In the past week the Celtics held Golden State to just 32 points in the first half, and during a stretch where the team seems to be legitimately dominating their competition, Adam, Josh and Mike try to answer the question: is this team historically good? But first on this episode of the Celtics Pride Podcast, Mike reacts to Adam’s ‘superstar’ theory on the last episode of Celtics Pride, and questions whether Jayson Tatum can become the top 5 player during these playoffs that Adam believes is necessary to win a title. This prefaces a new segment on the show called the Jayson Tatum Gush-fest, which aims to use facts and stats to celebrate Tatum’s ascendance.  

“We’re going to call him out when we need to, but we will also be the first to congratulate him when he deserves it.”

A lot of fans are wondering if this team’s current play is a fluke after the first half of the season, but the Pride Guys would rather look at how good this team actually is. Are they historically good? Mike chimes in with some historical comparisons, using net rating to explain why the Celtics not only have a chance to win the Championship this year, but also should be considered immediately as the 2nd best team in the league behind the Phoenix Suns. They truly are on another level. Josh looks at this year’s team in awe from the perspective of how good several individuals are on the defensive side of the ball, using hustle stats to show that the Celtics have guys who are elite at charges taken, loose balls recovered, deflections, steals and blocked shots. But the most important aspect of this team being on another level is how perfect their role players fit their roles to compliment their two stars.  

Tune in to get your Celtics fix. Remember to rate, review, and subscribe to the Celticsblog podcast feed (“Celtics PRIDE”) and follow us on Twitter @celticspridepod, a @celticsblog podcast. 
Hosts: Adam Motenko, Josh Motenko @coachmotenko and Mike Minkoff, @mikeminkoffnba 
Email: at celticspridepodcast@gmail.com
You can find regular episodes of the CelitcsPod and Celtics PRIDE podcasts on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever else you listen to your podcasts. 
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