Are we underrating the Boston Celtics? | Good Word with Goodwill

Are we underrating the Boston Celtics? | Good Word with Goodwill

Welcome to the good word my name is Vincent goodwolf senior NBA reporter for Yahoo sports we are part of the ball don’t lie podcast get us wherever you get your podcast we also really appreciate the feedback that you give us on Twitter and everything else don’t forget to keep doing that it is

Wednesday which means it is a solo show with me and producer John John who is a big Dallas Mavericks fan is in mour right now John are you what stage of grief are you in after last night’s stru juice from 60 feed um it’s tired a stage of grieving

Like it’s probably acceptance there’s there’s another Mavericks game tonight um I’m ready to focus on that one we’ll talk about that one later towards the end of the podcast but but I I don’t know I’m I’m I’m past anger I’m probably past sadness I’m probably to the point

Of moving on but it took me a while to get here if I were still like a f i don’t know what I would do to be perfectly honest if I were out of like this level of basketball space and into the space of living and dying with every

Game I’d probably lose my mind like it just takes you 82 games takes you on this roller coaster and then the playoffs it’s literally like I can’t even compare it to anything but the playoffs are such an emotional drain like I’m emotionally drained and I don’t root for anybody I’m

Just wiped out by the by the end of the Conference Finals I’m generally wiped out but today John we’re going to talk we’re going to go on a deep dive on the Boston Celtics and I’m not sure if we are overlooking the Boston Celtics underrating the Boston Celtics but I’ve

Done a deep dive on some numbers and some theories and some things and trying to figure those things out but John of course has a question to ask me about the team in my region the Detroit Pistons so go ahead John what you got well this is tied into a little piece of

News which is that Chris Paul returned to the Golden State Warriors last night yes he did and this coincided with uh a couple of friends that I have a couple people that I follow on social media as well that happen to be piston fans that are not you

Claiming this guy Monty Williams can’t coach and the Pistons gave him a long contract with a lot of money I hope that’s not true I hope that he can coach there’s some evidence that he can coach I tried to make that argument and they came back with n Chris Paul was coaching

Those teams and like not all of Monty William success overlaps with when Chris Paul was on his team but a lot of it does so I wanted your take as someone who actually probably does watch more Pistons basketball than a a normal human being should I think the answer can lie

Somewhere in between I think Monty is a coach especially probably at this age stage of his life where he needs a locker room Advocate a locker room Fir and brimstone type that Chris Paul is Chris Paul doesn’t mind being a bad guy right and Monty had some stuff going on

With DeAndre aidon and I think he’s there’s some been some regrets there he openly kind of admitted to it even while everything was going on there are some things about Monty this year that have concerned me the treatment of Jay iy or the or the deployment or lack of deployment of Jad

And Ivy the tethering to Killian Hayes like I’ll never understand the whole Killian Hayes thing even now James wisman who I who I understand why the Pistons are playing him but I don’t get why they’re they’re playing him like it just it doesn’t it doesn’t make sense um

I think just like players can have bad seasons and bounce back I think coaches can have bad seasons and and bounce back the one thing you can say even throughout most of that 28 game losing streak or whatever it was aside from a few games they were they were still

Competitive they were still at it they were still going so they haven’t quit on him right even the devastating game against the Knicks where they were clearly robbed by League because Dante Divan chenzo hit assar Thompson in the strike zone in a way that Ray Lewis

Would have been proud because he hit him right on the numbers right you have a back-to-back from New York to Chicago normally you’re dead the next day you got nothing that team went out there yesterday and played the best defense that they played all season that coincides with Isaiah Stewart coming

Back and they won a road game and that is their ninth one of the Season I’m not going to throw roses at anybody’s feet I think it speaks to two things one if you got to convince a coach two or three times to take your money that should be a red flag that’s

Like asking a woman on a date like six or seven times if you get know the first time you normally back off you normally not not don’t get me wrong I’ve had my days of persistence right I’ve had my days of persistence but usually that persistence only lasts for so long

Before people go back to their first impressions of you and vice versa vice versa right John there’s been there’s been like a let me talk myself into this thing and it may go for a minute and then I’m like but wait I initially thought this I’m not changing my mind so

I wonder if part of this is that but part of me also wonders if they have said to Monty at this stage once they realize that this is not a playoff team which is you know fairly early right they went from two and one to two and forever

Hopefully they’ve told Monty hey just get through this season get through this year and we’re going to put more veterans around we’re going to put more players that can fit the style that we want to play and the style that you want to coach so hopefully and I’m sure

Monty you don’t have to give him true St Monty will say hey I haven’t done a great job with this team I haven’t been able to figure the talent out with this team so I would say if everybody is jumping on the Chris Paul as coach thing did

Chris Paul lose that 20- lead in the NBA Finals to the Milwaukee Bucks cuz if that’s the case we should put him in the same category that we put Doc Rivers in it’s fair it’s fair I I mean look it you where you take credit you also take blame the J thing is

Inexcusable that’s inexcusable I’m sorry that that’s inexcusable and then also like again piston fan friend so I I get I get kind of in the weeds with them sometimes and they were all really upset that he wasn’t playing Mike mcalla despite the fact that Mike mcalla was like one

Of the Pistons good players like he was playing James wisman instead of Mike mcalla and I believe Mike mcalla was was bought out he just got buy so he can go go play with a contender which is probably why he’s wasn’t playing Mike muscala yeah yeah yeah yeah um yeah

Because they’re I guess they’re not trying to win although Monty said they’re trying to win yeah that was a weird thing like the things that’s the confusing thing for some people that he’ll come out and say in the first practice after the allar break hey no more experimenting no more just throwing

Lineups out there we’re trying to win games in this last whatever of the regular season and then he throws out the all bench lineups and then he throws out you know he playing 12 guys that’s inconceivable in today’s NBA Tom tho doesn’t realize that the Knicks have 12 players on the damn

Roster all right he’s playing three all right wait yeah I have I have a question though about this whole Monty piston situation okay and it’s it’s GNA piggyback on what happened with the Bucks like a month ago okay so the Bucks hire Adrien Griffin but they’re keeping Doc Rivers around not keeping they’re

Bringing in Doc Rivers to be like an advisor right he’s advisor to the team he’s he’s helping Adrian Griffin all that stuff we saw how that worked out the first sign that like oh Adrien Griffin’s not it they bring in doc the Pistons had a very good head

Coach a guy who won coach of the year not that long ago and they were like Dwayne Casey we’re pushing you to the side you’re an advisor or whatever part of the front office now and we’re bringing in Monty Williams I don’t think that that is a great formula for

Success granted Mon’s going to get his bag either way right but now you have the old head coach who and and the new head coach and they’re both in the building at the same time you know how coaches work they’re not going to be aligned on absolutely I

Don’t well I will say this Dwayne’s been on the road a lot Dwayne goes on the road and does a lot of a lot of scouting and what part of that comes down to is when they brought Troy Weaver in Dwayne Casey was the incumbent and usually you

Bring a GM in you allow him some level of autonomy to keep the head coach and not to say that he probably didn’t have the option to move on from case if he wanted to but with where we were as far as the pandemic where the team was as far as

Going to go from a transition to remember they had Blake Griffin on that roster and Derrick Rose on the roster and all those other guys they had to shed a lot of some of that old long money to get to a point where they had you know flexibility and then you go

Into the coaching search where even the coaching search was raggedy you know by and large there was uh there was Charles Lee and what’s what’s the coach in Brooklyn Kevin Oly and jiren Collins and then Monty Williams appears and they’re like hey Tom Gores wants him AR tellum

Wants him let’s throw him the bag and all the circumstances surrounding Monty Williams that he sort of laid out his wife his uh his second wife now or before during the summer having breast cancer and I think it was breast cancer and now that you know some of that was

Cleared up and everything else like he felt better to coach but it goes back to knowing where you have to have a lot of awareness I think this is what this is how I can sum this all up you have to know where you are as a franchise you

Literally whether it’s Dwayne Casey or anybody else as a coach you have to know where you are as a franchise you have to know if you’re ready to run or if you’re ready to jog and this team was still in a very walking stage a crawling stage then

I ra the run yeah they’re not ready to jog yet they are still figuring out a lot of things about who they are who they should be they they just had to outright release the number seven pick in the 2020 draft Killian Hayes CUA because the kid can’t play not not

At this level not right now and yet and still he was being given an in ordinate amount of opportuni especially over a guy like Jaden Ivy I will say this about Ivy Ivy’s competing now and Ivy has a c level of resilience that he wasn’t letting this situation beat him down and

Now you’re moving forward with okay let’s see what let’s see what happens with Kay Cunningham who’s balling now K Cunningham has been balling since the All-Star break and you’re trying to figure out where does Kay and Ivy fit together and all that stuff so yeah it

It’s a lot going on maybe we’ll do a deeper dive over the summer because people ain’t coming here to listen to no damn Detroit Pistons podcast okay all right now to the lecture at hand the Boston Celtics John and this was this I’m give you guys I’m give I’m G give

You guys a peek behind the curtain this was a John Janeiro idea for today’s podcast give producer John all of the credit the Boston Celtics are so good but yet so much of an afterthought I hadn’t even thought of them myself and this was after we did Monday’s podcast

If you didn’t hear go back Monday we had Sam AIC on we went through the Western Conference we focused a lot on a few teams but we did a lot of Western Conference talking and then John came with the idea hey we should talk Eastern Conference and let’s go and do a deep

Dive on this team that’s really really good but we get trust issues with right you know what comes up for me John what’s that you’re gonna laugh because you seem like the type that watch Chappelle Show back in the day before Dave Chappelle lost his mind and

We like can’t refer to him and everything else so there was the the jury duty skit for Dave Chappelle where he was auditioned where he’s being interviewed to to do all these different uh jury trials and one of them was the OJ Simpson trial as if he would would

Have been a juror for that and he says reaso doubt I got questions and he went through all the lists of things about you know black people and evidence and D he’s like he’s like how can Biggy and Tupac get shot and Nicole Simpson killer gets found the

Next day you he’s like he’s like Nicole simps Can’t Rap I want justice but but the larger point is reasonable doubt do we have Reasonable Doubt with the Boston Celtics they have all these things working in their favor if I didn’t tell you that this was the Boston

Celtics I was talking about if I didn’t tell you this team was on a 65 win Pace if I didn’t didn’t tell you that this team was on a nine game winning streak where they are the number one offense overall the number three defense overall multiple All Stars an X Factor that has

Allstar potential a defensive player of the year candidate they have all the championship ingredients plus they have the championship heartbreak plus they have man we blew it in the NBA finals against Golden State they were up 2-1 they were bigger faster stronger and then Stephan Curry came and

Took their heart we saw it we seen it I was there I saw it Steph Curry in game four NBA Finals took it from him one of the most impressive things I’ve ever seen and Boston collapsed and then last year Conference Finals they collapse again they go down three to the heat

They resiliently come back remember that game six D the Derek white tip in at the buzzer which would have ended the Conference Finals in Miami and got us sent to South Beach just a little bit earlier you know but you know I’m not complaining John not complaining at all

I got to spend a couple days in South Beach I’d rather be in South Beach in June than Boston no disrespect to my Boston people all right no disrespect to the Boston listeners on this podcast it’s just it’s a June thing I’m sure you I’m sure even people in Boston would

Much rather spend June in Miami than June in Boston all right cool but John getting back to these Celtics and you pointed this out to me you said that this team by net rating is one of the top 10 best teams in NBA history and some

People will go deep into the to the weeds and like what’s net rating net rating is pretty much your offensive rating per 100 possessions your defensive rating per 100 possessions and what the difference is betx the two okay so if this is if you don’t believe that

This is a championship indicator if I just told you these the names of these teams in these particular seasons these are the top teams in net rating it would give you some level of indication number one the 96 Bulls number two the 97 Bulls number three arguably the greatest team

We’ve ever seen no disrespect to the Bulls and the 2016 17 Golden State Warriors that is the first year of Kevin Durant that’s when they just that that was better than the 20156 Warriors that was just a nuclear weapon that had no chance of anything right right next team

On the list the 15 16 San Antonio Spurs back end of back end of Duncan I think that was Duncan last year but that was kawhai that was kawhai that was a sports car that was that it was that team they won 60 something games next up the 2007′

08 Boston Celtics Garnett Pierce Allen that guy Doc Rivers that were’re not Shan coach that team next thing on the list the 92 Bulls which might be the best Bulls iteration of the Chicago Bulls right so you go down a couple more teams and then boom the 20 23 24 Boston

Celtics now John I’m not a complete devote to net rating in the way because some of these teams I can easily explain why there is such a discrepancy and how well they played taking nothing away from the 96 bulls or the 97 Bulls but that was in the age of

Expansion that was in the age where the Talent didn’t catch up to the teams and the Bulls were also that much better the the team the league went from 23 teams to 30 teams in a span of like six years that is insane so what’s going to happen

Is you’re going to have a you’re going to have a few good teams that have the infrastructure and have the great players and then you’re going to have some real bum ass teams some real rat ass teams out there that you’re going to Feast on keep in mind the 96 Bulls lost

To the expansion Toronto r of Damon STM in 96 right just keep that in mind keep all that in mind still a great team but I’m saying from the standpoint of net rating of what your offense looks like versus your defense I’m not taking anything away from the greatness and the

Championship worthiness of it I’m just saying over the course of 82 games some of the some of these numbers can be more easily explained but all of those teams that I named to you with the exception of those Spurs team that Spurs team with the of the

20156 Warriors team which won 73 games but lost in the finals to LeBron James and the Cavs that’s the team that’s right before the Celtics on his list but that’s that just shows you the company that they’re in their offense when their hitting shots is Unstoppable their defense always seems

To travel they have some of the most versatile defenders in the league they’re top six is arguably and say arguably John their top six is the best in the league period EAS that includes Denver right easily yeah everybody can shoot they’re top eight when you go from

The starting five and you go from Horford to porzingis you know the jasons and then you go to Sam Hower and pton Pritchard who are getting 20 minutes a game that’s a bit concerning for me John I’m not sure how good those guys are right you find that out in the

Playoffs we had a feature done on Chris porzingis by Dan Devine that came out yesterday go check that out on Yahoo sports where he goes deep into the numbers on KP and KP is the guy that unlocks all this because he at this point in his career can post up smaller

Guards he can punish those switches he helps out so much defensively covers so much ground he’s so smart he’s so astute all that stuff but why do we have trust issues with the Boston Celtics John do you do you have a theory on why we have trust

Issues with the Boston Celtics or do you think we’re just trying to find ways to talk ourselves into other things in this season well let me say one quick thing on uh the net rating thing you were talking about so when you look at the top 10 teams net rating historically uh

This year’s Celtics team is number 10 yep a lot of the other teams are dynasties right there’s three from the Jordan Bulls yes there is one two three from the Steph Curry warriors uh there is the the tail end of the Duncan Spurs when they added Kawai and and got a

Little bit younger and a little bit better there’s that Celtics team which you know they didn’t really have a chance to be a dynasty because they all got together when they were pretty old right there’s uh the the Bucks team before the merger when they had Kareem

Yeah and then he immediately goes over to the Lakers right and and I think uh the following year Lakers are also in the top 10 because that’s how good Kareem was these are dynastic teams and the Celtics are actually young enough that if let’s say the Celtics win the title this

Year now there’s some questions and we’ll get to that them in a second but let’s say the Celtics win the title this year Jaylen Brown’s still pretty young Jason Tatum’s still pretty young Chris porzingis is only 28 years old uh Derek White’s still pretty young like outside

Of Horford that top six is still pretty young they could turn into kind of a dynasty real quick if they can just be this good all the time forever the reason that I think I am not just looking at them like we did the KD Warriors when it’s like no one’s going

To beat them you know we went into that se those Seasons with the KD Warriors going I mean either LeBron’s going to stop him or no one will and we should be doing that with the Celtics but we’re not and I think it’s a twofold reason one the difference between this year’s

Celtics team and last year’s Celtics team is really Chris STS porzingis yes absolutely and and that Dan kind of made that point in his article too and porzingis is the key that brings it all together yes and porzingis even he’s quoted in the article in an interview he

Gave to Jake fiser at some point saying he understands that the question about him at this point in his career is not can he do it it’s can he stay healthy yes because if porzingis goes down let’s say porzingis tears an Achilles an ACL something like I’m a Mavericks fan I

Live through the porzingis Mavericks era and the main reason the Mavericks traded porzingis away was they were like if he has another knee injury we’re screwed this completely screws our ability to contend I think if porzingis has another major injury it screws up this Celtics

Thing in a major way for sure they they traded Marcus Smart kind of to to get Chris STS porzingis like if porzingis is not there in the playoff run it’s going to be harder for them to do a better job than they did last year or the year

Before against the Warriors against the Heat like you were talking about I think that and that alone is the reason that I can’t really view them as an Unstoppable Juggernaut well I think it’s even more simpler than that cuz I don’t think that people come down to the minutia of

Porzingis I think it starts higher than that for one a lot of people have been trying to talk themselves into Jason Tatum as MVP candidate because he’s best player on best team and I’m urging us let’s think a little harder y’all it a it ain’t got to be that damn simple like

We can we can do something besides looking at the standings and saying oh who’s the best player on that team he’s the MVP we can do something a little bit better than that I’m not saying Jason tum isn’t a superstar I’m saying when you compare him to Nico yic and what

Shay Gil’s Alexander is doing and Giannis who’s there and Lucas who’s there you can see there’s a difference and here’s the other thing I think this is the greater part of this to me as far as our modern day trust issues for the Celtics is because we’ve seen them around for so

Long and they haven’t gotten over the hump like if you think about Jason Tatum arrived in 2017 the year before that they made the Conference finals against LeBron in the 2016 17 playoffs and they had no chance and then you draft Jason Tatum I think it was third by virtue of

The trade with the Philadelphia 76ers when they got the pick by the whole gardet Pier thing that’s going way in the way back machine but think about this 2018 game s Eastern Conference Finals 2019 that was the second Kyrie year they they were in flames in the

Second round but still Advanced 2020 in the bubble Conference Finals lost to Miami 21 they got waxed by that monster in Brooklyn when Brooklyn looked like they were putting it together right but that was the inflection point you had Kimbo on that team you had Tristan Thompson on that team Jabari Parker on

That team those guys were getting major minutes boom completely different team the next year but the Boston Celtics were still there eay udoka takes over they go to the finals then last year eay udoka the same you know y’all know what happened with him being a little tricky

Out here okay then they go to the Conference Finals so what I’m saying is we have felt like we’ve seen the Jason Tatum Boston Celtics at the doorstep for a number of years quietly y’all this is kind of old school NBA quietly y’all you watch a team fail and fail and fail and

Then boom they get there but I think because we haven’t seen him do it we have trust issues on why we why would you why would they do it this year when they didn’t do it last year when it seemed like the road was easy was an

Easier Road for them to get to the finals last year than this year it feels like it it feels like it was especially with Milwaukee getting popped in the first round especially with you going against the eighth seated Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals and they wet the

Bed but with that said John it’s becoming harder to deny here’s what I think of the Celtics this is the best analogy I have John I had a friend of mine and I’ve I’ve used this friend before but I don’t think you could be able to correlate maybe maybe you could I

Wouldn’t I would haven’t named him because I I’m I’m afraid if he’ll find me but you ever have a friend that like is your first friend with a really nice car at a young age and he probably has no business having a nice car my friend

Had a Cadillac when we were in high school he had a Cadillac CA okay I didn’t have a car but he was the one that always wanted to drive want to drive to the mall want to drive to the other side of town whatever it was right and he loved driving

Recklessly like to some degree I don’t know why I’m still alive considering I was in this car with this man all right and he would have this button I have no clue what this button did he called it it was a s button it said s on it I

Don’t know if that meant sport I don’t know if that meant super speed whatever the hell it meant right but he would press the S button on the freeway mind you this is in Detroit y we got a lot of cars and a lot of traffic he pressed the

S button and that thing would go from like 65 to 100 milph on the Southfield Freeway it felt like men and black in a tunnel where we were just riding above everybody right that’s what it felt like I should not be alive today like I did

Have on a seat belt John I did have on a seat Bel but man that kid drove crazy had no business driving the car I say that to say the Boston Celtics I like that car that’s in traffic with you at like 65 they going a nice pace and they

Didn’t look around and they’re like why are we going 65 with the rest of these peasants let’s hit aund and let’s go run and hide that’s what they do they did that last night oh what this team is hanging with us let’s go on this 20 run will we Blitz

You from three will we get every single stop will we protect the rim they protect the rim at one of the most underrated rates of any team in the league it’s not just the shot blocking it’s Jason Tatum as a r prot sector Jaylen Brown they’re both tall they’re

Both long they can cover a lot of space they help out on defense they get there we all know about Derek white from the guard position he’s a really good health Defender we know Drew holiday who I had not mentioned yet in this podcast be 30 damn minutes in Drew holiday another

Great defender all of those things as they add up I don’t think steals necessarily translate in the playoffs but I do think shot blocking does and getting that extra block that extra Rim protection saves you some possessions John they’re John they’re holding teams to 43% shooting during this nine game

Winning streak they’re outscoring teams by 16 points tonight they’re running and hiding and I know people think John that the regular season doesn’t matter that it’s too damn long that it’s everybody talks about it shouldn’t why you asking guys to play 65 games and we should

Shorten the season to 72 and you know this is why the NFL is King cuz they have a shorter season Robble Robble Robble yeah y’all I need y’all to have a little bit of Common Sense here just a little bit just just work with me cuz I

Because I think that there is a great value in 82 game regular season both from what the Celtics are doing but just as a whole in 82 games you go through a lot of es and flows you figure out what works and what doesn’t you figure out

Who you are team-wise because once the playoffs start all it is is reinforcing whatever those habits are are you learn those habits and John I’m going to go deep into the history weeds I have a theory I think every championship team no matter who you are you have to have a

Six to8 week stretch where you take everything so damn seriously that you literally blow every team away for a six to8 week stretch that it says I’m a champion ship team why do I say six to eight weeks because that’s how long the playoffs are that’s how long you have to sustain your

Concentration from a night toight basis to say this is how serious we are taking it the regular season is a SLO it is a battle of attrition it is all of those things but every championship team the great championship teams that I’ve seen in my life I can point through periods

Where I don’t care if it was the start of the Season where they take it seriously for six to eight weeks and run away and hide or even towards the end of the season after the trade deadline whatever it is you have to give me 6 to

Eight straight weeks of balls to the wall basketball where teams literally walk into your building and they know they have no chance or you walk in theirs into theirs and they realize they have no chance so John we G so so think about this exercise John I’m G to ask you this

Question cuz maybe we’re fooling ourselves into thinking that there’s a bunch of teams that have has a a they have reasons to say that they can win the championship this year John and the past 20 years how many teams outside of the top three seeds on either side of the

Conference do you believe that has advanced to the NBA finals or won an NBA championship top in 20 years 20 years since 2003 three two D last year with the Miami Heat in 2010 with the Boston Celtics the older Boston Celtic that was Kevin Garnett post knee

Injury they were the four seed and remember they beat LeBron in the Cavs in the second round where LeBron took the Jersey off at the Boston Garden and you know is this the last time LeBron James is going to wear Cleveland Cavaliers uniform yeah kind of you know that sort

Of thing so basically what I’m saying is you have to be a top three seed and there’s going to be some people who look in the stand and say wait a minute the Dallas Mavericks won 60 games we a four seed yeah because the way the divisions

Were set up and everything but they had a top three record the year that they went to the NBA finals I think in 20 2006 Dallas won 60 games they were a four seed technically but they had a better record than two and three you get what I’m

Saying only the a SE at Miami he that had to go through the playin in a 2010 Celtics so basically what I’m telling you today is that by and large by and large that you got Boston maybe Cleveland maybe Milwaukee those are the top three seeds in the

East as evidenced by John’s misery over there the Cleveland Cavaliers who he’s seen up in close in person up close in personal bit hot and in the west you got Minnesota OKC and Denver if that if history is are guide that’s all I’m saying if history is are

Guide that’s what I’m saying not Phoenix not the Lakers not golden State those three teams so here’s the other thing when I say the six to eight weeks John like even Denver last year they had a 32-9 stretch they went from 40 they went from 14- 10 on in December 8th to

46 and9 on March 6 that’s a thre Monon stretch where they just said all right cool we gone we are taking all of this seriously right and we had doubts about the Denver Nuggets too if people it’s a lot easier to say now that we’ve seen the results that of course Denver should

Have wanted last year but we had doubts about them Jamal Murray Michael Porter Jr can yic carry a championship team is Michael Malone a championship coach do they have the bodies remember we were say we were saying that we fixed our mouthes to say that but it’s a lot

Easier to to start from the end and get to the beginning and say of course it makes sense they hit this 32-9 stretch right Golden State the year before they started off 18- two they were 24 and5 I think a little bit after Christmas they sputtered they had some crazy crazy

Sputters after that but they started off hot and to me that was the proof of concept as Dan Devine would say that’s the six week stretch where you would say okay you guys are taking this really really seriously Toronto in 2019 because I’m because I can’t the 2020 and 21

Seasons because they weren’t full seasons because everything was so compressed or 2020 because it was so odd it’s hard to do but 2019 the kawh Leonard Toronto Raptors where basically played half the damn games you know what they did they went from 28- 12 to 44- 16

That’s a 16 and4 stretch that’s 20 games where they said we are taking this more serious than anybody else let’s go further back John the 2016 Cleveland Cavaliers a that we said by and large kind of underachieved under the regular season right they fired their coach at uh they fired the coach David

Blat the guy who says I performed in front of many presidents that was the funniest statement John I’ve ever heard in my life we were in Chicago and they said President Obama is coming to the game tonight Obama’s a bulls fan the game was in Chicago David blat said you

Know I’ve been in front of many presidents before ain’t nobody asked you about what you did in front of other presidents fool we said CH we said Obama’s coming to Chicago to watch the Bulls and the Cavs and you fixed your mouth to say that all that aside right

They went from 13- s to 35- 12 23 and five stretch taking things seriously let’s go further back I only got two more examples for you but you get what I’m saying the 2000 Lakers one of the greatest teams we’ve ever seen they started off 23 of 24 or didn’t start off

That’s they hadit a 23 of 24 stretch and then another stretch where they won 19 straight games and this was with Kobe Bryant not being the full version of Kobe Bryant they took it seriously the 91 Bulls they went from 20 and 10 to 50 and 15 that’s the first iteration of the

Jordan championship Bulls and that’s a team that was not on that best damn rating list John Janeiro you know who else wasn’t I noticed it earlier and you just mentioned it I mean you and I we are of a similar age and we grew up with Jordan’s Bulls dominating but when we

Got to a certain point we’re 18 19 20 21 years old the Lakers were the dynasty yes the Lakers were the dominant team yes I’ve heard you say that you believe the best big man in the history of the NBA was sha around that time none of those Lakers teams had a

Better net rating were even in the top 10 of net ratings that we were talking about at the beginning of this which goes to show you just how great this Celtics team is this year or it shows you just maybe this statement is not a hard and fast rule John if we’re not

Having those Lakers teams on there if this Lakers team won 23 or 24 don’t one stretch 19 straight down another stretch and they’re not on this list the list is flawed right I just told you about the 91 Bulls 30 and5 the scariest team of my lifetime because I was a Detroit Piston

Fan and that’s Michael Jordan that is most determined that’s the that’s the Michael Jordan that put on the muscle that’s the triangle offense that’s all that stuff they went 30 and five and then the then the teams that I grew up loving the 90 Pistons won 25 of 26 games John during

The stretch they just said you know we’re just tired of this we’re going to push the S button we pushed the S button and we going 100 miles now the year before that they went 30 and4 after acquiring marku like this is what happens championship teams have that

Stretch the Celtics have taken by and large the entire season seriously when you’re on a 65 win Pace I doubt that they get to 65 because I’m betting once you clinch the East you start throttling it back you rest some guys to make sure especially if you’re only playing eight

Guys you throttle it back a little bit you make sure that Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown are completely healthy going into the playoffs but they have everything John they do and I have my concerns about the shot selection sometimes in games that they lose and granted it’s a small sample

Size of games that they they’ve lost this year right they’ve only lost 12 and when they lose they shoot 31% from three and they take the same amount of threes and losses that they do in wins which to me points at a lack of shot recognition

That we don’t have it going tonight and they don’t explore other ways to score but I understand why you wouldn’t do that because inevitably the shot turns around because the shot always turns around because the evidence says we’re going to wind up shooting 40% by the end

Of the night and Joe moula who’s done a really good job this year of embracing what this team is like he he’s not backing off of that I give him credit for that I John my only doubt or or fear for the Celtics is a an

Injury B not having a counter punch in the playoffs because in the playoffs you got to have a counter punch in the playoffs after game three of a playoff series everybody knows what everybody’s running what can you do outside of the game plan what can you execute outside

Of the game plan at the game three to me John it’s about what the what do your stars do your first two games you might somebody may be able to steal you a game in a different way because you’re you’re still filling each other out you’re you’re doing something that I haven’t

Done in a long time you’re recording right that’s the recording process the first couple of games of a playoff series and then you’re and then you’re in a full dance after that can you Boogie can you do a twep that’s the most I can do is a two-step right I can’t do

Nothing more than a two-step John I’m afraid if I ever get married if I ever get married baby we gonna take some dance lessons we are gon to take some legit dance lessons cuz all I got is the two-step but what can you do after game

Three of playoff series do you have that Rising boat that lifts all tights if that’s Jason Tatum that’s where Jason Tatum shows up remember they collapsed after game three of the NBA finals against Boston against the Golden State Warriors because they did not have another counter punch and Stephen Curry had the counter

Punch not not only did he have the counter punch he had the big Spade little Spade big counter punch all that stuff and Boston didn’t have any answers let’s see if they’ve learned from that let’s see if the net rating and all these things hold up let’s see if

Everything that we’re seeing in the regular season the hellacious defense the shot making the versatility the ability to score porzingis and Jason Tatum recognizing that he doesn’t have to force his game all the time let’s see if that holds up during the playoffs I’m very curious because in the end we may

Look at it and say why were we fooling ourselves the Celtics have been showing us exactly who they were the entire year they had the heartbreaks from years past they had the star power up top they had the versatility in terms of players and height and switchability which is a must in today’s

Game maybe come June we are going to be in the Boston Garden and confetti is going to be coming down or whatever it is and we’re going to be saying why didn’t we pick this team or there’s going to be confetti coming down to Boston Garden and a fat man is going to

Be holding up the trophy again and we’re going to be saying why do we ever fool ourselves into thinking that anybody else is going to beat him and we’re back on the good word producer John and myself of course guys we have the viewing guide for this weekend John has

A couple of games I have a game that we consider to be quite compelling for the rest of the week producer John what you got well I got two games I got one game tonight which uh we kind of talked about earlier which is just trying to wash the

Bad taste out of my mouth from Max stru hitting like five threes in the last three minutes of that game against the Mavericks and stealing one with a 60 foot shot at the the buzzer Q Jason Jackson theu is loose they play in Toronto tonight against a raptor team that is one three

Straight yep that is starting to find its identity that quite honestly has a lot of good players and that you know kind of the result of them trading away OG an anobi and Pascal seaka was they got draft Capital but they got a lot of good

Players and they’ve had a few weeks now they’ve had the All-Star break they’re really starting to to mesh well RJ Barrett is I think back from an injury they’ve won three in a row I don’t know if you saw the whole thing about they got a pizza party for wining

Three did I did I did see that good for them and the the Mavericks who previously were riding a seven game winning streak now have a two game losing streak so I I was telling you before we started recording that the game against the Cavs last night was

Interesting because you could see the Mavericks wanted to get back into their winning momentum and the Cav already have all this winning momentum that they were desperate to keep going mhm I think there’s uh similar feelings going into this Toronto game Dallas like we have to turn this around the Raptors

Are not in our league right the Cavs are number two in the East but the Raptors are like 10th 11th they’re 14 games under 500 or whatever it is this should be a game where the Mavericks can just beat up on the Raptors and get right but

It’s not the Wizards it’s not the distance it’s not even the Spurs it’s it’s a team that’s starting to find themselves it’s going to be dangerous for the Mavericks so I’m going to be watching that and then tomorrow night I’m assuming this game’s on TNT although

I didn’t look it up uh the rematch of last year’s NBA Finals the aforementioned Denver Nuggets with the guy that we refer to as the fat man aka the greatest basketball player in the world at the moment and the Miami Heat who I almost I don’t tweet anymore Vinnie because I

Don’t want to I don’t want to help that man but the other day when I saw what the heat were going into that game against Sacramento with or rather without all of their suspended players and injured players and I I think even the ball don’t lie uh Twitter account

Sent out something showing that they were only going to have like six guys and they’re mostly bench players I almost retweeted that with guaranteed SPO win like nobody loves that exact situation more than Eric’s folster and of course they pulled off the win against the Sacramento Kings who are not

A bad team they’re going to be a playoff team and the heat are starting to look like the heat again Terry roier has like not even existed for them and it doesn’t matter they just look like the heat again they’re tougher than you they play harder than you they’re smarter than you

And they look like that team again it kind of looks like they coasted to the all-star break maybe they did maybe they’re like hey Championship hangover all this stuff we need to Coast until we get to the allstar break and then we’ll do the 100% heat culture thing but

They’re doing the 100% heat culture thing and the the nuggets are a very good measuring stick uh these are two teams that I I don’t even think there was like bad blood in the finals last year but they really like to beat one another because there’s a lot of respect

As as far as how good each other’s team is so I’m going to be watching that I want to see how the heat look I want to see how the Nuggets look I want to see how that match up looks because if that ends up being the finals again I’m not

Going to be that surprised yeah I think especially after doing all this stuff that we’ve been talking about with the Boston Celtics and how great the net rating is and everything else and you know you know what I think about even going back to that little bit a team

That’s on the list a little further down from the Boston Celtics I think maybe four or five spots from the Celtics down the 20123 Oklahoma City Thunder and you know what happened to them Russell Westbrook got hurt in the first round I believe against the Rockets that’s when Patrick Beverly ran

Into his knee during that timeout and that team looked so poised and so ready after losing in the finals and they were going to come back and they were going to do it and what happened Russell Westbook got hurt they Advanced past Houston in that round but

They were no match for the Memphis Grizzlies I believe in the second round I believe that’s what it was they lost in five think they won game one lost the next four games because it was just Kevin Durant and nobody else so when I think of the

Heat not that I think of them in the same vein as the Thunder because you know just top level talent but losing in the finals and trying to get back and Miami is finding like John just eloquently said finding its Rhythm they’re not a fifth in the East they won

Five straight games they are past Philly who everybody expected to fall which you know without Joel embiid out there past Orlando pass Indiana they’re now Fifth and they’re slated for a first round grudge match against the New York Knicks but the New York Knicks have more players in the Infirmary thanks to tips

Then they do out on the floor so while the heat are getting healthier you got questions about Milwaukee we got questions about the Knicks don’t really have questions about the Cavs right now from a regular season standpoint how high can the heat go how high do they want to go and the other

Question is how high do the Boston Celtics not want them to go because there’s one team that the Boston Celtics is looking at and saying hey man do we have to face them this year can they just go away can someone else knock them off before they get to us is probably

The Miami Heat right Eric poster remember I said two coaches in the league that I would take above anybody else Eric poster and tyo they can take theirs and beat yours and take yours and beat theirs I think that’s a bum Phillips line that I that I got that bum

Phillips old football coach that I got that from and the game for me is the same Boston Celtics on Sunday so Sunday showcase game on on I think it’s on ABC because it’s Sunday afternoon game Warriors and Celtics and I’m not sure how good the Golden State Warriors are

And I know that Chris Paul just came back we mentioned that at the top of the show but this is a different Chris Paul this is say different Chris Paul this is a different Warriors team than the one that Chris Paul exited on January 5th when he left with the hand injury Klay

Thompson was starting Draymond Green wasn’t there Andrew Wiggins was coming off the bench then now you have Klay Thompson on the bench Wiggins back in the starting line Draymond is back pods is getting all the burn what does that put Chris Paul where does that put Steve

Kerr it’s a coaching job like we said earlier or like we said Monday rather with Sam AMC there’s a lot of Rubik’s Cube pieces that you’re going to have to fit together and you’re putting yourself against a Celtics team that feels like they know exactly who they are and then

You just add the element of Jew holiday and this is still a team that looks at the Warriors as kind of like their bullies kind of like the guys that that they need to measure themselves up against cuz that those those finals still ring those finals still ring out

Right those finals still very much ring out so those are the games to watch this week for the rest of the week and that is all we have for you on today’s episode of the good word thanks to producer John for showing us some of his Dallas Mavericks vulnerability and also

For everything else that he does and the entire team who works hard behind the scenes on this show Jake and Dan will be back tomorrow for another episode of No Cap room and I will be back on Monday for another episode of the good word until then everybody be safe

Yahoo Sports senior NBA reporter Vincent Goodwill talks about Monty Williams’ fit as the Pistons head coach and where this year’s Celtics team ranks amongst the best teams in NBA history.

00:00 – Welcome to the Good Word
02:15 – What’s up with Monty Williams and the Pistons?
12:00 – Are we underrating the Boston Celtics?
42:15 – NBA Viewing Guide

On this episode of the Good Word with Goodwill podcast, Yahoo Sports senior NBA reporter Vincent Goodwill kicks things off by talking about Monty Williams’ fit as the head coach of a young Detroit Pistons team and wonders if the pairing got off on the wrong foot to begin with.

Later, Producer John wonders if the Boston Celtics aren’t getting the respect they deserve and brings some stats to prove it. Vinnie talks about what purpose the regular season serves to championship contenders and applauds the Celtics for taking the entire season seriously.

Finally, the guys provide their viewing guide for the rest of this week, including a test for the Golden State Warriors and a rematch of last year’s NBA Finals.

#nba #detroitpistons #bostonceltics

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