Boston Celtics player grades as regular season winds down
By Kyle Collis
Jaylen Brown - B+
Due to the record breaking contract Jaylen Brown received last offseason, people will naturally hold him to a higher standard. If you’re going to be the NBA’s highest paid player, you better play like it. It’s slightly unfair to Brown, though. It’s not like the Celtics could have let him walk and ruin their championship window, and it also won’t last as the biggest contract in the NBA.
As it stands, Brown is still massively valuable to the success of the Celtics on both sides of the floor. Brown is shooting 49.5% from the floor, which, for a player of his size, is quite impressive. He averages 22.1 points per game, his lowest total since 2019-20 but, like Tatum, there is a good reason for these numbers dropping.
For someone who is earning as much money as Brown is, you may expect his defensive effort to be lower. That’s not the case. Brown’s versatility and strength on the defensive end are almost as valuable as he is offensively, where he can easily be the number one scorer on any given night.