NBA GM has horrifying update on potential departure of Boston Celtics star
An anonymous NBA general manager gave a horrifying update on the potential departure of Boston Celtics star Jaylen Brown to Heavy’s Sean Deveney — calling into question whether No. 7 wants to play with the franchise’s cornerstone star, Jayson Tatum.
“You know, just last year, everyone was asking, ‘Can Tatum and Brown play together, can these guys co-exist?'” the GM said. “But I think that was always the wrong question. Obviously, they can play together. They can succeed, they could win this year. What everyone should be asking instead is, do they want to play together? Mostly, does Jaylen? That’s different than trying to guess whether they can or not.”
According to a Western Conference coach, Brown may want to get out from under Tatum’s shadow and become a No. 1 option.
“Jaylen is 26 years old,” the coach told Deveney. “He is maybe the best No. 2 option in the league, or right there with LeBron (James) and AD (Anthony Davis), or Devin Booker-(Kevin) Durant in Phoenix. It is a good thing to be the best No. 2 option but at his age, I don’t think Jaylen sees it that way. He is good enough to be a No. 1 option for half the teams in the league and maybe he wants that challenge.”
The Boston Celtics can keep Jaylen Brown with a championship
According to an unnamed Eastern Conference executive who spoke with Deveney, Brown isn’t close with Tatum in the way many past greats were with their teammates.
“No one knows the nature of their relationship other than them but the general view out there is these two are professionals and work well together as professionals but they’re not really tight in the way guys like Steph Curry and Klay Thompson are, or like those old Spurs with Manu (Ginobili) and Tim Duncan and Tony Parker,” the executive said.
Still, winning is a cure-all that can keep Brown in Boston — especially since not being close friends hasn’t stopped certain championship teams from reaching the mountaintop before.
“Giannis is not supertight with (Khris) Middleton, Kawhi Leonard was not tight with any of those guys in Toronto,” the executive prefaced before saying, “But they won. If the Celtics win with Tatum and Brown, a lot of this goes away, and you can win that way.”