Boston Celtics: 3 takeaways from 2018-19 Media Day
2. Jaylen Brown prepared for a big season
Jaylen Brown has had a fairly good start to his NBA career. His rookie season was a bit of a disappointment, but it’s hard to really paint what a player is capable of doing in his first season. These things take time, and time has helped Brown.
Last season, he had a year that was worth a Most Improved Player look, though Victor Oladipo was the obvious and deserving frontrunner. Maybe that award is something that Brown can earn this year? He certainly believes that he’s greatly improved off an impressive sophomore season.
Jaylen Brown says he’s worked on improving all of his weaknesses over the summer: “Some of the things that people have critiqued me on in the past, it’ll be interesting to see if they critique me on this year.” pic.twitter.com/2ZFInJSYha
— Taylor Snow (@taylorcsnow) September 24, 2018
That kind of confidence out of a young player is good too see. Every player on Media Day boasts about how good they will be, but with Brown, another leap is not out of the question. In his second season, he averaged 14.5 points, 4.9 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 1.0 steals per game. Those numbers don’t suggest All-Star on paper, but the impact was certainly there.
One of the biggest improvements was his 3-point game. Last season he shot 39.5 percent from 3 on 4.4 attempts per game. That was impressive for a player who shot 34.1 percent from 3 in his rookie season. Coming into the NBA, his shooting was one of the bigger question marks of his game.
During the regular season he was second on the team in points per game behind Irivng. If that is any sign, Brown is in line for an even bigger season and possible dark horse All-Star selection.