It’s Game 7, and the Celtics are playing small.
No Jayson Tatum for the night, a DNP for Nikola Vucevic, and Jaylen Brown is on the block with a posted-up Joel Embiid.
And this wasn’t some small ball hard trap. Jaylen Brown is on an island with a 280-pound former MVP. With nine minutes left in the third quarter, a brief dig from Baylor Scheierman is slight help, but Embiid is unbothered. Easy bucket.
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Three minutes later, it’s truly an island. Near the high post, Brown slaps his hands together hard, and swipes furiously as Embiid jab steps and drives into another hook shot. Two more points.
They met inside two more times in the fourth quarter. Of course Philly wants that matchup every time. It hasn’t failed. The first time, Brown does everything possible to prevent the entry pass, but Embiid successfully gets the inside edge, and as he’s about to go up for another easy bucket, in comes Brown, swatting the ball off the backboard into the hands of Derrick White.
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It happens again in clutch time in a 1-point game. Embiid is backing down Brown on the low block, but the smaller Brown is standing his ground. Embiid can’t reach the restricted area and settles for a hook shot that barely reaches the front rim (Neemias Queta actually did help late this time, but it’s Brown’s stop).
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We didn’t know it then, but it’s the last game of Brown’s 10-year Celtics run, and the bridge that leads to him joining one of Boston’s most historic rivals, a team that has played a part in Brown’s own playoff legacy as a Celtic.
We have now seen the full picture of Jaylen Brown’s Celtics career. Brown went to war for Boston, just like he said he promised on his draft night. Even if it often meant failure on the biggest stages, even if it meant the brunt of the blame alongside Jayson Tatum as the duo that couldn’t work together. Even if he’s left completely alone on a ginormous elite scorer in a Game 7. Jaylen Brown is never afraid of the moment, and all the consequences that come with it.
On the night confetti rained down on the Garden as the Celtics captured their first NBA title since 2008, Brad Stevens sounded like a man vindicated. The duo he coached, the duo he stuck with through years of trade rumors and breakup headlines, had finally won an NBA title.
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“The criticism is stupid,” he said. “[Tatum & Brown] achieved more than most 25, 26-year-olds ever had. The scrutiny was because they were playing in May & June…I’d rather be in the mix and have my guts ripped out, than suck. And those two have been really good for a long time.”
It’s hard to fathom that two years later, after offseasons enduring trade ideas floated toward the biggest names in the league (including Paul George himself), Brad Stevens settled for a trade offer that, from any outside perspective, is an underwhelming return for an All-Star fresh off a career scoring season.
It finally happened, and it happened for that?
Paul George, who admittedly had a good season and an even better postseason, attached to a pair of first round picks and two seconds hardly seems like the proper value from trade talks that ESPN’s Shams Charania reported were with “8-10 teams.”
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It finally happened, and it happened for that?
It’s pretty unbelievable that the process of trade discussions surrounding Giannis Antetokounmpo ultimately ended here, and with the Philadelphia 76ers of all teams. There is not a soul on this Earth that predicted that even weeks ago, and if they did, they either have insider information, or are psychic.
It’s impossible to consider this the very end of the line for the Celtics’ offseason. After all, it’s only been two days of free agency, and it’s hard to imagine this was a one-step plan, but really consider what’s out there, and what conceivably could be obtained by re-routing Paul George, or moving Derrick White and/or Sam Hauser.
George and four picks pulled an All-NBA talent, sure, but at 36 years old with an eyesore of a contract featuring a player option, what are the moves that really put the Celtics in a significantly better position to contend in the immediate future than if they just held onto Brown and attempted to figure it out?
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Maybe this ends with the popular Portland or New Orleans packages we’ve seen rumored all along, now with additional draft capital to sweeten any deal. Maybe it’s that long-rumored trade for Kevin Durant that was once offered in 2023. Maybe it’s the first domino to acquire Anthony Davis and LeBron James in what would be one of the most wildly incomprehensible jersey swaps you’ve ever seen. What Brad Stevens does next, I have no idea.
Whatever it is, was it really worth it while Jaylen Brown gets slotted into a starting lineup that features Tyrese Maxey, VJ Edgecombe and Joel Embiid, one the Celtics will have to face multiple times, and possibly in a series?
The 76ers got better. Will the Celtics?
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