Personal privacy? I don't know. But declining to comment is hardly evidence.
Celtic off-court discussion
- Thread starter DJnVa
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Ime said the other night that everyone can play in Canada if they had to for that game. I just did some quick research and it looks like a prior infection does not count, you either need 2 doses of Moderna and/or Pfizer or 1 of JJ(lol). Ime didn't leave, at least to me, much room for interpretation no matter how weirdly he said it. I'll believe him over a "no comment" or ESPN sources
Tatum has said he is vaccinated. Browns statement is that he won’t comment, as it’s a personal choice. Between his statement, the fact that his first missed game in months happened to occur in Canada, the further fact that he only missed that game…leads to a possible suggestion that there may be an issue here.
Would be a very difficult burden if they draw Toronto and he can’t play, after the way this team has come together.
Would be a very difficult burden if they draw Toronto and he can’t play, after the way this team has come together.
Ime already said he wanted to get them some rest. Obviously it's better to do it when they are on the road so they don't have to travel. The next 3 are home, last 3 on the road. Why sit them on a road trip they are already going to have to take unless they sit them out for the last 3. Again, Ime says they can all play, yet everyone wants to ignore him and speculate
Is there a source for this? All I can find is that he said Big Al was going to be out for personal reasons and the J's wanted to get some rest. He never said they were all available.
https://www.audacy.com/weei/sports/celtics/espn-is-questioning-celtics-players-vaccination-status
Look, I'm hoping this is a nothingburger and they are all vaccinated. Part of me also wants to find out.
Given Ime’s wording, it’s possible player(s) are not currently fully vaccinated but they are in the process of being vaccinated so if they had to play in the first round they would be good to go.
It was one of the post-game interviews I believe. He was talking about guys being nicked up and they might need a game to rest, and this was before the TL injury. I think it was the same game JB was interviewed right after and said his knee was hurting, I think he was responding to a question about that, lemme see if I can find it when I get the chance
View: https://twitter.com/StoolGreenie/status/1508836987528228876
End of the video. Seems like he’s pretty clearly saying everyone can play in Toronto if they meet in the playoffs.
Given that the voice asking these questions is Tim McMahon, who works for ESPN, it’s pretty shocking that ESPN continues to report on this as if it’s a question (both by Windhorst and tonight by Breen on the broadcast)
End of the video. Seems like he’s pretty clearly saying everyone can play in Toronto if they meet in the playoffs.
Given that the voice asking these questions is Tim McMahon, who works for ESPN, it’s pretty shocking that ESPN continues to report on this as if it’s a question (both by Windhorst and tonight by Breen on the broadcast)
He’s a restricted free agent. If he goes anywhere it’s going to be via sign & trade.
Yes, Offensively they're remarkably similar players in production. Schroder has also consistently been a 1 Darko offensive player for the better part of 400 games until recently. His chart is like a straight line. White's is shorter obviously and is also a 1.
Defensively, the guys aren't in the same fucking zip code. One's a +1, and one's a -1. On a positive note, Schroeder's poor defense hasn't gotten any worse over the last 75 games or so that his offense tanked. But it's still awful.
If you believe that 15% of the players are great or crappy defenders and everyone else is the same so who cares, then yes, they're the same guy.
Side note, can we block Toucher and Rich references in the forum. Sweet mother of God.
+1... spot on Jimbo
I wouldn't be shocked if HRB's theory on defense is pretty pervasive across NBA intelligentsia. BUT disagree. There are many degrees/levels of defense, just like there are many degrees/levels of offense.
Brad is arbitraging that defensive mispricing at every turn
1. Smart contract
2. TT unloading
3. Kemba punt
4. Horford addition
5. TL contract
6. JRich signing, then extension
7. White trade
8. Theis trade
9. Not adding Forbes.
10. Not adding Mathews
11. Jabari exit
Even with Schroder on a dirt-cheap contract, he was punted as salary filler, which was kind of shocking (but made sense)
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Like the Hunter Renfroe approach too. Low cost, hit pretty well, throws great, does a lot of stuff terribly.
Sure you need power (31 bombs 112OPS+), and he had a lot of flashy assists. But he's a 2 WAR player, and he'll likely always be so, because he has a lot of weaknesses in his game.
Bloom underpaid for those 2 WAR and got something for him at the end. Brad should keep doing the same.
Don't get me wrong...the hoop def metrics are still a work in progress, to put it kindly. I get the skepticism.
It most certainly is evidence. Not conclusive by any stretch, but any comment or in this case non comment can be used to paint a bigger picture
Really like what PBS/IME are doing here, building around the JAYs, defense and ball movement. The next 3-4 seasons look extremely promising with only a few small tweaks/additions needed.
We know more than this. NBA protocols have severe restrictions on unvaccinated players, including the requirement that unvax'd players "be given a locker that is as distant from other players as possible ": https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/32301923/in-memo-teams-nba-crafts-protocols-requiring-unvaccinated-players-many-same-restrictions-rest-league.
Looking at the locker room video when KG arrived, note that JB's is right in the middle (next to Nesmith).
Not dispositive but if JB wasn't vaccinated, the Cs are violating NBA policy.
It seems clear they have decided as a team not to disclose player vaccination status. That doesn't necessarily mean that they care covering for unvaccinated players. We'll see what happens if they get a Toronto series.
Just because the organization refuses to comment on players' vax status doesn't mean players themselves can't clarify things.
"They should respond to the press morons with a clarification because it'll remain a story with the press morons if they don't."
Maybe they don't care.
Maybe they don't care.
It seems pretty clear that some of the guys are not vaxxed and would prefer to keep it that way but are willing to get the shot if it otherwise means missing playoff games.
It is actually not clear. The only thing clear is that team and most players are not going on record. The rest is assumption.
Wouldn't we know who is unvaccinated by now? Aren't there different protocols for unvaccinated players?
It's also possible the entire team isn't vaccinated, but that the players who aren't vaccinated are Malik Fitts, Luke Kornet and other scrubs they added to fill the roster.
everyone that was at the Toronto game is vaccinated. That leaves a handful of players
Per Canada’s guidelines, with the playoffs starting April 16 and if we had to play in Toronto that night(yeah I know almost def won’t happen), a player would need to have the shot to be fully vaccinated 14 days prior, so today. They can’t decide the day before to get the shot
Yes there are. One protocol involves placing the unvax'd locker away from other team members, which doesn't appear to be the case in the KG video.
Also, BRobb reported earlier in the year that JB's COVID infection was breakthrough and he was vaccinated: https://www.masslive.com/celtics/2021/10/payton-pritchard-likely-broke-his-nose-celtics-guard-will-travel-back-to-boston-for-evaluation.html
As JB is VP of union, my guess is that he's sticking to the "it's a personal choice" because of that role. I would be shocked (and disappointed) if he were unvax'd.
My guess is that everyone who matters is vaccinated, but team and players have decided not to comment.
Everything points to this and to the media is being irresponsible in their reporting. They have access. They know the protocols. So instead of reporting on the particular protocols of said players they are running with……”Hey! Heavy usage players didn’t travel to Canada (in what was an obvious rest sport for heavy usage players) so we may be on to something here!”
Complete Utter BS
I mean yeah, I was making the point on the crazy chance they flip flop, but even still it would need to happen soon. Either way, I'm still in the boat that I'm going to take the coach's and player's words and I believe everyone that counts is vaccinated, not the media and people here wanting to speculate. I get the media buying into the narrative, I'm surprised how many on this board are
Hear hear.
I'm routinely surprised at how many on this board (not just in MBPC) post "I just heard <insert dumbass radio host name here> say on their radio show..." Sometimes it's even "someone just said on <show X>...", like we're seriously getting inside information from a talk show caller.
If one said "I was just talking to the guy with the tinfoil hat and half a bottle of Robitussin in Harvard Square...", it would be equally useful as a preamble.
who and how many are speculating around here?
I mostly see people trying to parse the language from Brad/IME pressers/interviews. The team has gone out of its way to NOT say "players are 100% vaccinated" as other teams have. Someone brought up a good point that Jaylen's role in the Players Union could be a reason for that, but who knows?
I see little judgment. People are mostly curious about who could play if a Toronto series happened, which is what fans do.
The team has, indeed, gone out of its way to not say that players are 100% vaccinated. I just think people are being too quick to assume the worst. Ime has walked up to the line of saying everyone is all set without saying it.
The team has certainly gone out of its way to not answer the question directly at all, and gone out of its way to say why: CBA and HIPAA being the leaders in the clubhouse.
Ccould substantiate that definitive claim?
Brad specifically referred to the CBA during his T&R interview, though I admit to not seeing anything definitive.
I’m not a lawyer but at least tangentially aware of HIPAA requirements and believe the team disclosing health related status about a specific player would be on the wrong side of that line.
Not sure I get this. Are you stating the team is choosing not to disclose when they could be?
I may be wrong, but it appears to me the C's adopted a policy early in the pandemic that they would not publicly discuss the vaccination status of players, and they've stuck to that.
I think that's exactly what's going on. Players, specifically Jaylen, have chosen not to disclose or talk to the media about the vaccine because they believe it is a personal choice, and the front office has agreed to respect their wishes. That's been gone over several times in this thread.
The team has attempted to address this indirectly by telling the media that their guys will be ready to go if they have games in Toronto.
Another thought: I'm not sure Jaylen would have been able to have been even listed as questionable for the game in Toronto if he wasn't vaccinated.
And to be honest, I think the whole thing is a little confusing, so I don't blame anyone for wondering.
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MIA and MIL have disclosed that all team members are vaccinated so that apparently isn't a HIPAA violation. OTOH, it would be harder for a team to say that "almost all" of their members aren't vaccinated as once a team says that it isn't 100% vaccinated, there will be a media hunt for the unvax'd person(s).
Brad said on the radio that "As an organization we’ve said from day one, we’re not going to comment on our team vaccination status or individual vaccination status". IIRC, JRich wasn't vaccinated at one point so maybe the organizational decision not to comment was to protect JRich from questions, which JB would obviously want to uphold since he is VP of the union.
The only person we're really wondering about is JB. Other than his locker and the report from earlier this year, I can't find anything that would definitely show that JB was vaccinated as he's a pretty private person (i.e., dinners, events, or what-not that he couldn't go to if he were unvaccinated). However, I can only imagine what a cluster it would be if JB couldn't play in TOR because he was unvaccinated, and I would guess that he would want to get way ahead of that news if there was a chance of that happening.
JFC.
Different teams have handled the issue somewhat differently. Because I'm not a believer in conspiracy theories, I think this means that all teams are operating within whatever rules are applicable and the differences across teams reflects permissible discretion.
As to whatever rules apply, I would imagine that precise statements matter. For example, it might be impermissible for a team to release roster list that denotes each player's vaccination status, but allowable to say "more than 85% of our players are fully vaccinated."
It would, of course, be a major, reportable story that, say, "Jayson Tayum is not vacinated and will miss the 3 road games if the C's play Toronto," if that were in fact true. In the absence of such information, all of this talk is conspiracy-minded nonsense.
I am, and there is no HIPAA issue here. I have not reviewed the CBA but given that 1) teams regularly speak about their players injury status and availability and 2) other teams have directly answered the vaccination question, I would be surprised if it expressly prohibits a team from commenting.
The likeliest reason for the Celts' refusal to comment is Jaylen. He has a leadership role in the Union. There is a portion of the membership that opposes vaccine mandates/are vaccine "skeptics." I could see him advocating for a "no comment" response given his role as a leader in the Union and the Celtics acquiescing giving his role as a leader on the team.
Ime's answer here is a little clunky, but to me he unequivocally says that everyone would be available to play in Toronto in a playoff series. To me it seems like he almost says "everyone is vaccinated" in his statement before remembering the team policy and choosing the word "available" instead. If it turns out someone isn't vaccinated and thus cannot participate, Ime will deserve blowback for essentially lying with his answer here.