After a decade-long wait, Jaylen Brown is thoroughly enjoying his first season as the Celtics’ unquestioned leader.
Jayson Tatum’s Achilles injury last spring moved Brown to the top of the team’s pecking order, and Boston has overachieved thus far on his watch, sitting third in the Eastern Conference at 18-11.
Brown has flourished as the Celtics’ new centerpiece, averaging career bests in scoring, assists and field-goal percentage while spearheading the NBA’s fourth-highest-rated offense. The 10th-year pro is playing at an All-NBA level — an honor he’s received just once in his career — and generating buzz as a fringe candidate for Most Valuable Player.
Late in Monday’s 103-95 win over the Indiana Pacers, during which Brown scored 14 fourth-quarter points, the TD Garden crowd serenaded him with “MVP” chants. He was asked after the game what this season has meant to him personally.
“It means everything,” Brown said. “I think this has been my favorite season so far, being able to get an opportunity to lead a group. A group of guys who — some of us, we have some championship experience, but we have five or six new guys who haven’t really played NBA basketball, and now we look like one of the better teams in the league. And that’s just credit to our coaching staff and credit to our leadership that we’ve been able to get those guys comfortable. And we’re playing some good basketball right now, so it means everything.”
Brown, who’s topped 30 points in each of his last seven games, said it has been rewarding to watch Boston’s roster improve around him. The Celtics brought back just four rotation players from last season’s 61-win team (Brown, Derrick White, Payton Pritchard and Sam Hauser, all of whom played key roles on Boston’s 2023-24 championship squad), and many of their current contributors are seeing consistent NBA minutes for the first time (Neemias Queta, Jordan Walsh, Josh Minott, Hugo Gonzalez, Baylor Scheierman, etc.).
The lineup that spurred Boston back from a 20-point third-quarter deficit Monday night featured Gonzalez, Scheierman, Hauser, Anfernee Simons and Luka Garza, all of whom began the game on the bench. A similar grouping helped shift momentum in Saturday’s road win over the Toronto Raptors.
“There’s been a lot of education,” Brown said. “We call it — well, me and Joe call it Celtic University, where it’s like you’re in class and you’ve got to pay attention. Sometimes you’ve got to clap your hands — ‘Wake up, Josh,’ or something like that. But it’s like being in school where we’re going through, breaking down the footage and trying to really expand our knowledge for the game.”
The core tenet of Celtic U, Brown said, is: “Be the smarter-playing team.”
“We’ve been saying it from the beginning,” Brown said, “and sometimes it doesn’t look like it, but we look at how to approach each and every game from a strategy, tactics standpoint. And I feel like from the start of the season to the point we’re at now, our basketball IQ has increased, our poise has increased, our understanding of the game has increased, and that’s really what it’s about. Continue to grow and get better. And I feel like I’ve watched these guys become better basketball players in a matter of three months.”
With Brown setting the tone, the Celtics own the NBA’s sixth-best net rating (behind Oklahoma City, Houston, Denver, New York and Detroit) and trail only the Pistons and Knicks in the East standings. They’re 13-4 in their last 17 games and have lost by more than 10 points just three times this season.
How long Brown will hold his newfound standing as Boston’s central superstar remains to be seen. Tatum is, by all accounts, progressing well in his rehab and hopes to return at some point this season.
