S1E7: Austin Ainge

the Boston Celtics. And Austin, we appreciate you coming on first and foremost, but secondly, I want to find out how the heck you wound up in this role with the Boston Celtics, because your career it looks to me like it could have gone a million different directions. You were an assistant coach in college, then you were a head coach and at that time the D League, Then you become a scout and whatnot. So how did you get to where you are today being the assistant general

manager of this team? Yeah? I mean, obviously I've played growing up, and and I love the game and considered a few things in college, and then I started exploring some coaching stuff and actually my senior year of college, we were on our way to play in the first round of the n c A Tournament. Never forget. I was on the bus and a good friend of mine got the head coaching job at a small college in in Utah, and he called and said, I want you

to come be my assistant. And I said, well, let's let me go try to win a game first year in the Insate tournament and then and then we'll talk and uh and I ended up we ended up losing unfortunately in that first round game against Savior, and UH. About a week later, I called him and said, yeah, man, I'm in. I want to get into coaching. And I thought I'd have to do a video coordinator and manager the camut of going up the up to yeah, and to skip a few steps and be an assistant coach.

Um was great, So I jumped at it and um. Funny story back then there was an April recruiting period in for AU and I was in Las Vegas watching AU games and I hadn't taken my finals yet, so I was already head started. Yeah anyway, was it was fun to jump right in and uh And then yeah, I did some scouting, I did the up in Maine, and I was going down this the coaching path. I really wanted to coach. That what you wanted to do out. Yeah, that was the first That was the first plan. Yeah,

do uh do some coaching? Um, it just seemed the easiest way to stay involved in the game. Um. And then the Celtics sets, some front office people leave, and d A asked me to do some scouting for him for a little while and just kind of stuck. So you call him d A not d A D Yeah, I was going to ask that, How long? Is that? How it has to be? I mean, I'm actually interested to hear this because obviously your father is Danny Age. He's the president of basketball operations for the team. Um,

you work for him. Do you have to call him d A to kind of keep that that parent son relationship out of the work environment? How do What are the dynamics there? You know, I don't really know how it started. Wasn't a conscious thing like KG and Tony Allen. I always called him d A, and everyone around the office call him d A. I started calling him d A. I think my mom calls him d A about half the time. You know, it's just it's way easier just d A. So you started scouting. I mean, obviously part

of coaching in college is recruiting. But when did you realize that you had a knack for discovering talent and

being able to see something that maybe others don't. When I was coaching in Maine, I was young, still twenty seven, I think when I first got that job, just being around those players, and you know, in the G League you have players coming in and out constantly, right, you have just a rotating door and and uh, and so you really get kind of an idea of how players fit and what things work and what don't you know

in that environment. In it it's almost like speed dating, right, you get you coach like fifty teams in two years because it just changes so often. Um. At the same time, during the summer, when I was coaching in Maine, I would come back to Boston this summer and I would help with summer league draft workouts and just around all of those players constantly. UM. You know that those kind of gave me a lot of reps at the team building side. Let's talk about how your path to where

you are. I guess having your dad be an NBA basketball player, and from the moment you were born, you were basically in the NBA. How did that affect the way that you got to where you are today, Like, like, is that what led you to b y U? Is that what led you to the Celtics? Is that what led you to want to be a coach? Because your dad was a coach at a time, How did he affect your path? Yeah, it's hard to know, Mark how

much all that affects you as a kid. I just I knew I love to play, and I played all the sports growing up. Um, I was a little bit of a late bloomer. I was always a good player kind of through elementary school and middle school. Hit and everyone grew and I didn't, and h and football I got I got beat up and quit football and baseball. Those you know when the diamond extends. It felt really long to me before I kind of hit my growth spurt.

But I could still shoot, So I stuck with basketball a little more and then um, and then finally hit my gross s Burton ends up being a pretty good player in high school. Um, and that, you know, that really helped. I just loved sports and competition. But yeah, I was a ball boy all growing up. I grew up in the locker room. I've got stories of you know, Charles Barkley throwing me in the hotel. Here the stories

right now, what's your best story? Oh man? I mean I I remember Charles Barkley handed me slips of paper to run up to his his buddy to to make NFL bets before the games. You know, giants plus three legal to use use a young child to run your bets. I'm sure, I'm sure not. But this is Charles right, He's above the rules. M I. You know, when I was in high school, I couldn't be a ball boy and the law because I was just playing so often.

But my dad was coaching the sons, and I would play one on one with guys like Steve Nash when he was a rookie after practice and and uh, you know, I was around all the time and the dinner table, and you know a lot of a lot of discussions. Um, you know, finals, parades and heartbreak losses. You just grow up around it. And and uh, you see these guys all the time. How much did you beat Steve nashby?

Steve was really good? Steve was really good. I I got, I got a couple of guys every now and again, you know, But no, those those guys are in the NBA for a reason, I do want to outline before Evy asked her question, you did shoot forty seven plus from three point range your senior year, so that this is no joke, like you were a legit shooter, one of the top shooters in the entire country. Yeah, I could shoot. It was the defense side mark that that

limited my career. Okay, we can take the three. It doesn't always have to be three in d That is part of my question though. I mean, growing up the stories about your father, Danny, and just how good he is at sports, getting drafted in the NBA and baseball and then football as well. He was a star back

in Oregon. What was it like in your household? And um, how did Danny kind of instill is that competitive nature that's just innate, I assume in all of you and all of his kids, And what was it like growing up in that house? Yeah, I mean, you know, there's six of us. I'm second of six, and um, and everyone came out a little different. Not everyone's you know, the same level. But you know, we joke at my house.

Everyone asked me in my whole life because my dad was known as kind of a fighter and a whiner and a competitor, right, just hey, instigator, instigator, all those things, and you know, hey, what's it like growing up with that? He must be crazy at home? And he was the chill one. My mom was the intense one. My mom is the scrapper. Yeah. I think she still gets in fights with ladies at tennis league, you know now. So so yeah, it was, it was. It was a competitive household.

But yeah, my my dad had no idea how to parent. He his parenting was go outside with a stop watching alright kids, you know, five dollars who can run the mile the fastest? And he just sit in the chair, and you know, that was how he did it, and so we grew up doing that stuff. We're gonna take a quick commercial break and come back right after this to talk to Austin about what he does on a daily basis for the Celtics and maybe a little bit about player evaluation with the team as they go into

draft and trade deadline. We'll be back in the moment. I know I've been waiting forever to get back into TV Garden for a live Celtics game, and I know you've been feeling the same way. So why not make up for some lost time. Get in on all of the action for next season by signing up for the Celtics Season ticket member waitlist presented by American Express. Listen. When you sign up, you'll get priority access to purchase season ticket memberships for the two season once tickets become available.

So after you're done listening here, head on over to Celtics dot com slash waitlist to sign up today and you'll be back inside the garden in no time, helping you boys grab a win. All right, we were just in a commercial break and we had some breaking news come out of Austin. Age here Austin. I tried to lump you in with the b i A, which is the basketball intelligence agency within the Celtics, And what what did you say to us? Yeah, those that's the analytics nerds.

That's not me. I refused to be associated with them. Now that's our little nickname for them, because they didn't like our more derogatory nicknames. The nerds nicknames. Well, for the people who haven't been able to get into the Celtics facility, there's actually you know, when you look at at the CIA insignia there there is actually a sign that was created that is b I A. Inside the Celtics office. It's actually pretty cool. So Basketball Intelligence Agency

is is made up by what Austin just said. I'm not saying this, but what Austin just said is there the basketball nerds. But we'll deviate from that. We're not letting you off the hook. Mark you said it. No, I'm just repeating your words. I'm just repeating your words, all right. So then let's talk about what you do. Apparently it's not the numbers, it's just the eye test. Yeah, but take us through the day to day responsibilities of

what you're doing, because I know that. Um, if anyone within the Celtics organization has a whole heck of a lot of miles on their on their card from flying around the world, it's you. Yeah, no, so we I we watch a lot of basketball on film. That's really the first thing we do. Especially in the last year. Obviously, Yeah, trouble reduced you do that even more. But but we were kind of a a video first and then go

see in person because we don't have a huge staff. Um, but yeah, I'm I'm I do probably you know, in in a non COVID year, probably a seventy percent of my time in US doing college, NBA G League, and then about internationally, you know, mostly Western Europe. Occasionally there's some China or South America trips mixed in, but it's mostly the European leagues. UM. And we have about seven full time scouts watching people around the world, and my job is making sure we're seeing all the right people

and gathering all the right information. Um. It's it's not only watching on the court, right, it's talking to their coaches, trainers, academic staff on what kind of kid they are. Um. You're not allowed to talk to the actual player until pretty late in the draft process, and so we collect as much information as we can surrounding them leading up

to that. What are the challenges of scouting players around the world, Because I would assume that you know that that's kind of your area of expertise, right, Like, mostly if you're going overseas to people out, you are going to be the one the first one who goes to take a look. Um. But talk about the challenges of scouting players overseas because they're not playing in the same structure of the n c A tournament or even playing

in the G League. It's different over there, and every league probably has different rules depending on what country you're in, Yeah, and different cotition. Yeah, the competition levels are are are very different, right, and you need to understand the context um that you're watching in there's you know, there's a league in France that's the pro A, that's their number one league, right, and then there's pro B and then there's something they call the espoa league which is for

younger players. Right, that's just France, and that you know, in France the pro A and pro B isn't too different. It's a little it's different, but it's not hugely different. And then you'll go to the next country and their top league to second league is you know, in Israel the first division to the second division is a gulf.

There is a grand canyon between them, right, And so those are just things that you learn over time, and you once you watch a lot um, you know there there are teams that play in Spain in one league. For instance, you'll see Real Madrid and Barcelona who have big, you know, soccer team budgets that they can do. They will sign twelve players that all make a million dollars and they'll play them all twenty minutes and no one

averages more than seven points. Right, and then you'll you'll have a you'll have another team in that same Spanish league with the way smaller budget that will sign you know, one big scorer and he'll get to play thirty minutes and he'll score twenty points a game, but he probably

isn't better than the guy scoring seven on Real Madrid. Right, you have to just through like the minutia kind of and figure out what means what exactly, and so there's a lot of that um And then of course I've had lots of experience of playing you know, across the world and then driving three hours in the middle of Serbia and then the coach doesn't play the eighteen year old you know that sit in the in the cafe

and have a drink. You do what you can. I mean, you just you try to see him at practice the next day, or you know. I used to call it ahead and talk to everyone before, and I've since kind of realized sometimes it's better just to surprise them. They sometimes they want to keep the kid, they don't want you to draft them, and they won't play him if you show up. So sometimes I'll just buy a ticket outside for twenty euros and sneak in the side and not tell anyone, Right, So you just kind of got

to learn. That's what we call that that comes from experience. Do you, as a scout in your process, have to lay eyes on a guy before you will put a report together or before you will vouch for him. I really really prefer it. I really feel uncomfortable investing millions of dollars in kids without seeing them in person. There's just something that, you know, just makes you feel more confident when you get to really, you know, see their their game and their athleticism and size. You know. But

but video is really good now. Um, it's so much better than even when I started thirteen years ago. We have high definition video for every league in the world. I mean, they're streaming high school games now, right. It's not hard to to get lots of good video on guys. I mean it used to be you know, DVDs of terrible, grainy footage from Croatian junior leagues, right, and it was impossible.

So I do feel better now, abby, But um, but I still would much rather see them in person a few times for the for the top kids, if not, you know, five or ten. Can you kind of take us inside the process and you guys have a relatively small run office with yourself Mike Zarin along with d A and and what kind of information you're gathering pieces of data to create the whole picture? Right? How do you where do you place weights, how do you balance all of the different information? How much how do you

gather the off the court stuff as well? And and what are those discussions like when it does come down to the time to make decisions, you start with the easy stuff, which is the physical tools. Right, That's a that's a good starting place. Can this person physically compete with NBA players? Right? Size, length, athleticism, strength, wingspan, lest you know these types of basics which you know I I tell our scouts like, you should have that done

in the layoup line. Right, You've got that part done, and then the game starts and you you know you've got skill, right, drible pass shoot shooting form is obviously huge, you know in the today's NBA and every in every era of NBA shooting huge skills. We spend a lot of time analyzing that and then um, you know, you go to the next stuff like feel for the game and you see the game, anticipate, see passes, see switches, react correctly in transition. But you know, loose ball, rebounding,

all that stuff. And then and then you go deeper to the character, to the um competitiveness, the off court habits. Do they get their sleep at night, do they treat their teammates well, listen to their coaches, you know, go to class on time, these types of things that you know, we just we just talked to people around them to find out. And then how much weight do you put on all of that? Is it when it comes down to draft time and you guys are putting together your board, Um,

how is that organized? And is it? Is it basically just you, Danny and Mike in there along with Wick and I know Brad has input as well. No, I mean Dave Lewins our director of scouting, He's a huge part of what we do. We have Mimi Coo Field, Jake Eastman are our scouts with us, and then our b i A that I was teasing before, are a huge part of it there in every meeting with us.

And they have models and things looking at players in their production and you know they'll take you know, the last twenty years of college data plus some other fancy stuff that we have, UM, and they will use that to try to project, you know, who the best players are, what types of players or statistical profiles end up doing

well in the in the NBA, right, Um. And there's all sorts of things we do along those lines, and we try to just marry it all and and abby it's not you know, we try to make it as scientific as possible, but in the end it's it's art um because it's you know, how do you Three assistant coaches said, the kids a great kid and competitive, and one coach said, yeah, he's a little lazy. And you know,

we just missed three weight periods. You you know, you're yeah, I'm sharing trivial details, but sometimes there are more substantial, you know, disagreements between people around them in their life. And how we judge all of that is certainly not easy to do. Yeah, is that one of the hardest things to judge is heart character, I mean competitiveness. I would say, Um, competitiveness is pretty easy. I think off court life and off court habits are a little bit harder.

It's just most of the time we're dealing with nineteen and twenty year olds and they're not fully formed, they're

just figuring themselves out. And um, you know, we remember joking with Doc Rivers, Um, you know, his son Austin was obviously an elite player in high school and college and in the draft, And we're sitting there going, if there's anyone we know better than anyone, it's going to be Austin Rivers, right, Like you know, Docs known him his whole lot, you know, and we know what type of person is, and projecting him is still really hard, right, Like,

you know so much about him, and it's still really difficult. So you know, it's obviously that much harder with with kids you barely know or have watched for just a couple of years. So it's it's not easy to know how nineteen year olds will handle millions of dollars and lots of fame and lots of pressure. Do you have a go to question when you're interviewing guys? Not really. We've we've gone through so many iterations of the draft interview in my time here, and we didn't find any

special tricks or anything that we felt really worked. So we just try to get to know him and have a conversation just like you would with anyone at a business lunch that you're meeting for the first time. We let them ask us some questions, and you know, we we probably have one or two or three things for each kid that we have. You know, one of tar Get in that interview writes with through our background information, we want to hear their version of things. Um. I

remember Peyton Pritchard. Um, we had heard from someone that he maybe not is not the most vocal leader for a point guard, right, And we asked him, you know, hey, we heard your little quieter and and Peyton got mad, who said that that was not me. I'm I you know, I'm a leader all that, you know, And I love that. I love that about Peyton. It was, it was, It was great. We love that he got a little hot and he was talking behind my back. I like it, see a little fire in him. Yeah, we we love that.

Is that the d A d A takes him to Chipotle or Chick fil A, which is you know, high class, high class. We know how to recruit. Our finance group will appreciate that. I know that for sure. But in talking about that entire scouting process, the one thing that always stands out to me is that, like, you guys basically are kind of doing investing aid of journalism on

these guys. I mean you I remember I think it was Grant Williams told me that he found out that you talked to one of his like elementary or high school teachers or something that you found out through the back channels, like they talked to her or him, And he's like, well, what, it's crazy. How how deep you guys dig? But yeah, yeah, everyone said that right of teachers. Probably what is the process of even acquiring those people's contact information because it can't be easy to like drill

down that deep. And then my follow up on that is, how do you then put that into your final report? Um that that you're gonna a low because I know those reports need to be brief. Yeah, I mean most

most of the time we don't dig quite that deep. Um, we just haven't found it super useful, right, Like most of the time, if you're if you're going back to middle school or something, it's like they've changed so much since then, you know, I mean think of all of us, Think of all of us from sixteen to nineteen, right the nineteen year old information is a little more perfect. Um, so we we we usually stick to the last couple of years before the draft. Um. The rest we haven't

found as useful. But you know, Google is a powerful thing. Mark, what do you not hacking database? We're just you know, it's not that hard. Most of these kids have articles written about them. You know, they were all stars in their in their towns and high schools and and it's not that hard. You know, with the Celtic temail address, people get back to you pretty quick. So, Austin, is

there one guy who sticks out to you? Um? I was listening to Ryan McDonald speak with my colleague Chris Warsburg recently and he tells the story about Rajon Rondo as a guy who he really fought for inside the war room. Is there someone a player that sticks out for you that you were very high on that maybe you had to work hard to convince others and it worked out. Don't say it if that person didn't pan out. No,

I mean, look, I that's that's yeah, that's the scouting. Uh. That's the joke amongst all NBA front offices is that you know, all the successes were my idea and all the you know, all the failures were either the coach didn't use him right or were the owner right, that's who you blame. But no, I I don't love to share those stories, to be honest, guys, just because it's it's such a huge team effort and and I don't want to. I'm not trying to escape it necessarily, but

it really is messy. I mean, this is how it goes. I mean, imagine I I go see a kid um in November, you know, first first game of the year, and I went to see him. I happen to be there, and I come back and I text the group and our you know, in our slack or group text and say, hey, this kid is pretty good. We should watch him, right. And then a month later he's got enough data where our BIA comes back and says, hey, he's showing up

pretty good. This kid is pretty good, you know. And then another one of my scouts goes and says, yeah, he's good. And then I go and I go, he had a terrible game, and I go, oh, maybe he's not. Maybe he's struggling, you know, And he has a couple of bad games, and we change our minds and then we go back to him, and we have probably five thousand hours of discussions on these kids, and everyone's changed

their mind two or three times. And then at the end you come and I had him tenth, and another guy had him fourth, and another guy had him fourteen, and it's like, how do you how do you separate all of that? It's just it really is a group effort and it's all very messy, um and uh and really it's we got a lot of smart people and they all they all help us to make the best

decisions we can. And the crazy part about that is that all of that kind of lands on Danny Ainge, Like he has to pass through you guys have to pass through all of the information about the players, and then he has to pass through all of the information that you guys give him about those players. It's got to be such a tough job to be able to, like you said, as someone's fourth, tenth or fourteenth on three different boards within the same group of you guys

in the basketball group. He has to figure out where that person lands as a whole. Um but interesting to basically argue all year, Mark, that's pretty much what we do. We just argue. But it's fun It's like it's basketball arguments, right. You can't say no to that. This is what you grew up with and continue staff. That's that's what everyone loves about our staff is that the interns all the way up to d A, we all can voice our opinions strongly and it is fun and he listens. That's

that's what I have heard. He he is more willing to listen to everyone else's opinions and not just stick to his own guns. Um then maybe the majority of the gms around the league. But all right, cool. So we're talking about player evaluation, and in our next segment, we're going to talk specifically about Aaron E. Smith the Payne Pritchard and how the Celthics did a couple of home runs with these two picks in the draft. Will

be right back. We're all in the same boat when it comes to trying to come up with great gift ideas for birth as, anniversaries, graduations and every other occasion. We're all looking for something unique, and now the Celtics have you covered. The team's official digital gift cards provide flexibility and allow you to treat your favorite sees fans two tickets without even having to worry about which games

will fit their schedule. Just choose your gift card value and your recipient can choose their preferred game and their preferred seat location. It's that simple. So head on over to Celtics dot com slash gift cards and grab one today, and don't forget to tell your recipient to thank me for sending you over there. We've been talking about player evaluation, and now it's talked, it's time to talk about specific player evaluation with who the Celtics wound up with last

season in the draft. So Aaron Ni Smith comes in at number fourteen, Peyton Pritchard comes in at number twenty six. Austin, I just want you to take me inside the war room and kind of give us, um your remembrance and how you remember that entire night unfolding leading up to that for teenth pick when you wound up putting in that selection for Aaron Nee Smith. What was going on

in those moments before? Oh man? Um, I mean, we we do most of our draft deliberations, you know, earlier in the day, right, we kind of have our board set. Draft night is mostly about trade calls you're getting constantly, and Um, I mean you the phone's just ringing, You're getting texts, and it's it's madness. It's wild. But but that want in that room so badly. Yeah, I want

to be in that room so badly. I know I wouldn't be able to write a thing about it or talk about it, but I just want to be in there. Some some years it's five million decisions. Some years it's like five. It just it just depends on what's going on. But this, this particular draft was very very wild. Lots going on. Um. But you know, unfortunately I can't share

all all those trade offers coming in. But but but no, we we had, we had settled on Aaron um as pretty high on our board U coming in into that, which was hard. It was hard to come to that Aaron was a little bit you know, less known to us compared to Peyton for instance. Um, Aaron had kind of a you know it just an okay freshman year. We could see his length and athleticism and you know,

he shot okay his freshman year, but nothing spectacular. And then his sophomore year he comes out and has an amazing first fourteen games, but against a pretty weak schedule, and then he gets hurt and has done for the year. And uh, and so that made it that made it hard. It was it was really yeah, it was a little less you know, information than we have on a lot

of guys. Um. So we you know, we made a bunch of calls on him and and just got sparkling reviews for his character and work ethic and got nothing but great things about him, which is huge for us, right. We we believe in that stuff that kids that work hard and have the dedication will continue to improve. And uh and and then I you know, I got a chance to fly down and see him work out at his high school gym in Charleston, Um, kind of late

in the process. Um. And then you know, the other part with Aaron was he had foot surgery after he got injured. And that's uh, you know, you bring in your whole medical staff to review all the records and you get all the scans, and um, we weren't able to evaluate him in person medically, so you've got to rely on all other doctors and tests, and so you know, there's there's always you've got a bit of a lump

in your throat worried about that stuff. Because every doctor could have a different opinion as we all know, as we've all gone through, oh for sure, and and you know it's it's you do the best you can. But the medical stuff is an educated guest, just like the talent evaluation. I'll never forget um O our r Tony Schenna. After the draft, we flew eron him the next day and Tony got a chance to sit down and evaluate him, get hands on him and review things once again. And

he came up to me and goes, looks good. He looks good. I feel I feel even better now. But he was he was feeling the heat on that one himself because he gave us the green light um to go for it, which we were excited about it. But it sounds like there was a little yellow in that green light though he wasn't quite sure until he saw him in Yeah, I know. He felt much better after

in person than he did before. And so anyway, it was it was kind of a funny moment, as is that because of the pandemic that he couldn't go see him or typically like, well, Tony, see everyone who you

have high on your list. Yeah. So most of the time the team doctors all go to the NBA combine and there's this giant room where the doctors rotate around and can evaluate these players and all take notes together, and it's this big kind of crazy there's two days of medical stuff, right and they'll you know, hey, we could you know, we need some scans on this, I'm worried about this, we want an m r I on this, and you know, they'll order those things and so you can get a lot done in the combine in a

normal year. And then um, and then we will fly guys in for draft workouts and the doctor will be able to do you know, some movement tests, you know, talk to the player about what they're experiencing with their medical history and and also look at images. Um. And then there there are sometimes where you know, agents and players will go, sorry, you have the tenth pick, he's going in the top three. We don't want you to

have his medical information. Or you have a starting point guard and we don't want this point guard to be drafted by you guys, so we're not sharing the medical information. And so there's there's there's some negotiating sometimes with that, which, by the way, some of some of these angles that have been taken on things like that oh, we don't want him to be drafted by your team. Look at

Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum. Right, Originally people thought, oh, these players shouldn't want to go into a team that's competing and that's kind of stacked with talent that can go to the conference finals. Well look what it did for those two guys, right, they have been established in the league. It feels like they've been in the league for ten years already playing at a high level because they came into a competitive team. But I digress. Um,

let's talk about Aaronni Smith a little bit more. And I do want to point out four pick a couple of years in a row. I thought those fourteenth overall picks were gonna wind up in the top five. So no help from Sacramento in Memphis trying to get those high lottery picks. But we we wind up at number fourteen. And I know you said that you as a group

were high on aaron Nie Smith. But you see Haliburton go at number twelve, You see Kyra Lewis go at number thirteen, Like, what's the process of you guys kind of reading the tea leaves as that stuff goes, and you like God, I hope he doesn't go thirteen. I hope you know, what is it like in the war room as that pick is coming up? Yeah, I mean all of us every year have kind of different tiers of guys. Right, You've got all right, these first five I would love to have, and then the next four

six to ten I can't really distinguish between. I'd be happy with any of them. And then there's a big drop off, right or or or maybe the drop off for you happens between after sixteen players and you have and you hope one of those sixteen just slides to you, right. Um, you know you're you're always playing those games, trying to guess, and you know, we call around the league and talk to agents, try to see where guys are going to

go beforehand, but you never really know. Um, there's always surprises, especially you know after the first couple of picks, there's always it's always a surprise, um. And so you you just just try to stay ready, um and listen, listen to the trade calls as they come and trying to make a decision on the spot or draft the guy you want. And um, no, we were we were thrilled to get Aaron UM is age and length and athleticism

and character combination, UM we think are special. And I talked to Brad yesterday about Aaron E. Smith and he said, one of the spots is his basically in this playoff rotation, He's like it is his. He has taken it. UM. Some of the other positions are still open for debate. I'm going into going into the playoffs. But how enjoyable has it been for you to see where he has come to at this point in his rookie season as

compared to where he was at first. Brad was also saying that during training camp it was like Aaronnie Smith was playing just as hard, but he was so much slower and didn't understand the game at that point that he was worried he was going to cause injuries for the other players on the team. Yeah. I mean, you know, you guys can imagine, UM, you expect your rookies, especially a guy like Aaron Like I said, who who had foot surgery after fourteen games only and hadn't played in

eleven months. Yeah, I didn't get to do summer league, very abbreviated training camp and and preseason stuff right, Normally, they those guys get so much more time, and he was already a little more on the raw side, right, So you know all that logical, and we have these meetings and we talked like, hey, we got to be patient with these rookies because it was a tough year. And then training camp starts and Aaron's just running around

and was not good. He was not good and uh, and you're just going even though you logically no, it's it's hard not to go, what did we do? You know, you don't really you don't. You don't vocalize that, and of course you don't act rashly, but but you know, you can't help to have those feelings and emotions pop up a little bit. It's it's way more fun when they, you know, dominate summer league in the great name in

the training camp. Right. Um, but Aaron's credit, the kids just works and works and works, I mean every day. And he kept his confidence even though he wasn't making shots and was playing too fast and was getting lost a little bit out there. A game was just moving too fast for him. And uh, and he you know, keeping your confidence is hard. It's hard. It's it's you.

You you're the fourteenth pick. You have been great at every level, and you expect success and it doesn't happen right away, and it's you can get down on yourself. And he just kept working and staying positive and it's just been it's been so fun to watch him have some success. Uh, the last couple of weeks, he's just been playing awesome. Tommy Hindson needs to say that all the time. The first step and the hardest step is to believe that you belong and then once you have that,

you can build off of it. But when it comes to Nie Smith, just specifically and especially I mean in his rookie season he played I think you know for ten games and then sat for kind a bunch of d n P s after that, and then now obviously has really kind of, Um, come on, and like you guys are talking about figured out the speed of the game. Um,

what conversations do you guys have? And I know Danny is always very hands off, but with Brad and talking about development and um, not necessarily how do you use guys, But hey, you want to get air in a few more minutes in there, I think you could really use that experience. Yeah, I mean we talked about these things all the time, right, Um, And you know there's times in the season where, um, you know there's there's not clear cut answers. Guys have not jumped up and just

earned minutes. Right. There's always five or six guys that are playing great, and then you know the next three or four in your rotation. You know, some years it's like, hey, these guys have earned it and it's set and it's easy. In other years it's it's tough. It's tough. You've got separation. I don't have a lot of separation all the time, and this year you don't have G league to to send young guys to go get a couple of games

so they could stay fresh, right. Um, So it was it was hard, and we we had those discussions all the time. But we're also trying to win and and so you can't just give charity minutes when you're when you're trying to win, and we've had an up and down season and every game matters, and it's hard to

just give rookies minutes if they haven't earned him. And Aaron, like we talked about, he earned chances with his work ethic and his energy, but he wasn't you know, making enough shots and he was making too many mistakes early on, and that's just part of it. And you watch film and you do more work, and you know, and then you wait a little while and give him another chance, and uh, until he was ready and and he's proven

he's ready now and and uh we're thrilled. And the crazy part of it is that at the exact opposite end of the spectrum you've got Peyton Pritchard, who you wind up with the number twenty six. This guy, he he doesn't play since what was it March I think was the last time he had played in a game. He gets drafted a week to two weeks later, he's in training camp, He's playing in NBA games by December. And the kid just walks right in and plays at a high level. How how has he done this? Yeah?

Peyton is first of all, he's he's an incredible worker also, Um, but he just is such an experienced player. I mean, four state championships in high school, you know, high level AU program, and then four year starter in college, packed twelve player of the year. Right, the guy has been through a lot of minutes with the ball in his hands. He knows what to do and um, and Yeah, he walked in with NBA range. I I have to I

think it was his agent. He has. His agent told me on draft night he's already packed, like he's ready. I said, hey, we need you know, we need to fly him in early because we got a COVID test for get on. Oh no, he's packed. He's been packed for a week. Like the guy's ready. You know, he's been been making ball handling videos and his girl and all sorts of stuff that the kid, the kid was ready to go. And Peyton's the type that he wears

our poor coaches out rebounding for him. He wants to shoot before and after and early mornings and late at nights. They need to get home to their families, and Peyton still wants to shoot. So it's it's great, we love that, But again, going into that war room, like guards were chosen in the two positions before him at twenty four, and you very likely could have not wind up with this kid who really looks like a keeper long term and looks like he was a professional from the moment

he walked in the door. So again I'm gonna ask you take us inside those moments leading up to that pick, Like how did you wind up with this guy at who can just walk into an NBA game with barely any preparation and look like he belongs. Peyton was a guy that we had circled that we thought was going

to be there. The mock drafts had him later Um, we actually you know, heard from a couple other teams later on after the draft they said, oh, we were taking him, you know, the next couple of picks or whatever. And so we were, you know, we we thought we were higher on him than other teams, but I'm not sure that that was true um in the end, but we we had him circled, and UM, I remember last year d A went out to the Pack twelve tournament and came back just raven about the about Peyton and

m and was really high on him. It's just his toughness and and uh, all that he brings to the game. And so he's been a guy we've followed um for a long time and uh, and we're fans of But no, we were thrilled that he felt to us and and uh we we had a feeling he'd be you know, pretty ready from day one. He was a polished guy. Picture d A with the fifth bump after r J

throwing Oregon on there, he's just he's extra excited. We we pretty much know that he's gonna skew towards guys who played in Oregon that just college, but high school, and so we we we try to temper those things. But with Peyton, it's great, it's warranted, that's right. How do you balance Austin um And you talked about it. Peyton has played so much basketball and have the ball in his hands for so long, but um, it's a

constant debate. It feels like between guys with experience and who came played four years of college versus a Jason Tatum who played you know, eleven games, I mean Carrier having played eleven games, but Jason was just the one season. How do you balance that? And and in your evaluation, I mean it's it's you know, it's educated guess as we try to get as much information as we possibly can and uh and and make the best decision with

guys who played very little college. You just have to go back to more high school films, you know, and go back to most of these guys you see play in high schools, all star stuff. Peyton Pritchard played two times in the Nike Hoops something for instance, right, Jayson Tatum and all of those the whole All Star Circuit Team USA, all those things, right, so we we watch all of those things, um, because we're scared of that top kid who comes in and gets hurt or um.

You know, if you remember Darius Basilely didn't chose not to go to college, or Dante Exum from Australia just played a couple of games that there's been all sorts of these. Emmanuel Moodier went to China and then played some games that got hurt and didn't put You know, you just have to try to get the information early in case one of these things happened. And so you wind up with Peyton Pritchard. He walks in and plays

at a high level from the very start. And at this point, you know, we're I'm gonna date us here. Someone's listening to this months and months down the line. But Peyton Pritchard has a chance to set the all time three pointers made for a rookie season in Celtics history. The person who holds that that record is Jayson Tatum. But Tatum played double the minutes during that season, so I'm just gonna say I think. I think as a rookie, Peyton Pritchard is the three point king in Celtics history. Um.

But and you spoke about his work ethic. I know that has a lot to do with the success that he's seeing on the court right now. And the same thing for Aaron Eema. Take us into the hour back center and what you see out of these guys as young rookies who are are looking to make their name in the NBA. Yeah, I mean they put in tons and tons of tons they do, they really do. And neither Aaron nor Peyton have played you know, big big minutes.

You know, they're not in the thirty minutes of game every night mode right now, And so we allow them to get a little extra work. You know, the guys who play a lot need to rest more and uh, and so they just they're here first and you see them with their individual coaches just shooting thousands of shots and going over defensive coverages and reads and individual film work. It's it's, uh, it's awesome. But yeah, I mean Peyton from I mean they one or day two of training camp,

you know, Brad. I remember we share our office here next next to each other. Anything. He doesn't want you to want to know. He just remember he just opened my door and said, Peyton might be ready to go, you know, from from the get go, and uh and he sure looked like it from from first day camp. The action do you take in that moment being having made those decisions and then um, seeing that you know, when they do get into your facility and seeing what

you thought you saw out there on the floor. Yeah, I mean it's great. You you hope that's the case. Like I said, you try to stay patient most of the time. You don't really want to evaluate rookies too much until a couple of years in because it everyone develops on a different path. Um. But yeah, I mean to the opposite, Abby, When you know you spend hours of your life, months total, away from your family watching these players steady kate your life to making the right

pick and it doesn't work out. It's painful. It's really painful. You know, these these people on on the internet or the media, you know they go, oh they messed up, and yeah, like, trust me, we know when we mess up, we feel it and it it's it's not fun. Um. So you you work really hard to try to get the right players and the right people in and we're we're thrilled with Peyton and Eric. Yeah, and you just to throw this out there and I will die on

this hill and I've done it on Twitter recently. You guys are far more successful than you are unsuccessful in your draft picks, and it's a testament to all the work that you guys put in. And anyone who's given you guys flak for for having a couple of swings and misses, I don't think they look at the other twenty nine teams in the league that do the exact

same thing. Not everyone bats a thousand percent, not everyone gets every single pick right, but you guys have gotten the important ones right and you've gotten a lot of the other ones right too. So it's a testament to your group and how you guys work together. Well, thank you.

It's it's one of those things where, um, it's kind of like batting percentage is right if you're if you're if you've got two fifty year out of the league, you've got three fifty year the best in the world, right, And that's that's that's kind of the margin we're dealing with with with draft picks. Um. You know, we we've just tried to get a million draft picks marks so we don't have to hit so on so many of them.

And dilond back just to put a put a bow on this conversation of the Celtics healthy starting lineup this year, homegrown Rob Williams, Marcus Smart, Jalen Brown, Jayson Tatum. Then you go into the bench. You've got to really promising young guys that you drafted this year and Aaron E.

Smith and Payton Pritchard. It's been really impressive to see the guys that you, you and the team have brought in over the last five, six, seven years, um, and we're looking forward to seeing who you guys get in the future and making this team, putting this team together to make a run to another championship so you can relive those two thousand eight moments again in future. Thanks for having me, guys, It was fun, all right, Thanks Austin.

I appreciate everyone. Make sure you like subscribe, download stream, and make sure you come back next week for our next episode. Thanks everyone,