Jaylen Brown Thinks the Celtics Can Win It All This Year

There's a big article in The Guardian along with a comment section. J.B. discusses politics, racism, the death of his friend and much more. Green-goggled Celtics fans should especially like this part:

He has also looked forward to playing in London on Thursday, against the Philadelphia 76ers, and answered a question as to whether his young Celtics team may become NBA champions in the next few seasons: “Why not this year? People say maybe we’ll be good in two years – but I think we’re good now. Right now we’ve got one of the best records in the league. I think we could be as good as we want to be. But the more we let people construct our mindset, and start saying two years from now, is the moment we lose.”

I know I liked it. It's a stretch to think Yabusele and Nader will soon make leaps, but that's the deep bench and up to Ainge to prune and solidify. The Celtics have at least eight or nine players who could form the core of a title team. Some doubts have been answered including the play of Tatum and Brown, as in no one knew they could be this competent, this soon. And they can only get better.

Maybe the team keeps gelling, Danny adds a player or two, and then no one knows if thinking of a title this year is fool's gold or not. There's basically Golden State and everyone else as far as I can tell. Then one roots for David over Goliath if the C's make it out of the conference. I respect Toronto and Cleveland, but I think Boston can play with them. Stevens has a bit of Butler mystique carrying over to the NBA. The C's have consistently been a Cinderella the last several years. This year's version has much more talent with a much higher ceiling.

full link:
Jaylen Brown: 'Sport is a mechanism of control in America'

Phil,

Why don't we leave your thread as is?

When you posted it, you focused only on Brown's statement that Boston could win it all this year.

Perhaps someone will want to discuss that specifically, apart from other things covered. If not, no harm.

Regards

And, we should all be very disappointed in Jaylen Brown if he did not want to win this year and did not think that the Cs have a chance to win the title this year.

I, and every Cs fan in the world would be killing this kid if he had said anything close to "yeah, this year is just a building year and we should be better next year".  If he were playing in Atlanta, such a line would be OK, but not in BOSTON.

We may not win the championship this year (or, even in the next ten years for that matter), but being in first place in the middle of January, having a basically healthy roster, improving young guys, good team depth, a great coaching staff, etc, etc is not a bad place to start.

It's a funny thing how respect for opposing opinions works.

It wasn't that long ago that we had a discussion on TRo's statement he should be a starter. Part of that argument was based on the notion that why would you want a player who didn't want to or thot he wasn't good enuf to start.

We've gone on and on for years over which generation produced the best players.

We've even had this very same discussion on whether or not the C's are legit contenders this year.

Sometimes we get insulted when are favorite players are subjected to criticism. Like Danny we often over value the talent on the roster. (perhaps )

I know that over the years I have gone off more than once on people who downplay Celtics chances. I've alway figured that if you are a fan of a team you should give all you have as a fan to cheer your team on. But that is not a universally held opinion.

So I am learning how to have discussions rather than just make pronouncements of my opinion. It can be a daunting task to not respond in a vigorous way when deeply held opinions get challenged. I know personally it's very difficult when my fellow fans say this team is not legit and has no real chance.

I'm with Jaylen Brown on this. Why not? (This would be a rhetorical question which means this is not an open invitation for anyone to give all the reasons's you think this team isn't good enuf this year to win it all.

I'm not looking for an argument or even a reasoned response. But given our discussions lately my conspiratorial brain just thot this was a good time to extol the virtues of conviviality.

Thanks, NYCelt. I had to run out for errands and quickly wrote it. I should have made sure the story hadn't already been posted. Heckler was too fast for me.

I think it's a good idea to leave politics off of a sports board. Sometimes it is impossible. There's no point in discussing Kaepernick or racism if people are going to end up bitter and distressed. There are other forums for that.

I know it can get tricky. I brought up the Hollywood scandal not to get political, but I thought it might mean L.A. is not the great destination for free agents that it once was. But sometimes it is best for one to bite their tongue and just say the Lakers are not ready even if they could talk LeBron and Paul George to join them next year.

Wide Clyde makes a great point. Even if everything goes the best way possible, including a perfect Hayward recovery and the Lakers pick, there will never be a guaranteed championship. The C's would finally become a stronger favorite, but there could be more injuries to go with money factors. Bye bye Smart perhaps. I mean, if everything goes the way it could, the salary cap would have to reach $200 million.

If every player hits their potential, that will be a lot of $10-20 million contracts to pay in addition to superstar $30-40 million slots.

It's not just about Marcus Smart and Evan Turner. Say Theis becomes very, very good and better than good? How does Danny keep him?

This is why I will root for them the way Mulcogiseng does. Anything is possible, why not, etc..

I still think last year's Celtics could have won it all if everyone was healthy. That was a good team. Isaiah had a historic season and everything worked until players got too banged up and hurting.

Kyrie looks more durable than Isaiah.
Horford is reaching new levels as a player.
Tatum and Brown are playing much older than their ages.
Smart and Rozier are exerting themselves.

There is a lot of drama building up in Cleveland. I almost want to start watching all their games.

This is one of the better seasons, I think the best Stevens' year so far no matter how it finishes. And that is remarkable considering how gruesome the first game was.

I hated that game even though it was a moral victory of a close loss to Cleveland. I no longer cared about basketball. It was like Bias or Lewis, but not as bad, sorry if it's offensive to compare those stories to Hayward's exploding leg. I just felt revulsion. The last thing I wanted to do was watch the rest of the game. But then how did the players feel? And the following game was also bad. But then came the winning streak.

The Celtics would then hit a mediocre rough patch but now seem to be back on track.

A team could go 16-12 in the playoffs to win the title. That's only a .571 winning percentage. It is unlikely to do it that way, but what odds were the Red Sox facing down 0-3 to the Yankees? I never want to lose my childhood perspective on sports, that anything is possible, and if not, I want the referees investigated. It should be a clean fair fight with the best team winning.

So Jaylen is correct. 33-10 does not lie. They are humble and working on it. They are developing. The Celtics are old-school basketball. Red had his Roundball Show. In one of the threads, Horford is shown praising coaches. I have mentioned Hondo dropping in every once in a while to remind the current players which team they're on.

Kyrie and Horford understand and are ready. Just based on those two guys, if they are healthy at the right time, then the Celtics have to be given some of the few odds available to upset Golden State. Ali didn't win every fight. GS can't be that great. They are not the Globetrotters. They are not Sullinger dominating China.

One year it looked like the Lakers were better than the Celtics, but the C's stole a couple close games and then the series. It would probably take something like that to beat Golden State, but it's possible. I think it was the Bird stole the ball over to D.J.. There was one finals when the Celtics beat Magic Johnson in an "anything is possible kind of way." It'd be like Rozier deflecting the pass and going in for the dunk in an improbable win.

I barely remember it, but the C's were down six with not much time against Philly. Tiny Archibald made an old-school three pointer. Stuff like that. It was a comeback from down 3-1. I saw Flutie beat Miami in real time. I saw that catch by Phelan. And it was such a high scorer, lots of points and just great for pure sport.

I watched Villanova beat Georgetown. I have not been the biggest sports fan around, but I did luck out catching some instant classics in real time.

In 1987 Bird stole an inbound pass from the original Isiah Thomas and passed it to DJ for the winning basket in the ECF.

As Herm Edwards said "you play the game to win"

It is great to hear the level of confidence coming from a young player like Jaylen Brown.  But I would bet that coach Stevens does not think the same way.  He is more focused on the task at hand.  His focus is on the team improving every game.  Brad never looks that far ahead.  He knows the journey is long and the next step is the most important step.

I do think that they can compete this year but I cannot look at this team and say that they are a better team than Golden State over a 7 game series.  The Cavs, Raptors and Wizards are all good teams so getting out of the East will be difficult but not impossible.

Playoff seedings matter and the Celtics are looking like they will be at the top by the end of the season.  But there are 39 games remaining and a lot can happen.  based on their current winning percentage Boston is projecting out to a record of 63-19.  I think 60 wins puts them at the top of the conference.

The key to me is their defense.  It started to slip but is now looking really good.  Defense is the equalizer for a team that does not put up a lot of points.

dboss

Anything can happen. We could beat Toronto, DC, Cleveland and then GSW. That's why they play the games.

worcester wrote:In 1987 Bird stole an inbound pass from the original Isiah Thomas and passed it to DJ for the winning basket in the ECF.

Thanks, I can't remember things that well. I must have been confusing a Lakers match up with the Pistons. I remember Johnny Most's voice more than actual games. I loved that guy. He was so funny.

I definitely remember the Philly series in 1980-81 for an improbable comeback.

The 1983-84 4-3 win over the Lakers could be the memory. That must have been the one without air conditioning. Old NBA soul Kareem was sweating buckets and having trouble breathing.

Except for 1985-86, the Bird era teams did not seem to dominate at a Golden State clip. Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Detroit were big threats. The Bucks weren't too bad either.

I liked Andrew Toney. I loved Tiny Archibald. I remember Cedric Maxwell as a great player. I can't believe we all spent our lives watching the Celtics, but it happened. It seems we could be receiving the ultimate prize of yet another ten year run with multiple chances to add to the 17-16 title lead over the Lakers.

The 2008 team needed another title to compete with the 70's era. The new era knock on wood could easily rise to second best era behind the 60's above the original Big Three with Fitch and then K.C. Jones as coach.

bobc33 wrote:Andrew Toney?  You had to go and mention Andrew Toney..........now the nightmares are going to come back.  Andrew Toney is worse than Bucky bleeping Dent in my estimation.

Has there ever been a player who heated up more in big games against the Celtics?

No worries Phil I’m sure my Toney nightmares will go away, in a month or two.  

What was worse for me was when the C's were playing at Philly and hearing their PA announcer emphatically declare a "Toney" hoop.

It's no fun without competition. It's why Durant got attacked so much for signing with Golden State. He clearly took the easy way out in a form of ring chasing. He and Golden State basically cheated.

It was watching so-called enemies such as Toney and Magic Johnson as a young fan which enabled me to become a purer observer of games.

I am very provincial for sports and more specifically focused on the Boston Celtics, but sometimes one must tip the cap to other teams and players. But I won't do so for Kevin Durant or LeBron. If Cleveland somehow beats us, I hope the little guy gets the glory.