- 1 day ago
Chris Mannix from Sports Illustrated and NBC Sports Boston joins the show to discuss the Celtics trade rumors, JB’s Twitch antics, and the NBA Playoffs.
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00:00on with us right now uh it is uh chris mannix we look from sports illustrated love having him on
00:05uh chris it kind of set us straight there's all this talk right now about the whole jalen brown
00:11yannis you know can they make that trade i know you've been very vocal about your opinion of
00:16of anyone who proposes a jalen brown straight up for yannis trade and what and and what is
00:22your feeling on that for the people who don't know i mean i i'm very much against it um i
00:29think
00:29if this was three years ago and yannis was coming off uh one of his mvp seasons or was close
00:37to it
00:37uh i would say it's a no-brainer uh getting a 28 year old yannis playing at that level pre
00:44-injuries
00:45would be an obvious upgrade for this team with all respect to jalen brown but a lot has changed
00:51over the last three years uh yannis has spent the last two years dealing with significant injuries
00:57the kind of injuries that you know can easily evolve into even more serious ones if not taken
01:04care of i think his game is probably not going to mature all that well i mean if you look
01:11at the way
01:12he's played like he still is a dominant interior player i mean he's he's a force but he's he's not
01:19even trying anymore when it comes to expanding his game beyond the three-point line those numbers have
01:24gone down in terms of output uh whereas jalen brown last season showed he's on the ascent there's
01:30more to his game still even at 29 years old more moreover this is a proven commodity they've got
01:38there like they know they can win at the highest level with jalen brown playing opposite jason tatum
01:44so i don't see how it this is even a uh a mild take that that this team should not
01:51be pursuing
01:52any kind of yannis jalen brown swap i think it would be potentially catastrophic but chris wouldn't you
01:57agree this is a two-year fail for the celtics it's not just this year with jalen mostly by himself
02:02they lost to the knicks for all intents and purposes with both of them healthy two years ago
02:07yeah and they've got work to do um i don't think the solution is to break up one of the
02:14best wing
02:14tandems in the nba arguably the best wing tandem in the nba i think the solution is to finding the
02:21right pieces around them now they're obviously two different seasons right like you know they're two
02:26different teams i mean uh this team that is currently constituted was obviously deeply flawed
02:32especially in that front court but they've got assets to go up there and improve it they've got
02:37a 27 million dollar trade exception they've got draft picks that they can deal they've got some
02:41movable contracts like to me the easiest thing to do the smartest thing to do is to build on to
02:48the
02:48team they have and i hear what you guys are saying like they're not on san antonio's level
02:51they're not on oklahoma city's level like you can't worry about that you've got to worry about being
02:56on the level of the teams that are in the eastern conference right now because look i favor whoever
03:00comes out of the spurs thunder series to beat whoever comes out of the calves nick series but
03:05what if every game is like this for those teams like what if you know webb and yam has to
03:09play 45
03:10minutes a night for six or seven games in these series like there's there's a price you pay you
03:15know it's not quite the the boxing analogy but there's a price you pay for that you know taking
03:19those types of punches for uh you know for a whole series so i i think for the celtics it's
03:24like what can
03:25we do to put us in the best position to be the team that comes out of the eastern
03:29conference and then worry about the rest later is there another trade to be made as far as a big
03:34man is concerned because obviously that seems like what brad was talking about it brad stevens at the
03:38end of the season is that he wanted you know obviously more action around the rim is there
03:42somebody we're not thinking about everyone just goes to yannis because that's the name it's been
03:46thrown out there but is there another trade to be made i mean as far as big men go nothing
03:53that is
03:54even close to that level of course and beyond that i think if you're you know i think you could
04:00maybe pry steven adams out of houston or uh yeah i'm trying to think of like who else would be
04:06out
04:06i mean the price of these guys is pretty high i mean avika zubach went for a couple of first
04:09round
04:09picks one of which turned out to be a top five pick so it's it's tough to get those guys
04:14and zubach
04:14was somebody that the celtics were in on prior to through the to the trade deadline so somebody like
04:20that along those lines would probably make some sense but um it's not obvious right now look the
04:26the nba you know going to draft the nba landscape is largely going to be frozen until the bucks figure
04:35out what they're going to do with yannis because there's half a dozen teams or more that are going
04:40to be in on this yannis sweepstakes and and they're going to keep their powder dry until uh until yannis
04:46deal is consummated and after that i think we see a lot of things open up teams with with assets
04:50might be willing to to do some deals and that's when i think the celtics really have to strike and
04:55find one of those guys for the front court that makes the most sense okay so let's this was kind
05:00of awesome when i saw this report just because i i never thought of this but it is interesting
05:05jeff goodman who we know obviously is a very good basketball college basketball reporter proposed
05:10something uh and and it it really kind of blew my mind but now i'm kind of hearing people backing
05:16up
05:16what he is saying as far as the availability he made a proposal of you know you end up getting
05:21yannis here and obviously you know you would have to trade jalen brown for that so you got tatum you
05:25got yannis and then he said you go after lebron james and you have lebron james sign with the celtics
05:33because there was a report that came out from shams yesterday right that that lebron james would be
05:39willing to go somewhere for less money in order to chase a ring now first of all i know that
05:46sounds
05:46somewhat crazy but does it could you ever see something like that happening
05:54not in boston i i can't fathom lebron going to boston finishing his career like shack did like i don't
06:02i
06:02don't see that as being remotely it doesn't make any kind of sense um there's also the question of
06:09what is less money like lebron is not going somewhere for the minimum that's full stop he's
06:13not doing that i think he can get the 15 million dollar exception i i think don't the celtics have
06:17maybe and maybe he does that but even that like lebron even a diminished state like performance wise
06:23he's worth more than 15 million dollars um the money he brings in in terms of revenue uh yeah he's
06:30more than 15 million dollars like he's you know lebron is is probably technically still worth like
06:3650 like if we're being honest about it like that's that's just his value to the team and
06:40in multiple different ways look lebron his story is not ending in celtic green it's just not it's
06:46probably not ending in like any uniform that's not a lakers or a cavaliers one i just i can't see
06:52it
06:52i i can't you know the golden state stuff is a little pie in the sky for me i'm not
06:56even sure what
06:56lebron with you know with steph curry actually does you know miami's not going anywhere even
07:01if you get lebron back like cleveland we see what they are they're a conference finals team right now
07:06they may be a piece away a wing away from getting back and and i could see him putting a
07:11button on
07:11his story right back where it all started like it look we're now into that part of you know free
07:17agency or pre-agency where anything goes where it's all kind of agent driven stuff that's out there
07:22right now and and look it behooves lebron james for the lakers to think that he's willing to do
07:27a lot of different things right now go to a lot of different places but i'd just be very surprised
07:32if his story ends anywhere but los angeles or cleveland that just that to me just is where it's
07:37going to go chris if you could just maybe encapsulate like his like why does he why does
07:43he need to keep playing i mean he's basically said he's got nothing to prove do you do you think
07:47he's still that he's lying and said and thinks he still has something to prove what is it what
07:52do we mean for his legacy to keep playing like how would you encapsulate his career at this point
07:56do you think he needs a capper a cherry on top to i don't know uh maybe add to it
08:01no he doesn't um
08:03you know i've had other people refute this but i do think he wants the retirement tour i think he
08:07wants to be you know seeded in the ways that others have been glorified on their way out um you
08:14know
08:14maybe he doesn't need the kobe bryant i'm on a crappy team you know let me get a you know
08:19rocking
08:19chair in every city that i go to kind of thing but like you know i think he he wants
08:24this and i'm
08:24sure like because he's lebron and he's an entertainment mogul as well he'll have every
08:29moment of it chronicled at the very end and he'll sell the documentary rights for a hundred million
08:33dollars like it's it's there's there's a lot of that goes into the final season for lebron james
08:38but no he doesn't he doesn't need it by any stretch his legacy is what it is i don't think
08:43anything's going to burnish it or diminish it one way or the other i do think for lebron when i
08:47talk
08:47to people around him that know him like he still believes he can play and he doesn't he likes the
08:53process he likes to show up at eight o'clock in the morning and and get his work in he
08:58he enjoys
08:59the whole experience of being an nba player and you know ted you know this being a pro athlete it's
09:05fleeting like your your success there like and if you're if you're if you're still playing at a high
09:09level and you're not just kind of languishing at the end of the bench a a shell of your former
09:14self
09:14you know why give it up you know you can you can go on and do other things be an
09:18nba owner be a
09:19mogul do something else do whatever you want but when he's still a top 25 player in this league
09:23you know if you're a top 25 player in any league simply put you're just not walking away 99 of
09:29those
09:29guys are walking away and i wouldn't expect lebron to do it either chris what do you make of the
09:33jalen
09:33brown twitch antics of the past couple days the battle with steven a and how do you think more i
09:38guess
09:38more importantly the celtics are reacting to it internally i think that internally there's probably
09:44a collective eye roll to all of this um i don't think they love the whole like this was my
09:50favorite
09:50season stuff i don't think they love the attention that's that he's bringing on himself especially
09:56since like you know they'd want a championship or you know it ended differently maybe that's that's a
10:02different story but they they blew a 3-1 lead to a team that got broomed by the knicks in
10:06the next
10:06round like that's that's not a great look and to to be out there doing all this stuff it's it's
10:11it's
10:12probably a lot for people uh in the organization not that they're going to say anything to them about
10:16it but i'm sure that there's a bit of a collective eye roll i don't think it's doing him any
10:20good you
10:20know it's the old adage don't pick a five people to buy ink by the barrel like you know steven
10:24a has
10:25got two hours of tv he's got a podcast he's on so i mean you just it's it's not worth
10:29it to engage
10:30on something like that you're just not going to win no matter how many you know kind of insane
10:35things that steven a says uh as well so i think it's kind of pointless to go doing that but
10:39he
10:40look he seems to love this engagement love the community that he's been building on twitch it does
10:45nothing for me i'm not all that interested in any of that stuff but uh he seems to like it
10:50and i don't
10:50think there's anything that's going to stop him from keep uh keep doing it and you don't think in
10:53any way that is affecting his relationship with jason tatum you know there's been a lot of talk about
10:59steven a put some shots out there about how jason tatum's never been on your uh twitch stream before
11:05and he even made a comment that was kind of interesting and he goes maybe it's because
11:08jason tatum doesn't want to be what was the term that he used ted it was like in an uncontrolled
11:13environment which you know kind of you know you might be able to read that as a shot do you
11:19do
11:19you think that him doing all of this has possibly put you know maybe i don't want to see a
11:25rift but
11:25it has made things a little tougher between him and the team and him and jason tatum
11:29i don't think it makes anything better um i don't know if it creates a rift i mean i was
11:35a little
11:35surprised that tatum hasn't done that stream like during the season like i think jalen intimated at
11:41one point that he was going to do it and at some point they were going to get it done
11:44but look
11:44it's not wrong to say tatum likes controlled environments like you remember you go back to
11:49september when tatum was promoting whatever wonder drug he was on at the time and he was doing all these
11:54interviews um in controlled environments you know set up with pr people i was one of the people that
11:59he sat down and talked to um he did the thing with the today show podcast he's done you know
12:04different
12:05things he's always seemingly in these kind of controlled environments and i've rarely seen him
12:08i mean he's not really on social media except for like you know posting some basketball stuff and some
12:13things with deuce like that's that's pretty much it so maybe there's there's something to that i just
12:18i don't look tatum and brown are like and this is not a slightly the one but they're never going
12:22to be
12:22the best of friends they're just different people they they move in different ways but at no point
12:27has that really affected their ability to be wildly successful on the basketball court i mean how many
12:32people would have two guys that were under the age of 30 who have been to what six or seven
12:39conference finals two nba finals a 1-1 championship i mean it's it's not you know the the golden state
12:46warriors of the the last decade but it's pretty damn successful it's pretty damn good so it all goes
12:51back to the the original question you asked about like them being together like long term like this
12:56is exactly who they should be building around these types of guys know how to win with each other and
13:01i can i can see a clear path so like tatum coming back next year brown you know not being
13:06an mvp candidate
13:07but being a better version of the guy we saw in 2024 and them running through the eastern conference i
13:12mean i really believe that like you you add a a couple of pieces to this team and they'll go
13:16into next
13:17season as the favorite to win the eastern conference and within the top three or four
13:22favorites to win a championship and then get stomped by the spurs in the finals i mean but
13:27like but like but they they did well against the spurs in the regular season they did well against
13:33oklahoma city so i don't know how we can like we can't discount like what we've seen with our own
13:37eyes like they probably would have won that game against the sand when jalen brown got talked in san
13:42antonio they probably would have won that game they played without tatum against oklahoma city they
13:45probably would have won that game like they've played exceptionally well against these top tier
13:49teams it's it's true chris and it's it's definitely recency bias that i'm suffering from because last
13:54night's game was one of the best i've seen all year and it just it almost just seemed hopeless when
14:00i
14:00saw that women i could do whatever he wanted and when i learned that that is the youngest team that
14:05has ever been rolled out in a western conference finals and the age i think the average age was 22
14:10yeah the starting lineup yeah the starting yeah with me it changed of course with harper to get in
14:14there for fox but yeah so that's the that's the youngest starting lineup they've had does that
14:18surprise you chris because i mean it's used to be a thing of the nba young teams never sniffed the
14:23finals and you had okc was one of the youngest teams ever won it last year and and you know
14:27in
14:27the pacers were a young team and now you got these two young teams going it used to be only
14:31veteran
14:32teams would show up in the finals but it feels like that shifted no it's not even the veteran teams
14:37it's like there's a there's a there's a path you have to travel the obstacles you have to overcome
14:42every team in the modern era has has done it you go back to the last three champions denver how
14:47many
14:47times did they get beat in the second round before they broke through boston 5-6 conference finals nba
14:53finals they break through same thing with oklahoma city they went out in the second round the year
14:57before then they break through last year what what it's paradigm shifting what what san antonio was
15:03doing and that is a testament to just how great victor webiniam is you watch that game how many times
15:08did oklahoma city even try to attempt to shot the rim shea gildas alexander it was one play when
15:13wemby didn't even try didn't go for it but he was so shook by wemby's presence down there that he
15:18came up short on the rim like this this guy's transformative he's 22 years old and as long as
15:24he stays healthy his team's gonna be the favorite to win every single year real quick chris does is
15:28it if you if they go your route and bring jalen back keep jalen do they have to give them
15:31the max
15:32extension the two-year extension on top no i wouldn't do that i wouldn't do that i wouldn't do that
15:36you got i mean look he's in a different situation than joel and beat but like it was insanity that
15:42daryl morey gave joel and beat a two-year extension two years ago now he's beginning that three-year
15:46extension with you know a broken body so jalen's in great condition he looks like he's equipped to
15:53play for for a number of years but when you got a guy with three years left in his contract
15:57no you
15:58don't do that you wait till there's one year left and you have a conversation see what works
16:03keep the flexibility that makes the most sense chris am i right in saying i feel like daryl did
16:09that with james harden when he was down there in houston he gave him a two-year extension when he
16:13didn't need to i feel like that's kind of an mo stuff like that i don't i don't mind like
16:17you know
16:18hard at that point was like the mvp okay all right yeah you're removed from that like i don't mind
16:22that but like joel and bead like not to make this about that but like joel and bead played like
16:2639
16:27games the year before he got he limped he limped through the olympics he was limping through the
16:32olympics and they give him a two-year extension on top of the three years or three-year extension
16:37top of the two years that he had remaining that was crazy when the guy whose body's breaking down
16:42like that that is why the sixers are in kind of the predicament they're in right now well chris here
16:47is to uh jalen brown continuing to do his stream and picking fights i've got to be honest it's been
16:52fairly entertaining and uh i'm not reading too much into it but my god it's been funny watching
16:57steven a smith freak out and speaking that low voice like he's serious what do you hear is jalen
17:02brown it's very like it's very high schoolish too it's like i've got and perk i love perk but he's
17:07kind of in on it too like you know i got you my friends are talking bad about you man
17:11you got names
17:12say names yeah right right right we say that all the time all right don't dance around it say what
17:17you
17:17got say who is texting you on your super phone all right chris mannix great stuff you can read
17:22chris mannix sports illustrated and uh and we'll keep in touch throughout this offseason this is
17:27going to be a very very very interesting what's going to be happening to yannis and everything
17:31else and how the celtics are going to try to improve appreciate it chris thanks for coming on
17:34you got it guys all right see you man
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