Your Morning Dump... Where Jaylen's been thrown to the wolves

Every morning, we compile the links of the day and dump them here… highlighting the big story line. Because there’s nothing quite as satisfying as a good morning dump.

It’s a position Stevens didn’t necessarily want to force upon his young rookie, but Brown has repeatedly proven himself too valuable to leave at small forward.

“I went into the preseason thinking if we could keep him at one spot, it’s probably better,” Stevens told CSNNE after the game. “But I think that most of his value right now, and how he can add value to winning, is being a versatile player, and being able to play some three, some four guard some threes, guard some fours, switch a lot, those type of things. So we’ve thrown him to the wolves in the games a little bit at the four, but he’s done a pretty good job with that.”

MassLive

Jaylen Brown has gotten toasted by some bigs during the preseason, and many of us have noticed this and commented on it (see, for instance, John & Jay King in yesterday’s Rainin J’s). Turns out that’s Brad Stevens deliberately pushing Jaylen, and essentially, those rookie moments against bigs, are an indication that Jaylen is farther ahead than the coaching staff believed he would be at this point. Of course, with his build and wingspan, Jaylen was going to be asked to guard power forwards sooner or later, especially with Brad Stevens’ switch-heavy defensive concepts.

Page 2: Where Jonas has a home office

Plenty of NBA players refer to the hardwood as their office, but Jerebko really means it. Earlier this year, the 29-year-old Swede purchased a 13,298-square-foot mansion from former Detroit Pistons teammate Ben Gordon for $2.2 million. The home, located in Oakland Township, Michigan, includes a regulation-sized NBA half court, a full workout area and locker room.

“I wake up in the morning, I go grab a smoothie out of the fridge, then I go down and get some shots up for a couple hours,” Jerebko said. “It’s a dream come true.”

ESPN Boston

So, the big takeaway from this article is that yes, Jonas Jerebko knows exactly how good he’s got it.

In other news, Jonas is looking to cement his place on the team by hitting outside shots. I hadn’t realized that he finished last year shooting at a 40% clip, because what I remember most about him was his shooting funk that corresponded to some truly unattractive Celtics basketball in the depths of December and January.

His goal for this year is 45%, which, I might just go out on a limb and say if Jerebko can hit 45% of his threes, then Boston could win as many as 60 games this year because of just how stellar their bench would be, provided Kelly Olynyk keeps hitting at a 40% groove, Rozier continues to show improvement, and well, also Jaylen Brown and Marcus Smart–and everyone stays healthy.

Page 3: Preseason takeaways

Whether it’s cleaning up the defensive glass, drilling an open jump shot or kickstarting a fast break in transition on his own, Horford is the kind of versatile big man that Brad Stevens has never had the ability to coach in the NBA until now. He’s nearly averaging a double-double (11.3 ppg, 8.3 rpg) while playing in just 18 minutes per game this preseason

Boston.com

Brian Robb with five takeaways from the preseason so far. His number one takeaway is on Al Horford, snipped above. I, for one, really hope Horford has a healthy year, because, as Robb points out, this is the first All-Star caliber big that Stevens has been able to work with.

Finally: The guys play King of the Court

After the Celtics finished practice at Baruch College here on Friday, Isaiah Thomas, Marcus Smart, Jae Crowder and Gerald Green played a spirited one-on-one game called “King of the Court,” and it got predictably feisty.

Boston Globe

Click through for the vid. It should be suitable for work, if you’re working on a Saturday morning.