← Locked On Celtics - Daily Podcast On The Boston Celtics
Locked On Celtics - Daily Podcast On The Boston Celtics
What's REALLY happening with the Celtics? TRUTH behind Derrick White, Payton Pritchard, Joe Mazzulla
00:36:58
Are the Boston Celtics' struggles overblown, or is the team rounding into true form? John Karalis of Boston Sports Journal and Tom Westerholm of Boston.com challenge fan perceptions, breaking down why player criticism—especially of Derrick White and Payton Pritchard—doesn’t match the numbers. They spotlight Jaylen Brown’s explosive All-NBA caliber performance, debate whether recent shooting slumps are masking positives, and question if clutch results are skewing the conversation on Boston’s actual process. Key topics include a data-driven look at the Celtics’ improved defense, increased offensive rebounding, and how Joe Mazzulla is quietly adapting his coaching strategy beyond the “just shoot threes” stigma. Plus, insights on Neemias Queta’s surprising impact and why fans should focus on process over single-game results. Don’t miss this candid assessment of the Boston Celtics’ evolving identity and what it means for their path in a loaded NBA East.
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- [00:02]
John Corcoran
It's the Locked on podcast network. Your team every day. Oh hey. Welcome to gift wrapping.
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Incredible. In fact, wrap up my old phone too for my Aunt Rosa. Forget that. Aunt Liz will be jealous. Sounds like my family drama. Oh, I got it. I'll give it to my abuela.
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Tom Westerholm
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- [02:12]
John Corcoran
What'S really happening with the Boston Celtics are the disappointing guys. Really disappointing. What do the numbers show Some interesting perspective right now on the Locked on Celtics podcast, huh? Yup, yup, 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, recap the madness. Every game, every practice, prime time. Depp and D. White on the sideline. Rennie J. How we started raising banners, how we finished. Locked on Celtics pod. Home of the winners, baby. And welcome back to the Lockdown Celtics podcast right here on the Lockdown Podcast network. Where does your team every day your team's the Boston Celtics, and I talk about them right here Monday through Friday, generally, bonus podcasts when they play on weekends. Friday night will not be a bonus podcast because I will be out of town for a wedding, so. But every other one, I'll be here for you. Show's free. It's available everywhere. It's on the number one sports podcast network on the planet. Thank you for making the Lockdown Podcast network that it's all because of you. The everyday are people who are joining me every Monday through Friday. Get onto the YouTube page. Share your thoughts in the comments section. By the way, I'm John Corralis, beat writer for Boston Sports Journal. I've been covering the Celtics for about 20 years now, doing this podcast for 10 years, and I've written a couple of books about the team as well. Today we're getting into perspective and because coming out of these games, people are talking about, hey, Namish Kane is doing great. Derek White's a little disappointing. And I looked at some of the numbers and I thought they kind of told an interesting story. And for that, I want to go to Tom Westerholm. Tom, how you doing, everybody? I'm good, I'm good.
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Tom Westerholm
How are you, man?
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John Corcoran
I'm good. I'm good. So Celtics are.500. Team seven. Seven and the.
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Tom Westerholm
Pretty good. Pretty good.
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John Corcoran
It's pretty good.
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Tom Westerholm
It's not bad.
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John Corcoran
Seven and four since they're owing three start. Yeah, man. Over their last 11. That's 60 plus percent winning percentage. You know, straight to the finals. Let's go. Right. This is an Eastern Conference finalist at the very least.
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Ad Voice / Advertiser
The.
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John Corcoran
So it's. It's interesting to hear people talk about this. And this is very much a roller coaster ride. Right when they. If they lost that game against the Clippers, it would have just been like, oh, man, they lost again. And. But they found a way to win. Everybody's like, whoa, wow, this progress. Like, seriously, two plays in that game go differently and the entire narrative changes. Yeah. So let's just start with that, because this whole show is about, like, trying to put things into proper perspective. Yeah, I think. I think, like, the Celtics, honestly, I think yesterday's game was. Was the closest to the actual expectation of what the Celtics were going to look like. Jalen, Derek Peyton doing a bulk of the scoring. You were looking at the center spot. Can you be a good defense? You know, play some good defense out of the center spot that other starter at the wing. Can you get something productive? So Jordan Walsh, Namish Kaeda did that. The bench was a question mark in. In this game. It was like a bad question mark, but everything was pretty close to the archetype of what this Celtics team, good or bad, this is what they were going to look like. So I. I just think it's interesting that we're starting to see them round into some form, but the. The way they're perceived is very much results driven right now.
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Tom Westerholm
Well, and that's. That's the case a lot of the time.
- [06:05]
John Corcoran
Yes.
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Tom Westerholm
But that is just how it goes.
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John Corcoran
Like, really. Results driven.
- [06:09]
Tom Westerholm
Yeah, for sure. And I think that you're right about yesterday's game being a very funny example of that, because, like, yeah, that. I mean, you said, you know, two plays go a little bit differently. And that's. And that's exactly right. And like, they didn't, you know, if there's any benefit to that game, it's like, okay, a little bit of a confidence boost. Like, okay, take a breath. You know, you're not A. A minus 40, whatever, in the clutch time. Like, that's, you know, small sample size, whatever. You're not, you know, you're not gonna lose every clutch game you play. But I mean, yeah, like. I mean, Harden, that. That three. I was. I would have bet a good amount of money, like, if live betting never got to it. Well, yeah, if I. If I've. Live betting never got to a point where you could bet on a shot while it's in the air. A lot of Celtics fans would have lost money on that shot. Right. Because I think I thought that last three was going in, and that obviously would change everything about the way we talk about this team. Like, it, you know, just in that moment there. That. That. That one tiny moment would have changed the entire perspective of that game.
- [07:15]
John Corcoran
Let me interrupt you for a second there. Jordan Walsh misses one of his free throws, and that shot goes in. All of a sudden, we're talking about a loss. Yeah. Crushing loss. And I'm talking about nothing that happened different in any other part of the game, how the Celtics played Keita, White, Jalen, none of it would be different. Just one guy who has barely played, who's just getting an opportunity, misses a free throw. In that moment, he hit both. So good for him, right? One miss free throw along that way and James Harden hitting a shot that he just hit twice. Like, all of a sudden the entire conversation is different. And I think this is one of Joe Missoula's points. Like, we are, I mean, we're kind of paid to be prisoners of the moment, but a couple of little things go differently and we're not talking about the same things, but all the same things just happened.
- [08:17]
Tom Westerholm
Yeah.
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John Corcoran
So, yeah, I don't know, like, I don't know where that brings us, but I think, I think where that brings us is the Celtics team is the. Again, the perception of like that game was a win. Like, we're not looking at these things as the process, which is where they are. We, we should be looking at the process of things and where. Which is why we're at this show, I think, because I want to add perspective to the process for sure.
- [08:46]
Tom Westerholm
And I think, you know, just before we get into the process of things, I do think that it is kind of natural for fans and media to be results driven. Right. Because, like, what you do then, because you can't, you know, you can't break things down to the level that the Celtics break things down. Right. There's just not enough time in the day for, you know, you know, Joe Missoula has a staff full of genuine basketball experts to help him break it down and figure out the process of things. Whereas for us, it's like, right, if the Celtics win, a lot of the time, we're going to talk about what went well and when the Celtics lose, we're going to talk about what didn't go well. And the culmination of all that stuff and all that coverage and hopefully if the media does a good job, gives you a decent picture of what is going on in any given season. Right. So it's like, like, I, I don't, I don't think that it's like necessarily wrong for fans or the media to be results driven because it's like, you know, at the start of the day, at the end of the day, it's like, well, okay, if you don't win enough games, you don't go to the playoffs. You know, like, it's a results driven league. So, like, there is value in being results driven. And I think it's just very natural for People on the outside looking in. But that said, there is a lot of process as well, obviously, which is.
- [09:59]
John Corcoran
What we're going to talk about. So. Yeah, we talk about things. At the end of the day, I, like, I do want to do things. We should do more analysis about what? At the start of the day. At the start of the day?
- [10:08]
Tom Westerholm
Yeah.
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John Corcoran
Like, you just stumbled onto something at the end of the day, you want to win games, but at the start of the day, what does that. What does that look like? Yeah, I don't know.
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Tom Westerholm
No, I'm a. I'm a genius and it just stuffs out sometimes. Yeah.
- [10:22]
John Corcoran
At the start of the day, you want to see guys do well and do all the things. So Nimius Keda, for example, is much better than I thought and much better than I think a lot of people thought he was going to be. There are a certain segment of people, most of them either from Portugal, in Portugal, that are really like, no, no, we knew this. Which. Okay, fine. You know, you can. You can take your victory lap. I'm very pro victory laps.
- [10:46]
Tom Westerholm
This is a pro victory lap show.
- [10:47]
John Corcoran
You take your victory lap, take your victory lapse. But in, you know, perspective. He's. He's doing all right. He's. He's. People are always playing great. Like, no, he's not playing great. What he's doing is playing great relative to his expectations. He's playing great relative to, like, we thought the Celtics were going to have the worst frontcourt in the league by a mile. And Kayla is defending well and setting picks and doing his job. I. I watched that first opening run and he hit a couple of shots. He did a few things, but also, like, he's big. He sets a screen. And then Jalen Brown cooks, and it's like, wow, Nene got a screen assist. Wow, that's plus two. You're like, okay, the screen assist number is doing a lot of work that Jalen Brown, like, Jalen just dribbled past three people, spun, hit up, you know, a fading, like, I'm glad that Nemi set the pick. That's his job. And he did. But perspective, right? Like, Jalen is having an insane season, but I think Neemi is playing. He's. He's playing better than expected. 8 rebounds per game up from like. So we need to level these off. I'm going to start using the per 36 minutes because per 36 last year kind of like pumps up what he was doing a lot, but in perspective. 12.9 points per 36 last year, 13.6. So it's up but not like by a mile. The rebounding, 9.8 per 36 now per game it was 3.8 because he was playing 13, 14 minutes per game and he didn't play all the time. Now he's getting 20, almost 25, 24 and a half minutes per game. So when you expand that out to per 36, yeah, the rebounding's up. He go he went from 9.8 to basically 12. So you're, you're adding a couple. But also he's playing, he's playing better compared to expectations. But when you level it out, it's like, it's not like he's made this massive statistical leap. His massive leaps are process oriented. He's setting better picks. He's, he's, he's playing good or defense. He's, he's getting a few more of the rebounds that are out there and, and that's the stuff that he's doing better. So in, in perspective like that's, it's good he's having a good season.
- [13:25]
Tom Westerholm
It matters a lot.
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John Corcoran
Yeah, it matters. What he's doing matters. But this isn't really about Nene. I I one guy I want to focus on is Derrick White because I, I've heard Derek White is disappointing. There's even a Reddit thread out there. It's like who's the most? Is Derek White the most disappointing Celtic this year? Reddit's not the be all end all at all, but just a, a taste of what some fans are saying that it's out there, that he's having a disappointing season. Tom, the numbers, they don't agree. We'll get to those when I come back. Today's show is brought to you by Rippling. If you're a business owner, here is the truth. SaaS promised to make work easier, but now the average company is buried by hundreds of apps that slow down your teams and simply don't work together. That's not SaaS. That's sad. Software as a disservice. That's why you need Rippling. Rippling is the unified platform for global hr, payroll, IT and finance all in one place. They've helped millions of business businesses replace a mess of disconnected tools with one system designed to give leaders clarity, speed and control. Rippling removes the bottlenecks and busy work that slows teams down. Bottlenecks and busy work, two things that just crush a business. Everything from onboarding to payroll to IT. Access runs automatically and perfectly in sync. It's simple and simple to use and it gives companies one source of truth for their people, data and everything they touch. Whether you want to run your entire hr, IT and finance operations as one or just fill the gaps in your software stack, Rippling can do it all. Right now you get six months free when you go to rippling.com/locked on NBA that's R-I P P L-I-N-G.com LockedOnNBA that's rippling.com Locked on MBA for six months free. Today's show is also brought to you by Prize Picks. You make decisions every day. I make decisions every day. But on Prize picks being right when you make those decisions can get you paid. Don't miss the excitement of sports this season. NFL, NBA, Both. There's no better place to jump in on the action. Prize Picks is super easy. Simple to play your decision more or less on at least two player stats and if you get them right, you win. It takes less than 60 seconds to make your lineup and you can play anywhere. Prize Picks operates. That's you California yes you Texas yes you Georgia. Prize Picks during football Sundays and NBA tip offs keeps every game exciting. You can do things like cross sports. You can do Drake May touchdown passes and Jalen Brown points and more or less. And if you're right, boom, you get paid. The new stacks features Game changer. You can now pick more on Jalen's points and threes and assists all in the same lineup. Plus if your player leaves early with an injury, the injury reboot saves your lineup from a loss. Download Prize Picks and use the code locked on NBA to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. That's good. Lockdown NBA for $50 in lineups after your first $5 lineup prize picks it's good to be right. Thank you for making Lockdown Celtics your first listen every day. Make your second Locked on NBA and locked on NBA Game Night Two shows, same feed here on the number one sports podcast network on the planet. Game Night has you covered every game, every night, seven days a week. Lockdown NBA in the afternoons covers all the big stories, debate show style. So check it out wherever you found this podcast. All right, Tom Westerholm Are you ready for Derek White? Derrick White Disappointing. You have to unmute yourself. Derek White, who has been deemed disappointing again, we're gonna go per 36 because somehow he's playing fewer minutes this year. It's one less per game. It's 32.9 versus 33.9. Maybe the most shocking stat that I'm about to read off is that he is playing a little bit less this year. I'm. I am surprised at that. So the disappointment comes from the shooting numbers, which, yeah, we know the shooting numbers are bad, but everything else is good. Per 36, when you level everything off, scoring is exactly 17.5, exactly where it was last year. Turnovers down half a turnover per game. Blocks up 1.3 from 1.1. Steals up almost a full steal per game. Assist up almost as full assist per game. Rebounds down slightly down 4.5. You need to do a little bit better rebounding, but the offensive rebounding is just a tick up. It's the defensive rebounding that's down just a little bit. But rebounding is kind of close. So all the defensive metrics are up. It's just the, the, the three point shooting is down to 30.6% and the two point shooting is down to 42% where it was 59% last year. So the shooting is disappointing. But when you level everything off, all the numbers, everything else that he's doing is either on par or better for the most part than he was doing last year. So he, his. He's not having a disappointing season. He's having a disappointing shooting start.
- [19:04]
Tom Westerholm
Yeah.
- [19:06]
John Corcoran
But he's not letting that affect him. And I will say that's, that has, that has to be encouraging. And I think for people who might say Derek White's disappointing, you might want to change that because disappointing would be like letting bad shooting star affect everything that you do. He's, he's doing everything else. He's still playing defense, is still playing his whole game. It's just the shots aren't falling. And I think that's an important distinction. It's an important perspective to have.
- [19:37]
Tom Westerholm
Yeah, I think it's really important. I, I think, you know, it would also be, not only would it be disappointing, it would be very surprising if Derrick White let a poor shooting season affect the rest of it. It just does not sound like Derek White, you know, but also, I mean, you know, like you look at his on. Off stuff, right? Like the cleaning the glass has him. You know, The Celtics are 8.3 points better with him on the floor. And you know what? It is entirely defense. Like, he is like they are 11 points per 100 possessions better with him on the floor defensively. Like, you know, and that's a guard, you know, like that's it. That's. Yeah, like, I mean that speaks to what you're saying, right? Because it's. They're Actually a little bit worse with him offensively on the floor. But like the defense is so much better that it's, it's an eight point swing, right? And like that again, that really speaks to Derrick White's, I think, character, right, because you're talking about a guy who is struggling in a new offensive role. That can be really disheartening and discouraging. Especially when that new offensive role is like you're entrusted with more, right? Like you're being entrusted with and you're getting this opportunity to show that you can do more like show, hey, this is a chance to, to show people that you, you've, you know, you always had this in your bag. You were just a little underutilized and like this is, you know, to struggle with that would be a little bit disappointing. But he's, if he's disappointed, he's still playing incredibly hard, right? Like, that's obvious. He's still playing really good defense. You know, he's, he's still. Yeah, to your point, he's very much Derrick White. He's just Derrick White who's missing some shots. And that's, you know, that like, that'll probably come around. Like, I, I don't think that Derrick White is. Yeah, I do think that the shooting is going to come around and if it does, you know, I mean, same thing with like Hauser with the same thing we've been saying about Pritchard. It's like if the shooting does come around, I mean that's kind of where you start to look at like a 45 win season. A 40, you know, like because, because this team's gonna win some games if the shooting comes around.
- [21:38]
John Corcoran
Yeah, I think that's that, that I, when you look at the scoring, the scoring is level. Consider. I think that's, that in a way is impressive that you're, you're not shooting as well, but you're still finding a way to at least produce what you did last season. That, that's a lot of hard work, man. That, that's hard to do. We know the shooting is going to come around. We know it's going to come around. He's not. Just because things have started poorly doesn't mean they're going to last all season long. We're see. And we're starting to see him come out of it. He was, you know, four of eight in the last game. He's, he's starting to put together a little bit of better shooting lately. So if that continues, then who knows? Like he, he'll be up over 20 something points per 36 in. In a hurry. So. And I, I think, you know, we can fold in before we get to Jalen Brown after the break, a little Payton Pritchard, who is starting to break out of his, his shooting slump, and he's up to like per 36. The one thing you hear from the critics of a Payton Pritchard is, oh, he can't be a starter. He's better off the bench. Well, per 36, his scoring is actually up 18.4 versus 18.1, so it's a slight increase, but it's still an increase. His assists are up per 36. His rebounding's down a little bit. Again, same old story, you know, get in there and crash a little bit more. But the rebounding's down, but it's just the shooting for him. He's even getting to the line a little bit more. So.
- [23:16]
Tom Westerholm
Which makes sense because he's driving so much more, right? Like, he's driving a lot. And to me, that's almost as impressive as Derrick White playing great defense because, like, again, you're talking about a guy who's missing shots and you said, okay, I'm missing threes, I'm gonna find some other way to help my team. And so he just like, he's like, puts his head down, you know, runs into the lane, like, does his like, burrowing thing at, you know, six foot nothing, and gets, you know, get. Gets the shot. Like, that's also very impressive.
- [23:43]
John Corcoran
So the two guys that are, like, disappointing are actually kind of level. And again, relative to the expectations, people thought, hey, could this be an all star season for Praying Perch? Did a show. Could this be an all star season for him? Could be an all star season for Derek White. And now we're like, oh, man. But their shooting struggles have left them exactly where they were before. So the increased role, once the shooting comes around, that stuff is going to come around too really quick.
- [24:16]
Tom Westerholm
Pritchard is also like + 7.1, right? Like on, off. And his offense is actually the big difference. Like he's plus 8.5, like 86 percentile. And that's before his shooting has taken off, right? So, yeah, I mean, there's. There's a lot there.
- [24:33]
John Corcoran
It's just a lot there.
- [24:34]
Tom Westerholm
Waiting for an explosion, I think.
- [24:37]
John Corcoran
Speaking of explosions, Jalen Brown. Oh, man. When we talk about he's having an all NBA season, the numbers. Wait till the numbers. I read you. When, when we come back, because he is having an all NBA season. That's next. Today's show is brought to you by Robin Hood. Your ambition just met its match. With Robin Hood, you play for the win. Not just on game day. Every day. Locking in on every opening, beating your pr, beating it again. Channel that drive into your money. Robinhood puts you in control of your Money. Track stocks, ETFs, options, futures and crypto all in one platform. You can now build and execute your own trades from a desktop with Robinhood Legends advanced tools or take advantage of the new Robinhood strategies with a tailored portfolio managed by a team of experts. You expect more from yourself. Expect more from your money. Get started today@robinhood.com yourmoney again, that's robinhood.com yourmoney your money, your move. Today's show is also brought to you by Rougiette let's be real. Making excuses doesn't solve anything. We've all heard them before. It's just stress. I'm tired. It happens to everyone sometimes. But when it comes to performance, sometimes your body just needs a little extra support. And that's where rougiette comes in. Rougiette.com offers fast acting doctor prescribed treatments for ED designed to help you stop making excuses and start making moves. Rugia makes it very easy to get started. You just connect with a board certified doctor, 100% online. No awkward waiting rooms, no in person appointments. If prescribed, your treatment ships discreetly straight to your door. Process is fast, simple and private and it's all handled by real doctors. It's about confidence, connection and getting back to the moments that matter. Visit rouget.com Locked on MBA R U G I E T.com lockdown MBA to get 15 off your first order again R-U G-I-E-T.com lockdown MBA and don't forget to use that code. Locked on NBA so they know we sent you Rougiette. Stop making excuses. Start making moves. Thank you for making Locked on Celtics your first listen. Every day. Check out Lockdown Fantasy Basketball, the number one fantasy basketball podcast on the number one sports podcasting network. Josh Lloyd's gonna get you all the information. Who to keep, who to, who to drop, who to start, who to bench. Everything you need to win your fantasy league. Find it wherever you found this podcast. Before we get to Joe Missoula, we got to get to Jaylen Brown who again per 36 is just a beast. And now he also down two minutes a game. Last year he played 34 minutes. This year 32. Saying seems counterintuitive. I thought he would play more but so we level it out. What's he getting per 36, 30.8 points per game. Easily a career high. His previous career high was 26.7. That's when he made second team all NBA and his second all star team. So he's up to 30.8. His turnovers are up. That is something that needs to change. His steals are down slightly, his blocks are up slightly. Assists are down just a touch. So basically even rebounding, just percentage, however.
- [28:01]
Tom Westerholm
Is up for what it's worth.
- [28:02]
John Corcoran
Yes. Yes. Okay, so like the, the. But the per 36 numbers, everything else is basically level. Not nothing so egregious that one game won't change everything. Yeah, but the shooting percentages, his field goal percentage is up over 50 for the first time in his career. If it, if it holds, it would be a career best. The three point shooting has leveled off a little bit. So his effective field goal percentage is just a tick higher than his, his normal. So basically in his free throws, 6.6 per game is, you know, per 36 minutes is, is higher than his career average. So anyway, point is, Jalen's doing a lot of the other stuff still, but his scoring is way up and his efficiency is, is pretty good. So the perspective on that. Jalen Brown's really good.
- [28:56]
Tom Westerholm
Yeah, it's funny, right, because it's like you don't have to do a lot of, you don't have to do a lot of gymnastics on this one. It's what you're seeing is what you're is. Is the reality with Jaylen Brown. Like, it's just like. And honestly, it's funny, right, Because I think, you know, they're like, there's a temptation to even be like, well, he's not making three pointers recently. You know, like his three point shooting is really leveling off. And even while that levels off, he's still an efficient scorer. He's still like, you know, getting like, like pushing his team, you know, yesterday. Righty. I mean, you know, I think he had 33 points on 33 shots if I remember right. But even so, it was like, you know, those 33 points, they needed all of them. You know, he pushed, he scored 13 in the fourth quarter and pushed them over the finish line like they, they needed that. And he's, he's just kind of. Yeah, he's been able to be the guy even if he's not, you know, missed like perfect efficiency, you know, making 40 of his threes. He's still the guy who's putting on the cape and Just kind of being like, all right, we're, we're gonna make this happen. I'm gonna do this from mid range. I'm gonna, you know, I'm gonna get to the rim. I'm gonna do all the stuff I gotta do, you know, get to the free throw line a little bit. Yeah, I mean, he's, he's been awesome. Like, the perspective there is just. Yeah, exactly. What you're seeing is what you're getting with him.
- [30:07]
John Corcoran
Yeah.
- [30:08]
Tom Westerholm
The eye test is lining up perfectly for Jalen Brown.
- [30:11]
John Corcoran
Let's wrap it up on Joe Missoula here in the Celtics because again, Missoula ball people. I swear, there are a lot of people who will just be like, oh, there they go, dropping threes again. And that's all they'll focus on. Celtics shooting. Celtics three point attempts are down 8%.
- [30:29]
Tom Westerholm
Yeah.
- [30:30]
John Corcoran
From last year. Yeah, yeah, they're. Their steals are up 17.3%, so they're forcing more turnovers. Their offensive rebounding is up 20.5% year to year. So they're, they're crashing. They're doing the things that they said they were going to do. Their transition rate is up, even though their pace is not necessarily. And I had a good, like, back and forth with him because I asked him about the pace, and he's like, no one really knows what the pace numbers are. The pace number, the. The pace number you see on NBA.com the pace number you see or the transition number you see in Synergy is, you know, we have our own numbers tracking these things. And like, he was off camera telling me about, you know, his numbers, the team's numbers show that they're transit. They're like, at the top of transition. But the pace number on NBA.com has them at the bottom because it just measures possessions per 48 minutes. And it's like. I think what's happening is they're selectively running, and then there's times where they kind of. When they're. When they're in the half court, the half court possessions really do slow down because a lot of times it's just like Jalen's doing a lot of the work, and that tends to, you know, isolations are slow.
- [31:48]
Tom Westerholm
Yeah.
- [31:49]
John Corcoran
But I don't know. I think. I think my, My takeaway From the first 14 games is this isn't some stylistic thing that Joe Missoula says we have to do a certain thing. I think Missoula has adjusted and the numbers are bearing it out. He's adjusted his, his coaching style to kind of Match what this team needs. Yes, you still want to shoot a bunch of threes because you have a few three point shooters and you need that. You need to take threes in the modern NBA. In the Celtics, losses are some of their lowest three point attempt games.
- [32:22]
Tom Westerholm
Yeah.
- [32:22]
John Corcoran
So you do need to get some of those shots up there. It's just Jalen's adjusted his game, Peyton's adjusted his game. The Celtics are getting more turnovers, so they're getting more shots in the paint, more opportunities there. So I think it's a credit to Joe Missoula. He has adjusted his coaching style.
- [32:39]
Tom Westerholm
I think Joe Missoula is like, I think Joe Missoula's coaching style is leaning hard into the strengths of his roster. Right. Like, I think that's what he does. And when you're, when your roster is a group of really excellent three point shooters, I mean, yeah, that's like a great way to get really efficient offense. So yeah, that makes sense. When your team needs to be a team that gets up and down the floor fast and you know, forced turnovers and all that kind of thing. You know, your Jordan Walshes and your, you know, Josh Minot's might get a lot more playing time than your Anthony Simons and your Sam Housers. Like which is what happened yesterday. Right? Like, yeah, we're seeing him like and, and you know, Anthony Simons and Sam Houser, notable three point shooters. Like those guys are really excellent three point shooters. Then they barely played yesterday. Like I, I think that they're like people last year being like Joe Missoula was obsessed with three pointers. Like that was true to an extent in, I think in that, yeah, the team hoists a lot of threes but like there's a reason behind it. It's not just spam three pointer, spam three pointer. It's. This is what my roster can do. This is what I, this is the personnel that I have. And I'm looking to like, my job as an NBA coach is to maximize my personnel. So like that's what I'm going to try to do and I think that's what we're seeing this year too, you know. Okay. My job as an NBA coach is to maximize Jalen Brown. Okay. Like Jalen. Yeah, get, get, you know, get whatever bucket feels good. Like, don't like Jalen Brown isn't being asked to shoot a bunch of three pointers when that isn't comfortable for him. It's like, no, like you're really good at mid range. You're really good at getting to the hoop, like do that stuff, you know, Like, I think that's, that's one of the biggest misconceptions about Missoula, I think has always been that he's like super rigid. And I think that there's a rigidity there, but the rigidity is only I need to make my players as good as they can be. And like that, you know, it's healthy thing to do.
- [34:32]
John Corcoran
Right. The rigidity is we are committed to the process. We are committed to the things that we, whatever we need to do to win games, we are committed to that. And the, the, the game to game variations of, hey, this shot isn't falling today, why didn't you try something different? That's not, that's not what's gonna win you games in the long run. You're just gonna also not gonna win.
- [35:01]
Tom Westerholm
You points with Missoula in a press conference if you start asking.
- [35:04]
John Corcoran
That's right. You can't, you can't be again a, you know, prisoner of the moment. Okay. Somebody's, somebody's missing a few three pointers. First of all, you never know when like James Harden got super hot. He was missing a bunch of three pointers. And you might say like, well, you're not going to tell James Harden to stop shooting, but you're not going to tell like certain other three point like guys who can hit those shots. Like, I'm not going to tell Sam Houser to stop shooting those.
- [35:34]
Tom Westerholm
Sam Houser not to shoot a three. Yep.
- [35:35]
John Corcoran
Right. Like, I don't care if he's 0 for 10 if he's open, shoot it. Because he might, he might hit six in a row, you know, and then that changes the dynamic a lot. So you just never know. But anyway, the, the process is the, you know, this season it's the turnovers, it's the, the offensive rebounding, it's crashing, it's creating these opportunities and trying to put up like a lot more shots than the other team to give yourself more opportunities to score. They're doing that, they're succeeding. And it's not just a three point driven thing. Some games the defense is going to call for 53 pointers. Some games it's going to call for 33 pointers. And the Celtics have shown both this year. So when they shoot 50, don't be like, oh man, here they go again. It's like that's the defense is, is there and the guys who are taking them can make them. And if they don't hit them in one game, if Derrick White is 2 for 10 and he's got 10 good shots. I want him taking those 10 shots. I just want him doing that. Same thing with Peyton, same thing with Sam, same thing with all these guys. So there's a lot of words to say. Joe Masula has. Has in fact adjusted and I think is proving that he's not just a one trick pony. Just shoot the threes.
- [37:00]
Tom Westerholm
He.
- [37:00]
John Corcoran
He believes in certain math, but also like, like Jalen. Jalen's shooting like 54 from the mid range. That's. That's just about if. If you took all of those and turn them into three pointers, that would be like almost 36, three point shooting, which is. Which means now all of a sudden you're like, okay, well, that now you're in Kevin Durant range. You're in like that Shay Gilders Alexander range. You're. You're creeping into. I mean, they're better, but not much better than Jalen is this year, but you're creeping into that range of like. Well, yeah, of course, like, mid range is typically a shot that you say we don't want, but that's because people don't normally shoot 54 from the mid range.
- [37:44]
Tom Westerholm
Exactly.
- [37:45]
John Corcoran
When you are. Then you get to take them.
- [37:47]
Tom Westerholm
Yes.
- [37:47]
John Corcoran
That's simple. So. All right, well, I hope this perspective has helped people because if a few of these things start to turn around, then I think things start to take off a little bit more for the Celtics.
- [38:01]
Tom Westerholm
Yeah.
- [38:01]
John Corcoran
And. And that 45 win thing starts to be a little bit more realistic. So I'm. Jalen said after the game, I'm very optimistic about moving forward. I. I think there's. There's some reason to be.
- [38:16]
Tom Westerholm
Yeah.
- [38:17]
John Corcoran
Unless they lose to the Brooklyn Nets and then everything's falling apart. Done.
- [38:19]
Tom Westerholm
Tank. And it's A.J.
- [38:22]
John Corcoran
Yeah, that's. Yeah. Go watch that film from the other day, you know. Anyway. All right, we're done here. Tom, you're dismissed. Thank you.
- [38:30]
Tom Westerholm
Appreciate you.
- [38:31]
John Corcoran
Appreciate you as always, Tom. And you. Listening, watching. If this is your first time and you've gotten this far, hope that means that you are going to subscribe, join the rest of the everydayers and be here Monday through Friday. The show is free, available on a daily basis. Typically when they play on a Friday or Saturday night, there will be a bonus podcast, just not this Friday, because I will be out of town for a wedding. So thank you so much for listening, for watching. I do appreciate it and I do appreciate you sharing the podcast and telling everybody they should be listening to and watching the lockdown Celtics Podcast here on the Lockdown Podcast Network. It's your team every day.
- [39:10]
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