Havlicek Stole the Pod NBA Basketball Podcast

The 2021-22 regular season is in the books and the 2022 NBA Playoff seeding is set, with the Boston Celtics in the running for some hardware for the former and staring down a first-round collision with the Brooklyn Nets regarding the latter.

With uncertainty swirling around whether Ime Udoka will nab Coach of the Year, Brad Stevens Executive of the Year, and even whether star forward Jayson Tatum will crack the top 5 of the 2022 Most Valuable Player (MVP) award, we turned to the king of NBA Twitter polls and co-host of the BallIsLife "Noble and Roosh" podcast Zak Noble.

We also touch on the relative health of Boston and Brooklyn's star frontcourt players -- Robert Williams III and Ben Simmons, respectively -- and whether we are buying reports of where either big man's health is on this edition of the CLNS Media "Celtics Lab" podcast.

Join your usual hosts Cameron Tabatabaie, Alex Goldberg, and Justin Quinn as we get you up to speed on everything you need to know heading into the Celtics' 2022 postseason.

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As the 2021-22 NBA regular season draws to a close, so begins the projections of analysts and fans of which players ought to win what end-of-season awards. The Boston Celtics did not at all look like a team that would be in the mix for many if any such hardware at the midpoint of their campaign this season but have since very noticeably turned their season around in a historic way under first-year head coach Ime Udoka.

With a league-leading defense and a top-10 offense possessing one of the best point differentials in the league, the Celtics have all the indications of being a team that can win an NBA title so long as no more serious injuries after Robert Williams III take place.

And with Timelord potentially even returning early, it's easy to get distracted by the postseason on our collective doorstep.

But with this success should come accolades, and for this week's CLNS Media "Celtics Lab" podcast, your usual hosts linked up with Josue Pavon of the "Cedric Maxwell" podcast on the same network and Heavy.com to talk all things Defensive Teams and where Boston's players should be on it.

Check out the episodes embedded above to hear Justin Quinn, Alex Goldberg, and Cameron Tabatabaie's cases for All-Defensive teams, with Pavon offering his own views and keeping us honest.

 

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The Boston Celtics have at least one player likely to land on an All-NBA team for the 2021-22 season in All-Star forward Jayson Tatum, but due to his eligibility at both guard and forward for the honor (to say nothing of the positional flexibility afforded some stars but not others), it remains unclear whether the St. Louis native will end up with first, second, or third team honors.

Uncertainty also abounds in the team's media coverage with potential playoff eligibility in a series against the Toronto Raptors with speculation abounding regarding the vaccination status of all Celtics players in light of Toronto's vaccine mandate.

In this episode of the CLNS Media "Celtics Lab" podcast, we team up with "The A-List" podcast host and NBC 10 Boston broadcaster Kwani A. Lunis to talk through these forward-looking issues.

Join your usual hosts Cameron Tabatabaie, Alex Goldberg, and Justin Quinn as we do our best to suss out where Tatum (and the rest of the league's best players) should be honored by the league and more.

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With news that the Boston Celtics will be without their starting center Robert Williams III for four to six weeks to the social impact of the slap heard 'round the world, there's plenty of space for a comedic perspective in Celtics circles and beyond.

To that end, the CLNS Media "Celtics Lab" podcast linked up with noted Boston homer, foil to The Ringer's Jason Concepcion, and comedian Mike Mulloy to talk about how the Celtics will cope without Timelord, thoughts about the Oscars and the role of comedy in the world, and basketball in Boston more generally.

Blow off a little steam after a tense couple of days with Mulloy and your usual hosts Alex Goldberg, Justin Quinn, and Cameron Tabatabaie.

We even dive into the world of pro wrestling and which Celtics might excel in it in this episode, be sure to check it out (listener note - this episode has more explicit language than usual).

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While most people are starting to focus on the 2022 NBA Playoff picture starting to come into focus in recent days, a certain subset of NBA draft fanatics are already looking past that to the next big news item on the Boston Celtics' teambuilding agenda -- the 2022 NBA draft.

And though the Celtics will not be anywhere near the letter or even the first round of the draft without making some fairly substantial trades to pick up draft assets for this year's big event, they do have a second-round draft pick that could be used to pick up a steal in what is seen as a fairly deep if not especially talented draft class.

There won't be any "plug and play" prospects in the latter third of the round where Boston is likely to be selecting, but Boston could find talent able to move the ball and shoot at potential future positions of need with the right eye to find it.

And to that end, we brought on For The Win and Hoops Hype NBA draft expert Bryan Kalbrosky to talk about what value can be squeezed out of such a late pick, as well as if they happen to still be in the NCAA Tournament for Celtics fans to get a look at in the coming week.

Check out this pod with hosts Cameron Tabatabaie and Justin Quinn as we talk all things big dance, draft and even get into the Great Batman Debate among other recent Boston news nuggets.

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It won't be long now until the remaining games for the Boston Celtics of the 2021-22 NBA regular season can be counted with single-digit numbers, and with the 2022 postseason nearly upon us, we can start to get a picture of how the Eastern Conference standings might look when the dust settles on the season.

With so much parity in the East among playoff teams, seeding could be as important as it has been in many years for postseason success, with the play-in tournament looking like it may well have an epic showdown brewing with a legitimate contender likely to end up in it, and the range in which the Celtics are likely to fall anywhere from favorable to fraught depending on which East foe they end up drawing.

To that end, on this week's episode of the CLNS Media "Celtics Lab" podcast, hosts Justin Quinn and Cameron Tabatabaie try to suss out where they think each team will end up using strength of schedule, health, and desirable matchups.

They also get into how the team has been playing of late, a last look at the (we hope) end of the feud between Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen, and everything else newsworthy for Boston between now and the last game of the regular season.

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Followers of the Boston Celtics who happen to also be fans of standup comedy are for the most part aware of popular comedian Gary Gulman's love for the team he grew up watching as a native of Peabody, Massachusetts. And Gulman is also a fan of dropping in on Celtics-oriented podcasts while rightly advocating for patience with this up-and-coming roster.

So the hosts of the CLNS Media "Celtics Lab" podcast linked up with Gulman to talk about his prescient analysis of the 2021-22 Boston roster in our most recent episode, touching on everything from how he played the sport along with football in high school (and the latter in college at Boston University) to his outstanding standup and advocacy for mental health.

We even get into the new HBO series "Winning Time" and his inside view of the series as it was developed via his own ties to the cast producing the Los Angeles Lakers-centric docu-series given its unignorable ties to the Celtics in the 1980s. 

Join Cameron Tabatabaie, Alex Goldberg, and Justin Quinn for a fascinating talk about Boston sports now and past with one of our favorite comedians in this special edition of the Lab.

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The man of the hour this Sunday afternoon will see his No. 5 jersey heading up to Boston Celtics basketball Valhalla to hang amongst the rafters, The Big Ticket's big day finally arriving after the Celtics play the Dallas Mavericks on March 13.

And with that caliber event that will see Hall of Fame Boston big man Kevin Garnett be immortalized forever in Celtics lore, we had to record a special edition of the CLNS Media "Celtics Lab" podcast with a teammate of his from the two seasons following the winning of Banner 17. That teammate would be Boston alum JR Giddens, who took some time to regale us with some stories of what it was like to play with a living legend.

Giddens also gives us an insight into how it was fighting for playing time on a team with designs on deep postseason runs and a coach notorious for not playing younger players -- as well as what advice he'd give current Celtics dealing with not so different issues themselves.

 We even get into the University of New Mexico product's current coaching career and his time playing overseas, so be sure to check out this special edition of the pod in honor of KG's big event.

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This Sunday, the Boston Celtics will retire the jersey number of one of the greatest big men to play for the team, Kevin Garnett. Steeped in organizational history as well as the glory of Banner 17, the event -- scheduled after the Celtics' Sunday afternoon matchup with the Dallas Mavericks -- will also incorporate elements of the NBA's 75th-anniversary celebrations.

With such a historical moment about to unfold for Boston fans, we hosts of the CLNS Media podcast "Celtics Lab" felt it only just to bring on an expert in such things, the Twitter historian for the Celtics, known for his online curation of all things Boston sports and particularly the team that now strives for Banner 18 under head coach Ime Udoka.

That would of course be Honest Larry, who is a must-follow on Twitter if you are not already -- and like the hosts of the pod, an educator by trade. 

 Cameron Tabatabaie, Alex Goldberg and Justin Quinn talk the history of Celtics jersey retirements, Garnett's time in Boston, and how the game has changed over the decades among many similar topics.

Whether you're already an Honest Larry supporter or not, if you love Celtics history, Kevin Garnett, and everything in between, this is the episode for you.

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With the 2022 NBA trade deadline now well behind the Boston Celtics, we have a pretty good idea of what this team is capable of after consolidating talent on the roster to bring back old friend Daniel Theis and trade for their ball-moving defensive specialist Derrick White.

But the rest of the league's Eastern Conference did not stand still at the trade deadline for the most part, meaning the landscape of the Celtics' primary arena of competition changed as well -- what should we expect from the other teams Boston will be up against in the 2022 NBA Playoffs and beyond?

To answer those questions in a (hopefully) engaging way, the CLNS Media podcast "Celtics Lab" brought on friends of the pod and hosts of the Off The Glass podcast "Hoopsology" to make use their focus on the entire league in figuring out what is true and false about Boston's place in a revamped East. 

Justin Goodrum and Matt Thomas join your usual hosts Alex Goldberg, Cameron Tabatabaie, and Justin Quinn to assess the Eastern order of the NBA -- if you want an objective view on where the Celtics stack up in it, be sure to catch this episode.

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