Boston Celtics Owner Bill Chisholm VOWS to Do Whatever It Takes for Championship Glory

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Good afternoon here on the Lockdown Celtics Podcast.

Welcome back to the show.

I'm John Corralis.

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Bill Chisholm spoke to the Boston Globe and Adam Himmelsbach and had a wide-ranging interview.

I picked out three topics to talk about on this bonus podcast, because later on, Tom,

Western Home and I are going to talk Namesh Keda.

I have a whole big Namesh Keda podcast planned for the Tuesday show.

Bonus podcast here on the interview with Bill Chisholm.

Later on in the third segment, we'll get to whether or not the Celtics will stay at TD Garden.

There's still some up in the air whether they will or won't.

Maybe that's negotiating we'll see.

Second segment, he talks about Brad Stevens and Joe Mizzoula.

We'll save that for segment two, but we'll start with his comments about this off-season

and off-season decisions.

I want to start with this because there's some I think misconception out there about whether

Bill Chisholm is ready to spend or not going to spend or if he's cheap.

Because of the way the Celtics handled the tax situation at the end of the trade deadline

and all of that stuff.

Here's the quote, he says, I'll do whatever it takes.

I think I've gotten a pretty good depth of knowledge around all the scaffolding to make

those decisions.

There will be times where there will be some tough decisions that I'm ready to make,

but the most important decision is having that layer of management and leadership in place

and we've got that.

That kind of teases the second segment of Brad and Joe.

In his interview here, Chisholm says, I'm going to do whatever I can to win.

I'm desperate to win.

I want to win all of that stuff and so I believe that he is going to do what it takes to win.

That's my impression because I don't subscribe to the he was cheap at the end of the trade deadline.

I think what the Celtics did was smart.

They are a smart team.

They're trying to do smart things and the moves that they made were to set them up for

a future where they didn't have any trade restrictions where they didn't have the hard

cap.

All of the second April and first April and stuff, that all went away.

They can now spend money.

They can use a full middle-level exception if they want.

They have a traded player exception to use if they want.

They traded Tillman, Boucher and Minot.

Three guys who had fallen out of the rotation who weren't playing.

They upgraded Derek, I keep saying Derek, they were Ron Harper Jr., they upgraded him

and he's a contributor to the team.

He's a guy who's actually playing.

They upgraded to Mari Williams.

He has played and he has, I believe, some semblance of a future here, potentially,

in Boston.

And Max Solga, congratulations, you made a little extra money in this deal, part of the

plan to get under the tax.

First of all, why pay the tax if you don't have to?

Why do that if you don't have to?

Not only do you not pay the tax, you get a tax payment from the tax payers in the league.

Why would you just say, you know what, I'd rather keep Tillman and Minot and those guys.

It might not have done some nice things for Brooklyn, but he wasn't going to be part

of this rotation.

Clearly, Joe Mizzoula has made that decision and I kind of trust Joe Mizzoula at this

point.

I'm not, I'm not going to look at all of the stuff that Joe Mizzoula has done and then

say, man, you really screwed up on Josh Minot.

Look at what he's gotten out of all of these guys.

He's earned the benefit of the doubt.

So those guys gone, the guys that are in, deserved to be there.

One guy, two guys not getting minutes, who cares who those guys can put me there, you

can put anybody there.

It doesn't matter who's in those seats.

And Ron Harper Jr. now gets to be play off eligible.

So it makes sense.

Now they go into the summer and they have an opportunity.

You can stay under the tax if you want to try that.

It kind of depends on Vouchavitch and how he plays.

Do they want to keep him?

What's he going to want?

Money-wise.

At this point, I can't imagine he's going to be very expensive.

So you can keep him.

The development of Namiish Keda has been huge.

The development of Luca Garza has been huge.

I think the way they've played in the system shows that the system can be effective with

them.

So the Celtics, the Celtics offseason this summer could be a whole lot different than

the summer we thought they were going to have just a few months ago.

So you go into it saying, hey, we have an opportunity to keep a team together that who knows

what they're going to do, get to the finals, win a championship, everything is possible

with these guys.

You go into a summer, stay under the tax, and then say, well, if it doesn't work, you

still have the option of spending money at the deadline, trading for somebody at the

deadline.

If for some reason, and one element to this team's success this year is that everybody

is under contract, I think that's kind of been an under-disgust part of all of this.

The Celtics don't have any free agents this upcoming season, right?

This summer, everybody's, you've got team options on Charmin, Keta, Walsh, Mari, Shoga,

all of these guys have team options.

Vouch is your only free agent.

And what's he going to demand?

Tax payer middle-level at most.

At most?

And at this point, the way he looked recently, I don't know if he's going to get that either.

So you can bring Vouch back very, very cheap.

There's everybody's basically under contract, and that brings you peace of mind, a freedom

to play.

Now, next year, if you pick up all the team options, you have Garza becoming a free agent

in the summer of 2027.

You have Keta becoming a free agent, got Walsh, you got Amari Restricted, Max Silver Restricted,

a Ron Harper unrestricted, there are guys who are going to be playing for things.

So even if you bring back the entire same team, even if they win a championship, even if

they get close, whatever it is, you can bring them all back next year, and all of a sudden

motivations could change.

So you could try it again next summer, and do you get the same buy-in?

What happens with all of these guys?

Do they want more money?

Are they going to be playing for more money?

Are they going to start getting selfish?

It's entirely possible.

You got a lot of young guys in their early 20s that are going to want to get paid.

Mimish Keta is going to be 27 next year.

So the Celtics pick up his team option, $2.7 million.

They may need to work on an extension for him.

That's going to be something we'll talk about in the next podcast.

But whatever that is, they're going to have to figure some stuff out.

Keta is going to want to get paid.

This is his chance.

This is his chance to get paid, right?

He's going to be 27 at 30, 31.

The odds of still being that good start to dwindle a little bit, and getting paid for

the future, you know, so my point is, when it comes to making these tough decisions and

bilchism saying, we're going to do what we got to do, and I'm going to do what it takes.

You can go into the summer with a plan, with the openness of, hey, that plan has to be

flexible, because next year's team's not going to be this year's team.

And motivations next year are not going to be the same as motivations this year.

And there's always going to be the potential for something going wrong.

A guy who was great this year is going to want, is going to spend this summer being

around friends and family, and everybody's like, man, look how good you are.

You deserve more.

You deserve more minutes.

You deserve more playing time.

You deserve more money.

So things change over the summer.

The sellings have to be flexible.

So even if they go into the summer with a plan to say, yeah, we are going to spend money.

We are going to be, or we're not going to, we're going to, we're going to stand with

the tax.

You have to be able to spend money.

So right now I believe, Bill Chisholm, when he says, I'll do whatever it takes.

But there is still going to be a little bit of, okay, prove it.

When it comes time to look at the roster, and if, if, if it's not working the same way,

it did this year, when November, December, January comes around, are you willing to spend

at that point, are you willing, are you going to, how's that going to go?

So I believe, Bill Chisholm, I believe him.

But it's still, he still also hasn't had the opportunity to prove it, and he's going

to have to prove it.

We'll get into now what he said about Brad Stevens and Joe Mizzula that all ties into

all of this when I come back.

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Thanks for making Lockdown Celtics, you're first, listen every day and being with me Monday

through Friday, plus bonus podcasts like this one during the week when something comes

up, I will talk about it.

So you get your bonus podcast when they play on a Friday or a Saturday, you'll get your

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show daily, you guaranteed Monday through Friday, I'm John Corales, I'm a beat writer covering

the Celtics for Sports Illustrated, Celtics on SI, I've been covering this team for 20

years, I've been doing this podcast for 10, so if there's one thing I know, it's the

Boston Celtics and Biltchism, the owner of the Boston Celtics, says he is very happy

to keep Joe and Brad around.

This quote in the globe, again, this is a whole piece in the Boston globe with Adam Himmels

Bach and go read it there at the globe, these are just a couple of things, there's a lot

more there.

He says, I do not take it for granted, he's talking about Stevens and Missoula, I do not

take that for granted, I look around at the owner's meetings and talking to other

folks and here of the challenges they have and the wholesale changes they have to make,

not just to their rosters but their management, it's extraordinary here, it's all I know,

but I know enough to know this is not normal to have this, I'm going to fight and claw and

do everything in my power to make sure we keep it going with those guys.

So this isn't just new owner saying, yeah, I want to keep my guys, this is new owner

saying, I don't care, there's a story where the Phoenix, one of these teams was like, yeah,

no, we want Brad Stevens, we want Joe and Missoula, like no, you're not going to get those guys.

College comes for Joe, no, you're not going to get or Brad, you're not going to get Brad,

this is whatever these guys might be thinking, I'm going to do what I can to keep them here.

Now the good thing is Brad has a very level head. Now he might, because this is a job in a business

and there's negotiations, it's very easy to kind of float the, huh, oh yeah, this other team wants

me, huh? Oh, what are you, what are you willing to give me? What are you willing to pay? Just kind

of float a little something out there and just see if, okay, Bill, you really, you really want me

to stay, you really want to fight in claw? All right, let's see a little fighting and clawing then.

And listen, I'm not opposed to that, you got to do, you got to do what's good for you, man, this is

we are watching the Celtics, your Celtics fan, you want nothing but what's best for the team,

you have a sense of civic pride, when they do well, you feel good when they do well.

But these are jobs. This is how they earn their money. Brad Stevens has earned a lot of money

doing this job really, really well. They earn a little bit more. You want to, you want to fight and claw?

As he says in this quote, fight and claw and do everything in my power to make sure we keep it going

with these guys. All right, well, this contract's coming up. I have a little more fighting and clawing

here. There's another zero in there. Look, how does another zero look? Is that fighting and clawing?

Why not? I don't think Brad's going to go anywhere. I don't think he's going to do anything stupid.

If he angles four, he's good for him. Joe, Joe just signed an extension. So he's around for a

little while. I don't know the length of the extension. He's around for a little while.

Joe has a great attitude about how all of this goes. He knows some days. I'll be fired. We all

get fired some day and that's generally true. I don't know what Joe's mental state is going to be

with this team. I keep mentioning it. We do have to start wrapping our heads around the eventual

time where Jalen and Jason do go away. It's not that far off when you consider this is Jalen's

10th year. We've been talking about Jalen Brown for 10 years already and that went by pretty quick.

The next five or six or seven, that's not going to go, that's not going to drag on. That's going

to go quick too. And I don't know, but Joe's a local guy is a Rhode Islander like me.

We don't want to go anywhere. We'll sit here. We'll complain. I'll sit there in 10 degree weather,

shoveling three feet of snow going, why do I live here? But not exactly looking to leave. We like

it here. We're tough. We like the winters. We're built like that. All of us, New Englanders,

we're stupid. You know, we got attitudes. We're not going to let some weather scare us away. Come on.

Joe's not going to go anywhere. He loves this. He's coaching his favorite team. He grew up a

Celtics fan. You get to be a legend here. So I think Bill Chisholm is a little on the lucky side

with these guys. But I would always advise these guys to not let not let blind loyalty get in the way.

I think Bill Chisholm seems to be the guy that will negotiate in good faith. I would think. I would

hope. But you got to protect yourself. I don't think Joe, Joe's a fighter. You know, he knows no

matter. You could be in a ring. You could be in that in that cage with a friend and they're still

going to try to knock your block off. And it's kind of the same thing. This team with Brad and Joe,

whatever we think it's going to be, you could probably add a 10 percent, 15 percent,

Brad Stevens adjustment to it, a 10 to 15 percent, Joe Mazula adjustment to it because Brad

and not just Brad, whenever I say Brad, I mean the entire front office. And whenever I say Joe,

I mean the entire coaching staff.

With these guys, whatever you think a team is going to be, you can add 30 percent to it because

Brad is going to go find the players that fit somehow or give themselves a chance to fit.

Luca Garza is my go-to because you know how hard he works and you know what he's capable of

and you know what his strengths are. You say, I didn't fit here in Minnesota, but we have no bigs

in Boston and his hard work and effort and offensive rebounding. That could actually work here.

So let's give him a shot. Let's give him. He's going to be the scrap heap guy that we give a shot.

And boom, works because Joe Mazula now gets this guy and gets into his head and taps into the

hard worker and says, don't worry when I don't play you. Trust me. It's just the thing that in four days

you could be starting. Trust me, this is not about you. We're just hang with me and he builds these

relationships with these guys and he gets the most out of them too. So no matter what happens,

the Celtics have clearly figured out the second apron ins and outs.

Partly because with Grossbeck, it was one of the people that was in on creating it.

They, they, they and their scouting, they understand who fits who doesn't. And Joe Mazula just

taps into guys and what they do well and don't do well and gets them to respond. And if they don't,

if something doesn't go well, Joe and Brad will talk and that guy will be gone.

And it's simple as that. So yeah, I'd fight in claw to keep those guys too.

All right, maybe the most interesting thing I save what it might be the best for last is the

quote about TD Garden, which may be a little bit of negotiation happening. We'll talk about that

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Final quote. This is, again, all from the Boston Globes interview with Bilchism, which I recommend

because it's got, this is one of, I picked three questions out. There's probably a dozen questions

in there, so it's worth reading. But this one really stuck out to me and it's TD Garden.

And these, again, these are just little snippets of the answers. But Bilchism says,

my starting point is if we can make it work, we'd love to stay where we are. And making it work

means improving the fan experience and the player experience. If we can do those things and

remain where we are now, that's great. If it doesn't work there, we'll think about other places.

But my goal here is to see if we ideally make it work where we are. The improving the fan experience

and the player experience. The player experience is the thing that sticks out to me the most.

The fan experience, you guys tell me because I work there.

You tell me, I think the fan experience is pretty good. There's a lot of restaurants,

I think the area around TD Garden is pretty safe. I walk out there. It's generally pretty good.

There are tons of bars and restaurants. There's upscale. There's medium-scale. There's dive bars.

There's everything for different age groups. I've been around TD Garden. I've been there for

other events. I've been there for concerts and comedy shows. It's generally, I think, a good

experience for fans. The arena, I was just talking to somebody last night. The arena is actually

for a building that's 25 years old, whatever. It's in fantastic condition. I've been around the

league. I've seen most other arenas. The Celtics arena, TD Garden, still compares very favorably

to most of these arenas. If not all of them, maybe with some exception, the Chase Center,

the brand, the new arenas. Even that, the technology at Chase Center is great, the scoreboard.

I haven't been to the Clippers arena, so I don't know. TD Garden is everything seems great.

You tell me if I'm wrong. I think the fan experience is pretty good.

The player experience is the one that is interesting to me because I've also been in other locker rooms.

I've seen some home locker rooms that are like, wow, just wow. This is amazing, huge, so much

space, TVs and lockers. The crazy little things that make it so incredible, a full weight room,

full everything. What the Celtics have is kind of small. There's a whole back

section that I don't even know, so I can't tell you what's back there. They share it with the

Bruins, so I'm sure there's some nice stuff there. I've never been inside of the actual Bruins

locker room, so I don't know how that looks, but I'm assuming it probably looks a little bit better

because we're talking about the Bruins owners owning the building. I do expect some kind of

improvements from the player experience at some point. Somehow, they even change,

like they change where the guys come in, so they change where they park, how they come into the

building and all that stuff. They've changed a few things over the years. There are some spaces

that I can think of, just offshoots that they can maybe remodel, expand and maybe make the locker

rooms a little bit bigger, maybe add some stuff and change kind of how everything kind of fits.

I don't know, but that's going to be a work in progress. They still have a few years. They just

reupped their lease, so they're going to be there for, think another eight, nine years, so there's time

and there's certainly time for things to go bad, certainly time for things to work out. I don't

know where they would go. I've talked about a new building, a bunch. I don't know where in Boston,

you would build a new arena. There are some spots. Maybe you go into the seaport area. That place

has been pretty developed at this point. You go into the, there are a couple. Do you go next to

the casino? Do you do something? There's a spot there. There's been a plan that kind of

floated out there of eminent domain and a lot of environmental cleanup. It's going to be a

super massively expensive thing to do, but it would, it would keep the Celtics fairly close

without being too disruptive. We'll put them next to the casino, which I'm sure the casino would like

to have access to that big arena. Maybe you work in conjunction with the casino to fill that arena

on, on off nights. It would, I'm sure, open up a lot of competition. I don't know how Delaware

North, the Bruins owners, the Jacobs family would react to that. I don't know how much

palms, palm greasing they would do to try to prevent it. That's certainly an element that would

have to happen on both sides. So I'm very curious to see how they, how they pull this off.

My feeling is this quote is more negotiation. More I'll threaten. I'll, I'll leave open the

possibility of leaving the, hey, I'm a venture capitalist. I, I found a way to get $6 billion to,

to buy the team. Don't think I won't find a way to get a couple billion more to build a new

building. You're going to have to also on top of it, you're going to spend another 500 million

dollars at some point to buy a WNBA team, because that's how this is trending in probably five

years. Now that the Connecticut Sun are moving, boo, moving. But there's going to be, there's

going to be a Boston WNBA team at some point. And so they may just use the building that could,

that could be part of the draw. I don't know, I don't know. But I feel like this is more

negotiating than it is. I'm actually considering leaving. I think there's, there are ways to expand

the facilities in the back to make it a little bit more player-friendly. And that's,

that's something that you probably want a partnership, like you don't want to just have the

Celtics spending that money themselves. So there's going to be a partnership there to kind of

expand all of that. We'll see how that goes. But that's my take on that. I don't, I don't,

I don't think they're actually going to move. But you know, listen, if they do as long as they keep

it close, it's not the worst thing in the world. It really isn't because if you build a great arena

that's nearby and it's not that difficult to get to and you, you get the right public transportation

and all that stuff, you can create something that's really, really cool. Just because the old stuff

was one place, doesn't mean you have to put the new stuff in that same place. You're just going to

make the new stuff accessible to people and make it easy for people to get there and make the

experience really great. If they build it in the right place and people can get there and people

can park there and it doesn't screw up the traffic and all that stuff, which is damn near possible

to do and awesome. But if they can find a way and pull it off, I'm telling you one successful

season in that new building, everybody forget about, oh well, the old garden and blah, blah,

blah in history. You walk into that building and like, oh wow, this is actually pretty nice.

And the experience is great and this big scoreboard and all of that stuff and the locker rooms

and the players love it. People, one season, this is all it would take. Trust me on that.

But you can't move them to, you know, brain tree. You can't move them out to, you know,

wherever. You got to stay within the city limits of Boston. You certainly can't go too far west,

you got to stay within Boston. So we do not want a palace of Arbor and Hill situation here.

So those are my takes here on Bilchism and his interview in the Boston Globe. Again, there's

a lot in there. So go ahead and check that out at the Globe. And thank you for listening.

It's a bonus podcast. So every once in a while, I'll get bonus podcasts out here. During the day,

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