The Weekend Greenie Bag - From Isaiah To Jaylen And Everything In Between
Nothing like a good old fashioned double Celtics blog Saturday! Welcome everybody to another edition of your favorite weekend tradition, the Weekend Greenie Bag. Not surprisingly the tone of this weeks submissions was overall a lot more positive, and with good reason. In fact I wouldn’t hate if there were still some angry submissions just to keep us honest. Remember, being a part of the fun is easy and appropriate for all ages. Tweet me anything that crosses your mind with #GreenieBag or get creative and send me an email at greenieceltsbag@gmail.com
With that said let’s take a look at what was on your minds this week
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Greenie,
I’m getting a bit baffled why so many people find it ridiculous that “MVP” is chanted at Celts games for IT. I’m the first one to admit that if I were starting an NBA team from scratch, IT would not be in my top 10 as much as I love his game and what he’s done this year. But the MVP is not for the best player in the NBA, it’s for the player most valuable to his team. Great arguments can be made for Lebron, of course, even though he plays with 2 other all stars. This year the front runners are Russ and the Beard justifiably so – both are having monster years. Why is it outrageous to think that IT could be the most valuable player to his team in the league? Realistically, how many wins would the Celts have without him? He has single handedly won them about 10 games in the 4th quarter this year. I won’t be screaming outrage if he doesn’t win it, but I don’t get why so many people think this is an idiotic argument. He’s making history on a nightly basis. He just broke the Celts scoring record for the month of January and the Green have had a few good players pass through town over the course of franchise history. He’s playing with no other all stars on his team. He’s evolved his game past the point of being just a great scorer. He’s improved his passing tremendously this year and for as much as he handles the ball, he’s limited his turnovers. The team basically throws him the ball in the 4thquarter most nights and asks him to win games……and then he goes and does just that. The MVP usually goes to a player on a team that is relevant in the standings – the Celts are alone in 2nd place and 2.5 games out of first. My whole family is glued to the tv every night the Celts play just to watch Isaiah. The guy is a beast and I don’t think he is getting nearly the credit he deserves.
We love the blogs, celts bag and the tweets. Keep up the great work. -Steve
Steve I can’t sit here and tell you why people get so worked up about this. I think it started in jest, but has gained serious momentum as the weeks go by. You may not consider him a favorite, but it’s impossible to watch him and not think he’s in that Harden/Westbrook/Durant/Leonard conversation. Mostly because when Steph Curry had this exact production a few years ago, nobody was saying he wasn’t a legit MVP, he in fact won it unanimously.
This also isn’t the first time the practice has happened at the Garden either. We all did the same thing with guys like Pierce, and we’ll probably do it again with guys like Yabu one day. If Isaiah was putting up average stats and the team had average success, it would feel silly. In reality, you’re silly if you are at the Garden and you remain silent during one of these chants.
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Hey Greenie, what do you think about a Serge Ibaka or Paul Millsap on the Celtics? Whether we sign them in the off season or trade for them now, do you think they would boost us into contention with Cleveland? They are both great players, with some ups and downs, but they are also both free agents at the end of this year. I was just curious as to what you thought about these two players. Thanks -Mike
Mike I’m not sure either of these players by themselves elevate the Celtics past CLE. If I had to pick between the two, I probably lean towards Ibaka due to being younger and cheaper. Paul Millsap might be then better overall player, but I think Ibaka’s strengths are exactly what this team needs. I’m a little nervous about how Ibaka’s production has been trending, but I think you could insert him into this team and not have to change a thing, whereas if you were to bring in Millsap, you probably have to adjust roles a little bit.
I think they’ll both be important in their own way. Brad’s going to be important because elite players are going to get a taste of what it’s like to play for him. They’ll be able to see up close what the hype is all about, and if you’re one of these All Stars that play for a shitty coach, you can’t tell me that won’t stand out.
For Isaiah, he’s already one for one. I expect him to be in the ear of absolutely every upcoming free agent, and I think his play and the team’s success are going to help his case. It’s a lot easier to make the “we’re a player away” argument when you are an MVP candidate and right there for the #1 seed in the conference.
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To Greenie,
Was at the game last night and I got to say, watching Brown vs Ingram is going to be a lot of fun for a long time to come. And I think we will end up on the better side of that duo. Viva -John
John I wrote about it in the blog earlier today, but in the first matchup of their careers, you have to like what you see. Both are still 100% projects, but ours certainly looks to be more NBA ready at this stage. I think the biggest thing we all thought heading into that draft was Ingram was heads and above a better shooter/scorer, but now 50 games into the season I’m not so sure that’s the case. As the season has gone on we’ve seen Jaylen get better, I’m not sure Ingram can say the same.
This isn’t to say they both don’t have extremely high ceilings and bright futures ahead of them, but I’m happy we have Jaylen and I probably wouldn’t trade him straight up for Ingram if that means anything.
Hey Greenie, after Jaylen’s past few performances and the fact he’s getting better with minutes, could you see the Celtics parting ways with Crowder to try and pry away a disgruntled Jimmy Butler? And how would you rank Jaylen so far in his class? Thanks for everything Celts! – Ryan
Ha Ryan I’m not sure I understand your reasoning. Jaylen is looking good, so let’s trade the guy who starts at his position for another guy who plays that same position and would continue to block him? I think Jimmy Butler is legit as hell, that should go without saying, but just because a player is good doesn’t mean he’s the right fit. Talent wise yes he 100% helps you, but timing is everything. Personally, I’d almost prefer the Jaylen/Jae combo + stud Player X, over just a Jimmy/Jaylen pairing.
Also, I’m not sure how much Jimmy plays at the 4 which we’ve seen Crowder do for this team. Again he’s an elite talent and would make them better, but I’m not convinced there isn’t a better way to get to CLE’s level.
Hey Greenie,
I prefer a big as well. The problem is if I’m packaging Avery/Jae, and probably needing to throw in a BKN pick, the player has to be really really good and I’m not sure that big is out there outside of Boogie Cousins. If you’re telling me SAC takes that deal? I probably do it in a heartbeat. Do the Clippers take that deal for someone like Blake, and then you pray you can resign him? It’s hard to say. Other bigs that I would take for a price like that, like Gobert, I don’t are available. Remember who’s to say PHI matches an offer for Noel, so you could essentially get that big just by spending money and not giving up assets. Danny and company have so many options it’s hard to make a decision on which way to go.
Join me as we now shift gears to this week’s Greenie Awards!
I dunno, I’d say averaging 41 points a game this week with great shooting percentages warrants this award but everyone is entitled to their own opinion.
Please note this is not a heave. He took this as a real jumper
Rough week for everyone’s favorite Canadian. A total of 12 points in two games played, and he conveniently had a shoulder flare up before the TOR game. Also I still am not over that missed dunk from last night
This week’s Most Improved Player: Jaylen Brown
He’s been thrown into the starting lineup with Avery out and he is responding well to this opportunity. We saw his jumper improve, we saw a little bit of nastiness and attitude against TOR, we saw overall improvement. Can’t knock that.
And that should do it for this week’s Greenie Bag. Thanks as always to those who wrote in, and if I were you I would already start mentally preparing for tomorrow.
Have a great weekend!