Celtics star Jaylen Brown fired back on Saturday after ESPN’s Bobby Marks did a radio interview where he cited an analytics expert who questions Brown’s value, relays Jay King of The Athletic.

“There’s mixed feelings about him when you talk to teams,” Marks said during an appearance on the NBA’s Sirius XM channel (Twitter audio link). “The analytics of Jaylen Brown is not good. … I had one — not an executive, but an analytics guy, say that, ‘Yeah, we view him as like the seventh-best player on a team.”

Brown, who’s the subject of intense trade speculation throughout the league, responded with a Twitter message stating, “Analytics nowadays used to discredit and control narratives – Roll the ball out none of these guys better than me on both ends who does he work for.”

Brown also sent out several posts noting his NBA accomplishments and questioning the increased reliance on analytic departments to determine personnel decisions. “Nobody has won more combined regular season and playoff games since I entered the league 10 years ago,” he posted, later following it by stating, “Analytics have / are ruining the game we playing AI hoops.”

There’s more on the Celtics:

• With the Trail Blazers reported to be among the most interested teams in working out a deal for Brown, Brian Robb of MassLive takes a look at what a potential trade with Portland might look like. He states that Deni Avdija would be off the table, and the Blazers would be reluctant to part with Donovan Clingan because of their lack of depth at center. Robb expects the offer to include Jerami Grant‘s $34.2MM contract for salary matching, along with a young guard like Scoot Henderson or Shaedon Sharpe. He adds that Boston is likely to inquire about Toumani Camara, who’s signed to a team-friendly deal for the next four seasons, and states that the quality of draft picks that Portland is willing to part with will determine the Celtics’ interest.
• The Celtics don’t face any difficult decisions with their team options as the deadline nears, Robb adds in a mailbag column. Neemias Queta ($2.7MM) and Jordan Walsh ($2.4MM) are both expected to be on the 15-man roster, while Dalano Banton ($2.8MM), Amari Williams ($2.2MM) and Max Shulga ($2.2MM) all have non-guaranteed deals.
• Isaiah Thomas, who joined the Celtics’ scouting staff in May, played an important role during his first draft with the team, Souichi Terada of MassLive writes in a subscriber-only story. Thomas called in the pick of Dillon Mitchell, who was selected at No. 40 Wednesday night (Twitter video link).