Boston Celtics Pick-A-Player: Atlantic Division

Brooklyn Nets – Bruce Brown

With Brooklyn assembling what is basically the modern day Monstars from Space Jam, all of the interesting and exciting players are locked up under contract for at the very least next year. The Nets do have Spencer Dinwiddie potentially hitting free agency but I skipped over him on this list for a couple reasons.

First, he has a player option in his contract so there’s no guarantee that he ends up hitting free agency. Second, he’s going to be coming off of a torn ACL so there’s no telling if he’ll even be half the player he once was, which even then was good not great. Third, if he does end up hitting the market, he’s probably going to be asking for significantly more than his current $11 million player option which probably isn’t worth it. And finally, the question of fit comes into play.

After ruling Dinwiddie out, Bruce Brown is the next best option for the Celtics.

Brown has really stepped it up in his first year in Brooklyn. With Kyrie Irving consistently missing time and James Harden resting some games, Brown has been a big part of the Nets starting lineup day in and day out.

A player whose game revolves around getting into the paint and crashing to the basket, Brown has been valuable off the switch and especially on fast breaks. With about 51 percent of his shot attempts coming from within three feet of the basket, he tends to free up shooters when driving into the lane. If the Celtics manage to take advantage of that, Kemba Walker or Jaylen Brown could be there as spot up shooters.