{"id":420584,"date":"2026-01-18T05:27:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T05:27:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/420584\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T05:27:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T05:27:07","slug":"jaylen-brown-talks-kristaps-porzingis-ahead-of-celtics-reunion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/420584\/","title":{"rendered":"Jaylen Brown talks Kristaps Porzingis ahead of Celtics reunion"},"content":{"rendered":"

ATLANTA \u2014 When the Celtics face the Hawks on Saturday, they won\u2019t be seeing an old friend in Kristaps Porzingis on the court. The big man is listed as out on the Hawks injury report<\/a> due to left Achilles tendinitis.<\/p>\n

Porzingis has endured a tough season<\/a> where an illness knocked him out for weeks. This Achilles issue is the latest setback for him. Jaylen Brown, talking at C\u2019s shootaround at State Farm Arena, spoke about what it\u2019ll be like to see Porzingis. The two had a good relationship when Porzingis played for the C\u2019s from 2023-25.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s in my hometown,\u201d Brown said. \u201cI remember we did a segment when he was in Boston and we came to Atlanta. I took him to American Deli and he went up to my high school as well. So I feel like that was kind of me helping him get introduced to the city. Hopefully he\u2019s enjoyed it. Atlanta has many things to offer historically, so hopefully he\u2019s having a great time. I haven\u2019t communicated with him as much but it\u2019ll be great to see him tonight if he\u2019s here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Porzingis is a talented big man when he\u2019s healthy and playing, but that\u2019s been the struggle for him throughout his career. This season, he\u2019s played in just 17 games (12 starts), averaging 17.1 points, 5.1 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game. Porzingis hasn\u2019t played since Jan. 7 because injuries keep slowing him down.<\/p>\n

When the Hawks traded for the big man, it came with the expectation that they would be taking a step toward competing in the East. The C\u2019s sent Porzingis to the Hawks in a three-team trade, getting Georges Niang in return. It was one of a few cost-cutting moves Boston made over the course of the offseason.<\/p>\n

But the Hawks have been injured and mediocre. They\u2019re 20-23 going into Saturday\u2019s game, once again looking like a play-in team. Porzingis now finds himself in trade rumors ahead of February\u2019s trade deadline. He\u2019s on an expiring $30.7 million contract.<\/p>\n

The Hawks have been linked to potentially trading for Anthony Davis, though he\u2019s also an injury prone big man. Atlanta also already made its first big move of the season, trading All-Star guard Trae Young<\/a> to the Wizards in what was effectively a salary dump.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ATLANTA \u2014 When the Celtics face the Hawks on Saturday, they won\u2019t be seeing an old friend in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":420585,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-420584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=420584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420584\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/420585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}