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Open Floor.

This is Open Floor.

Sports Illustrated's Chris Mannix back at it.

An NBA podcast with Sports Illustrated senior writer.

I think it's time that the world get to know.

My guy Chris Manix.

I think your opinion is shared by everyone.

And now it begins.

Now it begins.

Bang!

Welcome to the Open Floor podcast. I am Rachel Nichols, sitting in for Chris Mannix. That is Evan Turner, sitting in for me, I guess, because I'm normally the one at the beginning of the week. I don't know. How good a me, we talked about how good a Chris Mannix impression I could do. How good a me impression can you do, Evan? That's really good question. Yeah, I don't think I'm as cool as you, but I'm going to try to keep up. So I bow down and I recognize the experience. I recognize you come from the trenches. So I don't know if I put in that much work yet. So that's true. But at 5'4, my MBA career was very short. So, you know, we're going to take all of that into account. Yeah, well, it's probably as least impactful as mine, so don't worry about it. That is not true at all, at all. Speaking of your NBA career, I wanted to talk about the Celtics. And, you know, they've been on a role.

They're on a five-game win streak. And, you know, they've got the best offense in the league in that time. Jalen Brown definitely putting together an all-MBA case, you know, for first team.

There were people in Boston who were talking about them for an MVP case. I would say that's

just people in Boston. You guys got to slow your role. But I just say you shouldn't want to be present. Like who is mom? Right. Exactly. But you know, look, Jalen Brown has been good from the start. But now you've got Pritchard stepping up. You've got Derek White, who had a rough start to the season stepping up. I'm looking at some of this stuff. They have the fewest turn of verse for game this season.

Um, up. You've got Derek White, who had a rough start to the season, stepping up. I'm looking at some of this stuff. They have the fewest turnovers for game this season. You know, they had, Jalen Brown has had more 30-point games this season than he had all of last season and the playoffs, and that was obviously a good year for them. Ceda has been impactful. Katie's killing. What do you think of the way he's doing?

Because that was supposed to be kind of a weak spot for them. Yeah, I think he's been doing great. I think one thing besides saying that you're good is, you know, in the NBA, again, the masses to start paying more attention to it. So I've been a saltist fan for a while. So, like, he and Pritcher's net rating, like, their duo was, like, top in the league, like, right behind, like, Bam, Atabayo or Hamine Hakez, even when the heat started all super hot. So I saw him already playing well. I think it was just a point of wrapping your mind around a narrative of being like, okay, last year's over. It might not look like Horfer. It might not look like Porzingis, but it's working. And, and him stepping up and his success has been, you know, as important as anybody's, as important as Derek White, even as important as Peyton Pritcher stepping up. He's been man in the middle and he's been giving like some very great minutes and no disrespect to the backups, but you know a difference when he goes out and you have the Luca Garza is trying to guard at picking roles and, you know, you have to really do it by committee. But I think he stepped up tremendously, and that's been a bright spot. So, I mean, it's funny you mentioned Horford and Porzingis. Look, Porzingas has been in and out of the lineup with, you know, illness again. You know, we've had that crop up for him this

season. Horford and Porzingis. Look, Porzingos has been in and out of the lineup with, you know, illness again. You know, we've had that crop up for him this season. Horford, obviously he's Al Horford, but he has shown his age in Golden State as well. And so you kind of wonder, even if they didn't have this kind of fire sale in the off season, once Tatum got hurt so they could make sure that they weren't overpaying

and cap money and apron and this apron and that apron, whether those guys would have been on the

team anyway, even with, you know, even with Tatum. But I guess this is like a larger question I want

to talk about with a couple teams on this podcast. I feel like the NBA owners have really been so reactionary in the way that they have

created the rules over the last 10 years. Kevin Durant goes to Golden State. They become this

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