Happy Birthday Jaylen Brown!
Listen, people are not happy with Jaylen Brown right now. He hasn’t exactly started the season playing his best basketball, and not even I could deny that. The numbers aren’t pretty, whether it’s his shooting (34/33%), his defense, his advanced metrics, they all leave plenty of room for improvement. But I ask you to put that aside for a moment and join me in wishing Jaylen a happy 22nd birthday. Crazy how fast your kids grow up right? Feels like just yesterday he was a 20 year old prospect out of Cal that when he was taken #3 overall by Danny the entire internet called it a reach. Remember, this was his scouting report heading into the Draft
Now part of that is still true, mostly around the decision making. That’s still a work in progress. But the other two? It’s fun to look back at that because here’s how his shooting has translated to the NBA level
Year 1: 45/34% with a TS% of 53.9%
Year 2: 46/39% with 1.7 3PM and a TS% of 56.2%
The idea that Jaylen can’t shoot is long but dead in my opinion. It officially ended when he got his first real shot in the playoffs last year and put up 18/4.8/1.4 with 46/39% splits and 2.4 3PM. For whatever reason, and maybe it’s because of the addition of a different 20 year old basketball prodigy, whenever Jaylen struggles people are so quick to give up on him, and it makes me scratch my head. Maybe realize he’s a 22 year old wing with a huge ceiling and has really only played 1 legit year of NBA basketball where he’s been given real minutes?
Anyway, I don’t want to spend this blog trying to defend someone who doesn’t really need defending. Jaylen is a huge piece of this puzzle moving forward, so instead I want to spend a few minutes on his birthday reminding everyone who wants him traded, or benched or whatever that you sound foolish. Don’t take my word for it, just see for yourself
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Crazy how different our lives were at age 22. Jaylen out here ready to take over the East and become one of the better two way SGs in the NBA, and I was making 100 cold calls a day trying to sell Colorado Rapids of the MLS season tickets. I feel like he wins that comparison by a hair.