The Next Generation: Jaylen Brown

Every season the draft brings a fresh infusion of talent to the NBA. In theory this is an even, steady process. In practice, hindsight and historical perspective show that there are borders and boundaries — talent doesn’t just arrive in the NBA, it arrives in generational waves. Sometimes we can’t see these aesthetic dividing lines for decades, sometimes you simply can’t miss them.

The present day NBA appears to be on the cusp of welcoming a remarkable new generation to its forefront — players who are not just incredible but incredibly unique. Players who will not just excel but transform the roles and responsibilities of basketball players as we understand them. Over the course of this week, The Step Back will be examining many of the players who could figure prominently in The Next Generation. Not every player we turn our attention to is destined to be a star, but all could play a role in defining the future of the NBA. Read the whole series here.

Art by Matthew Hollister /

The Next Generation: Jaylen Brown

Jaylen Brown, the third overall pick in last year’s draft, was thrust into a situation very different from many of his peers at the top of the draft. Most top-flight rookies have the opportunity to develop in a losing situation, where their mistakes aren’t magnified because the organization around them isn’t as worried about results night in and night out. Brown, drafted by the Celtics, had no such grace period; he was immediately expected to either produce or be nailed to the bench in favor of the veterans ahead of him on the depth chart. Brown’s development is important to the Celtics, but their goals for this season are much loftier.

Being thrown into the fire after just one year at Cal has produced mixed results, as one would expect from a rookie. He’s a great finisher around the basket but sometimes eschews an easier pass for a heavily contested layup. He’s had trouble remembering the plays and executing them properly, though that’s improving with every passing game. He makes the same mistakes all rookies make, but the foundation of a very good NBA player is already apparent. He explodes on his drives and takes the ball confidently to the rim. Even though the finishing numbers haven’t quite been there for someone with his athleticism, the touch and feel around the basket should develop as he gets more experience in the league.

Brown’s greatest strength is the thing for which every team is looking: versatility. With the rise of shape-shifting combo forwards, having a starter-level talent who can switch gears from playing on the wing to banging down low is as important a role as any a player can have in the NBA. Not even a year into his career, Brown has already shown not only the ability to outpace larger players and outmuscle smaller ones but also the wisdom to know when he has the advantage and how best to exploit it. That’s not to say he’s a perfect decision maker (he’s far from it), but Brad Stevens and the coaching staff make his intermittent time on the floor much easier by running specific plays for him when he has a good matchup.

He’s a good finisher on cuts and in transition, where his athleticism shines, but the real gem of Brown’s young game is his ability in the post. The Celtics love to get him touches on the block, especially when a team doesn’t have a point guard capable of guarding Isaiah Thomas.

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope has to guard Thomas, which leaves Reggie Jackson to find another matchup. Normally, putting Jackson on a rookie would be a great place to hide him, but Brown takes him right into the post and hits the turnaround jumper.

Once again, watch how the Celtics run an explicit action to get Brown the ball in the post against a point guard.

The Celtics haven’t been shy about throwing Brown out there in a big lineup; his second-most used lineup is Thomas-Brown-Jae Crowder-Amir Johnson-Al Horford, where Brown is nominally playing the shooting guard position, and the Celtics use these lineups as opportunities to get him touches in the post against defenders like Irving who have no chance of matching his size and strength.

The majority of Brown’s opportunities come in spot-up situations, whether he’s catching and shooting a 3-pointer or driving past a recovering defender. Brown was never known for his shooting prowess in college and is very much a work-in-progress in that area. Digging into the numbers, Brown averages just 0.83 points per possession on catch-and-shoot spot up jumpers, worse than 85 percent of the league. Unsurprisingly, he excels when he’s able to drive to the basket, scoring 1.176 points per possession on drives off spot ups, better than almost 70 percent of his peers. Even when Alex Abrines doesn’t close all the way out to him, begging him to shoot, watch how Brown sizes him up and then goes right through him for the layup.

He catches with six seconds left on the shot clock and is immediately open for the jumper. Abrines breaks down into his defensive stance early, but Brown pauses, takes one dribble and then explodes into Abrines’ body, finishing through the contact for three points the hard way.

Improving his outside shot will open up these drives tremendously; if defenders have to close out all the way to the 3-point line, Brown will have a much easier time driving past them. In the above clip, Abrines stops his closeout four or five feet short, where he wouldn’t be able to actually contest the shot if Brown rose up. It’s working for now, but if Brown wants to take the next step offensively, improving his 3-point is the most important step. It’s unlikely that he’ll ever be an elite 3-point shooter, as almost every elite 3-point shooter in the NBA hit a high percentage of their free throws in college; Brown hit a measly 65.4 percent of his free throws during his one year at Cal.

Defensively, Brown flashes that same size and athleticism. Stevens has him showing his range, guarding point guards, power forwards, and everybody in between. He has trouble with smaller, quicker ball handlers, but can hang with bigger guys. Brown gets through ball screens fairly well and reacts quickly to instructions from his big, ICEing the pick-and-roll at the appropriate moments and using his wingspan to force the ball handler toward the baseline. That wingspan closes off passing lanes to the big man and helps Brown get back into the play to jumpstart the Celtics transition offense.

In all three clips, watch how Brown jumps over the incoming screen before it arrives, forcing his man to drive away from the screen, then uses his length to get back into the play and force a turnover. Whether it’s poking the ball out from behind or knocking away a pocket pass to the rolling big man, he’s able to disrupt the play and more often than not, get two easy points for his team on the other end.

When Brown is off the ball, he’s not quite as impressive, sometimes reacting too heavily to where the ball is and leaving a better shooter open. He’ll get that decision making ironed out as he grows in the league, but it hurts the Celtics on a play or two per game as he learns his way. When he does get it right, though, he’s a terror, helping down into the lane and exploding back out to the perimeter to contest shooters.

With Horford on the floor, the Celtics can afford to trap more pick-and-rolls and force the ball out of the point guard’s hands, but this puts pressure on the three defenders on the weak side to contain the remaining four. This is another area in which Brown’s athleticism shines; he’s able to stop Lucas Nogueira’s roll to the rim and then jump out to Norman Powell in the corner to force a travel. Brown has one foot on the other half of the court when Nogueira makes the pass to Powell, but by the time Powell catches, Brown is right there in his face, ready to contest the three or stop the drive.

Against bigger guys in the post, it’s been a bit of mixed bag. Brown can use his length to try to swipe at the ball but can get outmatched down there by more skilled power forwards. In a January game against the Jazz, the Celtics saw both sides of the coin; he was able to poke the ball away from Boris Diaw, but Joe Johnson backed him in from the elbow to get an easy hook in the lane. Brown is only 20-years old and is consistently coming up against bigger, more athletic guys than himself for the first time in his career, so his body will continue to fill out over the next few years as the Celtics have him on a specialized weight training program.

Brown is the prototypical wing in the new era of the NBA; it’s almost as if he was designed in a lab for this generation. He can guard 1 through 4, take slower defenders to the basket and finish over them, and overpower guards and smaller wings in the post. Big guys are getting smaller every year as teams’ perfect player converges toward the 6-foot-7 wing who can handle the ball, create offense, and defend the other team’s best player, and while Brown is still a ways away from this full realization of his talents, with just under one full season under his belt, the sky’s the limit for Billy King’s latest gift to the city of Boston.

All stats are as of the All-Star Break.