Things have changed a lot in the NBA in recent years. Once upon a time, Jaylen Brown would be seen as a sports hero right now, gutting his way through regular season games and trying to figure out a way to be effective in the playoffs. Playing through pain was a badge of honor.
Now it’s a negative.
“I've never experienced it the other way around, where I'm playing and people are encouraging me not to,” Brown said after dropping a gem Friday night against the Phoenix Suns. “I think pain is definitely a physical thing, but it's also a mental thing.”
The physical part of it is going to be part of Brown’s reality for a while. He hasn’t, and according to him, can’t share specifics about what’s actually going on with his knee. The only thing he can say is it hurts.
“There's no guarantee, honestly, that rest is going to make anything better,” Brown said. “I wish it would, but it's kind of the cards that are laid out."
And so Brown is getting to work on the mental part of it. As a loud chorus of voices, my own included, has questioned the motivation behind Brown’s insistence on playing, Brown is taking advantage of an otherwise meaningless stretch of basketball to not only push through the pain, but figure out what parts of his game he can carry forward into the playoffs and which need adjusting.
“I probably relied on my athleticism a lot this season,” Brown said. “(Now I’m) using more of my skill, playing a little bit slower, which can sometimes be a good thing. So it's all about just figuring that out, and I've been using these games to kind of figure it out, and just take it one day at a time.”
His performance has been somewhat up and down with rough nights in San Antonio and Sacramento sandwiching a nice night in Phoenix during this past road trip. He put up nice numbers in a loss to Miami but didn’t look all that sharp doing it. The Suns rematch Friday night looked better, but it was clear Brown was holding back.
“(There were plays where) he normally probably would've dunked it,” Jayson Tatum acknowledged. “Maybe he was just being cautious or whatever. We still play the way that we normally do and things like that. Just trying to maximize his usage to a certain extent while he's out there."
Brown’s adjustments are gradual. There is some trial and error going on, trying to figure out what might work in certain situations. For that, he turned to one of the fans in attendance.
“It’s funny because he was at the game today, but before the game, I was watching some Paul Pierce footage,” Brown said “Just getting to your spots, playing at a certain pace. And today I felt like I didn't have my normal burst, but I was still able to be effective.”
This could end up being beneficial for Brown. Tapping into other parts of his game could be the basketball version of other heightened senses when one of them is lost. Luckily, the team is in a position to let him find his way.
“Joe (Mazzulla) has allowed me, even though my team physically can see maybe I'm in a bit of pain that they trust me to go out there and I can control my body and still be able to make plays and mentally be able to kind of push through it,” Brown said. “I think that's going to be something I'm going to have to have in my back pocket, so I've been just utilizing these games in order to feel things out. Things will get better, I'm sure, but if they don't, I still have a good feel for where my baseline is at.”
Mazzulla understands that letting Brown figure this out is in everyone’s best interest.
“I appreciate Joe because he’s given me grace even though, like, he’s letting me feel through it,” Brown said. “He kind of understands where it’s at and he’s letting me play through some stuff. Even last game, I took some ill-advised shots, and that was just a part of me trying to figure out where I can go.
“I still want him to hold me to that same standard but I appreciate Joe for the communication and stuff like that. And it’s good to have that now rather than trying to figure it out once everything is on the line. So I think it’s important to kind of build that and I think that’s what we have, that communication.”
This is where the NBA coach/player relationship shows itself. It’s more of a partnership than it is boss/employee.
“(I have) a responsibility to make the game easy for him regardless of what the situation is,” Mazzulla said. “But to me, it’s more about trust. There’s no one that understands his body, there’s no one that prepares mentally, physically the way that he does. … He’s doing a really good job of handling it. He’s doing a good job of managing it.”
The process of managing this injury, whatever it really is, is an ongoing process. There are five games left in the regular season, and then all excuses are off the table. It’s a crash course in pain management and playing without his signature burst and athleticism. Brown is optimistic, but also realistic, about how things will play out.
“I'm still hoping that we got some stuff that we're looking to do to make myself feel a lot better going into the playoffs,” he said. “I'm still learning, so every day, I'm just taking it one day at a time. Obviously, I haven't felt my best over the last couple of days, the last couple of weeks, but you kind of just got to roll with the punches, I guess. It is what it is. It sucks. I wish I could share more details, but whatever my team needs, whatever I can do, whatever I got, I'm gonna give.”