Does This Look Like The Face Of A Man Who Was Lying About His Basketball Roster?
Jesse D. Garrabrant. Getty Images.As you can imagine, this Jaylen Brown/KD bullshit has officially consumed my life. I really only see two ways that ends
1). KD is traded somewhere this summer that is not Boston
2). The NBA season starts and KD is not on the Celtics roster
Until either of those things happen, this is our reality. Naturally, that means the next step is all of us who have a total of zero (0) sources or knowledge of anything involving this situation need to read the tea leaves to try and figure out what the hell is happening.
Let me start this blog off by saying I do not think Shams was lying or randomly made up that proposed Jaylen/White/pick offer. While we obviously don't know the details around those conversations or how they started/went, I'm operating under the assumption that it did in fact take place.
With that said, as we all try and determine what's real and what's a smoke screen, two things have stuck out to me when it comes to our lord and savior Brad Stevens. I want you to watch the following clips
The first is from Brad's sitdown after the Brogdon/Gallo introductions which took place 11 days ago. The second clip is from last week. Notice a theme there? Does that sound/look like the person who is looking to shake up his roster? So it begs to question, is Brad lying? It's certainly possible. Things can change in an instant in the NBA offseason. But that's why the timing of all these rumors is pretty important to me. When did Brad make that initial offer? You'll notice neither Woj or Shams put a timeline on that. Do I think it's possible that Brad and the Nets had initial conversations when KD first demanded his trade and before he built out his roster? Of course. Do I think it's possible that maybe something happened in the past 11 days that made Brad change course? That's also possible, everything is possible.
What I struggle with is when you look at why the Celtics did not win the NBA title, it wasn't a top end talent issue. Well let me say that differently. Their top end talent didn't exactly perform like we all wanted, but it's not like the roster doesn't have the type of top end talent that is capable of winning a championship. I would argue their lack of actual depth and the fact that they could basically only play 6 guys was a much larger factor than say, Jaylen being the 1B player on this roster to the point where you have to upgrade that spot with KD. When you then factor in what the Nets are going to require to trade KD, doesn't that sort of go against everything Brad is saying in those clips? That's why the timing matters to me.
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At the same time, there's now also this to consider
God dammit. God fucking dammit. I hate it here. Why are we doing this? It was painful enough to watch this team lose 3 straight to fumble an NBA title, now I have to add this to my plate? The fucking Nets man, just go away. I'm over your bullshit impacting my favorite team and generally ruining my life. Just because you chose the wrong players to hitch your wagon to does not mean you need to drag us all into it.
But back to Brad for a second. Here's where we are now as far as I'm concerned. The Celts need to respond VERY publicly and they need to do it quickly. Get the Globe on the phone and get your side out there. Deny it. Publicly declare your love for Jaylen right this fucking second. I don't care what you do but I know the do nothing option is no longer acceptable. I can understand not playing into the rumors but I can also understand how fragile your locker room is and why it's important to push back if you are in fact not about to trade Jaylen Brown. I can only do so much as a lowly blogger.
As I said at the top of this blog, this is now our life for the foreseeable future. Every Celtics fan on the planet is basically Charlie
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because who knows what to believe. All I know is that the Boston Celtics are good enough to win an NBA title without trading for Kevin Durant. Everyone with eyes can see that. At the same time, I have no choice but to endlessly refresh my timeline in fear/anticipation that there's going to be another Shams/Woj bomb. That is certainly not a life I thought I'd be living as recently as last week after hearing Brad talk about this team and how it's built.
God dammit.