Recapping the Celtics loss to Jokic, Murray, and the Denver Nuggets. Breaking down 3rd quarter struggles and late game execution.
Mike and Jim also give thoughts on what team in the East scares them the most.
Recapping the Celtics loss to Jokic, Murray, and the Denver Nuggets. Breaking down 3rd quarter struggles and late game execution.
Mike and Jim also give thoughts on what team in the East scares them the most.
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Mike Quigley:They're gonna call it a heart cell. They're gonna call it a heart cell Offering in-depth analysis on all things Boston Celtics With your hosts Jim and Mike Quigley.
Jim Quigley:Hey everyone, we're starting off your week. We haven't spoken to you for a while. It's been a couple weeks and that's my fault, not Michael's. I was down and out with some illnesses. In fact my whole house had sickness. But I'm on the rebound here and I'm ready to talk Celtics and we had quite a weekend to actually talk about and within that weekend you certainly had some trends that are concerning for the Celtics team.
Jim Quigley:A great game, I just thought overall on, even though they're lost on Friday night against the Nuggets. It was, two heavyweights Came down to the last possession which was executed poorly by the Celtics. Things to learn from. I don't think it's a loss to be ashamed of, but a game they could have won. And then the game yesterday against and that was against the Devon Nuggets and Yoko Chimuri and Yoko Chimuri were fantastic, just out of this world where Tatum and Brown were. I think it's safe to say we're sub-power on Friday night.
Jim Quigley:And then Celtics rebound, had a great first half against Houston last night and their quarter kind of resits ugly head again. They hold on to win in the fourth quarter. Part of it is just their talent and prosengus kind of rose up, while Houston just isn't nearly as good, although I thought Houston dictated the pace in the second half. They dictated the physicality and I didn't think it was a Celtics best effort by any means. But here we are. I think it's important to put a benchmark in the season where, beyond the halfway point, by one game, the Celtics have the best record in basketball. They're the number one seed in the East, mike. But there are some things that are concerning for sure, and so the temperature of this team. I think it's important to take just not overall in these past two games, but where things stand as we head into the final 40 of the regular season. And with that I'll let you take it away.
Mike Quigley:Celtics are certainly the most talented team with their start in five probably in the NBA, and that's been obvious in this first half. We've seen plenty of really good basketball long stretches of it and I also think there's concerns that I think are valid for fans, especially with what we've seen in playoff runs the last couple of seasons, where there's been questions about maturity issues with this team and how dedicated they are, a focus they are at times, and for me most recently the last four third quarters, they haven't scored 25 points and the last two games they haven't hit 50 points in the second half overall, and so I think there's some things that we can cover as far as that goes, especially with the pace of play, where they run into issues still, where they allow other teams to dictate the pace and they have opportunities to change that and they just don't, and so for me, that's something to keep an eye on, especially as we get closer to the playoffs, because my biggest fear is that in years past, the things that the Celtics did in the regular season the inconsistent season, regular season is what cost them in the playoffs, and these third quarters in execution at the end of games are something that they need to get better at and so. But outside of that gym they have been terrific for the majority of the season, where Zingas has been an incredible pickup. If anybody doesn't think that he is like an A plus at this point of the season, I think he's just a miserable person. Teams still don't know how to match up with him. Outside of really Denver, I thought Denver did a good job, but he was really limited to perimeter play against Denver. But even last night the Rockets were just throwing like six-four and six-five guys on him in the fourth quarter. Even with Tatum and Brown not shooting well for the second game in a row and really being kind of zeros on offense, they were still more concerned, I think, about Tatum and Brown getting to the hoop than they were about for Zingas beating them up on the post. So that pickup has just been terrific, and then the opportunity for Derek White to play more this year and be a bigger part of the team has obviously made this team better offensively.
Mike Quigley:One other thing that concerns me about this team on the defensive end is they cannot cover our guards, and it's not just a trend now. It's where they struggle. If they play a good guard like Kamal, marry, tyrese, maxie, what have you, damian Lillard? They're given up big night after big night after big night against these guys, and these guys get whatever they want. I don't know if it's a scheme thing or a talent thing and our guards just can't cover quick guards. You know, even Jalen Brunson gets off. Even last night, the guard from Houston who's one of the most inconsistent shooters in the NBA was getting whatever he wanted. So it's something to it's. A trade deadline comes up. I don't know if that's something that they want to think about, but yeah, those are my kind of all over the place thoughts about Celtics. My ADHD, unorganized brain just like throws like 5 million things at you.
Jim Quigley:Don't worry about it. So let's get to the third quarter. We can get to the guards and certainly get to you know where we think this team is headed. I guess you know the thing that just disturbed me, especially over the last couple nights in the third quarter, because that's kind of front of mind and I know we could examine other ones, but I just thought it was lazy offense to start the thirds to the extent of where you didn't. It felt like it was coming down one pass three or office green three. There was no ball movement. There was no huge effort to get paint touches. Especially against Denver you have mismatches all over the floor. There's ways you can create that Running with Przingis setting screens for white or getting Al into the game.
Jim Quigley:I didn't feel like through the first three, four minutes of that third quarter. They had an open three I thought they just settled or an open shot and they just settled and they were forcing things. That is just troubling to me. I thought the same thing you saw for the entire third quarter against Houston was a team that just continued to take the quick shot. You had a 15 point lead coming out of halftime. You played a brilliant first half. You managed the minutes of your superstars in that first half, where Brown and Tatum, I thought, sat the last four or five minutes of that second quarter and they just rolled with what they had. Przingis had it going on. There were ways to find mismatches. I thought the rest of Houston played a little bit more than they should have defensively, but still there were things you could have done.
Jim Quigley:Again, I just felt like there was a lot of settling. You came out the first few possessions. I think Przingis threw up a quick three, tatum and Brown jacked them up. There was zero paint touches at all. I feel like that leads to quick and easy shots for the opponents. It gets them going.
Jim Quigley:You saw the same thing against Indiana a couple of weeks ago where those guys just stopped feeling good quickly because the Celtics have to be in retreat, because they're coming off of long rebounds. The defense looks like there's a lack of effort, where it's just not in the rotation that you want to be in or you're a little bit disorganized and these teams are so talented that they're going to get away good shots. It causes you problems. I feel like certainly that's where the game was lost in that third quarter span. To start the third against Denver, where you just allowed them to gain some momentum. Look, I know you had some tough breaks in that game. You had the end of the first half where you had five offensive rebounds and a lot of really good looks and you were stuck at 61 for a while, 59 or whatever it was. That's tough. Then, in the fourth quarter, the same exact thing happened again. You missed a lot of really good looks.
Mike Quigley:It wasn't a case for it. Then you over at the back call on Porzingis was huge.
Jim Quigley:Yeah, I didn't feel like it was a case where your entire third quarter was crap. You set the tone with how you came out in those first few minutes offensively. They're just too good for that. It shouldn't happen. It's a bit of a trend. I guess what was so disappointed about Denver is that it happened at home against an elite team where you've obviously made a conscious effort that home court really matters. I don't know. That's just been really disappointing to me.
Mike Quigley:I agree with the word disappointing. They're a bit sluggish right now over their last 10. Even though they're records seven and three, there's been a lot of holes in the second half offensively, Mike. Can I say one more?
Jim Quigley:thing, just to emphasize this point they went in 19-nothing second chance points against Houston. They lost the second chance point battle six to two in the third quarter. A lot of that is you don't have the defensive rotation like you did in the first half. You were just settling and you're not making them work. All they got to do is counter around and box out and get the ball, instead of having them scrambled then being in a position to get those offensive rebounds. Those are not by accident. That's because you forced them to move defensively. That's why they got so many against Denver. Even when they were missing shots, it was good offense. When they were missing shots against Denver, it was really good offense. It was just bad luck Against Houston. It was not good offense. The first four minutes was not good offense against Denver. Sorry to interrupt, but I thought that really showed how much that offense was stuck. That's that.
Mike Quigley:The one concern I had with Denver was a couple. I thought the offense. They did get good looks. They missed a lot of open shots but they also played with the pace that Denver wanted to play with. There was one possession the fourth quarter where Aaron Gordon was complaining and yelling to his coach to put on the green light and challenge the call of an out of bounds play, which Denver coach probably shut off but he didn't. The Celtics are walking the ball up and all five guys on Denver they're like in a slow jaw getting back looking at their coach expecting them to turn around and challenge this call. The Celtics are just not focused enough to understand that if we run here it's an easy hoop or we're going to get a good look or we're going to get to the basket. Tatum's walking the ball up real slow, similar to last night against Houston. I thought the pace against Houston sucked. It's that lack of detail that I don't understand why it's missing.
Mike Quigley:Denver had one possession against Denver. It was a crossover right to the hoop and a dunk on Aaron Gordon. It just felt like they were settling to not be more efficient, as how often they're going to go to the basket, how often they're going to run off rebounds. It allowed for Denver to walk the ball up and let Murray and Yolkic do their two-man game, where the Celtics obviously didn't have any answers, which I don't know if anybody in the NBA does. But you've got to make Denver run, you've got to pick up the pace. You can't fall into that trap and they've done it a couple of times this year where against Golden State, they had a lead and then they fell into the trap of trying to play like Golden State plays last night in the second half.
Mike Quigley:And then the attention to detail stuff, that offense, a rebound by Michael Porter Jr in the fourth quarter, running from the opposite side, the weak side of the court, to come in and get that offensive rebound. Nobody boxed them out. You had Al Horford and Porzingis both they're out there together. These are just huge mistakes that they got to clean up against these good teams. And at the end of the day, jim, if you've got stars, don't show up against the champs. You're not going to win those games. You don't beat the champs with role plays and Tate and Brown, they didn't have it. I think that's a big part of the reason they lost. If they hit some shots. That's a different game. Obviously, I still think the Celtics can be better than Denver, but I do think there's some things that they're going to clean up as far as their lack of intensity and their lack of effort.
Jim Quigley:I didn't think it was intensity and effort, I thought it was execution. I thought it was Hard focus they fell asleep on that offensive rebound. But I didn't think it was an effort thing, I thought it was Tatum missed a layup and then Tatum at the end of the game this is like it's concerning the execution part for you superstars he gets a ball with five seconds to go and it's not a great pass, but he shoots it with three when he could have bumped him again and got to the spot that he wants to get so he can hit his pattern and fade away. Instead he let kind of cover up hope dictate where he was going to go on that last shot. To me that is no-transcript. You know he are a great player, five seconds is a lot of time and it just felt rushed. The layup felt rushed. You know Jaylen Brown missing free throws, it's. You know, we've seen it a lot in big moments. Whereas you look on the other side.
Jim Quigley:I thought Murray was covered well, like a lot of that fourth quarter. I thought he was covered well and he was just making shot after. In fact, the one he missed was the only one he missed. I felt like was wide open Above the break three. You know I mean, but other than that, like White had a hand in his face and Brown had a hand, it wasn't. These weren't uncontested shots, it was just one of those crazy games. And you know, look, I think the effort on offense was good. They only had two turnovers, that's it. But again to your point, with Pace, they controlled it in the first half. They were running, they had multiple fast break points and then I think they only had four in the second half.
Mike Quigley:Second half yeah.
Jim Quigley:You know. So like it got bogged down and I think a lot of that had to do with how they started the half Again. You know it's a trend, yeah, because it was a tie. One less thing, mike, I wanted to add about that game and then you jump right on in it's.
Jim Quigley:We saw earlier in the season where they went to different things to close and it really impressed me. I remember one game was like holiday Przingus two man game and Tatum and Brown were okay with it. Down the stretch of this game you didn't see much of that and I was really surprised when they brought holiday back in actually, and took Al out, because I thought when the offense ran through Al they got whatever they wanted. And I know they were still missing in the fourth running throughout, but there was still great looks and the ball was popping. I felt like in the last two minutes, when he came out, they kind of became predictable. With that they were just going to Tatum and we're gonna see what happened. And I thought Al was great through the majority of that game and I thought he was the best option to cover Jokic too is you never have a great option, but I thought he was the best option and I was kind of surprised. Down the last few minutes of that game he was on the bench.
Mike Quigley:Yeah, and I'd love to see some more creativity at the end of the games. We don't just have to go to Tatum every single time in these situations.
Jim Quigley:Yeah.
Mike Quigley:They have enough talent on the floor that they can draw something up to get somebody a wide open shot, where they use Tatum and Brown as the decoys and they never do it, which I think that it's mixing it up a little bit is gonna make it harder for teams to scheme against you in the playoffs.
Mike Quigley:Even if you don't make the shots here in the regular season, at least make teams think about it that, hey, they might go to Derek White here or they might run something to get poor Zingas the ball here at the post at the end of the game, rather than hey, guys, all they're gonna do is clear it out and give it to Tatum.
Mike Quigley:He's gonna shoot a fade away, because that's kind of what their offense is in these situations when they're down by one or two points and Tatum does execute sometimes. But I think they could get more creative in these situations At the end of games in particular, they use the timeout sometimes too. Now Tatum got that layup that he missed, but there's been other games this year where they've gotten the rebound down by one or two. They have a timeout in their pocket and they don't call one, and then you're looking at them like they got six seconds left in the shot clock and it's obvious they're not gonna get a good shot off and they still don't call the timeout. I think there's a lot they could work on at the end of the games here in the second half to prepare for the postseason.
Jim Quigley:Yeah. So what's interesting about the end of that game too? So they get the ball with 16 seconds left, they call a timeout and they draw something up and I'm trying to remember what it looked like. But Denver took away their first two reads and just did an excellent job defensively and I don't know if it was a lack of execution on the Celtics or Denver doing a good job, but Denver had to have something to do with it. And then they call a timeout and there's five seconds, which is still plenty of time, and if you look at it, the spacing of the guys, you had a. It looked like there was a guy in the corner and of course you have dark white above the break because he's inbounding.
Jim Quigley:I'm not sure that was the design play initially. To go to Tatum on the post. It almost felt like that was option two or three and that Denver took away what they initially wanted to do. And that said, I mean Tatum still had plenty of time. I thought to really knock down a shot. I think he got sped up when the pass was high, but I think something I don't think that was the play is what I'm telling you, if you, because if you're gonna isolate a guy. You don't have a man in the strong corner right, you're gonna have him cut through to give Tatum more room to operate. So I don't know.
Mike Quigley:I think, I think.
Jim Quigley:Denver did a good job was what happened.
Mike Quigley:They did that whole sequence, even the possession before the time out, waiting to follow with four seconds, five or four or five seconds left. Denver's physicality and size on the defensive end played a big part in that game. It allowed them to dictate the pace. They shrunk the court. They help well, they communicate defensively I mean, they're the champs right so but the Celtics didn't help themselves. Jalen Brown, missing those free throws, did it again last night, by the way, in the fourth quarter.
Jim Quigley:Yeah.
Mike Quigley:This has become something to be a little concerned about with him at the end of the game. So like can we trust him in a big moment?
Jim Quigley:Well, the execution of your two stars it needs, like I think they want to do. Well, I think they're trying their ass off. I don't think that's the case, like they've been put in spots where I know it was a one on three or one on four fast break by Tatum, but he got to the rim. You know, he got to the rim with a clean layup and he missed it. Like just he flat missed it. Then he gets them all down on the post and he rushed it and he ended up being a bad shot. And then, you know, you talk about the miss free throws from Brown. They need to be better. They need to be better and they weren't. You know, it's just tough to watch.
Jim Quigley:And even that last sequence of 16 seconds to go, the Celtics should find matchups against Denver. Denver does not have the guys to match up with what the Celtics have. They just they don't have the bodies to do it. And especially in the half court, because of Yolkic. You should be able to take advantage of him with Przingis, and they did earlier in the game, and then they just I felt like they stopped going to it, or with Al out there as well. So hey, those two guys and you hit on it, you texted it Tatum and Brown, they need to be better in those spots. And then there's been times of shit where Tatum certainly has been better. I mean going into that game against Denver. He was playing amazing. I thought he was the reason they won down the stretch in Indiana, that first world game.
Mike Quigley:Minnesota.
Jim Quigley:Yeah, Minnesota. He was exceptional down the stretch, so it isn't like he's been missing all season long. But when you have these really big games in, your two big stars fall flat. You're gonna have PTSD and think back to the playoff misses, without a doubt.
Mike Quigley:Definitely definitely so, jim, I know again to the end here. Did you have five questions for the pod today?
Jim Quigley:Yeah, so what team in the East do you fear the most?
Mike Quigley:The team in the East that I fear the most is still the Milwaukee Bucks. No no, it's not.
Mike Quigley:It's not the Milwaukee Bucks. It's the Miami Heat, and I don't care what that record is, I don't care what their seat is, I don't care who's healthy and hurt. The Miami Heat, the kryptonite and the Celtic is gonna have to overcome them at some point in the playoffs this year to get over the hump. That's just a fact. They'll play them, they're gonna meet in the playoffs and the Celtic is gonna have to overcome that. You wanna know why? That's my biggest fear.
Jim Quigley:It's the fucking Miami Heat. That makes sense. I don't wanna see him in the playoffs, but this is gonna surprise you. No team I fear the most.
Mike Quigley:Philadelphia.
Jim Quigley:Yeah, I just do. I feel like they're managing Embiid to a point where they wanna make sure he is not mothballs by the time the second round comes around, like it has been in the past. The question is whether he can change the style of play to be more like Yokech and less like Hoddan come playoffs, because I always feel like that really hurts him. But more than that, I think Maxi has just risen up his teammates. The way he's playing you talk about Pace Mike. If he didn't play with Embiid he would be getting the same flowers that Halliburton is getting he's just been amazing. He can drop 40 on any given night and I feel like the pace he plays with has really helped out to buy his Harris.
Jim Quigley:It's helped out some of these wing players who really aren't that good, like Patun and Morris, and he just and Melton is better than he's been one of the more improved players in the entire league. So I just think that's a team. I think they're different to Cher and if you listen to this pod over the past few years, you know how I felt about Philly, whether it was the Ben Stevens or James Hoddan version. I just I've never respected them. I think it's different and I don't. I think they're clearly the second best team in the East. I think they're better than Milwaukee, and I don't think the distance between them, the gap between them and the Celtics, is all as big as people think it is. So that's-.
Mike Quigley:I don't either, jim. I don't think the gap between the Celtics and the top three teams need a conference. It's like huge. I think the Celtics got a ton of talent, but they've just shown in the past that they just didn't have it when it came to getting over the hump. But that's the biggest thing for the Celtics I got a show for you.
Jim Quigley:Paul Kim the Sixes right, both teams yeah.
Mike Quigley:Paul. Well, sixes can even get out of the second round, right? I mean, the Celtics have been on the doorstep a bunch of times like right there whether it's the bubble, or two years ago it was actually in the NBA finals last year. You know he can't go down 3-0 to a team. I know Tayden Goddard in game seven, but he can't go down 3-0. You can't have great Williams talking shit.
Jim Quigley:I guess a team that is vastly superior to. Yeah, you can't and but I do think the thing about Milwaukee oh, go ahead. No, talk about Milwaukee, because that's-.
Mike Quigley:Yeah, the thing about Milwaukee is that there's such a nightmare defensively of how bad they are, like they're so bad defensively. But what scares me about Milwaukee is that if you get into a track, meet with them and it is just high scoring games back and forth.
Mike Quigley:that two-man game is really scary at the end of the game and you saw the way the Celtics struggled against a good two-man game against Denver man, like if Milwaukee could ever figure it out defensively. If they make a trade at the deadline, they bring in a wing that can defend that. They're still really scary to me just facing a game seven against Damian. Lillard, and in the honest I mean-.
Jim Quigley:Yeah, sure, if you got they can beat people. I think they are not built for the playoffs.
Mike Quigley:I just think they're built for the playoffs.
Jim Quigley:The way you know, there's so many holes with them defensively. I think they I know they have a really good two-man game but you can just kind of focus your defense and really build it just towards playing them. I don't really have any faith in anyone else on that team beating you. I think they're just really limited role players and it just you know you want to. It reminds me that obviously they're more veteran and so they're better in this sense.
Jim Quigley:But in a lot of ways it reminds me of the old Sixers teams, where you have a couple of really good players that can beat you different ways, but you have so many limited players that you can just find whatever matchup you want and they're gonna hurt you on one side of the court or the other. And in the playoffs, oh man, the margin for error is so small that it can kill you. Like, would you be shocked at all if Miami dropped to a seven seed and they beat Milwaukee in five games or Indiana took them out in six in the first round? Like, I don't even know if that's shocking. It would be an upset but I don't know if that's shocking the way Milwaukee's built right now.
Mike Quigley:I would be shocked if Indiana did it, even after this trade. I wouldn't be shocked if Miami did that, to anybody at least.
Jim Quigley:That's yeah.
Mike Quigley:That's the part of the course with that fucking team.
Jim Quigley:Yeah, I don't know. I am down on Milwaukee, maybe I shouldn't be as much. I just see they just have too many holes and I know they just trounced the Celtics, but I think that was on one of those oh, there's a lot that goes into that one yeah.
Mike Quigley:Oh yeah, I mean the fifth game in seven nights, like the NBA. What are you doing? Nevermind, I'm not gonna go on my rant. I should have done that one. No, it was. The Celtics clearly didn't give me shit, you quit, yeah, you should not give a shit about that game, the trade.
Jim Quigley:So let's go to the trades. The Knicks, the trade, ajay Barrett, mr Canada, to the Raptors and Emmanuel, quickly. They got back OG and Benoie I'm just kind of calling them emoji because I'm gonna screw up the last name, my own mental block and they've been rolling since. They've been, I think, eight and two over the last 10 or nine and two over the last 11. Nine and two, yeah, and it hasn't been Fluki there. Offensive and defensive net rating has been top 10 during that stretch. So they're loaded with, you know, good defensive players and they've built a kind of a tough nose team. I still think they're a little bit short when it comes to the other teams, but, you know, I think they put them in that position to be the four or five seed in the East. How do you rate the trade for both teams, toronto and New York?
Mike Quigley:I think it was a win-win for both teams. Honestly, I don't know how much it really moves the needle for the next, but certainly they needed to make a move because RJ Barrett was having a tough season this year.
Mike Quigley:It didn't look like he really progressed in their system as much as they wanted him to. Og certainly fits into the kind of defense that Timminall wants to play, because for a Timminall run team the Knicks were really the offensive focus this year and not much of a defensive threat against anybody, especially when Mitchell Robinson got hurt. Now they're playing well in the defensive end. They are nine and two, but if you look at their record they played a lot of the wizards and bad teams and whatnot. So we'll see. I think those same team is last year in a lot of ways where they're gonna be a tough out, but I don't really see them going beyond the second round.
Mike Quigley:I don't think they match up well with Boston. Still, even with OG on the team, they just don't have the scoring power. And the thing with Randall Brunson's obviously a stud and a superstar. Not calling him a superstar is disrespectful at this point, but Randall's way too inconsistent to call Blanosta and they just don't have that consistent second piece to score the basketball.
Mike Quigley:They have a bunch of guys who are good, but they can beat Cleveland. I don't think Cleveland's done anything to adjust their team to be a better playoff team against the Knicks. They're still not tough enough in. New York, but Boston and Philly, even Milwaukee. I don't think it goes beyond six.
Mike Quigley:Now for Toronto the flip side of that. I think Toronto's. I think that was a great trade for Toronto. I think bringing in RJ Barrett and to see if he's gonna work out to play with Scottie Barnes why not? What do you get to lose? That's a nice piece to get in that trade. Kim was the second pick of the draft. He's obviously got talent baby off system. He flourishes and so far he's looked good offensively. So I thought it was a win-win for both teams.
Jim Quigley:Yeah, I thought it was a good trade and both those guys. If they wanted to move either quickly or Barrett, which I don't think they do, but if they wanted to, they could get something for them. And what's interesting for the Knicks is if they wanted to package for a superstar now, og and Randall would be two entices and pieces to throw in there right Yep To a team potentially. So the trade in Indy Mike Siakam, pascal Siakam, again leaving Toronto. I didn't think he was gonna be moved. You had this right. I think he even mentioned going to Indy for a bunch of firsts and Massachusetts own Bruce Brown, your thoughts.
Mike Quigley:My thoughts are it's a good trade for Indy if he's resigning. If he's not, holy shit. You just gave up three first round picks to what make the second round. So I don't know. But one thing I'm excited is it kind of reminds me of the old Phoenix Suns what we can see here where Halle Burton's playing the role of Steve Nash.
Mike Quigley:I feel like Siakam could play that Amari start of my role. He definitely adds something to that team. The team gets up and down. This is the guy who leads the NBA in isolation points from the top of the key, going straight to the basket in the straight line.
Mike Quigley:He certainly adds an element that makes it even hotter to defend them. With Miles turn, his ability to hit threes and Siakam's ability to score inside everything Halle Burton's able to do, they're gonna be a fun team to watch. Offensively, I still think they're missing something. The Paul George rumors for him to return there next year are interesting if that were to happen. But yeah, I thought it was. I only think it's a good trade for Indiana, as if he resigns, and for Toronto was all run.
Jim Quigley:Yeah, my concerns of what we talked about on a previous pod. I just don't know about the fit there. Siakam kind of slows the game down. I'm not a huge fan of how he plays. I know he's had a great year but the team has sucked. Someone's gonna have a great year in Toronto and it's just gonna be interesting.
Jim Quigley:They like to move, they like to push the ball. He does not like to move the ball. The ball just kind of sticks when it gets to his hand. He's an okay rebounder. He's not a great rebounder, he's just an okay shooter. So it does give them the second score that they desperately need. But I don't know and you need isolation guys in the playoffs, no doubt about it but he's not a creative isolation guy. I actually think he's quite easy to cover in the playoffs if you have a good defender. So it's an interesting move to me. Maybe he changes to fit what they need. That wouldn't be the first time in NBA history, but the way he plays and the way they play, it doesn't feel like a marriage to me. That's gonna work, but I guess we'll have to wait and see Mike who's the next. Are we done with kind of blockbuster trades before the trade deadline, or do you think we're gonna see another big name to move? This is question four, and then I mean, this is the NBA.
Mike Quigley:Somebody's getting moved. I don't know who it is, but absolutely there's gonna be another blockbuster trade. You gotta look at Philly, right, because Philly has all those contracts they got from LA and those guys are fitting in well Obviously Marcus Morris and Bitu to the playing. Pretty good for them, but they're definitely a team to keep an eye on, I think, to see if there's another move, even to bias Harris to be a guy and the final year his contract, they could get moved, they could bring something better in. And obviously, taking a look at Portland, kamari Grant is there. He's a guy that brings some scoring. That could get moved. But it's hard.
Mike Quigley:It's hard to make trades in the NBA right now, when we think about who's the team to make that upgrade. I think it's Philly or New York in the East and Conference that could be doing something. What about you?
Jim Quigley:Yeah, I wonder if Murray down in Atlanta gets moved, he'd definitely be a helpful piece to somebody. Maybe Philly would be interested in that. Honestly, maybe they gotta get away from the idea that they need a superstar scorer and more of a guy that can fill a need in a role. And then I wonder it certainly feels like Chicago wants to move Zach Levine Whether they actually they never actually make a move, but although they should.
Mike Quigley:Yeah, who wants that guy?
Jim Quigley:Yeah, and that's the other thing. Who wants that guy? Is there a place where he could fit in and be helpful? And then Spencer Dimwit he was not a superstar but he's got a contract that's certainly movable down in Brooklyn.
Mike Quigley:And he's certainly checked out down in Brooklyn yeah he seems to have checked out.
Jim Quigley:Yeah, all right, halfway point of the year we're gonna kind of do these rapid fire season awards. Who's your MVP so far?
Mike Quigley:In the NBA.
Jim Quigley:Yeah, jokic, yeah, same Jokic. Yeah, who's your rookie of the year? Ah no idea I had to do the Wemby at home. Grim, I don't believe you should get the rookie of the year. Yeah, that's one of those too, when you got hurt your first year and like. So my vote would be for Wemby NBA first thing you like.
Mike Quigley:All like all five guys. Yeah, quickly Okay. Jokic and Bede, yanis Tatum and Steph Curry.
Jim Quigley:I would go. Yeah, so probably Jokic and Bede. I don't know if you can go, so I wouldn't go and be these. Mr Manygames, Jokic, Yanis Tatum, Halliburton, SGA.
Mike Quigley:Yeah, yeah, that was probably better than mine and the other one we kept. Anthony Edwards off that.
Jim Quigley:It's tough, there's a lot of good players. Yeah, it's tough, it's a lot of good players. So I think that covers it for my five questions. Celtics on the second night of a back-to-back against Dallas tonight I don't expect we'll see Przingis, and maybe one of Tatum Brown or White might sit as well, but I'd definitely I'd be shocked if we see Kristoff Przingis tonight against these guys.
Mike Quigley:I think the Celtics getting blown out tonight.
Jim Quigley:You think so, huh?
Mike Quigley:I do. I think they are. I think that they're not playing great right now. It's gonna come back to bite them tonight.
Jim Quigley:It could, it could. The one thing about Dallas is, whenever they face the team that's willing to play any defense this season, they turtle. So we'll see. If the Celtics come out with some intensity on that end, that could help them, even with tied legs. So, all right, all right, that's it guys. We'll talk to you soon.
Mike Quigley:Go Cs. See you later.
Jim Quigley:All right.