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.
“Jaylen has to become a lock-down defender for us,” Stevens said. “That’s where, as you go into an offseason and you are an individual player, there’s a ton of things that you want to get better at, and there’s a ton of things you want to add to your game, but ultimately, when you get back to your team, it’s what do you do that’s different to make your team unique to give yourself the best chance of adding value to winning. We need him to become that.”
Okay, that’s not the most lucid comment you’re ever going to see from Stevens, but basically what he’s saying is that Jaylen Brown has to bring something more to the table than just being able to score more points.
And by mentioning that Jaylen needs to bring something to ‘make his team unique’, that seems to suggest that Stevens is, at least in the early going, primed to not only give Brown starters’ minutes at the two, but because of IT’s relative weaknesses, guard the best PGs in the league.
This is not something Brown was projected to do coming out of college. Or going into college.
Stevens was on a podcast with Chris Mannix, and he took a moment to talk about the defense of the team’s other number three pick as well:
“I was really impressed with — and almost pleasantly surprised by — his defensive ability,” Stevens said. “I thought he did a good job of keeping guys in front. I thought he did a good job of using his length and guarding a number of different positions. … Offensive stuff is going to come easy for him. Maybe not easy, but he has a natural scoring ability. (In Summer League) I wanted to see how he would pick up what we are trying to do defensively — how his length would impact others, how he would pick up the off-the-ball schemes — and I thought he did a pretty good job.”
About as you’d expect, with everyone making a point of Tatum’s ability to score, Stevens is going on about defense. It’s entirely possible that Tatum’s offense will earn him some minutes off the bench this season, but if the experience of Smart and Brown are any indicators, the quickest way to earn floor time is by playing solid defense. On the other hand, Tatum is hitting the ground with a much better developed offensive game than either Smart or Brown had their rookie years, and it might add an interesting wrinkle to a bench unit which has been occasionally ‘scoring optional’ over the past few years.
Stevens also threw out this gem:
“There’s going to be some times when you are going to have to guard someone stronger than you, and you’re going to have to figure it out,” Stevens said.
This is pretty much Dad Brad at his DadBraddest; this is why guys like playing for him. There’s no hyperbole in that statement, no coachspeak, no passive-aggressive digs or head-games, just a straight shot that reinforces player responsibilities. ‘We’ll give you training, we’ll go over film, but when push comes to shove, defense is a big part of your job, and no one is going to figure out how to do it for you.’ Guys respect that; they’re not being babied and their not being manipulated either.
Page 2: Where IT’s still on the mend
Added Stevens: “We want what’s best for Isaiah. We want to make sure that when he is ready to roll, which hopefully is sooner rather than later, that he is ready to roll at his highest level and for the longest possible time, obviously, right? So that’s a lot more important to me than anything else.”
Stevens said that the uncertainty of not knowing whether Thomas would need surgery was challenging, but that his priority was the player.
“I don’t know if it was unnerving because you can only control what you can control, but it’s a big deal for me because it’s a big deal to him,” he said. “Ultimately, obviously you want to go into every season 110 percent healthy and we’ll find out where we stand with everybody, but more so you want what’s best for him.”
So, I’m really glad Chris Mannix dropped that Stevens podcast yesterday, because otherwise today’s dump would’ve been pretty thin. I probably would’ve spent a whole section telling all of you about how I went to see the eclipse, and how my pics stunk because I wasn’t prepared for the weather–instead of spending one sentence on it before talking about IT’s hip.
Anyway, we don’t know what’s going on with IT’s hip, exactly, but we’re assured that he’s making progress, but at the same time it doesn’t seem like it’s been decided whether IT will be available to start the season. Stevens’ comments about wanting what’s best for IT seem pretty genuine–it’s not too different from what he told Gordon Hayward about how he thought Hayward should handle his free agency.
Stevens’ attitude is also a bit different than what one finds in certain other Atlantic Division organizations. Stevens doesn’t just talk the talk.
The rest of the links:
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