Has Jaylen Brown Regressed this year

[JBcat]

The hand injury isn’t the only injury he’s had.  He had back spasms and plantar fasciitis earlier in the season.  I’m sure that affected him to some degree if he tried to play through it.

[PhoSita]

Now first of all, I believe he is better at creating shots for himself than most here believe. He is probably the best driver on our team, and that is a type of (generally good)  shot.

I feel like he's a good driver, as you say, but he's not a particularly good finisher.

By the numbers he shoots over 60% from 0-3, but only 30% of his shots come from that range.  Jaylen doesn't often finish through or around contact, so I think that most of the time when he takes a shot from 0-3 it's an open dunk or layup.

My impression is that a lot of the time when he drives, if there are defenders near the rim, he ends up taking a shot from just outside the 0-3 range.

From  the "close" range he shoots below 40%.  So if he drives in there but ends up taking a 5 foot floater or fade or whatever, that's actually a bad shot.

[Sophomore]

Now first of all, I believe he is better at creating shots for himself than most here believe. He is probably the best driver on our team, and that is a type of (generally good)  shot.

I feel like he's a good driver, as you say, but he's not a particularly good finisher.

By the numbers he shoots over 60% from 0-3, but only 30% of his shots come from that range.  Jaylen doesn't often finish through or around contact, so I think that most of the time when he takes a shot from 0-3 it's an open dunk or layup.

My impression is that a lot of the time when he drives, if there are defenders near the rim, he ends up taking a shot from just outside the 0-3 range.

From  the "close" range he shoots below 40%.  So if he drives in there but ends up taking a 5 foot floater or fade or whatever, that's actually a bad shot.

Yeah. This is the next step for him, which I think he can develop. He definitely has the physical talent. Watching Kawhi finish last night I'm reminded he did not have a lot of the finish-through-contact and tight handle in his game when he came into the league. Not saying Jaylen will be Kawhi, but I'm still hoping he'll pick a lot of that up.

I'd love to see him keep developing that set of post-up moves he worked on over the summer and start adding more finish-through-contact moves. In two years, as he starts gaining more grown-man strength, he should be a beast.

[rondofan1255]

Nope.

He hasn’t really progressed but I don’t think he’s really got worse.  Just isn’t overachieving from three anymore.

This. 65% career FT. Only slightly higher than Westbrook’s 2018-2019 64%

[PhoSita]

Nope.

He hasn’t really progressed but I don’t think he’s really got worse.  Just isn’t overachieving from three anymore.

This. 65% career FT. Only slightly higher than Westbrook’s 2018-2019 64%

If you watch Jaylen take free throws you can kind of see why he's a better three point shooter than a free throw shooter.

He is a slow, hesitant free throw shooter, as if he's lining up his shot each time instead of relying on muscle memory.

He seems like he needs to develop a better free throw routine -- as usual with him the issue is he needs to get out of his own head and let his instincts guide him.

Last night was a good example, the first couple of times he went to the line he front rimmed the first free throw and then swished the second one.


Whereas on three pointers he seems to settle into a rhythm and not think about his shot form as much.  But he's still fairly mechanical with it, which is probably why he's just an OK three point shooter.

[keevsnick]

Now first of all, I believe he is better at creating shots for himself than most here believe. He is probably the best driver on our team, and that is a type of (generally good)  shot.

I feel like he's a good driver, as you say, but he's not a particularly good finisher.

By the numbers he shoots over 60% from 0-3, but only 30% of his shots come from that range.  Jaylen doesn't often finish through or around contact, so I think that most of the time when he takes a shot from 0-3 it's an open dunk or layup.

My impression is that a lot of the time when he drives, if there are defenders near the rim, he ends up taking a shot from just outside the 0-3 range.

From  the "close" range he shoots below 40%.  So if he drives in there but ends up taking a 5 foot floater or fade or whatever, that's actually a bad shot.

Thats an interesting theory. But the numbers dont back it up. For comparison that 30% number of shots at rim is higher than Gordon Haywards, jimmy butler and Kawhi leonard career percentage. All in the 20's. He is better career finisher than butler, not far from Hayward tho not nearly as good as kawhi. That 30% is the best non big on the team. So he actually gets to the rim a lot. As for the idea that he takes and misses a lot of 4-6 footers, thats only true if he was actually taking a lot of them. But they are only roughly 17% meaning 1-2 shots a game, and a lot more of those are are in the 7-10 foot range of post ups or pull up jumpers. His 62.5% is not as good as Tatum, Smart or Morris at the rim but those guys only take high teens or low twentties of their shots at rim. He actually took an even higher percent, 35%, at rim last year, and finished about the same percent. His 4-10 game is week compared to élite scorers, but that has improved since last year as his percent share of those shots and hit percent makes have risen, that pull up fadaway has helped alot, but he could use a floater. In short, Jaylen gets to the rim a lot and is a decent finisher there. Obviously he could be better still.

[Wretch]

Now first of all, I believe he is better at creating shots for himself than most here believe. He is probably the best driver on our team, and that is a type of (generally good)  shot.

TP Great analysis.


I feel like he's a good driver, as you say, but he's not a particularly good finisher.

By the numbers he shoots over 60% from 0-3, but only 30% of his shots come from that range.  Jaylen doesn't often finish through or around contact, so I think that most of the time when he takes a shot from 0-3 it's an open dunk or layup.

My impression is that a lot of the time when he drives, if there are defenders near the rim, he ends up taking a shot from just outside the 0-3 range.

From  the "close" range he shoots below 40%.  So if he drives in there but ends up taking a 5 foot floater or fade or whatever, that's actually a bad shot.

Thats an interesting theory. But the numbers dont back it up. For comparison that 30% number of shots at rim is higher than Gordon Haywards, jimmy butler and Kawhi leonard career percentage. All in the 20's. He is better career finisher than butler, not far from Hayward tho not nearly as good as kawhi. That 30% is the best non big on the team. So he actually gets to the rim a lot. As for the idea that he takes and misses a lot of 4-6 footers, thats only true if he was actually taking a lot of them. But they are only roughly 17% meaning 1-2 shots a game, and a lot more of those are are in the 7-10 foot range of post ups or pull up jumpers. His 62.5% is not as good as Tatum, Smart or Morris at the rim but those guys only take high teens or low twentties of their shots at rim. He actually took an even higher percent, 35%, at rim last year, and finished about the same percent. His 4-10 game is week compared to élite scorers, but that has improved since last year as his percent share of those shots and hit percent makes have risen, that pull up fadaway has helped alot, but he could use a floater. In short, Jaylen gets to the rim a lot and is a decent finisher there. Obviously he could be better still.

TP for the analysis

[nickagneta]

I am about Jaylen's biggest fan and supporter on this team. I think in time he is going to be a pretty amazing two way player. That said:

Jaylen hasn't regressed, he just had a bad shooting slump from three that hurt him terribly as he allowed it to affect his all around game. Taking on a lesser role as basically a 5th option, when he started didn't help.

He has seen growth in some areas.

- his handle is light years ahead of where it was at as a rookie two years ago. Steady growth here, year to year, is a very good.

- he has a new step back shot from inside the paint that has been pretty successful. Another nice weapon to have in the arsenal.

- his mid range game is improving, getting better and better every year.

- he's now making, attempting and completing passes he never would have tried his rookie year.

But though he has improved in places, he just hasn't taken any major steps forward in his development. His early season play just killed his confidence. I think he has straightened things out and from this point forward maybe we see a major growth somewhere, my guess would be defensively.

But regressed...no. Stagnated for a month or two...yeah. But turning things around and possibly taking a step forward the rest of the year...I can see that.