Havlicek Stole the Pod NBA Basketball Podcast

The Boston Celtics have by most accounts the best top six players in the entire NBA to match their league-best regular season record. So, it can be easy to forget about the rest of the team. The so-called "Stay Ready Crew" mostly does just that -- keep themselves in the right frame of mind and state of health in case their number is called.

And those numbers do get called, with players like Oshae Brissett and Lamar Stevens bringing energy and matchup-dependent options that have sparked wins for Boston, while the sharpshooting duo of Payton Pritchard and Sam Hauser wreak havoc on opposing defenses. And if it were not for the likes of Luke Kornet and Neemias Queta defying expectations as reserve big men, you can be sure there would be less wins to the Celtics' name this season.

Which players matter most to the team's title aspirations? Which might be on the move ahead of the 2024 NBA trade deadline? What talent does Boston have in the pipeline in Maine? And who will see the floor in the postseason?

To answer all of these key questions not quite getting the attention they deserve, the hosts of the CLNS Media "Celtics Lab" podcast linked up with Celtics Blog's Noa Dalzell. The self-proclaimed Boston bench beat reporter who has a bead on a certain crew that stays ready, join us in a deep dive into the Celtics' reserves.

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With the final returns from the annual fan vote for the league's starters in the 2024 NBA All-Star Game set to go down in Indianapolis, Indiana in the month of February and the reserves selected by league coaches, we will soon get an answer to how many Boston Celtics will suit up for the annual exhibition tilt.

Based on the earlier rounds of returns, it's looking all but certain that the Celtics will end up with at least two All-Stars in 2024. But the possibility of three or even four is on the table for Boston with a little luck.

To try to get an idea of what we can expect for the Association's 2024 East All-Stars (and how many Boston players will be included), the hosts of CLNS Media's "Celtics Lab" podcast got together with NBC Sports Boston's Chris Forsberg to try to prognosticate the 12-man roster for the East.

We also get into the latest trade buzz, and look back on Boston's recent spate of excellent play (with a hiccup in Denver, of course).

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Most of the teams in the NBA have played around half of their 82-game schedule, giving us enough of a sample size to get an idea of which players might be taking home some full-season hardware come April and onward.

And with the Boston Celtics currently the owners of the league's best record, it is not unfair to expect the franchise to have at least a little bling headed their way at season's end. To try to predict what awards Boston players and front office employees might be taking home come spring, the hosts of the CLNS Media "Celtics Lab" podcast got together with NBC Boston 10's and "The Big 3 NBA" podcast cohost Kwani A. Lunis to sort out which Celtics might be adding to their trophy case.

We cover everything from Most Valuable Player to Executive of the Year and everything in-between, and even come up with some of our own, team-specific awards for Boston's 2023-24 season.

We also get caught up on all the latest news, and look back at an intense week of Celtics games.

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There's a lot of basketball to be a fan of in New England. The Boston Celtics stand as the premier hoopers in the region, but greatness can also be found among the UConn Huskies women's and men's programs and the WNBA's Connecticut Sun in recent years. That history will become even more entangled as the Sun are set to play at TD Garden this summer for the first time ever as the Boston landmark arena hosts its first-ever WNBA tilt.

On the night the news broke, the Celtics played at the Garden, and Sun center Brionna Jones and All-NBA Boston forward Jaylen Brown swapped jerseys. To hear the story behind that exchange, the first-ever WNBA game at the Garden, what she thinks of the rise of the Jays, and Jones' thoughts on this season's Celtics, the CLNS Media "Celtics Lab" podcast linked up with the Sun star.

We also got into the state of Boston's All-Star vote, the latest details on the Celtics' trade deadline plans, and more.

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With the Boston Celtics rolling and their path to hanging Banner 18 looking more possible than it has in many years, you can't fault fans of the storied ball club for hoping for a reunion with former Boston big men Daniel Theis or Kelly Olynyk. Or failing that, team president Brad Stevens getting a deal done for rumored target Isaiah Stewart to fortify the team's frontcourt.

But even fairly modest trades like these are probably not in the cards for the Celtics this season, who can't follow through with an offer that makes sense given the exigencies of the NBA's new collective bargaining agreement or the team's current structure.

But the team will almost certainly make at least a few lesser moves to get better ahead of the NBA's 2024 trade deadline in Early February, so the hosts of CLNS Media's "Celtics Lab" podcast linked up with Cap Sheets' Yossi Gozlan to try to project what it is Boston actually will end up doing.

We also get into why those fun but unrealistic deals bringing back Celtics alumni or Beef Stew are unlikely or impossible, and get caught up on the last Boston news of 2023.

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The Boston Celtics beat the Los Angeles Lakers on Christmas Day, the best kind of win for Celtics fans in the regular season if not the NBA Finals. And they did it despite in-game injuries, strong rallies from their opponent -- and most importantly, an ego-boosting hot start that has tended to absorb their killer instinct in the past.

To celebrate the win (and what we saw in it that should reach well beyond the holiday tilt) with other Boston fans, the hosts of the CLNS Media "Celtics Lab" podcast linked up with Sports Illustrated's and "Talkin' Cs" podcast host Bobby Krivitsky to break down the victory.

We also get into recent Kelly Olynyk trade rumbles and what they mean with a closer look, get caught up on the news more generally, and even make some decisions about what sorts of gifts we want to return from our holiday haul -- basketball-related and otherwise.

Join us for a special holiday edition of the pod, and felices fiestas to you all.

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The holidays are here and the Boston Celtics are amazingly good, so in true New England fashion, over at the CLNS Media "Celtics Lab" podcast, we decided to do what any other New Englander (displaced or in-region) would otherwise be doing. Complaining about stuff!

Of course, we will be doing so in our third annual Festivus episode with guest Max Lederman of NBC Sports Boston, and we did not limit ourselves to the 20-5 Celtics (it's harder than you think to criticize a team doing this well) or even the wider NBA (which, unfortunately, has been a little easier to criticize of late), branching out into the bigger problems of the world.

We kid, but also not -- and we also spend some time on recent trade rumbles, how the team has been playing and what might be coming down the pike.

We won't be doing any feats of strength (not screaming at refs calling techs for hanging on the rim counts, right?) on the pod, but we do air a lot of grievances, so join us in a Festivus for the rest of us. And bring an aluminum pole if you have one, those things aren't easy to find.

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The Boston Celtics might not be making any major moves at the NBA's 2024 trade deadline after having had one of the most active offseasons in the league this summer, but the rest of the league is not going to stand still and let them waltz into the 2024 NBA Finals, either.

Teams like the Miami Heat, Philadelphia 76ers, and Dallas Mavericks might take some big swings at players who could be on the move, and if the rumbles we are hearing about the Toronto Raptors and Chicago Bulls pan out, the pecking order of both conferences could be shaken up a bit. And though the Celtics won't be trying to improve their core players, there might also be room for improvement on Boston's bench as well.

With December 15th and all the fluidity that brings to teams in terms of available players for trades, the 2023-24 NBA trade season is about to begin. How could the league change around Boston as it does?

To that end, the hosts of the CLNS Media "Celtics Lab" podcast linked up with "The Garden Report" and "The Big 3" podcast cohost A. Sherrod Blakely to look at how the rest of the league may try to get better, how the team may fare in one of the toughest stretches of the season, and more. 

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The Boston Celtics have been booted from the NBA's inaugural in-season tournament by the Indiana Pacers after a performance that was all too familiar for some. Fans have seen hungrier teams outwork the Celtics on nights when the 3-ball isn't falling. But there was more to the loss than those familiar flops from the past, and not all of it was bad. 

What can the Celtics take away from the IST loss, and how can Boston get better moving forward? Are there players or lineups we would like to see more of? And if the current supporting cast isn't quite enough, who might make sense for the Celtics to make some calls about with many players around the league becoming moveable after Dec. 15?

The hosts of the CLNS Media "Celtics Lab" podcast put on their thinking caps after the loss to focus on what's next for Boston, how they might make that happen, and even debate whether Jayson Tatum deserved his Player of the Month nod, so strap in and join us for a bumpier ride than usual.

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Now that the 2023-24 NBA season is roughly a quarter over with, we can see some rough outlines of what each of the league's Eastern Conference teams will look like by the time the 2024 NBA Playoffs roll around. Some teams have surprised us in terms of their record and play, a handful have disappointed their fans with how they have performed on the court so far -- and several are exactly the ball clubs we thought they were.

The Boston Celtics, for their part, have hit the ground running faster than many have expected, but also have shown some weaknesses in need of addressing. But how real is the sizzling start of the Orlando Magic, and will the Cleveland Cavaliers continue to flirt with being a lottery team?

What about the new-look Philadelphia 76ers, who Boston plays on Friday? To answer all of the above -- and the last question in particular -- the hosts of the CLNS Media "Celtics Lab" podcast linked up with Sixers Wire's Ky Carlin to assess the state of the East at the season's quarter mark.

We also settle our differences on the merits of the in-season tournament, whether Boston has more moves to make, and more, so hit play on the clip embedded below to get your bearings on how the East is shaking out so far.

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