Speaker 1: Well, well, well, the n b A dropped a new
Speaker 1: all star format format on us. Uh NBA Cup Action
Speaker 1: will have concluded, and we don't know what happened, but
Speaker 1: that's just uh, that's just our luck. That's how we
Speaker 1: how we do things around here. But by the time
Speaker 1: you hear this, you know more than we do. But
Speaker 1: we're gonna uh still talk about the NBA. We're gonna
Speaker 1: tap in with the latest Celtics and league news with
Speaker 1: NBA writer Noah Dalzo on today's episode.
Speaker 2: I'm Jack O'Brien and I'm producing in for Miles and.
Speaker 1: This is Miles Sometimes sorry gud luka.
Speaker 3: Dog hitches okav driving.
Speaker 1: Spinning number eighteen that's been stored the Celtics or NBA
Speaker 1: champions over the give us the show time. Yes, welcome
Speaker 1: Noah to Miles and Jack and sometimes you already got
Speaker 1: my boosties. How are you doing, I'm good, Thanks for
Speaker 1: having me. You are uh c LNS and Celtics blog reporter.
Speaker 1: You're the lead w n b A writer for SB
Speaker 1: Nation and the host of You Got Boston podcast, uh,
Speaker 1: which I'm told can be found on YouTube. Is that correct?
Speaker 4: Yes, yeah, YouTube, Spotify, all the usuals.
Speaker 1: You started covering the Celtics professionally last year, How I forget?
Speaker 1: How did they do it? Was it a good for them?
Speaker 4: It was a good first year on the VITA. I
Speaker 4: have to say. Told me that it was not to
Speaker 4: get too not to get too comfortable. That's how the
Speaker 4: job is.
Speaker 1: That's such a Boston thing to say, don't get too comfortable.
Speaker 1: Well it was. I was.
Speaker 4: Actually it was everybody's first championship, so the entirebet. Nobody
Speaker 4: had been there for two thousand and eight. So yeah,
Speaker 4: I had all these questions about the parade and you know,
Speaker 4: the banner raising, but nobody actually knew, so we all
Speaker 4: kind of figured it out together.
Speaker 1: I'm just picturing Bob Ryan running up to you in
Speaker 1: the locker room as champagne is being spread, being like,
Speaker 1: don't get too comfortable, you look too happy. That's cool.
Speaker 1: Our listeners know this. But I root for everyone except
Speaker 1: the Celtics. I root for the field, which gives me
Speaker 1: is like, yeah, exactly, I feel like that. I just
Speaker 1: anybody but the Celtics. I'm a not a huge Luca
Speaker 1: fan until last year's finals, at which time I'm like,
Speaker 1: come on, man, you're my guy. Luke always have been
Speaker 1: but it does feel like there's an inevitability about them.
Speaker 1: They feel as locked in as a defending champ has.
Speaker 1: How's it looking from where you're sitting. Do you feel
Speaker 1: supremely confident and what's making it so or not?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 4: I would say I never feel like any one team
Speaker 4: is the obvious they're going to win the championship. We
Speaker 4: may as well pack it up and call it. Even
Speaker 4: the Warriors, I think if you go back to you know,
Speaker 4: Game seven versus the Rockets, like they they everybody I think,
Speaker 4: and when you go back and you think about that Dynasties, like,
Speaker 4: obviously they were going to win those championships, but they
Speaker 4: came a couple, you know, a couple of shots may
Speaker 4: be away from actually not repeating as champions. So I
Speaker 4: don't feel like there's an inevitability about this team. That
Speaker 4: being said, I will definitely pick them as my top choice,
Speaker 4: and just being around the Celtics every day, like there's
Speaker 4: a supreme level of confidence and trust in one another
Speaker 4: and what they're doing and the system in Missoula that
Speaker 4: I just don't that you have in most teams right
Speaker 4: now across the league, just because it's really really hard
Speaker 4: to have that level of continuity and to have that
Speaker 4: level of you know, I mean, literally everybody came back
Speaker 4: from last season, so it's it's a pretty unusual situation.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, what's very frustrating.
Speaker 2: What's the feeling around porzingis because I saw that he
Speaker 2: lift Sunday's game, you know, with some right heel pain.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so, great hater question, Jabari, by the way, great
Speaker 1: great hater question. No, No, he sounds so confident. Have
Speaker 1: you did you are you aware?
Speaker 2: My well a couple you know. My follow up is,
Speaker 2: I mean Boston, maybe Boston may be the one team
Speaker 2: that they can sit back and let him just fully heal,
Speaker 2: Like they don't need to rust him back for any
Speaker 2: for anything, I think.
Speaker 4: I mean, they could have him not play the whole
Speaker 4: season and they probably be the number one or two
Speaker 4: seeds in the East. To Still, the point is less
Speaker 4: about that to me, Like, I'm not worried about this
Speaker 4: heel injury. He'll be back whether he missed his two
Speaker 4: games or zero games or four games kind of irrelevant.
Speaker 4: My concern is that he seems to really get hurt
Speaker 4: like every couple of games that he plays, and last
Speaker 4: year he actually had a pretty good stretch during the
Speaker 4: regular season that he was available to play and he
Speaker 4: really didn't miss much time, and then in the playoffs,
Speaker 4: obviously strained his calf, missed the entire playoffs, came back
Speaker 4: in the finals literally two games later, had a season
Speaker 4: ending injury that required you know, surgery in six months
Speaker 4: of rehab, and then comes back this year he's already
Speaker 4: sprained ankle. Now he is this heel thing. So it
Speaker 4: just I'm more concerned about his ability to withstand an
Speaker 4: entire playoff run than this particular thing, which seems pretty negligible.
Speaker 4: It's just his build, is his style of play, you know,
Speaker 4: it's his length. It's just unnatural to be that size.
Speaker 4: You know, he's always the lower leg injuries with him.
Speaker 4: So I wonder can they go through another playoff run
Speaker 4: without him, because I did feel very confident last season
Speaker 4: that they could. But you know, as a year older,
Speaker 4: other teams are better, other teams are potentially going to
Speaker 4: be healthier. Like that's the biggest concern.
Speaker 1: I would say, don't look now, but the seventy six
Speaker 1: ers are eight and sixteen, and Joel MB's orbital fracture,
Speaker 1: I'm told might heal pretty quickly. So that's probably I know,
Speaker 1: that's something that's in the back of your mind as
Speaker 1: a Celtics person. You know what about the seventy six.
Speaker 4: Ers, that was my number one concern going into the
Speaker 4: year seventy years.
Speaker 1: I don't know how anybody could have foreseen it being
Speaker 1: this bad other than yeah, I don't know bad.
Speaker 4: But all the Celtics people said when I picked seventies
Speaker 4: at Philadelphia is like, if you look at history, like,
Speaker 4: it literally never works out this way. So I just
Speaker 4: feel like every year it's gonna it has to be
Speaker 4: their year at some point. That's my perspective at least.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it turns out it doesn't. It never has to
Speaker 1: be their year. I know. I always every time like,
Speaker 1: YESBN loves to do the like, well, historically this franchise
Speaker 1: has like, you know, a terrible record against this franchise,
Speaker 1: and I'm always like that means absolutely nothing, like none
Speaker 1: of these people were on the team for like half
Speaker 1: of those games at least, And then yeah, it does
Speaker 1: end up bearing out a lot of the time, which
Speaker 1: drives me crazy as a man of science.
Speaker 2: And no, no, I feel guilty because every year I
Speaker 2: go into the year like messing with Jack but not
Speaker 2: even mess with. I'm saying, like, hey, you know what,
Speaker 2: this could be it. They've got to break that curse
Speaker 2: at some point, this could be it. And yeah, for
Speaker 2: each of the last three seasons at least, it's been
Speaker 2: it's been brutal.
Speaker 1: Good news is I'd never get carried away with myself.
Speaker 1: I'm always pretty pretty certain that it's going to be
Speaker 1: doom as far as the eye can see. So something
Speaker 1: that I wasn't fully aware of until Jabari put it
Speaker 1: into the doc today is how much Peyton Pritchard has
Speaker 1: stepped up this year. Like I saw, I can't every
Speaker 1: time I would check in on the Celtics, I'd be like, man,
Speaker 1: they're playing Peyton Pritchard a lot, Like I feel like
Speaker 1: that has to be a bad sign for the Celtics.
Speaker 3: Maybe.
Speaker 1: No, it just turns out he's like gotten much better.
Speaker 1: He's putting up sixteen point five points a game right
Speaker 1: now and shooting forty three point five percent on almost
Speaker 1: three three attempts a night, which is wild. What do
Speaker 1: you see what has changed there?
Speaker 4: Yeah, So I'm I'm a massive Peyton Pritchard fan. I
Speaker 4: think that he you know, he's he's actually been kind
Speaker 4: of ready for an increased role for a while, and
Speaker 4: he's just been behind a logjam of really talented guards
Speaker 4: on this team. There has not been a shortage of
Speaker 4: talented guards recent years. But he's just somebody that everybody,
Speaker 4: no matter who you ask, he'll tell you. He's an incredibly,
Speaker 4: incredibly hard worker. He works on all aspects of his game,
Speaker 4: and he's always you know, I know that's like what
Speaker 4: a lot of NBA players get, but you can tell
Speaker 4: it's different when people are talking about his work ethic,
Speaker 4: and you know, he's if not the best three point
Speaker 4: shooter of the team, he's you know, the top two,
Speaker 4: top three. And this season he's been shooting lights out.
Speaker 4: I think he's like forty three percent from three on
Speaker 4: really high volume. You know, he's second in the league
Speaker 4: on three pointers made this season. And so did I
Speaker 4: see this type of leap coming this season. I can't
Speaker 4: say that I did, But I've famously tweeted last year
Speaker 4: that I thought that he eventually had also our potential,
Speaker 4: and I think at the time it was kind of
Speaker 4: a wild take, and.
Speaker 1: That is a wild last years.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but I think just looking at his game, you know, honestly,
Speaker 4: he's the best ball handler on the team. He's a
Speaker 4: he's an excellent shooter, and he's really a three level
Speaker 4: score and that's when he started to see flashes of
Speaker 4: last season, and now you're seeing it in much higher samples.
Speaker 4: But and then also, this is a turnover ratio. There
Speaker 4: are a few guards last year that had as good
Speaker 4: of an Assistan turn over ratio as he did limited time,
Speaker 4: but he performed in those minutes. And now you're seeing
Speaker 4: what happens when you give him the reins and a
Speaker 4: lot of these games, guys are out, guys are resting.
Speaker 4: He's been one of the primary scoring options and he's produced.
Speaker 4: So I think we're seeing an upward progression of you know,
Speaker 4: several years and probably another league will happen next season.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I feel like so sup producer Jabari pointed out,
Speaker 1: like as recently as a couple of days ago, I
Speaker 1: think it was uh, he was plus six thousand to
Speaker 1: be most improved player. He is now plus four thousand,
Speaker 1: So I get I guess those odds are moving quickly,
Speaker 1: but that still feels like really good value. I feel
Speaker 1: like the reason this is not a bigger, like more
Speaker 1: popular bet is just because people don't realize how many
Speaker 1: points he's putting up, Like I could not believe that
Speaker 1: he's putting up sixteen point five points a game like
Speaker 1: I would. I would, Guys, we don't offer We're not
Speaker 1: like big gambling people, but like I would hop on
Speaker 1: this if I lived in a place where I could
Speaker 1: easily gamble. Like that's uh that that seems like a
Speaker 1: good bet because like that it's very unexpected just from
Speaker 1: like a narrative, just from like what he looks like perspective,
Speaker 1: It's not what you expect, So I'd hop on it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think the one challenge with the most improved
Speaker 4: is that it typically goes to an All Star. I
Speaker 4: don't think he's going to be an All Star this season,
Speaker 4: but generally speaking, like he really has, Like this is
Speaker 4: what the award should be. I think, not just somebody
Speaker 4: who's a first time All Star because they were a
Speaker 4: rookie who obviously wasn't gonna be an All Star and
Speaker 4: then in their second or third year they make that
Speaker 4: normal leap, like he's actually doing it, and like with
Speaker 4: the intention of the award is that other great candidates
Speaker 4: as well. He'll probably win sixthn OO of the Year.
Speaker 4: I don't think we'll give them both so but generally speaking, yeah,
Speaker 4: I think he's made one of those leaps that I
Speaker 4: think he's probably getting some attention just because it's Boston.
Speaker 4: But uh, you know, if you haven't covered him or
Speaker 4: wa washed room night in a night night out, it
Speaker 4: might just look at a points thing. It's really more
Speaker 4: than that. It's the defense, it's the you know, ballpre sure,
Speaker 4: it's all those other things as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean that's just to put it in perspective.
Speaker 1: The odds on favorite so far, like just in descending order,
Speaker 1: Jalen Williams, Tyler Herro, Jalen Johnson, Dyson Daniels, Franz Wagner,
Speaker 1: Franz Wagner, Norman Powell, Evan Mobley, R J. Barrett, Kate Cunningham,
Speaker 1: Jalen Suggs, Lamello Ball, and then Peyton Pritchard. So there's
Speaker 1: a lot of people ahead of him. I'm just saying
Speaker 1: I feel like people should give that a look because
Speaker 1: I also think once people recognize what he's doing, it
Speaker 1: is going to have the same response that I just had,
Speaker 1: which is like Peyton Pritchard, he's that guy who like
Speaker 1: hits full court shots like he's you know, nobody's nobody
Speaker 1: except you. Noah is looking for this from him, So
Speaker 1: I feel like, yeah, I don't know, people should just
Speaker 1: keep an eye on that one. Although yeah, it's a
Speaker 1: point well taken that he might be the sixth man.
Speaker 2: But and also to you know, to do his point,
Speaker 2: you know, which is an excellent point. I would hope
Speaker 2: at some point that award starts, you know, going to
Speaker 2: players like this, you know what I mean, you know,
Speaker 2: players that have been ready for you know, like as
Speaker 2: you mentioned, been ready for a larger role, get that opportunity,
Speaker 2: show that, you know, show their improvement, show their all
Speaker 2: around game. And this isn't a knock against anybody that
Speaker 2: has recently wonted, but you know, to a certain degree
Speaker 2: it's been high draft picks that maybe had you know,
Speaker 2: an injury their first year or maybe had a slow
Speaker 2: first year, but then certainly just made the what you
Speaker 2: would expect to be the natural progression. I would like
Speaker 2: to see the league find a way to start, you know,
Speaker 2: rewarding more of these type of guys.
Speaker 1: The person directly after him in the odds is Victor Webbingell,
Speaker 1: which I don't see that happen. That seems that seems
Speaker 1: like a stretch. All right, let's uh, let's take a
Speaker 1: quick break so I can go find out why my
Speaker 1: son just broke into my studio. He just got home
Speaker 1: from school and pointed at his eye. So we're going
Speaker 1: to find out what happened to his eye, and then
Speaker 1: we'll be back with more. We'll talk about the NBA
Speaker 1: Cup and some ideas they're trying out for the All
Speaker 1: Star Game and any ideas we think they should give
Speaker 1: a shot too as well. We'll be right back and
Speaker 1: we're back, by the way, the Celtics are plus two hundred,
Speaker 1: which means that they have the odds. They have thirty
Speaker 1: three percent odds of winning the championship, according to Vegas,
Speaker 1: which is pretty crazy for a team that won it
Speaker 1: last year.
Speaker 4: And it is interesting, but it's like thirty three percent
Speaker 4: still means they're most likely not going to win, you know,
Speaker 4: so that's what I always.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it doesn't feel like that to me personally. I
Speaker 1: mean I did this last year that like it. I
Speaker 1: was saying from pretty early on last year that it
Speaker 1: was like the Celtics versus the field, and I thought
Speaker 1: the Celtics had a better chance of winning than the
Speaker 1: field did. And I think the odds kind of reflected that.
Speaker 1: Last year maybe not, but certainly they were statistically unprecedentedly
Speaker 1: good and this season less so. But it also just
Speaker 1: feels like they're hanging back and then when they need
Speaker 1: to they will be dominant. I guess I do. I
Speaker 1: also want to just ask, as somebody who's kind of
Speaker 1: watching all their games, who is the team that you
Speaker 1: feel like has given them the most trouble? Who do
Speaker 1: you think last.
Speaker 4: Year it was definitely Denver, and Denver beat them both times,
Speaker 4: and I felt like with Jokisch, that's just, I mean,
Speaker 4: a nightmare matchup for anybody, But I didn't feel like
Speaker 4: they had a great answer for him. But hard to
Speaker 4: pick Denver now because they're just not seeming like the
Speaker 4: same formidable throughout they were last year. Nobody that they
Speaker 4: have faced so far have I thought like, Okay, this team,
Speaker 4: I actually would be concerned in a seven game series
Speaker 4: because they haven't really gone out west yet. I think
Speaker 4: Oklahoma City is a team that's really impressed me. I'd
Speaker 4: be curious to see how they matched up. I'll be
Speaker 4: in Oklahoma City next month, so we'll see how that
Speaker 4: you know that looks. But outside of that, I mean,
Speaker 4: they've played like the Cavs a couple of times. I don't.
Speaker 4: I know, they've had a great season, but I don't
Speaker 4: really see them posing like a serious challenge in a
Speaker 4: seven game series. Milwaukee. I don't feel that way about either,
Speaker 4: So I think it would be a Western Conference scene
Speaker 4: that they actually haven't faced so far this season.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that makes sense, and that's great bulletin board material
Speaker 1: for the for the Calves, a lot of it. I mean,
Speaker 1: the Calves do continue to, you know, play really well,
Speaker 1: and they're still in first in the East, but it's
Speaker 1: close all right around the league. We got a new
Speaker 1: format for the twenty twenty five NBA All Star Game,
Speaker 1: and it's interesting, complicated, we got all right, So I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna run through this. It's like a mini tournament
Speaker 1: with four teams, three games, and the games are to forty.
Speaker 1: So it's twenty four NBA All Star selections divided evenly
Speaker 1: into three eight player teams, and then there's a fourth
Speaker 1: team that is the Rising Stars Champion. So the red
Speaker 1: I don't know how is the Rising Stars being played
Speaker 1: is just the same way that it always is with
Speaker 1: the rookies versus the sophomores. I believe so, unless and
Speaker 1: then whoever wins that is, win that game then comes
Speaker 1: and plays as the fourth team in this tournament. There's
Speaker 1: three gms, now four gms. Barkley Jack, Kenny Smith and
Speaker 1: Kandas Parker and Barkley, O'Neill and Kenny. The Jet draft
Speaker 1: their teams from a pool of twenty four NBA All
Speaker 1: Star selections. I do love that they're just like, these
Speaker 1: these guys are like the best thing that we have
Speaker 1: going in the league, so leaning into that. And then
Speaker 1: Kandas Parker is GM of the Rising Stars Champion. I
Speaker 1: feel like that kind of sucks. They should that's just
Speaker 1: probably I don't know. I feel I feel like they
Speaker 1: should have figured out who got which team and like
Speaker 1: picked draft order live like that would have been more fun.
Speaker 1: And it feels weird that Kandas Parker gets just the
Speaker 1: Rising Stars Champion, Like doesn't that just feel like why not?
Speaker 2: Yeah you get that?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Why not just like make it a thing where you, like,
Speaker 1: you know, have have some way to determine like draft order,
Speaker 1: and you know what one of the picks could be, like, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm going to take the Rising Stars Champion, which nobody,
Speaker 1: you know, that would be the thing that goes to
Speaker 1: the last pick. But all right, two teams meet in
Speaker 1: one semi final game one, the remaining two teams meet
Speaker 1: in the other semifinal game two, and then the winning
Speaker 1: teams from game one and game two. You're never going
Speaker 1: to guess this advance to phase each other in the championship,
Speaker 1: which is game three. The winner of each game is
Speaker 1: the first team to reach or surpass forty points, which
Speaker 1: is very interesting. We've been talking about this in the
Speaker 1: context of what was the game that where the last
Speaker 1: like thirty seconds lasted thirty minutes?
Speaker 4: Was that?
Speaker 1: I feel like that was Celtic's Cavs.
Speaker 2: Right, I think so, a bunch of fouls at the enda.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, just like a long and people will say
Speaker 1: after that game, like we need to do there's like
Speaker 1: some acronym, right for the thing where with four minutes left,
Speaker 1: the team that's in the lead, you just like put
Speaker 1: eleven points more than they have as the winning scorer,
Speaker 1: and like, you guys play to that. So this idea
Speaker 1: of playing to a fixed number of points has been
Speaker 1: in the air this season. I'm interested in it. My
Speaker 1: one experience with it in an NBA context was that
Speaker 1: All Star game where they did it, and it was
Speaker 1: a lot of fun. People played really hard, and they're
Speaker 1: just like, I don't know. I don't know if it
Speaker 1: was just that it was something different at that time
Speaker 1: or what it was, but people were laying so hard,
Speaker 1: So I think this is interesting for sure. I don't know,
Speaker 1: like if it's so interesting that like people are like,
Speaker 1: it's gonna get a number of a bunch of people
Speaker 1: to like tune in. People are speculating that's what the
Speaker 1: hope is because viewership has been you know, between four
Speaker 1: point five and seven point five million over the past decade,
Speaker 1: and in the nineties and early offs it was you know,
Speaker 1: in the teens. But it's certainly like an interesting idea.
Speaker 1: I don't know, I'm all for it. What do you
Speaker 1: guys think? I think?
Speaker 4: I don't know. I mean, first of all, it's really
Speaker 4: just about whether the players are going to be competitive.
Speaker 4: And the only player I heard commenting about it today
Speaker 4: was Kevin Durant, who said he hated it so it
Speaker 4: started again, you know it just if they're going to
Speaker 4: play hard, it'll be fun to watch. I think you
Speaker 4: go watch watch these Hall of Famers play pick up
Speaker 4: to no score, and it would be entertaining if they
Speaker 4: were playing one. I don't know if this format incentivizes that.
Speaker 4: Maybe people will just tune in just because they're curious
Speaker 4: because it's something different, But that's not sustainable, right. You
Speaker 4: just want to foster a more competitive environment, and I'm
Speaker 4: not sure why this format would foster that. I'm not
Speaker 4: sure what the rationale is of why a torch tournament
Speaker 4: versus a game would you know, foster more competitiveness. But
Speaker 4: among the players, that's really what the question is, right.
Speaker 4: I mean, we had Obama calling out Tyre's Halliburton about this,
Speaker 4: so everybody's on board that they want to see a
Speaker 4: more competitive All Star game. I think it's just I'm
Speaker 4: not sure that this incentivizes that as much as.
Speaker 2: Some other ideas piggybacking on that. I think that's where
Speaker 2: it is. Specifically, it's the competition, and in a weird way,
Speaker 2: even though it's a little bit funky throwing the rising
Speaker 2: stars in there, I think that's going to jump start
Speaker 2: at least more competition than we've seen because the young
Speaker 2: guys are going to come out and try to play,
Speaker 2: and at least and try to prove and what happens if,
Speaker 2: for you know, for example, they actually win their first game.
Speaker 2: If that, if that takes place, I think the championship
Speaker 2: game winds up being a competitive game as well. At
Speaker 2: the very least, I think it's an acknowledgement by the
Speaker 2: league that they had to try something. So while I
Speaker 2: don't think it's perfect or I don't know that it's perfect,
Speaker 2: and i'm I'm I'm interested to see how it turns out.
Speaker 2: I do get the idea. I get the idea of
Speaker 2: wanting to you know, you know, you know, heighten the
Speaker 2: you know, heighten the sense of competition in some way.
Speaker 1: What are some other kind of ideas wrinkles that you
Speaker 1: guys think could could work, could be interesting to try out.
Speaker 2: Well, I'll throw one out there for you, you know me,
Speaker 2: Because it's a it's a you know, it's an exhibition game,
Speaker 2: I say, go full ridiculous, bring bring in the rock
Speaker 2: and jocks, you know, let drop down a twenty foot
Speaker 2: basket at some point. I know they're not going to
Speaker 2: do that, but the one thing I will say is
Speaker 2: let me get a four point let me get a
Speaker 2: four point square or if you know, like maybe it's
Speaker 2: you know from the logo from something like that into
Speaker 2: the mix, it's gimmicky. Some people would definitely say it's silly.
Speaker 2: But for me, because I don't take the game all
Speaker 2: that seriously to begin with, you know, I would be
Speaker 2: up for it just for the ridiculousness of it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, maybe they should play on ice and on ice
Speaker 1: skates too.
Speaker 4: So the w n b A has a four point
Speaker 4: shot in the All Star Game, and I think, you know,
Speaker 4: it's cool, they don't. They don't make or take a
Speaker 4: whole bunch of them. Actually they take, they take some,
Speaker 4: but I don't think they've made made a whole bunch
Speaker 4: in the All Star Game. But certainly something that people
Speaker 4: have talked about with the NBA, with you know, players
Speaker 4: range extending, like it would it could be a cool
Speaker 4: time to just try out different things that like I
Speaker 4: think it's called the MDAL finish or whatever.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's yeah.
Speaker 4: But I think that's the same idea of like let's
Speaker 4: just workshop and things that maybe one day that day
Speaker 4: will want to adopt. But again, I think it's less
Speaker 4: about the gimmicks and it's more about getting player bying,
Speaker 4: and obviously they haven't been able to get that.
Speaker 2: I don't know why.
Speaker 4: I guess said I was just alarmed because I'm like,
Speaker 4: have a Duran has been really the face of or
Speaker 4: one of the faces of they All Star Game over
Speaker 4: the last decade, So why he wouldn't be in the
Speaker 4: room or engage like that's what That's why I guess
Speaker 4: what my concern was a little bit more. But I
Speaker 4: would love to just see there may be being some
Speaker 4: incentives for the actual for your actual team for the
Speaker 4: regular season. Like I've been thinking about this with the
Speaker 4: NBA Cup as well. It seems like the only thing
Speaker 4: that players care about, you know, if we're coming from
Speaker 4: these competitive, you know, playoff teams, is they're seating and
Speaker 4: what's they're going to have, whether they'll have homecourt advantage
Speaker 4: and the playoffs, and so is there a way that
Speaker 4: if you're on the team that wins the All Star Game,
Speaker 4: then maybe you come back and it gives you half
Speaker 4: a spot up in the seating. I don't know, but
Speaker 4: I just think like the more gimmicky that it gets,
Speaker 4: the less of Foster's competition. And so it's on one hand,
Speaker 4: it's like entertaining, but really what people want to see
Speaker 4: is just guys playing hard because that'll be entertaining up
Speaker 4: on its own. I don't really understand why they can't
Speaker 4: just play hard for one game. I really don't. I'm
Speaker 4: all about like player empowerment. I'm pro player everything. This
Speaker 4: is the one issue that I don't really understand. So
Speaker 4: but I guess. I mean, they've asked nicely, and you know,
Speaker 4: it hasn't really happened, so it's obviously a bigger question
Speaker 4: than just asking.
Speaker 1: I think they should have to like put up the
Speaker 1: you know how in uh Fast and Furious, they're like
Speaker 1: put up your papers, like the pink paper. They should
Speaker 1: just have to like play for their favorite car, you know,
Speaker 1: their favorite the pink slip of their favorite car, because
Speaker 1: that gets uh it'll never happen because it'd probably be illegal,
Speaker 1: but if it did, it would get like a per
Speaker 1: because then you don't everybody be like talking about the
Speaker 1: players cars. You know, they'd be like, oh, like he
Speaker 1: did such a thick car.
Speaker 2: Devin Booker Outstar Game MVP for the next six years
Speaker 2: then because he's like the one guy.
Speaker 1: Car guy. Yeah. Yeah, Like I feel like that would
Speaker 1: be fun, Like you play for something of value and
Speaker 1: also like get to cover some aspect of some like
Speaker 1: weird little quirk of their personality. I want to see
Speaker 1: them start messing with like alternate three point lines. I
Speaker 1: think that's that's an idea that, like I've always thought
Speaker 1: is in true if different stadiums had different three point
Speaker 1: lines based on just I don't know what they wanted
Speaker 1: to do when they when they built the court the way,
Speaker 1: the same way that like baseball has different shaped fields.
Speaker 1: You know, that's an idea that's been thrown out, especially
Speaker 1: now the three point shooting is like so bonkers.
Speaker 4: The other one that probably wouldn't work is for the WNBA.
Speaker 4: They have their All Star Game is great, and they
Speaker 4: have you know, this past year they had the US
Speaker 4: Olympic team versus the world right versus the rest of
Speaker 4: the All Star field, and it's a much less globalized game,
Speaker 4: so it is mostly the American players. But even just
Speaker 4: I'm thinking of a team with Donovan Mitchell and Jalen
Speaker 4: Brown and Jalen Brunson and all these guys that didn't
Speaker 4: make the Olympic team go up against Lastery's Olympic team
Speaker 4: like in some capacity, right, that would be fun, Like
Speaker 4: let's have some story that would be so fun than
Speaker 4: just planted assignments and Chack and Charles Barkley. I love
Speaker 4: I love them. They're entertaining, but I think in a
Speaker 4: way it makes it adds to the gimmicky feel because
Speaker 4: it's like, you know, it's all for laughter, and yeah,
Speaker 4: this is true.
Speaker 2: That's a good idea.
Speaker 1: That's a great idea, especially like this year, with like
Speaker 1: everybody feeling like this was, you know, the last hurrah
Speaker 1: for the Olympic team. There was all the like, you know,
Speaker 1: questions about are they the world champions or is the
Speaker 1: NBA team the World champions.
Speaker 2: I feel like hockey used to do this. I don't
Speaker 2: think they do it anymore, but I feel like that
Speaker 2: was that was the All Star setup for hockey years ago.
Speaker 1: Like North America versus the World?
Speaker 2: Is that something like that? But like, yeah, I'd absolutely
Speaker 2: be here for it because quite frankly, while yes, I
Speaker 2: mean it, you know, the NBA is an American game
Speaker 2: and we still have plenty of great American players. That
Speaker 2: matchup would be pretty good. You know, given the fact
Speaker 2: that you know, right off the bat, the top five
Speaker 2: guys that are in the MVP conversation, no disrespect to
Speaker 2: Jason Tatum, five of the top sixties guys that are
Speaker 2: in the MVP conversation probably are on the world on
Speaker 2: the world side.
Speaker 1: So yeah, you could also in my rules where you
Speaker 1: could so you could play for your you can play
Speaker 1: for like a chain that is worth more than your car,
Speaker 1: or you could play for your Olympic gold medal like
Speaker 1: the and it would be your opponents. It would be
Speaker 1: your opponent's decision on like which of those you're playing for. Yeah,
Speaker 1: just rip your chain off your neck.
Speaker 2: Let me get that all right.
Speaker 1: In terms of the NBA Cup Championship, you know Janie
Speaker 1: and the Bucks, this has been kind of they've come
Speaker 1: on suddenly and looked really good, and it's kind of
Speaker 1: coincided with the Cup. I doubt that they were like,
Speaker 1: all right, guys, this is the NBA Cup, We've got
Speaker 1: to play for real now. I think they were trying
Speaker 1: the whole time, and they started to figure everything out
Speaker 1: and put it together around the time. Yeah, started to
Speaker 1: get healthy around the time of the Cup. But you know,
Speaker 1: Yannis put up thirty two, fourteen and nine as they
Speaker 1: beat the Hawks to get to the finals, and then
Speaker 1: the Thunder pretty convincingly beat the Rockets one eleven to
Speaker 1: ninety six behind thirty two eight assis, five steals from Shay.
Speaker 1: So it's gonna be a good matchup that you guys
Speaker 1: have already watched. But I don't know, Okay, see, Like
Speaker 1: it's interesting. So I understand why the Bucks are, like,
Speaker 1: you know, really focused and locked in right now because
Speaker 1: they had such a tough start to the season and
Speaker 1: everybody was doubting them right out of the gate. It's
Speaker 1: kind of cool to see, okay see locked in at
Speaker 1: this level for the NBA Cup though, you know, the
Speaker 1: n season tournament. It's I feel like they are not
Speaker 1: messing around. They're not messing around crew to quote the
Speaker 1: TNT version of heat. But what what do you expect
Speaker 1: to see? And have you have you guys been enjoying
Speaker 1: the Cup?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I would say I I actually think either you know,
Speaker 4: I can really see you going either way. I love
Speaker 4: Oklahoma City being in this. I loved how last year
Speaker 4: it was kind of a platform for a player like
Speaker 4: Tyre's Halberden and the Pacers to kind of ascend on
Speaker 4: the national stage. And you know, he was doing kind
Speaker 4: of a whole media tour. I hope, you know, the
Speaker 4: Thunder are kind of getting that same boot. Bos and
Speaker 4: it's honestly more fun to see those kinds of up
Speaker 4: and coming teams that haven't had big playoff omens we have.
Speaker 4: We haven't seen this thundercore in a big you know,
Speaker 4: you know, really significant playoff moments. And I'd rather see
Speaker 4: them there than seeing Golden State there, as much as
Speaker 4: Golden State's fun to watch and certainly would be good
Speaker 4: for the ratings and everything. But yeah, I think, you know,
Speaker 4: the group the group stage, like the pool play games
Speaker 4: were kind of tough to watch. I don't love the courts.
Speaker 4: I think that some of it is kind of gets lost,
Speaker 4: like people don't really does not that much hype around,
Speaker 4: like the Tuesday games.
Speaker 1: And all that.
Speaker 4: But I will say I felt like once you were
Speaker 4: in bracket play, like you could tell the players approach
Speaker 4: those games with a lot of intensity. They can say
Speaker 4: they care about it or they don't, but we know
Speaker 4: from watching them whether or not they're bought into something.
Speaker 4: And I did feel like all of those uh bracket
Speaker 4: play games actually were super competitive and really fun watches.
Speaker 4: So in that sense, like the league got some really
Speaker 4: exciting games in November December that probably otherwise wouldn't have happened.
Speaker 1: NBA Cup would be a good a good time to
Speaker 1: introduce some of the stuff we were talking, like try
Speaker 1: out the weird three point lines or I mean, they're
Speaker 1: already messing with weird courts, why not mess with a
Speaker 1: weird misshape three point line. I'm just saying.
Speaker 2: And since we know the league, you know, listens to
Speaker 2: every episode, literally listens to every episode. Yeah, yeah, feel free,
Speaker 2: feel free. This this is our blessing to you.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Just put your lawyers in touch with mine and
Speaker 1: we'll work it out. I won't too much money. Yeah,
Speaker 1: any points on that, Yeah, I got you points on
Speaker 1: the back end. All right, let's take one more break.
Speaker 1: We'll come back for the rapid fire round of questioning
Speaker 1: to close out. We'll be right back and we're back.
Speaker 1: And before we get to the rapid fire out of questioning, Noah,
Speaker 1: we do like to pick a game of the week.
Speaker 1: We didn't do it this past week because we didn't
Speaker 1: know what the matchups were going to be at the
Speaker 1: time we recorded due to the NBA Cup. But we're
Speaker 1: trying to choose game for all of us to watch
Speaker 1: with our listeners this week and talk about next week.
Speaker 1: For some reason, the Celtics keep showing up on this list.
Speaker 1: But all right, So Friday we got Bucks at Calves
Speaker 1: that is on NBA TV, folks. Saturday we got a
Speaker 1: couple options. We've got Warriors at Wolves or Clippers at MAVs,
Speaker 1: and then Monday we got Celtics at Magic. Which of
Speaker 1: those do you think we should be checking for.
Speaker 4: It's tough, you know, obviously I have a Celtics bias,
Speaker 4: but the Magic are missing their two best players.
Speaker 1: Right now, so yeah, yeah, I guess we can't choose
Speaker 1: that one.
Speaker 2: Pablo's back practicing, but he's not quite back in the line.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean that Bucks at the Crows is kind
Speaker 1: of looking good to me. That's also an NBA TV game,
Speaker 1: so all our listeners could watch it.
Speaker 4: That might be the one. Honestly, I do feel like
Speaker 4: the Bucks have their turnaround has been pretty fun to watch,
Speaker 4: and obviously the Calves are The Calves are really having
Speaker 4: a dominant season so far. I don't want to say
Speaker 4: it's going under the radar because everybody knows about their
Speaker 4: seventeen oh star, but I feel like it's a little
Speaker 4: bit going under the radar how dominant they've been, so yeah,
Speaker 4: an opportunity to check them out versus another good Eastern
Speaker 4: Conference team. Seems like a good game.
Speaker 1: All right, that was a warm up and you got
Speaker 1: it right. So congratulations on answering that one correct. And
Speaker 1: now you are in the rapid fire round of questioning.
Speaker 1: You're in the hot seat. You're in the hot zone.
Speaker 1: This is just the fastest question answer segment in podcasting.
Speaker 1: Sports are Otherwise, we're gonna fire a question to you.
Speaker 1: We just want you to wrap rapid fire round it
Speaker 1: back to us. No thought. We are idiots. We might,
Speaker 1: we might accidentally distract you, but you can't. You got
Speaker 1: to stay on focus. You got to stay on topic.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's and if we dolly deli, it's literally your
Speaker 2: responsibility to keep us on track.
Speaker 1: So dilly and or dally, it's it's on you, all right, Uh,
Speaker 1: Brian the claw there we go. All right, thank you
Speaker 1: for in the editor. Okay, Jabar, you want to start,
Speaker 1: I will jump us off.
Speaker 3: Okay, all right, Noah, give us your ultimate NBA JAM
Speaker 3: combination and you can mix old school with current if
Speaker 3: you want NBA jam.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is a generational thing. I just realized there was.
Speaker 4: I already have some challenges here.
Speaker 1: So there was a that was the right answer at
Speaker 1: the NBA Jam.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you mean played basketball, No, white man shout out
Speaker 2: to white Mankanjo. Another old reference, Olden wats reference. But basically,
Speaker 2: there was an NBA video game that we all played
Speaker 2: growing up in the nineties, two on two. Two on two.
Speaker 2: They generally would pick the two best players on like
Speaker 2: on the roster, but for our game, you can pick
Speaker 2: past and prison players.
Speaker 1: At the time, I believe the Celtics had d Brown
Speaker 1: and Dino Raja. Yes, it was, it was D Brown
Speaker 1: and it was It was not a It's not the
Speaker 1: glory days of the Celtics. So if you could pick
Speaker 1: any two on two team for your NBA Jam combination
Speaker 1: across the history of the.
Speaker 4: Celtics, I'm just picking two players.
Speaker 2: Two players that you that you would want in your
Speaker 2: two tournament.
Speaker 4: Yeah, okay, I'm gonna go with Paul Pierce and Bill Russell.
Speaker 1: A Paul Pierce and Bill Russell is a great That
Speaker 1: is answer. That is a great answer.
Speaker 4: Wrong answer, thinking about like Bill just of a two
Speaker 4: and two game.
Speaker 1: But I just you know what you're so something that
Speaker 1: you didn't consciously know but unconsciously anticipated, is that you
Speaker 1: can goaltend in NBA Jam. Yes, and it would make
Speaker 1: Bill Russell would be unstoppable, Like he would be the
Speaker 1: greatest NBA JAM player of all time as long as
Speaker 1: he had somebody who was good and could both dunk,
Speaker 1: which is an important part of it, and also shoot threes.
Speaker 1: And you. Yeah, so you've actually nailed that one. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: I was really rooting against you. Some of the stuff
Speaker 1: you've said about the Celtics has really, uh, I broke
Speaker 1: to my heart. But unfortunately you got that one right.
Speaker 1: But let's see what you do with this. This is
Speaker 1: a segment that Jabari added to the doc called We're
Speaker 1: Sorry for jack Son. We are for real. I believe
Speaker 1: it's supposed to be We're sorry for Jackson, we are
Speaker 1: for real. Brian, Oh, that's Brian, Brian the edit. Anyways,
Speaker 1: just a couple of things that happened to my sixers
Speaker 1: this week that I just wanted for people who aren't
Speaker 1: paying attention. Joel Embiid broke his orbital bone again. And
Speaker 1: for context, there have been sixteen such fractures in fifteen
Speaker 1: thousand seasons of basketball played by players in the NBA.
Speaker 1: There's been sixteen total. Three of those have been Joel embiid.
Speaker 1: So this man just has a very breakable orbital bone.
Speaker 1: So that was bad. And then soon after we learned
Speaker 1: that rookie Jared McCain has torn his meniscus and is out,
Speaker 1: and definitely I saw a fellow Sixers fan respond to
Speaker 1: that with the onion meme. Man who thought he'd lost
Speaker 1: all hope loses last additional bit of hope he didn't
Speaker 1: even know he still had. And that is exactly what
Speaker 1: that news felt like to me. My question to you, Noah,
Speaker 1: somebody who pays attention to a winning team whose success
Speaker 1: sometimes feels inevitable, and you know, as somebody who roots
Speaker 1: for a team that has the opposite of that, is
Speaker 1: it tank in time? Is it tanky time for the
Speaker 1: seventy six or should they just be like ah, embead's
Speaker 1: orbital fracture worse than we thought and just go in
Speaker 1: for Cooper flag? What do you think? I will add
Speaker 1: an additional detail that if their pick is anywhere outside
Speaker 1: of the top six, it goes to Oka se Sorry
Speaker 1: I just started crying there for a second, it goes
Speaker 1: to Oka sEH.
Speaker 4: I say no, no to the tank because it is
Speaker 4: still early on. If I had information that Dwell and
Speaker 4: Beid is not going to be able to have a
Speaker 4: healthy season here. If the situation with his knee is
Speaker 4: worse than we know, then maybe you do. But at
Speaker 4: the end of the day, you have Paul George, Tires, Maxie,
Speaker 4: and Dwell Embiid all on the same team in a
Speaker 4: really weak Eastern Conference. And as much as things have
Speaker 4: sucked so far, like Milwaukee looked terrible a month ago,
Speaker 4: and things look a lot better for them and this,
Speaker 4: I actually picked Philadelphia as the number one thread to
Speaker 4: Boston in the Eastern Conference, and I still think I
Speaker 4: still understand why I did. Obviously they've had a bad
Speaker 4: shake at things. But if you don't want to tank
Speaker 4: when you have that much talent on your roster, especially
Speaker 4: with the ages that they have, like they're just paying
Speaker 4: too much money for guys like Paul George Well Embiid
Speaker 4: like to just wash the season this early on, I
Speaker 4: would say it's premature. And Jared McCain, I love Jared McCain.
Speaker 4: It sucks that this happened, but he wasn't initially going
Speaker 4: to be a major contributor this year, so I think
Speaker 4: he got to maybe make some tradesmen figure it out.
Speaker 4: But I wouldn't. I wouldn't go in that just with
Speaker 4: the fan perspective, like it's just it's bad basketball karma
Speaker 4: to do it so often.
Speaker 1: And maybe we're finding that out right now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, if everyone can tell you, it would be them. Yeah,
Speaker 2: all right, one more for you. If we're in town
Speaker 2: for one night for a game and need to grab
Speaker 2: a bike, give us one spot they have to check
Speaker 2: out in the Boston area. Your entire reputation as a
Speaker 2: region is pending on this. On this choice.
Speaker 4: I'm quite literally probably the worst person you could ask
Speaker 4: because I'm vegan. So I'm now like, okay, p one
Speaker 4: of like my vegan restaurants and give them a little
Speaker 4: bit of a platform. Okay, So I would say my
Speaker 4: Tie Cafe if you're if you're a curious person's close
Speaker 4: to ted Garden. It's where I go sometimes before it's
Speaker 4: really good Asian food. And then thinking something that's a
Speaker 4: little bit more mainstream.
Speaker 2: Quiz nos okay, cool, And I've never I've.
Speaker 4: Literally i've never paused before a question until you guys
Speaker 4: said it was rapid fire now only every time.
Speaker 1: No, it's a power play, and I appreciate it.
Speaker 2: It is.
Speaker 4: No, it's it's not that it's it's you know, it's
Speaker 4: when they tell you that's the painting, and then you
Speaker 4: just feel like you have to. I mean, there's like
Speaker 4: a right next to the City Garden, there's like a
Speaker 4: food hall, so that.
Speaker 1: Would be the food hall at the td gad all right,
Speaker 1: is there a legal seafood in there? Is there illegal
Speaker 1: seafood in there?
Speaker 4: Right there?
Speaker 1: But that would be my local ad for the food
Speaker 1: hall me as sean pen outside of the food hall?
Speaker 1: Is there a legal seafood in there? Very dark reference,
Speaker 1: very no, that's probably before your time. But anyways, Uh Noah,
Speaker 1: I'm just getting word from our judges that you got
Speaker 1: every one of those answers exactly right. So congratulations. It
Speaker 1: was wonderful having you on Miles of Jack and sometimes
Speaker 1: to got my boosties. Where can people find you? Follow you,
Speaker 1: read you all that good stuff?
Speaker 4: Yeah, you can find me on Twitter x blu Sky
Speaker 4: all that just my name, no one else, el and
Speaker 4: then and all my writing is on Espnation, espimation dot com,
Speaker 4: and I have a podcast on YouTube Pologue by Boston.
Speaker 4: We also have a postgame show after every Celtic scheme
Speaker 4: on Seal on US Media. So pretty much. If you
Speaker 4: find me on Twitter, I spam everything else over there.
Speaker 1: There you go, all right, Well, thank you so much
Speaker 1: for joining us. You can find me at Jack Underscore
Speaker 1: O Brian on Twitter and Jack ob One on Blue Sky.
Speaker 1: Miles is at Miles of Gray on Twitter and Blue
Speaker 1: Sky Jabari. Where can people find you on Twitter?
Speaker 2: Jabori A. Davis and on Blue Sky where I hang
Speaker 2: out most of the time. Jabori Davis NBA.
Speaker 1: And hashtag Matt Boosties for show links and updates, and
Speaker 1: be sure to join the conversation on our discord up
Speaker 1: which you can. You can also find the link for
Speaker 1: when you search hashtag Mat Boosties. And that's another one
Speaker 1: in the book. Wow, switch did it from way downtown.
Speaker 1: We did it. Did it? We did it. They said
Speaker 1: we couldn't do it, and we did it. That's right. Uh.
Speaker 1: We'll be back with special holiday year end episodes for
Speaker 1: the next couple of weeks and then back in the
Speaker 1: new year. I hope everybody has a great, safe holiday
Speaker 1: and that all of your team's still undefeated. We'll talk
Speaker 1: to y'all all in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2: Bye bye,