Can The Return of Jayson Tatum Actually Hurt The Celtics?

0:00I'm Sally Home with the podcast History This Week. In each episode, we serve as your eyes and ears into history's biggest events, major elections, world wars, scientific breakthroughs. But we also bring you into the smaller, behind-the-scenes stories, the unsung heroes, secret meetings, even personal grudges that changed the course of history. Listen to and follow History This Week and Odyssey Podcast in partnership with the History Channel, available now for free on the Odyssey app and wherever you get your podcasts. From the Accident Recovery Team Traffic Center, don't worry about me. I called ART. Traffic. Luckily, not much by way of accidents this evening, really seeing a nice commute for you, Kellogg starting to bunch up Westbound approaching 235 and Eastbound a little heavy passing 135. And K96 a bit heavy Westbound passing all of her to 135. From the Accident Recovery Team Traffic Center, that's your Odyssey, Wichita Traffic.

1:00Weather. Showers and thunderstorms are set to impact South Central Kansas as we move into the overnight. Some hail and wind will be a possibility along with some heavy rainfall. The second round of storms possible Friday evening, once again, a severe weather threat there. We'll drop to 57. Overnight reach a high of 72 Friday afternoon with a few hours of sunshine and a gusty wind out of the south. After the evening storms push out of the area, we'll be cooling down, but a return of sunshine for Saturday with a high of 57. That's your Storm Team 12 forecast and Chief Meteorologist Ross Janssen. Covered up on a Friday edition of Sports Daily, TJ Creelin and Paul Savage in with you for the final show of your work week, Wichita State Forward, Karan Boyd, joins the show ahead of Shocker Senior Day. This week in a big matchup against Evie, you will break that down along a lot of other college basketball talk. That's coming up 7 a.m. on K of H. I love listening to play-by-play games on K of H radio. The number one sports talk station in Wichita.

2:03This is K of H. From kick off to the final whistle, you're locked into Bed MGM tonight, week nights with Brad Evans and Pat Boyle. Here's a homo, homo, homo! Hello, homo, homo! Welcome back, Bed MGM tonight. You know, it's funny, I should look up the lyrics to that verse, because for years, I've just been saying, utter rubbish. And... Yeah, me too. Whoever that is, whoever that is in that shaggy song, is that actually that shaggy in that verse? is in that shaggy song. Is that actually, is that shaggy in that verse? Yeah, there, it might be not a hundred percent English, but it's, it's English. I need to find out

3:08the lyrics because that's iconic and iconic song. Welcome back, Ben MGM tonight, Westwood One Sports. He's Brad Evans on Pat Boyle. Our friends at Ben MGM want you to know that there is no better place to be during March matchups than Vegas. This year, college basketball fans can win a VIP trip to the Court of Legends event featuring the Cavendor twins. Simply place sports bets in your position on the leaderboard. We'll determine if you win one of the 25 grand prize packages. Just sign into your Ben MGM account, opt in the promotion and start placing sports bets of at least 10 bucks to climb the leaderboard. Make this March one to remember, join the Court of Legends leaderboard and make it legendary. All right, we'll continue to take your phone calls at 310-840-4910. Your thoughts on the DJ Moore trade, the bills get a number one receiver, but they give up a second round traffic. I think this is going to end up biting Brandon Bean in the, you know what? I have been a vocal critic of his this offseason firing Sean McDermott and he gets the ease allowed to stay. And they talk about this different culture and and needing to, you know, basically

4:13kind of promote a new identity. And then they just promote the offense coordinator Joe Brady. So and that press conference with him and Terry Pagula was a disaster. So yeah, look, I have a personal vendetta right now against the Buffalo bills and that doesn't change the fact that I think even looking at this doing unbiased scope, it was a bad trade. So we'll take your phone calls on that. But Brad, let's pivot because we got some big NBA news today. And that is Jason Tatum, the six-time all-star, five-time NBA, five-time all NBA and an NBA champion from two years ago. He is coming back and not coming back in a couple of weeks, not coming back right before the playoffs. Jason Tatum will make his return less than 10 months after a ruptured Achilles in the playoffs against the Knicks. He will make his return tomorrow night against the Mavericks. Stunning news, really. When you consider, I guess what modern medicine has become, this is, was thought long ago to

5:13be impossible. We have rarely seen somebody that can come back less than 12 months after a torn Achilles. Daniel Jones is going to try to do it basically less than nine months of even his return for week one. But right now, the Boston Celtics are 41 and 21. They're second in the Eastern Conference, five games back of the pistons. They're trying to hold off my New York Knicks and the Cleveland Cavaliers who are trying to chase them down for that two seed. And they've been awesome. They've been one of the best defenses in the NBA. This year, they give up the least amount of points in the entire National Basketball Association. Now, they play a bit of a slower pace, but still only 107 points for game allowed. They've got a, they're on pace to go back to back years being dominant on the road, just as dominant as they are at home. They are averaging a margin of victory of more than eight points on the road. And you look at the Celtics, Jalen Brown's been playing at a near MVP level, Peyton Pritchard, the six men of the year. He's been awesome. Derek Weitzman as good as he's always been. They add in the Cola Vouchavitch at the trade deadline.

6:17You know, they've got some really good young athletic defenders coming off the bench like Jordan Walsh and Hugo Gonzalez. And so you would think on paper, Brad. Now they get their best player, a top ten player on the world back. And it's all systems go to an NBA title, right? I've got my doubts. Yeah. I think so, man. I really, you do have your doubts about it. Yeah. Yeah. Well, here's a deal. Here's a deal. Let me give you my two cents first. You got one a month roughly before the NBA playoff. So he's going to have a lot of cobwebs, a lot of accumulated dust. He's got a knockoff. So they're giving him a nice little runway for him to get back to an elite level. You know, it's probably going to be a slow burn for him. He's not going to come out of me. He'll play 30 minutes a game. They're probably going to ease him in a little like 10 minutes here, 15 minutes, 20 minutes, and ramp him up. And then he's got to be full, full goal for the NBA postseason. You look at what the siblings have done without him. And I'm just using lasting gains for example. Now I'll give you the full season perspective here in a second. I mean, they've

7:20been ultra fishy. You mentioned already, the defensive stalwartness that they possess is elite. There's no question about it. They're actually number six lasting games in that efficiency. And then to Chevy are offensively as well. And on the season, they're top three in that efficiency. So bringing Tatum back slowly ease him back in for him to, you know, get back to full strength and be what he was with the conditioning, the confidence and everything else. And it's going to be all systems go by the NBA playoffs. I don't really see any kind of shortcoming with this overall strategy, but apparently you disagree. So I'd love to hear your take. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I've got like you said, they're going to ease him. And he's not going to just start playing 30, 35 minutes a game. Like you said, probably 10, 15 minutes for the first five games. Maybe they ramp it up to 18 minutes to 20 minutes for the next five, six games after that. And by then we'll have about, I don't know what, seven, eight games left to go in the season. And by the last game of the regular season, they probably will look to get him close to 30 minutes. And, but

8:24even then, like is it fair to say that he should be on a minutes restriction, come playoff time, all of a sudden you're stepping right back into that intense environment where the physicality is up. He's, he's still fresh off of a torn Achilles. And I know that he's fully medically cleared. And so it's not like he's half medically cleared and right. You got to be careful. But then again, he is coming off a torn Achilles. I've got doubts that Jason Tatum is going to even be, I don't know, let's put a number on it. He'll even be 70% of his best. And so if Jason Tatum's only 70% of his best, I don't, I still don't think the subjects are the best team in the East. I don't, I still, I still love my, my New York Nix's chances here. And depending on how this, yeah, depending, depending on how the seeding shakes out, while they kind of toy and tweak with these rotations now, Joe Missoulo is an awesome head coach. I'll give him that. But now you're going to take all these rotations you've been playing with for nearly 60 games. And now you're going to tweak them. And you're going to have to alter them. And you might ruin and disrupt

9:26some chemistry here. Just the regular season effect is it possible? The Celtics fall to the three or the four seed. And now they don't have home court advantage past the first round. I think that's possible. I think it's possible that again, Jason Tatum's not even 70% of his best self. And then you were lying on him. They will have to rely on him at some point in the second round against the Nix or against the calves or whoever it may be to be his best self. And I think that's a lot of pressure to put on him. I think the mental pressure and the mental stress might end up being just as taxing as the physical stress of a guy that's 10 months removed from a torn Achilles. And so I just, I think there's chances that the Celtics, they've been almost as good as last year in the regular season. Just off the record, just off the numbers, the net efficiency, all that stuff. There's a damn good chance that they are not as good that they're worse with Jason Tatum who's not 100% here the rest of this season. And I think that's how it's going to play out. Well, they get 70% of Jason Tatum. And they're going to make an ultra deep run if not outright

10:28win the Eastern Conference this season. I'm convinced of that. Look, then I think again as I just to reiterate is he's got 30 days effectively a little over a month to get right and to see, you know, how hard to get really push it to see and provide the coaching staff and the fan base as well. Just what he can, you know, exactly bring the table. Is he going to be the elite all star level Jason Tatum? I agree with you. Probably not. I think 70% is honestly a fair number. Could it be less than that? Yeah. That is within the range of outcomes could be better than that. Also within the range of outcomes, but hypothetically, if he wants up to that 70% man, I'm telling you, Boston's going to be the best team, possibly in the East. I'm Detroit very much of that conversation right now. You're next. Certainly in that conversation. Hell right now. You look at the market of Bette MGM. I mean, no, the front runner is to represent the Eastern Conference in the NBA finals, the Cleveland Cavaliers. Nobody's talking about the calves right now. I think

11:32it is as well. We have Nick Friedell on all the time as well or honestly, the NBA insider and he would concur with that sentiment. But you know, time will tell with Jason Tatum, I got a hell of a lot more confidence than you do that he will bring at least 70% to the table. Come to get any of the playoffs. Let me just ask you this. If it is, let's say, and again, this is me operating under the thought that even in a month and a half from now or two months from now, second round of the playoffs, that a guy that is still pretty fresh off of a torn Achilles playing for the first time. And yes, of course, getting a chance to ramp it up, but not getting a full seasons reps, not even getting a half seasons reps. Let's say game one, second round of the playoffs, Celtics, Nick, it's a two point game with 20 seconds left to go. Jason Tatum taking that shot, like he's going to want to take the shot. He's normally the one that takes that shot. How do you work out? How

12:35do you work that out now with a guy who has a big ego and Jalen Browns got a big ego as well? Who's taking that final shot for the Celtics and just that, just that little deferment that could that could ruin some chemistry with Boston. That's all I'm saying. Well, yeah, look, it's a fair point. But ultimately, Jason Tatum's got to be able to check that you go with the door and understand, hey, I am not the old school or last year's version pre injury of Jason Tatum appearing in a story. So in that situation, if he has Supreme confidence, it is extremely the skills that we've seen in prior and previous seasons. And sure, he may get his name and number called in that moment to take that shot and potentially knock it down and they march on. If not, yeah, you got all the weapons on that squad. Maybe he becomes a decoy in that situation. Maybe he's a guy that's essentially setting a screen in that situation that could free a Jalen Brown or somebody else to put the ball through the cylinder and get the much desired dub. So again, so much to be determined,

13:36time will tell, let's take a chill pill. I'm more confident than you, but my glass is always half old because I grew up a Chicago cops fan. That's right. Four and over to join the show, 3108404910. Do you think that the Celtics getting Jason Tatum back now means that they should win the Eastern Conference? Does this make the Celtics Eastern Conference favorites for you? Or are you like me who is very doubtful that they're actually a better team now with Jason Tatum. But again, Jason Tatum, fresh off of coming back from a torn Achilles. I think this could actually make the Celtics worse. And Brad, I just, you know, I just want to remind you, last year before the injury, the next were beaten the Celtics, even with Jason Tatum. The next had that series wrapped up and that was that was when the Celtics were the defending champions and they dominated most of the regular season last year. It's all I'm saying. All right, when we come back, we'll break down the big NBA and college hoops games tonight.

14:40And we've got Mike Vorkanov coming up at the top of the hour who covers the NBA for the athletic. So stay tuned for that more Ben MGM tonight next. He's Brad Evans on Pat Boyle. This is Westwood One Sports. The Patriots are releasing star receivers to fondies. Will the AFC champions look to acquire Eagles standout AJ Brown and reunite him with Mike Crabble? Westwood One Sports. Texting roles you in a recurring automated marketing text messages can send our acquired to purchase message and data rates may apply. The team's looking good this season. I think so. Man, I miss playing football. Ever since I turned 40, I just can't find that fire I used to have. I think it could be lower testosterone. What do you mean? I was feeling the same way. After 40, the body has less testosterone. And men lose their edge. That's why I take New Genics Total T2. That's the testosterone booster, right? Yes, but Total T2 is their brand new formula. That sky rocket's nitric oxide levels in as little as three hours. Since I started taking it, I've been lifting like when we play for Coach Carter. My energy is way up. And it even spiced up things between me and the Mrs. Are they still given out complimentary bottles? Yep, just into text.

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16:49Too delicious to search just high five. Snap the future many friendships out these, and then wrote a tandem bike down a never-ending road of mint chocolate frosty perfection. So swing by Wendy's and try the new Thin Mint's Frosty Fusion. Life can feel overwhelming, but on my podcast, from the heart with Rachel Brayton, we're in it together. Every Friday brings you a new story. Listen to from the heart with Rachel Brayton, wherever you get your podcasts.