Boston Celtics deep dive: Jaylen Brown, his improved attacking, and the enemy within

https://www.masslive.com/celtics/2020/03/boston-celtics-deep-dive-jaylen-brown-his-improved-attacking-and-the-enemy-within.html



Boston Celtics deep dive: Jaylen Brown, his improved attacking, and the enemy within



Updated 3:49 PM; Today 3:48 PM



BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS - FEBRUARY 29: Jaylen Brown #7 of the Boston Celtics looks on during the second half of the game against the Houston Rockets at TD Garden on February 29, 2020 in Boston,



By John Karalis | JKaralis@masslive.com




Jaylen Brown’s ride with the Boston Celtics hasn’t exactly been smooth. Wyc Grousbeck was booed when he announced Brown’s selection at a draft night gathering, mostly because fans were hoping for a Jimmy Butler trade and the selection of Providence’s Kris Dunn would have signaled that. His rookie year was filled with benchings throughout the 78 games he played as Brad Stevens kept him on a short leash.

His second season, the first of the Kyrie Irving years, showed a nice step forward and he played an integral role in Boston’s improbable Eastern Conference Finals run. However, the second Irving year forced Brown to take a step backwards. He handled it well, and he might have been the one player who steadied himself best last season, but that backwards step colored the perception of him coming into the 2019-20 season.

In a way, Brown is consistently surprising. He came out of college with a reputation as a non-shooter, and he’s now a reliable 3-point shooter. His role has been inconsistent, but he’s continued to add to his game. Whenever it seemed there was a ceiling in sight, he would break through it.

Now, armed with a contract extension and a future in Boston, he’s emerged as an All-Star caliber player.


New hair, don’t care

“I think most people think I peaked in my second year in the league, and I didn't peak at 21. I’m only going to get better from here,” Brown said in an interview with Bleacher Report. “That’s part of the reason I cut my hair. Because people will try to put you in a box… try to identify you a certain way. I wanted people to see me different this year.”

Precedent might be the most powerful force when it comes to forming opinions. It’s behind the famous quote “you never get a second chance to make a first impression,” because those first impressions put roots down in our brain.

So it’s hard to shake the thoughts of Brown struggling to shoot in college, even though in hindsight we can say the situation at California might not have been the best for him. It was tough to shake the visions of his struggles finishing with his left hand, or how he attacked the rim too recklessly at times.

Those first impressions set up shop in our brains and, fairly or not, force Brown to change our minds. He’s not wrong about being put in boxes coming into the season, because that’s what we do outside of teams. Media folks like me, radio bloviators, and fans are all guilty of it.

So in a way, the decision to cut his hair was brilliant. It shook some of that cerebral clutter loose and reset how we perceived him, or at least, how we were willing to perceive him.

Oh, the guy who had problems going left? The guy who weirdly struggled from the right corner? That was all flat-top Jaylen.

He showed up with a new look, and new elements to his game. Immediately, it was clear that something would be different about him this season.


Boston’s most consistent player

While Jayson Tatum was going through his seemingly experimental phases and Kemba Walker was figuring out where his game fit, Brown spent the first few months of the season as Boston’s most consistent player.

Here’s how consistent he was:

November: 12 games played, 179 field goal attempts

December: 12 games played, 179 field goal attempts

January: 12 games played, 177 field goal attempts

Brown shot 51.7 percent in the 2019 portion of the ‘19-’20 schedule and, at the time the hiatus cut his season short, was shooting a career-best 49 percent.

There are two areas where Brown vastly improved: his drives and his midrange shooting.

His drives have become more patient, and because of his improved dribbling ability, he’s been able to whip off some gorgeous moves.

This, against the San Antonio Spurs, was a great example of how Brown’s game evolved in the open court.


Jaylen Brown drives


In the past, Brown would go full speed and challenge a defender to meet him at the rim. This season, Brown has been excellent at changing speeds, getting defenders on their heels, and then making the right read. Here, the crossover and lefty finish is especially nice.

This one, also from that Spurs game especially stands out.


Jaylen Brown drives

Not only has he frozen the initial defender, he hit LaMarcus Aldridge with a hesitation that made it seem like he’d be pulling up from the elbow. Once Aldridge bit, Brown went to the rim.

In 2017-18, Brown shot 56.3 percent within five feet of the rim. Last season, when he really started to harness this ability to change speeds and vary his attack mid-way through the year, that climbed to 60.8 percent. This season, that jumped to 62.1 percent. This season he took 5.64 shots per game within 5 feet, about one-and-a-half more attempts than last season.

One of the reasons Aldridge bit on that fake is how deadly Brown has become from that area. A year ago, Brown shot 42.1 percent from the 8-16 foot range. This season, it has improved incredibly to 51.4 percent. We all think of that area as Gordon Hayward’s bread-and-butter, and it is, but Brown has him beat in that range by one full percentage point. Only Theis is shooting better from that range, but he’s taken 40 shots to Brown’s 105.

Brown was certainly deserving of an All-Star nod, but there are deserving players who are left off the team every year. The fact that he was even in the discussion is a testament to the work he put in to improve his game. His shooting from 3 has been very reliable, and the problematic right-corner where he shot 27.5 percent last year is now his hottest 3-point spot at 48.6 percent.

He’s even improved his free throw shooting, which has been an albatross to his game. He’s elevated his percentage at the line from 65.8 percent last year to a respectable 73.6 percent this year.

The nearly five more field goal attempts he’s taken are almost all coming at the rim or from deep, which is a nice evolution of his shot profile. He’s taking a couple more free throws per game as well, another nice addition to his game, and part of why he’s averaging more than 20 points per game for the first time in his career.

All this, added to his usual steady defense has launched him into another level. He’s able to guard stronger players and still be a key to Boston’s offense, making teams pay dearly for doubling Tatum or Kemba Walker.


The enemy within

And now comes Brown’s greatest challenge. At 23-years-old, there is still much more he can do and, as wild as it is considering his already high-level of athleticism, his peak is still years away.

His next step on the court is to improve his court vision. Brown is a slasher and an attacker. He is at his best when he’s putting pressure on defenses at the rim. With that comes the ability to add an element to his game that could elevate him to a star-level player.

Driving to the rim creates what we like to call gravity. Think of the ball as a magnetic force that grows greater in power the closer it gets to the rim. The gravity sucks in defenders because, defensively, the rim must be protected at all costs.

Brown is a high-level attacker. He, as I have explained, has created new ways to get himself to the rim. As that threat grows, and as Brown becomes more dangerous over the course of his career, the defensive effort to stop him becomes more pressing.

If Brown can not only take advantage of the defender in front of him, but also read the next line or two of defenders and understand what they’ll be doing, he can pick defenses apart with passing. When defenders step up to stop his progress, there will be backdoor cutting opportunities for teammates. When defenders step in to dig at the ball as he drives, there will be open shooters.


Once Brown can manipulate defenses and not only take advantage of those openings, but purposely create rotations with the goal of getting certain teammates open, then he becomes exponentially more dangerous.

Driving, sucking in defenders, and then using that gravity to step back and draw them into his own orbit can turn Brown into a puppet master as he drives. He can create lanes and opportunities for his teammates that didn’t exist.

This takes time, film study, and a lot of experience, but it’s within Brown’s reach. The more difficult task for Brown may be more existential.

Brown is still prone to losses of focus on the floor. Whether it’s an inability to put a bad play behind him or perhaps occasionally carrying off-court issues onto the floor, Brown still has lapses where it’s clear he’s not present in the moment.

These particularly hurt at the defensive end, and it’s part of why I can’t call him a great defender yet. He’s a good defender. He has the potential to be great, but these lapses still hurt too often.


Brown is outspoken about mental health and he’s spoken about his issues with anxiety in the past. This is a struggle a lot of people have and it can be difficult to control. It’s easy to see how that can carry onto the court.

This is part of the process when trying to find mental balance. Part of Brown’s offseason work throughout the course of his career has to include finding a way to center himself during these moments and focus on the task at hand.

Brown is almost certainly going to have a long, fruitful career that will set him up for life and allow him to do the many other things that interest him. Brown’s story in Boston has to include his off-the-court work and his desire to be a positive role model. The work he’s doing to expand people’s perceptions of who basketball players can be is important, and it can inspire young children to reach for lofty goals.

The better Brown is on the court, the more he can do off it because his platform will grow with his game. He has already surpassed a lot of expectations, but now he’s creating even more. He has a chance to follow up a very impressive season by adding elements to his game to take him to an All-Star level, and maybe even beyond.



bob


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