B-Pod Studios And now, I'm just trying to spell it out for the list. Felger and Mask. S-T-O-O-O-P-I-D. T-E-P-I-D. P-O-B. Boom. Isn't that, Bob? Felger and Mask. Q-U-U-I-T-Q-Q-Q. Okay, thank you. No, spell up for me too. I'm an idiot. 985, the Sports Hub. Right back to your phones. As promised, Ian's been waiting patiently in New Bedford. Thanks for hanging on, Ian. What do you got? My pleasure, Mike. But yeah, you guys had a caller a couple segments ago saying that the team's young. It's because we have all these useless draft picks. And you guys hammered down the point. But what I really wanted to get to was I think the Celtics got really exposed here. And just hear me out on this, right? The Celtics can't help on defense when Ben Simmons is penetrated because he has Danny Green and Seth Curry to kick the ball out too. When Jalen Brown has the ball and he's trying to go to the basket, he has semi-ojolid to hit the side of the backboard. Javante Green trying to push the ball with both of his hands and Carson Edwards hit in the bottom of the backboard. I just think it's embarrassing and I think if Brad Stevens had your radio show, he would

give callers five minutes to freaking talk because he's given these guys far too long to play. So I think Celtics fans have a reason to be excited about Neesmith and Pritchard because they can't watch these bumps. Well, yeah, fair enough. I mean, I don't know if I'd blame Brad for playing those guys. I blamed Brad in the past by having too big of a rotation, you know, like everyone plays.

I think he's fallen into that in the past. But now it's like he doesn't have anybody. And the thing that you've mentioned before about Walker and Tristan Thompson being out, those guys, Walker does, but Tristan Thompson doesn't help that problem. I mean, he's not someone that you can lay off offense to. No, no, no, no, no, he definitely isn't. No, I just mean that, you know, but what happens when Brown, when Tatum's off the floor, Mike, is Brown doesn't have anywhere else to go with the ball either. Like, they're short there. And I just think that they lack a facilitator there. And the big one is really Walker. You're right about that.

Because if Teague's on the floor, you can run the offense through Teague.

It's not as, you know, sexy or flashy as it would be through Tatum or Walker. But for a backup guy, it's totally fine. but with the injuries they have now.

The loss of Hayward, oh man, there were moments last night where I looked at the people on the floor and I went, oh, my God. Oh, my God, that's awful. And the caller says, well, now we get to watch Knee Smith and Pritchard so we don't have to watch those bums. Those bums were knee-smith and Pritchard a year ago. And, I mean, it's just so rare that rookies are really a factor anywhere, no matter

where they're drafted.

At all.

Never mind, mid to late first round.

Correct.

It's just so, that's what Tyler Hero last year, what he did was record setting.

It was records.

It was, you know, almost unprecedented what he did in

some of those playoff games. That's how rare it is for rookies of any stripe. Lottery picks are

not to impact. So just, you know, if you're saying down the road, these guys are going to be

impactful, fine. i'll take that analysis

just understand historically as rookies it's really really hard yeah go ahead miss no so i was going to

need a little time i don't know how much you know you guys were able to see of him last night well i mean

they didn't play him well so he he played a little bit more in the second half.

And, you know, he made a couple of shots, but I will say his release is kind of slow. And so in that league, you either better have space or you're going to learn to get the ball off quicker. And so, you know, it's not glacial, but it's not fast. It's not like he's one of these catch-and-shoe guys

that just every time he gets the ball,

you know what's going up in a fraction of a second. And so it's a little slower than that, or at least it was last night. He looked nervous to me, which is understandable. It's his first professional games. I'm not going to say it's over and he's done, but he does need a little work. Okay. And just factor in if you're expecting something from these rookies. No summer league, abbreviated training camp, abbreviated preseason. I mean, again, if you're expecting something from Neesmith, they only have two preseason games, and he was benched for the first half of the first one. Okay. So like how much work

...