{"id":1925121,"date":"2026-05-08T15:15:04","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T12:15:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1925121"},"modified":"2026-05-08T15:15:04","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T12:15:04","slug":"the-bounce-what-is-jaylen-brown-trying-to-accomplish-exactly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1925121","title":{"rendered":"The Bounce: What is Jaylen Brown trying to accomplish, exactly?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"Article_ContentContainer__jBNW3 article-content-container bodytext1\">\n<p><b data-stringify-type=\"bold\">The Bounce Newslette<\/b><strong>r<\/strong>\u00a0<span class=\"c-emoji c-emoji__medium c-emoji--inline\" data-qa=\"emoji\" data-sk=\"tooltip_parent\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class src=\"https:\/\/a.slack-edge.com\/production-standard-emoji-assets\/14.0\/apple-medium\/1f3c0@2x.png\" alt=\":basketball:\" width=\"20\" height=\"20\" aria-label=\"basketball emoji\" data-stringify-type=\"emoji\" data-stringify-emoji=\":basketball:\"><\/span>\u00a0| This is <em>The Athletic\u2019s<\/em> daily NBA newsletter.\u00a0<a class=\"c-link c-link--underline\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/newsletters\/the-bounce\/?source=pulsenewsletter&amp;campaign=9178780&amp;userId=10748855\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" data-stringify-link=\"https:\/\/theathletic.com\/newsletters\/the-bounce\/?source=pulsenewsletter&amp;campaign=9178780&amp;userId=10748855\" data-sk=\"tooltip_parent\">Sign up here<\/a>\u00a0to receive The Bounce directly in your inbox.<\/p>\n<p>The good news is that James Harden joined Bob Cousy in a playoff stat! The bad news is that Harden tied Cousy with his 20th playoff game of shooting 25 percent or less with a minimum of 10 shot attempts. Harden went 3-of-13 from the field for 10 points vs. the Pistons last night. Speaking of which \u2026<\/p>\n<hr>\n<h3>Trouble brewing?<\/h3>\n<p><strong>What\u2019s going on with Jaylen Brown?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There are a lot of questions right now about Jaylen Brown and his future with the Boston Celtics. I know, I know. We\u2019ve been through this before. For years, it felt like people wondered if Brown and Jayson Tatum could coexist on the team, and \u2026 I\u2019m not totally sure why. But it was a conversation!<\/p>\n<div class=\"ad-container\">\n<div class=\"ad-wrapper article-treatment\">\n<div class=\"ad-slug-container\">\n<p class=\"ad-slug\">Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"mid1\" data-position=\"mid1\" class=\"ad place-ad\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>With Tatum missing so much of this season, Brown got to be the unquestioned best player on the team. It will likely lead to an All-NBA First Team selection and placement in the top five in MVP voting. (We don\u2019t have the results yet.)<\/p>\n<p id=\"article-pickem\">\n<p>The Celtics also just had a historic collapse against the 76ers in the first round. Since then, Brown has gone on a livestream tear that has people questioning whether he wants to be in Boston long-term.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s the timeline of the last few days:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>May 2: <\/strong>Celtics blow a 3-1 lead to No. 7 seed Philadelphia and are eliminated.<\/li>\n<li><strong>May 3: <\/strong>Brown hosts a livestream, criticizing officials and saying this was \u201cthe most fun season\u201d he\u2019s ever had.<\/li>\n<li><strong>May 5: <\/strong>The NBA fines him $50,000.<\/li>\n<li><strong>May 5: <\/strong>Tracy McGrady says Brown\u2019s frustration \u201clies deeply within the organization and other things,\u201d on a podcast. McGrady and Brown are close.<\/li>\n<li><strong>May 6: <\/strong>Celtics president of basketball operations <a href=\"https:\/\/links.e1.nytimes.com\/z\/c\/5037\/126922f3edcf4959a90c796b9182f8c7\/33a680519f5241f9b8a3259f9b45415d\">Brad Stevens tells the media<\/a>, \u201cI talked to Jaylen (on) Monday \u2026 It was nothing but positive. He has not expressed those frustrations to me.\u201d<\/li>\n<li><strong>May 6: <\/strong>On another livestream, Brown tried to clarify things by saying, \u201cMe and Brad have a great relationship. I love Boston. If it were up to me, I would play in Boston for the next 10 years.\u201d<\/li>\n<li><strong>May 7: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/links.e1.nytimes.com\/z\/c\/5037\/126922f3edcf4959a90c796b9182f8c7\/cb3f63059e534476903fad4a08343e6c\">Jaylen gets into a social media spat<\/a> with Stephen A. Smith after the ESPN pundit talked about these comments on TV.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>OK, so you might be wondering why people are freaking out about Brown after this rundown. Let\u2019s dive in.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What is alarming about what Brown has done or said? <\/strong>People have been grabbed by the comment that this was the \u201cmost fun season\u201d Brown has had. Two years ago, Brown won Eastern Conference MVP, NBA Finals MVP and a championship. This year, he was one of the best players in the league, but his team was bounced in the first round. People are viewing this as a selfish viewpoint by Brown and thus questioning whether he wants to share the limelight with Tatum.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Is that a bad thing? <\/strong>Yes and no? Brown definitely feels like he\u2019s one of the best players in the league, and those guys want to spread their wings sometimes. We\u2019ve seen it a lot. Scottie Pippen got that chance when Michael Jordan retired the first time in Chicago. Harden got that chance when he ended up in Houston. Kyrie Irving got that chance when he found his way to Boston. It wouldn\u2019t be outlandish to wonder if Brown wants that at some point. It doesn\u2019t mean he\u2019ll move toward trying to get his own team.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Then what\u2019s the drama? <\/strong>Well \u2026 1) It\u2019s the internet, and that\u2019s what we do. 2) T-Mac stating the stuff about frustrations sounded an alarm bell. I don\u2019t expect Brown to demand a trade or anything, but hearing about frustrations \u2014 whether he\u2019s expressed them to Stevens or not \u2014 raises an eyebrow or two.<\/p>\n<div class=\"ad-container\">\n<div class=\"ad-wrapper article-treatment\">\n<div class=\"ad-slug-container\">\n<p class=\"ad-slug\">Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"mid2\" data-position=\"mid2\" class=\"ad place-ad\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>What should we think of this? <\/strong>If you want to be dramatic about it or buy into drama, then I\u2019d say lean toward the idea of Brown wanting to be the main star on his own team. That wouldn\u2019t shock me.<\/p>\n<div id=\"top-league-content-root\"><\/div>\n<p>    {&#8220;endpoint&#8221;:&#8221;https:\/\/api-prd-nyt.theathletic.com\/graphql&#8221;}<\/p>\n<p><strong>However, I tend to think this is all just pointed toward a contract extension. <\/strong>The soon-to-be-30-year-old is extension-eligible this offseason. He has two guaranteed years left at $57 million and $61 million. Then he has a player option for nearly $65 million. An extension would tear that option up and give him another two years at over $140 million total. My guess is he\u2019s angling for that extension.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<h3>The last 24<\/h3>\n<p>\ud83c\udfc0 <strong>Surprise ranking? <\/strong>John Hollinger has his top 15 NBA Draft prospects. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/links.e1.nytimes.com\/a\/zc\/5037\/2c73f98f15b64612bea45c05d1b31955\/ae4efdf4d5be460b995f11859794edda\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Wait, Darryn Peterson is fourth<\/a>?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\ud83d\udcfa Where\u2019s the game? <\/strong>Shakeia Taylor investigates a key question: Why is it so hard to <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/links.e1.nytimes.com\/a\/zc\/5037\/2c73f98f15b64612bea45c05d1b31955\/05af6ead75934312897ebaf12fda6829\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">find NBA playoff games on TV at a bar<\/a>?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\ud83c\udfc0 Tip-off. <\/strong>The WNBA season starts tonight. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/links.e1.nytimes.com\/a\/zc\/5037\/2c73f98f15b64612bea45c05d1b31955\/c8cf0e4dfe3446d0afdfcd933517cd5e\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Here is one question for every team<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>\ud83d\uddfd <\/em><strong>KAT connection.<\/strong> The biggest fan of Karl-Anthony Towns is the mother of a Marine who was killed in Afghanistan. Our Ian O\u2019Connor <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/links.e1.nytimes.com\/a\/zc\/5037\/2c73f98f15b64612bea45c05d1b31955\/efec0e44ab184b95a7aaaea8c2c0b708\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">tells the tale of their special bond<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Stream the NBA on Fubo (<\/em><em><a href=\"https:\/\/links.e1.nytimes.com\/z\/c\/5037\/2c73f98f15b64612bea45c05d1b31955\/5c27654a34564221a65346ee6fe59ab0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">try it for free!<\/a>)<\/em><em>\u00a0and catch out-of-market games on\u00a0<\/em><em><a href=\"https:\/\/links.e1.nytimes.com\/z\/c\/5037\/2c73f98f15b64612bea45c05d1b31955\/46636af1f41d4cf4a49eb0c6f8d91c40\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">League Pass<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<hr>\n<h3>About last night<\/h3>\n<p><strong>Pistons 107, Cavs 97 | Pistons lead 2-0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The game recaps for these playoffs have mostly been formulaic, unless the story calls for something else. I\u2019ll suggest adjustments that could or should happen. I\u2019ll give a telling stat that explains why the result occurred. Then we slap on a fun, emoji-driven Panic Meter score and move on to the rest of the newsletter. I\u2019m not sure I even want to do that as I write this one in a stream of consciousness.<\/p>\n<p>I want to give credit to the Pistons for having two good, encouraging games after a miserable first round against the Magic that sapped a lot of confidence in them. Detroit has been much better and more even to begin this second round. <strong>But I walked away from these first two games thinking \u201cenough is enough\u201d with the Cavs.<\/strong> Every year, we wonder if this team can do something in the playoffs. And every year, it comes up short. Not because things didn\u2019t go the Cavs\u2019 way. It\u2019s because they can\u2019t help but get in their own way.<\/p>\n<div data-ath-video-stream=\"gR3dlQwHNmphsIJ\"><\/div>\n<p>These guys are not serious. They\u2019re not tough. They don\u2019t have any resilience. Jarrett Allen delivered, but you\u2019d never know Evan Mobley was a recent Defensive Player of the Year. Harden plays like a wax statue version of himself and multiple times has not been able to dribble past Duncan Robinson. Their bench has no impact. People decided to believe in them because of the Harden acquisition at the trade deadline, ignoring his history of postseason failure and hoping injuries would be good enough to give them a pass.<\/p>\n<div class=\"ad-container\">\n<div class=\"ad-wrapper article-treatment\">\n<div class=\"ad-slug-container\">\n<p class=\"ad-slug\">Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"mid3\" data-position=\"mid3\" class=\"ad place-ad\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Cade Cunningham just has to be on par with Donovan Mitchell in this series and trust his supporting cast will deliver. The Pistons\u2019 defense is swarming and flustering the Cavs. I get that it\u2019s early in the series and \u201canything can happen in Cleveland,\u201d but <strong>the Cavs feel like they\u2019re just wasting everybody\u2019s time.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>What\u2019s the adjustment for Cleveland?<\/strong> Have its big men protect the paint and have its perimeter players cut off dribble penetration.<\/li>\n<li><strong>How does Detroit take another one?<\/strong> Continue to fly all over the court and use its activity and aggressiveness to make the Cavs wilt.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Telling stat:<\/strong> 7-of-32. That was the Cavs\u2019 3-point shooting. They\u2019re down to 33.2 percent from deep in this postseason.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Playoff Panic Meter (out of five):<\/strong> \u2694\ufe0f\u2694\ufe0f\u2694\ufe0f\u2694\ufe0f for Cleveland<\/p>\n<p><strong>Thunder 125, Lakers 107 | Thunder lead 2-0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Game 1 of this series saw the Lakers throw a lot of different coverages at Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, frustrate him a bit, but ultimately lose because they only scored 90 points. They were much better offensively in Game 2, and Austin Reaves bounced back to put up 31 points. But it still wasn\u2019t enough, because the Thunder broke through in the second half.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s the issue with playing the Thunder. Eventually, the dam breaks with them, and there are a couple of runs in a short amount of time you just can\u2019t withstand. SGA had 22 points, as did Chet Holmgren. Ajay Mitchell had 20 points, and Jared McCain dropped 18 off the bench, making his trade from the 76ers this season even more bewildering.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>What\u2019s the adjustment for Los Angeles?<\/strong> It has to cut down on the turnovers \u2014 21 turnovers against the Thunder is death.<\/li>\n<li><strong>How does OKC take another one?<\/strong> Just keep the wave of role players and depth coming. Eventually, it wears down this Lakers team.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Telling stat:<\/strong> 20. The number of points for Mitchell, as we mentioned. He extended the Thunder\u2019s record to 26-2 when he scores at least 15 points.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Playoff Panic Meter (out of five):<\/strong> \ud83c\udfac\ud83c\udfac\ud83c\udfac\ud83c\udfac for Los Angeles<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Since we\u2019re here, let\u2019s do a quick preview of tonight\u2019s Game 3s. All times Eastern.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Knicks at 76ers, 7 p.m. (Prime Video) | Knicks lead 2-0<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Adjustment for Philadelphia: <\/strong>Attack the paint. Doing this with pace will put the Knicks\u2019 defense on its heels.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Adjustment for New York: <\/strong>Keep playing inside-out. The Knicks\u2019 ability to get the ball into the paint makes it hard for the Sixers to cover the rim and the perimeter.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Spurs at Wolves, 9:30 p.m. (Prime Video) | Series tied 1-1<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Adjustment for Minnesota: <\/strong>Start Anthony Edwards. It\u2019s time to get him going from the start so he doesn\u2019t have to get a feel for the game when he finally checks in.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Adjustment for San Antonio: <\/strong>Keep playing inside-out. When it put pressure on the paint against Minnesota in Game 2, the Wolves couldn\u2019t keep up.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr>\n<h3>Spin City<\/h3>\n<p><strong>Let\u2019s simulate the lottery one last time<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As we lead up to Sunday\u2019s NBA Draft Lottery, we\u2019re taking a spin on the Tankathon lottery simulator every day this week.<\/p>\n<p>Tankathon is the best website <a href=\"https:\/\/links.e1.nytimes.com\/z\/c\/5037\/126922f3edcf4959a90c796b9182f8c7\/1c627c9307e6438d9f84c39bbd4ba4ca\">for tracking the lottery odds<\/a>. It\u2019s also the best site for simulating the lottery and seeing what comes up. We are trying to figure out what would happen with each random drawing. One spin and we play the result, no matter what. On Monday, Miami won the top pick. On Tuesday, it was Dallas going back-to-back. On Wednesday, Indiana took it. Yesterday, AJ Dybantsa stayed in Utah with the Jazz.<\/p>\n<p>For our last one before the real lottery, it\u2019s New Orleans\u2019 worst nightmare:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-7263569 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/athletic\/uploads\/wp\/2026\/05\/08110215\/tank5.jpg\" alt width=\"512\" height=\"343\"><\/p>\n<p>The Derik Queen trade on draft night last year brought a really good building block to the Pelicans, but it didn\u2019t bring Dybantsa from BYU to the Bayou. Instead, the Hawks luck out with the Pelicans winning the lottery, which sends the No. 1 pick to Atlanta. They\u2019d absolutely take Dybantsa and add him to the size and athleticism they have on the wings.<\/p>\n<div class=\"ad-container\">\n<div class=\"ad-wrapper article-treatment\">\n<div class=\"ad-slug-container\">\n<p class=\"ad-slug\">Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"mid4\" data-position=\"mid4\" class=\"ad place-ad\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Chicago gets a big boost for its new front office and a blue-chip prospect for the Windy City. Would the Bulls go with Kansas\u2019 Peterson as their next star guard or go with a familiar family by taking Duke\u2019s Cameron Boozer \u2014 whose dad, Carlos, played for the franchise from 2010-14? That might be up to the Reinsdorfs.<\/p>\n<p>Indiana keeps its pick by locking in third and taking the player the Bulls don\u2019t. All week, Washington has taken some rough spins in this experiment by us.<\/p>\n<p>The draft lottery is Sunday at 3 p.m. ET on ESPN and ABC.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Bounce Newsletter\u00a0\u00a0| This is The Athletic\u2019s daily NBA newsletter.\u00a0Sign up here\u00a0to receive The Bounce directly in your inbox. The good news is that James Harden joined Bob Cousy in a playoff stat! The bad news is that Harden tied Cousy with his 20th playoff game of shooting 25 percent or less with a minimum [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,241],"class_list":["post-1925121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-nytimes-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1925121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1925121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1925121\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1925121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1925121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1925121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}