The Boston Celtics will only have one NBA All-Star representative this season following Jaylen Brown‘s snub from the illustrious event.
Fans of the C’s know that the wing was arguably more deserving of a selection than some of the NBA’s choices. There are two players, in particular, that have had good seasons in their own right, but frankly don’t deserve the nod over someone like Brown.
The first of those two players is the Milwaukee Bucks forward, Khris Middleton.
Middleton has posted solid numbers this year and has contributed to winning basketball for Milwaukee, but, statistically, Brown has been better.
JB is averaging 23.6 points, 6.6 rebounds, and 3.2 assists per game. Middleton, on the other hand, is averaging 19.4 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 5.3 assists per game.
They also share nearly identical shooting percentages from the floor.
Offensively, the players are pretty similar statistically but Brown really separates himself on the defensive end. He is posting a career-best defensive rating of 100.7 and has a net rating of +8.9 on the season.
Middleton, however, has a lower defensive rating of 107.6 and a net rating of +5.2.
This is a clear indicator that Brown is a better two-way player this season and stats are not the only arguments in his favor.
While Middleton’s stats are good, he is having a down year by his own standards and has slowly fallen behind Jrue Holiday as the team’s third-best player.
Brown, on the other hand, has consistently been the second-best player on the Boston Celtics and, at times, has even been the clear number one.
One of the main arguments against Brown’s candidacy was his lack of games played and the team’s record.
The argument about games played makes very little sense because Middleton was selected as an All-Star while only having played three more games this season.
When it comes to the team record argument, the Celtics were not drastically far behind the Bucks at the time of the initial selections to make that a sensible point.
Khris Middleton has had a solid 2021-22 season but there really is no justification for him being selected over Jaylen Brown.
Luckily for Jaylen Brown, he had two more opportunities to be selected, as both Kevin Durant and James Harden pulled out due to injury.
The replacement for Kevin Durant went to the Charlotte Hornets star point guard, LaMelo Ball, a worthy choice that nobody should argue against.
The NBA announced the All-Star replacement for James Harden shortly after and that leads us to the second player of this discussion: Cavaliers center, Jarrett Allen.
Allen has played really well this season and is an important contributor to one of the NBA’s biggest surprise squads.
The Cavs big man is averaging 16.2 points and 11 rebounds in 50 games this season. Very respectable stats, but it still doesn’t explain why he was selected over Jaylen Brown.
Brown has more impressive stats for a shooting guard than Allen does for a center.
Brown also has a higher net rating than Allen, as well a higher defensive rating.
On top of that, one could argue that Allen isn’t even the best center on his team and that rookie center, Evan Mobley, is better.
Although Allen has definitely played a big role in the Cavaliers’ success, there is no comparison in regards to Jaylen Brown’s role in the success as of late for the Boston Celtics.
Brown is statistically more impressive in traditional and advanced stats relative to the position and is far more important to his team’s success.
A good way to look at it is that Allen is important to the Cavaliers’ success while Brown is necessary to the Celtics’ success.
The previous argument about the Boston Celtics record not being good enough for two All-Stars has been eliminated because now they are 34-25 and sit just two games out of third place and, in fact, are just one win shy of Cleveland’s record who, mind you, now has two selections themselves in both Allen and Darius Garland.
JB is statistically better than both Allen and Middleton, but also passes the eye test as well.
He was snubbed big time and he has even publicly agreed.
Jaylen Brown on Instagram pic.twitter.com/mazqgxJj6D
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) February 16, 2022
At the end of the day, an All-Star selection means very little, but it is a nice acknowledgment of the hard work a player puts in all season long.
Jaylen Brown will be just fine without being named to his second All-Star team, but it doesn’t change the fact that he deserved a spot on the roster.