Despite Jayson Tatum‘s absence, Jaylen Brown and the Boston Celtics have positioned themselves as one of the top teams in the East. To showcase his appreciation for the team’s consistency, Brown recently posted a graphic on social media, highlighting how identical Boston’s performance has been to last season.
While his intentions were positive, Jaylen Brown faced severe backlash from the NBA community on social media. Given that he was caught off guard by the negative response, Brown justified himself during a recent interview with CelticsBlog’s Noa Dalzell.
“The thing I posted, that was about celebrating our group,” Brown shared. “People make it seem like it was about me, because that’s what people wanted it to be about. But in reality, I’m just so proud of our group. I’m extremely proud.”
Jaylen Brown has every reason to be proud of the Celtics’ performance this season. Given the difficult circumstances the team found itself in heading into the new campaign, the Celtics have shown remarkable resilience, securing second place in the East with a 35-19 record at the All-Star break.
During the interview, Brown revealed that even after the roster overhaul, he had faith in the unit. Still, he wasn’t expecting such positive results.
“I believed that we were going to be fine, but even to me, it’s like, ‘Damn, we’re the second seed, one of the five best records in the whole league,'” Brown added. “Only a few teams have a better record than us in the entire league. We’re a top-five team in the league, coming from the start of the season, when it was [supposed to be] a gap year.”
The wide-scale changes saw the Celtics part with key rotation pieces such as Jrue Holiday, Kristaps Porzingis, and even long-time veteran Al Horford, who left in free agency. All signs pointed to the Celtics undergoing a rebuild this season.
However, under Joe Mazzulla‘s guidance, the team found new life. With Jaylen Brown playing at an MVP level, averaging 29.3 points, 6.9 rebounds, and 4.7 assists per game, Boston has looked like a contender.
Now, with the addition of Nikola Vucevic ahead of the trade deadline, the Celtics have become even more formidable after addressing one of their key roster issues.
For all intents and purposes, the Boston Celtics are primed to be a top-seeded team in the playoffs, undoubtedly emerging as a threat to teams such as the Detroit Pistons and the New York Knicks. With reports also indicating that Jayson Tatum is gearing up for a return, the Celtics’ chances of winning the title this season could drastically improve.
