Appreciate you, man.
- [38:34]
A
That effort to win the crowd back over is just top notch. Oh, it wasn't that funny, guys, but thank you. All right, everybody, thank you. I appreciate everybody who's tuning in, listening, who's in every day or who's with me every Monday through Friday. I will be here for you Monday through Friday. Bonus podcast when they play on the weekends. They are doing that this week. Friday night Knicks game. So that's going to be a sixth podcast. They do it next week when they play the Sixers on the road. So that's going to be a sixth podcast. All of them are free. They're available Everywhere. They're on YouTube. Get there, hop into the comments section, share your thoughts there and then share the podcast. Tell everybody they should be listening to and watching the lockdown Celtics podcast. Here on the lockdown podcast network is your team every day.
- [39:19]
B
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- [40:54]
A
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