Earlier this week, we looked at three questions facing Jayson Tatum heading into the new season. Today, we turn our attention toward Jaylen Brown. Let’s dive in.
1. Will Brown become the primary Point Of Attack defender?
Brown often stepped up to guard the opposing team’s best player last season. He thrived on the challenge—he wanted the challenge—and he crushed it when given the assignment. Furthermore, he was one of the Boston Celtics’ most consistent defenders—on a team with Jrue Holiday and Derrick White.
"It’s powerful, what that does for our team, how much better it makes us seeing him take the challenge of guarding the best guard on the other team,” Tatum said during a news conference back in March. “Picking him up full court, chasing him around all night, it has an impact on the rest of the team and really gives everybody else no excuses.”
Here are Brown’s defensive numbers by play type, per Synergy.
As you can see, Brown’s two primary defensive roles last season were guarding the PnR ball-handler and dealing with spot-up shooters. He excelled when guarding isolation plays and post-ups. He struggled with defending or tagging the roll man.
Overall, though, Brown was average to above average in pretty much every defensive scenario which is impressive when you consider the level of talent he was dealing with in each of these instances.
To contextualize, we have to factor in that these weren’t role players Brown was guarding; often, they were some of the best players in the world.
To hold that type of elite talent to league-average production is remarkable and proof that Brown can become Boston’s star defender if allowed to continue developing on that side of the floor.
Interstingly, Brown ranked marginally higher than Holiday in Defensive Estimated Plus/Minus.
However, he fell marginally short of surpassing White’s impact on the defensive end.
Nevertheless, Brown has all the tools to become the Celtics’ primary point of attack defender.
- He’s athletic
- Has solid length
- He can move his feet at speed
- Great change of direction
- Explosive
- Solid screen navigation
- Can guard multiple positions, arguably 1-through-4
Now, let’s look at some film.
Take a look at this play from game two of the NBA Finals. Brown initially picks up Daniel Gafford, trailing the play and looking to flow straight into a side PnR with Kyrie Irving. Brown and White (who is initially guarding Kyrie) switch the action, putting Brown on Dallas’ All-Star ball-handler.
