With Kyrie Irving and Al Horford off to other teams, the Boston Celtics are turning over the keys to young players such as Jaylen Brown.
The 2018-19 NBA season wasn’t a complete failure for Jaylen Brown. While the Boston Celtics athletic wing lost his starting job in the beginning of the season, he turned into one of the team’s most consistent players coming off the bench towards the middle to the end of the season and heading into the playoffs.
Taking a look at Brown’s season as a whole, it was a bit of a step back from his second season in the league where he, along with then-rookie Jayson Tatum, helped lead a Celtics team without All-Star’s Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward to Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals.
With those two players returned in 2018-19, Brown was one of the players who let the hype get to his head. In fact, he contributed to it by making a guarantee that the team will get to the NBA Finals.
While Jaylen Brown isn’t completely to blame for the team’s overall lack of chemistry through the season, he was part of the lackadaisical play that plagued the team during those beginning months.
He certainly turned things around once he accepted his role off the bench. In all, Jaylen Brown finished this third season in the NBA by scoring 13.0 points per game, down from 14.5 in his second season. He did see a dip in 3pt field goal percentage, but his overall field goal percentage remained the same. Brown did become one of the team’s most solid defenders, especially filling in for Marcus Smart during the first-round series against the Indiana Pacers.
Though the team’s overall expectations aren’t as high as last season, the pressure is even greater on Jaylen Brown to morph into an All-Star in his fourth season. Here are three keys for a successful 2019-20 NBA campaign.
Stay humble
The disappointing season the Boston Celtics battled through as a collective wouldn’t have been so agonizing for fans if individual players weren’t making predictions and blowing off the team’s struggles.
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Jaylen Brown was the main culprit of that prior to the 2018-19 NBA season and certainly at the beginning of the season. Compounded by his predictions that the team would definitely reach the NBA Finals and that he would be a part of multiple championships, Brown was quickly reminded that he still had to go out and perform on the court.
Despite Celtics head coach Brad Stevens warning the team and fans that the team wasn’t as good as they thought they were without working as a complete unit, players like Brown shrugged off that warning and felt talent alone would help the Celtics rise.
Instead, as the season progressed fans and NBA nation saw the Celtics sink, which could be a blessing in disguise for young players like Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum.
While success is the ultimate path to NBA stardom, failure makes a player humble. Brown needs to stay humble in 2019-20 and use what he learned from the 2018-19 season as motivation as highlighted by Boston Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge in his observation of the young wing.
"“Jaylen is, you know, he might’ve handled a difficult situation better than anybody on our team last year,” Ainge said, as transcribed by WEEI. “Very mature kid. Wants to be great. Knows that his time is coming. It’s hard for him to be patient, but he has been patient. And he continues to work. He finds guys – right now he’s working out with Donovan Mitchell, last year I think it was Jimmy Butler. He’s trying to find ways to get better and I think Jaylen’s going to be a very good player and his a very bright future.”"
As much as confidence is a key to success for Jaylen Brown, staying humble will allow him to reach that plateau sooner. For Boston Celtics fan, the hope is he gets there in 2019-2020.
Continue to strive on defense
Length, versatility, athleticism.
Those qualities all describe Jaylen Brown and his potential to really morph into one of the better two-way players in today’s NBA.
As mentioned in the previous slide, working out with players such as Donovan Mitchell and Jimmy Butler proves Brown’s commitment to getting better. Working out with both of those players will also teach the 6-foot-7 wing how to be an even more intense defender.
While Brown has shown that ability during moments in his young NBA career, it stood out even more in the first round of the NBA playoffs against the Indiana Pacers when he filled the shoes of Marcus Smart as the team’s best defender and hustle player.
The Boston Celtics obviously need more of that in 2019-20 with the team seemingly taking a step back defensively with the loss of Al Horford. In fact, the team will lean on the versatility and athleticism of Jaylen Brown even more to help compensate for the team’s glaring weakness in the front court.
Overall, stepping up his defensive intensity will lead to this next key to success in 2019-20.
Offensive aggressiveness
Yes, dunks and layups over the likes of Joel Embiid and Giannis Antetokounmpo will make Boston Celtics fans stand up and pump their fists, but the ability of Jaylen Brown to knock down outside shots and also create his own shot should be more applaud worthy.
In 2018-19, Brown really impressed with his improved ball handles at times and aggressiveness in taking the ball to the hoop, while at the same time knowing when to stop and take that short-range jumper.
Along with his ability to knock down the three, having that tweener shot in his repertoire makes his athleticism even more dangerous. Like teammate Jayson Tatum, Brown will be just about unstoppable as long as he keeps the mindset of balancing that offensive aggressiveness with patience on the court.
The additions of Kemba Walker and the predicted improvement of Gordon Hayward should help that more than it will hurt. Both players have the ability to be playmakers first and the recognition each of those players will get from opposing defenses should open things up for Brown even more.
In all, Jaylen Brown is primed for a breakout season. The last two seasons have shown glimpses of what he can be. In 2019-20, these three keys to success will solidify him as one of the Boston Celtics next shining stars.