Untitled project from SquadCast
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Steve: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Celtic Chalk Talk. This is a weekly thing we're gonna try to do on Mondays each week. We appreciate your listening. We're gonna talk about the Celtics and Review of the week. Wasn't a very good week for the Celtics. My name's Steve Purciello I'm a lifelong Celtic fan. I've rooted for them since Bill Russell played, which tells you my age.
This week we're gonna talk about this slow start. Why are the Celtics oh, in three? It's very simple. They don't rebound. They don't rebound at all. They've had trouble getting rebounds against Detroit yesterday. They had less than half of the. Defensive rebounds. I think it was 47%. Think about that one.
Out of every two shots that Detroit took, they got the rebound. How did we get here? First of all, let me just say I believe in Brad Stevens. I think he's done a tremendous job and he did a great job getting out of that second. This year by trading those people, the problem was he [00:01:00] didn't get a legitimate big that can go to the boards and rebound.
And by that I mean somebody getting more than 10 rebounds a game. That's the problem. The Celtics are a good team if they can rebound the ball defensively, they're playing well offensively Jalen Brown lit it up yesterday, but they could score some points. So they're a pretty good team. Outside of the rebounding.
Now this is good news and bad news. Being O and three, being O three means if it continues and they don't get a rebounder or they don't improve on the boards, they're gonna get a lottery pick. That's a good thing. Although as a Celtic fan, we have to endure a very rough season. And it's not fun.
After we were the team that would beat everybody. So that's the negative, the positive. The positive is if Boston can go out and get a rebounder, if they can get that rebounder in a [00:02:00] deal or in some other way, they will then be pretty good and they will be a 45 win team and be fine in the playoffs and so on and so forth.
And if Tatum comes back, it even gets better here. Here's my thoughts. The first thing the Celtics had was a chance in the summer for Charles Bassey and I did a little research bassey in the 36 minutes in his career. If you took his career and did each 30 minute thing, you would find that Bassey was able.
To get over 10 rebounds a game. Boston didn't sign him after the summer, that was a mistake, and now Memphis has just re has signed him on a 10 day contract for the next 10 days. So Boston can't go out and get him. They can trade. Simon's is an extra offensive piece, especially with the development of uo, with UO developing.
He's gonna take some minutes from [00:03:00] these guys and if you traded Simon's and if you can get that big, you are in business, and I'm not talking about Shaquille O'Neal. I'm talking about just somebody who can rebound Gogo, bati, anybody in, in, in that level will make Boston a better team because they will begin to be able to get, hit the boards and they can get that running game going.
And by the way, Jalen Brown in the open court is really a very good player. So you're really doing a lot by doing this. If they can do it, the Celtics will be set. If not, like I said, you get a long season, but a nice lottery pick and in two years you'll forget this year with Tatum coming back and a lottery pick and so on.
But you gotta, we have to withstand the year and Boston needs to decide what they wanna do. They do have some extra people on that bench that aren't producing, so maybe they have to think about that. Now let's talk about Joe Mezzo. Joe Missoula, I think is a good coach. He's won a title. Not many coaches have ever done that so there's a [00:04:00] positive with Joe.
I kinda look at this week though, and I saw two things I didn't love. The first thing was that, against Philadelphia, Maxie was Torching Boston. He had five fouls. Did Boston even think. About running some sort of action where they switched up Maxie and got him on brown or someone and let them go to the basket and look for that six foul.
No, they did not. They didn't do that. And the same thing yesterday with Kate against Detroit. Kate had four in the third quarter, four fouls, and they never went at. They didn't do anything offensively to make them defend the ball and maybe pick up a foul. I'm not saying you run your offense continuously that way, but you do look for your chances to do it.
Boston failed to do it. That was disappointing. The other thing I'm having problems with. Every team needs routine. By routine, set guys going in and out at certain periods of the game, and they all understand it and they know their roles. [00:05:00] Boston doesn't have roles right now. What I'm trying to say here is what Joe Missoula needs to do.
Is look at his team, decide, okay, we're gonna go with A, B, C, and D, and this is the way we're gonna play it. And you let those guys play. Now if they don't do their job, you got guys that aren't playing that you begin to give them the shot. Now, it's a long season. People get hurt, so everybody gets a shot at some point during the season.
But it's very important that Missoula can settle into a routine for his players. Players like routine. He needs to have a routine for it. Now let me talk about two guys who deserve more playing time. Hugo Gonzalez is a defensive stopper and he's gonna be a stud in the league. He's gonna be there for a while.
He's gonna make some money because he can defend. He will get better offensively, but the defense is so good. Tonight they play New Orleans. I'm wondering if they try to put him on Zion. It will be an interesting thing to try. But that's how good he can be [00:06:00] Yesterday. He frustrated Cade a couple times early.
In fact, Cade was pushing off the ball and doing little things that told you he was frustrated. He didn't enjoy somebody pressuring him the way UO did. So UO has to play and he needs more time. It might be at the expense of Sam Houser, but he also can spell the three guards. Does that mean less time for Simons possibly?
That's why he's a great person to deal. The other person that I'm impressed with 'cause of high energy, like Hugo, but also he does lots of little things as Josh mano, Josh can. Defensively, he's pretty good and he's come up with a couple nice deals. They've come up with a nice deals. He's not a great offensive player, but he's a great guy off the bench, a lot of energy and he can go to the basket.
Not a great shooter at all. He can go to the basket and make things happen. Guys like him and Hugo, when they come into a game, they make things go they just prep everybody up because they play so hard. [00:07:00] Yesterday you had to, when you watch the game, you realized the Celtics were playing hard. They played and part of it was starting Ugo and he got after it early Boston got out to that early lead.
So those are. Positive things. Now, one of the negative things that I'm finding is this. First of all, coming into the season, we all think that Derrick White will make the next step and become an all star. I think that's a thing a thought throughout the league because without Tatum, he's gotta step up.
He hasn't, so far, it's only three games. Can't panic. But he's only shooting 28.6 from three. Now, maybe it's me, but last year it seemed every time Boston was in trouble, he hit a three in the fourth quarter. It was always around the he was always around the net. In other words, his shots were close to falling at all times.
This year, he's had a couple bad ones, 28.6%. Again, you wanna [00:08:00] be over 33. At least over 33, and in the NBA, if you're over 37, that's good. That's where white belongs, and that's how good he is. He could help him a ton if he can begin to get his shot to fall. The other person that's not doing as well and we projected more for him was Peyton Pritchard.
Prichard believe it or not, is only shooting 18.2% after three games from three. Prichard is another one last year we thought he wasn't gonna miss. He always hit the threes and he can hit 'em from anywhere from the, from the almost. Five, 10 feet behind a three point line, he can shoot.
He's good at going to the basket. He can do it all, but he needs confidence because it seems like it's waning right now. He needs to start believing that he can make those shots the third person and with the development of Hugo and Sam Hauser, of course, who's a great shooter, needs to play, especially when you need [00:09:00] the big basket.
Is Anthony Simons. Anthony Simons is a walking basket. He can score on anybody. He's played better defense than I thought, but he's not a great defender, but he's playing hard. But you know what? He's being cheated because the Celtics have, the three guards are starting. They have Hauser and now Ugo stepping in.
Hauser has tried to play the four, but Anthony's not getting the time he should be getting. That's a problem. Boston needs to do a, a. Him a service because it's his last year of his contract, but also it'll help the Celtics. Maybe it's time to see if someone will take him. And if you can get somebody a big that can rebound and in the back of your mind you can funnel money through the nets and possibly get a player.
Funnel the money and get Boston out of the tax. If you do that, it makes things easier in the future because next year they'll be back in the tax as they try to win with the return [00:10:00] of Tatum. That's it for now. Thank you. And next week we'll be back again with some more thoughts on the Celtics.
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Steve: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Celtic Chalk Talk. This is a weekly thing we're gonna try to do on Mondays each week. We appreciate your listening. We're gonna talk about the Celtics and Review of the week. Wasn't a very good week for the Celtics. My name's Steve Purciello I'm a lifelong Celtic fan. I've rooted for them since Bill Russell played, which tells you my age.
This week we're gonna talk about this slow start. Why are the Celtics oh, in three? It's very simple. They don't rebound. They don't rebound at all. They've had trouble getting rebounds against Detroit yesterday. They had less than half of the. Defensive rebounds. I think it was 47%. Think about that one.
Out of every two shots that Detroit took, they got the rebound. How did we get here? First of all, let me just say I believe in Brad Stevens. I think he's done a tremendous job and he did a great job getting out of that second. This year by trading those people, the problem was he [00:01:00] didn't get a legitimate big that can go to the boards and rebound.
And by that I mean somebody getting more than 10 rebounds a game. That's the problem. The Celtics are a good team if they can rebound the ball defensively, they're playing well offensively Jalen Brown lit it up yesterday, but they could score some points. So they're a pretty good team. Outside of the rebounding.
Now this is good news and bad news. Being O and three, being O three means if it continues and they don't get a rebounder or they don't improve on the boards, they're gonna get a lottery pick. That's a good thing. Although as a Celtic fan, we have to endure a very rough season. And it's not fun.
After we were the team that would beat everybody. So that's the negative, the positive. The positive is if Boston can go out and get a rebounder, if they can get that rebounder in a [00:02:00] deal or in some other way, they will then be pretty good and they will be a 45 win team and be fine in the playoffs and so on and so forth.
And if Tatum comes back, it even gets better here. Here's my thoughts. The first thing the Celtics had was a chance in the summer for Charles Bassey and I did a little research bassey in the 36 minutes in his career. If you took his career and did each 30 minute thing, you would find that Bassey was able.
To get over 10 rebounds a game. Boston didn't sign him after the summer, that was a mistake, and now Memphis has just re has signed him on a 10 day contract for the next 10 days. So Boston can't go out and get him. They can trade. Simon's is an extra offensive piece, especially with the development of uo, with UO developing.
He's gonna take some minutes from [00:03:00] these guys and if you traded Simon's and if you can get that big, you are in business, and I'm not talking about Shaquille O'Neal. I'm talking about just somebody who can rebound Gogo, bati, anybody in, in, in that level will make Boston a better team because they will begin to be able to get, hit the boards and they can get that running game going.
And by the way, Jalen Brown in the open court is really a very good player. So you're really doing a lot by doing this. If they can do it, the Celtics will be set. If not, like I said, you get a long season, but a nice lottery pick and in two years you'll forget this year with Tatum coming back and a lottery pick and so on.
But you gotta, we have to withstand the year and Boston needs to decide what they wanna do. They do have some extra people on that bench that aren't producing, so maybe they have to think about that. Now let's talk about Joe Mezzo. Joe Missoula, I think is a good coach. He's won a title. Not many coaches have ever done that so there's a [00:04:00] positive with Joe.
I kinda look at this week though, and I saw two things I didn't love. The first thing was that, against Philadelphia, Maxie was Torching Boston. He had five fouls. Did Boston even think. About running some sort of action where they switched up Maxie and got him on brown or someone and let them go to the basket and look for that six foul.
No, they did not. They didn't do that. And the same thing yesterday with Kate against Detroit. Kate had four in the third quarter, four fouls, and they never went at. They didn't do anything offensively to make them defend the ball and maybe pick up a foul. I'm not saying you run your offense continuously that way, but you do look for your chances to do it.
Boston failed to do it. That was disappointing. The other thing I'm having problems with. Every team needs routine. By routine, set guys going in and out at certain periods of the game, and they all understand it and they know their roles. [00:05:00] Boston doesn't have roles right now. What I'm trying to say here is what Joe Missoula needs to do.
Is look at his team, decide, okay, we're gonna go with A, B, C, and D, and this is the way we're gonna play it. And you let those guys play. Now if they don't do their job, you got guys that aren't playing that you begin to give them the shot. Now, it's a long season. People get hurt, so everybody gets a shot at some point during the season.
But it's very important that Missoula can settle into a routine for his players. Players like routine. He needs to have a routine for it. Now let me talk about two guys who deserve more playing time. Hugo Gonzalez is a defensive stopper and he's gonna be a stud in the league. He's gonna be there for a while.
He's gonna make some money because he can defend. He will get better offensively, but the defense is so good. Tonight they play New Orleans. I'm wondering if they try to put him on Zion. It will be an interesting thing to try. But that's how good he can be [00:06:00] Yesterday. He frustrated Cade a couple times early.
In fact, Cade was pushing off the ball and doing little things that told you he was frustrated. He didn't enjoy somebody pressuring him the way UO did. So UO has to play and he needs more time. It might be at the expense of Sam Houser, but he also can spell the three guards. Does that mean less time for Simons possibly?
That's why he's a great person to deal. The other person that I'm impressed with 'cause of high energy, like Hugo, but also he does lots of little things as Josh mano, Josh can. Defensively, he's pretty good and he's come up with a couple nice deals. They've come up with a nice deals. He's not a great offensive player, but he's a great guy off the bench, a lot of energy and he can go to the basket.
Not a great shooter at all. He can go to the basket and make things happen. Guys like him and Hugo, when they come into a game, they make things go they just prep everybody up because they play so hard. [00:07:00] Yesterday you had to, when you watch the game, you realized the Celtics were playing hard. They played and part of it was starting Ugo and he got after it early Boston got out to that early lead.
So those are. Positive things. Now, one of the negative things that I'm finding is this. First of all, coming into the season, we all think that Derrick White will make the next step and become an all star. I think that's a thing a thought throughout the league because without Tatum, he's gotta step up.
He hasn't, so far, it's only three games. Can't panic. But he's only shooting 28.6 from three. Now, maybe it's me, but last year it seemed every time Boston was in trouble, he hit a three in the fourth quarter. It was always around the he was always around the net. In other words, his shots were close to falling at all times.
This year, he's had a couple bad ones, 28.6%. Again, you wanna [00:08:00] be over 33. At least over 33, and in the NBA, if you're over 37, that's good. That's where white belongs, and that's how good he is. He could help him a ton if he can begin to get his shot to fall. The other person that's not doing as well and we projected more for him was Peyton Pritchard.
Prichard believe it or not, is only shooting 18.2% after three games from three. Prichard is another one last year we thought he wasn't gonna miss. He always hit the threes and he can hit 'em from anywhere from the, from the almost. Five, 10 feet behind a three point line, he can shoot.
He's good at going to the basket. He can do it all, but he needs confidence because it seems like it's waning right now. He needs to start believing that he can make those shots the third person and with the development of Hugo and Sam Hauser, of course, who's a great shooter, needs to play, especially when you need [00:09:00] the big basket.
Is Anthony Simons. Anthony Simons is a walking basket. He can score on anybody. He's played better defense than I thought, but he's not a great defender, but he's playing hard. But you know what? He's being cheated because the Celtics have, the three guards are starting. They have Hauser and now Ugo stepping in.
Hauser has tried to play the four, but Anthony's not getting the time he should be getting. That's a problem. Boston needs to do a, a. Him a service because it's his last year of his contract, but also it'll help the Celtics. Maybe it's time to see if someone will take him. And if you can get somebody a big that can rebound and in the back of your mind you can funnel money through the nets and possibly get a player.
Funnel the money and get Boston out of the tax. If you do that, it makes things easier in the future because next year they'll be back in the tax as they try to win with the return [00:10:00] of Tatum. That's it for now. Thank you. And next week we'll be back again with some more thoughts on the Celtics.
