The Boston Celtics lost most of their defensive identity this offseason in trading away Marcus Smart, Grant Williams, and Robert Williams, but that can’t be the excuse for a lack of defense this season and the entire team knows it.

During Celtics media day, Jaylen Brown expressed that he is challenging himself to become the best defender in the world and he believes it’s an attainable goal when he’s “dialed in.”

“Personally, for me, I think that at different points in my career, I’ve been able to display my defensive ability, but not enough. I think that when I’m dialed in, I could be one of the better defenders in the world, and that’s something I’m challenging myself with.”

Brown had the second-lowest defensive rating on the team last year with 111.4 and the Celtics finished with with third best defensive rating in the NBA last season with 111.5.

Head coach Joe Mazzulla also mentioned the importance of playing defense during media day and that he didn’t emphasize it enough last season because playing defense at a high level is “obvious.”

“Defense is what gets you in the door. Defense is the admission ticket… Maybe that’s because I sucked at offense so I had to play defense. No one had to remind me to play defense.”

We’ve seen Brown play defense at a high level but it needs to be a consistent element in his game and the same can be said for the rest of the team.

Even more so with the loss of Smart, Rob, and Grant this offseason.

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