Fencer reregistered wrote:“The main thing about J.B. is every year he’s gotten so much better,” White said. “He’s just reading the game better. I think maybe before he got sped up and wasn’t really reading it, but now you can’t really speed him up. And he’s just making the right reads time and time again. That’s big time for us.
“He has an innate ability to just get better and to work hard, motivation, he has unreal confidence, but he’s also not afraid to work on things that he knows he has to get better at,” coach Joe Mazzulla said. “So you see him every day at shoot around or practice, he’s out there with six or seven coaches working on every possession, every spacing imaginable so that he sees his reads. He just cares about the right stuff.”
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5517246/2024/05/24/celtics-jaylen-brown-all-nba-snub/
Great post! What has really annoyed me over past 2 years is how this forum turned against him even though he is a guy who works so hard to get better every year. His conditioning and athletic ability is top notch but instead of relying on that he has really added to his game every year. He was all NBA last year and got rewarded with largest contract in NBA history and what did he do? He got better and made arguably the biggest leap in his career to date. Not only does he get better every year….but he steps up his game in playoffs every year too. Sure, he looked bad against Heat in ECF last year…..but compare his stats in the 2 previous series to the next MJ (Ant) this year and see how great he was. How do you root against a guy like that (from a pure basketball point of view)?
The idea of trading a 26 yo like that for a 35 yo franchise killer like Durant (which would have meant including White/Smart and 3 #1 picks) was mind boggling to me. The narrative of Kyrie dragging down Durant has really been turned on its ear this season seeing Kyrie about to get to finals and another embarrassing first round sweep for Durant.
JB has been to ECF 6 times in his 8 year career. He has been there with and without Horford, IT, Kyrie, Gordon, Kemba, Smart, and Tatum too. He is the only common denominator to all ECF appearances during the Brad era - not saying he is the main reason for most of them but he was a big part in all of those runs. The only first round exit for Celtics during his career - he didn’t play because of a surgery. He is a proven winner many times over. Now let’s see he and Tatum get a ring.
"I think the criticism's stupid," Stevens said. "So I don't care. I'm with Jaylen (Brown) on that. Those two had achieved more than most 25 and 26 year olds ever had. I'd rather be in the mix and have my guts ripped out than suck."