What’s up with JB?

[Celtics2021]

Last 5 games include his 2 minutes vs Atlanta.  Last 5 games:

2/26: 27 points, 1/6 from 3
2/27: 23 points, 2/5 from 3
3/1: 2 points, 0/0 from 3
3/6: 21 points, 3/6 from 3
3/9: 15 points, 1/8 from 3

This doesn't look like anything to worry about to me.

The OP missed an opportunity to paint a real negative picture of Brown. In his last three games, he has only averaged 12.6ppg. That is unacceptable from a supposed all-star /s

An opportunity? Does he look right to you. Imo, he’s hasn’t looked right since going into the all star break.

Since the All-Star break in a whopping 5 games (if you exclude the 3 minutes he played in the one game he got hurt) he's put up a 20.8/3.4/4.8 line, compared with season averages of 23.0/6.1/3.4 on a shooting line of .471/.267/.640, compared with .462/.346/.760 for the season.  So yeah, he's missed two more 3 pointers over the course of 5 games, as well as three free throws, while making 2s at a higher rate, getting nearly 50% more assists, and at the same time reducing his turnovers by about 25% per game, from 2.8 to 2.2.  And again, he's obviously been hurt for part of that time.  The only number that's markedly down is rebounds, which is a) harder to do with an injured ankle and b) is literally partly subject to the the adage "that's the way the ball bounces". 

There's literally nothing to see here that can't be explained by what we all witnessed 3 minutes into the Atlanta game where the initial fear was that he'd be out for a very long time.

[Goldstar88]

Last 5 games include his 2 minutes vs Atlanta.  Last 5 games:

2/26: 27 points, 1/6 from 3
2/27: 23 points, 2/5 from 3
3/1: 2 points, 0/0 from 3
3/6: 21 points, 3/6 from 3
3/9: 15 points, 1/8 from 3

This doesn't look like anything to worry about to me.

The OP missed an opportunity to paint a real negative picture of Brown. In his last three games, he has only averaged 12.6ppg. That is unacceptable from a supposed all-star /s

An opportunity? Does he look right to you. Imo, he’s hasn’t looked right since going into the all star break.

Since the All-Star break in a whopping 5 games (if you exclude the 3 minutes he played in the one game he got hurt) he's put up a 20.8/3.4/4.8 line, compared with season averages of 23.0/6.1/3.4 on a shooting line of .471/.267/.640, compared with .462/.346/.760 for the season.  So yeah, he's missed two more 3 pointers over the course of 5 games, as well as three free throws, while making 2s at a higher rate, getting nearly 50% more assists, and at the same time reducing his turnovers by about 25% per game, from 2.8 to 2.2.  And again, he's obviously been hurt for part of that time.  The only number that's markedly down is rebounds, which is a) harder to do with an injured ankle and b) is literally partly subject to the the adage "that's the way the ball bounces". 

There's literally nothing to see here that can't be explained by what we all witnessed 3 minutes into the Atlanta game where the initial fear was that he'd be out for a very long time.

So he looks disengaged and indecisive because of the ankle. The bad turnovers, the ankle? I’m a big JB fan I have and continue to be against trading him, but he was not looking right before the ankle injury. Before the all star break.

[Rosco917]

The problem with playing through an ankle injury is it heals at a much slower pace, AND viewers think that's who you really are. Or he could just simply miss a half dozen games and possibly put a halt to the current Celtic run. 

Just look at the last five games before the ankle injury, that's who he is. If you can say, "trade that" then more power to you.

[ozgod]

To answer the title of this post: He got injured and is playing through it.

TP for stating the obvious 

[ozgod]

The problem with playing through an ankle injury is it heals at a much slower pace, AND viewers think that's who you really are. Or he could just simply miss a half dozen games and possibly put a halt to the current Celtic run. 

Just look at the last five games before the ankle injury, that's who he is. If you can say, "trade that" then more power to you.

Yes, remember Hayward came back early in the bubble because everyone was begging him to…played bad and everyone trashed him.

[BitterJim]

Obviously you skew the numbers significantly if you include a 2 minute game, but that said, Brown is banged up a bit.  The team though goes as Tatum goes and always has.  Tatum is the guy the team needs to be playing.  Brown is almost irrelevant to Boston's record.

The Celtics have a .467 winning percentage in 15 games without Jaylen this year and a .635 winning percentage with him.

Your numbers are wrong, the C's are 8-7 without Jaylen playing at all and also won the 3 minute game, so are really 9-7 (56.25%) without him.  They are 31-20 (62.0%) with him playing a full game, which is obviously better, but not nearly as much as you might imagine.  And it was the Western Road trip in early December that really skew the numbers as Boston went 1-4 on that trip all without Brown (that was the 5 games in 8 nights with 2 separate back-to-backs).

I counted and have now recounted 7-8.  Going through the schedule maybe I mistallied, but I don't think I did, and I recommend you count again.  And I'm not sure how the West Coast trip skewed anything -- having Brown for those games might mean the C's would have won 1-2 more of them, particularly one of the games in LA, which is exactly my point that he does matter. 

So I'll use your accounting method with regards to giving him no credit vs. Atlanta.  That's .500 compared to .627, which is the difference between 8th place and 2nd place in the East.  That's a really big difference, and with Jaylen having missed 16 games, it's not merely small sample size.

Tatum is more important, I'm not arguing that.  But that doesn't mean Brown is unimportant.

Third counter chiming in, I'm getting the same as Moranis here:
Wins (9*): 10/24 @HOU, 11/10 vs. TOR, 11/12 vs. MIL, 11/15 @CLE, 11/19 vs. LAL, 11/20 vs. OKC, 12/4 @POR, 3/3 vs. MEM, *and throwing in 3/1 vs. ATL since he barely played
Losses (7): 11/6 @DAL, 11/13 @CLE, 11/17 @ATL, 12/3 @UTA, 12/7 @LAL, 12/8 @LAC, and 12/10 @PHO

Also weird to note, we're undefeated at home without Brown. Small sample sizes are wild.

[#1P4P]

The answer is obvious when he injured his ankle during one of the games in the sample size. He’s healthy and tough enough to have returned before being 100%. He’s been decent playing through it (good enough to be a positive and help us continue to win). He will gradually be better as he heals.

I commend him for it; with Nesmith’s injury and Ime’s short rotation, JB playing 30+ MPG at 80% is better than placing a heavier load on the rest of the rotation.

Tatum just went through a half season of shooting woes before this tear. Some of you need to slow your role.

[Celtics2021]

Last 5 games include his 2 minutes vs Atlanta.  Last 5 games:

2/26: 27 points, 1/6 from 3
2/27: 23 points, 2/5 from 3
3/1: 2 points, 0/0 from 3
3/6: 21 points, 3/6 from 3
3/9: 15 points, 1/8 from 3

This doesn't look like anything to worry about to me.

The OP missed an opportunity to paint a real negative picture of Brown. In his last three games, he has only averaged 12.6ppg. That is unacceptable from a supposed all-star /s

An opportunity? Does he look right to you. Imo, he’s hasn’t looked right since going into the all star break.

Since the All-Star break in a whopping 5 games (if you exclude the 3 minutes he played in the one game he got hurt) he's put up a 20.8/3.4/4.8 line, compared with season averages of 23.0/6.1/3.4 on a shooting line of .471/.267/.640, compared with .462/.346/.760 for the season.  So yeah, he's missed two more 3 pointers over the course of 5 games, as well as three free throws, while making 2s at a higher rate, getting nearly 50% more assists, and at the same time reducing his turnovers by about 25% per game, from 2.8 to 2.2.  And again, he's obviously been hurt for part of that time.  The only number that's markedly down is rebounds, which is a) harder to do with an injured ankle and b) is literally partly subject to the the adage "that's the way the ball bounces". 

There's literally nothing to see here that can't be explained by what we all witnessed 3 minutes into the Atlanta game where the initial fear was that he'd be out for a very long time.

So he looks disengaged because of the ankle. The bad turnovers, the ankle? I’m a big JB fan I have and continue to be against trading him, but he was not looking right before the ankle injury. Before the all star break.

Again, his turnovers are down post-break relative to his yearly numbers.  And as for pre-break, I’m not even sure what you’re talking about.  His final two games heading into the break he averaged 30/5/4.5 on .579/.615/.717 shooting.

[Vermont Green]

I look at this just the opposite.  We have been playing very well the last 5 or whatever games and in those games, Jaylen Brown has not played his best or even his average.  We have several seasons of track record, including an all-star selection to know what to expect from a healthy Jaylen Brown but people want to forget that and panic over 5 games of post injury play (which really hasn't even been all that bad, just not the all star level we have come to expect)?

The way I look at it is I know that Jaylen Brown is good and if we are this good with him playing subpar, think how good we are going to be when he inevitably returns to "normal".  This has been an up and down season for him for a variety of reasons (mostly due to injuries) but I am not about to give up on Jaylen Brown.  He is a really good player.  The focus should be to get him right for the playoffs, whatever that means.  Playing through it, rest, whatever, just get him right and let him do his thing.

[Celtics2021]

Obviously you skew the numbers significantly if you include a 2 minute game, but that said, Brown is banged up a bit.  The team though goes as Tatum goes and always has.  Tatum is the guy the team needs to be playing.  Brown is almost irrelevant to Boston's record.

The Celtics have a .467 winning percentage in 15 games without Jaylen this year and a .635 winning percentage with him.

Your numbers are wrong, the C's are 8-7 without Jaylen playing at all and also won the 3 minute game, so are really 9-7 (56.25%) without him.  They are 31-20 (62.0%) with him playing a full game, which is obviously better, but not nearly as much as you might imagine.  And it was the Western Road trip in early December that really skew the numbers as Boston went 1-4 on that trip all without Brown (that was the 5 games in 8 nights with 2 separate back-to-backs).

I counted and have now recounted 7-8.  Going through the schedule maybe I mistallied, but I don't think I did, and I recommend you count again.  And I'm not sure how the West Coast trip skewed anything -- having Brown for those games might mean the C's would have won 1-2 more of them, particularly one of the games in LA, which is exactly my point that he does matter. 

So I'll use your accounting method with regards to giving him no credit vs. Atlanta.  That's .500 compared to .627, which is the difference between 8th place and 2nd place in the East.  That's a really big difference, and with Jaylen having missed 16 games, it's not merely small sample size.

Tatum is more important, I'm not arguing that.  But that doesn't mean Brown is unimportant.

Third counter chiming in, I'm getting the same as Moranis here:
Wins (9*): 10/24 @HOU, 11/10 vs. TOR, 11/12 vs. MIL, 11/15 @CLE, 11/19 vs. LAL, 11/20 vs. OKC, 12/4 @POR, 3/3 vs. MEM, *and throwing in 3/1 vs. ATL since he barely played
Losses (7): 11/6 @DAL, 11/13 @CLE, 11/17 @ATL, 12/3 @UTA, 12/7 @LAL, 12/8 @LAC, and 12/10 @PHO

Also weird to note, we're undefeated at home without Brown. Small sample sizes are wild.

I can’t count.  I blame Covid.  My overall point stands that we’d have a better record if Brown had played more and a worse record if he played less, and we are a contender with him and not one without him.  The same is also true, and even more true, of Tatum.

[Goldstar88]

Last 5 games he’s averaging 17.6pts, 3.4reb, 3.8ast while shooting 28% from 3pt and 64.7% from the line. I’m sure his ankle is still not 100%, but for some reason he just doesn’t look engaged out there at times on both ends.

Tatum is getting all of the attention right now, but this team goes as far as JT AND JB take them. If Jaylen doesn’t play at an all star level come playoff time, this team isn’t going to be able to make a deep run. Hopefully he snaps out of it soon.

That's kind of silly to put the #s out that way. Excluding the game he got hurt and only played a few minutes, he's averaging 22/gm, on 47% shooting, slightly above his season shooting avg, and right at his career avg. 

JB hit the most important bucket to put the Nets away. I don't think he's disengaged. He's a good player and an important player, but we can win without Brown having big games.

The team goes as far as Tatum takes them. He's on a different level from Brown. We can beat anyone with Tatum on the floor. If he's not the floor, we're just hanging on.

That’s not how the playoffs work. If it was, Lebron James would have 10 rings. Every great player needs an all star sidekick to win a title. Again, the C’s go as far as Tatum AND Brown take them.

[Donoghus]

Ever tried playing a sport with a jacked up ankle?

[Moranis]

Obviously you skew the numbers significantly if you include a 2 minute game, but that said, Brown is banged up a bit.  The team though goes as Tatum goes and always has.  Tatum is the guy the team needs to be playing.  Brown is almost irrelevant to Boston's record.

The Celtics have a .467 winning percentage in 15 games without Jaylen this year and a .635 winning percentage with him.

Your numbers are wrong, the C's are 8-7 without Jaylen playing at all and also won the 3 minute game, so are really 9-7 (56.25%) without him.  They are 31-20 (62.0%) with him playing a full game, which is obviously better, but not nearly as much as you might imagine.  And it was the Western Road trip in early December that really skew the numbers as Boston went 1-4 on that trip all without Brown (that was the 5 games in 8 nights with 2 separate back-to-backs).

I counted and have now recounted 7-8.  Going through the schedule maybe I mistallied, but I don't think I did, and I recommend you count again.  And I'm not sure how the West Coast trip skewed anything -- having Brown for those games might mean the C's would have won 1-2 more of them, particularly one of the games in LA, which is exactly my point that he does matter. 

So I'll use your accounting method with regards to giving him no credit vs. Atlanta.  That's .500 compared to .627, which is the difference between 8th place and 2nd place in the East.  That's a really big difference, and with Jaylen having missed 16 games, it's not merely small sample size.

Tatum is more important, I'm not arguing that.  But that doesn't mean Brown is unimportant.

Third counter chiming in, I'm getting the same as Moranis here:
Wins (9*): 10/24 @HOU, 11/10 vs. TOR, 11/12 vs. MIL, 11/15 @CLE, 11/19 vs. LAL, 11/20 vs. OKC, 12/4 @POR, 3/3 vs. MEM, *and throwing in 3/1 vs. ATL since he barely played
Losses (7): 11/6 @DAL, 11/13 @CLE, 11/17 @ATL, 12/3 @UTA, 12/7 @LAL, 12/8 @LAC, and 12/10 @PHO

Also weird to note, we're undefeated at home without Brown. Small sample sizes are wild.

Yep.  It is basically 1 win difference between having Brown and not having Brown.  So if they would have won 1 of those LA games and been 10-6 without him, they'd have basically the exact same win percentage with or without Brown.  This has been a pretty consistent trend since Brown joined the team as well.  Tatum is the engine driving the wins and losses.  The team is just bad without Tatum and is really good with him.  No one else on the team comes anywhere near that same affect, which is a good thing since Tatum is the guy that generally stays healthy and the other guys have not. 

[SHAQATTACK]

Play n hurt mostly imo

[smokeablount]

I look at this just the opposite.  We have been playing very well the last 5 or whatever games and in those games, Jaylen Brown has not played his best or even his average.  We have several seasons of track record, including an all-star selection to know what to expect from a healthy Jaylen Brown but people want to forget that and panic over 5 games of post injury play (which really hasn't even been all that bad, just not the all star level we have come to expect)?

The way I look at it is I know that Jaylen Brown is good and if we are this good with him playing subpar, think how good we are going to be when he inevitably returns to "normal".  This has been an up and down season for him for a variety of reasons (mostly due to injuries) but I am not about to give up on Jaylen Brown.  He is a really good player.  The focus should be to get him right for the playoffs, whatever that means.  Playing through it, rest, whatever, just get him right and let him do his thing.

I agree with all of this. I definitely don’t want to trade him and he definitely gets leeway for the ankle injury. He’s a huge asset for us.

I still think it’s fair to point out that he’s often looked like our weakest starter recently. He’s clearly behind Tatum. I think he’s behind Smart because elite defense and orchestrating an offense matter. I have him behind Rob because elite defense, efficiency and not turning the ball over matter. He’s probably been better than Al, but Al has looked great as of late and has been playing elite D and doing all the little things.

Calling it how you see it isn’t the same thing as being worried or down on JB. Maybe it’s nitpicking, but I think we’re a contender for the finals and JB is crucial to that kind of result, so I’m hoping he return to the top tier form that we’ve all seen from him.