Jaylen Brown was asked if he thought mixing up the rotations so he could play more of the first quarter helped him against Golden State.
“Yeah, you could say that,” he answered.
Last season, Brown averaged 9.6 minutes of play in the first quarter, paired mostly with Kristaps Porzingis who played 9.8. Jayson Tatum averaged 9.1, often coming out around the six-minute mark and returning with two and change left on the clock. Of course, there were occasional variations, but Brown was generally Mr. First Quarter for Boston.
This year, Joe Mazzulla went with a tweak, giving Tatum 11.3 minutes per game in first quarters, a number brought down by a recent shift back to the old plan. Brown has been playing 8.4 to start games. That's led to a small dip in his first-quarter efficiency, with his overall shooting down 1.6% to start games.
“I'm usually the one that sets the tone for the team,” Brown said, continuing his answer to the initial question. “So sometimes not being out there, we kind of have a sluggish start, at different times in my career, that's been me to help negate that.
“But, different year, things get switched up and you just got to be alright with that. I don't really complain or anything, I just try to come out and be the best version of myself.”
It doesn't take a genius to see that Brown doesn’t like the tweak. No one says “I’m not complaining” without it actually being a complaint.
Mazzulla has his reasons for changing things, but he also has to be mindful of his team and who each guy is on a personal level. Brown is a great player, but he sees himself as someone who isn’t getting his full due. After winning the Larry Bird trophy as the Eastern Conference Final MVP, he said “I wasn’t expecting it at all. I don’t never win shit.” In a recent Instagram post, Brown posted a clip of himself dunking with the caption “I just want what I deserve.”
Brown won the ECF and NBA Finals MVP on his way to a championship and was on top of the world, but he was passed over for the Olympics, which very much bothered him. And now as the team tries to snag back-to-back titles, Brown is getting the early pull.
That means Mazzulla has been taking away his thing.
Brown has always bristled at being seen as second to Tatum. Any question that's ever been framed that way to him is answered in a way that puts him and Tatum on equal footing. Regardless of how the Celtics or his teammates see him, he has been constantly fighting the outside noise. And for his whole career, Brown has had to watch Tatum get almost every final shot in a close game.
Tatum has hit a few, but he’s also missed a lot. He hasn't hit enough to make him taking every last shot is a no-brainer. He hasn’t been so good at those shots that everyone just knows to defer to him because it makes sense. Tatum has had plenty of moments, but we have all bemoaned the lack of maximizing all of Boston’s options in these late-game situations.
Brown has never said anything publicly, but he has eyes. And there's no doubt that he feels like he can hit a few himself. He hit one in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals to save the Celtics and send the game to overtime.
Regardless, Brown’s role as decoy or second option in those situations has been minimized by him being the tone-setter. The one thing he could hang his hat on was being the guy who put up 15 points in the first quarter, gave his team a great boost to start games and let them jump in the moving car to win the race.
Taking that away from Brown may have been a mistake because now he’s watching Tatum have the big starts AND the big finishes.
Maybe Mazzulla decided to go away from that with Porzingis out of the lineup because he liked how Tatum and Al Horford worked together. That is a combination that has worked really well, and those two have a great relationship on and off the floor. Porzingis and Brown have that as well, so maybe Brown’s adjustment was made in the name of continuity and going with something proven to work.
Brown has done what he’s been asked to do. He mostly says the right things about it, even though his frustrations leak through the quotes pretty easily.
But now Porzingis is back, and he looks to be pretty close to his normal self. More than getting a starting unit that mostly struggled before the Warriors game back together, Mazzulla should get Brown back into his comfortable role of being Boston’s starting pitcher. Obviously, there are schedule quirks along the way that require adjustments, but Brown coming out of the gates hot is the best way to keep him engaged and get the team off to better starts. It will give the whole team more energy and the bench leads to protect.
Getting back to this rotation can help the Celtics get back to themselves. And if they get back to themselves with Brown as the first-quarter guy, he’ll get the credit he desires and deserves as part of Boston getting back to championship form.