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00:00Hi, noon, Jones and Keefe, W-E-E-I.
00:04It's time now for Pure Hoops with Terp, Justin Turpin of W-E-E-I.
00:09We're a little late here, Terp.
00:10I apologize.
00:10Tony Maranero just cut into your time.
00:13He's done hiding.
00:14We needed to pull teeth and actually get an answer out of him about Team Canada.
00:17He was not willing to go there.
00:18No, I mean, finally he went there.
00:19Did he really think he was going to call in and just talk about the Canadians-Bruins game
00:23and Team USA baseball losing?
00:25I think so.
00:25That was it.
00:26I think so.
00:26The Canadians-Bruins game in March.
00:28Correct.
00:29Yeah.
00:29I want to talk about that.
00:31Oh, by the way, you're not the best baseball team.
00:33Yeah, no, I agree.
00:33We're mad about that.
00:34The Bruins was a bad loss.
00:35Yeah.
00:36The USA even worse loss.
00:38It's not that bad.
00:39Now what about Canada?
00:40Yeah, it's not that hard to say.
00:41That's true.
00:41Bees did get a point, though.
00:41They got a point.
00:42That's a good point.
00:43Sturm was pumped.
00:43That's a good point.
00:44Should they hand out loser points in the NBA?
00:46No.
00:46That's the stupidest thing ever.
00:48You shouldn't get a point for losing.
00:50That's ridiculous.
00:50What about double assists?
00:51What about that?
00:51How about two assists?
00:53A hockey assist.
00:53I'm the believer of the potential assist.
00:56So I guess if you want to go to hockey assist, that is something the NBA tracks.
00:59It's under the tracking data.
01:00But the hockey assist is dumb.
01:02Double assist.
01:03I mean, James Harden would have like 40.
01:06Yeah.
01:07Some of those point guards, every time you bring the ball up the court, either they get the
01:10assist or somebody else gets it.
01:10Everybody would have a triple-double, just about.
01:12Or at least double-doubles, yeah.
01:13Actual hockey assist?
01:14Yeah.
01:15No, that shouldn't be tracked.
01:16I mean, I guess it isn't interesting to look at if you're into the tracking data and
01:19be like, oh, they kind of directly affected this play.
01:22It's more representative of the actual ball movement from the team.
01:25Because if you have just one assist, right?
01:27Like, you can dump it into a big man on the post.
01:29He takes one dribble and goes up.
01:31You get an assist for that.
01:31That's not necessarily an indicator of the ball movement of the actual possession.
01:36So I guess in that sense, I kind of do like it.
01:39But no, for actual counting numbers, no, I don't like that.
01:42While we're here, you should also get an assist.
01:44If you pass it to a guy who gets fouled and then he hits both free throws, you've got
01:49two points.
01:50They say you throw it to a guy and it's like a dunk, but he gets fouled.
01:53You can't really do it on one free throw, right?
01:55No, you have to do two.
01:56Even though it's still the same pass, you've got to hit both.
01:58It's wonky, but it's the same idea.
01:59I could be talking to the guy who scored two points.
02:01I could be talking to that.
02:01Yeah.
02:02I mean, they give assists for some ridiculous things sometimes.
02:04They definitely do.
02:05I remember when Twitter's day.
02:07We voted through.
02:07We have a stamp of approval.
02:09In my NBA.
02:10Yeah, yeah, yeah.
02:10My NBA.
02:11That's what we have.
02:11There was, what, a couple of years ago where Tatum was going for a triple-double.
02:15It was like late in the game.
02:15He hit Grant Williams in the corner.
02:17He took like six dribbles, laid it up, reverse layup, and they gave him the assist.
02:21It was like, come on.
02:22That's not good.
02:23Well, Tatum tends to get what he wants.
02:25So that's a good segue into how this plays out.
02:28I was very encouraged by that game the other night, Turb, where I thought it's the first
02:34time Tatum really deferred since he's come back.
02:36And maybe if you wanted to say early in his first game back, the Dallas game, he was a
02:40little passive and feeling his way out.
02:42I haven't felt like he's deferred much.
02:44In fact, and we've talked about this consistently since he's come back, he's been pretty much
02:48shot for shot with Jalen Brown and the games they both played in.
02:51Some of that is skewed a little bit because Jalen left the San Antonio game early and Tatum
02:57played the whole thing.
02:58But on a per minute basis, he's shooting more than Jalen Brown.
03:02I thought the Suns game and it was a close game and a win.
03:05I thought that was the first time we really saw Tatum defer to Jalen.
03:10And I think that's encouraging because I think for them to get to where they want to go, that's
03:14got to be the setup for the rest of the year.
03:15Agree or disagree.
03:16Yeah.
03:16I mean, and we, we kind of heard them talk about it after the game the other night.
03:20Like, I don't think it was ever a question of if or, if or can, it was a matter of
03:26how
03:26they do it.
03:26Right.
03:27How does it look?
03:27How does this kind of sacrifice look?
03:29Cause at this point, like we've been belaboring the point for weeks now, like they've been
03:33playing together for this, their ninth year, eight years prior, we, you know, we were looking
03:37at it as like, they can clearly make this work.
03:39And Jason Tatum talked about that the other night.
03:41So it wasn't a matter of if they can or, or how they do it was how they do it
03:46was the
03:47question.
03:47And I think that was a good indicator of the other night where he has shown the willingness
03:50to go to the corner and be a spacer.
03:52And that is something that he's going to have to do now.
03:55And I think they both have to assume that role of sacrifice and that's, what's going
03:59to happen.
03:59How many teams can win the East?
04:01Do you think it's, it's really is wide open.
04:05Like, I think there is a little bit of like a Patriots feel to this, right?
04:08Where like the AFC was wide open.
04:09They took advantage of it and kind of similar with the Celtics.
04:12Cause all the teams in the Eastern conference have question marks.
04:15And we talked about this, I think last week where the Celtics have the fewest question
04:18marks.
04:18I think, especially with Jason Tatum now coming back, like Detroit, they can't really
04:22shoot New York.
04:24They're super inconsistent.
04:25We're having players only meetings two months ago.
04:27Like you can't forget about that aspect of it.
04:29And with Cleveland, like they've been playing much better defense as a fleet, but you know,
04:34they bowed out early last year and it's James Harden.
04:36Like we know how he is in the postseason.
04:38So when the East, I would answer it's three, three, right?
04:41Detroit, Boston, New York.
04:43Yeah.
04:43I don't count Cleveland.
04:45I don't think they can.
04:46James Harden in an NBA finals.
04:47I don't think so.
04:47And then nobody after that, there might be like a one-off.
04:50Maybe you have an upset.
04:51Is that right?
04:52Do you include Cleveland?
04:53I wouldn't.
04:53No, I wouldn't include Cleveland.
04:55Like another, like, again, they've been playing better defense as of late, but they've shown
04:59me nothing in the postseason.
05:00Any of these players on that team have shown me anything in the playoffs, like to believe
05:04in them actually upsetting a team in, you know, in route to winning the East.
05:08And when you're looking at, like, the championship experience, right?
05:11Like who in the East has any besides the Celtics?
05:14Like that core.
05:15The Knicks don't have any.
05:17No.
05:17I think the Knicks have some good playoff experience, but they don't have a championship
05:21pedigree.
05:22Nope.
05:22Like last year's a good example for the Knicks, but like you don't have any championship
05:25experience.
05:26Same thing with, you know, Cleveland.
05:28Like they don't have any championship experience.
05:30Detroit has no really good playoff experience.
05:32Their first little playoff experience was last year.
05:35Spolstra and those guys, like you have to go, they're not even in the top six,
05:38right?
05:39Miami.
05:39You'd have to go down to that level.
05:40And I think that stuff is important.
05:42Like, I think we saw it with the Celtics in 2022 when they played the Warriors, like
05:45that championship experience.
05:47And great.
05:47That's kind of an extreme example.
05:49That team is really, really talented.
05:50I think it's real in the NBA.
05:51It's totally, you know, like Oklahoma City hadn't been to a finals before with this
05:56group and they broke through and won, but they had been on a deep run.
05:59And yeah, I do think that's a real thing.
06:01I do.
06:02And that's why I don't really believe in Detroit.
06:04But if you're asking me, could they win the conference?
06:05I still would say yes.
06:06They're very talented, but again, their shooting really concerns me.
06:09Like, they're not a great three-point shooting team.
06:11And if you're going to be playing a team like the Celtics in the postseason, it's
06:15going to be hard to keep up if you're not making those threes, you're not shooting
06:18those threes.
06:19And like, their percentage-wise, they're not great.
06:20So, and I think the Celtics have played them tough.
06:23Like, obviously, we haven't seen them play without Jason Tatum, but all four of their
06:26games have come down to seven points or fewer.
06:28Like, they've been really, really close games.
06:31Have they said anything about the plan for Tatum?
06:33Because Tatum's talked post-game about some of these things where, like, all right, it
06:36was 27 minutes for three games.
06:38Then he sat one out.
06:39It's been 32 minutes each of the last two.
06:42You know, they don't have another back, or they don't have a back-to-back until the very
06:45end of the month.
06:46Then they do have another one in April.
06:49How many games do you think he's going to play?
06:51What's the ceiling for minutes?
06:52Any kind of guesses on that?
06:54Yeah, the schedule, they don't have as many back-to-backs, but they play essentially every
06:57other day for, like, the rest of the season.
06:59So it is a compact schedule, and it's a taxing schedule.
07:01So they haven't really said much about that.
07:04Tatum talked about it.
07:04I think it was Saturday night where they were going to ramp up his minutes this week and
07:08see how he responds.
07:09But he seemed pretty confident in talking about how, you know, the ramp-up process will
07:12go because he said he's responded well to pretty much every challenge that they've
07:16thrown at him so far in terms of the minute ramp-up.
07:18So, I mean, we've been talking about it for a little while now that he's clearly way ahead
07:22of what people thought he was going to be.
07:24He's clearly been practicing, like, extensively, five-on-five, for quite a while now because
07:29a guy doesn't come back and look like he has if they haven't been ramping up for a long
07:33time now.
07:35And I think we've all said, too, that we feel pretty good about how they'd fare in the
07:40first round against whoever they draw.
07:42Maybe not Charlotte, but again, that was one game, and they have two more against them.
07:45So we'll get a better idea of that.
07:47But you kind of use that as a ramp-up process, too.
07:50So when we're talking about the Clevelands, the New Yorks, the Detroits, when they're
07:53playing them later on in the postseason series, like, you'd imagine by then he's going to
07:58be closer to, like, the Jason Tatum that you want him to be at.
08:01So I agree he's further along than I would have thought.
08:04I was surprised he came back and played 27-27-27.
08:07I hated that he missed the OKC game, but I get it.
08:10He's up to 32 minutes now.
08:11It's only going to be higher and hopefully better by the time the postseason rolls around.
08:15I like that he's deferring to Jalen Brown in that Suns game.
08:18So I like all of that.
08:20If there's an area where he needs to make strides, what would you highlight as the area
08:25where he needs to improve the most or his game is lacking the most right now?
08:28Right now, it's just the shot making.
08:29And I think that will naturally go up just because of the type of score he is, the shooter
08:33he is.
08:33Some of them have obviously been forced.
08:35The one-legged three, I think, on...
08:36He had one against San Antonio, and he had one against Washington as well.
08:40It's like, that kind of stuff.
08:41We don't need to see those one-legged threes.
08:43Those are kind of forced.
08:44But you kind of expect that from a guy coming back from a torn Achilles, kind of reintegrating
08:50himself back into the lineup.
08:51How do you think he's done with the contact?
08:52Because in some ways, I think he's been a little more physical than I thought, defensively
08:56rebounding.
08:57I give him credit for that.
08:58I feel like you see it on offense a little bit more where he is really in love with those
09:03three-point shots.
09:04Do you think he skewed two foot...
09:06Could he correct his shot selection a little bit to help his efficiency?
09:09I feel like this is kind of his shot diet before the injury anyway.
09:11You know, it's very similar, and really with the contact and the physicality, that's what
09:15surprised me the most.
09:17Like, his willingness to rebound in traffic, his willingness to get downhill and finish
09:21through contact.
09:21Because that was one of the biggest questions, is how comfortable would he be mixing it up,
09:25you know, down low, whether it's his rebounding or his driving.
09:28Like, how comfortable would he be?
09:30And there are clear moments in the game where you see that he's trusting his body.
09:34He's trusting his Achilles, and he's not really thinking about it.
09:37And I think that has been one of the most encouraging signs, is how confident he appears
09:41to be in his body, and his willingness to actually mix it up with that, you know, with
09:46the contact and all that.
09:47Because I think that's been a really big, bright spot.
09:48Because, of course, just the way he plays, you've always seen him, you know, take a ton
09:52of threes.
09:53Like, that's part of his game, and it should be.
09:54He's a great three-point shooter.
09:56But his willingness to, you know, do that dirty work has really impressed me, and I think
10:00that's been, you know, one of the better things we've seen from him.
10:02You know, for the last 10 years, the Golden State game was always the one that everybody's, like,
10:06fighting for tickets.
10:07Tonight, not so much.
10:08No, tonight, not so much.
10:09No Steph Curry.
10:11Not even an Al Horford.
10:13Kind of a, eh, kind of season for the Warriors to this point.
10:17Maybe Porzingis, though?
10:18Yeah, he had 30 the other night.
10:19Yeah, he did.
10:20Yeah.
10:20Yeah, he was in our top players of the night.
10:22He's on the bench.
10:22He got in there.
10:24But, yeah, I don't know.
10:25I mean, this is another team that they're actually probably even worse than Phoenix, right?
10:29The last team they just played.
10:30Yeah.
10:30Less of a challenge.
10:31I mean, Phoenix has been really kind of tough this year.
10:34Like, they've been a really good team this year relative to their expectations, and that's
10:37why Jordan Nott has been up towards the top of the Coach of the Year rankings.
10:41Never heard of that guy, by the way, Keith, until Terp tweeted out the pregame interview
10:46where I'm like, who is this coach for Phoenix?
10:49I've never heard of that guy.
10:50Wild coaches in the NBA.
10:52Yeah.
10:52Like, that is a tough trivia question.
10:53Even for NBA fans, you're like, who are some of these guys?
10:56Because they change them out so often.
10:57And they get recycled all the time.
11:00It's a tough game.
11:01I feel like once you have one job, like, at least in the NBA, you're going to get another
11:05shot no matter what happens.
11:06But I swear to God I never heard of that guy until you had the pregame conversation with
11:10him the other day.
11:11You should do a game, like, NBA head coach or, like, random baseball player or, like,
11:15actor nominated for an award or something like that.
11:17Because that is a – it's tough.
11:19That's not bad.
11:19They're not household names.
11:20But anyway, go ahead.
11:21But the Warriors, yeah, they've been a mess.
11:22And it was kind of like when they went out and got Jimmy, obviously, it was one last
11:26run – or Jimmy Butler, that is – to one last run with Steph Curry, try to give him
11:30one last chance to go out and win.
11:32It just feels like that's gone.
11:34That's it.
11:34Like, they went – they were so much an older team, right?
11:37Like, with Draymond, with Steph Curry, with Al Horford, who – Al Horford's been very
11:41inconsistent.
11:42The worst thing about his season this year is he's been so durable throughout his career.
11:46And now it's been injuries that have kind of derailed his season a lot this year.
11:49So he's probably going to be kicking himself a little bit watching this team and the success
11:53that they're having, obviously, like –
11:55Well, it wasn't about basketball reasons why he left.
11:56That was not basketball reasons.
11:58I think everyone kind of sees that it was a money thing.
12:00Because Brad Stevens said it, you know, over the offseason.
12:03They made offers to both Cornette and Horford.
12:05Did they – I think it's – I think they won the Drew Holiday trade.
12:09I think they won it with Simons.
12:11I think they've won it now if you want to extend that out to Vucevic, although he's not
12:15healthy now, so maybe you'd argue with that.
12:17And Holiday has been pretty productive in Portland.
12:20Do you think they won the Porzingis trade?
12:22I get having to do it for luxury tax purposes and apron purposes.
12:28Do you think they won that trade?
12:30I mean, they really got nothing for him.
12:31They got nothing for him, but the fact that you were able to move off the contract and
12:35didn't really send out any draft capital with it, I would consider a win.
12:39Because you had to get away from him, right?
12:41I'll tell you why I think it's a win.
12:43I think it's a win because you can't rely on him.
12:45And he might give you a 30-point night.
12:47Then he's going to disappear for a while.
12:49And I think it would have affected the development of all these other guys that were giving Brad
12:53credit for finding.
12:54Because he would have eaten up minutes.
12:56He would have eaten up different times.
12:57Well, the Vucevic trade wouldn't happen if you were here.
12:59Don't get Vucevic now.
13:00Unfortunately, he's been weak this long time.
13:02To be like, you don't know what you're going to get out of Porzingis when Vucevic literally
13:05is hurt right now.
13:06But even some of the other guys, I feel like just the way Missoula has played different
13:11players and gone with a lot of one big lineups.
13:14Maybe we don't see half the amount of time of guys that you might end up relying on.
13:20Does Baylor Shireman even play if you still have Porzingis?
13:23I think there's an interesting trickle down there where you weren't really going to get
13:27a lot out of them.
13:28Because, yeah, I don't care if they save the money or not.
13:30But I thought it was a net positive, really, to just move on in general.
13:34Addition by subtraction.
13:35It is pretty crazy that we're talking about moving on from a bunch of all-stars here.
13:39Drew Holiday's been great this year.
13:40He's by far been the best out of the bunch.
13:42But he was hurt for a little bit earlier in the season.
13:44But you're talking about moving on from Drew Holiday, Al Horford, even Cornette.
13:48Throw Cornette in there.
13:49Kristaps Porzingis.
13:50And you're like, maybe it was the best thing for them to move on from those guys.
13:53If you were to say this after all these trades were going down, and obviously you're looking
13:57at it like Jason Datum could be out for potentially the whole year at that point.
14:01You didn't really know.
14:02I think everyone kind of thought he was going to come back.
14:03But it was far from a sure thing.
14:05And now sitting here, they're the second team in the Eastern Conference.
14:08We're only six weeks from the playoffs, whatever it may be.
14:11And we're talking about Baylor Shireman and Namiya Shkata.
14:15These guys being legitimate contributors for a team that could win the Eastern Conference.
14:20It's wild.
14:21It's still crazy.
14:22And I know it's been kind of talked about all year, just the development from up and
14:25down the roster.
14:26But that has by far been the biggest storyline of the season, that you're having Kata, Garza,
14:32Shireman, Walsh in his minutes.
14:34Hell, even Minot when he was here.
14:36Ugo.
14:36Ugo.
14:36Up and down the roster.
14:37If you were to get two or three of those guys to be able to contribute to the next iteration
14:42of a championship contending team, you would have chalked that up as a win.
14:45To get pretty much all of them to be contributing and actually having a solid role with the team,
14:51it's fascinating.
14:53Terp and I last year did our all-NBA teams.
14:56So I know he keeps up with this stuff.
14:58It's very important to me, the all-NBA teams.
15:00I would assume Jalen Brown is a no-brainer first-team all-NBA guy.
15:04I don't think he's an MVP, but I think he's like, at least in the discussion, sort of
15:07similar to how Tatum has been the last few years.
15:09However, I was looking at something from, I think it was the Athletic.
15:11And obviously, all these guys need to hit their 65-game minimum to qualify for all the awards.
15:17But there was a decent case for Brown not even to be first-team.
15:21So you have SGA and Jokic, which are kind of obvious.
15:24Those guys, all three are on over there.
15:26All three.
15:26Assuming that they get the game.
15:27Yeah.
15:30So those three, I think, are the top three MVP candidates.
15:33From there, I personally would go Jalen Brown four.
15:36But there was a case made for Luka and a case made for Kawhi Leonard.
15:41Not Cade.
15:41Before you even get to Cade.
15:43No, no, no.
15:43They had all those guys before they had Brown and Cade.
15:46I'm sorry.
15:46I was asking you personally, would you have Cade fourth or would you have Jalen fourth?
15:49I personally would have Jalen fourth or maybe Cade fourth, Jalen fifth.
15:53But either way, I'd have both of them in there.
15:54On the first team.
15:55And I would have Luka and Kawhi on the second with maybe like, I don't know, Brunson and
16:00Edwards and things like that.
16:01But how would you handicap it right now?
16:03Because we also know, fair or not, Jalen Brown doesn't always get the benefit of the doubt
16:07with some of these votings, with the Team USA stuff.
16:09Like, is he a lock for first-team LNBA?
16:12I would have him up there.
16:13I don't think it's a lock necessarily, which is kind of crazy to say when you're looking
16:16at, you know, the production he's had this year.
16:18His stat line's only been matched by Luka and Nikola Jokic.
16:21But I think just given how talented the league has been this year, I don't think it's necessarily
16:25a lock.
16:25I mean, I'd have him on there.
16:26And the main reason is because I'd look at the team success, right?
16:29Like, I'd have trouble putting Luka and Kawhi.
16:34Same.
16:34Like, that's kind of the difficulty.
16:36I agree with that.
16:36If you want to give Cunningham the tiebreaker over Jalen, that's consistent.
16:39But Jalen should get the tiebreaker over the other two.
16:42I agree with that totally.
16:42I think the good thing for Jalen is that it's position list.
16:45So you could have all those guys on there.
16:48And, you know, I keep going back to the expectations as well.
16:51Like, and if he's going to be a top five MVP candidate, it's hard to leave him off that
16:55list.
16:56Definitely.
16:56Like, that's quite literally what it is.
16:58Top five player in the league.
16:59That's what the first team would be.
17:00He's at a top five season.
17:01He should be on there.
17:02But I think it's closer than some people are saying.
17:04Because a lot of the conversation around here is like, will he get MVP votes?
17:07You know, yeah, he might get votes.
17:08But like, he's not even guaranteed as a top five.
17:11That's like, no, he might get the league.
17:12He might get some down ballot MVP votes and be second team all NBA.
17:15Yeah, that's possible.
17:16I guess it depends on how voters look at it, right?
17:17Like, us three will look at the winning.
17:19But he's not the most popular guy.
17:21No.
17:21And I think some people also look at it and still vote by position, right?
17:24Like, they want to vote it like how it used to be.
17:27And they're still going to put in like, you know, the two bigs and whatever it may be.
17:30Whereas, you know, I don't know.
17:32I think winning should be what it comes down to.
17:34But that's not a lock.
17:35All right.
17:35Pure hoops with Terp every Wednesday at High Noon.
17:38Terp, good stuff.
17:39As always, the purist of pure hoops gets started tomorrow.
17:43I can't wait to celebrate the great game of basketball with you guys tomorrow.
17:46Oh, right.
17:47That's right.
17:47Jake and Jones.
17:47Let's go.
17:48Terp is going to be at Jake and Jones.
17:50Have you looked at the menu yet?
17:51Oh, I'm a frequent over at the Braintree one.
17:53So I'm ready to go.
17:56Well, well, well, well.
17:58Twitch Mitch is going to be there tomorrow.
18:00He is?
18:00Hell yeah.
18:01He's just there.
18:01He's just there to slurp down some beers and watch some pure hoops.
18:04Oh, good.
18:04He's off the clock.
18:05Twitch Mitch.
18:06Off the clock.
18:06Twitch Mitch told me he's going to be there tomorrow.
18:08Terp, you'll be there on the clock.
18:09Oh, yeah.
18:09I'll be there.
18:10You'll be with us.
18:11At 1.56, we'll get a beer going.
18:13I like that.
18:13Okay.
18:14I'm in.
18:15Maybe a little earlier.
18:16Maybe 12.
18:16Tip off.
18:17Right at tip.
18:1710.
18:18Anything goes on the first day of the tournament.
18:20So anyway, that's pure hoops with Terp.
18:22Go give him a follow at Justin M. Turpin.
18:25Terp, as always, we appreciate it.
18:26Thanks so much.
18:26All right, guys.
18:26I will see you tomorrow at Jake and Joe's in Woburn.
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