Your Morning Dump... Where Jae Crowder is Old School

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.

Toward the end of a question-and-answer session during the Hall’s “60 Days of Summer” program, a young fan asked Crowder to name the toughest NBA player to defend. Crowder picked Durant, which elicited loud boos from a crowd filled largely with fans in Celtics green.

Crowder smiled and said, “Yeah, I’m with you guys.”

ESPN Boston

John covered this yesterday afternoon, but ESPN Boston has an extended piece that includes a Q&A with Crowder:

What do you think of what you’ve seen from No. 3 pick Jaylen Brown?

Crowder: I think he’s a good kid. I think he’s a good athlete. I think he still has to learn how to play the game, slow down a little bit. It’s not always that fast, and he’s trying to go full throttle. But he looks like he’s a great kid. He’s very put-together, physically. And I’ve heard nothing but great things about him. I’m looking forward to playing with him.

Is it frustrating at all that there may be role players the Celtics sign who will make more money than guys like you and Isaiah Thomas?

Crowder: I make $7 million per year. I’m not going to be mad at a guy making $10 million. We’re still millionaires. I got another contract coming up soon. Four [more years], I get to redo it — three, actually [if they explore extensions]. I’m not worried. Money — why I am mad? I make millions of dollars. That would be selfish of me. Why would I be mad about that?

ESPN Boston

Crowder has been with the Celtics for like a season and a half, but it seems like he’s spent years with them. That’s a thoroughly “Boston” response to the outcome of the Durant meeting. The rest of the Celtics are more diplomatic, but I would imagine that, behind closed doors, there is a definite, “we told him how we beat those guys, and he went and joined them anyway?” attitude.

Not so much because they spilled state secrets, because they’ve played the Warriors much the same way in all four meetings over the past two years, but because Boston laid out a plan to beat the Warriors and Cavs, and Durant didn’t believe it.

Anyway, just another chip on the shoulder for a team that thrives on that sort of thing.

Page 2: Where Jae’s really excited about Horford.

“He’s a perfect fit,” Crowder said. “That’s what we were telling him. He had Washington and some other teams looking at him, but we beat them four times this year. You don’t want to go there. We play through our bigs, and a lot of teams don’t play through their bigs — they post them up and give them the ball. Our bigs, like he did in Atlanta, he makes the play. We were explaining our basketball terminology to him, and how ours will fit right in with (his) game. It’s going to mesh. Most guys have to blend in and fit in, but it’s going to be automatically just there. The style he plays, that’s what we reiterated to him: The way we play fits you so well. We need you. You need us. Let’s make it happen.”

The Celtics made it happen, and in the process, they turned themselves into one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference.

Masslive

Marcin Gortat didn’t really like Crowder’s dig–and apparently screencapped it. But it’s not like Crowder’s giving away state secrets with that remark. Washington is either treading water or heading back downhill again.

Crowder also points out why the Celtics aren’t keen to pay a high price for Okafor. My thought is that Okafor is a nice second unit piece. And as such, the highest price the C’s should be willing to play for him is another 2nd unit player or their 2018 draft pick. I don’t think Okafor is going to develop into an Al Horford style big.

When you look at what Crowder’s saying up their about the bigs making the plays, that doesn’t mean that you throw the ball in to the big and he posts a guy up and takes a shot. It’s that the big has to be able to read and react the way guards do.

Page 3: Where we’re out of Celtics news so lets talk kinda Celtics news

After that decision, Minnesota Timberwolves general manager Scott Layden said his phone lines started ringing “off the hook” because teams realized Dunn would fall to the fifth pick.

“Draft day was a little wild because our friends in Boston, Danny Ainge, Mike Zarren, who are amazing basketball people, they were kind of holding the whole draft up with potential trades, potential swapping picks,” Layden said during a recent interview with Sports Illustrated Now. “When they finally selected Jaylen Brown our phone went off the hook with people trying to get into the fifth pick, understanding that Kris Dunn would start to slide.

MassLive

While I’m still not sold on the Timberwolves’ management, it bears repeating that none of the offers that Layden got were tempting enough for him to make a trade either. Someday I’d like to know just how poor some of those offers were. Or if it was just a whole bunch of calls from Colangelo fils.

Page 4: The All Star Game is moving

The All-Star Weekend would have been the largest event in Charlotte since the Democratic National Convention in 2012. Tourism experts estimated the event could have had as much as $100 million in economic impact in the Charlotte region, with tens of thousands of visitors filling hotel rooms and restaurants.

“We are particularly mindful of the impact of this decision on our fans in North Carolina, who are among the most passionate in our league,” the statement read.

Boston Herald

Yahoo adds this:

The NBA is focused on the New Orleans’ Smoothie King Center as the host for All-Star Weekend and the All-Star Game on Feb. 19, league sources told The Vertical.

This makes a certain amount of sense; New Orleans and Vegas (another rumored target) are two cities that have, for lack of better words, ‘party infrastructure’. There are a lot fewer details to worry about when you’re moving the All Star game to a city that is perpetually hosting some national function or another.

Penultimately: Delonte West is doing better, it seems, and is planning a comeback.

“He is working toward coming back to the NBA. He has been working out and that’s where he’s at as of now.”

As for the photos of West apparently panhandling, Addison says the pics didn’t tell the whole story.

“People did see him holding a sign but what they don’t know was there was a homeless guy standing out across from my place and Delonte saw him and wanted to help him out.”

“Delonte is not homeless. He’s living with his wife and kids,” Addison told us.

As we previously reported, West spent time in a medical facility earlier this year … but feels like he’s made significant improvements and is now mentally prepared to get back to work.

TMZ

Normally I wouldn’t even consider posting an article from TMZ, but this is actually kind of upbeat. I don’t know that Delonte’s going to make it back into the NBA; it’s a small league and rotation-caliber players can last in it for a very long time. There’s not a lot of job openings is what I’m trying to say. Still, one hopes that Delonte can keep himself on track.