Tag: Felger and Mazz

The Celtics Affinity for Blowing Games Continues as They Blow Game 6 and Blow the Series

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In a weird, pandemic interrupted season that stretched 11 months and 27 days the Celtics went from an unmitigated disaster last summer watching two max contract players leave for nothing to landing Kemba Walker and going on a run to the Eastern Conference Finals. Despite all the missed opportunities that arose once the NBA season resumed, the Celtics accomplished what so few teams ever can; rebuilding on the fly. As Kemba said in his post-game press conference last night, “This is our first year together, we are going to have some time to grow.” He’s not wrong.

Now that the back patting is over, lets take a look at the epic choke job the Celtics completed last night. For whatever reason this team struggled mightily when it came to neck stepping time. Whether they’re too young, lack a killer instinct, or just don’t have a defined closer on the team, whatever it was, this team struggled to finish games. We saw it in the Raptors series that they were lucky to escape in 7 and it carried over to the Eastern Conference Finals where the Celtics blew late leads in Games 1 and 2. The latter of which led to an all-time dysfunctional locker room blowout before winning Game 3, dropping Game 4, and winning Game 5 to force a 6th and decisive game. It looked like Boston’s talent was going to do what it had in the previous round, overwhelm their gritty opponent. They even forced the Heat to go away from their vaunted zone defense as the Celtics finally figured out a consistent way to penetrate and disrupt.

However, when it came to crunch time the Celtics once again WITHERED. The Celtics defense imploded as the Heat scored at will.

BRobb also tweeted out the Celtics’ clutch stats (idk ask BRobb for the definition of that one) and they’re just as bad as you’d expect.

With 9 minutes to go in the game and Boston up by six, the Heat went on a 26-6 run to officially stomp them out. Even worse was their absolutely moronic, panic stricken shot selection down the stretch.

Where the hell is Brad Stevens during all that? The Heat went on something like a 19-6 run before he decided to call a timeout with 4:30 remaining. By that point though it was too late and too big of a hole and then the C’s really were forced to start jacking up 3’s.

One of my biggest complaints, but it’s probably more about the league in general than the Celtics specifically, is there insistence on chucking threes even when they’re clearly not falling. Boston went 15-46 (32.6%) from 3 for the game, 4-22 from 3 in the 2nd half, and an atrocious 2-14 in the 4th. In the 4th the Celtics shot 37% from the field including 14.3% from 3. Meanwhile the Heat shot 66.7% from the field while only taking 3 three pointers in the 4th and nailing them all. For the game the Heat went 13-27 from 3 for a 48.1% clip, nearly 16% better than the C’s.

The Celtics never had an answer for Bam Adebayo all night. Daniel Theis fouled out again while getting worked by the “point center” and rookie Grant Williams probably did the best job covering the big man, but Bam was just on another level dropping 32 and 14.

I also want to point out that while I respect Jimmy Butler’s MJ-esque toxic competitive streak, I also would have been fully on board with Jaylen Brown getting ejected for knocking him out after that dirty play under the hoop.

No foul was called because the NBA officiating is hilariously inconsistent, but don’t let that fool you. This was a dirty, dangerous play and could have seriously injured Brown. Don’t be surprised if these two get into a scuffle down the line because I guarantee Brown will not forget about that play.

So where do the Celtics go from here? This is definitely a team at a crossroads with no clear path to improvement. Bench scoring is obviously a need, they need more defined roles, but more than anything the Celtics need to add some veteran grit and balls. Every great team has veteran players and character guys that can consistently get buckets and/or act as a mentor to younger teammates. Think Eddie House, James Posey, Sam Cassell, and PJ Brown on the ’08 Celtics. They need to add some grit to their bench rather than filling it with all their mediocre draft picks from the last 3 years who can’t create offense. Danny Ainge has created the greatest G League team ever assembled with all those draft picks, but that has not translated to consistent productive NBA players outside of Smart, Tatum, and Brown. Three core players no doubt, but the C’s have failed to develop much in the way of bench talent. That is only made more glaring when the C’s are getting lit up by rookies like Tyler Herro in Miami, who the C’s apparently loved pre-draft.

Grit seems to be the main thing they lacked this postseason as the Celtics routinely blew late leads only to get bailed out by the skin of their teeth on talent alone. Well that string of luck came to a swift end last night as the Heat showed them what a team with a lead is supposed to do. It steps on your neck and closes it out.

So do the Celtics looks to reconfigure their roster or just hope the deep playoff run provides valuable experience? Felger and Mazz producer Jimmy Stewart was floating rumors of a potential Marcus Smart trade last week if the C’s got bounced.

I think Tatum is completely untouchable at this point as he should be. He definitely needs some more seasoning to his game (stop routinely settling for fadeaway threes) and generally has some maturing to do, but you don’t trade elite talent for no reason.

Other than that they could move Jaylen Brown but I just cannot get on board with trading him or Smart. That would be a MASSIVE “addition by subtraction” gamble that I would not be willing to take and I dont think Danny Ainge would either.

There was speculation that the team lacked clearly defined roles and too many guys thought it was their team. Theres only one basketball and if everyone wants to play hero ball and take the last shot then you’re going to run into trouble.

It’s not a hot take but I think their best bet is to hope yet another brutal postseason exit helps their young core build the testicular fortitude required to make the jump next year. I keep thinking of that scene from “The Last Dance” documentary where Michael Jordan details how he got his brains beat in by the Celtics and Pistons for years before finally getting over the hump. Even with 6 rings on his fingers, Jordan admitted those early struggles were necessary to give him the experience and the drive to finally break through.

The most unfortunate part though is this was the easiest path to the Finals the Celtics were going to have any time soon with a depleted/dysfunctional Philly team, Giannis getting knocked out early, no Kawhi or LeBron in the East, oh ya and the Nets will be rolling out Kyrie and Kevin Fucking Durant next season. So while I want to preach patience, I can understand if Celtics brass doesn’t feel the same way.

We don’t even know when the next NBA season will begin thanks to the COVID interruption. Training camps for next season would have normally started around now, but Adam Silver has hinted at a Christmas or even January start for the 2020-21 season. Until then we’ll have plenty of missed opportunities to regret as we watch LeBron James inevitably win another title. Hopefully this Celtics team uses that as motivation and comes back ready to take over the East and finally, legitimately threaten for the Larry O’Brien trophy next year.

This Felger and Mazz Take on Julian Edelman from 2011 Did NOT Age Well

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Listen it’s easy to pull bad takes out of anyone’s closet, Old Takes Exposed has literally made a career out of it, but this is so, so bad. Maybe it’s because as a 5’8″ moderately athletic guy I have an unhealthy affinity for underutilized slot guys, but I always felt like Julian Edelman was just waiting to take over for Wes Welker. Or maybe it’s because Edelman was a stud 5th wide receiver for me in Madden running in my empty sets. Who knows?

But the guy was athletic, shifty, quick (not to mention a beast on punt returns) so to just outright dump on the guy from the start makes no sense. He had 37 catches as a rookie in 2009, just a couple of months removed from playing quarterback at Kent State for christ’s sake.

Not to mention, he was the reason for the sneaky funniest thing Bill Belichick has ever said when he dropped a Wally Pip reference right in Welker’s face after Edelman’s punt return TD in the 09 preseason.

I always said if the guy could get healthy he would be a stud in the Patriots offense. What do you ya know? In 2013 when he played 16 games for the first time in his career, he broke out with 105 receptions for 1,000+ yards.

Now did I ever think in my wildest dreams that Edelman would blow past the cult status of Wes Welker, establish himself as arguably the greatest receiver in Patriots history, and earn Super Bowl MVP honors along the way? Umm..no.

But I always knew he’d be a great player in this Patriots offense. I was even chirping Volin about it back in ’13.

BREAKING: Patriots Trade Brandin Cooks to the Rams for a First Round Pick

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As per usual, I have no idea what the Patriots are planning here. On one hand, it really is great, great value to get the No. 23 overall pick for a guy with one year left on his contract. On the other hand, great value aside… Tom Brady might blow a goddamn gasket when he hears about this. First Danny Amendola walked, now Cooks is out, Gronk is still hemming and hawing about playing next year, and Julian Edelman is coming back from a shredded knee. Not exactly confidence inspiring for a QB in his 40s.

The real question here though is; what do the Patriots have up their sleeve? The Pats rarely trade up into the first round so I FULLY expect them to trade down again for five 4th round picks so they can fill out the team with more Rutgers and Navy guys. But, if we want to have a little fun for a minute; what could the Pats realistically do with this pick?

Well they could turn around and give it to New York in a trade for Odell Beckham Jr. It was rumored that it would take a 1st rounder to pry ODB from the Giants and the Rams were the team most commonly mentioned in those rumors. Now with their first round pick in hand, the Patriots could effectively trade Brandin Cooks for ODB straight up. That would be fine with me, but of course that would open up Pandora’s Box of yet another guy bitching about his contract in the locker room.

Or are the Patriots potentially looking to package No. 23 and their own No. 31 pick to move up in the draft and take say…a quarterback?

I’m still driving the Johnny Manziel hype train, but I was just listening to Felger and Mazz and they took a quick peak at the NFL Draft Value chart and according to them these two picks would, in theory, be enough ammo to move up to No. 9 overall in the Draft. Now that…that is interesting. Are the Pats looking to trade up and grab my boy Baker Mayfield?

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via GIPHY

Probably not, but Bill Belichick is nothing if not a sneaky and devious SOB so I fully expect this newly acquired draft capital to go to good use. So it sucks to see another one of Brady’s weapons, who I expected to improve in Year 2, leave the team but I’ll reserve judgement until we see what Bill does with the pick.

For what its worth Zolak seems to be thinking the same thing and I’d say and he’s *kind of* tapped into the team.

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Mike Felger Is Not A Great Eulogist

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So how about Felger yesterday? He basically turned into Chazz Reinhold from Wedding Crashers for 12 minutes while talking about Roy Halladay.

Felger almost sounded like Michael in the Godfather talking about Captain McCluskey, “a crooked cop who got mixed  up in the rackets and got what was coming to him.”

I’m not always on the same page as the Deadspin editorial board – I don’t think Colin Kaepernick is the answer for the Dolphins, Colts, Packers or Texans – but I absolutely agree that this cringeworthy Felger rant is reprehensible. When I heard it on the Felger and Mazz podcast last night, I was shocked that the Sports Hub hadn’t taken it down. It was so bad, I was shocked he was allowed to finish the show. The rant came right after 3 o’clock. How do you stick around for another two and a half hours after that? He even went on tv after the radio show and no mention was made of this incident.

It’s hard to imagine a major-market radio host apparently taking pleasure from the tragic death of an athlete because he thinks he saw it coming. That’s a bush league take I’d expect to hear from some AM host in Binghamton. I don’t know if he should lose his job over it, but I don’t think a long weekend could hurt him. Make a half-assed ifpology, root for the greatest Patriots-Broncos game of all time on Sunday night, and take some advice from another Will Ferrell character.

Adrian Peterson to the Patriots? This Move Would Be More Albert Haynesworth Than Corey Dillon

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A move like this just screams Joey Galloway, Albert Haynesworth and Chad Ocho Cinco more than it does Corey Dillon or Randy Moss. A guy who at one point was one of if not the premier player at his position who now is a bit older and admittedly has some baggage. We’re not even gonna get into the details of whether or not AP is a good guy, because beating the shit out of your kids does not a good person make you. As a pure football fit, I just don’t see it. The guy looked toast last year and *then* he blew out his knee. So running backs on the wrong side of 30 with multiple knee injuries don’t really do it for me.

Plus its not like AP is gonna take the veteran’s minimum to play alongside Tom Brady. He just does not seem like that kind of guy. I’d rather the Pats stick with what they have, maybe sign some other decently talented (and younger) running back like oh idk KARLOS WILLIAMS. Rather than bring in this guy and try and force a square peg into a round hole. Would it be nice to have the Adrian Peterson from 2012? Of course, but this guy is not that guy. He’ll be 32 when next season starts and he has taken a *beating* over the past 10 years with over 2,400 carries. The next guys on that list who are either still active or just recently retired? Matt Forte, Marshawn Lynch and Chris Johnson. Not great company.

oldrunningback

Plus the Pats did just fine if I recall correctly, winning a Super Bowl with LeGarrette Blount carrying the ball primarily. A guy that Felger and Mazz ripped on and complained about how terrible he was from Day 1, despite rushing for 18 TD’s and almost 1,200 yards. I think TB12 and the Pats can make due without Adrian Peterson.

PS – Never forget the most frightening NFL commercial of all-time with AP just angrily running towards the camera in slow motion.