The discussions take place at every NBA game. Some are at courtside as players go through individual warmups in the couple of hours prior to tipoff. Some are in the press dining area.

Advance scouts from around the league are there to not only chart plays for upcoming games against their teams, but also to check out players their clubs may want to acquire down the line. (That’s why they pay particular attention in the early sessions to see the moves and basic work ethic of those who may play sparingly or not at all.)

In an overall sense, these people who are paid to judge players and teams have some fairly strong opinions about this year’s Celtics — and how they differ from last year’s Celtics.

“This is all about getting away from Kyrie,” said one recently.

“You can’t put that all on Kyrie,” replied another.

“OK, 99 percent.”

“That’s fair.”

Laughter.

Ah, scout humor.

The truth is, of course, more complex, and they know that.

One Western Conference scout told the Herald, “Absolutely you’re going to have a change in team attitude when Kemba Walker replaces Kyrie Irving, but what you’re seeing now says more about the young guys getting their (stuff) together.

“They (Celtics) still have some ball movement issues at times, especially with (Gordon) Hayward out, but you’re seeing a lot less pounding the ball with guys like (Jayson) Tatum this year. He’ll still over-dribble sometimes, but it’s not like it was last year after he spent time with Kobe.”

Tatum vigorously denied any of his 2018-19 issues stemmed from offseason tutelage by Kobe Bryant, but the circumstantial evidence is that the Celts as a whole are more in tune with each other this season.

“You can blame Kyrie for a lot,” said one scout, “but I’m not sure anyone could reel those kids in after they’d gone to the conference finals without him and Hayward.”

Danny Ainge has said he didn’t construct the roster properly, and he told the Herald in a Tuesday story, “I think it was everybody trying to figure out like how they could earn their opportunities, and there wasn’t enough to go around to feed everybody.”

Now the Celtics seem to have grasped that if they play hard enough on defense, the ball will find them at the other end, whether it’s on a fast break or a secondary action or just the ball movement that is promoted when a team is hustling and trusting on D.

Oh, there are still bound to be stretches of slippage, and the Celts have gone through some of them recently while getting beaten in Brooklyn and allowing the Knicks to control too much of the game Sunday before they saved themselves. The C’s also got down 11 to Miami Wednesday before cranking up the defensive volume to stay undefeated at home — a streak that will be harder to keep intact when Denver shows up Friday night.

“I really like the way they play defense,” said a scout. “They know they have some problems guarding inside, but they compensate pretty well by putting more pressure on the ball.

“Everyone knows how (Marcus) Smart defends, but Tatum is rangy, and Jaylen Brown can be really good. Kemba isn’t really going to shut down a top point guard or anything, but he’s working out there. Then they come in with people like (Semi) Ojeleye and their other guys, (Brad) Wanamaker, and you can see why their bench gets them going in some of these games.”

A scout who’s seen the Celts often — but wasn’t at Friday’s win over Denver — has been caught a bit off-guard by the club’s march to 16-5.

“I supposed it shouldn’t surprise me when you see what they can put out there and how hard those guys play — Marcus Smart, damn,” he said. “But they’ve had some very nice wins, and the fact they have stayed up with Hayward out is big. You really didn’t know what to expect from Hayward this year, but with the way he was playing, you figured they’d miss him a lot when he went out. If you look closely at their games, they actually have missed him, but they’ve still found a way to grind out wins.”

As much as the evaluators are impressed with what they’ve seen, pretty much all agree it’s going to take a good deal more for the Celts to have success in the postseason.

“We turn in our reports on them now, and no question the coaches will go over it before we play Boston,” said one. “But how much can you really go through with our players when you may have just one practice or a shootaround to go over things with them. And most of that time is going to be spent working on our stuff anyway.

“That changes in the playoffs. You’re definitely more tuned in to who you’re going against. Whoever Boston plays will be more ready for what they do. But if they keep playing like this, you know for sure they’re at least going to be a very tough out.”