When the Boston Celtics traded Marcus Smart, it was Jaylen Brown, the now longest tenured player on the Celtics, who declared that the team wouldn’t lose their defensive identity as a result of it.
“I want to make sure that’s where we hang our hats this year. And that starts with me; that starts with Jayson; with Marcus gone, we don’t want our defensive identity to go out the door as well, so we’ve got to really emphasize that at the start of training camp.”
Brown made a promise to himself to focus more on the defensive end of the court with a goal of being named to All-Defensive First Team this season:
“I feel like I’m playing some of the best defense of my career. I made a commitment before the season, I wanted to be first team [All-Defense] and I feel like I’ve been living up to that.”
Since last year’s playoffs, we’ve seen Brown take on more defensive assignments. In Game 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinals between Boston and Philadelphia, Brown met James Harden just before half court on the Celtics first defensive possession of the game, bringing the TD Garden crowd to their feet and making things rather challenging for Harden.
More recently, Brown matched up with Jamal Murray in a very physical game that the officials put the whistles in their pockets for. Murray had an outstanding game but there was a possession in the fourth quarter that stood out to me, as Brown was playing a hard brand of defense that I’ve never seen from him before.
Brown also recently guarded Luka Doncic, shutting him down on both ends of the court, actually. On defense, Brown held Doncic to only 2-of-6 shooting from the floor. Although Doncic scored 33-points in the game, he only scored five-points when defended by Brown and had one of his shots blocked by him.
Looking at the season as a whole, Brown has a 41.7 defensive field goal percentage, which ranks second in the NBA for the forward position at a minimum of 30 games played, per NBA Stats. The only player ahead of him is Kevin Durant at 41.1 percent, but Brown has played in five more games than Durant.
Brown leads the Celtics with 45 steals and has 26 blocks, accounting for 71 stocks on the season, which is the third-most on the team behind Derrick White (89) and Kristaps Porzinigis (86).
It may have sounded a little far fetched when Brown first declared himself to make All-NBA Defense this season, but he’s shown to be able to be a strong defender and wants the challenge of defending the best player on the opposing team. He’s one of the best at his position.
“I feel like I’m one of the better defenders in the league, if not the better defender in the league, so I feel like it’s a challenge that should be bestowed on me.”
Jaylen Brown to Abby Chin after defeating the Mavericks on Monday
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[…] coach Joe Mazzulla emphasized the importance of defense during training camp and the offseason. Jaylen Brown made a commitment to himself to make NBA All-Defense this season, also saying his teammates are […]
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