I posted this elsewhere so thought I should share it here as well.
Last night, in the Celtics thrilling 122-121 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks, Celtic fans may have just seen the maturation of Jaylen Brown to All-Star status and perhaps, his ascension to being a superstar in this league. Jaylen was pretty easily the best player on the Garden parkay going for:
34 points
4 assists
5 rebounds
2 steals
1 block
0 turnovers
while going 13 -24 from the field, 3-8 from three and 4-4 from the line. Jaylen was the leader of that group of he, Smart, Thompson, Teague and Semi that turned the game around in the 2nd quarter with stifling defense and intelligent efficient offense.
Brown showed that once again, he has worked on his game in the off-season and added another dimension to his game. Much like his free throw shooting, what was once thought a massive weakness in his game, Brown's handle is now his strength and with that comes the ability to see the floor better and become comfortable creating offense. But not just his offense, but offense for others. Brown made all the right passes and one pretty incredible sling pass across the court from the baseline to the top of the three point line that has never been in his arsenal. Jaylen ran pick and roll plays with Thompson that showed incredibly good chemistry and execution. This pairing could be lightening in a bottle for Stevens. Also, it was quite evident Brown and Tatum have decided they will be looking for each other much more on offense.
Brown's ability to create half court offense is essential to him taking that step to superstardom and last night he showed he can do it. He ran half court offense while destroying Milwaukee with his ability to easily get past his defender and get to his spots for mid range jumpers and turnarounds that were dropping all night. A fairly amazing moment happened when Milwaukee got a three second tech and it was Brown Stevens sent to the line to drain the free throw. That doesn't happen pre Covid. Adding better free throw shooting, crisper more accurate passing, a deadly mid range game, better court vision while playing even better team and one on one defense has transformed Brown's overall game and turned him into the next future superstar in this league.
Jaylen Brown has grown up. He's no longer a kid. He is The Man. A superstar for sure.
Jaylen Brown was awesome, as was the rest of the team. Very impressive win.
I don't know why I sometimes doubt the man. Brown is your binkie, but he's also a bit my binkie.
Over our 2 deep playoff runs 2018 and 2020, I find Brown has arguably been our best player.
I don't believe there's necessarily a massive difference between Brown and Tatum.
I have to admit that I was one of the guys who proposed a Brown for Harden trade. Though I find it reasonable that you have to give up a very valuable player to get a perennial MVP-candidate. In that context I have been arguing that Brown himself should be enough to entice the Rockets.
But if the reports are true that Miami isn't offering Adebayo, Philadelphia isn't offering Simmons (which I think they should), Denver isn't offering Murray or Porter Jr, then perhaps it's unnecessary to offer Brown either.
Don't want to derail this thread into a Harden discussion, so I'll leave it at that.
Back to Brown. That is a very impressive statline, but it doesn't stand out that much if you look at the daily stats for other stars in the league. Last night these guys put up nice and efficient stat lines as well: Young (37/6/7), Morant (44/9), Rozier (42), DeRozan (28/9/9), Barrett (26/8/5), Middleton (27/14/8), Hayward (28/4/7), Ingram (24/9/11), Sabonis (32/13/5), Towns (22/11/7), Jokic (29/15/14), Embiid (29/14) and Gobert (20/17).
What's noticable is that Brown often steps up in the big games. And that's a trademark of someone who's poised to do great things in the future. But to call this his superstar ascension after one game in the season is premature.
Topic: The Superstar Ascension of Jaylen Brown (Read 17194 times)