Jaylen Brown Should Have Been All-NBA First Team

I want to talk about Jalen Brown for a minute, who, uh, has not had a good run with the voters over the last couple of weeks.

Jalen Brown finishes 6th in the MVP voting, which is not embarrassing by any stretch, but he finishes behind the 5 guys he was really competing with, including Cade Cunningham.

The all NBA ballot comes out.

Jalen Brown, 2nd team all NBA once again, kind of getting bumped off in favor of Cade Cunningham.

Jalen Brown went to where else?

Twitch and, uh, See, people watch Twitch.

Chris Mannix, Twitch, uh, had some things to say about it.

Uh, basically said, I'm not the most popular player when it comes to the media.

I can be polarizing.

I might have put that word in his mouth, but that's kind of what he was, uh, getting at there.

Did you have a problem with Jalen Brown not being in the top 5?

Did you vote for Jalen Brown for top 5 all NBA ?

I'm gonna do these in order, OK.

I think the media likes Jalen Brown personally.

The media voted him conference Finals Player of the Year, MVP, sorry, and Finals MVP.

That was the media .

So, and he wasn't the automatic choice.

He's also all interview team too.

Yes, exactly.

So I, I don't think it's the media.

I voted Jalen 5th on my MVP ballot and 6th, 2nd team on my all NBA ballots.

No, I just, I think those are for two different things, right?

The way he powered the Celtics through the season, he was the emblem, certainly on the court, Missoula to the sideline of.

This is no gap year.

We're not quitting.

Come get us.

We're coming for you.

Like, that goes into an MVP for me.

The leadership, the value you have.

All NBA when I consider all NBA, it's kind of like, who is the best player in the season?

What are you, what are your stats?

How did you impact sort of technically X's and O's?

And I thought Kate Cunningham had a bigger hand there.

It was close for me.

Obviously, I split my vote, right?

And I'm one of the few people who did that.

But I, I, I just, I, I, Jalen Brown is, I think the smartest player in the NBA.

I really do.

And he has such advanced ideas about issues that a lot of NBA players don't even spend time on.

But it's a shame and therefore it is a shame to me to see him fall into, oh, the media doesn't like me.

The media actually really likes him.

But sometimes people are better and that's OK.

Being, being upset that you are, I mean, I would bet that he was 6th.

I know they don't do that for our, for a 2nd team all NBA, but I would bet, I think he was because I think they showed the votes.

The 6th most votes there, yeah.

Being voted the 6th best player in the best league in the entire world.

So basically being told you're the 6th best guy in the entire world at playing basketball.

I, I just love to get away from that as a snub.

I get, I, but I get where he's coming from in that.

Like if, if you're 5th, you can say I was top 5.

The ability to say top 5 in one of those categories.

I voted for him, but did you first team?

Yeah, I did both.

I was 5th.

0, I'm sorry, Mr.

Boston.

I didn't even need to ask you that.

Look, I look, we're now, we're prisoners of the moment in a sense, in a sense, because there's a lot of negativity around Boston.

They get.

In the first round, Jalen goes off on some of these tangents on, uh, on his streams, but they were the biggest surprise of the NBA season.

They had one All-Star.

It was Jalen Brown.

They won 56 games.

They were a better offensive team statistically this year than they were last year, and they incorporated like 6 new guys into their rotation.

I think Jalen Brown deserved.

At least first team credit for that to me.

Like, maybe, can you put him over Luca?

Probably not.

Wemby, of course not.

Djokic, Jokic, of course not.

Shay, of course not.

But like, part of it with Cade was that he did miss a bunch of games towards the end of the season .

Part of it for me with Cade is that he did have Jalen Dern, who was an All-Star on that team as well.

That team also had cohesion.

They were like largely the same team that came, that won 44 games a year ago.

They were supposed to take another step.

The Celtics.

were supposed to be awful.

There was supposed to be a 40-ish win team, maybe less, kicking around in the back half of the playoff brackets were supposed to be so bad, even you didn't believe it.

I thought they'd be horrible.

They started the season 0 and 3.

I'm like, all right, tank time.

Let's go.

We can go get AJ Debana.

Bring AJ Debana back to Boston.

Bring him home.

Uh, they turned out to be a 56 win team and one of the best teams in the NBA.

So again, that's why I put him on my MVP ballot.

I, I don't know why.

I mean, your argument, I get it.

That makes some sense, um.

And obviously I know that the Celtics got to #2, right?

They got to #2.

It's been so long.

I can't remember, but the Pistons were #1, I think the entire season.

Was it wire to wire?

I don't know if it was wire wire.

It was close.

It was, yeah, they had a pretty big lead.

Um, they did hold on to it with Kate out of the lineup too.

Like they Cade missed the last few weeks.

I, you know, again, I, it was very, again, I split my vote.

That's how close it was for me.

But I see, you know, ultimately I was like, great.

I, I see those as two different categories.

The MVP is for different qualities than all NBA and so therefore I'm weighing different qualities these two guys had in a different way.

My question to you is, When Jalen said on one of these other streams, this was my favorite year of playing basketball.

Didn't love that.

No, knew what he was saying, because it's not the first time that he said it.

Like I was around the team a little bit, not as much anymore, but I was around the team a little bit.

And he said kind of that same thing during the season , like he loved.

Exceeding expectations.

I bet he put a gun to Joe Missoula's head, he probably said the same thing.

This was his favorite season.

He saw that line he gave to Derrick White.

Said, called him last summer and said, We're gonna suck.

Everybody, I love it.

Everybody said we're gonna suck.

We're gonna be great.

If you think that the most competitive person on earth, Joe Missoula, favorite season was not the season he won the title.

I don't know.

You're a high person.

I don't think, I think you're wrong.

I think you're wrong.

I think Joe Missoula, we'll ask him.

You and I will ask him.

Defying defying expectations in the way that they did.

I think Joe Missoula like perversely gives him that gives him more satisfaction than winning a championship.

I think I do.

No, no, no, no, no.

I, I'm telling you, I, I, I believe I'm right on this one.

I believe I'm right on this one.

So I, I didn't really take that much offense to Jalen Brown.

Well, but here's my question to you about bringing that back up from what it was a month ago is I have never been a split up the Jays person.

I always thought that conversation was dumb.

The Celtics have 2 great players.

Why would you want to only have one great player when you can have 2?

Um, the only way to me you trade Jalen Brown is if Jalen Brown asks for a trade.

I'd agree.

I, I think there's no reason to trade a 29 year old who just had the best season of his career, who's shown that he can win and be successful opposite Jayson Tatum.

So is Jalen Brown.

They're gonna ask for a trade.

One of the rumored places for Giannis is Boston.

No, I wouldn't do that in a million years.

Not in a million billion years would I do that.

Why would look, Giannis, if this was 3 years ago, yes, in a New York minute, but Giannis has had so many soft tissue injuries.

I don't disagree.

I'm just saying that's one of the, you know.

Fake trades out there for Giannis.

Not in a million kajillion years would I do that.

Two years ago, you won the damn championship.

This year you won 56 games without your best player.

You've got a big fat trade exception.

You've got your first-round draft pick.

You've got Jayson Tatum having a full offseason to fix, like, to muscle up that injured leg, and then you got this whole band of improved players coming back next year.

Not in a million years.

The Celtics right now, I don't care if the Knicks win the championship.

Uh, when the regular season starts next year, you probably make Boston the favorite to win the East.

Probably we'll see.

I'm just saying like, again, I'm not advocating for a Jalen Brown trade.

Maybe it'll be the #1 seed in the East, at least.

I think that Jalen Brown should retire as a Celtic.

I absolutely do.

But the only time that you would say, oh, it's not, they're not the strongest team coming back with him is if he doesn't want to be there.

So that's, that's the only thing and as we see a cacophony of Giannis trade.

You know, rumors, and there was more over the weekend on , on these streams, this stream.

Jalen Brown also said, I want to be a Celtic for the next 10 years.

Like he said it.

So, you know, if he, if he says he wants to be there, he's locked in for the next 3 years.

I wouldn't do an extension.

I think, not just for Jalen Brown.

We had this conversation about when Embiid was getting his extension.

I wouldn't give guys with 3 years left in their contracts extension.

You do it with 1 year left in his contract, not 3.

Um, but I'd have him around.

Jayson Tatum is on a long-term contract.

Derrick White is still there.

Peyton Pritchard has 2 years left on a bar, the deal of the century that he's on, uh, not a chance, who I love as a player, needs to spend this entire summer shooting.

He does, but he look, he, he shot the ball poorly during the season, um, but the responsibility he took on.

In playmaking defensively, being their de facto number 2 guy, I thought Derrick White had a great year.

Like he was in, in the mix for me for one of the all NBA spots there.

Like he, I thought he had a really good year.

I, I did.

Um, point is, I'm gonna let you think that over there.

Point is, I would, I would not do anything in Boston.

I wouldn't either.

I would go up there, find a big man.

I saw a report that Porzingis and Horford might not be back in Golden State.

Bring them both back to Boston.

Well, there's a reason they traded Porzingis though.

Well, that was a salary dump though.

Like it was more than as much as anything else, that was a salary.

It was not because they were slashing.

I mean that Drew Holiday is gone.

Porzingis is gone.

Horford's not coming back, you know.

They did a whole Luke Cornett wasn't coming back.

Like they made some decisions last offseason on this team.

But hey, if Porzingis is like if Porzingis wants to come back on a cheap salary, I get that.

Al Horford, you wanna come back, finish your career in Boston on a cheap salary, come on back to me.

Wait, when is Al Horford's career gonna finish ?

Never.

Al Horford's gonna be shooting threes till he's.

Late 40s.

I mean, he's a guy, it's not like James Harden because he's a guy who's already accepted being more of a role player and beautiful.

Like Al Horford extended his career by 5 years by doing that, no doubt about it.