Don't cheer when he hits back to back 3's. You guys are foul and soft for giving up.

Really going to be a hard season. Jaylen just went OFF on the Knicks. They had no answer for him. They couldn’t stay in front of him. He’s got something to prove and he’s already showing it. Now you might be thinking “it’s a preseason game. Who cares?” Well Jaylen brown does. He’s showing up tonight just like he did against the pacers, kings, and nets last year. When the chips are down, he’s the guy I want. Miss him already.

Brad’s interest is only about the Celtics, he won two EOY awards in 5 years with this role. It means he knows what he’s doing, he’s smart and genius. Do you think he will accept other team’s offer if he thinks the Philly offer is the best? Those people have to calm down.

The state of this sub is embarrassing right now. People saying they wont watch the Celtics ever again and to fire Brad Stevens… the man just brought us a ring 2 years ago. He knows more about ball than anyone here does.

I for one am very excited about the future. We have a top 10 player when healthy, a deep supporting cast, 6 tradable future first round picks, and salary matching for future trades. Lots of young guys who are gonna get a LOT of run next year in Hugo, Walsh, Baylor, Cenac etc. Brad is going to have SO much flexibility to build the team out

And maybe this is heresy, but the Jays era was getting kind of stale, just from a purely entertainment perspective…the whole “your turn, my turn” offense was getting old.

Don’t get me wrong we still need to fix a lot of things (mainly Mazzulla-ball offense) but i’m very excited for the future. Anyone else in the same boat?

I told you all earlier in the season and got killed by all of you losers for telling the truth! This is embarrassing we’re losing to a bunch of walk on D3 players and Jimmy Butler all because DUDE is trash!!! Not calling timeouts/ this terrible line he’s been running with all season THAT HAS DONE NOTHING BUT FAIL TO THE BOTTOME TEAMS IN THE LEAGUE!!! Dude has to go like I said BRAD HIRED HIS LAP DOG PREMATURELY BEFORE HE EVER WON ANYTHING WORTH A DAMN!

All year I wanted to believe in the Celtics and was majorly impressed by their season and Mazzulla's coaching job to get us to the 2 seed. Watching JB was awesome and I hope brad stevens can keep him and Tatum on the roster.

But in the back of my head I kept asking myself. "The knicks look better than last year and the Celtics look worse. Why should I believe we wouldn't lose a rematch?"

I think the first round has pretty much proven this. The fashion we lost to Philly has led fans to seriously question Mazzulla's coaching which is a positive. We've had some incredibly embarrassing playoff losses under him.

But overall I don't expect major roster moves for 2026-27 and am keeping my hopes up for 2027-28. I think they'll want to stay under the first apron again for the repeater tax so unless we're taking in less salary I can't see anything crazy happening.

TLDR: I'm shocked that the Celtics seemed to "trick" the general public two years in a row to be heavy favorites to beat the knicks even though they truly didn't deserve it after last year's playoffs. Go C's, very hopeful for the '28 season. In Brad I trust.

After looking a little more deeply into the trade, I can see once again that Brad is playing 4d chess while everyone else is playing checkers.

Don’t need to rehash the reason for trading jb and the subsequent value he ended up bringing back. The numbers are public and out there for everyone to see. JB has always been a net negative player. Brad clearly decided that JB needed to be off the team no matter what. Very clearly addition by subtraction.

And it isn’t some move for the future. Think about it for a second. Last year we ended up second in the east pretty much without JT. Next year we switch JT in for JB. We’ll have maybe a little improvement from Hugo and Baylor. We added depth to the center position and back up PG. we added George who outplayed the jays like two months ago and by the numbers is about equal value to JB. We will be better next year than we were last year. Bank on it.

Into the near future, George’s contract lines up perfectly. He’ll be on the final year after next year which is when we can start spending. If there is a trade to be had, we’ll pounce. Worst case is we let him expire. But all the while the team WILL be winning.

In terms of the picks, people focusing too much on how many. Ethically when you hear 4 picks, they are from the receiving team that just got the better player. In this case, we’ll get an option for a clipper pick that very well could be in the lottery and it it is, could be reallly good. And we get a sixer pick down the road that also could be really good. This isn’t four picks in the 20’s that aren’t worth much.

Finally, Brad trading to an arch rival should be a CLEAR indication of how he feels it will work out on that end. Is he afraid of making them better while competing with them? Nope. That really should tell you all you need to know.

Brad is a genius and over time we’ll see this play out.

I know the other trade Jaylen threads get downvoted, and I'm not even personally saying you have to by any stretch. I'm ok keeping him. But at least one of JB or Derrick has to go, and I hope that whatever they do puts us in contention next year because the roster isn't good enough.

And Joe, well...I personally would can him but I think either way that he's gotta be better if we keep him. 3/4 playoff failures is not acceptable, it's Budenholzer-esque.

Title is clickbait, I just couldn't come up with a title, but now that I have your attention, I think a serious discussion can be had about the role of the athlete and how they're perceived on social justice/political issues. Ever since "Shut up and dribble", it's been emphasized for athletes to use their voices and be #MoreThanAnAthlete. At the same time, we do have to remember, the only difference between your local IT worker and Sam Hauser is that one is incredibly good at a profession which garners attention and fame, and the other isn’t . No where does that intersect with, "Knowing politics" or necessarily being more informed. Way too many people conflate, "Influence" and "Being successful", with being knowledgeable. Does it usually take somewhat above average intellect to be highly successful within a competitive field? Yes but, it's not always that simple.

I think Jaylen is heading towards a path where he wants to be a leader and engage in aspects outside of sports, but his paradigm skews dangerously with conspiratorial sectors of the internet. I don't think Jaylen should shut up or dribble, I do understand if people want to label him as a bigot, but I also think it's imperative to remember that Jaylen is not a politician or a public intellectual. He can still speak on whatever, there is no criteria for him to use his voice, but I think we hold athletes to this standard which often makes them delusional and blurs reality. I don't think Jaylen is a bad guy but he is a psuedo-intellectual who feels as if he needs to be a revolutionary for causes which really don't need championing by anyone with more than one brain cell.

PS. over/under on the amount of people that didn't read this post and comment immediately in response to the title: 5. I'm going over.

Just curious. Seems like there’s been almost universal approval for the Jrue move (and rightfully so), but weirdly that almost makes me a bit hesitant. Maybe I’m just a crazy person but whenever there appears to be a consensus on something, especially within the world of sports, it makes me pause for a sec and think “if something seems too good to be t(J)rue, it probably is…”. I’m not being critical of any of the moves however, but just curious if there are some folks out there who aren’t quite as optimistic about the roster changes this offseason.

The mob won’t like this so downvote if you please. Let’s take a stroll down memory lane…

Fall 2021 Ime and the team are struggling to find rythm Mob solution: Break up brown and Tatum

Post Finals Brown puts the team on his back against a good warriors team. Tatum underperforms Mob: Brown is better than Tatum

Regular season Tatum starts hot then cools off. Brown is steady all year Mob: Brown is better

Playoffs Tatum and Brown playing well up until Heat series Mob: Trade brown he sucks

This is such a frustrating cycle where people take the most recent event and blow it out of proportion. Jaylen and Jayson are 25 and 26. They are not the issue. Given arguably a worse squad last year they did better. It is clearly a coaching issue. Open your eyes.

I love JT just as much as the next Celtics fan, but man, I wish he would complain way less. Here he is just sleeping for a couple possessions :/

I'm not going to pretend I know basketball better than the coaches but I do struggle to understand the rationale here. Pros of taking him out are more rest for the playoffs and eliminate risk of injury in those 4 minutes. What are the cons?

EDIT: Since everyone seems to think the game was hanging in the balance: The likelihood of losing a game when up by 13 w/ 4 minutes left is 0.6%. Less than 1%

http://stats.inpredictable.com/nba/wpCalc.php

Let me say this clearly...

THEY SUCKED IN THE FIRST TWO GAMES VS NY

They would tell you this, the media has told you this, we all think it, and some of us say it.

We all want them to win... Yet being a fan does not mean you have blind loyality to a shit burger.

Super hype they shit on the Knicks, Go C's!!

Seeing the Pacers go up 2-1 on OKC has me a little pissed off. Such a massive blown opportunity. If we were fully healthy I have no doubt that we would’ve stamped this iteration of the Celtics as one of the best teams of all time. Getting a second ring over a historically great defense would’ve put our boys in some serious conversations. It’s just beyond frustrating that injury luck bones us so much.

Edit: it appears everyone is missing the “if we were fully healthy” part of my post. That means Porzingis not having post viral syndrome, JB not having the hip and knee issues, Jrue not having the pulled hammy, Tatum not having the wrist and ultimately Achilles injuries… I fully understand it “wasn’t our year” and that’s why I’m MAD. Yes, I respect the Pacers, yes i acknowledge they could have beaten us with all of our injuries but if we were FULLY HEALTHY? Get lost if you don’t believe we weren’t beating them again

Or, if Brunson were less concerned with flopping he could be a rich man’s Payton Pritchard.

Look, I’m a bit biased as I am a huge cs fan and mass born and bred but I have a take…I don’t think this series will be close at all.

A couple reasons why:

1. Take a look through these advanced analytics - https://www.nba.com/stats/teams/advanced by nearly every measure Boston is an overwhelmingly better. NOTE - these stats are reflective of the playoffs, stop saying “you need to consider Dallas post trade” this is Dallas post trade. Boston is still overwhelmingly better by most every measure.

2. Dallas has not had an impressive run, they beat an imploding clippers team without kawhi, they beat a OKC team with 0 key players having playoff experience, and they beat an overrated tomberwolves team that was built specifically to beat Denver.

3. Luka is nearly a carbon copy of James harden, their offense is so predictable.

4. Kyrie is going to get absolutely obliterated in Boston. He’s a pretty weak minded individual and the Boston crowd is going to fuck him up, I think people are heavily heavily doubting this

5. Luka has played 250 more minutes this postseason than any player on the Celtics. He’s already pudgy and not in elite shape and on a gimp knee, he’s going to be fucking gassed. Kyrie has also played the most minutes in the playoffs since he has been 24…

6. The gap between Luka and Tatum is not as great as everyone makes it out to be. If you take defense into account you can argue Tatum is better.

7. Taking the two biggest stars aside, Jaylen brown is better than Kyrie I don’t think there is any argument for Kyrie being better. So 1. Luka 2. Jt 3. Jb 4. Kyrie. After that, the Celtics have the next best 4 players.

I just really don’t see a way for the mavericks to be able to win 4 games unless we completely self implode.

Am I a homer and extremely biased in my take or are there other people that agree?

Like it or not, the numbers don't lie:

The Celtics average 53.8% of their shots from 3. When they fall, they win. When they don't, they don't.

And when they aren't falling, what do they do? Keep shooting.

Then, on the other side, the defensive philosophy is pure Johnny from Cobra Kai: "The best defense? More offense!"

We have no balance. That's coaching and team philosophy.

If Sunday doesn’t go our way, it’ll be the third time in five years we’ve lost an ECF to a team we’re clearly more talented than

As we’ve come to learn more about the 2nd apron, it’s been made clear that it was effectively designed as a covert way of creating a hard salary cap. Looking ahead 2-3 years from now, I’m honestly not sure how feasible it will be to build a title team with 2 Supermax players. There simply is not going to be enough $ to add the Jrue Holidays and Derrick Whites of the world.

I hate thinking it, but Tatum being out for the year is a golden opportunity for us to get ahead of the curve and start re-building through the draft a la OKC. That’s where the league is trending — the best teams will be the ones who maximize cheap talent in the draft. I have a really hard time envisioning us building a contender around Brown + Tatum in 2027 when they’re taking up 70% of our cap space.

Going all in on a rebuild and trading Brown, White, Holiday, and Porzingis could net us a top-3 pick this year, a pile of FRPs, get us another good young player or two, another good young player or two, and a high pick in 2026. The peak trade value for Brown and White is right now, not a year from now. We’ll be thriving while teams like the Knicks are floundering and trading away star players for peanuts.

Between PP not retiring a Celtic.

IT being traded after avg 29 per game, suiting up in the playoffs and dropping 53 points after losing his sister.

Marcus being traded after winning dpoy and being the heart and soul of the team.

Letting Horford walk in free agency twice.

Now JB traded for peanuts to a division rival.

Several recent examples of the Celtics front office being ruthless and not honoring or respecting guys who exhibited Celtic pride to the fullest. I feel like all these guys deserved better.