Boston Celtics: Jaylen Brown’s January slump in perspective

January has proven to be a tough month in the NBA. Jaylen Brown looks to be in a sophomore slump, but his improvements are still being highlighted.

In the midst of a great regular season, the Boston Celtics have hit a rough patch in January that includes unsavory losses to the Orlando Magic and Los Angeles Lakers.

Typically, you would expect a streaking team to regress to the mean, although I’ll admit to thinking the Celtics might never surrender their 60-plus win pace. While Kyrie Irving has surged, the younger legs have slowed down, including the ones that belong to Jaylen Brown. One could call it a sophomore slump, but it hasn’t been all bad.

Not to set the bar too low, but the greatest indicator of Brown’s improvement from last season to the current is the number of minutes he gets (or in other words, his ability to stay on the floor). Before their recent four-game losing streak, the Celtics hadn’t lost as many as three games in a row since January of 2017.

In that month, per Basketball-Reference, rookie Jaylen played 16 minutes per game, shot 39.4 percent from the field (26.3 percent from 3) on limited offensive opportunities. This year in January, Brown had similar struggles, shooting 41 percent from the field and 27.8 percent from deep. The biggest difference, of course, is that he played 32 minutes per game, and was a net positive for the month.

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If nothing else, it’s proof that Jaylen has expanded his game enough to impact the offense without shooting the lights out, not to mention his improved defense has been vital in keeping the Celtics alive in games where points are hard to come by. It might go without saying, but Brown wasn’t simply gifted 30-plus minutes per game because of the Gordon Hayward injury; he was going to play regardless.

The Celtics have put more emphasis on isolation offense this season than in the past, and Brown’s improvement in that area has been beneficial to the Celtics’ offense when his shot isn’t falling. Per Synergy, isolation plays make have made up 8.6 percent of Boston’s offense this season, compared to 5.5 percent in 2016-17. It makes sense, though, that when Kyrie Irving joins the team and becomes the offense that Brad Stevens would adjust the strategy accordingly.

The downside, though, is that isolation can lead to tunnel vision, which is something every young player on the roster has been accused of having — whether it’s Jaylen getting tied up under the basket, Terry Rozier swerving out of control in the lane, or the Marcus duo having an impromptu 3-point contest. Recently, Jaylen and company have gotten pretty good at knowing when to give up the ball, as evidenced in plays like this one:

It wasn’t the cleanest pass, but if you ask how often Jaylen makes these passes (read: basically never), it’s a welcome sight. Of course, it would be unrealistic to expect every Celtic to grow into an elite playmaker, but a slasher that never gives the ball up is essentially a wrecking ball without a conscience, so it’s nice to see smart playmaking yield results.

In that same vein, it’s been just as important that Jaylen has tightened the screws on his handles over time. Sometimes, Jaylen plows his way to the rim just to throw the ball off his own leg. Occasionally, we get this:

And that, I would say, is player development in a nutshell in the NBA. It’s those moments that make you ask “Can’t he just do that every time?” Well, maybe he can’t do that every time, but finishing through contact is his best skill on offense, so it’s ideal to see him show more control on the fast break.

The most common misconception about Jaylen (and Jayson Tatum, while we’re at it) is that he was only given more minutes because of Hayward’s injury. Sure, I would agree that there were more minutes to go around and Jaylen is one of the main beneficiaries, but Stevens doesn’t just hand out minutes to whoever gets in line first. The Celtics have plenty of wings to soak up those minutes if need be, and it’s clear that Brown was ready to take them on.

In his second season, Brown is averaging 14.2 points and 5.4 rebounds per game on .460/.380/.595 shooting splits, so no one can say he hasn’t earned his minutes.

(Injuries at other positions, like the point guard, are different due to the lack of depth, in which case you could say a fair amount of minutes have fallen into Shane Larkin’s lap.)

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The best part? The best is yet to come for these young Celtics. Things can change, but the magic of Brad Stevens always has the Celtics playing superb basketball after the All-Star break, and even after all the roster turnover since the last one, I’m expecting more of the same this year. The Celtics seem to play much better with their backs to the wall, and I think the race for the top seed in the East will trigger that killer instinct and carry them to the playoffs.