Celtic Chalk Talk: Episode 8 - Analyzing Celtics Strategy: Tatum's Return, Trade Options, and Future Moves

Celtic Chalk Talk 12/15/2025 === squadcaster-580f_1_12-15-2025_133426: [00:00:00] Welcome to another fine week of Celtic Chalk Talk. My name's Steve Perello, a lifelong Celtic fan. Been there forever. Since the Bill Russell days. I go back a ways. And I'm here to talk about the Celtics for a few minutes. Please understand that as a Celtic fan it it's fun and it's it's been a good ride this year and we hope that it'll continue. Throughout the year, it's been a. Great situation. Boston sold off a lot of parts, but their young players are starting to play better. Let's look at the week. First of all let's think about the first game. The only game they played was Milwaukee. It's a good time. They've gotten rest. The Milwaukee game was a disappointment and a lot of levels. One of the things I first thought about was Boston's not good enough to go into a team. Against a team, especially on the road, in a game like this. And expect to just win. [00:01:00] They're not going to, they have to play well. They got off by 14 or so in the first half. It looked like they were on their way but they weren't. Obviously they weren't. And in the second half they couldn't make a three. They shot poorly and they just took their foot off the gas. And again, I'm gonna emphasize they are just not good enough to do that. The shooting has to be better. They've shot real well. This was the first time they came up empty. And an interesting point I wanna make. The games the Celtics had been winning against, good teams were exciting, and the crowd was into it, and the Celtics were into it, and they were playing hard. This game wasn't, and it, they didn't require that crowd craziness and all the other stuff that go with it. And Boston seemed to play down to what was going on. It wasn't a big game. They weren't playing against a team that's considered better than them. And really they really showed [00:02:00] very little. Tonight they play Detroit, and that's gonna be an interesting game. It's home. And it'll be very interesting to watch because we'll find out how we'll get a better thought on the Celtics. If they can go out and beat them, beat the pistons, then they're real then. Then we've got something to look at and talk about. What I wanted to get into because it was a quiet week and not many games, I wanted to talk a little bit about this situation, Boston's in contracts and next year and the future and all that nice stuff that goes with it. First thing, if Tatum returns this year, what do you do with Jared Wal? My thinking would be a very simple thing. He starts take Peyton Pritchard and get him out and put him as a sixth man. He's a scorer. He'll be fine and it'll boost your second unit, but also give the first unit with Tatum. Waled, the ability to guard up or down. And that will make it easier for white, for [00:03:00] Brown, and for Tatum on the defensive end. So that would be my thought. And you're gonna keep Kada now when you talk about that. And then the next thing we have to talk about is what do you doing Amny Simons? You gotta deal with. His contract's up at the end of the year. You just not, don't wanna let him walk and not get anything. My, my thinking would be and Vos is the is the goal. But I don't think you can get 'em that easily. You're gonna have to give up a couple, maybe a one or a number one or maybe two number ones. In the deal with Simons you're just not gonna get 'em cleanly and you'd like to keep your draft picks to see where you stand after Tatum comes along. OTTs would help them because he's a good post scorer and that would help the offense, especially the other night. And when you have a post player, you can use them when the threes aren't falling. And that's would be Z's. Best asset, now's [00:04:00] lesser big men that are around that would compliment Kada. One of them is Daniel Gaffer. Daniel Gaffer's a nice player. He plays for plays for Dallas and he's very similar in a lot of ways. Takeda, he's a high percentage shooter, which means he's getting a lot of pick and roll dunks off the lob and things along that line, and he could help Boston. I don't know. And naturally the money doesn't match. So there's gotta be some movement. And of course you can always use the nets as the team 'cause they're under the cap and they can take on money. So if you have to put more money in, meaning Dallas, they can send it to the Nets. And even the. Deal off. But Gafford might be a good person to think about getting. He would help the Celtics in Innumerably. Him and Kaa would be a great one-Two punches, big men. And I think that might be the best way to go. Now with that, you need to begin to think about your future. And when I say think about your future, it's fairly simple. [00:05:00] You've got three guys that you love, Minot, Walsh, and Kada. Okay. Each of them have one more year after this on their contract. Two of them are option year. They have options, but I'm sure the Celtics will pick up the options 'cause they're very low paid. But now you gotta start thinking about, do we keep them down the road? I don't think you can keep all three because of what you're gonna have to pay. Each player. So now you've gotta do some serious thinking. And my sense would be Minot would be the odd man out. He's a guy not making a lot of money, but he can be in, in a deal somewhere in the next year and you can bring back stuff. Now if you move Pritchard to the sixth man, it'll change the whole dynamic in the future. Meaning that you still have uo and UO will get better. He will take care of all your problems. A is a defensive guy off the bench, especially if Walter is starting. Walsh is [00:06:00] starting. So he will take care of that, but he also will get better. And I project him to be a starter in the NBA. But here's the best part. He's only, he will only be next year and year two, he's got a couple more years on a rookie contract. Boston saves money. So while there's trying to sign Cada up for more money and they're trying to sign, and we're looking for cada like 10 to 10 to 12 million and probably Walsh. If they can get him cheap they'd be lucky because he's rapidly ascending to becoming a real star. But if they can, and let's say 10 million would be. Cheap that would give them a chance to keep them for an extended period of time. And along with brown and so on, brown and Tatum and white, you are putting together a good, real good nucleus. That would help. Now this year, and again, going back, if [00:07:00] the Boston can get under the tax level. Which would work if they traded? If they were to make that deal with Simons going for Gafford, it would get them possibly if they can filter through team. If Dallas can filter money to to the Nets, it would probably take a draft pick going there too for the nets to take the money. It would get Boston out of the tax and also reset them by resetting them. It'll cut down the future tax because they will be going back up over into the tax again when they resign these players. So there's a lot of little things that go into this, and you have to think about. Something else you wanna think about is I think Derrick White is an outstanding player. He is probably the most underrated player in the league, and he does so many things on the court and he's a winner. He just makes big shots and big situations. He's been doing that for a while, but Derrick White is getting, he's 32, he's getting [00:08:00] older. I'm sure you're gonna get another year or two out of him. He's got three on his contract after this year. But the thought thinking comes, you wanna try to gauge exactly when he is not as good or he is on the downside, and at that point it's time to make Move him out. And it's very hard if you are a Celtic fan, you understand? They've been a loyal organization that has always been fair and good. Now, Derrick White helped bring a title to, to Boston and you don't like to see guys get traded that are like that. You like to see them retire for you. But the way the rules are in the NBA Derek White. Become someone that needs to be dealt, to be honest with you. And when you feel that his, he's not at the level he was out. And that's another piece that goes into it because you can probably get a lot back for Derrick White, hopefully. He's got a couple more years and you don't have to think about [00:09:00] trading him. But that's a part that goes into this whole thing. We haven't even mentioned Tatum. And Tatum is in an interesting situation. Boston's gotta make some decisions on Jason. Do they obviously allow him to come back this year? I'm going to use something. Drew Smith, a Miami heat guard, hurt his tours Achilles about eight or nine months ago or before the season, eight or nine months before the season, and he was playing. Yeah, and he's fine. He's playing well and he's a good backup point guard. The reason I talk about that is because when we begin to think about Tatum, we think about Drew Smith 'cause nobody wants him to come back too soon and Reinjure and go through the whole thing. But I think that's something that we have to think about in thinking about Tatum and coming back this year. If Tatum comes back this year. I don't think anybody in the playoffs would wanna meet up with the Celtics if he doesn't come back. I think Boston can cause [00:10:00] problems for teams, but I don't think they can beat one of the upper echelon teams in the East. By that the Knicks or Detroit or, possibly Orlando off they ever get healthy those teams. And I think that leaves Boston and limbo until we figure out the Tatum situation. That's all I got for this week. If you like it, please gimme a I thank you for listening and we'll be back next Monday again for some more Celtic Chalk Talk. Thank you.