
Is this Joe Mazzulla’s best season yet? Are calls for change just noise? John Karalis of Celtics On SI tackles the heated debate on the Boston Celtics’ future after a crushing playoff collapse, breaking down why firing Mazzulla isn’t the answer, the team’s remarkable regular season, and what tweaks could propel stars like Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and Derrick White to new heights. Mailbag questions fuel a fast-paced discussion on the Celtics’ offseason wish list—should Neemias Queta stay as starting center, or is a new veteran needed? Karalis also unpacks playoff physicality issues, Sam Hauser’s future, and the developmental outlook for Jordan Walsh, Baylor Scheierman, and Amari Williams. Plus, bold predictions on Cooper Flagg in Celtic green and the strategy behind staying under the luxury tax set the stage for another pivotal summer in Boston.
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John Corrales
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John Corrales
We're opening up the Mailbag to see if this should actually be people's favorite season, the off season wish list, Joe Missoula's coaching ability in the playoffs, Mish K's fouls and a whole lot more.
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John Corrales
Locked on Celtics pod, home of the winners. Hey there. Welcome back to the show today. Today's show is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers bet just $5 and get $150 in bonus bets. If your first bet wins, head to FanDuel.com to get started. Welcome back. I'm John Corrales. Today we're opening up the Mailbag and Mailbag questions can come in@john corralis.com mailbag. That's where you submit questions. It's the only way I'm taking them. So that's how you submit. Johncralis.com Mailbag got a ton. They were flying in as the season was ending, crashing to a halt. So we'll get to as many as I can here and maybe, maybe I'll do. Whoops. There we go. Maybe we'll do some bonus podcasts as I try to get through a lot of these questions and just do bonus mailbags. So let's just hop right to it. The first one comes in from Ted, who says he's been a Celtics fan for 50 years and never cheered harder for a win than in game seven. And after thoroughly enjoying every bit of the season, I was hopeful but not delusional where it would end. My fear was anything short of winning a title will unleash the wrath of Internet GMs and media. Talking heads screeching Fire Joe and trade everyone. Oh, yes, that has happened. He says. I agree with Jalen. This is possibly my favorite season, save for the last 10 quarters. Am I crazy? Is this a safe space for those of us who think this team is well positioned for success with a tweak or two, this is a safe space, and I think this, this team is well positioned for success. Number one, let me start with this. All of the people screaming, fire Joe. All of the people screaming for any kind of trade. It's a little bit ridiculous. The Fire Joe stuff is so outrageous because it. Nothing was being said about Fire Joe when they were up three one and all of a sudden losing three playoff games in a row. Gotcha. They lost three out of four playoff games at home. Brutal. That's terrible, that series. Absolutely. I get it. You should be mad about how that series ended. The Celtics blew it. I've said this multiple times on this podcast. You should be upset about how that series ended. Joe should be upset. Everybody should be upset. They had that and they should still be playing at the same time. Fire Joe is like. It's. It's such a knee jerk reaction. It's. It's so. The two things that just drive me nuts. They only take threes. And Fire Joe Missoula. It is just the laziest. And I'm sorry, if you're one of these people, not you, Ted, but if somebody else listening, I'm sorry, it's just a lazy thing. First of all, first of all, who are you going to get? People. Anybody? Anybody. Sam Cassell. Sam Cassell with no experience being a head coach. Okay, let's put him in there. It could work. Maybe could not work. Who knows? Don't know. No. No head coaching experience there. Just Joe Missoula got the job with no head coaching experience. So, sure. Maybe can't say yes, can't say no. At the same time, Joe, you know, I haven't even looked. I should have had Joe's playoff record available here, but Joe's record for the playoffs is now 57 36. So he has a 6.63% winning percentage and a championship. He has won 238 regular season games. He has a 72.6% winning percentage. That's pretty impressive. The numbers. The numbers tell you that he's a pretty good coach. He's. He's coached 328 regular season games, 57 playoff games. He's won a title. I mean, that's the exact type of resume. If somebody was on the fence with their coach and the Celtics fired Joe Missoula, that other coach would get fired. So this. So somebody could hire Joe, like, he's not going anywhere. It's. It's. It. I just think it's a little bit on. On a lazy. On the lazy side, in fact. Let me, Let me fold in. I'm going to jump ahead because Michael B's question about how worried should we be about Joe Missoula? The. The playoff coach, he said this. He led the team to 56 wins and then the playoffs until he got to game seven. His coaching was pure shorten the bench and ride the stars as far as they can go. Look, the. This roster overachieved during the regular season, and I don't understand why people haven't remembered that. This roster is full of unproven playoff guys like Joe is getting killed for starting some of these guys and then getting killed for shortening his roster. He's just. It, the. The haphazardness of what he's being criticized for, it's kind of all over the place. What the Celtics didn't do this playoffs, first of all, again, up 3:1 and no one was saying a thing. So if you're. If you're up three one and no one was saying a thing, then no one had an issue with it, okay? Because it was working. Now after a terrible, again, terrible loss, terrible collapse, people are chiming in saying, oh, you got to fire Joe and all that other stuff. If Joe's coaching was a problem, would have shown up a long time before this. The Celtics got away from things that worked and they should have adjusted or, I don't know if the players were told to do, like to continue their attack. And if it was just the players saying, no, you know what? I'm going to ISO. You can't. You can't take the ball out of a player's hands. You can't stop the game and bench Jaylen Brown if Jalen's making a decision that's counter to what the coaching is. You can say something during the timeout, but Jalen's going to do what he does. Jason's going to do what he does. The players do what they do. And I think it's. It's mostly on the players. Whenever they win and lose, it really is mostly on the players. Joe, I'm not worried about his playoff coaching necessarily. They've. They've had a lot of success, and this time they didn't. It happens to everybody. It happens to every team. It happens to every coach. You have a bad series. You have a bad half of a series. It's not an excuse. It's just, it's. It didn't. It didn't go well. It didn't go great. Maybe, maybe he could have gone with Baylor Shireman, more Baylor Shireman. Maybe they could have gone with more Jason Tatum at the five. But then you look at, like I was saying, more Jason tatum at the 5. But maybe that knee thing was more of an issue than we thought, and maybe it was just kind of something that came to a head. Hard to say we're going to throw Jason Tatum at the 5 when, you know, in retrospect, he's 80 to 85% and, and you can't maybe, maybe knowing that he was 80 to 85% and that there were limitations, you couldn't pull the trigger on a Jason at the center lineup because he wasn't ready, he wasn't physically ready to do that kind of stuff. They had gone to it before in the past. Why wouldn't they go to it now? Maybe because he just couldn't handle that. That level of having to go up against Joel Embiid and having to defend Embiid and plant his leg. Think about that. If Embiid's on the floor and I'm saying now I said it, put Jason Tatum out there and have, you know, just run and beat off the floor. Makes perfect sense. Except if you think a little deeper, which I probably should have done, and Embiid is going to try to post up Jason Tatum. What's Tatum going to do? Plant his right leg, which isn't strong enough. Plant his left leg, which is already overcompensating. And who knows if there was stiffness in it that, that he knew about that we didn't. That's, that's a tough thing to ask Jason Tatum in that circumstance, maybe you couldn't go to it. So as far as. Is Joe, like, I don't think this is the season to criticize shortening the bench. Shortening the rotations, you only have, like, seven, eight guys that you can really, really trust in the playoffs. So I, I just. If this was 20, 24, sure, you'd have, you'd have questions. But this year with this group, I don't understand why shortening the bench is a problem. Like, of course he's going to shorten the bench. So going back to Ted's question, I think, I think most of this season was a success. Like, the entire regular season was a massive success. They got a lot out of this regular season. They got developmental time for Baylor and Jordan and Neemi and, you know, other guys. They have, they, they got Jalen, you know, a season where he was the main guy and he kind of thrived in that role. A couple guys struggled. Derrick White struggled. You know, hopefully he gets back to his normal self next season. But they got Jason Tatum back, and Tatum got to kind of experience everything he needs to experience. And now he goes into a summer having his, you know, having knocked off all the rust, having, having gone through all of the check, check, checking all the boxes. That, that all, I think, is all good stuff. Criticism from the regular season, I do wonder if they. They pushed Taylor maybe a little too hard. Maybe he could have, maybe he didn't have to ramp up so quickly. Maybe they could have just said, look, he's not going to play 38 minutes in the playoffs. Maybe you just would have had to go with, look, he's at 80, 85%. Why are you playing him 40 minutes or whatever? Play him the 32 minutes. Just play him regular season minutes. That I think, in retrospect is a fair question. So there are fair questions. There are questions that, like, I'm not saying Joe is beyond criticism. Sure. Criticize him there. There's legitimate reason to criticize some of the decisions that he, that he made, but firing him is. Is an insane stance to take. And so, Ted, I think this is a great season to celebrate it for you. It can be your favorite season. Jalen saying it's his favorite season and coming out after a game seven loss like we just did the bonus podcast for Jaylen. But I would just say that it wouldn't be a bad idea if some, some trusted person in Jalen's sphere kind of like, got to him and said, hey, buddy, you know, you, you probably shouldn't say this was your favorite season 24 hours after you lost the game seven and you lost three games in a row and you lost three out of four games at home. Like, let's, let's let that one marinate for a little bit before you come out and declare this your favorite season. Because you got to do a lot of things. It just didn't come off right. But for fans, this you if you want to say this is your favorite season, absolutely. The Celtics gave you a ton to be happy about, so be happy about it. We're going to come back, we're going to talk about off season wish lists. We come back here on the Lockdown Celtics podcast.
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John Corrales
Thanks Nick. This show is also brought to you by Better Help May is Mental Health Awareness Month and it's an important reminder that whatever you're carrying right now, you don't have to go through it alone. Life can be overwhelming sometimes. Whether it's stress, uncertainty, anxiety, or just trying to manage everything on your plate. Very easy to feel like you need to figure it all out by yourself. You don't have to. There is help out there for you. Therapy is a great place. Trust me, I know firsthand. It's a great place to get support, gain perspective, talk through some things with someone who's there to listen and help. And BetterHelp connects people with licensed therapists and makes it easier to get matched with someone who fits your needs and your goals. I know that stress is and some sometimes you just need to figure some things out by yourself and understand why you're doing certain things and betterhelp and therapy can help you do that. 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I've been covering the team for 20 years doing this podcast for 10 and taking your questions at john corrales.com mailbag john corrales.com mailBag like this one from Nathan, who also says he's had a blast of a season. Looking ahead, he says my wish list is number one Acquire a new starting center, move Neemi to the talented backup center role where he belongs. 2 Promotes Jordan Walsh to the defensive stopper role in place of Sam Houser. Number three have a six through ten of Baylor, Neemi, Peyton, Ugo, new veteran I like Harper, a new draft pick, Garza and developmental guys on the bench. Okay, so that's, that's a, I think a decent place to start with the off season. I think that's fair. I have a piece right now on Celtics on si, so if you want to go check that out, you can just google my name or you can go to search Celtics on SI and check that out. It's, it's more, it's about the off season questions, five biggest off season questions and a lot of this stuff is covered there. Neemi is a question mark as far as will he be the starter next year or will he be talented bench center. Either way, he's going to play a lot of minutes. Either way it's going to be very important. He's going to be a very important player. So I don't think he's gonna lose minutes necessarily, but I do think that it's, it's worth asking whether he's going to be the starter by the time the playoffs come around. I think one thing you understand is you can go into the season and see what he's added. So when we talk about offseason wish list, I don't think acquiring a new center is necessarily at the top. They could do decide to do it. But it's also possible that you, because there's a window here. You have a mid level exception. You, you have other tools, traded player exceptions. But you also, if you want to stand with the tax and reset that repeater tax, you can really start spending. And I think it's important. We'll get into an off season pod later on, but I do just want to say that we're entering like the final third of Jaylen and Jason. There's, you know, you think of it in five year increments, 15 year career, that would be amazing. But your first five years, those are done. They're just finishing up basically their second five years. Now you're going into the third five years and it starts to tail off a little bit. At the end of those you're going to want money to spend and by not paying the tax, you're just going to have more money, a little bit more freewheeling spending. So I think staying under the tax next season is important. Is it number one priority? Will they go over it if they have to? I think they will. But you can address something else like that veteran that you mentioned, Nathan, that you can bring in somebody, maybe a bench scorer, maybe just another vet to, to kind of help handle things and then see what Neemi brings to the table. And has he added stuff? Can, can you trust him to be the, the number, the number one guy? So I, I feel like there's time there. You, you, you can, you can kind of wait on that. Baylor, Peyton, Ugo. I mean, I like Ugo. I don't know if he's going to be ready next year. We'll see. I think Baylor and, and, and Jordan are going to compete. I think Sam Houser, there's a strong possibility that Sam might move this summer because if Baylor is ready, if you, if you really believe that Baylor is ready to step into that role, you can do that and have Jordan coming off the bench and you know, maybe, maybe Sam helps you acquire one of the other pieces that you're looking for. And, and I just feel like that's going to be a strong possibility. So I think, I think Sam, I don't know, I'm kind of 50, 50 on whether Sam comes back, but I think this wish list is a good place to start and if that's how it ends up, I wouldn't be surprised. All right. Ben P. Says this team tends to struggle more than most with playoff physicality. It impacts them both on and off the ball. So I think there are other things that he's saying here and, and I think there's a A fair, a fair kind of, the, the physicality thing is, is a fair way to, to attack the Celtics. And they, they, they tend to kind of fall back on jumpers to, you know, to avoid some of that. I don't think they don't like the physicality. I just think the, the, the fouls don't get called as much. And this is, this is just not a, a big, kind of like burly team. So I, I do think that there's something to that. I just don't know what you do about that in terms of, you know, with Jalen and Jason. Like, they're not going to be like, they're, they can be physical, but they're not like brutes. They're not what Detroit is. They're not what Orlando has been. They're, they're, they're a little bit more finesse type of players that can be physical versus physical players that can be, you know, can have some finesse. So there's, there's something there to deal with. But I, I just think the only thing you can do is add somebody else that has the ability to make shots and you have to attack that physicality with speed. That's the only way to do it. So, yeah, that's it. We'll take a break, we'll come back, we'll talk about player identity, Namish Kida playing through fouls, Mari Williams. That's all coming up when we come back here on the Lockdown Celtics podcast. Today's show is brought to you by FanDuel. Open up that FanDuel app and take part in a lot of this playoff action because we know every possession matters and right now, new customers you can get, you can bet $5 and get 150 in bonus bets if your first bet wins. So you can turn five bucks into 150 just for getting started. FanDuel is fun during the playoffs because you get everything you need right there in one place. You can check stats, trends and matchups before making your picks, which makes the whole thing a lot more informed, really easy to navigate. The app too, makes the whole playoff basketball experience more engaging from start to finish. So check it out there@fanduel.com when you sign up. It'll ask you to set a limit, set a budget, please do so. And, and it will help you gamble responsibly so you can go, go have some fun without going overboard. Check it out@fanduel.com FanDuel play your game. It's smart to always have a few financial goals And a really smart one. You can set earning cash back on what you buy every day. And with Discover, you can get this. Discover automatically matches all the cash back you've earned at the end of your first year. Seriously, all of it. And we trust you to make smart decisions. After all, you listen to this show. See terms@discover.com slash credit card. That's discover.com credit card. Thank you for making lockdown Celtics your first listen every day. You are an everydayer. If you never miss an episode and it's time to make it official, join the Everyday Club. Get a.D. free audio access to our members only. Discord and more. All built for our most loyal fans. Click on the link in the show notes or go to lockdown celtics.supercast.com lockdown celtics.supercast dot com to take part. All right, let's. Let's keep on going here with the mailbag. There we go. Just hitting buttons here. Let's keep things going here with Kevin. Who says after listening to playoff interviews, what do you think about the team's identity moving forward? I think it's still JB's MVP running the team with a healthy Tatum revamp, Derek Hauser, Payton Pritchard, Nish ka, or is the fe the team going to go full youth movement off the bench? So listen, identity is going to be established next year. It depends on a lot of guys. If, if we're looking at how this team will run, it's going to be Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown. It's going to be the same. The. The. Yeah, kind of like the same Jason that we know, the same Jalen that we've. We've come to know. And it's. How. How do you support that? And what's. What I think is more the supporting cast going to be able to do. So kind of depends on Neemi. A lot of it depends on whether Derrick White is back to form. I mean, he's gonna have to be his old self and start hitting shots at a 38. 39 clip from 3 versus 32%. Can't have that. So. But I think next year's team is going to be very similar to a lot of the teams that we know. Like, Jason's not going to change. Jalen's not going to change. It's just a matter of how do you maximize those guys. So I think the identity is going to be very similar to what we've known. I think they're going to try to be a tough defensive team, but we'll see. You know, are they going to be a big time rebounding team. Are they going to be just, there's going to be different things that they establish as the season goes along. So there will be subtle differences. There'll be maybe some bigger differences. Maybe they will actually up the tempo some. But, but I don't know. It's so hard to say now, Kevin, what the, what next year's identity is going to be. They may acquire somebody that slows things down. They may acquire somebody for, that speeds things up. So we'll see. Ben says asks, do you think it would be, do you think it would be beneficial? I'm leaving that in. To have Keda play through foul trouble in the regular season to force him to learn how to play without fouling. Sure, sure. At the same time, how about just, Mimi, don't foul. I don't think you need to give him two files in the first quarter for him to be like, oh, okay, now I'm going to stop fouling. No, you, you have to understand when and where to foul, when and where to take, you know, to back off and understand when you're beat, when and where to attack and try to block shots or, you know, hang back. That's all stuff that he has to learn still when it comes to the fouls and fouling. So I just think Nene is, he's there, he's right there. It's, it's, it was a bad series for him in terms of fouls, but, you know, he did show some things that were still good. So just, he needs to learn that mentality. He needs to somehow hypnotize himself into being like, hey, I'm not, I am. I don't have to chase this anymore. I don't have to try to swipe at things anymore. Be more disciplined somehow. Be more disciplined. That's it. So. All right, let's move on to Ted, who asks Amari Williams, do you think he will be good enough to make the Celtics next year? An optimistic but realistic hope might be third string center. So I, I like Amari Williams. I like that he, he can pass. I like a lot of the things that he does. What I don't like is when he is confused, things tend to slow down and he just kind of stops and gets very, very passive. And he doesn't seem to play through a lot of these issues that he's, he can't just play through some confusion, say, okay, I don't know where I'm supposed to be, but I'm just going to go set this pick. I'm going to play with some pace. He just is like, he just, when things get confused it's like he stops to try to figure it all out. It's like no dude, you got to keep moving and that. I don't know if that's a permanent tendency or not but that, that will hold him back. He's had some flashes where he looks good and so I can't say, I can't, I can't rule him out. Next year he will have a chance to make the team. At the same time he is on a team option. He was part of that, that whole plan to get under the tax. So let's see what the Celtics do. They probably, they may just decline the team option, make him a free agent and sign him to a two way contract in which case then yeah, he'll be, he'll be around the team and still I think in developmental phase that's probably the most likely thing with Amari. Decline the, decline the, the team option. Sign him to a two way and then give him a chance to make the, he can make the team as part of a two way player. He can, he can be there and get some minutes and still have that developmental time in Maine and then we'll see. I really don't know how that center situation is going to pan out. They may go out. I think, I do think at some point between now and the this point next year where hopefully the Celtics are in the second round of the playoffs, a new center will be here. I, I just, I think the Vuch thing ended badly. I'm not sure that he's going to be around. They're not going to go like I don't think they're just going to run it back with these guys. Maybe Luca Garza stays as a third option. So you're going to have to find somebody whether it's a backup to Neem, to Neemi or a starter ahead of Nene. So Luca Garza is under contract for next year so I think he, he might come back but Amari will have a chance probably on a two way deal and it really just kind of depends on how much improvement he makes over the summer. Summer league is going to be a fun one for him because I want to see, I want to see some aggression. So this will be an important summer league league. Finally, let's have a fun one here. Bob asks what do you think the odds are that Cooper Flag eventually becomes a Celtic? Haha. Well it's not zero but here's, here's when would that Happen. I think it's. It's not out of the question because of the collective bargaining agreement. So he'll be in Dallas for a long time, probably at least through this contract and probably most of the next contract. So we're looking at eight years or so. So. But in his prime, 26, 27, 28, somewhere around there, he. He'll have a new deal. 20, 20, maybe. Maybe around 25. I don't know. Anyway, at that point, where will the. The Mavs be as far as financially? Will they be in a spot where they're so expensive that they're going to have to start breaking up their team? Will the Celtics at that point be rebuilding five, six years from now? Like, absolutely. Tatum and Brown will either be gone or close to gone. They're going to be in their mid-30s. They're going to be at the end of their careers, which is wild to think about. But the Celtics will probably be a team with a lot of cap space after those guys are gone. And Cooper might just decide whenever he's up for a new contract as a free agent, say, you know what, I want to go back home, so it's not out of the question, but I'm not going to bank on it. So what are the odds? I'll say there's like a 30% chance. A 30% chance because he's from around here. Maybe he wants to come back at some point. If you want to just be technical and say, eventually becomes a Celtic, maybe in 14 years old. Cooper flag at 35. What, 14 years would be 30. Was he 20 now? 19 is. No, he's younger. He's 19. Right. So. So he'd be 34. Ah, that maybe he'll do the Al Horford plan, you know, at the, you know, last few years of his career. Maybe that would be the. Eventually becomes a Celtic. That also is possible. So that would be fun. I think that's a fair way to go. I think if. If Cooper Flag is ever going to become a Celtic, I could see it happening that way. That might be the most likely way to do it. That at the end of his career, in 15 years, whatever, he'll be an old man coming to town and saying, hey, I'll finish my career around. Around my family and friends and all that stuff. Could be. Could be a fun thing to do at that point. I will be close to retirement. I hope so, me. Will I get a chance to cover Cooper Flag in Boston? I don't know. All right, that's it. Mailbag questions again come into johncarales.com mailbag johncorellis.com mailbag to get those questions in. Thank you for submitting those. Thank you for being here Monday through Friday. The show is free and available Everywhere. It's on YouTube. Get into the comment section there. Share your thoughts with me 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. It's your team every day
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John Corrales
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Host: John Karalis
Date: May 6, 2026
In this robust mailbag episode, John Karalis dives deep into a variety of listener questions following the Boston Celtics’ playoff exit. The discussion centers on head coach Joe Mazzulla's postseason decisions, fan reactions, offseason possibilities, the team’s future at the center position, and broader questions about team identity and young player development. Karalis blends analytic breakdowns with fan interaction, providing an inside-out view of the Celtics as they look toward what's next.
Timestamps: 01:43–14:13
Timestamps: 07:00–14:13
Timestamps: 14:53–20:40
Listener Nathan’s List:
Karalis’s Breakdown:
Timestamps: 20:41–21:47
Timestamps: 22:01–24:13
Timestamps: 24:17–29:58
Timestamps: 30:00–34:45
On ‘Fire Joe’ calls:
“Fire Joe is...such a knee jerk reaction. It’s…the laziest. And I’m sorry, if you’re one of these people...it’s just a lazy thing.”
– John Karalis ([03:26])
On the pain of the playoff loss:
“Everybody should be upset...they had that and they should still be playing. At the same time, Fire Joe is like...it’s a little bit on the lazy side.”
– John Karalis ([05:11])
On fans’ feelings about the season:
“If you want to say this is your favorite season, absolutely. The Celtics gave you a ton to be happy about, so be happy about it.”
– John Karalis ([13:45])
On Neemi’s (Queta’s) development:
“He needs to learn that mentality. He needs to somehow hypnotize himself into...being more disciplined.”
– John Karalis ([25:48])
On Amari Williams:
“When he is confused, things tend to slow down … You got to keep moving...that will hold him back.”
– John Karalis ([27:08])
On the possibility of Cooper Flagg in Boston:
“It’s not out of the question...maybe in 14 years, Cooper Flagg at 35, maybe he’ll do the Al Horford plan.”
– John Karalis ([33:39])
Karalis maintains a passionate, sometimes blunt, but always deeply informed tone, mixing tough love for certain fan takes (“lazy,” “outrageous”) with understanding and gratitude for engaged listeners. He carefully threads the line between constructive criticism and optimism, and welcomes nuance in evaluating this team’s season and future.
If you missed this episode, you’ll walk away understanding why the Celtics’ season—despite an ugly end—is being lauded by many fans, why firing coach Joe Mazzulla isn’t in the cards, and what possibilities exist for shaking up the rotation and deepening the bench. Karalis offers perspective on the team’s broader trajectory, especially at the center spot, and addresses both practical and whimsical fan concerns in detail, giving a comprehensive view of where the Celtics stand as the offseason approaches.