Celtics Vow to UNLEASH Physical Play | Joe Mazzulla's UNCONVENTIONAL Methods TRANSFORM the Celtics

Summary

Locked On Celtics Podcast Summary

Episode: Celtics Vow to UNLEASH Physical Play | Joe Mazzulla's UNCONVENTIONAL Methods TRANSFORM the Celtics
Host: John Karalis
Date: October 6, 2025

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Episode Overview

In this episode, John Karalis dives deep into two emerging themes from Celtics training camp: the team’s commitment to a more physical style of play and head coach Joe Mazzulla’s unconventional use of “spike ball” to foster communication, teamwork, and on-court skills. John shares insights directly from practice, player interviews—especially a notable one about Peyton Pritchard’s war wounds—and Mazzulla’s detailed reasoning behind his novel team-building drills. The tone is candid, occasionally lighthearted, but focused on tactical and cultural developments within the Celtics.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Celtics’ Pledge to Play Physical

(Segment starts ~01:12)

• Peyton Pritchard’s Practice Injury:
  John describes seeing a significant cut on Pritchard's neck–"like a fingernail sized chunk" (02:15). This leads to a conversation about the intensity and physicality of camp.
• Team Culture Shift:
  The Celtics are deliberately ramping up physical play in practice, aiming to match the playoff-level intensity from the beginning of the regular season.
• Comparison to Other Teams:
  Pritchard points to OKC Thunder’s defensive style as a model—“they get away with a lot of, like, hands, fouls, physicality” (05:43). There's recognition that last year's "safe" defensive habits need updating.

Notable Quotes

• Peyton Pritchard on the intensity of practice:
  “It’s been very physical. So it’s definitely been the war out there. I am tired, but it’s good to push the body to its limits to get ready for the season.” (05:21)
• John Karalis explaining the need for this change:
  "You can't do what the Celtics did last year with this team, the safe defense...This year's team, you can't do that because you're not going to rebound as well." (08:30)
• Pritchard on changing defensive philosophy:
  "Before, we were playing more of a safe defense...But that's kind of changed. The NBA evolves every year, so you gotta ... change your game with it." (06:20)

Strategic Points

• The Celtics are emphasizing “pace and physicality”—not waiting until the playoffs to turn it up.
• Players are encouraged to test the referees’ limits, even at the cost of a few early fouls, in order to set a tough tone.
• There’s a trade-off: more aggressive defense may mean more fouls but is considered necessary with the current roster’s less dominant rebounding ability.

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2. Joe Mazzulla’s Unconventional Methods: Spike Ball

(Segment starts ~14:38, main explanation at 16:13)

• The Drill Itself:
  The Celtics are starting some practices with spike ball tournaments—an unusual move for an NBA team.
• The Rationale:
  Mazzulla sees spike ball as an ideal 2-on-2 drill that sharpens communication, rapid decision-making, and angle reading—all core to NBA basketball, especially in quick-switch and help-defense scenarios.
• Coaching Philosophy:
  Drawing analogies to soccer “rondos” (small-area drills), Joe wants to simulate the small-group dynamics that dominate real NBA games.
• Team-Building Bonus:
  The strength staff is involved in choosing player pairings for spike ball based on who interacts with whom in the weight room, enhancing chemistry and integrating team members who might otherwise not communicate.

Notable Quotes

• Joe Mazzulla’s explanation:
  "It’s the closest thing to a two-on-two situation that you have to communicate ... Very rarely are you in a five-on-five situation. The game is a constant ecosystem of small 2-on-2s, 3-on-3s.” (16:13)
• On adapting drills from soccer:
  "Spike ball’s the next closest thing to a rondo type situation that you could be able to do ... Our strength staff does a great job of helping come up with that." (17:00)
• On the chemistry benefits:
  "We rely on the strength staff a lot to kind of see what the dynamics of the team are when it’s not just on the court, because that’s important." (17:35)

John’s Analysis:

• Karalis praises the creativity and subtle value of these drills, noting how these moments “level up” team communication and competitiveness, which could translate into winning a few extra games over the course of the season (18:03-19:40).

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3. Why This Celtics Team Is So Likeable

(Segment starts ~25:08)

• John’s Evolving Perception:
  Initially skeptical about the team’s talent ceiling (seeing them as a mediocre, 5th/6th seed squad), John is now more optimistic because of the clear buy-in, team-first culture, and visible effort in camp.
• Margin for Error and Depth Concerns:
  The roster lacks depth; injuries could pose a real threat. But as long as core contributors stay healthy, he sees “potential to overachieve.”
• Internal Motivators:
  Multiple players, from veterans to fringe rotation guys, have “something to prove”—further fueling competitiveness and cohesion.

Notable Quotes

• On the coming season:
  “This is going to be a fun team. There’s going to be a lot of evaluation… Talent trumps all. ... They’re probably not going to make a deep playoff run. I don’t expect that. But the potential to overachieve, I think is there, and that’s going to make this team very likable.” (29:50)
• On the team’s attitude shift:
  "The Celtics understand… We just got, you know, really out physicaled. We really got worn down. And the team that played super physical defense won the NBA championship." (27:45)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [01:12] – Start of discussion about Celtics’ physical approach; Peyton Pritchard’s injury and comments.
• [05:21] – Pritchard discusses physical practices.
• [06:20] – Pritchard on new defensive philosophy.
• [16:13] – Joe Mazzulla’s detailed explanation of why the team plays spike ball.
• [17:35] – Mazzulla on the strength staff’s role and building chemistry.
• [18:03] – Karalis’s analysis of the team-building impact of spike ball.
• [25:08] – John shares his thoughts on this team’s likability and overachieving potential.
• [29:50] – Prediction that the season will be fun, even if not leading to a deep playoff run.

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Memorable Moments

• Pritchard’s “Battle Scar”: The “divot” on his neck becomes a symbol of the new, tougher team ethos.
• Mazzulla’s Coaching Innovation: The spike ball drill not just as a gimmick, but a genuine, purpose-driven method borrowed from other sports to address NBA-specific needs.
• Analytic Perspective: John quantifies the potential “extra wins” from effort, execution, and coaching—perhaps taking the Celtics above initial expectations.

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Tone & Style

• Candid, In-the-Weeds: John mixes locker-room anecdotes with in-depth tactical analysis.
• Light Humor: Describes the injury graphically, jokes about the competitive nature of athletes (“running to the bathroom could be a competition”).
• Cautiously Optimistic: Despite acknowledged roster flaws, John emphasizes the contagious culture and underdog “something to prove” attitude.

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Conclusion

This episode underscores two big shifts in the Celtics' approach heading into the new season: a commitment to relentless physicality and the embrace of unusual, high-impact team-building exercises under Joe Mazzulla. The combination of a chip-on-their-shoulder roster, smarter coaching, and creative tactics gives reason for both skepticism and genuine hope—Karalis sees a likable, potentially overachieving team in the making.

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For further discussion, check out:

• Peyton Pritchard’s extended interview on physicality ([05:21])
• Joe Mazzulla’s spike ball explanation ([16:13])
• John’s big-picture hopes for the Celtics ([25:08])

Transcript

[John Corralis]

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[John Corralis]

The Boston Celtics vow to play physical and Peyton Pritchard has the scars to prove it. Plus, Joe Mazzulla explains the spike ball thing and it is great. You'll hear it right now on the Locked On Celtics Podcast. Huh? Yup. Beam Town be ever ready. It's the seas. Who else could it be? What they gonna say now screaming like J.T. corralis we kept the madness every game, every practice, prime time Depp and D White on the sideline, Ren and Jace how we started raising bandits how we finish Locked on Celtics pod Home of the winner. Hey there. Welcome back to the Lockdown Celtics Podcast. It's right here on the Lockdown Podcast Network where it's your team every day. Your team is the Boston Celtics and I talk about them every Monday through Friday. Bonus podcast when they play on the weekends. And you know, just bunch of free podcasts for you wherever you get your podcast. It's on YouTube. You can watch the show if you'd like. You can get into the comment section there and share your thoughts with your fellow Celtics fans. Become an every day or join me every day of this regular season. Like I said, every show is free and it's a lot of fun I hope for you. And maybe educational too. John I'm John Corralis, beat writer for Boston Sports Journal. I've been doing a version of the shop for about 20 years now. I've also written a couple of books about the team. Today's show is brought to you by FanDuel. Download that FanDuel app right now. If you're a new customer, you can bet five bucks and if that bet wins, you get 300 in bonus bets to use across the app. Head to FanDuel.com to get started. Lots from the weekend of practices in this show. The later on. First of all, I just want to say this team is extraordinarily likable, I think, and that's going to be something I expand on in the, in the third segment. The second segment I'm going to dedicate to the spike ball and Joe Missoula's explanation of why the Celtics have started recent practices with a spike ball tournament. And listen, I, we talked about it last week with Tom and it, I, I expressed my, like, I, I really enjoyed it. I thought it was very translatable skill wise. Joe dives really deep. You're going to want to hear everything that he said about it. That's in the second segment. But I want to start here with Peyton Pritchard and playing physical. The Celtics are going to be a physical team this year and they're gonna, they're gonna play fast, they're gonna play physical. They're, they're, they're going to play a style that I think you're going to enjoy. Now I got to share this picture now. I'm sorry for people who are listening, maybe you can get onto the YouTube page later. I'll describe it. But I got to share this picture on YouTube of Peyton Pritchard with this cut on his neck. It's on the left side of his neck. I'll describe it. It looks like someone took like a fingernail sized chunk out of his neck. And if you're watching on YouTube, that's not blood. That's going down his neck. That's a continuation of the scratch. So someone got after it took a, like, I'm sorry, like a divot. Sorry if that's gross to people, but like took a divot out of his neck and continued that. It reminds me of God. Who was it on the, on the Pistons during a blank that had like always played with long fingernails. It was like, I don't know, somebody, somebody needs to clip their fingernails there. So we were at practice on Saturday and I saw that. We were talking about other stuff, just generic stuff. I saw that and I asked Pritchard, I was like, who took, who took a divot out of your neck? Here's the whole thing. Now. There's, I didn't have a Mic on me. So I try to have you listen to some of the. My questions. It's a little tough to hear my questions, but here's Peyton Pritchard's exchange. This turned into a whole big conversation about the Celtics wanting to play physical.

[Peyton Pritchard]

That was yesterday, but it's been very physical. So it's definitely been the war out there. I am tired, but it's good to push the body today's limits to get ready for the season. So definitely pushing ourselves.

[John Corralis]

What's that like?

[Joe Mazzulla]

Like what?

[Peyton Pritchard]

What's it like being physical?

[John Corralis]

No, I mean, like, just to what level is it going on?

[Peyton Pritchard]

It's just, you know, just. I mean, you see, like, ok, seeing them who won the. The championship, like, they get away with a lot of like, hands, fouls, physicality, stuff like that. So like the NBA, I feel like in the playoffs is like, you know, allowing a lot more physicality to happen, but you got to learn how to play through it and be more physical. So we're emphasizing it and yeah, it's been good. Yeah, for sure. Got to have that.

[John Corralis]

Yeah. Like you're. You're not a player that has committed many fouls at all. Are you, like, more willing to kind of get in there and maybe take.

[Joe Mazzulla]

A couple to kind of push the.

[John Corralis]

Limits of that physicality? Yeah, for sure.

[Peyton Pritchard]

I mean, like, you get six fouls, but it's just a different emphasis. Like before, we were playing more of a safe defense of like, you know, switching live with contested shots. Don't foul, you know, don't put people to the free throw line. But that's kind of changed. The NBA evolves every year, so you gotta, you know, change your game with it. So it worked for us when we won the championship, so didn't work for us as much last year. So we got to evolve.

[John Corralis]

Have you gotten a sense that, like, things are being called differently at all this year?

[Peyton Pritchard]

Like, I know the refs have been around a lot. Are you guys trying to play? No, I know we don't know that yet. I feel like that just comes when you play through a season and things change. Maybe they start calling different calls, but right now we're just trying to emphasize pace and physicality.

[John Corralis]

So in terms of like, ramping up playoff. You're talking about like playoff level physicality.

[Peyton Pritchard]

Bringing that from the start of the season for sure.

[Joe Mazzulla]

Essentially not wait until the playoffs.

[Peyton Pritchard]

I'd rather. I'd rather play very physical if fast like that. And then if they start making calls, then we have to change through that rather than like, not Doing it and then they are not calling me. You know what I mean? Like, let's start off with playing physical and then we can make adjustments off that.

[John Corralis]

I thought it was interesting that he talked about playing that safe defense last season. And you know, you got to get. You got to push and, and be more intense and. And be willing to take a couple of fouls. It's something I've talked about here on this podcast before where Pritchard, especially one of the stats I want to see from Pritchard is a couple more fouls per game so he can get in there and get handsy and. And be physical. I'm glad that that elements from over the summer is something that is being emphasized this year where, yes, you got to get in there and you can't be afraid to. Hey, if they call a file, they call a file. But you got to set a tone. You got to set a tone to go. When he brought up the OKC thing, I thought it was very, very great comparison. Just because they were not afraid to foul last year and they played some really great defense and they definitely test the limits of. You can't call them all, right? That's when. When we saw the Celtics last year beat the. The. The tar out of okc in 1/2 and then fall apart in the second half, that defense really, really ramped up. That was an incredible defensive effort and super physical. And we saw it in that Orlando series. And the. The league, I'm sure is. Is always trying to find that balance of, like, how much do you allow to. Allow the league to. To be, you know, physical and aggressive and. And to have a good competition versus. Okay, we can't let them just clothesline people. This can't be a WWE match. But the Celtics need to find that line every game. Don't be afraid early on to test the limits. See what they're calling, see what they're gonna. What you can get away with. That physical defense is going to be part of them taking chances, part of them forcing turnovers. There's just no way you're going to get in there and force as many turnovers as the Celtics need to force without getting your hands dirty, without getting in there and reaching and, and. And knocking people off their path a little bit. You gotta, you got to give people, you know, you gotta tag when. When they run a pick and roll. You got to get in there and jostle, you know, put. Put a, put not just a, A hand. You got to get a forearm in there on that roll, man. You gotta you gotta really disrupt the timing of things. You can't do what the Celtics did last year with this team, the safe defense, I understand that, because the Celtics were a really good defensive team because you, you could play it safe, so to speak, with Derrick White and Drew Holiday and Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum, guys that can get up and contest shots. You can. Did generally a good job of squaring up and like, not all the time there or especially early in the season, but you can, you know, trust those guys when you need to. To square up and, and get a good contest and not. Not be reckless in all of that. And you have rim protectors. You had Porzingis, you had Horford, you had, you know, Keda coming off the bench. Luke Cornette was a good rim protector. You had all of these options there to, to protect you so you could play it kind of safe and just live with the contested shots, rebound the hell out of the ball and go. This year's team, you can't do that because you're not going to rebound as well. This team's just not going to rebound as well. That's. They're going to need to find ways to rebound as well as they can, but it's just not going to be the same. So you have to get in there and be physical. You have to get in there and be willing to, hey, okay, reaching foul. Oh, well, not a big deal as long as you're doing it. You know, you. You understand time, score, situation. You're reaching in, you're trying to knock the ball free, but they're not in the bonus. You don't do it when they're in the bonus. You, you don't do it. Like, if you're up, you don't need to do it quite as much. Like, if you're building a lead, if the momentum is building towards a lead, you don't want to give a stupid foul. Like, this is going to be the real tough part about the defense that they're going to play. These guys have to be smart about their physicality. You can't. You can't give up dumb fouls. You have to be willing to take one. This is the old Ime Udoka kind of strategy. Remember when Derrick White came over and IME was like, you got to be willing, you know, it's okay to take one here or there. You got to get back to that. And I think that's where the Celtics are going to go this year, playing fast and physical defense. It's kind of gonna go hand in hand. So real interesting stuff from Pritchard especially. You know, like that was. That thing was bad, man. On his neck. That was kind of gross. It looks like he almost got his carotid artery over there. Man. That was like, oh, kind of. Wow. I still. Oh, you never answered my question. By the way. If you notice, he never answered my question about who got him. So I still don't know who got him. But anyway, we'll get more into like physical and and all that because this preseason games are starting up this week. We're going to see how physical are going to be. But that's definitely going to be a running theme all year. When I come back, Joe Missoula talks Spike Ball. I I just love this answer. I had to go back. Yes, I'm doing two segments on Spike Ball, but it's so interesting to me. I feel like I got to share it. That is coming up next. Today's show is brought to you by Peloton. Peloton is shaping the future of fitness with the brand new Peloton Cross Training Tread Plus. It's powered by Peloton IQ and it's their most advanced equipment yet. Designed to give you real time guidance and endless ways to move. Whether you're running, lifting or cross training with your favorite instructors, this is training reimagined. 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[John Corralis]

Thanks for making Locked on Celtics your first listen. Every day, go check out the Locked On Fantasy Basketball PODC Josh Lloyd. It's the number one fantasy basketball podcast in all of existence anywhere in the universe in the multiverse, giving you daily tips and helping you win your league, all while making you a smarter NBA fan. Find Lockdown Fantasy Basketball on YouTube or wherever you found this podcast. It's part of the Lockdown Podcast Network your team every day. Like I I got into it last week with Tom Westerholm about spike ball. I really liked that they were playing it. It's just another Joe Missoula unique thing where, you know, as I said last week, you know, he, he had the baton toss, I mean not the baton toss, the baton handoff. Because he was trying to emphasize how in a relay race you could be fast, but if you're not doing the little things, you're going to you, you could fail and lose. And it was obviously kind of prescient actually. But he's always getting creative in how to emphasize that season's talking point, the, the main thing that the Celtics are going to do. So we turned to Spike Ball and I thought, wow, this is, this is great. And I hadn't had at that point a chance to ask him about it. And so here it is again. Same thing. My questions in between are might be a little hard to understand. I think you'll get the gist of it. But here's Joe's full explanation about why spike ball.

[Joe Mazzulla]

I mean, I think it's the closest thing to a two on two situation that you have to communicate. It's a react again, it's a read. You have to read the angle of where it's being put at. You have to read the angle of your teammate. You have to be able to get through with it's a two on two situation. So that's a lot of what the game is. You're in two on two, three on three situations. Very rarely are you in a five on five situation. Maybe if you're switching everything at the end of the game. But the game is a constant, you know, ecosystem of small 2 on twos, 3 on threes and being able to create those an advantage and a disadvantage. So those two on two games create that. They test your reaction time, they test your ability to Communicate. They test your ability to create angles. So I think those things are, it's another way to simulate what you're going through on every possession of the game.

[John Corralis]

Just settle on that. How did you like, wake up one day and say, oh, Spike ball is going to be the one we're gonna.

[Joe Mazzulla]

Yeah, I mean, I think, I think if you look at, you know, you know, soccer, for example, they have their rondos, which is four on three. That's probably one of the easiest rondos in soccer, is one of the easiest ways to create a bunch of different stuff. Game like situations, joy, teamwork, you know, different situations, whether it's offensively or defensively. So you can't really do that because most of our guys are probably inept on from a soccer standpoint. But I think spike involves the next closest thing to a rondo type situation that you could be able to do. So how many other ways we could test the communication and the reads of everything that's going on in the game? We try to find ways to do that. Our strut staff does a great job of helping come up with that. So they kind of take ownership of the warm up stuff and so they have a lot of other good ideas. And then they do a lot of the team stuff too because, you know, they're important because they see individual dynamics when they're eight guys lifting in the weight room every day. So they have a good understanding of what interactions with the guys are and who needs to be around each other and who flocks to each other and who that. So we rely on the strength staff a lot to kind of see what the dynamics of the team are when it's not just on the court. Because I think that's important.

[John Corralis]

That last part is really the most brilliant part of it all, that Joe relies on his strength staff and the assistant coaches and all that, but in this case the strength staff, he's asking them who's lifting together, what, what combinations do we need to, you know, emphasize blah, blah, blah. And so you not only have, okay, Spike ball's fun and yeah, it's translatable and all of that stuff. You have the pairing of certain guys specifically based on what you've already seen through. A lot of these guys have been here for three, four weeks before training camp officially started. So you're seeing who's talking to one another, who, who might need to talk to one another, who's got the good communication, who has the bad communication, how do you enhance that? That's all part of it. And okay, so Spike Ball is a small little thing, right? It's not like they're going to play spike ball every day for all season. And I'm making a huge deal of it. No, I mean, this is the second segment because, you know, it's not the physical play and all that stuff. The actual basketball is the most important thing. But these little things, first of all, it brings out the competitive juices. Guys want to win. You put a score and a time on something, guys going to want to win. That. That thing at that level, doesn't matter what it is. Running to the bathroom, you know, eating, getting through lunch, if somehow it's scored and timed, these guys want to win it. Forcing that competitive nature, like winning is above all else. And so if it's a person you haven't talked to, well, guess what? You're gonna have to. You're gonna have to talk to this guy now. And that just chemistry, communication, understanding, talking to. Talking to one another, figuring out the other team strategy, right? You're playing against. I forget what the lineup was. Was it Pritchard? And I forget who. But what do they like to do? And you're figuring it out in real time, okay? These guys like to do this. They like to go with a little soft toss here, or they really like to spike. And so you communicate, you learn things, and you figure all of that stuff is exactly the same as basketball. And so that whole concept for Missoula to take soccer drills, the rondos, as they're called, which is a, like he said, a four on three. It creates a disadvantage. It's like a game of keep away to turn that. And he's like, well, what. What can we do to mimic that and to settle on spike ball? That. That. I don't know if my brain could ever have gotten to that part. But I think it's like an early bit of genius from him and the coaching staff and everybody to say, okay, what do we need to emphasize here? The two on twos, the threes on threes, and all of that, okay, how do we do it? How do we get these guys playing together? And it's five minutes, 10 minutes at the beginning of practice, and then you take that and you run with it. That stuff, that little. That little bit is what's going to make this team just that little bit better. Think of it as a video game, right? Where you accomplish a task and it gets you 5%, you know, gets you at XP, right? And you. You level up a little bit, right? And that's kind of the same concept here. Is it, is it a big thing? No, but man, he's earning, he's earning these guys, you know, a bit of XP here, right? He's earning these guys points and it pushes them towards leveling up a little bit for a team that on paper, I, I question the, you know, the talent. On paper, I'm not sure, I'm really not sure where this team is going to land. How do you, how do you exceed those expectations? When I sit there And I say 41, 42, 43 wins, how do you exceed those expectations? By getting guys to communicate really, really well. Playing fast, playing physical, getting them all on the same page, all doing the same thing, accomplishing the same goal. The effort is going to win you a couple of games. Execution is going to win you a couple of games. If I think the talent is going to be 41 wins, let's say, okay, well, you can tack on maybe two or three to, you know, based on effort. You can tack on maybe two or three based on execution. And maybe you tack on two or three for coaching when you're 2, 4, 6. Well, now you're 47, you know, there's things have to go right, but you take that baseline of talent and you go, okay, well, you add a couple here and a couple there and you. 45 wins is not out of the question. 46 wins, 47 wins, not out of the question. 50, I think is pushing it, but. And that's a best, like a best case scenario obviously possible. But the more you look at this team and go, okay, there's a real strong exceeding expectations potential for this team now that I see it in action, which makes this team very likable already to me. Let me get into that and why I think this is going to be a season where we're all going to enjoy one way or the other. I'll talk about that next. Today's show is brought to you by FanDuel. The NFL season is here. FanDuel has an offer. You cannot miss new customers. You bet just $5 and you get 300 in bonus bets if you win. That's right. Just pick a bet, put down five bucks if it hits you unlock $300 in bonus bets. You can use it across the app to bet on just about anything that you want. They give you so many different ways to play. You can build a parlay. You can do player props. You can do live lines during a game. So if the Celtics are going and somebody's up or down by 20 in the first half and you think this lead's going to grow, it's going to shrink. You can bet on the live line as the game is going on. So that's, you know, an interesting way to kind of stay engaged so you can make the games just a little bit more exciting. 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[John Corralis]

Thank you for making Lockdown Celtics your first listen. Every day. Go check out Lockdown NBA Lockdown NBA game night. I host Game Night on Wednesdays with Jake Madison. Game night's gonna have all the games covered now that we're in preseason. There's gonna be a lot of preseason games to cover once the games really start. We're covering them every day, seven days a week on game night. And then in the afternoons, we're talking about the big stories, the big picture on the Locked On NBA afternoon show. So go check those out wherever you found this podcast. So I've been building up to this, this, you know, opinion that I'm starting to feel about this team, right? So we have a, we have a summer where they lose, obviously, they lose Tatum to the injury. They make the moves that they've made. They bring in, you know, a front court that you look at and you go, I don't know, look, some of you have faith in them. We'll see. I'm not sure how good they're going to be, but we'll have to see how they, how they progress. But okay, so all summer I look at, just without any context, like, all right, here's the roster, here's what I can expect. And I'm like, Mediocre team. Right? It's a, it's a middle of the road team. It's not a top two seed. It's probably a, you know, five or six seat. And then, you know, you start to see, like, I want to see, what are they doing? How do they look at practice? How do they. And I don't see. I don't get to see much of practice, but, you know, you see like the, the videos and Social team's gonna put out, you know, all positive stuff, but you start to look at like, okay, I get this. I see what they're doing. You hear everybody talk about, oh, my God, this is a tough practice. The emphasis on speed and transition. It's all transition and then physical and just the way the guys are talking about what they need to do. And he said, okay, if everybody's buying in, like, Pritchard is not gonna lie. He might omit things, but he's. He's out there. I asked him simply, who got your neck? That's it. And he got, he's the one that was like, this is physical. You heard it. This is physical. And I'm tired and this, this is great. And then so like, oh, okay, there's the open door. Let's go through that. And, you know, you asked Joe about it and he, you know, explained some more and whatever. I can see the potential. I can see the potential for this team kind of exceeding expectations. I can see the potential for this team to. As long as they stay healthy. And this is the important thing there. The one thing about this roster construction is that it does leave kind of no room for error. Maybe Anthony Simons can step into. If, assuming that he's going to come off the bench, he can step into a starting role for somebody. But that, that does leave a big scoring punch, like a need for that off the bench. So regardless, I just don't think this team has a lot of room for, like, a margin for error. So if somebody gets hurt or something like that, that's. That's going to be tough to recover from. But I really feel like the effort is going to be there. The effort to be the fast team, the. The effort to be the physical team, to kind of try to replicate what the Thunder were able to do and take the lessons of, well, that's the team that won the championship and the team that really, really softened them up for the Knicks, the Orlando Magic, like, look at what happened in the playoffs. The Pistons beat the tar out of the New York Knicks. The Knicks survived that series and came Into Boston, like, oh, Feeling like, oh, yeah, this is. We're okay. We get it. We get it now. We've been punched in the face, and we understand it now. And the Celtics got punched in the face by the Magic, and we're like, just worn down. And it. It really leveled the playing field in that second round. So the Celtics understand that, like, well, we. We just got, you know, really out physical. We really got worn down. And the team that played super physical defense won the NBA championship. And depth in speed was what got two teams to the NBA Finals. It all adds up. It all adds up. You look at how rosters are going to be constructed in the second apron era, you look at all that stuff and you say, okay, this is. It's going to take effort and really precise execution, a real focus to be like, okay, this is. This is what we're trying to do. Everybody on the floor has to be on the same page, knowing what you're trying to do. If anybody's a little slow, if anybody's not sure that that player can't be on the floor, you have to be precise and put that effort in. I think this team is going to do that. I think they have the guys. There's a. The right mix of, like, Jalen Brown as the vet who has something to prove still as the number one guy. Guys like Pritchard and Hauser who have something to prove as starters, presumably Derrick White who has something to prove as a guy who's like, hey, are we sure your success wasn't because of Christophs Porzingis and Jason Tatum? Are we sure about that? Like, I feel pretty good about that, but a little something to prove. Josh Minot with a ton to prove he's trying to stay in the league. Anthony Simons with a ton to prove he's been. Joe Missoula is on him constantly about his defense. Everybody's got, like, experience, but also something to prove. And the way they're going to play, I think it's just going to be fun. I think this is going to be a fun team. There's going to be a lot of evaluation. They're going to be a lot of games where maybe they. They don't pull it out. They don't have the talent. Talent trumps all. And. And so they're not going to be as good as they were. They're. They're probably not going to make a deep playoff run. I don't expect that. But the potential, like I said before, the potential to overachieve, I think is there I think it's there and that's going to make this team very likable. I think however this season ends, by the time we get to the end of it, whenever it ends, however it ends, we can look back on this season. I think we're going to look back on the season. Go. You know what that was, that was, that was kind of fun. That was kind of fun. So we'll see how it goes. But we got a couple of preseason games coming up this week. That's going to be a lot of fun to watch. I can't wait to see it in action. That's going to be, I think, the best part, seeing it in action, seeing what kind of mistakes are being made, seeing how they're going to figure things out. So stick with me. I will break it all down. I will be here for you. I'll, you know my honest opinions and we'll, we'll ride the ups and downs together daily. Monday through Friday. The show is always free. It's always on YouTube. So you can go check it out there. I would really love to have you along there. Get into the comment section. Share your thoughts with me. Share your thoughts with your fellow everydayers, the Celtics fans who are here Monday through Friday, plus on the bonus podcast weekends when they plan the weekends. And then please tell everybody share the podcast. Tell everybody about this show. Tell them they should be listening. Tell them they should be watching the Lockdown Celtics podcast. Here in the Lockdown Podcast network, it's your team every day.

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[John Corralis]

It'S the Smucker's Uncrustables podcast with your host. Uncrustables. Okay. Today's guest is rough around the edges. Please welcome Crust. Thanks for having me. Today's topic. He's round with soft pillowy bread.

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[John Corralis]

Filled with delicious PB and J. Are you talking about yourself? And you can take them anywhere. Why'd you invite and we are out of time. Are you really cutting me off?

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[John Corralis]

Sorry, Crust.

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[John Corralis]

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