EB’s Random Thoughts – Jaylen Brown is gone and I don’t care; FIFA and I don’t care; Join the VFN Crusade now and Happy 4th everyone!

Jaylen Brown is gone and I don’t care(to the tune of Jimmy Cracked Corn)

I’m going to be the casual dissenter in this whole end of the world Bostonian majority consensus that trading Jaylen Brown was a bad move for the Celtics – even to Philadelphia. At first blush I was in shock that the C’s would trade Brown to a division rival. Further, Philly’s lineup, on paper, looks pretty tough. And they could be just that for a couple of years, or they may not. Joel Embiid’s constant trips to the injured list rival a kid needing to go to the bathroom on a lengthy road trip. You know it’s gonna happen, just when you think everything is going to be ok – ‘it’s Dad, I gotta pee’ time. Translation – I’ll be shocked if Joel even makes it to the playoffs, or even makes it through said playoffs. Philadelphia’s depth doesn’t wow me either – in fact, Boston’s is so much better than theirs it isn’t arguable.

Secondly, it’s all about the salary cap and being “extension eligible”. As I closed in on my 12th hour of screen time on my phone last night I found this interesting take on it all(I can’t take credit for it, haven’t verified it, but if it’s true it certainly is a solid point):

“JB’s current contract is 3 more years at $183 million. He is going to be extension eligible on July 26, literally 3.5 weeks from now.

If the Celtics wanted to keep him, to satisfy JB’s handlers, the Celtics would’ve been pressured to offer the 2 year extension at $70 million per year. That would cost the Celtics 5 years at $323 million and his additional two years would be $70 million per year against the cap. Tatum would be eligible next year for the same two year extension.

If you are the Celtics, you are shaving $205 million in a committed salary. What the Celtics brain trust saw is that to be a title contender, you can’t have a team with 2 super max contracts. The analytics guys also looked at JB’s advanced stats and figured he wasn’t worth 5 years at $323 million.

Why does Philly do the trade? They have a 3 year window with Embiid. So in this case, they don’t owe JB an extension. They will let JB go at the end of 3 years and blow up their team to be below the luxury tax in time for Edgecomb and Maxie to hit their top salaries.

Milwaukee didn’t want to really trade for JB because of the extension eligible issue either. The Miami deal ensures there is no 35% max contract extension as a possibility.

This trade was purely team building and cap management related. They won’t extend PG, if anything, they will flip his expiring in a year and see what they can get. It sounds like a bad trade on paper, well because it is, until you add the cap mechanics into the deal. Once you do that, you can see why the Celtics made this move.

JB was 6th in MVP voting this year. You don’t think his agent and his people will be complaining if the Celtics didn’t offer him the extension come July 26? This is why the trade was made. It’s to get out of the JB at 5 years and $323 million scenario.

Now about that Sixers pick. In 2028, it actually belongs to the Nets unless it’s in the top 8. Most likely, they will not be a top 8 team. The Sixers also own the Clippers pick. So most likely, the Celtics will get the Clippers pick. We need to see the final language. The Celtics will get the best pick out of the scenarios, so most likely it will be the clippers 2028 pick.

TL/DR: Celtics didn’t want to give JB a two year extension at 70m/ year so they traded him before the extension eligible date of July 26 kicked in.”

Doesn’t that make sense?

Further, Jaylen Brown is a ball stopping(meaning once it’s passed to him he doesn’t pass it or shoot it quickly and the offensive flow stops in its tracks) turnover machine, can’t dribble machine. I know what you’re thinking. EB, this guy was unbelievable last year, and he’s been great for the C’s. I think he has been great for the Boston Celtics, but I’d argue that we won, ahem, regular season games against a lot of bad NBA teams. We added an MVP in the playoffs and lost after having a 3 to 1 advantage over the very team we traded him to(again, I get why that stings more than if he were traded to the Clips or something). I can’t remember which game it was that we lost to the 76ers in the playoffs where Brown had Neemias Queta wide open in the paint for an easy dunk and yet elected to shoot a three pointer. I think the stats were if he had passed it there to Neemias the odds of winning were like 99%! Instead, an ill advised I’m going to be a hero three point shot that clanged. The rest is history. Poor decisions on offense, lack of offensive flow led to Brown’s trade. Not to mention the constant barrage of Twitch(never been on it myself) comments. I think the Celtics got two picks that will be very valuable – picks they can still trade to improve their team for 2026-2027 and they also got a guy that shoots 39.2% from three point land. They love the three point shot. Brown shot 34%. They are now better defensively, and on the offensive boards with Mitchell Robinson. They have a proven point guard in Mike Conley who can come off the bench, and Payton Pritchard now gets a starting role. As it stands now, they have D-White, George, Tatum(remember him he’s pretty good), Pritchard launching 3’s while the bigs chase down rebounds with the fervor of Dennis Rodman. I also think the Celts might go out and try to sign Lebron James. It would make me have to watch their games on Dramamine but that would make for an unbelievably tough team! And they could afford him if he came in with a reasonable salary for one year!

Camelot fell for a couple of reasons. First, Sir Lancelot and Queen Guinevere’s adulterous affair split King Arthur’s knights while the king’s nephew, Mordred, used the civil war to further divide everyone. He too tried to marry(well something like that) the Queen while the king was off battling Sir Lancelot. When the king returned the two ended up mortally wounding each other in the Battle of Camlann and destroyed what was known as the Golden Age of Camelot. The parallels are similar between Tatum and Brown. After the failed Giannis trade, the comments left to the world by Jaylen, things had to change. Let a new Golden Age begin for the Celts. And frankly, as a casual dissenter to current perveying thought – I believe it will! Go Celts!

FIFA and I don’t care!

I am not a soccer fan, but I get the excitement of the World Cup and like seeing the fans go nuts. However, I don’t care. Perhaps if the U.S. actually had a chance of winning I would jump on board and be a bit more of a bandwagon fan. But the constant faking of injuries, thank you Lebron James for bringing this to the world(not), and even though there has been a record amount of goals scored, over 25% increase, I just can’t get into it. Apathy at its highest level.

The VFN on NSN

I have opined on this for a while now. It has always been my goal to broadcast every high school football game in Vermont on NSN during one season. This fall, that’s exactly what our endeavor is – to live video stream every one of those babies! We will need help. If you’re looking for an avocation, part-time work as a producer(you run our main computer, and are the main man behind the scenes), camera work, or you’d like to broadcast games please email me at eberry@nsnsports.net If you know of anyone who would like to support our cause through advertising or other means please let me know. It’s history in the making!

Happy 4th of July and Happy 250 years America!

Like every country we have our issues but it’s still the greatest country in the world and I’m not up for a debate on it so if you’re reading this on FB and disagree with me please just remember this is my opinion, and I don’t want to hear yours if it’s to the contrary. Sorry, just the way it is. Similarly, if you don’t like what you’re reading from me – move on – no hard feelings. I wish everyone a safe and Happy 4th of July weekend no matter your political preference or opposing stance to what I may believe in. It’s for that reason that I believe you’re in the greatest country in the world. Who knew when my great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great(yup 13th great-grandfather) would be on the Mayflower. Who knew he would be related to Marconi. Who knew I would like broadcasting. Who knew! If you know you know. God Bless America!

The opinions expressed by EB are solely his and do not reflect those of NSN. If you’d like to reach out to EB, please contact him at eberry@nsnsports.net. You can read all of Eric’s blogs at www.nsnsports.net.