Every week I gather some thoughts about the Celtics, the NBA, and beyond and dump them here. Because I didn't qualify for the beat writer super-max extension
- If Tyrese Haliburton misses time in this series (he's listed as questionable for tomorrow), or the rest of it, there will be a lot of talk about Boston’s easy path again. Ignore it. It doesn’t matter. (A) Yes, the path is easy. Congratulations to the Celtics for catching breaks. And (B) no one will care. If Boston wins the title, you still get to go to the same parade, they get the same rings, and they get to raise the same banner in October. None of the extraneous stuff matters.
As an old friend once said: Do you know what they call someone who graduates med school with a C average? Doctor.
- Congratulations to Rick Carlisle for triggering a world record for "defund the police" jokes after thanking BPD for their police escort to the arena.
- People don't like the idea of Kristaps Porzingis coming back if Boston is up 3-0, but if he's fully healthy, I say it's a great chance to get him the rarest of rare opportunities: Consequence-free reps to get his legs back during the playoffs. That never happens. Why would anyone want Game 1 of the Finals to be his first game back after a month off?
- Trivia: Can you name the top three total +/- players in the playoffs heading into tonight’s Western Conference Finals game? The answer later on.
- We’re seeing what happens when player contracts are tied to award voting. Haliburton was on his way to All-NBA before he got hurt. Making All-NBA gets him a bump in his max extension and voters know that. Jaylen Brown already got that bump, so a voter trying to break a tie between those guys will side with Haliburton because no one wants to be the reason he didn't get paid.
The problem is that All-NBA is meaningful, and legacies are built on these awards. Brown had a better full season, on both ends of the floor, than Haliburton or Devin Booker. Haliburton’s pre-injury play was better, and that was enough for enough of the voters to justify the vote. But Brown deserved more recognition for the season he had
- So Boston’s 64-win team netted one guy an All-NBA nod, two guys All-Defense, and the Executive of the Year. Feels like someone got shorted.
- So why did the Oshae Brissett lineups work so well defensively? Simply put, the added athleticism. But it's not just because he was able to rotate quickly and stay in front of guys, it's also because he was able to recover quickly after mistakes. Take this steal, for example:
He got stuck on the pick and it looked like he was way out of position. In a way, the mistake baited the pass and he was able to recover to get the ball.
Imagine a player purposely getting stuck like that to entice a pass that can be stolen? If I was in charge of the latest episode of the Brissy Files, I'd be claiming I did that on purpose.
Here's another one:
That's just good hustle.
- Here's my weekly "the Bronny James stuff is out of control" mention.
- Al Horford's house is for sale. He turns 38 in June and is under contract for one more season. I assume next season will be his final season in Boston.
- I don't know what changed for Kyrie Irving in Dallas but I'm happy that it has. I never thought he was a bad person, just a confused and maybe unstable one. I don't care why he's settled down, I just hope that he actually has.
- I'm a big tattoo guy, but I have a rule about people's names on my body: Family or in memory only. That said, I totally understand why Timberwolves fans are getting $20 "Naz Reid" tattoos. There are some stretches in his games where I feel like I want one too.
- There has been a rush to anoint Anthony Edwards as the next face of the league. He may well be, but just like anything else, everyone is in a rush to be first with something so they can say later "I told you way back when!" And I get that. I love doing it too. But here's a bit of advice to my colleagues: You get to do it a lot more often if you're patient and right about things. No one remembers which opinion came first. They remember which opinions were correct.
- That said, Edwards' personality is a big reason why people love him, and the fact that his organic "bring ya ass" comment to Charles Barkley has been embraced as a state-wide slogan is amazing.
- I’m in the extreme minority here, but if TNT’s Inside the NBA goes away, so be it. It was fun while it lasted, but something existed before it, and something is going to exist after it. I will also fully acknowledge that the show is not for me because I’m interested in more analysis of the game. I’m with Adam Silver in wanting these national broadcast shows to break down what’s happening like NFL broadcasts do.
- Newsday reports Jalen Brunson is willing to sign a four-year, $156-million contract extension this summer instead of waiting for a potential five-year, $270 million deal next summer.
This is a similar situation as Derrick White (though the numbers are less for White). But the difference is that White is not a high-usage small guard, so he can afford to roll the dice. Small guard business in the NBA is different, and Brunson taking a massive amount of money on the table now makes more sense for him.
He saw what happened to Isaiah Thomas. Take the big money, ride the endorsement wave to make up some of the difference, and live like a king.
- Thoughts go out to Xavier Tillman after the passing of his father.
- Trivia answer: 1- Jayson Tatum +126, 2- Jrue Holiday +125, 3- Horford +124. Rudy Gobert is fourth at +121.
- We're getting new Bad Boys, Beetlejuice, and Beverly Hills Cop movies. On the downside, Hollywood is still woefully out of ideas. But on the upside, they're at least moving alphabetically now, so we can anticipate which craptastic ideas are next.
So I'm preparing myself for a modern take on Casablanca starring Ben Affleck (also signed on to direct) and Gal Gadot that makes a lot of heavy-handed political statements about current world conflicts but also somehow involves a Red Sox game.
That will be followed by a comedic spin on Citizen Kane, in which Zack Galifianakis dies while wearing VR goggles. This time, the quest to find out what "Rosebud" means takes real-crime podcaster Jason Sudeikis down a Reddit comment rabbit hole.
And, of course, we need another Will Smith vehicle, so he'll star in Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind, an action sequel that reuses a bunch of the props, script, and unused footage from Independence Day in a bid to save money. After it's released, millions will tweet this video as evidence that The Simpsons predicted something again:
- This week’s Bing AI-generated image(s) is a wild trip. The goal: depict the leprechaun ghosts of the Garden tripping up the Indiana Pacers.
Let's take a stroll through the demented world of artificial intelligence:
Whoa. Way too real. That's some nightmare fuel right here. I was looking for someone to snatch the ball, not his soul. Can we cartoon it up a little?
Too zombie apocalypse. We've got an undead Celtics player in there as well. The crowd finds it all hilarious, though. Boston just loves it when reanimated corpses of fictional beings literally devour the competition. And the best part is that Boston is the biggest TV market left, so it'll probably be called "marginal contact" and a no-call.
Try again, Bing.
Moving in the right direction. Still in the horror genre but we've moved into campy horror. The leprechaun is probably clumsy because it literally has two left feet. Also, Boston has been playing "Indiane" and "Indianta" so far.
"Attack of the creepy Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade Balloon"
Now we're getting somewhere. The creepy balloon has become sentient.
Or do I have those two photos out of order? Maybe this isn't a playful trip of an opponent. Maybe this is how the leprechaun hunts and the previous photo was taken just before the gruesome end? Speaking of gruesome ends, it's time to wrap up this bit.
Yes! Finally! Meet "Slide Tackle Seamus," the fun-loving sprite who thinks everything is a game of footy and he can't resist trying to get the ball back from the opponent. He's dressed in his athletic gear and he's ready to slide away at the feet of unsuspecting opponents. When will we see Slide Tackle Seamus next? Who knows, because he's always lurking in the cracks of the parquet floor and he's so fast, you can never catch him in action ... right, Tyrese Haliburton?
- Here's my latest podcast, if you're bored:
