Celtic Sunrise: Gushing about Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum

Top ‘o th’ mornin’ to ya!

I’m trying out something new here and I’m calling it Celtic Sunrise. I’d like to get back in the habit of writing every day (weekdays) and I thought a morning post about anything and everything on my heart (usually at least vaguely Celtics related) would be a fun idea. I may briefly cover ground that the other authors on this site have or will cover, but this isn’t going to be an exhaustive deep dive column. I also can’t promise that I’ll do this every day or for how long. We’ll just see how it goes. In short, this is for me, and if you happen to glean any enjoyment out of it, all the better. Enough preamble.

I have a Gordon Hayward sized hole in my heart this season, but Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum are doing what they can to fill that up.

Seriously, I don’t think I can gush enough about how excited I am about these kids. And yes, I feel perfectly fine calling them “kids” since I’m old enough to be their father, which is weird in itself.

There have been times when I’ve left the door ajar for Marcus Smart, Terry Rozier, and others to “maybe someday become a star.” There’s a different feel to Jaylen and Jayson though. They legitimately could become stars in this league. Thanks Nets picks!

The level of production that they’ve achieved at such an early age is astounding. via the Celtics:

Tuesday night they became the first Celtics teammates under the age of 22 to score 20-plus points in the same game. With birthday boy Brown scoring a game-high 23 points, and Tatum right behind him with a career-high 22 points, the Celtics were able to down the New York Knicks with ease, 110-89.

The obvious caveat here is “it was against the ridiculously bad Knicks” and that’s fair. Still, someone has to make those shots and they’ve been shown frequent flashes in each of the first 4 games. To the point where we may find with enough sample size that this is the new norm for them.

The funny thing is that it isn’t just the scoring. We were told when both of these guys were drafted that defense could be a weak point. They had the physical tools but they didn’t have the track record. I don’t know what kind of magic pixie dust Brad Stevens has, but both of them have far exceeded my expectations on the defensive end thus far.

This is the point where I usually tell you to pump the brakes a bit. They are, after all, very young and we have a small sample size to work with. But forget that. Enjoy this. Part of the fun of watching basketball is seeing something or someone develop into something even better than you had hoped for. It is a bonus that there are two of them and an even bigger bonus that they seem to have developed a friendship and chemistry on and off the court.

As Humphrey Bogart once said: