People have looked at the Celtics the last few years, and many have come to the silly conclusion that they can’t win with this core, and that Brown should be traded or that Tatum isn’t “that guy”.
Many of these people are either A) fans of other teams who stealthily want Jaylen Brown to be available, or B) people who don’t realize that this Celtics team didn’t really become a real title contender until 2022 (and this includes impatient Celtics fans who are still upset by Kyrie).
The reality is that as of the time of Jaylen Brown’s extension on July 25th, Jaylen Brown is only 26 years old, and Jayson Tatum is only 25 years old.
They are only in their mid-20s.
Lest you forget, the NBA is not a young man’s league.
You have to go all the way back to the early 80s Celtics to see a team compete for titles whose best players were in their early-to-mid 20s.
Since then, darn near every title team has usually had their best players either be 27+ years of age, or at least have one of their top 2 players be a veteran alongside them. (Kobe and Shaq, Duncan and Robinson).
The Celtics two best players are both still young. So the Celtics should not overreact and panic if they lose in the playoffs. In fact, they should give the core of Tatum and Brown another 4 years – wait until they are about 30 or so before blowing it up. Because by then, they’ll fully be in their primes.
People (including some impatient Celtics fans) seem to be treating Tatum and Brown as though their window started in 2018 when the Celtics made the ECF: they are wrong to do so, however. We forget: the original plan for the Celtics was for Kyrie, Hayward, and Horford to be the core – since those guys were in their mid-to-late 20s back in 2018.
Tatum and Brown were still 20 and 21 at the time of this photo. And back then, they where still rumors of one of the two being traded, constantly.
Even in 2020-2021, the team still wasn’t fully theirs; Boston still experimented with Kemba Walker being put in that Kyrie role, and Hayward still took minutes from Brown.
21 was the last year of this experiment, and led to lineups like this when Brown got hurt:
So the point is that Tatum and Brown as the signature dynamic duo really only got started in 2022. People should not view that late 2010s Celtics teams as apart of Brown and Tatum’s path. It’s gettign skewed by them trying to win with Kyrie and Hayward, which has placed undue expectations on Tatum and Brown (and this why the “Two Timelines” approach is not a good idea).
2022 is when Tatum and Brown were given the reigns as the undisputed best and most important players. It’s also when they started Marcus Smart full-time at point guard – no more scoring guards to hog the ball. And so far, they’ve made the finals, and made it to game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals in 2022 and 2023 respectively.
Now, Tatum is 25, and Brown 26 (soon to be 27 this fall). In other words, Brown just entered his prime years (where your skill and athleticism are in tune), and Tatum has not even begun his prime – which is scary. So the logical solution is to let these guys play out some seasons in their primes before trying to let go of one of them. Having 2 two-way players – that are both All-NBA – is a rarity in this league.
Jayson Tatum at the age of 25 has already showed the ability to drop 45-50 points in big playoff games, and already has a strong scoring bag.
That alone is a luxury. And you’re saying that the Celtics also have Jaylen Brown – who also is a young wing that can defend and score at a high level? Even if you have concerns about his dribbling or his ability to be a true #1 option, having an All-NBA player like Brown playing alongside Tatum is still a dream scenario for many teams. For all the people saying Brown isn’t worth extending, many teams in the league save for a few would kill to have a player like Jaylen Brown, let alone both Brown and Tatum. And the reality is that again, Tatum and Brown were in the NBA Finals at the tender ages of 24 and 25 respectively, and were 2 games away from winning it. When you look at how many championship-winning teams usually have the best players being in their late 20s, it becomes immediately apparent that the Celtics should keep Tatum and Brown for at least a few more seasons.
