Jaylen Brown, Taking pictures Guard
Related Particulars: 6’6”, wears #7. Proprietor of the costliest piece of paper in NBA historical past.
Excessive-end prediction: Armed with 300 million {dollars}, Brown takes one other leap, shoring up his deal with and cementing himself as one of many ten most dominant gamers within the league. He joins Jayson Tatum on the All-NBA First Workforce, turning into the primary teammates to try this since Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal.
Affordable prediction: Due to his sturdiness, he simply clears the 65-game threshold for All-NBA honors and earns one other Second Workforce nod. Nobody actually thinks he’s a bona fide prime ten man, however he continues to be the premier second possibility within the NBA. A cleaner dribble assures Celtics followers of the value the workforce paid for his companies, however nothing actually revolutionary occurs.
Low-end prediction: Historical past repeats itself, and Jaylen winds up the trilogy of turnover-happy postseasons. Gone are the times when Celtics followers had been frightened Brown wouldn’t re-sign. Now, they’re left questioning if the workforce ought to have re-signed him in any respect.
Photograph by Megan Briggs/Getty Photographs
Brown’s 2023-2024 season will probably be outlined by three phrases: “are we positive?”
Are we positive he’s ok to be the second-best participant on a title workforce? Are we positive he was price all $300+ million of assured cash the Celtics shelled out for him? Are we positive he even likes it in Boston?
My reply to all three of these questions is… in all probability sure.
However in all probability is a tough phrase to abdomen, particularly for a workforce perennially knocking on the door of an NBA title. However, Jaylen Brown is a very powerful participant on the Celtics.
(audible gasp)
He’s not the perfect participant, neither is he going to be taking the final shot with a playoff sport on the road—that may be Marcus Sm…I imply Jayson Tatum.
However with Good gone, Brown is now the straw that stirs the drink, which for the previous couple of years has tasted like an artificially sweetened Coke Zero that somebody left open on the window sill all day. For a second, you don’t even understand it’s not actual sugar. However then the aftertaste comes, and over time the bubbles go flat. The solar torches the chilly, crisp style and turns it right into a syrupy, lukewarm mess.
The Celtics have come inside seven complete video games of a championship within the two years mixed. Inevitably, one begins asking questions as to win stated video games.
These questions have usually caught Jaylen immediately within the crosshairs. Can he dribble left? Is he actually price all that cash?
That every one sounds very unfavourable, however don’t mistake questions for an identifiable difficulty. Jaylen isn’t the Celtics’ greatest drawback, however somewhat their greatest query mark. As a result of he’s so critically essential—however not fairly non-negotiable like Tatum—the questions swirling about Brown really feel like they’ve world-ending penalties.
In fact, they don’t have world-ending penalties. That is basketball, not a world struggle, and it’s actually price questioning if the scrutiny levied on Jaylen is definitely all that proportional. So for now, I’m accomplished asking questions. Let’s see it.
