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EPISODE 33 - WHAT DO THE BOSTON CELTICS DO NOW? JAYSON TATUM INJURED.
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Transcript
Introduction and Celtics' Bleak Day
00:00:00
Bret
you
00:00:00
Savage Boston
Alright guys, what's going on? Welcome back to the Savage Boston Podcast. We are here. It's May 13th, 8.45pm. ah
Celtics' Playoff Losses and Tatum's Injury
00:00:09
Savage Boston
And it is kind of a bleak, bleak, bleak day, bleak time, for especially for...
00:00:15
Savage Boston
ah For Boston fans, for Celtics fans, um we kind of thought, and I was just talking with Snooty about this before we got on, we kind of thought like we'd have a lot of runway here ah to talk about the Celtics and get into the Celtics and be like, alright, cool, like you know Patriots are calming down, yeah there's like schedule release stuff, but we thought we'd have a lot of Celtics stuff, and First, it took us all completely by surprise that they lost those first two games.
00:00:40
Savage Boston
Very surprising. i I think by far they're the superior team. um Very shocking. And secondly, Jason Tatum ruptures his Achilles. So...
Uncertainty Post-Tatum's Injury
00:00:52
Savage Boston
this This is like doomsday for the Celtics where everyone's already somehow giving up on on the team, on the roster, im saying hey we're getting rid of this, trading this.
00:01:03
Savage Boston
And, you know, the whole thing is going to be fascinating.
00:01:05
Bret
Thank you.
00:01:06
Savage Boston
Like, I don't know where they go from here. i don't know the direction they turn. They could still win the next game. But, like, it obviously feels – we feel pretty defeated. And especially if Tatum is going to miss the majority of next season, if not all of next season. So, yeah.
00:01:21
Savage Boston
I'll throw it over to Brett first because he's been itching to talk about the Celtics a bit. But,
Roster Struggles and Playoff Critiques
00:01:27
Savage Boston
like, where where do we go from here, Brett?
00:01:30
Bret
I love how the the day in which we get to the Celtics is like the doom and gloom when I've been like, we should really start building in. i get i get it. we yeah We talk Pats. I know you know Pats are still king in the market, so like I totally get it. But you know looking at the Celtics, yeah, I mean, absolutely doomsday worst-case scenario happened last night.
00:01:52
Bret
I mean, obviously losing Tatum to a devastating injury like a blown-out Achilles, even – If he comes back, like, at all next year, which he's probably not going to come back at all through the end of the season, we just don't know what kind of player he's going to be when he comes back with the impact that this has on players historically. Like, Achilles is probably one of the worst things to happen to an NBA player.
00:02:15
Bret
So
Coaching and Strategic Failures
00:02:16
Bret
there's that, right? And we've got to figure out where it goes. And then on top of it, yeah, we're down 3-1. To the fucking Knicks. ah Which we we knew going into this. We were going to have the hair on fire type game. That they played last night. And essentially that was the best Knicks version. You're going to get.
00:02:35
Bret
And it was a dog fight. And we had no help from anyone else other than Tatum. Like, so we are definitely the superior team, but that's a situation where you look at and say, that's a dogfight game that would be a gentleman sweep.
00:02:49
Bret
If we took care of the 20 point leads we had in games one and two at home and absolutely shit on ourselves and lost that game. So, I'm really annoyed with how the Celtics look just in general, like just lack of effort, lack of execution. They just don't seem like they're fully engaged.
00:03:06
Bret
And the team is very like up and down with where they're at. But. ah I think we'll jump to where we go next with next year, but like looking at the team right now in the playoffs, I just i don't see how they're going pull it off. So I think their season's essentially over. and But we'll see. I think they'll win tomorrow night.
00:03:28
Bret
I think they'll probably lose Game 6. But who
Roster Decisions and Health Concerns
00:03:32
Bret
knows? I could be mistaken. i think this game's this season's lost. We're not going to be able to rally back. I'm just annoyed at the complacency. I'm annoyed at the coaching blunders and just lack of timeouts when they need to have timeouts, drawing plays when they need to draw up plays, pivoting on what we do like schematically, whether it's on offense, defense. like It is just an all-out disaster.
00:03:56
Savage Boston
It's really bad.
00:03:56
Bret
disaster
00:03:58
Savage Boston
Yeah. It's been really bad. um i guess before – there's a lot to get to, obviously. Snooty, what's your initial Celtics take? Because there's a ah ton to get to.
00:04:07
Snooty
I mean, I think Brett's right. that Like, the season's over.
00:04:10
Bret
Thank you.
00:04:11
Snooty
Like, because it's, look, even if you were to somehow rip off three in a row, like, you're not going to beat Indiana, who's, I believe, throttling the Cavaliers right now. um You're not going to beat Indiana, much less whoever comes out of the West, right? So, the season's over.
00:04:24
Snooty
It's just a matter of when. um I think a lot of this kind of goes back to, oh, it's close now. I think a lot of this goes back to that they didn't change anything from last year.
00:04:37
Snooty
Nothing. They kept almost the exact same roster. They kept the, I know they lost a couple of coaches, but they kept the same philosophy. They kept everything that they did exactly the same way last year without changing anything. And it's like, you know, teams get better, teams adapt, teams improve, teams change. Like you have to, you have to try to improve.
00:04:57
Snooty
And they just didn't year over year. And they got lucky last
Future Roster Moves and Trades
00:05:01
Snooty
year that Porzingis was as available and as effective as he was for as long as he was.
00:05:05
Bret
Thank you.
00:05:06
Snooty
I know he missed time in the playoffs, but he ended up coming back for the finals. Right. But like, you can't bank on that. year over year, especially with a guy like that.
00:05:16
Snooty
Drew holiday got a year older. Derek white got a year older, right? Like hal har Al Horford got a year older. Like they just didn't do anything. And even at the time, I think a lot of people were like, you know, you should probably make, probably make some tweaks to the roster here.
00:05:31
Snooty
Even a guy like Hauser, like I get it. You know, you like them. It's a tradable contract, but like, you know, did you have to bring back the same guys for every fucking position? Like you couldn't, you couldn't change some things up.
00:05:43
Savage Boston
yeah
00:05:43
Snooty
Um,
00:05:44
Savage Boston
let's Well, we've got to talk about the elephant in the room. that like i feel like not that as many people are talking about this point. is's like It's like just health. And not even referring to Jason Tatum. like Yeah, they brought back the whole roster, but are you trying to tell me that Porzingis is healthy? like no one wants to like prozingis wasn't like They won last year despite Porzingis and a couple flashes, but he's clearly like he's a negative when he's on the floor.
00:06:09
Savage Boston
He's a ah baby giraffe. Like, he literally looks terrible. he's he's He's a negative on the floor. He can't box out. He's obviously sick. Like, there's something he's still ill.
00:06:19
Savage Boston
So there's something obviously really wrong with Porzingis, and i don't get the forcing of Porzingis to play minutes. and getting them on the floor. Like that to me, I don't know. I don't know where what they're doing with that.
00:06:31
Savage Boston
Maybe it's just because they just need another human body. They need a live body because Horford is old and tired and Cornette can't do enough. Like obviously
Coaching Accountability Revisited
00:06:40
Savage Boston
there's a massive need there, but between Porzingis not being healthy, Jalen Brown's like 50%. He's not right. It's going to come out that he's going to get like meniscus surgery or something after the season.
00:06:50
Savage Boston
He's obviously not right. And Drew Holiday looks old and Horford looks old. So in essence, you still got like Tatum was still firing on all cylinders, couple bad games, but he was amazing last night.
00:07:01
Savage Boston
Derek White's still good. Pritchard's spark off the bench, but it feels like a different team. They had a great regular season, and they all looked sick and tired. So just from a player health perspective, I mean, are you guys seeing kind of what I'm seeing health-wise?
00:07:16
Bret
Yeah, i and ah so I know looking at next year and really kind of projecting forward, I feel like this year is showing a really big bright spot on the fact that like we we look old and we look worn down in spots.
00:07:32
Bret
So yeah, Al's 38 going on 39, something like that. I mean, he's got essentially I think this year or maybe one more year on his contract, but I think he's going to hang it up.
00:07:43
Bret
I just don't see him – staying around drew holiday which is probably the most surprising to me just looks really bad in these playoffs like and just looks really old and it's not even just on the offensive side which i get it's defensively like historically he's been known as like the guy that you can put on anyone from a guard position and go through like he's getting absolutely burnt by brunson he can't keep up
NBA Draft Lottery Controversy
00:08:09
Bret
with him like It's just not even competitive.
00:08:12
Bret
And then like you have Christophs Verzingis who's like a broken guy. And we just can't rely on him. So then what it ends up doing is it forces a guy like Tatum to have to play on Towns all game on defense and then go be the man on offense.
00:08:27
Bret
And like that's going to wear the guy down. And then you're switching around with guys all the time. You're creating boys. like ah I want to say, what was it, game two or something like that? Al Horford was a liability.
00:08:39
Bret
on when he was covering Towns. Like, he couldn't keep up with them at all. And Porzingis is so slow and late on, like, every slide. Like... There's a huge void with big men.
00:08:50
Bret
We basically have a 38, 39-year-old big man and then a guy that's broken. And we like refuse to give Cornette any minutes. And I mean, Kada is Kada. So like we we need a we need a big man.
00:09:03
Bret
For sure, we need a big man. But I agree fully that age is a huge problem. And like where do we go next with it? Because... Yeah, you got some outs with Porzingis and Al, but like you just signed huge extensions with White and Drew Holiday.
00:09:20
Bret
And you're like, I mean, are you really going to have Drew Holiday for the next four years? The guy's 34 to be 35 in June.
00:09:25
Savage Boston
know. I don't know what they're doing with – I think they got contract happy. Like they they obviously did. Like they they won. And so they're like, all right, let's just reward everybody. And I'm glad they're stoked and they won and they're like, we might have a – what, a two-year window, three-year window?
00:09:41
Savage Boston
Like the window feels almost closed or closing now.
00:09:41
Bret
Oh.
00:09:46
Savage Boston
And like this offseason with the new ownership – It seems like they're going to be they're going to be trading away or selling off
NBA Integrity and Farewell
00:09:52
Savage Boston
multiple pieces. I mean, Hauser's gone. I guess something like getting rid of Hauser is going to save you like $90 million. dollars Like, Hauser's gone.
00:09:59
Snooty
Mm-hmm.
00:10:00
Savage Boston
They're probably going to trade away or try to get rid of Porzingis if they can. They'll probably eat money for that. And they're going to try to get rid of Drew Holiday. Those three players are probably not going to be back. And in my opinion, you get rid of those three, does it make you that much worse?
00:10:14
Savage Boston
no Not really. like You still need more bodies. like Drew is a savvy player and a veteran and a champion, but like he's not doing anything for you right now. So like they obviously would have to retool, but they've got to get a ton of money off these books.
00:10:27
Savage Boston
the the the tax a Multiple tax aprons are killing them, and so they've got to get money off. So I think that's what they're going to do this offseason. They're going to trade off a bunch of assets.
00:10:37
Snooty
I mean, they were always going to move pieces, and that's what makes the the Tatum injury so – I mean, it's it's really damning and really horrible in and of itself, but, like, that's what makes it even worse.
00:10:39
Savage Boston
Yeah.
00:10:48
Snooty
So – because I was thinking about it, and I was like, you know, they were there's always rumors and conjecture, and I'm sure they've they've workshopped different things. What if they had wanted to move on from Brown? after this year?
00:10:59
Snooty
What if they figured like Brown was the guy they wanted to move? Cause you could get more for him. Cause obviously you're going to get some pieces back for each of these guys, right? You can't really do that anymore. Can you?
00:11:11
Snooty
Cause yeah.
00:11:11
Savage Boston
What, trade Brown off?
00:11:13
Snooty
Cause, cause then next year's team, like you're not going to have Tatum for pretty much the entire season, if not in the entirety of the season next year.
00:11:13
Savage Boston
Well...
00:11:21
Savage Boston
Yeah.
00:11:22
Snooty
Right. So if you trade Brown, obviously, depending what you get, like,
00:11:27
Snooty
you know like Are you even a playoff team if you do that?
00:11:31
Savage Boston
No.
00:11:31
Bret
No, you're not.
00:11:32
Savage Boston
i could see i could see them trading. i could see them um getting Tatum back really towards the end of the season, like about March, February, March. But like that's if they want to play him, which they might truly just have him do a full rest year.
00:11:45
Savage Boston
um And that wouldn't bother me.
00:11:45
Snooty
Which long-term is probably the good thing to do.
00:11:48
Savage Boston
Yeah, i mean, that wouldn't bother me either, especially if you're not competitive next year. But the the roster is too good to just be not competitive. Like, they are they're still too good. Even, like, Peyton Pritchard on random nights can drop, like, 30 points. like And Derek White, too. Like, they still have good players there.
00:12:03
Bret
Thank you.
00:12:04
Savage Boston
But, um you know, the one big fish you're looking at, which would be interesting, is Giannis. And like, you know, I don't, you know, NBA is weird with trades and money and tax aprons, but like, would you trade Jalen Brown for Giannis, you know, and, and picks, you know, would Giannis want to come here?
00:12:23
Savage Boston
Like, how does that change a team? Cause like people are down on Jalen right now. Cause he's, although he was fantastic last playoffs playoff run, he was, he's not been good. um But no one's been that good.
00:12:34
Savage Boston
So it's, it's, it's weird. I think ultimately for me, i The biggest problem I'm having is the coaching. um The roster is obviously – they're sick, they're old.
00:12:45
Savage Boston
that's That's part of the failings. But, like, the coaching is a problem. And I like Joe. I like his personality. um I think the Missoula ball in the regular season great. We're all firing threes all the time.
00:12:57
Savage Boston
But they ran into a logjam here against the Knicks where when it got tight and gets in pressure scenarios, they failed. And they failed three times, twice with 20-point leads, which is shocking.
00:13:06
Bret
Thank you.
00:13:08
Savage Boston
Like, they can't handle the pressure. And Missoula doesn't know – What to do with it. And that to me is is a problem. Like that is coaching. And rarely in the NBA are you blaming coaching. So how do you guys feel about Missoula?
00:13:22
Bret
Yeah, again, ah obviously, like I mentioned earlier, I'm frustrated with Missoula. And I hear what you're saying, right? In the NBA, it's less about X's and O's. It's more about so you know who can stoke the egos and get the guys in line because there's a lot of egos in that league. And On that end, I think Missoula has actually been really good to, to me, fix Tatum's mentality. Because I think Tatum's mentality has been kind of the holding the thing that's held us back from being where we need to be.
00:13:53
Bret
And just understanding how to be that guy. And I think Missoula helped to get that out of him. But what I think is hurting is he's not – there's just not enough accountability in other aspects of it. And it to me, it's defense.
00:14:10
Bret
I know a lot of people jump on the offensive side of things. And, yeah, I think we can be really flat. But it's defense and it's transition where we just fall off a cliff. And we just lose it. Like, last and last last night's game, we lost because of defense.
00:14:23
Bret
Like, it was just shitty turnovers, and we couldn't defend.
00:14:24
Savage Boston
No doubt. Yeah.
00:14:26
Bret
Like, Mikael Bridges outplayed Jalen Brown last night. Like, and we just...
00:14:30
Savage Boston
Listen. yeah
00:14:31
Bret
We couldn't we couldn't cover anyone. So, that to me is like a huge problem. He did make some schematic change. Like i said, Al was... getting burnt by Towns and they switched and now he's got Tatum playing on Towns. I mean, we'll see what he ends up doing now that he doesn't Tatum and how they figure that system out. But like the the problem is, is there's no adjustments. There's no change. It's just that we do what we do and...
00:14:58
Bret
you know, eventually it'll work its way out. And like, that's the part where I look at and say, Missoula is lacking. I do think he did a great job of, you know, building the chemistry up on that team and essentially getting their superstar Tatum to get his head on straight to realize what he needed to do because he does so many like unselfish things ah to like make the team where they are.
00:15:19
Bret
And, ah it's it's just excelled and he's accepted it. Like and he got everyone to kind of accept their role. It's just now when it gets to these situations ah you get like a veteran coach like Thibodeau who like can draw it up, like you just, you get exposed and he's getting exposed right now.
00:15:37
Savage Boston
mean, it really of sudden feels like the center position, because Berzingas is so ill, like the center position became such a huge problem.
00:15:48
Savage Boston
Like they could not deal with Cat and Mitchell Robinson. Even though Mitchell Robinson literally can't shoot a free throw, like they couldn't deal with him on the floor. Like the rebounding between him and –
00:15:58
Bret
They're not.
00:16:00
Savage Boston
Was it Hart and like ah you know Brunson running around being clutch and Bridges, his defense? All you're like, like this Knicks team is is gritty. They're a gritty team. I don't think they're a championship team.
00:16:13
Savage Boston
And maybe they can eke it out somehow, and good for them.
00:16:14
Bret
and
00:16:16
Savage Boston
If they figure it out, great, congrats. I don't have any animosity really towards the Knicks. It's not a rivalry because the Knicks never beat you. So rivalries are when teams beat each other. um They're not your rivals, really, you know just because they're a New York team.
00:16:30
Savage Boston
So, you know, good for them. I like Jalen Brunson as a player, but like you got exposed rebounding especially. And when Olsen, you know, they start out rebounding you and they start hitting shots and the Celtics get scared and they start isoing at the three point line. And like, I'm like, what's going on? Like, why don't you run, run a sequence, like run a play? Like, why don't.
00:16:51
Savage Boston
i don I don't get what they're doing in that situation. It's like um a total failure, a total breakdown. And I would have thought Missoula at this point would know to make an adjustment or to change something so they don't have such a massive breakdown.
00:17:06
Bret
Yeah, I just.
00:17:06
Snooty
mean, he's clearly, sorry. I going to say, he's clearly still learning.
00:17:08
Bret
Go ahead. Go ahead.
00:17:10
Snooty
Like he had, he had the steep learning curve when he first, you know, took the job and know he obviously did well last year, but there were still cracks and still signs of issues last year, but they overcome, they overcame them with, you know,
00:17:25
Snooty
um, excellent shooting at different points. And like, they were still there. The signs were still there. And I keep going back to like, they didn't try to address any of that. They just relied on older players staying at that level and not getting worse.
00:17:39
Snooty
Um, and injury prone guys, you know, not being injured. Like it and you that's not a recipe for success. And I understand it was, you know, a two year window before the,
00:17:50
Snooty
Tax implications made you make serious changes to the roster, but like they didn't try to improve the roster or I mean, they didn't actually try to improve the roster at all.
00:17:57
Savage Boston
you
00:17:59
Snooty
They didn't really make a move to do anything.
00:18:02
Bret
I just don't i don't know what you wanted them to do, though, for that. like i i I hear what you're saying, right? you could You needed to change the roster. But when this all went down last year, we were all celebrating the fact that like we got it we got a two-year window.
00:18:15
Bret
And really, we thought this year was a window. Now it's essentially close because Tatum's injured and the injury's so bad that next year's close. But the way we had the contracts lined up and the way it was looking, we were like, okay, yeah, we got an aging Al Horford, but aging Al Horford still gives you good minutes.
00:18:31
Bret
Uh, and we looked at Christoph Sprazingis and we're like, well, we made a run with it and we obviously won the title last year. ah and we had Porzingis in spotted moments. So like other than the Tatum injury, if we'd be having a different conversation saying we're still in a two year window. So I really kind of pushed back against that narrative. I think that they built it right. And the thought process was two year window.
00:18:52
Bret
And then when Porzingis comes up, now you look at and say, okay, we got the cap room to go get another guy. And you probably at that point are moving off of a guy like holiday and, and, you know, see where we're at with white.
00:19:04
Bret
But, I mean, you've got to look at the core. And then talking about earlier, you talked about like what's the idea about like getting a guy like Giannis when you train Brown for Giannis. The big thing here with regards to this league is it is not a like two-person league.
00:19:19
Bret
A two-person team can dominate and get over the top. like You need a third guy. and they just They did it by a full team effort last year because you're right. They had a ton of great shooting from a lot of guys. And the drop-off between...
00:19:35
Bret
Their next three guys, four guys, is very small. They're not elite. like I wouldn't say Porzingis, White, Drew Holiday are elite, but they're like better than average ah guys. that like You did it by cumulative effort.
00:19:51
Bret
But we're not it's going to be hard for us to try and replicate that because you've got to fill in a lot more holes. We still need another third guy when these things all change over come 26, 27.
00:20:04
Savage Boston
But who's a big who's a big that they could get? you know i mean? Like, who's that center other than making a huge trade? Again, Giannis is the big name. But, like, who's – other than drafting someone, like, they couldn't they couldn't compete on the glass at all.
00:20:14
Bret
Thank you.
00:20:19
Savage Boston
like like And, again, it's because Al is old and not not massively tall and Porzingis is is broken somehow. So, like, Porzingis is healthy and Jalen Brown is healthy, they're up 3-1.
00:20:35
Savage Boston
Or, you know what i mean? Like, this is a different series. It's just like somehow like health luck has to play into this somehow. And I know, again, nobody wants to blame injuries or health. But, like, you do't you need guys to be healthy.
00:20:47
Savage Boston
Like, Jalen Brown's having obvious knee problems. And Prazingis had a horrible virus that's still lingering. So, like, these guys aren't healthy. And we know Derek White can't carry you. Derek White is a fantastic role player.
00:21:00
Savage Boston
But he's not isoball. every time and then set the play up. Like you need Brown and Tatum to to take that from the top and and distribute. And Brown wasn't able to to do it. So it's like, it's kind of a complete failure on multiple levels. And like, here they are, you know, maybe next game they they show up and win.
00:21:21
Savage Boston
I don't know, but um but it's certainly been a depressing day for Celtics fans. I feel bad for a lot of these guys online that are just such massive Tatum fans, Celtic fans, but also Jason Tatum fans. They've watched him for so many years, and and it's really a gut-wrenching injury.
00:21:41
Savage Boston
so um So, yeah, but Celtics-wise – I'm glad we could, we could touch on it. It's been, it's been a while since we've had like a full Celtics kind of segment. Cause obviously the Patriots drive the narrative.
00:21:54
Savage Boston
Um, and I will switch gears mildly to the Patriots. doesn't have to be a massive gear switch, but mild gear switch, uh, training camps happening and the schedule drops tomorrow.
00:22:08
Savage Boston
So I think I'm going on a podcast tomorrow night with, uh, Pats pro and, and scout D pass pro has a pod that he wants us on.
00:22:11
Bret
Thank you.
00:22:14
Savage Boston
So I said, sure. Um, and, uh, and I, cause they're going to do the schedule release tomorrow at about eight o'clock. Um, What game, so like pulling the schedule up, A, I'll i'll start with this question.
00:22:28
Savage Boston
What's a genuine, not even a homer take, what's like a genuine win total you think that's achievable this season um that doesn't feel like a homer take? Like where do you think their wins are? Snooty, why don't you go first?
00:22:41
Snooty
Um, I think, let me pull it up here. Um, it's definitely a lot more winnable than it was last year. Um, there's, so let's see out of outside of the six that they play in the division, which you could reasonably expect them to split like three, three work to four worst case scenario.
00:23:03
Snooty
Um, they seem to beat the bills once a year. they the jets, you know, the dolphins. So let's just call that three, three, Between the Browns, the Giants, the Panthers, the Raiders, those are all very, very winnable games.
00:23:18
Snooty
um The Bucs, okay, you know, probably probably a loss. But we they have, let's see, so at home they have Falcons, Bills, Panthers, Browns, Dolphins, Giants, Jets, Raiders, Steelers. That's probably, honestly, five wins, six wins maybe? Yeah.
00:23:36
Savage Boston
So
00:23:37
Snooty
yeah At home? I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if they beat the Panthers, the Browns, the Falcons, the Giants, the Jets, the Raiders, and maybe the Steelers at home.
00:23:47
Savage Boston
so you're at seven wins.
00:23:48
Snooty
not
00:23:49
Savage Boston
That's seven wins for just home game
00:23:50
Snooty
Right. They'll probably lose in Buffalo.
00:23:53
Savage Boston
games. He's like, set they're not even at home.
00:23:56
Snooty
No, but like, no, no, no.
00:23:56
Bret
It's not a homer take.
00:23:58
Savage Boston
This is supposed to be your not homer take, by the way.
00:23:59
Snooty
But like, I'm serious. I'm not saying they're going to win, but like, those are very winnable games. Whereas last year, you'd look and be like, eh, you know, Like, they're going to lose the Ravens, they'll lose the Bills on the road, depends when they play the Bengals, probably a loss, they'll probably lose in Miami, they'll beat the Saints, probably.
00:24:16
Snooty
The Jets, who knows, the Bucs, probably a loss, but they'll probably beat the Titans on the road. Right, so that's only like two or three wins on the road, but six or seven at home, so you're looking at eight, nine, ten wins, somewhere in there.
00:24:29
Savage Boston
I feel like that's pretty realistic. Like, I think – I'm saying already, like, i'm I'm waiting for the actual schedule to drop, but, like, I'm saying 10 wins. 10 wins, playoffs, let's go. 10 and 7. Yeah.
00:24:42
Bret
Yeah, I mean, we should be at least in the conversation unless something really goes wrong here. ah So I could see that. I do love the non-Homer take, but where we have like ah almost an undefeated record at home.
00:24:55
Bret
So I love that take, but it
00:24:55
Savage Boston
yeah We'll see. 17 and 0.
00:24:58
Bret
it does It does seem to shape up that our our home games are a little bit, I would say, more winnable games than our away games ah based on matchups.
00:24:59
Savage Boston
umina and um
00:25:09
Bret
Because, i mean, just look at Bengals and Ravens right off the top. Those are probably two of our tougher opponents outside the Bills the entire year, and they're both away.
00:25:17
Savage Boston
Yeah.
00:25:17
Bret
um so
00:25:18
Snooty
Them in the box, it's like that's it.
00:25:21
Bret
Yeah, I mean, i don't know what you're going to get from the Bucs, to be honest with you. back It depends. at I think it also depends on the time of year that we would go down to Tampa. It's like the same game that we play with Miami.
00:25:33
Bret
We seem to like go down there in September, and it's like 100 degrees, and no one's adjusted towards it, and we get the bag beat out of us because we can't play in the heat. So we'll see when that is.
00:25:44
Bret
Yeah.
00:25:45
Savage Boston
yeah
00:25:46
Bret
I think we'll be in the conversation. i mean, I'd like to see when it kind of lays out. But, yeah, I think i think they're in that nine-win slot. I think that's pretty much what I would say is the over-under.
00:25:57
Bret
if you were to ask me right now what I think they could get to, um I think it's nine wins. I mean, I don't know. what What's Vegas giving them for right now? i would say, let's say, got seven and a half probably.
00:26:07
Savage Boston
Eight and a half, maybe maybe? Did it go up?
00:26:11
Snooty
Hold on.
00:26:11
Bret
and't know I know.
00:26:11
Snooty
I'm pulling it up.
00:26:12
Bret
so I know Snooty tracks the ah draft the draft lines when it comes to what Vegas has given, but I don't know if he's tracking the over-under on the games one.
00:26:23
Savage Boston
I did see, by the way, that um Texas opens ah this a year against Ohio State in college football.
00:26:29
Snooty
Yes.
00:26:29
Bret
oh
00:26:29
Savage Boston
um That's a pretty huge game. And that's Arch Manning starting.
00:26:32
Snooty
Yes.
00:26:34
Bret
Is that in Texas?
00:26:35
Snooty
Yes. I think it's a Nutri-Site game.
00:26:38
Savage Boston
like a neutral site or something.
00:26:42
Bret
hu
00:26:42
Savage Boston
ah
00:26:42
Snooty
New England is
00:26:47
Savage Boston
Oh, this is – by the way, this is should have been in the basketball conversation, but I just remembered it.
00:26:52
Snooty
eight and a half.
00:26:53
Savage Boston
Yeah, eight and a half.
00:26:54
Bret
yeah Yeah, that's that's right.
00:26:54
Savage Boston
I think they could hit – I think they could be over in that like a nine or a ten.
00:26:58
Snooty
Well, it's because look look at the quarterbacks that they play. Like, the Falcons is Penix. You're like, who knows? Second-year guy. Obviously, the Bills with the talent.
00:27:05
Savage Boston
Pittsburgh.
00:27:06
Snooty
But it's Bryce Young.
00:27:07
Savage Boston
Bloomberg.
00:27:07
Snooty
It's whatever the hell Cleveland rolls out there. It's Tua, who I know we haven't beaten Tua. But it's the Giants. There's either a washed Russell Wilson, fucking Jameis Winston, or the rookie.
00:27:18
Savage Boston
Pittsburgh doesn't have a quarterback.
00:27:19
Snooty
The Jets don't have a quarterback. They have what's-his-face, who sucks. The the Raiders, Geno, and then the Steelers literally don't have one. the you The only quarterbacks you're really going face are Tua, Lamar Jackson, and Josh Allen, which and Joe Burrow. That's a murderer as well right there. But then it's like the Jets, the Bucs, the Titans, and the Saints. it's like You face two teams that legitimately don't have a starting quarterback right now.
00:27:45
Savage Boston
I don't want to to you. lot of winnable games. I think they, like I said, I'm excited for the actual schedule to come out because I want to see i want to see what games I can actually go to, which would be really great.
00:27:56
Savage Boston
um
00:27:57
Bret
Well, it sounds like we're going to be undefeated you're going to have a great season.
00:27:57
Savage Boston
What I want to touch on – I can't lose. I want to touch on before we we shut it down is I want to touch on – we should have talked about this while we were in basketball, so my apologies. But the and NBA draft lottery is genuinely rigged.
00:28:13
Savage Boston
Like actually rigged.
00:28:13
Bret
Oh, 100%.
00:28:16
Savage Boston
um This is not a conspiracy. This is something where it's a non-transparent process that every time a fucking team loses a massive star player, that team gets rewarded with the first overall pick.
00:28:32
Savage Boston
It happened LeBron. like It happened with um what Charlotte got a new franchise, and they got ah Anthony Davis. LeBron leaves. They got Kyrie Irving. like um Who is it?
00:28:44
Savage Boston
Zion Williamson got drafted one overall after – I forget. They traded Anthony Davis away. Every time you trade someone to the Lakers, that team gets rewarded with one overall.
00:28:49
Snooty
they do You're not a frozen envelope truther?
00:28:54
Savage Boston
And, like, this ridiculous this is ridiculous. Like, I'm fine. Like, I think at least Dallas is a decent-sized basketball market for Cooper Flagg. But, like, it's insane. It's genuinely rigged.
00:29:06
Savage Boston
Like, how do they – like, they they can't get away with this. Like, you guys actually feel like it's rigged? Because I
00:29:13
Bret
100... What? Yeah.
00:29:17
Savage Boston
What?
00:29:17
Bret
Yeah, mean...
00:29:18
Snooty
The frozen envelope thing, Patrick Ewing, you don't know that theory?
00:29:21
Savage Boston
No, what what is it?
00:29:22
Snooty
That's when they used to pull the envelope out of the big ball, and then and Patrick Ewing ended up going to the Knicks, and people were like, oh, it was a frozen envelope.
00:29:22
Bret
What
00:29:30
Snooty
It was cold. That's how he knew to pull it. Yeah.
00:29:34
Bret
were the odds? yeah i mean ah what was the odds It was like or something like...
00:29:36
Savage Boston
for
00:29:41
Snooty
Yeah.
00:29:42
Savage Boston
It's more they just fucking traded Luca and you have this absurdly low odds and they get rewarded with first overall.
00:29:42
Bret
like
00:29:49
Savage Boston
Like it's a fucking joke to me and it's not a transparent fucking process.
00:29:51
Bret
Well... well
00:29:56
Bret
Well, and the other thing is, is all of a sudden, on top of it, people are talking about maybe there's even more to it where you get the reports that come out where Giannis, like right before the draft, where Giannis is looking to get out.
00:30:09
Bret
And then it's like, well well, what do you think? Like, does Dallas trade the number one pick to get Giannis instead of drafting Cooper Flack, you know, and bringing the guy like that?
00:30:17
Savage Boston
Mm-hmm.
00:30:18
Bret
But essentially, in order to pull that move off, they had to get the number one overall pick to get a you know a highlight prospect like Cooper Flagg. So, yeah, I mean, NBA is an entertainment league.
00:30:32
Bret
ah They've always been that way. They find ways to consistently market their players, their stars, and they find ways to put – competitive players in elite markets, which is why Luca I think is in l LA.
00:30:48
Bret
They kind of coerced that trade to happen because you're going to lose LeBron soon.
00:30:51
Savage Boston
yeah
00:30:52
Bret
And you have a huge major market like LA and you're like, Hey, we got to make this happen. Let's make this happen. You know? And, Yeah, it's it's just fucking odd, and they have a history of it, too. Like you said, like there's been historically other events where it's happened where all of a sudden a major player moves, then next thing you know, that player that ah draft lottery breaks that franchise's way, and then boom, they get a new guy, and...
00:31:17
Savage Boston
yeah
00:31:17
Bret
And people are willing to do that because the owners look at it and say, well, I don't want to pay this guy $50, $60 million dollars a year. i don't think he's right. So I'm going to move him and then I'll get a new young guy and I can save some money on the books.
00:31:31
Bret
I get some, it doesn't damage my franchise because now I get the number one pick and you're still going to sell tickets. And it's just, yeah, it's, it's bad.
00:31:39
Savage Boston
Absolutely sketchy. Hey, maybe we can trade Jalen Brown to Jalen Brown of the Mavs for the first overall and get Cooper Flagg. There you go.
00:31:46
Bret
Yeah, I wouldn't do it.
00:31:48
Savage Boston
I don't think you wouldn't trade Jalen Brown or if you're the Mavericks, you wouldn't do that.
00:31:52
Bret
I don't think the Mavericks would do it, but I wouldn't do it either.
00:31:55
Savage Boston
i think I don't think the Mavericks would do that in a heartbeat. I don't think they would do that.
00:31:59
Bret
No, I don't think they would. ah Because again, they look at it and say, why would I want to take a player that has a $50 million dollars contract? And Jalen Brown, while I think we all agree, is a very strong NBA player, like arguably top 15 player in the league, he's not top five.
00:32:16
Bret
Like he's not your, I'm going to bring your entire franchise over the top ah that is just going to change the dynamic. Like I think Luka, I don't think Luka is going to win championships, but he's definitely going to
00:32:24
Savage Boston
Yeah. Yeah.
00:32:28
Bret
bring teams into the into that place because he's so dynamic offensively. But no, I would not trade Jalen Brown for Cooper Flagg because even though Cooper Flagg's got all the hype and all the noise around it, and I still think he'll probably be a good player, do I think he's going to be top 15?
00:32:33
Savage Boston
yeah
00:32:44
Bret
I don't. No. So because I don't know, I look at it and say, well, I got a guy that I got locked up who fits in the organization. He fits in the, you know, what what we're trying to do. And he's an established guy. i It's a known commodity. I bring it back to what we talk about with the NFL.
00:33:01
Bret
I get the concept of trading draft picks to try and save money because you'll find the guy. But how many times do you say this is the next great thing and the guy fucking flames out?
00:33:11
Savage Boston
Yeah.
00:33:11
Bret
So I don't, I wouldn't do it.
00:33:12
Savage Boston
Yeah. Good point. um All right, guys. We'll end it there. The NBA is rigged. ah And, yeah, rigged league. More corrupt than FIFA. Okay.
00:33:23
Bret
Very, very good.
00:33:23
Savage Boston
See you guys later. Tune in next time.
00:33:25
Snooty
Yep. yeahp
00:33:25
Savage Boston
Peace.