First To The Floor: A Boston Celtics Podcast
Oct 16, 2026 · 1 hr 5 min · 10 segments
Jason Timpf of Hoops Tonight joins the pod to discuss the outlook for the 2026-27 Boston Celtics, how Jayson Tatum compares to his top-5 NBA peers, changes to the Celtics' play style, and much more…
Jason TimpfGuest
Jake IssenbergHost
Wayne SpooneyHost
[lips smack] Yeah, you know, player rankings, I love 'em for so many different reasons.
Like, I, I, uh, was talking about this with Adam when we did some player ranking stuff last week.
Obviously players care most about winning the title and making money, uh, but I think third on that list is recognition.
I, I think players want to be regarded as the best or as close to the best as they can possibly be.
It's fun to kind of like take a different perspective on basketball from the standpoint of, like, looking at players in a vacuum versus looking at them in their circumstance.
But it just comes with the downside that it, like, is absolutely guaranteed to piss everyone off.
Now, what I always say is, like, when everyone's pissed off, that means you've probably made a pretty good list.
Go, go make one and you'll find out pretty fast that it's extremely difficult." Like, you're gonna find really good players that have good cases to be top 10 that get cut from the top 10, that have really good cases to be in the top 25 that you have to cut from the top 25.
And you'll find out pretty quickly that it's, it's subjective, it's fun, and it's extremely difficult.
[laughs] Uh, dude, uh, to your point about the recognition thing sometimes, especially with the money in the NBA right now, I think the dollar amount often is recognition as well.
Like, fundamentally, is your life that much different if you make 220 million or 230? But I think guys are like, "I'm better than him, so I want five million more dollars than that guy is getting."
Um, so that, that definitely matters to them, and it's all tied together in a lot of ways.
[lips smack] Yeah, you know, player rankings, I love 'em for so many different reasons.
Like, I, I, uh, was talking about this with Adam when we did some player ranking stuff last week.
Obviously players care most about winning the title and making money, uh, but I think third on that list is recognition.
I, I think players want to be regarded as the best or as close to the best as they can possibly be.
It's fun to kind of like take a different perspective on basketball from the standpoint of, like, looking at players in a vacuum versus looking at them in their circumstance.
But it just comes with the downside that it, like, is absolutely guaranteed to piss everyone off.
Now, what I always say is, like, when everyone's pissed off, that means you've probably made a pretty good list.
Go, go make one and you'll find out pretty fast that it's extremely difficult." Like, you're gonna find really good players that have good cases to be top 10 that get cut from the top 10, that have really good cases to be in the top 25 that you have to cut from the top 25.
And you'll find out pretty quickly that it's, it's subjective, it's fun, and it's extremely difficult.
[laughs] Uh, dude, uh, to your point about the recognition thing sometimes, especially with the money in the NBA right now, I think the dollar amount often is recognition as well.
Like, fundamentally, is your life that much different if you make 220 million or 230? But I think guys are like, "I'm better than him, so I want five million more dollars than that guy is getting."
Um, so that, that definitely matters to them, and it's all tied together in a lot of ways.
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