Boston Celtics wing Jaylen Brown is entering the most interesting season of his decade-long career. Brown is expected to be the No. 1 offensive option on an NBA team for the first time since he entered the NBA.
While the circumstances that led to this situation were far from ideal, Brown has an opportunity in front of him to prove a lot of people wrong.
There’s an illusion that Brown will have to score 30 points per game in 2025-26 to keep the Celtics competitive. Such an assumption undervalues the shooting abilities of Derrick White, Payton Pritchard, and Anfernee Simons, each of whom can go for a 30-piece on any given night.
For Brown, leading the Celtics without Tatum by his side will involve addressing his main weaknesses: ball-handling and decision-making. To be a nightly hub for Boston’s offense, Brown needs to limit his turnovers off the dribble and become a higher-IQ passer.
Some fans will scoff at the idea of Brown making these adjustments this late in his career, but the guy still hasn’t turned 29 years old yet, and he’s shown every single year that he adds something to his game in the offseason.
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The temptation will be there for Brown to chuck shots and lean into his “alpha” role, but that won’t help the Celtics, and it ultimately won’t make Brown look good.
To prove his detractors wrong, Brown must harness his offensive gifts in a way he never has before, all while remaining a physical force on the defensive end. And he must do it every night.
If JB can pull that off, he’ll definitely have earned his No. 20 NBA player ranking that The Ringer bestowed on him this week.
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“With three-fifths of their starting lineup gone, the Celtics are in a prime position to punt on this season, reap a high draft pick, and chalk it up as a gap year … unless Brown has something to say about it,” The Ringer’s Justin Verrier wrote, providing some context to Brown’s ranking.
“If you had one word to describe the former Finals MVP, it’d probably be headstrong,” Verrier added. “His intense determination helped fuel his rise from mega-raw athlete to one of the best two-way wings in the game, but it also leads him to play with more main-character energy than his wobbly ballhandling can sustain.”
“When Jayson Tatum tore his Achilles in last year’s playoffs, you could almost hear Brown’s internal monologue: I got this,” Verrier continued. “Whether he has the requisite playmaking chops to keep Boston in the playoff chase is a major question, but Brown at least has the scoring juice to make it interesting—if he wants to.”
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With Tatum not included in The Ringer’s rankings due to his health status, Brown was the highest-ranked Celtics player on the list.