Picks 'n Pops: End of an era, blueprints, and how Joe Mazzulla thinks

Every week I gather some thoughts about the Celtics, the NBA, and beyond and dump them here. Because I'm happy to avoid eating Little Caesar's Pizza for a week in Detroit.

- People were buzzing yesterday because Shams Charania said NBA teams are “bracing for some level of change to come for the Celtics from their roster this offseason.” He reported that the Celtics will be exploring trade options in the offseason.” 

I’m going to need some help here. How is this different from anything I’ve been saying all season long?

- Joe Mazzulla on Jrue Holiday: “He’s day to day, just getting better every day, doing whatever he can to make sure he puts himself in position and trying to come back as fast as he can. So he's working hard.”

So, nothing new. There's no word on how serious this injury really is. 

- ESPN is reporting that Gregg Popovich is no longer going to coach the Spurs. It’s a shame that it had to end this way. He’s still going to remain in San Antonio’s front office, but a legendary coaching era has come to an end. 

- According to a new report from Front Office Sports, Bill Chisholm has secured enough funding to close his deal to buy the Celtics and to do it in a way that satisfies league rules. 

So that should end the saga of whether the league might balk at the sale. But we should also remember that it took a lot to make this deal happen. There are a lot of investors with big enough stakes in this team that, if they banded together, could cause problems down the line. 

This isn’t just Chisholm coming in, laying a few billion bucks down, and making a vanity purchase of his favorite team. He’s the front-facing owner with a lot of people behind him. 

It’s not all that much different than the current situation in terms of structure, but it’s unique in the scope of the sale. There's a lot of money being thrown around here, a lot of investors, and the potential for infighting when it comes to spending money. 

This could all go smoothly, but something hasn’t sat right with me during this whole process. It will calm down for a while, which is good. And the second apron will force cuts anyway, which everyone investing is aware of. But somewhere down the line, a financial decision will have to be made and I’m wondering how it will go. I hope I’m just being paranoid. 

- I do NOT recommend downtown Orlando for any extended period of time. 

- The concept of teams giving others a blueprint is incredibly overrated. The Magic didn’t create a blueprint for limiting Boston’s offense or 3-pointers. They wonderfully executed a game plan, unique to them, that they could execute. 

They didn’t invent a new defense. They didn’t find a loophole to exploit. They didn’t expose anything new. 

Every once in a while, a team will do that. The Patriots' delay-of-game loophole is a “blueprint” moment. They did something no one else ever thought to do in a situation. 

Orlando used big, switchable guys to stay home, force isolation, and grind the game to a halt. When Paolo Banchero sat with five fouls and Orlando didn’t have the personnel to do it anymore, they got waxed. 

AND, lest we forget, Boston won the series 4-1, lost that one game by just two points even though they played their worst game in forever, and they still finished the series with the same offensive efficiency as the best offense in the league. So if any team wants that to be their blueprint, then step right up.

- The Pistons were SO close to extending that series to seven games. They were one or two plays from making it happen, including the brutal turnover at the end of Malik Beasley’s hands. He had hit six of Detroit’s nine 3-pointers in Game 6 and was going to get a great look with the Pistons down three. 

Shout out to the Pistons, though. They played really well considering where they were last season and their lack of experience. Ultimately, this will be good for them. The sting of this loss will last for a while. It will drive Cade Cunningham. 

- First time I saw Jayson Tatum’s wrist celebration in Game 3, I thought it was a defensive signal because they started top-locking on the next play. The second time he did it I thought someone screwed up a defensive coverage. The third time is when I realized he was celebrating. 

That should tell you a lot about how I’m processing these games. 

- I keep watching national NBA media trying to foist “face of the league” status onto Anthony Edwards. Like, they're really trying hard every time he does anything remotely good. 

I watched ESPN run a montage of “notable stars eliminated by Edwards in the playoffs” as if it was something special. Any player making a couple of playoff runs can add some notable bodies to their list. Most playoff teams have notable stars. 

Congrats to Edwards for beating teams with Kevin Durant, Nikola Jokic, LeBron James, and Luka Doncic. We can play this game with anyone. 

Kyle Lowry has eliminated Giannis Antetokounmpo, Joel Embiid, Steph Curry, Kyrie Irving, Jayson Tatum, Jimmy Butler, and Dwyane Wade.

Bet you didn’t expect me to go with Lowry in that instance, did you?

Edwards is a hell of a player. He’ll organically have his moment. People trying to force it just hurts his case because it only creates pushback. Then again, that's how the NBA is covered: Say something outrageous, wait for people to yell at you, pretend you’re creating meaningful content.

- It still would have been cool for Tatum to eliminate LeBron this year. This was the last chance for that to happen, I think.

- The Celtics-Knicks schedule is a best-case scenario for Boston. They have nearly a week off, they play two games at home, then the get two days off before playing again. The trip to New York is the shortest possible flight in the league for them, so travel is even less of an issue. 

There is a real chance the Celtics can end this series in four or five games. The only way the opening two rounds could have gone better for Boston was if Atlanta won the play-in. 

- I think Cavs-Pacers has a real chance of going at least six, maybe seven games. Regular readers know I have a healthy fear of the Pacers and their wild offensive style. I think they're going to be a problem. 

- Damian Lillard’s torn Achilles is the absolutely worst-case scenario for Milwaukee. Their one way out of their current bind was to trade Lillard this summer to a better situation and try to remake their roster around Antetokounmpo. Now his career is effectively over, and he’s due $112 million over the next two seasons. 

There's a reason why Giannis trades are going to be the big talk over the next couple of months. He knows what’s coming. 

- This could be a massive summer of big names changing teams. 

- Congratulations Jrue Holiday on winning the NBA’s Sportsmanship award. 

- Tyrese Haliburton’s dad stepping onto the court to confront a freshly eliminated Antetokounmpo was way out of line, but he, the Pacers, and Tyrese himself all recognized it immediately and apologized. I don’t think it was necessary to ban him for the foreseeable future. 

- James Harden is having a very un-Harden-like first round, which is to say he’s playing well and stepping up in big moments. 

- Mazzulla presented this ethical conundrum on the radio recently: You can eliminate one crime from the Earth, but you have to commit that crime yourself to do it. You won’t get caught, but you have to do it. Would you, and which would you choose? 

The smartest answer I saw was getting drunk, driving around the block, and parking carefully back at home. You’ve committed the crime of drunk driving, so you’ve eliminated all of that from the world. I like that answer. 

With that off the table, I’m going more white-collar with it. I’m going to wet my beak a little with some corporate embezzlement. Not much, just a little. Enough to retire and then make honest people out of those in charge. 

- This is the kind of stuff Mazzulla thinks about. It should tell you a lot. 

- At least it can be made into a fashion statement: 

- The 100 men vs. one gorilla thing has gotten out of hand. Also, I’m team gorilla all day long. Even if the 100 guys can ultimately take him down in theory, the first five to 10 guys are dying the most gruesome deaths possible. No thanks. 

- Aaron Gordon’s buzzer-beating dunk might be the coolest buzzer-beater of all time

- Stealing home might be the coolest play in baseball

- The Los Angeles Lakers have been eliminated from the playoffs and Luka Doncic looked pretty bad on his way out. He was a mess defensively and he didn’t look like he was in good enough shape to keep up with the rigors of this series. 

This was supposed to be the move that propelled the Lakers to the top. They had claimed the third seed after an incredible run, but then things fell apart.

Did Nico Harrison have a point?

Suddenly the conversation around the Doncic trade is starting to shift from “how could you trade him?” to “how could you not at least shop him for a better package?” 

You know what? I call that a win for Harrison. He still botched the deal, but at least people are seeing his point. To me, that's good enough for him to be having the Best Week Ever! 

- This week’s AI-generated image: Just enjoying some downtime while the Knicks sort themselves out.

- Here’s my latest podcast, if you’re bored