Introducing The Newest Hyped Freshman Wing Prospect: Jaylen Brown

It’s hard to miss him when he’s on the court.

Aside from the rim-rattling dunks and acrobatic finishes, Jaylen Brown also sports a uniquely distinct look — from his haircut, which combines the best qualities of a contemporary afro with the wow-factor of the high-top, to his shorts, which are most often times significantly shorter and tighter than everyone else’s sharing the court, he undoubtedly makes a concerted effort to stand out.

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His game is much more than just pure style, though; and he usually lets his play do the talking.

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Explicitly, it is his all-around acumen and competitiveness, in conjunction with his nuclear athleticism, that propelled the 6’7″, 220-pound swingman into the consensus No. 2 recruit in high school basketball last season.

It has been a meteoric rise for the Marietta, Ga., native. It was just a mere three calendar years ago when Brown barely cracked the list of the top 25 players in the class of 2015 as a high school sophomore.

However, as his body matured — growing more than an inch and a half and packing on nearly 30 pounds — he evolved into a rare wing prospect that effortlessly combines elite athleticism with an unrelenting motor.

It has been awhile since we’ve witness an amateur shooting guard or small forward as complete as Jaylen.

Over the last handful of years, it seems the legion of upper-echelon prospects on wing were either blessed mind-numbing athleticism, but lacked the rudimentary ball-in-hand skills or internal fire, like Andrew Wiggins, or possessed the perquisite shake and demeanor, but were deficient of that special gear and explosiveness, like Stanley Johnson.

With Brown, on the surface, he seems to concoct the best of both worlds. Standing at 6’5.5″ barefoot and unfurling a gargantuan 7’0.5″ wingspan, Brown has the length, strength, and bounce to overwhelm his counterparts on the high school level.

Inherently, he’s an explosive athlete equipped with a powerful first step and remarkable body control; a special kind of leaper, who can take off equally well off of one or two feet. Most often times, Brown beats his man off the dribble with relative ease and consistently plays above the rim.

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But, he is far from your run of the mill run-and-jump raw specimen.

Brown is already quite accomplished, skill-wise, at this stage of his development. In particular, he has a polished, photogenic mid-range game, capable of hypnotizing his defender with a bevy of hesitations and crossovers before pulling up on a dime.

His jumper, while inconsistent, is anything but mechanically-flawed. Notably, his form remains constant whether shooting on the catch or off the bounce — getting plenty of bounce and displaying great mid-air balance.

However, despite his aesthetically-pleasing perimeter game, Brown refuses to settle. He is extremely competitive, by nature, and craves contact.  Not surprisingly, he lives at the line most games. His handle, while not elite, is already tight enough to serve as a secondary ball-handler on the college level.

It allows Brown to engender havoc in transition and attack the rack relentlessly in a half-court setting.

Not just a stubborn, single-minded scorer, Brown is also an unselfish player. While his vision is nothing to write home about, he proactively seeks to make the right and extra pass.

His intense demeanor also trickles through on the defensive end. Brown’s unwavering energy makes him, at times, an absolute terror — either, as an on-ball defender as his nimble feet and strength allows Jaylen to stay in front of most hard charging ballhandlers, or as an off-ball helper as he’s shown an affinity as a weakside shotblocker driven in large by his crisp rotations.

His wingspan and speed also curates a ton of steals and deflections as he constantly plays the passing lanes.

Simply put, you just don’t find many athletes of Brown’s ilk who plays with the same type of persistent chip on his shoulder as Jaylen does.

Watching him play against men, during Cal’s tour of Australia, you realize just how special of a gem Brown really is. The ease at which he slithered through the tightest of cracks, the ferocity he displayed chasing down players for transition blocks, and the sheer force he exuded on his blinding drives are reminiscent of a bigger Dwyane Wade or Russell Westbrook.

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Hardwood Houdini

However, as his competitive mindset takes over, he can get painfully out of control at times. Specifically, he’ll try to split through an impossible double and/or jump in between a barricade of defenders. The perils of unmatched body control, I guess.

Aside from forcing the issue and committing turnovers, his jumper, as aforementioned, is still quite streaky, and he is fairly right hand dependent on his drives.

But, if his attitude and maturity serves as any indication, Jaylen will work tirelessly to amend such flaws. More explicitly, in addition to his otherworldly talent on the court, his off-court intangibles may be just as impressive.

Watch any interview with Brown, and you’ll hear a young, soft spoken neophyte who understands the history of the game and the improvements that lie ahead.

Not only is he self-aware, he is also respectful towards the game.  After a recent contest where Cal played the Illawarra Hawks in Australia, a match in which the Aussies and Brown got into a minor kerfuffle after an intentional hard foul laid on an attacking Jaylen, the young 18 year-old showed nothing but grace and gratitude towards their hostile hosts.

Here is an excerpt of what the Hawks’ assistant coach, Matt Flinn, had to say about Brown:

"After the game as we walked down the line and did the obligatory shaking of hands, it struck me as not many of the Cal players that I shook hands with spoke, none of them said a word… all but one. Jaylen Brown. Now I realise that shaking hands after a game is not a time for a huge amount of chit chat, but it was Jaylen who shook hands and looked me in the eye and said “Thanks for a great game Coach, good luck!”. With those words I realised that this kid is going to be special, not just because he is an unbelievable talent, but because he has humility."

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As Brown and the Cal Golden Bears prepare for the upcoming NCAA season, the expectations surrounding the team are unsurprisingly high. Coach Cuonzo Martin has, on paper, the perfect blend of young talent and veteran upperclassmen. Joining Brown as a freshman is Ivan Rabb, a gangly 6’10” big man who is a top-10 recruit in his own right.

The team is also flanked by Tyrone Wallace, a 6’6″ senior lead guard who led the team in scoring last season. Cal will also boast a pair of talented juniors on the wing in Jordan Mathews and Jabari Bird. The team is simply loaded with scoring, length, and athleticism. The time is all but ripe for Cal to takeover and win the Pac-12 this season as Arizona aims to reload.

Brown has even gone as far as to proclaiming the Bears can win it all.

However, it remains to be seen what kind of style Martin will be deploying. During their trip to Australia, the Bears unleashed a multitude of different lineups — some featured a jumbo-size element with Rabb at the 4, one of the team’s sophomore centers in Kingsley Okoroh or Kameron Rooks at the 5, while Brown, Bird, and Wallace rounded out the perimeter.

Meanwhile, Cal also unleashed an ultra-versatile, up-tempo alignment spearheaded by Rabb as the lone big bordered by the likes of Brown, Bird, Wallace, and Mathews.

For aesthetics sake, let’s hope the Bears stick with the Brown-as-the-small-ball 4 lineup, as his skillset, length, and explosiveness should make him an absolute matchup nightmare — think Justise Winslow during the tournament, but even more dynamic.

While, like most freshmen, it may take a little bit of time for Jaylen Brown to get acclimated to the more stringent college game; but make no bones about it, just like in high school, expect him to make a swift ascension, and by season’s end, make a push for the No. 1 overall pick of the 2016 draft.

Next: Washington Wizards: Bradley Beal Poised For Breakout Season

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