Lottery-bound east team has what Boston Celtics ‘can’t offer’ Jaylen Brown: Analyst
8 Points, 9 Seconds’ Joe Lyon was correct in asserting that the Boston Celtics cannot offer Jaylen Brown in the future what the Pacers, and for that matter, any other rebuilding team, can offer the 26-year-old Marietta native — that being the chance to be the undisputed No. 1 option on his own team.
“It sounds like Jaylen Brown feels that he has something to prove, and it begs the question of whether or not he feels that he has the opportunity to do that in Boston in the shadow of Jayson Tatum,” Lyon wrote. “Because no matter how much Jaylen Brown impresses, he will always be playing second-fiddle to Tatum. However the Pacers could offer Brown something he doesn’t have in Boston. In Indy, Brown could play with a superstar that is sharing-focused and a team that he could be a vocal leader for.”
This was in response to Brown’s sit-down with Stadium’s Shams Charania published on April 4. “I just worked,” Brown said when asked about his name being mentioned in Kevin Durant trade rumors. “I just got in the gym. I worked on my body, I got better, and that was it. I made sure that I was ready to go to the start this season. I was ready to show people, last year, I had some injuries, hamstring, I missed like 15-20 games last year, and I wanted to make sure that I was fully healthy and I was ready to go from beginning to end and that was my ultimate goal. Just to come out and show the world what I was capable of, fully.”
Jaylen Brown sounds like he has what he wants on the Boston Celtics
While Lyon believes Tatum is a roadblock to Brown getting what he wants on the Boston Celtics, No. 7 made comments about his superstar teammate to Charania that seemed to indicate that the only thing missing for him right now is a championship ring.
“We compete, we push each other, we learn from each other, and I think a lot of our relationship has been built off of that dynamic of respect,” Brown said. “And that’s the beautiful part of it. I’ve seen him grow as a man. He’s seen me grow as a man. I get why, I guess in a sense, people always try to break up duos or people like that, because so far, we’ve been incredibly successful, and hopefully, we can be even more; (the) only thing that would put the ribbon on top is getting a championship. Jayson being the ultimate version of him doesn’t stop me from being the ultimate version of myself. At this point, we’re a part of each other’s destiny.”
Brown has just about everything a player could want, even if he has a problem with members of Boston’s fanbase. That’s something he’d deal with on all 29 other teams as well.
From the sounds of it, something Brown really wants is to win alongside Tatum after coming within a quarter of basketball away from knocking off LeBron James’ Cavaliers in the 2018 Eastern Conference finals and nearly taking a 3-2 lead in the 2022 Finals over the dynastic Warriors.
That’s something no other team in the NBA has to offer.