Jayson Tatum

Celtics Notes: Lillard, Tatum, Porzingis, Griffin, Banton

August 31st, 2023 at 9:02am CST by Arthur Hill

Jayson Tatum has reached out to Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard in an attempt to sell him on the benefits of playing for the Celtics, Marc J. Spears of Andscape said on a recent podcast with Bill Oram of The Oregonian (hat tip to HoopsHype).

Lillard, whose future has been in limbo since making his trade request nearly two months ago, remains determined to get to Miami and join a perennially successful organization that is coming off an NBA Finals appearance. Lillard would love to team up with Bam Adebayo and Jimmy Butler and go to a warm-weather city with no state income tax, Spears says, but mostly he wants a chance to compete for a title. Although his preference for the Heat hasn’t changed, it appears players from other teams are making an effort to recruit him, including Tatum.

“I know that Boston, I know Jayson Tatum has called him, try to get in his ear, but his focus is definitely on Miami,” Spears said.

There’s more on the Celtics:

President of basketball operations Brad Stevens isn’t worried about the health of Kristaps Porzingis despite a plantar fasciitis issue that prevented him from playing in the World Cup, relays Conor Ryan of The Boston Globe. Appearing on WEEI’s “Jones and Mego” show, Stevens said team officials weren’t aware of Porzingis’ condition when they acquired him from the Wizards in a three-team trade, but there’s no reason to think it will prevent him from playing. “He’s at the FIBA Tournament with the (Latvian) team so he’s doing his rehab there,” Stevens said. “We were with him in the 10 days, our training staff was with him (before the tournament) as he was diagnosed with plantar fasciitis. He went through all the progressions and he really tried to ramp up and play. He just determined he didn’t want to deal with lingering effects down the road. This is something that we should be able to navigate and manage in the next few weeks and be ready for training camp. We’re planning on having him for Day 1 of training camp.”
Blake Griffin remains unsigned and it’s uncertain if the Celtics will reach out to him again, but Stevens appreciated his performance last season, per Brian Robb of MassLive. In the same radio interview, Stevens complimented all the back-up big men for helping the team stay in contention after Robert Williams‘ early-season injury, saying, “Blake was as good as it gets both on and off the court.”
Growing up, new Celtic Dalano Banton patterned his game after former Boston point guard Rajon Rondo, according to Taylor Snow of NBA.com.

Atlantic Notes: Gardner, Fournier, Celtics Mock Draft

August 29th, 2023 at 9:56pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Center Patrick Gardner agreed to an Exhibit 10 contract with the Nets last month. He’s expecting to end up in the G League this season but hopes to make a major impression during training camp.

“I was fortunate enough to get a training camp invite for the Nets, then depending how I do here and in general, hopefully I could just keep moving up from there. I think I’m gonna be with the G League team, but you never know what could happen, just got to be prepared for all options,” Gardner told FIBA.Basketball.

Gardner is playing for Egypt during the World Cup and was on the Heat’s summer league squad. The Nets reached an agreement with him shortly after he went undrafted out of Marist.

We have more from the Atlantic Division:

Evan Fournier is confident he can still help the Knicks or another NBA club, he told Antonis Stroggylakis of Eurohoops.net. “Obviously, I want to play again. I want to have success. I know I can help. I know I can play, I know I can do many things,” said Fournier, who represented France during its disappointing World Cup run. Fournier’s career with the Knicks is in limbo as they seek a new home for him. He said last month he’d be “very surprised” if he played for them this season.
With many NFL fantasy football managers drafting their teams this week, The Athletic’s Jared Weiss and Jay King conducted a mock draft of Celtics players. No surprise — Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown were the first two players off the board.
In case you missed it, the Nets’ Ben Simmons plans to come back with a vengeance during the upcoming season. Get the details here.

Atlantic Notes: Clowney, Embiid, Beverley, Hauser

August 28th, 2023 at 10:42am CST by Arthur Hill

Summer League gave Nets rookie Noah Clowney a chance to adjust to the speed of the NBA game before his first training camp, writes Brian Lewis of The New York Post. Clowney struggled with his shot in Las Vegas, connecting at just 22.6% from the field and 23.5% beyond the arc, but he considers the experience a valuable one.

“Obviously the game is faster,” Clowney said. “It’s really all a bunch of small details, really — like screening angles, getting into screens faster, then getting out faster and things like that. What shots are good shots, if you don’t (have) a shot, get right into the next action. … You learn from it, and I think the only way you can learn from it is by going through the experience of that Summer League. So I’m glad I played in it. It was fun. I didn’t play my best, obviously. (My shooting) percentages were horrible. But it was a learning experience. I feel like that’s what it was supposed to be. So I’m happy with it.”

One of the youngest players in this year’s draft, Clowney just turned 19 in July, so he may spend much of his first season in the G League. He has drawn comparisons to starting center Nic Claxton, and Nets officials are optimistic about his long-term potential.

“I love the intangibles. I love how hard he competes. I love the length that he has,” general manager Sean Marks said. “When you have a 7-foot-3-inch wingspan, I can’t teach that. Our coaches can teach a lot of things, but they can’t teach that. I love the fact that he doesn’t shy away from shooting from the outside. He’s very versatile, can play a couple of different positions out there.”

There’s more from the Atlantic Division:

France’s disappointment in this year’s World Cup doesn’t mean national team general manager Boris Diaw will be any more aggressive in recruiting Sixers center Joel Embiid for the 2024 Olympics, per Antonis Stroggylakis of Eurohoops. Embiid has both French and U.S. citizenship, but he hasn’t committed to representing either country. “I don’t think it’s a pursuit. It’s about people who want to come,” Diaw said. “Some people come or don’t come to the national team for different reasons. He’s a special case for his own reasons. I don’t think there’s a way to be aggressive on our part.”
Sixers guard Patrick Beverley doesn’t believe the Celtics can win a title with Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown as the core of the team, relays Kaley Brown of Boston.com. “No – too much of the same player,” Beverley said on his podcast. “They don’t complement each other enough … they complement each other, but not enough.” Even so, Beverley added that Boston shouldn’t get rid of either player and said the team got “a lot better” by trading for Kristaps Porzingis.
Grant Williams‘ departure creates an opportunity for Celtics forward Sam Hauser to earn consistent minutes moving into his third NBA season, observes Jared Weiss of The Athletic. Hauser briefly moved ahead of Williams in the rotation last season, and Weiss examines how he can best fit into coach Joe Mazzulla’s offense.

Celtics Notes: Griffin, Porzingis, Tatum, Mazzulla

August 23rd, 2023 at 6:49pm CST by Arthur Hill

Blake Griffin doesn’t have a team for the upcoming season, but he would love to return to the Celtics if the opportunity arises. Appearing on the Barstool Sports podcast (hat tip to ClutchPoints), Griffin called playing in Boston “one of the best experiences” and had plenty of good things to say about his teammates.

“The players on that team are just like such a great group of guys,” Griffin said. “Like a guy like Jayson Tatum, he’s a legit superstar. And he’s just so humble and talks to everybody on the team and talks to the whole staff.”

Griffin signed with the Celtics shortly before the start of last season and averaged 4.1 points and 3.8 rebounds in 41 games. Boston has open roster spots, and a recent report suggested there’s interest in bringing Griffin back. But the Celtics also have workouts scheduled with T.J. Warren, Lamar Stevens and Louis King, so they’re exploring their options.

There’s more from Boston:

Kristaps Porzingis can’t play in the World Cup because of plantar fasciitis, but he’ll travel to Indonesia to support his Latvian teammates, according to Eurohoops. “I said being around is important, even though I’m not playing,” Porzingis explained in an interview with Sporta Studija. “They supported my decision. Also, there’s a long season ahead. It’s important for me to spend time with my teammates, with my family, and Boston respected my decision.”
Tatum is sharpening his game this summer with help from former Celtics star Paul Pierce, per Brian Robb of MassLive. The Hall of Famer attended some of Tatum’s workouts in Los Angeles with trainer Drew Hanlan. “Watching JT sharpen those tools, seeing what greatness looks like,” Pierce said in an Instagram video.
In an interview with Michael Eaves of ESPN (video link), Joe Mazzulla explains how studying jiu-jitsu has made him a better coach. “It’s one of the hardest things I’ve done,” Mazzulla said. “What the art really gives is the study of transitions, and that really helps me because in a game and in a season, there’s transitions and decision making. You’re actually learning how not to fight. You’re learning how to handle situations. You’re learning how to problem solve.”

Atlantic Notes: Dinwiddie, Brown, Tatum

August 13th, 2023 at 3:17pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

The Nets have a decision to make on their extension-eligible starting point guard Spencer Dinwiddie, notes Brian Lewis of The New York Post. Injury-prone Ben Simmons has technically also become extension-eligible, but given how difficult it has been to find minutes for Simmons on the roster, Lewis doubts Brooklyn would be interested in extending the former All-Star.

Dinwiddie is currently earning $20.4MM in the last season of a lucrative three-year deal. Lewis notes that the 30-year-old’s veteran leadership and play-making remains valuable, and speculates that it might behoove team GM Sean Marks to re-sign him to a deal comparable to his current three-year, $54MM contract before he becomes an unrestricted free agent next summer.

There’s more out of the Atlantic Division:

Celtics All-NBA forward Jayson Tatum reflected on his All-NBA teammate Jaylen Brown‘s massive new five-year contract extension that could be worth as much as $304MM, per Gary Washburn of The Boston Globe. “Much deserved, it was a no-brainer,” Tatum told Washburn. “So I’m happy for him and his family. It’s life changing. It’s a big deal. I’m happy we’re going to have him for however much longer we’ve got him for. I’m happy about that.” Brown averaged 26.6 PPG, 6.9 RPG, 3.5 APG, and 1.1 SPG across 67 contests with Boston last season. He and Tatum have been the centerpieces of a team that has appeared in four Conference Finals across its last six seasons, and one NBA Finals.
Washburn notes that, in the 2024 offseason, Tatum himself will become eligible for his own five-year super-max contract extension that would make him even higher paid than Brown. Washburn considers it inevitable that the Celtics will tender him an extension offer, given his standing on the team and in the league, but it’s not at the front of Tatum’s mind. “Nah, I don’t think about nothing of that,” Tatum said. “It’s one day at a time.”
In case you missed it, Sixers point guard James Harden reportedly does not intend to suit up for Philadelphia as he awaits a trade. The former All-Star opted into the final year of his current deal with the team in an effort to force a trade, rather than signing with another club in free agency this summer.

Celtics Notes: Tatum, Smart, White, Brogdon, Porzingis

August 9th, 2023 at 9:40pm CST by Arthur Hill

Appearing at a PGA pro-am event Wednesday in Memphis, Jayson Tatum promised Grizzlies fans that they’re going to love having Marcus Smart on their team (video link from The Memphis Commercial Appeal).

After spending nine years with the Celtics, Smart was shipped to Memphis in a three-team trade to acquire Kristaps Porzingis. Smart provided a fiery presence in Boston, both on and off the court, and Tatum said he’ll bring those same qualities to the Grizzlies.

“They’re getting a leader,” Tatum said. “They’re getting a guy who’s a winner, who’s been to the playoffs every year. We’ve been to the Finals together obviously, so he knows what it takes to get there. Obviously extremely talented, the best defender in the league. He’s just a guy that you love to have on your team.”

There’s more from Boston:

The Celtics addressed a major offseason priority when they signed Jaylen Brown to a super-max extension, but they have more extension decisions to make, writes Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe. Around the start of October, Derrick White will be eligible for a three-year extension that could be worth up to $85.3MM. White is projected to take over as the starting point guard with Smart gone, and he’s coming off a second-team All-Defensive nod last season. If the Celtics want to extend White this year, they’ll have until opening night to finalize a deal with the veteran guard, who has two more years on his current contract. Malcolm Brogdon will also become extension-eligible, Himmelsbach notes, but he believes a new contract is less likely considering Brogdon’s age and injury history, along with the six-month trade trade restriction that comes with an extension.
Celtics owner Wyc Grousbeck is a supporter of the new mid-season tournament and hopes his team can reach the finals in Las Vegas, Himmelsbach adds. “I’m a big international soccer fan, and I see they’ve got three trophies they can go for every year,” Grousbeck said. “So I’m already looking forward to it. I like having something new for guys to play for during the fall and give fans something to watch. Let’s see how it goes.”
Jared Weiss of The Athletic looks at the lineup options that Porzingis will provide for head coach Joe Mazzulla. The Celtics will have a much taller starting five and can experiment with a twin towers approach with Porzingis playing alongside Robert Williams. Weiss also envisions Porzingis and Tatum being effective with the second unit while Brown is resting.

Wyc Grousbeck Explains Celtics’ Decision To Shake Up Roster

August 7th, 2023 at 9:21am CST by Arthur Hill

The Celtics reached the NBA Finals in 2022 and fell one game short of returning last season, but management decided changes were needed after the playoff loss to the Heat, co-owner Wyc Grousbeck said in an interview with Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe.

Grousbeck characterized the last two seasons as “missed opportunities,” even though he admitted his team lost to two good opponents. Following the playoffs, he had a meeting with president of basketball operations Brad Stevens and head coach Joe Mazzulla in which they decided to explore chances to revamp the roster. That led to a three-team trade in late June that brought Kristaps Porzingis to Boston.

“The general tone was, how do we take this energy we’re feeling right now that was built up over having two good seasons, but then didn’t get all the way,” Grousbeck said. “The whole point is, how do we get to banner 18? If we’d all agreed we should keep things the same, that would have been fine. But the idea of bringing in another talented big popped up early in the conversation, and we ended up executing on that idea.”

They decided to focus on Porzingis, who was facing a decision on a $36MM player option after a productive season with the Wizards. Porzingis had other interested teams if he had opted for free agency, but Grousbeck said he was eager to join the Celtics.

“He is a committed and now seasoned and effective player. He’s a real force. I’m really impressed with his commitment to being part of a winning Celtics team,” Grousbeck said. “I met with him when he came up for the press conference and spent some real time with him, and he’s so happy to be here. He’s so ready to shine at this stage of his career. But he sees a team concept, not the KP show. He’s continually improved over his career, and he thinks this is his prime. But he’s about the team, his teammates and the banner. He chose us. There were other people, I hear, that wanted him. And he chose us. He wants to be here and he wants to win a ring.”

Grousbeck covers several other topics in the interview, including:

The commitment to Mazzulla, who faced criticism in the playoffs in his first year running the team:

“If Joe had done a poor job, I would have thought about replacing him, but he did a very good job. He took us within one game of the best record in the league and then one game of being in the Finals, as a rookie coach. So I’m comfortable and happy to have Joe as head coach.”

The Celtics’ willingness to spend despite restrictions in the new Collective Bargaining Agreement:

“The league doesn’t allow us to comment on the details of the CBA, but having said that, we’re obviously all in, with the record contract for Jaylen (Brown) and with our payroll this year and in coming years. Eventually, there are basketball penalties for spending, so that will go into the thought process down the road. But at the moment, the best basketball thing we can do is what we’re doing.”

Heading into the future with Brown and Jayson Tatum as franchise cornerstones:

“They’re the best two people I could imagine building a team around. We’ve had them since the beginning. We’ve been very lucky to have them here for their whole careers, and we’re building the team around them. But you add the next eight guys to the list. You take our top 10 and we’ve got a really good team. The focus is naturally on those two because they’re All-NBA players and All-Stars, but I like the whole roster.”

How 2024 Cap Increase Will Determine Value Of Brown’s Record-Setting Contract

July 29th, 2023 at 3:31pm CST by Luke Adams

When Jaylen Brown agreed to a five-year, super-max extension with the Celtics, it was widely reported to be a $304MM deal. That number is subject to change though, since the value of the contract will depend on the value of the NBA’s 2024/25 salary cap, which won’t be officially determined until next June.

Brown’s contract will start at 35% of the ’24/25 cap and will feature 8% annual raises after that.

The $304MM estimate for Brown’s super-max deal is based on a projected salary cap increase of 10%. The NBA and NBPA have agreed not to increase the cap by more than 10% per year in order to avoid a repeat of the 2016 offseason, when a 34.5% bump helped create a Warriors super-team and resulted in a number of regrettable contracts for other teams around the league.

With that ceiling in mind, a 10% cap increase next summer would represent a best-case scenario for Brown. But it’s also a realistic outcome — the cap has risen by 10% in each of the past two offseasons, so it’s forecasting it to happen again is certainly within reason.

If the cap were to increase 10% for 2024/25, Brown’s contract would look like this:

Year	Salary
2024/25	$52,368,050
2025/26	$56,557,494
2026/27	$60,746,938
2027/28	$64,936,382
2028/29	$69,125,826
Total	$303,734,690

Of course, the NBA hasn’t actually formally projected a 10% cap increase for 2024/25, so it’s a little early to lock in those figures for Brown.

If the cap were to instead increase by a more modest 5%, his deal would instead look like this:

Year	Salary
2024/25	$49,987,700
2025/26	$53,986,716
2026/27	$57,985,732
2027/28	$61,984,748
2028/29	$65,983,764
Total	$289,928,660

In either case, Brown’s contract would become the richest deal in NBA history, comfortably surpassing Nikola Jokic‘s five-year, $276,122,630 deal that begins in 2023/24. The only scenario in which Brown’s extension wouldn’t exceed Jokic’s is if the salary cap doesn’t increase at all in a year — then Brown’s deal would look exactly the same as Jokic’s.

A lot could happen in the next 11 months, but it would require very unusual circumstances for the cap not to rise at all. Since 2010, that has only happened amidst shortened seasons (due to a lockout and the COVID-19 pandemic). So we can confidently project Brown’s contract to be worth more than Jokic’s.

For what it’s worth, Brown won’t be the only player earning 35% of the cap in 2024/25. Devin Booker and Karl-Anthony Towns also signed super-max contracts that will go into effect a year from now, and their deals will look exactly the same as Brown’s from 2024-28. The only reason those aren’t considered record-setting contracts in their own right is because they’ll cover four years instead of five, since Booker and Towns signed extensions with two years left on their respective contracts rather than just one.

Of course, even Brown’s record is unlikely to stand for long. With an in-season tournament being introduced later this year and a new media rights deal around the corner, the NBA’s revenue and salary cap will likely only continue to grow in the coming years.

Brown’s Celtics teammate Jayson Tatum, who met the super-max performance criteria this spring and will meet the service time criteria in 2024, is the best bet to be the next recipient of the richest contract in league history. If the cap increases by 10% next year and another 10% in 2025, this is what a super-max deal for Tatum could look like:

Year	Salary
2025/26	$57,604,750
2026/27	$62,213,130
2027/28	$66,821,510
2028/29	$71,429,890
2029/30	$76,038,270
Total	$334,107,550

Jaylen Brown Extension Notes, Reactions

July 26th, 2023 at 4:00pm CST by Luke Adams

While it’s possible the Celtics will eventually regret giving Jaylen Brown a five-year super-max extension that projects to be the richest deal in NBA history, it was the only real option available to them, says Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer.

As O’Connor outlines, Boston has title aspirations in 2023/24 and there was likely no viable trade involving Brown that would have raised the team’s ceiling in the short term. The Celtics could have tried to pay Brown less than his maximum, but would’ve risked alienating him and compromising their chemistry heading into an important season — not to mention potentially losing him in unrestricted free agency a year from now.

Executives around the league who spoke to Sean Deveney of Heavy.com agreed that giving Brown a super-max extension was the most logical path for the Celtics.

“It is a good deal because he is a star player and that is what they had to pay him,” an Eastern Conference executive said. “I love the people who say they should not have given him that contract. Like, OK, then what should they have done? Traded him? Let him go to free agency? The same people who are beating them up for signing him would be beating them up if they did not sign him. It’s crazy.”

With Jayson Tatum due for a super-max extension of his own in 2024, the Celtics may face financial challenges down the road, but having two young stars on big contracts is a “champagne problem,” O’Connor writes, suggesting that it’s not something the team needs to worry about right away. If Boston ultimately decides that it can’t win a title with a roster built around Tatum and Brown, the club is now better positioned to eventually make a trade rather than having to undergo a full reset.

Here’s more on Brown’s new deal:

The extension signals that the Celtics intend to move forward with their plan to build around the trio of Brown, Tatum, and Kristaps Porzingis, all of whom are between 25 and 27 years old, writes Jay King of The Athletic. While they’ll likely miss Marcus Smart and Grant Williams, the C’s are optimistic that Porzingis’ presence will put them in a better position to attack certain defenses that have given them trouble in recent years, King explains.
Chris Forsberg of NBC Sports Boston takes a look at the short- and long-term implications of Brown’s new contract, observing that there may be a financial squeeze on the Celtics’ supporting cast in future seasons.
While Brown’s extension is the new richest contract in NBA history, it won’t hold that title for long, notes Zach Kram of The Ringer. Given the rate at which the league’s salary cap is climbing, some massive contracts signed in the early 2020s already look like bargains, Kram writes. Brown’s deal may never qualify as team-friendly, but the super-max contracts being signed during the later years of his extension will be significantly more lucrative.

Celtics Notes: J. Brown, Jefferson, G. Williams, Banton, Madar

July 12th, 2023 at 4:00pm CST by Luke Adams

A fifth-year player option and a trade kicker could be among the contract details being haggled over as the Celtics and Jaylen Brown continue to negotiate a potential super-max extension, according to Adam Himmelsbach of The Boston Globe and Brian Robb of MassLive.com.

Given that Brown has been the subject of frequent trade speculation in recent years and might be the odd man out down the road if the Celtics want to shake up their roster and/or reduce their payroll, the possible inclusion of a trade kicker could be a key point of contention for both sides, Robb speculates.

According to Himmelsbach, the Celtics and Brown’s camp continued to talk over the weekend and into this week, and league sources remain confident that an extension will be completed sooner or later, but one source told The Globe that “there is work to be done” still.

Here’s more on the Celtics:

In a separate story for The Boston Globe, Himmelsbach looks at the friendship between former Duke teammates Jayson Tatum and Amile Jefferson, who is joining the Celtics’ coaching staff as an assistant for the 2023/24 season.
Grant Williams, whose sign-and-trade to Dallas was finalized on Wednesday, spoke to Steve Bulpett of Heavy Sports about leaving the Celtics, referring to it as a situation where “both sides just did what’s best for each.”
Dalano Banton, who said he’s excited to be joining a “championship organization,” wasn’t able to play in the Celtics’ first two Summer League games in Las Vegas due to a minor injury, according to Souchi Terada of MassLive.com. However, Banton apparently plans to play in Wednesday’s game. His two-year deal with Boston isn’t yet official but will presumably be finalized shortly.
Celtics draft-and-stash prospect Yam Madar, a second-round pick in the 2020 draft, has signed with Turkish club Fenerbahce, per a press release from the team. It’s a two-year deal with a third-year option, though it may include NBA outs.
In case you missed it, the Celtics officially signed Kristaps Porzingis to his two-year extension on Wednesday.

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