When the Boston Celtics used the No. 3 overall pick in the NBA Draft to select Jaylen Brown, some hairs were raised. Is Brown a reach? Does he fit on the Celtics? Why are they adding another guy who can’t shoot?
On the other side of the coin, you could absolutely see reasons why Boston decided to roll with the wiry wing at that spot. He’s athletic, long, defends multiple positions and seems like a very bright kid.
Well, Brown has played in four Summer League games thus far, and the early returns have been a mixed bag, much like the reviews of his selection on draft night. The 19-year-old is averaging 12.5 points, 5.2 rebounds, 1.8 steals and 1.2 blocks per game, and those numbers look pretty solid. However, he is shooting just 27.8 percent from the floor and is just 3-of-12 from three-point range.
Let’s get it into this.
First and foremost, we need to qualify Brown’s production thus far by noting that he hyperextended his knee in his debut and was forced to miss one game. The two contests that followed were both of Brown’s worst games thus far, scoring a combined 14 points on a 3-of-19 clip.
Yikes.
But in Brown’s other two outings, he dropped a combined 36 points on 6-of-18 shooting. The field goal efficiency looks ugly again, but here is the catch: this man (kid?) is living at the free throw line. In the two outings where Brown totaled 36 points, he went 23-of-34 from the charity stripe. That is absolutely insane, especially when you take into consideration that he played 28 and 30 minutes, respectively, in that pair of contests.
This is really nothing new for Brown, either. He was great at getting to the line in college, too, averaging 6.4 free throw attempts per game during his lone season at California.
This falls right in line with his insane athletic ability, which was on full display against the Dallas Mavericks on July 12 when he threw down this massive slam:
Check out the hang time Brown got on that dunk. Pretty darn impressive. Couple that with the fact that Brown has an explosive first step, and you can understand why he gets to the stripe so often.
So, it is entirely possible that the two poor performances that Brown put forth on July 9 and July 10 were due to the knee still giving him some issues, especially considering that it was a back-to-back. We don’t really know for sure, but it seems like a plausible explanation.
Regardless, there are some concerns here, too. Brown has missed some very makeable shots around the rim, which is something he had a bit of a problem with in college.
Of course, he is still extremely raw, so there is plenty of time for him to improve upon that. Take Avery Bradley, for example. He was a below-average finisher early in his career, but now, he is almost automatic near the basket.
Still, it is certainly something to keep an eye on as far as Brown is concerned. Being that he is not exactly the greatest outside shooter, his ability to finish at the cup is going to be vital to his offensive success, particularly as a rookie. He can always work on his jump shot and become a better shooter, but until then, making layups is going to be paramount for him.
Sure, some of that is mitigated by the fact that Brown is so adept at drawing fouls, but it would definitely be nice to see him finish through contact and put more touch on his layups.
The thought here is that Brown is such an impressive physical specimen that it will carry him through his first season in the league. He has not only shown his athleticism offensively, but defensively, too.
How about this nice block on Ben Simmons in his first Summer League game?:
Thanks to Brown’s leaping ability and his long wingspan, he was able to go up and swat that shot by the much bigger Simmons.
He has also shown the skills to be very disruptive defensively on the perimeter, and that is absolutely something Boston was banking on when it selected him in the draft. Brown’s physical tools allow him to guard several positions, and there is even a chance he might be able to guard some power forwards in small-ball lineups.
Make no mistake: there are going to be some growing pains here. We have already seen them in Summer League. Brown is going to struggle with his shot early on. He is going to struggle finishing. He is going to make errors on both ends of the floor.
But it’s a process with him, and we need to be patient, because he has the potential to develop into something special.
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