Brad Stevens on a successful Celtics regular season: “Players, coaches, as they’re up for all these awards, whether they want them or not, they certainly all deserve them”
The Mazzulla dig in there is pretty good.
I lol’d
One of the greatest basketball minds of all time. They’ll never be terrible if he’s in the front office
“They want it or not” and then the FUCKING GRIN MAN LMFAO
Gotta admit Mazzula is a genius
Constantly in the mix, the best team in the history of basketball, the Boston Celtics.
20 year period of irrelevance btw
That’s all you got? I know in my heart, you absolutely hate that we have more. Our cups full. You’re ultimately jealous. Mickey Mouse isn’t saving you this time.
You got Luka for a cup of ramen noodles and still are irrelevant in the post season.
Mickey Mouse ring diss is so weak but yeah yall have been great
I didn’t dismiss that chip. Just said it won’t save them this time around.
One of the most historic franchises in sports history, but to be fair, they’ve only won 2 titles in the past 40 years. During that time, the Spurs, Lakers, Bulls, Warriors and Pistons have won more titles than the Celtics.
But why so arbitrarily cut it at 40 years? Go 50 years and Celtics have 6. Go 25 years and Bulls have 0 and Pistons 1.
There’s little question that Celtics and Lakers are on another level from every other franchise over the entirety of NBA history. With the Celtics slightly ahead in both # of titles and # of wins.
Even over the 21st century, Boston may have only 2 titles, but they do have the 2nd highest winning percentage in the NBA behind only the Spurs. They’re a model of consistency, even when they don’t win a ring.
Dude, why you gotta go and ruin my narrative like that ;)
bro youre an internet sore god damn loser
Nailed it, no comeback to that comment
Technically they’ve won 3 in the past 40 years, 86 championship would be 40 years exactly. (41 seasons after this one ends)
And only the Pistons on that list won titles without someone considered top 10 all time. A lot harder to win titles when you don’t have that, and if 86 isn’t counted the Celtics haven’t.
that 86 team was one of the best teams ever. shame they were never really tested in the playoffs
Yup, no argument here.
Okay, fair, and to your point, this is why I love being a Pistons fan and respect how we won our three titles which could’ve been five titles if not for a cheap foul call in Game 6 of the 1988 Finals against the Lakers when Isiah scored 43 on a busted ankle and when we left Robert Horry wide open for a three in game 5 of the 2005 finals because Larry Brown subbed out Chauncey for Lindsey Hunter who missed his defensive assignment on that play, but I digress.
As a Pistons fan, I will always respect the Celtics franchise, and will always hate the Celtics slightly less than the Lakers and I honestly can’t wait for Tatum and Brown to go at it with Cade and Duren for years to come starting with these playoffs.
Yes true but doesn’t change my facts.
Heat
Cold
Pistons have one good season after how long and their fans don’t know how to act lmao. You’re all in this thread on multiple comments being weird. Shouldn’t you focus on your team? They might be the one seed but they still need to prove it themselves in the playoffs.
Wait, Hornets fans are allowed to comment on Reddit again? When did this happen?
We’ve always been allowed. You must’ve went into hiding all those years. We don’t need to do that😉
i do love that the number’s gone up from 1 to 2 in these widely parroted statements on reddit. looking forward to #3
Queta for MIP
I think Nickeil Alexander Walker has it pretty much wrapped up by now but Queta definitely deserves a shout.
https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/nba-futures-is-jalen-duren-the-best-bet-for-2025-26-nba-most-improved-player/
idk why you’re getting downvoted. Duren’s improvement defensively, combined with his improvement offensively as a hub in non-Cade lineups is, imo, the single biggest reason the Pistons are approaching 60 wins.
That’s both more difficult and more significant than what NAW’s done.
Appreciate that. I love the Queta story, and all I was trying to do was explain that Duren is the front-runner for the award, and deservedly so.
Hoping the ECF ends up being Pistons vs Celtics, because it hasn’t happend since 1987 and it’s going to be an awesome series if it happens.
We had 2008, but yeah it’s been a hot minute since our teams have had a real playoff battle.
idk why you’re getting downvoted
I didn’t either at first, but then I scrolled down and saw this link get posted in this thread 5 more times lol
Jalen Duren would like a word
That’s not what MIP was made for see duren was a high pick compared to queta and was also brought in as a star centre and has been a starter for the longest alongside cade while queta got a role as a starter this season was a late pick not even first round I think and has been on multiple teams and has anchored the C’s to a second spot in the east with over 50 wins.
Queta and NAW absolutely deserve it but duren does not fit into the same mold as people complain about with Ja or Cade. 13th overall picks bust all the time and Duren was super mediocre for 3 years and he made a legit all star leap this year, Duren is much closer to when Lauri or Randle won MIP
For starters, being a high pick has nothing to do with winning or not winning MIP. I’m not discrediting Queta at all, and I totally respect what he’s done this season for the Celtics, far from it. Respect how hard he plays and brings a physicality the Celtics didn’t have the past 2-3 seasons down low.
That being said, the leap Duren made this season (his fourth, which is insane considering he’s still only 22) on both ends of the court has been remarkable which is why most consider him the front-runner for the award.
And can’t wait for Duren to dominate Queta and Vučević in the ECF, btw
What you don’t get is Duren was expected to make that leap can’t say the same about Queta and on the ECF it’s C’s all the way it doesn’t matter if Duren dominates or not.
And what you don’t get is even hardcore pistons fans did not expect Duren to take the leap he did this year becoming arguably one of the top 5 centers in the game.
Not hating on Queta at all, but everything I’ve heard is Duren will win the award.
Even if you don’t think Duren deserves the award Queta isn’t even top 5. Jalen Johnson, Naw, Adjiva, Ryan Rollins all have better arguments.
For starters, being a high pick has nothing to do with winning or not winning MIP.
I find there’s lot of variance in what voters and fans feel like the spirit of the award is. Most attach some penalty to being a high pick, as well to things like being a second year player, even though none of that is a given criteria for the award.
If Duren wins it, he would have overcome that penalty. But saying it has no influence on the award would still be false, considering you have actual voters on the record saying they take that kind of thing into account. You saw it last year as one of the reasons Cade got votes but didn’t win over Dyson Daniels or Zubac
Okay, this is two comments in a row where you’re stating your opinion starting with, “I find there’s a lot of variance in what voters and fans feel like the spirit of the award is.”
Followed by, “If Duren wins it, he would have overcome that penalty. But saying it has no influence on the award would still be false.”
These are statements of your opinion of the requirements for the award which are currently listed as…
The NBA Most Improved Player (MIP) award honors a player who has made a significant, unexpected leap in performance from previous seasons, typically advancing from an average player to a borderline All-Star. Key criteria often include substantial increases in scoring (frequently >4 points per game), major improvements in efficiency, increased playing time, or breaking out in a new role.
And as of last week, once again, here are the top three contenders for the award with Duren being the current favorite.
I’m not giving a personal opinion on what the criteria of the award should be. I’m telling you that the actual voters, who objectively have influence over who wins the award, say this is part of their criteria is when voting.
Okay, can you provide any evidence from the “actual voters” you speak of saying that their criteria for the award is what you say it is?
Keep in mind, this thread started with you saying “Queta for MIP” followed by me saying, “Jalen Duren would like a word” because he’s the odds on favorite to win the award with Queta not even considered in the top 3. Wasn’t hating on Queta, I was simply pointing out that Duren is likely to win the award. Since then, you’ve been making up stuff as we go along as far as I can tell.
Duren was a high first round pick wasn’t he?
This is why people put up with Mazulla.
He’s crazy but he’s our crazy.
He’s not actually crazy. He has a philosophy and a system that he sticks to. But he’s not crazy, he’s just particular about certain things.
The players pretty much universally love him. And, he’s been incredibly successful. Up til now you could say he was successful because of this rosters. But this year disproved that.
That’s my GM!!
The Celtics deserve most of the awards most years, but league wide jealousy gets in the way.
Among the 100 media members that voted last year, I count at least 7⁄100 with clear Boston or Celtics ties.
I won’t count Kendrick Perkins. Around 10 voters are from international outlets. So I would say in terms of media representation domestically, Boston actually has more than twice the representation one might expect if each market were given 1/30th vote share.
Ok now do NY and LA
LA
NY
Howard Beck kinda counts for both.
Maybe I missed some as I don’t really know everyone’s rooting interest or background, but generally kind of less than you would think considering that’s about 10 for 4 teams and their voices are not nearly as prominent.
I think a fair amount more might live in Los Angeles or New York, but by that criteria Simmons would count as LA so unless they were self described fans of the team or beat writers I didn’t count them
Nah they are definitely biased towards NY and LA be fr, you can’t accurately count biases like this
I think some will show bias towards NY and LA as locations, but it’s usually in the context of talking about how NBA players might view those markets. I don’t feel as though the teams themselves actually get very much positive coverage relative to the attention. I don’t really know how to measure all that though. I’ve never seen a fanbase from any market that’s happy with the media coverage they get.
I think they get a lot more positive and negative coverage because they are more prominent in the media - you see it all the time, but agreed j have no data either
Do people really not understand that the Boston media hates on Boston sports teams more than anybody?
Boston media is insufferable. Felger and mazz are such cocks lol
They really are. Always doom and gloom from those guys. Though, tbf they aren’t actually from New England.
Bill, Russillo, and Mannix notable Boston sports team haters.
Boston actually has more than twice the representation one might expect if each market were given 1/30th vote share.
And not as much as we deserve.
And as a Pistons fan with nothing but respect for what the Celtics did during the regular season… we’ll see you in the Eastern Conference Finals, and I can’t wait
Lol let’s make it there first before saying stupid shit
Yeah we didn’t make it past the Knicks last postseason, and this year they won 2 of the 3 games we played against them.
No guarantee we’ll be able to make it past them yet, let alone the Pistons.
Cringiest Piston fan
I say I’m looking forward to playing the Celtics and that’s cringe, okay then
Eh
Double Eh
Brad and Mazzulla is like Batman & Joker. The perfect blend of order and chaos, sanity and psychopathy, light and dark (humour, not colour ofc 👀)
Celtics are so fraudulent this year. I smell a 2nd round exit. They wont make the finals to have the honor of getting swept by us
Wemby is gonna eat y’all for lunch lmao
Not worried about the spurs. Most obvious 2nd rnd playoff flame out i’ve seen in a while
Come on, Thunder fan, you have to give props to the Celtics for what they’ve done so far this season without Tatum and losing two other starters.
And tell SGA to “stop the flop,” he’s better than that nonsense.