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00:00High noon on a Wednesday here on Jones and Keefe.
00:04You know what time it is.
00:06It's time for Pure Hoops with Terp, Justin Turpin, W-E-E-I.
00:12What's going on, Terp?
00:13I'm going to take that parlay with the no Durbin and no IKF hit.
00:17Oh, it's juicy.
00:18It feels like free money.
00:19By the way, we have an update to the crappy Red Sox lineup.
00:21Wong is now in for Dervaez.
00:23Oh.
00:24You know what?
00:24You want to add a third leg?
00:26No, Wong's kind of hot.
00:27Wong and Dervaez are two of their three best hitters.
00:28He might be their best hitter right now.
00:29It's like literally two of their three best hitters.
00:31He just swapped one out with the other.
00:32You still only have two guys that can get a hit in there.
00:34Yeah.
00:35Yeah, good point.
00:36Stick with the two leg.
00:37You start adding too many legs.
00:38That's where the books get you.
00:40Two leg.
00:40Yeah.
00:40Yeah.
00:41Yeah.
00:42Okay.
00:42Well, you're in on that.
00:43I like it.
00:45It was my contention the other day.
00:47Jalen Brown was back in the lineup against the Hawks in Atlanta.
00:49You called this, Terp.
00:50You know.
00:51And so I was like, okay, he's back in there.
00:54No harm, no foul.
00:56He was resting his Achilles tendonitis for a couple of games.
00:59But he's back out there.
01:00They alternate him and Tatum on a back-to-back.
01:02Fine.
01:03Then I watched Jalen.
01:05And he played 40 minutes.
01:06He almost had a triple-double.
01:08But I would say he didn't look right.
01:11Do you think that's fair or not, characterizing Jalen that way?
01:15And should there be any concern about this Achilles tendonitis?
01:18It's totally fair to characterize it that way.
01:20That was his worst game of the season.
01:21I know he flirts with the triple-double.
01:23But just the raw counting numbers paint an inaccurate picture, right?
01:26He missed 20 of his 29 shots.
01:28But I wouldn't necessarily correlate that with the Achilles because you mentioned it.
01:31He played 40 minutes.
01:32And his best quarter was in the fourth, down the stretch when you'd expect him to wear it out a
01:37little bit.
01:37He hit a lot of, you know, quote-unquote big shots late to keep him in the game.
01:41Late when he's already at 40 minutes.
01:42So I would say that's a good sign for the Achilles, but it probably is just kind of a weird
01:46coincidence there.
01:47Because, again, if this was something to worry about, I don't think he'd be playing 40 minutes after missing two
01:51games.
01:52So I think it's fair to characterize that he didn't look right the other day.
01:55But I think those two things can be separated.
01:57What about, yeah, right.
01:59That was why I thought it wasn't the worst thing.
02:01It's because Missoula kept him out there and he was playing.
02:03Until the very end.
02:04But, like, there's also something about Jalen Brown, to me, starting to look a little bit at times like a
02:09running back at the end of a season.
02:10Where, like, he has had the weight on him.
02:13Worn down.
02:14All year long.
02:15And I know the minutes are pretty much in line with what he's done throughout his career when he's become,
02:20like, an everyday starter.
02:22But it's different, right?
02:23Because, like, it's gone through him.
02:25Like, it's way more on it.
02:26There's nights where he's taking the defensive challenge as well as carrying the offense.
02:30Do you see any of that?
02:32Like, forget the Achilles.
02:33Just, like, this is the end of the season and it's been a grind.
02:37Yeah, I mean, he said it the other night when he was talking about a postgame.
02:40Like, everyone's dealing with something right now.
02:42Especially when, you know, you're carrying the load that he's carried for most of this year.
02:45And now you have seven games left.
02:47You're pretty much, you're looking pretty good for the Eastern Conference second seed right now.
02:50New York lost last night.
02:51So, you feel pretty comfortable with that.
02:53And I think most importantly, they're going to get a week off during the play-in week.
02:58So, you're going to have a week plus to kind of rest up there.
03:01So, I mean, you always kind of look at that.
03:03Especially, like, he's never carried a burden like this.
03:05And the way that he's been playing this year, how much weight he's put on his shoulders.
03:09So, I think you do kind of worry about him wearing down a little bit.
03:12But he's also in very good shape.
03:14And, you know, I'm not necessarily as worried about that moving forward.
03:17Especially because now he's reached the 65 games.
03:19He played the 20 minutes that he needed in the game the other night.
03:23So, he's reached that.
03:24And they can afford to rest him a little bit.
03:25But they are in a little bit of a tricky spot.
03:28Because the two seed's not completely locked up yet.
03:30So, you still have to kind of edge out New York for that.
03:32Nick's losing last night helped, though.
03:33Big time.
03:34You just got two looks at Atlanta.
03:36A win and a loss.
03:37You got to look at Charlotte.
03:38There will be another look at them.
03:40What?
03:41Less than a week away.
03:43Tuesday at home against Charlotte on the 7th.
03:47Is there a team.
03:48And I'm not saying you pick against the Celtics.
03:50But is there a team they should want to avoid in that first round.
03:54That is, like, play-in level that they could wind up opening the postseason against?
03:58It might be a weird answer, but Philadelphia.
04:00I mean, Philadelphia's got some experience.
04:01And they're getting healthy, right?
04:03They just played one of their first games of the year with Paul George, Tyrese Maxey, Joel Embiid.
04:07Like, that team, they probably, they were looking like they were being a play-in team.
04:11But they can get out of the play-in.
04:12And that's just a team just giving the experience.
04:14And they have as much talent as anyone else in the Eastern Conference.
04:17As weird as it sounds, because they're so unreliable.
04:19Are Celtics 2-2 against them?
04:21They lost the opening night.
04:23Yeah, 2-2.
04:242-2.
04:24So, Philly's even gotten them a couple of times this year.
04:26Yeah, so Philly's gotten them twice.
04:27Like, VJ Edgecone's been great this year.
04:30So, I just think with their talent, they have just as much talent as any other team in the Eastern
04:34Conference.
04:35When healthy.
04:35Of course, that's the big if.
04:37Like, if they can all be healthy.
04:38But when they're all on the floor together, that's a talented team.
04:41And that's a team that can make a tough out for a team in the first round.
04:44Jalen Brown tweeted after they got their 50th win.
04:4750 wins in a gap year.
04:49Shamrock emoji.
04:51Who was that to?
04:52I mean, I feel like a lot of people thought that they would still be a playoff team.
04:57They might not have thought they'd be an Eastern Conference favorite or that they might win the title.
05:02That's certainly fair to say.
05:04But I don't know if anybody thought they were going to be awful.
05:07Like, was he talking to Brad Stevens?
05:09Because Brad Stevens said it was like a retool year.
05:11Or is this just one of those, like, you know, straw man, motivational type things?
05:15No, I really do think they look back to the preseason expectations with this team.
05:19Because Derek White told this story on his podcast, like, a couple weeks, maybe a couple weeks, a couple months
05:23ago, whenever it was, when Joe Mazzula called them on his birthday and was like, everyone thinks we're going to
05:27suck.
05:28And I love it.
05:28Like, they kind of embraced this from the beginning.
05:31And I think the team leaned into it as well.
05:33When they put out, like, their big schedule release, Isaiah Thomas was the voiceover artist for it.
05:37Like, they were embracing this kind of underdog role.
05:40Let's go out and try to overachieve.
05:41Let's see what we can do.
05:42And Brad Stevens never really spoke in glowing terms about this team either.
05:46He was like, we'll see.
05:47We're not putting a stealing on this team.
05:49It's almost like they're trying to say, like, all of the media, basically, like, picked against them, where, I don't
05:54know what every national media member said.
05:56Maybe Stephen A. Smith.
05:57I don't know.
05:57Nationally, they were picked very low.
05:59But the Vegas over-under, which is, like, a good indication of, like, roughly what they think they are, all
06:04these teams are, they had them at, like, 41 and a half.
06:07Right.
06:07Which is a no-brainer playoff team.
06:09Yes.
06:10Yeah.
06:10And so, if you said over, which I think almost.
06:13At least play-in level.
06:14500 gets you at least to the play-in.
06:16You're a playoff team.
06:16But so, like, at 42 and 40, let's say, they just hit the over.
06:21Is that a gap year?
06:23Like, is a gap year making the playoffs?
06:25Maybe.
06:25I mean, so was the year before, when he lost in the second round, was that a gap year?
06:29Like, I don't think so.
06:30Like, I don't care how he motivates himself, and if this is great, you know, that's awesome.
06:34But it just, it seemed kind of odd, and I don't really know who it's versus, is what I guess
06:39my point.
06:40Yeah, I think it just does go back to, like, just all the conversation about them potentially tanking and all
06:44that.
06:44I feel like in their own, I think they're, like, Brad Stevens felt that way.
06:49He didn't say, he didn't say gap year like those words, but, like, when he was asked, and you were
06:54at all these press conferences, when he was asked about getting rid of Porzingis and getting rid of Horford and
06:57getting rid of Holiday, he didn't exactly sound like a guy that thought they were going to win a title.
07:01And his fallback was that, I'm not going to put a ceiling on this team.
07:04That's what he kept saying, that the North Star is to win a championship.
07:07And I remember sitting here at the time, I was like, well, the reality is that North Star, when you're
07:10talking about the actual North Star, is miles and miles and miles away.
07:14And it turns out they were much closer than everyone thought they were.
07:17And I think part of that, obviously, the Eastern Conference, like, that aspect can't be ignored.
07:20Like, the Celtics, as great as they've been, have also benefited from a very weak Eastern Conference.
07:26And I think both of those things can be true.
07:27We saw it with the Patriots last season.
07:29But I think the Patriots, it's not a perfect comparison, because I think the Celtics are, like, better fit and
07:34better team to go out and win it.
07:35Because, obviously, like, we've been talking about this a ton, like, the experience on the roster.
07:40Like, Detroit has minimal playoff experience.
07:42They're hopefully, like, getting Cade back soon.
07:44But, again, he doesn't have a ton of playoff experience.
07:47New York has some, but they've never been to the NBA Finals.
07:49Cleveland, James Harden, like, Donovan Mitchell's a great playoff performer.
07:53He's never made it out of the second round.
07:54James Harden always chokes in the postseason.
07:57Philadelphia, that's another team, chokes in the postseason.
07:59So, when you're looking at the postseason experience, which matters in basketball, I think, and we've seen this on multiple
08:05occasions.
08:05The Celtics versus the Warriors, like, other teams in the past.
08:08Like, we've seen this before, that it matters.
08:10That's why you look at the Celtics and you kind of give them the upper hand.
08:13Is Tatum, after being named Eastern Conference Player of the Week, is he all the way back?
08:20And does that kind of take the Achilles off the table as an excuse moving forward?
08:25I mean, I'd say he's pretty much close to all the way back.
08:28I mean, just look at the last three games that he's played against Oklahoma City, Atlanta, and Charlotte.
08:32Like, he was awesome in all three of those games.
08:34Had his first 30-point game against Charlotte.
08:37And, to be honest, like, I never really attributed much of the struggles to the Achilles, right?
08:42It was more so getting used to playing NBA basketball again because we've talked about it.
08:46Like, the playmaking was there from the start.
08:48The rebounding was there from the start.
08:50Like, all the defense was there.
08:52Of course, he doesn't necessarily have the same burst that he had before, but that's part of it to be
08:56expected.
08:57Maybe that's the one area circle and be like, okay, it's not Jason Tatum yet.
09:00Like, because he doesn't have that burst yet, and that's going to come with time, obviously.
09:04But, for the most part, it was just the shooting.
09:06And I don't think that necessarily was attributed to the Achilles.
09:09It was more so not playing NBA basketball for 10 months.
09:12And so, now that he's getting kind of used to that, we can start to drop that a little bit
09:16where he looks like he's back.
09:17And, you know, he worked so tirelessly behind the scenes, like, as we've seen through the documentary and whatever else
09:24it is,
09:24that, like, he worked through all this and had so much ramp-up time.
09:28So, yeah, I think we could kind of take that off the table.
09:30And I think the shooting, again, wasn't really correlated because he's had bad shooting stretches in the past.
09:35And that was before the injury.
09:38And I also don't think that the shooting necessarily means he's not playing well.
09:41And I think the most glaring example of that is the NBA Finals.
09:44His shooting numbers weren't very efficient, but he was one of the – one of, if not the best player
09:48on the court in that series.
09:50Seven games left, they have won back-to-back.
09:51How do you think they sort of manage, I guess, Tatum specifically, but then also some of the other guys,
09:56like, the rest of the regular season?
09:58Yeah, you're definitely going to manage Tatum on the back-to-backs.
10:00I still don't imagine him playing those.
10:01And that's – I saw a couple mentions when we tweeted out the injury report the other day, like,
10:05oh, is this something to worry about?
10:06Well, there's no back-to-back in the playoffs.
10:08They give, like, two or three days off.
10:09Yeah, not worried about that.
10:10These series take so long in the playoffs, and they only get longer the further you get on.
10:14Like, you're getting, like, two or three days off.
10:16So I don't necessarily worry about that.
10:18With Jalen, obviously, he's going to be managed down the stretch.
10:21We're seeing that they set that up with the Achilles tendonitis.
10:24They're kind of setting him up for rest.
10:25Cato's getting to that point, too, which is crazy.
10:28Like, before the season, you'd be like, yeah, you've got to rest Namesh Cato down the stretch
10:31because we need him fresh for the playoffs.
10:33Like, that speaks to his development.
10:34I don't know about Pritchard because he's just never been that type of guy that wants to sit.
10:38Maybe they force him to, but, like, he always tries to be out there.
10:41And Derek White's another one I think they manage.
10:43So they're going to kind of make all those decisions down the stretch.
10:46What do you think of Missoula's comments about the Coach of the Year Award?
10:48It was the most Joe Missoula comment ever.
10:50Like, that's literally the most unsurprising thing ever.
10:53He tries, you know, he tries so hard to kind of deflect any credit that he's getting
10:57and put it to the coaches, put it to his staff, put it to the players.
11:00Is he the favorite?
11:01No, it was Bickerstaff last time I checked.
11:03Yeah, I think you're right.
11:04So, yeah, I guess here's my question because it is a very—
11:07Does he accept the award or does he, like, say, no, don't put my name on it?
11:11Is it a stupid award because he knows he's not going to win it?
11:13You know, I think Missoula thinks it's a stupid award.
11:15I mean, I enjoyed that bite very much, but it's, like, it's easier to say it's a stupid award
11:20when you know you're not going to win it.
11:22Yeah, but then—
11:23I think it's a stupid award.
11:24They shouldn't have it.
11:25But you're also putting it out there where, at some point, you might win it.
11:27You might.
11:28Right, so even if you don't win it this year, then you've got to sort of be like,
11:30you did say it's dumb.
11:30He probably should have won it the year they won the title.
11:32I think he probably knows this was his best chance to win it.
11:35But usually teams that are loaded don't give it to the coach.
11:37But Dagnall got it.
11:38Duh.
11:39Like, under that same argument, Dagnall got it last year.
11:43Fair.
11:43Granted, they won more games.
11:45They won a ton of games.
11:45Like, Joe probably should have gotten that year, but you're probably not going to give
11:48Brad Stevens Executive of the Year and Joe Mazzula Coach of the Year in the same year.
11:52Mazzula right now, plus 300 to win it.
11:54But that's after Bickerstaff at minus 280, so you're right.
11:57He could.
11:57If Joe thinks it's a dumb award, they also give away the Clutch Award, the Teammate Award.
12:03There's a lot of bad awards in the NBA.
12:05I actually, I don't even really think it's satire with him.
12:08No, no, no.
12:08That sounds like something exactly he would say.
12:11When he won Coach of the Month or something.
12:14I forget if it was Coach of the Month or Coach of the Week.
12:16He hated that, right?
12:16He, like, walked by.
12:17I was like, congratulations, Joe.
12:18He goes, this is the stupidest thing ever.
12:20He, like, absolutely hated it.
12:22And that's what he already won.
12:24Yeah, he absolutely hated it.
12:25So, yeah, I don't know.
12:26Coach of the Month is pretty dumb.
12:28Coach of the Year, to me, is the best.
12:29Well, Jalen Brown wanted Coach of the Month.
12:32Player of the Month.
12:33Player of the Month makes a little more sense to me than Coach of the Month.
12:36Yeah.
12:36All right, two weeks to go in the season.
12:38Some of these guys still have to hit the game's played threshold.
12:42First team All-NBA, would you say, is SGA, Wemby, Jokic, Jalen Brown, and Luka?
12:51Yeah, I mean, Luka's played himself onto that.
12:53I know there was some discussion of whether or not.
12:55He's been out of control recently.
12:57He's been insane.
12:57Post-divorce Luka.
12:58And the Lakers are what?
13:00They're third in the West?
13:01Yeah, they're moving up.
13:02They're moving up.
13:03So, I think he probably deserves it.
13:04I agree.
13:05Some are saying LeBron's the best third option in the league now behind Luka.
13:08Many people are saying, so the Celtics, if we're going to give the Celtics all this credit
13:11for finishing second in the East, and Jalen all this credit, I agree.
13:15Now, where the Lakers are at, assuming they hold there, you're probably going to go Luka
13:18there.
13:19Although, Kawhi Leonard, another guy that could be on the list, and now it's positionless.
13:22So, you're just taking the five best player, the five players that are going to get the
13:25most votes.
13:27I feel like Jalen Brown should be a lock, but there are some good candidates there where it might
13:31be pretty close for them.
13:33I think, like, I go back to this thing.
13:34I think Bill Simmons said this a little while ago, and it always kind of stuck with me when
13:37he's talking about, like, the All-NBA teams, the MVP.
13:40It's like, can you tell the story of the season without this guy?
13:43And I think with Jalen Brown, you really can't.
13:45Like, the Celtics have been one of the biggest stories in basketball this year, a team that
13:48people thought was going to struggle.
13:50That could possibly be a lottery team.
13:52And, like, Kawhi Leonard's team is outside the top six in the Western Conference.
13:56They were also, what, 6-20 at some point in the season?
13:58Yeah.
13:58They've been great since then.
13:59They started off horribly.
14:00But they're still only two games over .500.
14:03No, they're a play-in team.
14:03Yeah.
14:04And I think that's where the winning kind of has to matter.
14:05He should get the tiebreaker there.
14:07I agree.
14:07It's wild because you're talking about Jalen Brown being, like, a potential top five MVP
14:12finish and not necessarily a lock for first-team All-NBA.
14:16I don't know.
14:16I think I'd definitely have him up there, like, the season that he's had.
14:19Like, his stat line's only been matched by Luka and Jokic, who we both have.
14:22We have both of them on there.
14:24So, yeah, I think he should get on there first team.
14:26Text line is asking for an update on Vucevic.
14:29Where are we at with that?
14:30He's still doing the on-court work now.
14:33He's still got, like, a little splint on when he's doing it.
14:35But it seems like he's right on pace.
14:37He was supposed to get re-evaluated this week.
14:39So we'll see what happens with that.
14:40But he's definitely getting close.
14:41And I think the good thing with him and his injury that it was obviously a finger injury.
14:46So he's been able to do some on-court stuff, like the walk-through stuff.
14:49And, obviously, he can't go, like, full go.
14:50But he's been able to get up there, keep his wind up.
14:53So one of the big questions I just have with Vucevic when he comes back is,
14:56how does him and Tatum mesh?
14:57Because, obviously, those two haven't really played.
14:59I don't even know if they played five minutes together in Tatum's return.
15:03Because that was the same day.
15:04Vucevic got hurt in the same day Tatum came back.
15:06So I wonder how much total minutes they actually played.
15:08I have to go back and look at that.
15:09But, yeah, he's progressing.
15:12And then I guess, because I was about to say, how much are they going to overlap?
15:14But Vucevic probably is a closing lineup kind of player, right?
15:18It's hard to take Kate off the floor.
15:20It really is, especially with what he brings at the rim.
15:23I think we saw it the other night.
15:25Atlanta was parading to the rim, especially in the third quarter when the game got out of hand.
15:29I think they were like six of eight in the restricted area.
15:32And that's what Keita brings.
15:34He brings that rim protection that they don't necessarily get with Vucevic.
15:37And that was a knock on him when he got here.
15:39How does he fit in defensively?
15:40And I think in his games, he did play well defensively.
15:43But Keita's a really good defender.
15:44And I think they value that.
15:46The Celtics, in particular, value that a lot.
15:48So I think when you need offense, obviously you're going to have Vucevic out there because
15:51he brings more as a floor spacer and he can shoot the three a lot better.
15:55Though Keita's almost went in the other night against the Hawks.
15:58That was such a bad shot.
15:59That was like early in the shot clock.
16:01You know what, though?
16:01I will say.
16:02That was such a bad shot when he took that.
16:03He does work on them a ton.
16:05I mean, he works on them in practice in pregame.
16:07The form looks all right.
16:08The form looks all right.
16:09I'll give it like now he's looking to make his first three like early in the shot clock.
16:13What are we doing?
16:13Waiting for his first one.
16:14And like the social team puts it out and they replace all the E's in his name with threes.
16:19I just gave him a free idea.
16:20Free idea.
16:21Yeah.
16:21Free idea.
16:22Trademark that.
16:22Trademark that.
16:22That should, right?
16:23Trademark that, yeah.
16:23He's only taken like 10 in his career.
16:25But like I'm watching him shoot them in practice and before games.
16:29I would like not.
16:30He'll never be like a high volume guy.
16:32He could possibly make this part of the game.
16:35If Al Horford turned into a three-point shooter from where he started in his career, anybody
16:38could do it, quite frankly.
16:39Derek White.
16:39Derek White was terrible at shooting threes when he got here and they kind of developed
16:43that into him.
16:43Now he's one of the best in the league.
16:44I know his efficiency isn't as great this year, but he was one of the top guys last
16:48year in terms of volume and efficiency.
16:50Okay, Terp.
16:50We appreciate it.
16:51Pure hoops with Justin Terp in every Wednesday at high noon here on Jones and Keith.
16:57Follow him on Twitter at Justin M. Terp and check him out all over WEI Terp.
17:01We appreciate the time.
17:02Thanks so much.
17:03All right, guys.
17:03Billy Lane has all the latest here in trending.
17:06When we get back to the Red Sox, is their season already over?
17:11Kind of feels that way.
17:12That's right after the update.
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