Boston Celtics: 3 players that must step up in Jaylen Brown’s absence

The injury bug continues to make its rounds through the roster for the Boston Celtics, with perhaps it’s biggest chomp of the season coming Monday evening, as it was announced that All-Star wing, Jaylen Brown will miss the remainder of the season due to a torn scapholunate ligament in his left wrist.

Easily his best season at the professional level, the fifth-year baller out of UC Berkeley posted stellar per-game averages of 24.7 points, six rebounds, 3.4 assists, 1.2 steals, and over half a block per game on 48 percent shooting from the floor and 40 percent shooting from deep.

The 1B option right alongside Jayson Tatum‘s 1A — which, frankly, the letters could often be argued to be reversed on any given night –, this news is absolutely crushing for a team that’s simply been dependent on both of their stars to show out every night just to have a chance at staying afloat.

Now, with the postseason right around the corner — for the Cs, it will most likely start with the play-in tournament –, it’s evident that many players will have to up their production to try and soften the blow of losing one of their best two options.

To us at the Houdini, we see 3 players, in specific, that need to step up if they wish to have any chance of making a splash this coming offseason:

Boston Celtics player No. 1) Aaron Nesmith

First up on the docket, we have Aaron Nesmith, the C’s rookie who, though he got off to a slow start to his NBA career, has recently managed to take things up a notch.

Over his last six outings, the former Vanderbilt star has dropped 15+ points four times and, as a whole, is posting averages of 12 points and 5.3 rebounds on 64 percent shooting from the floor and 58 percent shooting from deep.

Frankly, with him being tabbed as arguably the best shooter to come out of this past draft class coupled with the fact that he was the 14th overall pick, seeing numbers such as these should not typically be so surprising.

The problem is, however, during the 36 games he played prior to this recent surge, Nesmith only managed to post 3.4 points and 2.2 rebounds.

Obviously, on the plus side, it’s evident that his recently increased role has translated into an uptick in production on the hardwood. Hopefully, he can keep his level of play up in Brown’s absence.