The Weekend Greenie Bag: When Is It OK To Panic, Are Mook's Days Numbered, And What About Those Expectations

By now football is coming to a close, maybe you’re a little upset because you got screwed by the Fantasy Gods in a must win matchup with a team that had no business beating you, resulting in your missing the playoffs. What better time then to take our focus off football for just a second and check in with the minds of the stoolies in regards to our favorite basketball team. It’s been a wild week or so for the Celtics, where just last week we were all upset about losing to the Knicks and now look. Winners of 4 of their last 5, 3 in a row and a top 10 offense since 11/7. This up and down play certainly resulted in a bunch of your hot takezzz, really on both ends of the spectrum. Remember, that’s what the Greenie Bag is for, whenever you have a thought, no matter how irrationally mad or irrationally happy it you may be, I want them. You can tweet me whatever with #GreenieBag or you can email greenieceltsbag@gmail.com. We’re always open to don’t be shy.

With that said….here is what was on your minds

During practice today Smart snapped and called Brown a pouting crybaby and they proceeded to get into an altercation that was deemed “ugly”

Thanks, Tom

Seems credible. Just so you know this was emailed to me on 11/22. Naturally we didn’t hear anything about it from all the beat reporters who go to practice, but Tom has the scoop. Take this information however you want.

Should Danny Ainge look to make a move for Bradley Beal? – Riley

Riley, it’s complicated. If you’re asking me if Ainge should be interested in a 25 year old All Star caliber player then my answer is obviously yes. I want Ainge to be interested whenever elite talent becomes available. But as it pertains to Bradley Beal? I just don’t see how it would be possible without a third team or something. Beal makes what, $25M a year? I can’t imagine WSH has much interest in Horford, and Hayward is your only other player that makes close to that money. You can’t trade Smart for a few more months and even still you need to come up with like $10M+.

My stance isn’t really all that different when it comes to Beal or any other elite guy who makes big time money. I have no interest in breaking up the majority of this team just to bring that one player in. Then you’re basically Washington. Things sound nice on paper but then you get into making the money work and honestly it’s just too much at this point. Keep this group together and actually see what they look like when they figure it out. Just look at this last week for example, why not try and keep that going.

Hey Greenie

I know the Celtics are going through a weird funk right now and are a much better team than they’ve played like, but at what point is it okay to panic in the season? Are there deeper issues than just figuring out chemistry or can we just snap out of this? Keep doing God’s work, love reading the blogs. – Joe

Eh, this is different for everybody. There have been people who have already been smashing the panic button. There’s people that are comfortable giving this team until January, and then there are people who don’t give a shit until the Spring. I’m probably somewhere in the middle. I think January-ish/trade deadline is a good place to be because by then you would think everyone has played enough to get an accurate read. Obviously health matters, and I think it varies from player to player. Like Hayward surely gets a longer leash than someone like Kyrie or Tatum or Al.

Throughout their whole rocky start everyone wanted to overanalyze that there was some big deep overbearing problem. That getting hyped in July had ruined them and all this shit. I think we’ve seen over this last recent stretch that the problem was simply their shooting. They have been 10th in Wide Open shot FG% over the last handful of games and look at what a difference that made. What so now the hype doesn’t matter? I sum this up to just Boston sports talk needing to talk about something instead of just taking a breath.

Who wins in a 7 game series, top 5 picks from 2018 draft or the current Cavaliers? Both teams get 1 month to prepare. – Tim

Probably the current Cavs. I know it’s tempting to take the rookies given how they are currently dominating college, but let’s not get it twisted. As bad as the Cavs are, they are still an NBA team filled with NBA vets who have beaten teams like HOU and PHI this year. Personally I think whenever these comparisons get thrown out there it’s so silly. A group of 5 19 year olds or whatever are not beating grown men in a 7 game series. This doesn’t even factor in Kevin Love. If he gets to play it’s even more of a beatdown in my opinion

Greenie …. sup …

Bleacher Report has just published a pretty damning article about the Inexplicable regression of Jaylen Brown this season. I have been on this since his superstar performance in Game 7 against the Cavs…..

And, every time I bring it up on the Greenie Bag, you shut it down. Well Daniel, I’m sorry but you can no longer say that my Jaylen Brown take is wrong, because it simply is not. Jaylen is not good enough for the direction we are TRYING to go. Let him go to Phoenix so I do not have to watch his overrated ass anymore. – Ryan

It had been a few weeks since Ryan chose to write in with his anti-Jaylen agenda. It’s a weird time for him to do so, seeing as how these were his last four games before getting hurt

I sure hate when a guy averages 57% shooting. No chance that can help this team or is in line with where they want to go. There are others like Ryan out there, who have been foaming at the mouth now that the Celtics have been winning with Jaylen sidelined. It honestly makes no sense to me considering I would put big money on 99% of the loved Jaylen during last year’s playoff run. It’s a Celtics fan tradition though, whenever someone sits they are obviously better without them. Happened with Isaiah, happens with Jaylen, happens with Kyrie, happens with Al. It’s one thing I will never understand. To have a problem still with Jaylen even with him playing well in his last handful of games just because he struggled to start just seems weird to me.

Greenie,

Currently kinda drunk watching Marcus Morris ball out against the Cavs. Is there anyway they can keep him this offseason? How about using any exemptions or cap space from the cap jump before they resign Kyrie because they can go as far over as they want to sign kyrie?

Loved the early Yabu minutes. Need to see more Time Lord. – Max

Sadly, I just can’t see how they have the money. Maybe if they were to not match on Terry, and then trade all their picks, but I really think the way Mook has been playing is pricing him out of what this team can afford. I think it’s safe to say he’s at least getting Marcus Smart money right? That would pretty much double his salary. He’s making just $5M this year, and even if they have his Bird Rights it all comes down to how much of a tax bill ownership is going to want to pay. Could we see a scenario where they choose to invest in Mook and let Terry walk? Maybe. Is it also possible that Ainge trades him in February for something else? Can’t exactly rule that out either.

At the end of the day though, I think we’re all a little surprised with how fantastic he’s been whether it’s as a starter or off the bench. His efficiency has been consistent, he’s rebounding better than ever before, and dare I say his shot selection is even improving. I no longer get made when I see him shoot, in fact it’s the exact opposite. If you told me this is where I would be when I saw him shoot himself and the team into holes at times last season, I’d say you’re crazy. I won’t try and sound like a cap expert, so maybe timing could have something to do with it when it comes to cap space and penalties and all that stuff, I’m just saying don’t get too attached just yet.

Greenie,

I’m just as frustrated as you as I’m sure all the green teamers are about this team. The effort, mistakes and auora around this team is weird and something we’re all not used to. I’m afraid that this team is finally facing the grave expectations around them from the entire nation and really it’s the first time any of them have really faced. – Shane

Yeah I mean this was one of my biggest questions heading into the season. This team was no longer the underdog, but instead they were the hunted. Every team was going to come out and play their best basketball against this team, and we had no idea how they would respond. This was also the first time Brad was going to have to coach with legit talent and legit expectations. We hadn’t seen that from him in any of his 6 years, so that was a question as well.

And honestly, both the players and Brad failed that test early. As expected they were getting the best shot from teams and they turtled. Their body language was awful, Brad was having issues it seemed motivating and preparing his players, the whole thing was a disaster. The good news is, it’s a long season, and if you watch them over the last week or so, they do look a whole lot better.

If you look at some of the guys who had really struggled like Tatum and Al, we’re not still seeing a lot of those same issues. Tatum has gone back to an offensive approach that works, and as a result his body language looks so much better. Al’s shot has come around, and he’s gone back to being a real force on the defensive end. Just rewatch what he did against AD and KAT. Now just because they seem to have figured things out now doesn’t mean they are done living up to their expectations. Things are only going to get bigger once we get to the Spring, but you aren’t all that far off with your assessment.

And that’s it! Thanks to everyone who wrote in this week, we’re off until at Thursday so my advice would be to pass the time and write in for next week’s blog. Hopefully this helped distract you a little bit before the Sunday Scaries really set in, enjoy SNF!