Jaylen Brown's stream a distraction that has cast doubt on his Celtics future

Less than 24 hours after the final buzzer of Saturday’s Game 7 loss, Boston Celtics star Jaylen Brown fired up a Twitch stream. 

Many fans’ kneejerk reaction was along the lines of “they just lost a Game 7 and he’s going to do a stream?”

First and foremost, that’s a take that should be put in perspective. From a content standpoint, which is what JB is trying to do by building a streaming platform, firing up a live stream in a moment where it’s going to get lots of eyes and attention is objectively a smart move.

If he wants viewers, they’re certainly going to come out in wake of the Celtics’ season coming to a close.

The point of the stream was to debrief the end of the season, break down film from Game 7, and spend time with the fanbase.

All of those things happened.

The stream resulted in more negatives than positives

What the big takeaway became, however, was Brown’s feelings on the season as a whole -- a season that he called “the favorite year of [his] basketball career.”

“I’m so proud of this group and the way that we played,” he shared. “I wish we trusted that style of play a little bit more but the playoffs shifted our rotations and what we wanted to do. But, I’m so proud and it was my favorite year of my basketball career.”

“Being able to be a part of a group that, through the uncertainty, came to fight, came to fight, came to go to war. I’ll take a team like that any day of the week.”

Brown added that regularly streaming throughout the year and being able to interact with the fans sweetened the journey for him.

Now, in fairness to Jaylen, this is something he said consistently at press conferences throughout the season. He carried a feeling of pride about the way the group had come together and played winning basketball in the face of many doubters.

From the perspective of someone who isn’t on the team and only covers it, I’d agree. Watching the group succeed without expectations was a joyous experience. I’m, again, not on the team. How I covered/watched the games was not at all impacted by the absence of Jayson Tatum. My role didn’t change.

Brown’s did. He was given more freedom to play as a top scoring option. He wasn’t asked to fit alongside anyone. Everyone had to fit with him.

Some of Jaylen's comments opened the door for questioning

Consistently speaking on how enjoyable a campaign without Tatum was, whether that was the reason why or not, opens the door for people to drive a wedge between them, to try and paint the narrative that they want to see by using that enjoyment.

Who knows? Maybe getting a taste of running his own team is something that Brown will want more of.

Another wrinkle to what Brown said on stream was his indirect criticism of how the coaching staff approached the playoffs. Wishing that the team stuck with what got them to their 56 wins is totally reasonable. They leaned heavily on their depth throughout the season and it worked. The rotation shrunk in the playoffs and less of the supporting players were active against the Sixers.

The thing is, he didn’t have to say that. He chose to -- on purpose.

Joe Mazzulla took plenty of criticism from the media as reality began to set in that the Celtics were in serious jeopardy of relinquishing their first 3-1 series lead in franchise history.

The criticism was valid. Mazzulla’s decision to turn away from depth certainly limited their ability to close out the series.

It wasn’t the only reason, though. They were up 3-1 while that same strategy was in place. Joel Embiid came back and added a new layer to the matchup, yes. But Mazzulla isn’t to blame for the underwhelming performances from key players like Derrick White and Neemias Queta (who, to be fair, were both good in Game 7).

As the coach, he can only set them up to succeed. They still have to go out there and do it.

Brown, himself, wasn’t perfect in the back half of the series, either. He certainly deserves credit for battling on both ends in Game 7. JB locked in on defense and made some big shots to even give Boston a chance to be at the finish line.

But, he wasn’t great in the five quarters where the series turned. Brown shot 1-7 in the final 14 and a half minutes of Game 5, as the 76ers outscored the Celtics 40-16. He wasn’t much better in Game 6, either.

This isn’t to put the entire blame on him. Again, everyone had a part in the collapse. Brown, to his credit, took accountability postgame at the podium after each of the losses, too.

The stream itself wasn’t a bad idea. There were good intentions behind it. A player hosting a post playoffs therapy session for fans, breaking down film, and giving insight into what went wrong was a good idea on paper.

The execution just sort of poured fuel on the fire, and was a bad “read the room” moment. Now, the door is open for speculation as to whether or not he even wants to return to a Celtics team with both Tatum and Mazzulla, who both could be seen as targets to his on-stream comments.

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