Every week, I gather some thoughts about the Celtics, the NBA, and beyond and dump them here. Because all I want for Christmas is a new damn song.
- Buried in a new Globe feature on new Celtics owner Bill Chisholm is this little nugget about a meeting between Chisholm and Brad Stevens:
“Stevens projected his computer screen onto a wall and shared a rare glimpse into his basketball mind. He described how big deals were finalized, and why others crumbled, such as a near-miss for then-Mavericks point guard Jalen Brunson. Chisholm was captivated.”
I’m very curious about how this went down. Brunson was moved to New York in the summer of 2022. The Celtics traded for Derrick White during the 2021-22 season. Was this something Boston wanted to do instead of White? In addition to White? After acquiring White?
I think part of this was Brunson’s desire to go to the Knicks, so even if they had a deal Dallas liked, Boston wouldn’t have done the deal if they couldn't sign Brunson long-term.
Also, this is a great look at (a) how quiet the Celtics keep things. This is the first I’ve heard that the Celtics were even players for Brunson, never mind close enough to call it a “near-miss.” And then (b) how many things happen behind the scenes that we never know about.
NBA front offices are always talking. The seeds of negotiations are planted very early. Any time you see two GMs talking, there's almost certainly some level of discussion of players happening. It can be as simple as “how do you think this guy is doing?” And that can spark a discussion that leads to a bigger thing, which leads to some calls.
Or it can lead to nothing.
I can tell you what ISN’T happening, and that's the Money Ball kind of calls that come out of nowhere and put a bunch of pressure on someone. Maybe some version of that happens at the deadline when word gets out of a potential deal happening and someone else wants to get in before time runs out, but even those tend to be the result of some kind of previous conversation.
Okay, with all that boring stuff out of the way … imagine how much fun Brunson would have been on this team?
- I came to a realization this week that the Celtics were the Cheesecake Factory. Here’s what I mean:
Some days the C's iso, some days they're spraying it. Some days small ball works, some days it doesn't. The Celtics can't just be one thing. They have to be the Cheesecake Factory. Here's a taste of what I mean...here's the full Locked On Celtics episode: https://t.co/4oXkbb9fpj pic.twitter.com/PBgirO91iK
— John Karalis 🇬🇷 (@John_Karalis) December 17, 2025
Cheesecake Factory has been the most popular restaurant in the NBA because it has everything. The Celtics have to do that too. Play big? Sure. Play small? Yup. Jordan Walsh at center? Josh Minott at center? Isolate a million times? Run a bunch of plays with 15 passes? Play a bunch of zone out of nowhere?
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
And that puts pressure on players. The Celtics have no style. They are all styles.
“To me it's what the environment requires,” Joe Mazzulla said. “You can only be as smart or dumb as your opponent allows you to be. So if your opponent is high level and they're making things, you have to adjust at the same rate or you're going to get left behind and you’re going to lose.”
I’ll just stop right there to say “you can only be as smart or as dumb as your opponent allows you to be,” is a banger quote. Bad teams allow you to play dumber basketball and still win.
I’m stealing that line for sure.
“It’s not really just as much as it's what I'm asking you to do, it's what the environment is asking you to do,” Mazzulla continued. “It’s what the game is asking you to do in the game today … and if and when that changes because of how the game is going, how quickly can you adjust to that? Sometimes it happens at a halftime, sometimes it happens at the free throw line, sometimes it happens at the end of the quarter. So there's not really a pressure as much as it is just a learning.”
The learning part is very interesting, because the perception is that NBA players memorize a bunch of plays and run them. But that's not it at all.
“It's a muscle memory on awareness and understanding, but it's not a memorization because it could change so much,” Mazzulla said. “I mean there are plays that we have to memorize, but within the plays you have to know all the different variables that go into that. You may run the same play five times, they may guard it three different ways of those five times, so you have to run the same play differently to get what you want out of that, and that's what you're learning.
“I think that's kind of where we're at and you see some of our offensive lacking at times. It's not that we're not being intentional, it's that we're just missing that read a little bit. We're missing that coverage read, we’re missing that two-on-one read, and that just comes with time of learning. That’s not a memorization.”
I’ll pull a Mazzulla myself and say it’s not even learning as much as it is training your body to react.
The best basketball players can recognize patterns in real time. They can pick up changes in coverage faster than others on the floor. They can anticipate better.
What makes Luka Dončić “Luka Dončić?” He’s not faster than anyone. He can’t jump higher than anyone. But he knows what’s happening on the floor better than almost anyone in the league. The same applies to Nikola Jokić.
The Celtics need to learn a lot, training themselves to react quickly as things change on the floor. In the short term, it will result in wins and losses. In the long term, the guys who do it best will stick around and be part of a championship contender.
Hitting shots is nice. Guys definitely have to do that. Making the right reads on a consistent basis is what will keep someone around.
- It’s tough to hear that Kristaps Porziņģis’ is going through another illness, which will keep him out for at least a month at this point. He says it’s not the same thing as last season, but it’s hard not to believe there is at least some connection.
At this point, no one can rely on him to play any kind of consistent minutes. He’ll get his $30 million this season, and then I don’t know why anyone would sign him for more than the minimum … or at all. Why bring someone on board if you know he’s going to miss half the season and his availability for the playoffs is a crap shoot.
Honestly, the Celtics might have gotten lucky that they got as much as they did out of him during the championship run. That was probably his peak. It’s probably time to head home to Latvia, relax, and try to figure out what to do with the next chapter of his life. Why would he want to keep going through this stuff?
- The Celtics have guys on the team who make presentations so the team can learn more about the individuals. “(Walsh) likes anime … He did a great presentation for the team on that,” Mazzulla said. “So I would say that's probably the most (interesting) thing (about him) outside of basketball.”
If you ever meet a young NBA player and you like anime, that's your in to start a conversation. Chances are good you’ll make a new friend.
- Anfernee Simons could become anything from a salary dump to a long-term bench option. I don’t know which way it goes right now. I had an extended conversation with Keith Smith of Spotrac about Simons staying in Boston:
