What Jaylen Brown thinks about the Celtics’ recent roster changes
Jaylen Brown shared his thoughts on the loss of Marcus Smart and the addition of Kristaps Porzingis.
It has been a summer of change for the Boston Celtics. Marcus Smart and Grant Williams are gone. Kristaps Porzingis will wear green next season. Oshae Brissett and Dalano Banton will serve as key depth pieces, and Jordan Walsh will soon make his NBA debut.
Celtics
The Celtics team that made the NBA Finals just two seasons ago looks a lot different now. It’s difficult to make sense of Boston’s massive roster turnover, but Jaylen Brown approves of these changes nonetheless.
“Definitely a lot of good changes,” Brown said on Wednesday. “Change is not always a bad thing.”
Change isn’t always bad, but it very often sparks emotions. Many Celtics fans initially scorned the Porzingis trade, but over time they have grown to welcome him. Brown welcomes Porzingis to Boston and believes his defensive prowess should inspire the team to prioritize stopping baskets.
“I think what Kristaps can bring to us defensively,” Brown said, “in addition to what some of our other guys can bring defensively, I want to make sure that’s where we hang our hats this year.”
Brown hopes that everyone on the roster contributes to the Celtics’ fierce defensive reputation. But he knows that won’t happen unless the Celtics’ best players lead by example on that end.
“That starts with me, that starts with Jayson [Tatum], that starts with Rob [Williams III],” Brown said. “With [Smart] gone, we don’t want our defensive identity to go out the door as well.”
Smart’s departure was not easy for Brown to stomach. The two are great friends and have shared countless memories together. They may not have always gotten along in their seven years playing together, but Smart’s tough love was instrumental to Brown’s development as both a player and a man.
“I learned so much from Marcus,” Brown said. “We butted heads at times, we fought, we put each other in headlocks…”
Out of all the changes Boston went through this summer, losing Smart will have the most impact on Brown. He said it will be difficult to play on a Celtics team without Smart, but acknowledges that these things happen and that it will not impact his play on the court.
“This journey won’t be the same without [Smart], to be honest,” Brown said. “But it’s a part of life. It’s a part of what you do going forward.”
Even though their vocal leader last season will play for Memphis, the Celtics say they will continue playing the best basketball they can.
“Obviously the city of Boston is going to feel the loss of [Smart]’s impact when he’s no longer here,” Brown said. “But we’ll be able to keep moving forward.”
In many ways, Smart embodied the Celtics culture that got them to the 2022 NBA Finals. Brown said that Boston will still carry on Smart’s legacy in his absence.
“Everything that he’s instilled into this organization,” Brown said, “everything he’s instilled into this community is still going to be with us.”
Although head coach Joe Mazzulla said on Wednesday that Derrick White will replace Smart at starting point guard, Brown will likely fill Smart’s role as a leader on this team. The Celtics wanted Brown to be a face of their franchise, and they invested heavily into him to ensure he will for years. A new era begins in Boston with Brown’s extension, an era that will hopefully end with an 18th championship banner hanging in TD Garden.
“Thank you all for sharing this moment,” Brown said. “We’ve got a lot of work to do.”
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