Celtics Beat

Three NBA pre-season games are in the books for the Boston Celtics, and there have been some decent takeaways.  So much so that we actually have a mailbag this week on Celtics Beat.  Justin Poulin of Celtics Stuff Live, sits in this week for Larry H. Russell to discuss the opening slate of pre-season basketball.

Jeff Clark, founder of CelticsBlog joins Justin in Suday’s featured segment to talk about what they’ve seen thus far in the pre-season.  Such as how the floor spacing created by Horford has really benefited Jaylen Brown and Isaiah Thomas, the battle for the final roster spot and whether or not the Celtics can beat the Cleveland Cavaliers in the regular season.

And that’s not all.  Justin and Bobby Manning of CelticsBlog run through the mailbag and answer (almost) all of your questions!

It’s all on this week’s Celtics Beat. Brought to you by Blue Apron, audiblepodcast.com/celtics, Casper, and American Farmer’s Network.  Available for download on iTunes and Stitcher on Sunday, October 9th 2016.  Powered by CLNS Radio.

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Check off Media Day, first day of training camp and Open Practice.  The Boston Celtics are now one full week into training camp and things are beginning to take shape.  Jared Weiss, host of the Garden Report and Michael Pina of Bleacher Report discuss the entire outlook on the Celtics as we head into their first patch of pre-season games.

Marcus Smart also joins the program in an exclusive interview with CelticsBlog’s Jared Weiss.  They dive deep into Smart’s work to fix his jump shot this summer and how that will change the dynamic for not just Smart himself, but the entire Celtics offense both for the starting and second units.

TIMESTAMPS 4:00 Covering Kobe’s Final year 8:03 Pina on Kobe’s final game and stealing Kanye West’s spotlight 10:15 Jared discusses his interactions with KG 16:00 General state of Celtics entering season 25:45 Al Horford’s as a passing hub 33:34 Jaylen Brown’s role 41:05 Gerald Green’s role as 3 and D guy 42:40 Tyler Zeller role 46:20 Pina’s unique approach to coverage 51:00 Marcus Smart interview

It’s all on this week’s Celtics Beat. Brought to you by Blue Apron, audiblepodcast.com/celtics, Casper, and American Farmer’s Network.  Available for download on iTunes and Stitcher on Sunday, October 2nd 2016.  Powered by CLNS Radio.

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Every year on Celtics Beat, we delve into the history of the NBA’s most legendary franchise...the Boston Celtics! This year, during the off-season, we individually profile a player rather than a specific game.

Jo Jo White returns to the airwaves to talk about his career as a Celtic, how hard it was to come to a team that just lost Bill Russell and going about to establish its own championship pedigree of its own.  How relevant is that to today as this current group of Celtics, where after the departure of Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce, Boston is now clearly on a similar upward path?

And speaking of KG, it goes about saying there will be some reflection on his career following his retirement.

It’s all on this week’s Celtics Beat. Brought to you by Blue Apron, audiblepodcast.com/celtics, Casper, and American Farmer’s Network.  Available for download on iTunes and Stitcher on Sunday, September 25th 2016.  Powered by CLNS Radio.

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The end of the primer series marks the end of the NBA off-season.  With the Boston Celtics training camp set to open next week, it’s is the last show of the summer of Celtics Beat.  And we wrap up the primer series with the Atlanta Hawks with Chris Vivlamore.  There’s been a lot of talk about what the addition of Al Horford will do for the Celtics.  But what about his loss to the Hawks? That has gone under the radar, but safe to say, it won’t this week.

Kevin Pelton of ESPN also returns to the airwaves.  With the conclusion of the primer series of Boston’s most relevant foes, but what about everyone else.  KP gives the rundown of the entire conference in today’s featured guest segment.

It’s all on this week’s Celtics Beat. Brought to you by Blue Apron, audiblepodcast.com/celtics, Casper, and American Farmer’s Network.  Available for download on iTunes and Stitcher on Sunday, September 18th 2016.  Powered by CLNS Radio.

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NFL Kickoff Weekend means that we’re one week closer to the start of the NBA season.  And we continue our Boston Celtics primer series, this week not looking at an NBA Playoffs foe, but rather a supplier of highly valued first round selections in the NBA Draft: Our Yearly Preview of the Brooklyn Nets.

Ian Eagle, Nets play-by-play announcer for the YES Network, stops by for his annual September appearance on Celtics Beat.  Brooklyn cleaned house this off-season, new GM, new coach, new players.  So, it goes without saying: How will it work out? What are the philosophies of Sean Marks and their rookie head coach Kenny Atkinson? Are they going to put an emphasis on player development and not worry about the repercussions of sending more high lottery picks Boston’s way.  And yes, we’ll do it.  Point blank: Will the Nets be the worst team in the NBA? And if not, what is their best case scenario for 2016-17?

And while this is a Celtics-centric show, most are well aware of Ian’s role as one of the NFL on CBS top play-by-play announcers.  Ian will be calling Dolphins v. Seahawks game today on CBS.  So we’ll cheat and get a little football talk.  How will the New England Patriots survive without Tom Brady? And of course, we get Ian’s SuperBowl 51 pick.

It’s all on this week’s Celtics Beat. Brought to you by Blue Apron, audiblepodcast.com/celtics, Casper, and American Farmer’s Network.  Available for download on iTunes and Stitcher on Sunday, September 11th 2016.  Powered by CLNS Radio.

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Happy Labor Day! Summer is now officially over here on the East Coast.  The NBA season is now just weeks away and the Boston Celtics are counting down the days to training camp and the 2016-17 campaign.  And in doing so, we continue our primers of the Celtics premiere competition in the NBA’s Eastern Conference here on Celtics Beat.

Stephanie Ready, color commentator for the Charlotte Hornets on FOX Sports South is first up.  The Hornets were one of the surprise teams in the league last year and are generally regarded to be one of the best coached teams in the league.  What makes this band of castaways go? Last year, they rode productive seasons from many free-agents-to-be such as Al Jefferson, Courtney Lee, Jeremy Lin, Marvin Williams and Nic Batum.  Lin, Lee and Jefferson are gone and weren’t really replaced.  Will these losses drop Charlotte from being a team to be taken seriously? And if not, how will they be replaced? Despite finishing with identical records last year, can we get Stephanie to admit that Boston will be far and away a superior team to Charlotte in 2017?

Then there’s the other end of the spectrum.  The clear-cut favorites and alpha dogs of the Eastern Conference: LeBron James and the World Champion Cleveland Cavaliers.  Outside of a LeBron injury, what can stop the Cavs from getting back to the Finals? Dave spoke with Kyrie Irvin before the Olympics, listen to find out what he told him.

It’s on this week’s Celtics Beat. Brought to you by Blue Apron, audiblepodcast.com/celtics, Casper, and American Farmer’s Network.  Available for download on iTunes and Stitcher on Sunday, September 4th 2016.  Powered by CLNS Radio.

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Training camp is now less than a month away and Labor Day is next week.  The summer is winding down which means the NBA season is right around the corner.  Which gives Celtics Beat ample opportunity to preview some conference rivals for the Boston Celtics in 2016-17.

Quinn Buckner, longtime NBA veteran, former Celtic, and current Indiana Pacers color commentator on FOX Sports Indiana is back on the CLNS Radio airwaves once again to give a primer on the Pacers and their off-season.  No team outside of Oakland added more talent to their roster this season than Indiana. What kind of challenges will there be to get all these pieces to mesh? What other weaknesses do the Pacers have that the Celtics could exploit? And would Paul George, being the best player in a potential playoff series, knock off teams like the Celtics and God forbid, the Cleveland Cavaliers?

It doesn’t end there.  Coach Jack Armstrong of TSN also stops by to talk about the Toronto Raptors, and their quiet summer which was highlighted by retaining DeMar DeRozan and signing former Celtic Jared Sullinger.  Will that cut the mustard? Jack is a huge fan of the Celtics off-season and a huge fan of this Boston team.  He also believes the Raptors took a step back this year.  Does that mean he believes the Raptors will surrender the Atlantic Division to Boston?

Find out on this week’s Celtics Beat. Brought to you by Blue Apron, audiblepodcast.com/celtics, Casper, and American Farmer’s Network.  Available for download on iTunes and Stitcher on Sunday, August 28th 2016.  Powered by CLNS Radio.

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Turn the page: We are now well into August and everything is in the bank for the Boston Celtics and the NBA.  Last season is now last season and this past summer is now last summer.  The NBA schedule has now been released and it’s now about looking forward to the 2016-17 NBA season.

Kristen Ledlow of NBAtv and Turner Sports is back on the broadcast to talk about the biggest takeaway from the new schedule: The Boston Celtics are featured on national TV 22 times.  Wow! That certainly provides plenty of discussion for the show.  Does that Al Horford addition really make that much of a difference? Can the Celtics really be considered as a (gulp!) dark-horse title contender? Kristen also gives a rundown of which games she is most looking forward to for the 2017 NBA’s regular season.

It’s all on this wee’s Celtics Beat. Brought to you by Blue Apron, audiblepodcast.com/celtics, Casper, and American Farmer’s Network.  Available for download on iTunes and Stitcher on Sunday, August 21st 2016.  Powered by CLNS Radio.

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Cherry on top: The 2016 Boston Celtics Off-Season is now likely over and the countdown to NBA Training Camp is officially on.  The Celtics had a very busy NBA Draft, made a major splash with Al Horford, almost lured Kevin Durant, and were quiet again on the trade front.  Unquestionably a better team for 2017, the Celts are rapidly rising in the NBA ranks.

Austin Ainge, Boston Celtics Director of Player Personnel returns to CLNS Radio to recap the entire Off-Season with Larry H. Russell in this week’s very special Summer in Review show.  Starting from the immediate fallout of the playoff defeat, Austin provides exclusive insight into how the team planned to approach the summer then; what the brass felt would be the best pathways to immediately improve the roster while maintaining long-term flexibility.

LHR and Austin review the transpirings of the summer in chronological order: Did the NBA Draft go as well as the team planned? What did they get out of it? Why weren’t the able to get any potential moves done? And of course, July 4th weekend: What went down: Al Horford.  And what didn’t: Kevin Durant.  Austin also provides his thoughts on this year’s team and caps it off by, yes, providing a letter grade for the Celtics summer.

There’s also immediate reaction.  The Lead Sports Matt Keller stops by following Austin’s appearance to offer his analysis on Ainge’s interview.  It’s a jammed-packed edition of Celtics Beat. Brought to you by Blue Apron, audiblepodcast.com/celtics, Casper, and American Farmer’s Network.  Available for download on iTunes and Stitcher on Sunday, August 14th 2016.  Powered by CLNS Radio.

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Summer Forecast 2016: How much will our predictions for the 2016-17 Boston Celtics change in the immediate aftermath of their off-season until the eve of the 2017 NBA campaign at the end of October? Well, we’ll find out on episode #169 of Celtics Beat.

Chris Forsberg has been conducting the Summer Forecasts with various members of the Boston media over on ESPN.com for the past six summers.  And this year, the expectations are the highest for the Celts as they have been in years. Is 50 wins the bare minimum? How many games will Boston win? Who’s starting at center on Opening Night to complete the starting five? And will that be the same come mid January? How about the back-end of the roster, who gets the final two spots? Does it matter? And how about this: Can the Boston Celtics have the #1 defense in the NBA in 2017? Find out who says Hell Yes and a whole lot more.

It’s all on this week’s edition of Celtics Beat. Brought to you by Blue Apron, audiblepodcast.com/celtics, Casper, and American Farmer’s Network.  Available for download on iTunes and Stitcher on Sunday, August 7th 2016.  Powered by CLNS Radio.

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