Jaylen Brown’s warning to Draymond Green about hypothetical Boston Celtics-Warriors Finals rematch

Jaylen Brown thinks he's ready to bring the Boston Celtics their 18th championship.

Saturday night, before he competed in the Slam Dunk Contest, Brown sat down with the "Inside the NBA crew," with familiar foe Draymond Green subbing in for Kenny "The Jet" Smith. Brown was very complimentary of Green's impact on the Golden State Warriors dynasty but was quick to point out that his antics wouldn't have the same effect if the two teams met again on the game's grandest stage.

"Draymond does what Draymond does," Brown said (h/t Inside The Warriors). "Just bringing that force to the game... Without him on the floor, some of them championships don't happen. That force that he brings on defense and offense, and sometimes it goes a little extreme, but that's how you win... When I played against you in the Finals, when you went to that level of just force, we wasn't ready. But we gonna be ready this time."

A Boston Celtics-Golden State Warriors Finals rematch is unlikely

The confidence exuded by Brown on the panel was refreshing. To move forward, it's necessary to acknowledge personal shortcomings. As a bona fide star, admitting you weren't mature enough as a player to win a title just a few seasons ago takes courage and humility.

Green unequivably punked the Celtics during the 2022 NBA Finals. He has a pro-wrestler approach to how he feeds off his environment and harnesses the reactions of his opponents and the crowd to his advantage. Boston lacked anyone on the roster that could match his intensity. You didn't have to be a body language doctor to see how mentally exhausting dealing with a player like Green is, particularly when a game starts to go south.

Boston was still a collection of young, plucky upstarts, oozing with talent but lacking the necessary battle scars so often required to win a ring. That was Green's sixth time in the Finals—a nearly unprecedented amount of experience in the modern era. The Celtics' core still hasn't hit its prime, but they've seen what it takes to win at the highest level. The chance Brown and his top-rated squad have to rectify their loss seems faint at best.

Golden State, which has caught fire lately, still finds itself in the No. 10 seed in the loaded Western Conference. Green suspensions and mock trades involving Klay Thompson have defined their campaign more than the product on the court. Even with exceptional contributions from rookie Brandon Podziemski and the emerging Johnathan Kuminga to complement Stephen Curry, they still don't have enough firepower to make another deep run.

Golden State's Finals odds have shrunk to +5000 on FanDuel, but that's only good enough for the 14th-best in the league. Even if a championship rematch is out of the foreseeable future, Boston still gets to square off against Green and his squad when they travel to TD Garden on March 3rd.

But the only way to see if Brown's comments have merit is not from a one-off game in the regular season, but if he's hoisting the Larry O'Brien trophy in four months.