CelticsBlog exit interview: Jaylen Brown

Final offseason was a dream for Jaylen Brown.

A Finals (and Convention Finals) MVP, Brown silenced considerations that he and Jayson Tatum may collectively be the faces of a Banner 18 run. Then, other than an outspoken conflict with Nike and USA Basketball managing director Grant Hill, the excellent news stored on rolling.

Brown debuted his personal signature shoe model, collaborated with A$AP Ferg to drop a music referred to as “Simply Do It,” and began the inspiration Boston XChange.

Expectations had been excessive coming into this season, each for JB individually and for the staff’s quest to interrupt the 6-year drought of getting a repeat champion. These expectations had been wiped away because of mounting accidents, poor capturing and a number of late-game collapses to the New York Knicks, including yet one more 12 months to the streak of a brand new NBA champion.

Brown’s Finals follow-up was removed from excellent, but additionally removed from a disappointment. For a 3rd straight season, Brown earned an All-Star nod, however it got here in a 12 months the place he shot the bottom 3-point effectivity of his profession (32% on 5.7 makes an attempt) and had the second lowest eFG% (51.5%) that was simply forward of his rookie season.

Brown’s mid-range sport has additionally seen a slight decline in effectiveness since he transformed on 47% of these seems to be within the 2022-23 season, however his 40% effectivity this 12 months was his lowest because the 2018-19 marketing campaign when he got here off the bench. In non-restricted space paint scoring, Brown nonetheless transformed at a good 44.7% of his 295 makes an attempt, however it was once more a step down from final 12 months’s unbelievable total manufacturing, when he transformed on 52% of those self same seems to be on 264 makes an attempt.

Which may be a whole lot of unfavorable big-picture parts to his season, however Brown was nonetheless, regardless of that, able to placing up a blinding scoring efficiency, ending with 9 video games of 30+ factors. Solely a type of scoring outbursts noticed him shoot under 50%. The perfect of the bunch was a 44-point gem in opposition to the Pacers on Dec. 27, a sport which got here throughout an early-season tough patch for the Celtics. His 44 factors was the fourth highest level complete in his profession, and he transformed on 16/24 shot makes an attempt, nailed six 3-pointers and hit all six free throw makes an attempt in the course of the win.

Scoring manufacturing could have taken a step again, however different areas of Brown’s sport improved. After a rocky 2024 season from the free throw line, Brown elevated makes an attempt on the line from 4.3 to five.1 makes an attempt per evening and hit them at a 76% clip, which aligns nearer to his manufacturing from 2020-2023.

Probably the most vital leap got here from Brown’s playmaking. Brown’s 4.5 assists per sport had been one of the best in his profession, all whereas retaining turnovers right down to a modest 2.6 per evening, only a slight uptick from final season (2.4). With the gravity and status as a play-finisher, Brown used that to his benefit, attacking collapsing defenses with kickouts, massive man layoffs and publish skip passes.

Previous to this season, Brown had simply 13 video games in his common season profession the place he recorded 8 or extra assists. He had seven such video games this 12 months, together with a nine-assist efficiency in opposition to the Pistons on Dec. 4.

What many will bear in mind about Brown’s most up-to-date marketing campaign is the postseason grit he confirmed. Brown performed 36.5 minutes in 11 playoff video games on {a partially} torn proper meniscus. The quickness and lack of liftoff was noticeable in the course of the run, and within the video games main as much as the playoffs, however Brown hardly complained, placing up a powerful sequence in opposition to a bodily Orlando staff that was headlined by a 36-point masterpiece in Sport 2 with Jayson Tatum out with an injured wrist.

For the primary spherical, Brown shot 49% from the sector, 44% from three and 84% from the road.

The Knicks sequence was a special story, each for Brown and his fellow starters. His capturing splits dropped to 40/29/68 with 4 turnovers a sport.

When Tatum went down along with his Achilles harm, Brown did play a key position within the staff’s impressed Sport 5 efficiency, flattening 9/17 pictures for 26 factors and 12 assists, which might be his career-high each within the common season and playoffs for his profession.

That sport additionally featured a single second that defines the hassle Brown put in in the course of the postseason. Simply over a minute into the second half, Brown fought over a Josh Hart display screen, stripped Jalen Brunson clear, then laid out towards the Boston bench to maintain the ball inbounds earlier than leaping up, re-entering the motion on the opposite finish, and incomes a visit to the free throw line.

After we look forward to this offseason, some robust selections will must be made, each to create cap flexibility and to retool the roster for Tatum’s return. The choice round Brown needs to be a straightforward one. With so many questions of who’s staying and who’s going, Brown’s tenth season (and past) ought to stay in Boston, the place he’ll have to determine find out how to be the No. 1 possibility for the primary time in his skilled profession.

The most important development space, his passing, will must be centerstage this upcoming season. His gravity as a scorer is simple, however it now takes a success with Tatum and presumably different key scoring choices off the ground. Which means extra eyes on Brown.

Even in a season that didn’t pan out because the smash-hit Hollywood blockbuster sequel to Banner 18, Brown went to conflict for Boston, identical to he mentioned he would on draft evening. He was additionally the one to maintain calm and look forward, regardless of the gloomy ending.

“This isn’t the top,” he mentioned.

Dropping to NY could really feel like demise, however subsequent 12 months is a recent begin. When you’ve got guys like Brown that may go to conflict for his or her staff, and show it by means of their actions on the ground, the long run doesn’t look so gloomy.