Jaylen Brown is a fantastic participant. On paper, he qualifies as nice. The Boston Celtics’ co-star is unequivocally one of many NBA’s greatest gamers at his place.
He made his second straight All-Star look this season, certified for second-team All-NBA, has been a Top-17 scorer every of the previous three seasons and averaged a career-best 26.6 factors per sport within the common season for a Celtics group that completed with the second-best file within the Eastern Conference this yr.
Brown has averaged at the very least one steal per sport in 5 of his seven NBA seasons, shoots 5 share factors higher than the NBA’s common discipline objective share (42%), has confirmed largely sturdy showing in at the very least 57 video games each season and has traditionally been a dependable three-point shooter.
A fantastic participant certainly. On paper, a fantastic.
There’s a niche, nonetheless, between fantastic, presumably nice, celebrity and a show-stopper, which Brown proved himself to not be within the Eastern Conference Finals. The Celtics grew to become simply the fourth group in NBA historical past to drive a Game 7 after trailing a playoff collection 0-3, just for the Miami Heat to show the TD Garden right into a woodshed and hand the Celtics a 19-point lashing en path to an NBA Finals date with the Denver Nuggets.
When Boston’s superhero ahead Jayson Tatum turned his ankle on Game 7′s opening possession, clearly restricted and hobbled for the rest of the sport, the Celtics wanted Brown to step up. They wanted him to be at minimal the fantastic, nice participant he’d confirmed himself to be through the common season.
That didn’t occur: Brown coughed up simply as many turnovers (eight) as each made pictures and missed three-point makes an attempt. He didn’t impression the sport in different methods regardless of his damaged jumper and took a again seat to Derrick White, a task participant who the Celtics felt extra snug operating late-game offense by with Tatum serving largely as a decoy.
Brown’s Game 7 stat line learn 19 factors on 8-of-23 taking pictures from the sector and one-of-nine taking pictures from downtown. It marked his fourth sport of the collection logging lower than 20 factors, the fourth sport of the collection he shot worse than 44% from the sector, the fourth sport of the convention finals he turned the ball over at the very least 3 times and the sixth sport of the collection he shot poorly from downtown.
Brown shot 16% from downtown in opposition to the Heat within the collection. If you take away his 3-of-5 taking pictures evening in Game 5, the Celtics’ star shot 4-of-38 from behind the arc within the collection.
10.5%.
And the Celtics’ star couldn’t ship when his group wanted him most. As a few of the greats in Boston’s storied franchise historical past watched close by, hoping the Celtics would make historical past and grow to be the one group to ever come again from down 0-3 to win a playoff collection, the second proved too large.
And so may Brown’s subsequent contract.
Brown qualifies as a fantastic participant on paper, and nice gamers safe nice baggage. In Brown’s case, he’s eligible to signal a five-year, $295 million supermax contract extension this summer season. Tatum is eligible for the same deal in extra of $300 million subsequent summer season. The Celtics have a chance to maintain their duo of wings in Beantown for the following half-decade — and it may price them over $610 million.
Championships, nonetheless, are the one issues that matter in Boston — not fantastic, nice gamers who can’t get the job executed. There have been an array of views on Brown’s slot in Boston, starting from ESPN’s Kendrick Perkins urging Celtics possession to commerce the star wing this summer season to native Boston media pleading with administration to pay him regardless of his struggles.
Brown deserves a payday. There isn’t any debate about that. He has outperformed the four-year, $106 million deal he signed at age 24. In reality, max contracts are extra about worth to a person group. If the Celtics selected to not max out Brown, for instance, he may grow to be an unrestricted free agent the next summer season and depart for nothing — or use the specter of leaving for nothing to create an untenable setting.
Kyrie Irving did it in Brooklyn. So did James Harden.
On the opposite facet of the identical coin, Irving proved with out a shadow of a doubt he’s able to delivering in high-pressure moments and Harden is an offensive expertise so gifted, his talents helped onset a basketball analytics motion.
Brown folded beneath stress inside arm’s attain of what may have been Boston’s second consecutive NBA Finals look. The Celtics allowed the Heat to grow to be the primary No. 8 seed to succeed in the Finals for the reason that Knicks did it in 1999.
And whereas Brown isn’t solely liable for Boston’s unraveling, his play solely made issues worse. It was a troublesome sight to abdomen for a corporation seeking to dangle its nineteenth NBA championship banner.
Another troublesome sight to abdomen? Two-hundred-ninety-five million {dollars} going to the participant who couldn’t ship when his group wanted him most.
Unfortunately for Boston, the choice could be worse. Losing a fantastic, nice participant for nothing in free company isn’t any higher than the concept of overpaying him, and blowing up a core that got here inside placing distance of the elusive nineteenth title two seasons in a row won’t take advantage of enterprise sense.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com