Brad Stevens

it.

It's why he was Brad Stevens' white whale for so long, it seems like.

For what, 20 years? Yeah, this is...

Listen, Mike Conley is not going to get many bites at the apple this year, it seems like, in terms of playing time.

And they had won a championship, and they still broke it up.

Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum did very similar things, and Brad Stevens said, no, we need more flexibility.

We need more versatility on this game.

on this roster.

Is there beef? such as a beef that may have led to this sort of deconstruction of a roster which at least had one, two more years in it in exchange for a similar-like contract? Or is it just a little bit of lamb chops? Just a little lamb chops.

It isn't really anything, and Brad Stevens did what he had to do, and we're making too much of it move the hell on.

What say you, my friend?

Yeah, the beef wasn't between Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum.

And listen, the Celtics itself did not help this situation any more than what it allowed itself to do.

So even if we want to, like, you know me, I came down hard.

You remember when we were on the show talking about this whole thing with Brad Stevens? My biggest pet peeve with Stevens is not appreciating that even in this era where the thing called rivalries seems to be this made-up word, you never trade a top-tier player to one of your divisional teams.

You never trade a top tier player to a team that arguably is your rival.

They said the same stuff about when they got Przingis in 2024, right, that he was hurt, that they didn't need him.

So maybe, you know, if Brad Stevens, if they win this championship this year, I know it's a long stretch and all that, but I think Brad is smart.

But real quick, going back to what I had to say, right? I work in the hotel industry.

I ran into a Nick fan last night.

Don't get me wrong.

But like, why the fuck didn't he? I guess I can't say that, actually, because it's Brad Stevens and Missoula's fault that he didn't go to Boston because they're obsessed with Hugo Gonzalez and fucking.

I forgot.

But why? I don't know why he did this, because if you look at all the other all time greats, the guys who are like playing for legit legacy points, the guys who aren't like role players.

I don't know if they're going to be any good, but Butler's been fun to watch.

Nobody's talked about butlers and Brad Stevens left, but the two games that have been on local TV that I've had a chance to watch all they do shoot threes and layups.

There's no mid-range jumper.

None of that bull crap.

And they started off slow last year, and they were able to somehow scratch-claw their way into the playoffs and then ultimately push the Pistons into into seven games you know in that first round and probably could have won that had Franz not been hurt but we continue to sing the same song with this Orlando Magic team and sometimes you just got to shift the juju a little bit and I don't know if that means a big swing is coming in terms of a trade but I wouldn't rule it out I think at this stage as you know ownership is probably getting a little bit frustrated with this kind of underperformance

Yeah, my last thought about what you're saying is that this is what's going to separate the men from the boys from an executive level, right? I think we have already seen where teams who, like, for example, the Boston Celtics, you know, I was just on Ball and Buds and was, you know, basically saying, like, I know we may not like Brad Stevens for what he did, but I will not...

diminish the savvy of Brad Stevens as an executive and the moves that he's made because the Celtics are still a competitive basketball team.

We may not buy them into getting into the Eastern Conference Finals or maybe even get into the NBA Finals, But they're going to be a competitive basketball team.

We're going to say they're going to probably be more successful than Miami Heat, probably saying they're going to be more successful than the Orlando Magic, right? And a lot of that is based on the moves that he makes and how he's filling that roster.

It has worked well for them in the past.

But Brad Stevens at the end of last season said over and over again, this team needs to be able to get to the rim.

This team needs to have shots that they can take at the rim.

They need to have a little bit more that they can do offensively.