Celtics Lab NBA Basketball Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Sorting out the Boston Celtics' future with Rohan Nadkarni Dec 15, 2021

Show notes

With a brutally tough schedule, early-season injuries and new additions to the Boston Celtics' roster and coaching staff making an evaluation of the team an uphill battle, the franchise will soon have to make tough decisions about the direction of the team in the short term that could have reverberations across a much longer-term context.

Is this team good enough now to make a deep postseason run? Does it need minor changes to inch towards contention? A major tear down? A complete overhaul? And do they have the tools they need for the path that makes the most sense?

On the latest episode of the CLNS Media "Celtics Lab" podcast, your usual hosts Justin Quinn, Cameron Tabatabaie, and Alex Goldberg are joined by renowned Celtics podcaster homerism foil Rohan Nadkarni of Sports Illustrated.

Nadkarni helps temper our optimism in key areas as we four try and divine what sort of moves Boston will make as the trade season gets underway.

While the business of sniffing out agendas in trade rumors may be an annoyance at this time of year, the potential for novelty that will drive future success is always a compelling topic.

So, buckle up and dive into this episode with us to get up to speed on who might be joining the Celtics soon -- and who is likely leaving.

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On activism, Freedom, and Enes with Dave Zirin Dec 09, 2021

Show notes

The Boston Celtics center once known as Enes Kanter is back with a new identity as a US citizen and human rights activist with an updated name to reflect this new iteration, Enes Kanter Freedom. He has been using his platform as an NBA player to draw attention to a number of important causes.

But as many have learned parachuting into a struggle they are not part of personally and thus do not have the same stakes nor familiarity with the details, Freedom is finding his efforts are not always going as planned -- nor received perhaps as hoped. Getting flak for tactics and his comments about LeBron James, Jeremey Lin, and Americans protesting their government, the Celtic center has felt blowback in recent days.

To that end, this episode of the CLNS Media "Celtics Lab" podcast features your trio of usual hosts taking a closer look at Freedom's activism with Sports Editor of The Nation and columnist criticizing the new US citizen's recent activism, Dave Zirin. Alex Goldberg, Cameron Tabatabaie, and Justin Quinn talk with Zirin about what's not gone right, and what could go better.

They also cover how de-centering oneself from the work at hand and forging ties with affected communities that allow them to use their own voices for their own struggles rather than usurping their place in the fight can breathe new life into Freedom's goals.

And more importantly, help do less damage while trying to do good.

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From Philly to the West Coast and back - talking Boston's brutal December with Anna Horford Dec 01, 2021

Show notes

The Boston Celtics face by far their toughest stretch of games starting tonight with the Philadelphia 76ers, soon after which the team heads out for its annual West Coast swing, returning to cap off the most challenging portion of its 2021-22 schedule with another tilt against the Sixers on their home court.

Over those 10 games, the team faces all but one of the league's like title contenders, and precisely zero teams with a losing record. With the team playing mostly winning basketball of late through the steadying play of veterans like Marcus Smart and particularly Al Horford, we at the CLNS Media "Celtics Lab" podcast felt there was no one better to talk about a brutal slate of games bookended by Philly than Anna Horford.

Your usual hosts Cameron Tabatabaie, Alex Goldberg and Justin Quinn spoke with the host of the Horford Happy Hour about her brother's role in breaking out of the team's early slump, building better habits, and of course what we ought to expect from the team in a most challenging December.

We also break down our responses to Enes Kanter Freedom's recent media appearances and the fraught balancing act between speaking truth to power while courting it.

This post originally appeared on Celtics Wire. Follow us on Facebook!

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A veritable feast of tough opponents awaits the Celtics for the holidays Nov 24, 2021

Show notes

Thanksgiving day is nearly here, and along with it, a sharp uptick in the difficulty of the Boston Celtics' 2021-22 schedule. Over the course of the Celtics' next dozen games, only two teams currently possess a record below .500 at the time of this writing Tuesday evening, with the majority of the league's realistic title contenders on the docket for at least one game in that stretch.

The Celtics run the gauntlet starting Wednesday against the early favorites to come out of the East in the Brooklyn Nets who still sit at the top of the conference despite the ongoing absence of Kyrie Irving, health issues afflicting several key rotation players, and an early-season struggle for James Harden. Scarier still, they'll do it with their own roster not quite healthy either.

In this pre-Turkey Day edition of the CLNS Media "Celtics Lab" podcast, your usual hosts Alex Goldberg and Justin Quinn talk about what will face the team in the month to come, the looming showdown with Brooklyn, and much more while Cameron Tabatabaie takes the show off for the holiday to come soon after.

Buckle up, it's going to be a turbulent month ahead.

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Celtics mystique, Showtime Lakers, frustrating starts with Anthony Irwin Nov 17, 2021

Show notes

The rivalry between the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers is one of the oldest and most celebrated in all of sport, and for good reason. Somehow, nearly seven decades into the heated competition for dominance in greatness between the two storied franchise, the tally remains at a tie after the Lakers' most recent title, with each club now at 17 titles each.

This Friday, Nov. 19, the two teams will meet again on the Celtics' home court of TD Garden, but this time around the two teams will not exactly be arriving at the tilt in the best of shape in terms of records, with each club struggling a bit early in the 2021-22 NBA season.

On this episode of the CLNS Media podcast "Celtics Lab," your usual hosts of Cameron Tabatabaie, Alex Goldberg, and Justin Quinn are joined by special guest Anthony Irwin of Silver Screen and Roll and the "Locked on Lakers" podcast to talk about what's behind each club's slow start, and what we can expect to see Friday among several other topics.

If you're of the ilk with tribalistic hatred for all things purple and gold, this might not be the pod for you, but if you want an honest look at both clubs as they are this season, hit play on the clip embedded above.

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Midrange theories, Celtics slumps, and Jaylen's value with Seth Partnow Nov 10, 2021

Show notes

When it comes to using analytics to get a fresh perspective on things, there are few in the game with a better angle on that than The Athletic's Seth Partnow. Former Head of Basketball Research for the Milwaukee Bucks and recent author of the new book "The Midrange Theory: Basketball's Evolution in the Age of Analytics" (pre-order it here!), Partnow joined your usual hosts Alex Goldberg, Cameron Tabatabaie, and Justin Quinn on the most recent edition of the CLNS Media podcast "Celtics Lab" to talk about his new book and all things analytics.

Get ready to have some of your assumptions about this team, its coaching, and even some especially contentious recently rumored trade proposals challenged on one of our favorite pods in recent memory.

If you are a regular listener to the Celtics Lab, it's clear you love the team, basketball, and quite possibly both, and we have met very few people who enjoy talking hoops more than Partnow.

Check out the clip embedded above to hear everything from what we expected out of Robert Williams III in the new Celtics offense to why some triple-doubles (we see you, Magic Johnson) are more meaningful than others.

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How much is shooting mucking up Boston's season so far? Nov 03, 2021

Show notes

Against the Washington Wizards on October 30, the Boston Celtics flirted with a historically bad shooting night, hitting just 7.7% of their 3-pointers, making just 2 out of 26 attempts. One of their best marksmen from deep, Jayson Tatum, is shooting under 30% from 3-point range and veterans Marcus Smart and Al Horford are both having a rough shooting start as either have had in years -- if not ever.

At the same time, the team isn't playing two of their best young shooters under new head coach Ime Udoka and have only won two of their seven games. Could there be a connection? Or are the team's woes a product of more complicated issues?

To this end, on this episode of the "Celtics Lab" podcast, we brought on Roger Galo of the Galo Shot-Making Method (and former shooting coach for Celtics alum Brad Wanamaker) to see if one of the more glaring issues affecting the team this season might be a main or major factor.

Your usual hosts Cameron Tabatabaie, Justin Quinn, and Alex Goldberg also explore what else might ail the Celtics, as well as getting caught up with some other news pertinent to the team.

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Talking walls, making Cornbread and NBA history with Cedric Maxwell Oct 27, 2021

Show notes

It isn't often that an NBA Finals MVP writes a book detailing a behind-the-scenes view of their career at the highest level of competition in the best basketball league in the world, but Celtics Hall of Fame forward Cedric Maxwell has done as much in his new book "If These Walls Could Talk: Boston Celtics: Stories from the Boston Celtics Sideline, Locker Room, and Press Box."

It's rarer still when said Hall of Famer sits down with you for a personal account into that slice of NBA and Celtics history. And on this most recent episode of the Celtics Lab, hosts Cameron Tabatabaie, Alex Goldberg, and Justin Quinn were thus graced for an episode you truly don't want to miss.

Cornbread -- as Maxwell is called -- was the bridge between two eras of title contention in the mid-1970s and 1980s, with scores of tales to tell about the franchise's life cycle while he helped raise Boston back to title town status with the arrival of Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, Robert Parish, and Danny Ainge in the first years of a new decade.

We also talk about some more contemporary issues ranging from the rising stars of the Jays to the confusing fit of the Los Angeles Lakers -- and how in a lot of these situations history is rhyming -- if not repeating itself, to perhaps paraphrase Samuel Clemens.

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Why the NBPA is ambivalent about mandates with N. Jeremi Duru, preseason wrap-up and more Oct 20, 2021

Show notes

Fans of the Boston Celtics hope their team avoids the COVID-19 travails of last season, and many might have been surprised to hear the two vice presidents in the NBA's Player's Association referring to the vaccine as a "personal choice" as controversy over local mandates churned around the league.

Why wouldn't a union whose job it is to act in the best interests of its players, their health, and their ability to play in games automatically support vaccine mandates? At the Celtics Lab, we decided to wrap up our offseason programming looking into the dynamics of how such a situation might have come to be by talking with friend of the podcast N. Jeremi Duru, professor and published expert on professional sports unions.

He joins your usual hosts Cam Tabatabaie, Alex Goldberg, and Justin Quinn as they try to understand how collective bargaining and public health work together in today's NBA.

We of course also cover the news of the week, say goodbye to some camp invitees, and try to make sense of Boston's waiving of Jabari Parker just hours before he was brought back and more.

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Talking COVID-19, vaccination and the NBA with In the Bubble's Andy Slavitt Oct 13, 2021

Show notes

Much of the conversation ahead of the 2021-22 NBA season circulating in the NBA media has revolved around something that isn't necessarily a basketball conversation, though it has pervaded virtually all aspects of contemporary life. We are of course talking about COVID-19 vaccination in the league, and in particular some especially vaccine-resistant players who occupy positions of considerable influence.

But rather than making the story about those individuals, the hosts of the "Celtics Lab" podcast Justin Quinn, Cam Tabatabaie, and Alex Goldberg dug deep in the hopes of re-setting the narratives a bit surrounding how we should engage those persons and the issue of vaccine hesitancy (and more pernicious anti-vaccine sentiments) in society more generally.

It can be hard for some of us in the media to see Kyrie Irving, LeBron James, and others resistant to making choices for the common good, but a steady stream of fan and media ire is almost certainly going to do little to change their minds on how they can best use their platforms (and bodies) to make us all safer (and teams perhaps more successful) in the midst of a pandemic.

To that end, we were incredibly lucky to have Andy Slavitt of the "In the Bubble with Andy Slavitt" podcast to talk on the intersection of public health in an era of COVID-19, the NBA and society at large. Andy has worked with the last three presidents on issues of public health, most recently serving as President Biden's COVID-19 advisor.

We hope you find this podcast as informative and helpful in coping with and making progress on this viral scourge affecting all of our lives as we did.

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