Boston Celtics: 3 reasons for optimism after first month of the season

3. Jaylen Brown

In terms of player performances, Jaylen Brown has been one of the most impressive players in the league to start the year. And this makes him a massive reason to be optimistic if you’re a Celtics fan. Jaylen has made strides each year so far in his career. There was a lot of love for him when it came to All-Star voting last season, and there’ll be even more this. If he continues this form he’ll be a lock to make have his first selection.

Through the first 15 games of the season, Brown is averaging 27.3 points, 5.8 rebounds, 3.5 assists each game, with a 60.0 effective field goal percentage (43.0 3-point percentage). These are some serious numbers from the 24-year-old. Brown has shown improvements in every aspect of his game. One of the most impressive areas is his passing game. Last season Brown produced a career-high 2.1 assists per game, which has moved up 1.4 points to start this season.

In Sunday’s win over the Cavaliers, Brown set an incredible scoring record as he scored 33 points in just 19:14 on the floor – the most points by anyone who played under 20 minutes in a game in league history. He’s proving himself as a complete player. Jaylen’s defense has been fantastic since he came into the league, and he continues to get better. When the Celtics drafted him third overall in 2016 many people had their doubts, but he’s proving to be another incredible selection by Danny Ainge.

Over the last four seasons, it’s been questionable what Brown’s exact ceiling is. We still don’t know how high said ceiling is, but we do know that he hasn’t touched it yet, and he’s looking pretty scary on the road to doing so. Brown and Tatum have the Celtics sorted for being competitive for the long-term, they just need to keep the talent coming around them and these two young stars will have very successful careers in Boston.