Green With Envy: catching up before the NBA Draft and free agency

Since the Boston Celtics season came to an abrupt end in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals, the media cycle has gone into overdrive. As soon as the Celtics players were packing their bags for vacation, we were debating whether Jaylen Brown should be given a supermax contract extension and whether Malcolm Brogdon’s time with the team has come to an end after just one season.

One of the more pressing topics, though, was rebuilding Boston’s coaching staff. With Ben Sullivan and Aaron Miles re-teaming with Ime Udoka on the Houston Rockets, the Celtics bench was looking mighty thin. And then, news broke of Sam Cassell joining the team — awesome! A week or so later, another big-time assistant is confirmed with Charles Lee also heading to the Celtics.

“I will say that Sam Cassell for me was one of the best assistant coaches in the NBA,” Adam Taylor said on the latest Green With Envy Podcast episode. “Charles Lee, there’s a reason that he’s been up for so many head coaching jobs and just because he hasn’t got one yet doesn’t mean he won’t. 38 years old to be, let’s put this in perspective. I’m 35. Greg. You’re 34. So the dude’s four years older than you, three years older than me, interviewing for head coaching jobs in the NBA. To be that young and to be in a position to actually attend these interviews and be in consideration, you have to be ridiculously good.”

Now, a coaching staff that looked so frail suddenly projects as one of the strongest in the league. Maybe there will be some more coaching additions, maybe not, but we can certainly feel confident that Brad Stevens and Joe Mazzulla landed their two primary targets. As such, the Celtics can head into the offseason with the sole focus of improving the current roster, whatever that may look like.

Of course, the primary talking point surrounding the upcoming offseason is the future of Jaylen Brown and whether the Celtics should extend him a supermax contract extension to keep him with the franchise long-term. It would appear that Celtics fans are split on this potential decision, with some believing that Brown is not a supermax-caliber player, others worried about the CBA implications after next season, and others wanting to secure the future of one of the best wings in the NBA.

“It’s really unfortunate for Jaylen Brown because any other year, if the league hadn’t come out with this new, extremely prohibitive CBA, you would say, ‘yeah, of course, you supermax Jaylen Brown,’” Greg Maneikis said. “Like, he deserves it. He made All-NBA. But JB - he’s just not one of the top 15 guys in the league. There’s nothing wrong with saying that he’s a top-25, maybe top-30 guy in the league. And if you’re giving top-5, top-10 money to a guy that’s not a top-5 player, it’s really difficult to build a team with this prohibitive CBA that’s coming into play here.”

The podcast also touches on Grant Williams’ hand injury and how Joe Mazzulla probably shouldered more of the blame for the impending restricted free agent’s lack of minutes than he probably needed to.

Listen to the full episode by searching for Green With Envy on your preferred podcast provider! And rest assured, the guys will be here multiple times per week during the offseason, as they look to keep the content flowing throughout the entire summer.