The Confidence Of Jaylen Brown Has Me Rock Hard

(ESPN) –  Jaylen Brown believes the Boston Celtics will represent the Eastern Conference in the 2019 NBA Finals.

During an appearance on CJ McCollum’s “Pull Up” podcast released Wednesday, Brown expressed confidence when asked by the Portland Trail Blazers guard whether he believes Boston will get to the Finals after LeBron James’ departure from the Cleveland Cavaliers.

“Oh, we’re getting to the Finals. No question about it,” Brown said.

But Brown did take umbrage at the suggestion that Boston is set to ascend only because of James’ departure.

“I hate how everybody is like, ‘Oh, LeBron’s gone in the East,'” Brown said. “I know he did have a strong hold on the East for the last seven years, but he barely got us out of there this year. And our mindset was like, ‘Man, he’s not beating us again.'”

James and his former Cavs squad rallied from a 3-2 deficit to defeat Boston in seven games in the East finals this past season. It was James’ eighth straight year taking an Eastern team to the Finals. James signed with the Los Angeles Lakers this summer.

Brown admitted that, regardless of heightened expectations, the Celtics need to prove themselves again this season. Getting back a healthy Gordon Hayward and Kyrie Irving should help that cause. Brown is bullish on Boston’s chances to claim the conference crown with the right approach.

Somebody call a doctor for me, because reading that story today from Chris Forsberg has given me a pants tent I do not see coming down any time soon let alone in 4 hours. It’s one thing for all of us on Twitter to talk shit and declare this team is heading to the Finals seeing as how they were knocking on the door without their two best players even in the lineup. Factor in the reality that their own personal Boogie Man is now across the country and it’s not that outlandish of a statement. Normally you don’t see the actual players say stuff like this though, they mostly try and stay neutral and feed the media some generic bullshit.

Not Jaylen though. He gives no fucks and is speaking what we’re all thinking and I could not love it more. You can say there are parts of Jaylen’s game that’s lacking, but confidence is not one of them. Everybody knows the first step to achieving your goals is believing you can actually do it. If not for a brutal 0-1000000000000 Game 7, this team would already have made a Finals and probably would have forced the Warriors to actually try.

But look, I’ve said it in previous blogs and I’ll continue to scream it all season long. We as Celtics nation all need to take a deep breath and relax. Yes, the path is clear and they are in a fantastic position to be the new LeBron team where you make the Finals every year by default. However, this is still the Boston Celtics we’re talking about here, and what is the one thing we know from watching them play? They never make it easy. Things almost never go like you expect them to. Sometimes that’s good, like when most people called their season over 5 minutes into last year, and sometimes it works against you, like when everyone (myself included) felt that the ECF was a wrap when they got up 2-0. So all I’m saying is be careful. Respect the Basketball Gods and be humble because they are some ruthless dick heads and can change our season in a flash. A lot can happen over the course of an NBA season, so let’s try our best to not just fast forward through the entire season and playoffs while we’re in August.

I will say though, hearing how confident both Jaylen is gives me chills. My sense is his confidence stems from the leap he plans on taking next season and that is more then enough to get the blood pumping to my nether regions. I want to see Jaylen show up with an improved handle and even better shooting from areas that aren’t the corners (where he’s already above league average). Maybe become a respectable FT shooter too and hell the sky is the limit. If I had to guess I would bet that Brad isn’t all that thrilled to hear his players talk about the Finals and all that, so it wouldn’t shock me if we hear both him and Ainge try and taper expectations. But here’s the thing, the Celtics are done with being the underdog. No longer can they be this scrappy overachieving team that was punching above their weight class. Now they’re the favorites. Now it’s time to put up or shut up and actually take that next step in their rebuild. I would advise against any Celtics fan acting like they are already there, they have just arrived at their next hurdle of the rebuild that we will have to see if they can get over and be where we all think they should be.

There are 68 days until Opening Night, and I for one cannot fucking wait. Now, kill your afternoon with the highlights