Your guide for defending Jaylen Brown as an NBA All-Star starter

The argument for Jaylen Brown against James Harden

Doing more with less + everything except for the assist column

For the first time in years, James Harden, from a basketball aesthetics standpoint, is playing beautiful basketball. He leads the league in assists, he’s making Kevin Love style outlet passes, the Nets are still awful on defense (26th since Harden’s arrival), but he is more engaged, at least offensively, and bought into a team-oriented style of basketball, again, at least offensively.

For the first time in years, James Harden, from a basketball aesthetics standpoint, is playing beautiful basketball. He leads the league in assists, he’s making Kevin Love style outlet passes, in spite of which the Nets are still awful on defense (26th since Harden’s arrival). But he is more engaged, at least offensively, and bought into a team-oriented style of basketball, again, at least offensively.

With Harden, I believe it’s a matter of where one draws the mark on his career timeline. There’s a much better case to be made for the bearded one if we just look at his Nets saga. The consensus from what I’ve gathered is that media members consider the eternity of one’s season. Thus we shall count those Houston numbers. The early-puzzling stretch with rockets followed by some bad headlines and poor communication with his fellow teammates may still haunt him in his route to being an ASG starter. While he has apologized bridges are still being mended, as this was a rocky start.

Should we penalize Harden for playing alongside Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and one of the best floor spacers in Joe Harris? I’d say probably not, but should we fail to look at the context of Brown’s situation, that is, who has been on the floor and who hasn’t? I’d also say no. Jaylen Brown, offensively speaking, has done more with way less top-end talent. Sure, Brooklyn and Boston are neck and neck in the three-point efficiency column, but in the attempts category, well not so much. They are miles apart, and more specifically 187 attempted 3-pointers apart.

Okay, sure, Harden leads Brown by a wide margin in the assists column, and that’s impressive and noted, but are all assists created equal? Is a pass to Kevin Durant in the post after he takes two-dribbles and fades away as impressive as a laser, one-handed, 40-foot bullet pass to the corner for an open Semi Ojeleye triple?

I don’t know. I don’t think so. Those two seem very different in my book.

So maybe we should in fact penalize Harden a bit for his situation. He has Steve Nash and Mike D’Antoni in his ear. He is operating in a spaced-out landscape conducive to an up-tempo, high-octane offense, playing alongside two top isolation scorers in the game who could help out with one or two bailout style assists per game.

Yes, Brown is doing more on the ball, more operating in the midrange, and playmaking off the dribble, but so far, he’s had a less than perfect situation in terms of roster health. Having played without Kemba Walker for 19 games, Smart for eight, and Tatum for five, as Boston has gone 13-10 when one or more of these guys have sat. Not to mention Payton Pritchard, the C’s best shooter, also missed six games during the early portion of the Celtics major west-coast road trip.

The Nets’ defensive struggles are well documented. In my niche podcast world, also known as Dunc’d On Prime, I’ve even heard rumblings of Joe Harris for Thad Young trades, likely not going to happen, but floated out there because of the needed presence for a positive defender.