Brad Stevens talks Boston Celtics trade deadline, potential direction for a move

Brad Stevens talks Boston Celtics trade deadline, potential direction for a move

Brad Stevens talks to the media we about a month from the trade deadline who they might Target how much they might spend his evaluation of the team and it’s all right now you’ll hear from Brad on the lockdown Celtics podcast recognize the city of champ Boston baby we do what you can’t locked

On number 18 Tatum and brown J te step back we going to wet that and slay teams of course the Celtics who else could it be screaming like kg with the lar Coralis above average assessing the team status best daily pod no cap salary matching clutch like bir DJ John on

Replay Prime Time dapping up the truth on the sideline ring JS how we started raising B how we finish locked on Celtics hey there welcome back to the lockdown Celtics podcast it’s right here in the lockdown podcast Network it’s your team every day and I got you

Covered every day with a free fresh podcast Dro directly to your device so subscribe wherever you get your podcast watch the show on YouTube hop into the comment section let me know what you’re thinking here uh if you’re new to the show Welcome Aboard my name is John

Corales I used to play basketball the game of basketball yes I used to play it a long time ago now I’m covering the Celtics as a beat writer for Boston Sports journal and Today’s Show brought to you by LinkedIn LinkedIn jobs helps you find qualified candidates that you

Want to talk to or post your job for free at linkedin.com lockdown NBA that’s linkedin.com lockdown NBA to post your job for free terms and conditions apply so Brad Stevens ahead of the Celtics game against the Utah Jazz Friday night which will be an interesting game NBA belt game by the

Way for people who don’t know about the NBA belt that’s uh I didn’t create it but I have appointed myself caretaker the champ comes into the season with the NBA belt then every game that belt has to be defended the Denver Nuggets had it they gave it up to

Minnesota blahy blahy blah now the Utah Jazz have it and the Boston Celtics want it well they don’t know about it probably but I’m gonna say they want it and they’re playing for it on Friday night I will have postgame podcast for you Friday night into Saturday because

It’s a post game uh postgame Saturday you can listen to the broadcast by the way on SiriusXM download the SiriusXM app listen to the local broadcast Grandy and Max if you’re not in a position if you’re maybe listening and watching this game in the road you get the road

Announcers Sirus XM map get the Grandy and Max call and listen to the game along with the video on the screen it’s a nice little workaround anyway Brad Stevens talked to the media and I’m gonna play three clips and kind of get to the gist of a lot of the things that

He said uh because the trade deadline is a month away now my evaluation of this team is they they don’t need a lot and they also don’t have a lot of tools at their disposal I’ve talked about this before I don’t think the Celtics are GNA

Do anything big what you’re GNA get out of this podcast is Brad Stevens kind of confirms that the Celtics don’t seem like they’re going to do anything big so why don’t we just get started here with the first thing I asked the question why don’t you just evaluate the team Brad

Stevens I think every year you know around this time you’re looking at okay how do we improve to give ourselves our best chance and I think you know there’s different ways to do it obviously you can improve from within and and and you know we can get better at what we do on

Both ends of the court and hopefully make strides individually and how we fit together and then you can improve from you know free agency or trades or whatever I do think that um you know the key to us is going to be the improvement from within you know I just think that

We’ve done a really good job of that thus far I like how you know today’s practice we came in and worked on exactly what I thought was you know dead on to what we need to do to be better to have more options to to play our best

And um we’ve been good thus far um you know but we’re 30 some odd games in and we’ve all lived this this is a this is a journey we’re going to have our ups and downs from here on out but we’re very capable and I think that um you know we’ve shown that

They have shown that and they are capable and I think the big takeaway out of that opening stretch is quote the key to us is going to be improvement from within Brad Stevens does not sound like a guy that’s out there ready to make a

Big move he sounds like a guy that on February 7th when they play the Atlanta Hawks uh is going to to have a roster for Joe moula that will be the same on February 9th the day after the trade deadline when they play the Washington Wizards I don’t see any big deals it

Doesn’t sound like Brad Stevens is gonna make any big deals in fact one of the interesting comments from him in this availability was they basically already made their trade trade deadline deal they just did it before the season and that’s Drew holiday right before training camp and I like looking at

Things like that I like taking the summer and rearranging the moves because you you can kind of do that in totality the guys that went out Marcus Smart Grant Williams Robert Williams and the guys that came back christops porzingis uh Drew holiday and then you know o sha Bret Lamar Stevens Stree mik

All that stuff and and just assessing it on the totality of the moves because the that it’s you can say well Brad Stevens lost to this particular trade and he won this particular trade and honestly he didn’t lose any of these trades I don’t think he’s lost anything I think he’s been at

The very worst even on some of these trades but even that uh I I I I think that might even be a stretch I think Brad Stevens Has Come away from everything pretty much ahead and like take for example the Derek white trade that allowed the Spurs to accomplish

What they wanted to accomplish so on one hand Brad Stevens gave up uh Romeo Langford and Josh Richardson and a couple of picks or one pick in a pick swap to get Derek white and Dereck White’s sitting here uh we’re all talking about can he be an Allstar and

You say well that’s obvious that they won that trade but San Antonio uh as they sit here I got it in the background of my uh in my office here the the San Antonio Spurs are three points ahead of the Milwaukee Bucks with three and a half minutes to go they’re accomplishing

What they want to accomplish because they’ve got Victor wanyama and so they won the deal in that regard they needed to get to a certain spot but anyway sidetracked the fact is that Brad I don’t think is going to make a big deal here uh the Drew Holiday trade was their big deal

That was kind of the surprise and frankly if you had to choose between preseason and midseason I’d rather have it done in the preseason because at least then you’ve got time to work through some of the Kinks he’s been holiday has been he started off a little

Slow then he was great he’s had a couple of G actually had this game where he was you know against um against OKC where he really struggled it was maybe his worst game of the season but generally really good so and and he’s gonna have his ups

And downs and the seller’s going to progress so I’m happy I’m happy to consider that the trade deadline deal we get worked up about trade deadline well this is the deadline you got to do something at the deadline well who says you got to do something at the deadline

All the deadline is is like now after this you don’t have to make any more moves but just because that’s the deadline doesn’t mean you have to do I mean in my life I’m up against every deadline uh not just in my job but in you know signing up for my health

Insurance oh what’s the deadline to do that it’s three hours from now I guess I’ll I’ll reenroll that I do stuff at the deadline I procrastinate people who like do their taxes uh in February or the day they get all of their forms that’s like Brad Stevens getting the Drew holiday deal

Done before the season uh people who do their taxes like are are like Homer Simpson kind of lobbing a taped up grenade through the doors of a closing post office yeah that’s trade deadline deal but either way you’re getting your taxes done either way the Celtics made a

Big deal and I kind of like where they are so they don’t have to do a big deadline deal however there are people who are saying look John yeah that’s all well and good but they do have some holes maybe there’s a center out there that you can

Get Brad Stevens was asked hey what about adding a rotation Center I’ll get his answer you’ll hear his answer in just a second Today’s Show is brought to you by LinkedIn and Linkedin jobs because it’s the New Year we’re talking about Brad Stevens putting together a team for this

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Addressed the media and in in this clip that you’re going to hear the setup is he was asked about adding a rotation Center we’ve talked about that a little bit we know that porzingis uh people are question about his health Al Horford is 37 we’re not sure about Luke cornette

We’re not sure about nayes kada so the question was what about adding a rotation Center at the deadline well first of all adding a rotation Center that mean that be have to be one hell of a player right when you think about we we’ve got we’ve got really good players

I think what we what we’re looking for and what we most likely especially with where we are from a tool standpoint there’s really not a ton we can do big without touching our main guys right and so what you look at is guys that can

Play guys that can add value but like I said last year don’t need to play they they they are over themselves and I think that that’s important you know that’s what we have right now um and we’ve gotten we’ve gotten Obviously good play out of great play out of Chris

Staps I think Al’s been good I think Luke and neimi when called upon have both added Great Value and so you know if we end up adding somebody you know I don’t know that it’ll be a game changer in the way that you said it from a

Rotation standpoint but you know from an every night standpoint well that’s pretty straightforward right again once again Brad saying I don’t know about this rotation guy thing um and in one of the other comments because I can’t P you everything uh the the the the way he phrased it was

You got to be careful about what you adds is what you take away they do have the Grant Williams traded player exception which is a little over $6 million they can acquire somebody like Andre Drummond he makes three so they can acquire an Andre Drummond we’ve mentioned his name before

Uh he’s obviously getting starts for Chicago is he gonna come into Boston if the Celtics say just if you just say go get him right go get him throw a first round pick or throw whatever pick at at the the Bulls and you say say wow we can

Get a first- round pick for Andre dond I’m not advocating for that by the way do not aggregate me and say Joe Carell says get a first round pick for Andre drumond no no no no no no I’m just saying that if they said well all right we’ll just do whatever it

Takes to get Andre Drummond would he even be happy going from starting in Chicago and getting some exposure in Chicago having like a 2020 game in Chicago or would he be like would he be happy going from that to behind christops porzingis obviously to behind Al Horford obviously

Would he sit there and privately be like well I’m better than Al Horford right now so let me just go in wow I just gave him a real country bumpkin voice uh sorry Andre Drummond I mean to really do that to you um not a fan of Andre

Drummond’s game but I just didn’t mean to be that disrespectful uh but would he be happy about that I don’t think so I don’t think so you gotta be careful about what you’re taking away way and so are are there some guys out there that may be

Potentially getable that you in a vacuum in a video game you’d say well yeah plug him here take Luke cornette out and that that’s an upgrade what are you taking away from the locker room what are you taking away from the team the team chemistry what are you really adding to

The team and is the little bit that you’re upgrading the center is that going to be worth the price you pay and I don’t know the answer to that I don’t know the answer to that but Brad has been very very clear that they’re not going to touch

Their main guys right they they they don’t um they’re not g to give up the the good players and the the rotation the rotation guy the rotation Center whatever the cost is they’re not going to give up Al Horford they’re not going to give up probably pton Pritchard

They’re probably not going to even give up Sam Hower because those are all rotation guys I don’t know if you consider Luke a a rotation guy maybe you do maybe you don’t regardless Brad is like we’re we’re not going to touch our main guys so that means tpe so they’re they’re

They’re gonna add they have the open roster spot anyway are they gonna spend that money are they gonna add this guy and is he gonna be worth what he adds if he gets a DMP what if Andre Drummond gets a DMP is he gonna go back in the

Locker room and sulk and be mad you don’t need that you don’t need that so it’s a fine line that very clearly is saying if he said anything he said big wi is what we’re we would be looking for he specifically mentioned we would look

For a big wing and that might also come from within very often throughout this media availability which was about 15 minutes worth of time he said improvement from within uh all some variation of that it sounds like he’s advocating for more O’Shea brassette minutes or more Lamar Stevens minutes and even he brings

Up this schedule here that the Celtics are on the 16 games in the in January 15 left in January you’re you’re constantly you know at home on the road right they play home on Friday on the road on Saturday come back home after another road game spend a couple days at home

Then you go the road again you basically never unpack you’re never comfortable throughout the whole month that’s that’s a very difficult month there’s a lot of games there’s I think a five game and seven night stretch there where you you can’t you can’t over tax these guys so

This could be an opportunity for O’Shea Brett Lamar Stevens sh makyo those guys to get their minutes uh Delano Banton to get some minutes here and there and that can be the internal Improvement that that Brad is looking for an internal Improvement could be from the main guys

Too like the like the main Mi m a i n no e at the end I’m not saying Jordan Walsh I’m saying the main Boston Celtics top six players who can work through some things and could be Jason Tatum who improves could be Jaylen Brown who improves you know Drew holiday improves

Those types of things whatever the Celtics do it’s going to cost them some money and that’s going to be a big question where are they when it comes to spending the money is the is ownership holding them back at all gonna talk about that in just a

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You thank you everybody thank you for being an every dayer all of you people who are with me Monday through Friday plus these bonus podcasts love you so much for being with me every day uh help out the lockdown NBA podcast which I do host on Wednesdays I’m going to get back

To that over the next few weeks uh check out lockd on NBA uh get me there on Wednesdays with Jake Madison and uh just enjoy the show all week long because it’s a it’s a fun show that uh covers the league as a whole and they they’re

Gonna have a fun one the the Bucks just barely held on to beat the Spurs that was a fun game wemi was amazing uh he did some incredible incredible things in that game all right let’s get back to Brad Stevens money is always an issue right like the the the team is expensive

As my brain just grinds to a halt the team is expensive the Celtics uh the tax bill at this point whoever they add like I talk about Andre Drummond it’s gonna be like triple that at least in luxury tax so three million is he is he worth a TW is

He worth 122 million that’s the real money that they’re going to cost let’s talk about the money Brad Stevens do you have the green light to spend whatever you need to at this trade deadline green light to do whatever we need to do for sure and that TP that I mean that’s the

Really the number one tool we have right is the the ability to add somebody but that’s 6.1 or 6.2 million right so it’s a small number of people a lot of the people that are in that were signed to minimums or um smaller contracts or are on their rookie scale deals that teams

Aren’t exactly excited to to move on from yet so it’s a very small group of people um and but we’re we’re going to exhaust it we’re going to look at it and again I think it’s about okay who can who can come in have the self-awareness

To add to the group and the talent to add to the group um I think that one of the strengths of our team is you know guys like Derek white guys like Drew holiday they they just are so comfortable in who they are you know they they don’t always use a ton of

Possessions but the ones they use are unbelievable and every day they’re positive and every day they lift the group and um I just think that when you start talking about finding guys that complement all of our best players it’s it’s a small group you know we just got

To keep on the keep on the lookout for it you can look at all you want and they do have the money to look I don’t think they’re going to be spending a lot he couldn’t be more clear he could not be more clear we are not just going

To go out and get somebody he was asked about pressure to do something and he basically said in no uncertain terms no I’m not just going to do something to do something he didn’t say those words that would have been a fun quote but he made

It clear he is not going to just do something in order to do something like I said at the top of the show just because this is the trade deadline it’s not the make a trade or else deadline it’s just the matter of this is your

Last chance if you’re going to make a trade you got to do it by February 8th if you don’t then you know you still have buyouts so they they are going to keep the buyout option open and then then from there it’s you can upgrade nayes kada that’s basically

It and I did ask him about upgrading to my kada the bottom line with that simply they’re not going to do it before the trade deadline they he’s a two-way player he’s under a two-way contract he has up to 50 games where he can play on the two-way deal that do not count

Towards luxury tax that do not count towards the apron or or any of that stuff he’s Bas the two-way salaries do not count towards any of these calculations so sorry nayas kada you’ve earned a good amount of money you’ve signed a two two-way contract you have to wait

They’re not going to occupy a roster spot now because if they upgrade him now and they want to actually use the tpe then they’ll have to cut somebody that doesn’t make sense keep the open roster spot then you can figure out if you’re G to cut somebody later on um you don’t

Want to have to cut somebody if you don’t actually have to you know what I mean so then you go from that to okay you didn’t make a trade at the deadline is there a buyout guy there’s no buyout guy okay now Hey Joe moula you’ve been

Using this guy nayes kada do you think if we upgraded him he’d be an asset in the playoffs yes or no and if it’s yes then you upgrade him you give him a minimum deal so you minimize the amount of ta tax and and all of that in the

Calculation but you do it at the last possible minute and you get him into the playoffs and that that’s when he’s allowed to play in the playoffs makes sense to me um and then next year you know this summer he can deal with making you know signing a contract or whatever

But that’s we’ll see he was he was non-committal about even upgrading kayada at this point so right now the bottom line is my takeaway here is yeah Brad stev’s do his job he’s going to look he’s going to look around the league he’s going to say

Okay can this guy make us better yes okay hey buddy are you willing to to accept this role that maybe you’re not going to play for us all the time if that guy says yes absolutely I’m fully bought in okay maybe maybe that person makes the team uh if that person is like

No I want a bigger role even though it’s on a lesser team I I need to try to find my way into my next contract a bigger contract whatever and then I’ll worry about being on a winner okay fine oh good luck good luck to you great it’s

Got to be the right guy in the right situation with the right contract each caveat makes it less and less likely that they’re going to make a move they might make a move but it seems like it’s going to be small potatoes this is basically going to be the team that the

Celtics take into the play play offs and frankly not a bad thing because even though they just lost to OKC that was a real tight game and they got a couple of outlier bad performances that was a winnable game for them and I think play

That game a 100 times they win a fair you know a great percentage of those games so they’re good with it I’m good with it I think most of us should be good with it and the last thing I’ll say is Brad did say a lot can happen between

Now and February 8th so all of this stuff could change if the circumstances change in Boston but I think it’s going to take the circumstances changing in Boston for Brad Stevens to make any move that seems significant I obviously will be keeping an eye on that but mostly I’ll be

Keeping an eye on Celtics Jazz and Celtics Pacers Friday night Saturday night not normally podcast nights but they will be for me because I’ll be doing postgame pods every every game after every game so make sure you’re subscribed you can watch the show on YouTube all my everydays that are with

Me I love you that you know that that you’re with me on a daily basis check out the games on the SiriusXM app check out me on the post game and share the podcast spread the word tell everybody that they should be listening to and watching the lockdown Celtics podcast

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Brad Stevens met the media on Thursday to talk about the team and the upcoming trade deadline. In this podcast, you’ll hear his comments about the team, what they might do, the potential for adding a rotation center, and whether money will be any kind of issue at the deadline … plus reactio from Boston Sports Journal’s John Karalis.

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