Celtics News

[SparzWizard]

Yeah it's a completely valid point. If you had a choice to keep a coach or keep a superstar player, you'd be bonkers to keep the coach. Maybe it's because Tatum loves Mazzulla, and even Brad is supportive of this 3-point philosophy (which is another issue).

But this team had great regular season success with Jaylen leading the way and playing with an attack mindset instead of just chucking 3s. Their regular season 3-point shooting and attempts actually went down a bit, and they played inside a lot more and were fine even settling for jumpers which helped JB's scoring average go up nearly 5-6 points.

However, when Tatum came back and in the Sixers series they just seemed to revert back to the 3 point philosophy and maybe that also caused Jaylen to have some iffy games.

I don't hate Mazzulla but he absolutely has to be on the hot seat this season. 3 of the last 4 seasons have still ended in disappointment especially the last two seasons, and if they feel they need to trade Jaylen but keep Mazzulla and this philosophy then that's not good.

The Knicks part is true too. Maybe the coaching change helped. They made the ECF, Thibs was great and they upset Boston. They still fired him, got another guy and it might have put them over the top. Mike Brown's rotations and in-game adjustments after Game 3 of the Hawks series were good and he usually went with the hot hand and occasionally sat guys who were struggling like Bridges early on in the postseason as needed.

As we saw in the Finals, taking high volume 3's caused the Spurs' downfall. Ironically, following the same downfall plan as the Celtics when they faced the Knicks back in 2025.

As for this 3-point philosophy...if this doesn't die out then I'm afraid we may also need to cut ties with Brad (on top of Mazzulla). Be reminded of Brad's resume with the Celtics

-Since 2013-2014 he took on the HC role and not one Finals appearance. Burned out at the end of 2021.
-Transitioned to GM in 2021.
-Ime Udoka took the team to their first Finals appearance in 2022 for the first time in 12 years.
-Canned Udoka and Joe Mazz was appointed head-coach midseason of 2023 and folded badly to the 8-seeded Miami Heat.
-Won Finals in 2024 finally with presence of Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis and with a little bit of luck in the playing field as all the other teams were banged up.
-3-point philosophy caused Boston's downfall in 2025
-Blown 3-1 series lead with more 3-point shooting in 2026

All that for only two Finals appearances and going 1-1? C's should have won both those Finals series and also get some appearances in 2018, 2020, and 2023.

[Vermont Green]

Finally getting caught up on things.  I don't know of course, and there are reports on all sides of this, but I think Brown wants to be traded and that there is some sort of gentleman's agreement in place that BOS will work to trade him; try to make it a win-win.

I am still unclear as to why they did not pursue any 3-team trades for Giannis.  MIL did not really want Brown, that now seems clear.  They wanted young players and picks.  So why not get some young players and picks for Brown and move them to MIL?  I believe there are enough teams that would give up young players and picks for Brown that they could have done this if they wanted to, with ease.

Even now, I think 3-team deals are the best.  Teams that want Brown so they can contend don't want to give up good players.  Teams that want to rebuild, don't want Brown.  I don't buy this idea that BOS is looking for draft picks.  That just doesn't make sense.

[Who]

Listening to an interview with John Karalis on the Locked on Celtics podcast.

They both felt that Jaylen has either requested a trade or has at least said he is open to a trade. They are shocked that Jaylen has said nothing publicly about being in all these trade talks. Jaylen complains about things at the drop of the hat. He has been on his twitch livestreams regularly. Nothing. Not a word.

They also felt this was likely given the shift from Brad Stevens. They felt he has completely changed his tone over the last 6 weeks. They think something has happened to make him do that.

They talk about a quote from Stevens which I believe is from the early part of May where Stevens said they are a good team when they are healthy, "they just need to get better around the margins". It was part of a longer answer. Not the type of quote you see from a guy planning to break the Jaylen / Tatum partnership. So they think something happened between then and now for Stevens to be shopping Jaylen.

[Who]

I missed this from yesterday. Brian Windhorst

"He's gonna get traded," Windhorst said.

"It's not a guarantee that they're going to be able to find a deal that they like that's going to improve the team, but I think they are intending to trade him," Windhorst added.

"He's going to get traded," ESPN's Brian Windhorst said. "Obviously they offered him [for Antetokounmpo]. Brad Stevens came out and said many, many wonderful things about him and was respectful and all that stuff. He never said that he wasn't trading him, which he obviously could have done."

John Karalis was talking about this in the interview. He was shocked at how openly and confidently Brian Windhorst declared that Jaylen was going to get traded. He and the interviewer said that journalists do not say things that definitively unless they are completely confident in it. They normally err on the side of caution. 

[SparzWizard]

Finally getting caught up on things.  I don't know of course, and there are reports on all sides of this, but I think Brown wants to be traded and that there is some sort of gentleman's agreement in place that BOS will work to trade him; try to make it a win-win.

I am still unclear as to why they did not pursue any 3-team trades for Giannis.  MIL did not really want Brown, that now seems clear.  They wanted young players and picks.  So why not get some young players and picks for Brown and move them to MIL?  I believe there are enough teams that would give up young players and picks for Brown that they could have done this if they wanted to, with ease.

Even now, I think 3-team deals are the best.  Teams that want Brown so they can contend don't want to give up good players.  Teams that want to rebuild, don't want Brown.  I don't buy this idea that BOS is looking for draft picks.  That just doesn't make sense.

I thought Milwaukee wanted Brown but because he won't be signing an extension with them that's why they took the Miami package (and because Boston refused to match by offering Hugo and Baylor) and do not want any 3-team trade deals

[tenn_smoothie]

I'm really not enthusiastic about trading JB at the height of his career for a downgrade in immediate talent.

I was in on Giannis.  But, barring that, there are a bunch of different avenues I would have explored before trading JB, including changing the coaching staff, and moving just about anybody on the roster outside of Tatum and Brown.

If a trade brings back comparable talent, fine.  But if it's picks and middling "prospects", it's a failure.  A Mookie Betts / John Henry type of deal, which wouldn't bode well for new ownership.

What about the idea of a return of a quality center with some offensive skills and a young, athletic 2-way guy that can join our developing youngsters that can allow us to bring constant intensity for 48-minutes ? Isn't that what the Knicks, Spurs and Thunder have done ?  Having said that, I realize you have to have talent to win a title, but surely Jaylen Brown would return enough. Plus, doesn't getting him off the books give us more financial flexibility to acquire an important free agent ?

None of this is going to matter if we continue playing the same, stubborn offensive system we have used to literally shoot ourselves out of the playoffs two years in a row.

[tenn_smoothie]

Yeah it's a completely valid point. If you had a choice to keep a coach or keep a superstar player, you'd be bonkers to keep the coach. Maybe it's because Tatum loves Mazzulla, and even Brad is supportive of this 3-point philosophy (which is another issue).

But this team had great regular season success with Jaylen leading the way and playing with an attack mindset instead of just chucking 3s. Their regular season 3-point shooting and attempts actually went down a bit, and they played inside a lot more and were fine even settling for jumpers which helped JB's scoring average go up nearly 5-6 points.

However, when Tatum came back and in the Sixers series they just seemed to revert back to the 3 point philosophy and maybe that also caused Jaylen to have some iffy games.

I don't hate Mazzulla but he absolutely has to be on the hot seat this season. 3 of the last 4 seasons have still ended in disappointment especially the last two seasons, and if they feel they need to trade Jaylen but keep Mazzulla and this philosophy then that's not good.

The Knicks part is true too. Maybe the coaching change helped. They made the ECF, Thibs was great and they upset Boston. They still fired him, got another guy and it might have put them over the top. Mike Brown's rotations and in-game adjustments after Game 3 of the Hawks series were good and he usually went with the hot hand and occasionally sat guys who were struggling like Bridges early on in the postseason as needed.

As we saw in the Finals, taking high volume 3's caused the Spurs' downfall. Ironically, following the same downfall plan as the Celtics when they faced the Knicks back in 2025.

As for this 3-point philosophy...if this doesn't die out then I'm afraid we may also need to cut ties with Brad (on top of Mazzulla). Be reminded of Brad's resume with the Celtics

-Since 2013-2014 he took on the HC role and not one Finals appearance. Burned out at the end of 2021.
-Transitioned to GM in 2021.
-Ime Udoka took the team to their first Finals appearance in 2022 for the first time in 12 years.
-Canned Udoka and Joe Mazz was appointed head-coach midseason of 2023 and folded badly to the 8-seeded Miami Heat.
-Won Finals in 2024 finally with presence of Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis and with a little bit of luck in the playing field as all the other teams were banged up.
-3-point philosophy caused Boston's downfall in 2025
-Blown 3-1 series lead with more 3-point shooting in 2026

All that for only two Finals appearances and going 1-1? C's should have won both those Finals series and also get some appearances in 2018, 2020, and 2023.

Agree on all counts. I've been considering more and more that possibly Brad is as much of the playoff failure problem as Mazzulla.
We tend to overlook that idea because Brad was so successful at adding just the right players we needed to get over the hump and win a title.
But Porzingis' health eventually failed him, leaving us without an inside threat and our competition improved quickly after the relatively easy playoff draw we had in 2024.
I'll never understand Brad's willingness to allow Mazzulla to waste important seasons during our team's prime title contention with his insane offense.
It just may be that Brad thinks there is nothing wrong with Mazzulla's approach. That's a problem.