When a group is trying to figure something out, the entire group doesn’t catch on at the same time. Generally speaking, one or two people have the “a ha” moment and the rest pick it up at their own pace. Some get it right away, others take some time.
Jaylen Brown has taken a little more time.
With new guys in critical roles, all of whom can score the ball, it’s been on Brown to adjust perhaps more than any other returning Celtic.
“Definitely a different team from last year,” Brown said after the win over Atlanta. “All of us have been adjusting, trying to figure out what this team needs to win. … We still have a lot to improve on, we still haven't played our best basketball yet.”
Boston’s best basketball, and I guess you can say the best basketball in general, happens when the ball moves. It doesn’t have to be full-on 2014 “beautiful game” San Antonio Spurs (though that would be nice). It just had to be more than what it had been. And a lot of that fell on Brown.
After some struggles in the early going trying to find his footing, Brown has taken some of the flashes he’s shown in earlier games and put them together for two of his best performances of the season. Against Milwaukee and Atlanta, Brown has flashed a better passing sense than we’ve seen in a while … maybe ever.
“I think I’ve grown a lot. I think I’m a better basketball player than I’ve been in recent years,” Brown said. “A lot of hockey assists, getting the ball to the right places, allowing our team to have a good flow, good offense. But me, it’s also about maintaining that balance of when to make those plays and then also be that killer and be aggressive when I need to. And I’m still figuring out that balance.”
According to NBA tracking data, Brown is averaging 27.4 passes per game, leading to 3.4 assists, 0.6 secondary assists (hockey assists, or the pass that leads to the assist), and 6.8 potential assists (any pass to a teammate who shoots within one dribble of receiving the ball). Brown has created, on average, 9.4 points per game via his assists.
But Brown has seen a noticeable bump in his numbers over the last three games. He has passed the ball 37 times per game, leading to 4.3 assists, 0.7 secondary assists, and 10.3 potential assists. Brown has created, on average, 13.3 points per game via his assists.
The beauty of these numbers isn’t just that Brown seems to be seeing the floor better, getting off the ball sooner, and it’s benefiting the team. It’s that he’s doing it all without it impacting his own personal offense so far.
Over his first 13 games, Brown averaged 21.3 points per game, shooting 17.8 times per game at 44.8%. He took seven 3-pointers per game, hitting 34%.
Over his last three games, Brown is at 21.7 points per game with 19 field goal attempts at 43.9%. He’s taking 6.7 3-pointers per game, hitting 35%. Bear in mind, this includes an awful shooting performance against the Orlando Magic.
Yes, Brown’s scoring average is down five points from last season, but the 26.6 he averaged was on 20.6 shots per game. This three-game stretch he’s on only sacrifices one of those shots in the name of better passing and ball movement.
The net effect of these past three games, and a big lesson to Brown, is that it’s possible to sacrifice just a little of his own offense in order to make the entire team better. And when he looks at his newfound best buddy Kristaps Porzingis and how much he’s been giving up, it might be pretty easy to live with one or two fewer shots if it means the entire offense is clicking.
Brown’s passing has ranged from the simple to the advanced, and in this stretch, all of it is important.
For example, this most basic, simple, forgettable pass to Derrick White.
It might seem like nothing, but instead of holding the ball himself and going against a set Bucks defense, this little hit ahead to White now takes advantage of Damian Lillard’s deficiencies and it pushes the ball past two defenders who now have to worry about what’s next. This is pushing the pace. This is about tempo and playing the style of basketball we want to see, not Brown trying to run set plays at the top of the key.
Then he did this with Porzingis:
It’s constant motion. Brown wants the ball, but he doesn’t force the issue, he just rolls with the play, reads the defense, and makes the exact right pass, understanding Brook Lopez is completely focused on him. Maybe in the past Brown tries to challenge Lopez at the rim. This time he makes the easy play.
Here’s a situation where Brown hasn’t been his best in the past. He gets blitzed off the pick and roll but he doesn’t try to dribble through it or around it. He just gets the ball to the right guy and Neemias Queta gets himself a nice up-and-under lay up. Bonus points for the old school post move which warms my crusty heart.
“Teams are going to continue to try to take away certain things from me and being patient enough to find the right reads and find our guys in stride getting open looks, I think that, one, builds confidence for our team, but also puts a lot of pressure on other team's defenses,” Brown said. “If I get the ball, I'm aggressive every time I touch it while also having the patience to see when to go, when not to go and who's open. So it's just a balance.”
This is a good example of all that:
Brown is using his full gravity to draw four and kick it to the corner. This isn’t some half-cocked drive against the entire Hawks team. He’s under complete control, he sees everyone collapsing, and he fires it to the corner. Beautifully done.
Okay, so those are the assists, how about the other stuff? He makes this corner 3-pointer happen with a post-up that draws two:
Brown deserves a ton of credit for this play because once he got the second defender, the ball was out of his hands. The cut from Dalano Banton occupied a defender in the paint, and the ball swung quickly to the corner for Sam Hauser. Once Brown got rid of the ball, the Hawks were in rotation and they never recovered.
This play really stood out to me because it’s right up Brown’s alley. He has the ball in the open court, Giannis Antetokounmpo is in front of him, There's no back-line defender, and Lillard is in help to Brown’s right.
So his strong hand is open, there's no other rim protection, and Brown is going downhill against a megastar he’s posterized before. This is a classic setup for a highlight attempt.
Instead, Brown recognizes Lillard has to guard two guys, so he draws Giannis back up and swings it to Jayson Tatum, who then whips it to White for the corner 3. Tatum gets the assist, but that play is entirely created by Brown. That might be one of my favorite plays from Brown because of how much it flies in the face of what he’d normally do and the Celtics were rewarded for it.
Actually, this play might join it, which might seem weird, but I think you’ll get it.
He draws two on the pick-and-roll and finds Al Horford on the roll. Great read. Great timing. The pass is a little hot and Horford is off balance, so he kicks it to Tatum in the corner. Antetokounmpo recovers, so the ball swings to Jrue Holiday, who sees two Bucks bearing down on him, so he swings it back to …
… Jaylen Brown.
I love this play because Brown was rewarded for moving the ball with a shot attempt, and that's something he needs from time to time. This play showed him that moving the ball means getting it back sometimes, and that can sometimes be all the reward a guy needs to do the right thing.
Make the right read, make the right play, move the ball, move yourself. And as I always love to say, when those things happen, the right guys will get the right stats.
The Bucks and Hawks games have stood out as Brown’s best overall performances this season. He started a little slow, and there's still a bit of a learning process going on (we are, after all, only 16 games into the season), but Brown is showing that he’s figuring it out.
“It's definitely new challenges, new team, new teammates,” Brown said. “But I'm always up to a challenge. I love learning. Basketball is something that you continue to learn and grow at, so I'm having fun.”
If this is how he plays the rest of the season, the Celtics won’t lose many more games.