Inside The Celtics

Rejected Celtics trades, Boston going cold, and Bill Belichick's punishment backfires: Picks 'n Pops for Jan. 30


Every week, I gather random, leftover thoughts about the Celtics, NBA, and beyond and dump them here. This week includes the trade deadline, Joe Mazzulla being a lunatic, and a Hall of Fame embarrassing itself.
John Karalis|
Jan 23, 2026; Brooklyn, New York, USA; Boston Celtics guard Anfernee Simons (4) brings the ball up court against Brooklyn Nets guard Nolan Traore (88) during the first quarter at Barclays Center. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-Imagn Images
Jan 23, 2026; Brooklyn, New York, USA; Boston Celtics guard Anfernee Simons (4) brings the ball up court against Brooklyn Nets guard Nolan Traore (88) during the first quarter at Barclays Center. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-Imagn Images | Brad Penner-Imagn Images

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Boston Celtics

Every week, I gather random, leftover thoughts about the Celtics, NBA, and beyond and dump them here. Because  I gotta do something to keep me warm.

→ Anfernee Simons is keeping a level head about the trade deadline. He knows he’s in rumors, but he also knows he’s not being shipped out for nothing. The Celtics reportedly offered him up for Ivica Zubac and were rejected, but the Bulls offered Nikola Vucevic in a deal structured around him and Boston said no. At a charity event Thursday night, he repeated that he’s not worried about stuff he can’t control. 

This is part of the deal when you’re a pro athlete. You get millions of dollars to play a game, but being told “you live in Boston now” after living in Portland for seven years isn’t the easiest thing in the world. And then waking up every morning and checking your phone to see if you still live in Boston has to be a little nerve wracking, even if you have a good attitude about it. 

It’s easy to say “I’d do that for $27 million,” and I think most of us would, but it doesn’t make the situation easy. 

→ The Celtics are 6-6 in their last 12 games. You know who else is 6-6 in their last 12? The New York Knicks, so the Celtics haven't lost any ground during this swoon. 

“I feel like we’re just hitting a tough stretch a little bit,” Payton Pritchard said after losing to Atlanta. “We’ve got to find our juice back. We show flashes of it and then we take like a game off. But it is a tough stretch. I feel like if you look around the league, everybody's kind of plateauing a little bit, struggling game to game. So this is where we’ve got to mentally break through and get better.”

I suppose you can also say they weren’t able to take advantage of the Knicks, but as far as I’m concerned, the Knicks are the contenders in this scenario, so they're the ones who have to make the moves. Boston is the plucky surprise, so this is all gravy. 

→ When a right-handed player banks in a left-handed three-pointer, you know it’s not your night. 

“I've known him for a long time and I know he's ambidextrous, and that even surprised me tonight,” Pritchard said. “Tip my cap to that."

That's a throw your controller and reset the game kind of moment. That's a flip the guy off and walk off the floor kind of moment. 

I get it. You win. See you tomorrow. 

→ Every tech Joe Mazzulla gets, Sam Cassell has to step in to hold him back. 

I hope Sam gets a little something extra for these. Like a $500 per hold-back? A gift card to Grill 23? Maybe a book of coupons for a massage? Sam is 56 and Joe is a 37-year-old jiujitsu practitioner. Cassell deserves something. 

→ Add, “Everybody thinks we’re going to suck. I love it” to the big book of Joe Mazzulla quotes.  

Also, him making the coaches run because they screwed up a drill? 

Mazzulla is, for better or for worse, one of the most unique coaches in NBA history. He’s like Frank Layden, but if all the fun-loving gregariousness was super-intense, hyper-competitiveness. He is a maniac. 

But he is, above all else, authentic, and that's what resonates with his players. This isn’t some act. He’s just, and I say this in a positive way, a lunatic. 

→ I don’t blame someone who has gone through the Gordon Hayward mess for being wary of coming back from a catastrophic injury. Tatum needs to understand he’s not Hayward, though. The injury is different, the aftermath is different, and the team construction is different. 

One key element to all of this is that Tatum is going through a very specific return to play protocol that has been uninterrupted. Hayward had a second surgery that took his whole summer away, making his training camp the first basketball he’d played since the injury. Tatum is ramping up without, essentially, a second rehab process. 

Again, when you've been on the inside and have seen the worst-case scenario, it’s understandable to be gun-shy. Tatum just has to understand this is not that.

→ Now let’s marry the last two bullet points and get Mazzulla’s take on Tatum, through the lens of Bill Belichick not getting into the Hall of Fame, via radio play-by-play voice Sean Grande

“We get caught up in a world of seeking affirmation. Yesterday was a beautiful example of even if you do the best you possibly can, you’re not going to get that” is a deep philosophical quote if there ever was one. 

→ Side note here on Belichick: It’s embarrassing that people still hold whatever grudge against this guy, and they feel the need to “punish” him more. 

What did this actually accomplish? It made the Hall of Fame voting process look silly, the people who didn’t vote for him are taking hits to their reputation, and a curmudgeonly old man who burned every bridge and was at his lowest point suddenly became a sympathetic figure. 

The real punishment would have been to vote him in and watch everyone look at where he is now versus where he was. The comparison to his past would have been the punishment. Half the talk would have been about how far he’s fallen. He would have been fat Elvis, but now he’s back to his Flying Elvis glory. 

I shouldn’t be surprised. Bill Polian never could beat Belichick. 

→ LeBron James crying at his Cleveland tribute video is telling. 

He was very wistful postgame, too. The end is near for him in the NBA. It’s time for the farewell tour with the Cavs next season. 

→ There's something about players getting teeth knocked out at TD Garden. Jaylen Brown’s elbow caught Onyeka Okongwu’s face and knocked one out. 

He missed his next game because of the injury. 

“Just a basketball play, it’s unfortunate,” Brown said of the play. “Okongwu is a good player. I know from my own experiences with a fractured face and chipped teeth, that shit is a hassle. It wasn’t intentional and I know it’s going to be a long day at the dentist tomorrow so hopefully he has a good recovery.”

Fingers and faces are in a lot of danger in basketball. I’ve gone through both and it’s not fun. 

→ Steven Adams being done for the season really hurts the Rockets. It makes me wonder if Houston will jump into the center market to make a run now, or if they’ll just deal with it. 

→ Who knew that Cooper Flagg versus Kon Knueppel would be this generation’s next great rivalry? Sign me up for it, though. A Dallas-Charlotte rivalry to go along with a San Antonio-Oklahoma City rivalry fueled by Victor Wembanyama and Chet Holmgren is a great new element to the league. These are three small markets who are suddenly must-watch TV. 

For that, I’m making US the Winners of the Week!

- Here’s my latest podcast, if you’re bored. 

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John Karalis
JOHN KARALIS

John Karalis is a 20-year veteran of Celtics coverage and was nominated for NSMA's Massachusetts Sportswriter of the Year in 2019. He has hosted the Locked On Celtics podcast since 2016 and has written two books about the Celtics. John was born and raised in Pawtucket, RI. He graduated from Shea High School in Pawtucket, where he played football, soccer, baseball, and basketball and was captain of the baseball and basketball teams. John graduated from Emerson College in Boston with a Bachelor of Science degree in Broadcast Journalism and was a member of their Gold Key Honor Society. He was a four-year starter and two-year captain of the Men’s Basketball team, and remains one of the school's top all-time scorers, and Emerson's all-time leading rebounder. He is also the first Emerson College player to play professional basketball (Greece). John started his career in television, producing and creating shows since 1997. He spent nine years at WBZ, launching two different news and lifestyle shows before ascending to Executive Producer and Managing Editor. He then went to New York, where he was a producer and reporter until 2018. John is one of Boston’s original Celtics bloggers, creating RedsArmy.com in 2006. In 2018, John joined the Celtics beat full-time for MassLive.com and then went to Boston Sports Journal in 2021, where he covered the Celtics for five years. He has hosted the Locked On Celtics podcast since 2016, and it currently ranks as the #1 Boston Celtics podcast on iTunes and Spotify rankings. He is also one of the co-hosts of the Locked on NBA podcast.

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