Boston Celtics' Most Improved Player: Jaylen Brown

https://www.nba.com/celtics/news/sidebar/misc-072421-2021-awards-series-most-improved-player-jaylen-brown








Most Improved Player: Jaylen Brown



By Taylor Snow |  @taylorcsnow
Celtics.com
July 24, 2021



Earning our Most Improved Player award in back-to-back seasons is a remarkable feat.

Winning it three times in a span of four years is just straight-up absurd.

But for a man who lives by the motto of “Faith Consistency Hard Work Pays Off,” such an accomplishment is almost to be expected, as the act of improving is what Jaylen Brown is all about.

Brown won his first Celtics MIP after his sophomore season in 2017-18, during which he saw his scoring average more than double from 6.6 points per game as a role-player rookie to 14.5 PPG as a full-time starter.

He then won it again last season after taking on a more significant offensive role, which allowed him to post career-highs of 20.3 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 2.1 assists per game.

But Brown wasn’t done leaping yet.

This past season, he transitioned into stardom, logging 24.7 PPG, 3.4 APG, 6.0 RPG, and 1.2 steals per game, while shooting 48.4 percent from the field, 39.7 percent from 3-point range, and 76.4 percent from the free-throw line. Every one of those numbers, except for the one in the rebounding department, represented a new career-high for Brown, who earned his first All-Star appearance alongside Jayson Tatum.

Unfortunately, Brown’s season was cut short just ahead of the playoffs after tearing a ligament in his left wrist which required surgery. But up to that point, he had been consistently rising in just about every aspect of his game.

First, let’s take a dive into Brown’s scoring spike. Prior to this season, he had never scored more than 34 points in a game. He reached or surpassed that total six times during the 2020-21 campaign, including three efforts of 40 or more points.

Brown became a far more aggressive and confident offensive player this season, as he saw jumps in his drives per game (from 8.5 to 10.5), catch-and-shoot attempts per game (from 4.3 to a team-high 4.9), and pull-up attempts per game (from 4.1 to 6.4).

Yet, the most interesting part about Brown’s increased scoring was that his total number of field-goal attempts actually decreased. He was simply far more efficient in his shot-making across the board.

Aside from his scoring, Brown’s most impressive improvement came on the playmaking front. He logged seven of his top nine career assisting efforts throughout the season, including a career-high 10-assist performance on Feb. 11 against Toronto. The points he created off assists jumped from 5.2 to 8.7 per game, and that was largely due to his enhanced court vision, a more controlled handle, and the improved ability to make the right pass at the right time.

Veteran floor general Marcus Smart lauded Brown’s decision-making a month into the season after noticing significant improvement in that area.

“His rookie year and Year 2, that Jaylen Brown would just put his head down and go and not understand where he was going,” Smart said on Jan. 23. “But he worked hard, you’ve gotta give him credit. And it shows. That’s why he’s one of the best young players in this game and doing what he’s doing, and doing what he’s doing for this team. So I’m just very, very proud of the way that he approaches every game, and you can see it’s working out for him.”

It's working out for Brown because he approaches every game with an “FCHWPO” mentality. His consistent work ethic and determination to get better every day led him to place sixth on this year’s NBA Most Improved Player ballot, and it led him to earn our team MIP for the third time in four seasons.


Bob
MY NOTE:  I'm thinking that Jaylen Brown is one of the best all-round players in the NBA.  All-Star level scoring and All-Star level defense.  The scorers in the NBA get all the hype and, with the hype, the All-Star berths but Jaylen's time has come now that he's embraced his role as a scorer.  No more deferring to Kemba and Kyrie before him, Jaylen is now calling for the ball and averaged a career high 24.7ppg last year.  His 39.7% from 3 was the best of his career and he hit them taking the most 3pt fgas of his career.  Remember when Jaylen struggled at the line?  He shot a respectable 76.8% from there last year, the best of his career.   Dishing out 3.4 apg and 2.7TOpg last year gave him the most total assists/season of his career (by far!) it also gave him the best assist-to-turnover ratio of his career (by far!).  

I love Bradley Beal, he is an absolute killa, but 24 year old, always improving Jaylen Brown for 28 year old Beal?  Beal's in his prime, as good a 2-guard as there is in the league, so it's not an obvious answer but man!  Jaylen Brown is on-track.  A point leaning in favor of no trade:  Beal's salary.  A point leaning in favor of saying yes to such a trade is that Jaylen and Jayson play similar roles.  Swapping Brown out for Beal would give us a different point-of-attack, would force opposing coaches to have elite players/defenders at more than just wing.


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bobheckler wrote:https://www.nba.com/celtics/news/sidebar/misc-072421-2021-awards-series-most-improved-player-jaylen-brown








Most Improved Player: Jaylen Brown



By Taylor Snow |  @taylorcsnow
Celtics.com
July 24, 2021



Earning our Most Improved Player award in back-to-back seasons is a remarkable feat.

Winning it three times in a span of four years is just straight-up absurd.

But for a man who lives by the motto of “Faith Consistency Hard Work Pays Off,” such an accomplishment is almost to be expected, as the act of improving is what Jaylen Brown is all about.

Brown won his first Celtics MIP after his sophomore season in 2017-18, during which he saw his scoring average more than double from 6.6 points per game as a role-player rookie to 14.5 PPG as a full-time starter.

He then won it again last season after taking on a more significant offensive role, which allowed him to post career-highs of 20.3 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 2.1 assists per game.

But Brown wasn’t done leaping yet.

This past season, he transitioned into stardom, logging 24.7 PPG, 3.4 APG, 6.0 RPG, and 1.2 steals per game, while shooting 48.4 percent from the field, 39.7 percent from 3-point range, and 76.4 percent from the free-throw line. Every one of those numbers, except for the one in the rebounding department, represented a new career-high for Brown, who earned his first All-Star appearance alongside Jayson Tatum.

Unfortunately, Brown’s season was cut short just ahead of the playoffs after tearing a ligament in his left wrist which required surgery. But up to that point, he had been consistently rising in just about every aspect of his game.

First, let’s take a dive into Brown’s scoring spike. Prior to this season, he had never scored more than 34 points in a game. He reached or surpassed that total six times during the 2020-21 campaign, including three efforts of 40 or more points.

Brown became a far more aggressive and confident offensive player this season, as he saw jumps in his drives per game (from 8.5 to 10.5), catch-and-shoot attempts per game (from 4.3 to a team-high 4.9), and pull-up attempts per game (from 4.1 to 6.4).

Yet, the most interesting part about Brown’s increased scoring was that his total number of field-goal attempts actually decreased. He was simply far more efficient in his shot-making across the board.

Aside from his scoring, Brown’s most impressive improvement came on the playmaking front. He logged seven of his top nine career assisting efforts throughout the season, including a career-high 10-assist performance on Feb. 11 against Toronto. The points he created off assists jumped from 5.2 to 8.7 per game, and that was largely due to his enhanced court vision, a more controlled handle, and the improved ability to make the right pass at the right time.

Veteran floor general Marcus Smart lauded Brown’s decision-making a month into the season after noticing significant improvement in that area.

“His rookie year and Year 2, that Jaylen Brown would just put his head down and go and not understand where he was going,” Smart said on Jan. 23. “But he worked hard, you’ve gotta give him credit. And it shows. That’s why he’s one of the best young players in this game and doing what he’s doing, and doing what he’s doing for this team. So I’m just very, very proud of the way that he approaches every game, and you can see it’s working out for him.”

It's working out for Brown because he approaches every game with an “FCHWPO” mentality. His consistent work ethic and determination to get better every day led him to place sixth on this year’s NBA Most Improved Player ballot, and it led him to earn our team MIP for the third time in four seasons.


Bob
MY NOTE:  I'm thinking that Jaylen Brown is one of the best all-round players in the NBA.  All-Star level scoring and All-Star level defense.  The scorers in the NBA get all the hype and, with the hype, the All-Star berths but Jaylen's time has come now that he's embraced his role as a scorer.  No more deferring to Kemba and Kyrie before him, Jaylen is now calling for the ball and averaged a career high 24.7ppg last year.  His 39.7% from 3 was the best of his career and he hit them taking the most 3pt fgas of his career.  Remember when Jaylen struggled at the line?  He shot a respectable 76.8% from there last year, the best of his career.   Dishing out 3.4 apg and 2.7TOpg last year gave him the most total assists/season of his career (by far!) it also gave him the best assist-to-turnover ratio of his career (by far!).  

I love Bradley Beal, he is an absolute killa, but 24 year old, always improving Jaylen Brown for 28 year old Beal?  Beal's in his prime, as good a 2-guard as there is in the league, so it's not an obvious answer but man!  Jaylen Brown is on-track.  A point leaning in favor of no trade:  Beal's salary.  A point leaning in favor of saying yes to such a trade is that Jaylen and Jayson play similar roles.  Swapping Brown out for Beal would give us a different point-of-attack, would force opposing coaches to have elite players/defenders at more than just wing.


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Good points Bob.

JB is a multipositional player and actually a better player at age 24 than Beal was.

No way I make a trade for Beal  using JB.

Please add me to the no list for all the reasons expressed by bob and dboss

Why should we trade JB for Beal.  What is the market for Beal?  After all, he is in control and will be seeking a trade to a contender.  Contenders will need to send salary along with assets.

Golden State will be ecstatic to send Wiggins, #7 and #14, perhaps even Wiseman for Beal.  Wiggins' $64M is a dead weight that the Wizards will not be able to shed.

Is Ben Simmons and his $145M contract very valuable?

Celts can offer TT, Smart, RWill and Nesmith/Langford (it will be too much of a long shot to imagine a Fournier S&T here).  That is a pretty handsome offer. The Wizards can flip some of these players for additional assets.

A lot will depend upon where Beal wants to go.

dboss wrote:JB is a multipositional player and actually a better player at age 24 than Beal was.

No way I make a trade for Beal  using JB.

Right Beal avg 22 ppg on worse efficiency than Jaylen at 24. Even now, Jaylen’s efficiency is better. Also Beal is on a team with limited scorers/talent, you know the saying, putting up big numbers on a weak team.

We cannot compare what one player was at 24 to another player that is now 24!
Players peak at different times in their career. It’s impossible to gauge that way and know how ones going to turn out.
Some improve tremendously once reaching a certain age and some improve very little and then there’s some that peak at a younger age. It’s a metric that makes very little sense.
We don’t know how much better JB is gonna get. We are hoping he surpasses Beal and many others but the only way to get that answer is to wait and see. What these older all stars were in there younger years means nothing in comparisons. We’re gonna eventually find out.

I'm not trading Smart , RWill and either Langford or Nesmith for Beal, now or ever. Every one of them is bigger and a better defender than Beal. I don't care how big a pal of Tatum Beal is. We need a pass first point guard more than we need another high volume not so very efficient scorer. JB is 100 % out of the question.

That is another option. Not attempt to trade for Beal and just enjoy/endure the team that we have. Or we can look at Beal's 6.1 apg and 30.5 ppg in the 19-20 season and conclude that trading for Ray Allen and KG was a good idea. Jaret Allen and Caris Lavert were bigger and better defenders than James Harden.

I am thinking about the pass-first point guards. Now that the Pelicans have cleared up cap space, they have clearly signaled that they want to keep Lonzo Ball and match offers. So what does that leave for the Celts?

Sigh. Okay, there are only two options. Trade for Bradley Beal or play it back with the guys on the roster. You always try to contol the narrative by deflection when anybody disagrees with you. You do realize that adding Beal wouldn't add 30 points per game, because his shots have to come at somebody else's expense, don't you? I don't believe that trading all those guys for Beal is a good idea You do. Fine. Pierce and Garnett were grizzled veterans when Ray Allen came along. Tatum and Brown are not. It's an entirely different situation. If you can't see that , I don't know what to tell you.

Just to be clear, I am focused on ideas and not on you. Looking back, perhaps my "tone" could have been more muted but I still feel that it was appropriate.

Before Garnett and Allen, Pierce was a frustrating star, somebody who showed up for a press conference with toilet paper wrapped around his face. Somebody that team USA players refused to play with (this was some international tournament in Indy).

Then the Celts got Ray Allen. Then they got Garnett.

There was a lot of lament at that time about how Garnett has not accomplished anything. How Al Jefferson was going to be a great player. How the Minny pick, that we were returning, would be a high lottery pick. How Gerald Green was destined for stardom, etc.

But it all turned out good. Pierce became a super star player. Garnett found the perfect set of talent around him to maximize his defensive, people and leadership skills. Rondo became a star. There is something different about playing from the top (playing with a stacked team).

So I am hypothesizing that Tatum and Brown may be ready to take that next step and that Beal is the perfect combination of maturity, age and hunger. It is worth the risk.

I also believe that if they add Beal, the Celts will not need a creative point guard. Beal averaged 6 apg in 19-20 campaign. The Celts have added Horford who is really good at moving the ball from the high post. A lineup of Horford, Tatum, Brown, Beal and Langford is a fantastic lineup in my opinion.

I gave you length, youth and defense and you gave me 2008(with a whiff of superiority.) Now you are repeating the same argument, and a history lesson I don't need. You think Beal puts the Celtics over the top. I don't. You're giving up everybody on the bench, and Marcus Smart for a guy headed for free agency in a year. Maybe you have forgotten the extremely experienced 2008 bench, which included Eddie House, James Posey, and P.J. Brown, which went along with their extremely experienced startng lineup. Let's just agree to disagree. I have no interest in injecting the 2008 team into a conversation about whether a trade should be made now. It's a red herring, in my opinion.

I thought that the transformation in the Celts from 2007 to 2008 would be a good example to draw from.  What do you know!

Speaking of bench and supporting cast, we can still have Horford, Fournier, PP, Langford, Moses Brown, Nigel Hayes/Parker/GWill.  Should stack up to Rondo, Perkins, James Posey, Eddie House and P.J. Brown?  I don't see what is wrong with this team.

We don't currently have Fournier. Jabari is a poor defender and has no ouside shot.G Williams is undersized and a lousy rebounder. Nigel Hayes is a huge question mark, and as far as I know we haven't signed him. Payton Pritchard is a nice piece. We don't know if Langford can stay on the court. So no, the benches are nowhere near comparable. Somehow, you seem to think adding Beal to an extremely young team, while subtracting Marcus Smart and other assets is the equivalent to adding KG and Ray Allen to Pierce and company. I find that proposition laughable, to be honest.

Yes, we have a lot of question marks.

There is really no hope. We don't have Fournier and Langford may not be able to stay on the floor. Smart, TT, RWill, Nesmith and a pass-first point guard are the best options. I agree. At least I was able to make you laugh.

Nobody said there was no hope. You're the one that wants to trade half the team for Bradley Beal. Circular arguments are specious and boring. Also never-ending. If Beal opts out, he'll only cost money. He'll be a year older of course, but age doesn't seem to be a factor to you. Neither one of us is going to convince the other, so I'm giving it a rest. Carry on without me if you like.

jrleftfoot wrote:Nobody said there was no hope. You're the one that wants to trade half the team for Bradley Beal. Circular arguments are specious and boring. Also never-ending. If Beal opts out, he'll only cost money. He'll be a year older of course, but age doesn't seem to be a factor to you. Neither one of us is going to convince the other, so I'm giving it a rest. Carry on without me if you like.

Have you checked that Smart and TT will be unrestricted free agents next year. That RWill will be a restricted free agent? Even with TT gone exactly how are you saving money? Perhaps you will let Smart and RWill walk! What kind of an argument is that?

Have you checked Bradley Beal's age? He is 28 years old. One year later he will be 29. That is a big red flag for you? Seriously?

Seems like every time I suggest a Smart trade, it gets personal for you. Go ahead and give it a rest. That will not improve these silly and thoughtless arguments of yours.

Ktron wrote:We cannot compare what one player was at 24 to another player that is now 24!
Players peak at different times in their career. It’s impossible to gauge that way and know how ones going to turn out.
Some improve tremendously once reaching a certain age and some improve very little and then there’s some that peak at a younger age. It’s a metric that makes very little sense.
We don’t know how much better JB is gonna get. We are hoping he surpasses Beal and many others but the only way to get that answer is to wait and see. What these older all stars were in there younger years means nothing in comparisons. We’re gonna eventually find out.

ktron

We just did.  What other relative metric would you use to compare two players?  You can compare them at age 23 or age 22 if you like. You can look at any metric that you want. Let's hear it.

When you see players developing there is often a very recognizable pattern.  True, no one knows for absolute certainty if an upward trend will continue.  I focus on what improvement has already happened over a period of time and if there are areas where a player needs to improve.  Then I ask myself if a particular player is more likely to improve based on what has already happened over x number of years.  What has been their track record. Are there physical limitations (Grant Williams)  

Anyways you already stated that you would make the trade for Beal and use JB to make it happened. I am surprised that you would choose Jayson's Tatums' former babysitter and diaper wipe ass over our guy.

I disagree with you and anyone else that believes that would be a a good trade decision.  As a matter of fact it would be a really poor decision.  So here are my reasons.

1.  JB is 4 years younger and has already proven his work ethic and commitment to becoming a better player.  Beal is the one who has reached his peak and his age is not as favorable to Brown in terms of our timeline.

2.  JB is a powerful 6' 6" player who can play multiple positions on the court (2,3 and 4)  Beal is an undersized 6' 3' SG.  That is it.  Beal is more limited than Brown.

3.  Beal has 2 years left on his contract and Brown has 3 years.  Beal has a player option next year so that makes him a flight risk.  Next season Beal will make $7.8 million more than JB.  Based on the number alone JB is more cost effective.

4.  Lateral moves do not improves teams especially if a team still has positional needs.  If a team makes a trade for contract related advantages or to rid their team of a personality conflict lateral moves can be beneficial.  that is clearly not a factor.

5.  JB is a homegrown player, drafted by and developed by The Celtics.  He has established himself on and off the court.  He is a very special young man.  

I'll end by stating unequivocally that Jaylen Brown is a better and more diverse and more physically imposing player than Bradley Beal.  JB is a better shooter from the filed and a better rebounder and defender than Bradley Beal.  JB has shown steady improvement in all aspects of him game and there is no reason to believe that he has reached his pinnacle.  The fact of the matter is that if he never improved beyond who he is today, he would still be one helluva player to keep on your team.

2020-2021

Player................mpg.......fgas/g.....fg%......3ptfg%.....rpg.....apg.....stlpg.....blkpg....ppg
Jaylen Brown----34.5------19.2------48.4-----39.7-------6.0----3.4-----1.2-----.6-------24.7
Bradley Beal-----35.8------23.0------48.5-----34.9-------4.7----4.1-----1.1-----.4-------31.3


Career
Player..............#seasons.......fgas/g.....fg%......3ptfg%.....rpg.....apg.....stlpg.....blkpg....ppg
Jaylen Brown---5--------------11.9-------47.3----37.8-------4.7----1.8-----.9-------.4-------15.1
Bradley Beal----9--------------17.5------45.6-----37.7-------4.1----4.0-----1.2-----.4-------22.0


Brown's career numbers are somewhat diluted by his rookie year, in which he only averaged 17.2mpg.

Furthermore, Beal was on a team where he took more fgas than anybody else, including ball hog Russell Westbrook.  Beal took 21% of ALL of Washington's fgas last season.  Beal and Westbrook combined for 40% of Washington's total fgas last season.  To put this into perspective, Jayson Tatum was the #1 fga player on our team last year.  He took a total of 1318 shots, and some people thought he shot too much.  Beal took 1382 fgas.  I understand that's the way it had to be for them but that's not us nor is it what we want us to be.  

I'd love to have Bradley Beal in green but not for Jaylen Brown even though, elsewhere, I pointed out that having the different point-of-attack provided by a Beal/Tatum tandem would be an advantage over the dual wing Tatum/Brown threat.

As far as salaries go, I tend to ignore that stuff.  First of all, it's not my money and not my job.  Secondly, bad contracts can be fixed.  We just "fixed" Kemba's bad contract by trading him for a player at a position we need veteran leadership in and that has a shorter contract length.  NOP just "fixed" their Steven Adams contract by trading him to Memphis.   The only issue I have with Beal's contract is that we'd have to send more than one or two players to Washington for him or, if only two, the two would have to be Jaylen and Smart.  I am NOT willing to pay that price for Beal, as much as I like him and covet him.


Bob


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I am not a supporter of Brown for Beal trade. However, while comparing the two, lets not short change Beal.

Adding to the stats that Bob posted, Beal has an assist/turnover of 1.67 and JB has 1.06. Also, the FT attempts and % are higher.

On the offensive end the ball seems to stick a bit with JB and Beal is a more versatile player. On the size, power and defensive end, Brown is much better and the Celts have been a soft team lately. Getting rid of Kemba will help on that front but we need to get more physical and not stay at the same level.

I think you guys know how I feel about Jaylen, he is a player every team would covet. As physically talented as any wing in the game. More physical gifts than Luca and Tatum. Only player I would trade him for is Giannis and that’s not happening.

prakash wrote:

jrleftfoot wrote:Nobody said there was no hope. You're the one that wants to trade half the team for Bradley Beal. Circular arguments are specious and boring. Also never-ending. If Beal opts out, he'll only cost money. He'll be a year older of course, but age doesn't seem to be a factor to you. Neither one of us is going to convince the other, so I'm giving it a rest. Carry on without me if you like.

Have you checked that Smart and TT will be unrestricted free agents next year.  That RWill will be a restricted free agent?  Even with TT gone exactly how are you saving money?  Perhaps you will let Smart and RWill walk!  What kind of an argument is that?

Have you checked Bradley Beal's age?  He is 28 years old.  One year later he will be 29.  That is a big red flag for you?  Seriously?

Seems like every time I suggest a Smart trade, it gets personal for you.  Go ahead and give it a rest.  That will not improve these silly and thoughtless arguments of yours.

                                                                                     Smart's going t be more costly than Beal?Nobody is advocating keeping TT. Your method of arguing reminds me of junior high forensics . Please address your attention to somebody who cares about your opinion. i'm trying to keep within the cordial guidelines of the group, but your persistent deflection and damn near unbearable  superciliousness is making it difficult for me. Thanks.

Bob

We did not exactly rid ourselves of the KW contract.  Bad contracts like the one for KW will be in play for a while in the form of AH who everybody loves except me.  lol

While you may have no concern about the money the team spends it will impact who stays and who goes which may also impact winning or losing.  I agree in that it is not our money and they can choose or not choose to spend spend spend.  

I would say that the most common element in so many trade ideas that is overlooked is how the money impacts the balance sheet.  

Do you think Beal would be a good fit sandwiched between the J's?  I say no and you may as well just keep EF if you want a 3rd scoring option.

Unrelated but maybe somewhat relevant, The Nets surprised a lot of folks.  With Harden taking on the role of the distributor. Their big three, when healthy, was really good in a small sample size.

dboss wrote:
Unrelated but maybe somewhat relevant, The Nets surprised a lot of folks.  With Harden taking on the role of the distributor.  Their big three, when healthy, was really good in a small sample size.

I don't see the surprise.  Harden adopted a complimentary role.  Distributor and scorer when needed.  He is the most versatile of the three.  The trio, when healthy, make a lethal combo.

Why do you think that Beal Sandwiched between the two Js will not make a lethal combo as well?  I think so.

In terms of player progression, I would like JB to become a top defender in addition to his scoring.  I see that as his pathway to super stardom and not by creating for others.  I don't think that he will become a creative passer.

JT has to be/become our other scorer and primary creator.

Beal was the primary scorer AND facilitator for the Wizards in the 19-20 season.  I believe that he will nicely serve that lethal adaptive glue guy role.  Based upon what I have seen, he is so good in reading the floor and being effective based off of that.  He is not a lethal shooter like Curry/Klay or a bigger guy like JB/JT.  Yet he is so effective.  How?

prakash wrote:

dboss wrote:
Unrelated but maybe somewhat relevant, The Nets surprised a lot of folks.  With Harden taking on the role of the distributor.  Their big three, when healthy, was really good in a small sample size.

I don't see the surprise.  Harden adopted a complimentary role.  Distributor and scorer when needed.  He is must versatile of the three.  The trio, when healthy, make a lethal combo.

Why do you think that Beal Sandwiched between the two Js will not make a lethal combo as well?  I think so.

In terms of player progression, I would like JB to become a top defender in addition to his scoring.  I see that as his pathway to super stardom and not by creating for others.  I don't think that he will become a creative passer.

JT has to be/become our other scorer and primary creator.

Beal was the primary scorer AND facilitator for the Wizards in the 19-20 season.  I believe that he will nicely serve that lethal adaptive glue guy role.  Based upon what I have seen, he is so good in reading the floor and being effective based off of that.  He is not a lethal shooter like Curry/Klay or a bigger guy like JB/JT.  Yet he is so effective.  How?

Prak

I read multiple comments that took the position that there were not enough balls to go around for 3 very high usage players, all of whom are offense.  So yeah it was a surprise to me any many other people.

Are you suggesting that you figured beforehand Harden would fall into a complimentary role as a distributor first and scorer 2nd?   If so you are one smart cookie.

The formula for JB becoming better is already in place.  You can just check all the boxes.  He needed to become a better ball handler and passer.  He needed to become a better free throw shooter.  He needed to be better going to the rim and improving his midrange game.  He needed to be better at knocking down the deep ball.    What is his ceiling as a creative player?  I do not know.  I do know that he will continue to work on all aspects of his game.  

I do not see Beal as the type of distributor that would compliment the J's.  His assist to TO ratio is less than 2:1  Last year he averaged 4.4 assist per game and 3.1 TO's.  His 3 point shooting went down to 34%.  The last 2 years he has averaged 23 FGA per game.  He is a classic gunner.  

The past 2 years we have had 3 20+ PPG scorers.  I prefer the formula where we have a floor general to pass out the cookies to make sure there is great shot distribution from the best scorers.  JT is not the guy to do that and neither is JB although both have improved their playmaking abilities and should continue to improve in those critical areas.

I just do not see a deal on the horizon where they bring in Bradley Beal.  He would come in as the the older veteran and who's team would it be?  At a time when the J's are ascending into stardom, the thing we need most are complimentary players at every position.  Beal is clearly a dominant offensive player.  I just do not think we need that.  I think it will take away from the J's.