Picks 'n Pops: Squashing rumors, supporting babies, and one killer speech

Every week I gather some thoughts about the Celtics, the NBA, and beyond and dump them here. Because I just found out guys are getting a fifth year of college eligibility and I need to start working out for my big comeback

- Brad Stevens on Joe Mazzulla and any potential contract extension: “We’ve got Joe under contract for multiple years right now. So, we certainly want Joe to be around here for a long time.”

Period. End of story. I hope that's definitive enough for everyone. 

- Celtics VP of Basketball Operations Mike Zarren on the Jaylen Brown/Derrick White rumors: “Those two guys are really, really great NBA players, and there hasn't been anything close to serious about trading them. I’m not sure where all this reporting came from but those guys are key parts of our team, and we're lucky to have them here.”

Nothing serious means there were conversations, but those conversations have to happen. You HAVE to listen to other teams when they talk. 

You never know what bit of information those teams will give you when you talk trade, even if the talks never progress to anything serious. A team can tell you its motivations, the players they're willing to give up, or even convey a sense of what their emotions are or what pressure is coming from the top. 

What starts as a vulture coming to pick at the bones of a franchise forced to make moves could lead to a different trade down the road. I know people love the concept of Brad laughing and hanging up on people, but listening, talking, and saying a polite “no thanks” at the end can yield a lot of useable intel that can benefit the team down the line. 

- Stevens on Brown and Jayson Tatum: “Brown was actually on the court the other day doing some ball-handling and light work around the rim, nothing big movement-wise yet, but I think his timeline, again, we said be ready for training camp, and I think he’ll probably be going full well ahead of that. So we’ll see. So we’ve seen both those guys very frequently. Jaylen’s been here working with (Celtics performance therapist) Drew Moore on all his rehab, and Jayson with (his trainer) Nick (Sang). It’s usually the time of year I don’t see those guys a lot. They usually rest and get away. But they both prioritize getting better and rehabbing, and after a long season, I appreciate that about them.”

Tatum was spotted on crutches at an Equinox in New York recently. I’m assuming he was back in NYC for a follow up exam with his surgeon but that's just a guess. 

As for his timeline, Stevens was blunt about it. 

“We won’t put a projected timeline on him for a long, long time,” he said. “It’s baby steps right now. He’s actually progressed great, but I don’t know what that means with regard to projected timelines. And that’ll be in consultation with him and Nick and (Celtics Executive Director of Performance) Phil Coles and everybody else to make sure he is, when he hits the court, he is fully ready and fully healthy. And that will be the priority.”

- Stevens on his frontcourt free agents Al Horford and Luke Kornet: “There is no question our priorities would be to bring Al and Luke back. Those guys are huge parts of this organization. They’re going to have, I’m sure, plenty of options all over the place, and that’s well-deserved, but I think that would be a priority. At the same time, I don’t want to put pressure on them. It’s their call ultimately. But, yeah, we would love to have those guys back.”

I’ve seen speculation that Kornet can get at least $10 million on the open market. Maybe he’ll take another haircut to stay in Boston and stay in the $7 million range. The veteran minimum for Horford is $3.6 million, and it would be helpful to Boston if he takes that because only a portion of that counts towards the cap (the league subsidizes veteran minimum deals as an incentive to sign those guys in an effort to not push older, more expensive, but viable talent out of the league). I think the Celtics would be happy to spend $10 million on both of them. 

- I’ve spent so long talking about the potential $10 million Sam Hauser salary dump that I keep overlooking an $8 million salary dump in the newly acquired Georges Niang. The problem is that the Celtics would have to attach a pick to dump Niang where they would get something of value for Hauser. Hauser would be in demand as a shooter with size. 

- This is how ridiculously punitive the repeater tax is: Boston saved $27 million in salary in the Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis trades, but they saved nearly $211 million in taxes. 

Not only is that a lot of money to save as a team, that's money that's NOT going to the non-taxpaying teams in the league. I’ve mentioned it before, but keeping that money out of the hands of the cheap owners has value, too. The more money they get in a tax payout, the more they can bank for when it’s time to make their own runs. 

- You might be sick of hearing about second aprons and CBA stuff, but how do you think I feel having to write about it every day and get nothing but financial questions about the team? 

I’m a sports writer. I’m obviously immature. I like to make jokes and talk about who can dribble and shoot and who can’t. Did no one watch Everybody Loves Raymond? 

I’m friends with words. Words and I are old drinking buddies. Words and I go out for beer and wings. Math drinks water and eats raw kale. Math bullied me in high school and has never been my friend.

- So anyway, the new second-round exception could be a deterrent for teams drafting at the top of the second round. Where once upon a time the drop from 30 to 31 was a financially freeing step into a second round without shackles, now guys at the top will be looking to get a little more money. 

Essentially, instead of getting paid the rookie minimum ($1.4 million), a second-round exception contract can start at $2.25 million and go for three or four years. The 30th pick in the first round starts at $2.74 million, so this is a little bit below that, but more than what second rounders usually get. 

Is it enough to scare teams away from making those picks if they like the player? No, not really. Is it something teams want to avoid when every dollar matters? Yes it is. I don’t know if that was why Brad Stevens traded down from 32 (or maybe it was the four second-round picks he got in exchange), but it’s another wrinkle in the equation. 

And I know what people are thinking. How broke does an owner have to be to worry about $800,000 in this landscape? But in this era of hard caps, that $800k could be the difference between signing someone on the buyout market and not. 

The Dallas Mavericks couldn't bring back Moses Brown on a second 10-day contract last season because they were up against a hard cap and ran out of money. Things like this can happen. So if a team isn’t in love with a pick at the top of the second round, trading down and into a range where guys will take rookie minimums and two-way deals (which don’t count against the cap or tax), makes sense. 

- Stevens has made exactly two (2) first round picks, one of which was made two days ago at 28 and the other was a year ago at 30, and people are lining up to question his ability to draft? 

Do these people write movie reviews after the opening credits?

- My favorite post-draft phenomenon is people falling in love with a player they never heard of based on a three-minute highlight package. 

“Oh my god I’ve never seen this guy before but this carefully selected compilation of him at his absolute best without context of the entire game has me convinced that he’s the steal of the draft.” 

- Little known fact about Cooper Flagg: He is from Maine. 

- This reaction from Javon Small’s grandfather after he was drafted in the second round is what the draft is all about.

- It’s also about the outfits, and my favorite was Carter Bryant coming straight from a 90’s R&B video to the NBA draft.

- Alex Caruso having to teach a bunch of young 20-somethings how to pop champagne to celebrate is the most wholesome thing ever. 

I don’t know where Sam Presti found these robots who remain unselfish on the court and don’t touch alcohol as rich young athletes, but kudos to him. 

- Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is not only an incredible player, but an incredible person. I loved him visiting Tyrese Haliburton after Game 7 of the Finals to check up on him. 

And then Shai and his teammates telling Isaiah Hartenstein to hold his sleeping son’s head up during the postgame celebration. 

This really was a group of Boy Scouts who just won the title.

- It sucks that Holiday is pissed about the trade to Portland, but this is part of the business. He’s getting $100 million in his mid-30s and this is part of the deal. 

- Toronto has moved on from Masai Ujiri. 

If they were going to change their front office, why did they let the outgoing guy make their draft pick?

- I’m grabbing my popcorn for the Ace Bailey vs. Utah spectacle. He didn’t work out for any NBA teams and there's speculation he wanted to play in Washington, so we’ll see how this works out. 

Personally, I don’t care about a player not working out for the team. That's not a reason not to draft someone. But wanting to play for the Wizards is a red flag. 

- Devin Booker is reportedly going to sign a two-year, $150 million extension. I remember when Kevin Garnett’s six-year, $126 million dollar deal was supposed to break the league. 

- Mavs GM Nico Harrison saying “fortune favors the bold” to explain how he got Cooper Flagg might be the most arrogant thing I’ve heard out of an executive. 

- I don’t know why people’s brains shut off when it comes to rooting for their favorite teams, but the fan who heckled Arizona’s Ketel Marte with a dig at his dead mother is the worst of the worst. 

Instead of the indefinite ban he received, I propose fans who make these kinds of inappropriate comments be put in a windowless room alone with the athlete they targeted for five minutes. Just toss him in, force him to repeat his comment to the guy’s face, and then shut the door. 

You want to act tough? Let’s see how tough you are when you have to say this to someone’s face and you have nowhere to hide. 

- Barry Bonds is getting a statue outside of Oracle Park. One fun feature of the statue will be a separate syringe statue, which fans can use to inject the Bonds statue. 

Yeah, that was a joke, but if I’m an opposing fan, I’m making a cardboard syringe and sticking that thing into the statue’s ass and posting it all over social media. I’m betting they have to put a fence around it to stop fans from doing stuff like that. 

- This week’s AI-generated image is supposed to be Brad Stevens walking a tightrope made of money. This is the closest I could get to it. 

You get the idea. 

- Obviously the OKC Thunder are having the Best Week Ever, but I want to drill down to Aaron Wiggins, whose speech on their parade day wins my new, one week only award, Best Speak Ever! 

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