Jaylen Brown Will Once Again Enter This Season As The Celtics Most Important Player
NBA Photos. Getty Images.When I say things like this, I notice that there are people out there that tend to get a little confused. Let me start off this blog by explaining what I mean before we dive in.
Most important player DOES NOT equal best player.
Jayson Tatum is this team's best player. It's not even relatively close. But if you were to talk about the importance to the Celtics success this season, the most important player on the roster is Jaylen Brown.
Personally, I don't consider this take all that hot. It's how I felt last season and I believe in it even more as we enter the 2020-21 season. Obviously, the leap we saw Jayson Tatum make last season was huge, and if the Celts are ever going to get to the top of the mountain, shit like that has to keep happening. But I could argue that the leap Jaylen took last season and should be making this season is even more important to the team's ceiling.
I don't think it's a stretch to say that Jaylen still sort of flies under the radar. But when you really sit down and look into the player he's developing into, you'd be pretty surprised. Let's start by taking a step back and looking at Jaylen's season in comparison to the rest of the league last year. If you had to guess, how many players put up at least 20.3/6.4/2.1 on 48/38% splits? What if I told you this was the entire list
1. Karl-Anthony Towns
2. John Collins
3. Jaylen Brown
That's it. That's the entire list. You'll notice, neither of those other two players are wings. So right off the bat, Jaylen is doing something pretty rare in terms of the rest of the entire goddamn NBA. Feels like we should be making a bigger deal about that no? Now let's narrow things down in terms of where Jaylen ranks in a couple of important areas within his own team.
Clutch Time Performance
If the playoffs told us anything, it's that often times this team can struggle in the clutch. My theory is because they aren't using the right players in these moments. If you look at the regular season last year, players like Tatum, Kemba, Smart, and Hayward all took more clutch FGA on average than Jaylen.
That's an issue because outside of Tatum (50/35%), Jaylen Brown was the second best clutch time shooter on the roster (44/41%). He has shown us time and time again that he can be trusted in these big moments
With Hayward gone and Kemba out, think of how much attention is going to be put on Jayson Tatum in these moments. This is where the importance of Jaylen Brown's effectiveness comes into play. He's going to have to continue this type of production in these high pressure moments for the team to truly succeed.
Efficiency
Once again, keep in mind that this offense is now without Hayward and Kemba. The team has to score somehow right? Well they just lost two extremely efficient players in the midrange game. Being able to penetrate into the paint and finish in other ways than at the rim is extremely important. That midrange area is a big part of this team's offense. Kemba shot 50% in the midrange and Hayward 49.3%. By comparison, Tatum shot 38%. He's still not all that great in that area.
Jaylen? He shot 42%. As his handle continues to improve, you're going to see him get into that area more and more this season. I'd say it is VERY important that he is able to get closer to the Kemba/Hayward percentage.
Then there's the corners. A huge part of this teams offense is drive and kick. Well, there might not be a better corner three shooter on the entire roster. Jaylen shot 47% from the left corner and 50% from the right. If Tatum is going to assume a lot of the primary playmaking duties while Kemba is out, and this team continues to run a bunch of high P&R, Jaylen's ability to knock down that corner three is going to be a gigantic need for this offense.
Playoff Production
It's getting to the point where it's almost impossible to deny that Jaylen Brown is the most consistent playoff performer on the roster. He may not have as high as ceiling as Tatum, but I could argue that he's been the most consistent playoff performer in his three appearances since becoming a regular rotation player
Year 1 (2017-18): 18/4.8/1.4 on 46/39%
Year 2 (2018-19): 13.9/5.8/1.1 on 50/35%
Year 3: (2019-20): 21.8/7.5/2.3 on 47/35%
Even in the disaster season that was 2018, in that brutal MIL series he still put up 16/5 on 45.5% shooting. We don't really have an example of Jaylen having an 0-8 start or any of that bullshit. The dude put up 23.3/7.2/2.8 on 55.5/52.5% in the ECF against MIA for example. He never had a game under 42.9% and was finished with at least 57% shooting in 4 of the 6 games.
Role
We all know Tatum is the #1 guy. He's the main piece. But when you are that type of talent, you sort of expect the rise we're seeing over these last few seasons. I firmly believe what allows the Celts to be where they are is the fact that Jaylen is taking just as big of a leap while still being the #2 or #3 option. It's his development that really unlocks this team's potential. Getting All Star type production from your #3 isn't all that common around the league.
Well, now with Kemba out it's even more important that Jaylen not only replicates his 2019 season but takes it up another level. If Tatum takes a leap but Jaylen regresses or doesn't improve, this team is fucked. That's what I mean when I say Jaylen is the most important Celtic. It's his development that takes this roster over the top. Without it, especially this season, this team will be dead in the water even if Tatum takes another leap to become a top 10 player.
When you ask someone who might not follow the Celts who is the key to their success, almost everyone will say Jayson Tatum because he's their best player. But if you look closer at this team's improvement over the last three seasons, it's pretty clear that the development of Jaylen Brown is the biggest factor. Yes, Tatum becoming a top 5-10 guy is the key to this team ultimately winning a championship, but without the progress of Brown to go alongside it, this team won't get there.