But to be clear, Boston never officially named Brown a captain, which he later clarified at 2025 NBA All-Star Weekend. It?s understood, he said, that he assumes that role because he?s been on the team the longest. ?Even though we don?t necessarily have it written down, the team moves to the things that me and Jayson [Tatum] do,? Brown said. ?Even though we have a lot of great players, I feel like my team relies on me to be the leader, the vocal leader. I would say I?ve taken that role and defensively, being the head of the snake, taking on those matchups. My team feeds off that. It?s kind of understood, I guess.?
Brown later identified Smart leaving in 2023 as the turning point in him embracing a leadership role. Brown now views his and Tatum?s past approaches as too quiet. Someone needs to talk, Brown learned after multiple playoff runs with his costar, and since that style didn?t come naturally to either star, Brown made a conscious choice to embrace it. ?Jayson?s more of a lead-by-example [type], he doesn?t really talk a lot,? Brown said. ?He?s opened his mouth a lot more than he has in the past, but Jayson, I wouldn?t say, is extremely vocal, and I haven?t been either, but that?s something I think I?m more comfortable with. I speak a lot on different platforms, so I?ve been able to carry that more a little bit, trying to just keep our morale, speaking life into everybody, talking to everybody on the bench, keeping that good feng shui.? ? via The Ringer
This sort of confirms the theory that trading Marcus resulted in the Jays taking more of a leadership role.
Yeah, and it also allowed for White to gain more of a role in the 4th where he's proven to be clutch often not just with hustle plays but also making shots. Jrue seems perfectly fine being the 4th or 5th option on the team, I don't think Smart did. Smart was also on that SI poster I think with Jaylen and Tatum, where it seemed a little weird but it sounded like the Jays were like "okay lets just appease Marcus and let him think he's part of a Big 3".
I still love Smart, don't get me wrong. But we probably had to make the move to get Banner 18, similar to how the Red Sox traded Nomar and then won in 2004.
Tatum and especially Jaylen definitely seemed to become better, more vocal leaders after the Smart trade too. I remember instances where Smart would just completely ignore Mazzulla and check himself into a game or something. I know we have a "Joe Mazzulla criticism" thread here but sorry, I didn't like seeing stuff like that when Smart didn't really back it up in 2023 either. It'd be one thing if this was the same 2022 DPOY-level guy
