Getty Max Strus of the Miami Heat, Jaylen Brown of the Boston Celtics
After the Miami Heat eliminated the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals, Heat sharpshooter Max Strus took a subtle dig at the Celtics when he posted a screenshot of the headline reporting him being cut by the Celtics in 2019 on his personal Instagram page.
Strus was on the Celtics’ preseason roster in 2019 and was signed to a partially guaranteed contract but was cut by the team before the season started. Strus appears to be implying that the Celtics could have had him on their team, but now they’re paying the price for letting him go to a rival.
Strus first signed on with the Heat for the 2020-21 season but did not have his NBA breakthrough until the season after that, where his 41% shooting from three-point land on 6.5 attempts a game spiked his scoring average from 6.1 to 10.6 points a game.
In the 2023 Eastern Conference Finals, Strus averaged 9.4 points a game while shooting 41.8% from the field and 34.2% from three in seven games while playing 28.4 minutes a game as a starter.
Strus will also enter the 2023 NBA Offseason as a free agent where he is expected to get a raise due to his abilities as a sharpshooter.
Ex-Celtic Tacko Fall Congratulates Max Strus
Former Celtics fan favorite Tacko Fall congratulated Strus for making it to the NBA Finals while correcting reporter Keith Smith of Spotrac and Celtics Blog.
Smith retweeted a fan’s tweet noting that Boston released Strus while retaining now-former Celtics Aaron Nesmith and Romeo Langford (which was not true in the former’s case as he had not been drafted yet) and wrote the following: “It’s even worse. They cut [Strus] to keep Tacko.”
Fall responded to Smith, where he not only told him his version of events but also went out of his way to congratulate Strus for making it to the NBA Finals.
“Wrong Keith. Also I’m just grinding, enjoying my family and minding my business please leave my name out of this. And congrats to my guy Max!” Fall tweeted the day after.
While Strus has established himself in the NBA through his time with the Heat, Fall spent two seasons with the Celtics from 2019 to 2021, where he played 26 games combined. Fall then spent the 2021-22 season with the Cleveland Cavaliers but has since gone overseas to play for the Xinjiang Flying Tigers in the Chinese Basketball Association.
Jimmy Butler Calls Celtics ‘Incredible Team’
After the Heat defeated the Celtics, Jimmy Butler praised the Celtics, saying that not only are they a great team, but they will remain one for a long time during his postgame press conference.
“I’m not going to say losing three in a row is part of the Heat culture that we like to talk about because we don’t play to lose. We don’t want to lose. They’re an incredible team over there, and they will be for a while,” Butler said.
Meeting up in the Eastern Conference Finals in the 2023 NBA Playoffs marks the third time in the last four years that the Celtics and Heat have faced one another in the postseason. Butler has faced the Celtics one other time in the postseason, having faced them in the first round of the 2017 NBA Playoffs when he was with the Chicago Bulls.