- 12 hours ago
Rich, Ken, and Ted discuss the drama-filled Celtics off-season, including trade possibilities, the comments coming from their superstars, and whether the Jay’s will play together next season.
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00:00Jalen Brown continues to talk. Now, there's been all this different things that have been confirmed that Jalen Brown during
00:06the season, his name was being tossed around, you know, in trades.
00:10And then apparently the Celtics inquired about Giannis at the trade deadline.
00:15And now you're hearing a bunch of talk about how, you know, what would it take for Jalen Brown and
00:20Giannis to end up being a swap?
00:22A swap, the people in Milwaukee who cover the team laughed and said, there's no way that would be a
00:27one for one.
00:28You'd have to give a lot more up than just Jalen Brown. It's very strange.
00:32But this was a comment that was made by Jason Tatum, someone who has not spoken or said much of
00:38anything since this all went down outside of a Denzel Washington meme that seemed to be about the media.
00:45And at the time I thought, you know what, maybe he's sticking up for Jalen Brown just because at the
00:50time the media was crushing Jalen Brown.
00:52For saying it was his favorite season. I, I, I, I just like you, Ted, I hate it when people
00:58just don't say what they mean and try to have you interpret things and figure things out.
01:03Just say it, have some balls and get, just get out there and throw it into the universe.
01:08And you know, what happens happens. At least everyone knows where you, where you stand, unless you want to be
01:12like Jalen Brown.
01:13Like I didn't mean that I'm a naughty little devil. So in this case, this is Jason Tatum on this
01:19show.
01:20That was like, it's like a podcast for the today show and it's called cup half full.
01:25And he spoke about what his dreams are for his upcoming seasons. Let's take a listen.
01:31Two questions for the road. Um, what's, what's one moment that Jason Tatum still chasing?
01:36I would say winning another championship and holding up finals MVP.
01:42Can you do it in Boston? Absolutely. And especially after what I've been through, it would, uh, it would mean
01:50that much more.
01:51All right. So Ted earlier, we spoke about him saying finals MVP. It is strange.
01:59You would think that most people would just not care about that. That's not something you would mention.
02:04What was your take on him mentioning? Yeah. Just this, the, the, the thing, the, the mere fact he just
02:08said that is just, it's just odd.
02:10It's odd to me to hear an athlete say that that's something you aspire to. Like, you know, it's, you
02:18like to think a player, his ilk would be, if he's in the finals and they win it, that he
02:22would be awarded that, that trophy.
02:24Like you wouldn't even have to say it. It just like, yeah, of course, Jason Tatum is the best player.
02:28Now I know he wasn't awarded that when they won it in 2024, but it's just, it's just an odd
02:34thing to hear a player say that.
02:37And so, um, it perked my ears up and, uh, I'm not surprised. I mean, there's other athletes. Trust me.
02:42I'm the only one that thinks that.
02:43Um, so it just feels, you know, when you listen to JB and JT talk, man, they just, they can't
02:51help themselves.
02:51They, it just, they talk about team, but they always really, it feels like they're talking about how important it
02:58is for them to get individual awards.
03:00It just, do you think the organization knows like the full extent of it or, or even they left guessing
03:06at how they know everything they do.
03:09They know everything. And I think that they're trying to do their best to make this work.
03:13But I also think they also know better than anybody, whether we're past that point.
03:17And it sure does seem to me for the first time that Tatum sounds like he has a little bit
03:23of a chip on his shoulder when it comes to Jalen Brown.
03:25Maybe he's seeing how well the team did without him and possibly sounds like he might be a little jealous
03:33that somebody won a finals MVP.
03:34That wasn't him when they won the championship.
03:36I mean, that's another thing to bring up is the fact that Jalen Brown has won it and you didn't,
03:42and you mentioned it.
03:43It's, it's almost like, wait a minute. Really? Are you, I mean, so it just, I don't know.
03:49I think the fact that JB won it and he said it, it makes them look bad. Like I want
03:54one too, you know, it just, I don't know.
03:56Well, it also makes you wonder how Tatum would handle Giannis or another big star coming into the relationship with
04:01him.
04:02Like if he's hell bent on being a clear number one, well, Giannis has got arguably, I don't know who
04:06would be the 1A in that duo.
04:08Because Giannis has got seniority, right? He's been around longer.
04:11The hardest thing about Jason Tatum is he has got number one, like ability and skill, but with a beta
04:20mentality, which is a best supporting role.
04:23In terms of leadership or everything?
04:25In terms of leadership, in terms of, you know, energy, aura, how you, you know, come into a, it's like
04:34pasta is not a leader.
04:36Like he tried, we can play the audio. It's, he's a great player, but he's not the alpha.
04:41He got angry.
04:41He's a beta. And so you have a beta trying to, you know, act like he's an alpha when he's
04:47not.
04:48But we've learned that you can win without somebody having that. I'm going to rally the troops attitude.
04:53I mean, I keep looking at Tim Duncan. Tim Duncan was just a quiet guy who showed up and dominated
04:59and kicked massive ass.
05:01Like he went out there and outperformed everybody. One of the best players of our generation.
05:05That's true.
05:05But he wasn't a guy that you ever heard even get like emotional after.
05:10He had a great coach and a phenomenal supporting cast. So he's propped up by those guys too.
05:15So don't, don't, I mean, it wasn't all Tim Duncan. I mean,
05:18What about Jokic? How weird is he? He didn't want to be there. He won a title and he was
05:21like, um,
05:22That's a great point. He wanted, I want to see my horse.
05:26But it's just, it's a weird thing where I don't want one title.
05:31You're right. You're right. You can win one. Like there's a lot of quarterbacks.
05:36The great quarterbacks that have just won one. Yeah.
05:39And we win multiple. Well, that's your part.
05:41Let's go to Joanne on line one. Joanne, how's it going?
05:44Good. How are you guys? I just wanted to say, um, you're on point.
05:48What you just said is just so true. And I just appreciated it. That's all.
05:56Well, well, it feels nice to be appreciated every once in a while.
06:00You know what? I like that. More people should do that. Just say, Hey, what you doing?
06:04Thumbs up there, buddy.
06:05I like that. Thank you, Joanne. You know,
06:08you call us anytime and give us a little pat on the back. I like that.
06:11Okay. Bye guys.
06:12Bye bye. Thank you, Joanne.
06:13But, uh, but it is interesting because there is something that I thought about and cause
06:17we were talking about like all these, you know, the, there was a, who was it? Who said that
06:21if the, uh, it was a guy from yard Barker who said that if the Patriots of Patriots, the Celtics
06:27rather were to trade Jalen Brown. Yeah. Jed Fisher. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Or, or to, to make
06:33the trade where, uh, you know, Jalen Brown for a young, then the bucks would still only be
06:38the eight seed. That's how Milwaukee sees it. Yeah. That's how they see it. They don't see much
06:41value in that. So I got me thinking, and I, this is something the Celtics would never do.
06:47They would never do this, but why aren't we considering a potential trade of Jason Tatum?
06:54If Jalen Brown right now is not going to get a lot of value because he's scaring a bunch of
06:59teams
06:59away, apparently. And for some reason, even though he had a borderline MVP season, you're not going to
07:04get the value that you think you're going to get Jason Tatum. On the other hand, you're going to
07:08basically be able to pick anyone you want in the NBA. Am I wrong? Like all, but
07:11maybe like four, five players you could get for Jason Tatum, right? Or like five first round
07:16picks or something crazy. I mean, it's a King's ransom. If you truly think that Jalen, that Jalen
07:23Brown is an MVP caliber player, wouldn't that be the better move for the Boston Celtics to pair
07:32him with pick your player? He's just not as marketable. That's a big part of it is Jason Tatum.
07:40The Hudson show, right? Jason Tatum sells. Yeah. I mean, I don't know how many jerseys that'll
07:43sell, but Jason Tatum's top in Jersey sales. He's on a lot of commercials. He's just more
07:49marketable. I mean, it's that there's more money to be made by having Jason Tatum on your
07:54team than there is Jalen Brown. And I don't think the difference, uh, you know, if you say,
07:59well, one can maybe win you more championships. I don't, I don't know if I can make that argument
08:03and, and it wouldn't be that much different in my opinion. So the value, there's too much
08:07value in Jason Tatum that there's more value from a marketing standpoint than there's Jalen
08:13Brown. How about just like basketball wise, how much more do you like Jason Tatum as the
08:18leader than Jalen Brown? Like as being the man on the team? Cause you saw almost an entire
08:22season of what Jalen Brown can do. It's pretty freaking good. Yeah. Yeah. And the regular season,
08:26I mean, if you qualify everything with a regular season, I think that would probably do a regular
08:31season. I get it. I get it. You can win a lot of games. Yeah, I get it. But I'm
08:35also thinking,
08:37man, we're higher on Jalen Brown than apparently the rest of the league is. So I don't know how
08:41much you're going to get for him. I mean, there was all these articles written about the pieces
08:45that you're going to get. And the best that I saw was Jamal Murray. And why would you make that
08:48trade? I think I see it. Like a lot of people see it. Jason Tatum is a better player. Like
08:54if Jason
08:55Tatum was on the market, they wouldn't be sitting there in Milwaukee saying, well, they'd only be
08:59the eighth best team in the East. That would be a bigger blockbuster than the Lakers getting rid of
09:03Luca, right? That would be a, or the Mavericks getting rid of Luca, right? No, no, no. That was,
09:07that was, I think that I think nothing's going to touch that. I think Tatum would be as big.
09:11Oh, it would be as big. I don't, I don't know if it's bigger though, but I mean, there's some
09:14people
09:14that think Luca's better than Tatum. They're neck and neck. I mean, I think it'd be a similar
09:20comparison. We saw him head to head in the Celtics one. So, I mean, I, it's just,
09:25it feels like you can't even touch that topic, Rich. You're totally right. It makes a lot of
09:28sense. You would get a bigger return, but it feels like this is bird-esque, the Tatum connection
09:33with Celtics. What happened to the general manager that traded Tatum away? Yeah, yeah. He got canned.
09:37Oh, you mean Luca? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, Luca. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He got fired. I mean,
09:41so it would be, I mean, the fans will stop showing up, man. But I don't know about that about
09:46Jalen Brown. I think some people, there's half, I think half the Celtics fans think that you should
09:51split the Jays. Like, they've seen enough. There's an, okay, done. Like, it was an argument
09:57for a long time. He had a good run. I mean, it would be hard to argue that you gave
10:00it,
10:00you know, it's plenty of time to run its course. Ten years, right? Yeah. What more do you need
10:04to see? Right. All right. Let's go to Al on line one. Al, what's happening, man? How you doing?
10:08Guys, love the positivity, Rich. Great to have you back on the air. You can feel it. Appreciate it,
10:13guys. Thank you for taking this on because no one ever talks about getting rid of Tatum.
10:18If the goal is to win championships, who's the guy that got the playoffs MVP? Who's the guy that's
10:27got a snarl in his game? That's Jalen Brown. And if other teams don't see the value, then it becomes,
10:34as you're saying, it becomes obvious. It makes sense. And now it just seems that we're just
10:38accepting the fact that Tatum is untouchable because he's like our guy. He was the one that
10:43Danny made that master move for. And we're all looking at him because of the ads and the way
10:49he's a representative of the team. It's like, he's just, it's a given he's always going to be here,
10:54but it does make a decent amount of sense basketball wise that you trade a guy. If you think they're
11:01both great and one just played, Jalen Brown just played like an MVP, then think of the value you
11:07could get for Tatum right now. You could build yourself a much better team than if you got rid of
11:12Jalen Brown instead. Guys, last question. Last question. End of the game, the championships
11:16on the line, who you want, who's going to have the ball? Jalen Brown or Jason Tatum? Tatum. I mean,
11:22I got to say, I mean, right now it's Tatum just because it's always. Well, we just saw Jalen have
11:26four cracks at it in the final minutes against the six. Yeah, that didn't go so well. Not a good
11:31time
11:31for that, that question. It's just, I, that's when the game's on the line, I'm not, are you kidding me?
11:36It's Tatum all the way. It's not even close. Okay. But so let's say you traded Tatum. You would want
11:39a big man
11:40to return, right? You would not want Anthony Edwards or something like that. You would want
11:44somebody who changed. I'd take Anthony Edwards in a second. You mean a big man? To pair with Jalen
11:48Brown. Like somebody you would want, you know, JB with a, with Bay. Yeah. Not another wing. Yeah.
11:53You know, Anthony Edwards is probably the only person that I would like be cool with because I
11:57just, first of all, Anthony Edwards is like my favorite player in the league. I'd love Anthony
12:00Edwards and that's his team needs attitude too. It's not just that they need somebody in there
12:04that has a little bit attitude and also somebody that doesn't have boring press conferences because I'm
12:08really, to be quite honest, if Joe Missoula being weird is the most entertaining thing
12:12we're getting, just come on, give me a little nugget. Give me something. So let's say the
12:15Miami Heat said, okay, we'll take Tatum. We'll give you Bam out of Bayou. We'll give you title
12:18hero. We'll give you two first round picks. Is that enough to win a title with JB Bam?
12:23Their first round picks aren't awful. It's just, even though it seems like a good return,
12:29it just feels like you're losing the best player in the bunch and you're going to pay for
12:34it in a couple of years and you're going to regret it. I'd have to, I'd have to see what
12:37because I don't even know what you're going to get for Jalen Brown right now. Yeah. Because
12:40everyone thinks that it's not just Jalen Brown's not good enough for Giannis. No, no. Everyone,
12:44everyone except for Celtics fans. Well, I think he goes to Atlanta, his hometown, Atlanta sends a
12:50bunch of stuff to Milwaukee, the stuff they want and you get Giannis. So in the end, all the Celtics
12:54would be giving up is Jalen Brown. Is that what you're saying? Yeah. And maybe a couple firsts here.
12:59Yes. A couple firsts. I mean, yeah, it's the same thing then. Like to me, that's, I don't care where
13:03he goes. As long as Giannis comes, is here in return. I don't, I still don't know how
13:07that could happen, but sure. Get a new coach. Then you don't have to, you don't have to get
13:12rid of JB or JT. I don't know why. That's the simple solution. Why is he so loyal to
13:16Joe? Because one thing they can't do is. Brad put him there. Brad is the guy that put
13:20Joe Mazzulla in the, in the, in that spot. So if he fires Joe Mazzulla, it's, it's an indictment
13:25on him. Well, we had our man Terp on and he feels that psycho Joe. Terp thinks they're going to
13:30stay the course. Like this, they're going to let all this smoke clear and they're going
13:33to keep the coach. They're going to keep the Jays and they're just going to add on the
13:36fringes. You think that will be taking a chance. Yeah. Right. They're just rather just rather
13:41be in the hunt. They're, they're just like the Red Sox or, you know, they're just like
13:45the Bruins. They're hard to, they were scared to make a real big move. They'd rather just kind
13:49of be that, you know, the illusion of contention. And then maybe you could go, you could go crazy
13:54next year when you finally out from under all the aprons and the tax stuff. And they do
13:57have the city by the cojones a little, cause they, they're the, they're the only title
14:01in the last eight years. So like they've won, they have a little house money. Worst thing
14:05that ever could happen. They, they won that title. Terrible. Cause then it didn't think
14:09that they validates all of their, all their numbers and all their analytics and their style
14:13of play is always validated by winning that win. And they saw that no secret. They, as soon
14:18as they won, the gross specs were like, we're selling right. As soon as we win, we're out.
14:21Yeah. Yeah. And wick sold his what? 2% stake in it that no one knew about. Everyone
14:26thought he was like the big spender. He's going to be the Seahawks owner and be living
14:29large. Sure. But, but don't you think that if they do stay the course that Brad Stevens
14:34is going to be breathing down the neck of Joe Missoula, like he is going to be, this
14:38is going to be a close relationship. I have a straight cause Brad actually said all the
14:42right things. He sounded like he did not like the style of play that they had. And Joe Missoula
14:47has said it over and over again. He's all about three point attempts. And I'm telling
14:52you, the league has changed. They go through these different rhythms. And for the last
14:57like 10 years, it's been all about the three point shot. And now look what's happened in
15:01the last few years. What did you say? Only one of the top 10 or top 11 three point shooting
15:06teams made it to the second round.
15:07Yeah. The teams that are left for the most part are middle of their, their mid, they take
15:12mid amount of threes. Yeah. I had the list somewhere else, but Washington, Charlotte, Portland
15:16were the top three point shooting teams in the regular season and the Celtics were high.
15:20I think the fourth, but the Knicks don't shoot a lot of threes. San Antonio doesn't shoot
15:24a lot of threes. OKC doesn't shoot a ton of threes. So that's the league has definitely
15:28morphed back into a more balanced attack.
15:31Well, this is probably, this is pretty great. So PJ Tucker was talking about Jason Tatum
15:36and what he had to say about if he wanted to be a finals MVP. Let's take a listen to
15:40that
15:40clip. PJ, have you ever heard a player say, I want to also host up finals MVP?
15:46I was a first. I was, I was surprised by that. I'm not going to lie. Jason Tatum is one
15:51of
15:51my favorite players and a friend. And I know, I really don't know what he meant. Obviously
15:57not going to speak for him, but as a, as a teammate, you come into that locker room early
16:03training camp. All you talk about is winning the championship. I've never heard anybody
16:07say they want to win finals. And that's, that's, that's the alpha. That's a dog. PJ Tucker
16:13is a bad dude, man. I mean, in the, I mean that in the best of ways when I say
16:18it. And
16:19so he's saying it. So I just, I mean, it's just, it doesn't, you just don't hear athletes
16:24say that. I'm sorry. Is that a shot at Jalen? It's a shot at Jason Tatum for like not having
16:30the soft mentality. Okay. He's not a soft player. I'm like, all right. So don't freak out
16:33people when you hear me say, but there's a softness to how he thinks when you say that
16:39you care about winning the, the MVP of the game and not just the championship to defend
16:44Tatum here. I think it's, you know, when they won the title, he said, what are they going
16:48to say now? That was kind of his thing, his mantra when, right, you know, when they won
16:51the title, I'm going to say that you had the easiest path to get there. Yeah. But I think
16:55what people are saying is why didn't you win finals MVP? So he gets that thrown in his
16:59face a lot. Oh, so he's got to come back with, well, it's one of my goals. Oh, he doesn't
17:03have to come back with it. You can just think it and then go get it.
17:06It is like saying it out loud is soft, dude. Like think it all you want, dude, but don't
17:12say it like saying it makes you soft. It does. And PJ Tucker just said as much. Yeah. Called
17:18him out for being soft. It does sound like that. It does. It does. What an uncomfortable
17:22off season. I just don't know how you don't hear that and just go, what? Oh, and then
17:27he has to mention the same style of overcoming the injury. Like, bro, guys tear their Achilles
17:32all the time. All right. Sorry, bro. But it's a common injury. All right. So acting as if you
17:38came back from like, I don't know, man, something like really serious. I mean, you guys come back
17:42from 20 killings. I'm sorry. This isn't John Lester coming back from like, you know, beating
17:46cancer. You know, thank you. That was like a huge moment. Like, oh my gosh. Right. This
17:51is a, you know, something happens. It happens. But just a mere mention of like overcoming, you
17:55know, my injury. And I mean, in fairness, he was on the cup half full podcast. What
18:00about, what about Embiid and Maxie for Tatum? Oh my God. And some other stuff. Ooh. The
18:05same guy that just, did you hear the montage we played of Joel Embiid yesterday saying it
18:11was his favorite season ever? I know I'm not supposed to say this, but, but, but this was
18:16my favorite season ever. It's like, oh, here we go. That's right. You're gonna have two
18:20Jalen's on the team. All right. Is, is Jason Tatum soft? I love this because I mean, it
18:25is, it is interesting. Like we are, boy, what chaos since they just lost that first
18:31round in historic fashion. That's what happens when you blow 3-1 lead. But you realize this
18:34is a, I feel like this is a tipping point. Yeah. It has to change. Like, I mean, dude,
18:39I told you while like game three, game four, I'm like, oh man, Celtics are a perfect team.
18:46They're not, there's no drama. There's none of this. And now it's literal like a big pile
18:50of crap just went all over what anyone thought of this team in a positive way.
18:55It's, they have to make a change. They have to make some sort of change. Do you split
18:59the Jays? Do you get rid of the coach? Do you, do you, uh, get rid of the coach? I
19:03would
19:03do that first. I'm with you too. Like Joe, that's, he just, he can't coach. Basketball
19:08has changed. Chucking up the three doesn't work anymore. You need a big man. You need to
19:13hit that. You need to have some sort of presence under the rim. And he doesn't even coach that.
19:17He says the best statistic in all of basketball is three point attempts gone fire. He said,
19:23he said, you give him five post players. He'll post up all day. That's what he says.
19:27We'll see. All right. We'll take your call. 617-779-7937. We'll be right back.
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