JJ Redick names PORZINGIS as the reason he’s ABSOLUTELY taking the Celtics in the East! | First Take

JJ Redick names PORZINGIS as the reason he’s ABSOLUTELY taking the Celtics in the East! | First Take

There to answer the question uh I’m Absolut absolutely taking the Celtics right now over the field in the East and that’s not a knock that’s not a knock on any team in the East because I think there’s truth truthfully a handful of really good teams in the Eastern

Conference um the reason I’m taking the Celtics it’s not because of Jason Tatum it’s not because of Jaylen Brown uh if anyone uh knows me and has followed me over the last year and a half it’s not because of Dereck white and my love for him it’s because of Chris topor

This guy is a total Difference Maker for them he has given them a new Dynamic for their offense and he’s providing the same defense essentially that Rob Williams was giving them when you look at the Celtics and how they’re playing right now Stephen A brought up the

Threes and you know I promised Stephen an our production call this morning I’d try to keep the data and the stats to a minimum but told you to bring I got to drop this I got to drop this Joe Missoula at the beginning of the year he talked about wanting to post up

Mismatches more with Tatum Brown porzingis okay right now the Celtics have essentially tripled their frequency in post-ups they are hunting out mismatches when we start talking about late game Stuff christops porzingis unlocks their defense you want to run an after timeout play with 17 seconds to go

He unlocks what they can do on the offensive end I said defense earlier I’m sorry what what they can do on the offensive end christops porzingis we have 10 years of tracking data he has been he’s having the most efficient season posting up the basketball in the

Last 10 years that’s over joic that’s over embiid and why is that because he’s posting mismatches you go down the list of his most frequent uh uh guys that are guarding him in the post and it’s all perimeter guys he when he rolls in a drop coverage he’s getting behind the

Defense that two-man action with Jaylen Brown on the on the left side Jaylen Brown going to his right hand him getting behind the defense it’s great action for the Celtics he has completely changed their team so when we start talking about playoffs and M and matchups it’s Chris stops porzingis he’s

To me he’s the most important third option in the NBA I would probably put James Harden second you know so Kristof sping is the most important third option in the Eastern Conference and it’s because of his ability to punish switching that’s the reason I have the Celtics as the favorites right now over

The field in the Eastern Conference side note real quick no one’s going to react to Doc’s audio there we’ve been since we showed that audio nobody’s going to react to Doc’s audio do you want me to get it for you we don’t to repeat it I’ve seen the

Trend now I’ve seen the trend for years what’s the trend the trend is always making excuses get doc we get it taking over a team in the middle of the season is hard it’s hard we get it just like getting traded in the Middle season is

Hard for a player we get it but it’s always an excuse It’s always throwing your team under the bus they lose to Memphis oh it’s his players Memphis was playing G League guys and two-way guys you look at his quotes over the weekend now he wants to take credit for the

James Harden trade to the Clippers working out he wants credit for that there just no there’s never accountability with that guy there’s never accountability well let me say a couple of things number one that’s a very serious thing to say and we should take it serious you

Because we should take it serious take pry serious let me finish we should take it seriously because you played for him so for you to say something like that it matters that’s number one number two I’m going to say this because doc need Doc Rivers needs to hear and I got love for

Him but he needs to hear this okay just go out there and Coach because here’s the deal you were playing an advisor’s role in Milwaukee and all of a sudden now you’re the head coach people haven’t brought that up and the more you talk about how difficult this is the more it

Brings attention to wait a minute nobody’s trying to hear that you got the job go in go in it’s just that simple because it didn’t happen in La all of those years with the Clippers it didn’t happen didn’t happen in Philadelphia and now this I’ve said this JJ the second he got the

Job if Doc Rivers doesn’t I’m not talking about this season because he came in there halfway through but if Doc Rivers between this year and next season doesn’t win I think it’ll be his last head coaching job in the NBA I don’t think this I think this is I think this

Is last yeah I think this is last you can’t bring up it was probably it wasn’t the decision to come in the 10 game you know the toughest Road stretch of the season come on bro ain’t nobody trying to hear that they’re really not you got

The job you wanted the job because you could have stayed had a nice little cozy job right alongside D Doris Burke and Mike Breen now JJ has that job but you could have stayed put you wanted this job and you know what the expectations are but let me ask you guys this JJ

Stephen A a healthy Joel and be and Tyres Maxi with the way Tobias Harris and Kelly Uber are were played do you believe if embiid was healthy they could beat the Celtics in the seven game series I I do and I I’ll I’ll tell you joelan is has for for his career has

Been battling injuries throughout every playoff run they’ve ever had if Joel embiid is healthy and he gets back in time and he’s in shape and he’s healthy and he’s in Rhythm absolutely let’s not Overlook the fact the Sixers have not been a volume three-point shooting team

It’s one of the reasons that for for stretches of the game their offense is inefficient they added buddy heeld who’s one of the greatest volume shoot three-point Shooters of this era let’s not Overlook that transaction because buddy heeld is a Difference Maker for that team if Joel embiid is healthy

Correct only if Joel embiid is healthy only only only by the way before we put a cap on this subject in regards to Doc Rivers is it fair to say that you’re not the only player former player who feels the way that you feel of course but

There are guys that that okay I I loved playing for Doc when I was there I was there four years I’m not talking about him as a as a basketball coach I’m talking about the accountability the messaging it’s it’s I can go back years I can go back years Stephen A don’t

Let’s not let’s not fall for this anymore like it’s it’s silly it’s silly at this point I just want to I just want to say let’s not act let’s not act like some of the faces of the League have been perfect with their off Court Behavior so so I don’t I don’t think

That I don’t necessarily think that’s a precursor and you you’re obviously using Stu and Lebron in in sort of the present tense and by and large those guys are Scandal free right let’s not act like some of the past faces of the league have been perfect let’s not let’s not

Act like that totally I want to bring up something stepen a just said real quick and and that’s just the Anthony Edwards piece okay because you know I I like I like to talk about just position I like to talk about you know despar and approach right okay and I brought it up

Last time I was on the show in December when we were talking about the inseason tournament and you had the semi-finals in Vegas and it was like LeBron’s approach versus Zion approach right two very different things and if you look at this past weekend I thought there was a

A fairly large disparity and approach between how Tyrese hand halberton handled this weekend and how Anthony Edwards handled this weekend and that’s not to say I’m disappointed in Anthony Edwards but it it it does further our point which you have to embrace these moments and halberton embraced it to

Your question Shannon about which American player has won and I’m again I’m I I brought up that question not in any sense of of xenophobia right it’s not it’s not a fear dislike I’m talking about the marketability of the league within the United States not globally 30% of the

League is internationally born right now it is a global sport we can all acknowledge that there’s nothing wrong in my eyes with International Players winning MVP and being the best players I have no I have no issue with that neither do I right the one guy that’s

Gotten close and seems to be willing to embrace this Manel is Jason Tatum and I think this year they have the best opportunity they’ve had to actually win a champion the other thing that we have to pay attention to is this and I agree with you about Jason Tatum by the way

Because if he wins the championship this year we do have to look at him potentially as a face of the league because I think he’s the best player on the best team right now in the NBA and he should be the leading candidate for League MVP hon us but that’s just me we

Can’t ignore Janis cuzz jannis is already a champion and not only that Giannis who has a personality who’s got endorsement deals he’s done commercials and stuff like that he’s also a guy from a competitive standpoint we love how he approaches it he’s not trying to befriend the quote unquote enemy he’s

Coming for you and he lets you know he’s coming for you on a night in Night Out basis and that is a component that we look for when somebody is the Marquee as well can I just add one thing I think this is all a point if you don’t win

Championships 100% at the end of the day so you can be marketable you can approach the game if you don’t get rings you’re not a part of the compation which is why we can’t predict which teams are going to win so it’s hard to predict absolutely it’s got to be organic it

Happens organically based on who wins and then you add in those other 100% Molly we got we got spoiled guys because magic and bird so won so early in their career not only championships but MVPs and now that is the expectations we sometimes guys are so great they make it

Look easy and you think everybody should do that everybody should win a championship in their rookie season everybody should win win a championship by their second season everybody should win MVPs by the third or fourth season and bird won won three uh uh MVPs back

To back 84 85 86 in his first Seven Seasons so we think that’s easy it’s not it’s not so maybe maybe we have unrealistic expectations of what we think the face of the NBA should be but we also that it could that possibly be it Steph yeah yeah it could be but the

Other side to it is we didn’t get spoiled just by them winning we also got spoiled by how marketable they were Magic Johnson I mean he could come America invited him into their living room and we know that was the case with bird as well they were marketable off

The court as well as on the court and that’s what did it as well combin didn’t do a whole lot off the court I mean before talking about the commercials with magic I’m talking about the commercials with magic relationship right even though bird became one of the

Fa of the league we didn’t really see bur and Commercial until him that weapons commercial where they driving down that corn field and Magic L down the window of the Lim in limo yeah absolutely huge all he did is win and that certainly helped that’s it n

JJ Redick names PORZINGIS as the reason he’s ABSOLUTELY taking the Celtics in the East! | First Take

On First Take, Stephen A. Smith, Shannon Sharpe and JJ Redick join Molly Qerim to talk about the Boston Celtics’ chances in the Eastern Conference, along with future faces of the NBA.

0:00 JJ is taking the Celtics in the East
2:24 Redick sounds off on Doc Rivers
6:24 Faces of the NBA
8:58 Importance of winning rings

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