On today’s episode of the CelticsPod, hosts Adam Taylor and Will Weir dive into the Boston Celtics’ recent invitation to Jake Layman, who joins the team’s training camp roster in a bid to earn himself a contract.
Layman’s arrival marks Brad Stevens’ commitment to giving some younger veterans, who find themselves on the outskirts of the league, an opportunity to prove themselves and earn a spot on a contending roster for the upcoming season.
“Layman doesn’t really fit into that young vet mold. He’s already 28 gonna be coming into his age 29 season. He’s not exactly a young dude. But he’s probably the most complete guy coming into the training camp battles I wouldn’t say exceptional, but he’s a talented defender.
Very good at switching, which comes from that Chris Finch system. He’s proven he can switch between three, four, and five quite consistently while on the floor for Minnesota over his three years,” Adam Taylor said when discussing Layman’s chances of earning himself a contract.
Adam and Will tried to make sense of the training camp battles for a roster spot and detailed who they believed could earn a full-time deal.
“I mean, I think all of these guys are gonna have relative question marks in different ways if they are to make the roster. But, I think for me, Noah Vonleh, Justin Jackson, and Jake Layman, those are gonna be the three with the best chance to come Opening Night, actually be on this roster,” Weir said.
Finally, the discussion turned towards the proposed mid-season tournament, which the NBA is seriously considering implementing in the coming years. Adam is English and has grown up in a sporting culture where tournaments running concurrently with a sport system are common, so Will was keen to get his perspective on the idea.
Overall, Adam believes the tournament could work if it was moved towards the latter part of the season, where teams with hopes of contention, who have struggled throughout the year, could potentially get a shot at some form of success while rebuilding teams could look to give their younger talent a taste of victory at the NBA level.
“So, my thing is maybe it shouldn’t be in December. And the reason I say this is it’s too early in the season. So maybe it should be in February, when some of these good teams with solid players are not making as deep into the seeding as they would like. I mean, they’re not that top-three seed they envisioned themselves being.
So if you are the Lakers and you’re like, man, this isn’t working out this year, we’re gonna have to try to save our season… And this is how a lot of Premier League teams look at it as well. Like, hey, we’ve fallen behind pace in the Premier League. we’re not winning this year. It’s not happening. So, to save our season, we need to try and win a League Cup, an FA Cup.”
You can find all this and MORE on Wednesday’s episode of the CelticsPod podcast, which comes to you three times per week, every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
You can find regular episodes of the CelitcsPod and Celtics PRIDE podcasts on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever else you listen to your podcasts, and if you prefer to watch your podcasts, every episode of the CelticsPod is uploaded to my YouTube channel.
