“As a hoop fan, you’re always hopeful that something that looked like could be a dynasty would stay together,” said former NBA guard Austin Rivers, now a television analyst. “That’s no different than when you say Klay [Thompson] and Steph [Curry], or Scottie [Pippen] and [Michael] Jordan, or Shaq [O’Neal] and Kobe [Bryant]. You don’t want to see it fall apart after just one title run.
“That part in you wants the continuity to be at a certain point, so they could play a prolonged amount of years together. And the other part of you, if there’s a difference … you want guys to be the best version of themselves. So if [a separation] is needed, then that’s what’s needed.”
Rivers, whose father Doc coached the Celtics for nine years and was a teenager hanging out at practices when Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, and Paul Pierce were competing for titles, carried the minority opinion that Tatum and Brown were compatible on the floor.
“They were so fun to watch, and I thought they played well together,” Rivers said. “They complemented each other very well. I believe a lot of [the issues] started after the title run. Brown got the Finals MVP, not even between those two. I think Tatum was self sufficient in who he is as a superstar. I think he was more so concerned about winning MVP, but I think it was the media and the world, the fans created together. I think we all did.
“I think the world wanted something to be there, and sometimes when you want something bad enough, whether it’s real or not. That’s where I feel that started.”
The page has been turned for the Celtics. They acquired Paul George in the deal that sent Brown to Philadelphia to pair with Tatum as a second option. President of basketball operations Brad Stevens also used the team’s mid-level exception to sign Mitchell Robinson to boost the rebounding and defense. Boston will enter this season with the fifth-highest odds to win the championship, despite losing its second-best player and a five-time All-Star.
“They’ve been able to find themselves back into a good spot. I like their team this year,” Rivers said. “People don’t talk about them because Jaylen Brown left, everybody thinks it’s over. But in some situations when it grows toxic — I’m not saying that situation was toxic, but whatever it was — sometimes clarity and cleaning house makes it easy. I think Tatum has this defined role.
“It’s not a question if he’s 1-A or 1-B; it’s him. Payton Pritchard’s role is going to be elevated. Derrick White needs to have a better shooting year. You add some interior defense. They have some pieces there, and a very competitive East.”
But did the Celtics actually help their archrival 76ers reach elite status by sending them Brown?
“What’s shocking to us all is they traded Jaylen to a team where they’re going to have to play [four times a year],” Rivers said. “It’s going to be interesting. But I think the fan in me would have liked for them [Tatum and Brown] to continue. I thought they would be the next big duo that would make something happen long term. But in today’s new NBA, you never know.”
If the preseason is any indication, the Celtics will be a strong defensive club with Robinson being a fierce rim protector and offensive rebounder, and George and White combining as solid on-ball defenders who can amass steals.
And there appears to be an increased comfort in training camp that roles are now more defined. George said from the opening of training camp that it’s Tatum’s team. The question is whether George, White, and Pritchard can combine to fill Brown’s void, and Mitchell can stay healthy and on the floor.
If so, the Celtics could be a sleeper in the Eastern Conference.
“I think the Celtics are going to surprise a lot of people,” Naismith Memorial Hall of Famer Carmelo Anthony said. “I think the Celtics have a really good team. I think the most important thing is they know what this is now. They know Tatum is going to lead. They know PG is going to be the Robin. I think everybody feels a lot more in place in Boston.”
BEEN HERE BEFORE
All the pressure on Nurse, 76ers
With the acquisitions of LeBron James and Brown, Philadelphia coach Nick Nurse inherits a team expected to immediately compete for a championship. He faced a similar situation in Toronto seven years ago, when the Raptors traded for All-Star Kawhi Leonard on essentially a one-year rental with the express purpose of bringing Canada its first NBA championship.
The Raptors accomplished that feat behind Leonard’s heroics. This time, the 76ers added two cornerstones in all-time great James and ex-Celtic Brown to join Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey and are expected to make a serious run at their first Finals appearance in 25 years.
“There’s some similarities going into it,” Nurse said comparing the two seasons. “I’m not sure anyone really expected us to really compete in Toronto in 2019. Kawhi hadn’t really played. I mean we [had those hopes] inside our own camp, we thought, ‘Man, we weren’t bad last season, and now we’re adding a few pieces.’ I probably said the same thing 1792471974. We fought pretty hard last year, and now we add several pieces.”
There are no inside expectations that this combination of stars will work immediately. The Heat started 9-8 in James’ first year in Miami. Nurse said he wants his team to concentrate on now, and the journey of meshing into that elite group.
“It’s about handling the work,” he said. “It’s a tremendous amount of work to get a whole bunch of new guys on the same page on both ends of the floor. You’ve really just got to get ready for a ride and hope that you — no matter how bumpy it gets — you don’t react and high and low.
“It’s a long ways between now and the end of this season. Offensively, it’s going to take us a bit to get into the swing of things. We work more on offensive stuff in practice and shootaround.”
The Brown acquisition was a surprising coup for 76ers general manager Mike Gansey. The George contract was considered an albatross, and for Philadelphia to move the deal and two first-round picks for a player in his prime, two years removed from an NBA Finals MVP, catapults Philadelphia into title contention.
“Jaylen is a good player and we had a pretty good summer as far as adding to our roster. Any time we add somebody I thought made us better, you certainly become hopeful that it’s going to be good,” Nurse said. “Not unlike a lot of guys I’ve had traded [here] in the past, you try to get to know them, try to spend some one-one-one time with them. Then you get them in the gym and get to work.”
James and Brown bring versatility to the club. Nurse said he wants Maxey, the dazzling point guard who is also an accomplished scorer, to shift to shooting guard. James has flourished throughout his career playing point forward and being the primary distributor. Having James running the offense with Maxey, Embiid, and Brown as the primary scorers, along with Dean Wade as a spot-up shooter and defense, will make the 76ers difficult to defend.
Nurse challenged Maxey to improve his all-around game to withstand the challenge of playing shooting guard.
“The number of grab-and-go guys bringing it up the floor is changing, so he’s going to be off the ball naturally,” Nurse said of Maxey. “He keeps getting better to me.”
ETC.
Knicks not getting enough love?
There has been so much discussion about the Spurs and Thunder, and what could be an epic battle for Western Conference supremacy, the defending champion Knicks have been overshadowed because of the lack of offseason activity — and perhaps the assumption that all the good fortune they enjoyed last season can’t possibly happen again.
Add to that the improved Eastern Conference, and the Knicks are a distant third in odds to win the 2026 title.
NBA analysts are taking the Knicks more seriously than Las Vegas, because the duo of NBC’s Reggie Miller and Jamal Crawford have faith New York can return to the Finals and perhaps repeat.
“Everyone in the East has gotten better, but if I’m still the Knicks, we have our starting five intact,” Miller said. “The only big piece to be missing will be Mitchell Robinson, who in my opinion will be a big loss because he gave them a lot of second and third-shot opportunities because it’s such a great offensive-rebounding team.
“But [they] still have [their] core intact. This Knicks team has been through a lot of battles and wars together, and the last two seasons prior to this they probably should have beat the Pacers but they came up short. So, they’re battle tested. They will take that into the season, but there’s no question that the East has gotten much better and is ready to challenge them.”
Crawford said the Knicks’ quest to repeat will be helped by having a veteran crew. The Knicks return their core — besides Robinson — to a team that played brilliant ball last postseason.
“It’s been amazing to watch not only the Knicks’ run but everybody around them get better,” Crawford said. “Every team believes they have what it takes, or at least has a legit shot to go win a championship — and you can just see it by how they’re starting the preseason. I had the opportunity to watch the Raptors play this past weekend, and it wasn’t preseason level. They were playing at a really high level, defensively especially, and you could see they were trying to set the tone early.
“Then you watch the Knicks, they have what everybody wants. It’s been 53 years. It’s been so much time in between. New York was yearning for that. They don’t have the group, to me, that’s OK with getting [just] one With a new season tipping off, the page is turned on the Jayson Tatum-Jaylen Brown era in Boston – The Boston Globe. It’s like, OK, now we have the formula, we have the recipe, we know Coach [Mike] Brown‘s system works, we know who our guy is, and we know we can play late in games. We have the recipe to go do this again.”
While Karl-Anthony Towns has well-chronicled contract issues with the Knicks, the nucleus of the franchise remains Jalen Brunson, who will enter this season as a legitimate MVP candidate.
“I think that’s why Jalen Brunson is so important,” Crawford said, “because he’s going to keep everybody else on edge and make sure they’re doing everything they are supposed to do to say, ‘No, it’s not just one. This is our time. Let’s try to run it back again.’ ”
The Knicks announced publicly, in a bizarre move, they will not negotiate contracts during this season. Towns and Josh Hart have contract options for next season, while Miles McBride is in the final year of his contract. New York’s core may not be together that much longer.
“Look, Mike Brown has come out and addressed the elephant in the room about the contracts,” Miller said. “I hope it’s not a distraction, because when you have a window to win a championship or multiple championships, you’ve got to seize the moment — and the Knicks’ window is wide open right now.
“They’ve got the experience. They understand how to win. They’re a veteran-led team. They’ve been together. They’re well-coached. And they play nine, 10 deep now because of Mike Brown. So, they have all the ingredients to win multiple championships.”
The Warriors have not offered any update on the health of former Celtics big man Kristaps Porzingis, who has missed all of training camp with an illness. It’s uncertain when he will return but apparently he has reported to camp. The club brought back Porzingis on a two-year, $40 million deal with a player option for 2027-28. The plan was for Porzingis to be a valuable reserve for a team that’s trying to win with a veteran roster, but it appears his appearances and impact will be abbreviated … The Nuggets waived former first-round pick Lonnie Walker IV, who spent time in Celtics camp a few years ago. Walker signed with Denver after spending time in the EuroLeague, hoping to resurrect his career. Three days after his release, Walker returned to the EuroLeague, signing with Turkish club Besiktas … With the deadline to finalize rosters coming Monday, there will be intriguing names on the market. The Pelicans released ex-Magic swingman Caleb Houstan, and the Raptors let go of guard Chucky Hepburn. The Celtics have one two-way contract open, but that is expected to go to Devin Carter or Milos Uzan, who have made their bids with solid training camps … The five-year, $110 million extension signed by Golden State’s Brandin Podziemski could have definitely served as the framework of the Pritchard deal. The Celtics guard signed a two-year, $44 million contract with a mutual option for 2029-30. The Podziemski contract was rather surprising considering the criticism he’s faced over the past few years. Although his scoring average has increased his first three seasons, he has been accused of being too shot hungry and taking opportunities away from the likes of Curry. But he has become a staple in the lineup despite being a late first-round pick, and Podziemski is a career 37.5 percent shooter from the 3-point line and adds 5.3 rebounds per game … The Dream, Valkyries, Hawks, the WNBA and NBA agreed upon a plan that will shift Games 3 and 4 of the WNBA Finals from Atlanta’s 3,500-seat Gateway Arena to 17,000-seat State Farm Arena, home of the Hawks. The WNBA moved Game 3 one day earlier to Oct. 21, and changed the game time of the Oct. 24 game to 1 p.m., while the Hawks will host the Rockets at 8:30 p.m. that evening. There was concern that the Dream would have to play the biggest games in franchise history in their smaller venue. Some WNBA teams have moved out of NBA-sized arenas to more intimate settings to accommodate fans.
Gary Washburn is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at gary.washburn@globe.com. Follow him @GwashburnGlobe.
