June 23, 2023 • 16 mins
Celtics President of Basketball Operations Brad Stevens joins us for a special bonus episode after a busy 48 hours leading into and through the NBA Draft. Stevens breaks down all of the trades and decisions that he and the Celtics front office made, including the emotions of trading away Marcus Smart, the arrival and fit of Kristaps Porzingis and balancing the roster. Stevens also dives into the value of replenishing Boston’s draft stock with a handful of second-rounders, gives his take on Jordan Walsh, and wraps up with comments about the new coaching staff and how they’ll develop players.
1:00 – Trading Marcus Smart
3:58 – Kristaps Porzingis’ Fit
6:15 – Accentuating Our Best Players
7:57 – The Celtics’ Toughness
9:29 – Draft Night Chaos & Second-Round Value
12:00 – The Jordan Walsh Report
15:20 – Coaching Staff’s Development Mindset
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome everyone.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
This is View from the Rafters today. We're bringing in
a man who hails from basketball country life is funny.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Okay, oh go, don't go there. Not yet. Well, we
talked about it out the Bust One Boys. Is a
crazy story, not actor is a.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Basketball The crazy thing to me is like where you
came from.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Yeah, we're all older than we think. We are always
Gold League gray baby.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
All right. We got a special summer off season episode
of View from the Rafters behind the scenes with the
Boston Celtics, and we only do this when something pretty
significant happens. I think we can say that the last
forty eight hours kind of qualify is that no one
knows that better than Brad Stevens, President of basketball Operations
for the Boston Celtics. Brad, I've asked you this in
the past, but I think it's especially applicable after the
(00:47):
last couple of days. How much have you slept?
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Not much? You know, not much because you're doing we
got a lot to do. And but and then also
the emotional piece of it, right, how hard does that? Yeah?
I mean it's a it's always hard. It's it's you know,
you're work. We're coming off of another you know, season
where we were really competitive and right there and right
(01:11):
in the mix, and you're balancing you know, where you
are and the big picture of your roster and and
what you need moving forward and how to best balance
it out and make it the best it can be.
And at the same time, with that comes some really
hard decisions. They're they're those decisions are easy to have
meetings about, but then to to do it, to call
(01:34):
it and to you know, get it done is is
much different.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
And the decision, obviously that we're referencing right now is
having to trade away Marcus Smart to be able to
get someone who clearly you guys covered in christas porzingis.
But let's let's touch on that emotion and having to
make that decision with Marcus. How have you kind of
come to grips with that over the last couple of
days since you made that decision.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Yeah, I mean, and you know, and and Gallo and
Muskie were in that trade too, And I would say
that obviously Marcus being here for nine years, us drafting him,
you know, and then me getting a chance to coach
him for my last seven years or my yeah, for
(02:18):
his first seven years. Was you know, you know, an
enjoyable journey, and he's a great competitor. He's a really
good player. I always appreciated his community work and you know,
the way that the way that he's been to my
kids and and everybody else. So to say goodbye to
(02:41):
to somebody like that, and to be the one that
has to green light saying goodbye to somebody like that,
you know, there's a lot of motions involved.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
And you said something interesting there at the start about
how the season just ended. I mean, you guys were
I went away from getting to the NBA Finals for
the second straight year. I think a lot of people
kind of get tunnel vision of the moment of last
night and the draft and the trade happening. They forget
what just happened a few weeks ago. How hard is
that or was that to kind of like turn that
(03:10):
page so quickly and be able to make such a
critical decision regarding the future of the team.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Here, I think we're we're keeping the ten thousand foot
of you in mind as a front office all the time.
And the reality was, as you know, as as you
look at our team, and we had good depth and
we had a really good team. We were forced to
play small more than maybe we would have liked, and
(03:37):
so as a result, we felt like it was better
to balance our roster. And we knew that if we
would have won or lost right like, it was just
it was kind of inevitable with you know, with what
our roster needs wouldn't be But certainly, you know, it
still doesn't make it any easier because you know, when
(03:57):
you bring in someone of Chris Stops caliber and you
get draft compensation, yeah, it's you're usually losing a you know,
pretty important part of your program.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Yeah, well, let's talk about Chris Steps. I mean, he's
a one time All Star, had arguably his best season
of his career last year. Clearly you guys coveted him
in some of these conversations. Why did you want to
bring him in and add him to this group you're
moving forward.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
I think that we've talked about he can play with
any of our bigs. He can play the five as
a standalone five, he can play with robber Al as
a four. And it's not crazy to think that he
could steal a minute or two at the three because
he can shoot so well. That's not going to happen.
It's probably not going to happen. But it's not love
(04:49):
to see. Yeah, it's not out of you know, it's
not it's not crazy. And as the game has gotten
more spread out, you know, smaller and faster, I think
the best teams have been able to maintain size while
being able to defend both the three point line in
the rim are our other bigs are very agile. Chris
Stops is agile, but we should always have it a
(05:12):
turn at the rim. Now, you know when those when
two of them are in there together, you can kind
of envision, you know, the lineups and things with you know,
a couple of our wings and Kris Stops and another
big like those those are huge lineups and so those
are those are things that we're thinking about there. And
he's excited. You know. I think when you have a
(05:33):
seven foot two guy, you know, you automatically think historically
of you know, in the paint, in the paint, and
he's capable of doing things in the paint. And where
I think his game has really improved is he attacks
switches and really hurts them by posting. He just shoots
over them, and you know, and he kind of a
(05:55):
known that you guys haven't had all, well, not many
people have it. There's not many people that do it
in an efficient clip. I mean, his post ups last year
were pretty ridiculous, the efficiency on them, and so it
just gives you another option. And then you add in
the fact that you can shoot from twenty five feet quickly,
then you know it makes sense.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
So when I first heard about these rumblings going on,
the first thing that went through my mind is you said,
over and over, since you moved into this position of
president and basketball operations, every move that you make is
in mind of trying to accentuate your best players. How
does Chris STAPs accentuate your best players?
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Yeah, and that's that's that's the challenge of this move
because we know the other guy did. Yeah, he did
a good job and brought great, you know, tenacity to
the work. I think that Chris STAPs not only accentuates
those guys, he can again, he can play with anyone.
And so the ability to shoot and space the floor
(06:55):
allows you to play and make everyone's life easier. Then
if team can't switch us as much because he's making
it harder to switch, then those guys have different places
to attack, right, And so you know you're playing against
a lot of teams with two through fours that are
a little smaller that can really get into people that
are really tough to beat off the dribble. We saw
(07:16):
that in the Miami Series in a big way really
at one through five. And so to be able to
take advantage of some of those defenses, particularly the switching defense,
is really important and I think that that helps. And
then on the other end, you know, if you if
you get by a guy and Chris STAPs or Robber
Al or you know, are at the rim, then all
(07:40):
you have to do is run somewhere else to stay
in the plug. Yep, right, because those guys will protect you.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Seven foot six always seems to be there, right. That wingspan, Yeah,
is that what the wingspan is? That's what I've seen. Yeah,
I guess I should probably know that. I just I
quit counting after seven to two.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
That's good. It's pretty good.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Seven to six. I think a lot of people underestimate
the toughness that Christap brings to the table because they
think of him as kind of a finesse guy, but
he's a tough player. But I think when people think
about Marcus Smart, they think about toughness. They think about
hard and knows basketball. For everyone out there that might
be thinking, well, what are the Celtics going to do
here to address that area that there maybe is moving
(08:17):
out the door with Marcus? What's your answer to that
of like, how how is this team going to embody?
There's toughness. There's a lot of ways to define toughness, right.
Toughness obviously is diving on the floor or taking a
charge or being physical. Toughness is also being able to
go twenty three and eight every night micro steps. You
can't do that in the NBA unless you're mentally tough, right.
(08:39):
We have a lot of guys that are that are
mentally tough. We have a lot of guys that play
physically tough, and at the same time we recognize like
that was one of Smart's great traits. That and I
thought always thought that Smart's instincts and feel for the
game on both ends were We're probably under discussed because
people were more focused on him diving on the floor.
(09:00):
But but yeah, we've got a lot of tough guys
in our group and that you know, and I haven't
even mentioned, like you know, Malcolm and Derek and Peyton,
you know, down the line I'm not and Rob Williams
and al like, We've got a lot of We've got
a lot of good players, and I'm worried mostly about
(09:22):
how we can continue to improve and get better. And
I feel like these guys are going to meet that
challenge you mentioned at the beginning. Not only is porzingis
come in here, but you also get a couple first
round picks in exchange in that trade. One of them
last night, which is another part of the chaos, was
number twenty five, And then it felt like you guys
traded at about one hundred times and moving back. How
(09:44):
did that all unfold and moving from having the twenty
fifth pick and flipping that into what became five second rounders,
including one last night.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Well, we had a list of about, you know, ten
guys that we had been looking at at thirty five
for the last month and really kind of felt comfortable
with that list. You know, obviously you always have your rankings,
but you know, the things you're weighing on the clock are, Okay,
(10:12):
do you want to pick somebody or do you want
to move back a little and get future assets. I mean,
we've seen the value of second round picks, specifically at
the trade deadline of being used in trades, and they're
more valuable than ever. And to be quite candid, we
were pretty bare, you know. I think we had one
in twenty six and one in thirty before last night.
(10:34):
And now we go into the rest of the summer
with six future second round picks, and again, those are
not those are not like when I was a coach,
I was like, second round picks, you kid me. I'm
sure the fans are like, what the hell's who were doing?
But you can use those to move the needle. And
that's all that we want to be able to do.
And we feel like we're at a age and stage
(10:56):
where we need to be able to balance having appropriate
draft assets with chasing this thing. And and so we've
got some ammunition to give us a chance to chase
some things.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
And you're talking about value, right, like those second rounders
have value. How can you explain how much more valuable
those might be now heading into this new season.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
Than maybe what they were even there's a second round
exception that gives you some benefits and signing a player
that that is that it makes it more valuable. But
I also just think, you know, it's you know, anytime
you're talking about draft picks, you're either slotted in the draft.
Compensation in the first round or the second round is
you know, it's not going to be huge high salaries
that you know, we all have to navigate with the
(11:42):
second apron and all the limits that's going to put
on us with regard to tools. So I think that
that's a that's an important factor in all of this,
you know. And and I didn't know if if Jordan
would still be there, but we were hopeful. And and
so when we got a chance to move back once
(12:03):
to thirty one and get a couple of future seconds
and then do thirty four and thirty nine, and then
thirty four and thirty nine turned into two future seconds,
and we got thirty eight and we got a chance
to get a good player and a lot of assets.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
My mind was spinning as stuff going out. I can't
imagine I'm any phone calls you guys are on. You know,
I've never really once second round started. When I was coaching.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
I'd laugh like I was just like whatever, or I
got ready to do media, or maybe I just came down,
but like, but you know, yesterday, it's it's really interesting,
you know, Mike and Austin and Dave Lewin and everybody,
or Remy Kofield are on the board and they're just
writing down every every offer you're getting for every pick,
and then you know, sometimes they go away because they're
(12:43):
guys taken, and sometimes they last and you have to
make that decision and fly. It's it's pretty wild.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
So you wind up with Jordan's let's talk about him.
What does he bring to the table and what should
the Celtics fans be excited about to see out of.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
Him during Summer League. Yeah, I mean, I think the
expectation for him it's going to be a journey. Like
it's he's he is, he's young, he's extremely you know, athletic, long, tough,
He'll get into the ball, he'll he'll guard, he's his body.
(13:18):
He needs to work on his strength. He can get
knocked off his spots on offense and defense right now.
And we really want him to believe in his shot.
I thought he was. His shot selection was very conservative,
and you know, I think that's there's a really good
part about that because that means you're playing to win,
you're doing all the right things. But we want him
(13:38):
to to really lean into the work that it takes,
because his touch is really good. When he came for
his second draft workout, we did we always just have
him shoot one hundred spot threes. And you know, he
was in the fifties in May, and he was seventy
four in late June. So that shows you that there's
work being put in, and that shows you that and
(14:00):
you know those are small samples. He cried me in
the sixties sometimes and being seventies sometimes, but it does
show you that, you know, he's got the touch to
become a good shooter, and we've got the time to
invest in that.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
You wind up with him at thirty eight. I just
want to ask you about how you guys were moving back.
Is he someone that you were eyeing maybe when you
were at thirty four and then you see only he's
still on the board. We might be able to still
get him at.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
Thirty He's someone when we had thirty five that we
thought was there would be a realistic chance that he
would fall to thirty five. That we had ranked higher
than thirty five. And so when we were in the
mid twenties, you're weighing all the guys you're looking at
there and and again versus you know, an unknown of
(14:44):
what those second round picks can be used for, and
so and trying to you know, crossing your finger that
you can get one of the guys that you're really targeting.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
So you get someone at thirty eight that you had
ranked higher than thirty five, that's pretty good.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
Yeah, I mean yeah, but you know now that stuff's
all meaningless. Right time will tell yeah, right, So, and
we believe in Jordan. We think he'll do great. He's
got a good support network and you know, he's excited.
You know, I think there's something too. He came back
here twice to work out like that meant that he
wanted to be here too. Like, I think that that's
(15:18):
an important quality.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
With his development. I think this is a great question
to or at least topic to talk about here. We've
got a pretty significantly new coaching staff here that's coming
into the team. What can we expect out of the
way that this group is going to work on developing players?
And I don't know how much it's going to change
from the guys who have now moved on, But what
did these new coaches bring to the table in terms
of developing guys in Jordan? Being one of the guys
(15:41):
that we're going.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
To work on. Yeah, and we have a couple of
staff that we've you know, were deep in the hiring process,
but it's not official. And then we have Charles and Sam,
who everybody's been talking about that is official. You know.
I think Joe and those guys are all meeting about,
you know, how do we want to play who there
are assignments individually. Where are we going to go see
(16:03):
players in July and August? What do we want to
do to make sure that we're as prepared as possible
and while learning each other. So I think there's a
lot going on there. But he will be in a
place that will have all the resources to develop him. Well.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
We're looking forward to check Mark, next to the draft,
moving on to Summer League coming up and free agency.
You can't wait to see what you got in store
for us in July.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Appreciate you, Thanks Mark, Thanks Rich
Welcome everyone.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
This is View from the Rafters today. We're bringing in
a man who hails from basketball country life is funny.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Okay, oh go, don't go there. Not yet. Well, we
talked about it out the Bust One Boys. Is a
crazy story, not actor is a.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Basketball The crazy thing to me is like where you
came from.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Yeah, we're all older than we think. We are always
Gold League gray baby.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
All right. We got a special summer off season episode
of View from the Rafters behind the scenes with the
Boston Celtics, and we only do this when something pretty
significant happens. I think we can say that the last
forty eight hours kind of qualify is that no one
knows that better than Brad Stevens, President of basketball Operations
for the Boston Celtics. Brad, I've asked you this in
the past, but I think it's especially applicable after the
(00:47):
last couple of days. How much have you slept?
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Not much? You know, not much because you're doing we
got a lot to do. And but and then also
the emotional piece of it, right, how hard does that? Yeah?
I mean it's a it's always hard. It's it's you know,
you're work. We're coming off of another you know, season
where we were really competitive and right there and right
(01:11):
in the mix, and you're balancing you know, where you
are and the big picture of your roster and and
what you need moving forward and how to best balance
it out and make it the best it can be.
And at the same time, with that comes some really
hard decisions. They're they're those decisions are easy to have
meetings about, but then to to do it, to call
(01:34):
it and to you know, get it done is is
much different.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
And the decision, obviously that we're referencing right now is
having to trade away Marcus Smart to be able to
get someone who clearly you guys covered in christas porzingis.
But let's let's touch on that emotion and having to
make that decision with Marcus. How have you kind of
come to grips with that over the last couple of
days since you made that decision.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Yeah, I mean, and you know, and and Gallo and
Muskie were in that trade too, And I would say
that obviously Marcus being here for nine years, us drafting him,
you know, and then me getting a chance to coach
him for my last seven years or my yeah, for
(02:18):
his first seven years. Was you know, you know, an
enjoyable journey, and he's a great competitor. He's a really
good player. I always appreciated his community work and you know,
the way that the way that he's been to my
kids and and everybody else. So to say goodbye to
(02:41):
to somebody like that, and to be the one that
has to green light saying goodbye to somebody like that,
you know, there's a lot of motions involved.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
And you said something interesting there at the start about
how the season just ended. I mean, you guys were
I went away from getting to the NBA Finals for
the second straight year. I think a lot of people
kind of get tunnel vision of the moment of last
night and the draft and the trade happening. They forget
what just happened a few weeks ago. How hard is
that or was that to kind of like turn that
(03:10):
page so quickly and be able to make such a
critical decision regarding the future of the team.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Here, I think we're we're keeping the ten thousand foot
of you in mind as a front office all the time.
And the reality was, as you know, as as you
look at our team, and we had good depth and
we had a really good team. We were forced to
play small more than maybe we would have liked, and
(03:37):
so as a result, we felt like it was better
to balance our roster. And we knew that if we
would have won or lost right like, it was just
it was kind of inevitable with you know, with what
our roster needs wouldn't be But certainly, you know, it
still doesn't make it any easier because you know, when
(03:57):
you bring in someone of Chris Stops caliber and you
get draft compensation, yeah, it's you're usually losing a you know,
pretty important part of your program.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Yeah, well, let's talk about Chris Steps. I mean, he's
a one time All Star, had arguably his best season
of his career last year. Clearly you guys coveted him
in some of these conversations. Why did you want to
bring him in and add him to this group you're
moving forward.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
I think that we've talked about he can play with
any of our bigs. He can play the five as
a standalone five, he can play with robber Al as
a four. And it's not crazy to think that he
could steal a minute or two at the three because
he can shoot so well. That's not going to happen.
It's probably not going to happen. But it's not love
(04:49):
to see. Yeah, it's not out of you know, it's
not it's not crazy. And as the game has gotten
more spread out, you know, smaller and faster, I think
the best teams have been able to maintain size while
being able to defend both the three point line in
the rim are our other bigs are very agile. Chris
Stops is agile, but we should always have it a
(05:12):
turn at the rim. Now, you know when those when
two of them are in there together, you can kind
of envision, you know, the lineups and things with you know,
a couple of our wings and Kris Stops and another
big like those those are huge lineups and so those
are those are things that we're thinking about there. And
he's excited. You know. I think when you have a
(05:33):
seven foot two guy, you know, you automatically think historically
of you know, in the paint, in the paint, and
he's capable of doing things in the paint. And where
I think his game has really improved is he attacks
switches and really hurts them by posting. He just shoots
over them, and you know, and he kind of a
(05:55):
known that you guys haven't had all, well, not many
people have it. There's not many people that do it
in an efficient clip. I mean, his post ups last year
were pretty ridiculous, the efficiency on them, and so it
just gives you another option. And then you add in
the fact that you can shoot from twenty five feet quickly,
then you know it makes sense.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
So when I first heard about these rumblings going on,
the first thing that went through my mind is you said,
over and over, since you moved into this position of
president and basketball operations, every move that you make is
in mind of trying to accentuate your best players. How
does Chris STAPs accentuate your best players?
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Yeah, and that's that's that's the challenge of this move
because we know the other guy did. Yeah, he did
a good job and brought great, you know, tenacity to
the work. I think that Chris STAPs not only accentuates
those guys, he can again, he can play with anyone.
And so the ability to shoot and space the floor
(06:55):
allows you to play and make everyone's life easier. Then
if team can't switch us as much because he's making
it harder to switch, then those guys have different places
to attack, right, And so you know you're playing against
a lot of teams with two through fours that are
a little smaller that can really get into people that
are really tough to beat off the dribble. We saw
(07:16):
that in the Miami Series in a big way really
at one through five. And so to be able to
take advantage of some of those defenses, particularly the switching defense,
is really important and I think that that helps. And
then on the other end, you know, if you if
you get by a guy and Chris STAPs or Robber
Al or you know, are at the rim, then all
(07:40):
you have to do is run somewhere else to stay
in the plug. Yep, right, because those guys will protect you.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Seven foot six always seems to be there, right. That wingspan, Yeah,
is that what the wingspan is? That's what I've seen. Yeah,
I guess I should probably know that. I just I
quit counting after seven to two.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
That's good. It's pretty good.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Seven to six. I think a lot of people underestimate
the toughness that Christap brings to the table because they
think of him as kind of a finesse guy, but
he's a tough player. But I think when people think
about Marcus Smart, they think about toughness. They think about
hard and knows basketball. For everyone out there that might
be thinking, well, what are the Celtics going to do
here to address that area that there maybe is moving
(08:17):
out the door with Marcus? What's your answer to that
of like, how how is this team going to embody?
There's toughness. There's a lot of ways to define toughness, right.
Toughness obviously is diving on the floor or taking a
charge or being physical. Toughness is also being able to
go twenty three and eight every night micro steps. You
can't do that in the NBA unless you're mentally tough, right.
(08:39):
We have a lot of guys that are that are
mentally tough. We have a lot of guys that play
physically tough, and at the same time we recognize like
that was one of Smart's great traits. That and I
thought always thought that Smart's instincts and feel for the
game on both ends were We're probably under discussed because
people were more focused on him diving on the floor.
(09:00):
But but yeah, we've got a lot of tough guys
in our group and that you know, and I haven't
even mentioned, like you know, Malcolm and Derek and Peyton,
you know, down the line I'm not and Rob Williams
and al like, We've got a lot of We've got
a lot of good players, and I'm worried mostly about
(09:22):
how we can continue to improve and get better. And
I feel like these guys are going to meet that
challenge you mentioned at the beginning. Not only is porzingis
come in here, but you also get a couple first
round picks in exchange in that trade. One of them
last night, which is another part of the chaos, was
number twenty five, And then it felt like you guys
traded at about one hundred times and moving back. How
(09:44):
did that all unfold and moving from having the twenty
fifth pick and flipping that into what became five second rounders,
including one last night.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Well, we had a list of about, you know, ten
guys that we had been looking at at thirty five
for the last month and really kind of felt comfortable
with that list. You know, obviously you always have your rankings,
but you know, the things you're weighing on the clock are, Okay,
(10:12):
do you want to pick somebody or do you want
to move back a little and get future assets. I mean,
we've seen the value of second round picks, specifically at
the trade deadline of being used in trades, and they're
more valuable than ever. And to be quite candid, we
were pretty bare, you know. I think we had one
in twenty six and one in thirty before last night.
(10:34):
And now we go into the rest of the summer
with six future second round picks, and again, those are
not those are not like when I was a coach,
I was like, second round picks, you kid me. I'm
sure the fans are like, what the hell's who were doing?
But you can use those to move the needle. And
that's all that we want to be able to do.
And we feel like we're at a age and stage
(10:56):
where we need to be able to balance having appropriate
draft assets with chasing this thing. And and so we've
got some ammunition to give us a chance to chase
some things.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
And you're talking about value, right, like those second rounders
have value. How can you explain how much more valuable
those might be now heading into this new season.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
Than maybe what they were even there's a second round
exception that gives you some benefits and signing a player
that that is that it makes it more valuable. But
I also just think, you know, it's you know, anytime
you're talking about draft picks, you're either slotted in the draft.
Compensation in the first round or the second round is
you know, it's not going to be huge high salaries
that you know, we all have to navigate with the
(11:42):
second apron and all the limits that's going to put
on us with regard to tools. So I think that
that's a that's an important factor in all of this,
you know. And and I didn't know if if Jordan
would still be there, but we were hopeful. And and
so when we got a chance to move back once
(12:03):
to thirty one and get a couple of future seconds
and then do thirty four and thirty nine, and then
thirty four and thirty nine turned into two future seconds,
and we got thirty eight and we got a chance
to get a good player and a lot of assets.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
My mind was spinning as stuff going out. I can't
imagine I'm any phone calls you guys are on. You know,
I've never really once second round started. When I was coaching.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
I'd laugh like I was just like whatever, or I
got ready to do media, or maybe I just came down,
but like, but you know, yesterday, it's it's really interesting,
you know, Mike and Austin and Dave Lewin and everybody,
or Remy Kofield are on the board and they're just
writing down every every offer you're getting for every pick,
and then you know, sometimes they go away because they're
(12:43):
guys taken, and sometimes they last and you have to
make that decision and fly. It's it's pretty wild.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
So you wind up with Jordan's let's talk about him.
What does he bring to the table and what should
the Celtics fans be excited about to see out of.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
Him during Summer League. Yeah, I mean, I think the
expectation for him it's going to be a journey. Like
it's he's he is, he's young, he's extremely you know, athletic, long, tough,
He'll get into the ball, he'll he'll guard, he's his body.
(13:18):
He needs to work on his strength. He can get
knocked off his spots on offense and defense right now.
And we really want him to believe in his shot.
I thought he was. His shot selection was very conservative,
and you know, I think that's there's a really good
part about that because that means you're playing to win,
you're doing all the right things. But we want him
(13:38):
to to really lean into the work that it takes,
because his touch is really good. When he came for
his second draft workout, we did we always just have
him shoot one hundred spot threes. And you know, he
was in the fifties in May, and he was seventy
four in late June. So that shows you that there's
work being put in, and that shows you that and
(14:00):
you know those are small samples. He cried me in
the sixties sometimes and being seventies sometimes, but it does
show you that, you know, he's got the touch to
become a good shooter, and we've got the time to
invest in that.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
You wind up with him at thirty eight. I just
want to ask you about how you guys were moving back.
Is he someone that you were eyeing maybe when you
were at thirty four and then you see only he's
still on the board. We might be able to still
get him at.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
Thirty He's someone when we had thirty five that we
thought was there would be a realistic chance that he
would fall to thirty five. That we had ranked higher
than thirty five. And so when we were in the
mid twenties, you're weighing all the guys you're looking at
there and and again versus you know, an unknown of
(14:44):
what those second round picks can be used for, and
so and trying to you know, crossing your finger that
you can get one of the guys that you're really targeting.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
So you get someone at thirty eight that you had
ranked higher than thirty five, that's pretty good.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
Yeah, I mean yeah, but you know now that stuff's
all meaningless. Right time will tell yeah, right, So, and
we believe in Jordan. We think he'll do great. He's
got a good support network and you know, he's excited.
You know, I think there's something too. He came back
here twice to work out like that meant that he
wanted to be here too. Like, I think that that's
(15:18):
an important quality.
Speaker 2 (15:20):
With his development. I think this is a great question
to or at least topic to talk about here. We've
got a pretty significantly new coaching staff here that's coming
into the team. What can we expect out of the
way that this group is going to work on developing players?
And I don't know how much it's going to change
from the guys who have now moved on, But what
did these new coaches bring to the table in terms
of developing guys in Jordan? Being one of the guys
(15:41):
that we're going.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
To work on. Yeah, and we have a couple of
staff that we've you know, were deep in the hiring process,
but it's not official. And then we have Charles and Sam,
who everybody's been talking about that is official. You know.
I think Joe and those guys are all meeting about,
you know, how do we want to play who there
are assignments individually. Where are we going to go see
(16:03):
players in July and August? What do we want to
do to make sure that we're as prepared as possible
and while learning each other. So I think there's a
lot going on there. But he will be in a
place that will have all the resources to develop him. Well.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
We're looking forward to check Mark, next to the draft,
moving on to Summer League coming up and free agency.
You can't wait to see what you got in store
for us in July.
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Appreciate you, Thanks Mark, Thanks Rich
Host
Marc D'Amico
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