Gerald Green and Jaylen Brown will finally give the Boston Celtics something they haven’t seen in years
The Boston Celtics used incredible pace and relentless aggression to become one of the most exciting teams in the league last year. Even their inconsistent play lead to some of the more improbable runs and exillerating games of the year. Now, the Celtics should be able to add another dimension to their excitement, courtesy of Gerald Green and Jaylen Brown.
One thing that has been missing on the Celtics in the Brad Stevens era are electrifying athletes that can cause stadiums to erupt with ferocious finishing. The Celtics have seen some of this excitement with Smart and Bradley, and Crowder and Turner provided some solid dunks, but nothing like these new guys can do. Green won a dunk contest last time he was with the Celtics, and Brown has quickly given people notice of his special athleticism that appears to be unparalleled on this Celtics team.
While the excitement factor certainly does little to help the Celtics on the court as a team, that ability to be a strong finisher at the rim can be increibly important in establishing reliable finishing to a team that depends greatly on transition play.
The Celtics could have gone down as the worst alley-oop team in the league last year, and Brown and Green could quickly flip the script. The best part is that on a team that pushes the pace the way the Celtics do and has the kind of ball movement that the Celtics do, these guys will get plenty of opportunities to bring that added thrill to the game.
While Green has also established himself as a reliable three point shooting, that athleticism is going to be Brown’s best offensive weapon and, for a while, his only offensive weapon. The key will be finding a way to integrate that new dimension into the Celtics’ offense, but given their volume of opportunities, Brown will surely get his fair share of opportunities at tearing down the rim.
The added bonus to having players that can dunk like this is the crowd they will be doing it on front of. Despite lacking playoff success, this Celtics core has seen what kind of atmosphere TD Garden is in the playoffs, and they have fully embraced their limed success over the last two years. These players will bring that extra excitement and TD Garden will give them the best possible reaction to that excitement. TD Garden will create the kind of energy that the Celtics have proven they will play off of.
Transition will always be crucial to a team that depends on turnovers and pace like the Celtics and that may be where both of these players’ impact is left the most. Given their potential role on the second unit, having that kind of impact and generating that additional energy could be a factor in their playing time. That being said, much of it will be inconsequential to the actual results.
Just take a look at some of these highlights from the former dunk contest champion, and it should bring back some great memories from his first outing with the team.
He may not be as established as Green, but this dunk should give you an idea of what kind of damage Brown might be doing to the rim with the Celtics.
Green has already taken home one crown but these guys could get the Celtics more involved in different ways on all-star weekend. And, if the Celtics do a good job of giving these guys the opportunities they need at the rim, they could add a greater sense of reliability in at least one facet of the game.
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The Celtics struggled finishing everywhere last year and while dunking may not be the most relevant way of elevating this defense, it certainly gives the fans an experience to remember.