How does Brad Stevens feel about Jaylen Brown and Jaylen's future? Are the Celtics going to continue to build around JT/JB for years to come?
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00:00Yesterday, they had the meeting of the media with the Boston Celtics, and Brad Stevens was asked by our old friend, or my old friend, BC's own Brian Robb, about the off-season of moves due to the CBA, and Brad's answer was not great for Celtics fans. Here's what he said.
00:19Listen, we've been talking about this for years, right? I mean, the CBA has been well-known for years, and so there are penalties associated with being at certain levels, and we know that, and you just weigh that. You weigh where we are, you weigh everything else, and then you make those decisions, but those are, you know, you have to have the clarity of a full season and a full playoffs, and like I said, a couple of good nights sleep, and everybody gets in a room and put your heads together and figure out what's next.
00:48Yes. So, there are going to be changes to this roster, that we all know, but the easy answer from my seat would have been Brad Stevens saying, this team, when healthy, is the best team in basketball. My goal is to keep it together for as long as we can.
01:06What he said was, we have to figure out who we're getting rid of because of the CBA, and I listen to Jones and Keefe, as I do every day, and Jones said he disagreed with my opinion, that he usually would agree with the fact that you keep it together and don't give excuses,
01:17but he said they're not going to be that good. Why deal with the punitive measures of the CBA for a team that's not going to win a championship?
01:23Very good points. Very fair. I don't believe that the way to get closer to a title is to offload some of your most talented players prematurely.
01:33I just don't think that that's how you do it. I don't know of many teams that have succeeded that way.
01:38If you want to talk about getting rid of Jalen Brown and bringing in Giannis, if you want to do big, big moves like that, I'm all for, including Drew Holiday and Porzingis and whatever else.
01:47But the Celtics put the – WIC put the Celtics on the market last summer because it was at their financial and values peak when it comes to prior to owning your own building.
01:59Trading Porzingis and Holiday would be selling low.
02:02So if you know you're not going to have Tatum next year, why not rehab those guys in terms of their value, allow them the potential to be bigger parts of this team, and get more in return maybe at the deadline?
02:14Can you restructure NBA deals like you can restructure NFL deals?
02:20Nope. Everything's fully guaranteed.
02:22So you can't restructure a max like a Jalen Brown max or a Jason Tatum max?
02:26Nope. Everything's fully guaranteed.
02:29Do we know how much money they need to unload?
02:31Like $30 million.
02:32$30 million.
02:33Okay, and is that with the $14 million they're going to get back because of Jason Tatum, the injury?
02:38I don't know how much that impacts it. I would be just talking out of my ass.
02:41And I had talked to Jones and Keefe yesterday, and they gave me a little bit of insight.
02:45I mean, the whole basketball, you know, luxury tax and CBA is crazy.
02:51But they say if you move on from, like, Drew Holley, I think he's like $32 million, you don't need to take back $32 million.
02:59You might only need to take back, like, $20 million.
03:02So that's how they would be able to save their money.
03:04But I would ask you this, Curtis, right?
03:05Yep.
03:05But Porzingis, I don't think he has much value.
03:12And I would probably say the same thing with Drew Holliday.
03:15So because Drew Holliday's getting older, Porzingis got the mystery illness.
03:21Why run it back with those guys?
03:23And then Al Horford's up in the air on what his decision is.
03:26No, I'm fine with saying goodbye to Horford.
03:28You have Porzingis under contract.
03:31Yes.
03:31You have Holliday under contract next year.
03:34If you traded those guys now, you're selling low.
03:38And to me, the punitive measures related to the CBA, it's not that I don't know what's there.
03:44It's that you all are being used by team-friendly broadcasters telling you that they have to do this.
03:51They don't.
03:51Why do I care if the Celtics lose the ability to draft at 26 in the NBA?
03:57A draft with one player you know is good.
03:59That would be like restructuring the entire Patriots roster because if you don't, you'll lose a sixth-round pick.
04:05The NBA draft sucks at 26.
04:07So you're saying roll the dice and hopefully they're better during the regular season.
04:11Right.
04:11And then trade them at the deadline.
04:13I don't care about the tax.
04:15I don't care about losing a draft pick.
04:17The Celtics are going to be drafting at the back end of the first round.
04:20That's not what I'm concerned about.
04:22You're not going to get close to where you are now, again, if you try a rebuild.
04:27And to me, that's just something that I do not believe is in the best interest of the long-term success of the team.
04:33But that's why the collapse or whatever you want to call it this season is such a kick in the nuts.
04:39Totally.
04:40Because when it comes to windows, it's a shorter one with the age of those guys.
04:45Yeah.
04:45Like, you look at the Knicks and Brunson kind of set them up window-wise because he took, I think he took $100 million less.
04:56Yes, he did.
04:57He took a discount when he won.
04:59$100 million less to stay there and to give them that financial opportunity.
05:04Like, they're in a much better position going forward just simply based on age.
05:10Well, yeah.
05:10I mean, Brunson, I mean, you're, there are others that are younger.
05:14Like, so like Josh Hart, Malik Bridges, like those guys are all younger than the guys that you look at and you go, okay, here's the others that we're building around.
05:25Derek White's only 30, so he's relatively still young.
05:28But Porzingis and Holiday, and Porzingis is not that he's old, but he's just, there's always something going on with him.
05:34I don't know if he's full of it or not, but Stephen A. Smith said yesterday that the Knicks front office has indications that Giannis wants to be traded there.
05:46Well, yeah, Giannis wants out, and I've heard that, but who the hell knows?
05:49There was also a thing where Giannis said that he, like, they asked what city's the best play in, and he said, like, you know, warm weather cities or something like that.
05:58He said Miami or Florida.
05:58Yeah, so something like that.
06:00So I think it's going to really be on what package you can get for maybe Giannis.
06:09What about this, Greg?
06:10What if you have friend of the show, great Greek chef Dimitri, go and get Woo Giannis to Boston?
06:19Maybe you trade Jackson to Milwaukee.
06:21Oh, he could offer Giannis free parking in beautiful, safe, bright in Massachusetts for the entirety of his contract.