Jaylen Brown is legendary for bettering yearly, but when there’s one space Boston followers would level to as one thing that wants just a little extra work, it’s his playmaking.
Brown has averaged roughly three and a half assists in every of the final 4 seasons. He hasn’t been stagnant throughout that point (final 12 months was his lowest turnover price in 4 years, and his 6.8 potential assists had been a slight career-high), however his enhancements on this offseason have been just a little extra pronounced.
“I’m obsessive about difficult myself,” Brown mentioned. “I sort of fell in love with it, so I’m all the time in search of new methods to enhance. And the wonderful thing about it’s that there’s a lot extra room for enchancment that I see in myself, and also you guys see it as nicely. I’ve been capable of accomplish so much whereas not even being in my greatest kind, so the room for development is there.”
Given final 12 months’s defensive enhancements, probably the most logical space for Brown to problem himself is together with his passing. We’ve seen some tantalizing glimmers within the preseason.
To start out with the uncooked numbers, Brown has 9 assists in 65 preseason minutes. That’s 5.0 assists per 36 minutes, above final 12 months’s regular-season common of three.8 assists per 36. That is by far probably the most per-minute assists he’s thrown in any preseason.
Whereas hardly statistically vital, it turns into extra spectacular when you think about that Brown is lacking his favourite working mate.
Final season, Brown threw extra assists to Kristaps Porzingis than anybody else on the staff, and I nervous that we would see some preliminary struggles as Brown adjusted to not having his favourite launch valve. As an alternative, Brown is already replicating that chemistry with Luke Kornet, Porzingis’ alternative by way of this preseason thus far.
The place Brown typically discovered Porzingis behind the road, he’s executed a masterful job of drawing the protection’s consideration earlier than rocketing a cross to Kornet beneath the rim (and Kornet deserves reward for his arms — a few of these balls have zip!). He has to place the proper quantity of velocity and peak on this cross to get previous Nikola Jokic’s sticky paws:
In whole, 4 of his 9 assists have gone to Kornet. Kornet has proven intelligent really feel slicing round Brown’s gravitational pull:
Brown has additionally thrown a number of glorious skip passes to reap the benefits of bent defenses. Though this doesn’t result in a bucket, it’s one other completely weighted cross, this time over the arms of a leaping Russell Westbrook:
Jaylen has additionally introduced the sauce, using an array of head fakes, no-looks, and look-aways. Even together with his turnovers, there was a transparent (and enjoyable!) imaginative and prescient:
We will’t make sweeping proclamations after just a few dozen preseason minutes, however in case you’re on the lookout for indicators of optimism, they’re simple to seek out. Brown’s on the spot reference to Kornet and enchancment in comparison with his historic box-score stats are encouraging. (Actually, the Celtics as a complete have been aiding teammates extra typically within the preseason than final 12 months’s common season, even after adjusting for tempo).
Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla ensures that this staff will keep hungry, however Brown hardly wants a pep discuss. As we’ve mentioned extensively, Brown could also be extra motivated than anybody after the summer time he’s had. Final 12 months’s NBA Finals, wherein Brown averaged 5 assists per sport, supplied a touch of what could be to return, and this preseason has solely additional whetted my urge for food. I’ll be watching intently to see if the chip on his shoulder interprets to extra dimes for his teammates.
