Thankful

On this Thanksgiving eve, I'm thankful for so many things in my life. I don't want to get too real with you, but I thought it would be fun to talk about some Celtics things for which I'm thankful. I'll start with big picture thoughts, and zoom in as I go.

• Ownership's Eagerness: It is actually remarkable that Wyc Grousbeck and Co. are willing to go deep into the luxury tax in an effort to chase a championship. It's especially remarkable given that the Red Sox have pulled the plug on trying to be championship contenders, and the Patriots' elderly statesmen are sleeping through the decade. The Celtics owners seem to understand exactly how special the Jay's are, and are doing the proper work to make sure they have everything they need to win it all. It's never a given that this will happen.
• Brad Stevens' Vision: I toyed with making this a whole piece, but it's just as depressing as it is invigorating. Stevens, in my opinion, has already locked up Executive of the Year. Within the first month, the three players he traded away – Malcolm Brogdon, Marcus Smart, and Robert Williams III – have all become various levels of injured. Time Lord's injury was catastrophic, and had Stevens not traded him, the injury likely would have torpedoed Boston's title chances. But Stevens knew how things were trending with each player, quietly worked to make great trades that were fair on paper but whose early returns are big wins for the C's due to the injury concerns, and the vibes are now immaculate.
• Competitiveness: We're now 18% of the way through this young NBA season, and the Celtics have not yet been blown out. Two of their three losses came in overtime, and in the third, the C's had the ball with a chance to tie on the final possession. No team will ever go undefeated, and eventually the C's will likely have a night where they shoot 15% from three and get run off the floor. But it hasn't happened yet, and that has been one of my favorite big picture things to date. Every other competitive team has been worked – Philly was the last team I was watching in this regard, and Minnesota jumped out to a 17-point lead on them after one quarter tonight and never really let Philly back into the game. It was a 21-point game when the Sixers pulled their regulars with 5:35 left.
• Post Work: The C's take more threes than just about every other team, basically ever. But the shots they're mixing in when they're inside the arc, I believe, are a big reason they're staying in games. Kristaps Porzingis is a mismatch machine in the post. Jayson Tatum is now stronger than just about every other player in the league, and he's using that strength. He's backing down guys and dipsy-do'ing them like the second coming of Kevin McHale, or fading away like a hybrid of Paul Pierce and Dirk Nowitzki. It's been so beautiful to watch. Jaylen Brown has been getting in on the act too, and hit an absolute backbreaker of a fadeaway tonight where he came down and went careening into the C's bench.
• The Jaylen-Porzingis Movement: After the first couple of games, there was fretting about Jaylen Brown's role in the offense. But as we get deeper into the season, a really meaningful connection is developing between him and Kristaps Porzingis. They have developed the same radar for backdoor plays that Brown and Marcus Smart had the past couple of seasons, and they are good for at least one of those backdoor dunks per game. But they are also developing a really good thing in the pick and roll. It is not only creating easy offense for the team, but in the process, Brown is becoming a much better passer. Tonight's game Brown hit rare air – he had eight assists against one turnover. By my count, it's just the 12th time in his regular-season career (tonight was his 484th career game) that he has dished out eight or more assists, and just the second time in which he's done so with one or fewer turnovers. The only other game I can track in that regard is last December 5th in Toronto, when he had eight assists and zero turnovers. But I say "movement" because the reason this is working is because the connection has Jaylen literally moving again. When Jaylen gets isolation heavy, the offense bogs down. This connection has him cutting, rolling, and utilizing his teammates, instead of trying to do it by himself. It's awesome.
• Calm: One of the things that this team now possesses is just a calm. They rarely get worked up. Porzingis needs to work on his gesturing at the refs, which is earning him some silly technical fouls, but aside from that, this team is so much more calm than past seasons. Tatum's whining to the refs has decreased significantly. I want to give some credit to Jrue Holiday replacing Marcus Smart, and Holiday is just a calmer person than Marcus, bless him. But it's everyone. Derrick White is always in control, and I think it's notable that two of the losses came when he was out, and the third was when he rejoined the team on the road just a couple of hours before the game. Very little surprises Tatum and Brown now, they are controlling the action. And of course, Al Horford is there with bear hugs and timely play.
• The Bench: It looks like coach Joe Mazzulla has found the eight guys he's going to roll with, with Horford, Sam Hauser, and Payton Pritchard rounding out the rotation. Pritchard and Hauser have been rock solid lately, and I now have full confidence in them and look forward to their minutes. That was absolutely not the case last season. When Mazzulla expands the rotation, the other guys have very defined roles. Oshae Brissett picked up seven rebounds in 17 minutes the other night. In the same game, Svi Mykhailiuk came off the bench for the first time in three games, immediately drained a difficult three, and hustled his way to a +7 in nine minutes. No one is trying to do too much, because they know exactly what is expected of them. It's rare to have the roles so fleshed out so early in the season, and I think it will only get better as the season progresses.
• Jayson Tatum: In the spring, I wrote over at Boston.com that it was a good bet that Tatum would be a regular-season MVP someday. He's making a very good case for that to happen this season. His FG%, 2P%, eFG%, and TS% are all at career highs, and he's doing it on his slimmest shot volume since the Bubble season. He's now pulling down nine rebounds per game, and his stated goal of averaging a double-double is firmly on the table. Moreover, he makes the correct decision on nearly every single play. He is doing a much better job of not settling. He's working into the post, taking midrange jumpers when they're there, and just scoring really well at all three levels. He tries hard on defense, suits up every night, is growing as a leader, he works hard to improve his game, and is thoughtful and open with the media. The other day, I was talking with some people about what they should rename Faneuil Hall, and my friend turned to me and said, "I bet you're going to say 'Jayson Tatum Plaza,'" and we both doubled over in laughter, because that was absolutely what I was going to say. Watching Jayson Tatum is just incredibly enjoyable. He's everything you could want an athlete to be.
• You! I could continue on with things – there's a lot to love about this Celtics team – but I'll wrap here with who I'm most thankful for: You! This blog doesn't have a wide readership and probably never will because I have no desire to get it a wider readership, but I appreciate those of you have been reading. It's been a ton of fun to collect my thoughts in these posts, and it's absolutely helping my other writing and overall mental health. Thank you. Happy Thanksgiving!