Boston Celtics: 3 reasons Jaylen Brown is a superstar in the making

Growth beyond measure

Following an up and down rookie season, Jaylen Brown not only showed promise in last year’s playoffs, he took that experience and elevated his game over the summer.

Taking part in the NBA Summer League, the 21-year-old swingman took the opportunity to improve his offensive game.  Boy, did he ever.

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As one of just four players returning from the Boston Celtics 2016-17 roster, Brown improved his points per game average from 6.6 to 14.5 ppg.  With that improvement, Brown improved his FG% as well as his 3P%.  Along with those numbers, the 6-foot-7 wing came into the season with the mindset to improve his individual game.

He got that opportunity immediately when Gordon Hayward went down in the first game of the season.  But beyond that, he was eager to be a more important part of the team even with two All-star scorers like Kyrie Irving and Hayward leading the team.

"“It’s more of a mindset thing,” Brown said last week, via NBC Sports Boston.  “The NBA doesn’t have time to babysit nobody.  Especially a 20, 19-year-old kid, coming in on a playoff team.  I didn’t want to give anybody any room to say he’s not ready, or ‘Okay, he has to mature.  It was my mindset from the get-go.  Everything is a growth experience for me.  They may not see it now, but they’ll see it soon.”"

We have all seen it throughout the season and in Game 2 and Game 4 in the series against the Bucks.  With two career performances, Jaylen Brown is making those Kawhi Leonard rumors evaporate pretty quickly.