Boston Celtics: 5 Things We Learned From 2018-2019 Media Day

4) Jaylen Brown worked on his weaknesses

Earlier this summer, Jaylen Brown posted photos of himself working out with former NBA legend, Tracy McGrady. When asked about the workouts at Media Day, Brown said, ” Absolutely, T-Mac is favorite of all time.

“I watched him growing up, patterned my game after him etc. Being able to talk to him, have him invite me out, it meant the world to me. Shout out to Tracy for doing that.”

It’s really cool Brown was able to spend some time with McGrady, not only because he’s one of Brown’s childhood idols, but also because McGrady is good player for Brown to learn from, both on and off the court.

Like Brown, McGrady came into the league as a teenager with incredible athletic potential, but a limited skill set. Both players had underwhelming starts to their career followed by a sharp rise in their abilities.

McGrady ended up becoming one of the most skilled players in the league, a lethal three-level scorer with a phenomenal feel for the game. Despite his impressive improvement thus far, Brown knows he has a lot of weaknesses he has to shore up–and that was the focus of his off season.

“Overall just improvement in general is just what I’ve hung my hat on,” Brown said.  “So this year I’m excited to get back because I worked really hard on certain aspects of my game: free throws, ball handling, play-making for others. So many things that people critiqued me on in the past, it will be interesting to see if they critique me this year.

“It’s a mindset. It’s just about making yourself a little bit more uncomfortable. Some things people are better at than others so you have to work a little harder. I had a realization with that this summer and I worked really hard this summer and I worked really hard on some of the things I’m not as good at.”