This should be the end of it, but it won’t be.
Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, over the course of about 48 hours, spoke in no uncertain terms. Mired in mediocrity that now spans multiple seasons, the two Jays blew the escalating narrative of Boston needing to move on from this pairing out of the water.
After the win over New York, Brown said “we can play together. We have played together well for the majority of our career and things like that. The last year or so hasn't gone as expected, but I think a lot of the adversity that we're kind of going through now is going to help us grow and get better in the future. If we get over this slump and continue to learn, I think there's a lot of good basketball on the other side of this.”
Professional instigator Kendrick Perkins has been carrying on and on about how the pair should be split. Tatum shot back at Perkins on Twitter two nights ago, and expanded after beating the Pacers on that and the conversation he and Brown recently had.
“Obviously, we live in a world where we are on our phones and TV and see all the things about we can't play together and everybody in the media saying that one of us got to go,” Tatum said. “We both want to be here and both want to figure it out.
“There's not many players in the league like JB. The grass ain't always greener and we've had some great stretches and I think this year hasn't been what we expected but I think in the long run it will be good for us. We have to figure some things but I think the most important thing is we both want it extremely bad. We want to try to figure it out together so for us, it's just being on the same page I think is extremely important, just knowing that we have each other's back and we are going to give it all we got to try to figure this out, regardless of what people may say.”
People say a lot, and the fact is that when it comes to this topic, most of it is manufactured specifically to get a reaction.
A reasonable person wouldn’t look at this team and think the issue has much to do with having two All-Star wings. Well-reasoned analysis recognizes that the entire period of middling basketball has spanned pandemic-crushed seasons where Boston was among the most impacted teams.
Anyone who cares to look at this rationally understands that the team being thrown on the floor this season is nowhere close to a finished product, and that a lack of shooting has given Tatum and Brown less space to operate. The addition of Dennis Schröder, while making good business sense, has grown into a bit of a negative.
Yes, it is also clear that Tatum and Brown have had their struggles. No one is blind to that. Both have seen hits to their efficiency and some rough nights protecting the ball. I’m certainly not going to say that Tatum and Brown have been fine this season.
But I’m also not dumb enough to look at their entire body of work together and think two COVID-ravaged seasons is enough evidence to break them up. I’m watching two guys being challenged by a new coach to play a different brand of basketball; to expand their games beyond their comfort levels and be something they haven't been, yet need to become.
Yes, they do need to grow. They do need to be better. One of them needs to rise up and take the mantle of vocal leader and do it with a little extra attitude.
We can have the Jaylen/Jayson discussion and acknowledge these things. They're willing to talk about these things themselves.
But the next step of calling for one to be traded crosses into hot-take territory. Hot takes make people money, and so the louder and hotter they are, the better it is for people’s pockets. Reason has no place there. All these loudmouths want is the reaction.
Well, they got one. Every report from around the league, every connected NBA person has reported Boston’s unwillingness to move either Brown or Tatum. The players themselves have said pretty definitively that they want to stay and figure things out in Boston.
The Celtics might be busy at the trade deadline, but it’s all going to be an effort to actually give Tatum and Brown some actual help. This should be the end of the story. Hell, this shouldn’t have even been a story at all.
But it won’t be. The good thing is, Tatum and Brown seem to get that, and they're just going to go about their business.
“We're on the same page,” Brown said. “I get where all the other frustration comes from, but as long as I'm on the same page with him and he's on the same page with me, that's where we're most focused on.”
