Picks 'n Pops: Jayson Tatum & Jaylen Brown workout, Blake Griffin's recruiting pitch, & the dumbest NBA lawsuit

Every week, I gather some thoughts on the Celtics, the NBA, and beyond and dump them here. Join me in my sandbox. 

- Kristaps Porzingis told the Celtics he’s going to rehab with the Latvian national team and at home instead of coming to Boston. 

This is where someone will express outrage. If someone does, remind them that the internet exists, and that Porzingis and the Latvian trainers can FaceTime or Zoom with the training staff in Boston and work out a plan. It’s not like they're going to rub a turnip on it and believe it’s fine. They have medicine there too. 

- Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum worked out together with Tatum’s trainer Drew Hanlen this week. 

It’s a great next step for them and the Celtics. A little joint workout, getting them both to work on some of the same types of things at the same time in August, is good to see. It sends a good message to the team and to fans that they're in this thing together. 

But just because that one thing is true, it doesn’t mean that the inverse is also true, which is a logical road people love to take. Being together for this workout can show how seriously they're taking this offseason, but not being together in other offseasons doesn’t mean they didn’t take those seriously. 

Which leads me to my Sports Talk Radio Blowhard Of The Week! 

This is the reminder that a sports talk radio host’s job is to get people to call in and yell either with or at them. This isn’t a discussion. They're fishing for reactions and hoping you’ll take the bait. 

It’s not a big deal that they didn’t work out together in the past, but it’s great to see them do it now. I’m not going to make too much of it, but it’s okay that they didn’t cross paths in other summers. Did Larry Bird work out with Kevin McHale every summer? 

And I’m just kidding about that award. Too many nominees to choose from every week for me to care. 

- Along those same lines, there's no dumber fight than the one between Lonzo Ball and Stephen A. Smith.

- I don’t think Glen Davis needs his nickname anymore so I’m stealing it from him and giving it to James Harden. Big Baby James got fined $100,000 for saying he’ll never play for a Daryl Morey team. The league said that amounts to a public trade demand, and they dinged him the maximum amount. 

So see, Big Baby James? You did get the max this summer after all. 

- I’m not paying $35 to watch ESPN.

- I would have, however, paid $2 to buy Barstool Sports. That's double Dave Portnoy’s offer and NO ONE even asked me. 

- Condolences go out to Stan Van Gundy and the Van Gundy family after the sudden loss of his wife Kim. They’d been married for 35 years. 

- Keep an eye on Giannis Antetokounmpo when the new CBA rips the Milwaukee Bucks apart.

“I don’t want to be 20 years on the same team and don’t win another championship,”

Giannis has been clear about this from the beginning. He loves Milwaukee, but he’s not going to be taken for granted. 

- Shout out to Keith Hernandez and the folks at Pix 11 for scrambling in the moment

- Danny Ainge hired Brad Stevens 10 years ago, so it makes sense that the young son running around the Auerbach Center back then is now a young man headed off to college. 

Man, I feel old now. 

By the way he’ll be playing for one of dad’s best friends, former Celtics assistant Micah Shrewsbury. So he’ll be in good hands. 

- Steph Curry says he’s the best point guard ever. I say all that proves is that positions don’t mean what they used to because you can’t tell me Magic Johnson and Curry do much of the same stuff on the floor.

If you’re trying to pick between Magic and Steph, then you’re doing it wrong. Curry’s career-high in assists is Magic’s second-worst season (pre-comeback). They had different jobs. They did different things.

Point guard play is the biggest differentiator between today and prior generations. There are plenty of pure point guards in history I’d rather have if I need a distributor, but no one else I’d rather have shooting the ball than Curry. 

- Payton Pritchard is the Steph Curry of summer Pro Ams. 

It’s not the 92 points he scored, two summers ago, but Pritchard really loves piling up the points against scrubs in July and August! 

- I’m still not over the Mookie Betts trade (and I may never be), and moments like these between Betts and LeBron James don’t help matters much. 

- Blake Griffin makes the greatest free agent recruiting pitch I’ve ever heard.

“Boston is unbelievable,” he said. “Living in Boston, playing in Boston, was like one of the best experiences … the fans are incredible. The team, just having a team that's so championship focused … and then one of the best parts, the players on that team is such a great group of guys.”

I don’t know if Blake will be back in Boston but Brad should hire him just to talk to guys trying to decide between Boston and another team. 

- The Raptors and Knicks are doing it all wrong. 

“According to a copy of the lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan and was obtained by ESPN, the Knicks state that Ikechukwu Azotam, who worked for the Knicks from 2020 to 2023, sent the Raptors thousands of confidential files -- including play frequency reports, a prep book for the 2022-23 season, video scouting files, opposition research and more -- after the team began recruiting him to join their organization in summer 2023.”

If you’re going to poach talent from an organization, why on earth would you pick the Knicks? What good are their play frequency reports? Here are the Knicks records between 2019-20 and 2022-23: 

• 21-45

• 41-31

• 37-45

• 47-35

That's like trying to get at the Hardee’s secret recipe. 

“Guys, we’re not mediocre enough. What can we do to fix that?... I know some dude at the Knicks, he can get us the scouting reports that led them to draft Kevin Knox and give Taj Gibson a multi-year deal.” 

“PERFECT!”

This past Raptors season makes a whole lot more sense now.