If widespread narratives are meant to be confronted by facts, then Jaylen Brown is perhaps the most accomplished ill-fitting No. 2 in NBA history. It's long been said that he doesn't adequately complement All-NBA First Team mainstay Jayson Tatum, with a Finals MVP, a championship, and four All-Star nods seemingly doing nothing to sway public opinion.
With Tatum set to miss a significant period of time after rupturing his right Achilles tendon in May, Brown can turn the narrative on its head by securing a likely accolade: All-NBA honors.
Brown's résumé is already among the best in the Association, particularly when factoring in how successful Boston has been. In addition to winning the 2024 championship, Brown helped the Celtics make a second NBA Finals appearance in 2022.
Boston has also made a staggering five Eastern Conference Finals appearances since Brown became a starter in 2017-18.
In the event that Brown adds another All-NBA selection to his résumé in 2025-26, the criticism he faces should instantly dissipate. He already has an All-NBA Second Team nod to his name, and could potentially secure a fifth All-Star Game selection this coming season—at 29 years of age.
Thankfully, there's every reason to believe Brown can not only post the necessary statistics, but contribute to an adequate level of winning to warrant said accolades.
Jaylen Brown can disprove "poor fit" narrative with All-NBA season
A strong case can be made that Brown's peak regular seasons were achieved in 2020-21, 2022-23, and 2024-25. During each of those campaigns, he hit certain benchmarks that not only resulted in accolades being secured, but the true nature of his top-end abilities being revealed.
If Brown can create an amalgamation of those three campaigns in 2025-26, an All-NBA First Team nod could be a realistic goal.
In 2020-21, Brown averaged 24.7 points, 6.0 rebounds, 3.4 assists, and 1.2 steals per game. He also buried a career-best 2.8 three-point field goals per game and shot 39.7 percent from beyond the arc—the most efficient mark of his career thus far.
Two years later, Brown posted career-best averages of 26.6 points and 6.9 rebounds per game, shooting just 33.5 percent from beyond the arc, but a career-high 57.6 percent on twos.
In 2024-25, Brown averaged 22.2 points per game—his lowest scoring average since 2019-20. It was a clearly deliberate effort to change his approach, however, as he also recorded a career-best 4.5 assists per contest.
In 2025-26, the Celtics will need Brown to combine the best elements of those three seasons into one profound effort to soildify his reputation and keep the team afloat.
Jaylen Brown can take elements of past success to earn All-NBA nod
Brown will undoubtedly carry a heavy workload as a scorer, which points to the 2022-23 campaign during which he annihilated teams within the arc to the tune of 26.6 points per game. He'll also need to help run the offense given the loss of several key scorers and playmakers, thus emphasizing his 2024-25 mark of 4.5 assists per contest.
The difference between Brown turning in an All-NBA Second or Third Team campaign and a legacy-altering All-NBA First Team season, however, will be the three-point efficiency he flashed in 2020-21.
Brown's offensive workload will be unlike anything he's sustainably encountered during his NBA career. He'll need to lead the offense as a scorer with Tatum out, step up as a playmaker due to the loss of Jrue Holiday, and still maintain a reliable level of intensity on defense.
In order to shoulder that burden without getting burned out, it would behoove Brown to make the most of the catch-and-shoot opportunities that are presented to him.
By shooting efficiently from beyond the arc, Brown can simplify the manner in which he generates offense. In turn, he can limit the wear-and-tear of a No. 1 role on a depleted roster, and preserve enough energy to help Boston compete once the playoffs roll around.
In the event that Brown checks these boxes, another All-NBA nod will be all but certain to arrive—and the narratives that downplay his greatness will instantly lose credibility.