Around the NBA, vacations are ending and the page is turning to next season. Mavericks players organized a team run in Los Angeles this past week, the Spurs had one recently in Texas, and there are plenty of other examples. Guys are getting in shape for camp, showing off the work they have put in on their games this summer, and getting back in the groove in runs with other NBA players.
Jaylen Brown is ready for all of it. He is amped and ready for his Celtics to defend their title, but he knows this time around they have a target on their back, as he told Monte Poole of NBC Sports Bay Area.
“Last year is over, to be honest. We celebrated, we had a good time. It’s been an awesome summer. I’ve been having a great summer, by the way. But it’s over with it. Now we got the target on our back. Everybody’s trying to come after us and I’m like, ‘come on.’ It’s back to work. And I’m looking forward to next season.”
Most champions enter the season trying to avoid a championship hangover, but Brown and his fellow star wing Jayson Tatum may not have that issue thanks to Steve Kerr and USA Basketball. Most champions lose some of the chip on their shoulder after winning it all, but this summer Kerr benched Tatum for key Paris Olympics games against Serbia (and Tatum didn’t see heavy minutes in other games), while USA Basketball passed over Brown as a Kawhi Leonard replacement (going with another Celtic in Derrick White). Boston’s two best players will return having been knocked down a little this summer, putting the chip back on their shoulder.
What could get Boston off to a slower star is center Kristaps Porzingis being out until December following surgery to repair a torn retinaculum and dislocated posterior tibialis tendon (which kept him out of some NBA Finals games).
Still, Boston enters the season as the clear team to beat — and Brown is ready to return to work.
