Picks 'n Pops: Brad Stevens speaks, more trade drama coming, and revisionist history

Every week I gather some thoughts about the Celtics, the NBA, and beyond and dump them here. Because I can't afford the $8 million to buy a Super Bowl ad. 

- Brad Stevens spoke to the media before yesterday’s game. Here’s some of what he said: 

On the motivation for deadline moves: 

“The No. 1 north star of our team right now is to try our best to have a chance to win again. Obviously when we make moves like we did the other day, that opens a roster spot, so there’s an opportunity to fill that. But you’re also weighing how much people are playing, how much opportunity they’re really getting, how much opportunity they’re probably gonna get as you get into the playoffs. Hey, I really like Jaden. I think he’s gonna be a good player. I think he’s a good kid. I’m really rooting for him and I’ll help him in any way I can. And at the same time, we’re pretty deep. So I feel really good about having answers at a lot of different places, and I think the open roster spots will provide some opportunity to have some flexibility as well.”

Translation: Jaden Springer is a good person, but he’s not a good enough basketball player to help this team right now. That made him expendable. What he did here was fine, but it’s not enough to help in the playoffs. 

My take: Unless you’re the Red Sox or Mavericks trying to denigrate people out the door to justify your own crappy decisions, everyone who gets traded is a good guy who is wished well. The Celtics are going to miss his tenacious defense, and I advocated for keeping him and using the additional roster spot to bring in Craig. 

But … saving $19 million overall with Springer and the paying Craig the minimum is just good business sense. This is a still a business, after all. 

On what changed with Springer:  

“When we got Jayden last year you kind of think about the things that you saw last week and that we've seen before, both behind closed doors and under the bright lights with him. But one of the things when we got him was we didn't have Holiday signed to an extension. We didn't have White signed to an extension. We didn't have Hauser signed to an extension. So now you're also playing the ‘hey, if you don't have this, you also have a young player that maybe you could go forward with when all those things happen and it becomes less in your rotation, you know he's a really capable player, and he can probably play really well in a rotation in the NBA.’ But also he's not going to play in this particular circumstance and we have very limited opportunity to sign him after that, right? And so those are all factors that you have to consider. And it stinks that we have to do that with regard to him, but he'll be okay because he's a bulldog, he's a good player.”

Translation: He was more insurance in case one of those other guys bolted and less a long-term project that some of us thought he might be. 

My take: I think they also gave Springer a chance to earn a rotation spot in camp. Once that didn’t work, they waited as long as they could to see if they could get in on a deal and not give up draft assets. They ran out of time. 

On being limited at the deadline: 

“I think the one thing about this, and I think I've learned it more being on this side of it, not being in coaching, is you're talking to people all year long. So you have a pretty good idea of what you're looking to do. You have a pretty good idea of what others are looking to do. Maybe you're surprised by something, but whatever the case may be, it’s like, generally, you usually have a pretty good idea. In our situation with our team this year, today was boring as hell. Like, it was just like, no, there's nothing. Like we there wasn't going to be anything going and it was very, you know, the phones didn't ring. We had already had any discussions that we were probably going to have, and we just weren't going to do anything major, because at the end of the day, even through our ups and downs over the last six weeks, like, what gives us our best chance of having a chance to win? And that is this group playing a little bit more like itself more of the time.”

Translation: Brad had a pretty good handle on the deadline … maybe not the Luka Doncic deal … and none of those deals involved Boston in any way.

My take: Everyone knew this is how it was going to go. Thank you for not surprising us like Nico Harrison. 

On this team’s recent up-and-down performance: 

“I don’t know that I would have an exact reason. I don’t get too caught up in the numbers of that stretch because we lost in close games that maybe we felt like we could have won or we made mistakes at the end and lost, and then our numbers were probably buoyed by a couple of 30- or 40-point wins. So we probably weren’t playing as good as our numbers at that time, but we’re capable. And we’re capable on both ends of the court. Listen, it’s a long year. We have played late and we hope to play late. We know that nothing’s given, but the reality is we also know there are going to be ups and downs and we can’t ride those. And we just have to (think), ‘OK, we’re not playing as well. How do we fix it? What do we need to do different? And I think all of our answers we can do internally.”

Translation: This team is good enough to do it without much external help. Every answer they need is already here. 

My take: I’m glad Stevens isn’t completely riding the roller coaster. There are a lot of reactionary takes out there, but Stevens has the steady hand. There's a reason why he’s been able to make these championship moves, including the tough calls to trade certain guys. He has a grasp on who these guys are. He knows when a trigger has to be pulled. This isn’t the time. 

- The Marcus Smart/Malcolm Brogdon/Khris Middleton Wizards are going to be something. I don’t know what to make of those guys together. It'll probably make them better. 

- The Celtics need to start winning at home. I understand how things go at this time of year … I think I’ve made that pretty clear … but at some point they have to perform for their home crowd. These are the people who will be there, chanting and cheering, when the playoffs come. Consistently having these lapses at home is bordering on disrespectful at this point. They can be the top contender and this still be true. 

- We all want to pretend the world is fair, but then Jimmy Butler keeps getting his way. 

- Kyrie Irving is the king of revisionist history. 

He’ll say anything to remove the blame for what happened in Boston from himself. He was the leader of this team and he spent the whole thing cutting the locker room in half, with “the young guys” on one side and himself on the other. 

That's where the problems started. Plain and simple. 

- De’Andre Hunter makes the Cavs better, but he doesn’t swing anything in their favor. And now there are rumors that Ben Simmons is considering Cleveland after he gets bought out, which would undo whatever the Hunter move did. 

- Mike Woodson is stepping down as Indiana’s head coach, which means it’s time to brace yourselves for Brad Stevens rumors again. 

- Get ready for the Kevin Durant trade sweepstakes this summer. I’ll be shocked if he’s back in Phoenix after his name appeared in trade rumors. 

- Matt Ishbia went to the Mikhail Prokhorov school of impulsive NBA team ownership. He decided he wanted to be the cool owner who just spent, spent, spent, but he did it stupidly. I think it’s worse to have an owner who spends without thinking than it is to have one who’s cheap. You can build something on a budget. It’s hard to get yourself out of trouble when you’ve overspent. 

- I used to hope Kendrick Perkins would turn into Shaq-lite. I never thought it would happen by becoming overly-sensitive and trying to take credit for everything. 

- I don’t think Miami is going to buy out the guy they photoshopped into a welcome tweet. 

RIP brief Kylen Anderson flirtation

- Trae Young’s future in Atlanta is reportedly “murky.” I don’t think it’s murky at all. It’s really clear that they should trade him. 

It’ll be wild if Young and Doncic are on different teams next season after they were traded for each other on draft night. 

- Dennis Schröder might get to play for every NBA team at this point. I think he’s been on half of them just at this deadline. 

- It is with great sorrow that I award the Best Week Ever to Lakers GM Rob Pelinka. But when you get the gift of Luka Doncic like he did, who else would get it?

- This week’s Bing AI-generated image: Life as the Celtics at the trade deadline this year. 

- Here’s my latest podcast, if you’re bored: