Boston Celtics: 3 bold predictions for 2018-19 NBA season

3. Jaylen Brown makes All-Defensive Second Team

Brown is a good defensive player and there has been no misgivings about that. In his short two-year career, he has yet to crack the All-Defensive team. There’s nothing wrong with that yet, but he did come into the NBA as a better defender.

There are a lot of great defenders in the league, so getting named to the First or Second All-Defensive Team would be a great honor. Brown fell short of being nominated last year, receiving 16 votes. It could be assumed that with another year of experience, he will finally earn what he deserves.

It also helps when the Celtics defense is already elite as a whole. With Brad Stevens as coach, it’s likely that Brown continues to get better and will eventually be nominated. Last season we saw a lot of great things from him defensively.

Players his age don’t often make plays like this:

That was what he was able to do in his second year in the NBA. What’s even more impressive is that he took the ball away from Stephen Curry. Coming into year three of his career, it would not be surprising to see him play great or even elite defense.

Last season he averaged 1.0 steals and 0.4 blocks per game. Those numbers might suggest he isn’t as good as people think, but there is a lot more to defense than just steals and blocks. Being a lockdown defender is another key element that Brown brings to the table.

All-Defensive First Team may be a stretch this early in his career, but Brown should lock up a spot on the Second Team this season. If Boston wants to contend, Brown will need to continue to improve on defense.