After a season in which many have labeled “underwhelming”, Boston Celtics wing Jaylen Brown looks poised for a breakout season in 2019.
When one searches for news regarding the USA national team for the upcoming FIBA World Cup, it seems impossible not to come across something related to the Boston Celtics. With the team having four players repping the red, white and blue, this should come as no surprise.
While Kemba Walker and Jayson Tatum are widely considered to be Beantown’s two best talents participating in the tournament, recently it appears 22-year-old Jaylen Brown is the Celtic that’s been garnering the most attention.
From videos of his impressive dunking abilities to his seemingly improved isolation game, it seems Brown is making a case for himself as one of camps most exciting participants. After what many have deemed as an “underwhelming” season in 2018, this should come as exciting news for Celtics fans.
When discussing this coming season, Brown stated Boston’s mentality can be summed up in one word — positive.
"“It can only be positive. Last year, I can’t see it being any worse than that,” said Brown. “Coming out and being positive is everybody’s mindset.”"
Heading into his final year of his rookie deal, Brown is looking to put himself in a position to cash-in on his next contract. Improvement in his play should certainly do the trick, and the wing seems excited for the challenge.
"“I’m looking forward to it. We’ll see what happens but I’m excited. I’m really [trying to be] positive, not thinking about anything negative. Just coming forward and trying to be the best version of Celtics basketball.”"
Last season, Brown saw a significant dip in his minutes per game from the season prior, going from 30.7 MPG in 2017 to 25.9 in 2018. As a result of these minutes reductions, the shooting guard’s averages in other statistical areas took a hit as well.
Upon first glance, it appears Brown regressed quite a bit after such an impressive campaign the season prior. However, if one cared to look at the wing’s per-36 minutes averages, you’d notice that he in fact recorded his best statistical season of his young career.
I’m sure you’re smart enough to know what this means but, just to clarify, per-36 minutes stats determine what a player would average if they registered, you guessed it, 36 minutes per game, which is around the minutes average of a star player in the league.
With these conversions, Brown puts 18.1 points, 5.9 rebounds and 1.3 steals per game in 2018. To put this into perspective, All-Stars Khris Middleton, Victor Oladipo, D’Angelo Russell and Klay Thompson all averaged very similar numbers to what Brown averaged last season with these conversions.
Had it not been for all the mouths to feed within the Celtics rotation last season, these numbers could have been very attainable for the wing in year three. Heading into 2019, with many of these aforementioned mouths now gone, minutes and touches will be up for grabs — Brown is sure to reap the benefits of this.
Newly acquired center Enes Kanter already feels strongly about Brown’s potential this coming season, as he claims he has all the tools necessary to be an All-Star in 2019.
We at the Houdini couldn’t agree more!
Brown is slated to return to the starting line-up this season which most likely means the young buck will receive more minutes of play. More minutes of play should equate to better statistical averages. Better statistical averages should, in turn, lead to a career year for the dual-threat talent.
We saw what Brown averaged on a per-36 minute bases last season, and that was with a plethora of other established offensive weapons on the roster. Now, with a new look line-up, Brown appears likely to be featured as one of Boston’s main offensive weapons in 2019.
In a contract year, it should be a given that a player is going to try and show their worth in an attempt to up their asking price for free agency — Brown is no exception.
With a bigger role in Boston’s offense, coupled with more playing time, Jaylen Brown should wind up having the type of breakout season Celtics fans have been waiting to see.