Press Conference Reaction — Rich & Ken with Ted Johnson

[0:00] Brad Stevens sat up there for 45 minutes and answered questions from the media, [0:04] who I thought did largely a very, very good job of holding everyone's feet to the fire there [0:09] and forcing some admissions from Brad Stevens that I don't think he really was happy about having to say. [0:17] I thought the time Chisholm did speak, it was very interesting. [0:22] And almost, I sort of joked in the beginning about how it would be funny if Chisholm got up there and was like, [0:27] I didn't want to make this trade. I think this trade sucks too. I'm just like you. I'm a fan. [0:32] I listen to my basketball people. That's kind of what he said. [0:36] Yeah, he said, as the fan in me looked at this and went, what the hell is that? [0:39] I'm paraphrasing a little bit. That's what he went with. [0:41] My basketball people told me this was the way. So I said, okay, I'm not a basketball person. [0:45] I'll listen to my basketball people. I was like, whoa, whoa, Bill. He's sitting right there. [0:51] You know, like maybe throw him under the bus through a spokesman or something. [0:55] You don't have to do it right there in front of him. [0:57] I thought this guy next to me was out of his mind when he called me the first time around. [1:00] Brutal. Brutal stuff there. And we all now have a new word in the lexicon. [1:06] And that word is optionality. We had, what was it with Sam Kennedy? Parameters? [1:11] Sam Kennedy? Alignment. [1:13] Alignment. [1:13] Was a big one after the Devers deal. [1:14] That's right. With Devers, we needed alignment. [1:17] Needed alignment. And they had, they never had less after that deal, as a matter of fact. [1:20] But some moves didn't get made because of certain parameters. [1:24] And now the Celtics traded Jalen Brown with a large, large focus there on the optionality [1:35] that this move would bring. [1:37] In bringing in Paul George, the optionality there is that instead of losing that money [1:43] in three years, you'll be losing it in two years, right? [1:46] Yes. [1:47] Assuming he opts in, which is a player option. I'll see why he wouldn't. [1:49] What do you think? Someone else is going to pay him that? [1:51] Of course he's going to opt in. [1:52] So there's that. You don't get any real optionality or anything from the Paul George aspect of [1:59] it, at least not until 2029 or 28 or whatever. And then there's the draft picks. [2:04] And he tried to really emphasize how these two draft picks, hey, you know, both of them [2:09] could end up being something, which is basically all he could say. [2:13] These are both two, you know, potential to be a valuable pick itself or a valuable trade [2:19] asset somewhere down the road. The second round picks are just sweeteners. [2:23] And no one cares about that. He was pretty frank. I'll give him that. [2:25] Like he was pretty frank in all of this. I didn't, I didn't feel like he was trying to [2:29] sell us on anything. No, no, I'm with you. [2:32] But I also think there were a couple of times where it definitely was, okay, he's saying [2:37] this because he's, you know, has to say something. Like it seemed like there were a couple of [2:41] times it got to, it got to that point, even when there were follow-up questions. [2:46] One other part of it that I thought was very interesting was how quickly he shot down the [2:51] idea that Jason Tatum played a role in the decision. [2:54] Yes. Very, very quickly doubled down and said, kind of made a blanket statement for his, [2:59] his leadership style of, I don't talk to, what do you say? I don't talk to dudes about dudes or [3:04] something. [3:04] I don't talk to guys about other guys because I don't want them to play into it. [3:08] Right. [3:08] Do you believe that? [3:10] I don't, I would find it hard to believe that there was zero conversation at all before this [3:17] happened. It's not even necessarily because like I could see there not being a formal sit down, [3:22] you know, I could see that not being, not happening. And also I don't think he's asking [3:26] for permission. Something got told to some, there's no way you're blindsiding your franchise [3:30] player by trading your co-franchise player. No shot. [3:34] And also it wouldn't have been blindsided anyway, because everybody knew about the honest [3:38] thing. Right. Like that was right out on front street. Like everybody knew about that. So, [3:42] you know, he knew that Brown was being talked about. I think that if he, and again, I'm not [3:49] blaming Jason Tatum for this, cause I don't think Jason Tatum, it's not his job. It's not his job to [3:53] go out there and save the day for a guy who just got done telling everybody for the umpteenth time [3:57] how it was his favorite season the year. He didn't have to play with me, you know? So I'd be like bleep you. [4:01] I'm not going to go out there and save you. Right. You know, like I, I don't think there's any, [4:05] the reason why he should, I'm not even blaming him for this, but I do think that if after the [4:09] Giannis debacle, he went to Brad and said, listen, Brad, you know, come on, I need my guy. [4:13] Giannis would have been fine, but I need my guy. If we're going to win, I need to be with, [4:17] we need to be together. Like that's how it's always been. That's what I want. [4:20] I'd feel uncomfortable if you moved on from him and brought in somebody. There's a million things [4:24] he could have said. Absolutely. And that would align with Brad saying, I wasn't going to make this [4:28] deal unless we thought we had the right package that we were getting in, in, in return, which, [4:32] which came up at a, at a certain point with, which doesn't really, it doesn't completely jive [4:37] with the whole 70% of the cap and, and usage being, being through those two players. I, I found it [4:43] interesting that kind of, there was a couple of different questions that mentioned the analytics [4:46] conversation that we just had and how I think the timeline that got established was he, this wasn't [4:53] really much of a thought, at least as he tried to dictate, this wasn't much of a thought. [4:57] And then as we dove deeper into Jalen Brown's play, certain red flags started to shoot up in [5:03] terms of what these numbers are saying about maybe his game or the fact that it's regressing in some, [5:07] some capacity or how it looked when Jason Tatum came back. And so it became more of a reality, [5:13] the more they dove deeper into whatever numbers they're being presented. So it's, it must've been [5:18] a fascinating last month when you, when you compare that kind of analysis with these conversations [5:24] that may or may not have happened and disrespected Jalen. I was fascinated with how, how, how much [5:31] Brad put his foot down on, I thought I did everything I did to communicate how I, how I felt and where we [5:37] were at and which teams were involved. And he, even to the point where he apologized, if Jalen took that [5:43] a different way.