How did Boston Celtics Defense & Rebounding Get SO GOOD?

Summary

Locked On Celtics Episode Summary

Episode Title: How did Boston Celtics Defense & Rebounding Get SO GOOD?

Date: February 24, 2026
Host: John Corrales (with guest Tom Wester)

Episode Overview

This episode examines how the Boston Celtics have transformed their two main preseason weaknesses—defense and rebounding—into major strengths. Host John Corrales and guest Tom Wester break down the key contributors, coaching decisions, and cultural changes behind the Celtics' remarkable improvement. The discussion covers standout defensive performances, surprising rebounding statistics, the growth of less-heralded players, and the strong case for Joe Mazzulla as Coach of the Year.

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Key Topics & Takeaways

1. Turning Weaknesses into Strengths: Defense & Rebounding

[01:12 – 05:24]

• Preseason concerns were focused on the Celtics’ defense and rebounding, particularly with frontcourt depth.
• Instead, Boston has flipped the narrative, now ranking among the best in both areas.

John Corrales:

“The Celtics’ biggest weaknesses are now their biggest strengths... The defense isn’t a weakness right now. The rebounding isn’t a weakness right now.” [01:12]

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2. The Central Role of Derrick White & Defensive Depth

[05:44 – 08:18]

• Derrick White: Despite a poor shooting season, he’s been a defensive anchor.
• White is in the 98th percentile for defensive on/off impact and deserves All-Defensive First Team.
• Team-wide: Players like Sam Hauser, Baylor Shireman, Jordan Walsh, and Hugo Gonzalez are major contributors, with everyone accepting tough defensive assignments.

Tom Wester:

“When you’ve got a guy like [Derrick White] of that kind of defensive quality… just being able to build from that makes such a big difference.” [07:23]

Notable Statistic:

• Baylor Shireman held Luka Dončić to 3-of-8 shooting and one assist in 7 minutes of matchup time. [08:00]

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3. The Namiash Keita Effect & Depth Contributions

[08:18 – 13:37]

• Keita has been a “monster” defending the rim—elevating the team’s interior presence.
• Even players dismissed or doubted preseason have stepped up defensively.
• Virtually everyone who gets minutes is making a defensive impact; depth underpins the team’s resurgence.

John Corrales:

“The reason... the Celtics defense is as good as it is is that everybody that we kind of dismissed has stepped up and played great defense at some point.” [08:33]

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4. Rebounding: From Liability to League Leader

[14:08 – 16:45]

• Previous hope was "just don’t be 30th" in rebounding—now, the Celtics are #1 in defensive rebounding in February (74.7%).
• Jalen Brown has notably stepped up as a rebounder.
• The team rebounds, defends, scores efficiently, and protects the ball: “no weaknesses” at the moment.

Tom Wester:

“We said, please don’t be 30th. If you could be, like, 23rd, that would be, like, helpful, right?” [15:09]

John Corrales:

"74.7% in seven February games. That is number one. Number one in the league. Defensive rebounding. That is just incredible." [15:43]

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5. Joe Mazzulla and Celtics Culture

[16:45 – 24:02]

• Mazzulla’s development as a coach is compared favorably with Erik Spoelstra of the Miami Heat.
• Celtics' culture is now cited as a real, on-court force—players are mature, selfless, and drama-free.
• Mazzulla is credited for consistent results, player development, and team resilience regardless of injuries.

John Corrales:

“Very consistently, the Celtics have been at the top regardless of who’s been in or out… The Celtics almost always find a way to make it go their way.” [19:35]

Tom Wester:

“It now kind of just applies to the Celtics... They’ve built a culture.” [17:55]

• Both hosts strongly support Mazzulla as a Coach of the Year front-runner.
• The team’s “adult” competitive culture is driving their systematic dominance.

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6. Center Rotation: Keita vs. Vuč (Nikola Vucevic)

[26:02 – 33:33]

• Discussion about the center situation—Keda vs. Vucevic—as both have claims to starting or bench roles.
• There’s flexibility: both bigs will likely be played situationally.
• Vucevic is praised for his offensive dynamism, movement, and ability to elevate the Celtics’ pick-and-roll attack.
• Brad Stevens’ savvy roster moves are noted (“should have been obvious that this was going to work”).
• Hosts admit that recent history—especially from Stevens and Mazzulla—means their decisions are almost always vindicated in hindsight.

Tom Wester:

“He [Vucevic] knows my job is to set a screen and then move… Busevic is a threat… all this energy on the offensive end that I just think is very impressive and is going to really, really make a big difference.” [29:26]

John Corrales:

“If I said something and Brad does something different, I'm like, well, that's my— I was wrong. Everything I've ever believed about this guy.” [32:01]

---

7. Humility and Trust in Leadership

[33:33 – end]

• Corrales recounts preseason conversations with Mazzulla about the team’s ceiling, admitting skepticism about a 50-win season.
• Both hosts conclude that Celtics coaches and management consistently prove doubters wrong, reinforcing trust in their process and decisions.

John Corrales:

“It’s been proven time and time again that when my opinion differs from theirs, I’m the one that’s wrong.” [35:49]

Tom Wester:

“You know what? So are Vucevic and Keda also very good at their jobs? So it’s gonna work out.” [36:11]

---

Notable Quotes & Moments (with Timestamps)

• “The Celtics’ biggest weaknesses are now their biggest strengths.” — John Corrales [01:12]
• “Derrick White... is an all defensive first team player and deserves that completely.” — Tom Wester [07:04]
• “You said it before... this is a team with all of a sudden, no weaknesses.” — John Corrales [15:54]
• “Joe Missoula is the coach of the year. This is incredible stuff… They’ve built a culture.” — Tom Wester [17:49]
• “There is no right answer, but Joe Missoula is the answer.” — Tom Wester [23:49]
• “If I said something and Brad does something different, I’m like, well, that’s my— I was wrong. Everything I’ve ever believed about this guy.” — John Corrales [32:01]
• “It’s been proven time and time again that when my opinion differs from theirs, I’m the one that’s wrong.” — John Corrales [35:49]

---

Important Timestamps and Segments

• [01:12] — Framing the Celtics’ transformation: Weaknesses to strengths
• [05:44] — Derrick White’s defensive anchor role
• [08:33] — The rise of depth defenders and Keita’s impact
• [14:08] — Shocking rebounding improvement and league rankings
• [16:45] — Making the Coach of the Year case for Mazzulla; cultural shift
• [26:02] — Center rotation debate: Keita vs. Vucevic
• [33:33] — Humility, trust in leadership, and post-mortem on preseason doubts

---

Conclusion

This episode paints a compelling portrait of a Celtics team redefined by unselfishness, defensive grit, rebounding, and a powerful, drama-free culture. Derrick White leads a deep supporting cast anchoring the league’s top defense, while Joe Mazzulla and Brad Stevens draw frequent praise for sustained excellence. Humility, trust, and mature leadership emerge as central Celtic hallmarks, leaving even seasoned beat writers in awe—and, occasionally, at a humorous loss for words.

---

For Celtics fans and NBA observers, this episode serves as both a celebration and an education in how great basketball organizations evolve, adapt, and consistently win.

Transcript

[John Corrales]

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[John Corrales]

Now on the Locked on Celtics podcast, the Celtics biggest weaknesses are now their biggest strengths. Locked on Celtics pot, home of the winners welcome back to the Lockdown Celtics podcast right here on the Lockdown Podcast network. Where does your team every day your team is the Boston Celtics and I talk about them every Monday through Friday. Bonus podcasts throughout the week. On the weekends when they play on Friday or Saturday night, which they're doing this Friday against the Brooklyn Nets where they could potentially get to 40 wins before they get to 20 losses. That is still in play for the Celtics. This whole podcast is going to be a whole lot of.

[Tom Wester]

Huh?

[John Corrales]

They're doing what now? So make sure you're subscribed, get the show wherever you get your podcast. It's on YouTube and it's just, it's just everywhere. If you're new to the show, I'm going to introduce myself now. I'm John Corrales. I'm a beat writer covering the Celtics for Sports Illustrated's Celtics on SI. I've been covering the team for about 20 years. I've been doing this podcast for a decade and I've written a couple books about this team. This is just a whole. Like I said, we'll get into the bigs later. Continuing the conversation about the bigs. It's just kind of an ongoing thing, but the majority of the show is their defense. They're rebounding. And Joe Missoula, like if anybody is still out on Joe Missoula, I can't help you at all. And we're going to do this the whole conversation here with Tom Wester. Home, everybody.

[Tom Wester]

I'm here to make the case that Joe Missoula stinks, actually. So let's get into it.

[John Corrales]

I've got a.

[Tom Wester]

Got a long list of. Yeah, the long list of contrarian opinions here. You may better. You know, it's.

[John Corrales]

Save it. Save it. You save it. Tom, what are you doing here? Yeah, Eme Udoka. We'll have that conversation. We will have that conversation.

[Tom Wester]

Let.

[John Corrales]

Look, the Celtics right now, I feel like the good place where Chidi is is helping Eleanor. Like, in real life. They've gone back down and she is in. She's in Australia and she's like, well, I wrote down. Huh? And what? And then I drew a burrito because I used to pronounce Aristotle's name like Chipotle. Wait a minute, is it Chipotle? Which is one of my favorite jokes in the. In the whole thing. But that. Huh. And what is kind of where I'm at with this. I can draw a burrito here somewhere while you're talking. But the Celtics defense right now.

[Tom Wester]

Extra chicken, avocado. All right.

[John Corrales]

Yeah, okay, sure. Flour or wheat?

[Tom Wester]

Flour's good for sure.

[John Corrales]

Oh, see, I'm a weak guy now. Now. No, throw the whole podcast away. We're debating wheat versus flour tortilla in February, Tom. The Celtics Defensive rating is 104.3. In January, it was 111.9 for the regular season. Now it is sitting at 112.2, which is currently seventh in the league. They had two weaknesses, Tom, coming in to this season. Rebounding, which we'll get to in a second because it's going to be a separate conversation, and defense. Those were the two things they were compensating for. Their offense was going to be good. We knew it was going to be good because they have good players. The defense was going to be a problem because they had the worst front court in the league and blah, blah, blah. And that's not true. No, The. The defense isn't a weakness right now. The rebounding isn't a weakness right now. So this is why I'm going.

[Tom Wester]

Huh? What?

[John Corrales]

Why? We just watch them play the Lakers and Baylor Shireman locked up Luka Doncic. Like, are you. Are you kidding me right now? I don't know. I'll ask this question. How the hell are they doing this?

[Tom Wester]

Yeah, I think that what we're seeing right now is, you know how all season Derrick White has been shooting really poorly, and there's just something that just doesn't feel like it's quite right on the offensive end. But, like, you know that Derrick White is helping so much on the floor. Even if. Even if you were like, half Watching the game that just. You can see Derrick White being helpful even if you're not super paying attention. I feel like I, I feel like most people who watch the Celtics understand, like even if I don't totally know the game, I know that that guy's doing some good stuff out there.

[John Corrales]

Yeah.

[Tom Wester]

The defense, the Celtics defense being this good, I think is such a. It. Like obviously a team plays defense, right? You're. Everybody has to be decent at defense or, or you're. The Lakers where Luca can just get targeted or you're, you know, any of any number of teams, right. Where there's a guy who you can just pick on and pick on and pick on, which the Celtics have mastered the art of that. But the Celtics, like Derek White is so good at defense and, and I think that you just. When you've got a guy like that who, who can play really good team defense, when you've got a team of guys who know how to work around that, who, who can all play, who all play hard, who are all super committed, I think that's part of. We're going to get into Joe Missoula in a little bit that I think that combination of guys, the combination of guys being able to do that is a huge credit to Joe Missoula. But I just, I keep coming back to Derrick White and you know, I mean the. What are they? I just looked this up. He's a 98th percentile in terms of on, off defensively. Like he is an all defensive first team player and, and just deserves that completely. And when you've got a guy like that, of that kind of defensive quality, I think it. Just being able to build from that makes such a big difference. So I think we may have. I, I certainly underestimated that at the start of the season. Right. I was okay, well there's going to be guys that can get picked on. There's going to be problems all over the court. I mean, Sam Hauser has been a lot better than I thought he was going to be. Obviously Baylor's been a lot better than I thought he was going to be. Jordan Walsh, Hugo Gonzalez, guys who I, I didn't necessarily see coming. But in terms of just being. Having a superstar defensive guy like Derrick White has turned into that and deserves all the flowers that you get when your team has been the best defensive team in the league for a month.

[John Corrales]

Yeah, he's. When you're shooting as poorly as he is and you're still a monster plus, plus minus guy. Yeah, that's. That's like that says a lot. That says a lot about how good you have to be on the other end and how impactful you are in other ways. Right. It's the. The. The defense, yes, but also just making the right reads, making the right plays, making guys around you better, crashing the boards, keeping things alive. That is absolutely a part of this. I think you. You have to start at Nami Ish Keita. Like, the. The reason to me that the Celtics defense is as good as it is is that everybody that we kind of. We. The collective, we dismissed has stepped up and played great defense at some point. And it starts with Keda being a monster defending the rim. He just is. Is a shot blocker. And even though I still think he has some, you know, some deficiencies as far as the, you know, the. The quality of how he moves around the floor, and I think he's still, you know, there's. There's stuff that he's working on, but it's undeniable when he's on the floor. The Celtics are a much better defensive team. And then you have, like, you mentioned Sam Houser. He defends well. Baylor, Shireman. You know, let me look up the matchups here real quick with Shireman as the defender against Luca doncic. Luca was three of eight, so that's 37 and a half percent. He. He scored seven points on Baylor. Shireman in seven. Like, was seven minutes of defensive time plus some, you know, 36 minutes of partial. So. So he spent a lot of time on. On Luca. The. The 30. 37 and a half percent and one assist. So what that tells me is Baylor played him really well straight up and just was capable. So point is, Baylor against Luca was great. Jordan Walsh has been great. Hugo Gonzalez, no one saw this coming. He's been great. Not 100 of the time, but enough of the time where you're like, okay, how does the Celtics offense, I mean, defense get this good? Derrick White. Yes, absolutely. Jalen Brown. Yes, absolutely. Neemi, Jordan, Baylor, all of these. These other guys who have been getting their opportunities. Josh might not. At the beginning of the season, everybody who has gotten in has been given a tough defensive assignment. They have all taken it, and they have all done. At minimum. At minimum, they've been passable. Yeah, most of the time they've been good, and some of the time they've been incredible. Like, how is this guy doing this? That, I think, is where it all comes together, and then we fold in the rebounding and the coaching, which is all part of it. Let's get into the rebounding. Because the rebounding numbers are confusing. Confusingly good. We'll talk about that when we come back. Today's show is brought to you by Indeed Workplace Chaos. Deadlines stacking up, inbox overflowing, and the one position you have to fill is still sitting open. Now that's when the pressure is on and you need to make the right hire. That's where Sponsored Jobs from Indeed comes in. Indeed Sponsored Jobs helps you reach the people who actually fit what you're looking for. Skills, experience, location. So you're not just hoping the right candidate stumbles across stumbles across your post. You're finding the right person. This is much like putting a basketball team together. You would never expect Brad Stevens to hope to find the right player. He's doing all the scouting. So is Indeed Sponsored Jobs. And in the minute that I'm Talking to you, 27 hires have been made around the world according to Indeed data. So if you're hiring, spend less time searching and more time interviewing candidates who actually check off all your boxes with Indeed Sponsored Jobs. Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing the candidates with less str, less stress, less time, more results when you need the right person to cut through the chaos. This is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs. You will get $75 of sponsored job credit to help your job get the premium status it deserves@ Indeed.com podcast. Just go to Indeed.com podcast right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. That's indeed.com podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire. This is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs.

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[John Corrales]

Thanks for making Lockdown Celtics your first listen every day you're in every day or you're with me every Monday through Friday. You're with me on these bonus podcasts when they come up. Now join the Locked On Celtics every day or [e-mail] you'll get ad free audio available on all major podcasts app like Apple and Spotify. You get a members only locked on every Dare Club Discord server which includes a group chat just for Celtics fans and NBA fans. It's all at locked on celtics.supercast.com it's five bucks a month. Fifty bucks for the year if you want to do that. So go check that out. I'll leave the link in the show notes as well. Tom, the rebounding numbers. You remember the beginning of the season, we were talking about the Celtics just need to not suck at rebounding. That was it. Just. We. Please don't suck. Please don't have a 61% defensive. Whoops. Hold on. Sorry. I've got you muted. Go ahead.

[Tom Wester]

Sorry. We didn't even. We didn't even say, please don't suck. We said, please don't be 30th. Like, we were like, if you could be, like, 23rd, that would be, like, helpful, right? Yeah.

[John Corrales]

So in November. In November, they were struggling. Their defensive rebounding percentage was 67, and it was 26th in the league in February. I'd ask you to guess, but I already did that before we started recording

[Tom Wester]

70, and I ruined it by guessing.

[John Corrales]

You ruined it. 74.7% in seven February games. That is number one. Number one in the league. Defensive rebounding. That is just incredible. That is. That is effortless. That is. I think Jalen Brown has gotten in there, done a lot of rebounding. That's something that we. We said that he needed to do before the season started. He's doing it now. It's between the defense and the rebounding. This. This is a team. You said it before. We said this is a team with all of a sudden, no weaknesses. Good offense, good defense. They rebound, they turn. They turn you over. They protect the ball. You tell me, Joe, how is Joe Missoula not, like, the lock for coach of the year at this point?

[Tom Wester]

I have no answers on that. I. I think. I mean, I think he should be the lock. I. I don't see an argument otherwise, like, if you especially, like.

[John Corrales]

Okay.

[Tom Wester]

To me, either, one, Joe Missoula is a lockdown for coach of the year, which is what I think it is. Or two, Jalen Brown is a lock for mvp, and I don't think that's the answer. I don't think that I. I think Jalen's having a great season. I don't think he's the mvp. I'm not even, like. I don't think he's, like, maybe he's top five. Sure, fine. Whatever. Joe Missoula is the coach of the year. This is incredible stuff, and I think we're seeing, too, the. The level of continuity that the Celtics have even after losing all the players that they have because we see Peyton Pritchard coming in and just doing this. The kinds of things that he is so good at, right? Defensively, offensively, obviously, you know, he. He's a. He's a bucket getter. He's great. But he's also just so solid on the defensive end. And he's not. He's not perfect. And he's. That's a big part of this Celtics team, right? Guys aren't perfect. Keita is not perfect. Shireman is far from perfect. These are not perfect basketball players, but they're all just doing good stuff the right way. And that starts with coaching. That starts with, you know, with. With culture, right? That this team has built all this kind of, like, corny stuff that people used to say about the Heat all the time, right? Like, it now kind of just applies to the Celtics. It's just. It's Celtics. They've built a culture. And, you know, I mean, it's. It's. We've talked before about how the Celtics are just an adult basketball team. This is just a bunch of freaking adults who want to win or just competitive adults. And hey, like, you know, when you've got good talent, that's a great basketball team. And, yeah, I don't know. What is their weakness? What? What? I don't see one. They're just out here just. Just very, you know, just systematically taking other teams apart. Like, the Lakers never really had a chance that you could just see it, you know, just like, piece by piece. All right, here we go. Now. It's a 20 point lead.

[John Corrales]

The Miami thing is. Is the comparison because. Because. Because Eric Spoelstra and the way he is regarded is so. Like, people. People just say, well, he's. He's the best coach. He's taking over from Greg Popovich. Like, everybody just acknowledges that Eric Spolzer is the best coach, even though the Miami Heat is just perennially in the seventh, eighth, ninth seat. Like, yeah, okay, sure. Like, yeah, he's the best coach. All right. That's. That's great. And he is a great coach.

[Tom Wester]

I think he's great. Yeah, absolutely.

[John Corrales]

Absolutely. But the Celtics are the second seed, and Joe, man, I don't know. This. This is gonna. This is gonna be very victory lapish. But I've been. I've been making the comparison to. To Spoelstra for a while in that Joe got the job. People were like, okay, it's fine if you're like, maybe, you know, he might be a good coach for a team starting over or whatever, but this is. This is a contender. You can't. No, no, you can't give him this. And they won pretty quickly. And that, that became like, well, of course he won. They gave him a stacked roster. Oh, let's see, let's see how he does, you know, with that. And you know, last year was supposedly proof that, oh, he's not a great coach. Now this year is the, oh, wow, maybe he is a great. And there is a lot of fly by the seat of your pants that goes on with this and there's a lot of like reacting to the, the, the, you know, what have you done for me lately? But very consistently, the Celtics have been at the top regardless of who's been in or out. The Celtics have won games with guys being hurt. They have, they have been great on back to backs. They have all these like little things whenever you think, oh, well, this is. This isn't going to go their way. The Celtics almost always find a way to make it go their way. Yeah, like how. How is this possible? It has to be coaching on top of. Look, you have great talents on this team. Jalen is a great talent. Jason is a great talent. However you want to rank the two of them, different people will have different opinions. But Jason, Jalen, Derrick White is. You read. There's a reason why you were gushing about him earlier. He is phenomenal. You have to have the talent.

[Tom Wester]

Yeah.

[John Corrales]

Like you said, they are adults. They are mature. There's no hint, sniff of any drama anywhere. Even right now as sports talk radio is trying like hell to drum up Jalen versus Jason. They're. They're really trying to dip into that. Well right now there's no real hint of drama on this team and that's part of it. And just all of it goes to Joe and Brad and ownership, like all of it is in line. You. You nailed it when you said the culture. Just. I just hope that there's no writing on the, you know, on the court, in the lane talking about, you know, the Celtics culture like Miami did. But it's as far as game day on the court. Like, it starts with Joe and it starts with the leaders on this team. Joe Missoula has, he has to be. I know Bickerstaff and, and the Pistons are, you know, the, the one seed and people didn't expect that either. But they expected the Pistons to be good. They didn't expect the Celtics to be good. And like this Joe Missoula, you again, you're right. One of those guys has to win something because of this. If Joe's not the coach of the year, Jalen Brown is The mvp. One of those things is true. It has to be true. And we know that Jalen's not going to get the mvp. So.

[Tom Wester]

Yeah, to the point that I'm like, I think Cage should probably be above him in the MVP voting because I think that Joe Missoula is clearly the coach of the year. Like, and I think Jalen's great. I think Jalen is elite. I think he's all NBA first team. I think all those things. But I'm sorry, I just, I, I, Joe Missoula feels like a no brainer to me. This. That's, that's the answer. That's. Yeah, that's, that's, that's the, that's the, the good place. Chidi getting Janet to eat there is no right answer, but Joe Missoula is the answer. That's the.

[John Corrales]

Wow, two good, good place references here. I love that one. All right, well, what's the answer at center? We'll get to that when we come back. Today's show is brought to you by fanduel. You ever want to experience the NBA Finals live and in person? I've done it. It's great. Highly recommended. FanDuel is giving you the chance to turn that dream into a reality with their NBA sweepstakes. Here's how it works. You use a profit boost on any NBA future and you'll automatically be entered for a shot to win an NBA Finals trip for two. So that's everything. That's flights, tickets, the whole experience. If you're already looking to check out the the board and see which team can make a deep run or which can grab a conference title, it's a perfect time to lock it in and add like that extra layer of excitement to every game down the stretch. It's going to be an interesting kind of scenario, especially out west with injuries and stuff. So now check it out. You, maybe you, maybe you win and you get yourself a trip to the NBA Finals on top of it. Visit FanDuel.com to get started. Use your profit boost on an NBA future to get entered for your chance to win a trip to the NBA Finals. And when you sign up, they will ask you to set your limit, set your budget. Do that so you can gamble responsibly and play your game at FanDuel, the official sports betting partner of the NBA. More.

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We all want it. But in an uncertain world, the more we want is changing. That's why Mazda delivers a different kind of more, more substance, more human connection. It's the craft in our design, the intention in our engineering, connecting you to the road and to what matters most, its value. You can feel this is the more that loops you. Mazda move and be moved.

[John Corrales]

Thanks for making Lockdown Celtics your first listen. Every day, please check out lockdown NBA and lockdown NBA game night. Lockdown NBA has all the big stories Monday through Friday and afternoons, and then game night is seven days a week, covering every game in the league. So got three games going on in the NBA. San Antonio beating the Detroit Pistons. Then you've got Utah, Houston, Sacramento and Memphis. So Celtics gain a half game there on the Pistons. It's all going to be unlocked on NBA game night. Tom, the. We talked about the centers earlier. Yeah. This is an interesting place to be. You can make an argument for Keda and Vuch. Either one can. Can be a solid starter. Either one could be a solid guy off the bench. I think that it might be just a situational thing. We might have a situational, like, hey, this like last night against the Lakers. I feel like Vuch, like, they made their run and pulled away when Vuch was in the game. They held the Lakers kind of in check when Kada was in the game. So Kate Kida did like Kato was like a monster defensively and did some nice things offensively. Vuch was the opposite, did some good, you know, was not a monster offensive. It was really good offensively.

[Tom Wester]

He's so good offensively.

[John Corrales]

Right. And then he did some nice things defensively.

[Tom Wester]

Yep.

[John Corrales]

And so that, that, that's just gonna be an interesting thing. I still believe that ultimately he will be the guy that is paired with Tatum. And whenever, like, Tatum's gonna come back, this is. You tell me if I'm wrong. Tatum's going to come back. He's going to come off the bench. Vouch is going to stay on the bench until then. Whenever Tatum moves into the starting lineup, Vuch will move into the starting lineup with him. And that's just going to be, I think, to me, you pair him, you pair those two guys together for the most part. You got K with Peyton Pritchard. That's your pairing. And like, start second quarters with Jason Tatum, Nicola Vuchovic, Peyton Pritchard, Sam Houser and Hugo Gonzalez, you know, or Derek White. No, Derrick White instead of Peyton. Derek. Derek. Derek Tatum, Vuch Ugo. And who am I missing? What did I say? Sam. Sam Houser. Sam.

[Tom Wester]

Yeah, I could see it. I, I will say, I think the longer you wait, right? Like, if, if Tatum, if you wait until Tatum comes back and then you wait until Tatum if you're gonna bring Tatum off the bench a little bit, the longer you wait, the closer you get to the playoffs. And at that point, I do wonder, do you really want to upset the apple cart at all? Like, not that. When this team has. Has done a phenomenal job of just morphing its situations. Like, yeah, whatever. I. Peyton Pritchard, like, yeah, I come off the bench, now it's fine. I scored 25 points a game as a guy off the bench.

[John Corrales]

Sure.

[Tom Wester]

I just do that. That's fine. Like, they're so good at that, so I. I don't think it would actually be a problem. But, you know, if you get to, like, middle end of March, you're only, like, a week or two, three weeks away from the playoffs. Like, is that the time to make that swap? I don't know. Maybe. Maybe not. Might be fine. It's. I think it's at least something to consider. So when you say, you tell me if I'm wrong, it's like, well, now I feel like I have to challenge you. So there's my small challenge. But I do think, yeah, for sure. But I do think that. I mean, look, man, Vucevic, he's. I'm just. I'm very impressed with him offensively. I. I love. I love how hard he goes after. Like, he. He knows that my job is to set a screen and then move and I. And he knows I'm good enough that I might get the ball. He's not one of those, like, diving bigs who's just there for a little bit of gravity for the guard to do something. Like, no, Boosevic is a threat, and if he. Wherever he moves, he's got a good sense of like, okay, now I dive. Oh, that didn't work. I'm coming back out. I'm gonna set another screen. And now I dive again. He's got all this energy on the offensive end that I just think is very impressive and is going to really, really make a big difference, especially when the Celtics are. Can run Jalen off a pick, when they can run Pritchard off a pick, when they can run Tatum off a pick, when they can run Derrick White off a pick. And all these guys are just cycling through that movement. I just think that the offense is going to be obscene. Like, I don't know how you're going to be able to stop that, because everybody's going to be unselfish. Everybody's going to be moving in smart ways, and everybody's going to be really, really talented at getting Buckets. So I don't know. That's, that's my, my brief. Vucevich gushing. I, he's, he's incredible, man. I, I, I, I wrote on Boston.com yesterday that, like, it's, it's hilarious how Brad Stevens does this, where he goes and gets somebody to where you're like, why didn't, that should have just been obvious that this was going to work? Why didn't I just assume that this was obviously going to work? You know, he, he makes these moves that, that on paper they seem like they should have been obvious, but then they, they weren't, they weren't something that you necessarily saw coming. And I feel like Vucevich is just the latest in that line of acquisitions.

[John Corrales]

Well, yeah, I mean, if as soon as Brad does something, like, I have just gotten into a place where, yeah, if I said something and Brad does something different, I'm like, well, that's my, that's my.

[Tom Wester]

I was wrong. Everything I've ever believed about this guy.

[John Corrales]

That's right. Right. And you know, like, normally, like, nor the normal sports writer thing to do is like, I've seen enough of this game. I know this town. And if you do something that I don't think you should have done, then I'm going to challenge you because you're wrong. I'm right. And like, sometimes I get that feeling. But no, it's, that feeling has hit me with, with Brad for a while and now it's hitting me with Joe

[Tom Wester]

at this point, dude, it's like, I,

[John Corrales]

I want to challenge him on things. I want to be like, why did you do this? What? Why? That doesn't make sense to me. And the, the response I should be getting now is like, well, it's because I'm much smarter than you, John. Like, you just don't know what we're trying to do. You can't figure out what we're trying to do unless I pull you aside and tell you everything. Like that, that's it. Like, that's, that's where we are with Joe and with Brad and with everything. I have to, I have to go up to them and say, why did you do that actually? And get like an explanation and go, oh, oh, yeah, okay. Gotcha. I'm a, I'm a. When it comes to. And you know what? I'm, I'm smart. I believe when it comes to a lot of this. And they are just so much better

[Tom Wester]

at this levels to this man. Yeah. 100.

[John Corrales]

I've been running a team and coaching A team. And, and this team was flying past expectations and I am here talking to you. Yeah. Which is sad.

[Tom Wester]

Yes. No, I mean, it's like before the season, I, I don't, you know, you, hopefully I'm not like, saying something I shouldn't say. You said I. I don't think you said it on the pod. You said a bunch of times like, yeah, Joe Missoula thinks that this is going to be a really good team this year. He thinks it's gonna be a 50 win team. And, and I, I. And we were both just kind of like, okay, Joe. Yeah. What? Hand up our bad.

[John Corrales]

Like, we have, Sorry. We, we, like, we all have private conversations with people. Like, I, I'll sit there. You'll. If you're at a game, you might see me talking to Brad Stevens. You might see me talking to, like, we'll have like, conversations off to the side and whatever. And before the season started, I had a conversation with Joe Missoul. I'm not talking about a turn here. And I told him, I think, I think you're a 45 win team, 46 win. He's like, no, nope, we're at least 50 games. And he laid it out. All the reasons why this is worth this many wins and this is worth that many wins. And if we do this word that's worth this many wins, I'm like, the math checks out. I just don't know that you're going to get all those things. And he's adamant. And you know what? Next year, when I have that conversation with him again, I'll be like, yes, Joe. Yes, Joe. Because I can't do the thing. Like, I'm gonna be on the radio in the morning, right? I'm gonna be on 98.5 and I'm gonna be talking to these guys and they're, they're gonna do their thing, the morning sports talk radio thing, of like, you know, you gotta challenge these guys

[Tom Wester]

and blah, blah, blah.

[John Corrales]

I'm gonna be like, yeah, I'd love to, except they are always right. And it's annoying to me because I like where my brain is basketball wise, but they're always right. And I can't challenge them because I've. It's been proven time and time again that when my opinion differs from theirs, I'm the one that's wrong.

[Tom Wester]

Yeah. Yeah.

[John Corrales]

So whatever they decide to do with Vuch and Kada, this makes for horrible podcasting because I'm just like, I have my opinion. And then they're gonna be like, Joe's gonna do something completely different. I'm gonna be like, oh. And like, whatever, whatever. This is how it is. Bottom line is they're really good at their jobs and just.

[Tom Wester]

And you know what? So are Vucevich and Keda also very good at their jobs? So it's gonna work out. That's.

[John Corrales]

Yeah, yeah. I'd like to think we're good at our jobs.

[Tom Wester]

If we do our best, man, we're good.

[John Corrales]

We're good. We're just like, if we, if we were that good, we wouldn't be here. We'd be, we'd be there.

[Tom Wester]

Correct?

[John Corrales]

Well, we're no longer here either because this podcast is over. So Tom, bye, bye.

[Tom Wester]

Appreciate you, man.

[John Corrales]

Appreciate you, Tom. I appreciate you listening, watching here with us on a Monday through Friday basis. We got bonus podcasts coming up all over the place that will just show up in the afternoons. So check them out where whenever they drop Friday, Saturday when they play, they're going to play Friday against the Brooklyn Nets. We'll drop a podcast then as well. So make sure you're subscribed to that and then I would love it if you shared 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. Adobe Acrobat Studio, your team's home base. Collaborate within a shared PDF space. You've got your docs, your plan, your specs, and then invite the crew to build what's next. They talk up the teamworks. They think that this design could be a contender. And when somebody wonders what's the next steps, AI helps you finish the rest. Bolts are tight now. Your plan's refined. Run a smooth of business when you're on the line. Do that with Acrobat. Learn [e-mail] Dothatwith Acrobat. To be a Team USA skier, it takes dedication, determination and lots of hard work. But it doesn't take all that to score unlimited 2% cash rewards on purchases. Just use the active cash Visa credit card from Wells Fargo and tap to pay. With that natural born talent and unwavering focus. Earn unlimited 2% cash rewards on purchases with the active cash Visa credit card from Wells Fargo. Terms apply. Visit Wells Fargo.com ActiveCash Visa, proud sponsor of the Olympics and Paralympic Games.

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