Does Jaylen Brown's Cryptic Message Trash Marcus Smart?

NEW ORLEANS — For some fans, whether intentional or not, Boston Celtics All-Star Jaylen Brown left room for the imagination when he posted a cryptic message on social media Sunday evening.

Amidst talk amongst NBA circles that the 2021-22 Celtics are in dire need of a new starting point guard to salvage the regular season, thus positioning themselves for a deep playoff run, Brown posted an interesting quote on his Instagram page, Sunday.

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Jaylen Brown: ‘So Bad It’s Good’

Regarding being careful about who you allow onto your proverbial ship, Jaylen’s choice of words from the particular quote is ambiguous for those speculating the social media post to be about his point guard, Marcus Smart.

The 2021 All-Star posted the following:

“A wise man once said, “be careful who you let on your ship because some people will sink the whole ship just because they can’t be the captain,” to which Brown captioned ‘So bad it’s good.’”

There’s a good chance this post has nothing to do with Smart as the Celtics point guard, but that’s not going to stop fans from speculating, as the NBA trade deadline — February 10 — is less than two weeks away.

Marcus Smart Pleads Case as Celtics’ Starting Point Guard

In a recent interview with The Athletic’s Jay King, Smart passionately addressed his doubters while pleading his case as to why he’s still the right man for the job, despite the Celtics’ pedestrian 26-25 regular-season record.

“First coming out of college, I was a point guard,” Smart said late Friday morning, per The Athletic. “It’s what I played. So it’s kind of funny to hear people say I’m not a point guard. In high school, point guard led my team to two state championships. It’s funny hearing people say I’m not a point guard.”

Before that, Smart even added Celtics head coach Ime Udoka to the list of doubters. Marcus claims Udoka challenges him to prove himself.

“As a point guard, when everybody else is going scattered, you have to kind of be the one to calm everybody back down,” Smart said after the Celtics’ win over the Wizards. “I’ve been challenged from Ime, everybody else, that I’m not the person, the right person in the position to do it, even though every time I go out there, I do it, and it shows.”

That’s certainly been the case of late. After missing nearly two weeks, Smart finished a plus-36 game in two consecutive games against the Washington Wizards and Sacramento Kings.

Smart Dishes Out Season-High 12 Assists

He also finished with a season-high 12 assists in a 107-97 win against the New Orleans Pelicans, and the Celtics are 3-1 since his return. However, amid Marcus’ self-boasting and chest-puffing, whom of Smart’s teammates have come to his defense as a point guard everyone should trust?

Not many, especially after Marcus expressed his displeasure with All-Stars Jayson Tatum and Brown’s late-game execution two weeks into the regular season.

“There’s only so much I can do without the ball in my hands. I’m just standing in the corner,” Smart said after losing to the Chicago Bulls in early November. “We’re running plays for our best players. Every team knows that. They do a good job of shutting that down. We can’t allow that. When they shut that down, we can’t keep trying to go to those guys.”

To which Jaylen had this to say, a few days later:

“It’s something that we probably didn’t need,” Brown said about Smart’s comments. “But, we all communicate and talk to each other.”

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