The Weekend Greenie Bag: Will Jaylen Brown Be The Same When He Comes Back?
With a few more hours to kill until the Celtics tip, I figured why not try and fill that time by seeing what was on the minds of fellow stoolies. I get that as I write this there is college basketball on, but maybe you’re reading this in the bathroom right now. Everyone needs something to read on the toilet. Anyways, as a reminder you can be a part of this weekly mailbag by first having a take or question and then sending it to me either with #GreenieBag or greenieceltsbag@gmail.com. That’s it, those are the only steps. It doesn’t even have to be good if we’re being honest with each other. The Weekend Greenie Bag is a judgement free zone. Sure we may laugh at you on the internet in the blog, but the actual email inbox is a safe space.
Having said that, your questions this week….
A good question here by T1mothy because I actually just finished sitting shiva for the Lakers pick. It was time to say goodbye and eat some delicious Jewish deli cuisine as we mourned not having the opportunity to draft Ayton or Doncic or Bamba. The good news is there is still hope and it lives with the glorious Sacramento Kings. As long as that bad boy doesn’t end up #1, if Ainge keeps the pick he could be adding a very high lottery talent. Who do I prefer? Can’t say I know too much about any of the projected top guys so I did what I always do. I let YouTube tell me who I should want. Here are the results
Any of those will do. I think at this point based on the type of players that are expected to be at the top of this draft, it’s mostly wings. Unlike this year where there are some stud big men, I’d prefer they just take the best available. It’s not like Brad cares about positions anyways.
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Greenie, without question last night’s close call left us all with our collective intestines in our throats, but luckily Jaylen seems to be alright for the most part with the exception of a possible concussion. This is huge, because as the playoffs get closer I think its obvious that for this team to go on a deep run a legit secondary scorer has to emerge next to Kyrie. Jaylen seems to be the best candidate. Playing the 2 he’ll have an advantage posting up smaller guards and as of late his finishing in transition has been what we always thought it could be. And, unlike Tatum, he’s had a taste of playoff intensity. Frankly I would love to see the coaching staff run more plays for him, especially those simple back door cuts Avery feasted on playing the same position last year. – Paul
Now that we know Jaylen is OK and can exhale a little bit, I can’t help but think the most intriguing storyline for this team when it comes to the playoffs isn’t if Kyrie can match his CLE playoff production, or if Al has another great showing like he did last year, it’s what the hell are the kids going to do? In his limited sample last postseason, Jaylen showed encouraging signs. His Per 36s were acceptable, with a 14/6 average with 47/21% splits.
Naturally this season things are a little different. First he’s going to have to shoot much better from deep this time around. If he were to repeat his 102/116 ratings split, there’s going to be some issues. His defense has been much better this season, and I do think him having gone through the playoffs last year will help him, but it’s still a giant unknown. Same thing goes with Tatum. We’ve seen him be more consistent and better than many of us thought. But the playoffs are a different animal, and when all the sudden it’s harder for him to get to the rim or get a clean look, how will he respond to that? Like a 20 year old maybe?
It’s not like previous years where these young promising players would be coming off your bench and not have as much pressure. They need to each be in the 15+ a night with good percentages night in and night out if the Celtics want to make any sort of playoff push. Kyrie and Al can both be incredible, but if the kids struggle the whole thing breaks.
Would you rather Lebron run to the West, scared of a strong 2018-2019 Celtics team, or stay in the East and give them some competition? – Josh
Personally I’d drive Lebron to the West coast if I could. Go be someone else’s problem if you ask me. If the Celtics have to deal with playoff Lebron and that happens in the Finals then so be it. I’d like to just get there, and we’re yet to see someone in the East that can prevent another Lebron appearance. And look, even if he does head West that doesn’t mean the Celtics are a shoe in for the Finals. This is the Celtics we’re talking about here, when have they ever made things easy on themselves?
Anyone who says the want Lebron to stay in the East so they can have the pride of beating him is just flat out stupid. Who gives a shit if you had to get past Lebron or not to get to the Finals. Do they put an * next to you and say *Never had to play Lebron? I didn’t think so. Let him battle with the HOUs and the GSs or the world in order to try and win another ring.
Although it would be awful if he became a Laker. We’d finally see Cavs Twitter go under their rock again for the foreseeable future, but Lakers Twitter would become the worst thing on Earth.
I’m not sure it makes a huge difference. For example, over the last month and a half Jaylen has been shooting in the mid 70s from the line and his scoring has stayed around the same 14 ppg and his FTA has remained the same as well. If anything I think his FT shooting improvement just helps prevent a situation where he disappears. It helps reassure me that Jaylen can hit his average consistently. What it does do if it really can be consistently 75% and better is give Brad fewer reasons to take him out late in games. That’s where the Celtics benefit the most. I get why Brad tends to move away from Jaylen late in games and his FT shooting probably plays some sort of role in that.
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It did always feel weird that Jaylen WAS SO FUCKING BAD at FTs. Like comically bad. To see him really work at it and slow himself down at the line I’m glad he’s starting to see that pay off in games.
It’s not smart business to try and predict how Brad will change his rotations because I truly feels like he doesn’t know on a night in and night out basis. It will most likely be matchup dependent, and I’m not sure he really wants to mess with the bench’s mojo. Would it shock me to see them go Larkin/Kyrie/Tatum/Horford/Baynes? Nope. The same way it wouldn’t shock me to see them go Kyrie/Smart/Tatum/Horford/Baynes, or Kyrie/Tatum/Morris/Horford/Baynes.
If it were me I think I would move Smart into the starting lineup. This team needs the perimeter defense in Jaylen’s absence most in my opinion. Morris and Rozier have been scoring the ball so well, the second unit needs those shots more in my opinion. Look at their immediate schedule and you see IND/WSH/NO on deck, all three with primarily strong guard play. I’d ride with Smart and see what happens.
Well he is human so I would expect there to be at least a little hesitation at first. But once he goes strong, takes some contact and is fine, I think it’ll be a thing of the past. Remember it’s different from someone like Hayward who literally looked down and saw his foot facing the wrong way. A concussion is absolutely nothing to mess around with, but the fact that he didn’t really injure himself I think will help prevent him from being hesitant long term (by long term I mean the weeks after his return). I think Jaylen understands how important it is for him to get into the paint and to the rim for this offense to really work, and to be honest Brad probably won’t let him play again until he shows that same sort of aggression. I wouldn’t worry about it.
Alright that’ll do it for this week. As always thanks for everyone who wrote in, appreciate you forever. Have a great rest of your lazy Sunday and I’ll see everyone on Twitter for the Celts game.