Jaylen Brown of the Boston Celtics shouts in celebration during the second half of Game 2 of the… (+) Eastern Conference Finals against the Indianapolis Pacers at TD Garden. (Photo by Matt Stone/Boston Herald)
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Let’s play a little game called “bury the lede.” Two days ago, Jaylen Brown failed to make the All-NBA team. In a vacuum, one would assume the Boston Celtics would be disappointed with this, especially considering they had just handed him the largest contract extension in NBA history last offseason.
As nice as that honor would have been, that’s not why the Celtics are paying Brown so much money. They gave Brown that $304 million extension because they believed he could help them win a championship.
Keynote USAJaylen Brown’s $304 million extension with the Boston Celtics is a sign of contracts to comeBy Hunter Felt
So on a night where Jayson Tatum was 1-for-7 from three-point range against the Indiana Pacers, Boston needed him to get going to prevent the team from losing another Game 2 this postseason. When he was done, Brown had scored 40 points in a 126-110 victory, allowing Tatum to find his footing in the second half, where he scored 23 points after an atrocious start.
It wasn’t even the first time Brown saved the Celtics in this series. Brown already had his chance at the postseason with his game-tying 3-pointer in Game 1.
The point here is not to rule out Tatum. Tatum is the most talented player on this team, he has shown in past postseasons that he can completely dominate individual games. The Celtics won’t win the title if Tatum doesn’t have some magical nights.
Here’s the thing: the reason the Celtics are favorites to win these NBA Finals is because they are operating under a binary star situation. All other remaining teams rely heavily on a single player.
Tyrese Haliburton is the heart of the Pacers, which is why they will have their work cut out for them if the hamstring keeps him out of the game, even if Pascal Siakam, who went 13 of 17 on Thursday, has been the main reason for the Pacers’ who have remained competitive in this series. In the Western Conference, the Dallas Mavericks are Luka Dončić’s team, while the Minnesota Timberwolves are Anthony Edwards’ personal Avengers.
The Celtics don’t have a team MVP, they have a pairing MVP.
When the Celtics and Brown agreed to this historic extension, the conversation turned to why the highest-paid player in the NBA wasn’t even the best player on his own team. While the answer really was about seniority — Brown was drafted a year before Tatum — it was also because Boston was not only paying for him as an individual player but for what he could do as part of this team.
Given Brown’s disastrous ball-handling skills against the Golden State Warriors in the 2022 NBA Finals and the team’s collective collapse against the Miami Heat in the Eastern Conference Finals last year, it was fair to criticize the team’s decision. team to give him that contract, but Brown has responded by giving them the best basketball of his life.
Again, it helps that Boston has reorganized the roster to better complement the Tatum-Brown core. As Keynote USA contributor Mat Issa has noted, Jrue Holiday gives head coach Joe Mazzulla a Swiss Army knife-type player, while Derrick White has quietly emerged as a star in waiting.
However, it all comes down to Tatum and Brown. Who is more important? That’s like arguing about whether John Lennon or Paul McCartney were the key to the Beatles’ success.
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