Devastating stat summarizes why Celtics chose Joe Mazzulla over Jaylen Brown

After the Philadelphia 76ers humiliated the Boston Celtics in the first round of the playoffs in May, the Celtics had a choice to make: either roll with Joe Mazzulla or Jaylen Brown. Teams have to make choices like those when underwhelming for two consecutive postseasons. Boston took the route most teams don't take: the coach over the star.

There's a valid case for why Boston made the right call, but we won't know for sure until we see how Boston does without Brown and how Philadelphia does with him. One stat from the X account Basketball University summarizes why Boston gave up on Brown: despite his awesome production, his numbers weren't as impactful as one might think in terms of possession value.

Basketball University elaborated on what this stat means exactly.

Kevin Durant, one of the best NBA players of all time, was even worse by this metric. Basketball University explained why he looks bad in this context.

It's well-known by now that Mazzulla subscribes to the philosophy of "possession maxing." That extends past shooting a ton of threes - something the Celtics will definitely do - as it also includes offensive rebounding, limiting turnovers, and creating turnovers.

It's why Paul George and Mitchell Robinson on paper fit Mazzulla Ball like a glove, and why, despite the numbers Brown put up, the Celtics still were convinced it was in their best interest to part ways because he doesn't max out possessions.

That, and they didn't want to pay him $70 million annually, but still. Despite his obvious talent, Brown just doesn't fit Mazzulla Ball all that well.

This trade could work well for both teams

The biggest shame about Boston trading Brown is the fact that in order to believe the Celtics made the right move, it's hard to justify without critticizing or disparaging Brown. The fact remains that he just had his best individual season, showing how good he can be when given a bigger role.

Brown won't have the same role in Philadelphia, but maybe he will fit better with what Nick Nurse has him do compared to Mazzulla. Brown will be asked to do less in Philadelphia, which will certainly be a challenge, but perhaps proving he can be a highly impactful player without Jayson Tatum will give him ample motivation to thrive. On top of, you know, Boston giving up on him.

Possession maxing helped Boston survive as long as it did without Jayson Tatum last year, and now they've got him back and got rid of the one player who wasn't helping with that even if he held his own as the team's de facto Alpha Dog.

It's very possible that everyone will be happy with what they got in the end.

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