Brad Stevens knows how critical both Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown are to both the short-term and long-term success of the Celtics.
And while Boston’s president of basketball operations doesn’t have all the power in ensuring the latter is retained beyond next season, that didn’t keep him from making an unexpected appearance at the podium on Sunday afternoon and stating his case.
Brown, of course, is a candidate to be named to his first career All-NBA team this season. The voting for those teams are made by the media and will be announced some time in May. But before then, Stevens made a strong endorsement for Brown as the Celtics make one final push for their All-Star to be recognized among the NBA’s elite.
“I think both Jayson and Jaylen should be on the All-NBA team,” Stevens said when asked about Brown’s candidacy. “I think, again, what they’ve done throughout the course of this year, and you asked about Jaylen so I’ll talk about Jaylen in particular, he’s also really played his best basketball, I think, in the last couple of months, and he was an obvious All-Star right out of the gate. So it tells you where he’s been.”
Brown experienced a career year in his seventh season as he played an integral role in leading the Celtics to 57 wins and the second seed in the East. He finished the year with a career-high 26.7 points per game and had the most efficient season of his career, shooting 49.1 percent on 20.6 attempts per game while also handling, as Stevens noted, a big role defensively.
“I think he’s doing a great job of obviously scoring the ball, scoring when we need it, but we asked him to do a lot defensively,” Stevens said. “And we asked him, along with Jayson, to read a lot of pretty intense coverages with extra bodies flying at them, with extra bodies shifted over to them. We’re unique because we have those two guys, who are just amazing young players, and they really accentuate our role players, but then we’ve got a group of role players that really accentuate them. And so I think that they deserve to be on that team, and Jaylen in particular, I thought has really had a great run here.”
There’s, of course, plenty of incentive for both Brown and the Celtics for him to be named to an All-NBA team. If he’s selected, Brown will be eligible for a five-year, $290 million supermax contract extension this summer.
Derrick White has dealt with a myriad of minor injuries this season. He had a neck sprain. He suffered a ruptured eardrum. More recently, he had sprained his left ankle.
But the guard never missed any time. White achieved a rare feat in today’s NBA by playing in all 82 games this season. Only 10 players in the league can claim they did that this year.
“I think it’s important and I think he takes pride in that,” Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said. “A key to that is our depth. That’s helped. I think because we have such a balanced roster, it takes a little bit off of everybody. At the same time, he loves playing basketball. Really enjoys it and it’s cool to see. So I’m happy for him.”
White emerged as one of the Celtics’ most important players on both sides of the ball this season and his consistency was reflected in his availability. He’s the first Celtics players since Isaiah Thomas in 2015-16 to play in all 82 games. He’s now played in 108 consecutive regular-season games since he was acquired at the trade deadline last season. The only game he has missed with the Celtics is Game 2 of last season’s Eastern Conference Finals, when he attended the birth of his child.
Stevens said Brown, who suffered a right finger laceration last week, should be ready for the start of the playoffs. “I think he’ll be practicing by middle to end of the week, so he’ll be fine. So we’re OK there.“ … The Celtics finished the regular season with 57 wins, their most since winning 62 games in 2008-09.