Picks 'n Pops: Playoff success, proper respect, and a dumpster fire

Every week I gather some thoughts about the Celtics, the NBA, and beyond and dump them here. Because that's the LAST time I go skiiing with Haley Joel Osment.

- Jaylen Brown has played in 124 playoff games. The second-most played playoff games played from the 2016 NBA draft is Pascal Siakam, with 70, and then Jamal Murray with 65. 

Jayson Tatum has played in 113 playoff games. The second most playoff games from the 2017 NBA draft is Bam Adebayo with 74, and then Derrick White, with 72. 

Tatum and Brown have a chance to pad their leads in a big way this year. 

- Al Horford is 14 playoff games away from becoming the 11th player in NBA history, and only the second active player behind LeBron James, to play in 200+ playoff games. So if they win it all and he stays healthy, he’s guaranteed to join the club. He’ll also join KC Jones, Bill Russell, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the only NBA players to go back-to-back in college and the pros. 

I used to wonder if Horford had a Hall of Fame resume. If the Celtics win, they can just drive his duck boat to Springfield after the parade. 

- I can’t begin to tell you how much I love this quote from Paolo Banchero on Tatum.

“One of the guys I go to for advice and stuff like that. Now we’re competing. The best way for me to show my respect is to give him my best effort and go at him as much as I can.”

Yes! Yes! A million times, YES!

The best way to show an opponent respect is to give that opponent your best effort. There is nothing more disrespectful than messing around and taking a team lightly. I would rather lose by a 100 than have an opponent feel bad and let up. 

Don’t patronize me. Give me your best so I know how far I need to go. Give me everything you’ve got so I know how hard I have to work to get what you have. Don’t disrespect me by treating me like less than you are. 

- Kristaps Porzingis says he wants to compete in the Eurobasket tournament with Latvia this summer: 

“I haven’t had the opportunity to represent my country for a while unfortunately and I always love so much playing for the national team, honestly. It just gives me a burst of energy in the summertime and to get back with my guys from the national team, it’s just a different atmosphere on the national team. And I always look forward to it. I always try to be around the team as much as possible, too, even when I’m hurt. That’s why I’m kinda surprised that a lot of people think I decide not to play sometimes. It’s never happened in my career. I only haven’t played because of some injuries and hopefully I’ll have a healthy playoff run now and then go into the summer healthy and have a great European championship with Latvia.”

The tournament begins August 27, so as long as he’s healthy this summer, then he can go and enjoy it. I don’t expect a deep run for Latvia and I think the risk of injury is the same as it will be in his workouts to ramp up for preseason. I’ll consider it part of his preparation for the upcoming season.  

- The most encouraging quote of the week came from Horford, who summed up the difference between most teams in the playoffs and this Celtics team: 

“Early on in my years, to get to the playoffs, we had to exert ourselves quite a bit. Play a lot of high minutes. Kind of work your work there. By the time you got there, you probably weren't feeling the best physically and it was just about pushing through and kind of trying to do your best. The luxury that we've had the last few years is we've been in a really good position. We've finished as one of the top seeds and that kind of allows everybody to kind of get recharged, get refocused, get ready. So this time period, it's nice to prepare yourselves physically and mentally."

I’m looking squarely at the Cavs who pushed REALLY hard in the regular season. They started to fade at the end of the regular season, which highlights what Horford is saying. This week off will help them a bit, but if they have a tough first round at all, they could be running on fumes pretty quickly.

- Charles Lee’s vehement shaking of his head when I framed the question “there’s a perception that the Celtics just come down and jack 3s” tells you all you need to know. 

There is so much more that goes into Boston’s offense. This series against Orlando might show us how. 

- Happy Birthday Dana Barros. Man, he would have made SOOO much money in today’s NBA. 

- Derrick White’s teammates apparently shared my opinion that there should have been more zip on his first pitch last week. 

- Sam Hauser shot 100% from the line for an ENTIRE NBA SEASON!

………… he was 11-11. 

- We came into this season talking about how Tatum’s shot was fixed. He finished the season with the worst regular-season 3-point percentage of his career. 

I think the issue remains shot selection and hunting for his looks. The fix is being more selective. He doesn’t need to shoot 10 per game. I’m honestly curious if teams will start daring him to shoot. We’ve seen teams leave Brown and Jrue Holiday alone so why not, especially in an act of desperation, wouldn’t a team try that against Boston?

- My huge online fight this week was about Trae Young. He’s an elite passer and he’s capable of big scoring nights, but he’s not a winning player. If he was as good as some people think, he would elevate his teammates. Also, he carries himself like he’s Steph Curry but he’s a career 35% 3-point shooter and he shot 34% from 3 this season. 

- According to Marc Stein, Denver’s ownership is unwilling to move Michael Porter, Jr. because the Kroenkes also went to Missouri. 

“Sources with knowledge of Denver's thinking have maintained for some time that they struggled to envision ownership ever approving a deal that would send Porter away from the franchise.”

I'm not here to advocate for or against trading MPJ, but I will say this is a very dumb reason not to trade him. 

- New Orleans and Sacramento both fired their GMs and immediately hired replacements with no real search based on their good relationship with the owners. 

That's nice and all, but in this world of the second apron and complicated cap dynamics, I’d make sure Joe Dumars (New Orleans) and Scott Perry (Sacramento) have a full grasp of the intricacies of this CBA before hiring them. Now, more than ever, I need to make sure there aren’t some nerds out there who have this insane document figured out in an intimate way. 

We’re entering into the real meat of this CBA where its design will truly show itself. Teams this summer will be starting to shed salary and the best GMs of middle to lower-tier teams will be there to pick up the scraps. The good teams will start getting vulnerable and the mediocre to bad teams will start getting better. It’s almost like an expansion draft without the new teams.

Having the wrong guys in place could prove costly if teams aren’t able to properly take advantage of this sea change. 

- Mike Budenholzer got fired for Phoenix’s deeply disappointing season. He has $40 million left on his deal, which means next season the Suns will be paying Budenholzer and Frank Vogel to not coach their team as well as who ever is their next future ex-head coach. Who will that be?

“We're going to look for someone that fits the vision of Phoenix Suns basketball,” owner Matt Ishbia said. “Someone who is a little bit grimy, a little bit tough."

THAT'S the vision of Phoenix Suns basketball? Is there another Phoenix Suns that I don’t know about?

- One of Budenholzer’s missteps is his reported request that Bradley Beal become the Jrue Holiday of the team. That reportedly didn’t go over well with Beal. 

I don’t think Bud wanted Holiday to become that type of player. I think he wanted Beal to adjust his game to be the guy who sacrifices more for the sake of the team. Beal balked at it but he was in prime position to be a hero. 

Beal has made his money. He’s getting $111 million over the next two seasons. He’ll be 33 when that deal is up so no one is giving him another big contract no matter what. If he spent two seasons being a facilitator, remaking his game to be a connecting piece between the younger Devin Booker and the still-elite but aging Kevin Durant, he would have been one of the biggest stories in the NBA. 

His career is much worse off now. No one wants him in a trade. There isn’t even a hint of justification in his salary. There isn’t a smidge of leadership or veteran guile that a young team would want around. There's nothing. 

I’ll sum it up this way: If someone asks you to be a Jrue Holiday-type and that bothers you, that says a whole lot more about you than it does anyone else. 

- Holiday’s comments on this situation were pure Holiday: 

“I guess I have nothing to say because this is the first time I’m hearing about it. I think me and Brad are different players. And I also don’t know what he meant by saying that. But we are different players. Brad is an elite scorer and he’s had somewhat of an off year. So I feel like just things are different. It’s tough to go from where he was, somewhere like in Washington, and then kind of experience the experience that he’s been going through. I just don’t know why people gotta bring me into it. Let me just do me, go out here and try to win as many rings as I can.”

- The question “which team is sadder, the Bulls or the Kings” was asked this week and my answer is Chicgaramento. 

- This week's AI-generated image: Al Horford is on the verge of entering NBA royalty.

- I'm 100% right about Trae Young. He scored 28 points but was a -22 in the Hawks loss to Orlando in the play-in. And then he went and embarrassed himself by getting thrown out. This big week for Young-haters like me. In fact, it's the Best Week Ever!

- Here's my latest podcast, if you're bored.