Boston Celtics: Looking into Jaylen Brown’s role
Jaylen Brown could lose much of the role he flourished in these playoffs with the Boston Celtics
Jaylen Brown finished his second season as one of the most improved players in the NBA. Then he got to the playoffs and it once again felt like he transformed his game. He has absolutely shattered expectations of what he could be when he entered the league, but it feels like he can still do more.
Brown made it clear that he is ready to take on a primary role with a team. He can carry heavy scoring loads, while taking on primary defensive assignments. He is a three level scorer, with the mentality needed to embrace all of his skills.
The problem is that there is going to be a lot more talent on this team. Brown is not going to be the primary option, and it is difficult to gauge how Brown will respond to that.
At this point, you know that both Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward will be ahead of him. Jayson Tatum will have an opportunity to be more of a focal point on offense, and even Al Horford could have a larger role with his distribution.
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Brown, in just his second year, made it clear that he is ready to be a primary option, and he brought real playoff success in that role. Now, all of a sudden, he might be brought all the way down to a fifth option, and it is difficult to tell what kind of impact that will have on him.
We know that we do not have to worry about the mental side for Brown. He will embrace every and any role that Brad Stevens gives him, and he will put in all the work and dedication to make sure he can get the absolute most out of the role.
The problem is that it is hard to see Brown really improving if that is his only role. Brown was already one of the most trusted knock down shooters on the team. With the talent incoming, they may not want him to expand what he can do as a play maker, or explore more ways to create offense by himself.
In the end, Brown will be phenomenal in that secondary role. He is a rhythm shooter and he will have countless open looks to take advantage of if he really is the fourth or fifth option. That being said, I’m not sure there is anything Brown can even prove in that role, after he did so much more this season.
He already shot better than 40 percent from three and 45 percent overall. He has a lot of potential with what he can do in the paint, but the Celtics are not going to need him to force the issue as much, and it will be impossible for him to be as polished as Irving and Hayward in that role.
Everyone can tell that Brown is as important to the future of this team as anyone else, but there really may not be more he can do in his third year than his second year. He will put in all the work to become an even more polished player, and he will do everything to put pressure on those ahead of him.
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That being said, he cannot expect to have the kind of role he embraced in the playoffs. The good news is that Brown can become one of the truly elite secondary players in the NBA, and even if he cannot expand his game much more, he is going to polish it off to make sure he does more in his role than anyone could have expected.