00:00 So Porzingis, you know, I've alluded to this a couple of times.
00:03 The news has come out that obviously he's missing the feeble World Cup.
00:06 He's dealing with the plantar fasciitis that what, three to four weeks or
00:12 something like that was the timeline.
00:13 But bottom line, they said he should be ready for the start of camp.
00:16 Great.
00:16 I just wonder to what degree this is going to be like the Celtics, to
00:23 use the word again, managed.
00:24 To what degree the Celtics are going to have to manage him and his workload more
00:28 so than we already thought, we already knew that, you know, like you're lucky
00:32 if he plays more than 60 games, you know, it was, again, it was a celebration
00:36 when he played 65 or whatever for the Wizards last year and granted he could
00:39 have played more, they sat him at the end of the year, but this is not a guy
00:42 who is typically you're, you're talking like we're having the same kind of
00:46 conversation that we had when they got Brockton last year.
00:48 This is someone who, you know, is, is going to miss roughly a quarter of the
00:52 games, but is it that much more alarming now that you know about this foot issue
00:57 that is going to linger?
00:58 This isn't something that, that heals and goes away when you're an NBA player.
01:02 Like this isn't something he's going to, you know, is going to be fully
01:05 better for him until after he's retired.
01:07 So how problematic for lack of a better word, Barrett, do you think this is going
01:12 to be for the next few years here?
01:13 Because he's signed on, they've committed.
01:15 Yeah, it's concerning in just the sense that it's a foot and it's a big man, but
01:20 at least it's not something severe.
01:22 It's plantar fasciitis, which basically you got to rest.
01:24 I mean, I think you got to roll your foot on like, you put like a water
01:28 bottle in the freezer and then roll your foot on it to try to help with it.
01:31 In terms of the pain.
01:32 I hope this is not something that lingers into the season, but the thing that I will
01:36 say is I feel like it's a good thing that they discovered this now and he's not
01:40 playing in the FIBA tournament.
01:41 Like, right.
01:42 Like, cause then if he comes back, he plays the FIBA tournament and then it's
01:45 like, Oh, cause we heard about the foot injury a couple of weeks ago.
01:48 It's like, Oh, he played on it and he had plantar fasciitis.
01:51 I'm glad that he's out of the FIBA tournament.
01:53 Right.
01:53 So, cause the goal here is for him to come here and win a championship.
01:56 That's the goal.
01:57 That's why Chris tops Boerzingis is here.
01:59 That's why he wants to be here.
02:00 That's why he opted into the contract because he could have become a free agent.
02:04 So naturally we're going to be somewhat concerned about this, but I'm holding
02:08 out hope that they can, they have done.
02:10 I give them credit with this.
02:11 Like, if you look at Al Horford, like he's played too many minutes over the past few
02:15 years, but last year he didn't play in back to backs, right?
02:18 Like that type of situation.
02:19 I think they can come up with a good plan in terms of how many minutes to play.
02:23 And the other evidence of that is Brogdon last year, right?
02:26 Brogdon last year played self at 30 minutes per game, and he was pretty much
02:30 healthy the whole season until the playoffs.
02:32 But that was a freak injury, right?
02:33 That wasn't a lower extremity thing.
02:35 Like Brogdon in the past has dealt with calf issues.
02:38 He's dealt with foot issues.
02:39 The arm thing, that's just freaky, right?
02:42 That has nothing to do with him playing too many minutes.
02:44 So I think they did it.
02:45 I think they had an injury prone player in Brogdon and they decided, Hey, we're
02:49 bringing them off the bench, obviously a different situation than Boerzingis, who's
02:52 not coming off the bench, but they came up with a plan to keep him healthy for the
02:55 postseason run.
02:56 And I know Brogdon, he gets a lot of crap for some of the stuff, smoking layups,
03:01 et cetera.
03:01 But Brogdon, to the point where he suffered that injury, he had the best plus minus
03:05 on the Celtics in the playoffs.
03:06 Like they were actually playing well with Brogdon on the court.
03:09 And I do attribute that to the coaching staff having him fresh.
03:12 If he played north of 30 minutes per game, maybe he wasn't.
03:15 So based on the evidence we have with Brogdon, them keeping Brogdon healthy, I
03:19 think they can come up with a similar plan as it pertains to Boerzingis because we
03:23 just saw them do it this past season.
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03:40 Just concerning, you know, Kaufman, when this came out, I texted you immediately.
03:46 It's something we should probably have Dr. P back on the show to just kind of throw
03:49 some water on this a little bit.
03:52 Because when Kyrie had his knee issues, you know, we were pretty quick to, you
03:57 know, say like, look, this could be a really big problem for him going forward in
04:00 his career.
04:01 Like this is a degenerative issue.
04:02 He has arthritis in his knee.
04:03 It's not gonna get any better.
04:05 It's just gonna get worse over time.
04:06 It's gonna be about management, managing the pain and so on and so forth.
04:08 So we got yelled at for that, I think quite a bit back then.
04:11 Um, but this is, it's an injury that takes management.
04:15 You know, it's something that you're going to have to be mindful of.
04:17 And it's something that Boerzingis is going to have to be honest about with the
04:20 training staff.
04:22 That like, hey, you know, I'm not feeling great tonight.
04:24 I can't go tonight.
04:25 You know, let's take a day off and let's see.
04:28 Let's let's look at this tomorrow.
04:29 Like it's it's not going to go away.
04:31 You know, LeBron played with plantar fasciitis the entire playoffs, didn't he?
04:35 I think.
04:36 Didn't he have some injury?
04:38 I think LeBron played with two broken arms and a broken leg, according to him.
04:42 I think he played with something and they.
04:45 He definitely had like a foot injury, though.
04:48 You're right.
04:49 He definitely had something going on with his foot.
04:50 I'm trying to compare Boerzingis to the the Terminator robot that is freaking
04:55 LeBron James, because he's just mad.
04:57 He's just an unbelievably.
04:59 OK, yeah, this is well, it's a story from February 26th of 2023 appeared to be a he
05:08 had a partial tear of the plantar fascia, according to the pro basketball docs.
05:13 I don't know what that means.
05:15 I'm not going to lie.
05:16 So it just sounds something similar, basically saying, you know, LeBron
05:19 played on it, like I'm not expecting Boerzingis to be LeBron, but I'm also not
05:24 expecting Boerzingis to carry the workload of LeBron to carry late in the season
05:28 and in the playoffs.
05:28 So it's something that can be played with, played on.
05:33 It's just going to be about trying to manage that pain to the playoffs.
05:35 And at that point, like, you know, the wheels, training wheels come off and it's
05:39 go time.
05:39 But, you know, yeah, as we've all kind of danced around, this is not the most fun
05:43 thing you want to hear about a big man, seven foot two, who already kind of looks
05:48 a little like a walking injury waiting to happen.
05:51 You know what I mean?
05:52 Like, you know, I just have so many good memories of Marcus Smart easily boxing him
05:56 out because he's just so light on the lower half that I know it just feels like
06:00 potentially something throw in there.
06:02 But, you know, just got to ride it out and see how it goes.
06:04 Yeah, it's unfortunate, but I'm just like and I know right now we're talking about
06:09 the injury, I'm so excited to see him like in this Celtics offense.
06:13 Where it's like they've never had a player like this.
06:15 Right.
06:16 And obviously the front office and maybe some of the coaching staff as well.
06:21 But OK, we're sick and tired of all these playoff runs where our offense goes stale.
06:26 And now we have something else where it's like, hey, you know what?
06:29 Our threes aren't falling or they're cutting off Tatum.
06:32 They're cutting off Jalen Brown's driving lanes.
06:35 Let's dump it into the guy that's seven foot three, because he's pretty good at
06:38 scoring near the basket and all the different lineup constructions they can
06:42 come up with.
06:42 He's a pick and pop guy that can also play in the post.
06:45 And I'm fascinated to see to me.
06:48 And I don't know if you guys agree with this.
06:49 I would be start.
06:51 I would have Al coming off the bench and I would be starting Rob and Porzingis
06:55 together and just thinking about what that defense could look like.
06:58 Because Porzingis is an excellent shot blocker and he actually held up really
07:01 well defensively last year.
07:03 And they really never got to the double bigs much last year.
07:06 Remember, it's like when Rob came back, he was coming off the bench and that
07:09 double big lineup was so good for them two years ago and just all the different
07:13 sort of mix and matching you can do with Porzingis.
07:16 I'm just excited to watch it because it's totally different from what we've seen
07:19 the past couple of years and how they integrate them.
07:21 I think it's going to be fascinating.
07:22 I agree.
07:24 I'm on board.
07:25 I, you know, I look at this point in time, whether you like the trade or you
07:29 didn't like the trade, you prefer it was Broughton versus Marcus.
07:32 Like none of that.
07:32 And we've spent enough time talking about it.
07:34 Me, especially none of it matters.
07:36 Now what matters now is this is obviously the roster barring any future moves that
07:40 send somebody else out and bring in another, you know, role player type guy.
07:45 But there there's nobody else truly impactful that is coming in and joining
07:49 this team and no doubt Porzingis, especially when healthy, I, you know, I
07:54 don't know, I don't know that I am as excited or enthusiastic about the
08:01 defensive side of his game as you are, but the offensive side, like he's a weapon.
08:06 No question.
08:07 We've seen it for years and I'm, I'm eager to see what it looks like
08:11 aside alongside Tatum and Brown.
08:12 No doubt about it.
08:13 They have different things that they can do now.
08:15 They don't have to be as reliant on the three.
08:17 Will they be?
08:18 I'm sure.
08:19 But at least to your point, if the threes aren't falling and I'm just
08:22 thinking regular season, I'm not even thinking beyond that.
08:25 I'm not even thinking about the in-season tournament when, when the
08:29 threes are not fallen, they will have other approaches and I am, you know,
08:35 to channel my Bob, Brian, old man shakes fist at cloud kind of mentality.
08:40 This is not the NBA I grew up with.
08:42 And I'm like, I don't know.
08:45 I think you need to be right around 40.
08:46 If there's any part of you that still feels that way.
08:49 And that's where I'm at.
08:49 I would like to see them, you know, be more on the block, be more on the post.
08:54 I don't mind the mid range too.
08:56 In fact, I think it's a strength for some of these guys, Jalen Brown on that list.
09:01 So I'd like to see more of that stuff and Porzingis can provide you with a lot of it.
09:04 No question.
09:05 Yeah.
09:07 Him and Tatum are going to make just wonderful offensive magic together.
09:11 I just can't wait for that pick the pop combo because you're, you're dead either way.
09:14 So it's going to be fantastic.
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09:32 [Music]
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