Boston Celtics: Jaylen Brown is a reliable 3-point shooter now

In his second season with the Boston Celtics, Jaylen Brown has shown a lot of improvement. Arguably the biggest area he has shown that is his 3-point shooting.

One of the biggest knocks on Jaylen Brown coming out of the University of California was his inability to shoot 3-pointers. However, in just his second NBA season, he’s proving that he may have figured things out.

Last season as a rookie with the Boston Celtics, he was able to shoot the ball fairly well compared to what many expected, knocking down 3s at a 34 percent clip. Average shooting percentage from long range varies between 34-36 percent, so while he wasn’t great, he definitely surpassed expectations.

What has he done this year that has been so impressive? Well, his 3-point shooting has surpassed any sort of prior expectations. This season, Brown is shooting an impressive 40.2 percent from downtown. Before Monday night’s game against the Milwaukee Bucks, he was sitting at the 41 percent mark, but dropped by going 0-for-2.

Still, the 40.2 percent mark is impressive. It’s still early in the season, but we are already in the month of December, and the Boston Celtics have played in 25 games thus far. It’s still early, and many players are still shooting a ridiculous 45-50 percent, which seems almost impossible to sustain. Players that won’t shoot it as much may be able to shoot it at that percentage, but anyone shooting it more then four times will likely see a decrease in their percentage.

Ask anyone out there, and it would’ve been a safe assumption that Brown would not be shooting such a high percentage from 3 in just his second season. It’s not like he is shooting it once or twice game either. There are times where we see him shoot it upwards to six times a game. On average this season, he is attempting 4.5 3-pointers per game.

Not fully convinced? Brown has attempted 107 3s, while Kevin Durant has attempted 117. Durant does have the same percentage, but to think that Brown has attempted close to what Durant has from 3 is a jaw-dropping one-year improvement.

According to ESPN he is tied for 49th in the league in 3-point percentage. If you don’t recall, many scouts constantly knocked Brown for being a bad 3-point shooter in college. NBADraft.net had this to say about Brown:

"“As much as he struggled from long range at Cal, going to NBA three-point range will be that much more difficult.”"

It’s been very clear that Brown has greatly improved his 3-point shooting this season. He’s improved his shooting percentage by six percent since his rookie season.

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He’s trending in the right direction, and it would be a pleasant surprise if he became a consistent 40 percent 3-point shooter for the Boston Celtics.