Brown: "coach Stevens says I'll spend some time this season guarding 1s and 2s"

[CelticsElite]

Putting this prediction out there now

BS will try to counter the current NBA small ball trend by playing a big wing lineup. We actually saw a little of this in the summer league when the team had Nader running the point against the Lakers. That was a failed experiment but with the right players I think it works.

Example.

When the Cavs go with
Irving, Smith, Korver, Lebron and Love
Cs counter
Brown, Hayward, Crowder, Morris and Horford

this places greater length on the court without sacrificing much mobility or any spacing. As Tatum develops he will work perfectly in this lineup replacing Crowder or Morris and his offense will put alot of pressure on the opposing team.

In the above lineups the Irving matchup stands out as a problem area however in a slower half court playoff game Brown can use his length to contest Irving and he has proven to have great feet for a player his size. This lineup also takes away the P&R as the switches are rather seamless. On offense who does Irving guard?

You make a good point. I think Irving would guard Crowder because he is the least likely to use the size against him than the others.

nice point indeed

Tatum has the potential to make this lineup even more potent. Replace Crowder with Tatum and I think Irving has to guard Brown. Basically who ever Korver and Irving is guarding will have a major advantage. This past season the Cs did not have a single match up advantage vs the Cavs.

[JHTruth]

Not all that surprising. The Celtics organization as a whole has spent the last year talking up Jaylen Brown. They clearly believe in him. Moving their starting SG in a year they want to compete for the east is just more proof they think he can step up. He played his best ball last year when he started in place of Bradley. Starting him at the 2 keeps them from having to exhaust Isaiah or Heyward against the opposing teams best perimeter offensive threat while providing enough shooting to space the floor. We'll see what they do to start the season but by the end of the year it wouldn't surprise me to see Jaylen be the starting two.

Jaylen's rookie advanced stats compare favorably to Jimmy Butler's rookie year so hopefully Brown can make a big leap this year with increased playing time.

[JHTruth]

For Jaylen to get the starting guard spot, he has to be able to hit open 3 point shots at a higher clip.  Otherwise teams will stack inside, which will hurt IT's ability to penetrate.

JB actually hits the three at about a 34% rate. That's not terrible by any stretch and right in line with most SG's in the league. He can improve of course but its not like he's god awful. Smart shoots 28%.

[saltlover]

For Jaylen to get the starting guard spot, he has to be able to hit open 3 point shots at a higher clip.  Otherwise teams will stack inside, which will hurt IT's ability to penetrate.

JB actually hits the three at about a 34% rate. That's not terrible by any stretch and right in line with most SG's in the league. He can improve of course but its not like he's god awful. Smart shoots 28%.

He also shot 44% from the corner.  If defenses let him get open in that spot, it's a pretty reliable 3 points for the Celtics.

[mgent]

Considering we currently have:

3 PGs (IT, Smart, Rozier)
2 PFs (Horford, Theis)
2 Cs (Zizic, Baynes)
and 8 SFs (everyone else)

....I'd say yeah, Brown will play some SG, especially considering he's the smallest/quickest of our forwards.  Smart can't play all the minutes.  And obviously when in the backcourt with IT he might have to guard the opposing PG.

You have to expect Rozier and Brown would be our 3rd and 4th guards while Smart and IT play major minutes and Hayward, Crowder and Morris split all the forward minutes (with Tatum or Yabu trying to earn whatever is left).