• 2 months ago
The Celtics fell to the Raptors 119-118 to close out the preseason, and Celtics reporter Noa Dalzell shares some observations from this final game and takeaways from the preseason, including the growth and evolution of Payton Pritchard and Jordan Walsh, the back-up bigs, and more.

0:00 - Intro
0:21 - Preseason game recap
2:16 - Celtics vs Raptors
4:52 - Tatum's performance
6:10 - Pritchard's performance
7:40 - Jordan Walsh's improvement
9:49 - JD Davison's potential
12:50 - Critical foul mistake
14:11 - Future NBA potential
17:31 - Preseason analysis
19:48 - Team's training camp focus
22:02 - Upcoming WNBA episode


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Transcript
00:00What's up everyone, this is Noah Dalzell with a late night episode of You Got Boston.
00:26I'll keep this one brief, but I just wanted to share some takeaways and observations from the
00:30final preseason game of the season. Celtics fall to the Toronto Raptors 119-118. This was a weird
00:38one. It was a 46 point first quarter for the Raptors. Really kind of wild shooting display.
00:44It feels like they literally were making everything. Grady Dick, Scotty Barnes really
00:49kind of showing out here. Celtics kind of reverse course. So went from being down by 19
00:56at the end of the first quarter to actually being up by one at halftime. So it was a pretty
00:59remarkable turn of events. Third quarter kind of back on the Raptors favor and then the fourth
01:05quarter was kind of wild because they put in, you know, the main Celtics guys to close things out.
01:10So I think there's a lot to talk about on this team about this preseason. I think overall it's
01:15been really good vibes. Just being around this team, being at practice, around training camp,
01:20at games feels like everybody's really pleased with the effort and intensity.
01:24But I'll just share a couple of quick observations from today. I will just say before I dive into
01:30things really appreciate all the support and engagement so far. Please subscribe wherever
01:35you listen to your podcast. You can subscribe to You Got Boston on Spotify, Apple Podcasts,
01:39on YouTube, whatever it is. And as always, always open to feedback. Feel free to message me if you
01:45have things that you would like to see, things you want me to talk about. I'm happy to do quick
01:48episodes on various topics as we have this kind of week free here until the season actually begins.
01:54I'll be in Minneapolis over the next few days covering the WNBA Finals and I'll be doing
01:59a live from the WNBA Finals show on Thursday. So some of you who maybe were with me last year,
02:06I was going live from the NBA Finals. I'm going to do one episode just to kind of discuss the
02:11WNBA Finals and where things are at. So with all that, just wanted to jump into the Celtics-Raptors
02:18game. I'm not going to talk a whole lot about game flow or kind of what went wrong here because I
02:23don't know that it particularly matters. But I wanted to just shout out three players that
02:28really impressed me just tonight and also just across the board. And I'll share a little bit
02:34about each of those guys and kind of why I'm excited about their performance. I'll start at
02:40the top, Jason Tatum. His stat line is not remarkable. He was 9 of 22 from the field,
02:465 of 14 from 3. 5 of 14 from 3 solid, but 7 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 steals, 1 turnover
02:54in 34 minutes. But in a game that they lost, he was a plus 13. But the stats don't really matter.
03:00I rattle them off just so you guys all have it in this context. But the reality is that Jason Tatum
03:05just seems comfortable. And it's not a surprise. It's not particularly new. We kind of knew that
03:11Jason Tatum was a great player before this. He was the guy that led the team in his assist points
03:17and rebounds during the playoff run, during the finals. But I think there was a lot of concern
03:22about him because of the Olympics. And it was such a limited stint. And I said that a number
03:26of times. But there's always going to be this question of, OK, he looks a little bit rough
03:31right now. He looks a little bit unsure of himself. Can we expect that to pass? And I always
03:37thought that it was more of a context thing, that clearly the Olympic environment was just,
03:41he just wasn't finding himself on the floor. I think through a couple of preseason games here,
03:47we can close the door on this conversation of his shot being broken and him not knowing
03:53who he is or looking unconfident. It was really just situational. And I think that
03:57for people that watched him last year in Boston, all of his career, there was no reason to be
04:01worried about him going into the year. But I think that preseason was a good showing for him.
04:05And I liked him as a playmaker versus the Raptors. I thought that there were some moments there early
04:09in the second quarter when they kind of erased the 19-point deficit and went on a 19-0 run.
04:15He was everywhere. He was facilitating. He was scoring. He had a couple of dunks that kind of
04:19woke them up, a couple of threes. So it was a good Tatum performance. You always, you know,
04:25I think he always has room to become more efficient. And certainly like the nine for
04:2922 nights, you want those to be 12 for 22 nights. And that would certainly help him
04:34as an individual when it comes to things like MVP races or individual accolades.
04:38But from my standpoint, like it's a couple of shots. It's not really,
04:42it doesn't really capture like how he affects the court. And I think that he,
04:46he just did good things. And again, I'm not going to be get carried away here
04:49against the preseason Raptors, but I felt good about his performance so far. So
04:55name him one of our standouts here. Another standout is Peyton Pritchard who went five of
05:0110 from three. I think he started five of seven. So he got a little cold there towards the end,
05:07but Peyton Pritchard just throughout this preseason has shown that he is a guy that
05:11when you give him the ball and when he's running the show, he can make good things happen. And,
05:15you know, I know that this is not everybody's favorite take, but I truly believe that Peyton
05:20Pritchard is going to eventually be a starting point guard in this league, a player that is,
05:27you know, really highly impactful. I think the, what we're seeing right now is him just coming
05:31into his own and kind of beginning to impact the team in the way that I believe down the road,
05:36he'll be able to do so even more. And I shouted this out on the last show, but you really should
05:41check out Peyton Pritchard's post game interview after Sunday night's win against the Raptors at
05:46TD Garden. I thought that it was really moving, just kind of the way that he talks about his
05:49approach and getting better while also recognizing that, you know, he might be working on individual
05:54skills, but then on the floor, he's going to play within himself, within the role that the Celtics
05:58need. So overall Pritchard was a bright spot in preseason. You know, the thing last year was that
06:05he really struggled with the shot to begin the regular season. And I think that if he can avoid
06:09a slump like that, you're going to see a guy whose stats considerably improved from last year.
06:15And, you know, Drew Holliday got the night off. So Pritchard played 29 minutes. I think you're
06:18going to see some games where whether it's Drew or Derek or whoever else play, you know,
06:23get a night off or play more limited minutes, like Peyton Pritchard has shown that he is ready to go
06:28and that he wants to impact winning and he wants to kind of take on as much as the team was willing
06:33to give him. So he's my second guy that I think has just stood out through preseason and again,
06:38stood out against the Raptors. I'm actually going to give four shout outs or two more now that I'm
06:44thinking about it. Jordan Walsh is honestly, it's kind of hard to fathom the way that he's
06:51improved since we saw him at Summer League. And I'm the king of like, let's not draw too many
06:56conclusions off of small sample sizes, like especially in Summer League, people were kind
07:01of being wild about Jordan Walsh. People were calling him crazy things and saying that he was
07:05a bust and that he was the worst basketball player they'd ever seen and a lot of other nastier things.
07:10And I, I understood why people were frustrated because he wasn't showing us a whole lot. But at
07:15the same time, Jordan Walsh is still a 20 year old that has been is still new to being a professional
07:21basketball player. Whatever he did from July to October, he needs to, everybody needs to do that
07:29thing, whatever, whoever he worked with, I think it's, you know, I'm being facetious. I think he
07:32just worked hard on his game and tried to slow down and to kind of work with his coaching staff
07:37and the player development team. But everybody has praised the way the Jordan Walsh has looked
07:42throughout preseason here. I think Al Horford was talking about it after the game. Joe Mazzulla
07:48talked about it. He said, you know, he's carving out a role. I'm so proud of him. I'm proud of the
07:51work that he's put in. You don't need to turn to player testimonies. You can see with your own
07:56eyes. He had a game tying drive with 49 seconds to go. That was just so measured. Like at Summer
08:03every single take was out of control. It was like, you know, multiple people were in position
08:08to block every shot that he attempted, you know, three point shots that seemed out of sync, like
08:12nothing looked like it was coming naturally. And now you're seeing a guy who feels like he's really
08:17picking and choosing his spots. He's kind of slowly attacking the rim. He's changing pace,
08:22like really simple stuff that just, he just didn't have a few months ago. And it just goes to show
08:27you how a guy who looks really rough at one moment just has the ability to look a whole lot better
08:32just a few months later with a different shift in mentality, a different environment
08:37and hard work. So he was a huge surprise for me. I honestly didn't think we were going to
08:42see anything out of him this year. I felt like this was going to be another developmental year
08:45for him. I wasn't hopping off the Jordan Walsh bandwagon, but I figured, you know,
08:50you look like that in Summer League, like you probably need another year of G League experience.
08:54I still think he's going to spend most of the year in Maine, but I also recognize that
08:58he's going to probably get some opportunities in Boston. And I think he jumped ahead of guys
09:03like Baylor Shireman and Jaden Springer, who I would have thought a couple of weeks ago were
09:08ahead of him in the potential rotation of perimeter players. And his stat line wasn't
09:14anything crazy today. He was two for six from the field in 24 minutes. He scored seven points,
09:19grabbed three rebounds, one assist, one steal. But I don't think it really tells the full story.
09:24I think that he just looked like an NBA player out there, honestly. And, you know,
09:28he had the drive towards the end of the game or at the buzzer that he got blocked on,
09:32didn't get the foul. I'm sure he would take that position back if he could. But I liked the
09:39approach. I like the process. And I like the fact that, you know, with 49 seconds to go,
09:43he actually got it done. J.D. Davidson was kind of stuck there. So, yeah, he's my third shout out,
09:49kind of standout guy from this preseason and really the biggest surprise because I think,
09:54you know, we just didn't see it coming. He wasn't he wasn't playing at this level
09:58at the point that, you know, or at least where people expected. And I think after the first
10:02year of Summer League, people were really high on him and expecting him to take another leap.
10:05And then he went back. And it's a perfect reminder for everybody to not be so hot and
10:09cold about these guys because, you know, it's ebbs and flows and these careers go up and down.
10:14And we're just seeing flashes of things and a lot more things happening behind the scenes, too. So
10:20one more standout from Summer League, sorry, from preseason coming right up. The first message from
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11:23So one more shout out from this preseason game, and it's going to go to J.D. Davison,
11:28who is somebody that I think people maybe gave up on a couple years back, you know,
11:33late round pick, young guy on his third two way, third year in Maine, really kind of unusual
11:39situation. But J.D. Davison checks in with five minutes to go. He has not played all game. Not
11:46only he's not played, like he's sitting on the bench, right? So just try to imagine like as a
11:50professional athlete, like I really can't fathom how difficult it is to sit on the bench the entire
11:54game and to check in and basically you're running the show now. And in those five minutes, Davison
11:59scored 12 points. He was a plus seven. He went three of three from the field, two three pointers.
12:06He had an and one three pointer that was a four point play that was remarkable. And then another
12:11three pointer to take the lead, made a critical mistake. He fouled with, you know, what was it,
12:17nine seconds to go. And that kind of lost them the game because Toronto was, you know, was ice
12:24from the free throw line, you know, one more for four down the stretch there. It was 11 seconds to
12:29go and DJ Carton. Yeah, he had four fourth free throws in the last 30 seconds. So he made a he
12:35made a tough mistake there on the replay, it was very obvious that JD Davison fouled. But man, you
12:40have to be impressed that he is coming in and he's able to kind of take over and he was able to create
12:46his own shot and play confidently and run the offense and 12 points in five minutes, like
12:52impressive. And it's funny, I tweeted right before that stretch, like I'm manifesting this
12:56JD Davison come back. And it almost happened. He almost completely did it. And then obviously,
13:01the foul got them towards the end there. But this is a guy that in Maine became one of the best
13:07players in the G League. Like he is an all around player. He's a great passer, great facilitator.
13:12He's a floor general. He's a he's manages the game very effectively. And I taught I was up in
13:19Maine a lot last year, Blaine Miller sung his praises was down Charlotte, but he sung his
13:23praises consistently and really said, like, he's a great player. And he's smart. And I wanted to
13:28teach everybody else what he knows, because there's a lot that he knows. And he's kind of
13:31blossoming into being more of a leader too. And so there's a reason that the Celtics have signed
13:38JD Davison to three consecutive two way deals. You just move on if you didn't think this was a guy
13:44that was going to make it an NBA or if you didn't think this was a guy worth keeping around this
13:47organization. There's something to it. And he's undersized. And so the knock has always been like,
13:53can he shoot? And, yeah, I think that he has showed, you know, that he can find a rhythm.
14:00I don't know what we know, we need a bigger sample size here to see what his three point
14:03shot look like. And I'll be curious for what his numbers look like in Maine when he's really going
14:07to do one of the primary options. But I loved what I saw out of him today. And I love the fact that
14:12he was able to kind of take over and run the offense down the stretch. And on a team with
14:16Jordan Walsh and Emias Cato, who are both fully guaranteed contract guys, he's the he's the guy
14:22like he's the guy that's going to make the plays and take the shots. And, you know, he's the point
14:26guard, he's going to run the floor. And, you know, I don't know that he can crack a rotation here in
14:30Boston, some extreme things are going to need to happen for him to see the floor here this year.
14:35And they're bad things injury wise. And I don't want to not even going to put them out there
14:39because I already got called out on manifesting injuries. And that's not at all my intention. But
14:42I just think right now looking at this, at this group, like you're missing out on real opportunity
14:49in the rotation. And so JD Davidson, I don't think you can see a pathway for him here this year.
14:55But I'm going to put my money on him being an NBA player and a decent vocational player down the road
15:00because I don't know, I watched him a lot in Maine, I think that he was all star level G League player
15:06and he got to add, you know, he got the accolades and the recognition. And then to come in and do
15:10what he did versus the Rafters here. Like, I know nobody cares. You know, it's a meaningless preseason
15:16game. It's a fourth quarter with a bunch of guys that, you know, are not going to be on NBA
15:21floors this year. But it's still basketball. And he took over when he needed to. And he did
15:26made a lot of good things happen. And I wish he had been able to get it done. So we could
15:28kind of fully appreciate the performance because it's going to get a little lost now because
15:32ultimately they did still lose but really good things out of him. He'll be my fourth
15:38observation of a kind of a standout guy and somebody that I'll be rooting for. I've had a
15:42kind of a enjoyed getting to know and talking to over the past year. And Maine starts next month,
15:47like he'll be one of the guys that I'm watching to see can he take that extra leap from a shooting
15:52efficiency standpoint, because if he can shoot threes, I think he's gonna I think he's gonna
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17:23So I'm going to talk a little bit here just to close out about some of the guys that I think
17:27have been garnering more negative reviews here at preseason. I keep wanting to say Summer League
17:32because it's spelled like that at points. Though we definitely saw more of the starters today. But
17:39Baylor Shireman played seven minutes versus the Raptors, scored four points on free throws,
17:45literally didn't log any other stats. I think he looks a little bit outmatched at points,
17:50a little bit slow decision making wise. The shot hasn't looked smooth. And it's not just
17:54that it's not going in. Sometimes it just looks a little awkward. It looks like he's not getting
17:58off great looks. And yeah, I understand why people are concerned about him. And I tweeted
18:04out, you know, I think Jordan Walsh is somebody that people were freaking out about. And obviously,
18:08he's looked a lot better. And I think Baylor is going to have a similar path where, you know,
18:12we're not going to see him for a bit, he's going to be working, he's going to be improving his
18:15development will be up in Maine, I'm sure. And then we're going to see him again. And I think
18:18you people are going to be like, Oh, wait, this guy's actually really good. Because there's a
18:22reason why they picked him in the first round. I'm not promising he's going to be a good NBA
18:27player. Because I personally, I don't actually watch a ton of college. And so I always try to
18:32keep my draft predictions relatively limited. But I will say like the adjustment of going from a
18:38college player, regardless of your age to actually being in the NBA, and he gained 15 pounds in
18:43summer league, he's working against much better players than he was playing against these last
18:47few four years in college, like there's going to be a learning curve. And he's in the midst of that
18:51learning curve right now. And it doesn't, it doesn't mean that he's not capable. He's played
18:58such limited minutes in these preseason games. And I felt in summer league, you look pretty solid
19:01across the board. So, you know, we have barely seen Anton Watson, he's somebody that DJ McClay
19:06said in summer league was an NBA level defender, that doesn't mean that he's not going to make it
19:11as an NBA player, just, you know, right now, like there's limited opportunities to go around. And
19:15I'm not exactly sure what Joe Mazula considerations are, why certain guys are playing more than
19:20others. Certainly, you see a guy like Springer, who was the other guy I was going to mention,
19:25you know, he has not played as much in this preseason as expected, I would have thought
19:29that he would be starting over Jordan Walsh and Lonnie Walker. And it was clear that he was kind
19:34of behind both of those guys. So I think Springer and Shimer are the two guys that leave summer
19:40league, like maybe with their stock a little bit down, not to put everything in those terms,
19:44because it's not as simple, quite as simple as that. But I think like Celtics fandom perception
19:49has decreased a little bit around both of those guys. And it's the reality of, you know,
19:55playing limited minutes and not particularly excelling in those minutes. And Lonnie Walker
19:59had a lot of flashy moves and some really exciting buckets. And so that makes people think like, hey,
20:04you know, I want this guy on my team. And, you know, even Drew Peterson had a big night on Sunday.
20:09And so neither of them have had that breakout moment. It's hard to rank these guys up against
20:14one another, because they each bring different things to the table. But I will say, entering
20:19preseason, I would have had Jaden Springer kind of at the top of the list vying for those perimeter
20:23minutes. And when I say perimeter minutes, I mean, behind Tatum, Brown, Pritchard, and Hauser,
20:31and Derek White and Drew Holiday. So we're talking about behind those six guys,
20:35anybody outside of the bigs, really. And I think right now, Jordan Walsh is probably
20:41at the top of the list, excluding like the bigs, I think Tillman would be ahead of him still. So,
20:46you know, we'll see. I'm really looking forward to covering Maine this year. I think there's
20:50going to be a lot of intriguing guys over there. But there's a good chance that Jordan actually
20:54spends more time in Boston than I expected. And that's kind of what we're seeing out of the
20:57rotation. And it's what we're hearing really from Joe and Al and others that have been really excited
21:03about his performance. So I'm going to keep this one short. I know we did a Garden Report, longer
21:09pods, you can check that out on CLNS. I did that with, you know, John Zanis, Bobby Manning, and
21:14Jimmy Toscano. And we did a whole hour and 20 or so minutes kind of de-dodging into the preseason.
21:19But just wanted to jump on here and share some of my thoughts on preseason. And overall, I'll just
21:24say like, really impressed by this team's conduct during training camp and preseason. And this is my
21:29first full training camp covering a team. Last year, I was kind of beginning to cover the team,
21:34so I wasn't actually going in person every day. And now I'm doing this full time. So,
21:38you know, I think what you're seeing is a team that's super focused, super driven,
21:42and like, you're really only hearing positive things. And I know Al Horford's a guy that is
21:46willing to call things out when they're not great. So that's going to be it for today.
21:52I'm heading to Minneapolis. As I said, I'll have a show on Thursday that'll be live WNBA focused
21:57episodes. And for those of you that are plugged into the WNBA finals or want to get plugged in,
22:02tune in, I'll answer all your questions on Thursday. And in the meantime, subscribe if
22:08you're listening to this on Spotify or Apple, leave a review, leave a rating. If you're listening
22:13to this on YouTube, like, comment, share, whatever. It's been super fun to get this
22:18off the ground. I look forward to doing more regular content. I'm going to be at a lot of
22:22away games this year kind of traveling with a team. It's a goal of mine to spend at least one
22:26year of my career where I'm really on the road like that. And so this is going to be that year
22:31and maybe more years. But my goal is to kind of go behind the scenes and tell you guys like,
22:36here's what I'm hearing, here's what I'm seeing, you know, just being in there,
22:38being a talking to fans, talking to coaches and everything. So there's other directions you guys
22:43want this podcast to go, let me know. I want to kind of I know there's a lot of great podcasts
22:47out there. And I want to make sure that I'm filling a need in the ecosystem that people
22:51are interested in and that people are hoping to plug into. But it's been great to see all
22:55the engagement so far. Have a great rest of your week. And I will see you all on Thursday,
23:00those of you that are interested on the WNBA side.
23:06Transcribed by https://otter.ai

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