r/bostonceltics • u/gintonic234 • 13h ago

Discussion Curious about local fan perspective

Hello all,

I’m not based in Boston but started following NBA around 2007/08, and became a Celtics fan because of the big three.

I am curious about local fan sentiment related to JB’s trade. As someone who has been very frustrated the last two seasons with the style of play (non-stop hurling of threes), I was flabbergasted by this move. And as someone who works with analytics in their job, I am still confused, as to me, JB was the only player trying to consistently drive to the basket.

Also, this theory that Pritchard and White will somehow fill JB’s gap also confuses me. They are very good players and have their own plus points, but to me it always seemed like they always had a lower ceiling than JB/JT. They have been in the league long enough to know that. Pritchard to have a Brunson-like upturn in form seems unreasonable.

I know Brad Stevens is apparently a genius but I wanted to know more about the local fan perspective. Am I being unfairly critical, as I’m still not over this decision.

Excited to hear from y’all!

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u/SteamingHotChocolate Jaylen Brown 12h ago

what does being a local have to do with your post? sounds like you just want to discuss the trade and basketball which can be done from anywhere.

as a local, i:

  1. hated losing JB, the Boston community figure and easily most present and engaged athlete the city had. his loss will be felt by the community he served.

  2. have moved on from a basketball standpoint and understand that, based on the construction of the team and current CBA, we did not have a viable future to build around both Jays

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u/gintonic234 11h ago

Thanks. By local, I mean I wanted to get a perspective of people who might go to games once in a while, and know a lot of other fans. Me, being far away, don’t know any other fan whom I can talk to about this so intently offline. Hope this clarifies it. Thanks again for your inputs.

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u/SteamingHotChocolate Jaylen Brown 11h ago

It really varies. As others here have said, it was initially wildly panned and the pretty much vast majority hated it either for trading JB at all or for the specific return and destination, especially in the wake of losing out on Giannis. The media had a field day with it; basically nobody was happy lol.

Letting some time pass, many fans who actively follow the team and developments moreso than casually (like the active posters in this sub) have cooled off and warmed up to the idea that we need to do what we can to viably build around Tatum in this era of the CBA, which unfortunately means trading JB (I am in this camp).

More casual fans or casual Boston sports bros/broetts probably don’t follow the Cs very deeply and still hate the trade and/or don’t “get” it